#TTT: crazy week

It's been a very random & crazy start to the school year. I got this lovely spam comment...



I've been in so many meetings that I haven't even started to play Tetris.



And my run yesterday reminded me of this cartoon because Journey came on, along with a few other songs that usually motivate, and I thought my playlist was fucking with me.


I really hope next week is better.

How is your August winding up?

Training Tuesday: Detroit Marathon Week 14

This past week was kind of a bust.  I significantly underestimated what a toll getting one stupid wisdom tooth removed would have on my body.  It wasn't the pain so much as it was not eating or drinking enough to fuel workouts.  I tried to run on Saturday after having my procedure on Wednesday afternoon and it was a disaster.  Lesson learned too little too late.

Now, I'm back to work as of today, so my runs are moving from early mornings to after school.  I'm hoping the heat and humidity don't have too much of an impact because I'm at the point in this plan where I need to start kicking it up a notch.

Not much to recap for this week - I tried to run my 16 miler on Monday but only made it 4 miles.  Lifted on Tuesday.  Ran a decent interval run on Wednesday at the gym.  Did nothing Thursday or Friday.  Had a horrible 3 mile run on Saturday and then walked 4 miles on Sunday.

Let's hope this week is better.

Now for a little funny - I had a great spam comment last week and thought it would be fun to share.  Enjoy the stupidity of a spambot.

Motivation Monday: The Highlight Reel?

After this past week, I've really been riding the struggle bus hard.  I've been questioning my ability, not trusting myself, doubting.  Some of that comes from comparing myself with others.  I read all these wonderful workouts on DailyMile or Facebook.  I see the Instagram posts of crossfit WODs or Fitsnap recaps of stellar runs.  Then I look at what I've done and it feels like less.  Especially this past week.

It's not less though.  It's my reality.  It's my now.  I saw this on Twitter this weekend and it couldn't be more true.
Are you comparing your behind-the-scenes to everyone else's highlight reels?

Fitness Friday: I screwed up my plan

So, it would appear that getting my wisdom tooth out on Wednesday was a bigger deal than I was expecting.  Here it is Friday morning and my face still throbs.

The dentist said I could run tomorrow if I ran with gauze packed in my mouth.  Does running for 3+ hours with a mouth full of gauze that you need to change every 30 minutes sound fun to you?  

Me neither.

So, I've screwed up my plan.  I tried to run my 16 miler on Monday because I was afraid this would happen but I failed.  I only made it 4 miles.  Now I'm out this week's long run and I'm looking at I think 22 miles lost this month from my training plan.  That's a lot of miles.  I'm hoping I can get all my miles in next week because I set a goal this month to hit 100 miles.  Now, I'm going to barely make it if at all.  I know having a 100 mile month isn't the ultimate goal, but the fact I was going to blow it away this month was kind of a big deal.  Only now I won't.

I should have listened when a friend said to postpone this stupid surgery.  I screwed up.

#TBT : My Seniors

Just after Labor Day, these two will start their Senior year of HS. I can't believe how little they were on their first day of Kindergarten.

August 27, 2002

I look at them now and I'm in awe of the talented, intelligent, gorgeous, young adults they've become.

I know this school year is going to fly by.

Words cannot express how honored and thankful I am to call these two my kids.

Mom loves you, Kaylee and David.

Weigh-In Wednesday: pictures are louder than words

You know that old saying, "if you don't have anything nice to say, say nothing at all"? I'm going to let this picture say it all this week.

Obviously I fucked up this week. There's nothing else to say.

Training Tuesday: Detroit Marathon week 13

Well, this past week I celebrated a birthday and my 2nd 20 miler of this training cycle.  I've now done more 20s for this marathon than I did for my last. Maybe the ones I still have in the next 9 weeks will pay off on race day.

Monday 8-11-14 RUN 3.1 miles easy in 34 min (11:00 m/m pace).  Took a long time to work the kinks out from the relay. I don't think I felt right until the 3rd mile and even that one was kind of rocky.

Tuesday 8-12-14 LIFT 40 min total body tabata workout. I didn't want to do anything on Tuesday but I made myself get out my home gym equipment and at least do something.

Wednesday 8-13-14 RUN 6 mile temp with goal of 4 at 9:49 pace.  I nailed this workout and averaged a 9:59 for the entire run.

