Monthly Archives: August 2011

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Speed Intervals

Tuesday Workout: 4 miles: 37 min, 12 sec

I rushed home after school to get on the treadmill (it was hot and I was tired!) so I could run, eat and shower before going to teach marching band from 6-9. I decided to listen to my Kara Goucher iTunes workout and run speed intervals.  I haven’t done this workout in awhile and I knew it would good to get my legs moving faster! I also LOVE Kara Goucher!!

A closer look at the speeds I used on the treadmill.  This was actually from a previous workout and I modified my “recovery” speeds to 6.2 for each time. I did stick to the speed intervals and got up to 7.4 at the end. For some reason this seems unbelievably fast on the treadmill to me. I can run faster than a 8:06 pace outside, but for some reason I feel like I am going to fall off the treadmill when I get to 7.4!

Do you feel like it it is harder to run fast on the treadmill than outside? Do you ever write down your treadmill workouts?

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Comfort Food

Monday Workout: 1 mile walk and abs

After school Colby and I walked around for about a 18 minute easy walk (1 mile) to catch up on our day and compare crazy kid stories from our school day.  Later I did planks, the sprinter and some other crunches to get some ab work in since I won’t be able to go to BodyPump tomorrow night.  :( I have been eating very well lately and I continue to plan ahead for breakfast and lunch the night before.  I have been avoiding dairy at all costs to keep myself from having another stomach attack like I did last weekend.

 

This past Sunday I wasn’t feeling so great and I think it was from being so busy during the week.  I was in the mood for something comforting, easy on my stomach and warm and I remembered a recipe that I saw on this lady’s website…

 

Mama Pea knows what’s up and I have loved every recipe I’ve tried so far! I decided to try her Chickpeas and Dumplings recipe from her blog.  The only thing I would change next time is using the correct flour mix. Mama Pea uses half wheat / half white and I used all wheat. I also made my dumplings a little too big and they took longer to cook.  I was very happy with how this easy recipe turned out and thought it was delicious!

Warm and doughy. I tried to make it look pretty for you… I tried!

What is your idea of comfort food? What are your favorite meals?

 

 

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Surprise Weekend Race

Saturday Workout: 8 miles (1 hr, 21 min, 7 sec)

I met my friend Amy at our local rail trail to run our 8 mile long run for the weekend.  Colby went along too, but ran at his fast pace and finished way ahead of us :)   We were supposed to meet at 7:30 am but I realized I left my Garmin at home and had to go back for it. I would never attempt to run a long run without it! Even though I was really tired from the long week (I went to bed before 10pm on Friday!) I was glad I got up early to run with Amy and missed the rain!

 

Old pic of me and Amy… we forgot to take one before our run!

Amy is training for the Baltimore Half Marathon and it is the day before my Hershey Half Marathon. (October 15th and 16th) She is following the Half Marathon plan I came up with so we both just finished week 5. It was a nice change of scenery running on the flat trail and talking with her the whole time! She is going to do so great on her first half!

Her husband was running a small 10 mile race that finished where we started our run. We thought we might not run into the runners, but during the last three miles of our run we definitely got passed by the elite runners! It was funny running past people watching and a few even yelled out for us but looked confused. We were running a 10 min/mile pace… no we did not keep up with the elite runners during the race. ;) Amy called out a few times “We aren’t racing! Just 8 miles today!!” Haha. It was nice being around crowds and getting that race feeling by being around other runners. So many weekends I run by myself and never pass any runners so this was so much fun! Look how muddy the end of the race was for the poor runners! My Garmin beeped right at 8 miles before we got to this section so we didn’t interfere with the race.

 

Amy’s husband finished right around 1:40 like she guessed! I had such a nice time running on the rail trail and would love to run this 10 mile race next year! Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Anyone run a long run or race??

 

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Fitness Friday: Hard Workouts

Thursday Workout: 3.5 miles: 37 min 14 sec, BODYPUMP!!!!

