Marathon Training: Week 7/26/10

Last week went well. It was a bit easier than the 2 weeks prior. My schedule got mixed up a little, but I got my runs in...and about 27 miles. I did my time trial on Thursday, and I ran a mile in 7:22...not too bad. I'm hoping to see that improve little-by-little as the weeks go by.

The coming week is Week #5 in my training plan and should go something like this:

Monday: 4 miles at 9:58/mile
Tuesday: Pilates
Wednesday: Hills, 7 miles (this makes me nauseated just thinking about it...I'm getting really tired of hills).
Thursday: Pilates, and 4 miles with 2 of those miles at Marathon Pace (9:09).
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 13 miles at 9:58/mile
Sunday: 4 miles easy.

Total: 32 miles

Weird Dreams

If you've known me long enough, you know that I have some WEIRD dreams. They're usually pretty humorous looking back, sometimes scary, but almost always weird. Why I have weird dreams, I have no idea. But I could probably blog only about my dreams and have a good story every week. I'm not on any medications that could do it, and I'm a pretty restful sleeper (although Ryan may tell you otherwise, and my dentist recently told me I grind my teeth and must have tension when I sleep...news to me!).

Anyway, last night's dream still has me laughing, although while I was in it, I was pretty scared...it seemed so real! The details are a bit hazy, but it went something like this:

The first thing I remember is me in a donut store/bakery...

with a large gun under my left arm.

I approach the counter and demand they open the donut case. As I start pulling out the ooey, gooey treats another band of robbers come in and steal from another case and make a fast get away. I noticed the donuts that they took had pretty, colorful icing. I thought, If I'm going to steal all this stuff, I better get the ones that taste the best. So, I demand the attendant to open another case full of cakes. I tasted a red velvet cake that looked like a red cake on the outside, but was filled with an ooey gooey cream cheese icing in the inside (That's how vivid this dream was!).

I decided I would take that along with my donuts.

When I got home (a home that I've never seen in real-life). Ryan was there, not concerned at all that I had just robbed a bakery at gunpoint! It was at that point and only at that point that I realized I did something wrong. Why did I steal those donuts and not just buy some...it's not like I don't have any money. And I bet that place had cameras...I didn't even wear a mask or gloves or anything! They are gonna find me and put me in jail! The remainder of my dream consisted of hiding guns, hiding from the police, and hiding from suspicious neighbors who thought they could find the donut thief!

Does this mean I didn't eat enough yesterday? Maybe.

Does it mean I haven't had a donut in 2 weeks, 3 days, and 13 hours, and could be having withdrawals?...probably.

Not that I'm counting or anything.

Does it mean I should probably go eat a donut soon so no one gets hurt?

I vote YES!

Marathon Training Week 7/12/10...change of plans. AND What's to come for Week of 7/19/10

Last week went just as planned...


Until the weekend rolled around.


But it's not for lack of planning. As you may remember, the plan was to run 12 miles Saturday with a nice 3 mile recovery run on Sunday. There was one obstacle...work. This was my weekend to work. Which means 11-straight days of getting to work at 8am, making it very difficult to squeeze in 12 miles in the slightly cooler morning hours.


But I was determined to stay on track. I set my alarm for 4am Saturday morning and was out the door by 4:20. I had decided that I would do my 3 mile out-and-back loop from the house...4 times. I thought this would be the safest thing to do rather than trying to run 12 miles in uncharted territory...in the dark.



I had my head lamp, so I could at least see until the sun started to lighten the sky...because, you see, on my rural road, there are about 2 street lamps for every 3 miles of road. What happened next was not so much a run but more of a series of me being startled about every 2.73 minutes. First, 2 crazy raccoons that ran TOWARD me instead of away...no wonder they end up as road kill so often. Then, there was a rabbit, some unidentified creature scurrying across the road, endless rustling in the woods...



And then there were the spider webs. With many trees hanging over the road, and no cars passing through for hours, the spiders had made giant webs that extended from the tree tops all the way down to the street...perfectly positioned for me to run into and then feel like I had spiders all over me. It was like some horror movie...except I was running by choice, not because some scary monster was after me.



