Kenny Wayland Memorial 10K

Hey everyone! hope you all had a fun/relaxing Memorial Day weekend!  Sunday morning my sister and I ran in the Kenny Wayland Memorial 10K.  this is our second year running the race. Last year my time was a little better than this year’s time. (my time last year was 45:20 and this year it was 45:46-average pace: 7:23/mi).  Here is the breakdown of my splits:

mile 1: 7:07

mile 2: 7:09

mile 3: 7:20

mile 4: 7:26

mile 5: 7:38

mile 6: 7:41

last .2: 7:01

slowed down quite a bit in mile 5 and 6.  I did not feel 100% during this race. Perhaps it was due to the batch of brownies my sister and I consumed the night before??? (see the post below)…who knows! But I felt a little queezy once I hit the turn around.  My sister and I were joking after the race  that were both thinking to ourselves, “I wonder if Mary (or christina in my sister’s case) would kill me if I just stopped right here, threw up and walked home?” hahaha I truly felt that bad during the race.  I knew If i didnt dig in and tough it out that I would be upset with myself for throwing in the towel…and I would be letting my sister down too!

I act like I did horrible or something in this race. I didnt, at all!  My sister got 3rd female overall and I got 4th female overall.  My sister placed first in our age group 20-29 and I placed second (got a medal WOO HOO!!) and Maria (whose blog I just stumbled upon) got 2nd female overall. she snuck up on my sister and I towards the end of the race-she was flying- on a mission for sure. and basically crushed us to the ground. hahahah I was very happy for her, though!!! she had a solid race and was so excited at the awards ceremony! I remember she said she couldnt wait to get home to her husband to tell him she got second overall! …  the first place female was a lady named Patty. She is basically a rockstar down the shore. perhaps one day I can be as good as her… hmmmm

I am not sure why I love the rocky pose so much...hahah

mary loving life.

This morning, my sister, todd (her boyfriend) and I road our bikes over the bridge and to the end of OC. We stopped at the top of the bridge to take some photos. The view is so awesome from the bridge….I love nothing more than riding from my house to Ocean City.  beautiful scenery..it really makes me so happy.  unfortunately, I got TWO flats during this ride.  Todd helped patch the first (stupid me had everything but patches with me…so we had to ask someone for help) but I guess it didnt really hold up so well because 40 blocks later I was flat again.  I had to call up my dad to come for me and he brought me a new tube and we changed the tire together.  Turned into a MUCH longer bikeride than I had originally anticipated!

Game 2 of Flyers/Blackhawks tonight….lets go flyers!

then back to class from 8-4:30 tomorrow- have two exams tomorrow- did I study yet? no sir.  I better get on that before the game!!!!

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Broad Street Run 2010!!

Good morning! Sorry it has been awhile since I last updated…things got a bit busy with school and everything so I decided to take a little break from blogging.  I am now home for the summer (well I do have 1 take-home final that I have to e-mail in by wednesday but I am pretty much done with it anyway)!  After I finished up with my final on Saturday I hopped in the car and headed straight to my sisters’ apartment in Philly.  She made me a nice dinner (roasted salmon, roasted sweet potatoes, and sauteed string beans/carrots) and then we got some yogorino froyo (YUM).  We got to bed early, woke up early, and got ready to run the Philadelphia Broad Street Run!

For those of you who do not know…the Philadelphia Broad Street Run is the largest 10 mile race in America!!  This year was the first time they capped off the amount of participants at 30,000!  My sister and I have always wanted to run it but it is usually at bad time of year for us…finals in school, etc. But this year we decided to just go ahead and run it (even though Mary had just run the Boston Marathon two weeks ago!).

We took the subway to the start of the race (as did MANY others):

runners on the subway (philly.com)

Once the subway doors closed my sister turned to me and said “please tell me you have your Garmin on your wrist”- I looked down…and of course I had forgotten mine at home…so we waited until the next stop, hopped off of the subway, and ran back to the apartment to grab our garmins!

before we got on the subway the FIRST time...notice no watch?

getting on the subway for the second time...notice Mary does have her watch on this time!

