Procrastination is the Name of the Game

I started today with one of THOSE mornings. You know the ones - when you really really want to get out of bed and be productive, but your covers hold you hostage and your pillow whispers sweet nothings in your ear. Blah - it was bad. I usually pop out of bed at 6:30 to walk the dog and get some work done watch the news, but I was up too late last night and was feeling lazy. I got my butt out of bed just long enough to take Carly outside and hear the Today show music, and then I konked out until 9AM when I (again, begrudgingly) headed out the door. I had a review session for an upcoming cell biology exam...I appreciated the review, but yikes! Scheduling it on a Saturday morning was a killer.

I got back around 11 and headed to PetSmart with B to get some food for fuzzbutt. There was an adoption drive going on and we were thisclose to coming home with another dog, i.e. I considered stuffing one of the puppies into my hoodie and bolting for the door.

Died when I saw her. Beautiful. 

We made a pit stop at Target because I needed a peppermint mocha fix and because we were out of oatmeal. I've eaten oatmeal for breakfast every day for....three years?... and we haven't had any in the house for FOUR DAYS. I'm amazed the earth didn't explode.

Can anyone go to Target and only buy one thing? We looked around for a bit and ended up getting some egg nog, hot chocolate, and a hat for our upcoming Turkey Trot 5K. B desperately wanted to run in something festive.

Pumpkin as stand-in for B's head

This hat was only two dollars! It's our first thanksgiving away from our families so we're planning on drowning our homesickness in sweat in the AM and turkey/green beans/mashed potatoes in the PM. I'm looking forward to our first low-key holiday but I'll miss my grandma's annual 20-person blowout.

I really needed to get studying after shopping was over, but I thought a nap was a better use of my time. I have NO idea why I was so tired today! After another hour with my true love (my bed), I decided to test out the calves with a short little run. My goal was simple: don't push too hard, no more than 3 miles, and listen to my body. I felt awful in the first 200 yards and almost went home, but I loosened up after that. I took a few breaks to stretch and massage my calves whenever the pain got too bad, and was able to do a safe, easy 2.5 miles. I held a 9:08 pace, which is slower than I normally run but was perfect for today. I would have been thrilled with 10:00min/mile this time last year, so I'm just thankful for how far I've come since then. I have to keep reminding myself that this injury is only a temporary roadblock...unless I get in my own way and prolong it by doing something dumb.

I was so proud of myself for staying within my limits that I went down to the gym in our building for some celebratory arm work

The gym is really nice for a high-rise, and I love the variety of cardio machines. There are a few key exercises that I couldn't do here, but it's a great place to go for a workout in a pinch. B and I probably wouldn't have joined a "real" gym if it weren't for the fact that we needed a place to swim.

Earmuffs still on from earlier....dork

I did some tricep pulldowns and lat pulldowns, but unfortunately ignored my biceps as usual. Swimming works your triceps much more than your biceps, and so my tris are quite literally larger and stronger than my biceps. Thus, lifting biceps depresses me, so then I don't do it and just perpetuate the problem. Note to self: add bicep strength to list of "stop being dumb" goals.

Dinner was a junk salad, i.e. a mixture of all of my leftovers on top of lettuce. That bad boy had butternut squash, roasted onions, almonds, raisins, feta cheese, black beans, pinto beans, and some balsamic vinegar on top. It was ok, but didn't knock my socks off. The gingerbread tea I had along with it was also suprisingly blah.

The rest of the night was foam rolling, studying, and enjoying the first glass of eggnog of the season.

What's your favorite seasonal drink? Eggnog, cider, hot chocolate, peppermint anything...? For me, this would be like trying to choose between my (non-existent) children.
Do you have pets? Obviously I am Carly's babysitter/snack-giver/ear-scratcher, but I've had four other dogs over the course of my life. I've also had a few fish and an ill-fated hermit crab named Pickles.

Swimming Workouts

I have no idea how to put together a good running workout. People talk about "tempo runs," "hill repeats," "sets of 800s," and I'm all like "I'm just gonna go do some random miles, ok?" It's not the most interesting or productive way of going about my training, but I do it because I'm still inexperienced.

It hit me yesterday that some people swim this way! New flash: no one wants to just do laps for an hour straight. I'd try to drown myself. Sooooo: I think I might start a new page on the blog for swim sets so that you guys can get some fresh ideas. I'll try to post my own workouts to keep myself honest, and you can adapt them to your own skill level and time commitment. If anyone is interested in starting a swimming routine (DO IT!) I can post some basic workouts, too.

Yes, you. Get in the pool. 

To start you off, here's something similar to what I did the other night with B. Do these at your own pace - I didn't include times.

