I Chicked a Guy and I Liked It!

Workout:
Sunday: Ran 3.4 miles in 28:05. Felt pretty good and no left calf tightness!
Monday: Ran 3.4 miles in 28:37. Legs had a lot of energy but my body didn't. Did 24 pushups, 45 tricep extensions, 72 rows, and 40 shoulder presses, all from the luxury of my home.

On Monday, while on my run, I noticed another runner ahead of me going in the same direction I was. He was about a block (suburban blocks are loooooong) away from me and I could tell that I could eventually pass him even though he was running at almost my same clip. After about 8-10 mins of catching up, I chicked him! Muahaha runner dude! Totally made my day...and then...a pack of 3 girls turned onto the same street I was on and I chicked them too! I kicked so much ass and felt like such a rockstar! I wish I had pics for you guys of this but I don't carry my camera or phone with me on my runs.

Today, my run was pretty ok. My legs felt springy and had a bunch of energy. The rest of me did not. It really didn't help that I was chafing like woah. The crotch seam on my compression shorts has never been a problem in all the long, sweaty runs I did last summer. I've never had a problem at all. But yesterday, I noticed a little bit of chafing and today it turned into a monster! The chafing is right where my thighs meet my crotch. I can't figure out why this happened but I don't like it! Tomorrow is supposed to be my long run, so I'll be BodyGliding to the max. I promise I won't share any after rubbing the BodyGlide all up in my nether regions. You're welcome.

After the run, I worked out my arms, as I listed above. I have the SPRI Resistance Bands in green and red, which have the least resistance you can get. I used the green for the shoulder presses:

And I used the red for the rows and tricep extensions. It wasn't enough for the rows, but it was better than nothing!

Looking all sorts of hot and fat in the starting position of the row

The end of the row

The pushups kicked my butt, as usual, but I was able to do 24, which is better than most people so hooray for me! I don't want to do the pushup challenge that everyone and their mama is doing, but I'm going to push myself to do more!

Sunday night (yes friends, we are traveling back in time!), Mama RNG and I went out to dinner. This is a BIG deal. We never go out to eat! I wanted to check out a Vietnamese restaurant right down the road because I have been craving pho for a very very long time. So off to Pho Bac Hoa Viet we went.

Mama RNG ordered the BBQ chicken, rice, pho soup, and pink sauce

I ordered the chicken pho...heaven!

Yesterday marked Barefoot Neil Z's Virtual Marathon. He said that we could run it cumulatively, which is awesome because there is no way I could run a real marathon right now. I tallied my runs up from April 17th (starting day) until May 1st and I got 30.9 miles! I ran more than a marathon...over 2 weeks hahaha! Oh well, it was fun! I never printed out the bib (Doh!) so I don't have any groovy pics of that, but I participated and enjoyed it! Thanks Barefoot Neil!

Heavenly Smoothie, DOMS, and Celiac

Ok guys, I just made one of the best tasting smoothies ever!

Heavenly goodness!

I used my usual base of orange juice and vanilla Carnation Instant Breakfast powder. I think there was about 1.5 cups of OJ. Then I added in about 5 frozen whole strawberries, 7-8 slices of frozen peaches, and 1 whole banana. Blend it up and drink! It was soooo good, you guys! I love peaches because it means summer is on it's way (ignore the fact I used frozen peaches, not ripe ones)!

I haven't done any running or working out yet today. My legs are very sore from the diagonal lunges I did yesterday and I haven't gotten around to stretching them out yet. I'm also on the slow boat of waking up this morning (afternoon?!). I got up at 9 and I'm still sluggish! I think I just haven't gotten enough sleep this whole spring break and it's wearing me out. So much for a vacay since school starts back up tomorrow! I'm going to try to run later today when I gather some more energy. I'm one of those people who does better in the middle to end of the day, rather than the morning.

Mama Running Ninja Girl is conducting an experiment on herself to see if she's allergic to gluten. So far, we're fairly certain she is. Ever since she had her appendix removed back in 2007, her stomach and intestines just haven't been the same. Her tummy is always upset, and while there are other things she's allergic to like tomatoes and chocolate (I would DIE!) and avoids, she still has GI issues. When Cousin visited, Mama RNG decided to try going gluten-free and she's been feeling soo much better! She did have one cupcake 2 days into her gluten fast and her stomach got sick almost immediately!

Now, we're going to start getting rid of the gluten-laden products in our house. While I'm not allergic to gluten, I see nothing wrong in eating less of it and supporting my mom. Plus, since I know more about what products are gluten-free or the alternatives she has, I get to help her adjust to her new diet. It will definitely be an adventure because she's not thrilled this is happening and sometimes forgets what her trigger foods are (she'll knowingly eat some of my chocolate chip cookies and then gets upset when her tummy feels bad later!). I'll keep you guys posted and I'll try to post some of the recipes we try. If anyone has any tips for Mama RNG and being gluten-free, please comment below! We'd love to hear from you!