As many of you know, Mary just ran the Boston Marathon (on April 19th).  She said her legs were still pretty tired and so our “plan” was to stick together, go really slow, and just enjoy the run.  I knew better than that though.  I knew as soon as our corral started to go that this was not going to be a sunday afternoon jog…so in a way, I was prepared for what I was about to face at the starting line!  hahaha….I was happy with our results… I set a PR (personal record)!

We crossed the finish line together in a time of:

1:16 (7:35 min/mi)

I placed 502 out of 26,169 runners

and 58 out of 1921 runners in our age group (21-24)

Womens's winner: Buzunesha Deba: 55:13

Men's Winner: Alene Reta 48:10

The first place wheel chair finisher was Chad Johnson (Charlestown, IN): 35:02. It was truly inspiring to see the wheel chair racers during the race.  I remember running by one lady in particular and thinking to myself "wow...this lady is AMAZING" I was truly inspired by all of them out there yesterday- definitely not an easy thing to do to say the least...

due to the heat, there was alot of people collpasing from dehydration,etc.  It was pretty scary!  But luckily nothing major happened and everyone was pretty much fine.

here are some more photos:

action shot of Mary running!

Mary and I together after the race

After the race we took the subway back home, showered, and headed to one of Mary’s favorite brunch spots in Philadelphia- Sabrina’s .  This place is GREAT. Everything on the menu sounded delicious- I really want to go back for lunch sometime!  Definitely check this place out if you live in the area…

Mary chowing down: poached eggs, potatoes/onions, whole grain toast & fruit

After our brunch/lunch we headed to our second home- Wegman’s- to get some work done.  I had 2 take home finals I needed to edit..I finished one and sent that in and still have to finish editing the other one but I am almost there!!!  Later that night I FINALLY made it home to my parents and doggies…it felt SO nice to get home 🙂  I watched some home videos that my dad put onto DVDs (which made me even happier to be home), went to bed, and FINALLY slept in for the first time in foreverrrrrr.

Today I have to finish my final, unpack my car (blah), clean out my room, etc.  Not looking forward to it but I know it will feel good once it is all done… Hope you are having a great start to the week!!

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“running down a dream” 2010 Boston Marathon

(sidenote…the title of this blog post is a song by Tom Petty- I have the youtube clip of it at the bottom of this post!) As many of you know today is the famous Marathon Monday (aka the Boston Marathon).  It is always hosted on the third monday in April (Patriot’s day).  It is a HUGE event in boston…everyone even has off of work/school. awesome, eh? Boston is a prestigious race… it is a very tough/hilly course (some people say to add a good 10 minutes- or so- of time to your usual marathon time and that is the time you will get for boston…not sure how true that is) and you have to qualify in order to run it.   My sister, Mary qualified for Boston in her first marathon (2008 Philly Marathon: 3:33:43).  You have two years to run boston after qualifying and she chose to run it this year!  Below are the qualifying times for each age/gender.

Today, Mary finished in at time of 3:37.22 with an average pace of 8:18…here is the breakdown of her race:

She absolutely rocked it.  I woke up to a text from her telling me she woke up with a cold, sore throat, and a stiff neck…just PERFECT. haha  I knew she would brush it off as soon as she started running but I am sure it didn’t help her morale.  I was so nervous/excited for her…I could only imagine how she felt!

I could not be more proud of her! I would have given anything to be there watching her cross the finish line today….I was sitting in my bioethics/physics classes today trying to calculate approximately what time she would be at the next marker so I could click refresh on my page to see how she was doing…yeah I really  paid alot of attention in class today (told you I should have been allowed to go to boston, mom! haha).

Mary had such a consistent race; her splits stayed (relatively) constant for the entire race.  When I saw that she had finished the race in such an awesome time I choked up and smiled from ear to ear.  (kind of corny now that I think about it- wonder what people thought of me? hahaha)  I look up to Mary in every aspect of life; She is such a great role model for me; and not just in athletics. She is truly the person that I strive to emulate; she is a fun/caring/athletic/studious/kind/confident person and I love her so much…and you know what the best part of all is?

