Sun, Sun, Go Away July 28, 2008

Last Saturday, it was pouring rain.  This Saturday, it was cloudy (again) when I headed out for another 15 miler, but 5 minutes later, the sun came out in its full glory and would NOT leave.  When you are overheated, tired, and thirsty, you know what the absolute least appetizing thing you could come across is?  Chocolate Powergels.  I stared at it for several seconds with a frown on my face before forcing it down with a ton of water, and then I kept burping chocolate gel.  Disgusting. 

I need to experiment with dividing up my fueling into smaller increments, because I always get minor side stitches after a gel or packet of beans.  I think it’s the water intake + 100 calories my body’s trying to digest, and the fact that I have a VERY sensitive stomach when it comes to exercise (but not when it comes to eating Mexican takeout at 2 AM).  I also need to pace myself more consistently – I let the “yay running is fun!” feeling at the middle miles take over and run too fast, and then using the “oh this sucks everything is starting to tire” feeling to allow myself to fade.  And my long runs are also getting to the point where I really need to start paying attention fueling the night before.  (Ugh, this means no more Friday night free-for-alls.) 

Other observances from my run:
1.)  Hey, I never knew there was a Culvers near me!
2.)  Pavement is so much harder than trails.  Especially at Mile 15.  I had a bit of trouble going down stairs afterwards.
3.)  To the teenage girl in the bikini top and short-shorts who stared at me like I was an idiot – yes, I’m standing directly in front of the sprinklers, hunched over and panting.  Yes, it looks like I’ve peed my shorts.  I’ve just run 11 miles in 80+ degree weather and I still have 4 more to go.  SO PISS OFF.
4.)  Body Glide is no longer a sex joke waiting to happen anymore.  Thanks to sports bra chafing, my chest is raw and scabbing (yes! SCABBING!).
5.)  Crap, I have 17 on schedule for next week, don’t I?  Can I really do 2 more miles?  
5.)  OH MY GOD WHEN IS MY CUTBACK WEEK????  IS THIS MARATHON OVER YET?

And lest I disappoint, here’s the food porn!

 

Marinated Pork Loin at Cafe Iberico

 

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

 

Curly Fries

 

Jumbo Chicago Dog

Grocery Tabs July 25, 2008

I took a look at my WordPress blog stats for the first time today, and it informed me that one of the top 3 searches for my blog is “Kai diet pills.”

Um, what?  Do I look like I diet?

First Marathons

I hit up the Newberry Library book fair after work with a friend last night, and found, hidden in between baseball almanacs and horse-racing guides, First Marathons for a few bucks.  I love love LOVE hearing marathon stories, and especially ones of pain and misery and hopelessness because I’m terribly cynical and like to prepare for the worst thing(s) that could befall me on race day.  I don’t want happy happy stories of how your training clicked on race day.  No, I want stories of how you ran a marathon on 4 weeks of training while sick with ebola, and how you fractured your leg in 3 places at mile 5 and still finished.  Because I want to know that if I run Philly with 4 weeks of training, the ebola virus, and a fractured leg, that I, too, can finish. 

Afterwards, we had dinner at Cafe Iberico, a cute little tapas place.  NO THANKS to the woman on the phone and the sassy queen host who both told me it should be no problem to get seated at 7:30; when we got there, the wait for 2 was 30-45 minutes.  Luckily, we snagged a bar table instead, and between the two of us, polished off 3 tapas, a big pan of paella, and dessert.  (Will post pictures later.)

I know everyone thinks I’m a crazy eating monster (which I am), but really, I don’t eat like this everyday!  The closest things to junk food I keep in my house are Skinny Cow ice cream cones and hot & sour soup mix.  (No, bacon is not junk food – you cannot convince me bacon doesn’t have important nutritional value.) This is what my grocery tab looked like last week:

Fruits
- large bunch bananas
- 4 kiwis
- 2 pounds of cherries
- bag of apples
- 5 peaches

Vegetables: 
- 2 bags of mixed greens salad mix
- 3 broccoli crowns
- 2 green peppers, 2 zucchinis, 2 yellow squash, 2 cucumbers
- 3 sweet potatoes
- large bunch of asparagus
- box of button mushrooms
- bag of baby carrots
- 1 bag of shredded carrots and 1 bag broccoli slaw mix (no dressing, I use it for stirfrys)
- 2 large cans of crushed tomatoes

Meat:
- 2 pounds chicken breasts
- 1 pound cod filets
- 1 pound extra lean pork chops
- 1 pound shrimp

Other:
- vanilla soy milk
- skim milk
- whole wheat penne & spaghetti
- brown rice
- whole wheat mini bagels
- yogurt
- 1 bottle extra virgin olive
- 1 jar natural peanut butter

So there!  I do eat healthy.  But I will probably still never have a six-pack, no matter how many crunches I do, because I ate a sauteed banana with a plateful of caramel sauce and ice cream last night.  Cruel, cruel.

