There is good news and bad news.
BAD
I am taking a little break from the kitchen as i just nearly broke my ankle in a bike accident. I was riding my bike home from the grocery store (of all places) and a car door opened right into the side of me. One of my biggest fears since we have moved to Cambirdge and started biking everywhere was running into a car door. I have had a few close calls, but this one was perfectly timed so there was no avoiding it. It was flung open into my body and knocked me into the street. I was laying on the yellow line. Thank heavens there was no oncoming traffic.
So now my right ankle is very swollen and has two punctures from my chain ring. I pray that I will be back to running on it in a week or two… the marathon that I have been training for all summer is in 3.
GOOD
We won artwork at the MIT student art loan! We got a print of Yoshitomo Nara’s ‘In the Floating World Gold Fish’ (#37/50) to keep in our apartment for a year. It retails around $3,880 so hopefully we don’t mess it up!
Filed under: MULTISPORT
It is time to get serious about marathon training. We are moving to Boston in August, and soon thereafter running the Bay State Marathon on October 18th in hopes to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Here is a MAP of the Bay State race. I am DETERMINED to qualify for the Boston marathon at the Bay State Marathon… I ran my last marathon in 3:50 and it was pretty painful for the last 4 miles (i think about average pain, but painful nonetheless). I need a 3:40 or under time to qualify, so I have quite a bit of time to shave off. This means longer runs, faster runs, and probably loosing a few pounds.
I have gained about 5-8 lbs since college and am determined to loose 5. Since it seems like we are always training for something (the triathlon this whole winter, and the Marine Corps Marathon before that) i have had the mentality that i can eat whatever i want, when i want it. I do not have much self control when it comes to food, and have never really been on a diet.
I signed up for the Richmond Marathon last fall when we both expected to be attending UVA for graduate school. Chances are, I will not have the money to fly down to Richmond from Boston for the race. If i do get a buddy pass, there is also a good change that the flight will fill up. In the event that i can get to Richmond on the 14th of November, I think i will try to run both marathons.
Hopefully all of our triathlon cross training has set me up well. I definitely feel stronger than ever. The traithlon training was a much bigger time commitment than i have ever made before, so maybe the marathon training will feel like a break!
Okay, here’s my training program (just distances): http://www.roadtoboston.com/djapps/trainingPlans/viewPlan/5/
And here are my speeds (given a 6:13 mile run): http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
My new training program (as of 090630) from the Boston Athletic Association: http://www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/MarathonTraining.asp?training=rookieprogram
WISH ME LUCK!
these were a wonderful post race treat! the food at the Columbia Triathlon was not good. When i finished, all they had left was pasta salad, dried-out bagels, and puny bananas. APPARENTLY there were cookies and cliff bars earlier on, but the racers families ate them up DURING THE RACE! this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I had not seen such moochers until i came to DC and ran the Army 10-miler. my jaw dropped when i saw overweight race bystanders loading boxes with the racers food.
For brownies, these were pretty healthy. They have a ‘B’ grade on calorie-count.com.
- 1 box of brownie mix
- 1 can black beans
- Preheat oven per box directions.
- rinse + drain the black beans, then return to their can and fill w/ enough water to cover. (about 1/2″ below the can rim)
- use an immersion blender to mix up the beans and water thoroughly. I blended them for about 3 solid minutes.
- stir bean mixture into brownie mix. spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray, pour in batter and bake per box directions.
Filed under: MULTISPORT
PHOTOS LINK – for a limited time…
I was SOOO nervous for this race. Some apprehension can be a healthy thing before a race… gets the blood pumping. I was definitely beyond that healthy range of nervousness. Starting Friday afternoon i was silently contemplating not doing the race. I know this is ridiculous.
The day stated at 4:45 AM when we got up and packed our car to go. The course is about an hour from our home and we were supposed to arrive no later than 6:30. The race began at 6:45 for the Pro’s. The water was a balmy 70F so the professionals weren’t allowed to wear wet-suits. It was cloudy and stormy. The air was only 60 degrees so when it started to rain i was shivering. Partly from the cold and partly nerves. I wasn’t scheduled to go until 8:10 – the eleventh wave. The anticipation was killing me.
As soon as i got in the water, i stated to feel better. compared to the chilly rain, the lake felt like bath-water. I have trained so hard for this, i have got to at least TRY (TRI). The swim felt GREAT. I stayed WAY outside the pack, so i only got kicked 3-4 times SEE VIDEO. I naturally curve to the right and had to check my location every 30 strokes. I probably added an extra 100 M to the swim – but it was worth it.
