Non-Cooking: March/April Training/Life update - Hail, Hills, and other Happenings!

It's finally Spring!! A lot has happened since my last post, both training wise and life wise. Consider this a catch up post.

Training/Team Z

I have been incredibly pleased with the progress I have shown on the bike in the last month, and won serious badass points a few weeks ago during a ride up in Frederick, MD. 

The two crazies

Non-Cooking: Rock N' Roll DC Marathon Race Report (and other winter training updates)

Short version: I ran another marathon this Saturday, and I got another personal record! I officially ran it in 4 hours, 3 minutes, and 15 seconds (an 8 minute improvement from November's  New York Marathon), which is a pace of 9:18. Between the NY marathon and this race, I have taken ~26 minutes off my previous personal best, set in March 2011 on a pancake flat course in perfect conditions. 

Now for the (much) longer version. 

Fall/Winter 

I signed up for this race last fall in the months leading up to the New York Marathon. I had been running really well, and I thought I wouldn't have a chance to get a personal best in New York given all the crowds. My plan was to use this race to go for it. 

Except I did get a personal best at New York, by 17 minutes! I exceeded my wildest expectations (a stretch goal of 4:15), and was content with that. Since I was already signed up for Rock N' Roll and with an Ironman in August, I kept with the plan to go through with it. However, given my focus was/is firmly on the Ironman, I didn't give much thought to this race as far as "goals" and "plan" went. 

Leading up to New York, I followed the F.I.R.S.T marathon training program. It calls for three runs a week - a speed workout (short/fast intervals), a tempo (longer 3-10 mile runs at a faster than marathon pace), and a long run. This plan really gave me the mental strength I needed to push in NY. Given the cold/windy/crowded/hilly conditions of the New York Marathon, I thought there was a good chance that I could improve my time at this race. Since I had so much success with that plan, I decided to stick with it through the marathon, and then switch to the Team Z program for the Ironman. I was still pretty conservative with my pace of my longer runs leading into New York, so the only real change in my plan was to try to do each run at a faster (but manageable) effort. 

Boy, if I knew what this winter had in store for us I may have rethought signing up for this race. It has been a soul sucking winter. I have trained for marathons 3 of the last 4 winters, each in relatively unfavorable conditions. This was by far the worst of them. (I am still annoyed that last winter, the only one I haven't chosen to train for a race, was the most mild winter we have had by far.) Unlike a few years past where we had a few monster snow storms that made running very difficult for a few weeks but left the rest of winter alone, this winter has been full of several storms, each dropping 4-8 inches & making the roads each weekend dangerous for biking, and trails/roads not much safer for running. Every time we think "this has to be the last one," another storm pops up on the radar. (I am writing this after telecommuting all day due to another storm.)

Since January, I have stepped up all of my training efforts. After three years, I finally made my return to Team Z swim practices and have been very good about actually going. I have also started doing indoor computrainer sessions (meant to be one weeknight a week), which provides the best bike workout you can do indoors. Unfortunately, except for 2 or 3 times this winter, I have been forced to do my weekend bike sessions indoors as well. I have found that 2 hours of hard effort on the computrainer can ruin my spirit, whereas 2-3 hours of outdoor bike rides can lift it up. All in all, I think this winter has provided more mental training than physical, and I have found my spirits really starting to diminish. Despite all of this, I have managed to get in all my training runs, only resorting once to the treadmill. 

The last few weeks of training were particularly rough, and left me feeling a little shaky leading to the actual race itself. While I still thought I could improve on my NY time, I didn't really verbalize these thoughts. In fact, the day before the race I was just feeling downright weak/out of it, so I really just wanted to go out and enjoy the day, whatever the time ended up being. Until the night before the race, I didn't really develop a plan, other than to just go out and run. 

Race Week - Friday

Since the race was on Saturday, I took Friday off of work to pick up my packet & do other life things. (I worked through MLK and President's day so I haven't had a weekday off since December). The expo was great! I managed to meet Dan from the Biggest Loser (repping their 5k/10k run/walk series). Even better, I worked up the courage to chat with him and managed to have a (pretty) non-awkward conversation!! This is huge for me since I typically can't bring myself to start a conversation with people I admire for fear of not having anything to say to them (i.e. my company's CEO, Bart Yasso, Chris Wren). He was running the half, and it was cool to learn how he has kept up the healthy/fit lifestyle. 