I made it to my turn around point, and I had already decided that I wasn't coming back. I made it home by 4:50 (still dark). Frustrated that my safe, easy (because its right out my front door)go-to route had failed me, I decided to just take a shower and rest until I had to get ready for work. 3 miles...check.



I thought I may get my miles in Saturday evening, but the yard work HAD to get done this weekend. So we did yard work and then had a date night...dinner and a movie (Despicable Me..Great movie! not really good for young kids though) and got home around 11:30, which meant no chance for a morning run before work on Sunday.



So, after work I waited...hiding indoors all afternoon waiting for the heat to subside. I checked weather.com which told me the temperature was 92...Heat index of 110! I'm never gonna make it 12 miles tonight...



But I did. It took starting at 8pm and finishing around 10pm, but I got it done. And I can sleep tonight knowing I accomplished what I set out to do this week.

The coming week tapers me back to 28 miles before a steady increase over the following 3 weeks which will be 32, 36, then 39 miles. This helps to prevent injury which is what I have to remind myself, so I don't end up overdoing it this week.

Monday: 4 miles at pace of 10:04min/mile

Tuesday: Pilates (1 hour)

Wednesday: Hills, 5 miles

Thursday: Time trial..this is where I'll go to the track, and after a mile or two warm up, I'll see how fast I can do 1 mile. I'll do one of these about every 4 weeks to see how my training has improved my speed. And Pilates (1 hour).

Friday: 4 miles at pace of 10:04

Saturday: 10 miles at pace of 10:04

Sunday: 4 miles easy.

Total: 28 miles

Time for bed...

Marathon Training: Week 7/12-7/18/10

A quick look back at last week:

Monday: 6 miles, pace 8:55min/mile
Tuesday: 1 mile, pace 9:05, then 1 hour of pilates
Wednesday: Hills 5 miles, pace 9:46
Thursday: 1 hour of pilates, then 5 miles, pace 9:40
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 10.4 miles, pace 10:00
Today: Pilates 30 minutes this morning...I plan for 5 miles, slow and easy tonight.
Total this week: 32 miles

Next week goal (according to my training plan):

Monday: 5 miles, pace 10:04
Tuesday: Pilates
Wednesday: Hills 5 miles
Thursday: Pilates and 5 miles, pace 10:04
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 12 miles, pace 10:04
Sunday: 3 miles easy
Total: 30 miles

I work next weekend, so it will be tricky to squeeze in 12 miles, but I'll do what I can!

The "M" Word

It has been almost six years since I ran my first half-marathon, almost 8 years since running became a part of my life. I never would have pictured myself running a half marathon when I first picked up running just as a way stay in shape. But two years later, I did, and at that point I knew I wanted to run a full marathon someday...6 years have passed. Running has been one of the few constants in my life since then. With a packed school and work schedule, I didn't know if I would ever find the time to train for another half marathon, let alone, a marathon, but I kept running as much as I could...for stress relief, if nothing else. Now that I'm done with school, settled in a job, and finally finding more time to venture out for my runs, I think it's time to reach that goal that I made years ago.



When I joined Daily Mile and pointed you to my training widget (to the right), you may have noticed it was entitled "Marathon Training." I've been very hesitant to share my goal of training for a Marathon. It's so much easier to say I'm training for a half marathon, because even if I skip a few runs here and there, the consequences won't be detrimental, and I'll still make it across the finish line...even if my time is a half-hour slower than I had hoped for. But "Marathon" ushers in a whole new level of commitment. It's not something that I can pull off with a few weeks of training or even a few months. In fact, I started a full six months in advance to pick my race, my training plan, and to begin picking up the mileage.



I'm about 5 weeks into my initial increase in weekly mileage, and it looks like I'm going to break 30 miles for the week. I ran 10.4 miles this morning, and somehow I feel a little bit more confident...well confident enough to share my goals without wondering if I'm going to end up failing miserably at some point along the way. I know there will be obstacles along the way and that I may not reach my goal time, but my main goal with my first marathon is to finish it...all 26.2 miles, whether I run, jog, walk, or crawl across the finish line.

