Blog-homeless (and my longest run to date)

Well, thanks everyone for liking my previous status update and checking out my new self hosted blog over at Brownie Runs. But if you’ve been over there, you know nothing works. Sigh. So frustrating.

I freelance in social media, which is a part of why I got into blogging. I enjoy writing and thought that chronicling my running journey would be fitting. Over the past few months, I’ve met several bloggers that have gone self hosted and monetized their blogs. I thought this might be a good idea, if anything to build relationships with my favorite brands. Switching has been a steep learning curve and frankly, not one I’m sure I can overcome. We will see, but I might just come back to this site. One of my favorite books, The Happiness Project, suggests sometimes to ‘ Abandon a Project’ when it is sucking away your happiness. Self hosting might become one of those things.

My 17 mile run last Sunday was a little tough. It was really, really long. This is the longest run I have ever accomplished and with my previous piriformis injury that I was still overcoming, I had mentally prepared myself that come hell or high water I would complete this. I knew not completing it would be a severe setback mentally in my training. So I showed up at  5 am and began running with my team. One of my friends has also been battling a hip issue and we have both fallen back from the team in previous runs to take it easy. I knew today was not one of those days I could do that. When we got to mile 10 ( our second water stop), we had all discussed not lingering at the water stops to continue moving along. I got my water and kept walking. It turns out some of our team started falling behind at that point. But I stuck it out and kept my 14 min pace. At our 13 mile, our turn around point ( we had done a short out and back on the same road earlier), I saw my friend had fallen behind and was hurting pretty badly. I wasn’t feeling so hot either but I knew if I slowed down or took extra walking breaks, I’d never finish. I had to leave her and continue with my pace. Our team ended up breaking up into 3 groups. I stuck with teammates Heather and Jim, who have been married for quite a while and have kids about my age. Turns out they’ve lived all over the world while serving our nation and they had been on a mission trip to the town I grew up in. It was nice chatting with people I usually don’t get to talk to, and we pushed each other to complete the mileage. 

I could not believe my watch when I finally completed my run. Most of the team had completed 14 miles, but since I am training for an earlier race, I am always adding extra mileage. Nearly 4 hours later, I finished. 

 

It feels awesome. I came home and soaked in an ice bath. Miraculously I felt pretty good the following day. I’ve taken it easy this last week, and I think that has helped my healing. This week I have 20 miles. 

My Galloway team also took the opportunity to sign up for a virtual half marathon to benefit Marathon High. Marathon High is a charity that coaches kids to walk/run a half marathon and builds confidence and self esteem along the way. Many of these kids are disadvantaged, and running truly becomes not only an outlet, but something they can succeed and take pride in.  They hoped to get 250 runners and ended up with many more than that across 16 states and 2 countries. Can you imagine being a kid in the program and having that kind of support? Awesome. Here are the pics of me and my team members who took part in this fundraiser. 

 

How’s your training coming along?

Have you ever ran for a charity?

Have you tried going self-hosted and hit a road block?

 

I’ve moved! Please follow my new blog!

Hi everyone! If you’ve been following me on Correle Martha, welcome to my new home on Brownie Runs! I’ve enjoyed running and blogging so much that I have switched to a self-hosted WordPress site. Please go to www.brownieruns.com to continue following my journey!

I am new to the wordpress creation world and there is a steep learning curve. So be patient while I switch over all my pages and menus and figure out what the heck I’m doing.

Tomorrow I will blog about my 17 mile run last week and the upcoming 49 days before the marathon!

Hope you’ll join me!

Week 11- 8 miles and a possibly injury to halt the process

Last week, my husband was out of town for most of the week for work. The good thing is he was in Colorado and got to see his parents. The bad thing is he was gone for the better part of the week. His travel has just recently picked up and while I will be the first to say it’s sometimes nice to have the place to myself, I really missed him. It was also our anniversary weekend and I was ready to have a weekend of just us.

But not before we got our long runs over with.

