Tag Archives: elliptical

Cross Training

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I never quite know what to do when cross training pops up on my marathon training plan. When I was creating my own plans, I never included cross training. I ran 6 days a week and that was that. Now that I’m using the Advanced Marathoning training plan, my schedule has 1-2 days of cross training a week and I’m always at a loss.

Generally the cross training day falls after a hard workout and my body is tired. I understand giving it a rest from running but I am just so unmotivated to do much else but run during training. Sure I love to swim but sometimes I don’t want to pack a bag, go to the pool, wait for a lane, etc. I also really don’t like the elliptical/stationary bike and it’s usually too dark for me to bike outside.

What’s a girl to do?

Today, I took Kelsey‘s advice and headed over to the gym iPhone in hand. I hopped up on the dreaded elliptical, logged into Netflix, and pedaled away while watching an episode of Felicity. Was I bored? Of course. Did I wish I was running outside? Without a doubt. But it was definitely easier to elliptical watching Felicity than the news.

I ended up ellipticaling for the entire episode (all I could stand/had time for) and went a little over 5 miles. It definitely wasn’t the hardest workout I had this week but my only goal was to move a little before 7 a.m. and I did that.

What do you do for cross training? Any suggestons?

My stomach has been feeling weird lately so I kept breakfast safe and easy.

A [blurry] brown rice tortilla filled with 1/2 pepita butter and 1/2 almond butter and banana slices. I popped it into the Foreman for 3-5 minutes until the inside was gooey and the outside was crispy. I also had the grapes and the rest of the banana.

I’m off to go to work. My fingers are crossed that I’ll get a surprise half day but I’m not counting on it. Happy Friday!

Midweek Recap

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Hey guys, I hope you are all doing great :) . The week is more than half over, that’s something to celebrate about right?

I have to admit that as much as I love doing WIAW posts and joining up with other bloggers, I always feel so detached from you all on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about that in the future but in the meantime here’s an update of the past day or so.

Tuesday evenings are usually calzone night in the apartment but after coming across this recipe earlier this month I strongly suggested that we give it a shot this week and I am so glad that we did!

I halved the recipe and made it in three smaller dishes- one for me to eat that night, one for leftovers, and then another (the larger one on the left) for Ian with sausage.

I debating making salad or a vegetable to have on the side but honestly the bubble up pizza was enough. It was also incredibly delicious, who wouldn’t love biscuit pizza?

It was nice outside and I’m always down for a walk so we headed to Kingoberry & Potbelly so I could indulge my froyo craving and Ian could enjoy a shake.

I had chocolate with coconut, blueberries, strawberries, and one of Ian’s shake adornments. I swear kingo’s chocolate flavor tastes like a Wendy’s Frosty!

I was so far removed from productivity at that point that I gave up even trying to do homework and we finished watching The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and called it a night. I ended up liking the movie more than I thought I would but I definitely recommend reading the books first!

On Wednesday I headed out for a run first thing. While I enjoyed the run it was HARD. My legs were sore and achey and my mind, body, and legs were not in agreement about the pace. Luckily I eventually loosened up (around mile 6) and felt more normal after. It’s hard to say whether my legs are sore from re-introducing running, not taking a rest day for almost 2 weeks, or a mixture of both but my legs are sure getting a wake-up call. I also want to note that if I wasn’t running a marathon in three weeks I’d be easing into running more slowly but unfortunately Boston is coming up fast!

I took advantage of being home all day to prepare some food for meals this week/weekend. I roasted brussels sprouts, made quinoa, and cooked some peas. I was obviously getting quite a lot of school work done ;)

Lunch was a mix of all of the above with nutritional yeast and barbeque sauce. Yum!

I managed to squeak out a bit of productivity mid-afternoon and then took a break to make some pumpkin walnut muffins.

They’re made with almond flour so they’re gluten free and they smelled amazing baking in the oven.

By dinner, I had burned out on being in the kitchen so I kept it super simple and made tuna salad by mixing two cans of tuna, tzatiki sauce, relish, and peas. Ian had his as a tuna melt and I had mine over spinach.

Dessert was one of the new Ben & Jerry’s Greek Froyo Flavors, Strawberry Shortcake, with a mini brownie. I definitely wanted more!

When I woke up this morning and my legs were still stiff and sore, I knew that today needed to be an easy day. I completed 45 minutes on the elliptical at a slow pace to shake out my legs and it seems to have helped so far. Unfortunately, I won’t be going to the evening cycle class that I had planned but my legs need a break!

For breakfast I had a cottage cheese parfait with fig jam, banana, crumbled cream cheese muffin, sunflower seed butter, and gluten free granola.

It definitely hit the spot :)

I’m off to start my busy Thursday, have a good one!

Boston Marathon: The Would’ve Been Start of Taper

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Yesterday would have marked my last 20 miler before taper for the marathon. Obviously due to my heel injury, my long run didn’t happen :( . However, tomorrow is the first day I can run and if all goes according to plan, I’ll be able to fit a long run in next weekend!

I also didn’t even get a good hard workout in yesterday. As I mentioned before, my mom was in town and I wanted to spend time with her rather than the gym. Also, my legs and lower back were bothering me from all of the walking and standing at the museum on Saturday so a lighter workout was definitely what my body needed. I ended up swimming 1,800 yards and calling it quits out of pure boredom.

