So That's Interesting

I haven't run in a long time.

I mean, a LONG time.  I plugged my Garmin in tonight and saw this:

Last recorded workout was March 17, 2011.  Last one before that was the Philly half from 2010.  Uh, yeah.

I whipped out the Garmin because I decided to run to the Art Museum steps, where my friends at Trap Door Athletics were hosting a "flash mob" workout.  The run there was easy - except for the part where there was a train on the tracks blocking my access to the Schuykill River path at Locust Street, so I had to run up and down the Walnut Street stairs...boooooooo.  Even with the detour up the stairs, I averaged an 8:39 pace there.

At the museum, we did a ten-minute AMRAP of stair runs, air squats and pushups.  I felt those 200lb back squats...HARD.  I squeezed in five rounds, then watched some strongass people do Grace (30 clean & jerks for time) with 60lb sandbags and took plenty of awkward pictures...

SEE??

...before flipping the Garmin back on and running the 1.6ish miles home.  My run home was much slower, since my legs were REALLY tired, but even so:

That's an average pace of 8:51.  And I haven't run outside in WELL over a year, and I haven't run at all  pretty much since I joined CFCC.  That doesn't really suck, you know?

BOOM.

and it's not even peak week yet.

That's my PR face.  For when I back squat 200lbs for a double.  I Beyonce'd the second one a little bit, and definitely made some really fun faces (and noises - pretty sure I screamed "I'm GETTING THIS"), but yup.

rest of my log:

Saturday May 19: ran to the gym - 1.57 miles in 12:36 easy.  Apparently, not running more than 400m repeats EVER has been pretty good for my running abilities.  Gymnastics: muscle-up work.  I am getting this in a year for sure - maybe even in 2012, though that seems a little ambitious.  Dips are getting stronger and my jumping muscle-up is easy.  I did a couple attempts at kipping a muscle-up, and my biggest problem is that I slip out of false grip VERY easily - which makes the transition a billion times more difficult.  Metcon: 15 minute AMRAP 5 false grip pull ups, 5 push ups, 10 toes-through-rings.  Kipped the pull ups after round 2, and wasted a good minute or 90 seconds on busted rings.  5 rounds plus 4 pushups, as RX'd.

Sunday May 20: "Hope."  This year's variation on Fight Gone Bad.  3 rounds of 60 seconds each burpees/power snatch (75/55)/box jump (24/20)/thruster (75/55)/chest to bar pull ups/rest.  184, as RX'ed - better than last time but still an ass-whooping.  Stayed for Croga and got supple.

Monday May 21: this was my eighth day of training in a row without rest and I was feeling a little tired, but...you know...gotta squat and stuff.  Back squat, peak of 2.  95-125-145-165-185-195-200.  BOOM.  Glad I went.  Metcon: 3 rounds of 60 seconds back squat (135/95), 60 seconds row for calories, 60 seconds rest.  Scores - 29/29/31, as RX'ed.

Kimchi and Chocolate

Not feeling my absolute best for the past few days.  I'm on a round of antibiotics now.

Killing off all of the bacteria in my body means eating plenty of this:

Authentic (a/k/a mixed by rubber-glove-covered hand and not even remotely pasteurized) kimchi from Sook Hee's Produce.  "I put the kimchee in an extra bag for you, because it's stinky."  Yes, Sook Hee, it sure as shit is.  But it's chock full of live cultures, and I need probiotics to reestablish my gut flora while I'm killing the nasty shit off.

Yogurt, too.  Yesterday I drank my coffee black and had some full-fat Fage yogurt as my third meal of the day.  Low fat dairy is complete and total bullshit.  I don't do much dairy these days - about a tablespoon, maybe two, of heavy cream in my coffee, and the occasional piece of cheese or dollop of yogurt if I'm having chili.  But never, EVER again will I consider drinking skim milk or eating fat free cheese.

Operation: Get Strong Without Getting Fat is getting interesting.

I generally train six days a week - four weeknights, at 6:30 or 7:30, and two or three classes between Saturday and Sunday.  That means that during the week, I usually end up eating dinner around 9 or 9:15 once I'm home from the gym and have had time to throw something together.

