Slow Cooker White Bean and Ham Soup and a Massive Update!

Wow! I can't believe how fast October flew by! We spent two weekends in Minnesota, one for the marathon weekend and the other at great friends' wedding. We also went to Kansas City for another wedding of one of my college friends! Let's see if I can give a more detailed recap of our lives!

Where has the time gone?

During the weeks, our time seemed just as busy! I've been putting a great deal of time into the nutrition class that I'm taking in addition to working full time. Another thing that has been taking up my time is physical therapy for my injured foot! I've been going to PT sessions twice a week for the past 3 weeks and I can really tell that there has been major improvement! When I took the boot off, I felt pretty uneasy with little balance. Since then I have made major strides in balance, strength and function! Today I got to hop on the elliptical for my warm up and I was pleasantly surprised that I had no pain! It's so crazy that when you are doing physical therapy, the most elementary activities/actions turn into enormous hurdles and can be very painful. It's nice when I can see actual improvement with my ability to do the excercises and a decrease in pain after the sessions!

Slow Cooker White Bean and Ham Soup
Find recipe here.

With all that is going on, there has been little time for anything else during the week! I honestly can't remember the last time I went to the grocery store or made anything from a new recipe. I guess that means we've been eating our favorite go-to recipes that we just know! Luckily, Bryan had a little bit of down time a couple of weeks ago, before his life got crazier than mine, and was able to really help out! I had a huge craving for ham and bean soup one day a couple of weeks ago, so I found this recipe online and he got it going in the crock pot just hours later! It totally hit the spot and we had awesome left overs for days!! We have extra ham in the freezer and I think I'm going to have to whip this up again this weekend!

Big Things are Happenin'!

There is so much going on this fall, it's hard to put it into few words. Bryan is traveling all around the country full time going on residency interviews for urology, and I am trying to join him on as many that I can! With my job and class, my time is more limited, but I am able to make it on the important ones. I thought my life was busy already but add on traveling a couple times a week and it's hard to keep everything straight! This hectic time will continue to consume our lives up until Christmas, when we will submit his residency rank list! In January, we will know where he is placed! It's very exciting, and I will try to update on this topic when I can!

One Last Note

Oh, one last thing. This little guy keeps me company when Bryan is gone, and we miss him like crazy when we are away! He's such a funny little kitty! He's my study buddy, cuddle bear, comic relief and provides love and entertainment like no other!

Injury Update

Since I've been injured the past couple of weeks, I've really been taking it easy in all aspects of life. No working out, very little cooking since I'm not supposed to be on my feet (Bryan has been helping so much!), and consequently, no blogging about workouts or food!

We had a fabulous weekend in Minnesota a couple of weekends ago! We got to hang out with friends most of the weekend and watched the marathon that I was supposed to run. It was really sad and I teared up a couple of times, but I knew that had I run, I would have permanently injured myself. I knew that I was making the smart decision to not run, but it was hard to watch. Now I'm trying to figure out if I'll ever have time to train for another marathon! At least I know that there will many more half marathons in my future :)

My days consist of going to work every day, and then coming home and putting my feet up! My foot is still quite sore. I had to get an MRI today because the doctor said that since I still have a significant amount of pain, he needs to know where it is coming from so that he can figure out a proper treatment plan. He'll be able to tell how bad the stress fracture is and if there is any tendon involvement.

I've been using my time to study a lot for the nutrition class that I'm currently taking. So, I guess it's not all bad that I am not able to do much right now!

