I Live In A Grown Up Tree Fort

Remember on a rainy day when you would get all the covers in the house, take the pillows off the couch and all the cushions and make the most awesome fort ever.  Well we kinda did that, but with wood and it won’t fall down when the dog runs by.  Thats right y’all, I officially have lived out every kids dream.  I live in a real life, grown up, big kid tree house.  Inside and complete with tv and internet, you really can’t beat it.

Its a work in progress, but its pretty awesome.

And there is pretty much nothing I could post that could follow that up and hold any weight so that is all.

Have a great Friday!

What I Ate Wednesday

Today was super productive studying/school wise which is good since yesterday I didn’t have a second to crack a book at all.

Breakfast: Gingerbread Coffee and Special K Chocolatey Strawberry cereal with Almond Milk

I put in a good hour or so studying and then hit the road for my quick 3 miles easy.  Right at the two mile mark I got stopped by the train (womp, womp) which was so annoying since I was almost done.  However I have gotten stuck at this spot on mile 18 of a 20 mile run and that was much more frustrating.

When I got home and showered, I remembered I had to return all of the equipment to Comcast or else I was going to have to reschedule the disconnect, which meant calling them and quite frankly, I would rather chew off my own fingers individually than call that company!!  So I loaded Scarlett in the car (she loves car rides) and set off across the bridge.  I was in and out in 5 minutes which I was not expecting, pleasant surprises.

Lunch: Lean Cuisine Margarita Pizza (sometime you just have to microwave food)

Post lunch I hunkered down, got some more good studying done.  Read some more of my book (Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult, its okay but I’m not thrilled about it).  Read a few Runners World articles (the one about Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan was awesome).  Had a few snacks before heading to the clinic.

Snacks: Honey Crisp Apple with Nutella Greek Yogurt Dip, Voskos Peach Greek Yogurt

I rode my bike over to school (weird that I can’t just walk now) but the ride was a leisurely 10 minutes and it was a gorgeous evening.  A patient brought White Chocolate Macademia Nut Cookies just to say thanks which was so sweet!  I forgot to snap a picture but it was incredible!!

That was only the beginning of the amazing night I had in the clinic.  A guy I have been working with walked safely in his prosthetic limb all over the clinic.  At one point he yelled out, “Look at me everybody, I’m walking!!”  It literally brought tears to my eyes.  Overall it was just another successful night in the clinic, one that reminded me why I am spending all of this time studying and working so hard.

By the time I got home from clinic I was ravenous as I always am since I am not usually home until about 8 or 9 o’clock.  I munched on some watermelon while I prepared dinner and dessert!

Dinner: Potato and Onion Pierogies and Turkey Kielbasa (easy one pan meal)

It doesn’t look that great but this is one of our favorites…pierogies are amazing!!

Dessert: Chocolate, Peanut Butter No Bake Bars from New Nostalgia (via pinterest)

DELICOUS but DECADENT!

These are a major sweet tooth fixer but I had to have some almond milk to follow the sweetness!!  So amazing though!

Happy Wednesday!!

Moving Day

Today was officially moving day.  That meant lots and lots of cleaning!

I got up, had breakfast and coffee, went for my 3 miles easy on a route that has become fairly typical for me.  Through campus, over to the harbor, down broad street and the battery.  What was silly was how nostalgic I was feeling about it.  I am literally moving less than 2 miles across town.  But it was something about the fact that that crack in the sidewalk will no longer mark 2 miles, that water fountain won’t be exactly where I need and expect it anymore.  I know this is silly, but if you are a runner, you know these things and how nice they are.

Anyway, after showering I hopped to it in my house.  I got the rest of my stuff together (I have been gradually bringing it over day by day which made the move a lot easier).  It will still way more than I thought would be left.  Casey and his dad came and got my big stuff with his dad’s van and I spent the rest of the day cleaning and doing laundry.

My room…

…looking so sad!

My two best friends and favorite tricks from the day were:

The magic eraser is actually magic people.  It got off scuff on the wall, gunk from the cabinets, who knows what off the front of the refrigerator.  It even worked on soap scum on the shower door.  I could write a song to these things.