This week, I'm shuffling my meals around so that I'm done eating for the day around 5:30 or so.  That gives me a couple hours before I work out - I don't do well working out on a full stomach.  And then, just before class, a little hit of this stuff:

 

Yes, experimenting with chocolate as actual fuel.  Instead of just "something that tastes goddamn delicious."  The idea is to break the emotional, mental, "OMG TREAT" connection, and consider chocolate, like anything else I eat, as something with [potential] benefits aside from just being tasty.

So, we'll see how this goes.  I do know I've been putting up some good numbers and have been feeling pretty lean, so if this week is a bust I can always go back to my 9pm dinners and indulgence-only chocolate.

Log (aka "HANDSTAND PUSHUPS FOR DAYS"):

Saturday May 5: first running metcon in a while.  We did some POSE running drills on the way to Washington Square park, looking like total tools the entire time.  At the park: 800m run, then 10 rounds of 10 HSPU/10 pistols, then 800m run.  I scaled the pistols to 20 walking lunges; did the first 10 HSPU's against a tree, but it took me forever so I scaled those to regular pushups.  I was pretty damn tired when it was over, but as usual wish I'd sucked it up. 25:51. I didn't track my time too closely but am fairly sure I kept my 800s under 4 minutes each, which is just fine with me since that's the longest distance I've run in a REALLY long time.

Sunday May 6: double session Sundays.  Gymnastics - strict HSPUs, 8x3 with band assistance: 1x3 average/light band; 4x3 light/light; 1x3 light/mini; 1 mini/mini (one HSPU only - failed on the second); 1x3 light/light.  Metcon: 5 rounds for perfect form of 5 ring v-outs, 5 strict L-raises, 5 handstand walkups from plank, 5 pike v-ups. Scaled to 3 rounds since I planned to stay for the regular session.  Ass whooped regardless.  Abs not so strong.  

Regular session: "Hope."  A variation on Fight Gone Bad. 

uh, woof.  Especially those thrusters.  Score: 171, as RX'ed.  

And I thought I was lousy at Fight Gone Bad.

Monday, May 7: more fun with double sessions.  Back squat, peak of 3. 95-125-145-165-180.  We haven't back squatted in a WHILE - other than the Total and a random day where we did sets of 20, I can't find anything in my log on this since December or January.  Feeling pretty confident about my goal of 200.  Metcon: AMRAP in 3 minutes of back squats (225/135), immediately followed by max unbroken kipping pullups. 21/9, as RX'ed.  And then...gymnastics...for more work on kipping handstand pushups.  I did a few sets with a full ROM and, while everyone else was doing the metcon, did 30 more to an abmat in sets of 3-5 each.

REDEMPTION

thank god.

I was up early(ish) yesterday, and had plenty of time before crossfit to make breakfast. Of course, I didn't have much in the way of, you know, breakfast food. I knew I wanted eggs.

Delicious, over-easy eggs.

I improvised while the eggs were frying and ended up heating up the last of a rotisserie chicken I had pulled apart over the last week, dumping the eggs on top, pouring on a bunch of corn and black bean salsa, and mixing everything together.

At the last minute, I threw a handful of grape tomatoes on the side and called it good.

So, my fifth On Ramp class was at 11am yesterday. I was feeling a little disheartened after Thursday's pullup disaster, so I was happy to see that the WOD focused on a couple of (what I thought were) my strengths: short runs and deadlifts. My legs are definitely stronger than my upper body.

And halfway through the skillwork, I got to hear the eight most beautiful words in the english language:

"You're gonna be really good at this lift."

Skillwork was to build up to an easy set of three deadlifts, and then take it down by half for the WOD. We started to run out of time, but based on how my last three at 95lbs felt, I think I'd have been easily able to do 135lbs for the easy set of three. My form was good and I felt strong - which was so, SO refreshing after hanging there helplessly like a fish on the pullup bar the other day.

WOD was fabulous. Three rounds for time of "the short run" - a loop around the block that I estimate to be about .17~ish miles (not sure - definitely more than a tenth but less than a quarter mile) followed by 10 deadlifts. I lifted 95lbs for the WOD. Looking back, I could probably have pushed myself more on the runs - my hamstrings were burning on the last two - but I finished sweating and feeling good in 6:07.

