Zozo in the snowsnow, plus 5K PR

Here's a picture from the big snow back in December. Zozo, at this point of the walk, is really really mad at me.

 

The 5k last weekend was a resounding success. The night before the race, I was setting up my watch to tell me when to walk and to make the intervals and stuff, but decided to change my plan to be a little less conservative. The original plan was to run 1000m and walk a bit, because those are the intervals we've been doing on the track. While programming the watch, I decided that I could do with only 3 walk breaks so made it run 1250m before walking a bit. That worked ok, but was challenging, and at the half way point, I realized that if I walked a tiny bit longer, a teammate could catch up with me.

This is a nice way to have done a race, because 1. I was able to meet my goal to improve, 2. I know there is more improvement available, and 3. Gasping conversation is better than no conversation.

I don't know the official time yet, but it's probably less than the time I recorded on my watch because I forgot to press the stop button right away. My watch says it was 36:15, which is a 11:37 pace, which is totally awesome for me. The best 5K result I could find for me was from the 2008 GW Parkway 5K, which was 36:41, and I remember feeling truly awful coming down the home stretch for that one. On Saturday, I was breathing hard, but still had "go" left in my legs.

I got to enjoy the rest of the day as well, with an adventure to an Asian superstore and a visit to the natural history museum. They've put in some sort of ocean exhibit and have an aquarium. I could've watched those fish all day, but it was also fun to look at the prehistoric coral reef and try to find different things.

Sunday was drizzly. I had grand plans to knit and watch Lost, but ended up playing Civilization almost all day. This knitting project is never going to get done if I don't work on it.

Today I woke up stupid early to go to morning bootcamp (part of the annual goals). It was pretty awesome, and I ended up sitting down at work before 8am, which is crazy! I think I'll be able to avoid the excessive muscle soreness some other people said usually happens because I really just don't want to try that hard. It seems like I should be able to get stronger by just trying harder than I would be if I were still in bed (which is where I would usually be from 6-7am on Monday mornings)

Tonight is hashing, which is a fun addition to the workout schedule. At least it's usually fun. If the lunges from this morning come back to haunt me this afternoon, it will be less fun.


*** Update, official time 35:30, 5K PR

Fast-forward to 2010

Since last writing, I successfully got quotes for refinancing, decided it would be dumb to do right now, and bought a car.

I've also kept up with the triathlon-ing, and since getting the car, have been going to the occasional swim practice in addition to running and biking.

Winter has set in hard here, with almost 20 inches of snow on Dec 19th and occasional refresher snows since. There's a chance that it will be in the 40s during the day later this week, which will help some of the piles of snow melt away, but will also probably mean icy roads at night and in the morning. Good thing I still remember how to get to work without driving :)

The packing for the Luray triathlon weekend in August was successful, and I managed to do the Sprint and Oly distance in the same weekend. I had some significant blisters, but otherwise felt ok. I certainly wasn't "racing" them. I think that this year, I don't need to prove that I can do two days of endurance events, but I think I'll go back to Luray, since that was where I did my first race in 2008.

The running continues to get better. My speed for long runs hasn't improved so much, but I'm certainly capable of jogging for much longer distances than ever before. Right now, I'm getting ready for a half-marathon at the end of March and did a 9 mile run yesterday. I can clearly remember thinking that my friends who were training for a marathon and said "it's not so bad, you just keep doing longer runs" were crazy, as I struggled to jog for a whole 2.5 miles on the treadmill.

Thankfully this week is a recovery week, but supposedly by the end of January, I will have run 10 and 11 miles. eep!

I'm also doing a 5K this weekend and I know from track workouts that I can run 1000m hard-ish, and repeatedly, so I plan to go for 1K then walk a bit, 5 times and may get a new best 5K time. Maybe.

I have lots of goals for the year, including distances for running, biking, swimming, and limits on the number of times I'll go to my local pizza place. There may be a bar chart in the future.

Packing list passes test

I tried out my packing list last weekend and successfully exhausted myself with a night of camping and two days of exercise. The only thing I forgot was shampoo, but the lake wasn't full of stringy green stuff so rinsing off felt clean enough.

I have absolutely no idea how I fit enough stuff into the backpack to travel around Europe for 4 weeks even if I did wear the same clothes about every other day.

Extreeeem packing

The triathloning is going well, barring my slight inclination to skip long bike rides by sleeping in.

This weekend is a training weekend, including camping, and next weekend is my crazy back-to-back race days, also including camping. I'm sort of happy to be camping this weekend because it will help me gauge the impact of sleeping on rocks in extreme humidity on my performance.

It's sort of terrifying however to look at the stuff I have to pack.

Race/workout clothes:
swimsuit
tri-shorts
2x exercise shirts (Sat/Sun)
2x socks (Sat/Sun)
bike shoes
running shoes

Race/workout accessories:
swim cap
goggles
sun glasses
2x water bottles
helmet
garmin+HRM
cell phone
sunscreen

Postrace/workout clothes:
2x shirt
2x shorts
2x underwear
sandals

Camping:
tent
sleeping bag
pillow (unless the backpack gets too full)
bike light/flashlight

Other:
towel
shampoo
deodorant
toothbrush/toothpaste
sunscreen (on list twice for a reason)


Can you see anything obvious I'm forgetting? There's almost no way I won't end these two weekends a little burnt and very dirty (mmm sweating for hours after swimming in a lake!), but hopefully it will be fun as well.