Running in the Rain July 20, 2008

When I woke up yesterday, it was cloudy.  Again.  I don’t know why the weather keeps insisting on being dismal for my long runs, but it wasn’t raining, so I decided to suck it up and head for the trails.  I drove 15 minutes to the Swallow Cliff Woods where my Run for the Cops race was held in June.  I had about a new distance PR of 15 miles on the schedule; one full loop was about 6 miles so I figured I could do two loops and then an extra 1.5 miles out-and-back (3 total).

Less than a mile into the trails, the downpour began.  I reasoned that if I ran back to the car, I would get wet anyway, so I pressed on, deep into the woods and the darkness and the heavy rain.  Every part of me was drenched, rain was dripping from the brim of my Nike cap, and water sloshed through my shoes and socks, dirt and gravel seeping between my toes.

I kept running.  I felt so primal and pure, just me, alone in the woods, braving the elements; I felt like I was in an Adidas running ad.  The rain just wouldn’t let up, through the first loop and then the second loop, it pounded on me steadily.  I loved it.  I splashed through the unavoidable puddles, basking in the feeling that,Yeah, I’m one of those crazy runners.  I couldn’t even hear my footsteps or my labored breathing through the sound of a million raindrops hitting the leaves, and ceased to notice my own effort.  I felt invincible.

15 miles down, and I’m finally starting to feel like a real runner instead of a poser.  I walked into Victoria’s Secret the other day and the only thing I emerged with was a pair of running shorts.  I guess that makes me legit…and maybe a little bit pathetic too.  

*   *   *

I went out for Indian food with a friend after work the other day.  We went to Indian Garden, which is just a little bit off Michigan Avenue.  The service is really attentive and the food is just fabulous.  I highly recommend the Murg Makhani – chicken pieces roasted in a clay oven and then folded into a spice-filled, creamy tomato sauce.  Sooooo good with basmati rice.  We also got the crab curry, the chicken pakora appetizer (spiced and roasted, then deep fried), and the garlic naan.  I forgot my real camera, so I apologize about the crap-tastic photo quality.

 

Chicken Pakora appetizer

 

 

Garlic naan - to die for!

Post 15-miler, Fiancee and I went to see Dark Knight (very good) and then to Giordano’s for some Italian food.  I ordered a thin crust sausage-mushroom-green pepper-onion pizza that was supposed to serve two people, and the waitress started taking away our menus.  ”Um, we’re not done ordering,” Fiancee said.  ”That pizza’s just for her, believe it or not.”  True to word, I finished the whole thing.  And washed it down with a brownie bowl afterwards.

 

Pizza - food of the gods

 

 

Brownie Bowl

It’s Getting Hot in Here July 16, 2008

You know it’s going to be bad run when you walk out the door and are already starting to sweat. In the dark. At 4:45 AM.

I had a tempo run planned for today (2 warmup, 4 tempo, 1 cooldown) at my usual 8:20/8:30 pace.  I was already dripping sweat during my warm-up and 10 seconds into my tempo pace, I felt like I was going to barf up every single one of my internal organs.  Within that 10 second span, I told myself, “Ok, maybe we’ll cut it to 3 tempo miles…ok, maybe we’ll do 1-mile tempo intervals…ok, maybe to the next sto–oh, to hell with it.”  I did manage to finish 7 miles…at almost a minute slower than my usual easy pace.

Ah, running.  It always manages to kick the crap out of you and stuff some humility down your throat.

-1:  The people who let their 100+ all-muscle rottweiler run loose in the front yard, barking and snarling. He may have had one of those electronic fence/collar things, but I didn’t know that, and nearly crapped my pants as I slowwwwwly passed that house.

+1:  The woman whose yappy little rat dog was barking hysterically. The dog was fenced in, but she still said, “I’m so sorry” as I ran past.

+1:  The woman who got out of her car to wipe down her back window condensation and waved good morning to me.  “I always know I’m running late when I see you on the roads,” she told me.  Hoorah for getting recognized!