And luckily, Dimitri makes great blog material. He's so freaking cute! He's been my consistent study buddy, or lack there of... Let's just say he keeps life interesting in the Hinck Household :)

Dr.'s Orders

After 18 weeks of  training, I am no longer able to run the Twin Cities Marathon :( Over the last 6 weeks, roughly, I have developed a stress fracture in my left foot. Despite my proper tapering, it was still getting worse in the last few weeks, which prompted me to go see an orthopedic physician. The stress fracture is located in my navicular bone seen here:

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While I'm very disappointed because I was very excited to run the race. However, I am also very proud of myself. I fully completed my training for my first marathon ever, and I really enjoyed it! I know that my legs could carry me through the race no problem (if my foot wasn't injured) and I'm very proud of my thorough training. I was running very well and consistently and could have predicted a good finish time, give or take 5 minutes. It is not a good idea to run, especially a race, if you have a stress fracture. It can get much worse and even cause permanent damage if it is not caught early enough and allowed to heal completely. For my foot to heal, I have to wear a walking boot/cast for a few weeks and there's no running allowed. I was very surprised to find no pain while walking with the boot on! I guess I'd really been doing a good job of walking and running through the pain these past few weeks.

I do hope to use this time in the next few weeks to start some strength training and weight lifting that I had planned on adding to my workouts after the marathon. I'll start by focusing on my upper body and core, and adding my legs into the workouts if my foot can handle the pressure.

Until then, this is my lifestyle.

I am still able to do day-to-day activities with the boot, but I need to focus on resting my foot as much as I can, and I try to take it easy in the evenings. It is hard for me to sit and relax when there are things to be done! Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who is very helpful and doesn't let me get up if I don't have to. He's even taking care of things in the house and making dinner for me, even though he is very busy studying for Step 2 of his medical school board exams!

We are still planning on going to Minneapolis this weekend for some planned events and festivities, and we'll definitely be cheering on some friends and the other runners running the race!

Rock n Roll Chicago Half Marathon 2011

This morning I ran my second half marathon ever - the Rock n Roll Chicago Half Marathon! It was a very fun race and I was so happy to see my friends Jessica and Mae along the course! The weather was great too - partly cloudy skies and around 70 degrees! It even rained lightly on us during the race, which felt really good!

Unfortunately, this year, I'm not able to document the race with photos. Last year, Bryan rode his bicycle around the course and took photos of me and the course. But he's in Cleveland at the moment, so you're stuck with my review in words :)

The first mile was very fast and fun. The next 4 were hard for me. I ended up getting a massive stomach cramp (I never get those!!!), but was able to run through it. Before I knew it, I was at mile 7 and feeling much better! I tried to keep a decent pace through another major stomach cramp around mile 8 and sooner than I thought mile 10 was upon me! I pushed it hard to the end and felt good! My goal was to finish in under 2 hours, but unfortunately, I finished just over that. My full marathon training has been focusing on distance rather than speed, so I didn't feel like I could push myself to the max the entire race and keep the pace the whole time. I guess I was mentally running a marathon race and should have been focusing more on speed. I am very proud of myself for knocking about 20 minutes off of my time in this very race last year. That's major progress! Overall, the race was very fun and the course was awesome!

Now, I'm sitting on the couch drinking Gatorade and water with my compression socks on and massaging my quads with my running stick - and eating my favorite post-race snack... Lays sour cream and onion potato chips. And I don't feel bad about it at all!

19 miles in Chicago

Today I ran 19 miles for my marathon training! It was long and hard, but I did it!!!

I completed my run in the evening so that I could spend time with Bryan this morning before he went to Cleveland. I waited until just before 5pm so that the temperature would decrease as I ran. It was actually pretty pleasant out compared to many recent runs!

My long run last week was extremely difficult and I hit a major wall with 3 miles left to go. I could not finish and it was miserable. I was determined to not let that happen again! With these long runs that I've been doing, I've discovered that I'm a very salty sweater! Anytime after mile 10, if I rub my arms or legs, they have a thin layer of exfoliation (solidified salt crystals from sweat) all over my skin. When I do these long runs, the salt builds up so much and that means that my body is totally depleted of electrolytes and that is the very reason why I bonked and hit a wall last week. This week I tried Nuun tabs (electrolyte tabs) that dissolve in water and I was thoroughly impressed! My legs got tired near the end of my run, yes, but the rest of my body felt great, which I had not yet experienced after 14 miles yet. What a nice feeling knowing that you have the mental energy to keep going, even if your legs are killing you!