Friday Workout: TBA!

 

I got to go to a BodyPump class last night!!!!! I couldn’t make any other classes this week and it had been over a week since my last class! I planned on running 3-4 right after school at a nearby park and I got 3.5 miles in before going straight to BodyPump!

 

Look at those 8′s! Well, 8:54 and 8:47 but still fast for me. I haven’t ran outside since Sunday and had a sudden burst of energy when I started my run. I decided to really push myself and run hard for the first 2 miles. After I finished 2 miles, I walked for .25 trying to catch my breath then ran comfortably for the rest of mile 3. Then I walked half a mile to finish up the run so I could let my legs relax before BodyPump!

BODYPUMP!!!!! It kicked my butt! I forgot how hard it is when you’ve taken time off! The squat and shoulder track killed me and I was sweating up a storm. As soon as my favorite instructor put the music on in the beginning of class I instantly got excited. I LOVE this class so much. Have I mentioned how much I love BodyPump? :)   I probably won’t love it so much Friday when I’m sore from running hard and going to class. ( I wrote this post last night!)

After class I was so tired and hungry and decided to stop at the grocery store across the street for a treat. I thought I deserved it!

My favorite two flavors of Kombucha!!!! I thought I deserved a treat so I picked up a few :)

I feel like I really pushed myself Thursday night by running hard and going to BodyPump after taking time off from it. I was really proud that I could do these two workouts after such a longgggg week at work! I’m ready for some sleep this weekend!!

What workouts push you the most?

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Planning Ahead

Tuesday Workout: Abs (planks and sprinter)

Wednesday Workout: 4 mile run on TM (38 min, 15 sec running time and 41:15 total)

Treadmill workout: Mile 1 (9:33) , walk 1 minute , Mile 2 (9:41), walk 1 minute, Mile 3 (9:38), walk 1 minute, Mile 4 (9:23)

 

I tried to get home as soon as possible to run before going to teach band from 6-9 last night.  It was hot and humid and I was tired and didn’t feel like running after a day at school. So, I compromised with myself and let myself take it easy on the treadmill and watched Oprah.  It went so quickly and I even played with the incline up to 4.0 and picked up the pace at the end. This afternoon is going to be 2 workouts for me. My running clothes are packed and I am going to the park after school to run 3 or 4 miles then going to BodyPump. I’m going to be tired!

Tuesday night I forced myself to do some ab workouts before I went to bed and did two of my favorites:

 

 

You must try this one. It is tough and seems to work upper and lower abs :)

Planks <3 I loveeee them! I missed BodyPump for over a week, so I thought I need to make sure I can still do my planks! My love for this ab workout started with my first BodyPump class.  There were about 2 minutes of planks at the very end of the ab track and I thought it was impossible! Go here to watch the video clip of this particular BodyPump ab track and see if you can do it!

I’ve been trying to pack my lunch for school at night so I can actually think about it and not run around like a crazy woman in the morning throwing together PB & J everyday.  After hearing the lovely Dawn Jackson Blatner speak at HLS, she reminded me about pita pockets!! How great are pita pockets!?! You can put tons of stuff in them and nothing falls out! I’ve been putting salad, chick peas and guac in mine lately and they are fantastic! It’s been tough to make me plan ahead for my lunches each night, but I am hoping to make this a permanent habit!

Making breakfast and lunch the night before!

Gotta make those overnight oats!! I split my So Delicious Coconut Yogurt (blueberry flavor!) in half and make two overnight oats at a time.  This with PB on top is amazing and I crave it every morning :)

Do you pack your lunches the night before? What do you take to eat at work?

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Rescheduling Runs

Wednesday Workout: 4 mile run

I skipped my Tuesday run!! :(   I was so busy working in my classroom that I decided to stay until 5 and get a lot of work done.  I rushed home to grab some dinner and headed up to the high school to teach marching band 6-9. By the time I got home, I knew I needed to relax and take care of the 80 unread Google Reader posts on my computer! It is the kid’s first day of school tomorrow and I am really looking forward to seeing all the little faces :)

 

A few of my favorite bloggers I met at HLS!

