Resolution 2011!

Well my resolutions are fairly straight forward:

1. Actually update this blog.

2. 13.1- 13 half-marathons and 1 marathon in 2011.

I've already got January, February and March down. In January I'll be running the Manhattan Half Marathon. February is the Austin Half with JC. March is Sun Trust National half marathon with TK, or what will be known from now on and my version of the princess half marathon. I might try and double up on a half in one of those months. The full marathon this year is the ING New York City Marathon!!! I'm finally in!

Reflections on the last half of the 2010 running year. I had a really good Seattle Marathon experience. I lucked out with great weather -- no rain, but it was a bit chilly. I stuck with the 4:45 pace group until about mile 19 and then when we hit the hills again, I went slower. My times with 4:5835, with a net time of (drum roll please) 4:57:06. So, at least I know I can finish a marathon in under 5 hours. I'm hoping for sub 4:30 at NYC. Cousin Sharon actually qualified for Boston on this same run!

Here's to a great 2011 running year!

G'Town and Back

I've had a couple of really good days of running and pilates. I'm actually a little bit surprised at myself. I did a long run (10 miles) that included running to the base of the Capital Crescent trail along the Potomac with TK. We tried the Galloway method or 7-8 minutes of running and then one minute of walking. Sure my legs felt fine and I felt faster during those 7-8 minutes, but overall it felt slower to me. I know it's a psychological thing tough. I also did a pilates class at the gym. They changed instructors (and I liked the old instructor) and the new girl went right into it and didn't really believe in resting between sets. So overall, my core is sore! (Yes, bad puns abound). And then this morning I did my typical 3 mile loop with JW. I had to drag myself out of bed, but at least I went.

So, how did I reward myself after yesterday's long run? Ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's. I'm thinking my 20 in 2010 is going to be hard to reach.....so long as I reach for the B&Js.

X-training

During one of my runs this week, I got to talking about cross-training -- how I need to do more of it. OK, do some cross-training. I use to be much better about finding time to go to pilates or doing some weight work, but I have let it slide. With my work schedule constantly changing, I've found a midday class that is fun and gives me a good workout. It's not Zumba (which, yes, I've heard is great). It's a stability ball class. I just thought it would be an easy flexibility/core building class. But this class kicks my a@@! I was sore for two days after the first class I took. It's lost of arm work, core and balance. It's also a lot of fun.

Morning 3 Miler

I ran this morning with JW. It was the normal 3.3 mile loop. It was a great day for a run, mid-70s, not to sunny at that point. We ran in the shadow of the Washington Monument. But I did think that I needed a new course to do. Or at least go back to and oldie but a goodie. We'll see if I can manage a different route this week.

Sunday Run

I did a long run (9 miles) this morning with TK. It's been awhile since I did a Mall run from my house. Who am I kidding, it's been awhile since I did a long run in general. I was feeling good through most of it though, even did the Capitol hill, which I've never been a fan of. It's a hill with a decent grade and it's actually kind of long. But what I love the most about the Mall run, especially at 7:30am on a Sunday, is how empty and tourist free it is. You're pretty much there with other runners. Plus, you're running with all these historic buildings and monuments in the background.

I've been fairly lazy about my running since the Zooma half. I need to change that before the Air Force Half Marathon in about about two months! I'm still trying to find a good fall marathon to do.

Hope, Possibility and A Prince!

Sunday, I ran the Achilles Hope and Possibility 5 miler in NYC. According to the nyrr.org website, the weather was 77 degrees with humidity at 69%. It felt a lot hotter than that. But it was an inspiring run, primarily because of the people who run it. As the website touted, “This event brings together athletes with disabilities and able-bodied athletes in a celebration of running.” You had wheel-chair athletes, people with cerebral palsy, and runners who had lost limbs, many of whom were military. What impressed me the most though were the kids who were missing limbs that took part in the run, not the kids race, but the full 5 milers. That was great. It took me 33 years to start running and these kids, are starting right out the gate.

But if the people involved in this run made it and inspiring run, there was one participant that made it, I have to admit unique. I have taken part in races that included famous runners like Paula, Ryan and Deena or even Mayor Fenty, but this race had royalty! Prince Harry, who was in NYC this weekend, ran….well, walked the race with disabled veterans. I saw him while he was getting off the stage as I ran by.


This was pretty much my view of him as I ran past the start (picture belongs to nyrr).

In addition to seeing a Prince, I was at the finish when a guy proposed to his girlfriend. It was really sweet. He got the announcer to ask and then got down on one knee. It was really sweet!

DC Tri

I signed up for the DC Tri several months ago, but for the last month or so I've been debating whether or not to actually do it. I was not pleased with the prospect of swimming in the Potomac River and my training had been lax, to say the least. It didn't help that the race was due to start at 5:30am, and I would have to be at the transition spot by 5am. So, I had convinced myself not to do it. That is, until this last week when I decided I would in fact try the tri. My goal: to finish.