Post-crossfit refreshment:

I felt completely redeemed in that class and I can't wait to go back. Yay crossfit.

Like the other night, I came home starving and craving something cool and refreshing. I threw together a quick salad with the last of what I had in the fridge - cucumber, tomatoes, olives and peppers, with some feta cheese.

Topped with my last two salmon burgers. Time to go back to Costco.

How's your weekend?

Realization

I miss regular blogging, but once you get out of a habit, it's tough to get back into.

I've been in a nice little routine recently. Standard eats:

Fage 0, berries, peanut butter, side of loan documents.

My new favorite delivery food: chicken kabob salad (chicken, red peppers, sweet onions and tomatoes, grilled on a skewer, over a standard salad with romaine, cucumbers, peppers and fresh tomatoes), add feta cheese, with a side of hummus. Old Town Pizza/Sanna's has unexpectedly good hummus...plus, online ordering lets me be supremely antisocial, and not have to actually speak to a human being in order to obtain my hummus and salad.

Salmon burgers, crumbled feta, champagne dill mustard, side of roasted broccoli, pile of olives. I'm almost out of salmon burgers - time for a Costco run.

I've come to a realization: I don't really LIKE running longer distances. I had a lot of fun training for the Philly Half with Stephanie, but I dreaded any long runs that I had to do alone. They dragged, I was miserable, and I spent half the run wondering exactly WHY I was doing this.

I've also long since come to the realization that I don't like running shorter races, either. I hate 5Ks. You go balls to the wall for 25 solid minutes or so, and by the time you get warmed up, it's over, so it's never really fun.

But I do like RUNNING. I love, love, LOVE running shorter intervals. Mile repeats are fun. 800 repeats are fun. Fartlek-style "hmm what do I feel like running this time" workouts are fun. I dig speedwork, not so much tempo runs (though they're more palatable than long, easy distances).

But, like so many people, I got sucked into the idea that I had to race to be a "real" runner, and that I had to race double-digit distances. Um, not so much. I've been much less injured and much, much happier for the past couple of months, where I've been running once or twice a week, 3-4 miles of intervals at a time. I'm happier during the workout, I'm happier outside of the workout. I don't have any real times to speak of, and I can't hang a race bib from those workouts in my office...but...SO?

Not to say I won't ever run another long race. PhillyGuy has mentioned a few times recently that he'd like to run Broad Street one year, and I'd certainly run it with him. But I'm shifting my focus, I think. Running will just be fun and recreational, the way it was when I first started running in college. I'm hemming and hawing about forking over the chunk of cash to join one of the CrossFit gyms in the city - I dig lifting, and I'm starting to get bored with the same P90X routines I've been doing for the past year.

I'm hoping to visit a gym this weekend to see what the story is. For now, it's time to head out to Philly Power Yoga for class with my favorite instructor (Steve - I really dig his teaching style. it's the right mix of normal talk and "yoga talk" that helps me focus on my practice without rolling my eyes).

Happy weekend!

Is this Thing On?

I took a bit of a break from blogging.

Partially because work was making me nutty, but mostly because I just wasn't feeling it. And I didn't want to post for the sake of posting.

I've been doing a lot of this:

- Lifting 2-3 days a week (always a two-day upper body split, either back/biceps and shoulders/chest/triceps, OR back/chest and shoulders/biceps/triceps, and I've been trying to add in a day of legs as well)

- Running 1-2 days a week (shorter intervals - anywhere from 2-4 miles, always with a half-mile warmup followed up some sequence of intervals, ranging from half-mile repeats to shorter, faster intervals to pyramid-type speed buildups)

- Other cardio, typically the recumbent bike on the "random" program, 2 days a week

- Hot yoga once a week

Eats have been boring but generally good for me. As I've mentioned before, I don't mind eating the exact.same.thing.all.the.time. So it's been plenty of grilled meats and roasted veggies, and plenty of plain Fage 0 and berries, and about once a week I make a grilled cheese using two pieces of fat free cheese, one piece of whatever amazing full fat cheese we have around (usually some type of sharp cheddar) and ham, and top that with an over-easy egg. That's my go-to dinner the night PhillyGuy has class.