In other news, I am terribly terribly addicted to Cheez-Its lately.  They are all I can think about at work.  Someone please stage an intervention.

Countdown to Marathon Training…2 Weeks July 13, 2008

We’ve had some pretty drizzly weather here in Chicago.  Here’s what it looked like Wednesday night.

I had planned on hitting the trails for my 13-miler yesterday, but I woke up to rain and decided not to spend most of energy pulling my feet out of mud and hit the neighborhood roads instead.  I’m still getting a bit of Grumbly-Tummy Syndrome (GTS) toward the end of my run, so I’m going to experiment with taking two gels and see if those extra calories help.  I’m going to try the trails again next week, weather permitting, and attempt 14.

I can’t wait to start actual marathon training.  I love marking days off a calendar, counting down, and seeing Marathon Day get closer and closer.  Save for the Chicago Half in September (tune-up), I’m scheduling no more races and just focusing on getting to the start line as prepared as possible. My (non-running) parents are all concerned, my dad suggests I look into a two-year marathon training plan, and they’re both telling me, “Try not get injured!”

Oh, is that what I’m supposed to do?  Ok, I guess I’ll stop purposely stepping into potholes and uneven sidewalk ledges then.  Thanks parents!

*   *   *

Weekend goodies!

 

Thai Ice Tea

 

Steamed Teriyaki Chicken Buns

 

Sesame Chicken

 

Grilled Chicken Club

So apparently, Baker’s Square has a bacon lover’s special right now.  It’s a BLT with bacon just spilling out all over the place, from what I hear.  I’m thinking I need to take a trip over there soon…

6 Things July 6, 2008

I got tagged over by Jenn at My Second First Marathon, so here goes.  Six things about me you did not know, probably did not care to know, and will probably forget seconds after you read this post.  Wahoo!

1.)  Everyone knows about my love for bacon, but my love for watermelon comes in an extremely close second.  I LOVE watermelon.  It’s my desktop wallpaper, in fact, and I have a watermelon t-shirt.  Growing up, my parents would bring home a giant watermelon, split it in two, and sit me down with one of the halves and a spoon.  

2.)  When I was a teenager, my mom deemed me too chubby at 5′2 and 120ish pounds.  She bought me diet teas, diet food, and sent me off to college with diet pills to make me lose weight.  No wonder I had body issues.  Running has done wonders for my self-esteem and perception of my body.

3.)  The last really good book I read was Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie. 

4.)  I played rugby for about a year in high school.  My position was “hooker” (no, seriously, that’s what they’re called) and I had to write that on my college applications.  I would often try to tackle 200+ pound girls and end up being dragged across the field.

5.)  I have seriously low alcohol tolerance, what with missing a necessary alcohol-processing enzyme and all.  I like to order a midori sour and drink 1/4 of it.

6.)  I’m more of a dog person, but fostered 5 kittens during my junior year in college.  It was chaos – I’d come home and the roll of toilet paper would be completely unravelled and shredded across the floor, or a kitten would’ve fallen in the toilet.  They were the cutest things alive though.

Pay it forward!  I tag Addie, Tammie, Tina, Eileen, Mike, and runtexasrun.  Let’s hear those random facts about you, guys!

*   *   *

I felt absolutely great during my 13-miler today.  I FINALLY slowed down – in the past, I have taken “mimic race day conditions” to mean “run as close to target race pace as possible.”  Yeah, that doesn’t work so well.  It hurts my pride to see a pace I’m not used to running on my Garmin, but I remind myself that long SLOW distances are supposed to be exactly that.  It’s NOT supposed to be an exercise in speed and endurance.  So no side stitches today, no grumbling tummy, and I finished feeling tired but not spent or exhausted.  Booyah!

I also ran by one of those speed-tracker things on the road that shows your speed when you drive by.  Not realizing there was a car behind me, I was elated to see 32, 35, 38 when I approached it.  I was going 38 miles per hour!!!  I am crazy-fast!!!  And then the car zoomed past me and my ego deflated quickly.

I also found a nice way to ease plantar fasciitis when I went shopping yesterday.  I found the closest Brookstone store (where they have all those massage chairs and foot rests set up for customers to try), kicked off my sandals, and massaged my arches on a foot massager for about 20 minutes.  And then I left feeling SO much better.  I’ll be back next week for another massage.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

Meat Feast