Thursday 8-14-14 LIFT 30 min arms and abs only.  I woke up stupidly sore and decided the 90 min heavy lifting on the schedule was not going to happen.  Really just phoned this one in and probably shouldn't have even counted it.

Friday 8-15-14 Happy Birthday to Me.  I ran 20 miles in 3 hrs and 47 min.  Didn't hit my goal (I really need to get under 3:45 at the 20 mile mark) but overall it was a good run.  I was reminded that I'm not supposed to be hitting goal pace yet anyway, so I'm trying not to stress about still being so slow with the intervals.  Even so, I think the 5:1 is the way to go and will be the method I use for the race.  I'm very close to goal pace now with the intervals and hopefully I can up the speed a touch on race day and still hit my goal.

Saturday 8-16-14 REST.  I earned it.  What I didn't earn was all I ate on Saturday.  This is why people get fat while marathon training.  You burn a bazillion calories one day and don't feel like eating but then the next day when you burn zero calories, you eat all the things.

Sunday 8-17-14 WALK. I walked about 3 miles in the morning.  Needed to stretch my legs.  My ankles were both feeling kind of wonky.

Overall, this was a decent week.  I really need to work on getting back into lifting.  I like the new tabata workouts so I shouldn't have any excuses.

Meal Monday: salsa!

What do you do when your garden explodes and does this...

You scour Pinterest for salsa recipes and make this...

This was probably the easiest salsa recipe I've ever made.  Normally, I do a pico de gallo type salsa but I just didn't feel like chopping all the ingredients.  For this one, you cut the tops off the veggies, maybe cut them in to big chunks, and if you are like me, squeeze some of the seeds out of the tomatoes.  Throw it all in a blender and pulse to your desired consistency.  I like my salsa with a little more of a kick, so I used two whole jalapenos (minus most of the seeds).  Next batch, I'll probably leave more seeds in because this one didn't get quite hot enough.  I also used a cilantro paste I picked up at the store the other day instead of fresh cilantro.  I won't do that again because there wasn't enough cilantro flavor.  The rest of the recipe I pretty much followed as written.

You can find the recipe here!

Do you like your salsa chunky or smooth?

PS: Nancy was the winner of my birthday giveaway and will be getting a little something from me.

Fitness Friday: a birthday #giveaway

If you know me IRL or are friends with me on Facebook or Twitter, you may have heard a rumor that today is my birthday.  The rumor isn't a rumor - it's true.  I'm 44 years old today.  Happy Birthday to me :)

One of the reasons I exercise and try to eat right is to ensure I keep having birthdays. After all, the best gift we can give to ourselves is the gift of good health. I wrote a bit about that over at The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans today if you're interested. One of my birthday traditions is to run on my birthday.  I didn't want to run today and then do my long run tomorrow, so I moved my long run up a day so I could kill two birds with one stone.

Yes, that says 20 miles :)

Because I love all of you and the encouragement you give me here to do crazy things, like train for a marathon, I want to give one of you a present.  Consider it my birthday gift to you.

Leave a comment telling me one thing you've done this year to improve your health. Tomorrow night I'll choose one comment at random and send you a little something (make sure there's a way for me to contact you)!

Now bring on the gluten free cupcakes!

Thankful Thursday Randoms

Giving thanks today before the day gets away from me.  

First off, I'm thankful for my crazy Screaming Thunderboxes teammates.  

Secondly, I'd like to give thanks for the home gym of sorts I have in my basement.  I didn't want to work out this morning, but I went down there and at least got some arms and abs done.  

I'm also thankful for this funny birthday card from my sister.  

What are you thankful for today?

Old School Blogging: Summer! #OSBlogging

Mixing things up a little bit here at LLRB and joining The Miss Elaine-ous Life in her Old School Blogging.  I haven't done one of these memes in forever and when she put the shout-out on Facebook I said "sure!"  This month's theme is SUMMER. Hard to believe it's already mid-August and up here in Michigan, some of the trees are starting to change.  Le sigh.

Ready to get started?

1.  What was your favorite thing you did alone this summer?  I've actually been enjoying my weekend uber-long runs.  Taking 3 to 4 hours to myself every weekend has been a great time for reflection.

2.  What was your favorite thing you did as a family this summer?  D and K are entering their senior years in a couple of weeks and both of them were very busy with sports and music camps, so we didn't do a family vacation this year.  (We also went away for Spring Break to Charleston, so another trip so close wasn't realistic.)  We did manage a trip out to Lake Michigan early in the summer, plus we went as a family to visit MSU.

