Mid-winter race registration freak out.

I'll get to that part...but let me start with another excuse.

Last year it was injuries - this year it's been illnesses.  Miss N started Pre-K3 this fall and y'all...I have never been so sick in my life as I've been these past 5 months.  The most recent one earned me an prescribed inhaler.

Me.

Now I know you don't know me that well, but let me just mention a few things about me.  My lung capacity is almost legendary in my family (who spent most of her early years crying the loudest and longest of 6 cousins? ) and I've been a swimmer nearly all my life.  And while posts here don't reflect what I've been doing - I had been running kinda regularly until September.

Then I became Charles Henry Warren to Miss N's Typhoid Mary...  I've finally (mostly) recovered 

So here I am - in February itching to run but snowed in.  On Miss N's 3rd straight snow day, I snapped and registered for a 5K two weeks from now, a 5 miler in April and on Mother's Day, a 5K in July and August, the Zooma Cape Cod Half Marathon in September and plan on the Army 10 Miler in October.  

Great - but now I have to train for all this! Way to go cabin fever girl...

So what I'm doing right now is stretching my legs a bit by running at the gym since its so icy out.  I ran 2.5 miles just yesterday so while the 5K won't be pretty - but it'll be doable.  Once I get past that - I'm going to concentrate on a long-view training plan with Zooma as the goal.  

How I spent my Tuesday.

This is actually at the Tenafly Nature Center but I wanted
a picture for this post and my iPod is in the car...

You guys...I went hiking.  On my own.  For the first time in like 3+ years.

It. Was. Awesome.

I have a regular route up in the Ramapo Valley County Reservation, which I first used to hike in "hiking boots" from Payless with my CD walkman in my hand- way back in 'naught 2 - my route would take me a full album, plus halfway through again (about an hour and a half, roughly 4 miles).  I hiked because I had gotten laid-off and knew if I sat around the house I'd go crazy/gain 1,000 lbs while moping about being unemployed.

Then I got pregnant and while I didn't stop exercising I did stop hiking; balance and the super-flexibility powers that pregnancy gives you being the biggest reason.  This super-flexibility makes your hips and ankles do funny things on uneven surfaces and lacking much grace, I figured I'd stick to pavement, swimming pools and stationary bikes.  Much safer for all considered...

Then Miss N happend and well - time got away from me.

But not on Tuesday.  On Tuesday I dropped Miss N off at day camp (my salvation from 9-3 from now until August 2nd) and high-tailed it out of town.  The noise from the cicadas was huge and I saw evidence of them everywhere but I didn't see a single live one.  I had anticipated a few (hundred) landing on me as I hiked, but nothing.  Thank goodness, because I was having flashbacks to the Dive-bombing Incident of '88 and was bracing myself to have to abort mission when the ick factor got too high.

The Dive-bombing Incident of '88 is a story for another time, but it involves Japanese beetles and my stint as a lifeguard.  I'm shuddering just thinking about it.

It was great.  The hills were just enough to get the legs hurting and the heart pumping as I remember them.  The route just as solitary in a thoughtful and peaceful way, the grass smelling just as crispy green on that tiny plateau just as the blue route jogs to the right and leaves the silver and I came out just muddy enough to know I worked for it.

Bliss...

I gotta get back up there.

Have any of you tried trail running?  I'm thinking about it but am not sure I'm committed enough to get trail sneakers.  I don't want to run in my regular trainers, because they're new-ish and I love them too much to get them gunky and muddy.  I've nothing against gunk and mud - just don't want to have to wait to road run while they dry out...

Catalog of Injuries.

So after run/walking the Army Ten Miler and the HoBOOken 5K, I spent most of fall and winter down with a back injury.  It took me until March to actually get it looked at.  I have no excuse - just laziness, scheduling an appointment in the window of time Miss N's in her part-time school and days when it felt better so I thought it was fixing itself...it wasn't and one shovel of snow too far, I threw it out.