The majority of my run was along the lakefront and it was a beautiful evening for a run! After I came home, I enjoyed leftovers from our date night at Market last night. MMM! Good food in my belly! Now I'm sitting with my compression socks on and taking intermittent breaks to massage my legs with my stick!!!

8 + 8 + 16 in Minneapolis

Last week, I went to Minneapolis to visit Bryan while he's on his urology rotation for the month of July. I tried my hardest to keep up with my marathon training, but it was very difficult with the heat wave that is still going through the midwest.

Sorry no photos on this post - I didn't take my phone with me due to rain, heat and humidity!

Wednesday's run was a good 8 miles. I did two smaller loops in a warm drizzle around Lake Nokomis. This time, I didn't even care that the water fountains were so sparce. I wasn't overheating, so I felt totally fine! That made me feel better about my training!

Saturday's 8 mile run was pretty miserable. At 7am the temperature was already 82 with intense humidity. I contemplated getting up super early and running then, but the temperature was 80 at 5am and 81 at 6am. I figured that I'd rather sleep two more hours than get up and run in only two degrees cooler weather. The humidity in Minneapolis is totally insane in the summer and it makes it feel so much more hot outside! I made it the whole 8 miles, but I had to stop and walk more often that I usually do and when I got home I was just exhausted.

I was quite nervous about Sundays 16 mile run because the weather was expected to be worse. There was a heat advisory out and the heat index was supposed to be around 115, so I knew that it was going to be rough, no matter how early I started. I planned a route that included 2 loops around Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet that were 6.8 miles and then once around Lake Harriet at the end would equal approximately 16 miles. Well, I decided before I left that I was going to be safe over all other things, and I knew there was a great chance that I would not complete the run. And I was okay with it. I started running, with my water bottle in hand, and within 5 minutes I could have wrung out my sports bra. There were lines of sweat/condensation drips that were hanging off of the bottom of my arms that swayed with me as I ran. Since the dew point and temperature were already so high, my sweat would not evaporate off of me. It was like running in a steam room. It was awful. I just tried to get into some sort of groove, but it was very hard. Everytime I was under some shade or a water fountain, I took a quick break to try to cool down just a little bit. I was surprised at how many people were out braving this heat! Every person just looked miserable and everyone was running sluggishly. I ended up making it around the loop for the first time and took a break by the car to refill my water bottle and take a Gu gel. I was feeling okay after my break. I started out for the hellish second loop. I made it just less than half way around and decided to turn around because I felt like my body was overheating. I didn't want to get to the point where I was lightheaded, weak or even slightly faint because I didn't have my phone on me (I took it on the first loop, but it froze within 5 minutes due to the heat/humidity). It seemed to take forever to get back to my car and once I did, I could barely stand the heat anymore. I think I ended up running about 13 miles all together, but I felt like I had ran about 20. I was so happy to get home, take a cold shower, and put on my compression socks!!

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the Women's World Cup final soccer game, eating good food and drinking LOTS of water!

Running Gear

New running shoes are one of my favorite things to get! I fell in love with my first pair of Saucony’s this past year and decided to get another pair instead of my lifelong line of Asics. I guess I’m officially a Saucony convert. I was long overdue for a new pair of shoes, so I was super excited to finally get some! Check out these beauties!

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They fit like a glove, are super comfortable, and I’m lucky to love the colors! You know, you can’t pick running shoes by the color because sometimes you only have one choice. I was very happy when I opened the box to try the newest line of shoes to see white, black and blue. Oh, and with a cute pink stripe on the bottom. I don't like pink that much, but it's cute on the bottom I guess. All around, it’s like they were made just for me!