While I fully intended to be productive with the rest of my day (i.e. get groceries), I spent the afternoon taking care of the more important things in life by seeing the new Veronica Mars movie with my brother. It was so good! They really did the fans justice. (I may or may not have purchased it on demand as well and watched it twice since then.)

After stopping by Wawa for some coffee, I got home just in time to finish my pie for Pi Day, the most important day of the year and perfectly timed to help take my mind off the big race. I had made a french silk pie before heading to the expo, and made sure to do a taste test to make sure it was okay for my friends. 

French Silk Pie (Chocolate!)

I tried to contain myself at the event (by only having 3-4 slices of pie and 3-4 scoops of ice cream), and relished the chance to hang out with my friends for a nice relaxing evening. 

As is always the case it seems, I headed out early around 8:30 to try to catch some sleep. They all wished me luck as I headed off (and then I am sure proceeded to discuss how crazy I am while eating more delicious pie).

Race Day 

On race day I woke up around 4:15 (ahead of my alarm), got dressed, and headed to the metro. I greeted my teammates, and killed time with several of them while we waited for the race to start. At the race expo, I had requested a corral change to move up to the same corral as the 4:00 pace group (a group w/ 2 leaders that are supposed to guide you to the time goal running an even pace). 

Despite not feeling great the previous day, I decided my race strategy would be to go out with the 4:00 pace group and hold on as long as I could (with only about a 5% chance I actually held onto it the entire race, but then a 75% chance I could hold on for another personal best). No risk, no reward right? My training paces made me believe that I had a good shot of a PR and I figured that was the best way to get it. About five minutes beforehand, I went to find my pace group.

The real story is in the prep leading up to the race. The actual race itself was pretty good but not much to right home about. The first half of the course was insanely crowded as the half marathoners and the marathoners ran together. My pacer kept darting into the crowds, and I had to expend a lot of energy to keep up/dart in and out of traffic. Because I was focused on keeping up, I didn't really notice the race course/spectators. We crossed the half point at 1:59:55 (a 3 minute PR! from my standalone half 2 years ago). The crowds really dropped off after mile 13, both on and off the course. The pace group provided good company on an otherwise lonely/unscenic course. I held steady with the pace group until around mile 18 feeling relatively good, when I made my "mistake." I stopped to use the bathroom and fell about 45 seconds behind the pace group (no line!). Rather than taking my time to steadily reel them in, I expended a lot of energy to catch up to them. Of course after catching them, I had trouble keeping up and fell off the pace around mile 21 (still keeping them within eyesight through mile 24) . The two super low points were around mile 21 and mile 26 where I felt super close to throwing up, and due to lack of space at 21 (bridge w/ no railing) and crowds at 26, that would have been super embarrassing. Luckily both feelings only lasted about 30 seconds at a time. While the last 5 miles were rough, I focused on putting one foot in front of the other (and thanking the police officers, volunteers, and few spectators on that part of the course) and managed to complete all the miles in under 10 minutes. In the last mile, I passed one of our two pace group leaders (the one who had been darting all race). My guess is he wasted a lot of energy as well. I thanked him as I passed for leading me to a PR, then picked it up (as much as I could) for the home stretch. My joy returned as I crossed the finish line, another personal record under my belt.

I finished this race in much better shape than New York mentally/emotionally. With dehydration and the brutality of the winds, from mile 15 on was in the pain cave hardcore and lost my joy. I couldn't even summon the energy to thank the volunteers (something I always make sure to do), and was in tears trying (in vain) to get to my parents after the finish. It took me a good week to come out of my emotional funk from the end of that race. After this race, despite the physically side effects (ouch blisters! and quads!...stairs...and...shoes...are...so...difficult), I still managed to rally (with the help of french silk pie) for an evening out Saturday night (jazz!), and even managed to find energy to go to the grocery store yesterday. Success! As my present to you, I will spare you the pictures of blisters I didn't even know were possible.