Requisite picture in front of a lighthouse.

3.  What books did you read this summer?  Is it bad to say I haven't read much of anything?  I did read The Fault in Our Stars in a single afternoon (through the Kindle app on my phone) and I'm working on a book on running right now.

4.  What do you WISH you had done this summer?  I wish I would have made a few more trips to the beach or hit up an amusement park.  Those are two things we've done almost every year and this year it just didn't happen.

5.  What movies did you see this summer?  In the theater, saw The Fault in Our Stars and 22 Jump Street.  I guess 22 Jump Street was also a "family" activity and I have to say, seeing a racy movie with your teens can be a bit awkward.  I watch a ton of older movies on my computer every week, so those would be a pain to list.

6.  Where did you travel this summer?  I actually traveled a few times this summer.  My favorite trip, hands down, was to Savannah, GA for FitBloggin14.  This weekend with new and old friends in one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen was the highlight of my summer.  I also traveled to Chicago for the day to meet up with a friend for lunch and do some shopping.  The latest trip was a 200 mile "road trip" up the White Pine Trail as part of a 200 person relay :)

Scenes from Savannah

7.  What was your favorite treat (as in dessert) this summer?  Sangria.  Summer means sangria to me.  Since going paleo-ish, I've really cut down on the desserts but if I had to choose, my favorite summer dessert would be ice cream or fro-yo.

Best sangria in Savannah - and I was able to take it "to go"!

8.  What did you celebrate this summer?  My twins turned 17 last week (how did THAT happen???) and in a couple days, I have a birthday.  Not sure I'm celebrating it this year.  Last year I took myself to Disney World for my birthday and anything this year would pale in comparison.

9.  Did you grow anything this summer?  Yep (although the garden really isn't my thing).  Zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, green beans, jalapenos, green peppers, cucumbers and about a bazillion tomatoes.

10.  What is a favorite post that you wrote this summer?  Good question.  I feel like my blogging is in a bit of a rut lately so none of the posts have been spectacular.  My favorite recently was probably my Fred Relay recap that I just posted on Monday because the experience and weekend were so much fun.
11.  What is a favorite photograph that you took this summer?  I took a bunch of great photos in Savannah.  This night-time shot is one of my favorites.

12.  What do you want to do next summer?  I definitely want to go somewhere with the kids before they head off to college.  I also MUST make it to Denver for FitBloggin 15 because I can't go 3 years without seeing my friends again.

Do you want to play along?  Feel free to steal the questions and link up with Elaine.  If you don't want to write a whole post, pick one of the questions and answer it in the comments below!

Training Tuesday: Detroit Marathon Week 12

This was supposed to be a step-back week but I got hurt on Monday, didn't work out Tuesday or Wednesday, and had my relay this weekend, so the training got a little messed up.

Monday 8-4-14: RUN 6 miles in 1:08:xx (11:20 pace).  A really awful run and then my hass flared. up.

Tuesday 8-5-14: NADA

Wednesday 8-6-14: NADA

Thursday 8-7-14: STRENGTH just a 20 min arms and abs tabata session.

Friday 8-8-14: RUN (relay leg 1) 6.34 miles in 1:07:xx (10:32 pace)

Saturday 8-9-14: RUN (relay leg 2) 7.05 miles in 1:18 (11:05 pace).  RUN (relay leg 3) 4.3 miles in 44 min (10:15 pace)

Sunday 8-10-14: WALK about 4.5 miles

Now I'm ready to get back at regular marathon training.  Sadly, I had kind of a crappy run Monday morning and then a bunch of dental work Monday afternoon.  Hopefully I'm not too derailed.

Race Recap: #runthefred 2014 Fred Meijer White Pine Trail 200 Mile Relay

For the second year in a row, I had the privilege of  living in a van for 36 hours and running the beautiful White Pine Trail from Comstock Park to Cadillac and back with 11 of my closest friends (well, only 5 of them were also in the same van as me).  Team Screaming Thunderboxes made their debut this year.

Leena, me, Leon, Andi, Jenn, Susan, Bill, Chris, Glenn, Eric, Mike, Jen

We started bright and early Friday morning - 6:30 am to be exact - which meant I was up at 4 am.  After getting a group photo, we tagged as many other runners as we could with Screaming Guy tattoos.  Those tattoos, the incredible shirt design by Jenn's son Mac, and our awesome sign helped us win a "best dressed" award.  We were going for the social media award - HELLO! We have our own twitter @screamingtboxes - but I guess they couldn't give us both :)

That might be me behind Leon's arm getting a Fred tat :)

I was in Van 2 and was runner number 12, so this meant a lot of sitting, getting out and cheering, more sitting, some trying to rest, and some eating before I ran my first leg at 4:30 pm on Friday.

