Foodie Friday – Summer Smoothie

Hey Friday!  It’s a big weekend in Indianapolis, as we host the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on Sunday.  Although I lived here for 98% of my childhood and adolescence, I have never attended the Indy 500 (although I’ve run one lap around the 2.5 mile track in the Indy Mini Marathon in 2011)  And I don’t plan on starting this year.  The forecast for the weekend calls for higher than average temperatures and no clouds, I absolutely do not want to sit around a gigantic blacktop oval that will add about 15 extra degrees of heat and watch cars drive around and around, while surrounded by a bunch of race fans (no offense, they’re not really my type).

Big Ol’ Track – Indianapolis Motor Speedway

SO Sunday may be the hottest Indy 500 on record, and this week’s temperatures have certainly reflected that possibility.  The extra heat has made me crave something cold after runs and workout and I’ve whipped up the following smoothie almost every day this week (except this morning because I was out of one of the ingredients).

Summer Smoothie

I adapted this recipe from a Women’s Health Cleanse (I didn’t complete the cleanse, just looked for recipe ideas..).

You need:

• 1 cup frozen berries
• 1.5 cups milk (I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
• 1 BIG handful of spinach
• 1 scoop protein powder (optional)
• 1 tsp almond/peanut butter (optional)
• A couple ice cubes

Smoothie Ingredients

Throw all that into a blender and blend until it’s smooth!  Depending on the strength of your blender, this could take a minute or a couple minutes.  It’s so delicious and you get a healthy serving of fruits AND vegetables (I promise you can’t even taste the spinach!!).

Yum!

Any Hoosiers braving the heat for the race this weekend?  

Tags: Breakfast, Foodie Fridays, Recipes

30-20-10 Run

Wooooof, do I have a new kind of run for y’all!  I first found this “style” of running tweeted by @runnersworld earlier in the week and knew from reading that I wanted to try it (because, and I quote “Veteran runners who followed the training for just 7 weeks improved their 5K times by four percent, dropping from 23:03 to 22:16.“).  I am all about getting faster right now, as that is one of my goals for the year – setting 5k and half marathon PRs.  Then just yesterday, one of my Memphis runners posted the same workout on my Facebook wall, which of course I took as a sign that my run today should be the 30-20-10.

Run 87/142 – The 30-20-10 Workout

Location: Nancy Burton Park Straightaway (Quickly becoming my “track”)

Weather Notes: Waited until 10:30 to run, so it was warm.

Distance: 4 miles

Time: 34:49

Pace: 8:42

The Workout:

• Warm up – At least half a mile, I chose to warm-up for a mile.
• Repeat the following pattern 5 times: 30 seconds jog, 20 seconds steady race pace, 10 seconds sprint
• Jog 2 minutes
• Repeat the 30-20-10 pattern 5 times again
• Jog 2 minutes
• Repeat the 30-20-10 pattern 5 times again
• Cool down – I chose to round out my mileage to 4.

Split Time Distance Avg Pace Summary 35:02.8 4.00 8:46 1 8:26.4 1.00 8:26 2 1:05.0 0.13 8:34 3 :32.8 0.07 7:36 4 :27.7 0.06 7:49 5 :29.5 0.07 6:52 6 :32.5 0.06 8:58 7 :30.3 0.08 6:43 8 :27.6 0.06 8:14 9 :29.6 0.07 7:17 10 :29.6 0.05 9:58 11 :31.3 0.07 7:22 12 2:29.1 0.27 9:06 13 :33.0 0.08 6:54 14 :27.9 0.05 8:46 15 :29.0 0.06 7:42 16 :29.9 0.05 9:34 17 :30.7 0.07 7:02 18 :29.3 0.06 8:43 19 :30.6 0.07 6:51 20 :29.4 0.05 9:21 21 :30.9 0.08 6:41 22 2:30.4 0.24 10:32 23 :30.0 0.07 7:06 24 :29.0 0.05 8:54 25 :30.9 0.07 7:39 26 :29.7 0.05 9:49 27 :29.7 0.07 6:39 28 :31.4 0.06 8:59 29 :29.7 0.06 7:42 30 :28.6 0.04 12:02 31 :30.6 0.06 8:20 32 7:01.0 0.66 10:38

My speed intervals (the 20 and 10 second segments) are in bold in the table above.  My pace for the most part is right where I want it for my 5k in a few weeks.  As far as the workout goes – it went by very quickly.  It’s not something I would chose to do on a day where I need to think some stuff out on my run, but when I need a workout that makes me feel challenged – this will do it.  I took my heart rate a few times throughout the run and it was definitely in the 80% range (which is right where I want it for performance enhancement), despite the 30 second jog breaks every time.  I can explain that to you in physiological terms if you want sometime….thanks summer school.

