My Love Letter to Boston

Dear Boston,

Thank you for reminding me that there are heroes walking (and running) unnoticed among us. To the first responders, race volunteers, and bystanders who rushed in to help the injured without any concern for your own safety – your courage and selflessness inspire me. You restored my faith that the good in this world will always overcome the evil. And to the Boston residents who stopped two random women on the street to make sure that we were okay and to see if we needed anything – your generosity and kindness amaze me. You, too, are proof that good, caring, compassionate people outnumber those with hatred in their hearts.

I am grateful to you for reminding me that the connections we forge with other people are the most important things in this life. The outpouring of love and concern for Maria and me was overwhelming – once news of the tragedy broke, our phones were constantly notifying us of texts, emails, calls, and Facebook messages from people who were worried about us. I came home from Boston knowing that I am loved, and there is no more comforting feeling in the world in the midst of such a terrifying situation.

And although it seems much less important than so many other things right now, thank you for putting on a race that lived up to every last bit of hype surrounding it. The city rolled out the red carpet for us runners, and the race volunteers and spectators were nothing short of amazing. The entire course was lined with people cheering, holding funny signs, and handing out orange slices, water, wet sponges, Kleenxes, etc. The people of Boston were right there with us, every step of the 26.2 miles. It was a perfect, dream come true day right up until the moment everything changed.

My heart aches for all the people whose lives were forever altered in an instant on Monday. I have thought of little else since I got home. This morning, I proudly put on my race shirt and ran for the first time since the marathon. For four miles, instead of focusing on how powerless events like this make me feel, I thought of how I could honor the victims and survivors of the bombing in my day-to-day life. I’m going to try harder to help others in need. I’m going to let the people I love know just how much they mean to me every chance I get. While I know I will never forget what happened on Monday, I’m going to stand strong with the rest of the running community and keep running and racing every chance I get. And Boston, if you’ll have me with my just barely qualifying time, I will be honored and thrilled to run your streets again in 2014.

Marathon Humor

With less than 72 hours to go before the start of my third marathon, I’m finding it hard to concentrate on anything other than running. I’ve spent most of tonight obsessively browsing marathon-related websites instead of packing or finalizing my playlist (you know, the things I should be doing), and I came across a few funnies I thought were worthy of sharing.

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Pretty in Pink 15k Recap Numero Dos

Race #2 of the fall is in the books. Maria already provided an awesome recap of all the race particulars, so I don’t need to rehash all of that stuff, but I want to add my two cents about the experience. This was the first race I have run put on by Premier Racing Institute, and I was impressed. As much as I love running the big races, I also like supporting the smaller, local races as well, and this one was a lot of fun. I definitely got the feeling that they put on races with the runners in mind rather than with the sole focus of making a bunch of money. They are putting on a half marathon on November 4th, and based on yesterday, I am thisclose to signing up.

Yesterday was a new PR for me at the 15k distance! I finished in 1:12:09 (7:48 pace), which was about 2 minutes faster than my previous PR and was good enough for 1st in my age group and 24th overall. While I’m really happy with the results, I am less than happy with how I got there. Maria and I started off slowly because the course was narrow and there were a lot of runners to navigate around in the first mile. We were able to speed up around mile 2, and things went well for the next few miles. However, things quit going according to plan for me a little past halfway through the race. I don’t think I did a good job of hydrating at the first few water stops, and by mile 6, I was not feeling well at all. At that point, I started walking through all of the aid stations and making sure I was getting in a decent amount of H2O, but the damage was already done, and my pace definitely took a hit. I wish I could say it was abnormal for me to get slower as a race progresses, but for some reason, the marathon is the only distance where I have been able to do decent job of running negative splits. Oh well, live and learn, right??

Yesterday’s excitement did not end with the race. After we ate breakfast, Maria and I dropped into Fresh Market to pick up some groceries, and after months of searching in every grocery store I have visited in multiple states, I finally found this little bit of heaven in a jar. It is every bit as good as I had imagined it might be…maybe even better.



Sigh. I’m never going to give up my dream of a world where scientists have managed to make celery taste just like peanut butter.

Upper Body Workout and Baked Fresh Fig & Ricotta Oatmeal

I had a wonderfully relaxing vacation in Minnesota with my friends and family. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone and bid farewell to sleeping in as late as I wanted and to eating all the things I can’t get here in Florida, but one thing that made it a little easier was knowing I would be able to get back to one of my happy places – the gym! I decided it was probably wise to ease myself back into training mode, so I came up with this simple workout that allowed me to get in the 5 miles called for on my marathon training plan as well as hit my upper body a little bit.


