21 Day Detox

I am on my third day of a 21 day detox program from my trainer...nothing too crazy, but I have to eliminate gluten, dairy, soy, caffeine, alcohol and refined sugar from my diet.  I also get to take these lovely supplements all day long:

So far it's going okay except that I am missing my coffee.  I am not experiencing any headaches or anything so that's good, but I am pretty tired.  Supposedly around day 4-5 I should turn a corner and start feeling GREAT, so let's hope that is the case!

My half marathon training is going pretty well!  I had such an awesome 10 mile run on Sunday evening:

I don't have my splits since I didn't even wear my Garmin.  Ever since I started using Nike+ I usually just leave the Garmin at home.  Anyway, this was my second attempt at 10 miles, since my first attempt two weeks prior was pretty awful.  In that run, I walked the majority of the last 2-3 miles, and I felt like I was going to die the whole time.  My average pace was 12'36".  After that run I was feeling defeated, and worried about the race.  I completely skipped my long run the following weekend (I had a wedding and friends from out of town = too much drinking, not enough sleep, zero running).  So needless to say, my confidence is back up after this more recent 10 miler!  The next four weekends look like this: 11, 12, taper, 13.1!!!!!!!!

Barefoot Running

Last week Christian Peterson (also known as The Maple Grove Barefoot Guy) did a presentation at my work.  It was pretty interesting to learn a little about barefoot running and proper running form.  I know I typically have a heel-strike when I run, but I have no interest in actually running barefoot like this guy.  However, I am interested in improving my running form, if for no other reason than to save some wear and tear on my knees and other joints, so I decided to try some minimal shoes.  I got a pair of these babies:

So far I have just run a couple of 5k's in them, but they are pretty nice!  I can definitely tell they force me to avoid striking with my heel.  I also wore them for weight training last night and they were very comfortable for that too!

Unfortunately, I can not write a race recap of the Torchlight because I was sick this year.  This was the second year in a row that I signed up for that race and was not able to run it for one reason or another.  I was actually so sick that I didn't run for 5 days in a row.  The last time I did that was in February!

But there was some good news this week...my friends and I will be running this on October 6:

Nike+ Running App

A few weeks ago when I was doing my 9 mile (!) long run, the battery on my Garmin watch died.  I was dumb for not charging it, and I knew it wasn't going to make it the whole time, so I decided to use the Nike+ Running App on my phone.  I was surprised at how accurate the GPS was on that thing!  It was showing the exact time/mileage as my watch (well, until my watch died anyway).  Since then I have used the app on the treadmill as well, and it was really accurate (I'm not sure how)?  Anyway, I really love using it now, and I have added a few friends too so we can compete to see who has been running the most.  So fun!

My 9 mile run went great, my plan of being careful with my nutrition and hydration before my run really paid off.  I bought a few different flavors of GU to try during my next long run, to see how that works for me.  After 8-9 miles I really need a little energy to keep me going!

This past week was a "step back" week as far as my long run.  Only 6 miles.  At first I was thinking maybe I would just go for 10 this week because I am so excited to get to say I ran 10 miles.  But the weather turned really hot and humid this past week, so I ended up being glad I only had to do 6 miles for my long run.  I made it into an "even" 10k and check out my pace, it was awesome!

This weekend I have 8 miles on the schedule before I ramp it up to double digits next weekend!  Maybe I will go for 10 this weekend, you never know!  Next Wednesday is the Torchlight 5k, which I am looking forward to.  Last year I signed up and got my shirt and everything, then I couldn't go due to a last minute switcheroo with my husband's work schedule.

This week I entered the lottery for the TC 10 mile race in October!  I really hope I get in!

Recipes: Rhubarb Cardamom Muffins and Kale Chips

I got my first CSA box of the summer, and of course there was a nice bunch of rhubarb.  The farmer gave me a recipe for rhubarb muffins, which I tweaked a little bit, and the results were delicious!

Rhubarb Cardamom Muffins

2 1/2 cups flour (I used half almond meal and half all-purpose flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 1/4 cup sour milk (add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to milk)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup margarine or oil (I used coconut oil)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups finely diced rhubarb
I also added 1 tsp of cardamom to the muffin batter

Topping
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
I added another 1/2 tsp cardamom to the topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then stir in rhubarb
Beat wet ingredients
Add wet to dry and stir until just mixed
Pour batter into muffin tins (I greased mine with coconut oil)
Bake for 20-25 minutes

I actually used a mini muffin tin and it took about 12 minutes.

YUM!

