Next on the horizon...

Well as I talked about in the last post, Rock ‘n Roll didn’t go as scheduled due to a stomach ailment. Things are a little better and I would say that I am about 70% of full strength (with meds – need to get off of those soon). But it was definitely the right call not to race as for the 3-4 days after what would have been the race, I wasn’t consuming anything but smoothies. As a result, dropped 4 lbs. in that timeframe, which is a decent amount for someone of my height. I had worked out later in the week at Crossfit and did a couple of easy runs around Green Lake just to keep things moving, and the pain was tolerable.

Fortunately I was able to get back into gear by the time one of our close friends came to town for a visit for July 4^th weekend. Nat arrived on Saturday morning on an absolutely gorgeous day in Seattle, and we immediately did what any proper host does – whisked him up to Woodinville, where many of the best wineries in Washington state have tasting rooms. OK, we did have an amazing brunch at Barking Frog first. Gotta get some food in the system, right?

Unfortunately the one winery that Marc wanted to check out was by appointment only, so we couldn’t visit those folks. We did, however, stop by Pepperbridge, DeLille and Page and properly introduced Nat to some of our favorite wines. He enjoyed all of the places we showed him, but seemed particularly enamored with DeLille. After some wine tasting in the sunshine, we headed back to the house to watch some baseball and get ready to have some friends over for dinner.

We decided to do our tried and true rib-eye recipe on the Big Green Egg. I wasn’t sure if there was going to be much difference from when we grilled it on the regular BBQ, and let’s just say that I was wrong. Big time. Our friends each brought some great dishes over like kale salad, sautéed Swiss chard, meringues and “chocolate peanut-butter goodness”. It was a very fun time and some amusing discussions took place amongst the group that really didn’t know each other beforehand. The entire group works out regularly and I received word on Sunday morning that one of the more “hard core” folks had such a good time on Saturday that they needed to “get some grease” at McDonald’s the next morning prior to starting their training bike ride. Guess we did a good job as hosts! J

On Sunday, the Mariners were in town and Nat is a huge baseball fan. Actually, he is a Red Sox fan. But we have known that since the start of our friendship and have embraced the rivalry and what that brings. We ended up having nice weather for the game and I showed Nat some of the really cool features of Safeco Field, where the Mariners play. Then we ended up meeting another friend of ours, Erik, for dinner at the newly opened and much raved about RN74. It’s named after one of the main roads in the Burgundy wine region in France. The owner, Michael Mina, has a restaurant in San Francisco with the same name, which Marc and I have been to.

For a place that was opened 3 weeks ago, the quality of the food and service was really top notch. I have been to a number of places when they were just getting their feet wet, and they definitely had kinks to work out. We really couldn’t find anything to criticize. The team took great care of us and ended what was a really fun day. Oh yeah, we actually got to start the day with a run and then a visit to Elliott Bay Books in their new Capitol Hill location. So yep – outstanding day with Marc and close friends. Nat had to leave early on Monday unfortunately, but we hope he comes back soon (and not alone)!

My next 2 races are pretty close to each other, but they are not typical “races” as in a 5k, 10k, half-marathon. Both are relays, which encompass a completely different line of thinking and training. And the running is going to be at the hottest part of the day in both relays. So I asked Kim of TN Multisports to get me back on track, and she assigned me a pretty tough track workout yesterday. Since it was a pretty warm day by Seattle standards (high 70s and complete sunshine), I decided to hit a different track that had no shade and waited until about 2:30pm to do my workout.

My stomach was a bit upset, but my legs felt good and my cardio seemed strong, so I was happy with the effort. I am hoping that my stomach will continue to trend in the right direction in getting better, and then hopefully getting off of the meds that I am currently on. In preparation for the relays, I am also going to have to start doing something I have never done before since I started running – double running sessions. It’s more of a mental thing, but it needs to be done. Stay tuned as I try and tackle that challenge.

Sometimes it is knowing when NOT to start

Yep, the Seattle Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon and Full Marathon took place this past weekend. I was training and ready for it. Between the work I was doing with Kim at TN Multisports and at Crossfit, I was ready. Not overtrained or anything, but ready.

The weather was looking good and things were falling into place. But racing is part preparation and part luck, which leaves the element of the unknown (i.e., what you cannot control). I had a great year in 2010 where everything fell into place for me. Well this year, I got dinged with a bug the week of the race which was as ill-timed as they come because I couldn’t take in any calories in the days leading up to the race. I COULD HAVE raced. Yes, I could have run a decent race. But if you don’t have fuel in your system, lots of bad things can happen. It seems overly dramatic, but nothing like fainting from a lack of fuel in the system and potentially hitting your head on the concrete, or letting yourself get so dehydrated that you cause some other damage (yes, it happens).

So on Thursday when it looked like things weren’t heading in the right direction, I made the call on my own to not race on Saturday. I told a handful of people about my decision prior to the race because while I knew it was absolutely the right decision, I was obviously disappointed. That said, Marc and I committed to taking 3 of our friends to the start line and so I relieved him of those duties, and took our friends to the start at 5:30am.

I told the trio that I wasn’t racing, they were sympathetic and encouraging of the move. I told them to kill the course as the weather conditions seemed favorable. Sure enough, they did and the 3 of them had a great day.

When I posted on Facebook that I didn’t start, I received a number of private messages and e-mails complimenting me on knowing that I SHOULD NOT race. Thanks for those as they meant a lot. Not racing this race is nowhere near the end of the world. My overall health comes first and I’m the only one who really knows how I am feeling, and Marc needs to know that I can make that call (and vice versa) in spite of being the competitor that I am.

I went and did Crossfit yesterday morning, which had a mile of running incorporated in the workout. Since no food in the system, I felt fine and not nauseous. Yeah, I know what could have been. But I also know that 20 minutes of working out hard vs. an hour and 50 minutes of working hard are two very different things.

On the non-racing front, I'll just add that we have been busy with having fun over at Chez Beck celebrating many positives, trying out some restaurants around town and just entertaining with family and friends - local and out-of-town. We're lucky folks.

As a number of you said, another race will always beckOn….. and I’ll be there.:-)

Rx Crossfitters: "Say Hello To My Little Friend – NE 70th Street!"

For the non-Crossfit folks, the term "Rx" is an aspirational term – at least for me. It means that you do the workout of the day (aka "WOD") as prescribed in terms of the exercise itself and the weight, which will differ for men and women. I have yet to "Rx" a workout but Marc has just started to and I'm really proud of him sticking with Crossfit even when he has felt less than stellar a day or two after a WOD. In reality, it is going to be hard for me to "Rx" but as long as I give every WOD my best effort that I have in me on any given day, I'm good. So if you can't "Rx" a workout, you do a modified workout.
For example, I have a limitation that precludes me from doing pull-ups. I do a substitution called v-ups, which works similar muscles, and I double the amount of v-ups in my workout. If a workout calls for 25 pull-ups, I'll do 50 v-ups. Most of the people at Crossfit do some kind of modified workout, whether it is because of a permanent limitation, a temporary one or just a lack of strength issue.
Earlier this week, I did a moderately steep hill workout. It's kind of hard to define "moderately steep" but Coach Kim told me not to do my "favorite hill" on NE 70^th Street. This is the hill that kicks my rear because of how steep it is over the course of a ½ mile – roughly about a 15% grade. So I opted to do the moderately steep workout right near my house, which brought me back and forth in front of a favorite local place called Latona Pub. Patrick, one of the bartenders who also gives me crap because he is a Red Sox fan, must have thought I was REALLY crazy because I ran up and down the hill 5 times, which means I went by the pub TEN times.
That effort was relatively easy compared to my NE 70^th run, but I felt good after in terms of pacing and recovery between intervals. When I walked into Crossfit the next morning, a fellow Crossfitter asked me if I was running "around and around" the block near the local elementary school the day before. I answered yes and explained what I was trying to do in my running training. She was very complimentary about my speed and I explained the relative difficulty between that hill and NE 70^th.
Well Coach Melissa overheard this discussion and her eyes lit up. It was a cross between absolute glee and sadism. She immediately wanted to know when I was going to do NE 70^th again because she wanted to work on her cardio endurance for the next round of the Crossfit games. I thought to myself, "Uh oh – she is going to kick my rear all over the hill". Melissa and I made a date for this morning since I was working from home this week and I just figured that I would give it my best.
Melissa was very complimentary and said that she was just going to follow me, and that this was "my workout to lead". Wow – no pressure, huh? And then I get some texts from her saying that she enjoyed Cinco de Mayo a bit too much the night before and that another Crossfitter (Meagan – very fit herself) wanted to join in the fun. Fun? These people are nuts! I do 70^th to torture myself so race day doesn't feel so bad, and contrary to the title, that hill ain't my little friend!
I'll just also add that I am a tad older than these two ladies so I am thinking that I just need to hold on and see what happens. We meet up and I warn them that we are doing an easy warm-up and cool-down run after the hill intervals. It's just too much of a shock to the muscles not to. They agreed and for a change, I had to throttle my partners-in-crime back on the warm-up pace. Normally I am the one who needs to be brought back. LOL.
Warm-up done and hills component set to begin. I remind them it is get as far as you can in 5 minutes, easy down, then 4 minutes, etc. all the way down to 30 seconds. We start the 5 minute climb and Melissa just goes off. I am able to stay close behind for awhile but then there is this "flat stretch" at about an 8% grade and she powers away. I keep at it and actually come up a ½ block short of the top of the hill, which is actually a ½ block improvement from my previous effort 2+ weeks ago! Melissa made it to the top in 5 minutes, even with not being able to see where the top was until the last 1/3 of the climb (yes, it is that steep of a hill that you cannot see the top for a long time). Meagan came close to the top as well.
We then did the rest of the climbs and I'll just say that Melissa and Meagan totally rocked the workout. They both finished super strong and dug in deep on those last little stretches. We did the cool-down and one of the gals decided to walk part of the stretch and we kind of shuffled along to a crawl. But we finished and everyone was pleased with their efforts, as they should have been. Melissa and Meagan definitely thought the workout was a good one, and something tells me that their competitive spirits will bring them out for another go on "NE 70^th"soon.
When I downloaded everything, I noticed that I improved on 5 out of the 6 hill intervals from just over 2 weeks ago. Maybe the company on the hill helped with motivation! Now my goal is to actually get to the top of the hill, which is a ½ mile from the start, in 5 minutes or less. I'm getting closer!
And yep, the post-interval workout lunch at Latona Pub was well worth the effort. J

New PR – 5K…. Suck it, “Gobble Gobble”!