Anyway, my plan from here is to keep this workout in once a week until the Gibson Race (repeating the 5 rounds 3 times) and after that increase to repeat the 5 rounds 4 times.  Let me know if you give it a try!

Tags: 5k Training, Running, Speedwork, Workouts

Musical Wednesdays – Everybody’s Free

Hi y’all!  I’m up early – not because I have a gym appointment or wanted to run but because I’ve got a test on 8 chapters of exercise physiology and two labs due today…..I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be a student a little bit!  I think the workload is making me indecisive about what kind of workout I want to do this morning – a run seems like too much time when I could be studying, but my quadriceps are sore from somethin’ yesterday (steps or sprints? not sure!) so I’m hesitant to do anything too tough.  

Meanwhile, today’s song played on the radio when I was driving to Greencastle last week for little bro’s graduation.  I remember hearing it in high school but probably not at all since.  I listened to the whole song and found some of the advice to be relevant and inspiring to anyone graduating, but also just nice reminders for general people.

Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen).  Laz Buhrmann.

If you’d rather read it, than listen to it, here is the original column by Mary Schmich as seen in the Chicago Tribune (

Some of my favorite lines

• You are not as fat as you imagine.
• Do one thing everyday that scares you.
• Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.
• Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
• Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults.
• Stretch.
• Be kind to your knees.
• Don’t congratulate yourself too much, don’t berate yourself either.  Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.
• Enjoy your body, use it every way that you can.  Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it.  It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
• Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
• The older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
• Travel.
• Don’t expect anyone else to support you.

What advice do you take away from that song?  What advice would you give to this year’s graduates?

Tags: Musical Wednesdays

A Speed Sandwich and Step Plus Abs

One of my main goals for the summer is to nail a 5k PR.  Unfortunately that doesn’t just happen.  Also unfortunately, I was pretty speedy in my 5ks last year as I chased a half-marathon PR.  And finally, it’s unfortunate that in order to race fast, you gotta train fast.

With less than three weeks until my next chance at a PR (Gibson Guitar 5k in Memphis), I figured I should get started on that speedwork.  So, this morning after dad and I dropped our guests off at the airport, we headed for the trail (soft terrain, flat and shady).

Run 86/140

THE WORKOUT:  Warm-up at a comfortable pace for one mile.  Sprint for 15 seconds, walk back to the start of the sprint (repeat 8 times).  Cool-down at a moderate pace for one mile.

Location: Nancy Burton Park in Zionsville

Distance: 3 miles

Time: 30:08

Pace: 10:00

Other Notes:  The sprints were kinda fun.  I caught the pace on my watch for each interval and most times it was in the low 6s, even a few times below that!  (We only ran about .05 miles but still).  See the average paces in the chart below (I know next time to hit the lap button before and after the sprint interval to get my pace value for the time running – figured that out for splits 7, 9 and 11.  The second mile felt good and I was able to push in the last quarter at a decent speed.  I’m looking forward to playing around with this style of interval, maybe adding another layer to the sandwich next time or jogging the rests instead of walking.

Split Time Distance Avg Pace Summary 32:56.3 3.01 10:57 1 10:43.2 1.00 10:43 2 2:34.5 0.14 18:20 3 1:29.4 0.10 14:26 4 1:44.2 0.12 14:48 5 1:31.1 0.12 12:38 6 1:43.8 0.12 13:54 7 :18.2 0.05 6:21 8 1:22.1 0.07 19:53 9 :18.0 0.05 5:46 10 1:31.9 0.07 20:40 11 :18.1 0.05 5:55 12 8:37.8 1.00 8:38 13 :44.2 0.11 6:48

Step Plus Abs

Then it was on to the class of the day with my special guest – MAMA!  She’s about the only person in the world I love enough to embarrass myself in an aerobics class for.

Ready to step!

Just like yesterday’s Body Works Plus Abs class, there was quite a following of step enthusiasts this morning.  I was nervous because I’m not especially coordinated or rhythmic when it comes to working out – give me a road or a machine and I’ll do just fine.  But stepping and shuffling and straddling and broadwaying around a step….quite challenging for me!

Before the class – excited!