We got in around 9pm last night from a couple days in Vegas. We were out there for a friend's wedding and make an extended weekend vacation out of it. I had booked myself a 10am hot yoga class this morning, but decided after waking up to switch it to 4pm so that I could spend more time with these guys:

(Cosmo is not ready to get up yet, either. We went for our usual morning walk and he immediately jumped back into bed afterwards. I tried to take his picture and Sophie was like "HEY MA! WHAT ABOUT ME!")

More Grilling

and a confession.

First the grilling. One of my favorite summertime meals - spiedies.

While PhillyGuy manned the grill, I chopped up a bunch of brussels sprouts and half a sweet onion, tossed with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper.

While those roasted up, I made myself a fairly simple salad.



Romaine, red pepper, cucumber, and some olives mixed with chunks of feta and an olive oil/vinegar mixture that I picked up at the grocery store. Since I didn't bring my favorite vinegar to make a salad dressing, I relied on the oil from the olive mix to flavor the salad - which it did just fine.

I topped my salad with a bunch of spiedies.



For those unfamiliar, these are an upstate New York (well, Binghamton area - which is really not at all "upstate") tradition. It's just marinated chunks of chicken breast, but I can't quite replicate the marinade at home, so we stock up like crazy whenever we visit PhillyGuy's parents.

And now the confession.

This entire vacation, I've been scared to run.

This is kind of embarrassing. I brought plenty of workout clothes. Duck has a great path running along the main drag which is perfectly shady in the mornings. I have my shoes. I have my industrial-strength sports bras. My knee hasn't been bothering me at all, and I've been routinely running a couple times a week - not much, maybe 3-4 miles of intervals or repeats at a pop, but still.

Every day on vacation, I've told myself that I am going to start the day with a run. A short one or a long one, it didn't matter - I intentionally left my Garmin at home, figuring it would be a nice break to just put on my shoes and GO without worrying about time or distance.

And every day, I get nervous and make an excuse as to why it's not a good day for a run. Why am I nervous? I honestly don't know. I usually don't feel like going right away when I wake up, and then later in the day, when I DO feel like going, I talk myself out of it, rationalizing that it's gotten sunny and hot(ter), or that my husband wants to hang out. As if I couldn't even do 30 minutes or so, or as if 75 degrees is unbearably hot for a run.

I don't get this at all. I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself, and hoping that I just snap out of it in a couple of hours or days or whatever. But I don't like this feeling, at ALL.

Whew. Got that out. Now to enjoy our last day of vacation.

Cupcakery

This morning's workout was really, really good...and I don't know why. There was nothing remarkable about it. I ran for about 20 minutes to get warmed up (intervals - 5 minutes at 6.5mph, followed by five two minute intervals, including sets of thirty seconds each at 6.0, 6.5, 7.0 and 8.0, and then five more minutes at 6.5) and then did legs & back. Some pullups, some squats, some leg presses, some calf raises, some wall squats.

For some reason, though, even though I went to the gym a little spastic and stressed out, I left feeling like a million bucks. Just one of those magic mornings, I guess.

Know what else is magic? Cupcakes.

A couple of weekends ago, I was taking advantage of some unseasonably warm sunshine by taking the dogs for an extra-long walk when I stumbled upon a new cupcake place.

Pamcakes is a cute little cupcake bakery that recently opened on 20th Street, just south of Spruce. I was intrigued enough by the adorable pink-and-sparkly decor that I stopped to peek into the front window. A sign out front advertised the day's special cupcake flavors - creamsicle and cinnamon bun.

Um, sold. I went in (bonus! I was able to bring Sophie and Cosmo in with me very quickly) and got a box of twelve - enough to try all eleven flavors available that day, plus an extra creamsicle for good measure.

Oh. My. God.

I brought them over to my parents' house for dinner that night, and we held a cupcake tasting. We sliced all twelve cupcakes into quarters so that the eight of us could sample each one. Even now, it's tough to pick out a favorite - I really liked the creamsicle, but cookies & cream was a close contender, too. And she makes a mean red velvet. And a great carrot cake. And...oh hell.

Any favorite cupcake places? Bakeries? I'm not a huge sweets person - given the choice, I'd take cheese fries over birthday cake any day - but if I'm going to eat dessert, I'm going to do it right.