Weekend Plans

I realized this morning that I've made some pretty ambitious commitments for this weekend, and am feeling a little pre-exhausted in anticipation.

Friday: I was browsing a discount ticket site for DC and saw a re-make of some ancient Greek plays opening this weekend, so I've gotten a cheap preview ticket.  I'll totally pay $15 to see something I may not even like. But, I have to pick up the tickets at the discount ticket place before 6pm Friday, so that means going over to DC straight from work. Then I'll head over to Dupont for dinner before the play. The play is at 8, so I'll probably get home around 11, with metro and walking time.

Saturday: I'm going to do an open water swim and run with Team Z and have a zipcar reserved starting at 6am. Gah. I'll probably get up a little before 6 to have time to get ready and eat some breakfast, then pickup my carpoolers and head down to Gunston Manor.  Group bbq after the swimming and running, then drive back up to Alexandria to get some much needed groceries.

Saturday Part 2: Then Saturday evening I'm going to take some jumbo sized rice crispy treats to a "Big" bbq, where there will be big beers, big chips and big hamburgers.

Sunday: At 8am, I'm meeting up with some people from work who are doing a training run for the Army 10 miler. I'm planning to ride around on my bike carrying their water bottles.  Supposedly, I'm biking 40 mile that day too for the triathlon training, but I think that depending on my energy levels, I might round that down to 10. :-)
Then, home to do laundry and collapse in an exhausted lump

Monday: After work, I'm meeting some people for takeout food and an outdoor movie (X-Men!!!). Somehow I have to actually manage to stay awake until the movie starts, which will be at like 8:30, since it has to get dark first.


Besides that stuff, I went to a track workout last night, and my group was doing "speed" work. My GPS watch told me that I actually moved quickly for my 2 20 second sprints, and then also managed to go at some peoples normal jogging speed for the two 1/2 mile sets. The difference in tiredness from going my usual pokey speed and the trying-harder-approach-an-actual-jogging-p

ace was incredible. I don't think I will ever love track workouts that include these interval thingys, but it will be a nice way to measure improvement.

 

 

I got fruit this week in the CSA box. I ate two peaches right away, dripping juice down my arm and onto the cell phone. Lucky person who got to listen to me slurping up extra-ripe peach :)

I cooked up the beets with last weeks beets and will probably eat them and most of a zucchini tonight. Then I have two cucumbers to enjoy also.

Looking at my CSA photos from previous years, I remembered the awesome peach crumble that I made over and over again my first year. Next week, if I get some tomatoes, I'm totally going to re-make this meal

Disgusting glop

I made the beet green risotto, and it executed like it should've, but I sort of forgot that beet greens taste a little like dirt to me, so I'm having a hard time making myself eat it.

However! This is by far not the most disgusting thing I've cooked for myself. I used to have a list, but I can't remember them all anymore:
1. Attempted Spinach Saag with farm spinach 2 years ago. So foul.
2. "Spanish" rice while hostelling in Europe -- somehow the liquid refused to cook off. Gloopy and flavorless, while still tasting bad.
3. Chard when I tried to cook it with onions, apples and apple vinegar. ewww
4. Scrambled eggs one summer in college that wouldn't set. They may have been old as well.

I think that this beet green glop doesn't make that list, but until I remember something else that turned out icky, it's #5

It is, however, beautiful. If it tasted better to me, I'd save the recipe for a valentines meal. As it has sat in the fridge, the greens have been turning the rice pinker and pinker.

CSA week 4

Yay farm. We got some vigorous beets in the box this week, and they included this recipe in the weekly email:

Risotto with Beet Greens and Spring Onions
5 cups chicken stock

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup thinly sliced spring onions

1 1/2 cups uncooked Arborio or other short-grain rice

1/4 cup dry white wine

3 cups coarsely chopped beet greens

1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmeasan cheese

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

6 lemon wedges  

 

Bring broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan.  While broth is simmering, Saute onion in olive oil until tender.  Add ride and cook 1 minute stirring constantly. Add wine and stir 1 minute. Reduce heat to low and stir in greens.  Add 1/2 cup of broth at a time and stir until each portion is absorbed before adding the next.   Stir in cheese and pepper.  Serve with lemon wedges.

I've never done anything risotto like before... This may be a ridiculous question, but can I do this with sushi rice (which I have in my cabinet) or should I go get some more risotto-ish rice?

I'm excited about eating the beet greens. Previously I'd just cooked them in olive oil with green onions, and if I run out of cooking enthusiasm, I'll probably end up doing that again. It's fun because even the beet greens leak beet juice.

Besides the beets, we got broccolli for a third week, some very happy green onions, snow peas, and some herb thing. I think it's thyme.