The class was a full 60 minutes and my HR got up into the 160s (average was 132) which is fairly high for me.  It’s a great reminder that your body really does adapt to the specific type of training you do.  I was certainly dripping with sweat by the end!  And you bet there were a few moves where I just stood there and looked at the instructor with a “you’ve got to be kidding” face as we combined several spinning ballroom moves over the step.  She was very encouraging and kept giving me big thumbs up – I only actually tripped over the step once, and managed to not wipe out completely on the ground.

We ended with about 5 minutes of abs – first planks, then planks with hip drops and then some standard crunches on the floor.  I’m sure I’ll be feeling somethin’ tomorrow (forgot to mention I feel my biceps a little today!).

After step – still excited, but sweaty and tired!

Happy Tuesday!  What do you do for speedwork?  Have you tried a new class yet?

Tags: Exercise Classes, Fitness, Running, Speedwork, Workouts

Body Works Plus Abs

Graduation Re-Cap

How’d your Monday go?  I’m glad to be home after a weekend in Greencastle celebrating Nathan’s graduation from DePauw University.  I’m very proud of him and really enjoyed hanging out and interacting with his soccer teammates and fraternity brothers.  They’re funny boys with big ambitions and I wish them all the best and success (I’ve also decided my retirement job will be a house mom to a frat house of boys).

Walking across the stage

I think everyone in the audience (myself included, obviously) deserves huge props for sitting in the heat.  It was a beautiful, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky kind of day with temperatures in the low 80s at the start of the ceremony.  I’m relieved no one passed out, but I’m pretty sure we all lost 5 pounds just from sweating.

Proud big sis!

The whole immediate family.

Some other highlights of the weekend include:

View from the house.

Interactions with nature

“Man food” at the frat house reception

Bring it on – I’m ready with my plastic apron.

After a drink or two, the talents start to come out.

It’s a family thing…

Monday’s Fitness Routine

Despite all the fun over the weekend, I was ready to get back into a regular fitness routine.  I let myself sleep in a bit before hitting the road for a run.

Run 85/139

Location: Zionsville morning 5-mile route to rail trail

Distance: 5 miles

Weather: Cool temperatures but high humidity because of rain overnight

Time: 43 minutes

Pace: 8:30ish

Other Notes: It felt great to be out running after a full day of rest Sunday.  I’m not sure what I thought about this morning…I think I tried to create a plan in my head for getting a PR in a 5k in June…..also, still recovering from sinus and allergy issues so didn’t feel 100%.  But definitely better!

I decided to use my run as a warm-up for today’s fitness class of choice.  I mentioned in this morning’s post that I was going to try a new style of class at my new gym, LA Fitness each day this week.  Today I opted for Body Works Plus Abs.  

Here’s how LA Fitness describes the class:

Here’s what I say: The number of participants in this morning’s class speaks volumes for the effectiveness and popularity of the class.  Our group of mostly middle-aged women (nothing wrong with that, I just know that mid-morning is their time of day) with a few college students (probably home for the summer) and several golden girls, and one man (hey, more power to ya, the odds are in your favor) packed the entire large classroom mirror to mirror.  Our props included several sets of dumbbells and a step with risers.  I opted for two risers and 5 and 7.5 pound weights.  Stereotypical aerobics-style music played and a stereotypically cute and hyper-energetic instructor led us through squats, biceps, triceps, shoulders, more squats, one-legged squats, step ups, dips and abs.  We pulsed and held and got lower and alternated and lifted.  And it was a great time and effective workout – I can make it even more effective by lifting heavier weights.  I’m glad I tried it and will try another Body Works Plus Abs class again soon.

On deck for tomorrow is Step Plus Abs with a special guest!  (For any of you who have seen me teach an aerobics class, you know this story will be entertaining.

 

Tags: Family, Fitness, Graduation, Running

Motivation Mondays

Hey Y’all! It’s Monday – time to get the week off to a great start.  As some of you know, I’ve been adjusting to moving back to Zionsville to spend the summer at my parents’.  That meant leaving the gym (InsideOut) that I knew and loved for five years.  When I first joined as a sophomore in college, I jumped right into the many free classes they offered each week, and several years later found myself teaching a variety of them!  Classes are a fantastic way to get a great workout in without much thought on your part (you just bring the effort!).

