Monthly Archives: December 2010

Amy will be on vacation, and will be posting sporadically until the New Year. Thanks for stopping by!

I planned to do a long run and lifting workout yesterday. Then, it snowed, and the day got crazy, and I had all of 30 minutes to exercise.

I could have given up on my workout for the day, and almost did. Instead, I headed down to my building’s mini-gym for a repeat of Tuesday’s speed workout. It was not inspired. It was not creative. But it challenged my muscles, worked my heart and cleared my mind, and reminded me that, in running and in life, an all-or-nothing mindset is dangerous and counter-productive.

Today’s similarly busy, which means I’ll be heading down to the stationary bike for my favorite Just Do Something workout. There will be plenty of time for longer, hard-core workouts in the coming weeks; for now, I’m patting myself on the back for doing anything at all!

What do you do to work out when you’ve only got 30 minutes to work with?

A weird side-effect of the blistering cold and gusting winds beating up the D.C. area this week: The weather actually forced me to do my first speed workout since … well, let’s not go there. The forced workout came after I spotted a terrible little snow tornado out my window right before my lunchtime five-miler. I headed to the treadmill instead, where I did the following:

1X1 mile at 7:30-minute-mile pace

2X .5 mile at 7:15-minute-mile pace

4X .25 mile at 7-minute-mile pace or below (the last one was more like 6:30-minute-mile pace).

This was a change from my standard treadmill speed workout, 3 X 1 mile at 7:30-minute-mile pace, and it felt great! Let me clarify: After it felt terrible and demoralizing and exhausting, it felt great—which is sort of what we’re going for with speed workouts, right?

What’s your go-to speed workout? Do you have different ones for the treadmill and track (I do mile repeats on the treadmill and Yasso 800s outside)?

As a University of Colorado student, I could always tell when ski season was coming. I ran on Boulder Creek Path or on trails in the Flatirons most days, and I would get lots of extra company around this time of year, after the first ski day of the year left students out of breath, tired and sore.

Ever since then, I’ve used the start of the ski season as a motivating force to work out, adding jumping lunges and other plyometrics to my regimen to prep for the season. It seemed like a simple choice to me: I could skip the squats and leg-presses, or I could ski a back bowl at Vail from top to bottom without stopping—but probably not both.

My first ski day of the year on Sunday, which consisted of six joyful runs at Whitetail after our CPR class, has got me thinking about my ski workout again. This year, I have two additional factors to consider: injury-prevention (though I feel like I’m still in college, my muscles beg to differ), and the ski-and-toboggan portion of ski-patrol training, which I’ll be doing just about every Saturday at Whitetail through the ski season.

This means I want to beef up all the little muscles around my knees to preserve my ACLs, and increase my overall strength to pull sleds, or generally feel able to tackle whatever the class throws at me. SKI magazine offers these injury busters to answer the former, as does this Women’s Health feature about knee-preserving moves. My answer to the latter is this part of my ski workout:

3X15 reps, leg press, with 300 pounds (or more, if 300 pounds starts feeling easy, which I don’t see happening soon).

3X10 squats with barbell. I’m just mastering my form on this one, so I’m only loading 20 pounds of weight onto the barbell for now.

Walking lunges with 15-pound kettlebell held out in front

Squats with 50-pound kettlebell, on top of BOSU (I do these with the round side down, standing on the black, flat side)

I’m keeping my plyometic/balance stuff, too:

A minute of mountain climbers, with elbows or hands on a BOSU

A minute of side shuffle with resistance band. If this gets too easy, put a band around your ankles AND above your knees. If that’s too easy, do as I just did, and tie another knot in both bands. Yeowch! Bonus: Skier and Olympic medalist Ted Ligety does these, too.

A minute of jumping lunges

3X15 jump squats

3X15 single-leg squats

3X 1 minute back extension holds

Plus, all my other usual stuff, like planks, and some other additional stuff, like pull-ups and Turkish get-ups.

Some other great workouts: Bad Ass Fitness offers this killer lower-body workout, which reminded me about mountain climbers (see above). Also, SKI magazine had a blog a couple years ago following a staffer who got in shape for the season with CrossFit.