This week, I was on a ‘down’ week, since I had previously ran 14 miles. But Jerry was running 16 miles. Whew. We decided to do these runs on Saturday before we headed to Orlando for the weekend. So at 5:30 in the morning, we were at the park and ready to go. Jerry started his miles while I drove to set out Gatorade for us 4 miles from the starting point. He went 1 mile south then came back up north, hitting the water stop at 5 miles and at 11 miles. I would hit it once when I got to 4 miles. I was back and started running at 6 a.m. I just got a Gymboss timer (in my favorite color, orange) to keep my intervals so I wouldn’t be looking at my watch all the time. I set it for 3 min run, 1 min walk and off I went.  I really liked having a timer because I couldn’t negotiate with myself. Often I say “Well maybe I’ll take an extra 30 sec. walk break”, but I didn’t want to reset my timer so I stayed with the interval. I kept a steady 13 min pace, my target training pace, throughout the entire run. I usually slow down at the end of my work out so this was great for me.

However, during the last week, I have felt like I needed to pop my lower back or stretch as my lower back/upper buttock has that ‘pinched nerve’ sort of feeling. I thought it was just something I might have tightened during a workout so I left it alone. But a week later and it’s still here. What’s strange is it mostly comes on when I am walking not running.

So I did what every American does and consulted Dr. Google. It seems it may be the beginnings of piriformis. Basically piriformis is caused by weak hip muscles and hamstrings and the muscle that is contracted is pressing down on the sciatic nerve. Here’s the video that I used to self diagnose.

I also called my doctor and made an appointment for this week so I hope to get some clarity. Let’s hope it’s not too serious and that I can keep training. I took Sunday and today off as rest days hoping it would lessen (it did not). This week I have 17 miles to run on Sunday and hope to make it.

When Jerry came back from his business trip on Friday, he said he had a gift for me. Jerry and I are usually not ‘gift’ people. We’re fortunate to be able to purchase what we need and what we want pretty easily. Still, we often buy things that we can enjoy together. While I am still very much a girl and appreciate jewelry and perfume, more thoughtful gifts are always more meaningful.

We had talked about being even more active outdoors, even trying camping. 6 years ago I wouldn’t even utter the word and now I want to go camping soon. So Jerry surprised me with this beauty from REI. 

 

I’m very excited about going on a 1-3 day hike with this soon.

To finish the celebratory weekend we finished our 2 days in Orlando by seeing the Marc Anothny concert. As mentioned before, we won tickets from fellow blogger Laurita on Espresso Con Leche. Marc is such a talented singer, something I never thought when I heard his songs in English. In Spanish, he is a salsa superstar.Our time in Florida has made me appreciate salsa music (not traditional in Mexico) and I enjoy dancing with Jerry.  We’ve been wanting to see him for years, and we did this weekend! The Club Level tickets also allowed us to dance!

 

Anyone else suffering from an injury?

Week 10- The not-so-good longest run so far and my wedding anniversary!

It’s been such a full week and it’s only continuing now. I’d like to blog more often because I feel when I finally sit down I have so much to tell, but it’s hard finding the time to just sit still and write!

This last Sunday was my longest run to date- 14 miles! I got up bright and early to meet my team at 5:30 in the morning. I’m being featured in the Space Coast Runners Newsletter in the ‘ Run a Mile With’ column. Basically a little feature about runners in our community. I was excited they asked me to be interviewed and submit some photos. I knew I wanted a picture of my team so we took one this last Sunday.

Well the picture was the easy part! I didn’t have time that morning to eat, I only had my smoothie. I think this along with other things going on that day made my iron drop. I felt drained.  My friend started having hip pain so around mile 11 for me (9  for her, she was doing 12), we dropped back from the group. Instead of doing 30:30 intervals, we started running 30 seconds and walking 1:30. We did this for the last 3 miles or so. On the way, we found a guy that was running on his own and struggling. He joined us and we chatted along the way. He used to be really athletic in high school and college, but now in his 40’s, he had a hard time making exercise a regular thing. The three of us encouraged each other and had a good time.

I came home and rushed to get ready to go to church. I don’t always go to church on Sundays due to my training, but my husband was helping during the service. We go to a Methodist church that we enjoy a lot. The vision statement is ‘ Love God, Love each other and Love our neighbors in extraordinary ways”. I think having such an open, welcoming and accepting vision as this is what it’s all about.

We then headed to a fundraiser for the Melbourne Avian Rescue Sanctuary. One of my friends is a bird owner and deeply involved with the organization ( she’s on the right hand side). Did you know many of these birds live for decades, sometimes 80 years! That’s why this rescue organization is so important, many times they take in the same bird over and over. It’s not as glamorous as a puppy rescue, but I love all animals. We had a great time.  There were 4 wines to taste and my husband loved being surrounded by all women (the girls in the middle were sitting with us).