This is the surface of the sun, not to be confused with Paris, MI.
6.34 miles in 1:06:49 (10:32 pace)

I was worried about my hass acting up, but luckily, it really didn't give me any problems.  My ankle is still cranky but I'm having it worked on again tomorrow.  After Van 2 finished, we headed up to Cadillac to get some rest before we needed to take over again around midnight.  This year, my van was Van 1 so I had the luxury of sleeping and riding in a 9 passenger van.  I highly recommend this over the minivan.

Leg 2 started for me at 5 am.  I had an out and back section and decided to run it alone (ie - no one biked with me).  It was peaceful but long.  At least there were lots of other runners to say hi to on the course.

Safety first!  7.05 miles in 1:18:10 (11:05 pace).

When I finished, we were able to get some breakfast and head back out to cheer for Van 1 on their last legs.  We then camped out in Pierson until it was time for us to take over again.  The final 12 legs of the relay go pretty quickly, with all the distances under about 5 miles.

I was so pumped to be the last runner and bring it home!

The Screaming Thunderboxes had the tag line, We Run Full Throttle, and that's how I wanted to run the last leg.  I didn't quite make my pace goal, but I came pretty damn close and managed to have 4 kills in that last leg! Pretty good for starting at 3:40 in the afternoon and running in full sun.  Last year, I was runner number 1 and I got to cross the starting line.  This year I was going to get to take us across the finish. Closing out the relay was such an awesome experience.

I took off Full Throttle - with numbers in the low 9s for the first 1/2 mile until I reigned it in.
4.3 miles in 44:06 (10:15 pace).

The Screaming Thunderboxes crossed the finish line together after 36 hours and 32 minutes (a 10:47 overall pace).  

I absolutely LOVE this race.  It's funny, this is only one of 2 races I've repeated, and I plan on getting many more of these medals to hang on my wall.

My screaming guy might be a little worse for wear, but I'm feeling good and ready to get back into marathon training.  In fact, I ran already this morning!

Have you ever run a relay?  If not, would you?

Happy Birthday!!

17 years ago, these two made me a mom.

I couldn't be more proud of my intelligent, talented, kind-hearted, funny, beautiful kids.

Happy 17th birthday, Kaylee and David!

Three Things Thursday: Up Schitt Creek

I have a confession to make.  I often write my Training Tuesday posts on Sunday night and schedule them for Tuesday.  Since they reflect the previous Monday through Sunday, I figure, what's the big deal?  

Well, sometimes things happen on Monday that throw everything off.  This Monday was one of those days. I went out for my scheduled 6 mile easy run and 1.5 in I knew something wasn't right with my ass.  (I know, my ass is both a hot mess and hot, so work with me here people.)  Instead of doing the smart thing and turning around to walk home, I kept running.  I finished my 6 miles and now I'm here....

source

Wouldn't you know it, I also forgot to bring my paddles.  My ass is seriously fraked up and so is my opposite ankle.  The chiro I saw yesterday thinks they are related.  My ankle has been bugging me literally for over a year but I just deal with it.  It gets locked up and tight but usually a mile into my runs, it's fine.  Monday it wasn't fine and I think I changed my gait enough to deal with it that it made the issue with my hass flair back up.  So now....

I've been resting, rolling, icing, heating and stretching.  I didn't lift Tuesday and I didn't run on Wednesday.  I probably won't lift today either.  You see, I have this little 200 mile relay to start running tomorrow and there's no way in hell I'm letting my team down.  I just hope I can suck it up and complete my 18 miles.

At the very least, I'll be colorful as I tread water down Schitt Creek.  Just pray I don't hear banjos.

WIAW: Gluten Free Pancakes!

One of the hardest things for me since going paleo-ish is the lack of variety at breakfast.  I've never been a huge fan of pancakes but on the weekends, my son always makes them for him and his sister. (I know, right?!?!)  

My friend, Susan, tagged me in a FB post the other day with a recipe for mug cake that used Gluten Free Bisquick.  I never even knew they made the stuff, but lo and behold, our Meijer carries it!  (For the record - the mug cake was really good too.)

