St. Louis Go! Half Marathon Recap

I know it's been a long time since I last posted. I know. I started a new job to go along with my two Master's courses and I haven't been able to perfect the balancing act yet. It may be some time before I post again, but I at least wanted to talk about the St. Louis Go! Half Marathon.

So, about a year ago, I talked about some of my goals. A quick recap - drink more water (does coffee count!), 7 min mile (I am down to 7:29!!!) and a sub 2-hour half marathon. Go! has sealed the deal with that final goal. Boom.

I was originally signed up for the full marathon, but then I was scheduled for a work trip so I stopped training for a full. Last minute, I got booted from the work trip so I booked a ticket to St. Louis, but I wasn't prepared to run 26.2 miles. So, I called up the race and they kindly dropped me down to the half, which I have been training for, hardcore, with my half marathon training group with Fleet Feet Mount Pleasant.

And boy, did it pay off.

I wanted that sub 2-hour so bad that it was going to be a heavy blow if I didn't make it. There was a point between miles 6 and 8, where the hills were so steep, they were sponsored. SPONSORED HILLS! That I really thought about slowing down, giving up and just accepting the time. BUT I thought about all those hills we ran during training, I leaned into that hill and I kept pushing! And it paid off!

My final time came to, 1:57:29! So, it wasn't even by the skin of my teeth with a 1:59:59 (which I would have totally been happy with) I had the tiniest bit of wiggle room.

I'm going to start working on that 7 minute mile starting tomorrow at our training run! And if you don't hear from me soon, don't think I've forgotten about you. I'm just trying to do it all!

Bragged too soon

I think I bragged too soon about being back up in the double digit runs and how amazing that 14-miler felt last week, because I did a 15-miler this past Saturday and Oh. Man. did it hurt. I'm talking walk breaks and a 11:53 average pace. Ouch. I know that not every run is amazing, but this one was really rough.

I'm hoping tonight's half marathon training will boost my spirits again because even my scheduled 4-miler yesterday, turned into a choppy 2-miler. Maybe this just isn't my week.

On another note, I have been a pescatarian for more than a year now (January 2013 was when I started) and I think I'm about ready to take the next step into vegetarian land. I just read Mayim's Vegan Table and she talks about how even fish can be bad for you because they swim around in contaminated water and then you eat the contamination. Obviously, I won't just jump right into it, I'll take it slow. Right now, I'm seeing how much fish I eat normally, then I'll start to phase it out. I'm going to try to hang out there for a year or so, and then maybe look into the crazy world of vegan.

Between Mayim's book and The Vegan Stoner I don't think it would be that bad. I've made one of the Vegan Stoner's recipes awhile back (tofu tacos) and they were delish. I just ordered the cookbook and cannot wait to start trying more recipes!

Back in the double digits

I have been wanting to try zucchini spaghetti noodles for some time now, and just bought this awesome julienne tool (Amazon for $6) to cut it in strips. This thing is seriously awesome. You just run it down the side of the zucchini and voila, zucchini noodles! 

I just tossed it in a pan with some sautéed onions, garlic and butter, then topped it with spaghetti sauce. I made two zucchinis worth for me and the hubs and it was really filling. 

My other exciting news is that I'm back running double digits for my long runs! I got in a 14-miler the other day and it felt really good. My race pace for a half marathon is 9:13 and my race pace for a marathon is 10:54, so I averaged 10:16's and it was great.

Finally, I have to give a shout out to these new shoes. They are flip flops that actually give you support. It's like the best of both worlds! I got them from my local Fleet Feet  and I have a feeling they are going to be my go-to shoe this summer. They're called Montrail Women's Molokini, if you're wanting to check them out.

A day of cooking...

Today wound up being a day of cooking. I got a whole new box of produce from Backyard Produce this past Tuesday, so I jumped in with both feet - butternut squash french fries, sweet potato, spinach and peanut butter soup, carrot and celery soup, and meatless crumbles. My freezer is now stocked and successfully keeping me away from the grocery store for at least another week.

Beautiful!

First off, butternut squash french fries. This gem actually came from last week's produce box and I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I started looking to pinterest for ideas to use it for. In the past, I've made butternut squash soup, that I wasn't that impressed with, and butternut squash mac n' cheese, that was very good, but the scale is creeping up so I wanted to keep it a bit lower calorie - enter butternut squash French fries.

