new years...goals

and we're back for 2012...

i'm a little late with the new year, new goals post, but who's keeping track anyway?

instead of coming up with resolutions, i like to set up some goals for myself each year. goals feel more attainable, and you can appreciate small steps towards your goals, whereas resolutions seem so absolute. i had seen the idea for an inspiration board on this blog and decided to give it a go. i cut out some inspirational sayings and photos and made a little collage, with a list of all my goals for the year on the back.

i divided my goals into a few categories: personal, professional, athletic, financial, relationship. for the purposes of the blog i'm just going to share my athletic goals, the other stuff is less fun anyway ;)

at first i thought i put too many goals down, but then i remembered how much you can accomplish in a year, for example in 2009 my goal was to train for and run a 5k and by September i ran my first and sub 2 hour half marathon, and by year end set my sights on the marathon.

so here they are, the things i hope to accomplish in the world of fitness this year:

• get on the bike once/week by April- it was a great bday gift, but i have sadly only been on it once because my focus was marine corps marathon training when i got it.
• do a triathlon- already on my way, signed up for Jersey Girl Triathlon July 29th (also my dad's bday!!)
• Weight work once/week if running more than 40 miles/week and twice/week in less than 40- not sure if this is too easy or not, but I was pretty consistent with weight training in the first half of marathon training and then when the miles started to creep up I totally fell off the wagon.
• Try yoga or workout class- sometimes running 5 and sometimes 6 days a week can get boring without something to change it up, thought it might be fun to explore something outside my comfort zone and/or take a class with a friend
• And then we have the running time goals-PR in the 5K, 13.1, and Marathon
• 5K-21:44 or sub 22:00 (7:00/mile) current PR is 22:29 (7:14/mile)
• 13.1- break 1:45, attempt 1:43:56 (7:56/mile) by year end 1:41:57 (7:47/mile) YIKES
• 26.2- break 3:40 (8:29/mile) by year end BQ 3:35:00 (8:13/mile)- this is the big one my friends. and a little misleading, since I don't plan on doing a spring marathon this year. I guess I feel like I have a shot to BQ, but I also have other midway goals that I'd be pleased to hit.

Reading it over, it seems like a lot but I am super excited. I already have 4 races on the calender for this year and a few I know I will most likely hop in at the last minute. I have 3 half marathons planned for march and April and my first tri on the calender. I think this is going to be my best year yet!!

"vegan" update

It's been a few months now since the whole "vegan" experiment, so I thought I would post an update. I put vegan in quotation marks because I don't strictly adhere to vegan guidelines (ie. i eat honey, and don't panic if I'm out and not sure if the bread was made with an egg), but I don't eat meat, fish, dairy. Vegan probably most closely resembles how I eat- restaurants will assume a vegetarian will eat anything slathered in cheese to make up for the no meat part- no thanks! At home the only non vegan stuff we have is honey and some leftovers (pancake mix, frozen bag of shredded cheese) from the pre vegetarian days.

Bryan eats meat free/dairy free at home, and then occasionally eats meat when he goes out, or to use up leftover food.

My reactions can be divided into the categories of commonly asked questions...

what do you eat?

um a lot of things! people ask this question in horror- seriously you should see their faces. I like to start off by pointing out that fruits, vegetables, and whole grains make up the majority of my diet. this inevitably makes people think you never indulge or eat anything fun, and therefor your lifestyle is extreme and not worth any health benefits. I promise you that I enjoy a glass of wine or beer with meals, vegan mayo while delicious is not a health food (and even Bryan likes it, with chipotle mixed in), and I have been able to bake a slew of delicious and decadent treats to indulge in- most recently these bad boys. Seriously so good, I had to pry myself away from the pan just now and do something productive like this post!

some favorite meals as of late include: Chile-Cornmeal Crusted Tofu Po' Boy w/ chiopotle mayo (from Veganomican), broccoli soup, sweet potato and black bean burritos, chickpea cutlets (also from Veganomican) with pasta and sauce, veggie tacos, chia pancakes with maple syrup, and much more.


isn't it hard to eat out?