Music Monday

Workout:
Monday: Ran 3.1 miles in 27:23. Followed by this WORKOUT. Had to drop the reps for the core board pushups and planks to 8, rather than 10, or I would've died.

Because I know you all just want the music video, I'm going to force you to read this post before you get to the video. Or you'll just scroll to the end. Whatevs. Read this!

Yesterday, I made these cookies for today's hangout sesh with Erin. The recipe is so easy and the cookies came out very well!

Batter of yumminess!

The chocolate chips stayed gooey for hours! It was crazy awesome!

Get in my belly!

 My grandparents came over for a small Easter dinner. The madre y yo made lemon pepper mahi mahi, steamed asparagus, and wild rice pilaf. Delish!

Among other news, I briefly mentioned that I'm trying this whole online dating thing. We can discuss the why part of this later, since I have to go hang with Erin now, but suffice it to say, I am a baller. I have a coffee date set up for Thursday. I'm pretty freaking excited!

Ok, now you lovelys get your music video. Enjoy this awesomesauce song! I can't stop singing it!

Balance and Personal Training

Workouts:
Wednesday: Ran 5.3 miles in 44:07. Ran an extra 2 miles with friends for roughly 20 mins. Total=7.3 miles
Thursday: Personal training for 1 hour.
Friday: Ran 3.4 miles in 27:48.

Life is all about balance. The balance between work and play, exercising and resting, eating good food and not getting fat, doing what you have to do and doing what you want to do, helping others and being selfish, etc, etc. This concept is becoming more and more clear to me as I get older. This may or may not have something to do with that whole frontal lobe maturation by age 25 thing. As I read/stalk everyone's blogs, I'm constantly learning new things from everyone and this makes me think about my own opinions and ideas about running and my diet.

Balance is key. Too much of one thing and everything else gets out of whack. The most blatant example is with food. Nowadays, "everyone" gorges on fast food, fatty food, food that's just plain bad for them. Many people I know who eat bad foods don't have energy, aren't happy, and complain about being fat. Besides exercising, one's diet is the biggest thing one can control! I know for myself that if I have even one day of eating poorly, I feel bloated, depressed, and lethargic. Basically, I feel like crap. My body is used to eating healthy foods (except for my daily chocolate doses) and so when I don't eat well, I can drastically feel the difference.

Healthy, yummy Greek yogurt!

This leads me to my first personal training session I had yesterday at 24 Hour Fitness. Before I get to the actual supa-dupa-fly workout she gave me, I want to talk about something she said that really struck a chord with me. I had mentioned my issues with shin splints (see HERE) and my injury (see HERE), so Karissa (the cutest trainer ever!) talked to me about how to strengthen my feet. She said that no matter how much I build up my calves, that if I don't have strong feet, I won't be stable and nothing will work. Our whole workout was based on making me more stable (at least we weren't talking about mentally stable!) and having my muscles communicate with each other, rather than just doing isolating exercises like bicep curls. When everything talks to each other, they all get along (um...hello metaphor for life!).

For me, I've always known that you need strong hips to have strong knees to have strong feet. But I never thought about it going the other direction, that you need to have strong feet to have strong knees to have strong hips. If one part of the puzzle is missing, the whole system fails. I think this has been what I've been dealing with. I've just focused on having strong legs and forgot that my feet, my sole means of transportation, need some lovin' too! Lately, I've been pondering barefoot running and while I'm not ready to hop on board that crazy train quite yet, I completely agree with the idea that shoes have ruined our feet. I've decided that unless I'm wearing sneakers for running or school or what have you, I'm going to try to wear minimal shoes. This works well since summer is coming up. No more stupid flip flops that cause plantar fascitis pain. I don't care how dorky I look, my feet are vital to my running and I need to take care of them.

Ok, onto the workout she gave me. She really wanted to focus on doing workouts that would improve my running fitness, not just muscle strength, which I thought was the bomb diggity! Anything to help me improve my running I'm totally down for!

So here's what we did in circuits:
3 sets

• diagonal lunges with knee cross-->15x/leg
• single leg shoulder press with knee up-->8x/leg with 10 lb dumbbells
• crunches with tricep extension-->15x with 5 lb dumbbells

3 sets

• Free Motion cable machine (with machine arm down) deadlift and row, single leg and single arm-->12x/arm with 15 lbs
• Core Board pushups w/rotation in each direction-->10x
• high plank, diagonal knee to elbow-->10x/leg

And then I died. Never have I ever wanted to cry so much during a workout! The pushups straight to the planks KILLED me! I had to take breaks like every 4 reps. I can hardly lift my arms today and my lats are letting me know how much they didn't appreciate that workout. But I know it's good for me and I will get stronger every time I do it!

How do you keep balance in your life? What are the struggles you face to keep that balance from deteriorating?