Weekend Update

It feels so good to finally have a second to catch up.

Thursday I tried Zumba with my friend. Um, WOW. I ran the 1.2ish miles from my house to Versa Fit at 16th and Walnut, which felt AMAZING - running outside really is so much better than the treadmill, both mentally and on my knees. It was the perfect warmup for the class, also - I am not, how shall we say...coordinated. At all. Being warmed up made it a lot easier for me to follow along with the instructor.

I'm still on the fence about whether Zumba is right for me. It was definitely a blast - I sweated like crazy and the class flew by - but all of the jumping and pivoting was not good for my knee. I will probably try once more, wearing my knee sleeve this time, to see if that alleviates the pain at all.

PhillyGuy and I ended this week by taking advantage of Friday's gorgeous weather by grilling a big fat steak. I put together my standby brussels sprouts/mushrooms/onions mix, with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper.

We had a super-thick ribeye in the freezer that must have been at least 24 ounces, so we split it.

Let me tell you, PhillyGuy makes a mean steak. He seasons it very simply - just salt and pepper and garlic powder - but MAN it's good.

(What can I say...I basically like my steak still walking.) And there is nothing in the world as delicious as these vegan oatmeal raisin sandwich cookies that we've discovered at Whole Foods on South Street.

Can of diet coke provided for size purposes. That cookie is the size of my face. The two of us share one and can't even finish the entire thing...but good grief, it's amazing.

I spent yesterday at Kleinfeld's with one of my best friends, who is getting married next February. I don't watch Say Yes to the Dress, but everyone else I was with does, so they were downright giddy picking out all of the people they saw on the show. Much to everyone's surprise, my friend picked out and bought a dress yesterday - it's absolutely gorgeous, and as soon as she held it up, her entire face just lit up.

Too bad we couldn't carry that feeling all the way home - it kind of got eaten up when we spent an hour getting through the Lincoln Tunnel. (Don't look at me - I wanted to take the train.) It was a long, LONG day - fun, but exhausting. I crashed hard when I finally got into bed, which is probably why it was so easy for me to be out the door at 8:30 this morning to go grocery shopping.

Now I'm hanging out in bed after polishing off a big fat bowl of Fage 0, Whole Foods bulk bin ginger granola, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.

It's in the 40s, sunny and not as windy as yesterday - I'm thinking it's a perfect day to try to get in my first "long run" for Broad Street prep. I haven't run more than 5 miles since the half in November, so this might be a little creaky, but I'm hoping that my fairly consistent shorter runs will maybe bring my pace down a tiny bit...we'll see.

Happy Sunday!

Saturday Brunch

PhillyGuy and I always say things to each other like "Man, there are so many great places in the city that we never try!" Because, well, there are. And we don't.

So today, we did. We headed over to the other side of Broad AND the other side of Vine (hoooooboy are we getting crazy now!) to have brunch at Prohibition Taproom this morning.

I started with coffee...

AND a bloody mary, since it came free (!!!) with our meal.

I love me some bloody mary mix. This one was a nice, tasty standard - not a ton of horseradish, not too spicy, and nothing crazy or fancy about it. Just an olive, a lime, and spicy tomatoey goodness.

We split an order of the tempura-battered green beans to start. Holy COW, these were good. The batter was crunchy and salty, the beans were crisp and the aioli was tangy...I could easily have eaten buckets and buckets of these. BUT, I needed to save room for our entrees.

We split two things. The croque madame:

Pork roll, fried eggs and beer cheese sauce over a crusty baguette, and...

the burger special - gruyere, watercress, truffle oil and yet another fried egg. SO GOOD. I saved the aioli to dip fries and smear on the last of the burger bun.

With such a heavy breakfast, I'm still not hungry now, at 7pm...which I guess is a good thing. I also guess it's a good thing that I started my day off at the gym.

I haven't lifted in what feels like ages - while I've been good about getting to the gym regularly despite my nutty work schedule, said nutty work schedule leaves me craving the best possible sweat in the shortest amount of time - which for me is always cardio.

