Keeping fingers crossed after another great run

Yesterday's 11km group run was ....great. The rain held off until everyone finished and though it was humid, it was still nice to be out after having done my Wed and Friday runs in the basement of a New York hotel.
My running buddy was sick so I ran on my own which to be honest was just what I needed. I wasn't feeling very chatty yesterday morning so I just headed out on my own and enjoyed every minute out there. It was my fastest and most consistent run to date. I know this is an LSD run but I wasn't pushing so hard that I couldn't sustain it and my heart rate overall stayed in the 130's. (the nice thing about starting to run faster - more calories burned...more breakfast that can be consumed...mmmm...)

Running overall has been really good of late, hence why I am crossing my fingers. Not to be pessimistic but I keep feeling like it is just going to crash. I am sure there will be bad days so I am going to revel in how well I feel I have been doing. It also doesn't hurt that I had people from my group comment on how 'speedy' I was getting. Guess my Garmin isn't broke like I thought it was when I looked up my lap times. :)

Hill training starts this week - I am hearing rumours it involves 1) running up a hill 2) running up stairs 3) running a loop and repeating on the way down for 1 circuit.
Fun? WOW!

Goals ...well, really just one Goal but it is a biggie.

Amy's challenge this week is to assess and write up our short and long term goals - personal, healthwise etc.
This was a tough one to be honest...I have one real big goal and I think all my short term goals really centre around this...

I want to run a marathon.

I know this isn't going to change the world or is real original but it is something more and more that I know I want to accomplish. From a fitness perspective and personally/professionally, I am very happy so I am going to keep on this path and go forward.
Short term goals:
1. continue current exercise plan of 2 spin, 2 core, 1 weigh session and 4 runs per week. Anything on top of this is gravy
2. keep on top of any injuries - (touch wood) I have been relatively healthy thus far. I have not had any preventative massage which I really should as I have coverage and just don't use it. Laziness I guess but this will help me out overall
3. stay focused on nutrition. This has been a bit of a struggle but for the most part I have been eating clean 80% of the time and the other 20%...has been....umm...food. :)
Long term goal:
Run the Ottawa Marathon May 2010. Eck!

Running a marathon is a big deal - 42.2 km physically and mentally is not easy.
But I am finally ready to say out loud that I am ready for it.

Walking, Running, still in NYC

I headed back up to the hospital yesterday to pick the husband up. Walked the 52+ blocks again. I am a geek so I mapped out how far it was - approx 6 km so between Wednesday night and yesterday I walked about 13km. I also ran 7km on both Wednesday and this morning and surprisingly I feel pretty good. I think there is still a bit of adrenaline kicking around from flying here, still doing work and the actual surgery so I am expecting a big crash when we get home tonight.
All seemed to have gone well which is good. He has to not walk as much over the next few days but other than that, we should be fine. I really need life to get back to normal as the last few weeks since he broke his scapula and the surgery have been really tiring and busy. I need my routine back...
Having said that, we are going to Florida next Saturday for a wedding...D'oh!

Giveaway!

Marlene over at Mission to A(nother marathon) is having a giveaway in celebration of her 500th post.  She is an awesome blogger, runner and racer to head over and enter.

Recaps...complete with a broken scapula

Not mine...but I will come to that in a minute..
Thursday: spin class....my legs felt dead and this reflected on my hrm.
Friday: 8km run + core at the gym. Really good run but sweated enough for 2 people. Went out to play golf as I was off and had a ton of fun.
Saturday: ugh...no exercise as it is a rest day but I went out to play golf anyway. As I was walking up the 18th hole, our pro came up to tell me that the husband was at the hospital. 6km into his training bike ride, another rider not paying any attention decided to veer left and turn right causing him to crash into him. He slammed on the brakes but couldn't get out of his clips and went down on his left arm, faceplanting as well.

IF YOU ARE A BIKE RIDER AND DON'T WEAR A HELMET...YOU ARE AN IDIOT.