Butternut Squash French Fries
(original post)

Needed:
-butternut squash
-salt

1. Take a potato peeler and peel off all the skin on the squash, then cut off both ends

2. Slice it lengthwise, and scoop out all the insides (if you want you can keep the seeds to roast them!)

3. Cut up the sections into fry-looking pieces. It won't be perfect, just wing it

4. IMPORTANT take the pieces and lay them on a paper towel, sprinkle with a bit of salt and let them "sweat." Let them sit for about 10 minutes you can preheat the oven to 425 during this time. This draws out all the moisture so your fries can get nice and crisp. Once the 10 minutes are up pat the fries dry

5. Place the fries on a lightly sprayed cookie sheet, then give the fries a little spritz of cooking oil and sprinkle a bit more salt on them

6. Bake for about 40 minutes, turning halfway through

I seriously devoured this in less than 2 minutes...and oh yeah, ZERO Weight Watcher points! Say what!!

Next off, I got my meatless crumbles going. This was a recipe from my mom that she gave me in a cookbook for Christmas with all her favorite recipes. She uses it all the time and I can definitely see why. It makes a huge batch of crumbles that you can use in place of the Morningstar Farms meatless crumbles, for a fraction of the price. Awesome.

Meatless Crumbles

Needed:
-2 cups brown rice
-2 cups lentils
-seasoning (I used tandori because that's what I had)
-1/4 cup olive oil
-1/2 cup wheat gluten
-1 cup rolled oats


















1. Boil rice and lentils with seasoning until tender. Drain any excess water

2. Add all the rest of the ingredients and give it a good stir. I also added more seasoning

3. Add to a baking pan and bake at 300 for 1 hour, stirring about every 20 minutes

It says it makes 10 servings, so I separated it into 5 freezer bags and tossed them in the freezer and I'll just pull them out as needed. Too easy.

Moving on to the soups...

Sweet Potato, Spinach and Peanut Butter
(There is no real original post for this one, I just kinda winged it and it turned out great!)

Needed:
-2 medium sweet potatoes
-2 1/2 cups veggie broth
-1 1/2 cup spinach
-garlic
-olive oil
-seasoning (I used tandori again)
-3 tblsp PB2, prepared
-3 tblsp pasta sauce

1. Heat up 1 Tbsp of olive oil and cook spinach in it for about 5 minutes, or until completely wilted

2. Peel and dice sweet potatoes

3. Add sweet potatoes, broth, pb2, pasta sauce, seasoning, and garlic

4. Simmer for about 20-25 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are soft

Tag team it and get both of those soups simmering!

5. Pulse in blender until it reaches desired consistency

I cooked lightlife italian sausages, cut them up and added it to the soup. It kind of reminded me of an Italian Wedding Soup. It was delicious.

Finally, my faithful carrot soup. I got carrots and celery in this last produce box, so I decided just to go ahead and cook them up. It goes along the same lines of this carrot soup just with celery instead of zucchini. You can really make a soup out of any veg you have. It's a beautiful thing!

Another year older.

According to the Army's physical fitness test, my running should continue to peak until I'm 32 years old. Is this true? Because I just turned 25 and I'm pretty sure I'm as slow as I've ever been.

I may be slow, but I'm still pretty proud of my running accomplishments. This past Saturday, I knocked out a 12-miler, which was my first double digit run since the Charleston Marathon Jan. 18. It hurt. It hurt so bad, but I did it! I did the first 5 miles with my half marathon training group, so that part was great. We talked about food for 5 miles. Seriously, for 5 miles. But the last 7 miles were hard. I ran over the Arthur Ravenel Jr. bridge, which come to find out is 823 feet worth of elevation in a 5 mile span. Ouch!

Sunday was my birthday, so all healthy eating habits went out the door because my hubs made all my favorite foods for one meal - poached egg on a bagel with hollandaise sauce and smoked salmon with biscuits and gravy and hash browns. I'm still paying for a 3-pound weight gain that I haven't shook yet, but it was totally worth it.

Monday we did a s-l-o-w 3-miler with Fleet Feet and then they tried to kill me last night.

So unsuspecting of what's to come the next night

Seriously, I did 4 miles in less than 35 minutes and that included a slow warm up mile and 5 slow laps on the track, and it still averaged to an 8:49 per mile pace. That. Is. Fast. For. Me. Maybe the Army is right?

So, what we did was after that mile warm-up through the neighborhood, we took it to the track - 1. fast lap, 2. slow lap, 3. fast lap, 4. fast lap, 5. slow lap, 6. fast lap, 7. fast lap, 8. slow lap, 9. fast lap, 10. slow lap, 11. slow lap. Followed by a half-hour ab workout, of course. Today, my head, back and legs HURT. It's supposed to be a rest/crosstrain day for me and as of right now I'm leaning more toward resting, but we'll see as the day goes on.

See!!! I'm excited!

You know you're a runner when...