So, this morning, I started off with a couple quick miles (five minutes at 6.5mph, six minutes starting at 7.0 and increasing by .1 every 60 seconds to 7.5mph, then reversing back down to 7.0 again and cranking it back up to 7.5mph to finish off my two miles in about 17 minutes. Anything to combat treadmill boredom!), followed by P90X back and biceps. And WOW, it's been a while since I've done that workout, and it showed...I was totally spent by the end.

That particular workout ends with a strip-set of curls - you're supposed to do four sets of 8 and decrease by 5lbs with each set, but for little ol' me that's not mathematically possible. So, I started with 15lbs, decreased to 12.5, then to 10 and then to 8 for my last set. I gotta say, there's just something I LOVE about the feeling of your biceps shaking, even with 8lb weights, and then that delicious, DELICIOUS relief when you throw those little 8lb dumbbells down at the end.

So now, Cosmo and I are chilling on the couch (shocking) waiting for PhillyGuy to get home. I'm hoping I can get him to watch a movie with me tonight...I'm thinking either something with Woody Allen or something by David Mamet. A coworker recommended "the Spanish Prisoner" earlier this week, but I can't find it on demand and now I'm on a mission. Any recommendations?

Halfway Home

I cannot believe the week is more than halfway over! I guess that's what being busy does.

This weekend, we brought Cosmo home a new bed.

He likes it. A lot.

It's currently sitting on the couch next to me. I'm hoping to slowly "trick" him into sleeping in this bed instead of OUR bed. Don't get me wrong, I like cuddling with my dog...but that M-Fer hogs the bed.

I know, I don't get it either. But believe me - less than 25 pounds is enough to shove me out of the way. And PhillyGuy. Somehow, by the time morning comes around, the two of us end up pushed out to the edge of our respective sides of the bed, and Cosmo is sprawled out in the middle, complete immovable.

Anyway. After the insanity that my job has been lately, I was DYING to run tonight. I crossed my fingers that my knee would behave itself, hopped on the treadmill and set out to run some intervals. I alternated between 6.5, 7.5 and 8.0mph for anywhere between 1 and 5 minutes at a stretch with no real rhyme or reason. I wrapped up three miles in 27:56 and was WIPED. MAN, I hate getting back into shape. It's freakin' rough.

Cosmo chilled on his bed next to me while I finished up some work and ate...you guessed it.

Roasted broccoli.

With a big fat pile of sundried tomato hummus and some (super classy) pre-cooked chicken.

While Sophie watched TV.

What can I say? I live a glamorous life.

Sounds Familiar

Hmm.

I feel like history might be repeating itself.

Last year, when I signed up for Broad Street after months of successful and pain-free running, my knee started bothering me that very same day.

This year, when I signed up for Broad Street after even MORE consecutive months of successful and pain-free running (including a half marathon, dammit), and after making a public announcement about an ambitious goal, my knee started bothering me. This time, it had the decency to wait a couple of days.

Monday I hopped on the treadmill, eager to bust out my first three-mile "official" training run. I planned for three easy, steady-state miles. I actually spent hours psyching myself up, since I don't know when the last time I ran for thirty minutes on the treadmill at the same pace was...my hamster-wheel syndrome has left me doing lots and lots of intervals lately.

So color me shocked when my biggest challenge wasn't some kind of mental game. Nope. It was the twinge directly beneath my right kneecap that I haven't felt in months now. I kept going for a few minutes, since sometimes I get a little tiny pain that goes away after the first quarter mile or so.

But nope. So I fought back tears, hopped on the stupid recumbent bike, and felt sorry for myself for the next 40 minutes or so.

So what have I been doing (besides, of course, trying not to panic or overreact)? Quad-strengthening exercises from my PT last year. Elliptical and recumbent bike. P90X strength stuff. I'm going to try my damnedest to be patient, because even if I have to wait until February to start really training, I still have plenty of time to work on my speed.

In the meantime...I'll keep making lots of eggs.

With broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, salsa, hot sauce and cheese.

I'll keep working on my first knitting projects.

Scarf...

...and hat...

...the products of the beginner's knitting class that Sabrina and I are taking at Loop Yarn at 19th and South.

And I'll drink out of the cute new pink water bottle I bought myself today for no reason whatsoever.

And for now, I'll get ready to make dinner with PhillyGuy and snuggle with the sleepiest puppy in the world.

Life's rough.