2 Day Ketchup...err...Catch-up!

Hey bloggy buddies! Sorry I haven't been around the last 2 days. Life got hectic. But I'm back with adventures and stories.

Ok, let's start off with workouts. On Wednesday, I wanted to give my legs a break from running because they held me well for the 5 miler and besides weight lifting, I haven't been crosstraining at all. I did this free range Precor machine that's sort of like an elliptical but not. It's hard to describe. Anyway, I did that and a bunch of leg exercises. They gym was super busy and it was easier to get to the leg machines than fight with the brahs over the use of the arm machines.

Yesterday, I did a weird spontaneous speed workout at the gym on the mill. Most of the time, the incline was set at .5%, but I started off at 1%. At 1 mile in, I picked the pace up from 8:57 min mile to 8:24 or something close to that. I held that to 1.5 miles, then dropped down to 8:57 again until the 2 mile mark. Then I picked up to 8:30 pace until the 2.5 mile mark. It was an odd workout, I'll tell you. I had no plan, as is very apparent. Oh well, my legs still feel good today. I also did arm exercises afterward.

Have I told you guys that I'm the ONLY girl at my gym who does the bench press?! Can you believe that?! Very few of the women even do any arm workouts, much less the "manly" bench press. I can say with confidence that my girls are looking mighty prettier since having done the bench press. C'mon girls, work those pecs!

Ok, food time! I came up with this awesome "recipe" on Wednesday and wanted to share. I put recipe in quotes because when I cook, I throw things together and 99% of the time, I think they taste awesome!

So I started with quinoa:

I made the whole box, like a fool, thinking it wouldn't make that much. Now I have 2 very full Tupperwares of the stuff and have to eat it everyday so it doesn't go bad! Good thing I love quinoa!

This is one of my biggest pots and it was FULL!

Then, I chopped up a bunch of different veggies: celery, carrots, mushrooms, crushed garlic, and green onions. I also added in some chopped almonds. I sauteed them together with Annie's Natural Roasted Garlic EVOO. If you don't have that stuff, I highly recommend getting it. It tastes so good!

Once they were done, I put the quinoa in a bowl and piled the veggies on top. I mixed in a little salt and dried basil to add some flavor.

It was very tasty and easy to make, plus you get a lot of nutrients out of this meal, which is always my goal.

Last night, my uncle came into town to visit and I went over to my grandma's for a family dinner. My grandma looooves celebrating any holiday she can. I think she would celebrate Labor Day if she could. She makes cupcakes and buys you pretty useless presents, but it brings her so much joy that we can't really tell her to stop. Even if we did, she would still do it, so there's no use! She made up Easter presents for my mom and me.

How stinking cute is this?!

Bunny bag filled with chocolate eggs, egg bath gel, and hand towels for when I get my apartment.

Grandmas are the best! My cousin, Ruby, is coming in tonight from college to spend her Spring Break with us! I'm so excited!

Puppy is happy too!

And Reach and Stretch!

Stretching. Possibly one of my favorite things to do pre- and post-workouts/runs. I love stretching! And you wanna know why? Cuz it makes any ninja feel like a superstar!

Now, I'm one of those weirdos who stretches before and after any workout. My body responds better. Plus, I used to have to stop multiple times during runs to stretch out my calves (obviously my calves and I have some issues to deal with since we're not good friends). I have also pulled both groin muscles when I didn't stretch before a run. Talk about not having a good story to tell friends when that happens!

Friend: So what happened to you?
Me: I pulled my groin muscle.
Friend: How'd you do that...? *snickering*
Me: I didn't stretch before running...
Friend: Oh lame! I thought it was...you know...
Me: Yeah, I know. Shut up. It wasn't that!

There's this whole theory that stretching before running makes one more prone to injury. I'm sure for some people that is true. It's the opposite for me. But don't do what I do just because I think it's the best thing ever. I don't have liability insurance.

My typical routine of stretches include these (don't mind the scrubs, I had class today):

Straight leg stretch for the hammies. I swear I'm not asleep.

Side stretch. Stretches the adductors.

The "I swear I'm normal!" stretch. Stretches the adductors and hammies.

Butterfly stretch. Stretches the adductors and causes creepy smiles.

Twisty stretch. Stretches abductors and glutes.

The "I'm a freak for being able to stretch this much!" stretch. Stretches the glutes, hammies, and quads.

Best calf stretch for loosening up that gastrocnemius muscle.

Quad stretch for buff brahs only.

Obviously these are only leg stretches. I do stretch my arms but arms aren't exactly the easiest things to stretch. My legs endure the brunt of pain/exhaustion/labor so they get TLC more than any other group of muscles in my body.

It's still a trial and error thing for me with stretching. I can usually get away with only doing one hamstring stretch, one adductor stretch, and the calf stretch if I'm running out of time for my run. I ALWAYS stretch afterward because if I don't, I will be sore and tight the next day. Totally not worth it!

What are your favorite stretches to do? Do you stretch before or after working out?