It turns out I have a slight curve to my spine that was sort of picked up when I was a kid but my mom (according to my dad) went on a kinda "no child of mine has a curved spine" tear and since it was slight, no one followed up.  When I mentioned the spine curve thing to my aunt (mom's sister), she got all indignant as apparently Mom has one too...  My Mom is story for another post...

Fast-forward thirty-odd many years and there it is in my x-rays.  Just a slight curve, but one even I can see.  I asked my chiropractor if this is why I has sciatica while pregnant and if it was why my low back tightens up so badly when I run and I pretty much got a "duh...of course" response.  Huh...well that explains that...

The chiro banned me from running for 2 months and I've just gotten moving again a few weeks ago.  I had a meh showing at a 5K on Memorial Day but am so grateful to have been able to run it, I'm not too bothered.

So this is my round about way of explaining why I haven't been running, why I haven't been posting and why (once again) I've got a new training plan.

Hurricane Sandy Boos and Yays

F*&k you, Sandy, we have wine.

 Boo:Four feet of water in the lobby at the height of Sandy

Yay: No one was hurt when the door and garage blew open under the force of the water.

Yay: My neighbors managed to grab our umbrella stroller and everyday stroller as they evacuated their apartment and waded through the water to higher ground in the building.

Yay: The neighbors who evacuated really didn't have to because the water never got high enough to reach their apartment.

Yay: My almost three-year old slept through the loosing of power and all the car horns/car alarms on the block going off because of the water.

Our street looking South

Boo: The next morning I spent 30 minutes explaining to said almost 3-year-old she can't watch Cinderella and having to endure the tantrum when she thinks Mommy's just being mean.

Yay: The quickness with which Miss N understood that it wasn't Mommy being mean and that "when the big water went away I can watch Cinderella again."

Boo: Trapped inside with an almost 3-year-old because of said "big water."

Yay: Our neighbors letting Miss N run wild in their apartments and doing their damnedest to keep her entertained.

Yay: Himself has an inflatable kayak!

Boo: It was in the closet that is in the flooded lobby.

Yay: Himself wadded through the water and dragged said kayak out.

Boo: He usually inflates it with a electricity powered pump.

Yay: I have a manual pump in the house that goes to my stability ball!!

Boo: It doesn't fit the kayak. 

Yay: We rigged it with duct tape and Himself got the kayak inflated as an emergency out.

Boo: We had no idea if anyone even knew the situation back on Monroe, Madison and Jackson Streets. Even a dude on a rowboat with a bullhorn would have sufficed.

Yay: After the fact, hearing that the Mayor was on TV begging for National Guard support.

Yay: The outpouring of understanding and assistance to Hoboken.

North on our street.

Boo: Trapped in a building with neighbors I don't know very well.

Yay: I know my neighbors much better and despite the situation, genuinely enjoyed their company.

Yay: Our combined skill set included a West Pointer with two Iraq tours under his belt, a nurse, a jack-of-all trades who helped with Katrina clean-up, in-house entertainment and natural moral booster, an amateur fisherman with insulated waders, two people familiar with insurance policies so we could get a head-start on claims and two techies capable of rigging any number of things, some legal and some not. 

Yay: Nothing really that important was in the storage area.

Boo: I lost 3 boxes of baby clothes I was storing for a friend until her boys grew into them and 3 larger baby toys I was going to give to a friend.

Yay: I can finally get Himself to throw out all those empty LOTR boxes (2 bins worth!), that were in the storage area.

Boo: Loosing the best car I ever owned.

Yay:  Insurance covering and cutting a check for the blue book value of the car before we even had power back. 

Yay: Realizing that the best car I ever owned was in actuality 12-years old with a lot of mileage on it.

Boo: Realizing that a Prius' natural state when its flooded is Park and not being able to get it into Neutral AND blocking two other cars into the garage so no one could move until we could move.

Boo: Someone telling me to pour rice in the engine to dry it out since its mostly computer driven and rice works on iPhones...and meaning it as a solution to my problem. ARE YOU FRIGGIN' KIDDING ME!!!!!!!