 

 

Absolutely loved meeting and hanging out with Steph, Alli and Kristy this past weekend :)

Another pic with me and Steph @ Food and Fitness 4 Real

Pic from Kristy @ Run The Long Road

Very excited to meet Tina! I love her Body After Baby pictures!

Allison @ Happy Tales!

I was SO excited to meet Tina and have my Carrots N Cake book signed!

And I was crazy excited to meet Julie! I’ve been reading Peanut Butter Fingers for over a year and it was one of the very first blogs I ever found! She was just as sweet as I imagined and it made my day :)

Another busy day, but I am determined to fit in my run after school before another band rehearsal at night. I am really looking forward to running and BodyPump on Thursday (I haven’t been to Pump in a week!) and rescheduling my Tuesday run that I missed to Friday.

Do you ever switch up your training plan or do you feel like you need to stick to the specific days? I aim to run on Tues, Weds, Thurs, Sat but sometimes I move them around for the week when I get busy!

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HLS #2

Tuesday Workout: 4 mile run after school!

 

I missssss my BodyPump classes! I haven’t been able to take one in over a week! I have school today (last day without kids) and teach marching band practicetonight, so I only have time to fit in my 4 mile run today. Even though that seems very busy I am super happy because… I FINISHED MY MUSIC THEORY GRAD CLASS LAST NIGHT!! Woo woo!! I submitted my final project late last night and I am very happy to have a break until Sept. 6th when the next one starts.

 

Friday night of HLS was so much fun. I think I enjoyed it the most out of the weekend! It was so exciting to be able to walk around and meet so many new bloggers, get business cards so I would remember their names in the morning and hand out with fun ladies :) Where else can you talk about running 15 miles, putting spinach in your smoothie and eating overnight oats and nobody thinks you are crazy??

I loved hanging out with Kristy, Alli and Steph Friday night. Look at these horrible pictures we took in the booth! LOL

Love this lady! We were starving by the end of the party because there wasn’t that much food to fill up on. I probably should have eaten dinner before the party, but it was okay because we ordered…

Pizza! (This is where my downfall with the cheese began!) Not such a healthy living summit for us Friday night!! The pizza was so good and we stayed up past midnight talking and having a great time! I really enjoyed this part of HLS and I will have plenty of time tonight to write a post with more details on what I learned Saturday!

Sooooo many bloggers Saturday! Kinda intimidating and difficult to make sure you got to talk to everyone! More details later! Have a great day and let me know what your workout was for Tuesday!!! :)

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HLS Recap #1!

Sunday Workout: 7 miles (1 hr, 7 min, 36 sec) 9:39 min/mile pace overall

 

 

I just finished week 4 of my training plan and I made a few adjustments. I did not run the 3 for Thursday, instead I ended up walking about 1.5 miles. I did bump up my 6 miler for the weekend to 7 because I missed my long run last week. I went out yesterday morning extremely tired from a good time at HLS. I decided I could just run as slow as I needed to so I would get the 7 miles finished.

7 Mile Splits: Mile 1: 9:42, Mile 2: 9:38, Mile 3: 9:36, Mile 4: 9:51, Mile 5: 9:37, Mile 6: 9:39, Mile 7: 9:33

I was VERY happy with these splits when I did not feel good this morning. If you are new to my blog, I am lactose-intolerant and don’t really like or eat meat so my diet is fairly vegan-ish. (I do eat some seafood) I have been really relaxed with the dairy and eating a lot of cheese. I think I was getting cocky that I could get away with it and it wouldn’t hurt my stomach. Late Saturday at the end of HLS, I could feel my stomach starting to hurt. My drive home was horrible and my stomach hurt a lot. I definitely need to cut it completely out of my diet again and be careful when I try to eat cheese again!