Coming out of the water i realized my watch had stopped. The lady next to me reassured me that it was a sub 30 min swim – that’s good. I had taken it VERY easy and was not worn out at all. I didn’t use any body-glide, but my wet-suit came off alright.
The bike is a similar tune… I took it pretty easy. After all the rain, the roads were wet and dotted with puddles. I had never ridden in wet conditions before and was worried that my skinny road bike tire would slip out from under me in an instant. It is SUCH a hilly, curvy course, i found myself braking or at least not peddling down each slope.
Then finally the run came. It was such a relief. In the end I was so amazed at how easy the race felt. Despite the hilly bike and run, i finished in exactly twice my time at the Rumpas Sprint we had done a month earlier.
Filed under: DESSERT, DINNER, MULTISPORT | Tags: beef, brick, brownies, chocolate, potatoes
we biked and bricked the course this morning. it was 90° outside, but we biked it 10 minutes faster than last time, a month ago. the park was packed with cars and there were at least as many bikes on the road as cars. there are at least 8 good hills on the course, and on the last one, the man biking in front of me sort of slumped over off the road.
dinner: burgers:
initially, i didn’t really feel like grilling the burgers. didn’t we just eat burgers 4 days ago? but i REALLY COULDN’T after giving myself second degree burns with the spatula… i had left our metal spatula sitting apparently too close to the grill exhaust while it was preheating. i now have a very neat imprint of the spatula handle on my right palm.
joe ended up cooking the entire meal himself, while i pathetically clutched a cold beer can…
dessert: brownies:
before burning myself, i had managed to make the RICH DARK CHOCOLATE brownie recipe found on the back of the King Arthur flour bag. luckily, i made a half batch becuse these are really to die for.
- 1 C sugar
- 1/2 C butter
- 1/2 t salt
- 3/4 C Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder
- 1/2 t baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 t vanilla
- 3/4 C King Arthur all purpose flour
- 1 C semisweet chocolate chips
- melt butter in medium sized, microwave safe bowl. add sugar and heat heat again if necessary to make it smooth (maybe 30 sec. more).
- stir in cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla until smooth.
- add flour and chocolate chips
- bake at 350 in a
Filed under: MULTISPORT
my first triathlon and joe’s second. it sure puts the Ironman that we talked about doing one day in perspective! we are both rethinking our goal tie for the (MUCH hillier) Olympic distance race we have scheduled for 1 month from now.
ME – here i go on my bike, Tracy trek, right after a 3 minute (slow) transition! between the long transition and all the second/triple guessing i did during the swim, i still somehow managed to get second place for my age group!
JOE – elbowing this old guy to the finish line… i won’t mention what muscle he pulled in the process.
JEFF – is one tough man. one of four, actually, out of the 500+ people at the race without a wetsuit. he sure looks happy to be exiting that 62° water!
FYI: our training program: http://opentri-training.com/free/intl/index.html
Filed under: MULTISPORT
My first triathlon!!! My first open water swim in the first wetsuit i have ever donned. I was so glad to have it – Lake Anna was a brisk 62° F. Our friend, Jeff, was one of the four brave souls (of 500+ people) who did not wear one. Even though the water was a little murky, you could still see scads of fish swimming about 10 Ft below the surface. I had not practiced the transition from swimming to biking before, so that was pretty slow. my feet and arms were slightly numbed by the water and not entirely cooperative. The bike was nice and FLAT. REALLY gentle rolling hills. the run definitely felt awkward at first, but i warmed up as i went along. 5 K felt pretty short and by the end of it i was finally feeling loosened up.
Filed under: MULTISPORT
Filed under: MULTISPORT
MY FIRST MARATHON!!! this photo was taken pretty early on in the race. the smile faded as the run went on. I nearly made my ‘goal time’ – 3:50, although secretly i wanted to qualify for Boston. I was not planning on having to walk over a mile from the metro to the start line, so i was late for the official start and WAYYY behind my desired pace group. Little did i know how much it was going to start hurting right around 23 miles… i probably could have walked those last few faster than i trotted that day. Oh, well. Next time i’ll know what to expect. All i ate that day was one orange slice because the gu they offered on the course had caffine and i was afraid of upsetting my stomach. I wore my fuel belt, but just carried water in the bottles.
two skinny jenkins 