Yay: Coming close but not completely having my head explode due to the rice suggestion. 

Boo: Loosing it on Himself on a totally unrelated topic because of the rice suggestion.

Boo: Having to climb around in the trunk of the flooded car trying to get the trunk popped to get to the battery.

Boo: AAA telling me they couldn't get it out of the garage when we couldn't get it into Neutral and then leaving.

Yay: USAA authorizing "any mean necessary" to get the car out of the garage once they realized the Prius needed to be moved before the other cars could move and cleanup begin.

Boo: The "personal property" coverage barely covers the car seat, and doesn't cover the GPS and iPod that were also in the car.

Yay: Screw the GPS, I was raised by a USAR (retired) Field Artillery officer who emphasized map-reading skills in his daughters.

Boo: Loosing all our maps - some of which were marked with radio stations, restaurants and other notes on routes we take semi-regularly.

Boo: Because we can't lock the car our GPS was stolen and the contents of the car has been tossed several times since.

Yay: The GPS and iPod and even the car and car seat are just things.

Boo: No power for a week.

Yay: Miss N was shipped off to my parents to a warm house with power on Thursday.

Boo: No power means no hot water.

Yay: My downstairs neighbor had hot water and let us shower in her place.

Yay: No power does not mean no oven and unlike newer models, ours does not have an electric ignition.

Yay: I was able to rig my coffee pot so I could still have coffee in the morning AND I bought non-dairy creamer so I could have "milk."

Boo: Having to empty the contents of my fridge.

Yay: The fridge got a good cleanout, USAA gave me money to replace the food and in a weird way I'm glad to start from scratch with menu planning instead of planning around what I already have on hand.

Boo: Some food will be hard to come by for a little while.

Yay: Miss N is not a picky eater and eventually the store shelves will be restocked.

Boo: Seeing the lives of my surrounding neighbors on the curb because they lost the contents of their houses.

Yay: At the end of the day its just things and no lives were lost in Hoboken.

Two years and 4 months in and I'd say "mission accomplished."

Source: someecards.com via Mellisa on Pinterest

Confession

I have to admit that my eating was pretty poor today.  It hasn't improved yet and has thus far consisted of:

36 oz Coffee with skimmed milk
a Reeses' Peanut butter easter egg
a bag (yes, a whole bag - they have a terrible power over me) of Brach's jelly beans
36 oz sparkling water
sweet potato fries
half a veggie burger

And I wonder why I don't sleep well and can't seem to lose the last 6 lbs I'm trying to shake off.

Little Efforts

I ran after dropping Miss N off at school - Yay!  It had been part of The Plan when I signed her up and canceled my NYSC membership.  Sadly,  its only the second time I've actually followed The Plan but I'm getting there.  I'm also a bit behind on my training plan, but I have a little wiggle room there.  If I add a small (between 1 & 1.5 miles) extra run over the next couple of weeks I should be able to compensate without injury.  

Oh, hey, I recommend trying this from Angela over at Oh She Glows, I have one nearly every day.  I forgot to take a picture of mine this morning so here's a picture of Miss N and her best friend Master G, playing in the park yesterday.

My version involves vanilla whey protein powder and 1% milk.  Don't be scared of the blue-green fading bruise color the drink resembles, it's actually very good.  My immersion blender does a decent job at liquifying everything and makes clean-up easier.  Just sayin'.

Modified Green Monster

• 2 cups baby spinach
• 1 scoop of protein powder.
• 1 cup 1% organic milk
• 1 tablespoon ground flax
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries
• 6 frozen strawberries

 Throw it all in a blender (light stuff first, ie, powder, flax, spinach) or mixing cup big enough to hold all the ingredients and blend.  I've got this cool reusuable straw cup I pour mine in which holds just about 16oz. 

Can I have my schedule back please?