When we finally came home, I think I was too wound up to actually take a nap. We decided to order in a pizza ( I had, after all, a 1400 calorie deficiency). While I was ordering the pizza, my Twitter notifications started going off. My friend Laurita over at Espresso Con Leche was holding a giveaway on her blog for Marc Anthony tickets. Now before you knock him, he is an idol in the salsa genre. I admit that I do not like him singing in English, but this man knows how to do salsa well. I’ve been wanting to see him for a while know, but as he lives in Miami, Florida concerts are some of his most popular. Tickets are always expensive. But I had thought, ‘Why Not?’, since this is the actual day of our 6th wedding anniversary. I bit the bullet and bought the tickets. Then on Sunday, it turns out I won tickets on her blog! I promptly sold mine on StubHub. I was worried we’d be up in the nosebleeds, but these are club level tickets! I am elated to celebrate our anniversary listening to one of our favorite singers. I’ve always said one of the best things we did for our marriage was learn how to dance. There is so much non-verbal communication and it’s also downright hot when a man knows how to dance. So pardon my wedding collage.

My wedding, like most of my life, was on the Texas-Mexico border. We got married in a church in El Paso, TX where I went to school and had friends, but later, we crossed into Cd. Juarez for the reception, where most of my family lives. To this date, my friends say it is one of the most fun weddings they have attended. The mariachi was first class and was a gift from my dad. I wouldn’t have wanted my wedding any other way.

I could take up a whole blog on marriage lessons, but this is a running blog after all. This last year has been so fun, taking up running and new challenges and getting fit together.

This week is a semi-off week, with less mileage. Definitely well timed as we will be on celebration mode this weekend.

Is there an artist you’ve always wanted to see?

Week 9: A rocket launch, speed work and a trip to India!

Whew what a week! I had a slacker running week, running paltry 12 miles this week. It was a recovery week after our long run and I did my recovery week proud.

I did start the week with a little of a hard workout. During the hot afternoon sun. I was basically too lazy to get my butt up on Tuesday morning to run, so I punished myself and went running with my husband on Tuesday afternoon. I’ve started doing some interval running to help increase my speed. I looked up what my 400m pace should be, based on my new one mile time, and I came up with a 2:15 goal. I challenged myself to do 10x400m, with walk breaks anywhere between 1 min- 2:15. My first few intervals were energizing. At about the 4th interval, I started to slow down a bit, questioning whether I would finish the workout. I always try to make a deal with myself, like ” Well, 8 wouldn’t be so bad right?”. Then I get to 8 and think I would feel awful for not finishing the workout. It was definitely challenging, but none of my intervals were more than 2:25, and I felt accomplished when I finished. And dead tired and hungry.

On Wednesday, my friend Mel and I did our regular Wednesday run of about 3 miles. I’ve really enjoyed running with her, I know she can run faster but she keeps pace with me. I think she mostly does it for the beer we have afterwards. 

We had one beer then rushed to the beach (where we both live) to watch the rocket launch. 5 years ago, my husband and I moved from Denver to Cocoa Beach due to my his job. He works as an engineer for a company that launches these huge rockets, mostly carrying secret government payloads and satellites to make our everyday lives better. He wanted to be on the front lines, so we moved here! Well the Delta IV Heavy rocket is the one he primarily works on and this rocket usually carries important payloads, since the 4 boosters get it out into deep space. This was carrying a government satellite to enhance communications for our troops!

Courtesy of: United Launch Alliance

It also makes the most sound out all the rockets.  The video is a little long, but here it is. Watching a rocket launch over the ocean at dusk is one of the experiences that makes me happy to live in Florida. At around 1:35, what sounds like a strong gust of wind is actually rocket breaking the sound barrier.

I slacked off on Thursday (and Friday and Saturday). I felt a little mentally drained. Working 2 jobs has caught up to me and I just had little energy. So Jerry and I spent the weekend doing some fun things. 

I’ve wanted to go to India for a long, long time. We had planned to go this coming year, but I don’t think it will be possible just yet. So we settled for the next best thing: IndiaFest! The Festival was small, but the food was phenomenal. I had this potato based dal, and we ordered a vegetarian plate with all kinds of curries. Not as good as a vacation in India but it will do. 

 

I finished the week with an easy 6 mile run on my own (my team was taking an off week) and I greatly missed running with them. Running Marine Corps Marathon without them will be pretty challenging. I haven’t worked on my mental preparation as much as I need to and it was obvious this Sunday.  I did manage to snap this amazing picture of the sunrise though!

