Happy Birthday Husband!

Today is my husband's 29th birthday! I think he is really struggling with this being his "last year in his twenties." He even told me he wanted a party this year to celebrate 29 instead of celebrating 30 (too bad - he is still getting one next year).

I LOVE birthdays and always strive to make sure my family and friends are celebrated all day! However, since we live apart during the week it was a lot harder this year. Before you start wondering "eek, what is wrong" - I will explain. During my blogging hiatus (back in June) he was offered a wonderful opportunity with the San Jose Sharks NHL hockey team (he works in sports). The team he worked for up here was wonderful - he loved his job, his co-workers, the team - but he was at the point where the only way to move up was to move out. We had no plans to go anywhere for now (it would be re-evaluated after I got out of school) but he was contacted by a recruiter and after a few weeks of interviews offered the position - a substantial promotion. It was a tough decision to make but we always talked about going back to the bay (we are both from there) and I knew when I graduated there would be a lot of opportunities down there for me. It was decided that he would move to the bay while I held down the fort in Sacramento until I officially finished school in December. It has been tough since we only see each other on the weekends but has made that time that much better - aww. :)

Anyway, back to the birthday - every year I have made him cheesecake for his birthday dessert (his favorite), however, being that I had to be at school all day and I am leaving straight from school to go to the bay for the birthday dinner, I didn't think cheesecake would make it. Knowing that brownies are his next favorite dessert I decided to try something different from the traditional chocolate brownies and make peanut butter brownies. I had never made them before but if you love chocolate and peanut butter you will love these - of course I had to try them before I serve them!

I know I have tried to post only "healthy" recipes but we all need a little treat sometimes.

Chewy Peanut Butter Brownies
1/2 generous cup Peanut Butter (I used Skippy Natural)
1/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 bag Reese's peanut butter chips
1 tub (or homemade) chocolate frosting

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 and grease a 9x9 pan.

2. In a bowl (I used my mixer), mix the butter and peanut butter. (anything made in a pink mixer has to come out good!)

3. Gradually add the sugars, eggs and vanilla extract and mix until fluffy.

4. Then add in flour, baking powder, salt, chocolate chips and Reese's chips. Mix well until all blended.


5. Spread into 9x9 pan and bake for 30-35 minutes (I did 32).

6. Cool and frost with chocolate frosting if you like!

I thought they tasted great frosted and un-frosted. It just depends on how chocolatey you want them.

I wish 5:15 would hurry up so I can get on the road. We are going out to dinner with his parents, sister and her husband to celebrate!

22 Miles, Taper Time & a Turkey Trot

Every time I complete a run I generally feel like I am on some sort of a “high.” Your head feels clear, your body feels cleansed, you feel accomplished – overall you just feel good. Today, two days after my 22 miler on Sunday, I am still “high” off my run.

Like I think I previously mentioned, my long training runs for San Diego never felt or really went well (okay, so I guess those were runs were I didn’t experience the runner’s “high” as much – but I still felt good from the exercise). Thus, this time around I was super nervous for them. For my 17, 20 and 22 milers I always had pre-run nerves like pre race nerves on my drive to the trail. This past Sunday was no exception.

Saturday night I carbed it up with some pasta, bread and salad so fuel wise I was ready to go. Sunday morning I woke up around 4:45 to get in a good 30 minute foam roller session. I have found if I do this, my sciatica is less likely to flare up. Actually, I have started to do this every morning (although usually I only spend about 10 minutes on it) and popped three Tylenol as a preventative measure. I ate some wheat crackers and peanut butter and checked the weather. At 5:30 am the news said it was about 30 degrees out. I really debated – tights v. shorts and in the end went with tights. Driving to the trail I started to question my decision (I also had on a tank and a long sleeve shirt) but the high was only supposed to be 60 for the so I thought it might stay cool out longer. About a mile in I already had the long sleeves off. I have yet to decide what I want to wear race day but I think I will compromise with capris. I guess I just really wanted it to be colder than it was.