Overall, I am pretty dang happy with how things went,. While this race hasn't been my main focus this winter, I put in the work for it and was rewarded. I really think a sub-4 hour marathon is definitely within reach, something I wouldn't have even dreamed about 2 years ago when I got my previous personal best of 4:29ish. After the Ironman, I will go for it. At some point. Hopefully not during winter.

Other thoughts from this winter training season/race: 

• Because I hadn't been given myself any real recovery weeks and was running 3x a week including a long run, swimming 2x a week, lifting 2x a week, and doing 2-3 bike sessions a week, my pinky and ring fingers went numb on my left hand because my muscles were super tight (scary!). I booked myself an emergency massage & gave myself a recovery week. I am looking forward to resuming Team Z's schedule of 2 weeks build, one week recover. 
• Nutrition is going to be a serious issue going forward as my training volume increases. I did a test with my nutritionist to figure out how many calories I actually need to maintain my current weight and it was 500 higher than we had thought. Between that and not wanting to be in a calorie deficit, I have to figure out how to add about 800 calories into my day (before even considering longer workouts on the weekend), without resorting to sweets. This is an entirely different mindset I have to get used to - I am finding it difficult to figure out how to balance everything from both a practical and a mental perspective. I actually have a lot more thoughts in this realm but I will save it for another post. 
• I learned this winter that misery really loves company. The Team Z swim practices have been worth it mainly for seeing other people/knowing I am not alone. I typically end them happier than I start, regardless of how the workout goes (thanks Linda!). I have also found the computrainer sessions are much more bearable when other people are with me, even if we don't talk during the hard intervals. Finally, the Team Z red nose runs (mini informal races) have been great for the camaraderie and made me force myself out for a lot of runs I may not have had the willpower to do otherwise.  
• I am really wondering if signing up for Mountains of Misery (104 mile mountainous bike ride at the end of May) was a good idea. I have not been able to get large volumes of biking in on the weekends, and I will really need mother nature to take it easy on us the next few months to make sure I can get into somewhat reasonable shape. Talk about pain cave!
• Typically in a race I do a mental thing where I say to myself "If I blow up now, I can still get XX time." This race was different. When I started to do that, I stopped and told myself that I had put in the work/had the knowledge that there was a greater chance I would NOT blow up than that I would. I really was just doing it out of habit, and didn't actually believe I was going to "blow up." I cannot understate how important that is. 
• I have now raced 5 standalone marathons, with great races in 3 out of 5 of them. I like the tipping of the odds! Although the suffering in the other 2 taught me about my inner strength.
• I have continued to cook up a storm. My parents are now renovating their kitchen, so I am in charge of Sunday dinners for the family and am trying to provide them with meals for the week. Thank goodness for the taper/recovery low volume! Recent favorites include an aparagus, mushroom, and goat cheese fritatta, pho (vietnamese noodle soup), and shredded beef tacos. 
• As far as races/crowd support and high-fives go, this race really paled in comparison to both New York and Marine Corps. I won't do the full again. Thank goodness for Team Z appearing along the course and cheering for me by name. 
• It is impossible to not be happy listening to "Happy" by Pharrell. The highlight of the music on the course was a giant circle around a band singing it. 

Non-Cooking: Thanksgiving in January!!!

If you are a cooking junkie like me, the epitome of the cooking experience each year is Thanksgiving. In September/October, I kept seeing recipes for Thanksgiving foods (stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc.) and I was dying to try my hand at them. However, I always travel to Philadelphia to spend Thanksgiving with my dad's family, so for actual Thanksgiving I was limited to making a pecan pie and buttermilk biscuits (mmmm, pecan pie and biscuits). A few weeks ago, I decided to throw my own Thanksgiving, because let's face it, no one would object to a second Thanksgiving. I waited until the holiday season was finished, invited friends and family over, and got to planning.