The second was a trick I got from my roommate who got it from Pinterest.  If you run a dryer sheet over the baseboards it picks up all the dusk and grime.  I was skeptical but it worked like a charm.  These two little guys saved me so much time today.

Now I am in the new spot and it is great but I couldn’t help the sadness I felt stepping out of my old house for the last time.  I have practically become a whole new person in that house.  It is the only place I have ever lived in Charleston.  It was the single most independent thing I have done in my life (and maybe the dumbest, I had never even been here before the day I moved my stuff into this house).  I have had 11 different roommates there, gotten through 2 years of pt school, run three marathons and three halves, met Casey and fell in love.  I have a bunch of new great friends, a puppy whom I adore and a life I am not sure I could have dreamed up.  It all happened for me in that house.

Obligatory Scarlett shot

But now I am ready for a new chapter.  Here we go!

 

Feeling the Need for Speed

At this point in my running career, simply logging miles isn’t going to do anything for my anymore, that is if I want to keep getting better and faster.  Up until now my improvements have been stemming from all sorts of physiological mechanisms.  Science talk for two seconds I promise.

1.  I improved my neuromuscular efficiency to start.  This occurs the first few weeks to months of training before anything else changes.  Basically your nerves get better at getting the message from your brain to your muscles to fire and help you run.

2.  I have improved my stores of glycogen in my muscles and trained my body to use fat for fuel.  This helps me keep going for hours.  This is the benefit of doing long runs on the weekends.  This is also why your speed doesn’t really matter on these runs, what matters is the time you are taxing your body.  Once you get to a certain time point, your body starts to learn to kick into the vast energy stores in your fat (wayyyyy more energy than your glycogen stores, like tons more).  That is why you can (and should) train on these runs at a 30-90 seconds slower than race pace for these runs.

3.  I have learned how to fuel during runs and allowed my GI system to adjust to this so nothing is a shock during a race and I know what my body can handle.

The principle I haven’t really hit on much is speed.  This is the “specificity principle”, you play like you practice.  Because I do long runs so much slower than I plan to race I have to get that speed in other place.  This comes from pace runs, hills and interval reps.

My arch nemesis favorite of these is hills.  You get a double bang for your buck with these.  You get strength from the extra push you need to get up and you get speed because you are sprinting your butt off!  Hill reps are probably my hardest work out but I love them most when I am done and I know I will love them even more at the end of my next marathon.

Todays hills called for 3 reps.  Not too bad, I can do anything three times, easy peasey.  I took a mile-ish warm up, then did 3 1/4 mile reps up hill with a SLOOOW recovery jog down before heading up again.  I ended with another mile of cool down.  Splits looked something like this:

These are pretty decent splits.  Very consistent which is always what I am looking for.

So my first hills training went well.  For the rest of the training plan, each time I do these, I add one rep so I am sure once I get around to doing 8 repeats I won’t have as joyous comments about them but so far so good!

Hope everyones Monday was great!

Swap It Out Sunday

We are huge fans of Sausages, especially with summer grilling season coming.  Unfortunately these delicious, succulent, savory pieces of meat can really pack in calories and fat.  Luckily there are alternatives that may be even better than the real deal.

image: foodsubs.com

We have really been hooked on the chicken sausages by Bistro Sensations.  They have many different kinds but we usually get the spinach and mozzarella or the smoked mozzarella with artichoke and garlic.  I like the chicken apple ones too, really they are all just fantastic.

These alternatives have 120 calories, 5g of fat and 17g of protein where a regular sausage can have as much as 286 calories, 23g fat and 16g of protein (average based on caloriecount.com).

The best part of this swap is that you are saving a ton of calories and fat and in my opinion the alternative is actually better!!

Happy mothers day!!  If you are a momma, thank you for being awesome, if not you all have a momma, giver her a call and tell her you love her!  Shout of to my own mom who is AMAZING.  I would never be anywhere close to where I am today without her!