Ah, sitting outside on the patio just chilling out in the sun and listening to some Vin Scully….. nothing to do and very much enjoying that.

Things have been moving along in the "Beck Land" with work, Purple Teeth Cellars, working out and some travel. No complaints on this end, but I decided to make a recent addition to the racing schedule about 10 days ago. Marc decided to put a race on our shared calendar as a joke a few weeks ago but as the date got closer, I thought it would be a good way to assess where my fitness was at. Since I didn't race in Portland in the beginning of April, I didn't really didn't have a good gauge to see how things were going from a numbers perspective. Well fortunately for me, the "Top Pot Doughnut 5K" was being held right by our house at Greenlake. Given that I ran a 5K in late November on the same course called "Gobble Gobble", this was a perfect opportunity to see where I was at.

To be honest, "Gobble Gobble" (obviously in honor of Thanksgiving) was my low-light of 2010 with respect to racing. I ran that 5K in 25:10, which was really not a good showing even if it was a PR. And I may have had some good reasons why I didn't run my best but I was still quite peeved about my effort and the subsequent result. After all, I had run a 10K at a quicker pace 3 months earlier so the fact that I couldn't get it together for a race half of that distance was very disappointing. Plus I tend to end all of my training runs by running the last 10% really hard and I couldn't find that gear when I did Gobble Gobble. All in all, a crap race for me.

A few things changed after "Gobble Gobble", many of which have been documented in the blog in previous entries such as doing Crossfit, switching coaches and modifying my eating habits. These changes had been in place long enough to see if any of them have had any impact on my running. So keeping all of this in mind, I decided to sign-up for the "Top Pot Doughnut 5K". I also thought there had to be a cool t-shirt involved. LOL. But then I decided that since Marc put this on OUR calendar that he should be doing this race as well. He could run 5K (~3.1 miles), it was flat and right near the house, so why not. Marc wasn't super-psyched initially but when I threw in the offer of giving him my finisher's doughnut post-race. For those of you who aren't familiar with Top Pot Doughnuts, they have a nationally known reputation for being pretty awesome to the point where they inspired a Seattle Seahawks player to actually commit a crime to obtain some (guess he wasn't making enough money as a professional football player, but I digress).

After having a great pre-race dinner with some friends the night before, Marc and I were fueled up and ready to go this morning. The sun was shining and the temperature was good for racing (high 40s), so we had that going for us. I was feeling pretty good but was a tad nervous since it was my 1^st race of the year. Marc and I saw some of the running buddies before the race and we had some laughs as usual. The local 5Ks are fun with a mix of families and serious runners, and a good non-profit, Childhaven, was benefitting from the large crowd turnout.

I hung out with one of my regular running buddies, AK, at the start. We were going to be going roughly around the same pace, so that got me a bit focused on the task and where I wanted my mile splits to be. I was targeting around 7:30 per mile. The gun went off, we crossed the start line and I just wanted to get into a groove. The 1^st mile seemed ok and I felt solid. I let up on my pace slightly on the 2^nd mile, so I really tried to focus on getting back in the game so I could finish strong. I kept thinking during the last bit of the race about a typical Crossfit workout and how much harder I tend to push myself during those efforts, so that helped out mentally.

My overall pace was 7:36 per mile, which wasn't bad considering what I was shooting for, but in a shorter distance (as opposed to a ½ marathon), I want to be more precise with my pacing since you have less room for error. Since I was focused on my pace per mile, I didn't want to get caught up in my overall time. When I crossed the finished line, I was really pleased to see that I came in on the right side of the 24 minute mark with an official time of 23:54, which put me in the top 4% in my age group and as well as for the ladies entered in the race. This is also a new PR by almost 90 seconds, so that is a huge deal for me given how short the race is.

After I finished, I went to see if I could find Marc on the course and he came up pretty quickly so I ran the final stretch with him. To be fair, he didn't need my help as he looked very strong coming in. A new PR for him too! Woo woo! Of course, I held up my end of the bargain by giving Marc my doughnut as you can see from the picture.

Between the Crossfit "cross-training", the workouts being assigned to me by Kim (also racing today in Wildflower – she killed it today!) and the food changes, I think we are heading on a good path since having the injury bug earlier in the year. I'm pretty excited to see what the rest of 2011 brings on this front.

And now I don't have to associate a PR with an event that I felt was a bad race for me. So suck it, "Gobble Gobble"!

OK, It Is Now Official

In early 2008, I decided to plot something long-term with the hopes of reaching a goal that started way back when I lived in NYC. In this instance, long-term refers to a 4-year plan which would roughly coincide with a birthday "mile marker" (as Kristin Armstrong likes to call them). Two main reasons for the 4-year time horizon:

• Feasibility of achieving the goal. I knew it would take time to be in a position to properly execute what I wanted. To me, the time commitment involved in this effort made it that I didn't want to do it just so I could say that I did it.
  
• This goal has a huge amount of people that also want to complete this achievement, which meant many people are denied the opportunity to participate in this event each year. After being rejected 3 times, you automatically get selected to participate in the event in the 4^th consecutive year you apply.
  

So this goal is to run a full marathon. I knew that I would get in this year because of it being my 4^th year of applying. But I found out from a friend a few months ago that JDRF is also a partner of this event, and they get allocated a certain amount of spots each year. A couple of months ago, I decided to apply for one of the spots knowing that there would be a minimum fundraising amount to keep the spot. This afternoon I found out that I received one of those spots for JDRF. To say that I am excited about this is a pretty big understatement.

But let us take a step back.

In terms of the 1^st bullet, many of you know that I already run half-marathons and have done so since early 2008. My 1^st milestone was obviously to finish a race. Then I knew that by the end of year 2 of this odyssey (that's kind of what it has felt like…. I know PNak is saying "wait until you do a 20-miler, Jill), I wanted to run a ½ marathon in under 2 hours. And by the skin of my teeth and with the help of two good friends, I did it. Fortunately 2010 went even better and I was able to shave another 7 ½ minutes off of my ½ marathon time over the course of the year. I felt good about sticking with the long-term plan that I laid out and while many people kept telling me that I "HAD to do a full" and I was ready, I needed to wait before I committed to anyone.

Why? Yes, I have been physically capable of running a full marathon (26.2 miles) for some time. But I wanted to be in a position where I could run it strong and have confidence in the later stages of the course. The other thing is that most people do not realize that my training DOES impact Marc on our weekends. For example, most long runs take place on Saturday mornings so that means things are fairly low-key on Friday and post-run, I may be spending time in the tub taking ice baths (uh-huh). Bottom-line I really strive to do what I say what I am going to do, and that means making goals that stretch you but are achievable if you work at it.

If I was going to undertake training for a 4-5 month period, keeping in mind mid-week running workouts, I needed to be "all in" before I asked Marc to come along. I am lucky that Marc has been so supportive of my fitness goals, but I didn't want to take advantage of that so I waited although he knew the plan from the early stages.

The fact that I am going to run 26.2 miles also means that my work at Crossfit is going to be even more important. On my 10-miler on Saturday, my arms started to get tired in the last ½ mile. You go as fast as your arms take you, and no, that isn't a typo. And this morning's workout really took its toll on my upper body. This morning's workout included some lunges with dumbbells, some push presses (basically pushing dumbbells straight over your head) and my "favorite" – renegade rows. What is a 'renegade row'? Well I'll link to a video that demonstrates the movement. No exercise at Crossfit will make me sweat like a 'renegade row' PLUS today I was told to "up my weight" on the dumbbells. Oy vei!

Well I got through the workout and I think my weight training gloves will take days to dry out because my hands sweat so much (ok, TMI), but I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't hurting after it was over. My hands have some issues from rheumatoid arthritis and holding on to dumbbells for what ended up being almost 30 minutes was really painful. I could have quit and had a legitimate excuse given the issue with my hands (known by my Crossfit coaches), but I wanted to see what I could do. I finished a good 5 minutes AFTER everyone else in my class, but the encouragement I got was great and really helped as I struggled through those renegade rows. My arms were hurting and my hands were in pain, but I got it done and was pretty proud of myself for not bailing, in addition to getting the form right on an increased weight.

When the e-mail came through this afternoon about getting the JDRF spot, I thought back to this morning's workout and smiled. Pushing through when you don't think you have anything left is part of training and helps build confidence. Getting my body strong to be able to handle the mileage will be critical. And this doesn't count the speedwork and zone training runs that I will be doing with Kim at TN Multisports! I know every training day won't be awesome, but I am looking forward to the journey with Marc, my running and Crossfit mates, and all of the people supporting me along the way.

I can promise to give the training and the prep my best, and hope that it translates well on race day. J

“Mostly 30-Day Paleo Challenge” – Over, But Not Really…

Well we are past the 30-day mark in my "mostly 30-day Paleo challenge", and I am happy to say that things went really as good as I could have hoped. I was able to hit the 85% goal that I set out for myself and learned some new cooking methods along the way. The thing that was the most challenging is probably just the fact that I need to allocate time on Sundays to cook lunch in addition to cooking dinner that will serve as a leftover during the week. So maybe it's not challenging – it's just a time allocation issue, which is doable. You only have a certain amount of hours in a week, so how you spend it is up to you. Since I enjoy cooking, it's not a huge sacrifice on my end to spend a little bit more time on the food prep end considering the results.

I didn't do the Paleo switch to lose weight as I have mentioned in the past. This still seems to stymie people because I guess that is the only tangible reason for most folks on why you would modify your eating habits. I will say that while a couple of pounds may have been shed that my clothes feel looser and some new belts may be in order. More importantly, I am up'ing my weights at Crossfit little by little and I am feeling stronger on my runs. And since I am back to running more regularly since I injured my foot in late January, it is key that I feel good when I am pounding the pavement. But my strength in terms of running and Crossfit is the main barometer for me in terms of if Paleo has been a good move for me, and so far, so good.

The timing of the challenge also worked out once I decided I wasn't going to race in early April because of that injury. It allowed me to integrate the food changes into my life when I wasn't under a lot of pressure to do heavy training. If something isn't working, I want to be able to isolate what the problem is so it can be rectified quickly.

The past couple of weeks have been much better for me with respect to my running and fitness. My heart rate zones are coming back to where they were pre-injury, and this morning I had a good run with a couple of friends (and teammates from TN Multisports) along Alki Beach. I should also really call out Kim, who is my running coach, for being so awesome and having the attitude to keep me patient on my recovery, as well as focused on what my true goals are for 2011.