We started our run in Folsom again. The route this week was one full circle around Folsom Lake (roughly 11.1 miles) and then another loop back around the opposite way for a total of 22.2 miles. By 7:00 am we were off. I had no goal for this run except to run the whole thing, see if my 20 mile fueling strategy still worked and basically just finish and not want to die. I wanted to try and keep an 11:00 min/mile pace. Even though my goal marathon pace is a 10:30 – I can still come in under 5 hours with an 11:03 pace. My first few miles were fast (9:27, 9:24, 9:36) – I tried to slow down but I just felt good. The air was super crisp and some of the new songs I just added to my playlist came on so I stopped trying to fight it and just went with how I felt. Finally, by mile 4 I was able to settle in at a comfortable 10:35/10:40 pace. The first 8 miles felt great. I took an espresso GU at mile 5 (planning to fuel at miles 5, 11, and 17 – for the marathon I will add in 22). Miles 9-11 were a little hard but only because where we were running was where I started to feel tired and sore during the 20 miler. Mentally, I think seeing that part of the trail took me back to that day. However, I kept pace just fine and finished the first 11 miles in 1:54 – a 10:36 pace.

At the turn around our coaches had set up a little “aid” station with some gummy bears, pretzels and coolers of water. I drank some of my Nuun water, re-filled my 2 empty water bottles (I was carrying 4 – I swear I drink like a fish when I run), grabbed a pretzel and a gummy bear and headed back. Miles 11 – 14 were again that awful part of the trail I just wanted to get through.

I mentioned during my 20 miler that towards the end the balls of my feet were really starting to hurt. During some of the early miles on this run I asked one of the coaches who was riding by about it and she said to really focus on my form when/if I started to get tired. Not only would it hopefully help the pain but also mentally give your mind something to focus on. I actually started doing this around mile 13 to hopefully prevent the pain from even starting in the first place.

By mile 16 we were back on the trail were we had beautiful views of Folsom Lake so I got out my phone and took a few pictures:

At mile 17 I hit a small “wall” and really really wanted to walk. Physically I was actually feeling good but mentally I was started to lose it. My tummy was also a little upset so I opted not to fuel (I know I should have though) because the thought of eating just didn’t sound appealing. I told myself that when a song was playing I had to keep running and couldn’t look at my watch and I could take a small walk break when the song was over, however, if the next song started and I didn’t stop I couldn’t stop until after that song was over, etc. This strategy proved to really work because I did finally stop and walk for ¼ mile (I decided I needed to fuel since that was a goal of the run and needed to eat my gummies and thought I might choke if I didn’t stop to chew them) I was already at mile 19. Only 3 more miles to go! Maybe that ¼ mile walk was all I needed because I took off after that for the last 3 miles and kept roughly a 10:15 minute pace – it was like I got a second wind. I focused a lot of my form those last three miles and I think that really helped because it was the first long run where the balls of my feet did not hurt. During the very last mile I hooked up with a guy in our group and we chatted the whole way back. I finished 22.26 miles in 3:59 – a 10:46 pace overall! I was actually kinda sad for the run to end. I swear I could have done the marathon that day.

Those 22 miles have totally pumped me up for CIM!! I am so excited to be tapering – having had all very successful long runs I think my under 5 hour goal is very doable.

The rest of Sunday I spent shopping with a friend and went out to a wonderful dinner with Kevin before he had to leave again for the week. :(

Taper this week includes a 3 miler tonight, 6 on Wednesday and 4 on Friday. Sunday will be my next “long run” which will be 10 miles, which seems so short now. I NEVER thought I would think of 10 miles as a “short” run! :)

I am blogging on my lunch break at work so I guess I should get back to work but I wanted to leave you with a fun opportunity to do a race on Thanksgiving morning that is absolutely free and yet you will have tons of support! Alisa over at Ambitious Aspirations is hosting her first ever “virtual” race – a turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning to commemorate her first race ever. You can chose from a 1 mile, 5k, 5 mile, 10k, 10 mile or half marathon distance – you decide! Even though I am already running my favorite race of the year, Run to Feed the Hungry 10k, on Thanksgiving morning, Kevin, my sister and I will also be sporting our “virtual” race bibs and running with all of you. Here is the awesome bib Alisa created and go check out her blog to find out about posting pictures, times, etc after you are done. If anything, it will make you feel less guilty about all the eating you will be doing that day!

Race Photos & Barbri Books

Today Brightroom posted the photos from Clarksburg! I decided to just to run by the cameras instead of trying to smile - I always look so cheesy anyway. It proved to be a good strategy - I got a few good ones!

First though, you have to see what awaited me when I got home from work today . . .

32 pounds of books - the dreaded Barbri Bar review books. I have 7 weeks - from January 4, 2010 til February 23 to learn everything in these books. I guess I still have a few weeks before I have to worry about that.

RACE PICS

Back to studying - what an exciting Friday night I have planned! :)

Race Report - Clarksburg Country Run

So I apologize for the late race report. I had a big oral argument project on school Wednesday that consumed my time.