We’ll be running 14.5 miles next week!

What is your exotic dream vacation?

Week 8: All we have is this one life!

This week, my husband was out of town for the entire week so it got a little lonely around here. Having my own business part time, I have to find opportunities for me to get out of the house when I am here. Unfortunately, Monday I worked the entire day, not stopping until past 10 p.m. So if I was single I’d be a really successful, but very lonely girl. I am so glad to be celebrating 6 years of marriage with my wonderful husband later this month. And we’ve been on this running journey together from day 1! Well, not literally, he runs much much faster than I do. 

I ran Tuesday afternoon in the neighborhood, and on Wednesday afternoon I decided to run a local bridge, AKA ‘The Hills’ here in Florida. There was this huge traffic jam on the way to the parking lot just next to the bridge and after 20 minutes. After the firetrucks and ambulances cleared the scene a bit, there was only this. 

I usually don’t take pictures at accident scenes, but I think a picture like this sometimes shocks us into appreciating what we have. Life is so , so short. Enjoy the people that you have in your life, enjoy these beautiful runs, I am healthy, happy and safe and there is nothing more that I could need. 

Ok, enough with the inspirational Oprah talks right? 

Today we did 12 miles on the course that will be Space Coast Marathon. Our group was thrilled to be running a new course, but it was definitely a little more challenging since there is a slight incline. Training with these girls really makes me appreciate running with other people.  When I trained for my first half marathon I did it all on my own and I felt alone in the race, too. I know that there are new friendships blossoming and we will continue to encourage each other past this marathon. Speaking of which, there was a runner that coordinated the water stops for this course and she was a little rude about not being ‘notified’ of a large group coming, although this run is open to the public. I’m sure she was just frazzled, but to my group, she seemed like ‘another rude, fast runner’ and my group didn’t feel welcome. Do me a favor: If you see new runners, make sure you make them feel like you’re glad to see new runners. There is nothing more discouraging to a new runner than to not feel welcome. Just.be.nice.

Anyhow, since this week I was on my own, I ate simple, easy burritos all week. My Mexican side comes out, I crave rice and beans all the time. So here is my super easy, super nutritious way of making burritos

Martha’s ” Super Simple” Vegan Burritos

1 package of tortilla wraps

1 cup of brown rice, cooked (Instant brown rice works great here!)

1 cup of beans, any, pre soaked and cooked

2 c. of in season veggies- I used zucchini and corn

Soy sour cream, such as Tofutti

Hot sauce- my favorite is Tabasco’s Smoked Chipotle

Sautee zucchini or other veggies in a little bit of oil, adding salt and pepper. When ready, assembly by putting a small amount of rice, a scoop of beans, topped with tons of veggies, soy sour cream and sprinkled with hot sauce. 

This is my go-to “stick to my ribs” food.

What do you crave after long, hard runs?

 

 

Week 7 and Vegan Crab Cakes with a vengance

Last week, our group met up and did an easy 6 mile run. This Sunday we have out ‘Magic Mile’ time trial.  This is one of the most important tenets of the Galloway program. Basically, this not only predicts race day performance, but also helps figure out what pace to keep during shorter races and training. One of the first conditions of the accuracy is that the weather is 60 degree or lower. Well, gee, let me wait until January, Jeff!

Here is how Jeff Galloway describes on his site how to do the Magic Mile

1. warm up with a slow one mile run
2. do a few acceleration-gliders (Video here )
3. pace yourself as even as possible on each quarter mile
4. run about as hard as you could run for one mile–but no puking! (finish feeling that you couldn’t have run more than a football field at the same pace)
5. keep walking after the time trial for 5 minutes, and jog a slow 1-6 miles, as needed for the mileage for that day

When we first did them about a month ago, I thought the acceleration gliders were just wasting energy. I was wrong! This did make me run a bit faster, since the fast twitch muscles in my legs were warmed up. I ran a 9:59 last month, which was quite disappointing, as my best pace for a 5k last year was at 9:30.

So on Tuesday I went to the Rockledge High School track.

