Halloween Horror....the dreadmill

Last week I was busy preparing for the Halloween weekend and didn't have much time for blogging. We had company coming for the weekend and cleaning this house is no small task. I considered cleaning my cross training for the week. Two of my children had oversized costumes that had to be altered and my 7yr old wanted to be Indiana Jones but hated the "store-bought" costume. Thus, sending me on a wild goose chase for an Indiana hat, jacket, whip and satchel. I'm proud to report I was able to find all of his desired items and they were all happy with their costumes. Whew! Three happy kids is no easy task.

Between my husbands odd schedule and running errands all over Calvert county I atleast got three runs in last week. However, the only cross training I did was cleaning and a little weight training after one of the runs. I'm using "the book" by following the intermediate 5k program. Total miles for last week was 11. Hopefully this week I'll be able to get in my three runs plus a few cross training days. My last few weeks of running have ALL been on the treadmill. Better known as the dreadmill. I've decided that aside from cold + rain, I will do all my runs outside. The leaves are changing, the weather is cool and I am heading outside!

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

With the weather getting cooler I find myself baking more often. Although I am not 100% vegan I love to bake vegan. Why use all the milk, butter, eggs and refined sugars when you don't have to? I have a wonderful book "Vegan with a Vengeance" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz that has some of the best EVER vegan recipes. This book has something for everyone ranging from Tempeh Reuben sandwiches to Fauxstess (like hostess) cupcakes.

These pumpkin muffins come from this book and they are awesome! My kids had them for breakfast, asked if I'd put one in their lunches and later had them for an afternoon snack. Needless to say, the batch didn't last long in our house!

The Best Pumpkin Muffins

13/4 cups all-purp flour
11/4 cups sugar
1 tblspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground/grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup veg oil
2 tablespoon molasses

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease muffin tin.
Sift together dry ingred's.
In a separate bowl combine wet ingred's.
Pour the wet into the dry and mix.
Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake 18-20mins

You could also add a cup of cranberries or chopped walnuts.

I altered the recipe slightly by using equal parts white and brown sugar, light soy milk and canola oil instead of veg oil.

These muffins come out very light and moist and your house will smell amazing!

Thirsty Thursday

Yesterday, even though Matt was home and I could of ran outside I opted to hit the mill instead. The weather was in the 40's and raining. Is it October or December? I'm confused. I headed to the gym to do my second work out from "The Book" and get a little weights in before picking up the big kids from school.





The schedule called for 1mi warm up. 3mi at 9:56. 1mi cool down. Not bad. Unfortunately, I wrote this off as too easy and only had two cups of coffee and a pumpkin muffin for fuel. I ate at 8am. I ran at 1pm. Terrible, I know. Notice I didn't mention water.





The treadmills are a little wacky and I'm pretty sure they need to be re calibrated. I started off on a treadmill set at 12min pace. However, I crossed the proverbial "finish" line with the clock reading 10min. That was supposed to be my warm-up mile. My "pace" miles were supposed to be at 9:56. I decided to jump on a different mill since obviously that one had issues. The next mill had me at 10:00min pace at 6.0 but at 5.9 it read 9:22 pace. That's a HUGE difference. I opted to keep it at 6.0. I'm not sure if it was the stopping and starting with switching mills or the two cups of joe but my heart rate was thru the roof! I let myself walk .10 to let my rate slow down but by the end of mile 2 it was way up again. I'm all about pushing to 80-90% max but I was feeling bad and I know enough to listen to my body. I allowed myself another .10 walk at the end of mile 3. By this time I had also slugged down my water bottle and would of stolen the bottle of the chick next to me if it wasn't flu season! At this point I was just ready to get it over with and since I figured my pace was off anyway I cranked it up a bit and finished the 4th mi with as much dignity as possible. I was breathing like an asthmatic and my feet hitting the treadmill sounded like a heard of buffalo. I ran the 5th mi at this mills 11:30 pace, which was much more comfortable. Total time on the mill was about 50min. That tells me just how off the treadmills were and no wonder it felt so hard.





I jumped off the mill and headed to the water fountain to fill-up my water bottle. Then I took my sweaty, red-faced self over to the free weight floor to pump a little iron. I started off with alternating sets of bosu dead-lifts with the 40lb bar and lunges off the bosu. After my hamstrings were significantly punished I grabbed the bosu and headed over to the bench press. I continued with alternating sets but this time with a set of bench press followed by a set of bosu push ups. 4 sets of 10 each. I finished with obliques on the ab bench, a quick stretch and then off to get the kiddos.





This work-out was a reminder of just how bad I need to fix my Garmin or invest in a new one. Also, a reminder to fuel better!!

Run Less, Run Faster. Or die trying!