Head Games

Today I completed week 1 of marathon training again.  I will hopefully be running the Lehigh Valley Health Network Via Marathon September 8th and HOPEFULLY qualify for Boston.  I can’t completely commit to the race until I know my fall class schedule but until then I will be training as if I am running it.

As I trudged the road on my long run today I thought about all of the hard work ahead of me.  After doing your first one, you think “no big deal, I’m doing this again.”  But then again you think, “what the heck, I am doing this again.”  Your body, and more importantly your mind is saying “don’t you remember how grueling training was” and today it was saying “it gets to be over 100 degrees every day here you nit wit!”

I am a person that picks a plan and rarely deviates.  I hardly ever miss a run, ever so that when I toe the line I know I am as prepared as I possibly could have been.  This race I have chosen to follow the Advanced 2 Hal Higdon Plan.  It covers a little bit every everything (hills, speed, tempo runs, long runs). The only thing it doesn’t incorporate is strength which I am planning to do basic hip and knee strengthening exercises and some core exercises two days a week after easier run.  After being in school this long, I know to cut out strength during training is to ask to be injured.  This coming week, I will post the most important exercises and stretches to hit and the physical therapy related reason as to why.

Anyways, so as I ran today I thought of the 18 weeks ahead of me and all the work I would have to put in to running and prepping.  I also though about how many big things will be happening to me over this summer. BIG STRESSFUL THINGS.  Like oh, you know, comp exams.  Training for this race, no matter how hard is probably the best thing I can do for myself through this time.  It will give me my “me time” and get my body moving while most of the rest of the day I will be studying my little heart out.

So I vow to myself to remember this moment and this post on the day that I am running 20 miles and its 90 degrees out and I am cursing my stupidity.

Run on my crazy friends!

Charlestowne Landing Race 2: A Lesson In Believing in Yourself

I’m not sure when I will wake up and respect myself as a runner.  You would think after running a marathon at 19, four years ago that that would have convinced me but it didn’t.  Or the 3 marathons and 4 halves that have followed.  Nothing really has been able to convince me I’m a “real runner”.

So with this mindset, I arrived with my friend Maribeth at the second in the 5k series to find many members of the local running group present.  I pretty much decided after seeing them that I would try to beat my time from last week and be completely content with no award this race.  No worries, bettering myself was good enough for me.

The race got started and I went out hard but comfortable.

Start of the Race

My first mile I clocked in around 6:37 and was still feeling decent.  I kept pushing but started to fade at about 1.4ish, deciding to bump back to a slightly more comfortable pace until mile 2 was over.  Right around the mile 2 marker I saw the two girls from the running group about 30 yards ahead of me and another girl I didn’t know about 15 yards ahead of me.  I went to catch up to the last girl and planned to just draft for a bit and get my bearings before kicking in at the end.  She started to slow down and the two girls in front of us split so I sped up again to catch the second girl.  I caught her with the same plan to draft again but she had started to slow as well.  With the third and final girl about 20 yards ahead of me at this point I thought “This is good, I’ll take this spot right here.”

I rounded a corner with about 0.65 left and there was a girl from that group standing on the sidelines cheering.  To say she was shocked to see me in front of her other friend was a HUGE understatement.  She promptly yelled to her friend behind me, “Don’t you dare let that girl beat you!!”  Which may have been meant to fuel her friend but really ended up lighting a fire under my a$$.  I finished 3 seconds behind the first girl from that group and 38 seconds in front of the other.

PR by 30 seconds!

On top of all that, I PRed by 30 seconds and got third overall female again.  I got a different picture/plaque thing this time which was cool.

What I really got from this race was confidence.  I was in there with these girls that I view as “the real deal.”  I had put myself, in my mind, in a league far behind them.

So the moral is, give yourself a little credit everyone, guaranteed you are better than you think!!

What I Ate Wednesday

I spent a good portion of today studying for comps and running errands.  I quickly came upon the realization that my study plans for comps are aggressive at best and impossible at worst.  If I am to give myself any break, my schedule for studying is going to need to be drastically changed.  It took me 5 hours to get through what I had planned today and I know I won’t have it in me to do that the whole break.  So tomorrow I will need to revise the plan for sure.