I ran into my neighbor coming back from a run while I was putting out the garbage last night.  It made me pretty sad.  There he was all tricked out in his BAA shirt and shorts telling me what a beautiful night it was along the river...  At that moment I would have liked nothing better than to lace up my shoes and head out into the almost balmy February evening (50 degrees at 8pm?!  Seriously?!?), but Himself was out for the night at a gig and Miss N had just been put to bed.  Gone are my "I have nothing else to do so I'll go for a run" nights and it occurred to me that they're probably gone until Miss N is well into middle school.  A depressing thought considering we just got her into preschool. 

Himself is off this week for winter break, Miss N has had some interesting diapers this week and was up last night with a stomach bug and as a result I've been doing a lot of laundry and my time has not been my own.  I still managed most of my planned workouts which I'm quite proud of.  There are two undone running workouts, but I'll do one today at the gym after Himself takes Miss N out this afternoon and the second will probably have to wait until Sunday.  Since they're short running workouts I should be able to get them in without too much struggle. 

Small hikes and pea soup, two ways

Miss N kept telling me, "No Baby in the lake."

Since L is away this weekend its been just Miss N and me.  Yesterday I set her loose at my parents house but today we were on our own.  I've been joansing for a hike for a while so I decided to take Miss N to one of my favorite old hiking haunts, the Ramapo Valley County Reserve.

Using a combo of our Ergo, the huge number of dogs in the park to pet and chase and bouts of "Baby running" as incentive, Miss N did pretty well for her first time out at Ramapo.  We actually made it half way up the hill to the reservoir until we had to change a diaper...Miss N is on the edge of potty training and these days is often offended at going Number 2.  Number 2 means all activity must stop until I change her diaper...she's slightly more tolerant of Number 1.  Moral of this tangent is I need to get my head around training her. 

An entire nature reserve to play in and Miss N is found a stick and some gravel that occupied most of her time.

Miss N scarfed a "Protein Plate" from Starbucks - which is reminded me that next time I could pack exactly the same for us for 1/4 of the money.  I thought she was good for lunch but when we pulled back up in front of the house she started chanting "pea soup."

It's gratifying that Miss N actually likes something I cook to ask for it, sometimes I feel at such a loss at what to feed her for lunch.  There are a few things that are great about this soup.  It's insanely easy, can be tweaked as you please and can be cooked in a slow cooker or on the stovetop.

Without further ado I give you: Pea Soup Two Ways, adapted from Jane Brody

1 1b dried green split peas
6 c water
4 c broth of choice - (I usually use chicken)
1/4 lb of ham, diced
3/4 c diced celery
1 lg onion chopped (I often use frozen diced for expediency)
1 1/2 c diced carrots
salt & pepper to taste

Stovetop directions:
Put peas & water in a pot bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes, cover and let stand for 1 hour.  Add broth, ham celery & onion.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat & simmer for 1 1/2 hours.  Add carrots & cook for another 15-30 minutes or until carrots soften and pea break down.  If soup gets too thick, thin with broth.  Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Slow cooker directions:
Depending on how much time you have this can be done on the high (6 hours) or low setting of your slow cooker.  Brown ham in small frying pan and drain off excess fat - I've never done it, but you could probably lightly cook the onion at the same time too for more flavor.  Put ham and remaining ingredients, except salt & pepper, in 6-qt slow cooker and set to high.  If you like your soup thick, about a half hour before serving take the lid off and let bubble away, giving it a stir now and then.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  

Someone...just tell me what to make.

Avocado, mashed sweet potatoes and Pritkin fish sticks with a milk chaser.

I've been struggling in vain to come up with a grocery list for what feels like forever. Ever get like that? I can't think of a darn thing I actually want to eat so I just can't seem to put together a menu. Since I'm the one who does all the cooking (and WAAAYYY more of it now that I'm home full-time with Miss N to feed), if I don't make it, it comes from the pizza place around the corner. While Delfino's is very good and they're very nice it does nothing for my weight, developing Miss N's food palate or my budget.