While completing this workout, I ended up running 5.25 miles in just under 40 minutes, and I used an 8lb medicine ball for the situps to make them a bit more challenging. The first few rounds were pretty tough, but I liked knowing that each subsequent round was going to be slightly easier. By the time I got to the last round, it felt like a cake walk!

When I got home, I helped myself to a serving of this tasty baked oatmeal.

Fresh Fig Baked Oatmeal with Ricotta

Makes 6 Servings

130 grams fresh figs, chopped
1 ¾ cups rolled oats
¼ cup buckwheat
¼ cup pepitas, toasted
¼ cup shelled pistachios, chopped & toasted
¼ cup walnuts, chopped & toasted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves, ground
1/8 tsp salt
12 packets of Truvia Natural Sweetener
2 tbsp Ideal Brown No Calorie Sweetener
¼ cup egg whites
¼ cup fat free ricotta cheese (I used Calabro)
1 ½ cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or milk of your choice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray an 11x7 baking dish with non-stick spray.

Place the rolled oats, buckwheat, nuts, baking powder, spices, Truvia, Ideal Brown Sweetener, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and stir to combine.

In another bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, almond milk, and egg whites. Whisk until the ricotta is incorporated into the liquid.

Scatter the chopped figs in the prepared pan. Spread the oat mixture over the top. Slowly pour the wet ingredients over the oats, ensuring that all the oats are evenly soaked. Bake for 30 -35 minutes until the oatmeal appears set.

Calories: 238
Fat: 10g
Carbohydrates: 37g
Protein: 10g
Calculated on Sparkrecipes.com

The oatmeal is sturdy enough to be cut into squares and eaten out of your hand, however, when I was shopping at Trader Joe’s in Minnesota, I came across this jar of awesome deliciousness.



So this morning I warmed up a portion of oatmeal in the microwave and combined it with a sauce comprised of fig butter, fat free ricotta, and unsweetened almond milk. The result may not look all that appealing, but it tasted fantastic!



I love baked oatmeal. It is relatively simple to make, it can be customized based on the fruits and nuts that are on hand, and I can make it over the weekend and have breakfast ready to go all week. I'm going to be sad tomorrow when I finish up the last bit of this combo!

Women Run the Cities 10 Mile Race

Race season has finally begun for me! I ran the Women Run the Cities 10 Mile race in Minneapolis, MN on Sunday, and it was awesome.
Packet Pick Up: Packet pick up was available at a local sports store a couple days prior to the race as well as on race morning. I normally like to pick up my packet prior to race day, but since I didn’t arrive in MN until Saturday afternoon, I had to wait until race morning. Luckily this wasn’t a huge race (2700 total participants in the 1 Mile, 5k, and 10 mile race combined) and the volunteers were very organized and efficient, so I had my bib and shirt within 5 minutes of arriving to the race site.
Course: The course was out & back along the Mississippi River with a short jaunt across the river into St. Paul. We were running through a very pretty neighborhood with some great old houses to look at (I love to “shop” for my next house when I’m running in a new place), and the views when we were crossing the river were stunning. My one complaint about the course was that the 5k runners merged with the 10 mile runners with about a mile and a half remaining in the race, which meant that I spent the last 10 minutes or so of the race trying to navigate through a crowd of 5k runners who weren’t running at my pace. I heard from my friend and sister who ran the 5k that their race started about 18 minutes later than scheduled, so I’m not sure if that had something to do with the congestion.
Aid Stations: There were six aid stations along the course. Gu gels were available at two of them. The aid stations had plenty of volunteers, so there weren’t any slow downs waiting to get water. It would have been nice to have had Gatorade available at a couple of the stops.
Post-Race Goodies: Free Starbucks….need I say more? I was really impressed with the food and drink selections at the end of the race. They had your typical bottled water, bread/bagels, and bananas, but they also had bags of Old Dutch potato chips, mini Pearson Salted Nut Rolls (yum!), bags of BoomChickaPop Popcorn (produced here in MN and so, so good), and full size bottles of Muscle Milk and Muscle Milk Light protein shakes. I LOVE that they had Muscle Milk there. I understand why post race food options are usually so carb-heavy, but I always feel like the need that some of us have for protein is over looked, so I was thrilled to see the Muscle Milk tent.
Swag: The shirts for the 10 mile race were long sleeve, half zip technical shirts – I was really happy to see such nice shirts for a 10 mile race. The medals were also high quality, fun, and bright – the design was perfectly suited to a women’s race.

