Gourmet Runner

Life isn't always cupcakes with sprinkles, you know? There's good and bad and you need both to appreciate the great stuff that comes along. Here's some winning and losing that's been going on in my life lately: Winning: I get to spend tonight with Kelsey in Knoxville! I'm heading up this afternoon and will be cheering her on at the half tomorrow as well as my friend Julie who is running her first full. So excited! Losing:   I didn't win $540 million last night in the lottery. Such a bummer. I spent $4, you guys! But totally worth it because for two hours I got to sit around and plan what to do with my money. Islands were going to be bought. Vacations were planned. It was going to be awesome. Next time, right? I hear the odds are pretty good. Winning: I have had a little more work this week than normal and I was really busy trying to meet some Thursday night/Friday morning deadlines. So when I was finished at Friday around lunchtime, I called it the we...

What, you thought the fact that I can't ride a bike means I can't compete in my very own triathlon at home? Well, it doesn't. Also ignore the fact that the largest body of water I've seen in a while is the bathtub. This triathlon was the real deal, folks. First event: Biking I know swimming is traditionally supposed to go first. So sue me. I did an easy bike ride (low-medium resistance) for one hour and covered 15 miles. (Transition One: got off bike. Remarked on soreness of womanly places. Hopped on treadmill.) Second Event: Running When I get on the treadmill I always put the incline to 1% and then start the speed off at 6.0 miles per hour. I accidentally pressed 6 twice (so a 9:05 pace) and just went with it. My legs felt pretty weird after the bike, but completely warmed up and no hip pain at all. Pretty incredible, actually. I finished the 5k in 27:29 which is basically record time for me. (Transition Two: got off treadmill. Made a peanut butter hot c...

Running on trails last Sunday revealed my kryptonite. HILLS. Ironic, isn't it? If you don't know, my last name (thanks to that whole marriage thing) is Hills. Yet I hate them. Clearly I need to become more awesome as running uphill in order to live up to my new namesake. Today I hopped on the treadmill for an 8 mile run. Every fiber of my being encouraged me to run at a 1% incline like I always do. I kept it there for a warm-up mile and from then on out, I ran the first half of each mile at a 3.5% incline. The second half was back down to 1 or 1.5% incline. The first one or two felt okay and then I was really struggling. Total stats: Although my stats says I ran a 9:41 pace, most of the run was actually closer to a 10:00 pace for the first seven miles. The last mile of my run was like dessert. I felt like I really earned a super speedy downhill mile where I got to feel awesome and pretend I am fast so I booked it at at 8 minute/mile at 2% DECLINE. Just for the record th...

Sleep is incredibly important to me. I hate those people who say they sleep 4 hours a night on a regular basis and can still be functioning human beings. If I sleep for 4 hours one night, I am able to do nothing but eat candy, drink caffeinated beverages, nap and watch reality television the following day. That's it. That's also reason #464 why I should probably hold off on that mom business. I am way too into my 8 hours a night. Although I am in bed no later than midnight, well...ever, I still sometimes have a hard time getting to sleep. I wish I could tell you my thoughts revolved around important things like world peace, politics or religion, but they're not. It's a bunch of stupid crap that no one cares about. I mean, blog content. Yeah. Content. Without further ado, the things that keep me up at night: - What I'm Going to Eat the Next Day . Is that just so sad or do I have some company here? Sometimes I'm just drooling because I know I'll be going...

I wish I could be all intense and say I did two workouts today but in actuality I'm not sure if that's even true. Did I work out twice? Oh yes. But they were separated by a mere twenty minutes. I did, however, change running shoes and running partners. Ergo, two-a-days. Thank you. First up was eight miles with my friends Julie and Daniel. We did 8 miles this morning at 7 and it wasn't anything amazing. I worked hard to keep the pace around 10 minute/miles but when it's only 8 miles it doesn't feel quite like a long run, you know? Marathon training messes with your head for good. I'm not sure if I'll ever be the same. Post-run I grabbed Tim and we headed to some nearby mountain biking trails for another run. I absolutely loved it! I know I just look like I'm sleeping in that picture, but I really did enjoy it. Plus I wore an old shirt from a trail race so I could look legit. I think I fooled the other runners on the trails. We ran 6.2 miles in lo...