And then there's all the reading I've been doing. Meat, minimal meat, minimally processed meat, vegetarian, vegan, sustainable, responsible. AACCK!!!! Not only have I learned more than I want to know, I've learned I need to stop reading or I just won't ever eat again.  I just need to get dinner on the table! Why is that suddenly so fraught for me?!?

Life gets in the way...again.

So I had signed up and put a deposit down on the Furman Running program (FIRST), but have since come to realize that with me not working and Miss N's fall preschool tuition bill staring us in the face and a good friend's wedding in Colorado that I REALLY want to go to, I just can't afford it. I'm super disappointed and could have probably asked my mom for help but really its a frivolous expense at the moment.

L and I talked about it and as a trade-off I'm going to sign up for a few longer distance races including 2 that require overnight stays, but not airfare, car rentals or asking my m-i-l to take Miss N for 4+ nights. All this will still total way less (even with entry fees, overnight trips, gas, tolls etc) than just the initial deposit on FIRST.

So what does all this mean?

You guessed it, a new training plan...

Rather than get all ambitious and block out my training through the Fall and the Army 10-Miler in late October (that's right, for a moment I almost skipped us right over Summer and into Fall with this plan), I decided to put together one plan at a time with an eye on a race in each grouping of time. The idea was to try to avoid overtraining and also have more time to ramp-up for a race and with the understanding a week or two of fudged workouts does not spell total disaster.

First up, the Newport 10K. It's a local race whose starting line I can walk to and a distance that not only have I not raced, but isn't impossible to train for in 13 weeks (am coming at it from almost NO running in December & January). I've had a rough few weeks, but I'll talk about that in another post - hopefully - nothing traumatic just super-stressful.

Anyway, Newport is also a race that probably a few women from my running group will end up going to - so I'll likely have company at the start line (if not for long because so many of them are so fast, which is fine because chasing them makes me faster...).

So...Training plan, part 1 (apolgies for formatting issues). I hope you'll note I'm really trying to make this one work as I've eased up on my expectations, I'm going slow and I've built in a recovery week behind the 10K. That's also the week that non-priorty registration opens for ATM - if I don't get in it changes Fall a little so I have time to prepare without trashing an entire training session.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Feb 13		1.5 run	30-60 walk	1.5 run	30-60 walk	1.5 run	30-60 walk
Feb 20	Yoga	1.75 run	30-60 walk	1.5 run	30-60 walk	1.75 run	30-60 walk
Feb 27	Yoga	2 run	30-60 walk	1.5 run + weights	30-60 walk	2 run	30-60 walk
Mar 5	Yoga	2.25 run +weights	30-60 walk	1.5 run + weights	30-60 walk	2.25 run	30-60 walk
Mar 12	Yoga	2.5 run + weights	Elliptical	2 run + weights	30-60 walk30-60 walk	2.50 run	30-60 walk
Mar 19	Yoga	2.75 run + weights	Elliptical	2 run + weights	30-60 walk	2.75 run	30-60 walk
Mar 26	Yoga	3 run + weights	Elliptical	2 run + weights	30-60 walk	3 run	30-60 walk
Apr 2	Yoga	3 run + weights	Elliptical	2 run + weights	30-60 walk	3.5 run	30-60 walk
Apr 9	Yoga	3 run + weights	Elliptical	2 run + weights	30-60 walk	4 run	30-60 walk
Apr 16	Yoga	3 run + weights	Elliptical	2 run + weights	30-60 walk	4.5 run	30-60 walk
Apr 23	Yoga	3 run + weights	Elliptical	2 run + weights	30-60 walk	5 run	30-60 walk
Apr 30	Yoga	3 run + weights	Elliptical	2 run + weights	30-60 walk	5.5 run	30-60 walk
May 7	Yoga	3 run + weights	Elliptical 30min	Rest	Rest	Newport 10K	Rest
May 14	Yoga	2 run easy	Walk	2 run easy	Walk	3 run easy	30-60 walk