Warm up:    4x150 choice (I do mostly freestyle)
                   4x50 freestyle - descend (1st 50 is slowest, 4th 50 is fastest)
Kick:           5x100 kick - odd flutter, even choice (I do breaststroke kick)
Main set:     2 times through (first time through freestyle, second time stroke/choice):
                       2x100 drill
                       2x75 kick, drill, swim by 25
                       2x50 choice - HARD
                       1x50 easy freestyle 
Cool down:  200 easy choice

Total:  2500 yards (or meters, depending on your pool)

Good luck! We didn't get through all of it..it was a little overambitious for our first time back. We'll get there soon, though! We've been calling ourselves "swammers" (like the past tense of swimmers, get it? har har) and we're finally ready to commit some serious hours to the pool. There's nothing like staring at that black line :)

Would a new page on the blog be helpful for you?
Do you ever schedule "workouts" for your running?  If so, have any tips? 

Halloween and Getting Back in the Pool

Did you guys have a fun Halloween? B and I always had swim practices or meets on Halloween so we've never really gotten excited about it (except for the candy, of course). This year, we were invited over to a friend's house to pass out candy and enjoy some cider. We were so out of touch with the rest of the world that we didn't realize we needed costumes until 15 minutes before we left...oops.

We were in a rush so we didn't take pictures...he just wore a batman T-shirt with black jeans and I wore an LMFAO Party Rock Gym T-shirt with pink leggings and crazy sunglasses. Their song "Sexy and I Know It" was a popular choice for swim practice playlists, so their songs make me weirdly nostalgic.

Oh, and there was gold eyeliner involved. 

These are new friends so it was really great to tour their gorgeous house, meet their dogs, and get to know them a little better.  I had some of the adult cider, it was a little strong for me but it was warm and that was all I wanted! We didn't get many trick or treaters :( I was bummed. I grew up in the woods so no one ever came to our house, and little kids in costume are so cute!

Now, if you've been paying attention to the last few paragraphs, I'm really missing my old swim team. I told B that I was kind of sad about it, and he said that he feels the same way. Well, big news: we decided to actually do something about it!

We joined a gym with a pool and got back in the water for the first time since the 2012 NCAA championships (me) and the 2011 conference championships (him). It hurt, it wasn't pretty, and we didn't get as much done as we would have liked...but it was a start. I usually bounce back pretty quickly after time off, so I'm feeling optimistic about the next few weeks. I'm experiencing the perfect amount of total-body fatigue right now.

Oh chlorine-hair, how I've missed you.

Random: we got passed in a no-passing zone on our way to the gym. This lady was FLYING. Then she started honking her horn at the person in front of us and flipping off everyone on the road. It was so crazy. Aaaaand she ended up going to the same gym as us. AWKWARD. The end.

Drunken Veggie Chili

I love to cook and I love to alter other people's recipes, but I rarely come up with anything on my own. This recipe, though? All mine. It actually happened by accident: B had a chili cookoff at work and, procrastinators that we are, we didn't even try to think of a plan until the night before. We threw a bunch of stuff in a pot and it worked like a charm. Chances of that ever working out again: 0%.

Ingredients: 

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1.5 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 cans (15oz each) diced tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp light brown sugar 
• 1 tsp each salt and pepper
• 1 cup APA beer (we used Schlafly) 
• 3 cans (15oz each) of beans (we used kidney, pinto, and black beans)
• 2 cups water (plus or minus)
• Optional: shredded mozzarella cheese and Greek yogurt.*

Directions: 

1. Warm olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. 
2. Add onions, garlic, and bell peppers. Let saute until just short of caramelized, about 5 minutes. 
3. Add chili powder and red pepper flakes, let cook for another minute. 
4. Add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, brown sugar, salt, pepper, beer, beans, and enough water to reach desired thickness (we used around 2 cups). Bring chili to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the beans are tender, about 30 minutes. 
5. Serve with mozzarella and a dollop of Greek yogurt. 
6. Optional: refrigerate overnight to thicken. Reheat next day. Win cookoff. 

We used McCormick Chipotle Chili Pepper instead of regular chili powder. It's amazing and a little spicy. Use regular chili powder or a mixture of the two if you're worried about the heat.

If I'm not crying, gasping, and choking, then it's not hot enough

Full disclosure: I hate beer. Luckily, the alcohol cooks off so the beer just adds a nice deep flavor that is so often missing from vegetarian chili. My first attempt at a meatless chili (from a real recipe, even!) tasted like chewy, barely-spiced beans...not good when you want a warm, comforting bowl of yum.

Do you want a picture of the finished product? Let me answer that question with a question. Have you ever tried to make a bowl of chili look appetizing in a picture taken at 8PM with an iPhone? (Hint: it's impossible)

What's your favorite recipe, vegetarian or otherwise?  I have too many to choose from (I know, that's a cop out)
Do you like spicy foods? YES. I have yet to meet a buffalo wing that is hot enough for me, much less too hot.