I finally ordered this book that my friends have been telling me about. I won't actually have it for about a week but since my friend Jen started her training program from the book today she sent me hers to follow. That way we can be long distance training partners. I still don't have any races on my calendar. I figure there's probably a few 5k's in the area in the upcoming months so if I'm ready maybe I'll get to run a few. It's a lot less pressure just training for life!

Total time on the mill-67 mins

Total distance-5.25 miles

1 mile warm up at 10 min pace

Schedule called for repeats. 8x400 with 400 recovery

My pace for the 400's varied between 8:49 and 9:22 (by the 6th repeat I was ready to quit, but I didn't)

.25 mile cool down

I stretched for about 5min. I still had to get the kids home, fed, washed and put to bed.

Overall I really liked this work-out, especially the 400's recovery! It was difficult but not undo able. It felt good to push myself yet still feel strong at the finish.

3.1 miles of yuck!

Today was my second run of the week. For the past few weeks I've been running three times a week with one day of hills, one of speed work on the mill and one "longer" run. I lift weights twice a week and try to get at least an hour of cardio in too.

This week I've been feeling like I'm coming down with something. My legs were really achy after my run on Monday. Tuesday I bench pressed followed by bosu push-ups and then finished up with squats and dead lifts on the bosu. Today my chest is STILL sore. I typically recover really fast so the nagging soreness is definitely a sign of me not feeling well. I decided to take yesterday off. Today I planned on doing speed work. I warmed up for a mile and as soon as I started to speed it up a bit I felt really crappy. I decided to let myself walk when I needed to but to increase my speed after each break. I was really thirsty the entire time and since I didn't have my ipod to distract me all I could think about was my water bottle. I was thankful that I only planned on 3.1 miles of this torture.

"Hills are speed work in disguise."-Frank Shorter

With Matt's crazy schedule getting work-outs in is pretty challenging. I only had about 45min to get a run in. I really didn't want to have to hit the treadmill again so I decided to drive over to Prince Frederick Parkway. The weather was overcast and in the high 60's. I planned to run my normal hilly 1.5 mile route with a few repeats on the steepest of the three hills. The hill is about .5mi long. I ran for a total of 30min. As expected the repeats seemed to get harder each time and I took a little extra recovery after each one. Even my "recovery" spot is an incline. I jogged easy the last .5mi of the route that takes me back to my car but since this last portion is a huge hill it was ecspecially challenging after doing the repeats. I cooled down and stretched in the parking lot before heading home.

Two-A-Who? Two-A-Day!

That's right I decided to pull myself out of the funk I've been in and get my butt back in the game. I don't have any races on my schedule but that doesn't mean I should just quit training all together. Of course, I've been doing some running and weight lifting but nothing like I'm capable of so I need to get back in the habit of 5 days a week killer workouts!



I've been hunting for a nearby indoor pool. The closest I found is in Great Mills, which is about 40min from my house. Obviously I won't be able to swim everyday but if I'm hoping to at least get there once a week until February when the Prince Frederick aquatic center is finished.



After driving the 40min, paying the $3 fee I was finally inside the giant bubble aka poolside. The pool was very clean and I had the place to myself besides a water aerobic class going on in the shallow end. The lanes were all in the deep end 7-9 ft. I noticed there wasn't a lifeguard anywhere and that's where my next little story begins
The water was perfect so I got in fairly quickly. I only jump in quickly if someone blows a fog horn at me. Otherwise, I take my time. After doing a little warm up I noticed the aerobics class was over and everyone was leaving. One of the patrons didn't leave but instead got up into the lifeguard chair. I thought it was a bit odd that the guard was in the class instead of watching the pool but whatever no big deal. After attempting to do a sprint I was resting at the far end of the lane when he struck up a conversation with me. This is exactly how it went. The kid was very nice but I found him totally hilarious.
Lifeguard:"Man, water aerobics is tough. I had no idea how hard it was."
Me: "Yeah, looked tough."(i'm a smart ass, I know)
Lifeguard:"So do you swim a lot"
Me:" I'm a wanna be swimmer. Just trying to get back in shape. I haven't swam in a few months"
Lifeguard:"Yeah, me neither. I haven't swam in a while. I was hoping to swim now but that old guy over there just got in so I can't."
Me:" o.k."(trying not to laugh)
I don't know about you but I sure felt safe with a lifeguard that one wasn't even watching me in the pool and two hasn't even swam lately! I seriously laughed the rest of my workout. He was a very sweet kid but I don't think he even realized what he said.

I swam about 1000 yds doing some drills and only attempting a couple sprints. Puking in pools is frowned upon so I didn't push it.

After getting the kids from school we went to the gym where I ran 2mi on the treadmill and did 25min on the elliptical.

Today, I hurt all over and it feels great!