Body Pump Launch

Yes yes, it's 12:30 and I should be asleep.  But I have to share something that I totally forgot to talk about today.

Last night (tuesday night) we launched Body Pump (by Les Mills) at the Y and literally had to turn people away because we maxed out our class!  40 people!  I cannot tell you how amazing it is to have a full, energy-driven, group of people take your class.

A big shout-out goes to my amazing instructor friends for all the work they've done, the times we've shared sweating, maybe bleeding, crying, and laughing over the past two months getting ready for this.

National Capitol YMCA BodyPump Crew!

I also want to take this moment to brag.  Observe:

Yes, that is my right leg and no, my quads are not photo shopped.  I haven't had my runner's legs since...2006.  Want runner's legs too?  Easy.  Come to BodyPump!  (No joke, this is the most awesome workout I've ever taught) I'm teaching a week from this Thursday with Steph.  I'm going to try to put together a foam rolling class afterwards, but it might just be abs and stretch for now.

For my 20-20-20 class: FJ is going to be teaching my class this Sunday since I'll be in New York seeing my best friend from high school.  

Marathon Training, and how

I sat down at my computer yesterday with a little time on my hands in the afternoon to look over a few running schedules for marathon prepping.  I have Jeff Galloway's book at home, but since I forgot to pick it up and bring it in with me, I decided to do some online research and I found a program that I think I'm going to try out.  It was listed online through the Houston Chronicle and can be found here at this link:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/run/971175.html

Anyway, since I've done one before and would like to consider myself in fairly decent enough shape, I figured I'd give their intermediate schedule a shot and modify it as I went a long due to teaching etc.

My class schedule is as such:
- Tuesday PM: Step Class
- Every other Thursday PM: Body Pump
- Ever other Saturday AM: Body Pump
- Sunday AM: 20-20-20

With three days taken up a week with training, I'm in kind of a pickle, especially since there will be weekends (every other weekend, in fact) where I'll be teaching twice, which wouldn't be an issue if I didn't also have to throw a long run in there, which can take up to 4 hours.

As I was charting out my modified running schedule, I started to realize that, uhoh.  I'm exactly 26 weeks away from the marathon.  Which, truth be told, is quite a lot of time (that's half a year, for those of you, who, like me, went "that's so soon!"), but since I have a serious goal this marathon, I need to be diligent.

My last/first/only marathon, I told Chadd that I wanted to run it in under 4:30 and he promised he'd take me to dinner wherever I wanted to go if I did it.  It was really a friendly competition, he later told me that he'd have taken me out to dinner no matter what considering that I'd just run a marathon.  The funny thing was that I really held on to that bet with him through the race, truly believing that I had to get a 4:30 (though through no reflect of who he is, had I actually been in a sane state of mind I'd have realized he was playing along).

I crossed the line at 4:22:34 and have never had such a strange surge of emotions go through me, exhaustion, elation, pride, extreme and momentary sadness, pain, confusion, clarity...and then I just sat my butt down and waited for someone to find me.

This time is going to be a bit different.  First of all, this isn't my first race (can you believe I did a marathon as my first race?  Talk about ambitious.  Thank God I didn't die...) and second, I've got a solid running history now.  I know what I can do, and I think I can do a sub 4.  If I literally came in at 4:00:00, I'd be okay with it, but a 3:59:59 would make me elated.

This puts me at needing to maintain just a little under a nine minute mile, meaning I need to train to stay at 9 and hope that race day, I get a speed surge.

But as I was writing out this program, realizing that it was 26 weeks away, and that my program literally started this week, I started to build a mental wall.  It doesn't help that I'm not really trained up for my half a week from this weekend...whatever.  4 miles should no longer scare me.  But I psyched myself out really badly for that run, had a miserable time, and barely made it home for just under 5 miles.

Tonight, after my appointment with my R.D., I have to go pull a solid 5, which means it's likely I won't be home until 8:30 tonight.  Must remain positive...and excited.  Here is, so far, the plan for the first 9 weeks of my plan, starting this week:

So.  Now to get to it...

Tuesday Links!

Woohoo!  Tuesday Link Day!  I've got a lot of awesome stuff since I signed up for the SmartBrief nutritionist email blast.  Here ya go!

1) Gut Check time: Interesting, you can't spot train (lose weight in a determined place) but you CAN spot gain.  This article references studies showing that beer is literally the cause of that beer belly (beer more than wine!).  There's a bunch of common sense stuff in here--you know, don't eat the bar food, if you must drink, drink light beer, blah blah.  I was just interested to see that the beer belly is aptly named!  Who knew!

2) Your Chance to Tell the FDA What you Think of Food Labels: Ever wanted to influence public policy?  Well, now is your chance.  You have the opportunity to weigh in on new regulations for food packaging, including health labels, etc. on the front of food packages.  This article also links to another article which argues against labeling food in the front.  All of it, worth a read.

3) Food Deserts: Yes, deserts.  Now, I have to say, I have mixed feelings on this article because part of me sees the economics of the whole thing. Okay, I lied, my whole brain sees the economics of the whole thing.  This is a case of chicken and egg.  Who changed the demand?  The consumer.  If beautiful produce is rotting in the stands, you bet that the stockers are gonna go "send the best produce to places where it'll be purchased."  And to be frank with you, all of this talk about inner cities, I'm not seeing prejudice within the cities--I live in a big city and to be frank with you, I get crap produce even though I live in a wealthy neighborhood...which is why I go to the farmer's market.  It's not planned to be mean to poor people, it's part of the supply chain issue here.  It takes longer to get into a city with traffic, parking issues, and weird delivery schedules.  Not to mention, fresh produce goes bad in poor areas because, let's be frank here, ever been to a grocery in a slum?  Yes, they're gross and stuff goes bad when it's not kept in a clean area.  Hell, in the Safeway in the Watergate there used to be rats.  THE WATERGATE!  Oh city life, how I love thee.

Back to delivering the food...The harder it is to do something (i.e. deliver to the safeway outside my apartment) the more expensive it will be (ridiculously priced tomatoes) versus if it's easier (a massive backlot and loading dock behind the Albertson's by my parent's house in the 'burbs in Florida) it becomes cheaper.  Also, talk about taxes in the city.  HOLY MOLY.  Just go across the bridge into Virginia and watch your prices drop like bricks in the ocean.  If city planners made it easier for food to be delivered to grocery stores, I'm gonna bet prices are going to drop.  Okay, done rant.

4) Childhood Obesity and Diabetes: This is a great article for parents...and everyone else.  The examples that the doctor puts out for substitutes are great.

5) Fibromyalgia: No Thanks: Okay, maybe that isn't the title of the article.  But doesn't extreme muscle and joint pain sound like a drag?  Thought so.  Excess weight and lack of activity can nudge you that much closer to it.  Avoid.

6) Living by the Food Pyramid: Interesting, look at all those politics surrounding food!  Curse you lobbyists!  (terrifying, isn't it?) regardless.  An interesting history on the food pyramid and a link for a food "pedia" that gives you calorie counts of what you're ingesting.

Today got a bit out of hand at work, so I didn't get to share with you my Marathon Kickoff, but I will tomorrow.

Cooking Locally: Spare Ribs and Ramps

What a weekend...

Chadd and I did the Run Amuck 5k up in Rockville...absolutely hilarious.  We also found out that Chadd is a superior trail runner than I am (though I think I'd probably win in longer distances) and that wading through lake mud makes your quads sore.  We did finish 43, which, in our opinion, is pretty damn good out of about 370 teams of two.  Our time was somewhere around 33 minutes.  While that would be embarrassing for a 4k, I think it's pretty good for a 5k with obstacles and mud pits.

Some gentleman walking around the race took our picture for us since I was brilliant and left my phone in the car, and with that, my camera.  So I'm hoping that he'll email us our picture so I can show you what happens when you run a 5k through trails, wade through lakes, and finish the race crawling in a pit of mud.  Seriously.

I spent Sunday mostly cleaning and cooking, which brings me to this month's/quarter's whatever's Cooking Locally!

For just over $16, I picked up a little more than 2 pounds of pork spare ribs from one of the pork vendors.  I grabbed asparagus from another farm (4.50) where I'd also grabbed Ramps ($5) the week before.  I picked up a handful of small yukon gold potatoes ($2.50) and I was set.

I called my dad to get his expertise on the ribs.  He suggested a dry rub, and normally I'd have just put one together, but then I remembered that we have packets of spice rubs I picked up from a little spice/tea shop in Florida (there's another one here in Alexandria, apparently).  I brushed the ribs with a little olive oil, then slathered the rub on pretty thick on both sides.

After that, I tossed them (racked) in the over at about 175 for the next two hours.  I made the mistake of thinking they were done at this point (they weren't) and went on much later in the evening to throw them into a 450 over (which surprisingly made them come out perfectly) for about 15 minutes while I was finishing up the potato and ramp au gratin (2 c. potatoes, bunch of chopped ramps, layered, 1 c. milk, bread crumbs on top, your choice cheese on top, bake covered for 20 min. in 450, uncovered another 15).

Dinner wound up looking like this:

And was it ever delicious.  Chadd gave it a 4.5 out of 5, mostly because he likes the potatoes done a different way, but we both agreed the ramps were pretty good and a nice touch to the dish.  I was also pretty happy with the caloric value (somewhere around 450 for me) since ribs require so much time to eat, I get full on them quickly and don't eat too much meat, everything else was pretty healthy, especially since I used 1% milk for the potatoes instead of cream, and no butter.

I also whipped up a frittata of leeks, potatoes, and spinach, which, since I fell asleep prior to my bed time last night, failed to cut for my lunch today.  But there will be a review.  That recipe came from the cookbook I hailed as awesome last week, so I have no doubt it's going to be awesome.

My bosses aren't in today, but that doesn't mean I'm at a loss for work.  I can't believe it's already noon and I'm going to lose most of my afternoon and productive working time to a conference call. 

I've got a lot of links saved up for tomorrow--get excited!