YES.  in fact this is the most annoying thing ever. Although, while Bryan gets frustrated with eating out and trying to stick to vegetarian, I get more frustrated that restaurants don't offer more vegetarian options, aside from cheese laden dishes. I mean these days so many people have dairy allergies/intolerance, I am actually a bit surprised. So we eat out less, but still enjoy veggie sushi, maoz falafels, the homemade veggie burgers at one of our favorite dive bars, and Mexican. Occasionally we stumble upon some gems, like the pizza place near Bryan's parents house that has a complete vegan menu and I do enjoy having a whole menu to choose from. I honestly think though that with the increased awareness of "farm to table" and locally grown produce, that more and more restaurants will adapt to this lifestyle.

how do you feel/how does it affect your running?

I feel great. I have more energy. I do think I eat more now. I am guessing your body processes meat/dairy differently than everything else, because I don't stay full as long, and eat bigger portions. However I haven't gained any weight, so I'm assuming my body needs the fuel.

As mentioned before I've ran my fastest half marathon, marathon, and 5K as a vegetarian- I wouldn't attribute this to diet alone (I'm always researching new training plans, and often training for something), but it clearly isn't hurting my running.

I will say that I feel much better on longer runs, and I get out for my run much more quickly now. I used to eat pizza the night before a long run and then a huge bagel the morning of. I felt like I had to wait at least 2 hours to get going and always felt so sluggish at first and kind of "heavy." Now I still sometimes eat pizza with Daiya (cheese substitute- yes sounds gross, but I enjoy it. and for anyone judging me as a non vegetarian you most likely eat some kind of processed/weird food too, its just more familiar to you :) ) I also started doing oatmeal before my run. I know can get going within an hour or so and feel great.

do you miss meat?

um...no. I am actually most surprised by this answer because in all honesty whenever I toyed with vegetarianism in the past I always thought I would. sometimes I miss the convenience when eating out- sometimes a meat dish appears to be the healthiest or tastiest on a menu - like grilled salmon and veggies as opposed to a veggie burger and fries. But I don't miss the taste. I realized I actual like flavors more than the taste of the meat. I used to love buffalo wings, but I mostly enjoy the buffalo flavor. My vegan buffalo chicken pizza was seriously amazing.

I never really loved a good steak ( Bryan truly does) so I don't miss the meat flavor and have found that all my favorite seasonings and spices can be used in vegetarian dishes.

where do you get all these ideas?

probably the most important piece because you really can't just read one book and be vegetarian, you need to learn to cook, and get ideas on what to make. in the past i was uninformed and ended up running out of things to eat or eating lots of frozen meals, but now I've found a whole new way to cook and it makes it much more enjoyable.

some of my favorite resources are:

Veganomican our go to vegan cookbook.

Post Punk Kitchen  the blog from the authors of Veganomican

Oh She Glows another vegan blog

No Meat Athlete self explanatory!

AMBS Reinder Run 5K

I have been meaning to post this update for almost a week now...but better late than never.

I've been itching to run a speedy 5K ever since the Run 4 Kiva rain debacle that messed with the timing mats and screwed up my official time. Its been haunting me a bit.

As timing would have it I was reading a recent issue of Runners World when I came across an article stating that you can capitalize on your marathon training and run a fast 5k or 10k 4-6 weeks after your marathon. Perfect!

I immediately signed up for the AMBS Reindeer Run 5k. Bryan ran it a couple of years ago and promised me a fast course w/ the last 800 m downhill. Sold.

I went out for this race solo which was kind of nice to zone out and do my own thing pre race. By zone out I mean pee 7 times and listen to Pitbull on my ipod to get pumped up.

I was feeling good, but when I stepped up to the starting line I suddenly remembered, 5Ks hurt! I told myself to suck it up. And we were off. Slightly numb from the cold, couldn't feel much until a mile in anyway.
I did a solid 7:04 the first mile, followed by 7:30 and 7:06. Not too bad for me- I've had 5k splits that are like 6:55, 7:55, 7:45.  I was pleased the gap wasn't as big as I've had in the past, but still not great.

The last mile hurt, and then my running karma kicked in. By this I am obviously referring to the 7 year old who came out of nowhere and flew past me in the last 800. Karma for calling out Bryan and Dolfo on our trail run when they were beat by pre adolescents as well. This girl even left her dad in the dust. Probably a future Olympian if I had to guess. And then one day ill say how in a race once she only beat me by like 20 seconds.