I've posted another Paleo-friendly food picture from a recipe that that I modified slightly because Marc and I were tasting barrel samples from our newest creation – The "Teeth Rinser". It's a modification from Ming Tsai's One-Pot Meals cookbook and I thought it would complement the Viognier well, which it did. The recipe will be posted on the Purple Teeth Cellars site in the next few days, so look out for that plus some other fun things going on over there!

Day 15 - “Mostly” Paleo Challenge

OK, so we are 2 weeks into this challenge and things seem to be going ok. I'm finding more recipes to convert or just follow based on friends' recommendations or on websites. I'm not finding that my workouts are any easier to get through or any harder to get through as a result of eliminating grains and dairy for 85% of the time. And yep, I am still at 85% level of adherence so I am pretty happy about that. Breakfast is slowly becoming a part of my repertoire, which will benefit me in the long-run.

I continue to rotate between a healthy fat combined with either protein or fruit. A healthy fat can be something like avocado or almond butter. So you probably are wondering what I spread the almond butter on, or, uh, maybe you're not because you just spoon it straight out of the jar? :-) Well I spread the almond butter on apple slices. I know it seems weird but I like it and it fills me up. Actually we get such big apples out here that it almost seems like too much with the almond butter and the super large apples that we get, but whatever. It's easy to make and I like the taste.

On Saturday, we had some friends over and smoked some rib-eyes on the Big Green Egg. To go with the rib-eyes, I made a garlic-shallot butter which came out as expected (I used ghee to make it more Paleo-friendly). Our friends were kind enough to make a Paleo-friendly salad, which was tasty & had BACON "croutons", in addition to the Beef and Guinness pie (my puff pastry was "donated" to Marc). I decided to make something with sweet potatoes, but I was struggling with something over than doing a mash. I took a recipe off of Robb Wolf's website and made some tweaks to create a "Savory Sweet Potato Stuffing with Bacon and Sage".

It was a lot of work chopping up all of the sweet potatoes since I was planning on making enough to have as leftovers for the week (my arm was still sore on Monday morning from Saturday afternoon!). I also subbed out bacon for the sausage and chicken stock for the white wine. Finally I swapped in hazelnuts for pecans and left out the raisins. In short, it came out great and I am really happy that we have LEFTOVERS of this dish! And my guests, who weren't huge sweet potato fans, really enjoyed the stuffing as well. Score!

The other recipe that I wanted to share was a Ming Tsai recipe from his "One Pot Meals" cookbook, which I think I have recommended to 6 people and counting. It was a Lemongrass-Coconut Chicken Soup, and it was pretty easy to make. I was glad that I added the serrano chilies for an extra kick because I think it made a positive impact. I also decided to let it slow cook for awhile longer than the recipe indicated, which I think helped. I think it will make for a tasty leftover this week.

Finally one of my running buddies sent over some baked goods recipes that are Paleo-friendly. Marc made some chocolate chip scones, which we served on Saturday at our house and on Sunday at another friend's house. Definitely well received by our friends so that was good. Our Crossfit coach and her husband also received some of the leftovers, which I was told they inhaled. LOL.

Yesterday I spent the day running up a hill with one friend at the Mercer Island Half-Marathon after cheering on a few of my other teammates and former colleagues, and then I went to climb the stairs of the Columbia Tower (69 floors) to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society with some of my Crossfit mates. My goal for the climb was 15-20 minutes, and I came in at 14:59. Seriously that was my exact time. I was psyched. And I was able to run 5 miles pain-free. All in all, a great weekend with some positive progress on the physical fitness side and many laughs with excellent friends.

Day 11 – “Mostly” Paleo Challenge

We are moving along on the "mostly" 30-Day Paleo Challenge. Marc surprised me with a dinner dish that was a combination of leftovers and some veggies, which I really appreciated. It was definitely one of those "make it up as you go along" type of things, but it consisted of leftover pulled pork (thanks to our friends who we saw over the weekend), onions, green beans, coconut aminos and broccoli. Coconut aminos are a soy sauce substitute. It tastes just like soy sauce without the soy or gluten, and you can pronounce all of the ingredients. LOL.

Breakfast so far this week hasn't been too much of a hassle in terms of meal ideas. I've been shuffling between an omelet, an avocado with crab meat, and some almond butter spread on an apple or two. All are relatively easy to make. It's more of just getting into the whole "eating breakfast" mindset. If I have been working out on a particular morning, I found a Lara Bar that is "Paleo-compliant" and so right after the workout I gobble one of those just to give my body something to take in after exerting it pretty hard.

I probably spent about 2 hours on Sunday prepping lunch for the week so I wouldn't be tempted into making bad choices in the cafeteria. Overall that seems to be the most time consuming task. Most of the ready-made frozen meals at Whole Foods contain something that is not Paleo, which I knew anyway. And most of the prepared foods counter at the supermarket fall in the off-limits category so that means I need to rely on home cooking/leftovers from previous dinners. But this will become part of my routine on some level even after the 30-days are up.

Getting more questions about Paleo, and again, the responses are mostly supportive mixed in with some skepticism. Obviously there are the folks who think I am crazy to do this, and that I understand. The skepticism is more around when I say that this isn't about weight loss or hitting a goal weight. It's about modifying some bad habits, which will hopefully lead to healthier food choices and feeling stronger when I run or do other activities such as Crossfit, hiking, etc.

Tonight, we re-did the Basquaise sauce recipe that we used last week and tried some fresh Alaskan Halibut to go with it (last week we did Alaskan Pacific Cod). Happy to report that Marc cleaned his plate. And then this weekend, we are having some friends over and we're going to try out a chocolate chip scone recipe that is Paleo-friendly (thanks to one of my running buddies)! I am also excited about a sweet potato recipe that I found online – and in case you're wondering, other ingredients include sage, bacon and chestnuts. I think the friends we are having over will really enjoy it.

As far as energy levels go, it was a tough start for week 2 because of the "spring forward" lost hour. I'll admit that the alarm going off at 5:30am on Monday did suck because it did feel like 4:30am, but I'm glad I made it out of bed and over to Crossfit for the morning workout. The 7 or 8 of us were feeling that lost hour, but we were all glad that we made it through. The only issue with energy this week was with this morning's workout. I started feeling a little light-headed, which happened once before, so I think I need to incorporate more things like sweet potatoes and yams into my evening meals if I am going to workout first thing in the morning.

And just for some humor, this was my outfit that I wore to Crossfit this morning in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

One Week In…..

I am wrapping up the 1^st full week of my "Mostly 30 Day Paleo Challenge". I have been successful in my goal of having 18 out of 21 meals being Paleo-compliant, so I am happy about that. It's required some fancy footwork in terms of cooking methods and ingredient substitutions, but I imagine that this is going to get a little easier as time goes on. The toughest part has been breakfast. Given the no grains/dairy requirement for the program and the fact that most breakfast foods have either grains and/or dairy, I've had to re-adjust my thinking on this.

First I should add that I am not a "breakfast person" typically. Whether I am getting a workout before work, or just waking up and heading to straight to work, I am focused just on that. Eating gets in the way of that mission. And yes, I have known for a very long time that eating breakfast reduces overeating later in the day, etc. If I am going out for a long run, I get some food in beforehand, and obviously on the morning of a race, I get food in well before we start. But I'll just be honest in that I am focusing on eating a more proper breakfast as opposed to eating a Clif Bar on the go.

I read in one of the books on Paleo that breakfast shouldn't be treated any differently than lunch or dinner in terms of food selection. Yes, we have traditional breakfast foods in the US but as I said earlier, I can't have dairy or grains so that takes 90% of those foods out of the equation. So I started building my breakfast around having a protein and then accompanying it with a good fat or a vegetable. I really don't want to have eggs every day, so I might as well learn to get creative now. Last week, I made a cauliflower soup that ended up being breakfast for three days (recipe in last blog post)…. Hey, whatever works.

This weekend, I added something else to the equation –Spicy Crab Salad with Avocado. It was also pretty easy to make and fits in the Paleo requirements, so I am happy. It's probably not the cheapest of meals, but baby steps. I'm approaching things on a somewhat tactical level so if I find something that works, I'll tinker with it later to get it to be more price point friendly, or easier to cook.

On Friday, we had dinner with friends and I made a dish that ended up being fabulous and will probably be re-purposed for other proteins. It was called Cod Basquaise, but we could easily use the sauce for chicken, pork, beef or other seafood. The other bonus is that Marc had 2 seafood courses, and liked both of them. As more choices of fresh seafood come in for the season, this could end up being a very positive development for us.
For my fellow Paleo partners-in-crime, here are the recipes to share for the group cookbook:

Ultimate Spicy Crab Salad – original recipe is here.
Adapted from Tyler Florence's "Tyler's Ultimate" cookbook

• 1 pound lump crabmeat, picked over for shells
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise – substituted Paleo-friendly mayo here
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 tablespoons garlic chili paste – substituted red hot pepper flakes
• Juice of 1/2 lime plus lime wedges for garnish
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• One avocado, halved and pitted

Put the crab meat in a bowl and add the mayonnaise, cilantro, chili sauce, and lime juice. Mix gently to combine the ingredients without breaking up the large lumps of crab meat. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Cod Basquaise – original recipe is here.
Adapted from Eric Ripert's "Avec Eric" cookbook

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup finely diced yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• ½ cup small diced red bell pepper
• ½ cup small diced yellow bell pepper
• ½ cup small diced orange bell pepper
• 1 cup diced seeded peeled tomato
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
• ½ cup low-sodium chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley
• Fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
• Piment d'Espelette
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 (6-ounce) cod fillets
• Fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
• 2 thyme sprigs
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a heavy large sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and continue cooking until tender, about 2 minutes. Add the ham and bell peppers and sauté until the peppers are soft, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low. Add the diced tomato and thyme and simmer, stirring often, until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Add the red wine and cook out the alcohol, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chopped parsley and season to taste with salt, white pepper, and piment d'Espelette. This Basquaise can be made 1 day ahead; cool then cover and refrigerate.

Heat a griddle or a griddle pan over medium-high heat until it is very hot, then add the canola oil. Season the cod on both sides with salt and pepper. Add the cod to the pan along with the thyme and garlic, lower the heat to medium and cook until the fish is golden brown on the bottom, 6 to 8 minutes. Turn the fish over and finish cooking until a metal skewer can be easily inserted into the fish and, when left in the fish for 5 seconds, feels just warm when touched to the lip, another 2 to 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the Basquaise until hot. Spoon the Basquaise onto plates, place the cod in the center and serve immediately.

