(Pre) Marathon MADNESS!

It’s been an interesting week leading up to the marathon. I mean, nothing too crazy happened other than me feeling super duper fat (which I’ve heard happens) and completely sluggish. I don’t know if it’s because I’m still eating like I run 30+ miles a week or if I’m still experiencing Taper Madness–but I feel like Ms.Piggy. My clothes aren’t fitting right and all I want to do is hide in my apartment, while wearing elastic waist banded pants. Good thing I’m going to run 26.2 miles in tiny shorts in two days. OY VEY!

But seriously, I’m ready for this race to be over for several reasons. One of them is that I want to mix up my workouts! With the summer in Denver being so insanely beautiful and my apartment’s close proximity to the city’s most premium parks, I want to get my park workout on. I realize I COULD be doing these WHILE training, but that’s a lot of work (and time!). Also, there is a killer workout on Saturday morning’s at RED ROCKS that is basically three hours of P90X, but free and at RED ROCKS for goodness sakes. Running just doesn’t change my body the way that I’d like it to–so it’s time to mix it up!

Anywho, Jed and I started out on our marathon journey at 5pm on Friday night.

And…we’re off!!!

The Wyoming sunset ain’t so bad

We dodged overturned semis and 10,000 deer (I WISH that was an exaggeration–in fact we saw a guy who was towing a boat hit a dear and swerve all over the road while deer entrails were strewn about)* and made it to Deadwood at midnight.

We rented a little cabin on VRBO as most of the hotels in the area were booked up, super expensive or real shady.
We are right off Main Street, close to all the Deadwood action

crafty!

It’s perfect for the two of us…

When we were driving in to Deadwood I noticed on the map that we were driving right alongside the race route, the Mickelson Trail, and realized that we were probably about six miles outside of Deadwood. When I looked up from the map, it was clear that we were, in fact, driving uphill. Is this some sort of joke? Do we really go UP at mile 20? So,I checked the elevation profile and sure enough, there is a fun hill mile 20. I have the distinct feeling I’m going to wish I did more hill training. What can we do NOW? ha!

Today I hope to see a little bit of Deadwood or possibly go for a little drive to Spearfish Canyon–but mostly I’d like to relax a little and enjoy that we’re out of Denver…

Growing up I spent several summer vacations in these Black Hills….there are so many memories for me here which makes it even MORE exciting to run through them tomorrow. I hope Ralph and Gladys can appreciate my crazy ass wanting to run 26.2 miles through their beloved Black Hills. I will make sure to raise a High Ball to them tomorrow afterwards (I seriously wonder what those two would think! HAHA!)

Here are a couple more shots from the trip:

Cowgirl UP!

Or this one

Pit Stop

*South Dakota driver rule #1. Never swerve to miss a deer!!

2 days til 26.2

Updating from an iPad is roughski! (wpp)

Anyway, we are getting all loaded up for our road trip to the black hills of South Dakota and I’m realizing that packing every piece of running clothes/socks/etc leaves little room for anything else!

More later………scuds honor!

wailing on the bis and tris

I realize that looks like bis and tris, but it really I mean to say, I wailed on my biceps and triceps yesterday and it felt awesome. With this being the 10 days before the marathon I’ve really been trying to focus on getting time on the pavement, but yesterday I needed a ‘rest’ day so I headed to the Oxford for a quickie sweat.

I’ve had great luck pulling workouts from this website, but yesterday I decided to go old school and pull a workout from the archives. (speaking of archives, I just realized I have a buttload of workouts in there-Shayna hooked it up!)…I rode the bike for 20 minutes and then did the following set  of exercises:

• 5 sets cable pull-downs till failure super setted with dips x 10-12.
• 2 sets bent over barbell rows x 10-12 super setted with plate shoulder complex. Shoulder complex is: Front raises x 10, around your head x 10 each way, upright rows x 10, overhead press x 10.
• 3 sets barbell bicep curls x 10-12 super setted with cable tricep push downs x 10-12. Shoulders back, bend at the elbows.
• Ab wheel. 3 sets of 12 rollouts.