I qualified for Boston in this year’s Philly marathon (time: 3:39) and that means we are running Boston TOGETHER next year!!!! I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It seriously will be the time of my life- and even more so because I get to run it with my sister 😉

and the winners:

The winner: Robert Cheruiyot Time: 2:05:52 (4:48 pace!)

female winner (Teyba Erkesso) 2:26:11

Hope your weeks are all off to a great start!!!!  Adios.

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mixing up your runs…

I have never really did any formal training with running….well I did follow the Hal Hidgon Marathon Training Plan but I have never seriously trained very much with hill workouts, intervals, tempo runs, fartleks,etc.  My sister is running in the Boston Marathon in a couple of weeks (AH!) and is using Hal Higdon’s boston bound plan.  I think she will be doing a post about her new philosophy she has developed towards running….and so I wont go too much into all of it but basically she made me realize that you should not KILL yourself on every run.   Throughout the week- my sister will run EASY one day, follow it with a fast hill workout/yasso repeats, followed by an EASY day, a Tempo run day, a rest day, a pace training day, and a slow long run day (emphasis on SLOWWWW).  all of this adds up to SPEED on raceday and NOT getting burnt out. For instance, I came on her 8 miler recovery run (from her 20 mile long run ) the other day….we went very slow and it was sooo enjoyable to be able to truly take in the scences surrounding you.

So what is my point? My point is that my sister and her marathon training plan have allowed me to view my “training” from a whole new perspective.  and it has made me want to incorporate different types of runs into my workouts.  I think I have avoided doing different types of runs for fear or injurying myself…but I think that if you find that perfect balance of rest with work and  realize that you dont have to go “all out” in every workout…then you will find yourself much happier, much faster, and performing much better on race day.  When I trained for the marathon back in the fall I used to beat myself up if I didnt hit certain splits (that were way to fast for a long run anway)- and sometimes would get burnt out because I didnt let myself truly enjoy the run….anyway…below I have a list of different types of training runs that I will be incorporating into my future workouts:

1. Fartleks: running at an easy pace with bursts of speed of varying distances throughout the run.  speeds of the farleks should vary as well as times (anywhere for 15 seconds-3 minutes).  Fartleks are more of an informal type of training…many people will chose landmarks to run to.  The benefits of fartleks are training your body to run anaerobically, preparing your legs to feel/absorb a variety of paces.
2. Tempo Runs: A tempo run consists of an easy warm up jog, followed by a 3-6 mile run at about your 10k pace.   This 10k pace is basically a pace that you doesnt allow you to carry on a conversation with someone next to you.  After the tempo run, make sure to include a cooldown jog.  Tempo runs increase your body’s lactate threshold, or “LT.” The LT is the point at which lactic acid begins to accumulate in muscles. If a runner increases his or her LT through tempo runs, they will be able to reduce the accumulation of lactic acid and run at higher speeds without suffering muscle fatigue.
3. Intervals: Interval training is defined as a series of repetitions of work with a recovery period following each repetition.  The duration of each run in an interval session is typically 15 – 90 seconds or 100 – 600 meters. The recovery ratio should be between 1:1 and 2:1, run to recovery. Interval training should be done faster than race pace. The intention of these workouts is to produce lactic acid by forcing one to run the last portion of each repetition anaerobically.
4. Hill repeats:Hill repeats are an excellent way for runners to build strength, improve their speed, and build their mental strength and confidence in hill running. Although hills come in all different lengths and degrees of incline, the basic concept of a hill repeat is usually the same. You run up the hill fast and then recover by jogging or walking down. When you reach the top of your hill, your breathing should be labored and your legs should feel heavy.
5. Recovery runs: Recovery runs are the most important part of your training regimen. The body needs a break from the intense training a distance runner puts it through. The hard workouts provide the stimulus to help you improve. The recovery runs are when you will see those training benefits. Running fast everyday will lead to overtraining, and may cause unwanted injuries.  You should be able to EASILY carry out a conversation with someone.