I also purchased a few other items of running gear! I’ve wanted compression socks after reading about them here, here and here on SkinnyRunner, especially being sore after long marathon training runs. Compression socks are supposed to help increase blood return and the idea is that your legs will recover faster after a long run. They’re also supposed to be good for traveling or when you are sitting down for long periods of time. I went for a long run in Minneapolis (post coming up), and put these babies on for the afternoon. They are tough to get on because they are so tight, but let me tell you how awesome these socks are! I immediately felt relief to my legs and I couldn’t stop smiling all afternoon! I didn’t even care that I looked like a total nerd wearing a dress and compression socks while watching the Women’s World Cup Final. Come on, I was with my husband and there was no one to impress – he’s stuck with me and my weird quirkiness! I didn’t wear them in public outside, mostly because the heat index was around 120 not because I looked weird. My brother-in-law made fun of me and I didn’t even care because my legs felt completely awesome within hours! So there, my spiel on compression socks is over – they are awesome and I’m so glad I finally have a pair (in black)!

 

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Another awesome purchase was my marathon stick! It’s basically a stick with handles on both sides and large beads across the middle that helps the stick form to your leg, and you are able to massage out any stiff muscles or leg cramps. It seriously felt so good to work out some of the tightness in my thighs. I think it also aided in the recovery process too!

(source)



Yay for new running gear!

10 Miles in Chicago

Blogging has really taken a back seat lately. I apologize. It's due to multiple things:
1. Having an old man computer that barely works and shuts down on me without notice even when the battery is plugged in. We're holding out on buying me a new mac laptop because Apple is suppose to release the new operating system in July 2011 - any day now Apple, it would be much appreciated.
2. Having a broken camera that takes pictures but I have no idea what I'm taking a picture of because the screen doesn't work. Oh yeah, btw, I've been operating with this broken camera since January. It's not ideal, but it still works so I can't complain too much. A camera is just not on the top of the "things we NEED to buy" list right now. Hopefully it will be soon though.
3. Being a temporarily single wife and not cooking that much now that I'm cooking for one. I'll still try to mix other posts in so that I'm still blogging and when a food post makes it on the blog, you know it's a good one!

Today's training called for 10 miles. I could not have gotten up early enough for this run not to be deadly hot. Seriously, it was only one degree cooler at 6am than 7am, so I slept the extra hour and knew it would be a scorcher. And it was! It's so hard running a long distance when the sun is beating down on you, with no shade, and no breeze. Chicago is called the windy city, but there was no breeze this morning until I got to the turn around point where I got to enjoy it for about a mile total. Gross. I even ditched my running tank top about 2 miles in (I just tucked it into the vertical part on the back of my sports bra) and was just dripping the entire time. Needless to say, I stopped for water about 20+ times which I'm sure added 10 minutes or more to my time. There were actual lines at some water fountains and I did not even care! I knew it was more important to stop and hydrate a even a little rather than risk overheating or getting dehydrated.

The view of where I ran from this morning. I started downtown and made my way up the lake shore. I always love the turning around point and seeing how far the city looks! But then I realize I have to run back. Ha! At least my legs felt good today! Yesterday's 7 mile run was not very fun at all.

I ran the same route as my other 10 miler in Chicago and had no major aches or pains again. That's a good sign!!

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to hang out with some great girl friends at a pool located at one of their condo buildings. It was simply amazing to relax, tan a bit and have some great girly chit chat all afternoon! Love you guys!

Fourteen in Minneapolis!

Happy 4th of July weekend!!! We're in Minneapolis visiting family and friends this weekend. It's a special weekend because our nephew and godson is having his 1st birthday! Crazy how fast the time flies by.

This morning I ran 14 miles in this beautiful city. I've only ran as far as a half marathon, so this was a new distance record for me and I'd call it a success! Sorry no pictures - my iPhone was acting up. I think it was the heat or humidity that caused it to malfunction - it's never done that before.

This run was very challenging for the following reasons:
1. It was HOT!!! It was in the 80s this morning, although I'm glad it wasn't in the 90's like yesterday.
2. There were hardly any water stops or drinking fountains along the running path. In Chicago, I'm used to them every mile or even more often in some places. There were only three and I needed way more than that! I mean, I do appreciate that Minneapolis is such a clean city. There were trash cans AND recycling bins every quarter mile it seemed! Since Minneapolis was ranked #1 for the most active city (seen at this site), they should definitely put some more drinking fountains on one of the most popular running paths in the city!!!
3. I got lost for about 20 minutes around mile 4... which totally ruined my time. So after I got back on track (and accidentally adding to my distance), I just decided to run well, not worry about the time, and just enjoy sweating my ass off.

