Books I Read in January

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

I DEVOURED this book! Such a fun read. It's like Titanic meets Downton Abbey with a little Sense and Sensibility thrown in for good measure.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and I think I need to be done with coming of age novels for awhile, as they're all kind of maudlin. This one is no exception. It was well written (I do have a soft spot in my heart for epistolary novels) and it's evocative of many of the feelings I had as a teenager. I just thought the relationships rang a little false and that it's doubtful all these different social circles overlapped/that a bunch of seniors would befriend a dorky freshman. But, what do I know, being 20 years out of high school ... In the Woods by Tana French I don't often read crime novels, but this one was really cool with an air of mystery and true to life/complex characters. There were some interesting parallels to Gone Girl; so if the characters in that book frustrated you (if you wanted to reach through the book and slap both of them) this book was like an antidote featuring main characters I empathized with and wanted to reach through the book and hug. So, from what I gather, I now need to read The Likeness because it's even better...

Wordy Wednesday (aka Kindergartner Wrangling)

I thought it would be entertaining/distracting for me to make a note of every time I had an argument with my five year old today.  Kind of like when he was a screechy 14 month old and would walk around the house crying for no reason (didn't want food, to be picked up, etc. - probably teething) and all I could think to do was videotape it so that I could laugh about it one day.  Yes this makes me laugh now:

Hopefully this little rundown of the crap parts of our day will make me chuckle in the future...

7:20am: won't get dressed, withhold breakfast until he's dressed
7:58am: yelling at sister for repeating after him, yellin' at me when I try to mitigate situation
8:02am: won't brush teeth/go bathroom/wash hands, 'guess we'll miss the bus!' <- daily ritual, but it still seems to work...
8:20am: fight with sister over wanting his stuffed animal parrot
OFF TO SCHOOL
11:23am: picking up from bus stop (early release day) - 'I'm thirsty, why didn't you bring my water bottle? WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY??' (okay, I added that last part)
12:00pm: at Rite Aid, getting some last minute decorations for his Valentines Day box and makes a big to-do about wanting to buy a toy (um, no)
12:20pm: not sharing Valentine's stickers with sister, epic screaming on both sides
12:40pm: parroting all of my discipline to his sister, have argument over who's the boss of baby girl (because, she's not just sitting around being a perfect angel all day - close, but not quite)
1:15pm: aaaaand so begins the daily refusal to start doing homework - our most stressful time of day.  I give him five extra minutes to play and set the kitchen timer.
1:20pm: time for homework! 'Nuh uh. I don't want to.' Sits down after I write a note to his teacher about how long it's taking him to do his homework. <-almost daily ritual
1:25-1:50pm: have several spats over pictures (I can't draw a violin!) correcting his work (I can't make that 'e' any smaller!) etc.  I raise my voice for the first time today and am about to lose it.
PLAYS IN SUPER CUTE FASHION WITH BABY SISTER FOR ABOUT A HALF AN HOUR, FORGET ABOUT LOSING IT    
2:15PM: tell him it's time for baby girl's nap, both argue, want to play longer - set timer for five minutes

Coffee Break 2:20-4:00pm sit down with Mozart for relaxation, coffee, book and computer to fortify myself for post 'quiet time' toy fights, dinner chaos (eat over your plate!) and bedtime (no, there are no more Shaun the Sheeps).

Twelve or so altercations within about seven hours isn't too bad; less than two fights an hour.  At least there's no more stern reminders to wash hands before meals, hang up coats, put away shoes, please and thank yous - lots of good in there, too!  I just needed laugh for the future.

Good thing we had a great conference with his teacher and he's a pretty smart kid.  He's so proud of his school.

Marathon Training - Week 5 and Psyching Myself Out

First things first, week 5 workouts:

Monday - planned: 3 miles, tempo-ish (completed! kept about a 9:15 pace, which is a decent tempo for my goal of a 10 min race pace)

Tuesday - planned: rest  (completed! I WIN at resting!)