The next question is…how fast should we be running all of this stuff at? Well my sister also showed me the McMillan Running Calculator– you type in your time of a specific race you did (whether it be a 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon…etc.) and it will give you estimates of the pace you should be running your various workouts at…  for instance….I ran a 3:39.12 marathon…so with that information…the McMillan running calculator gave me the following information:

**click on the images if you cannot read them well

Q1: What type of running workouts are your favorite?  Are they any that you do that I did not include in the list above?

Q2: How do you approach your “long run” days?

Christina

p.s. HAPPY EASTER!!!!  have a wonderful day with your family!

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stepping it up a notch

I’ve being doing treadmill intervals for awhile now and have kept the speeds/incline relatively the same. Today,  I decided to step it up a notch and challenge myself to increase the speed.  I used the basic 3 and 5’s interval but increased each speed by 2.

*since this was my first time doing 3 and 5’s at this speed I kept the incline at only  0.5

3 minute warm up at 6.5

Part 1

3 minutes 7.0

3 intervals 8.2, 7.0,8.2

3 minutes 7.0

3 minutes 6.5 (should have been 6.7 but I was tired, okay?)

Part 2

5 minutes 7.0

5 intervals 8.2,7.0,8.2, 7.0, 8.2

5 minutes 7.0

5 minutes 6.5

Part 3

3 minutes 7.4

3 minutes 8.8, 7.4,8.8

3 minutes 7.4

cooldown

this kicked my buttocks.  I was dripping in sweat by the end…I wonder if anyone at the gym noticed my disgusting self? haha  But I was glad I challenged myself…I felt so great afterwards!  I did the same thing in Body Pump last week and it really made all the difference. I feel much stronger now and now I know what I am capable of! anyone out there dabble in body pump classes?

in other news… Meatless March is going really well!  I dont find myself craving meat very much at all…except for bison burgers…dont ask why haha (I feel like im preggo or something haha).  I dont see myself ever turning completely veg but I will save that for another post…

hope you all had a nice start to the week!

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just another one of Meg’s kickbutt treadmill intervals…

Megan (Be Fit Be Full) always comes up with some of the best treadmill interval workouts!  I was perusing the internet the other day and found another one of her intervals and decided to give it a go:

distance=4 miles.

time=35 minutes

Minute	Speed
1-5 (warm up)	6.5
5- 5:30	8
5:30-7:30	6.6
7:30-8:00	8.1
8:00-10:00	6.7
10:00-10:30	8.2
10:30-12:30	6.8
12:30-13:00	8.3
13:00-15:00	6.9
15:00-15:30	8.4
15:30-17:30	7
17:30-18:00	8.5
18:00-20:00	6.5
20:00-20:30	8.6
20:30-22:30	6.6
22:30-23:00	8.7
23:00-25:00	6.7
25:00-25:30	8.8
25:30-27:30	6.8
27:30-28:00	8.9
28:00-30:00	6.9
30:00-30:30	9
30:30-32:30	7
32:30-35:00	6.5

I will usually put some type of incline one during treadmill workouts but I was sort of sore today/tired/being a wimp so I decided not to.  But to make it even more difficult (although this one was fine as it was!) you can add an incline to your treadmill.

Enjoy!

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sticking to our word.

As many of you know, my Grandmom passed away back in October.  Before she passed away, my sisters and I decided that we wanted to organize a 5k/10k in remembrance of her…as well as to benefit Bladder Cancer.  We thought that having a race for her would be a perfect idea…she was very active throughout her life…always involved with sports, etc (she was even a water aerobics instructor for the old ladies in her village!).  We told her about our plans and she was very excited about it.  We planned on having the race start in Margate, NJ (a shore town where she lived for most of her life, where my mom grew up, and where we currently have a house in).   She was very involved in the town ….she served as a Sergeant in the Detective Division of the Atlantic Country Prosecutors Office and was a member of the PBA.