Regular readers of this blog know I’m a bit obsessed with butternut squash, and won’t be surprised to see yet another recipe using the delicious orange wonder-food.

It’s also yet another recipe offered as a sneaky way to get kids to eat vegetables (see Cauliflower Mac ‘n’ Cheese from last week). Jessica Seinfeld, who wrote a book on the topic, offers her version of the butternut squash quesadilla here. Kid-friendly basically just means it’s a really delicious use for vegetables, right?

Yes, I ate a piece before photographing it. Don't judge.

My version is so simple, I’m not even going to offer formal directions (i.e., “Heat a frying pan …”). You know how to make a quesadilla. So do that, but just add half a cup of pureed butternut squash to the cheese before you place it on a tortilla. If you want to jazz it up, add onion, garlic and chili powders, cumin and coriander to taste.

In other runner-friendly recipe news, Mastersinhealthcare.com, a guide to online master’s degrees in health care (I know … who knew?) has compiled a terrific list of 100 runner-friendly recipes in its blog. It includes some from Runner’s World, others from blogs I frequent, and others still from blogs I don’t yet frequent—but I will. I’m excited to try this recipe for homemade multigrain energy bars, among others on the list.

Find any great runner-friendly recipes lately? If so, please share them by posting a comment!

Now that Outdoor Emergency Care classes are done, Steve and I are back to our Pacers Silver Spring Fun Runs at 7 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday. For our first run back last night, we were treated to temperatures in the 20s, with gusting winds leading to a windchill of something like 16 degrees. I dragged us out the door, anyway, but not without heeding my best cold-weather running tips.

Bundle up. Last night, I wore: My ancient Brooks running tights; a technical T-shirt and long-sleeved shirt; my new mid-weight long-underwear T-shirt from Columbia; a fleece hat from the George Washington 10K Classic; my Mizuno Breath Thermo gloves, made from some fancy material that actually heats up when you sweat; a pair of fleece gloves (yep, I even layer my gloves); and finally, a University of Colorado pull-over fleece. Pull my reflective vest on top of the whole mess, and we’re ready to go!

I wore all of these clothes on my run last night. Really. All at the same time.

Cover up. David Nieman, Ph.D., who heads the Human Performance Laboratory at Appalachian State University, told Runner’s World he suggests wearing a neck gaiter, and covering your nose and mouth with it. Your breath will humidify the air, making it easier to breathe. I did so with my Columbia turtleneck last night, and it worked wonders. For other great Runner’s World stories about coping with the cold, click here.

Imagine this abominable snowwoman with her face covered by a turtleneck.

Warm up. Last year, I wrote a post about bribing myself to hit the pool on cold days with the promise of tea and chili after. Hot chocolate made with skim milk, Hershey’s cocoa and your sweetener of choice hit the spot last night, as did some leftover turkey chili.

Suck it up. It’s D.C., not Minnesota. And if you are in Minnesota … well, I’m sorry. I think you’re screwed until the springtime, which I’m told comes around sometime in May. For the rest of us, check out this guest blog post from my Minnesotan running friend about coping with the cold.

How do you deal with cold-weather running? What piece of cold-weather gear can you not live without? Share your tips by posting a comment.

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to get to chat with sports psychologist Stephen Walker, a fellow University of Colorado grad who has worked with the likes of Adam and Kara Goucher (also CU Buffaloes!), for a story. Now that the story, Meditations on Fitness, is live on the Coloradan magazine’s website, I’m happy to share my favorite of Walker’s tips here:

1. Train with a partner. Walker says this is a tried-and-true motivation tip for a reason. “[It] distributes the motivation, so it’s not all on one person,” he says. “And you feel a responsibility to your team or group rather than just yourself.” Plus,” he says, “it makes time spent doing hard work fly by.”

2. Appreciate the benefits. “Look at the reasons you work out,” Walker says. “For many active people, fitness in and of itself is reinforcement. Appreciate the byproducts of living a healthy lifestyle — a more positive attitude, more energy and the way you look and feel in clothes.”