*Note that this recipe is vegan if you don't serve it with cheese and yogurt and pick your beer carefully.

New Lab, New Plan

Today I started working in a new lab! First year grad students rotate through several labs over the course of a year before they pick a place to do their thesis work. It's a great way to try out some different things before you commit 5+ years to one group, but it's a bummer to feel like a nomad for 10 months. I had gotten comfortable with the people and protocols in my old lab JUST in time to switch.

Regardless, today was fun and I feel good about my projects for the next few months. I'm in a new, much fancier building that has awesome wooden lockers for the scientists and SHOWERS in the bathrooms! I've been wanting to start swimming or running before work, but it would have been a huge pain to come back to the apartment just to shower and then walk to my lab. Now I can just finish my workout by running right to my building and showering/changing there!

Anyway...now that I'm done geeking out over a shower...
(But really, if you can't get excited about the little things, what else is there?)

I tried to go on an easy recovery run yesterday afternoon, but my calf "injury" was bothering me so I cut it short. One of my goals for my running from here on out is to listen to my body. I have a problem with either being a slave to a training schedule or totally blowing it off. Actually, the two are related - as soon as I miss or modify a scheduled run, I figure the whole thing has gone to hell in a handbasket and my plan spirals out of control. This leads to (a) initial overtraining/injury because I push when I shouldn't and then (b) severe undertraining because I'm either injured or I've given up.

No more.

This time around, I'm going to be smart, i.e. I'm not going to do 7 miles on a strained calf just because that's what my calendar told me to do. I've been an athlete since I was 9, and I need to trust that I know the difference between normal pain and "back off now!" pain. I've also left myself plenty of time to get ready for this marathon, as opposed to the 1.5 months "training" that I've done for both of my half marathons. Hopefully this means that I won't beat myself up for modifying runs because I'll know that I have time to make up the missed miles. I'm going to be serious about my stretching and foam rolling, I'll improve my nutrition, and I'll make sure that I get enough sleep. Come April, I will be ready to kill some miles and eat some hills (well, I'm always ready for hills).

And to lighten the mood, I'll leave you with a picture of Carly, a.k.a. the jello dog.

She sleeps like this all. the. time. 

Do you follow a training plan?
One of my favorite bloggers, Skinny Runner, is a marathon-running beast and she never follows a plan. Color me jealous.

Hermann London Halloween 5K

B's parents are visiting this weekend! His mom was one of the people who first inspired me to get into running competitively, and now B is showing a renewed interest in the sport. We toyed around with the idea of running a race together, and it was a done deal once I found out about a local Halloween run. Racing PLUS a costume contest? We're there.

After several phone calls to both of our parents, we decided to try for the "best group costume" prize and go as a shark, a swimmer, and a surfer/victim. Sharks have always been my favorite animals and this wasn't the first time I dressed as one for Halloween! B's parents stopped by my mom's house to pick up my shark costume from yearrrssss ago, and they schlepped that thing all the way to St. Louis. Meanwhile, we got our "surfboard" (old foam boogie board) ready for the race.

It was actually the first race that B and I ever ran together, so it was pretty special. He's usually my bag holder/jacket giver/man slave before races, and he hasn't competed since high school cross country. It was fun to see him get excited about running again!

Sleepy breakfast time!

We arrived an hour early because we bought our race entries from Living Social (great idea, by the way) and were worried that our registration might have been messed up. It all worked out great, though, and we used the extra time to drive back to our apartment to pick up the boogie board that I had forgotten. Brilliant.

Lots of people LOVED the shark costume. B wore a very realistic bloody T-shirt (thank you, gel food coloring) with goggles and a swim cap, and his mom wore a swim suit with goggles around her neck. We decided to all run together because I couldn't see a thing and the course was open to traffic. Nothing could possibly go wrong!

We ditched the boogie board 5 seconds after this picture was taken.

The course was a lot hillier than we were anticipating, and we lost B's mom early on. I, of course, took each hill as a personal challenge and sprinted up as fast as I could. B stuck with me and was a great guide..."car on your right...pothole...parked car on your left...hey, let's pass this lady!"

The mesh covering my face turned to steel wool sometime during the second mile, so I'm currently sporting a nice red nose. Not gonna lie - running in that thing wasn't a ton of fun. It was hot and I couldn't see, but it was neat to wave at little kids on the course and to pass people who weren't in costume. 

We finished at a 26:16 - not nearly as fast as we could have gone, but we were pretty happy with our times under the circumstances. I heard one guy at the finish line say to his son "Hey, you see that shark? It beat me!" Chomp chomp. 