HLS!

I got business cards printed at the last minute on Friday before I left for Philly. I am lucky enough to have a printing company right down the street and when I got there I was so unprepared and needed them ASAP! The guy working there basically fixed all the dimensions that I tried to do myself on my computer and fixed the fonts. They looked sooo cute and it was so nice to trade cards with other bloggers at HLS! I wish I would have asked for more because it makes it so easy to remember who you talked to at the workshops!

When I arrived at the hotel Friday afternoon (after tons of traffic getting into the city… ugh) I quick grabbed my swag bag and headed to my room to see what I got and relax before the party!

My hotel room was really nice and I was happy to lay down for a little bit before meeting up with everyone!

Did we ever figure out what the velcro was on our pictures??

So happy to hang with so many great bloggers Friday night. Alli @ Alli Learns Life and Kristy @ Run The Long Road were so much fun :)   Kristy and I planned on going to HLS a while ago because we are both locals and I’m so glad I went!

I will be posting more pictures as the week goes on. I avoided taking pictures of things like food because I know everyone has every picture possible up on their blogs right now! I really did learn a lot from the weekend and met great bloggers. I can’t wait to post more about the stuff I thought was important and how I will use it to improve my blog!

 

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Sweaty Fitness Friday!

Thursday (night) Workout: Blogilates 20/20 Workout

Friday Workout: 3 miles – going to run it right after I hit “publish” ! Hoping for a nice recovery run.

Last night I decided to skip my typical BodyPump class for some time at home. I taught lessons again yesterday, ran errands and by the time I went home I didn’t feel like leaving again. I had to do some laundry too so I can have clothes for HLS!  I need to wear pink all weekend long so hopefully the bloggers remember who I am :) I decided to do a little workout in the middle of reading 1,000 blogs and packing for the weekend. A little workout? That is what I thought… I’m not sure why I doubt this girl’s workout intensity because she kicks my butt every time!

This was my first attempt at burpees. I get it now. I understand why they are so hard and why bloggers put them in every workout. This whole thing was crazy hard. There are 20 different exercises and you do each one for 20 reps or 20 seconds. I thought it would just be a short workout, but I was seriously sweating. Oh blogilates, you are so wise :)

I also got this in the mail yesterday…

source

I was really excited when the publisher of Run Like A Girl contacted me to review this book! After my grad class finishes, I will have a week off before the next one starts so I should have time to read! I actually watched the Today Show when the author of this book was featured and thought it looked really good.

Today Show Clip (embed code wouldn’t work! grrr)

Now I have a few quick errands to run and then I will be driving to Philly this afternoon for HLS! So excited to meet the people I’ve been stalking for so long ;)

What is your workout today? Let me know if you try Blogilates 20/20 workout! It’s tough!!

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Another Early Morning Run!

Thursday Workout: 3 mile run: (28 min, 39 sec) and BodyPump class tonight!

 

 

I was really tired from teaching Wednesday in a very hot classroom (air conditioning broken… 85 degree room…) so I didn’t run last night. I was already guessing I would do one of my Weds/Thurs runs on Friday before I leave for HLS because I will do my long run on Sunday when I am home!

 

This morning I was trying to run 3 fairly comfortable miles, but after 2 I decided to push so I could get home, shower, eat and get ready to go to school. I definitely need a slower run for this week so I can push it Sunday when I attempt 7.

(old sweaty picture of me)

My friend Julie borrowed my Carrots ‘N’ Cake book and gave it back to me this week. She said she tried the 3 minute oatmeal raisin cookie recipe on page 55 and just bought a copy of the book so she can try more of the recipes! I’m hoping to run into Tina (stalk) at HLS this weekend and ask her to sign my book :) Has anyone tried any of her recipes?

More teaching for me today in hopefully… a cooler room! I need to do some wash tonight and start packing for the weekend!