Results: This was my first 10 mile race, so I was guaranteed a PR. I wanted to use this race to gauge where my speed and conditioning were in relation to the end of marathon training in May. I anticipated that I would be a bit slower because I haven’t been as focused on running this summer, but I was going to leave it all on the course because I knew I had a week of vacation and taking it easy coming up before I officially kick off marathon training in October. I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up finishing in 1:15:14 (7:32 pace), which put me at 36 of 1129 finishers. According to a calculator of equivalent race times based on the Jack Daniels Running Formula, I am still right where I was in May. I guess training with future IronWoman Maria all summer has paid off. :)
Overall, I would highly recommend this race to any women in the Minneapolis area, and if I ever happen to be in town for it again, I will definitely participate. I especially enjoyed it because my sister Miranda and my best friend since second grade ran the 5k. Both Miranda and Jolene are relatively new to running, and it was so exciting for me to see them finish strong and to be able to share the sport that I love so much with two amazing women who have been constant sources of support and encouragement for me my whole life. I wish we would have gotten a picture together, but we were all a little focused on getting out of the cold and getting food into our bellies after the race. Next time, I guess….and I know there will be a next time since Jolene is already signed up for the 10k in Fargo next May!

10 Running Questions Answered

I saw this post with 10 running questions over on Food & Fun on the Run last week and thought it was a lot of fun to read her answers, so I decided to follow suit and post my own version.

1. Best Run Ever: The Fargo Marathon, hands down.  I was running in my home state, the weather was perfect, crowd support was amazing, and I somehow managed to qualify for Boston with a time that was faster than I thought I would ever be able to run.  The best part, however, was being able to share the experience with my parents, my sister Miranda, and three of my lifelong girlfriends.  The fact that all of these people whom I love were willing to travel from out of town to watch me run a marathon, which is not exactly the most spectator friendly sport, meant the world to me and made that moment so much more special.
2. 3 Words That Describe Your Running:  Therapeutic. I saw this post on Facebook the other day, and it really resonated with me. I can’t even begin to count how many frustrations, disappointments, and conflicts I have left behind on the pavement.Sweaty. I sweat…..a whole lot. But, as I learned on one of my Ragnar relays, “It’s not sweat, it’s liquid awesome!”  Gratitude-filled. Not sure if that counts as only one word or not, but I’m running (ha!) with it anyway. Running has helped me transform my body, it has given me an outlet for my stress, and it has connected me with people I never otherwise would have met and become friends with. Running has truly been a gift in my life, and I try to remind myself of that every time I run.
3. Go-To Running Outfit:  I generally just grab any clean pair of shorts and a tank top from my giant pile of workout clothes, but my Brooks PureConnects, my Spibelt, my Garmin, my iPod, and my water bottle are never left behind.
4. Quirky Habit When Running:  I do a lot of math while I’m running – How much can I slow down and still meet my goal pace?  If I was running a half marathon at this pace, what would be my finish time?  It’s 7:25 right now, I have 8 miles to go, I’m running at an 8:10 pace…..what time will I be eating breakfast??
5. Morning, Midday, or Evening:  Morning, all the way. I love starting my day with a workout, I know exactly what works for me nutrition-wise, and watching the sun rise over the bay never gets old.
6. I Won’t Run Outside When…..it’s too hot, humid, and sunny. I wilt in the heat, and I hate it. I will gladly wake up at 4:30 AM to get my run in before the heat gets unbearable. 
7. Worst Injury and How You Got Over It: I had a small tear in my left meniscus about two and a half years ago. Luckily, it didn’t require surgery, so I got a cortisone shot, took 8 weeks off completely from running, and went to physical therapy. It was a long 8 weeks, but I was fortunate enough to have trainers who customized a workout plan that allowed me to maintain my cardiovascular endurance and force me to obey the doctor’s orders so that I didn’t injure myself further.
8. I Felt Like the Most Badass Mother Runner When I was running my second leg of the Florida Keys Ragnar in 2011.  It was about 9 miles in the dark on a canal trail. Runners had very specific instructions to stay away from the water and not discard anything that would attract the wildlife (wildlife = gators). One of my teammates was engaged to a Ragnar staff member who had texted her pictures of the alligators sunning themselves on the trail earlier in the day, so I knew that the warnings were serious. It was easily the scariest run of my life, but I felt invincible when it was over.
9. My Next Race Is next Sunday!! I’m running the Women Run the Cities 10 Miler in Minneapolis, MN, and I was able to convince one of my sisters and two of my girlfriends to run the 5k. I’m so excited to share the race experience with them!
10. Running Goals for 2013: I’ve still got a 10 miler, a 15k, a half marathon, and a full marathon in 2012 to focus on. My main goal for 2013 is to train properly to allow me to truly enjoy running the Boston Marathon. While I hope that there will be many more Boston experiences in my future, there’s no guarantee that I will make it back again, so I want to soak up every second of the race in 2013.

