Tag Archives: gain

May 22 2015
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My Story, Trots

No Pain, Let’s Gain

I can successfully add another pain- free run into my workout log this week. I ran 20 minutes of intervals alternating 1 minute hard with 1 minute easy. Tomorrow is leg day so I don’t plan to run again until Sunday, which will give my hips and knees two days to migrate back to their anatomical homes. My workouts include more time on my rehab exercises than anything else which ironically seems to invite insults about me “slowing down”. This is actually a scientifically proven way to help me run faster, but that’s cool too.

My next planned/ anticipated/ oh-my-gosh-please-don’t-get-hurt race is one month away. Yesterday I was telling myself not to stress because if I’m not ready or if any (enter assorted body parts here) aren’t up to it then there is no pressure to race and I will continue to build to the next goal. Right on cue, I wake up to a message from a friend that I used to race against saying, “Did my first 5k in while – 30:32, will see if I can bring my time down to run with you”.

Rather than start a discussion about her previous insult to my 25:44 time, I welcomed her friendly competition and encouraged our old running rivalry back to the roads.

It didn’t take long for another old friend and fellow runner from my cross country days to chime in and say she could run it in just over 25 minutes. It is starting to look like we might have a little race here. Nothing more motivating than risking your title of being “the fastest”; a title which has been untouched for a decade until I asked people to challenge it.

Time to channel my inner child and run like I’ll get my name on the announcements tomorrow.

 

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Dec 08 2013
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Fuel, My Story

Hunger Gains

I think a good way to gauge how your workouts are going is by how hungry you are. If you are putting in the workouts, it is really surprising just how much you need to eat. Just to clarify- if you are not working out and always hungry then this does not mean you are exercising more than enough… but that is off topic.

Lately it seems like I just can’t eat enough. Work is getting in the way of my eating, and unbelievably so is my sleeping (only on weekends when I actually sleep). One meal just wants to avalanche into the next. On the plus side, my cooking is actually starting to get really good out of necessity. I can only handle so much of one thing.

I remember my brother telling me how he would make pre-meals to eat while he was cooking his actual meal. Look out big brother, I think this Christmas will be a showdown for turkey and potato servings. Tis the season to celebrate competition?

My visits home increasingly turn into some form of fitness competition or display of strength. We earn our rum and cokes.

On Friday, I made the most amazing herb crusted pork tenderloins. I am no chef, but they were perfect. I am also no food critic, but they were perfect. I have to admit I watched them cook with my face and hands pressed up against the oven window like a kid looking in a toy store window for the first time. Maybe I should clarify that my ventures into “real” cooking are still in the early stages and each time I make something delicious, nutritious, and edible, I do a slow motion victory jump in the air. I high five my spatula and then apparently I blog about it.

I just bought a new steamer/ rice cooker that looks like R2D2 and is equally as confusing. The box advertises it as simple but the 35 page manual disagrees. After some light reading (looking at the pictures), I am excited about having it in my kitchen to keep things interesting, if nothing else. My last steamer survived a year- overuse may have been an issue- so hopefully this appliance will be able to handle my version of cooking. Maybe I should have gotten the extended warranty?

On that note, I leave you with a picture of pork tenderloins. Yes, seriously.

photo

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