Needless to say my arms and shoulders are a little jello-y today, but in the best possible way. Since I’m taking a little break from working out with Adam and Jen, I figured I’d need to get a little strength training in so as to not lose it all before I start doing Level 10 after the marathon.

Where do you find your workouts? Do you make them up on the fly or do you plan well in advance?

In other news I had my second Pampered Chef party at my friend “La La Shove You”‘s house (man I love talking about derby girls!!). It was originally scheduled for Sunday, but there was a kitty fiasco so we re-scheduled for last night. Unfortunately most of the gals who planned on making it on Sunday couldn’t make it Thursday so it was just a couple of us, which was fine by me. I needed the practice and to be quite honest, I had never prepared the recipe we chose, so it was nice to be able to work through the kinks with people I know (thanks Frak and La La!).

Since the party was originally supposed to be on a Sunday morning, it was brunch themed. In an effort to not put anyone out or make things more complicated, we stuck with the theme, even on Thursday night.  We made brunch squares and had mimosas. It was awesome. La La’s 10 year old daughter helped me in the kitchen, she touted to me ” you know, you can ask me to read the directions to you, I read above my grade level”…she ruled. Since I can’t eat eggs, or cheese, I had to take the word of the guests about how the final product tasted and it was a huge hit. I was stoked. Just another recipe to put in my back pocket
What would YOU want me to cook if you had the chance?

I got home and was happy to find that my first order of Vegasport had arrived

yum, vegasport. (ha!)

I was stoked because I was really looking forward to trying it as a recovery after a “long” run on Saturday! It’s not the best tasting stuff, but it does the trick. Stand by for results on Sunday.

Now that it’s officially 10 days from the marathon, the weather websites have the forecast up for June 3rd…and it turns out that it is going to be STELLAR!

yeah Deadwood!!!

3 days of rain beforehand and 75 and partly sunny on the day of. Fingers and toes crossed that this stays this way I’m getting more and more excited as the day gets closer, which is good, considering how I’ve been loathing running lately!

So that’s that. Happy Friday, snitches. Here’s to a glorious long weekend filled with cold beers, park workouts, long runs and slip and slides!

I refuse to feel chubby all summer

So I may have mentioned in a previous post that I am challenging myself to do 100 squats every day in the month of May (ok, well, I got started on May 14th, so I’m already kind of a liar). I’ve maaaaaaaaaybe missed three days, but even then I’d mange to crank out 20-40. Squats, in my book, are the most perfect prison exercise. You don’t need any equipment and you can change the parts of your body you work by lifting your arms or whatever. I mean, just try it. Stand up right now and do a squat with your hands above your head….it’s cool, I  will wait……You feel that?? In your back, your shoulders…oh and your abs if you’re doing it right…how about your butt too. Squeezing it at the top is my favorite part of a squat. Now that I’m not doing derby I’d hate for my derby behind to be flattened….wow, ok, I got a little derailed. Anyway, yeah, so doing squats every day, yeah I’m doing that in an effort to keep my derby booty, for one, but also to keep strengthening my knees and quads/hammies while I’m training for the marathon. As much as I love my workouts with Jen and Adam (and miss bootcamp), I think the last couple weeks before the marathon should really be spent, oh I don’t know, running. A few well executed squats don’t hurt no body!

The other night Jed cooked me a delicious (and colon cleansing) green curry or as he likes to call it “umm, I can’t remember which one is spicier, red or green” curry. I’m still pretty midwestern so my tolerance for heat is FAR LESS than his. I always say if he’s not crying and sweating at the end of a meal he just did not enjoy it. (in fact our first date had us both with runny noses and sweating from “medium” curry at US Thai)–again, I digress. Jed cooked dinner, we watched Mad Men, as per usual on a Monday night, and once it was all said and done I decided we should go on a walk around Cheesman Park.

We started out on our jaunt and I realized I still had 40 squats left to do to make my quota, so I made Jed stop and do squats with me. Total normal post dinner activity, right? Then, we got close to a bench and I decided we should do some push ups. Decline style. Since my boyfriend is such an amazing sport he indulged me.