So how am I feeling? I only had one day (Friday) where I felt like I was hitting an afternoon wall so I consider myself fortunate. I do not think I am drinking enough water so I need to focus on that. And now that the initial shock to my body is probably mostly gone, I now need to focus on ratcheting down the portions of my meals. It seems like a few of us were eating A LOT more than normal in our portions to compensate for what we couldn't have. While it was all high-quality ingredients, I still need to be mindful of the portion sizes for little me. That will be the focus for this week.

Wrapping up Day 3 of the “Mostly 30 Day Paleo Challenge”

I blogged a couple of days ago that I was going to undertake some food regimen changes by going "Paleo" with some fellow members at my local Crossfit for a 30-day period. When I did South Beach a few years ago, which was completely sugar free, including fruit, wine, and carbs, the 1^st week was absolutely brutal. While the 2^nd week was tough in terms of meal variety, particularly at breakfast, I'll say that my energy levels far exceeded any level that they had been at for a long time (think years). So I was expecting this week to be a struggle given that the sweets consumption is basically limited to fruits and veggies, and no dairy/grains. On the group page that the Crossfit coaches set up, we have folks who are definitely struggling with their energy. For the time being, things seem to be ok for me but I am kind of jones'ing for a Diet Coke.

What's been good is that folks are posting either pics and/or recipes of what they have cooked, and I'm definitely impressed with the creativity of my comrades. It's also been helpful to have the coaches and some Paleo veterans help us evaluate if something is as good for you as advertised on the packaging (READ: Whole Foods – a store we shop at regularly in this household). We're even fortunate enough to have one of the vets be a former employee of WF, so he has been offering info on where to find things we have never heard of (i.e., coconut aminos instead of soy sauce, which has gluten – a no-no). But it hasn't been all fun. One poor guy had to skip lunch at a conference he was at because he couldn't eat anything being served, which had to royally suck.

The reaction from some folks over the past 3 days has been mostly supportive with a bit of skeptic thrown in. My response has been to tell them to not knock it until they try it. Paleo isn't for everyone for a variety of reasons, but I agree with the basic premise of what it espouses. And much of that belief comes from that experience with South Beach. As I said the other day, I have no intention of being Paleo 100% of the time. My goal is to hit 85% in the 30-day period, and 75-80% after that. I think it is doable since we do cook at home a fair amount but it will require slightly more discipline on my part.

I promised my partners-in-crime in this adventure that I would post some of the recipes from the dishes I made to go along with the posted pics, so here goes:

Roasted Cauliflower Soup – the original recipe can be found here. Below is the version I did to make it Paleo-friendly.
adapted from: Tyler's Ultimate (Tyler Florence)

1 quart chicken stock
Kosher salt
1 head of cauliflower, cored and broken into florets
1/2 onion, sliced
2 T. chopped garlic

1 tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf

Extra virgin olive oil
Ground black pepper

Topping

1 bunch scallions, white and green parts, cut ¼" thick
1/4 cup pine nuts

2 T. chives

1. Pour chicken stock into a large saucepan, add a large pinch of salt and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reserve 1/2 cup of cauliflower for topping and place the rest into the pot with the stock.
   
2. Add onion, thyme, garlic and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, until cauliflower is tender.
   
3. Discard bay leaf and puree the soup in a blender. Pour the soup back into the pot and season with olive oil, salt and pepper.
   
4. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thinly slice the reserved cauliflower and combine with pine nuts in a bowl. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and toss to coat.
   
5. Spread topping on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until lightly brown and crispy, 5 to 7 minutes.
   
6. Pour soup into serving bowls and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with chopped chives, scallions and pine nuts topping.
   

Beef, Shitake and Broccoli Stir-Fry – I haven't been able to find the original recipe online, but below is the version I did to make it Paleo-friendly.

adapted from: Simply Ming One-Pot Meals (Ming Tsai)

1 lb. flank steak, halved lengthwise and cut across the grain into ¼" slices

1 T. minced ginger

2 T. minced garlic

1 bunch scallions, white and green parts, cut ¼" thick

1 large head of broccoli (you can use frozen broccoli florets as well)

3 T. coconut aminos (find this where you find soy sauce at Whole Foods)

5 T. extra virgin olive oil

½ lb. shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced ¼-inch thick

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 cup fresh chicken stock or low-sodium chicken stock (check ingredients)

1 T. arrowroot mixed with 2 T. water

1. In a large reusable plastic bag, combine the steak, ginger, garlic, coconut aminos and scallions. Seal the bag and use your hands to distribute the ingredients. Marinate in the fridge for 1 to 5 hours.
   
2. If using frozen broccoli, skip to step 5. If using fresh broccoli, separate broccoli into florets. Stack florets in bunches and cut lengthwise into ¼-inch strips.
   
3. Fill a large bowl with water and add ice cubes. Fill a wok with water and bring to a boil. Add the broccoli florets and leave in the pot for 30 seconds (aka blanch). Drain the broccoli and transfer to the bowl with ice cubes. Once broccoli is cold, drain and set aside.
   
4. Heat wok over high heat. Add 2 T. of the extra virgin olive oil, and swirl to coat the pan. When the oil is hot, add the mushrooms and stir-fry until soft, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and transfer the mushrooms to a plate.
   
5. Add 3 more T. of extra virgin olive oil, and swirl to coat the pan. When the oil is hot, add the beef and stir-fry until medium rare, about 5 to 6 minutes.
   
6. Add in stock, mushrooms and broccoli and heat through. Note that this timing will depend on if you have frozen vs. fresh broccoli. For fresh broccoli, it will probably be about 2 to 3 minutes. For frozen broccoli, it will be about 6 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
   
7. Transfer stir-fry mixture to a plate and let sauce come to a simmer. Add in arrowroot mixture into sauce and simmer until thickened, about 1 minute.
   
8. Pour over stir-fry mixture.
   

Pan-Seared Pacific Cod with Shiitakes, Scallions & Proscuitto

adapted from: Picking up cod at the market for a test run for a dish I am cooking on Friday night and using some leftovers.

1 lb. fresh Pacific cod

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

2 T. chopped garlic

1. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Heat up pan with extra virgin olive oil. Preheat oven to 375.
   
2. Once hot, place cod in the oil and saute until lightly golden brown.
   
3. Turn the fish over and place in the oven and continue cooking for 3 to 4 minutes until just cooked through. Transfer to plate.
   
4. Shittakes & scallions were leftovers from stir-fry dish above and then I just added a slice of chopped prosciutto to the mixture for some smokiness.
   

OK, folks. That's all she wrote. You can find pictures of these recipes at the end of this album on Facebook. I'm off to bed…. Early workout tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is leftovers day, but I'm hoping my cod test run experiment tonight bodes well for the dish I am making on Friday evening for Marc and some good friends!!

Wow – it’s March already!

This past weekend, I had to make a call on a half-marathon that I had been planning on doing for awhile. I injured my right foot on a trail run in late January and the pain has been ankle/heel related. Between chatting with my doctor, running coach and massage therapist, we couldn't nail it down to solely to plantar fasciitis – although many of the symptoms pointed in that direction. A concern was also expressed about the foot having a stress fracture, which I have already dealt with in my calf area, and it is safe to say that I wasn't exactly excited about that prospect either.

I spent most of February not running and doing cross-training via Crossfit, elliptical and recumbent bike. It helped get me through the unhappiness around not being able to train as February was going to be crunch time for me with respect to loading up on mileage, etc. I had to modify some of the workouts at Crossfit, but fortunately the team over there was very helpful in adjusting some of the exercises that were high-impact on my feet. I am still really enjoying the intensity of the workouts and am starting to feel less like a "newbie" as I master more exercises/slowly scale more weight.

Being that I am getting older, I need to be smarter about managing the risk of being able to tolerate pain because I can vs. backing off because I should. I also have some bigger goals in mind this year and the upcoming race was not really one of those major events for 2011. So I made the call to not race in 4 weeks in Portland. Of course I am disappointed but deep down I have known for 2-3 weeks that while I would be able to race it ("run all out and compete"), the probability for longer-term injury was increased. And yes, while I dodged a bullet in September, 2010 at Disney, I didn't want to push my luck. The events that I am excited about for this year are all in the 2^nd half of the calendar year, so gotta keep my eye on the prize.

The good news is that I resumed some light running last week and now have some time to build for late-June, which is the Seattle Rock 'n Roll Half-Marathon. As you can imagine even with the cross-training, my running cardio is not where it was a month ago so I need to get that to where it was in late January. It's disappointing but as one of the other TNM coaches (Mark) told me, "yeah, you need to get over that" and he is spot on with that assessment. Kim, also of TN Multisports, has been awesome at checking in with me DAILY(!) to see what we could do from a cardio perspective and not pushing to come back too quickly. I am grateful that she has been so proactive and flexible, and it's a welcome change from the past.

Since I am not racing a half-marathon for almost 4 months, I decided I am going to try something new with my culinary adventures and see what happens. I am going Paleo for the next 30 days. It was a spur of the moment decision yesterday. Well "mostly" Paleo. I can't commit to the program every day because of some commitments that I am not willing to adjust to meet the needs of being 100% Paleo. I'm fine with that because I know I can set a goal that will stretch me but is still achievable. I am probably already 50% of the way there, but I am going to up the adherence to 85% for this period. I came up with 85% based on the amount of proper meals per week (21) and the amount of meals that I am confident that I can be 100% Paleo for (18).

In terms of what "Paleo" means, I am not going to get into that right now. It's too extensive and honestly, I just want to work the program. Everyone has to make their own assessments on what may help them or not. I did link to a couple of well-regarded sites earlier, so feel free to check those out. I know many misconceptions are out there about Paleo, but I am looking to see what happens with me and my health. Nothing may change or I may feel worse at the end of the 30-days, and that may be for a variety of reasons. But I am accountable for that, including not doing it 100%.

That doesn't mean I am going to go crazy for those remaining 3 meals. It just means that I will not be 100% in meeting the requirements of the 30-day program I signed up for via NW Crossfit. And ultimately I am going to know if I am being "true" to what I am trying to achieve by embarking on this program, just like when I did the South Beach Phase 1 detox a few years ago. It was incredible what I learned in that time and some of those lessons are still very much at the forefront for me today.

