Salad for Breakfast

I am in a breakfast rut.  Getting sick of the same old eggs, bananas, protein shakes, toast and whatever else I usually manage to whip up.  The other week when my sisters and I were together we went to Whole Foods and got a salad for breakfast.  It was SO GOOD!   I was a little hesitant at first but wow... I wish I had one right now.  So nice and refreshing.   I could eat the entire thing and not feel guilty.  Love that about salads. If only I could have a Whole Food salad bar close to where I live.  I am sure that I would hit it up a lot.

We also ordered a green smoothie to share and to wash our salads down with.  It was pretty good.  I am not a huge smoothie person so sharing one is just enough for me.

Now on to today... Went to the gym for the 5:30 Burnout class.  It was hard like always.  Now I am just waiting for my sitter to get here so I can go for a run.  How I have been missing being able to go to the gym and run in the same day.  With the kids home for the summer those days have been few and far between.  But the air here is turning cooler in the mornings so I can't wait to get out and run when it isn't super hot.  And then the rest of the day is going to be spent at the pool.  There are not to many days left for the pool which is a little... ok a lot depressing.  

Happy Friday!!

-Heather

When Sweat STINGS

I'll tell you when sweat stings, WHEN IT IS IN YOUR EYES! The last several times I have gone out for a run my eyes have start stinging from sweat. yuk.  It is hot and another colorado kicker....Humid.  What..... humid in Colorado?!?  For those of you who don't know Colorado is typically ultra dry.  I love it that way. Crisp, clean, and fresh.  But for whatever reason the last couple of weeks we get these crazy isolated rain showers that just DUMP rain on us.  It is bizarre. They typically show up close to midnight totally light up the sky with lightening and dump rain.  My Dad typically refers to Colorado as "Dusty" but alas, this year it just isn't.

So as you all know my sisters got their hair chopped and congrats to them for being way braver then me.  When I was young I typically had short hair and because of this I am still burnt out and hope to have long hair my whole life. Plus, I look like a male when the hair gets cut.

Here are my luscious chlorine filled, split ended locks of training love.  I decided I am not touching them until then end of summer.  Why pay $$ when I am just gonna go hop in the pool the next day.

So speaking of the pool my tri training has started =) Although, I am running a 10k Saturday so this week is slightly easier.  Workouts this week:

Monday: -Swam 975m (525m swim followed by 6x50's with 10 sec recovery and 6x100's with 20 sec recovery) I did this during adult swim while Peter ate a snack on the side....

               -Later that day I Ran 5 miles with my brother and tried to kick his butt.  He was lying on the grass when we finished and panting so I am thinking.... mission accomplished =) Nice work Bro.

Tuesday: Running Club HARD workout.  20x400's!  Thats right 20. We ran 1x400 at 5k pace directly followed by 1x400 at marathon pace and just kept repeating it for a total of 5 miles.  Try it.  I found it hard, my body didn't like changing up the pace so often... I am a marathoner, I stick to the same pace for hours so switching it up like that really threw me for a breathing loop. After running club I went to barbell class at Lifetime.

Here's my new favorite recovery smoothie.  Fruit is in season and because Sarah keeps posting pics of her smoothies with spinach I decided to contribute my own green smoothie pic.  Cheers Sarah!

Rasberries, Strawberries, Blackberries (they apparently are hiding), Mango, Spinach, Ice, Orange Juice, Protein Powder.

Wednesday: 21 Mile bike ride with a short swim in the middle.  A few friends and myself rode the Sprint Tri loop and then hopped in the pool and quickly busted out a 525m swim.

Thursday:  Ran 5 Miles with eyes stinging with sweat.

This is my new favorite salad..... does anything look familiar?!  If you guess all the ingredients listed in the above smoothie you are correct-o! (except ice, juice and protein of course)  I also grilled some asparagus, cut some cucumber and threw in some carrots and cherry tomatos to complete this lunchtime of delight.

Today: I dunno yet. My 10k is tomorrow and my running Guru says to do nothing.....but I dunno, maybe a short swim?

Saturday: 10k.  Wish me luck. I have no idea how I'll do.  I am sure I'll let you know regardless of either the misery or awesomeness to follow so stay tuned =)

Last night for  a snack I decided to smother some animal crackers with peanut butter (I ended up using about 6 spoonfuls of peanut butter) and drink up some milk.  My milk man comes today and I hate having an overload of milk so I am bound and determined to finish it all up before the next load comes in.  Here's to milk! yum.