Wednesday - planned: 3 miles, 800s (NOT feelin' 800s, did 3.75 miles with 1 minute at 8:30-45 every 4 minutes of 9:30 min miles.  And it looks like I was supposed to do 5 miles - whoops!)

Thursday - planned: bootcamp (completed! was a great class)

Friday - planned: rest/maybe some elliptical (no elliptical, since I was busy visiting a preschool with baby girl)

Saturday - planned: 10 miles (completed! begrudgingly! in the POURING, COLD, RAIN. I allowed myself a couple of walk breaks and slowed it down, averaging 11 minute miles)

Sunday - planned: yoga and extra stretching (I did do my daily stretching with some extra yoga moves, and arm/core work)

I must say, I'm so glad that my buddy who works at the Brooks outlet clued me into their line of Gore Tex shoes - they have saved my feet, for sure, on all these rainy and puddle filled runs.

Some folks aren't into the black shoe, but I could care less what they look like, my feet are HAPPY
source

Since making the decision to train for a marathon, I've noticed that I'm in my head a lot more when running.  To be more precise, I'm totally psyching myself out lately.  I used to really enjoy the easy solitude of the long run, but now I can't get through one without drowning in doubt at least half the time I'm out there.  I'm mostly freaking out about injury.  Every little twinge or tic in my legs is major cause for alarm - specifically, my left hamstring/IT band that's been a source of consternation since September.  Yes, I foam roll, do PT exercises and stretch religiously every night.  Really, the only time it actively bothers me is when I've neared the end of a long run, I've been sitting for too long or when I first get up in the morning.  Basically, when my tired old lady muscles would hurt anyway.  Even before starting on this running journey, I'd still shuffle out of bed in the mornings, waiting for my creaking body to wake up.  So, every morning I wake with feelings of doubt and worry.  Gah.  And it doesn't help that most of us run first thing in the morning for the longer miles.  My task for this week is to not listen to any of my inner dialogue before 9 AM.  I'm so thankful that I have the most spectacular husband who's planning outings for the kids every Saturday so that I can run, and also still sleep in!  On Saturday, despite having to brave the craptastic weather for my first double digit run since November, at least I was well rested and didn't even head out the door until 9:30.  Ahhh.  Unfortunately, he has a lot of work to do this weekend - luckily the plan has a step back week...

Week 6 Plan:

• Monday - 3 miles
• Tuesday - Rest
• Wednesday - 5 miles
• Thursday - Bootcamp/maybe an extra mile or two to equal 3 for the day
• Friday - 7 miles
• Saturday - Rest/maybe elliptical
• Sunday - Rest or yoga

 

This Weeks Eats 1/27/13

OK, you guys?  You HAVE to make the seven flavor beef from Wild Ginger.  We could not get enough of it and were contemplating eating it again this week, and that's something we never do - outside of pizza, of course.  I couldn't find fresh bean sprouts, so I used a ton of baby bok choy, one of my favorite vegetables: so, so, so good.  We'll refrain this week and probably make it next week...  As for the other recipes from last week, I must say that I did enjoy the crockpot cream cheese chicken chili (quite the alliteration).  We added red and green peppers, onion and garlic, because I can't imagine chili without those ingredients.  I think I'll add only 1/2 the cream cheese called for to make it a little less thick next time.  Also, I love, love, loved the Pioneer Woman's spinach and artichoke pasta.  I used Beecher's flagship cheese (a must try if you are ever in Seattle) instead of jack/mozzarella and a can of diced tomatoes (drained) and it was almost too pretty to eat; I even took a picture!

The only caveat, my husband didn't like it!  "I'm just not a huge fan of cheese sauces."  To me, this is like saying, "I don't like chocolate."  Whaaa??  Ah well, I'll make it on the sly as often as I can.  We each have our dishes that the other one doesn't like.  He's loves chicken paprikash and jumbalaya which makes me go, "meh."  In my opinion, if you're going to pair chicken with tomatoes, there has to be cheese involved, like chicken parmesan, artichoke chicken or enchiladas.  Can you tell I love cheese?