But on to WIAW…

Breakfast: Cereal and Coffee (shocker right) BUT I had my cereal with homemade almond milk Casey and I made!!

After study for about 2 hours I headed out for my first Tempo Run.  12 minutes of easy running gradually building to 6 minutes of ~10k pace (7:00 miles) then cooling down with 12 minutes of easy running.  I really loved this run!!  I like pushing myself but knowing it isn’t an entire run of busting my butt!

Lunch: Boca Burger with 2% american cheese on Sara Lee 45 calories and delightful bread with chili sauce; carrots and garlic hummus

The rest of the afternoon I had a few snacks between running errands and doing laundry before heading to our free clinic for the night.

Snacks:

Light Coffee Frappucino

I swear I am not usually this Starbucks obsessed, but it was frappucino happy hour and I had to go in and get a gift card anyway…

Pinneapple!!

After my night at the clinic we had a super late dinner…

Dinner: Broccoli and BBQ Turkey Meatloaf from PBfingers; it was fantastic!!

Dessert: Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Pop
I made these the other day and they were so easy and delicious!!

Hope you had a great Wednesday!!

Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

So the end of exams has finally come and I have gone out with a bang!!  I AM AN OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING SPECIALIST!

Yay!!!

I slept terribly, I have no idea why I was so nervous for this one.  Maybe because it cost me so much money to take but I haven’t been truly nervous for an exam in a while.  I woke up at 6:39, 6 minutes before my alarm was to go off and got my Peanut Butter and Banana Overnight oats ready.  I devoured those, wrapped up the other half of my banana, let the pup out and then hit the road.  I dropped by Starbucks for a plain blonde roast coffee and drove the hour and a half to Georgetown, SC.  After that miserable drive (there is literally nothing between Charleston and Georgetown I was ready to out of my car and get this thing going.

The first section was the Exercise Science and Nutrition, 90 questions and an hour and a half.  I took almost the whole time, took a 10 minute break and then headed back for the practical portion.  This part was supposed to be 2 and a half hours but it only ended up taking about an hour and a half.  After 3 hours of testing, the next 5 minutes were excruciating waiting for my scores to print.

After a fantastic ending to the exam week, the drive back flew by.  I stopped by Starbucks again (I have a problem) because I had a free drink reward I had been saving for just this celebration.

Mocha Light Frappucino

It finally stopped raining too so I went to the beach to finish my book…

Sullivan’s Island

…but it was super windy so I only stayed for like 20 minutes and came home and laid in bed for a while.  Hopefully later in the week I will have better luck.

When Casey got home from work, we took a nice short 3 mile run with the pupster.  I was supposed to do hills training today but I am shifting some things around and using the second 5k in the series this Thursday for my interval training and will switch those next week for my hills this week.

Now, I am exhausted now from terrible sleep and getting up early but I can officially say I am a

Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist!!

 

 

Swap it Out Sunday

Snack time!!  This week is a recipe and swap it out sunday all in one!!

I absolutely always crazy sweet foods.  They are my lover and nemesis all at the same time. Luckily, fruit is sweet and this new dip is sweeter.  If you have ever read my blog you know my obsession with the Peanut Butter Greek Yogurt Dip.  I also am in love with Nutella so I thought why not try Nutella Greek Yogurt Dip.  As I was mixing it up, I was thinking that it would be a good blog post either way: a funny disaster or a magnificent new treat.  Luckily it was the later!

Two ingredients!!

1 cup Fage 0% greek yogurt

1/2 cup Nutella

Makes this:

It is creamy, smooth, deliciousness!

The other benefit, it packs 120 less calories than just using 2 straight tablespoons of nutella.

1 serving of the dip has 80 calories in 2 tbsp where Nutella itself has 200!!  Considering I use one of these two dips every day I am saving close to 120 calories a day.  Thats 43, 680 calories in a year and 12.5 pounds.

I love that I can have what I love without packing on the pounds!!

Hope you had a fantastic weekend!!