You know you're officially considered a runner when presents from people start becoming running related, and you are extremely happy about it!

First, my in-laws got me a gift card to my favorite running store for Christmas, which I used for a new pair of New Balance 1400v2, and now for my birthday (this Sunday) my mom bought my registration into the Estes Park Marathon in Colorado for June and my husband bought me a new Garmin GPS watch with heart rate monitor. I have the best family, they know me so well!

With that, I finally got my marathon sign hung up in the hallway. Seriously, this is hands down my favorite project I have ever made. Thank you Pinterest.

"Every day is a good day when you run," Kevin Nelson. 

Roasted Red Pepper and Potato Soup

I've told you about this amazing produce service I use called Backyard Produce, that delivers locally grown produce directly to my door every Tuesday. Well, this week they sent me some amazing looking red peppers, so I hopped on over to Pinterest to get some ideas. I also had some potatoes sitting on the counter that needed to be used soon, enter roasted red pepper and potato soup.

I've been really into soups lately because they're so easy to make, and you can freeze them so that they're a quick meal when you need them. Like I mentioned, I've been away for the past two weeks for Army training, but when I came home I had some carrot soup waiting for me in the freezer to tied me over till I could make it to the grocery store.

Now back to the red pepper and potato soup -

Needed:
-1 onion, cut up
-minced garlic
-curry powder
-chipotle powder
-pepper
-2 red peppers, cut up
-3 potatoes, peeled and cut up
-3 cups vegetable broth

1. Saute the garlic and onions till they start to brown.

2. Add the bell peppers, dash of pepper, curry powder and chipotle powder. Cook for a couple minutes.

3. Add the potatoes and vegetable broth and bring to a boil.

4. Simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes. Let cool slightly.

5. Blend it in the food processor till it's the consistency you like, then portion it off and freeze the containers that you'll save for later.

I had to blend it in two portions and just gave it one good pulse each, so that I'd still have some chunks

I portioned it into 3 servings and the only thing in it that has a Weight Watchers value is the potatoes and since it's 3 potatoes, I'm calling each serving 3 WW points. That's my logic and I'm sticking to it!

You can still see the chunks of red pepper and potatoes

I wish you could smell how amazing it smells as it's simmering (I guess you're going to need to make it to find out), but you can definitely smell the curry powder, which I love.

I didn't eat it yet, because I made it to bring to work, but I had to taste it and it is so good. There is so many flavors that all play very well together. You can taste the roasted peppers and the curry the most, but then it has a little kick from the chipotle powder and the potatoes give it the thicker consistency.

This is definitely something I will be making again - hint, hint Backyard produce if you have more bell peppers or potatoes coming my way ;)

Celebrating one year meat free!

I just spent the last two weeks at an Army training at the same place I was a year ago...doing Army training. It made me realize that it has been an entire year eating a pescatarian diet. It really hasn't been hard at all, and I really feel as though it makes me more creative in the kitchen finding filling meals, that don't require high-fat red meat, chicken or pork.

I really want to stress to anyone who is thinking about trying this lifestyle, but is scared that it will be too hard, I never have a hard time finding something at a restaurant, I feel better about myself, and I don't feel deprived at all. I highly recommend it, actually.

Even spending the last two weeks with the Army, I didn't have any issues with food. I would have a PB2 and banana sandwich for breakfast, a protein bar for a snack, a tuna sandwich or soup for lunch, and the opposite item for dinner, and a peanut butter apple for an afternoon snack.

I actually found a new brand of vegan soups that I was really impressed with - Dr. McDougall's. I had the Vegan Tortilla Soup with Baked Chips and the Vegan Black Bean and Lime Soup and both were really tasty. I would dip some triscuits in them for some substance and voila, you have a quick, and easy meal while on the go.

Now that I'm back home, I cooked up a homemade pizza crust then topped it with pizza sauce, tomatoes, onions, shrimp mozzarella cheese and garlic.

The crust recipe was too easy and it's definitely something to try again. See, the creativity is alive :)

1. Take .25 oz dry yeast and 1 tsp sugar and dissolve it in 1 cup warm water for 10 minutes.

2. Mix in 2.5 cups flour and 2 tbsp olive oil and mix till smooth. Let sit for 5 minutes.

3. Flatten out and add whatever toppings you'd like.

4. Bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes.

On the running front, I've been pretty consistent lately. I did a 10-miler yesterday and a 4-miler with my half marathon running group today (oh, how I've missed them!)

Oh yeah! And I got my confirmation packet in the mail today for GREECE! I will be running the Athens marathon this November with a friend and I CANNOT WAIT! I will definitely be talking about that more later, but for now, I have a pizza calling my name.