 Notice there is no fence around this track. I had been eyeing this for a while and I finally got the courage to sneak in. There was only one other guy running and he didn’t look like he went to the school, so i set down my water bottle and started one loop of acceleration gliders. I then reset my garmin and made my water bottle my marker, and off I went running one mile! I kept a comfortably hard pace throughout, slowing down to a brisk jog when i got tired, but I did not walk. During the last lap, I felt so energized! Then some track kids started showing up and looking at me weird, so I had to run even faster! When I was done, I looked at my watch and nearly fell out of my…..track?  8:56 mile! That is the fastest I have ever ran a mile in. I jogged myself out of the track and onto the familiar River Road, which is only a few blocks away, completing 3 miles. I’m just ecstatic, and I hope I can repeat my performance on Sunday. We will see.

This week I made these delicious ‘Chesapeake Tempeh Crabcakes‘ from Post Punk Kitchen. I had bought some tempeh a few weeks ago and this sounded so delicious. I paired it with The Sexy Vegan’s ‘ New England Blam Chowder’, which is phenomenal, but we’ll stick to the crabcakes for time’s sake.  So why are they ‘crabcakes with a vengance’? Well because, the oil splattered on my arm and gave me some nice burns. They’re still healing and it’s nearly been a week. So watch out for those oil splatters. This looks like a lot of work/ingredients, but believe me, it’s not compared to how delicious these taste! Enjoy!

For the cakes:
8 ounces tempeh
1 cup water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bay leaf

3 tablespoons Vegenaisse
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon hot sauce ( I used Tabasco)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 cup very finely chopped red bell pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspooon salt
fresh black pepper
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs, plus extra for dredging
Optional: 1 finely chopped nori sheet or 1 tablespoon kelp granules (if you like a little fishiness)

Oil for pan frying

For the remoulade:
2 tablespoons Vegenaise
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard  (stone ground dijon works, too)
1 tablespoon hot sauce
2 teaspoons capers (try not to get too much brine)

Lemon wedges for serving

First we’re going to steam the tempeh to get the bitterness out and also to infuse some flavor with the soy sauce. Crumble the tempeh into a saucier or small pan in little bits. Add the water, soy sauce, oil and bay leaf. The tempeh won’t be fully submerged, but that’s fine. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, let boil for 12 to 15 minutes, until most of the water has evaporated. Stir once during boiling.

Transfer contents to a mixing bowl, remove bay leaf, and mash with a fork. Let cool for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to hasten the cooling process. Make sure the tempeh is barely warm before you proceed, or the cakes may fall apart when you cook them. Add the mayo, mustard, hot sauce, vinegar, chopped bell pepper, spices salt and pepper, and mix well. Add the bread crumbs and nori and use your hands to incorporate.

Once you are ready to form the cakes, preheat a thin layer of oil in a heavy bottomed non-stick skillet (cast iron is great) over medium heat. Pour a few tablespoons of panko into a bowl. Scoop a little less than 1/4 cup batter into your hands and form into a ball. Flatten between your palms and then roll the sides gently with your hands cupped to smooth them. You should have ten 2 1/2 to 3- inch patties. I do them in batches of five. Press them into the panko to lightly coat. They don’t need to be thoroughly covered, just a little bit for some texture.

Fry a batch of five cakes for 4 minutes on one side and flip when dark golden brown. Fry for 2 minutes on the other side and transfer to a paper towel or paper bag to drain. Do your second batch and in the meantime make your remoulade by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Serve with lemon wedges.

Week 5 and 6 Marathon Training: I wish I could blog while running!

So I know no one was waiting on baited breath for my weekly marathon training updates, but I genuinely felt like a slacker for not having time to update my blog. Alas, here I am now.

Week 5 was a first for many things. On Wednesday, I did my first double workout. In the morning I did a short 2 mile run and came back home and did yoga. I highly encourage you to check out Do Yoga With Me, a free online yoga video site. I have been doing yoga from this site for my entire year of running, and I really think I have avoided injury due to practicing yoga. Check out the specific ‘ Yoga for Runners’ videos. I like the David Procyshyn Yoga for Hips, Hamstrings and Back . I had frequent IT Band issues especially when I was only running instead of run/walking and this helped a lot. I also do the Injury Prevention after runs and do the Pilates videos during cross training days. I get more out of doing yoga in my own house, as I am not under pressure or anybody else’s ‘labels’ as when practicing yoga with a group. Try it out!

In the afternoon I ran with my usual group and did 3 miles. This has become my ‘speed’ workout if you may. I was leading the group of two other ladies and I was pressured to keep a faster pace. I am convinced that training with a group at least for a portion of your training is important. Also, it helps that this is the course for the Space Coast Marathon  which I will run in December. It really is a beautiful course.