This was my first time attempting to cook for a large party (12 of us in total), and trying to make more than one appetizer/main meal/dessert combo. In planning the menu/timing of everything, I looked for things cooked  tried to avoid cooking multiple hot items that needed the oven. I went pretty traditional with the side courses, but veered from tradition when it came to the meat. I am not a big Turkey person, and had seen an awesome looking Prime Rib & Roasted Vegetables recipe in Cook's Country magazine that had caught my fancy. My parents got me a roasting pan for Christmas, and this seemed like the perfect way to break it in! Now, I have never had prime rib before. I also was completely unaware of how expensive it was! However, I didn't let any of that stop me! The one change I made (which I am really happy I did) was to go smaller on the prime rib & to add a slow cooked pork loin as well. 

Overall, I decided on the following menu (pictures to follow) - all recipes are some offshoot of either America's Test Kitchen or Brown Eyed Baker:

1) Garlic/Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

2) Crispy Skillet Stuffing 

3) Roasted Prime Rib + Roasted Vegetables (my first time ever having prime rib! boy is it expensive!)

4) Slow-cooked pork loin w/ cranberry sauce

5) Whole Wheat Rolls

6) Sweet Potato Pie

7) Dutch Apple Pie

8) Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars (last minute add when I freaked out about not having enough dessert that was very worth it!)

Cooking: Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Today's recipe is another simple and satisfying roasted vegetable side! (If you like this dish, check out my roasted asparagus garlic fries.)

Brussel Sprouts! Before last March, I never would have believed that I would ever be enthusiastic about those words, unless it was enthusiastically expressing my distaste (having never had them, obviously). Then I went to Graffiatios for restaurant week and got the beets (trying new things!). Sadly, I disliked the beets & the rest of my meal but LOVED (and ate a lot of) my friend's appetizer. It was roasted brussel sprouts w/ maple syrup and bacon. Trying this was a GAME CHANGER, and as I later discovered had nothing to do w/ the maple syrup and bacon. When roasted, brussel sprouts become "sweet" on the inside, crispy on the outside, and are incredibly delicious.  Now I find myself excited when I have a longer workout because I can fit roasted brussel sprouts into my nutrition for the day! (And yes, 12 year old me is appalled, heck so is 21 year old me. Don't worry though - I still to this day have never attempted to eat them raw.) 

In the last year (starting immediately after that meal), I have roasted brussel sprouts probably 30 times or so (simply cutting in half, coating with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasting in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes).  I have even gotten my friends hooked on them! I took a break over the summer, but now that it's cold again (and snowing!) I have been really craving this dish and am full force back on board w/ brussel sprouts.

Then yesterday, another game changer. I stumbled upon another America's Test Kitchen recipe from the TV show cookbook that had a different technique for preparing them. Being up for adventure, I tried it out, and I will never go back! One of the potential issue with my previous technique is the inside can sometimes taste a bit bitter if you overcook the sprouts in order to get the crispiness on the outside. For the ATK recipe, they turn up the heat to 500 degrees, steam the Brussel sprouts in the baking dish using a little bit of water (covered) to cook the inside, and then uncover the dish and continue cooking until the outside caramelizes. This results in brussel sprouts that have the wonderful crispyness/sweetness on the outside, and a nice creamy inside. And I promise, it's much simpler than it sounds!

Let's get cooking!

Cooking: Skillet Tamale Pie

Last week I wrote about my favorite resources and mentioned the America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook. This recipe is from that. It has a great Mexican flavor, a delicious cornbread topping, and makes six plentiful portions. I also like that it is made in one dish for easy cleanup.

My baby nephew wasn't too sure what to think about it while I babysat him, but I think he came around eventually.

Serving information from Americas Test Kitchen (makes 6 servings): 420 calories, 13 g. fat (6g saturated), 45g carbs, 31g protein, 6g fiber

Let's get cooking!

Cooking: Favorite Recipe Resources & Essential Kitchen Tools

Over the last year, I have spent way too much money on kitchen gadgets, cookbooks, and cooking classes. However, in reality, for a beginner chef, a few kitchen essentials are all you need to cook delicious meals at home. I thought I would take the opportunity to put the money spent to good use by summarizing my favorite recipe resources and what I consider essential kitchen tools. With the exception of the cookbooks, the links are for the most part random links just to show you a visual of what I am talking about. Do some research (and read the reviews!) to find what works for you and places that offer the best prices.

Non-Cooking: Hello! and 2013 Year End Review!