Will Run For Beer

So, South Carolina has finally been hit with the cold freeze that has been crippling the nation, so I stuck to the treadmill today, but I still felt like I got a good workout.

I know that I JUST mentioned the St. Louis marathon, but I just found out this past weekend that an Army obligation is going to keep me from going, so instead I have refocused my sights on the Estes Park Marathon in Colorado, June 22. I created my own training plan that I started yesterday with an easy 4-mile run, then some interval training today - half mile warmup at 5.0 (treadmill, remember?), then 30 minutes of sprinting a quarter mile at 7.5, then slowing down for a quarter mile at 6.0, repeating for the 30 minutes, then a half mile cooldown at 5.0. Like I said, it felt like a good workout. I'm also up to 230 squats as part of the 30-day challenge and we will be moving onto abs next month. The rest of my week looks like this: Wednesday - crosstrain, Thursday - 3 miles, Friday - 6 miles, Saturday - rest, Sunday - 2 miles. I have drill with the Army this weekend, so I am taking it fairly light.

An awesome event I want to tell you about was last week, my running store, Fleet Feet Mount Pleasant, had a fun run at Bay Street Biergarten, where you ran 3 miles then drank beer. There is nothing bad about that deal. Each month they partner with a different brewery to sponsor a run, then they offer discounted beers. It gives you a chance to try new places and get out an socialize with the local runners. It's a great time!

Even in the cold, quite a few people still showed up. Amazing what difference beer can make

A great recipe you have to try if you're craving a Philly cheesesteak is using the Gardein beefless tips, sauteing up some peppers and onions and putting it all on a (asiago cheese) hoagie bun with some mozzarella cheese. This is what I chased my run with today and it was perfect. Super tasty and extremely filling!

Charleston Marathon recap

I know it's been awhile since I last posted, but the holidays were crazy. My sister and sister-in-law came to visit, then shortly after my mom came for the Charleston Marathon. I didn't spend much time with social media (not wanting to be rude, after all) so, I'll try to get you caught up now.

I didn't run much over the holidays, mostly 1-2 miles a day and my sister started the 30-day squat challenge that I've been doing with her. I guess it's paid off because I didn't gain too much weight, even though we ate like hungry, hungry hippos! My mom just left yesterday, so I'm going to get my eating habits back under control, but I will say that if you find yourself in the Charleston area, make sure you check out: Black Bean Co., Hominy Grill, The Glass Onion, La Fontana (for brunch), Kaminsky's (for coffee and dessert), or any and all food trucks. Just to name a few.

Here's the squat challenge if you want to check it out

I did fit in a couple slightly longer runs through my running store:

Glow run

Glow Run, on the bridge

Half marathon training group run

Monday Runday group run. That pink jacket is obviously my favorite thing to run in

So, overall, I stayed fairly active over the holidays. How did you do?

Now, let's talk about the Charleston Marathon!

"That's the thing about running: your greatest runs are rarely measured by racing success. They are moments in time when running allows you to see how wonderful your life is," Kara Goucher.

This quote describes the Charleston Marathon perfectly, because since I stayed with my momma the whole time, I didn't PR, but it was my favorite race I've ever done. It was absolutely beautiful and there was so much to look at - the sailboats on the water, colorful houses, shop-lined streets, mostly flat, scenic parks. It was such a great time and the people were so friendly. We chatted a couple people up at the porta-potty stops (there were a lot of them) and me and the momma got to spend some quality time together. HOWEVER, it was freezing!!! I typically run long races in short sleeves or a tank top, but we wore long sleeved shirts over the top so we could toss them when we got warm. We never got warm. It was so cold and there was a severe headwind (what seemed like) the entire time! The scenic views and wonderful people kept us going, but all I really wanted was a nice warm bed. We came in too late to get any of the boiled peanuts or shrimp and grits at the finish line, but they had great shuttle support to get you back to your car.

Just like the past three years, we started the year off with a marathon that we don't train for. This was that marathon, but my momma still PR'd by 7 minutes! It was a great race (even with the weather) and I would highly recommend anyone to do it next year. 

Next up, the St. Louis Go! Marathon and I can't wait! I'm going to start training tomorrow. Training...what a novel idea...

Me and the momma at mile 5, lookin' fresh

Just a quick recap on my marathon times:

Rockin' K Trail - 9:47:08
Marine Corps - 4:51:06
Rockin' K Trail - 9:50:59
Marine Corps - 4:49:27
Rockin' K Trail - 9:56:11
Air Force - 4:45:07
Charleston - 6:22:27
St. Louis - ?????