River Road in Cocoa, FL

The real doozy came on Sunday Morning. Training run: 13.1 Miles. Woah! My morning started by getting up at 4:00 am, to be running at 4:45 am. Luckily, I’m not fully awake yet so the first 5.5 miles were done by ‘sleep-running’.

I was really excited to see my final time though. My half marathon in Miami was very challenging and I was not methodical about my run/walk intervals. At this race, I finished in 2:37. On this training run, running a much slower pace and taking plenty of breaks (half of the distance was done at 2:1 intervals, the other at 30 sec:30 sec), I was only 20 minutes slower. And I felt amazing afterwards, with very little effort.

Week 6 was much more a rest week for me. My legs were a little tired on Monday and Tuesday, so I proceeded with my Wednesday run, pushing to 4 miles. I did 3 miles on Friday, the first with my new Ultimate Direction Strider Belt. I wasn’t pleased at all the first time I wore it, but my running store gave me a few tips, so I’ll refrain from a review right now.  Yesterday was an uber simple 6 miler with a 30:30 interval at a near 14 minute pace.

My spirits are higher than ever though, and I am feeling awesome about my training. At least until I start doing training runs in the 20’s.

What is the one thing about running that still kind of scares you?

Week 4 Marathon Training- Double Digits and Turtle Tracks!

This was a truly amazing week. On Tuesday, I decided to do 400 m repeats, as advised by the plan my husband is on. According to this, my speed should be about 2:25 for those segments. I did 8 with a 1 minute walk break in between and I was beat! The picture of me sweating below  was well before 7 am. The humidity has been above 90% here, and there’s no escape. 

During the week I also made Seitan Saltado by Terri Hope Romero which appears on the book Viva Vegan. Now, I’m not really cool with giving out recipes that have not been previously posted online by the author, but if you google it, you’re bound to get some recipes. The premise is red or white seitan (I had a little of both) with Peruvian Aji chiles, onions, and tomatoes served with brown rice and fresh french fries. It was just what I needed for dinner after running and working. If you don’t already own a copy of this book, I highly recommend it. It’s been super delicious.

On Friday morning I woke up at 6 am and was delighted that there was a super low tide. Off to the beach I went to run. Once I got to the beach, no more than a couple minutes passed by when I saw it: two fresh sets of turtle tracks, and large turtles at that. If you don’t live anywhere near the ocean, you may be unaware that May-August is Turtle Nesting Season. Turtles of all kinds come ashore to lay their eggs which will hatch in about 55-75 days, depending on the turtle. If I haven’t told you the story of why I started running it’s simple: sea turtles. Over 3 years ago I conquered my fear of the water and got scuba certified. My first sea turtle sighting was unbelievable. So when I read there was a 5k to benefit the Sea Turtle Conservancy, I was all over it. A year later, and here I am still running. So to see the turtle tracks was something really exciting. On the off chance you ever see a turtle coming on shore, don’t disturb it. If it gets scared it will ‘false crawl’ meaning it will go back to the sea without laying eggs. If it goes too long without laying eggs, she will release them into the sea, where there is no chance of survival. 

Of course now I am more motivated than ever to keep up my beach runs, maybe I’ll get to see the baby turtles or at least the tracks. If you want to find out more about sea turtles, check out the Sea Turtle Preservation society here.

Then Sunday came. As I might have mentioned before, my training program is for those training for the Space Coast Marathon here in Melbourne, FL, which takes place Dec.1st. Although I am running this race, I first have to run the Marine Corps Marathon a month earlier. This is why I’ve felt like I needed to do more. And more I did. I did over 11 miles on Sunday.

If you’ve never done the Galloway Run-Walk program like me, I can tell you that this Sunday made me a believer. I have never felt so good after completing over 11 miles. The experience marathoner group (which I tagged along with to get more miles) met earlier than everyone, at 5 am. Boy it was tough getting up at 4:15 am that day. But before I knew it we were done with our additional 5 miles and were joining the other ladies. We had done the 5 miles in 2:1 intervals ( 2 min run, 1 min walk) and kept a pretty good pace. We then continued with everyone else for the 6 miles at 30:30 intervals, which seemed really short, but I welcomed them on such a long run. We managed to keep about a 13 min pace for the entire way and finished the 11 miles in about 2:30 hours. Mind you I ran most of my half marathon in January and finished in 2:38 and I was BEAT. So with a little more juice I can see how this program works. I am a believer. We run on this two lane road in a wealthy stretch of narrow road, where the homes have a river on the front and a river to the back. If you hadn’t known that day that the road was meant for vehicular traffic, one would have thought it was a running trail. It is definitely marathon season. 

