Pump Up the Volume

Happy hump day all!  I kept thinking for some reason that today was Thursday…no such luck.  Oh well.  At least it’s not Monday

Today was my last longer tempo workout before the big race next weekend (I can’t believe it’s only 10 days out!)  so we went for a nice little 8 mile run.  Now, it’s supposed to be 60 tomorrow, and it was less than stellar out today, but I channeled my inner Eric Malone (fellow tri dude who only runs in snowstorms, evidently…never sign up for a race with this guy, lol) and trucked on. 

Even though the wind was not in my favor, I managed a nice easy run at a decent tempo pace, which makes me feel pretty good about next weekend.  Now if I can only manage the nutrition, rest and sleep piece in the next 10 days, we’ll be good to go.  I CAN DO THIS!!

The Workout
Distance: 8.06 miles
Time: 1:08:52
Pace: 8:32/mile

Fan-freaking-tastic.  The best part is that for the most part, I didn’t feel like I was working that hard, which makes me feel pumped for the National Marathon!

As I ran along, I kept getting Eminem’s “8 mile Run” stuck in my head (yes, I’m original, I know).  Eminem freaking rocks for running, because it amps me up and makes me feel like a bad a$$ runner.  Check out the song I’m loving on right now (yes, the video only adds to it!)

Eminem: Till I collapse Ironman tribute

seriously, chills.  And I did that   I CAN’T WAIT TO DO IT AGAIN!!

Anyways, with ten days left till race day, I’m in the process of working on a kick butt playlist to amp me up.  My mp3 player can do a repeating loop, but I’m trying to find at least 30 songs for some variety!  Here’s what I got so far:

1.  Eminem: Till I collapse
2.  Eminem:  Hallie’s song
3.  B.OB.:  Magic
4.  Basement Jaxx:  Where’s Your Head At
5.  David Guetta:  Sexy B*tch
6.  3OH3:  My First Kiss
7.  Basement Jaxx:  Scars
8.  Prodigy:  Firestarter
9.  Lil John:  Outta Your Mind
10. Rihanna:  S&M
11. Mathew Wilder:  Break My Stride
12.  Yolanda B Cool and the D Cups:  We no speak Americano
13.  Flashdance Soundtrack:  Maniac
14.  Ting Yang Twins:  Bad
15.  Black Eyed Peas:  Get it Started
16.  ESPN Jock Jam megamix
17.  Chris Brown:  I can transform ya
18.  Black Sheep” Engine #9 
19.  Rob D:  Clubbed 2 death
20.  Billy Joel:  Uptown girl

So, I’m a little short (and yes, I know, have questionable awesome taste)  I need YOUR help!  What song pumps you up to take on the world?  Please leave some comment lovin’ so I can build a rockin’ playlist!!  Thank you

Liquid hot magma

 

Holy shcnikees!  (Yes, I know that’s not a word).  Well, if today wasn’t the day to end all days, I don’t know what is.  The highlights are I got a great blow off steam swim in during lunch (2200 yards with 4x400 descending) and then a wicked bike in after work (26.5 miles with hills in 1:20…basically super human speed for me!).

The low”lights”….well, just trust me on this one.  We don’t need to go there.

You know what we need?  Beer.  And carbs.  Says the woman who hasn’t had a drink since….ohhh…my wedding.  I drank the champagne.  Somehow, it was red in all of our photos.  It was probably really kool-aid.

Moving on.

If you are anything like me and enjoy your alcohol in girly form, beer might not appeal to you straight up.  S’ok.  We can use it for other things…and I’m not talking about a magical hair rinse, either.  (Seriously, who does that?  Does your hair not reek of beer after you use it?)

Nope, we are going to combine two very very fine things together.  Alcohol and carbs to make…beer bread!  This bread is super easy, a great bread for sammies, soup dunking, french toast making, and only takes two (yes you heard me) 2 ingredients!

Easy Peasy Beer Bread

One 12 oz can Beer (any kind, I used oh so classy Genny)
2 cups (give or take) bisquick (I used heart healthy.  I know…I think I’m funny, too)

Scoop the bisquick into a medium size bowl.  Add beer.  Stir into a nice batter (you might have to add a bit more mix…You want a sticky dough).  Let rest in a warm place for about 10 minutes.  set oven to 350 degrees.  Spray some pam into a bread pan, plop your dough in, and bake for 55-60 minutes.  I le it broil for an extra minute to get a nice brown top.

Voila. Confession.  I made french toast out of this and let my hubby eat it for a pre-race breakfast.  he PR’ed by 2 minutes.  I’m just sayin’.

Mmm….carbs.  And beer.  I’m happy.  The husband’s happy.  Now ho wants to win the lottery for me and solve the rest of my problems?