I decided yesterday that I wanted blueberry pancakes.  July in Michigan means we have blueberries coming out the wazoo, so yes, blueberry pancakes it had to be.  Since the recipe on the box makes 10, I cut it in half in case they were really gross.  I didn't want to waste a ton of this kind of expensive mix.  Also, the recipe called for vegetable oil, which I no longer use since doing the paleo-ish thing, so I subbed melted coconut oil and I subbed almond milk for regular.

Blueberry Gluten Free Pancakes made paleo-ish

1/2 cup Bisquick Gluten Free mix (it looks totally different than regular Bisquick so don't freak out)

1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)

1 Tbsp melted coconut oil

1 egg white

a little bit of water to thin the batter - mine was super thick I think because of my substitutions

As many blueberries as you can fit in the batter :)

As you can see, the batter doesn't look like regular pancake batter.  I think because I didn't have egg yolk and because this is rice flour was why the color is so white.  It thickened up a ton so I added a little water to thin it down.

Use a 1/4 measuring cup to ladle batter onto a hot griddle.  

Cook like regular pancakes.  I think they maybe took a bit longer - they are VERY fluffy - and watch that they don't stick.

This made 6 probably 2-3" diameter pancakes that MFP calculated the calories at about 55 per pancake.  Not too shabby at all!  I ate 3 yesterday and threw the other 3 in the freezer. This morning, I nuked them for about 90 seconds and they were amazing.  I'm not a huge fan of pancake syrup, so I had mine with raspberry jam.

This entire breakfast was about 340 calories.  

There's a recipe on the box for GF pizza crust. I can't wait to give it a try.  I haven't made pizza at home since going paleo-ish because we have some great restaurants that do GF pizza very well.  It would just be nice to have a pizza that's less than $20.

What did you eat for breakfast today? 

Training Tuesday: Detroit Marathon Week 11

Wow - where does the time go?  Here it is already August and I'm about half way through my training for the Detroit Marathon.  I'd say, overall, the training is going well.  The biggest thing I'm noticing is that I seem to be recovering from long runs much quicker this time around.  Maybe it's the intervals or maybe it's just that I'm in better running shape.  Probably doesn't really matter at this point. I was mildly bummed to finish out July about 3 miles short of 100 miles, but since I knew I had a 16 mile training run on August 1st, I resisted going out on July 31st just for the purpose of hitting that number.  Pretty mature of me, don't you think?

Monday 7/28/14 - RUN 2 miles at a 10:17 pace on the indoor track.  LIFTING 80 minutes.

Tuesday 7/29/14 - REST (actually, lots of walking in Chicago)

Wednesday 7/30/14 - RUN 6 miles with 4 at tempo. Averaged a 10:03 pace overall and a 9:48 for the tempo miles.  Not too shabby.

Thursday 7/31/14 - LIFTING 90 minutes.  Went horribly.

Friday 8/1/14 - LONG RUN - since I had plans all weekend, I moved my 16 miler to Friday morning.  I had a very rocky start but finished strong for a negative split and 11:20 overall average pace.  Somehow I even managed a 10 m/m for mile 16.  I'm pretty sure it's the horse to the barn phenomenon.

Saturday 8/2/14 - REST

Sunday 8/3/14 - WALK 5 miles.  I didn't need to head back out of town as early as I expected, so I got in a nice 90 minute walk.

This coming weekend is my 2nd 200 mile relay.  Team Screaming Thunderboxes will be running full throttle up and down the Fred Meijer White Pine Trail 200 Mile Relay.  We have a twitter account and you can follow us here to watch all the craziness unfold!

Meal Monday: Mug Quiche

One of my friends suggested this to me and while it's not totally paleo it probably could be with some tweaks. The best part? It's quick for a breakfast on the go.

Mug Quiche

This was a huge mug so there's
a lot more in there than appears.

First you need a coffee cup.

Break one egg into the cup and add a couple tbsp of milk. Scramble.

Add a slice of bread ripped up (I used half a gluten free hamburger bun).

Add any veggies or cooked meat you'd like. Mine had mushrooms, green pepper, jalapeño, and a slice of cooked bacon. You could also add cheese if you wanted.

Stir it all together. Nuke on high for 90 seconds.


Voila! Quiche in a cup!  This was a nice change of pace from my usual scrambled or over easy eggs.

What would you put in your quiche?