Losing the Boot…

My friend Rochelle, the person I had planned to pound the pavement with for 26.2 miles had an awesome 20 mile run on Saturday. She ran with our friend Patti, who is not running the marathon, but is willing to throw down a 20 miler for a friend who is. Amazing. {Side note about Patti, she ran Boston last year. She ran Boston after recovering from her own stress fracture with minimal training. I had a quite unproductive day at work that Monday last year. Between the text updates and the live streaming updates on the race, I can't wait to hear about the race next Monday.}

So since this is my blog, let's talk about me now.

Well, just in case you haven't heard me complain enough about my stress fracture, I'm here to talk about it again. I swear, another three weeks and I'll be talking about hitting the streets with all my running friends and we won't speak of this unfortunate event again.

Well maybe once more. Or twice. We will have to see how it goes.

So tomorrow will be three weeks that I have been in the boot; my doctor said I had to wear it too more weeks when we talked two weeks ago. My problem now is that I am worried about not being in the boot. I still have three weeks until I am going to be able to run again, provided that all goes well on the 17^th when I go back to the doctor. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed. But if three weeks in the boot is good, would four be better? How about five?

I didn't wear it at all yesterday, but I was just hanging around the house, getting my baking therapy on, and watching tv. I don't think I'd want to think about walking around the grocery store without it right now, but eventually I am going to have to.

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Note to self; GO TO THE GROCERY STORE. Who knew that Target would be closed for Easter? Not this girl. It has been two weeks since I've done any real grocery shopping because Sam's doesn't really count. We are currently out of bread, Eggo waffles (this is one of Carson's main source of nutrition), Almond milk, yogurt, almost all fruit, and granola. Okay, the granola is my fault, I just need to make some more, I even have all the ingredients. Not sure what I was doing in my kitchen all day yesterday because I sure wasn't baking up stuff that I could really use this week.

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Okay, so let's get back to me and my injury.

Rochelle told me last week that she wanted me to wear the boot for an extra week, and Craig at OK Runner said about the same. This was after he lectured me about wearing a flat shoe with my boot, something about causing hip issues on top of the stress fracture. I swear all I do all day is sit at a desk, I am kinda sick of wearing one running shoe all the time. It doesn't match my slacks. I think that mentally it's going to be MUCH harder for me to not be running once the boot comes off. As long as I have it on I am constantly reminded why I'm not running. When it comes off and I'm walking around like a normal person I'm just gonna feel like a slacker not running.

Man, I thought running was hard, not running is even harder!

So for the last three weeks I've been going to Donna B's spin class three times a week. I am so thankful for her killer spin classes. Spin is not boring; I don't care what anyone says. If it is then you've got the wrong instructor. If you aren't panting for breath and sweating your butt off, then you are clearly doing it wrong. You are getting you booty all sore for no good reason.

Spinning is so different than running. When I go out and run I like that I am able to chat about my day with my friends no matter what our pace is. Even when we are feeling like we are killing ourselves I always feel like I can have a conversation. Spinning is not like that at all. When I am working hard I can barely breath much less try to have a conversation. And don't get me started on the amount of sweating that goes on in that spin class. I am horrified to think of how dirty that floor is. I sure hope they clean it more often than I suspect they do.

Nuun Hood to Coast Relay Teams

I did it.  I just sent off my application video to be a part of the Nuun Hood to Coast relay team.  If you haven't heard of Nuun you should look into them.  I Love Nuun!

If you haven't heard of Hood to Coast, it's a relay, a 199 mile relay that takes place the end of August.  You start at Mt. Hood and you end in Seaside, Oregon.  How awesome would this be?

So I submitted my application, which included a short video.  Might be a little dorky, but oh well.  It's already on it's way so there's no turning back now.

Now I just have to wait until April 24th and see if they pick me.  It could happen.  I would sure love to have something like this to keep me motivated through out the hot Oklahoma Summer.

Would you run a 200 mile relay?

Fitness Challenge…

We have done two Treadmill Challenges at my work. For February and March if you walked 40 miles (15 minutes = 1 mile) for the month on our treadmills we have at the office you could earn a half day of vacation time.

Hello, who wouldn't do that? Turns out a lot of people won't do that. I sure did. One free vacation day, check.

For April I thought we would change it up and we copied off of my sister Jen. We are having a Fitness Challenge. You exercise 30 minutes 3 times a week for four weeks and you earn a half day of vacation time. Who doesn't want free time away from work? You would be surprised…

Anyway I sent out an email to see how people are doing so far, almost one week down and three to go. (Funny that's how long I have until I can run again.) *sigh* So I got a thank you for doing this, always appreciated, and some other positive feedback on it all. This is also appreciated. I did get one new workout that I am going to have to try.

100 push-ups

100 sit-ups

100 side crunches (don't forget to do both sides!)

100 squats

100 leg lifts

Between sets throw in some leg extension holds and planks.

This should take you about 45 minutes.

How long can you hold a plank? Do you like to plan on your hands or your elbows?

March Marathon Training…

My marathon training came to a screeching halt on March 10th.  My 18 mile long run turned into a 14 mile run when I started having pain in my right leg.