Hittin' the Sauce

So, after the debacle of the Johnny poo poo pants run, I laid pretty low last night and tried to be good to my tummy.  I knew I had a 14 miler today, and I really really wanted to try to get it done.  My plan suggested doing one long run the day after a tempo run to see what it felt like to run long on tired legs, aka, the last 14 miles of a marathon.  I figured, why not?

Coach Mary's ICB

Well, my tummy wasn't too excited about this plan this morning.  I went to go make an irish car bomb (as it seems this is now named :-P now, kids, its not a mixed drink, its a protein shake!) and discovered I was out of protein powder, so I made do with homemade applesauce with breakfast.  Next time, I'm going the full enchilada :-)

I also decided to do something very scary in the world of type A personality me.  I taped over my watch before I left, deciding to run this one purely on how my body felt.  Usually, I go out too fast on the first 5 miles to "put time in the tank" and then go slower the second two segments.  It works for me, but I wanted to see how my body ran NOT based off a clock. 

SUPER SCARY!!
So, I set off.  The first 5 miles seemed...slow.  I took advantage of downhills, did a run up halfway/walk the rest with uphills, and chugged along nice and easy on the flats.  I took in nutrition around mile 7 ( a little later than normal, but my stomach was still pretty fragile) and battled the strong headwinds for about half my course.  (brrr...I think I under dressed today!)  All in all, it was a pretty good run.  I knew I had to be slower than my last run, but my body felt ok...a bit tired, of course, but definitely ready to tackle 12 more miles.

When I got home, I showered, changed, and stretched.  I debated NOT taking off the duct tape...if I was on pace, I knew it would re affirm the fact that I was ready for my marathon,, but what if I was off?  What if I was way way off-I knew I was playing a mental game with myself, but so be it.  With trepidation (and in front of my very amused husband), I pulled the tape off.....

2:04:43.

What???  I plugged into mapmytri.com to review my route, double checking for accuracy.  14.01 miles, yup.  Seriously??

The Workout
Distance: 14.01 miles
Time: 2:04:43
Pace: 8:54/mi

Wowza.  Not only did I kill this run, but I felt awesome running under marathon pace!  (My long run pace is supposed to be a 9:10-9:30, MP goal pace is 9:06.

FREAKING.  AWESOME.

Or should I say "awesomesauce?"

Johnny's...Group X style

For all those in Rochester, today was the opening of the 2011 race season with Johnny's "Running of the Green".  This year, however, I decided to run it my own way.  And not by choice :-)

Let's set the mood for my race recap, Group X style:

Oh yeah.  I am so going there.

Well, to be fair, the morning was perfect.  Awesome nights sleep, pre race coffee, oats and naner for breakfast...all normal, all good.  I'd been feeling under the weather for the last few days (sore, tired, upset stomach and food not wanting to stay "in the middle") but I woke up feeling good.  Had coffee #1 before breakfast, showered, got dressed (more on that later). and hopped in the car with the hubs to head downtown.

Mistake #1:  The outfit.  My computer read out 32 degrees this morning, so I dressed accordingly for how I usually run in that weather...tights, compression socks, base layer and long sleeved wicking shirt.  Gloves.  Ear warmers.  This would prove to be the source of much swearing 2 miles in.  Lesson learned-wear a throw away layer and gloves you don't like just in case.

Pre race: As Greg and I made it downtown, we parked at East End garage, about a mile away-hey, it was free.  I don't mind a warm up walk for a 5 mile race :-)  We got to the War Memorial Blue Cross Arena (big props for starting the race here-it was a great place to stay warm, not be too crowded and use indoor potties)  We hit the restroom, stretched and walked around.  Then hit the bathroom again.  Oh man.  I popped my emergency Imodium about an hour pre race, and my stomach was complaining pretty loudly. I tried to put it out of my mind, did a few warm ups, then went out to seed myself about 15 minutes pre race.

As this race gets bigger and bigger, the start line gets more and more ridiculous.  I seeded myself toward the front, maybe about behind 25% of people.  However, people kept crowding the front and pushing us back, so I ended up back much further than I wanted to.  Not too much you can do about it, so I worked with what I had.  The gun went off and we....stood there.  It took 30 seconds to get to the start, so I just hit the lap on my watch so I would have an actual time as well as a gun time.

Mile 1:  As the crowd thinned, I hit a decent pace and felt pretty good.  Down Corn Hill district and to the Ford St bridge, I saw Mary and shouted alcoholic words of encouragement to her, but she was in the zone (good for her!) and I smiled as I ran past.  I knew I would see her again soon :-).  Mile 1:  7:42 (not bad for the craziness of the start!)