So guys, how is training going for y'all? 

Anyone else stinging from sweat?

What about your hairdos?  Done anything crazy awesome like my sista's lately?

me, nope.

What kind of snacks do you like to eat at night?

I am always changing mine up but I am always eating something.  It is out of pure habit I must have food before bed.

Tempo with a Long Run

Let's head back to Wednesday.  My workout from the Run Less Run Faster book was to do a tempo with 1 mile warm up 3 miles at tempo(7:32) and 1 mile cool down.  Let me just tell you that this was hard for me.  I found myself out of breath and having to take a quick pit stop every once and a while. I mean really only 3 miles at tempo and I was tired??  I made it through but it was a tough.  I feel out of shape but I know that if I stick with it I will only get better.  As you can see mile 2 was my first tempo mile and it was "slower" than 7:32.  I think I benefit with having more warm up time.

 

Moving on.... Check out this smoothie mix

broccoli

kale

banana

blueberries

a smidgen of maple syrup

ice

almond milk

It may have tasted a little like broccoli but it was still delish in my opinion.  Hint..If you don't like the taste of healthy greens in your smoothies, this is not the drink for you!

Oh and I received a few questions about the kind of blender I have.  I have the Bosch mixer with the attached blender.  It is an intense machine and works wonders!  I seriously think this is the best blender out there but I will say it comes with a hefty price tag.  I was lucky enough to receive it as a gift from my Mother (thx Mom)!

On to Friday night, my husband Scott and I went on a ride over the the West Village to get some video for a project he is working on.  We walked the Highline Park, ran into his brother and wife, took photos in front of the black and white wall and may or may not had a late nite donut at the donut pub :)

After my exhausting workout on Wednesday that night I was woken up by a SEVER muscle cramp in my calf aka the boulder! I mean I have had these in the past but this one was super painful, in fact I believe I was yelling in agony and pain that I woke up Scott.  It somewhat settled and I fell back asleep.  The next 2 days  I was still feeling it.  It was starting to worry me.  I read in my book about Chronic muscle tears.  That was it and I knew it.  It is brought on from doing speed work and I have had this pain before.  It was kinda of a relief that they could pin point it and I knew I hadn't done anything worse.  Stretching is important and it is all coming back to me now.  It is always my right boulder that spazes out on me.  Arrgg!!

So for my "long tempo" run I was supposed to do 7 miles with 10-20 min warm up and the rest at my Long run pace which would have been 8:02.  The first mile Scott ran with me (woot! woot!) so I took it slower than usual and then my 2nd mile was uphill so I always take it slow.  I was super paranoid about my boulder pain setting in so I decided to run a long run pace + 15 secs.  I felt great the entire time!  I was so happy with my run and now I really truly believe in the Run Less method.  I think if I would have ran yesterday I would have not fully recovered and it would have been tough.  Today was so nice. 

I really think a 2 mile warm up works wonders for me.
How long do you take to warm up?

Now I get to enjoy the rest of my long weekend!!  I will be doing a track repeat workout on Monday but I am just excited for the fourth!  It is supposed to be sunny and nice here in NY all weekend.  I can't even remember the last time it didn't rain on this weekend.

I haven't found speed shoes yet but I will keep you posted!

Any plans for this weekend?
Scott and I will be having a fabulous picnic on Monday and just taking it easy!

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!!!

XX
Sarah

8x400s

I started my Monday with 8x400s with a 200 RI.  I ran a nice slow mile or so warm up over to the track. I was feeling a little case of the Mondays so I was tired.  I got up around 6 AM but did not make it out until almost 8:30!  So it was getting hot.  I have decided to aim for a 47 min 10k which would put me right in between where I was last year and what my goal is.  I followed the 5k chart from the Run Less Run Faster book and that would put me at a 22:30 5k time.  Which means I should run my 400's at 1:39.  You can see my splits below, my first 400 was at split 3.  It was  my lap to see how fast I needed to go so that one came in at 1:42 after that I tried my hardest to stay right around 1:39.  It was hard to be consistent, something I will need to work on.  Oh and after my 400 I walked my 200.  I was tired and needed to catch my breath.  Time to get me into shape!!