• Monday - Pizza
• Tuesday - chicken with artichokes and mozzarella (now that I've mentioned it...)
• Wednesday - dinner out with the Hot Chocolate race organizers and folks from Seattle's special events crew!
• Thursday - Greek turkey meatball salad
• Friday - Enchiladas (another chicken and cheese!)
• Saturday - vodka pasta
• Sunday - Superbowl!  Chili and fixins, of course.  We found this recipe for beer braised chili on msnbc.com awhile back and it's reaaaaaally good.

Friday Things

Ahhh, I think I'm in a much better place than I was last Friday.  Kids have been on a more even keel and no one (including myself) is sick.  Hooray!  But, to touch on last week's Facebook commentary.  This post from Mashable about Facebook fossils is a fun look down memory lane and reminded me of how long I've been on there - since 2008.  Does anyone else remember putting 'pins' on your 'bulletin board'??

Today was a pretty busy day, checking out preschools for baby girl.  Eegads.  So I'm just gonna share my song selection for the week and wish y'all a happy Friday!

Ahhh, goin' all cheesy pop boy band today with 'Give Me Your Hand' by The Ready Set.  But I've gotta admit, I do love this song...

2013 Playlist
Language by Porter Robinson
Cry for You by September
You Are My Diamond by Tiesto - featuring Kianna
Arguru - Deadmau5
We Are by Jus Jack & Oza, featuring Aeone

Bootcamp, Lately

It's been awhile since I dished on the latest in bootcamp class.  I thought today was a good example of a butt kicking workout and why I think it's a fine substitution for a 3 mile run in my marathon plan and some cross training.

We stared class with a mile run (well, I did - got there about five minutes early and did about 10 easy minutes total).

First cardio: run 4 lengths of the gym doing the following 5 exercises (so 20 lengths of the gym total):

• skipping
• skip backwards (this is really rather tricky)
• side shuffle
• high knee power skip
• 'Frankenstein' skip: with arms out in front of you like Frankenstein and alternate trying to touch your left and right foot to your hands - while skipping (this was really funny for all the runners in the group, as our hamstrings hardly allowed our feet to reach our outstretched hands)

Yeeah, my feet weren't nearly that high! (source)

Second cardio: do them all again but *only* two lengths of the gym for a total of 10 laps.

Third cardio: to achieve 100 squats and 50 push ups we did the following sequence 5 times through:

• 20 squats
• 10 seconds of 'fast-feet' running in place
• 10 mountain climbers
• 10 push ups
• sprint the length of the gym and back (with a few extra laps at jogging speed at the end to cool down)

I was sweating buckets and I'm pretty sure I got my heart and legs pumping just as much or more than I would have doing 3 miles.  Just to be a nerd, I calculated how far we went doing the length of the gym: a basketball court is 40m and we ran it 40 times (20 first cardio, 10 second cardio, and 10 times in the third cardio) 40x40=1600!  Love that it's EXACTLY a mile.  And that's not even the end of class - just the first 30 minutes!  The second half of class usually includes 8 stations of two minutes each, which I count towards my cross training for the week.  I can barely remember the stations while I'm in class (wait, what are we doing with these resistance bands??) but here's a few examples of the 8 stations:

• squatting on a Bosu, with your partner standing in front of you, hold them back with resistance bands while they jog in place - switch after 1 minute
• run up and down one flight of stairs for 2 minutes
• with hands on a raised step platform, jump from side to side for 12 reps and then do 12 triceps dips on the bench, repeat for 2 minutes

Like this (source)

 

• Do 12 walking lunges carrying two weighted bars (about 8 lbs each) and jog with high knees back to your starting point, holding the bars over your head, repeat for 2 minutes
• V sits on a Bosu while doing a leg press with your partner (can I just tell you how many great people I've met because of all the partner work in bootcamp?  I digress...)

(source)

• with hands on weighted balls, resting on towels, run forwards and back to starting point (much harder than it looks!)

(sorry for the blurry pic - I'm just so fast!)

 

Oh, and between each 2 minute circuit, we did 12 reps of different plank exercises: twists, shoulder touches, tapping feet side to side, etc.