The downhill was nice at the end and I was excited to see my clock time as 22:29. A new PR, first 5K under 23. Hard to believe I ran my first 5K ever in like 27 something. I didn't see a lot of other women so I figured my chances of placing in my age group were solid.They posted results and I was 3rd in the 25-29 age group out of 34 women. Not bad! I got the 2nd place aware since 1st woman in our group was also in the top 3 overall. I was 14th woman overall out of 355. So glad I did this race. And any doubts I had about my effort were quickly erased when I saw the race photos online. Oh. Dear God. Judging by my face, I'm pretty sure I gave it everything I had.

Until the next one...

Beachfront Bushwhack 2011 - Recap

Took awhile to get around to the recap, but wanted to wait until I had some photos from Bryan to post!

Last weekend Bryan suggested we go out for the Beachfront Bushwhack, a 5 mile trail race in Connecticut. Bryan claimed this was his favorite race ever- and coming from someone who hates the time and effort that goes into racing- I knew it must be good.

Bryan emailed our entire R2C team- and suggested we have a mini reunion, and practice our roadkill skills of course.

Four of us were able to make it- Dolfo aka "Freight Train", Elena, Bryan and Myself. 

We all drove up together- with plenty of time to kill before the start our main focus was staying warm...

Bryan didn't like my outfit:

I thought it was amazing.

Some of us had special t-shirts:

I believe Dolfo's shirt was homemade!!

Mine was courtesy of this guy. I have been dying to get a no meat athlete shirt for awhile now, but Bryan said I had to run a marathon as a vegetarian first- well with no meat or dairy since September I ran my fastest half marathon and marathon. Needless to say I made Bryan order my shirt the week following the marathon, and was super excited when it came the day before this race!

Then we got ready to run...

I like to call this next photo, "what 50 mile race?" because that is exactly how Elena ran...like she didn't run 50 miles the weekend before- and of course she crushed it.

And we were off...

So I'll give you my recap and then some highlights.

This was only my second trail race ever. It is way different than a road race for sure. My first race was when I signed Bryan and i up for a 13.1 trail run last winter after a huge snowstorm. I had no idea what I was in for, almost slipped on ice about 47 times, got lost, and ran close to 11 miles in my first loop (of a two loop course!!!). My first and hopefully only DNF. Probably not the best for a first trail race, so I was a little nervous about this race, but I figured the weather wasn't too bad and the race was short.

When we started I had no idea how to pace myself- on a 5 mile road race I know what I can expect my pace to be, but this was different, so I had no idea if I was going too fast or too slow, and decided to just go with it.

I felt weird running on sand, through the woods, over rocks, but it was a lot of fun. I had no music with me, but I barely noticed because the course was so much fun.

I settled into a groove after the first 2 miles, kind of late in a 5 mile race, but i went in with no expectations so I was fine with it. Ok that is a lie- I checked the previous years results, and figured I should at least be top 5 in my age group.

Anyway I started to focus on the women and passing them- after all if we change our R2C name to the roadkill street sweepers I can't let the other guys (speed demons Bryan, Elena, and Deanna) have all the fun. I felt good and started picking people off- by the end there was one more woman in sight and with a nice probably quarter mile stretch of pavement I was able to pass her.

I will say it was crazy to me how my pace would be 8:15 in the woods and then 7:30 when I hit the pavement. I am now dying for a short road race to test myself- report on that in 3 weeks!

I finished in 38:20, a 7:49 pace. Not bad, however course was short- actual pace was more like 8:02- thank you Garmin!

So remember when I said Elena looks like she's thinking "what 50 mile race?"

 

Um yea she was the second place female!

I would like to add for the record that Bryan was beat by a 13 year old- the women's winner, holy crap. Official times are listed as the same for them on the website- but in the photos it is clear she crossed the finish before him.

Dolfo- was also showed up by a 10 year old! She beat him by 24 seconds.

Sorry guys ;)

Catching up

And I'm back from a blogging break! October was a crazy month- I had 3 MAJOR things to do and all went off without a hitch!