This was me after I got home.  Sweatin' hot and ready for some cold water a-sap!  They have drinking fountains at the track but as soon as the weather gets hot so does the water.  I took a few sips here and there when I walked my 200 but kept thinking about an ice cold glass when I got home.

Since I was jonesin' for something cold I made myself a smoothie.

Spinach
Mango
Banana
Yogurt
Almond Butter
Ice

Aaahhh finally sitting down, enjoying my smoothie and beginning the day with some great blog reading!

Workout-

Tuesday- Tracy Anderson Method
Wednesday(today) Tempo 1 miles warm up, 3 miles @ 7:32 pace, 1 miles cool down -Will recap on     Saturday's post!
Thursday- Yoga and Tracy
Friday- Long Run 7 miles at goal pace
Saturday- Tracy



Question?!?!  I really want to buy some great speed shoes.  I was thinking about the Nike Frees but am not sure.  Do guys have any suggestions about  what your favorite speed shoes are?  Not for distance but strictly for speed!

XX
Sarah

Free Concerts and Getting Through My Day

During the summer Brooklyn puts on FREE concerts at the East River Park which is only 2 blocks from where we live.  It is great!  They are not always great bands but still fun to go to and even if we don't feel like it when can hear them from our windows. So this Saturday was Coheed and Cambria.  They were alright, we only stayed about 15 mins but it felt good to get out.

THE WORKOUT

Monday - 4.01miles in 33:36

Tuesday - 3.02 miles in 26:32 + Tracy Anderson Disc 2

Wednesday - Yoga

Thursday- Fly to MN!!

Friday- Easy 1-2 miles

Saturday- 26.2

Today I was feeling pretty good but around 11:00 I was feeling low.  I think it is because my breakfast was weak and that will throw me off all day unfortunately.  But there was all sorts of happenings going on around my street today.  It was all blocked off for shooting.  Which means I had to find a new place to park my car.  Never fun.  Anyways it was a pretty big set, they had about 4 whole city blocks marked off.  I guess they were filming a new HBO series called "Girls."

 

But even before this all went down there was some kind of fight on the corner.  As I left to go for my run this morning there was a group of hipsters just hanging out on the corner.  Because it was still early I knew that they had yet to see their beds.  Not an uncommon thing here in NYC since the bars stay open till 4 AM.  Anyways sometimes you can just feel it when there is going to be trouble and I knew there would be.  As I got back things still seemed low key and sure enough about 10 mins after I got inside I looked out the window and there were tons of cops.  People getting arrested and some guy with his head bleeding.  Pretty eventful for my Tuesday morning!!

Ok now back to me being low on energy... I desperately needed some healthy food groups and just was not feeling a salad today.  So I did the next best thing.  Spinach smoothie!

Spinach
Raspberries
Blueberries
Banana
1/2 of greek yogurt
Tbs of Almond butter
Ice
Smidgen of Skim Milk (I am out of almond milk :( )

Blend and Voila! 

A great way to get in your servings of fruits and veggies! (I know there is a lot of green going on in my kitchen, it is not by choice.  This is a rental people:))

Because I didn't want to use all the yogurt in my smoothie I just poured the rest over my berries and stuck it in the fridge.  It will make a great snack later.

So after I was so happy about getting my Coach's Oats (I have been eating them almost every morning, and I didn't today which is probably why I felt so crappy) I realized that I do not have a good microwave bowl.  I don't use the microwave that much so I never really thought anything about it but now that I am back on, the bowl I was using was unacceptable.  It was plastic and when you took it out it was always burning hot!  Bad!  So I stopped into my favorite kitchen store Fishs Eddy to get a new bowl!

This is my awesome new fish bowl!!  Oh and I do have regular cereal bowls but my oatmeal always over flows so that is why I needed a bigger one.

Well I made it through the day without passing out, my husband Scott even came home early (to work even more, lame) so we ordered pizza from Forninos.  It was delicious!

Tomorrow is laundry, work and PACKING!
I am not excited about the laundry part but it has to be done.  Then the packing should be fairly simple because I can fit everything into my carry on.  But I can't forget my Garmin Charger, Ipod shuffle, Gu's Shoes, Running gear etc!

Woohoo I can't wait!

Anyone else running a race this weekend?


What is your favorite thing in a smoothie?
I really wanted to put in Muscle Nog protein powder but we already ran out :(

XX
Sarah