There was also quite a nice bunch of kale in the box this week.  I don't think I have ever eaten kale, or at least I have not prepared it myself.  I decided to try making kale chips, which I have seen all over Pinterest and was super easy:

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp sea salt

Wash the kale thoroughly and rip it into small pieces.  Rub olive oil all over the kale and sprinkle with sea salt.  Spread on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Eat the whole batch in five minutes (offer to your kids but they will probably refuse to try it).  Then go floss your teeth.

I guess these were pretty good, but I'm not raving about them like the rhubarb muffins.  Kale has a pretty strong taste but the crunchy chips were not bad.  Next time I might try with a bunch of garlic to mask the kale flavor give them a little more flavor :)

8 Mile Road

Well, I now have the first two "long runs" of half marathon training under my belt (7 and 8 miles).  My schedule has been pretty crazy so I have had to juggle the days around and everything hasn't been going exactly as planned, but I have still been getting *most* of my runs in during the week.  7 miles felt great, but my 8 miles this past weekend felt tough.  I think it has a lot to do with the 83% humidity on Saturday, but my pace was slower than normal for that run (over 12 minutes/mile for everything after the first two miles and the last mile where I couldn't wait to be done).
 

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
1	11:30.0	1	11:30	129	151
2	11:40.6	1	11:41	142	153
3	12:38.1	1	12:38	148	153
4	12:33.9	1	12:34	149	158
5	12:25.5	1	12:26	156	162
6	12:12.9	1	12:13	159	164
7	12:41.7	1	12:42	162	170
8	11:40.4	1	11:42	164	173
Summary	37:23.1	8	12:11	151	173

For the 9 miler coming up this weekend, I am going to pay extra attention to my nutrition and water intake the days leading up to the run, and I am going to rest my legs or do an easy run the day before (instead of doing tough intervals the day before my long run like I did this past weekend).  I have also found that having some fuel (this is what I have been using) right before any run over 5 miles really helps get me finish strong.  The past few weekends I have had a lot going on so it has been hard to find time to fit in my long run, but this weekend coming up I don't have any plans so I am going to really make sure the conditions are ideal to run 9 miles!  As long as the weather cooperates!

In other news, this girl turns 3 tomorrow:

Albertville Friendly City Days 5k

My running BFF Jackie and I ran a nice 5k on Saturday, pushing our kids in jogging strollers!  I was really proud of us for actually doing it.  Getting anywhere on time with little ones is so stressful, not to mention the stress of preparing for a race.  But we made it to the start line just in time, and finished in around 35 minutes, according to our Garmins.  (Side note, I just checked the race results and it has my "official" time listed as 33:52 and Jackie's as 34:59, which is way off because we pretty much crossed the finish line together).  As you can tell this was a small-town race LOL!  There were 280 finishers.  Here we are at the start of the race:

I love seeing the difference from last year!

The race started and finished at the middle school; Austin ran around that track like a crazy person:

After the race, we went over to the carnival and went on a few rides with the girls.  They loved the big slide.

On Sunday, I just ran 5 miles for a "long run".  I started my 12 week training plan this week for the half marathon, so my first official long run of training will be 7 miles on Sunday.  Unfortunately, my summer MBA classes also started this week so I have a lot to do between that and running five days a week.  So far, so good!

Half Marathon Training!

My first half marathon is officially 12 weeks from Saturday, so it's time to start my faithful training.  I'm hoping this blog will keep me accountable!  My weekly training schedule will look something like this:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 25 minutes intervals (4 minutes in HR zone 3 and 1 minute recovery in HR zone 1, repeat 5 times)
Wednesday: Repeat Tuesday intervals + strength train (most of the time I will be doing Anna's group race training at Lifetime)
Thursday: Base building 30-60 minutes (same pace as Sunday long runs)
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 18-24 minutes "peak" intervals (2 minutes in HR zone 4 and 1 minute recovery in HR zone 1, repeat 6-8 times)
Sunday: Long Run (HR zones 1 and 2, basically I will just be running these at a slow, comfortable pace)

Before my intervals I will do a 10 minute progressive warm-up and some stretching!  The distances for my long runs will hopefully look like this:

Week 1: 7 miles
Week 2: 8 miles
Week 3: 9 miles
Week 4: 6 miles
Week 5: 8 miles
Week 6: 10 miles
Week 7: 6 miles
Week 8: 11 miles
Week 9: 12 miles
Week 10: 6 miles
Week 11: 8 miles
Week 12: Half Marathon!

I pretty much made up this schedule just for me, but it's loosely based on Hal Higdon's training plans, and the heart rate training intervals are from my trainer Anna.  My longest run to date is just over 7 miles so I'm excited to build up to that half marathon distance over the summer!  This weekend I think I'm going to run a 5k race by my house with some friends and my girls in the jogging stroller!  Here they are in their stroller spectating last year at my very first race, the Maple Grove 5k: