Tuesday, December 14, 2010

5k and Ham Salad

This morning, despite the fact that the bed was warm and it was f'ing freezing outside of the covers (I have a boy and two cats to suffice as heaters, so we save the electricity and turn off the heat at night...)

But I got up because I promised myself I would (and I didn't wash my hair, so there's always that motivator).  More snow this morning--it actually stuck on parts of the street.  I did 15 minutes on the bike, then 30 minutes on the treadmill.

This morning was a bit more difficult than yesterday, probably because my muscles were cold and tired.  But I did hammer out a 5k in 28:55, which, while not awesome, isn't my worst time by a long shot (remember the F*ck You Hills 5k aka the Wolf Traf Howloween 5k).  I pulled out a 3.25 in 30 minutes.

My chest is tired, which is to be expected.  Doesn't hurt that I did some chest work yesterday.

I made ham salad last night from Dad's recipe, which breaks down as follows:

[a little more than] 1 c. diced ham
1 hard boiled egg
1 Tbsp mayo
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 TBSP dried onion
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1/4 tsp. paprika

Food process the ham to a grainy consistency (shouldn't be powder, but shouldn't be big enough to individually pick out the pieces), put aside
Food process the egg to same consistency, put in same bowl as ham
Add spices and mayo and mix.  You can add more mayo, if you want, but I found one TBSP per batch was more than fine.

Caloric value: for 1/4 cup, you're looking at about 110 calories.  I was really careful with the ham and sliced off as much fat as possible.

My lunch today:
2 pieces whole wheat bread: 123
Pickles: 20
1/2 cup ham salad: 220
Total: 343

Carefully budgeting the day around a drink tonight with an old friend from a previous internship.  Small world that we'd both end up in DC!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Race Calendar 2011

In other news, I'm working on my race calendar, which currently looks like this:

Jan. 7-8: Florida Keys Ragnar (http://www.ragnarrelay.com/race/floridakeys)
March 12: Four Courts Four (http://pacersevents.com/fourcourtsfour/index.html)
April 3: Cherry Blossom 10 (http://www.cherryblossom.org/)
May 1: The Colorado Half Marathon (http://www.ftcollinsmarathon.com/HalfMarathon.html)
June 4: Virginia Wine Country Half Marathon (http://www.run4virginiawine.com/)
Oct. 21-22: Las Vegas Ragnar (http://www.ragnarrelay.com/race/lasvegas) (With Jill! ZOMG!)

Which means I should probably find races for:
- February
- July
- August
- September

I'm planning on doing a turkey trot wherever my parents are for November, and maybe this year I'll suck it up and do the 10k Jingle All the Way again. So cold.  So jingly....

What are you registering for?

Bouncing Back

Surgery was a success and even my surgeon says I'm the fastest healing person she's treated yet.  Awesome!

She said to the nurse as I was leaving "two weeks after surgery and she's comfortable walking around in stilettos. Do you believe that?" (I do, mostly because it was the first time I could wear my leopard print heels and I was stoked.)

She gave me clearance to begin walking/running as I was comfortable.  Before that, I'd been carefully walking and biking, but damn if it didn't tired me out.  As I tried to add running, I was SO tired.  You could have knocked me over with one finger.

The hardest part of surgery (aside from the very unpleasant side effects of vicodin) is the mental switch.  I ran a marathon less than a month before my surgery and suddenly, I was exhausted after walking for 20 minutes.  But, not much else I could do aside from keep on keeping on.

This weekend, I felt sluggish and unhappy, so I decided with Ragnar Keys rapidly approach (less than a month!) I needed to go and at least try to run.  I got up this morning at 6, and walked outside:

SNOW!

Winter-happy, I got to the gym and warmed up on the bike for 30 minutes, then hopped over to the treadmill.  I put on my power music (Pretty Lights: "More Important Than Michael Jordan") and started at my warm up pace of 6.5 mph.

Miraculous. I felt great.  I felt like I could breath for the first time in months.

Knocked it up to 7mph.  Even better.  I am getting such a high that I'm getting wave upon wave of chills.  I brought it up to 7.5 which I held for about 15 minutes before my allotted treadmill time was up.  I'm not even kidding, the world looked totally different.  I felt like I was on f*cking fire.  I was the phoenix.  I wanted to talk to every single person around me about how awesome today is and isn't it great that we can all work out!?  Talk about a serious runner's high.  I was giddy.

Wanna know how I got back to race pace?

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/fit-for-life

The general theory is that it's muscle memory.  Once I healed up enough, my muscles jumped back into action.  Probably looking at a 5k distance tomorrow morning.

I also lifted today for the first time in a long long time--I can only do arm weights below my shoulders for now to reduce stress on my abdominals, but that should change late this week since I'll be able to add leg work in late this week.

I also made a ton of veggie soup last night.   You need:
1-2 zucchini squash (green or yellow)
1 onion
1 c. carrots
1 c. celery
1 can diced tomatoes
1 c. peas
some mushrooms
6 c. vegetable broth
Olive Oil

In big pot, heat oil, add onion and celery, cook til onions are clear.  Add squash and carrots and stir.  A few minutes later, add the tomatoes and broth and bring to boil.  Reduce heat and add peas and mushrooms.  Simmer for a bit (15 minutes? sure).  Add salt and pepper if you want.  Makes about 8 servings of hearty soup. About 80 calories per serving.  Add hot sauce to eat it my way.

Getting back in shape post surgery begins today, especially before the holidays arrive...yikes.