I know that if we planned this race, it would be very successful.  And as excited as we were to do it…we just never got around to planning it.  Now I know that it is only February…but its time to get a move on (races take a LONG time to plan!).  Of course we are busy.  My oldest sister (Danielle) is in her third year of Med School, my middle sister , Mary, is in graduate school for teaching/reading specialist…and I am in my second semester of my junior year of college.  but the thing is…no matter what- we will always be busy/have stress…it’s a part of life. so instead of waiting for the right time to do something…waiting for things to settle down…I have decided to get it done…to learn how to deal with things in midst of a busy life/stress.  Afterall– planning this race is something that is super important to me.  I will not be satisfied unless it is done….I will not be happy unless we pull it off.

anyway…enough babling… I contacted the City Clerk office of Margate and they told me to email the Chief of Police. …..which is perfect becuase (a) I work for him in the summer and (b) my grandmom knew him very well.  The lady at the city clerk told me to include exact information about the race (the date, distance, roads that need to be closed, events before/after, amount of people expected, what the race is for, etc.).

distance: 5k/10k

benefit: in rembrance of our grandmom, Yvonne Stewart and to benefit bladder cancer research

expected number of runners: 500??

more info: I would like to have some sort of ceremony with the police (since she was an officer) before the race, music (live?) after the race with post-race food, t-shirts, and awards.

This is going to be a lot of hard work…we will need to get a company for timing, sponsors, t-shirts, awards, food, advertising…etc….but I am very very excited to get to work 😉

Question: Have any of you ever organized a race?  If so, do you have any suggestions?  Anything will help! thanks 😉

love and miss you, Grandmom ❤ 9.15.09.

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Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Good afternoon!!  Today I had to drop off my car in for service so my sister brought me.  As we waited for the car to be ready….we went on a run together around the river we both used to row on back in high school.  We went twice around the river— 7.4 miles to be exact.  The first time around we just did steady state and the second time around we did some fartleks (which, as wikipedia told me, means “speed play” in sweedish!).  Basically fartleks are a sort of informal interval training.  We picked random landmarks (a road sign or street lamp) and decided to sprint from that point to another point…etc.  It was a great workout!  lots of fun.  For me, its hard to get myself outside in the winter- but once I am into the workout- I find that I dont really mind the cold all that much!!

anyway…. last night my sister and I decided to make Alison’s Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

serves 4

1 Tbs olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 Tbsp ground cumin
1 clove minced garlic
5 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 15oz can diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
7 oz canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 + cup quinoa, rinsed
2 medium carrots, grate
1 c vegetable broth
3/4 c pepper jack cheese, grated, divided
2 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs and seeds removed

Saute onion in EVOO until soft.  Add cumin and garlic, saute about 1 min.  Stir in spinach and drained tomatoes.  Cook about 5 minutes or until all the liquid has cooked off.  Stir in black beans, quinoa, carrots and vegetable broth.

cover, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low, simmer 20 minutes or until quinoa is tender.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350.  Pour reserved liquid from tomatoes into bottom of baking dish.  When quinoa mixture is done, stir in 1/2 c cheese.  Fill each pepper half with a quarter of the quinoa mixture and place in baking dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.  Uncover, sprinkle each pepper with remaining cheese and bake 15 minutes more, until tops are browned.  Let stand 5 minutes, drizzle each with pan juices before serving.

My sister and I both really liked these!!  We both agreed that next time we would use fresh baby spinach versus the frozen because it just tastes better!!  this is a perfect meal if you want something on the light for dinner (although I did eat almost all of the extra filling…woops ;))

anddddd as many of you all know, I went to the winter classic up in boston last week.  I had been wanting to get this flyers winter classic hat that I had seen ….but never got around to buying it here in philadelphia.  I thought for sure I would be able to get it at the game in boston…but they were sold out!!! I dont know why I wanted this hat so bad.  and of course everywhere I turned at the winter classic people were wearing it (even my two friends from high school- greg and brad -that I met up had them on! haha)  dont ask why I wanted this hat so much..I just wanted it okay?…anyway once I got back to philly I finally found the hat! and yes I look kinda sorta goofy in it but I DONT CARE because i love it so much! I wore it all night (even while I was cooking the peppers) until at about midnight my mom came in my room and said “T, are you gonna sleep with that hat on?” and then I thought to myself maybe I should take this hat off and go to bed.

me cerca midnight just before I took off my beloved hat

dont forget to head over to Stef’s blog and enter in her giveaway!!!

have a nice night 😉

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3 and 5’s: TREADMILL INTERVALS!