Push ups in Cheesman, sure!

It’s amazing what simple exercises/activities can do for your spirit, or your ass, for that matter–it’s funny how quickly those “simple exercises” accelerated in to doing decline pushups every time you pass a bench in a park. I decided that THIS is how I’m going to combat those extra calories (from the beers and margaritas I plan on drinking) that are sure to be consumed this summer! I vow to not be the chubby boy in the white t-shirt

excuses, excuses

Last weekend can be summed up in two words: oy vey. In true Elizabeth fashion I managed to pack Saturday and Sunday to the brim, leaving no hour/minute untouched, which is why, it’s no suprise, that I hit the wall on Sunday night and was sick in bed all day Monday.

It all started Thursday night. The night I laid everything out on my facebook page in a type of “well, if I write it, I HAVE to do it” type of thing…. The weekend would start with dinner in Aurora with my brother, his wife and my niece, Annika. On Saturday morning we would wake up extra early, crank out a 5k, run home (literally run home, we wanted to get 10 miles in on Saturday). In the afternoon/evening we planned on riding our bikes to the 1st Bank Center to watch our beloved Rocky Mountain Rollergirls play the Denver Roller Dolls…(an 18 mile one way trip).  That was all just on Saturday. On Sunday I had planned to ride bikes to meet up with my friend Brittany who was in town from Phoenix, have a Pampered Chef Party and THEN head to Washington Park to celebrate my dear friend “Rad Die’s” 30th Birthday. (are you exhausted yet?).

All was going as planned-the only hiccups we encountered was the fact that my pampered chef party was cancelled due to an issue with a cat who liked to do it’s business outside of their litter box (not sugar, of course) and the run home from the race was cancelled because it was so rainy and windy and FREEZING!….but other that Jed and I were the opposite of flakes. We biked all 18 miles, we had killer 5k times (I PR’d…27:12 minutes…8:45 pace), we kicked it hard at the park…it was glorious…until Monday morning. I woke up feeling completely and utterly exhausted. Like my batteries were not charged. I had gunk in my lungs that felt like a ton of bricks and I couldn’t swallow because my throat was red and raw. Perfect. 12 days before the marathon and I get strep…or something equally yucky. I opted to keep my germs to myself, so I holed up in my bed and worked from home (in between naps, of course). I garggled salt water, I drank wellness tea, I had some soup, I chugged EmergenC, and said voodoo prayers so that this plague would leave my body soon! All of these things worked as I felt much better on Tuesday morning. I think I slept a total of 16 hours between Monday and Tuesday–which could also have assisted in feeling better. Any way you look at it, I felt good enough to go for  little jaunt around cap hill/cherry creek on Tuesday morning. I did stop a couple times to loosen some phlegm (you’re welcome), but other than that, I think things are on the up and up. If I can keep this at bay for another week, I will be good to go.

Team Inspirato!!

v

So, what I’d like you to take away from this is: Just because it’s “kinda” summer doesn’t mean you have to go balls to the walls.

Thank you and Carry on.

Must be summer, I’m getting re-obsessed w/ smooties!!

A couple weeks ago, Jed and I visited his friend Tom, in LA. We were just there for a quick trip, but it was still awesome. Not only was Tom and his wife Stacey great hosts, they were smoothie junkies. So much so that Tom dropped a pretty penny on a fine looking Vitamix blender, which he used to whip up delicious smoothies for us after a hard day of running, surfing, eating and drinking. I started to fantasize about the Vitamix-it makes smoothies, it makes soup, it makes guacamole..shit, it could probably chop up an old leather shoe–what I’m trying to get at is that this piece of kitchen machinery is the BEST (well, on par with Pampered Chef). Midway through my day dreaming, I found the price tag of that sucker and my fantasies were crushed. That thing is EXPENSIVE!