As a way to keep you involved, I'm going to post my training plan every week and keep you updated with how the training is going from week to week. If you get hooked and want to come witness my very first marathon, plan to be in Memphis on December 4th, 2010 for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon. Or if you want to make your own goal to run and help support St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, they have a 5K and a half marathon too...or you can run the marathon with me ;).

Hope to see you there!

Fried Blueberry Muffins and more!

These 3-day weekends are dangerous.

The long weekend+Family in town+Holiday weekend=A good excuse to fry some dough!

Here's a blueberry doughnut recipe I attempted. They turned out pretty good. My cousin, Olivia said, "It's kind of like a fried blueberry muffin with glaze on top." They're gonna be swarmin' like flies with a slogan like that.

Start with 2 Tbsp shortening and a cup of sugar. Mix them in an electric mixer until combined. Add 2 eggs, one at a time (mixing after each addition). With the mixer still running, add 1 cup buttermilk.

Now, go ahead and change the attachment to the dough hook and throw in 1 pint of fresh blueberries (rinsed and patted dry).

In a separated bowl, sift together 4 cups flour, pinch of salt, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda. Add the flour mixture (about a cup at a time) with the mixer still running, until it forms a ball of dough.
Like this.

Transfer the dough into a bowl that is slightly coated with oil. Flip the dough once, cover, and refrigerate for at least an hour (or overnight).

The dough is stickier (is that a word?) than yeast dough, so you'll need a good bit of flour handy when rolling them out and cutting them.

Roll the dough and cut with a doughnut cutter or 2 biscuit cutters.

Fry them at 350 to 375 degrees until golden on each side. Pat dry and dip them in glaze (see recipe below).

This is the finished product!

I also made yeast doughnuts that you may remember from my last 3-day weekend. I used the regular glaze which consists of:

3 cups Powdered Sugar
½ teaspoons Salt
½ teaspoons Vanilla
½ cups Milk

I also made a semisweet chocolate glaze made like this:

1/3 cup unsalted butter
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup warm water
Melt butter and chocolate. Whisk in powdered sugar until smooth. Gradually stir in the water until the mixture reaches the desired consistency.

And looks like this.

Another crowd-pleaser today was a maple glaze made with:

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1/2 tsp maple flavoring

1.5 cup powdered sugar

Slowly add milk until desired consistency (usually about 1/4 cup)

It looked like this.

I'm probably the last person on Earth to know about Picasa, but Kim just recently told me about it when I asked her how she makes all of her collages. I just love the compact way of displaying all the pictures together. So here is a perfectly sweet doughnut collage:

So fun!

Stromboli

I recently realized that I haven't posted a recipe in a while. As it turns out, we did some experimenting last night, and it turned into the perfect opportunity to share a recipe for easy at-home Stromboli!

It's really not a recipe at all when it comes down to it, because, just like pizza, everyone likes something a bit different. But I'll give you the step-by-step run-down of how we did it and you can add or subtract anything you want.

We started with refrigerated pizza dough, but if you like to make your own, more power to ya. You then cut it in half for smaller stromboli or leave it whole for a big one...we did one of each.

Here is one roll cut in half for the smaller ones.

Then get your toppings ready. We browned some hamburger meat and threw in some green peppers, onion, and mushrooms. We also had pepperoni and of course...mozzarella cheese.

This is some fresh basil from our herb garden. We chopped it up and threw it in the meat as it was browning along with some garlic and red pepper flakes.

Now pile it all on the edge of your dough, starting and ending with a layer of mozzarella.

Then you roll it up, pinch the edges, and brush the top with olive oil.

It will look something like this (this is the big one..a full roll of dough!).

Then sprinkle some dried parsley on top and throw 'em in the oven for about 18-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

When you pull them out....

Where have you been my whole life?


All the melty goodness...

It was so good...Ryan loved the meaty goodness, but it would be delicious as a veggie stromboli as well. Just add some various olives, maybe some tomatoes, extra peppers, red onion....my mouth is starting to water. I think I'll go eat the leftovers for lunch!