That lead to the chiropractor and then my orthopedic doctor where I had x-rays and then an MRI to confirm my stress fracture on my tibia.  I only got in 53 miles for March, and had to go be a spectator at the Rock n Roll half marathon in Dallas.

I should have another week in the boot, April will be the month of cross training.  No Marathon encore in Oklahoma City this year, thankfully they deferred my registration for 2013.  If all goes well I should be cleared to start running again two days after the race.

I am trying hard to be done being angry about it all.  I am trying to be done being sad.  It is hard.  It’s hard to know my friends are out there pounding the pavement without me.  I hate missing a run with them.  I always say that I’m in it for the fun, but I am very lucky to have an amazing group of women that I run with and there is nothing I’d rather do at 5:15 on a week day morning than meet up with them for a run.

My hope is that everyone else will be slowing back down after the marathon and I’ll fit right back in to their recovery and my starting from scratch.

There will be other races, and there will probably be other injuries.  I just hope that there are more of the first than the second.

Sweet Potato Chili…

Last week I made one of my favorite vegetarian recipes, Chipotle-Spiced Sweet Potato Chili.  This is a recipe that is super easy, and I generally have all of the ingredients in my pantry. 

The sweet potato is the one vegetable that I just wouldn’t want to live without. 

And a recipe that starts out with this can not be anything less than wonderful.

Ingredients

• 1 pound Sweet Potatoes, Peeled And Cubed Into 1/2 Inch Dice
• 2 Tablespoons Extra-virgin Olive Oil, Divided
• 1 whole Onion, Medium Dice
• 2 cloves Garlic, Rough Chopped
• 1 Tablespoon Ground Chili Pepper
• 2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Ground Chipotle Pepper Powder
• 1 cup Dark Beer
• 1 can 28 Oz Can Whole Tomatoes
• 2 whole Chipotle Peppers In Adobo Sauce, Chopped
• ½ cups Barbecue Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Red Hot Sauce (more If Desired)
• 1-½ cup Frozen Corn
• 1 can (15 Oz. Can) Black Beans, Drained And Rinsed
• 2 cups Crushed Tortilla Chips, If Desired
• Salt And Pepper, to taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place sweet potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet or jelly roll pan and toss with one tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper as desired and bake for approximately 8–10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are just tender.

Heat a deep heavy pot over medium heat and add the remaining olive oil. Sauté the onions until lightly caramelized. Add the garlic, chili powder, chipotle powder and cumin and cook for an additional minute or until spices are fragrant. Stir them frequently so they don’t burn at the bottom of the pan.

Deglaze the pan with the beer and scrape up any browned bits (these are called fond and they’re full of flavor) from the bottom of the pan. Add the tomatoes, chipotle peppers, barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce.

Simmer the chili for about 15-20 minutes or until it begins to thicken slightly. Add the corn, beans, sweet potatoes, salt and pepper to taste.

Serve in a bowl topped with crushed tortilla chips, if desired.

What you get is a pot full of yumminess.  The recipe as written is pretty smoky and it’s taken a few tries to get it just right for us.  I exclude the chipotle peppers, and when I made it this time I didn’t have any dark beer so I substituted veggie stock to deglaze the pan.  I like to top it off with a little Monterey jack cheese and then the only thing left to do is eat.

It can’t be easier.  You should try it.

Birthday Cookies for Avery…

I promised one of my favorite 2-year-olds that I would make her sugar cookies for her third birthday last week.  Her party was on Saturday so I baked up a batch of sugar cookies and tried to make them as cute as possible on Friday night.

Outlined them in green.

 

Flooded them with purple.

Added yellow polka dots.

And a number three.

After they set on Friday night I boxed them up and dropped them off before the birthday party.  I hear they were a hit.

There is nothing better than making cookies for kids. 

The Omni Hotel…

When we went to Dallas last weekend for the Rock n Roll half marathon, we decided it would be best to stay at the hotel that was connected to the convention center for the expo and right by where the start of the race was.

This put us at the Omni Hotel.  It wasn’t the cheapest hotel, but it was very nice and I can’t wait to have an excuse to stay there again.

Here is a shot of the room.

And the view from our room.  Not the most spectacular, but not too bad.

Right by the light switch was the place that you plugged the room key into so the power came on in the room.  Very green, and a little confusing for all us at first.

This is my dream bathroom.  That little darker square in the mirror was a TV, seriously.  I would love to have the light up magnifying mirror that this bathroom had.

  Of course there was a separate shower and bathtub.

And the bathtub was big enough for me.  My only regret was that this was the only time I actually got in it.  An ice bath in this tub wouldn’t be half as bad.

It was a rather long walk down the hall to our room.  We were at the very end.  Guess I should have let them know I was walking around all weekend in my boot.

The bed was even comfortable enough for me to get a good night’s sleep.  The fact that I wasn’t actually racing on Sunday might have contributed to that some too.

It was impressive at night.

I so need to stay at this hotel again.  I wonder if I can make a reservation for next year’s race.

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