There you have it - this is what's up in bootcamp lately.  I think the best thing about the class is that I do so many things I wouldn't normally do on my own and I'm always learning a new strength move here and there to add to my normal post run abs or arm routine.    But the first part of the class could be done pretty easily while out on a run, if you don't mind looking a little hard core while outside running to drop and do mountain climbers, pushups, etc...

Marathon Training and a Yoga Outing

Yes, I'm writing my first training recap/preview post starting with week two (er, four?) since I was a wee bit ill last weekend and didn't feel like writing, or eating for that matter!  So, to explain the confusion over what week of training I'm on...

I think it was pretty clear from my research that the Run Less, Run Faster plans really spoke to me, being centered around the idea of the three quality runs a week.  I decided on doing a Run Less, Run Faster (henceforth to be named RLRF) plan that I found on the internet.  Since it's a 16 week program, I thought I'd prepare myself by following the first two weeks of the 18 week Higdon Novice 1 program with the first two long runs being 6 and then 7 miles, respectively.  This dovetailed nicely with my slow and steady December and the runs felt great.  So when it was time to start the RLRF plan, I realized the first week started with a 10 mile long run.  Hmmmm...  That's kind of a jump up from 7 miles, and the midweek runs are a bit longer, too.  In chatting with a fellow Eugene trainee on Twitter about our weekend long runs, she mentioned she was only doing five.  I had to ask, wait, what plan is this??  Wouldn't ya know, it was the Higdon program that I had been following, and the next week was a step back week; I just hadn't really looked past those first two weeks.  I would veer uncomfortably out of the 10% weekly increase territory if I switched over to RLRF.  And, as I looked further on the RLRF long run schedule, it seems to accelerate pretty quickly and included two 20 milers.  I'm thinking that's not necessary for a first marathon; one 20 miler is just fine by me.  Technically, I'm not trying to 'run faster' - just FINISH.  It's pretty obvious where this is going, right?  Hal Higdon it is!  Exactly, but with a catch: I decided to get the RLRF book from the library and the novice program in there is nothing like the one I found from the Runner's World article linked above.  In fact, the long runs pretty much mirror the Higdon program, including just one 20 miler.   

So, my hybrid approach:

• follow the Higdon mileage three days a week while trying to incorporate some of the speedwork and paces suggested in RLRF novice program
• instead of a fourth run, substitute the shortest run day (usually a 3 miler) with 1 hour of bootcamp as cross training to avoid burnout and combine the 30 or so minutes of cardio I would have done running, along with 30 minutes of strength
• do some yoga on Sundays

This last bit should be a bit easier now that I've been introduced to Jasyoga.  I had a wonderful opportunity to get in a session with the owner Erin Taylor at Oiselle HQ over the weekend and it was awesome.  When I think of yoga, I shudder at the idea of trying to hold my shaking, protesting body in some crazy position while attempting to zen out.  Ha!  I'm looking at YOU warrior three...  Not fun.  But Jasyoga specializes in yoga for athletes, and any muscles shaking I experienced felt good.  I learned all kinds of cool stretches and poses that made my legs and hips feel so refreshed, not taxed.  I've already started incorporating some moves into my nightly stretching routine: legs up the wall (which you can check out here) is the popular favorite.

I mean, just LOOK at how happy my legs were afterwards!  Well, that can also be attributed to the coziest pants in the whole world.

I'm going to declare this week five of marathon training, as the first four of Higdon have gone well, with the exception of last week because I was sick; I did manage one 3 mile run and 7 out of the 9 miles called for on the long run.  Here's how I'm breaking down this week:

• Monday - 3 miles (tempo-ish)
• Tuesday - Rest (starting baby girl back in Toddler Group, so Tuesday is the new rest day)
• Wednesday - 3 miles (4x800)
• Thursday - bootcamp (in lieu of another 3 mile run)
• Friday - rest/maybe some elliptical
• Saturday - 10 miles
• Sunday - yoga and extra stretching

Hopefully I'll have a good report next Monday...