Ups and Downs

I made it through a pretty rough week of running after my super sweet victory at the 5K last weekend.  Food poisoning struck one night, which put a real damper on running the next day.  I still made it 2.5 miles, but it was not pleasant.  The weather was unforgiving most of the week.  The winds were so strong I had to run inside, which was fine.  Treadmills put an extra strain on my calves though that the road doesn’t – maybe I’m doing something wrong.  So I hobbled around with sore muscles for two days.  Today the heat was a lot to bear.  I sweat so much while running it hurt.  Literally – as the wind dried my face the salty leftover felt like it was burning my skin.  Why am I telling you all this?  Because I KEPT RUNNING.

I hit 6.2 miles for the first time yesterday – a full 10K in distance.  Starting out was really hard for me.  Once my body figured out what to do, I added distance with ease.  The key for me in doubling my mileage from my first 5K to the upcoming 10K has been a solid training plan.  I followed it to a T. I chose a plan that required the ability to already run 2 miles since I wasn’t starting from scratch but wanted a soft start.  The plan also gave me Monday, Wednesday, and Friday off which made it easier to add distance.  Letting my body adjust and recover between runs has been great.  Tuesday/Thursday have been shorter runs and Saturday/Sunday were longer runs.  I also made the decision to complete training two weeks prior to my race.  That allows me two full weeks to work on pace and already have the distance set.  Some plans I saw were set so the first 6.2 mile run would be on race day.  That didn’t cut it for me.

My next race is less than two weeks away.  I cannot believe I can run that far, or that it is easy.  Here’s my plan in case you are considering running a 10K.  It’s working amazingly for me.  I don’t remember where I found the original plan, but there are lots online.  I modified this one and added the extra two weeks of training at the end and have included it here.  Yes, it gets up to seven miles total, but why not keep adding distance if you can?

Week One:
Tuesday 1.5 miles
Thursday 1.5 Miles
Saturday 2 miles

Week Two:
Sunday 25 minutes
Tuesday 2 miles
Thursday 3 miles
Saturday 3.5 miles

Week Three:
Sunday 35 minutes
Tuesday 3.5 miles
Thursday 3 miles
Saturday 4 miles

Week Four:
Sunday  45 minutes
Tuesday 3.5 miles
Thursday 4 miles
Saturday 4.5 miles

Week Five:
Sunday 45 minutes
Tuesday 4 miles
Thursday 3.5 miles
Saturday 5 miles

Week Six:
Sunday 50 minutes
Tuesday 4 miles
Thursday 4.5 miles
Saturday 5.5 miles

Week Seven:
Sunday 50 minutes
Tuesday 4.5 miles
Thursday 4 miles
Saturday 6 miles

Week Eight:
Sunday 60 minutes
Tuesday 4 miles
Thursday 5 miles
Saturday 6.5 miles

Week Nine:
Sunday 60 minutes
Tuesday 7 miles
Thursday 5 miles
Saturday RACE DAY 6.2 miles

I Finished 93/1230!

Cellcom is over.  And guess what?  I KILLED IT.  I didn’t just make my pace goal, I destroyed it.  I was aiming for a 9 minute pace and completed the race with an 8:54 pace.  Crazy considering I was having trouble getting it down to 9 minutes at all during training lately.  Since I’ve been focusing on distance, my times have been hovering around 9:30, making the 9 minute pace goal was very optimistic.  I can’t believe I did even better than my wildest dreams.

It turned out to be a super hot day and I was very thankful for the water stations and sprinklers people had out.  Although each cup I grabbed was nasty Gatorade, not water.  That kind of upset me since it left a horrible taste in my mouth.  I found out one thing about myself, I can’t litter even when someone is right there to pick up the trash for me.  Many runners toss their paper cups on the ground and keep moving.  I politely slowed and made sure my cups went in the trash each time.

The race overall was amazing.  I took off like a bat out of hell and ran my first mile in 7:40.  I am paying dearly for that today.  My knees are so sore from running almost two minutes per mile faster than I am used to.  Luckily I had my pace keeper on and heard how fast I was flying.  I tried pulling back, but it is so much FUN passing every single person.  I knew my stomach would cramp up though if I kept going so I HAD to slow down.  It was definitely not fun mentally to slow to what I know my body is capable of for a long distance.  I took it down about a minute and was annoyed when people were then able to pass me.  I don’t like that feeling one bit.  Who would have ever thought I’d become competitive?  Not me.  I typically don’t care about this stuff at all.  Jake thinks it’s cheating to run with my phone so I have my pace available to me in real time.  Unfortunately, I need it to control myself within my limits.  Had I blindly kept pushing at 7:40, I would have cramped up and probably would have finished walking.  With information at my side though, I was able to finish ahead of my goals and not feeling crampy or sick.

Next up, the Bellin run.  My first 10K.  I have got to control myself to not run faster than 8:30 at any point at that race so that I can get the whole 6.2 miles without a problem.  That goal is a 9:40 pace overall minimum, and I need to keep myself closer to that so I don’t get hurt.  We’ll see what happens in three weeks.  All I know is I am super proud of myself from yesterday, but my knees HURT and I don’t want that to happen again.  A little pushing mixed with a  little self control and I’ll be all set.  I think vacillating between 8:30-9:40 throughout the race will get me exactly what I want.  Yes, I prefer to push, pull back, push, pull back, etc.  It’s how I get what I want.