This run was awesome for the following reasons:
1. No major aches or pains! That's a huge success to me!
2. Despite the 20 minute getting lost detour and the 5 minute break where Bryan met me to give me a Clif Shot and Clif Blocks since I forgot to get some ahead of time, my time was actually decent considering I the hotness and lack of water.
3. Luckily, much of my run was in the shade!
4. Minneapolis is so beautiful and full of nice people that the run was just fun!

Seven at Sunset

Today I ran seven miles after work along the lake shore!

There were lots of people on boats and sailboats taking in the beautiful sunset. You can barely see them they are so tiny!

I felt totally awesome during the entire run. I'm pumped to keep training and run the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in August and continue to train to run the Twin Cities Marathon in October!

Long Run Sunday

As I mentioned before, half and full marathon training is under way!! Unfortunately, I miscalculated the weeks and discovered that I'm behind on my training! Oops.

Regardless, I needed to do a long run today and I've decided to alter my training just a bit so that I can "catch up" which means I'll just have to get into shape a little faster to start with. Today I ran 10 miles along the Lake Front Trail in Chicago and the weather was beautiful!

Yesterday I ran 5 miles at race pace and felt great, but my legs were feeling it this morning. I started out the first 2 miles really slow on purpose so that I didn't overextend myself too early in the run. I think I was trucking along at about 11-12 minute miles. No joke. But it felt good to loosen up my legs - and not think about how far I had yet to go! I really surprised myself on my overall time though, about 1 hour and 50 minutes that included a 8-10 minute break at mile 5 (the turn around point) where I ate some Gu Chomps, got a rock out of my shoe and snapped some photos. I felt like a champ and ran on back home and actually increased my pace on the way back!

The view from Diversey, the turn around point for today

The thing about running along the Lake Front Path is that you can see how far you need to go, and it just doesn't seem to get closer! I just had to stop thinking about how far I had to go, and just enjoy the run. It was fun people watching with all the beach-goers and volley ball players. There was a big accident on Lake Shore Drive, with a taxi of course. And because of the Pride Parade, traffic was all around horrible. I flew by those cars!

 View from Fullerton

The Hancock

There we go, a little closer now!

Overall, this was a good run for me today. I'm feeling confident that I'll be able to keep up with the training as it should have been scheduled!

PS - Did anyone else hear about The Hungry Runner Girl's workout clothes giveaway? Check it out :)

Half and Full Marathon Training Has Begun!!!

I spent this past week in Ann Arbor, Michigan training for a new position through my job. The training went well, I met a lot of people in person that I had only spoken to on the phone up until this point, and I got to spend some time bumming around downtown Ann Arbor which is a very cute little town!

Bryan and I were incredibly lucky to BOTH land 3 day weekends starting on Friday. I had worked my full workweek Monday - Thursday and he didn't have to go in to clinic, so we had a great relaxing and lazy Friday. We did actually get a lot of things done too so that we could have the weekend to relax even more. It turns out that we had no idea how tired we were until we unexpectedly slept 12 hours Friday night. I guess we needed the rest from the busy week!

Saturday, we spent the morning at the Lincoln Park Farmers Market!! We loaded up on some great produce (including rhubarb which I'm going to use this evening to make mini rhubarb pies! I'll post the recipe this week) and really enjoyed ourselves, even though the weather was not the greatest.

We spent the afternoon with our friend Jen at the Wells Street Art Festival, which was awesome!! We've really been wanting some cool Chicago themed art since we've moved here, and if only we had hundreds and hundreds of dollars to spend on it! Oh well, maybe someday we'll get one piece. There were some great artists there who had their work displayed and it was just fun to walk around and see so much variety and talent. We also got to try some great food! There's no way you can walk around any festival in Chicago and not try some food. It's a must do!