Like I had mentioned, our friends hosted a "carbo load" Saturday night before the race - spaghetti, bread, salad and cookies for dessert. It was yummy and fun to hang out with them and some of their other friends we have gotten to know. Our friends are one of my girlfriends from college and her husband and her husband is actually running CIM as well.

I had also debated about "racing" this half marathon or using it as a training run. That night when I went to bed I was still conflicted with what I wanted to do and figured I would just play it by ear in the morning to see how I was feeling.

Our race didn't start til 9:30 on Sunday so it was nice to sleep in a bit. Usually Sunday runs start at 7:00 am so I am up at 4:45 so I got to "sleep in" til 6:45. When I woke up I instantly knew that the time I had spent sitting on the floor with our friends son had already caught up with me. My sciatic nerve had flared up. This is something I have been dealing with for over 5 years now - long before I ever started running. I have been pretty good at keeping the pain to a minimum lately but things such as sitting on the floor, wearing heels (SO SAD), make it flare up - usually within hours of doing said activity. I spent a good 30 minutes foam rolling, massaging with a tennis ball and just doing some generally stretching. I decided at that point this would not be a race day and just another long run at marathon pace. I was a little bummed but knew it was for the best.

Since we had a 1.5 mile warm up to do before the half marathon started, Kevin and I left the house at 8 and got to Clarksburg around 8:40. It was a fairly small race so we walked around, stretched and then ran our warm up up and down a few neighborhood streets. It was surprisingly warm too. I had my arm warmers on but took them off within a mile of starting. We lined up and at 9:30 500 1/2 marathoners were off.



Like I have mentioned I don't have a specific time goal for CIM (don't think I can be that particular yet) - this time the goal is to just be under 5:00. An 11:00 min/mile would give me a 4:48 marathon which I would be pleased with. However, I have been trying to train with a marathon pace of 10:30. Thus, my goal was to run Clarksburg at a 10:30 pace. The first mile was super fast and clocked it at a 9:27 pace! Yikes, I needed to bring it down. The funny thing was I didn't even feel fast but Garmin said otherwise. At that point I think Kevin was feeling good and decided he wanted to try and PR the course so he took off. Mile 2 was pretty uneventful. However, at mile 3 my back really started to hurt and I found myself to be really thirsty. I brought 2 bottles with me intending to rely on the water stations but at mile 3 I had already drank one whole bottle. 4 - 6 were equally painful. To top it off the course was not as beautiful as I had expected - just fields. I managed to keep my pace between a 10:30 and 10:40 though. At mile 6.5 we turned around and ran the same course back. Ugh, out and backs are never fun. I must have looked like I was in pain though because this really nice lady ran by and asked if I wanted some Advil. I said YES (I was kicking myself for forgetting to take it before the race started). At mile 7 I stopped at a water station because both my water bottles were empty and I was still SO thirsty. I stretched for a second and walked for 1/2 mile. At 7.5 I think the Advil had kicked it because the pain was gone! I picked up the pace to try and make up for the few slower miles in the beginning - trying to get my finish time to equal my marathon pace. I crossed the finish line in 2:17:52 - a 10:31 avg - EXACTLY what I was trying to do! Kevin finished with a new PR.

They were serving a hot lunch for all the finishers but I definitely didn't feel like eating - but I was drinking whatever was in sight! I think I was very dehydrated which was also probably also making my pain worse early on. I tried to think back on the week and realized I was not drinking enough water by any means. So far this week I have been drinking three 20oz Nalgene bottles a day.

Overall, the race was ok. It was nice to have a change of scenery from the bike trail (even though there wasn't any scenery) but I don't know if I will do it again. The out and back was not fun and literally there was nothing to see. Even though in the end it was okay, I was mad that my sciatica flared up a bit. We did about a 1/2 mile cool down so in total we did 15 miles for the day. On the schedule this week was a 4 miler, 6 mile speed work out and another 4 miler. Wednesday I got up early for an easy 3 (I ran out of time for 4) and then did my 6 mile speed workout last night. I was definitely not in the mood when last night but I did it and of course, like always, was so happy I did and felt so good. I was supposed to do 4 miles this morning but I am moving them to tomorrow morning since something came up and I had to be at work by 7:00 this morning. I am actually going to do 5 tomorrow to make up for my lost mile Wednesday.

This weekend is our last week of running before 2 weeks of taper. I CANNOT believe CIM is almost here!! The Sunday we are going 22 miles - thus the reason for the crazy hydrating and I have been trying to stretch every day like crazy. My legs have been feeling really tight all week.
Tonight I am taking a night off from homework and going with a co-worker to dinner at a culinary school in the area. Her friend is a student there and we get to go have a 4 course meal prepared by the culinary students for free! I have been so bogged down in the evenings with school lately I am excited to have a night out.