This is going to be a challenge mentally because obviously most of us have a somewhat emotional relationship with food. Some of us are better than others at managing those emotions. But I am excited about the challenge from a cooking perspective and coming up with substitutes that can still make a dish taste good, yet be compliant with the rules of the 30-day program. For those that are freaked out by the rules reference, it is what it is. Yes, in an ideal world, you want it to be a guideline but as with South Beach, you do not get the results and learnings of what the program is trying to teach unless you adhere to the rules. Guidelines are for when you have made it through the program and know how to "pick and choose" your battles.

So I may make an occasional post here and there on some cooking tips that I find effective, as well as how I am feeling. Based on what I remember from doing South Beach, I felt pretty crappy the 1^st few days. That is part of the deal and I know that. But this is a long-term lifestyle adjustment as opposed to a short-term "fit in the dress" thing. I feel good for the most part, but am very excited to see if I can feel better through some modifications.

And no, Marc isn't doing the Paleo experiment but is being very supportive as usual.

Running and Crossfit. Crossfit and Running

I have been spending much of January trying to address some issues with respect to my fitness. Some of it started in December, when I decided to incorporate Crossfit into my routine. The reason for the addition to my routine was because of some injuries that plagued me for a few months last year. I have been doing Crossfit for about 8 weeks, and most have been with weeks where I have been doing some running. The good news is that the pains that I had in 2010 have decreased and it probably has to do with the focus on overall strength and stamina at Crossfit.

I have been doing Crossfit in the mornings about 3x/week, and the team there is taking great care of me by yelling at me (I mean this as a compliment!) to ensure that I am using the correct form and ensuring that I finish each workout strong. Because of some issues with my hands and wrists, I can't do all of the exercises but they make sure that I get something similar in to work a similar muscle group. The team is positive, funny, patient and informative.

When I went to a class to observe, I was a bit intimidated. But I am glad I went through with it because I have improved in areas that I never thought I would. For example, 3 weeks ago, I literally could not jump rope. Trust me, I am completely serious. Now I am jumping (high amount without stopping is now 50 jumps) and my next goal is to be able to jump for a minute straight without losing my rhythm. I learned yesterday that apparently I am now known as "Jump Rope Jill". Glad that I am making an impression. LOL. I also wasn't expecting that my "classmates" would be so helpful when I struggle with something. It's been fun.

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, I switched running coaches and now work with TN Multisports. Like with Crossfit, my fellow teammates have been helpful and have already started some trash talking, which you know makes me happy. The diversity of the group workouts has been challenging (in a good way). The specific coach I work with, Kim, has been putting me through the paces since mid-January. This has involved an insane fitness test, varied track workouts, stair workouts and a return to a focus on heart rate zone training. I went through this exercise last year and it paid dividends (PR improvement by 7:30 in the ½ marathon in 10 months over 3 races). It's basically teaching yourself to "go slower so you can go faster" down the road and I am not ashamed to admit that I do not enjoy the process. It's counterintuitive to how my brain works!!

Today's run was tough because I had to maintain a lower heart rate while running about 10 miles on a hilly course, which was also on a trail. I am not a natural trail runner, like some of my friends, so I find it pretty stressful worrying about my footing more than regular road running. It's definitely a matter of personal preference. But the lower heart rate requirement essentially meant that I couldn't run as fast as I would naturally like to. I was glad to have company for 2/3 of the run, and it made it go faster. I ended up running 9.6 miles (11:41 pace) over an hour and 52 minutes, which is definitely slow for me under normal circumstances. The other thing is that the last time I ran for 1:52, it was 5 months ago in the Disney ½ Marathon.

Overall, it has been good working with the new coaching team. They have been responsive, accountable and open to my thoughts on certain things. And I ended up doing ok with the zone assignment this morning but I need to get better with it if I am going to improve in 2011. It's going to take time and patience. But we'll get there.

And I may have convinced someone else to join me in the Crossfit insanity. :-)

This Weekend….

What I disliked about this weekend:

• Seahawks winning. Ironically my hatred of the Seahawks and their fans was increased exponentially by a bandwagon Seahawks fan, who tried to convince me that "Seattle plays by the rules. They don't skirt them. In the recent past, they seem to have followed the highest ethics and tried to do things the right way." Yeah, ok. Pete Carroll is a shining example of playing by the rules (see Bush, Reggie – I am sure Pete didn't know a thing and I love how he left USC, including the players he recruited, with a bunch of penalties without any real punishment for himself) and holding his players accountable with this quote:
  • "I'm not disappointed in a guy being in a donut when they've got maple bars like Top Pot has," coach Pete Carroll said. "However, under the circumstances I think they were closed or they were trying to closed or something like that. "So that's definitely one we talked about it, and he's most remorseful about it and all that. I do understand the allure of the maple bars."
  • I wouldn't even care about what Pete did, except for the sanctimonious claim by my friend about the perceived purity and goodness of the Seahawks organization. For the record, I think all professional sports teams cheat on some level. Sad, but true.
• KC being outmatched by the Ravens. Snooze fest in the 2^nd half. Was KC's offense so anemic because of the Charlie Weis media frenzy about going to be the offensive coordinator of the Florida Gators?
• Most importantly, what happened in Arizona and the aftermath.
  • The shooting itself and the deaths of people who wanted to peacefully participate in the political process.
  • "Reputable" news organizations on both sides of the political spectrum prematurely reporting events that had to be horrifying to the families involved. Yes, the news is breaking minute-by-minute, but evaluate your sources and their credibility. The focus to be first to report has trumped being responsible.
  • The pundits on both sides trying to score points whether it is on hateful speech, gun rights, etc. without knowing anything about the suspect. How about taking a leadership role in bringing down the rhetoric instead of increasing it, huh?

What I liked about this weekend:

• Our government leaders (again: credit to BOTH sides) actually acting in a constructive way to not over-react, thinking through their responses to the public and praying for the families of those involved. I hope that line of thinking continues. Gotta hope, right?
  • I also happen to think that the vitriol in politics is too much now. It turns me off as it discourages helpful discussion around the real issues facing the country and how to work together to solve them.
• First proper stairs workout in my life (325 steps up * 4 rounds – wow!) and then a quick visit to Crossfit after. Thanks, TN Multisports!
• Saturday's football games. Both close until the end. Rex and the Jets putting their money where their mouths are. I'm probably in the minority amongst Giants fans about liking Rex. And what the heck was Jim Caldwell thinking with that timeout call in the last minute of the game?! Peyton Manning's face when that happened said it all in terms of what he thought of the call.
• Marshawn Lynch's run – absolute determination. Buffalo Bills fans are crying in their beer.

UPDATE: Friend from Buffalo responded by saying, ""Bills fans are crying in their beer?" Nah...Fabulous run, Marshawn, but you're still a thug! Seattle fans, you can keep him!!"

• A guarantee of a QB controversy in Seattle now that Matt Hasselbeck realizes he actually has to work to keep his job. Hasn't played consistently well for a long time, although he was excellent yesterday afternoon. Will the Seahawks go for the local boy in the draft, Jake Locker, who has been coached for the past 2 years by a Carroll disciple – Steve Sarkisian?
• Most importantly, awesome food and wine with great friends.

We'll see how the GB-PHI game turns out to assess whether it goes into the like or dislike column for the weekend.

Does Everyone Automatically Default To Cheering For The Underdog?*

Question: Do you always cheer for the underdog if "your team" is out of contention (that is where the asterisk comes in)? If you don't have time to read the whole blog post, just skip to the comments and answer the question if you don't mind.

Most of you know that I grew up in NY, which means that I am a Yankees fan and a Giants (football) fan. Some people out here have tried to get me to switch those primary allegiances to Seattle teams, but most people know better. That also means that I actively cheer against division rivals such as the Cowboys, Red Sox, Rays, and the Eagles.

I have been having a debate with a friend (I'll call him "Tony") about cheering for the underdog, which started out of my pronouncement that there was no way in hell that I would be cheering for the Seahawks this weekend. Let me clear, "Tony" is not one of the people who has said "cheer for the Mariners because they are nice guys". He has his primary allegiances, too – one of which is one of the above mentioned rivals, no less! We have debated about our shared division, etc., and have agreed when both of our respective teams have sucked or performed well (or if the other person's team sucked or performed well).

Even though I have happily resided in Seattle for the past 8 years, the only local team that I have been remotely interested in cheering for has been the Seattle Sounders. The fan base for that team is consistently engaged and very knowledgeable about the sport. I have made my dislike for the Mariners organization and their fans well known here and here. I haven't talked too much about the Seahawks, and my disdain for the team and their fans. Let's leave the Sonics out of the equation for now.

We are in football playoff season so now we're in crunch time. I am more disappointed in the Giants choking than anything and I don't think they deserved a playoff spot. Let's make that clear. But something happened for the 1^st time ever. A team with a losing record made the playoffs by winning their division – and yes, that would be the Seattle Seahawks. While I think it is lame that the Seahawks made the playoffs with a losing record, I understand why every division needs to have a seat at the table.

What I think is a disgrace is that a team that has won 4 more games, the New Orleans Saints, has to travel across the country to a team that has a losing record. Yes, it is the current system but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed to reward teams that win more games (you can add in strength of schedule, etc., but at least it is more of a meritocracy). Furthermore the Saints managed to win 11 games in a division that also holds the #1 seed for the NFC, and the 3^rd place team won 10 games! Clearly the talent was in the NFC South this season! I can only hope that the competition committee changes things in the offseason to seed the 4 division winners and 2 wildcards that rewards talent and consistency as opposed to mediocrity. Sorry – winning your division with a 7-9 record is mediocrity and even that's a stretch when you have a losing record.

Anyway Tony and I have been having a debate this week about me not cheering for the Seahawks. I am going to do my best to not exclude context to be fair to him, but I am not going to include all of the text because it's a lot. LOL.

["Tony" – if you're reading this, and you feel I misrepresented you, I apologize. That is not my intent.]

Some statements from "Tony":

• "Finally, most people root for the underdogs in games like these. i can't imagine why anyone not from New Orleans could possibly want the Super Bowl Champs from last year to win. What a great story ... if the Hawks could win!!!"
  
• "What I don't get is why you would actively root against your current home town? It is so exciting to be in a town with the buzz of a winner, especially if your team is out. That is why I cannot fathom how you could root for the Saints."
  
• "Oh come on. You are saying you don't want a positive buzz in your home city because the fans are fair weather? Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face..."
  
• "And [sic] i still don't understand why the prospect of excitement...in this city...the city you live in...regardless of how fair weather you believe the fans to be...would want you to be actively against this team."
  
• "I think you are completely wrong. Most people root for the underdog and will root for the Seahawks. They ALWAYS root for the underdog."
  