This week also marked the official start of my half AND full marathon training! I've been running somewhat regularly lately, so this week didn't really feel any different to me. I did do a longer run of 5 miles today. I felt great the whole time and my finishing time was decent too. I'm hoping I can really stay on top of my training so I can rock each race!!

We're gearing up for the rest of this week: Bryan's last week of 3rd year and going back to Minnesota for one of my best friend's wedding next weekend! Exciting!

Rock n’ Roll Registration

It’s official – I signed up for the Rock n’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon!!! I’m super pumped for this race! I completed this race as my first half marathon last year and hand a blast!
Last year, the route was pretty cool, and I think it’s supposed to be the same, or very similar. It starts downtown in Grant Park and weaves through the Loop a bit before heading south and then back north along the lake shore.
This race will come at a perfect time for my full marathon training for the Twin Cities Marathon, which is in October!
The past two weeks have been pretty low key for me, running wise. I’ve really been trying to pay attention to my sore leg muscle and make sure that it can heal before intense training starts in June. I’ve been running every couple of days, and stretching like no other. Finally, I don’t feel any pain in my leg during or after my workouts, so I think I’m in the clear! I’m building up to where I used to be cautiously so that it doesn’t get strained again.
Attention to all my Chicago friends…. Anyone want to run this race with me?! It will be super fun!!!!

Running Struggles

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For the past two weeks, I’ve had some muscle pain in my right leg. At first I thought I’d pulled my groin, but then the pain started changing. I couldn’t stretch it out for the life of me and other muscles started to hurt too, because they had to compensate for my non-working muscle. After a couple of days off early last week, it seemed like the pain was more focused on my gracilis muscle. I worked out a couple of days in the middle of the week, to see if it I could run through the pain or not. It turned out, that I could not and I didn’t want to injure myself any further. I took it easy the rest of last week and took Easter weekend and the following Monday off from working out at all.

It is very difficult not to work out when you want to, but sometimes you have to take care of yourself and realize that an injury needs to heal before you can really benefit from working out. Yesterday, I hopped onto the treadmill and finally felt okay. I didn’t feel any pain at all until about mile 3, where I felt a dull pain in my leg, and at that point I decided not to push myself too hard. I ran 4 miles and stretched for a long time afterword. I think all the resting I did worked and the muscle will be okay. I just need to keep an eye on it and not push too hard right away. Hopefully, I’ll be as good as new coming into May because that is when my official marathon training starts up!

PS - While writing this post and researching a photo of the gracilis muscle, I discovered that the gracilis muscle has a Facebook page. Wow.

Running

Happy Match Day to all the 4th year med students!!! Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

Today was my day off, so I got to enjoy the beautiful 59 degree weather by a nice long run outside! I decided to run my route of going over to Lake Michigan and then south on the lake front path down to Soldier Field and back, for a total of 8 miles. I felt great throughout the entire run, except for when the wind was blowing my hair in my face! I was glad I opted for a thin long sleeve shirt because the wind coming off the lake was a bit chilly! The run was totally awesome! My total running time was around 1 hour and 10 minutes, which puts me at about 8 1/2 minute miles. I'll have to train harder for speed, but for now I'm happy with that time. After running on the treadmill all winter and not doing long runs, I think that is the best I can expect at this point. I'm excited to do more long runs outside now that the weather is getting nicer! Another 10 minutes was added to my run by stopping to take all these photos! Please excuse the grainy photos, my iPhone camera was all I had with me! We're going to take a little tour of one of my running routes! Here we go!

I started my run out on Upper Wacker Drive, and saw that one of the bridges was up, which I don't see that often!

Hopping onto the river front path out to Lake Michigan

This is the Trump Tower with the bridge in the foreground

Just to the west are the corn cob buildings - actually named Marina City

View of the river and the direction I came from

View of Navy Pier, once I got out to the lake

Lake Point Tower, on Navy Pier - I bet all the views from that building are awesome!

Empty docks - the seagulls were so loud around this area, and the breeze felt good coming off the lake!