We didn't win the costume contest, so it was obviously rigged. For what it's worth, the race director's wife came over to us said that we were her favorites! They had hot dogs and chips for the runners, so we hung out for a little while and listened to the band play. This was my first 5K - I gravitate towards the longer races - so it was a nice way to recover from last week's half marathon and have some fun with my family. 

Have you ever raced in a costume? 

Rock n Roll St Louis Recap/Review

After a grumpy 5AM wakeup call, B and I showed up at the race around 6AM for a 7AM start. We found super-close, super-cheap parking and were feeling pretty proud of ourselves. I was surprised at how few people were there by 6, but it made it easy to find my corral, grab a bottle of water, and use the bathroom (no lines at the porta potties!).

At about 6:45 I shed my outermost layers, parted ways with B, and made my ways into the 9th corral. It. was. cold. The weather in St Louis has been schizophrenic lately, but I don't think that many of us expected such a frosty morning. The race also began about 10 minutes late, so it was 7:20 by the time my corral crossed the starting line. The announcer counted down for each corral's start, so every 90 seconds we heard "10...9....8... come on, everyone count with me! *dead silence* ...7.....6...." and I wanted to punch her.

The gorgeous view from the start

Not only could I not feel my extremities, but my butt was totally numb for the first mile. Has that ever happened to you? It was awkward.

I hadn't gone on a single run in two weeks, for a total of about 10 miles total in the month before the race. It was probably dumb to even run this race, but I'm a stubborn pig who likes medals. This was originally going to be a PR attempt, but I gave up on that at the starting line and decided just to have fun.

One big complaint: the lack of bands along the course. The ones that were there were good, and I really appreciated their time and effort, but this race didn't "rock" nearly as much as I thought it would. Some "band stations" just had speakers blaring Justin Bieber. Also, the band at mile 5 was playing "Halfway There" by Bon Jovi when I ran by. No one - halfers or marathoners - was even close to "halfway there," so I felt some insult piling on top of the injury that 5 miles will do to undertrained legs (more on that in a later post).

At mile 4 I decided that I was going to go for my original goal of PRing with a sub 2-hr race.

The course support was great, and the volunteers were the best part of this race. They were numerous, they were cheerful, and they were quick to clear empty cups out of the road. There were water/gatorade stations every 1.5 miles or so, and there was a Gu station around mile 7. They had vanilla Gu - my favorite!

At mile 7 the mental struggle started, and I decided that PRing was ridiculous and dumb.

At mile 8, I did some mental math and decided to PR.

At mile 9, I decided that PRing was not going to happen, plus it was ridiculous and dumb,.

At mile 10, I was hell bent on going under 2 hours.

Around mile 11, I saw a sign that said "ONE MILE TO BEER." I was so delirious from my internal PR struggle that I assumed that I missed a few mile markers and was about to come up on the finish. EXCITEMENT. I mean, they couldn't give us beer on the course, right?

Wrong. A local bar was passing out little paper cups of PBR to anyone willing to imbibe on the run. I was so confused that when I got to the next aid station I wasn't sure what was in the cups, so I screamed "WATER?!?!??" at the poor volunteer to confirm that I wasn't about to get a bitter surprise. Also, that last aid station had put water in the Gatorade cups (and vice versa) and my delusional brain couldn't handle the switch.

The grunting and groaning started at mile 12, when I decided to sprint for the finish. I had eaten a Shot Blok right after the last aid station and my stomach was sick of my bull. I had to slow down my painful slog sprint so I wouldn't puke on the side of the course. I dragged my butt across the finish line at 1:58.41, a 7 minute PR that was fueled by stubbornness and vanilla Gu.

The secure zone is my favorite part of races. Where else can I grab free food to my hearts content AND get a medal for my trouble? It was a struggle to hold onto everything until I met B at the gate. My quads starting cramping almost immediately, so we walked a few slow, painful laps around the family reunion area while I ravaged a bagel and whimpered.

The medals were glittery and HEAVY. The ribbon was awkwardly short, but no big. Notice the attractively chipped nail polish. We didn't stick around to hear 3OH!3 play because we knew our dog was probably going nuts at home. I got back to the apartment, showered, ate, and still had time to sit at the window and watch the marathoners go by. At that point, it was better them than me.

Overall, I loved the volunteers and support, but the course was boring with a capital B. Very few spectators, very few hills, and almost no music. It felt more like a 13.1 mile training run with a few thousand of my best friends. However, this is only the second time St Louis has hosted a Rock 'n' Roll race, so I might be tempted to sign up for next year (if I registered early and with a discount code). I think there's some good potential here.

Have you ever ran a Rock 'n' Roll race? 
What did you think?