The race was actually really well managed, in my opinion. It started a bit late, but they had plenty of volunteers on hand, I never had to touch the bottom of the Potomac due to the pontoon that jutted out into the river, and they had four water stops, which for a 6.7k run on a hot day turned out to be, at least for me, perfect. The water temp was great 81.8 degrees. I had a goal to not putting head in the water, but that went out the window about 30 feet into the swim, where I actually managed to swallow a huge gulp full of potomac water, and even have some go up my nose. I was in trouble for a minute, but I managed to recover and finish the swim (albeit with some concern over my overall medical health). The bike was a technical course with lost of 180 degree turns. It actually felt a bit short, maybe because in most of the other triathlons I've done the bike course has been incredibly hilly while this was fairly flat. Still the 20k seemed to fly by. Last was the run. Where several passed me on the bike and the swim, this was the one leg I could actually pass other people. It was hot, sunny and not a lot of shade, but plenty of water stops, including one that had ice water. If I had one complaint about the run it was there were a lot of points were you did a few out and backs -- all within sight of the finish line, which did not help. I think I finished around the two hour mark, but until the official results are posted, I won't know. To help in my goal of just to finish, I did not wear a watch. I was focused on the race and enjoying the sights and not the time.

The post race food (this blog is afterall about running and eating) was good: fruit, energy bars, chips and breakfast burritos. But in honor of the race, I ate a turkey burger for lunch, had two beers (hopefully the alcohol will kill anything that may have been in the potomac water) and a Ben's Chili Bowl half-smoke. Now on to some ice cream and then a morning run.

Morning Run

Surprisingly, I wasn't sore this morning at all after yesterday's not-so-great half. But I work up early to go run with JW. She had said she wanted to start up running and me being me said I'd more than happy to run. It's one of the few mornings where I don't have to be at work until 9am, so I had the time. We met and did my typical loop to the GW Monument. It was a little over 3 miles. It was a beautiful morning for a run -- a cool and bright. In the Runner’s World magazine July 2010 issue the Rave Run photo is of running the Mall – in this case, a shot of a runner near the Washington Monument. Running the Mall is probably one of my favorite things.

Too Little Running, Too Much Baking (and Eating)

Today was the Zooma Half Marathon in Annapolis, MD. I ran this race two years ago and had memories of it being hilly, but a nice race. Well, if anything the hills were worse this year! (The race course was changed). It was fun because I got to run through downtown/historic Annapolis, before heading to the Severn bridge and the hill that followed. The problem, aside from my lack of training, was the weather. The hills were jointed this year by the sun (and long stretches of the course that did not have shade) and humidity. I've done the NYC half in August and I didn't think it was as bad as today's run. I did a 10k in 1:08:37, compared to 1:00:25 on 15 May in, what I thought, was a beautiful running day. I finished today in 2:33:19, compared to 2:22:32 to finish the Pacer's half marathon a month ago in cold, windy conditions. I've been bad about running in the heat, but if I want to get used to it, I will have to run in it.

In more fun baking news. In the last month, I've helped co-host two baby showers. For the first, I made some flat bread pizza, which I really enjoyed. For this last one I made three types of cupcakes: chocolate with chocolate frosting, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and a blueberry cupcake with maple frosting. I really enjoyed it and I think they were well received. The chocolate one turned out the best though because of the frosting -- I really loved it (it was the hershey recipe).



Also, the the blueberry came out really well!

New Year, New Resolution

Well, it's been awhile. But I think I figured out my resolution for 2010 -- it's 20 for '10 -- in other words, this year I'm going to try and loose 20 pounds. Still running, that's the plus. But my negatives are higher -- I'm eating meat again - Shake Shack in NYC was one of the first places I went to in January! Yummy burger!



The other negatives were that, due to my now working oven, I went on a little cookie baking spree. The December snowstorm aided in the baking-palooza. I made different cookies, including the traditional peanut butter blossoms, holiday butter cookies, and I even tried mexican wedding cookies. I also branched out and baked walnut pear cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting. (I figured it was the best to use the pears.)


The running is coming along. My first race of the season is the NYC half marathon, which was moved to early spring from the middle/late summer. Weather-wise it should be much nicer! I'm supposed to be doing a long run this weekend, but snowpacalypse/snowmagedden/snowMFG may prevent that from happening. Still, I went out for a walk in the snow. It's really quite beautiful and the streets of DC are empty. I'm looking forward to seeing it in the morning.


Now if only it didn't take me overnight to upload the pics!

Oven Overdrive

I've finally got a working oven!! In honor of the oven -- well, really to test it -- I baked brown sugar shortbread cookies. It's a recipe from The Washington Post. It's really quite simple. Blend two sticks (or 8oz) of butter, 1/3 cup of light brown sugar and 1/3 cup of sugar. Add a teaspoon or so of vanilla and a half teaspoon of salt. Mix. Then add 2 cups of flour. I actually used my hands when it came to the last cup of flour -- I'm sure a stand mixer would have been fine. Spread in a 13x9 inch pan and cook in a 325 degree oven for about 55 minutes. Let cool in the pan and then cut into squares.



It's definitely shortbread -- dense, buttery, dry but with a nice sweetness to it.

Now that the kitchen work is done, I also cooked some dinner. I stumbled on the Penn Quarter farmers market. I thought it had closed -- it does next week. I picked up some radishes, arugula, apples, and trumpet mushrooms. I sauteed the mushrooms and radish tops in olive oil and garlic. It was tasty!



An experimented with the radishes and apples. I keep seeing apple fennel slaws or salads on menus. I thought I'd try an apple-radish salad with a light lemon vinaigrette. Not really great - but the sweetness of the apple did balance the tartness and almost pepper-iness of radish. It was worth trying but I think I'll use the rest of the radishes in a salad!