Motivational Music and Meatballs

Well, today was supposed to be my triumphant return to the Shortcut to Size program, but it turns out that I hit my snooze button one (or maybe five) too many times, so I modified my plans and got my tempo run for this week out of the way. Today’s run called for 3 miles at a 7:27 pace, 3 minute rest, 2 miles at a 7:24 pace, 2 minute rest, and finally 1 mile at a 7:24 pace. I didn’t think the run would be that much of a challenge, but my body wasn’t entirely in agreement with my brain on that point. I was really struggling during the last half mile of my 2 miles, but then this song came on my iPod.

This is the song that was playing when I finished the Fargo Marathon. Every time I hear it, I am transported back to the moment when I entered the Fargo Dome and saw the finish line come into view, and I knew that I was only seconds away from running a Boston qualifying time. And just like that, I had the energy to push through and finish the workout strong. I’m always amazed by power that certain songs have to invoke such vivid memories and to transform my attitude.

Time to talk about balls! Meatballs, that is. On one of my many stops at the grocery store last week, I noticed some thick, lean, beautiful pork chops on sale, and I felt the distinct need to buy a couple of pounds. I stuffed the first pound with prosciutto and manchego cheese, so when it came time to use the second pound, I was in the mood for something completely different and not necessarily in chop form. Inspiration struck when I looked out at my deck and saw my out of control basil plant. I decided to go with an Asian version of meatballs, and this is what I came up with.

Basil Ginger Pork Meatballs

Makes 4 Servings

Ingredients
1/4 cup Panko
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound lean ground pork (I ground up some boneless pork chops in my food processor; I have a hard time finding lean ground pork in the grocery store)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons Sweet Garlic Chili Sauce

1. Place a jelly-roll pan lined with a silicone mat (foil works too) in the oven. Preheat the oven to 450°.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Stir gently just until blended; don’t overmix, or the meatballs could become tough. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Divide the pork mixture into 20 equal portions. Shape each portion into a meatball. Arrange the meatballs in a single layer on the preheated pan. Bake at 450° for 20 minutes or until done.

Nutrition Information per 5 meatballs
Calories: 188
Fat: 6.3g
Carbohydrates: 85.9g
Protein: 23.6g
Calculated on Sparkrecipes.com


I loved these so much that I ate them for lunch three days in a row with some coleslaw mix that I sautéed in garlic and sesame oil and sprinkled with chopped cashews. I normally brown meatballs prior to baking them; I didn’t this time, and I wish I would have or at the very least flipped them halfway through the baking time. The bottoms of the meatballs had a nice brown and crispy crust that I preferred to the top of the meatballs.

Long Run & The Week Ahead

Yesterday morning’s training plan called for a 19 mile run followed by an easy 30 minutes on the bike at the gym.  After two really great interval sessions on the treadmill last week, I was hopeful that we might actually have our first enjoyable long outdoor run in over a month.  Once we got going, it didn’t take long to figure out that this was not going to be the magical, reinvigorating run we were hoping for, thanks to the 93% relative humidity and complete lack of a breeze.  Marathon training in Florida during the summer is such a joy!  However, we did manage to make it through 12.25 not-so-speedy miles outside before heading into the air conditioned comfort of the gym, where we ran for an hour on the treadmill to get in our last 7 miles. 

After a 30 minute cool down on the bike, it was time for my favorite part of our Sunday routine – breakfast at First Watch!  The remainder of my day was spent lying around watching the Olympics, reading blogs, and meal planning while cuddling with two adorable puggies.  

I think Sundays are my favorite day of the week. 

And since it’s Monday, here’s what’s on tap for the rest of the week:

Monday:  Rest

Tuesday:  Chest, Triceps & Calves, 12x400m repeats with 400m recovery jogs

Wednesday:  Personal Training Session (Legs), Elliptical Intervals with some plyo thrown in

Thursday: Shoulders, Abs & Calves, Boxing

Friday:  Back, Biceps & Abs, 40 minute tempo run

Saturday :  Rest

Sunday:  15 Mile Run, Biking

As well as a few recipes that will be coming out of my kitchen this week:

Slow Cooker Indonesian Chicken

Steak Fajitas

Blueberry Lemon Chia Jam Muffins - These are actually in the oven as I type, and they smell heavenly!