Tag Archives: tempo run

Running Bookends

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Monday morning I woke up feeling absolutely drained in the morning.  Even though I could have slept in until 5:30 and still gotten in a quality workout, I still set my alarm for 4:00 because I’m that hardcore.

Whatever, Captain Eyeballs.  I woke myself up just enough so that I would be able to find my alarm clock to reset it for 5am.  I did this again at 6am, vowing that I would definitely get up then, and have those forty-five minutes to myself before Dear Hubby woke up.  A good compromise, but I was supposed to workout Monday morning.  I spent the rest of the day mentally punching myself in the stomach and stealing my lunch money over that move.

Anyways, when I got home I wasn’t dragging my ass as much as usual since we had the day to get caught up in our classrooms.  I thought I would go ahead and kick out a few miles.

"You damn silly woman. Wait. You're serious?!?!?"

I was serious!  I decided that I can kill 3 miles in under 25 minutes, and that’s about one rerun of “How I Met Your Mother.”  Since I’ve seen just about all the reruns by now, I wouldn’t be missing much.

This was a pretty good run, except I have to quit quitting right at the end.  It happens way too often.

Then, as if I wasn’t badass enough, I decided to kick out another rendition of the Whole Body 100 Reps Workout.  This time, since I ran before starting, I didn’t do the warm up, or the cardio blasts.  I know.  It cheapens everything about it.

The only problem with working out that intensely at night is that it turns me into a ravenous carb-o-holic!

Thankfully I practice a little self restraint and didn’t waste the opportunity that I had created for myself.

Tuesday morning, I thought that perhaps I would go ahead and skip my workout since it was less than 12 hours ago that I had worked out.  Usually I get at least 24.  As I sat checking my email, I realized again that I wouldn’t be missing anything if I didn’t get up and run.  I wouldn’t miss the negative talk I’d been ramming down my ears if I slothed off.  I wouldn’t miss my jeans fitting awkwardly.  I wouldn’t miss the guilt of not working out.  Yea, I wouldn’t miss a thing!

At least this morning my run was more consistent, and I didn’t drop off at the VERY end.  Usually I don’t like having my workouts bookend my nightly sleeps, but in this case I will make an exception.  I will be back on track for tomorrow.

 

Weekend Wrap Up Quesadilla Style

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Happy Monday to my Fancy Oatmeal Readers!  And a very happy, belated Easter wish to all of my Russian Orthodox friends!  I hope you enjoyed your weekend, and have been able to relax and get rejuvenated for the upcoming week.

I must warn you that there is very little that will hold this post together, thematically.  Very anti thematic.  Themeless.  I mean to say, without a theme.  Alright.  I’m done.  So I’m just going to rattle off some stuff that happened this weekend, and hope that I don’t induce a tedium coma.

1.  Dear Hubby and I finished season two of Downton Abbey (yes, I had to backspace there too) on Saturday morning.  Usually, I try to get my run in before 10am at the latest, but we had two more episodes to go, and one must make exceptions when the fate of Downton is at stake.   As the credits rolled, I was all

I don’t know if Simon and I’ll be able to make it to January for the third season.

2.   I collected myself after the amazing season finale, and jumped on the treadmill.  I pumped out a 7 mile run, something I haven’t done in over a month.

I felt really good throughout this run.  I started getting a little rumble in my stomach around mile 6, and knew that I would have to start preparing myself for these types of urges as the runs got longer.  I needed to figure out a way to deal with this situation.  Perhaps a new running technique?

Mind over matter.  I repeated to myself, “My body is content.  My body is calm” over and over again.  Eventually I was so wrapped up in my mantra that I forgot about having to use the restroom and crossed “the finish line” at 54:46.

On Sunday, I planned on running an Easy Run of 3-4 miles.  Once I got my legs pumping, I felt so good at that pace that I kept it up and turned it into a 40 minute Tempo Run.

3. After my run, I decided to treat myself with a little something special.  I wasn’t sure what to fix until Dear Hubby started talking about Taco Bell, and then it hit me!  I could make chicken quesadillas better than any fast “food” chain!

It was pretty simple, and I’m sort of irritated with myself that I didn’t realize how quickly this meal could go together.

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And I had all the ingredients in the house = rarity.

How to Make a Quesadilla for Dummies:

Heat a pan to about medium high heat.  I have a Misto sprayer, but you can use some sort of cooking spray to coat the pan.  Place one tortilla shell on the pan, and sprinkle a layer of cheese on top of the tortilla.  We also have a lot of canned chicken breast, so I threw some of that onto the tortilla as well.

 In my mind, you need to have a layer of cheese, then whatever other filling material, and then MORE cheese to complete the sealed quesadilla.  Since we don’t have an official machine that would compress the two tortillas together, the cheese is vital…probably not true at all.

Slap on the second tortilla and press the living daylights out of your quesadilla.  Think SPANX.

Pressing around the outside edges helps to seal the tortillas together with the help of that adhesive cheese.

It only takes about two minutes per side and an obsessive amount of checking to make sure that you don’t burn your quesadilla.

Once you’re satisfied with the level of grilling, slip that baby on to a plate and slice ‘er up!  I recommend using a pizza cutter for equal-est division of slices.

How was your weekend?  Anything fun or exciting happen?

Ever come up with a recipe idea on the fly? What was it?

Fast as an Easter Rabbit

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Morning Workout: 4 miles @ 31:09 (avg pace = 7’47″)

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I always seem to run out of time in the mornings to get in a good 3 reps of either an upper or lower body workout after running and the abs challenge.  Even though I get up before the sun, I enjoy a good, leisurely hour before actually getting my butt in gear.  This may sound crazy to 99.9% of you, but it’s how I roll.

I’ve decided that I’m going to start breaking up my workout into two parts, and completing my abs exercises at the end of the day.  I can tell that I’m not working as hard on my strength training, and that’s something that’s important to me to maintain.  So starting tonight, I will do my second half of my workout while watching Survivor.

I was able to get a nice Tempo Run in this morning.  I have created an extra goal for April: 5 runs with an average pace of 7’50″ or faster.  Today was one of those days.

I started out wanting to have one of my “fun runs,” and go at a decent clip around 8’05.” As I was rounding the corner on my 3rd mile, I started losing a little steam, so I switched over to my Power Song: “Sexy and I Know It” and blasted through!  I was proud of myself for completing such a challenging run.  I didn’t look down to see what my pace was, so when I saw my splits on the Nike Running site, it all made sense.

In other exciting news, Dear Hubby and I received our Easter Basket from my mom and dad.  It doesn’t matter how old you get, seeing the pink crinkle grass around a bag of pastel M&Ms makes me laugh and squeal with joy.

Oh my Sugar-Induced-Coma-Causing Lord!  Do my parents know how to celebrate the end of a 40-day Sugar-Free Lenten season or what?!?!

The truth is, I’m enjoying my sugarless lifestyle so much, I am planning on keeping it up.  Dear Hubby agreed that was fair.

While Dear Hubby was wriggling in his new-found spoils of being my parents’ son-in-law, I don’t think he noticed that I slipped this bag of practically sugar-free Easter treats:

Fancy Oatmeal logic dictates that if you have 10% or less of a serving size = zero calories/sugar

Do you still get an Easter basket?

Do you have any special rules for eating?

Five-Second Rule + the 10% Rule