Looking north along the lake shore, about 2.5 miles into the run

Then I made it down to Roosevelt, south Loop area, where there are some cool buildings

The Field Museum - looks like they have a horse exhibit going on right now

The Shedd Aquarium - I am about to run around the backside

View #1 of downtown from the south

View #2

View #3

The backside of Soldier Field, almost done! I had about 0.2 miles to run, and then turned around to head the same route back to downtown

Navy Pier looks so far away from behind the Shedd Aquarium!

View of downtown, and it's getting cloudy!

Made it back up to downtown! This is Lake Shore Drive with some of the smaller residential buildings on the river

The tour boats are up and going for the spring season!

Here is the river front path that I run on to get back home! Quite a nice run today!

It's official...

Twin Cities Marathon, here I come!!!

I've never run a marathon before and I'm incredibly excited to say that I've just signed up to run my first marathon this October in Minneapolis, MN. I thought about running the Chicago marathon this fall, but the first half of the course was identical to the Rock N' Roll half marathon I ran last summer in Chicago and the remainder of the course was not very interesting. I didn't want that to be my first marathon experience. My next thought was to look into a marathon in Minneapolis, since we have tons of family and friends there. When I saw that this marathon is in October, I couldn't stop thinking about having my first marathon experience to be "the most beautiful urban marathon in America". I gave myself a couple of weeks to feel really confident in my decision, and I'm excited to say that I'm officially pumped for this!!

Here's a map of the 2009 course, which looks to be the same as the 2011 course:

In other news, I ran my first outdoor run since last October today. I just couldn't resist the partly cloudy 35 degree weather. I ran one of my favorite routes, north through downtown, through Old Town, and then along the paths through Lincoln Park and back home - a total of 6 miles. It's a good thing I stayed in shape all winter using the treadmill! I was so happy that I felt great throughout the whole run! The only thing was that my knees hurt when I got home and was stretching. I guess my knees got used to the slight cushion of the treadmill instead of the pavement pounding every day. I'll have to ease back into running outside while the weather continues to warm up.

Do any of my fellow marathon runner's have any tips or advice for training?? I'm going to be using one of Hal Higdon's training programs, but I haven't chosen the specific on yet.

Running

**My apologies for accidentally having my commenting system turned off. It's back on! If you wanted to comment on The Best Tuna Melt Ever or Samoas Cookie Bars please do. I would love to have a comment conversation with the new comment system!

Like I mentioned earlier, I've been trying to run a lot more lately and it's been fun to keep things interesting on the treadmill. Here are a couple of recent workouts:

Thursday's run:
My goal for Thursday's run was to go for distance while continually increasing the speed as I went through the miles. At mile 4, I alternated with the speeds to keep it interesting. The sequence I did for mile 5 is what I sometimes like to use for mile 1, but the last stretch was much harder when my legs were already tired. It worked well!
 

Distance (Miles)	Speed (MPH)
0.0 – 1.0	6.5 (9:13 min mile)
1.0 – 2.0	7.0 (8:30 min mile)
2.0 – 3.0	7.5 (8:00 min mile)
3.0 – 3.2	8.0 (7:30 min mile)
3.2 – 3.4	6.5 (9:13 min mile)
3.4 – 3.6	8.0 (7:30 min mile)
3.6 – 3.8	6.5 (9:13 min mile)
3.8 – 4.0	8.0 (7:30 min mile)
4.0 – 4.25	6.5 (9:13 min mile)
4.25 – 4.5	7.0 (8:30 min mile)
4.5 – 4.75	7.5 (8:00 min mile)
4.75 – 5.0	8.0 (7:30 min mile)

Saturday's run:
My goal for Saturday's run was to not run very far, and to have an intense workout. I really wanted to work on speed, keeping speed, and continually increasing it. Let me tell you, this workout was hard! The first mile felt really really good. By the end, my legs felt like rubber. It felt so good! As you can see, for each mile, I would run a constant pace for the first half. For the second half, I would bump it up for each 0.1 of a mile. Then, at the next mile, I'd bring it back down, but a notch higher from where I started. I'd run that for a half mile, and then bump it up for each 0.1 mile again. That way, I was continually increasing speed, but was able to give myself a chance to catch my breath while still working hard. This was the first time I've ever done this workout - I just made it up on the spot. I think I'll probably do it once or twice a week to increase my speed! It was great!