My husband and I are signing up for the North Face Endurance Challenge in Georgia in September. i don’t do much trail running, but I figured I can tag along and do the 10k while taking my time. He’s doing the marathon. Trail running interests me, but I have yet to set foot on a trail.

So on to week 5 and I am feeling pretty good! What did you accomplish this week? How’s your training going?

 

 

Week 3 Marathon Training and Vegan Mac and Cheese

Getting up on Sunday morning was a little tough. We had gone to an arena football game in Orlando the night before and after 2 pitchers of Sangria, I could have used more sleep. But 5:30 am came early and made me get up. My smoothie was already in the fridge from the day before, I feel like it’s my secret power fuel, like Popeye on spinach! The drive down to the track was beautiful with the sun rising to the left of me on the beach and the supermoon setting to the right. A little Dave Matthews, and I was totally ready to run and have some fun.

This week we did the Magic Mile time trial. If you’re not familiar,it’s basically a pretty dialed in predictor of improvement and race performance. We are doing several of these throughout the training to measure progress and this was the first one. We started with a short walk, then did 1:1 run walk intervals for about a mile. We then did ‘acceleration gliders’. Basically you start with walking 15 steps, then increase to a jog of the same interval, then a little faster, then faster, then scale back down. After about 5 of these we all prepared to run our mile. I knew I wanted to be under 10 minutes, as my fastest average pace during a 5k was 9:34, just about a month ago. We were on a track, which is a little hard for me because it’s so dang boring! Anyhow, round and round we went and my time was 9:59! Well at least I got under 10 I guess… So at 3% improvement I can increase to  9:42 and at 5% to 9:30. Now, I was just at near 9:30 a month ago, so I think I can increase more than that. We then finished out our run with 1:1 intervals, running a total of 5 miles. I came home and took about an hour nap as I had a girlfriend’s birthday party to go to.

My husband is on a very different training program, one put on by a local track coach. They run many more miles and do more tempo and targeted pace runs, including a Wednesday run that is 60-70% of your long run on Sunday. I think I’ll blend a little of this program into my workout, doing some faster runs and some longer steady runs. I feel like if I just do the 30 min run/walk twice a week, I’ll actually lose of the conditioning I have built for the last year.

After a 2nd nap, ( I’ve been working a lot)i wanted to make some Vegan Mac and Cheese. Now, before you frown if you’re not vegan or think of some chalky substance if you are, I promise you this is the best vegan mac and cheese. How do I know? My nephews, ages 10,7 and 3 all devoured it at Christmas. And they eat the real mac and cheese and loved this one.

The recipe comes from VegNews, a great vegan magazine with some delicious recipes.  The link is here, and I didn’t deviate much from it http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=40&catId=10

Vegan Mac and Cheese 

Serves 6

What You Need:

• 4 quarts water
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 8 ounces macaroni ( I used the whole box, less cheesy but feeds more)
• 4 slices of bread, torn into large pieces
• 2 tablespoons + 1/3 cup non-hydrogenated margarine ( I used Earth Balance)
• 2 tablespoons shallots, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup red or yellow potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1/3 cup onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup raw cashews ( I soaked mine for a few hours while I was doing other stuff)
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

What You Do:

1. In a large pot, bring the water and salt to a boil. Add macaroni and cook until al dente. In a colander, drain pasta and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, add shallots, potatoes, carrots, onion, and water, and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes, or until vegetables are very soft.
3. While the veggies are cooking, make breadcrumbs by pulverizing the bread and 2 tablespoons margarine to a medium-fine texture in a food processor. Set aside.
4. In a blender, process the cashews, salt, garlic, 1/3 cup margarine, mustard, lemon juice, black pepper, and cayenne. Add softened vegetables and cooking water to the blender and process until perfectly smooth.
5. In a large bowl, toss the cooked pasta and blended cheese sauce until completely coated. Spread mixture into a 9 x 12 casserole dish, sprinkle with prepared breadcrumbs, and dust with paprika. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese sauce is bubbling and the top has turned golden brown.

This is one of my husband’s favorite dishes and gets us all carbed up for our next run!