Music Monday

Song for the week: Lady Gaga, Starstruck. I use it in spin all the time!

Thursday update

I've been a bad blogger this week. It goes hand in hand with hitting a small bump in the road with my training, but now I'm back on track! I even cleaned my kitchen. A few random ramblings:

I've decided to go back to the beginner's marathon schedule, at least for a few weeks, in an effort to not kill myself. Maybe I'll add speed work back in later, but right now my main focus needs to be mileage building and hill training.

Traffic has been down on the blog lately, but today I hit 1,000 hits for the month. As usual thanks for reading! Music Monday and weekly goal updates will resume next week.

Lurking around Columbus for work today, and when I come back it'll be time for treadmill hill repeats, cycling and the NROLFA. Long day! Is it the weekend yet?

Foodie Friday: Trader Joe's (or Trader Ming's) Soyaki sauce

I'm addicted.

I picked this stuff up at Trader Joe's and blew through the whole bottle. Now I'm dying for a chance to go back to TJ's so I can stock up.

It's low-cal, lower sodium, and really yummy. Great over brown rice, chicken or veggies.

Music Monday!

So for no good reason whatsoever I've decided to post one of my fav running songs every Monday, courtesy of the random button on my iTunes. 

First up, awesome song I use for both the road and cycling... Bruce Springsteen, "The Rising." Enjoy!!

Two weeks in: Holy hills!

Weekly update post on the 2012 goals! This week had it's ups and downs, was really crazy but I survived!

Goal #1 - 4:10 at the Pig: This week I took a big and necessary step toward this goal -- I registered for the race! I secretly thought about wimping out and doing Cleveland instead, but now I'm committed!

Training went very well this week! I did my second tempo run, then did hill repeats on Thursday. I missed MIT Saturday due to crummy weather, so as an added bonus I ran more hills Sunday during my 10 mile run! Since I did most of my long run solo (Brandie came with for the first 4), I sped up and averaged out at 9:47. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. I ran a total of 27 miles for the week (plus one walking).

Elevation profile of Sunday's run

Scheduled miles for this week (slightly modified, of course!)
Today: 4 miles easy
Tuesday: 6.5 miles tempo
Wednesday: 4 miles easy
Thursday: 4 miles hills
Friday: Swim
Saturday: 10 miles
Total: 28.5

Goal #2 -- Train for a triathlon: Except for spin classes, no movement on this one this week!

Goal #3 -- Lift more: I've resigned to the fact that I only really have time to lift twice a week, but I'm getting that in!

Goal #4 -- Learn to teach something new: Nothing here, either.

Goal #5 -- Weigh 120: Had several missteps this week. I'm back on track now!


Goal #6 -- Increase blog traffic: Traffic is down this month, way down :( Debuting a new feature tonight -- Music Mondays!

Foodie Friday: Multi-grain rice and Oolong Tea

There's this awesome Asian market at Sawmill in Columbus, called the New Asian Supermarket, which I hit sometimes on my weekly trek from MIT to Trader Joe's.

I don't need to go often because I buy my two key items in bulk.

The first is Multi-Grain rice. About $9 for a giant bag.

The next is Oolong Tea, which I live and die by when I'm at work! Just $4 and change for a huge box!

SQUEAL!!!!

I sealed the deal to run the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon today! I'm really excited!

The email:

Race registration complete: CRRC Winter Run

I'm officially in for the Columbus Road Runner's Club Winter Run this year on Feb. 12.

The CRRC Winter Run is 15 miles of hills through Granville. I did it last year, it was challenging, but I had a blast! An added bonus: It doesn't start til 1 p.m., so I get to sleep in both weekend days, woo!

Last year I ran it in 2:23:54. This year I hope to beat that time!

One week down, 51 to go!

MIT on Saturday.

I set a bunch of goals for 2012, and one tool I want to do to meet them is a weekly update post. While I won't make progress toward each one every week, I think it will help keep me on track!

4:10 at the Pig: I had an awesome running week, just awesome. I logged 23 miles, and managed to get some hills in with Brandie on Monday.

I took each of these runs easy since I was recovering from a stomach bug (ie too much food at Christmas!). I'll be back to more hills and tempo runs this week. (Tempo Tuesday!)

On Saturday I ran 10 miles, more than my scheduled 7. MIT was phenomenal, there were so many people. It was a great day and I was just feeling good!

After the rest of the group split off another 10:30 and I sped up. Average pace ended up 10:11 with a sub-9 last mile. Next week I think I'm going to run with the 10s!

This week I'm going to shoot for a total of 25 or 26 miles. I modified the weekly schedule a bit to do this:
Monday: 4 easy
Tuesday: 5 tempo, lift
Wednesday: 4 easy, spin
Thursday: 3 hill repeats, spin, lift
Friday: spin, swim
Saturday: 10 at 10, lift if I have some juice left

Other goals:

Train for a triathlon: Didn't get to swim this week. My goal for the moment is to swim on Fridays, but I had to teach spin then lift last Friday so there just wasn't time.

Lift more: I started the second phase of the New Rules of Lifting for Abs. This phase is tough... planks + rows, offloaded squats, burpees!! With my running and spinning schedules I may only get to it twice a week, but I'm going to stick with it!

Learn to teach something new: Probably there won't be any movement on this one for awhile, but I will get to it this year!

Get down to 120 pounds by the Pig: I rocked this one out this week! Lost 2 pounds and tracked my food everyday!

Increase blog traffic: I started a new feature, Foodie Fridays, which I hope will get me a few more hits!

Foodie Friday: Special K Protein Plus

I'm going to try and post more this year, so I'm contemplating a couple of weekly ideas.

First up: Foodie Friday! Because I like food, like Fridays, and like the traffic my blog gets when I mention name brands :)

I'm no cook. Most of what I do is super-simple, but I like it when other runners share their finds on their blogs, so I figured I would too.

First up: A blog about my breakfast cereal, Special K Protein Plus.

Taste isn't great, it's pretty bland, but the cereal is great for it's nutritional content. One serving has 10 grams of protein for 100 calories. Not too shabby!

Light reading for a Friday

Just wanted to share, as we're all stuck indoors more the Wall Street Journal had this article on going to the gym and it's hilarious!

Linky

Some of my favorites:

"Yes, every gym has an overenthusiastic spinning instructor who hasn't bought a record since "Walking on Sunshine."" --- I swear that's not me!!! PS WSJ you forgot to capitalize "Spinning" :)

"Great job!" is trainer-speak for "It's not polite for me to laugh at you." -- Wonder how many times my old trainer thought that!

"Nope, that's not a "recovery energy bar with antioxidant dark chocolate." That's a chocolate bar." -- But chocolate has protein!

"Everyone sees you secretly racing the old people in the pool." -- The old people beat me everytime, and secretly laugh at me as I gasp for breaths in between laps :-/

"There is no secret. Exercise and lay off the fries. The end." -- I'm suddenly craving french fries...

Race Report: First on the First 5K 2012

I didn't PR at the First on the First this morning :( I finished in 27:10.

But it was still a good race.

There were a number of factors working against me, mostly that I was sick all week with a stomach bug. And it was really windy.

I held the pace for the first mile and a half and then fell off. Just didn't have it in me!

I really enjoyed seeing everyone from Run DMC, too! I'll snag some pictures from Facebook once they're posted!

Here are my splits by half mile:
.5 mile: 3:47 (7:34)
1 mile: 3:53 (7:47)
1.5 mile: 4:08 (8:16)
2 miles: 4:42 (9:24)
2.5 miles: 6:14 (12:28)
3 miles: 4:06 (8:12)