Mile 2:  At this point the race settled in a bit.  I was feeling good and...warm.  It took everything I had to not pull off my top shirt, but Musselman '09 was a pivotal race for me, so I was not about to lose it.  I also decided I liked my ear warmers and gloves too much to ditch them at the water stop, so I settled for the running in a sauna look.  Good lesson for next race.  Mile 2:  15:32. 

Mile 3:  This is where my race fell apart.  As I hit the water stop, I grabbed a cup and swallowed some, not slowing for the nice downhill. (Turnaround time 19:01) I amused myself by looking at the folks hitting the turn around, looking for friends and my hubby!  I saw the owner of my gym blasting a megaphone, and that made me laugh.  Then....it hit.  My stomach grumbled loudly, and the creative expressive and oh-so-fun "potty dance" began.  I stopped for a few seconds to regroup, and really wished for a porta potty, or maybe some depends...no dice.  ugh.  I started running again.  Mile 3:  23:31

Mile 4:  This was almost as painful as mile 24 of IMLP.  Nah, ok, I'm dramatizing.  Start stop start stop repeat.  I was so annoyed!  My legs felt great, breathing fine, but I was in serious GI distress.  I kept reminding myself that I can handle anything for 15 more minutes...12 more minutes...10.....
Mile 4:  31:47

Mile 5:  I stopped again by the Ford St bridge to make sure I wasn't going to recreate IM Florida Poop guy
(lol, I'm not making that name up) and then tried to power through to the end.  I stopped AGAIN by corn hill  (this was getting ridiculous)...and then Painfully ran to the finish.  Mile 5:  39:44

I reconnected with a few friends quickly, then found a potty.  stat.


According to my watch, I ran a 39:18 from the start line, but chip time is chip time, so we'll go with that :-)
Actual race distance:  5.1 miles
Time:  39:44
Pace: 7:47

In all honestly, my A goal was to beat last years time (38:06) and my B goal was to go sub 40, which I did.  But I seriously seriously did not have fun getting there.  

Overall, I have to remember that this was a fun race, so I'm not upset.  I really wish I knew what my deal was.  Aside from the Oikos 5 miler

And as for now?

nataliedee.com

Damn you Immodium.  Way to be fashionably late.

I think Ill go chew on some fiber one and prunes.

Thou shalt not

Welcome to Friday, friends!!  Today, its time for a good ole lesson in Catholic guilt cleansing 101.  Since we are already into lent by 2 days, I’ve managed to break what I gave up, eat more than 3 meals today (and its not even dinner time) AND eat meat.  All of these are big no no’s-the first one for the entire 40 days, and the last two for Friday’s. (FYI I gave up swearing for lent.  I forgot that my job lately invokes many colorful 4 letter words.  Oops )

With these qualifications, it’s clear that my good catholic up bringing was probably a waste of effort led astray somewhere (I’m gonna go with high school on this one).  But, in the spirit of lent, I figured I should get in the swing of things and practice one of my sacraments.  (No, not the wine part.  We gotta wait until after tomorrow’s race for that one).

Confessions of a Triathlete, March 2011 (since we like to revisit this theme )

1.  I started my marathon taper this week.  This means I can train doubly hard for biking, right?

2.  I ate half a bag of M&Ms last night.  I call it carb loading.  Other people might think it’s something else….

3.  After 2 years, I finally retired my 4 dollar club swim goggles and used my vanquishers today.  I can see the bottom of the pool!  (I’m not sure that’s a good thing….)

4.  I’m sorta jealous that the train-this people get to run the race course tomorrow twice.  What is wrong with me?

5.  I’m super excited to break in my lovely socks tomorrow at the race.  (C’mon, its been weeks since I brought these up!)

6.  I MAY already be wearing them to look cool get my calves all compressed.  Yup.  I’m a dork.

7.  I think it’s probably fate that I’ve been assigned to the pink corral for the Washington DC marathon…my whole outfit is pink, and my number is #132, which is my placid number backwards, with an “8” missing.  Somehow, in my warped mind, this makes sense to me.

8.  My running mix for tomorrow includes Matthew Wilder, eminem, prodigy and Billy Joel.  In a row.  At least I’m gonna laugh.

9.  I MAY have also painted my toes and fingers green.  Why toes?  No one’s going to see them.  I will.  And that’s enough for me

10.  When booking our room for Placid training camp, I told Kim to give us two double beds instead of a queen.  Greg might divorce me, but give a girl some room after roughly 13 hours of swimming, biking and running in 3 days .  (yeah, I’m sad.)

There.  Now that I have admitted my sins for the week, what shall I do to absolve them?

<shrugs>

Got me.

Guess I’ll go eat my BBQ chicken for dinner.

Aww F%^k. crap.

Stay tuned for race report tomorrow-race season 2011 begins!!!

Kick the can

Rough day here in upstate NY yesterday, thus the blogging hiatus   Work was terrible, I had a migraine, finally rounded a corner mid afternoon to get a stellar ride in and 30 miles in and 7 minutes from ride end, I blew a flat.  I was NOT happy.  I nearly pulled a Stadler and just chucked my bike across the basement.
Today, I had a much better ride.  Not this good…

But good enough   Soon, it will be time to ride in flower fields!  I can’t WAIT!!
As I was riding, I started daydreaming.  Probably not the best thing to do during a super technical ride (single leg drills, hill climbs, sprints, etc.) but it is what it is.  I’ve often said that when I get down, like yesterday, that it’s a matter of realizing that the glass is half full, and how far I really have come since last year, the last 5 years, the last 10 years….
And it got me to thinking of 10 years ago, when I was in college.  Before this movie became popular, I made my own life goals list…”the can” list.  I had heard of the bucket list, but wasn’t a fan of the concept of “to do before I die”.  I decided that the “can” list was better, because it focuses on what I CAN do and WILL do…plus, wouldn’t you rather play kick the can instead of kick the bucket?  Yeah, yeah.  That’s what she said  
So, without further preamble, after I got off the bike, I searched through my old floppy disks (cause that’s what the cool kids used back in 2002) and pulled out my CAN LIST!!  The last time I updated this list was early 2004…check it out!
THE CAN LIST
1. run a marathon: done 2008, 2010, again in 2011 I hope
2. learn to drive standard
3. take a pointe class (done, several times)
4. dance in a pointe dance in a recital (done)
5. choreograph a dance for performance (done)
6. drive cross country
7. go to a spa…health, beauty, exercise, one of those week things
8. write a book (in progress!)
9. get it published
10. tour Europe, Australia, brazil, visit some African countries
11. go to all 50 states (States so far: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia)
12. get shot glasses from every state
13. dance on the bar (done)
14. get a tattoo ( done) and again in 2010!
15. graduate college (done 2004)
16. get my masters started this…
17. get my doctorate
18. get a huge ass pickup (since I live in Wayne county, it’s only a matter of time…)
19. own waterfront property
20.learn to waterski
21. learn sign language
22. learn how to play the piano
23.learn how to play the guitar
24.act in a movie
25.read the bible
26.weigh 125 pounds (wow….was I in a bad place!)
27. save someone's life
28. get a 4.0 one semester (done 2004)
29. fix things with old college friend from Oswego
30. fix things with Berlin (person, not the city!)
31. get married (done 2009 )
32. have children
33. break a world record
34. make an important discovery
35. run a mile in 6 minutes (done 2010…wow!)
36. volunteer in a nursing home
37. Take care of my mom and uncle
38. be on a reality tv show
 
Some of these truly make me laugh (26 and 38) although…I wouldn’t mind the reality show, if it was fun enough!  I think its about time to update this list…add a few things, reassess some goals (am I allowed to add Ironman even though I already did it? )  Either way, a fun glimpse into the past and a great chuckle.  Stay tuned for the 2011 updated version…The Can list, ten years later

Pretty Princesses!

 

So, today, one of my good friends from back in the day, heather, and I, went to go try on bridesmaid dresses.  One of my best friends (and half sister, but that’s another story )  is getting married in July and we’re both going to be in the wedding.  She gave us three dresses to choose from, and we picked a fourth for consideration.  Of course I had to bring my camera….out of the three, I think this one is a clear winner:

Of course, we liked the fourth one best, and plan to go to bat hard core for it:

No?  Aww. c’mon.  We couldn’t decide whether or not it was a mardi gras dress  (so appropriate, no?) or little bo peep on crack.  Somehow, I don’t think the bride will go for it.  Less learned:  if you live out of state and send your bridesmaid and maid of honor to pick out dresses on their own, be very aware   Love you, Rach!

In other news, I blasted out my speed work today like no one’s business (yay me!)

7 x 800 repeats at 7:19/mi
Total miles: 5.50
Time: 46:16
Pace: 8:24

The first race of the season is this weekend, a St. Paddy’s day 5 miler sponsored by a local bar.  Gotta love that.  It’s the “official” start of the Rochester race scene each year, and is always a good time!  While I don’t know about beating my PR (38:06) I’m gonna give it my all and see how it goes!  I just need to remember that holding a pace on the treadmill is much hard for me, which is weird, because usually it’s the opposite.  Anyone else have that problem?

Okey dokey, well, it’s been a long day here.  Time for some foam rolling and then hopefully watching the Sabres crush Pittsburgh!