So, if you’re having trouble staying on a routine recently – maybe it’s your busy schedule (vacations and graduations anyone?) or the heat and humidity that are keeping you from your normal routine.  Or maybe you’re just not motivated.  It’s ok!  That happens.  This week let’s take advantage of some classes at your gym.  Choose an old favorite to get back to – I always loved a good spin class – and PUT IT IN YOUR CALENDAR!  If your gym doesn’t offer any, grab a partner and set a specific time and date to go for a walk/run or have a weight date.  Then, don’t let anything (heat, humidity, happy hour) keep you from that appointment, you’re doing this for yourself!

This week I’m going to jump into the classes at my new place, LA Fitness, and will share with you how it goes!  Let me know if you take any this week!

So many choices!

Any particular class you’d like me to take, and then tell you about??  Please don’t pick Zumba…..white girl can’t dance

Tags: Exercise Classes, Fitness, Motivation Mondays

Rules of the Night

The party was a huge success!  There was enough food, water, drinks, seating and dessert for everyone.  No one burned down the house or fell into the lake.  We also managed to keep the drinking under control (aka, no one ended up face down in their own vomit, a true concern with the punch that masked the taste of the vodka).

It was a personal success for me too because several people included my Rainbow Quinoa Salad on their plates and I managed to load up on healthy food while not feeling hungry or deprived (see, you can eat well and stay healthy).  I knew going into this weekend that large gatherings like these tend to have their share of unhealthy dishes (let’s call them PR-wreckers – because that’s what I’m after this summer, my 5k PR).  SO I developed this strategy for the BBQ last night:

1. Load up on whatever and as many vegetables as I want.
2. Choose one “grown-up” drink of choice and enjoy two servings.
3. If I’m still hungry after the vegetables, choose one protein (my choices were burgers, burgers with bacon in them, chicken sausage and brats).
4. Avoid the crackers, chips, pretzels and dips.  (They’re not even that good anyway, so I didn’t feel deprived)
5. Choose one dessert and enjoy it!

Veggie Plate

So, according to my rules, I loaded up on raw veggies, roasted asparagus, my salad, a delicious bean and veggie salad that I can’t wait to get the recipe for, and some slaw (hardly a veggie but I only took a little!).  And that was plenty of food!  My drink of choice was a take on Alchemy’s Two One Two - tequila and grapefruit juice with a lime squeeze.  For dessert I skipped the cobbler and pies for a sliver of Mama’s Irene Cake (the recipe has been in her family for generations and it is one of the best chocolate cakes I’ll ever eat. A birthday request for years!).  And that was a successful party – I was full, satisfied and I got to drink and eat dessert without feeling like I “blew it” or restricted too much!

I also know it was successful because I was able to get up and run this morning without a raging headache, throwing up first (both those from drinking too much) or feeling too full to move, let alone run.

Run 84/137

Location: DePauw University – Greencastle, Indiana

Weather Notes: Warm – 68 to start.

Distance: 5 miles

Time: 43:45

Pace: 8:45

Other Notes: I’m not familiar enough with Greencastle to know of any running trails or an exciting 5-mile route so I just ran.  Started off at the Inn (where my parents would stay when they came for games) and ran through campus.  I passed the Quadrangle and apparently the location of the graduation ceremony tomorrow.

Rows and rows of chairs.

The stage.

I started reflecting on my graduation from Rhodes College – remembering the heat and humidity of that morning for our ceremony in the gardens.  I’m so glad it was outside but still, those black robes in the Southern heat……I can’t believe that was two years ago.  And I can’t believe what my core group of friends has done since then – marriage, buying houses, traveling this country and others, getting into professional schools and kicking ass and taking names in Africa.  Damn girls, pretty impressive.

I continued through fraternity and sorority row – in awe of the size of the houses.  Because of a brothel law in Tennessee, we were not allowed to live in our sorority house and so it was big enough just for meetings and gatherings.  Some of these houses were like castles!  I recognized my brother’s Phi Psi house.

Monster House

I ran up and down streets trying to make boxes back to the Quadrangle when I could, to make sure I didn’t get lost.  I found the soccer fields, the basketball gym (I played a game or two in there with the Rhodes Lynx!), and a big playground with a pool, jungle gym and skate park.

I met up with the crew afterwards for a sweaty breakfast (they tolerated my stink quite nicely) and a tour of campus from Nathan.  Now we’re getting ready for a leftovers lunch (yay more quinoa!) and a banquet dinner with all the senior Phi Psis tonight.  I’ll be sure to share my rules for tonight and let you know how it goes!

Hope your weekend’s off to a wonderful start!  Congrats to all the graduates – high school, college and professional/graduate school!

Tags: Family, Graduation, Healthy Eating, Potlucks, Running