So tonight I saw Hunger Games. Yes- me, your mom and six million others went to the theater today to catch the movie of the year. I want to talk about it nonstop to everyone but I realize that there are three people who haven't seen it yet so I won't spoil it. But...don't bother reading the rest of my post. Just so watch the movie. It's so good that I had to pee for the last 90 minute of the film but REFUSED to get up and go to the bathroom. No way I could leave.  Post-movie Tim and I couldn't really agree on a dinner place so he got a burger and I got a salad from Panera. I know, I know - I got a salad. But it was kind of awesome. Plus I got a weird berry tea that is kind of like crack. Delicious. I missed the memo about having to buy a cool shirt in order to attend the Hunger Games movie. I guess I'll be team Ralph Lauren. He must have been one of the tributes that died right away? Anyway...Thai Chopped Chicken Salad. Spicy peanut sauce, cilantro, chicken...

After my half marathon on Sunday I took three days off from any and all workouts. On the first day, I reveled in laziness and felt great. The second day I was itching to work out. By yesterday it became clear that exercise is a necessary part of my life. I'm so glad I took a few days off as a chance to mentally and physically rest, but today I was so ready for a run. I hopped on the treadmill and felt like I could run forever. Maybe I need to create a new training plan where you run for ten miles, take three days off and repeat. Anyway, I ran ten miles. When I was done...I wanted food. Not juice. Not anything green and liquid. Food with protein, carbohydrates, fat and solidity. I read an article about juicing a day or two ago in Time and the whole idea has been in my head ever since. (P.S. Do you think I'm smarter now because I read Time? Don't. I flip through any one of a giant stack of magazines when I'm in the bathroom.) The premise of the article is that alt...

If you follow me on Facebook , you already know the big news. For me. The news probably won't affect your life in the slightest. But back to me . Last night I was talking to Tim about the idea of tackling an ultra marathon and wanting to get back into trail running. Out of the blue, he says "I could do that with you." I nearly peed right there and then. We talked about some local races but it was clear that one stands out as the perfect choice for us: the Rock/Creek StumpJump 50K . Maybe I'm looking at this all wrong, but I'm viewing it like a really long hike. With an elevation chart like this, I don't expect to be running all that much: In strange opposition to...every other race I've ever run...I'm more excited about the training than I am about the actual race. Tim and I used to run and hike on trails all the time in Hong Kong and it's something I really miss.     So I guess now we should probably start running a lot. I've briefly ...

Last week I ran two different races, which was a first for me. I read about people who build up for races for eighteen weeks and while I admire their determination - I just want to run more races. It's fun. It's exciting. It beats sitting home and watching reruns, you know? Here's last week's recap: Monday : Rest Day Tuesday : Ran 7 Miles Wednesday : 30 Minutes of Spin, Upper Body and Abs for 40 minutes Thursday : Ran 4 Miles (Including a 2 mile race!) Friday : Rest Day Saturday : Ran 2.5 Miles Sunday : Ran Half Marathon in Atlanta! Total Running Mileage = 26.6 Miles. I can totally pretend I ran a marathon now, right? Since the half on Sunday I haven't done anything remotely physical. I'm at that stage where my calendar is completely free and clear. Sadly, the Colorado Ragnar Relay that I was signed up for changed their dates so our team couldn't make it work. So I have no races planned and I feel a little lost. I know I can just, you know, run. ...