To add some additional context and I am hoping that this makes it more fair to "Tony", I have made it clear that Seattle fans are fairweather – see above. And to be fair, I think "Tony" meant to say "home city" as opposed to "home town" since he knows where I am from. So please disregard that distinction. And my disdain for Seahawks fans started when the Giants played here a few years ago and lost by 3 points, and the Seahawks fans went around saying they crushed the Giants. Whether it is bitterness or not, the reality is that the arrogance of the fan base turned me off to the Seahawks for the forseeable future.

So now we are having this debate on Facebook and now I am asking you – do you always cheer for the underdog if "your team" is out of contention?

I happen to disagree with "Tony" that most people will tend to root for the underdog and in this weekend's case, will root for the Seahawks (BTW, this excludes Seahawks fans from the conversation since that is "your team"). Here is why:

• Pre-scandal, Tiger Woods had tons of fans cheering for him to break Jack Nicklaus' Grand Slam record. Ironically, I was not one of those people because even before he became a regular on the NY Post front page, I thought he acted like a petulant brat. But there is no denying his endorsement abilities and the fan base that enjoyed watching his talents on the golf course. Tiger may be an underdog now, but he had plenty of people in his corner wanting to watch greatness happen and to say that "they were there".
  
• I do not know many people who were cheering for Virginia Tech (the lower ranked team) in the Orange Bowl when they played Stanford. There was so much authentic buzz around Harbaugh and Luck's next move that people wanted to see them dominate. I also think that people think that athletes actually go to class and are held accountable at Stanford as opposed to most D-1A schools.
  
• I do not think people are going to be cheering for Green Bay because they are the lower seed against Philadelphia. My thoughts on Michael Vick aside – there are many people who have some very strong feelings about his past actions (and rightfully so), and wish him nothing but failure. The positive thoughts for GB outside of Wisconsin are probably more about hoping the Eagles lose than GB winning.
  
• People want compelling match-ups as they move forward in the playoffs. They want higher caliber play. Do they always get it? No. But that's what the fans want. And the NFL doesn't want blow-outs as the advertising rates increase throughout the playoffs. As another friend of mine said, who ironically is a fan of a baseball rival of mine, "they [Seahawks] played like crap all year and are being rewarded for being only slightly less crappy than the Rams." We'll call him "Dustin". LOL.
  
• I managed to get home in the 6^th inning of Roy Halladay's no hitter in the playoffs this year. I am no Phillies fan, but I have a lot of respect for Halladay and how he dominated the AL East – probably the strongest offensive division in baseball. I was cheering for Halladay and pacing while I watched him achieve this feat. Sometimes you cheer for a specific player. Halladay happens to be one of those players for me. And I am happy he gets to compete for the post-season (realistically it wasn't going to happen for him with the Blue Jays) because he is one of the best over the past decade.
  
• Has anyone met the marketing arms of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Manchester United, Liverpool, Los Angeles Lakers or the Dallas Cowboys? Yeah, those are some dumb people how they somehow have converted millions to cheer for those teams all over the world (and aren't hometown fans).
  

Now these are examples and I can cite many more. "Tony" can make legitimate arguments countering the above bullets, but my point is that who you cheer for is not always an exact science. Sometimes it is about the underdog (like Oregon vs. Auburn). Sometimes it is about a perceived injustice (like Arkansas vs. Ohio State). I became a Drew Brees fan on March 14, 2006 when he signed with the New Orleans Saints after being with the San Diego Chargers. I was actually at the game in SD when he dislocated his shoulder against the Broncos. That's when AJ Smith decided to go with arrogant and obnoxious Philip Rivers and cut ties with Brees. What Brees has done since on and off the field has been nothing short of incredible.

So based on the lameness of Seattle fans – not just mine, but many other Seattle transplants who have experienced crazy fandom, I am not cheering for the Seahawks. They don't deserve my passion. Maybe they don't need it. I don't care. As "Dustin" said:

"I like "authentic buzz" which you don't get around here (except with the Sounders). I was turned off for good when I realized that the only cheering you ever get in Safeco is that which is prompted by the scoreboard or the hydro races on the centerfield screen. For all the enthusiasm of some fans here, the sports IQ is terrible (even this morning one radio host talking about how it would be great to have "a couple of more home games" if the Seahawks win this one on Saturday!). I have a different tack on the fans here though - I think they are not demanding enough. Ownership of these teams has been lame for years and the fans do not make them accountable enough. Fans are getting hosed but they don't seem to notice or care."

There you go. If you're still with me, just answer if you always default to cheering for the underdog if you have no skin in the game (i.e., your team is out of contention).

Wrapping Up The Holiday Food Insanity (Hopefully)

Tonight I made Duck Wellington with Mole Sauce (aka "A Madman's Wellington with Mole") from the Paley's Place cookbook. It's an incredibly complex recipe for me with the amount of ingredients involved and the timing of everything coming together at roughly the same time. The most challenging thing to time is the defrosting of the puff pastry, which comes frozen but needs to be thawed out when you wrap up the wellingtons before putting them in the oven.

It was the 4^th time I made it to kick off 2011. Marc picked a 2004 Shafer Relentless, which was a superb pairing. This is a pretty hard core dish and it needs a wine that will stand up to it. I'm not saying you wouldn't enjoy a Pinot with this but the Poblanos and mole sauce might overpower a more lighter-bodied wine. That said, you should drink whatever the heck you like regardless of the dish, and make any adjustments that you see fit.

We ate some other great meals along the way, like the New Year's Eve dinner at Tilth last night, and my mother-in-law's "peppermint goodness" over Christmas weekend. Then there was the "Duck the Halls" insanity that I blogged about in our last entry. Good thing I am slated to have a track workout with the new coaching team (TN Multisports) on Tuesday as I need to get into gear for ½ marathon season. In my initial discussions with them, I am really excited how they asked a boatload of questions about me before I start my 1^st workout with them. They have good consistency with respect to the coaches and their tenure, which is important as you need to develop relationships with those folks. I think it will pay dividends as I map out my fitness goals for 2011.

Seattle has a reputation for rain, but the last few days have been absolutely stunning in terms of sunshine and mountain views. Don't get me wrong – it has been in the 30s for this stretch, but when you can clearly see the mountains in all directions with snow on top in late December/early January – life is really good and you should get outside to run so I have been making an effort to do just that! Today I went out for a run around Queen Anne (which is on a hill for the non-Seattle folks) and Tricia and I caught some amazing views while having some laughs and chatter. Earlier in the week, I went on a pretty tough hill run with Tricia and Patricia in the neighborhood and I was pleasantly surprised that I did the run a minute faster than I did 10 months earlier. Unfortunately I was about 30 seconds slower on the toughest hill mile on the run, which tells me I have some work to do (READ: hill intervals on 70^th – ugh!).

I did manage to get in a track workout on Christmas Day, and it wasn't as horrible as expected in terms of my times. I probably could have gone another round of a tough 800 meter run, but I decided to quit while I was ahead. And I managed to piece together a Crossfit workout the day after Christmas based on what I have learned to date. I think Marc was shocked at what was involved in just a 20-minute workout! My friends who already do Crossfit have been very supportive with answering my many questions as I figure it all out.

I managed to read a supplement guide that went along with the movie "Waiting for Superman", which was informative with respect to the different perspectives it captured as they documented the story they presented in the film. I have also been reading more about some nutrition and fitness, and I am going to hold off a bit on the nutrition stuff until I have a chance to vet it out myself. I don't believe all of it and I think you always have to think about what is going to work for you in terms of your lifestyle and how your body responds, but I like challenging myself to think in areas where I wouldn't normally go.

As I wrap up, it's worth noting that 2010 was as good of a year as it could have been (yes, even taking into account the "unexpected summer vacation"). I am so fortunate to be married to someone who takes such great care of me, makes me laugh, drives me crazy and is so supportive – all at once. The people in my life, who support me, treat me with respect by being truthful and know the right thing to say when I need that "thing to be said" – they remind me day-in and day-out how lucky I am. I can only hope that 2011 is as good, if not better.

Bring it, 2011! Mrs. PTC is ready! I think Mr. PTC is too! J

Food Rehab?

Well the holidays are in full swing in the Beck household. This generally means copious amounts of eating and drinking. OK, I can hear some of you calling immediate BS and saying, "Wait, you guys do that anyway regardless of the supposed 'holiday season'!" OK, you're right generally. But the holidays will generally open up the calendar even more for doing things on "school nights" as opposed to "non-school nights".

It has gotten to the point where I am going through the multi-colored Tums container and taking out the colors I don't like (orange) so I only consume the flavors I want. This must be the adult version of taking out the oats from the Lucky Charms so you only had marshmallows in the cereal box (yes, Lisa – I am talking to you!). It's probably not a good sign when you are sorting out Tums by color. Oh well.

We kicked off things by having almost 2 Thanksgiving dinners at the house over Thanksgiving weekend. Oh, and one of the Thanksgivings had 2 turkeys served for 7 people (yes, that was 7 not 17 people). The 2 turkeys for 7 people was necessitated by a new toy that we purchased that would be used to cook the turkey, and Marc wanted a Plan B – that is where the 2^nd turkey came in. So Marc owned the prep of "Turkey A", which was smoked, and I owned "Turkey B", which was roasted with a bacon-sage infused butter. Copious amounts of food was served on Thanksgiving Day, and then more food was served on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Right – and I wasn't running the Seattle ½ Marathon because……????

We had some parties to attend and then we hosted an open house, aka "Beck the Halls". It was a great deal of fun and we were able to see many folks but it is a long evening because we try and make it easy for our friends to choose to bring their kids or not bring them. This generally results in an early shift, middle shift and a late shift in terms of attendees. The party is easy in terms of prep because everyone brings a dish for others to consume, but it is a complete pain in the neck from a clean-up perspective. That took a few days after the party, but I am sure my body appreciated the extra opportunity to burn some more calories.

In the midst of this, I am in between projects at work, which was expected. So I am taking advantage of the downtime to try something new in my workout routine, which alluded to in my last blog post. In addition to switching running coaches, I am also trying Crossfit based on the recommendation of some friends who run. There is a lot to Crossfit with respect to not only the workouts but philosophies around nutrition, etc., and I'll skip that component for now.