Fairfax Four Miler

December 31, 2012 - 41:21 (10:20 pace)

December 31, 2013 - 32:49 (8:13 pace)

What a difference a year makes! 

Hi friends, I know I haven't posted in awhile. Don't worry, I have still been working out & cooking up a storm (this weekend I ran 15 miles on the ice w/ the help of yaktrax, did a two hour trainer ride, made a five-alarm chili, Irish soda bread, Guinness beef stew, and homemade pasta!). It's just that when my work hours increase, my desire to open my computer while not at work severely decreases. And the last few months have been busy to say the least (accountant + year end = bad news).

I don't know about you all, but Christmas/New Years didn't feel like they happened this year. With the late Thanksgiving, I didn't get to do a lot of the things I usually do during the season (visiting the national Christmas tree and the state trees being the big one). And with the work craziness, I haven't had a chance to read the 1,004,323,498 "Get fit for the new year!," "New Year, New You!" articles. I typically am not one to make New Year's resolutions (it is much harder to commit to a workout plan when you wake up to snow/ice covered sidewalks day 2)! However, I took a week and a half off of work recently and had a chance to reflect on 2013 (in addition to catching up with friends, cooking a ton, watching Homeland Season 3 - not sure how I feel, and spending 32 hours in a car to visit family). I realized this is the one year that a New Year's Resolution has impacted my life and resulted in such an amazing transformation.

Unlike the last several years, this year has not been defined by one or two life events (first marathon/half-Ironman, new house/job, Ironman). Rather, this year has been defined by my decision last year to start cooking again in an effort to get healthy, and having the time/resources due to lack of training for an Ironman to take a deep dive into it. When I ran the four miler last year, I had just come back from 2 months in London. I had eaten out every day, traveled almost every weekend, and had a stressful time work wise. I came back utterly exhausted/wrecked. That four miles was incredibly difficult for me, and if it wasn't for chatting with a new friend Nikki I would have had a much worse time then I did. After the race, rather than go out for New Year's, I came home and made my first lentil soup and haven't stopped cooking since. I wrote more in detail about all of this here. 

The deep-dive I have taken into the kitchen has greatly improved my self confidence and I have rediscovered/unlocked a passion that has always simmered beneath the surface. (And unlike my other passion of triathlon, this is one my high school friends can greatly benefit!). It has also completely changed my daily routine and my definition of "fun" and "relaxation." I have always enjoyed cooking, but this year my quest to understand the "why" of cooking has led me to great new heights. One of my goals I jokingly (not jokingly) made this year was to become someone that people get excited about whatever I bring to an event or coming over for dinner, regardless of what I am making. I feel like I have succeeded in this respect, but there is still so much to learn and I find that really exciting. I am no longer am afraid to try a new recipe when I have friends over and now believe I can make anything I want as long as I can find a good recipe. I will do a separate post about my favorite resources for learning how to cook/finding good recipes, but I truly believe with the information available on the Internet, anyone can become a decent cook.  

Thanks to my cooking and my workout addiction, I have been able to eat healthy/not feel deprived. I have also been able to invite people over for a delicious dinner/socializing rather than constantly going out to eat, eating big and spending a ton of money. With these changes, I have managed to lose about 25 pounds since the beginning of the year, am finally back at my pre-college weight (freshman 15 for everyone else = freshman 50 for me!), and am running better than ever. Huzzah! (My favorite part of my team long run this weekend was having three separate fast guys on the team come up to me afterwards to introduce themselves and to tell me good job! This gave me much more satisfaction than I should probably admit.) I know it's a process and I will have my ups and downs in the future, but I am happy to have discovered the tools I need to succeed.

Before: Fairfax four miler December 2012

Afterish: New York Marathon November 2013

Overall, when I initially started to think about 2013, I thought I would end up thinking it was a disappointment compared to 2012 (Ironman!). However, what I ultimately discovered is that it has been one of the best year's I've had in a long time, with such a growth in my self-confidence and so many highlights spread throughout the year. I am excited to see what next year brings! 

Thinking through the year, here are some of the highlights I want to remember (and given my horrific memory that I actually can remember - it's been quite a year!):