Today was my first big girl race. I have only ever run trail races, small town races and even my marathon had less than one thousand finishers. Today there were close to twenty thousand runners doing the Publix Georgia full and half marathons and I will admit I was kind of freaked out. I guess I had visions of being trampled by thousands of angry runners who were upset I snuck into their corral but it turned out okay after all. The race began at 7am in the dark which was another first for me. I got into Corral H which was clearly marked and may have started dancing. Come on - they were playing LMFAO before a race. I got pumped and started the shuffle to the start.   Since it was my first race of this size I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get across the start line but it was about 7 minutes so definitely not bad at all. I made friends with the runners in my corral and we prayed that no full marathon runners would cross the finish line before us. (I was spared - I th...

My apologies in advance for writing this mammoth post. Feel free to skip it and head to the next one specifically about my race today. I just feel like I had a bunch of stuff to say and I know my mom will read it. Probably. Mom? Saturday Tim and I drove to Atlanta after a few hours of work and managed to time it perfectly with the end of the St. Patrick's Day parade. Not my finest moment. Turns out parades and city traffic don't mix well. Aside from that last mile which took 45 minutes we were fine and arrived at the oh so swanky Days Inn in Downtown Atlanta. Just kidding, the hotel was pretty crappy but for $70 and a five minute walk to the start and finish I'll deal with it. Because we were later than planned I basically sprinted to the expo - totally unnecessary. There was no line at packet pick up and no line when I went to the solutions desk (to switch from the full to the half). YES. That was my biggest fear about a race of this size and it was totally fine. The...

I've had my fair share of bad photographs. By "fair share" I mean roughly 99% of the photos of me running look hideous. Apparently I run with both feet on the ground, eyes closed and hunched over for most races. Pretty sexy, if you ask me. Yesterday's race got captured by two photographers from the local newspaper. Although they were taken a second or two apart they tell two completely different race stories. Exhibit A: Powering through the finish. Looking strong. Vomit, me? Puh-lease. I rock at life.   Exhibit B: Death. Exhausted. Weird leg thing going on. Strange rat tail that I swore was just a regular braid at the beginning of the race.   Pretty amazing how two photos taken at the same time can convey such very different things.  Also - what's the deal on stealing race photos and putting them on your blog? Typically I feel guilty but these photos aren't for sale (just used by the newspaper) so I guess I feel okay about it.  Feel free to tell me if...

So I guess you guys guilt tripped me into running the race today. I'm kind of bitter and hold you all responsible for my blah race. On the upside I didn't vomit. I repeat: I DID NOT VOMIT! Since I had a few hours to kill in Dalton this afternoon I hung out in Kroger reading all their magazines. Suckers. I also had a bathroom photo session. I totally get why people do them now. Total boredom. Then I tried on a ton of clothing at a TJMaxx and felt like a thief going into the dressing rooms with a backpack. Luckily I'm pretty harmless looking. Panera let me hang out for a couple of hours and read and it was actually pretty awesome. It poured with rain in the afternoon and now there are thunderstorms, but for the race? Perfect. So...2 mile race. Showed up. Ran just under 2 miles to warm up. Felt awesome. Started the race. Fast. Awesome. First mile under 8 minutes. Felt barfy. REFUSED to let vomit leave my mouth. Walked. Sprinted. Vomity mouth. Walked. Repeated that the f...

That sounded so dramatic, didn't it? I feel like it was very Hunger Games-esque. I may just think that because I'm so freaking excited for the movie next week, but whatever. Here's the deal: I signed Tim and I up to run a 2 mile St. Patrick's Day race tonight at 6:30 about 45 minutes from home. Then I figured out that Tim has to work this afternoon and won't be able to make it. No big deal, I'll run on my own. Big girl panties and all. Except...we have this car: And that's it. Yep, we are a one car family. Since I work from home and Tim works part time it works out for us about 99.9% of the time. The exception, of course, being today. The only possible way for me to run the race right now is to be dropped off somewhere in town, hang out for four hours and then walk to the race. No big deal. I can just bring my laptop and do some work in a cafe and then walk over to the race before it starts. Except the weather will look like this: It's March....