So I took a rookie series at my local Crossfit, which included 6 classes of learning the basics of some of the exercises that they cover in the regular classes. The rookie series (aka fundamentals) is great because it is generally a smaller group of people than a typical class so you really get the attention you need to focus on technique. Crossfit is only as effective as your technique, and trust me, you can get hurt if you don't focus on it. The classes, rookie and regular, probably go from 45 minutes to an hour when you take into account warm-up or working on some weak spots to improve upon – NOTE: I have many weak spots. An hour is definitely on the longer side, so I like that fact that I feel like I worked really hard without spending a couple of hours at the gym.

It's hard to give a full-on evaluation at this stage as I just did my 1^st regular class today, but I will say that I ran a pretty tough run (stomach weirdness the day before meant no food 24 hours before run – NOT SMART, Jill) on Friday with my friend, Tricia, and my leg didn't start hurting until 5 ½ miles into the run. This is a significant improvement, so I was pleased. Is it the start of things to come? I'm not sure, but I'll take whatever positives I can in what has been a long and tedious rehab process.

OK, back to the food and wine component of this entry. On Saturday I had the pleasure of leading Tricia, her family and some friends through a Pinot Noir tasting, which I wrote about on the Purple Teeth Cellars blog. Even though Pinot is not one of the wines that we make, we have spent enough time learning about it and drinking it (LOL) that Marc and I thought we could help in telling folks that they don't need to take wine so seriously in order to enjoy it. We did some food pairing experiments and had more than our fair share of laughs. One of the guests is definitely more microbrewery oriented, so I am wondering if he now has some ideas for tasting some of his favorite brews. Hmmm…..

Then last night, we were invited to another friend's house to be wined and dined at an event he called "Duck the Halls". Yes, lots of duck. Yes, lots of goodness greatness. Yes, lots of wine. Hence the "less than awesome" feeling this morning. But well worth it – thanks, Erik! I should add that another good friend made me some tasty chocolate chip pancakes earlier in the day yesterday, so life is good when you got your friends cooking for you all day! J

Life is good, but tonight is definitely a Progresso soup night with some water. My body needs to detox a bit. Oh wait, Danielle just dropped off some homemade cookies. Oh well. Guess I will have to try them.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Keep Calm and Carry On.

OK, that's a phrase I see on Joe Scarborough's Twitter account on a regular basis. Over the past month, I have noticed that I have been saying that phrase more and more to myself and the folks in my life for different reasons.

As 2010 wraps up it is hard not to think of the many things to be thankful for in Beck land, even with the "unexpected summer vacation" from Microsoft. That time off allowed me the opportunity to take a step back and re-evaluate some things in my life. Any adjustment – big or small, personal or professional – takes time. It requires structure and discipline to see it through. It requires communication – thoughtful and honest – with any parties that may have been impacted by your behaviors.

Fortunately, nothing was incredibly off-course, but the gut-check discussions with family and friends (new and long-term) really helped keep me on a path to goodness when things could have gone awry. And I still ended up learning a great deal about improving in some areas because I put myself out there knowing these people would be brutally honest with me. Feedback is a gift, and so I am thankful for these folks who invested their time and energy in @MrsPTC. And I've made sure to let them know that I appreciate them and their thoughts. It's part of the deal.

Those conversations force you to take a really long hard look in the mirror and admit what you see – the good, bad and ugly (blech!). If you've done something like this, you know the initial look in the mirror is generally not pretty. But you have to decide if you want to improve that image in the mirror or not, which is more about 'doing' than 'talking'. Sure 'talking' and, more importantly, 'listening' are how you figure out that you probably need to re-evaluate, but 'doing' is where it is at.

I am still working on the 'doing' based on some of the feedback I received but it is better than where it was 6 months ago. I'll probably never stop 'doing' because I'll always need to work on certain areas. But for me, it's important to not think too much about how much I need to improve and what could be a very long road, but to just keep moving forward. Hence "keep calm and carry on".

One big change for me: I have decided to change my fitness regimen for 2011, which most likely is including both an addition to my workouts and an overall philosophy shift. I am grateful for what I have achieved thus far, but know that I need to make some changes in order to make the impact that I want to make next year. No doubt that it's going to require working with someone new that has the accountability (click on this link on my thoughts around accountability), personal courage & integrity that I need in a partner to reach those goals. And it's going to be frustrating and challenging, but ultimately, I am confident I will be a better (and healthier) athlete as a result. I'll probably be happier, too.

Again, "keep calm and carry on".

Happy Holidays everyone!

Yanks and Non-Running Musings

As a Yankees fan, it would be easy to talk about how disappointed I was that they didn't win the World Series. But the team that won had absolutely dominant pitching and deserved to win. The Yanks weren't the best team in baseball and the flaws that they were able to work around during the regular season… well, they couldn't be overcome in the playoffs. We'll get back to the Yanks in a bit, but I wanted to call out something very baseball related but not related to the Pinstripes.

I was very sad about the passing of Dave Niehaus – the longtime voice for the Seattle Mariners. The thing with Mr. Niehaus was that he brought the same enthusiasm and positive attitude to his job day-in and day-out, even when the Mariners completely sucked, which was often especially in 2008 and 2010. I am sad for the game of baseball that he is no longer calling games, but more sad for Mariners fans who feel as though they lost another grandparent who educated them about a great game.

In other news, Marc and I also survived Cousinpalooza and Harvest 2010 for Purple Teeth Cellars. We managed to squeeze in a trip to Portland and Willamette Valley for some wine tasting. Paley's Place, Joel Palmer House and the Allison Inn & Spa were all fabulous. We were fortunate enough to host our 4^th annual JDRF Wine Dinner, and raised over $20,000 for finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes. We have also been doing a fair share of cooking and have no doubt that this will pick up some steam as we roll into the holidays. At Paley's Place, I was educated by the chef about his vision for one of my favorite recipes – Duck Wellington with Mole Sauce, so I am completely inspired to try it again.

But let's get back to the Yankees and switch the sub-topic from the 2010 playoffs to the new national nightmare known as "will Derek Jeter sign with someone other than the only organization he has ever known?"

I seriously doubt he is going to sign with another team, but if he does, I'll offer my thanks for his many years of great service to my team. Yes, he deserves our thanks and gratitude for being an excellent ballplayer who never flinched at being in the spotlight of New York. I'm all for someone to test out the market to see what their services are worth. Right now, multiple sources are saying that the Yankees have offered Jeter, who is 36 years old and had one of his worst seasons ever, a 3-year contract for $15 million/year (note: unlike football, baseball money is guaranteed unless you retire). So a message to Derek:

Captain Jetes, if you can find a better offer than that given your declining skills at shortstop and at the plate, go ahead and take it. Seriously. I'll be sorry to see you go, but if it is just about the money with you, then just say so as opposed to talking about your legacy of winning championships and being a Yankee.

My take on this is that Jeter is annoyed that his BFF/enemy, Alex Rodriguez, received more money from the Yankees when he has had less tenure with the club and doesn't have as many World Series rings. This is dumb. Let's face it. Both are going to the Baseball Hall of Fame. But Jeter is more well-liked and more respected in athlete and non-athlete circles. I would bet that Jeter makes more money in endorsements than A-Rod because of him spending his entire baseball career in New York. Seriously though, we're talking about Monopoly money – ok, so Jeter has made $200 million over the course of his career thus far ON THE FIELD, and A-Rod is probably around $300 million. Spending $200 million vs. $300 million – whatever. It's like a bad scene from Brewster's Millions, which starred the late Richard Pryor. And again, we're not talking about OFF THE FIELD earnings at all.

Furthermore, Jeter has always maintained that he is about winning championships. How many teams can legitimately say that they can compete year-in and year-out for a World Series title? And how many of those teams would be willing to commit more than 3 years and more than $45 million to an aging shortstop, a position that requires lots of physical agility?!?! I have a feeling that a number of teams may revisit the A-Rod experiment in Texas where Tom Hicks paid him an insane amount of money, but it ended up crippling the club financially. They had trouble signing other big market players (until of course A-Rod was traded to the Yankees) and eventually Hicks put himself in an untenable position financially.

So is someone going to tell me that some mid-market team is going to bring on Derek Jeter at more than 3 years/$45 million to instill a winning culture while the team labors through the summer because the suck and can't afford to sign anyone else (READ: Mariners, Seattle)? Unlikely. Let's not visit the small-market teams because that would be a waste of time. And don't forget that Jeter is a big city guy who dates a woman who is an actress so that pretty much puts it to LA and NYC. He always talks about always being in a position to compete and play in October. That is going to remove many teams from the equation,

The big-market teams consist of the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox and maybe the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Dodgers' are literally in divorce court and will most likely be forced to sell the team but this wouldn't happen until it's too late for the 2011 season. I do not see Jeter fitting into the models that have been built for Anaheim and Boston, but you never know. That leaves the Mets. New GM, new manager and new "who knows what else". Yes, same city, but really – the Mets always play second fiddle to the Yanks, right or wrong but they do. I don't think Jeter is going to want to be a part of that, but ok – I could be wrong.

Bottom-line – this is all dumb posturing by Jeter's agent and the Yankees. It's gotten ugly even though my money is on everyone making up at the end and getting the deal done. I don't think Jeter is worth the initial offer the Yankees made, but if that is what they want to start with as their initial bargaining point, fine. It is not my bank account. I would rather them put their money towards more reliable starting pitching (READ: Lee, Cliff).