Overall Cellcom Stats:

• 27:48 total time
• 8:54 pace
• 93/1230 place finish for women
• 299/2037 finish overall
• 4 place finish in my gender/age group
• I DID AWESOME!!

Pre-race pre-sweaty. Aren’t we cute!?

Me strutting my stuff so casually while the girl next to me and the dude behind me look like they are WORKING for their times.

Cellcom

I can’t believe it.  Cellcom is tomorrow!  My next 5K.  I really thought I’d only ever do one race just to say I’d done it, and now I am doing another.  And then following it with a 10K in three weeks after I said I’d never run more than 5K.  Training has been great over the last month or so.  I haven’t had bad days, I haven’t needed walk breaks, and I keep going farther and faster.

I’m really not sure what to expect tomorrow.  My goal has been a nine minute pace so I can finish in 28 minutes.  But with training for a 10K and adding distance every week, I haven’t pushed myself on time.  I slowly get faster, but I’m not sure about the nine minute pace.  I can certainly do better than the 10+ minute pace from my first race.  That race I took about 32 minutes.  I guess any improvement is good.  We’ll see what happens.  Cross your fingers that the race spurs me on to a nine minute pace and I meet my goals!  I can’t wait!  Updates to follow tomorrow afternoon!

Check Your Shoes

I heard a joke the other day.  Something about if you’re a runner, a vegetarian, and a cat lady, what do you talk about first?  In case you don’t get that, people with those traits talk incessantly about them.  When you have all three, where oh where do you start?  Well I have all three, and I am going to manage to talk about two together here.  Running and cats.  What’s that you say? Running and cats?  How do those go together?  Don’t worry, I don’t run with my cats on a leash or anything.  This is much more important.

Let me tell you the story of my run on  Saturday.  A five miler – wow that’s a long run.  About a half a mile in my foot pricked.  You know, like when you kick one of those pricker weeds.  Since I run in barefoot shoes, I figured I just kicked something and the pain would be quick and go away.  Only it got worse.  And worse.  I thought I somehow got a bee sting.  Since the only time I’ve been stung was on my foot when I was walking through grass as a child, it’s not inconceivable to me to get stung on the foot.  So I sat down to take my shoe off prepared for a bee sting.

Oh my goodness!  That’s a cat whisker in my foot!  Apparently one of my cats was doing that whole “smell and rub on the shoe” thing to my running shoes.  Whichever one it was lost  whisker in my shoe.  I did not see it or feel it when I put  my shoes on.  Yet as I started running it pricked me with the thick side where it had been attached to the cat face, and worked its way in deeper with each step.  I almost couldn’t pull it out it was in there so far.   Ok, not to gross you out, so end of story.  Other than that it HURT.

Moral of the story – check your shoes.  A pebble or something obvious is going to be easy to spot and you’d toss it out right away.  This weekend I learned the tinier the more hurtful.  Although I still killed that five miler, so it all worked out.

Bam, cats and running in one story.  You’re welcome.

Strawberry Cupcakes

I’ve never made cupcakes from scratch.  Didn’t feel like it.  I have a cupcake encyclopedia, but I use it for decorating tips or add ons, not full-fledged recipes.  Maybe I should start.

Anyway, today I made strawberry cupcakes from SCRATCH!  Hear that?  With like eggs and flour and stuff.  Not a mix.  I kind of wanted to eat the batter raw in entirety it was so good.  And then the cream cheese frosting – ohhhhh.  Well, that was a mess, so I am not recommending that recipe whatsoever, but it tasted good.

Cupcakes:
3 cups flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups chopped strawberries – fresh please! Don’t be lazy and get frozen.
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs

Combine all together in a mixing bowl.  Separate into cupcake tins and bake at 325 for 25-28 minutes.  If you want the mixture pink, you will need to add red food coloring.  I thought the strawberries did enough to give it a pinkish color.

Ok, so why this recipe you say?  Vegetarian friendly is why!  Many other strawberry cake recipes call for gelatin for the strawberry flavor, either alone or with real strawberries.  That’s not very vegetarian friendly.  Also, other recipes called for a lot of heavy cream and buttermilk or preservatives.  I didn’t want to gain 50 pounds eating a cupcake.  Granted they are never good for you, this one isn’t as bad.  It’s vegetarian friendly and mildly less fattening, plus it has REAL fresh fruit.  It’s not vegan friendly.  I don’t even know where to start with that…

The frosting – I said I wasn’t passing that on.  I won’t. Let’s just say the recipe I used was super runny. I even left out the milk.  Look online and see if you can’t find something a little sturdier for a cream cheese frosting recipe.  It tastes delightful – and I will give you the secret why.  ALMOND EXTRACT!  I’m addicted to that stuff.  Whatever recipe you use, replace the vanilla with almond.  You won’t regret it.

Chop the strawberries into little cubes. Once you win the mixer through the batter they will get a little smaller and stain the batter a pink color. No need to puree or anything crazy. This way you actually get some strawberry chunks.

Mmmmmm. Doesn’t that look delightful?

Perfectly shaped! To get this size/shape, fill your cupcake tin just barely to the top. This recipe doesn’t really rise at all, so you need a full cup.

I can’t wait to eat this…