3. Develop a dashboard. Walker advises athletes to scroll through a mental checklist during a race or event. “Athletes at every level can benefit from rotating through a mental list: How’s my form? How’s my rhythm and tempo? How’s my breathing? How’s my arm work?” he says.

4. Be as relaxed as possible on race day. “Look around,” he says. “Wave to people you recognize. Put a smile on your face. Drink it in and have fun.”

In other news, I’ve got a major announcement: After something like 140 hours of class, and countless more hours of study, reading and practice since September, Steve and I passed our Outdoor Emergency Care (ski-patrol medical) practical exam on Saturday! The exam took three hours, with each candidate leading two scenarios and taking part in a total of six. It marked the first time we treated practice patients on the snow at Whitetail—an exciting reminder of what it is we’ve been training to do. Better yet, our entire class passed on our first try, which we’re told is rather unique.

You may recall that I celebrated the passage of our OEC written exam with “suck it up” cupcakes.

Our OEC instructors tell us to "suck it up, cupcake" when we're being sissies.

Steve and I upped the ante to celebrate this one, with a yummy pasta dish and wine for me …

… and a steak and Steve’s favorite Belgian beer for him.

Note that the beer is in an Arapahoe Basin glass.

We’re not ski patrollers yet—we’ve got ski & toboggan/mountain operations training just about every Saturday this winter. But this marked a major milestone worthy of celebration.

How do you celebrate a major accomplishment, athletic or otherwise?

This hearty pasta dish, often suggested as a sneaky way to get kids to eat cauliflower, might just be the perfect winter running fuel. Cauliflower, whole-grain pasta and reduced-fat cheese are easy enough on the stomach to make this a great pre-race meal. But it’s healthy enough to qualify for dinner on an off-day, too. 

Cauliflower mac ‘n’ cheese

4 cups whole-grain elbow macaroni (I actually used rotini, and it turned out great)
1 head cauliflower, chopped into bite-sized pieces
sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder, paprika to taste
1 cup grated reduced-fat cheddar cheese
1 cup fat-free sour cream
1/2 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Bread crumbs

First, roast the cauliflower at 400 degrees until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta, then return it to the pot, adding remaining ingredients and stirring constantly over medium heat. Stir until combined. Transfer to baking dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and bake until lightly browned, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Serves four hungry runners.

Earlier this week, in my review of last week’s Alexandria Turkey Trot, I promised I’d share some lessons from my own performance. My big take-away: Having a bad day, running-wise, doesn’t mean you have to have a bad race.

I ran the flat, easy course in 44:33, or just under 9-minute miles. Typically, that’s a true jogging pace for me, which would have been fine if I’d meant to jog. Unfortunately, I’d intended to race it, but just couldn’t find the next gear when I tried to upshift. Here’s what I *didn’t* do when I realized my body wasn’t cooperating:

1. I didn’t beat myself up about it. I did a quick survey of the things that might have caused my sluggishness (Bad night’s sleep? Yes. Stomach troubles from the night before? Yes. Stone in my shoe? Sun in my eye? You get the picture …). Then, I stopped thinking about reasons, and started just accepting the conditions on the ground. As is the case in life, the sooner I got over how the race was *supposed* to be and accepted how it actually was, the situation improved.

2. I didn’t give up on the race. Once it became clear this wouldn’t be a PR, I decided that I’d go for mental toughness rather than time. I decided I’d try to run evenly paced 9-minute miles, knowing that would feel challenging but do-able, and that I’d try to keep my head in a good place—no trash-talk, no self-pity, no throwing in the towel. In that respect, the race was a huge success.

3. I didn’t let any of the above ruin my race. Rather than spending 45 minutes beating myself up, I spent it interacting with spectators and other runners, eying cool-looking houses or and restaurants in Del Ray and appreciating how much fun it is to be able to take part in an event like that at all. As a result, I was more observant than usual, noticing the baby bulldog at the turnaround point (aww!) and the plate of bacon at an aid table (eeuww).

Have you managed to turn a rough race into a good day? Share your tales of mental toughness below.