Happy Thursday! :)

Eating Healthy - Berry Good Smoothie

I know you are anxiously waiting my Clarksburg race report. I was hoping to post it with photos from the event but they are not available yet. Anyway, I will post it tonight sans photos.

In the meantime I have another yummy snack to share with you! This is actually the recipe for the smoothie Safeway was serving at Nike Women’s Expo. I am never very good when it comes to making smoothies – I know, I know, they are probably one of the easiest things to make but for some reason mine either end up too runny or too think. I also really liked the mix of fruit in this one.

Berry Good Smoothie
3 cups pomegranate cranberry juice
6 oz peach yogurt
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 cup frozen blueberries
2 cups frozen peaches

Throw it all in a blender, blend, and enjoy! Makes 4 servings.

(I froze the rest for easy to grab snacks for the rest of the week.)

I know I am weird for eating it out of a bowl but it feels more like a meal that way - or even like eating ice cream, frozen yogurt or sobet. Happy snacking!

Re-Cap and Randomness

Tuesday 4 miler: DONE! Super slow but it was a great recovery run.

Wednesday 6 miler: It ended up being roughly 5 miles but that wasn't due to my lack of wanting to run 6. Our Fleet Feet coaches cut the workout down due to the long mileage this week. I ended up doing a mile and a half warm up - 4 800s (#1 4:20, #2 4:23, #3 4:30 and #4 4:29 - so is it true what they say about your 800s and your marathon time??) with about 2 minutes rest between each and then about a 3/4 mile cool down.

Friday 4 Miler: Fail. :( I spent my day doing this for the test I had this morning:

To be sworn in as an attorney, among other things, you need to pass 2 tests - the BAR (which I will take in February) and the MPRE (Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam), which is essentially a test to make sure you are an ethical person (which apparently I am not because I failed it the first time I took it by one stupid question). I admit, the first time I took it I studied for about 3 hours so I wasn't surprised, however, this time I studied all week for it so hopefully I will pass.

I did take a small break from studying to go pick up my race packet at Fleet Feet for Clarksburg tomorrow. Here is the awesome shirt from last year - a Nike Dri-Fit Profitted Women's Shirt:

This year the shirts were not as awesome . . . Technical Fiber Long Sleeve Shirt. *sigh*

It is near impossible to walk out of that store empty handed - so I didn't! I got some new sunglasses I have been eying:
and the Nike Women's Marathon sweatshirt I wanted at the race - now 50% off!
Our close friends who live in Elk Grove are hosting some friends at their house tonight who are running Clarksburg tomorrow and invited us over for the carbo load! I'll have a full race report for you tomorrow!

It is officially fall!

Can you believe it is already November? My most favorite time of year kicked off Tuesday with STARBUCKS RED CUPS!! Red cups means it is officially fall.

(haha, yes, I took this photo in class)

Too bad it was 80 degrees on Tuesday but the weather is definitely cooler today and rain is even in the forecast. I LOVE the fall – the perfect running weather, the great clothes, all the holidays, birthdays (my entire family has their birthdays in October, November, 2 in December and me in January), EVERYTHING about fall is great! The extra special thing about this fall is it is my last semester of school ever!! My last class of law school EVER is Monday, November 23rd and I will officially be done Monday, December 14th at 10:00 pm.

Did I mention I am doing a half marathon this weekend? The Clarksburg County Run in Clarksburg - http://www.clarksburgcountryrun.com/.

Clarksburg is a small town outside of Sacramento. The course is very flat and you get to run past some pretty farms and wineries. I did the 5k last year and this year it is a training option for CIM. The schedule has us running 16 miles so we could either chose to run 16 miles on the bike trail or run the half marathon with a 1.5 mile warm up and cool down on the track at the race start. I am getting a little tired of the same sceanery on the bike trail and quite honestly, Clarksburg has the BEST race shirts. I rarely wear the shirts I get from races but they give you the coolest long sleeve shirts. Last winter that was my favorite shirt to run in.

Since it is essentially a training run, we are supposed to be running at marathon pace (so like a 10:30 for me) but I kinda want to race it. During my last few long runs I have been hitting 13.1 miles in about 2:13 – 2:15 but my half marathon PR is around a 2:03 and I want to see if I still have it in me to do it that fast. I don’t know, I guess I have a day or two to decide what to do. I am really excited though to participate in another race.