Battling Back

I love Café Juanita. More on that below, but I had to start out the blog entry with that.
Since the last running-related blog entry, I have been trying to battle back from the same running injury that has been bugging me since late spring. It's been a long journey for me, and unfortunately I wouldn't say that I am any closer to being pain-free than I was back when I did Disney in early September. That said, I am still trying to get out there and run under varying circumstances. Most of my runs have been with friends, which has helped a great deal.
This time last year, my PR for a ½ marathon was 2 hours and 4 minutes. It now stands at 1 hour and 52 minutes. I am pretty proud of the improvement over the past 12 months, but also knew that as I was doing my final prep for Disney that I was getting close to being burned out on training, etc. I had to make a couple of changes but wasn't sure what that should be other than not racing any 1/2s for the rest of the calendar year.
Fortunately my running buddies would keep checking up on me to see if I would be interested in joining them for a run here and there, so I would do that. Even though it seemed a bit daunting getting back out there with folks who maintained their training schedules, I was glad to join them as my schedule allowed. Coach Lesley invited me to some group runs just to keep some momentum going for longer runs, and that was good too. The long runs have been around Queen Anne, Magnolia, the University of Washington, and Seward Park. The weather for these longer runs has been remarkably cooperative, which has been great considering you never know what you are going to get in late September/October/November.
I did an interval speed workout a couple of weeks ago in the morning. Gosh, that hurt. It was the 1^st time I did anything close to that since the 10K I did in August, and before that it was in early June! The fact that the run was 1^st thing in the morning did not help as my body definitely needs time to "adjust" before putting in some huffing and puffing on the trail! I kept up with my friends, which made me feel better, but I was dragging at the end of the last "fast mile". This week, I was able to do my 1^st track workout in 5 ½ months. I was kind of nervous to see how my cardio fitness would hold up. We decided to do 1 mile of warm-up/cool-down, with 4 sets of 800 meters and a 400 recovery lap between each set. We targeted the sets to be around 3:45-3:50 for 800 meters (1/2 mile).
I was pretty psyched that while I was working my tail off on those 800s, I felt like I could have pushed a tiny bit harder. Furthermore if I had to do a 5^th set, I would have been able to do it although swearing would have been involved (hehehe). But it was a huge confidence booster for me that in spite of the injury, my cardio is in decent shape as I work out what I am going to do in 2011. My hill fitness needs a lot of work though, and I see some hill repeats in my future. UGH!
I got out for 10 miles this morning after a pretty high-end food day yesterday with a team lunch at Seastar and then celebrating a friend's birthday at Café Juanita. Let me just digress for a bit on Café Juanita. I'll just say that Holly Smith is a master at making guests feel like their requests are no big deal without compromising on the quality of what is served. We had such a fun time and the service is always top-notch.
OK, back to the run this morning. I was in moderate pain for most of the run (calf), which is less than optimal, but I was glad to be out there. What made this morning weird was the fact that it got colder as the run went on, AND after climbing 200 ft. over the course of a mile (yeah, the headwind going uphill wasn't enjoyable either), we were all still cold. I don't think that has ever happened to me on a run.
I think the other thing that has gotten me re-engaged with running has been helping a friend who was trying to build up to a 5k. It has made me think back to when I started running a few years ago, and remembered how many people supported me along the way – most notably, Marc. Helping my friend reach a goal of hers has been a great deal of fun, and incredibly gratifying. It is a unique way to get to know someone as well, which I know I have enjoyed. I also get it now when another friend who paced me at last year's Seattle ½ says that she is just as proud of that effort as she is of her own PRs.
The bottom-line is that I'm getting back into things mentally with respect to my training. Now if my left side would just cooperate a bit more so I'd be able to run pain-free, that would be great!

Well I Finally Got To See Disneyland…. Uh, Sort Of

As I am typing this, I have my left leg sitting in a garbage can full of ice and water. I'll admit that the pain is worth it because of what happened during a race I ran yesterday with a good friend of mine, Nat. Nat is a lifelong runner and once I was able to build up to a ½ marathon, we knew that we needed to run a race together even though we live in different cities. It almost happened 18 months ago, but a last minute snafu prevented that from happening.

Fortunately the opportunity arose again when Marc decided he wanted to fly down for a reunion with his club swim team being organized by his former coach, Lori (for those of you who have made comments about Marc's talents in the pool or lake, talk to Lori as she was responsible – LOL). During that same weekend was the Disneyland Half Marathon, which would be perfect for Nat and me to meet and run together.

Since Marc is the less-verbose of the two of us (ahem), I always enjoy it when I can meet people from his past that can share some stories with me. Coach Lori was no exception, and the most notable story was about Marc's refusal to follow her instructions about tapering before a big meet. Marc ended up doing really well in the meet, but apparently Coach Lori still uses my husband as an example about the concept of tapering. It was meeting some of his friends from that period of his life. Oh, and it was hot. Like 100+ F hot. Given the race the next day, I was calculating how much to hydrate without completely weighing myself down and feeling bloated. Plus I knew we were drinking wine that night when meeting Nat and Ric for dinner, so I had to account for that as well. It's not easy being me.

Marc and I met Nat and Ric for a great meal of protein and carbs (inc. above mentioned red wine), and then we went to bed relatively early. The race started at 6am and we were told that we needed to be in our start groups by 5:30am at the latest, which ended up being not true. But nothing like getting out of the elevator at 5am and seeing a bunch of people wearing Mickey Mouse ears pop up right in front of you. I then remembered – yes, I am running the DISNEY half marathon. OK.

See Nat and I had a different plan – given his Red Sox loyalties and my Yankee loyalties, we decided we would be thematic in our race attire with respect to supporting our teams. For those of you who wondered why we didn't race each other, it's because it wouldn't even be close as in Nat just effortlessly glides as he runs and coached track for many years. So yeah, he would kick my a** if we raced.

I didn't sleep well the night before and as a result, my right shoulder was barking a bit (this is related to the leg injury I have been rehabbing, believe it or not). My concern about racing with an injury probably also contributed to my anxiety – this is new territory for me. But I was at the start, so I was "in". It was dark when the gun went off and I figured we had about an hour before the sun would come up and really make its presence felt. It was also warmer and more humid than the forecasted temperature, which wasn't making me feel awesome. I had to decide if I wanted to get as far as I could before the heat started or just stay steady and consistent. Nat and I were pleasantly surprised that we didn't have to do the normal weaving in and out of people. Marc and Ric were waiting for us at the start of mile 2, and waved. I think Ric already had his tea – LOL. Clearly he doesn't mess around.

I started out pretty fast for me for the 1^st couple of miles just to see how I felt. Nat was kind of just doing whatever I was doing. At mile 2 ½, you actually start running through Disney's California Adventure and then you run through Disneyland. You run through both parks in their entirety. Characters were everywhere and I'll just say that it was super fun. I knew at that point I wanted to come back and run it again, but not race it so I could take pictures with the characters. They had plenty of dance troupes and musical bands (like marching bands) all over the park. It was a blur, but it definitely brought a smile to my face throughout that phase of the race. Going into mile 4, I noticed my average pace was 8:27/mile. Whoa Nellie!

I told Nat that I needed to bring it back a few pips, which we did. My shoulder was still really hurting as we left the friendly atmosphere of Disneyland and hit the streets of Anaheim at the start of mile 5. The course was very flat with the exception of going over the freeway at mile 5 ½, so I appreciated that for sure. We saw Marc and Ric again just before we finished mile 6 and at mile 7 ½. They were great and Marc of course knew when to give me my beverages, etc. I yelled out to them that they looked good, which got some chuckles from the surrounding spectators and a high five from Nat.

The sun looked like it was about to come up and heat up everything, so I kept throwing water on myself at the aid stations to stay cool. They always say you don't want to do this once you feel really hot or dehydrated because it's too late, so I was trying to be proactive.

Halfway through, my shoulder is still hurting and I started getting annoyed. I think I must have gotten so annoyed that my shoulder got the message to shut up because I didn't have any pain there for the rest of the race.

Meanwhile, Nat and I were keeping score about how many cheers for Boston vs. New York were happening along the course. He was up 2-0 at this stage. We knew we would be running through Angel Stadium later on in the race, so we knew we were going to have to say something in the "non-kid-friendly" camp about the Rally Monkey, which is a mascot of some kind for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. We ran past the Honda Center where the Anaheim Mighty Ducks play hockey and then we hit some dirt path along something that looked like a wasteland.

I literally yell to Nat and say, "what the bleep is this [the wasteland]?" He informs me that it is a river (Marc later informs me that it is the Santa Ana River). Note that there is not a smidgen of water in this thing. He informs me that we are in Southern California and essentially, I should lower my expectations. We have a good laugh and trudge on to Angel Stadium, which is at mile 9 ½. We run into it together and are just taking it in since we literally got to run around the perimeter of the field along the warning track. We even saw ourselves on the Jumbotron and of course, we said what we had to say about the Rally Monkey. :-)

At this point, I should talk about the diversity of the bands that we saw along the course. Many high school bands and dance troupes. It really made the Rock 'n Roll races look lame just because the entertainment was so fun and diverse – think mariachi and African dance acts, for starters. Plus they probably rounded up every high school cheerleading squad in the greater LA area and bussed them in. They were loud and boisterous – everything you would want on the sidelines as a racer. It was fabulous and really kept me in good spirits. My splits are staying within a good range as I slowed up a little in the middle, so I could save something for the end.

I saw some Yankees hats and got some cheers, but felt I had to dock myself ½ a point because someone was wearing a RED Yankees cap. Huh? Nat ended up winning this contest. LOL.

At around mile 11 ½, one of the toes on my right foot started to really throb – a lot. To the point that I noticed that I was running with a weird stride. This wasn't good and apparently I had the same chat with myself that I had 5 miles earlier with respect to my shoulder. This led to me running with my normal stride again. We finish mile 12 and have 1+ miles left. Nat then says, "Jill, we only have one more mile to enjoy this." I yell back, "Are you freaking kidding me? I'm happy we have one more mile but I'm not going to enjoy it." Granted I was laughing as I said it, but I was working hard at this stage because once we left Angel Stadium, I knew I had a chance for another personal record (PR) so I was busting my rear to really get in under the wire.

Nat is just cruising at this stage and making it look so easy, and I am definitely huffing and puffing. We get into Downtown Disney and I know the finish should be appearing anytime, but it was one of those finishes where the finish line wasn't straight ahead where you could see it from ¼ mile out. Nat then yells out, "I see the finish!" Of course I yell out, "I can't!" I then saw it and we sprinted through the finish. I knew I had a PR – not by more than a minute, but still. My sister then texts me with a message from my nephew saying "Yay Aunt Jill!", so she must have gotten the alert that I finished. She then texted me that my time was 1:52:15. A PR by 48 seconds! Woo woo!

We get our picture taken together, and unfortunately missed out on the character pictures, but it was so much fun. We find Marc and Ric, who definitely admire our finisher medals. I then realize that I am soaking wet from throwing water on myself about 5 or 6 times, so a shower is in order and then breakfast with the guys. I wasn't hungry yet, so I opted for chocolate milk, which is a fabulous recovery drink and then a Mimosa. Yep, the breakfast of champions! We say farewell to Nat and Ric, and head off to spend time with the family, but we really had a great time and hope that THEY WILL COME TO SEATTLE SOON (yes, I'll make the cassoulet).

If you ever decide that you want to run a ½ marathon once in your life, do this one. The course is flat and the spectators are everywhere. So much fun. And oh yeah, I almost forgot. The sun never came up. We had the marine layer that has been so pervasive in Seattle this summer. What a lucky break! Thanks to Nat for running with me and keeping me in great spirits, and thanks to Marc and Ric for getting all over the course to cheer us on!

Pics here, but will add more once we get the e-mail that the official photos are ready.