Hello!!  Well I thought a good way to follow the last post would be a nice running/treadmill workout (called 3 and 5’s).  The other day my sister and I went to the gym in her apartment building in Philly to workout with each other.  We decided to use a workout that my sister tried before….and I absolultely LOVED IT…so much so that I decided to share it with you guys 😉

• Warm up for 3 minutes at speed 6.5

PART 1:

• 3-5 minutes at speed 6.8
• 3 intervals (1 minute each) at speed of 8.0,6.8,8.0
• 3 minutes at 6.8
• 3 minutes recovery at speed 6.5

PART 2:

• 5 minutes at speed 6.8
• 5 intervals (1 minute each) at speed of 8.0, 6.8, 8.0,6.8, 8.0
• 5 minutes at speed 6.8
• 5 minutes recovery at speed 6.5

PART 3:

• 3 minutes at speed 7.0
• 3 intervals (1 minute each) at speed of 8.6,7.2, 8.6
• 3 minutes at speed 7.0
• ~ 5 minute COOLDOWN (slowly bringing the speed down to a walk)

Total Workout time: ~50 minutes

note: I ran about 5.4 miles all together during this workout

REMEMBER: you do not have to follow these speeds exactly….tweek the workout to YOUR liking…if you are just starting out with running, you may want to go slower than the speeds I have listed…and if you are a Speedy McSpeedster, feel free to sprint your heart out!!!!

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Baked Chicken Parmesan!

Good evening all! Today I went to the baltimore zoo for my Biology of Mammals lab…it was so much fun!  The chimpanzees are so cute- one little guy was playing with a swing rope and carried it high up on a ledge so that he could swing back and forth- and then his father was playing around with him trying to knock him off the rope…so funny/cute.

I also ran my last 4 miles in baltimore today (well last run before the marathon anyway haha).  It went very well…beautiful weather once again.  I timed the run perfectly…as soon as I finished the sun began to set and it got pretty dark… I do not like how it gets so dark so early now!!  anyway…the only run I have left is a easy, slow 3 miles before the expo on saturday!  My sister and I are running it with Emily (a runnersworld forum/blogger friend- although we have actually never met!) and I believe there will be some other runnerworld forum people there, too…excited to meet them!!

onto dinner…

whisk an egg in a bowl, place a piece of chicken breast in the bowl and coat with the egg.  Pour some bread crumbs in a separate bowl and transfer the egg-coated chicken to the bread crumbs and coat the chicken.  Place the chicken on a glass baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes @ 400 degrees.  Take out of the oven and top the chicken with mozzarella cheese and place back into the oven for about 5-10 minutes (or until cheese is melted).  Meanwhile, heat the sauce (canned or homemade) in a saucepan.  Pour the sauce onto a serving plate and place the chicken on top.  I served my meal with a Whole Foods roll and sauteed broccoli (EVOO plus lots of garlic).  But obviously…. you can also serve this with pasta!

I used whole wheat Wegmans bread crumbs and Muir Glen Organic Tomato sauce (I was a bit lazy tonight and did not feel like making my own sauce…but I must admit I do enjoy some jared sauces! especially this one)

The chicken after coating with the egg and bread crumbs (and before placing in the oven):

and the finished product…

This meal was great…just what I was craving 😉

anyway… I am in the library now…I am supposed to be studying for my Microbiology quiz tomorrow but clearly I am not…so sadly I must leave you.  1 quiz and 1 test away from going home for thanksgiving break (early one for me ;)) and the marathon!  3 days!

Oh and check back on Friday night for my next update…I will be attempting to make Iowa Girl’s Baked and Bruleed Oatmeal!!

Have a nice night,

Christina

P.S. please keep my Mommom (grandmom) in your prayers…she was just admitted to the hospital last night due to heart complications.

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