Wait, why was I going on and on about the Vitamix? Oh right, smoothies. So, I got home from LA and dusted off my $13 Hamilton Beach personal blender, scoured the internet for smoothie recipes and hit Whole Foods for ingredients. I’ve not been too adventurous in my past smoothie making. I sometimes use protein powder or peanut butter..but mostly I’ve thrown yogurt and fruit in a blender and called it a day. Looking back, it’s no wonder I’d be hungry after an hour—all those sugars, nothing substantial…and here I thought I knew nutrition. With this new found desire to have smoothies all the time, I decided that I would need something a little heartier, which is how I decided that “Oh She Glows” green monster would be my first foray in to “proper smoothie’dom”. I have to admit, I’ve been terrified of using Chia seeds for food since I realized they are, in fact, the things you smooth all over a ceramic Homer Simpson. Then I started reading Born to Run and decided that I’d give them a shot….this shot came this week. Ugh, I’m such a procrastinator.

Again, I digress. The Original Green Monster calls for banana and protein powder, two things I don’t have on hand or eat any more, so I improvised. I used strawberries and peanut butter instead…oh and instead of almond milk, I used soy yogurt. I threw all the ingredients in my cheapie, personal pan pizza sized (ohhh, personal pan pizza..so good…drooool) blender and blended that shit UP. Turns out, that little guy did a great job. I mean, I still resent it for not being a Vitamix…but it will do for now. I was shocked at how good my smoothie was…even more shocking was that it held me over until 9:30am, a full three and a half hours after drinking it! Amazing! I’m a strict three hour eater (if not sooner), so to go that long without actually THINKING of food was something miraculous!

So this ends it. My love letter to the green monster, smoothies in general and overcoming my fear of the chia seed*!

*I woke up in the middle of the night last night worried that I was supposed to be soaking the chia seeds before eating them. Mostly because I’m trained to do so when it comes to buying quinoa in bulk. I fired up the ipad to learn that you are, in fact, not supposed to soak them or else your bowl will look like this:

OR

Early mornings and ignite nights

I managed to get up at 6am despite my alarm going off at 5:30. I’m still pretty stoked about how I was able to spend my morning making an epic smoothie, drinking coffee and getting caught up with pampered chef stuff!

The Green Machine

After a rough 3 mile run on Tuesday, I was really looking forward to hitting the gym with Adam and Jen on Wednesday. He usually makes us sprint, or do hills, but in short increments, so I was certain I’d be able to get it done. Not the case. I could hardly push it past 9mph and when I did, I wanted to cry. I lost my breath, started hyperventilating and barfed a little (so hot!). I can find no other reason for this type of behavior than BURN OUT. I’ve consulted several sources (read: the internet/reddit) and have decided that my body is ready, but my brain is getting in the way. Running used to be thoughtless and effortless, but lately it’s been roughski. I’m ready, mentally and physically, for this marathon, so let’s get this freaking party started!

I had a great food day today. It was one of those days where I had my lunch packed the night before and it was delicious–so I was stoked to eat it. Noon couldn’t come soon enough Is that a problem? You count the minutes till you can eat again?

Jed picked me up after my workout and we headed to Ignite Boulder. It was my first experience with what is touted as “5 minutes, 20 slides,  Geeky Goodness” and I have to say, I’m hooked! I loved all the speakers and when asked who was my favorite, I was hard pressed to choose. The topics ranged from mental illness to how to dance. Most were funny, a handful were sorta serious, but all were super informative and most of all, FUN! I spent a little time at intermission thinking about what I would talk about if I were given the chance…can’t do roller derby, that’s been done by KB…hmmmm, might be something to consider since I’ve been feeling so brain dead lately.

In other news I ordered up my first batch of VegaSport and hope that helps in my recovery after workouts and runs. I feel like recovery is such an important part of training and I’ve not been able to find the right formula for me. I’m sure its a little late in the game to start a new regime, but oh well. It’s happening. There is a discount code for those of you vegans looking for a performance/recovery programs….Let me know if you want it

I’m going to give myself a couple days rest and try to work up to a 12 mile run on Saturday (with a 5k race thrown in there! We be crazy!) In order to help with the marathon motivation, I’m adding some photos of the Deadwood Marathon–you know, to get my heart excited again! I hope your runs/workouts are better than mine.

Look at this guy! He’s loving it.

Not a shabby view

I will be there in two weeks!