1. I was a bridesmaid in my friend's wedding October 16th- it was so much fun and the bride looked amazing!! 

2. I took my LCSW exam and PASSED!!! wooo!! I spent most of October studying and running, so I didn't have much time for anything else.

3. The Marine Corps Marathon last weekend in DC

So Since this is a blog about things related to running I figured I would post a quick recap...

We drove down to DC Saturday morning after I did a little 2 mile shakeout run in town and picked up some bagels for race morning.

This time I was determined to plan better - since our trip to Philly for the half marathon as new vegetarians did not go so well. I picked out a bunch of restaurants with veggie options, as well as back ups and subway maps.

Good thing I did because the original place I picked for lunch we opted not to eat and ended up going to Meridian Pint. It was pretty crowded when we went around 1:30, definitely the weekend brunch crowd but we easily grabbed seats at the bar. We each had a seasonal pumpkin beer and started off with fried pickles...the plate came with fried okra and pepperocini and chili sauce for dipping. sooo good. We couldn't decide on entrees so we split two- we got the veggie burger (homemade) with sweet potato wedges and grilled polenta with lentil and walnut salad. Everything was so good and we left stuffed. But not too stuffed for cupcakes!

So we headed over to Sticky Fingers a vegan bakery- left with a cookies and cream cupcake, a vanilla cupcake, and a chocolate chip cookie. So worth it. Properly carbo loaded we braved the freezing rain and headed over to the expo.

I'm not going to lie, I loved the idea of the MCM, but some of the logistics were just a mess. Everything in DC is so much slower because of all the security you have to go through to get anywhere. I understand why, but when you have about 30,000 people who need to pick up race packets, along with their friends and family, waiting outside in 35 degree rain, people are not happy!

We did a quick run through the expo, got the packet, grabbed some cliff shots and headed back to the hotel for warmth. We stayed at the Omni which was great, and took some time to relax.

We scrapped our original dinner plans that involved taking the metro in favor of a place across the street from the hotel. so close and so good. We also had a surprise dinner guest, when one of our R2C teammates got stuck in DC due to the weather. The more the merrier!

We headed home early so I could get ready for the big day. I laid out my race gear, and planned my splits in my head.

My plan was:

3 miles @ 8:45

3@ 8:30

6@ 8:25

6@ 8:20

6@ 8:15 and

2 with whatever you have left!

Wake up call came at 4:45...I got up scarfed a bagel and almond butter, and made coffee. Checked the weather- no rain, but 35 degrees...until 11 am. AWESOME.

I layered up, wore my ugliest and oldest pair of Juicy sweats to throw away- and looked like this:

Yea not pretty but I was sort of warm.

I ventured out solo to find the start- the logistics were too complicated to have Bry try and join me. The race started in DC went through Va and ended in DC. We figured it would be easiest if he met me at the finish.

I was able to naviagte the metro pretty easily- you know at 5:50 am on Sunday it was pretty much follow the other people wearing sneakers, and eating bananas.

It took awhile to get to the start and then there was more security, by the time I got to the corral area there was only 10 minutes to go, I almost thought I wouldnt be able to pee- but there were porta pottys by the start so I lucked out. TMI?

And before I knew it we were off.

HOLY CRAP. I now see my gut telling me I don't want to run NYC is right...this was insane. They didn't stagger the start so we basically all headed out in a heard. This sucked because after all that planning I was forced to run the crowds pace for the first 5.5 miles or so. I was panicking a bit, but then realized there was nothing I could do, so I would just conserve my energy and really try to negative split later.

I was feeling great, and I was staying relatively close to the times I wanted... I started off slower (hard to control with the crowd) but then eased in to my pace. I felt amazing and on target until mile 24 and then like a ton of bricks I felt like I was going to die. My stomach was feeling kind of off, and it was taking a lot of effort to maintain 9:00/miles. Not the worst, but kind of a bummer.

I told myself I wouldn't stop and I didn't...I came in at 3:45:40! A PR by 11 minutes!!!!! Not exactly where I hoped to be, but I could never be upset by a PR. I was pumped. And in pain. But it was totally worth it. I was 2549 out 21022 finishers, 533 out of 8597 women and 132 of 1769 in my age group. Not too shabby ...I've come a long way since I started running in January 2009- and since my first marathon June 2010- 4:31 finish time!