Something I forgot to mention in my 20 miler recap, was an update on the chaffing situation. Like I mentioned, I have been so lucky not to have this problem thus far. I used the body glide on my arm where it hurt the week prior and I didn’t have any problems this time, however, when I jumped in the shower I got an instant burning sensation around where my sports bra sits. My whole entire chest was red!!! Nothing about my running attire that day was new – in fact it was the same thing I ran Nike in. I guess I just have to start lathering it on all over. My good luck only lasted for so long.

Happy Fall!

A Terrific 20

Before I share what an awesome 20 miler I had on Sunday, I first want to share the goals for the week:

Sunday: 20 miles (DONE)
Monday: 4 mile recovery (moved to Tuesday)
Tuesday: Re-scheduled 4 miler
Wednesday: 6 miler (speed work)
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 4 miles
TOTAL: 34

Saturday night after I blogged, I got all my stuff ready to go for Sunday. We were running at a new location and I wasn't sure exactly how long it would take me to get there so I wanted to leave a little early to make sure I was there on time. I filled my water bottles, 2 with water, 2 with nun tabs, and put them in the fridge, laid out my outfit, charged the ipod, Garmin, etc.

When the alarm went off at 5:00 it was easier than normal to get up because of the time change. I spent 25 minutes foam rolling, stretching and eating - a banana and 2 spoonfulls of peanut butter. Technically I am sure you should eat more but honestly, that is all I could stomach that early in am. I woke up Kevin (who was less than thrilled) and we were out the door by 6 am.

The run started in Folsom and I was excited to have new scenery to look at! Our group meets at 7:00 am and we arrived at the meeting spot at 6:40 am. Since we were early we drove a mile back down the road to find a bathroom. For some reason I was super nervous - almost like running a race.

After a quick pep talk and a description of the course we would be running we were off. It was pretty cold at 7:00 am but knowing I get cold quickly I opted for shorts, a tank and my arm warmers. I was SO glad I did because by mile 2 the arm warmers were already pushed down around my wrists.

The first eight miles of the course looped around Folsom lake. The lake was so calm and peaceful. Here is a shot of the lake around mile 4.

At around mile 8 we entered the bike trail on Hazel Ave (one of our normal paths) and ran 4.5 miles towards Sunrise, turned around, and then ran 4.5 miles back. At one point we were running past a grove around mile 12 and Kevin and I were alone on the trail. We looked over and no more than 20 yards away was a coyote!! Yikes - nothing like a coyote sighting to make you run a little faster. We had to run past the same grove on the double back and I was frantically looking for him but he was nowhere to be found. Although, we were so focused looking for him in the grove that when we gave up looking I looked toward the river and there he was in the bushes - no more than 6 feet from us!!!! I wished I could have gotten a picture but in the moment my camera was the last thing on my mind.

Once we finished the 4.5 double back it was 3 more miles on the other side of the lake back to the start/finish. This is when things got a little rough. I wasn't tired but the bottoms of my feet and knees were killing me. There goes Kevin - determined to finish those last 3 miles strong.

Total Distance: 20 Miles
Total Time: 3:34:XX
Average: 10:42 min/mile

The first 17 miles were amazing - my pace ranged from a 9:53 min/mile to a 10:32 min/mile. I took my GU and Shot Bloks (opted not to do gummies that morning) every 5 miles and that seemed to work well. The best part was I felt strong the whole way. Around mile 17 though the pain in my feet was getting a little too much to handle and the majority of the trail was in the sun so I was really hot. During miles 17 and 18 I took some walk breaks which upped my overall pace but ran a fairly strong last mile. Overall, though I have to say I was happy with my run and it still puts me on track to run a sub-5 marathon.

See, I am still smiling after 20! :)

The rest of the day was spend studying, (boo), and having friends over for dinner to watch Game 4 of the World Series (yay!).

Today, my legs are sore, but not as sore as there were after last weeks 17. As I type I am icing my knees.

__________

In other news we (or I should say Kevin) are trying to teach the dogs NOT to sleep on the couches, although, I am such a sucker and usually let them up when he is not home. However, I promised him this week I would work on getting them to sleep in their beds while I was on the couch. Success on the first night!


I also came across this article on another blog - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/sports/01runners.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=marathon&st=cse about people cheating the 26.2 distance and still trying to say they ran a marathon. It might be hard but to me there is nothing like being able to say you accomplished the real thing. It doesn't surprise me in the least, but just so sad that people feel the need to do it.

Well, off to study - 4 weeks of law school left - EVER!! :)