Distance (Miles)	Speed (MPH)
0.0 – 0.5	6.5 (9:13 min mile)
0.5 – 0.6	7.0 (8:30 min mile)
0.6 – 0.7	7.5 (8:00 min mile)
0.7 – 0.8	8.0 (7:30 min mile)
0.8 – 0.9	8.5 (7:00 min mile)
0.9 – 1.0	9.0 (6:30 min mile)
1.0 – 1.5	7.0 (8:30 min mile)
1.5 – 1.6	7.5 (8:00 min mile)
1.6 – 1.7	8.0 (7:30 min mile)
1.7 – 1.8	8.5 (7:00 min mile)
1.8 – 1.9	9.0 (6:30 min mile)
1.9 – 2.0	9.5 (6:15 min mile)
2.0 – 2.5	7.5 (8:00 min mile)
2.5 – 2.6	8.0 (7:30 min mile)
2.6 – 2.7	8.5 (7:00 min mile)
2.7 – 2.8	9.0 (6:30 min mile)
2.8 – 2.9	9.5 (6:15 min mile)
2.9 – 3.0	10.0 (6:00 min mile)

 Today, I'll probably go for distance again. Do you have any interesting treadmill workouts?

*** IN OTHER NEWS***
I'm considering running a MARATHON!!! It would be this October in Minneapolis! I'm about 80% sure right now, but I'm giving myself a couple of weeks to decide. What do you think?

Running

My blog has been a bit heavy on the Foodie side. Here's a post dedicated to the Runner side :)


Even though it was a nice day in Chicago today, I decided to run inside on the treadmill. I've been using the dreadmill all winter, and in order to try to keep things interesting and not get too bored on that sucker, I've used interval training to change up my workouts. I run for distance, not time, but I'm sure you could alter my workouts to be timed instead.

Today's run:

Distance (miles)	Speed (MPH)
0.0 – 0.5	6.0
0.5 – 1.0	6.5
1.0 – 1.5	7.0
1.5 – 2.0	7.5
2.0 – 2.5	6.5
2.5 – 3.0	7.0
3.0 – 3.5	7.5
3.5 – 4.0	8.0
4.0 – 4.5	6.5
4.5 – 5.0	7.0

A lot of my treadmill workouts are variations on this one. A lot of times, I'll change it up after a couple of warm up miles and run intervals of 0.2 mile and start at 6.5mph and the next 0.2 mile, crank it up to 8.0mph and alternate for a mile or two. Sometimes I'll hold a speed for a whole mile too. I just depends on the mood I'm in!

Does anyone else have any good treadmill workouts? It'll be a while before I'm able to run outside all the time!

Success!

I guess all I needed was a little inspiration to get up early this morning. It worked. Dimitri helped me wake up by sitting on my chest while I petted him like crazy. What a good little kitty. Then, I got up despite a very sore throat and did my workout.

This morning, I did a treadmill work out that I started doing just about a month ago. It works well for me to start my morning workouts this way because it starts out at a slow 6.0 pace. Then every quarter mile, crank it up by 0.5mph. Once you hit mile one, come back down to 6.0 and repeat. I actually think I need to start at 6.5 and increase the speed from there because the first half of a mile seems really slow. But early in the AM, I don’t care and I’m still trying to wake up and realize that my legs are running underneath me. This particular work out is just a way to change it up every now and then so I don’t get bored. I’m in the process of finding more interesting treadmill workouts – keep an eye out for those! After the quick run, I stretched, did some abs and realized that I needed to shower and get ready. I guess I played with the kitty a little too long this morning!

I have to continue with my morning workouts so that I can indulge this weekend! We’re having friends over and I’m going to be making some goodies! Stay tuned for those posts coming soon!