For now I'm trying to enjoy my success, and relax this week...but I'm already itching to run again and start training for something new...I have lots of plans but more on those later- time to catch up on some sleep!

Time Flies

Wow time flies. Last time I posted we were enjoying our vacation and now we are well into October and so busy!

I finished up vacation with a 20 mile run in North Carolina- and it rained for all 20 miles. I didn't really mind since temps were averaging in the 80s that week so the rain cooled me off a bit. I also officially hit my first 50 mile training week! WOOOO! This was a milestone for me ( I realize some more experienced marathoners regularly hit this and even go well above 50 miles). I have always felt that I feel more prepared and my body recovers better from my speed work when I have more base miles.

Last week I did 18 and then yesterday I hit 22 for my last long run of the training plan! I did the 22 up in the Poconos and my legs are screaming from all of those hills, but I know if will pay off in the end. Now it is time to relax and taper!

On top of marathon training I have a friend's wedding that I'm in next weekend and I'm studying for a licensing exam...thus the lack of posting.

Anyway- our most recent recipe from this month's Women's Health: mmmmmm!

This was definitely a keeper and will be added to our recipe book.

Okay, off to study. More soon...hopefully before the MCM on Oct 29th!

Vacation is amazing.

Some updates on our vacation:

FOOD

• Our first dinner out on this trip, went so-so at best. We picked a cute waterfront restaurant and ate outside. However after a quick glance at the menu, there was not one thing that was even close to being veggie friendly, maybe the house salad w/cheese, but literally nothing vegetarian friendly let alone vegan. I decided to go with my vacation mentality of being lax about adhering to this way of eating, and went with tuna. However the second it came out, and I swear it was the biggest slab of meat I have ever seen, I knew I made the wrong choice. I took one bite and confirmed that I didn't want it. Bryan happily switched and I ate the rice, beans, and veggies around his shrimp.
• Bryan made an excellent adaptation of "Hearty Dal Soup" from Forks Over Knives, along with some Food Should Taste Good chips, this was a winner.
• We had an excellent veggie friendly dinner of lentil tacos. I LOVE this recipe. Bryan is still on the fence about lentils, but add hot sauce and chipotle and you can pretty much get this boy to eat anything :)
• Bryan can eat as many smoothies as there are fruits. He will put anything into the blender. I even convinced him to try adding spinach!
• Our second dinner our was much better!!! We went to our favorite restaurant Amos Mosquito's. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had a couple of menu items that specifically stated you could make them vegetarian for a lesser price, score! So along with our much awaited fried pickles (okay so we didn't say we were trying to be too healthy, it is vacation), and fresh potato chips, I was able to enjoy a pasta dish w spinach, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, and chipotle. mmm chipotle.
• Pumpkin beer, amazing. On the beach with a good book? HEAVEN.

Training

• Tues- was scheduled to be a 10-12 mile run with hills, I did 12 miles w/ 4 on the beach, since there are no hills here. Bryan gave me the idea. I laughed saying no way beach running would be tough. After 4 miles (okay after like 1 mile) I was ready to eat my words. Solid run though.
• Weds- was scheduled to do a speed/tempo run combo which I knew wouldn't be likely to happen since I was still sore from Sunday's effort. Did an easy 8, without the garmin because it died. :( I ran with my phone as a timer, and came back to map it out later on my laptop, worked out to be 8 or so. Later in the afternoon I went for my first bike ride!

• 

  So much fun! I went at a killer pace of 8 mph...watch out!

• Thurs-rest day/get seasick day...more on that later. actually no more on that. happy to be back on land!
• Fri- easy 6 miles exploring some of the cute neighborhoods around here.

It may seem like I am being super healthy and not relaxing. Rest assured that is not the case. I (we) like to balance our vacations with a nice mix of naps, dinners out, wine, workouts, home cooked meals, and extra time to recover from workouts. Sometimes its hard squeezing in every workout on your training plan during a busy week, a beach vacation allows extra time to sleep, eat, get in your workout and have plenty of time to relax (nap, eat, unwind) later. I type this as I polish off Bryan's Kettle jalapeno potato chips...as I said balance.