Sorry...I see so many people out there without a helmet. The husband's helmet didn't crack but has a huge dent in the front. We will get it checked to see if it needs to be replaced.
He was admitted to Emergency at 11am...and we saw a specialist at 6:30pm. This was finally after we said we were going to leave, doctor or not. The x-ray shows several breaks in the scapula, which is basically your shoulder blade. Only 1% of fractures are to the scapula...what to go Hubby! Never conform! Geez...
Treatment is ice, a sling and meds. And recovery is long....and of course it is his left arm and he is left handed. D'oh!
Sunday: got the husband all set up with breakfast, water, meds, ice etc and set up for our group run. Got lots of hugs from the group which made me feel better and made me tear up a bit. Settled in for a beautiful 9km run through the path and just tried to zone out for a bit.
Spent the rest of Sunday cleaning the house, helping the husband out and planning lunches/dinners for the week. If anyone has some great ideas about meals to eat one handed, it would be appreciated. Pizza doesn't count...that was Saturday's dinner.
:)

Pushing It on Canada Day

Last night was a 60 min tempo run. After Tuesday night's awesome run, I really didn't think I would be able to bust out a run of the same pace for a full 60 minutes - never have been able to do that before.
I managed an overall time of 1 second faster per km. Go me...it hurt a few times, not going to lie but I was really happy to have managed to be faster for a longer distance. I even eeked out a 6:27/km pace at one point. (I actually thought my Garmin was broken but it isn't..I just rocked at that point)
I know this isnt' fast for you speed demons but for me, it is.
Distance: 8.7 km, time: 56 min.
Apres run, I did Amy's Whittle your Middle workout as part of the Week 1 challenge. This basically put me over the edge and I was officially cooked for the day.

Sleep has not been good of late. I am sure some of it is getting used to exercising later and not really eating dinner until approx. 8:30pm. I am wiped though. I certainly feel tired at night but I wake up a lot through the night and am almost wide awake during these times.
Sad that I am excited that I can sleep in on Saturday until 8am.

Banana-Pumpkin-Chocolate Bread

Since Jaime's posting isn't working, I thought I would post my recipe makeover here...just cause I actually have some pics of the process...

I am not a baker, nor do I play one in my kitchen. I really don’t have the patience to bake – I like cooking as for the most part you can wing it and be more haphazard with it. Baking is too exact and I really don’t have a lot of patience to wait for things to be done. When I came across this recipe in Runners World, I thought I would try it as it was something good to have on hand as a snack, specifically post workout. Plus, it really wasn’t labour intensive as far as baking goes.
Below is the original recipe:

BEFORE
Dry Ingredients

3½ cups flour

3 cups granulated sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground cloves

1½ cups of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

Wet Ingredients

4 eggs

1 cup canola oil

2/3 cup water

2 cups canned, plain pumpkin

Seriously….3 cups of sugar? White flour? Though no baker, I thought I could do better. I have been tweaking around with the recipe a bit and here is the latest: (changes from the original are highlighted in RED)

AFTER
Dry Ingredients

3 ¼ whole wheat flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2.5 tsp ground cinnamon

I eliminated the nutmeg and clove just because I am not a huge fan of them.

1 cup of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

Wet Ingredients

3 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

2/3 cup water

2 cups canned, plain pumpkin
1 mashed ripe banana

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well. In a separate bowl, slightly beat the eggs with a fork or wire whisk. Add the remaining wet ingredients to the eggs and stir well.

Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir just until evenly mixed. Fold in chocolate chips.

Coat 2 bread pans evenly with cooking spray. Pour half of the mixture into each pan.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from the bread.

See – this is where that patience thing comes in….Once loaf was cooked in a non-stick pan (right), the other glass (left). The glass one needed more time to cool but I had things to do and sort of forced it out of the pan:

Oh well, I got to eat the stuff left in the pan.
I know that you can do even more substitutions but even with these few modifications, the overall count of the one ENTIRE loaf went from almost 4000 calories to just over 2000 calories. (Approximate using SparkRecipes) This freezes really well and because it is a very dense bread because of the whole wheat flour, a small piece is filling.
Especially if you heat it up. Mmmmm
Enjoy!