My Workouts for the Week:
Monday- OFF
Tuesday- 45 minutes elliptical & 15 minutes bike
Wednesday- 1 hr cycling & 1 mile swim
Thursday- 45 minutes elliptical (a.m.) and 1 hour cycling (p.m.)
Friday- 50 minutes elliptical
Saturday- 30 minutes elliptical
Sunday- 1,800 yard swim

Totals:
Elliptical- 2 hours and 50 minutes
Cycling- 2 hours
Swimming- a little over 2 miles

Mentally
I’m so excited to run this week but I’m starting to feel scared. What if my heel hurts after a couple of miles? Does that mean I won’t be able to run Boston? I’m also nervous that I’ll be out of shape. I’ve been cross-training pretty hard but I haven’t run in a couple of weeks. Ahhh!

Physically
My heel feels almost normal but I’m still babying it a little bit. I’m going to have to be careful that I stride normally when I run and don’t try to avoid pressing on the heel. I don’t want to create any new injuries!

Next Week
My goal is to have a pain free week of running + cross-training. I’m hoping to get in three runs during the week and then a longer run on the weekend. I’m not sure how long I’m going to shoot for butI was originally told by the doctor I could go as far as 20 miles. I’m starting to second guess that suggestion though, I don’t want to push too hard and risk re-injury. Any thoughts?

Dinner Last Night
After my mom left I ended up crashing on the couch for 2 hours. I must have needed some sleep! When I woke up I was disoriented and a little crabby. I really didn’t want to make anything for dinner and Ian was craving sushi, so I suggested we check out Nori, a sushi spot Ian’s been wanting to try. We ordered a couple of apps and then two rolls to share.

It was all very good :)

On our way home we made a pitstop at Argotea for a warm beverage, the temps are dropping right now!

Just the fact that Argotea has an almond milk option is amazing, but they also know how to froth it really well without the milk curdling! Yum!

When we got home I wasn’t quite in the mood for dessert, but I had bought some ingredients (i.e. heavy whipping cream) that were going to go bad if I didn’t use them, so I made a bowl of imitation Magnolia Bakery banana pudding and of course had to taste it to make sure it was okay…

Don’t worry, it tasted just fine ;)

And just like that, it’s back to the daily grind. Here’s to a week of pain-free running and healthy eating (I’m a little sick of restaurant food right now), have a great Monday!

Another One Bites the Dust

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Yep, that’s right, that would be another almost empty peanut butter jar. Which means that I’ve had two near empty jars in two weeks, I must be a lucky peanut butter-eating fiend girl ;)

Due to the extremely warm temperatures we’ve been having, instead of going the OIAJ route, last night I decided to whip up a batch of my pumpkin overnight oats. I made the recipe in 1/2 cup proportions instead of 1/3 (because I wanted to fill the entire jar) and I also added 2 T raisins.

The result was a heaping portion of OOIAJ. Not that I’m complaining or anything :P

This morning I topped the oats with walnuts. Why do walnuts taste so good with pumpkin?

Yum, it’s always pumpkin season in my book!

Workout
This morning I ellipticalled for 50 minutes (about 6.4 miles) and then biked for another 10 minutes. I’m getting really bored of biking at the gym but have been way too lazy to get my bike out of the storage unit and ride outside. With the weather we’ve been having, this should needs to happen soon!

Last Night
I had a snacky afternoon so I wasn’t hungry for a big dinner. I did want to get in some greens so I had a salad with the last bit of tempeh, a small amount of TJ’s baked tofu, tomatoes, carrots, spinach, wasabi peas, mozzerella cheese, and cilantro dressing.

It tasted fresh and was light, pefect!

I actually started to feel nauseous a couple of hours later and I think it had something to do with the cilantro dressing + a lot of veggies and no carbs, so I had a rice cake with sunflower seed butter, cottage cheese, and fig jam.

I felt much better afterwards!

I was also in a baking mood and made these egg muffins for Ian to take to work this week.

They have bacon in them so I won’t be eating any, but they did smell amazing!

Happy Tuesday!

Are you experiencing strange weather where you live?
Do you have certain foods (like pumpkin) that you only eat during one season?

Chi-rish

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Happy belated St. Patricks day! If you celebrated yesterday I hope you had a great time!

Yesterday, after a 30 minute session on the elliptical and a mile swim (finally did some intervals), Ian and I grabbed a quick and hearty lunch at Jaffa Bagel.

Given that we were planning on day drinking, I made sure to really carb it up and had a jalapeno chedder bagel with veggie cream cheese.

It was so good and made me wonder why I don’t eat bagels more often.

After devouring our lunch, we met up with our friends and headed to the bars. One of Ian’s buddies plays the bagpipes and showed up with his pipes and wearing a kilt, it was awesome! He played all day long and often got free drinks/ money from the bartenders. He even let me try them!

And, it was sooo hard! You have to blow enough to fill up the bag and more. I made a little noise but couldn’t keep the pressure in the bag high enough to actually play anything.

Around 7:30, Ian and I were done for the day. We were tired, hungry, and sweaty (it was 80 degrees yesterday), so we said goodbye to our friends and picked up some dinner at a random thai restaurant.

We shared crab rangoon to start

And then I had pad kee mao with shrimp.

I’m pretty sure it was actually good, but I would have eaten anything at that point!

After our late dinner, we took the el home, and promptly passed out in bed before 10 p.m. What can I say, we’re classy like that!

This morning I woke up early because I had an intense workout planned (not so smart after yesterday’s shenanigans). Luckily I felt fine and had the usual pre-long run fuel of a piece of toast with peanut butter.

I added banana, walnuts, and chia seeds because my stomach can handle a wider variety of food if I’m ellipticaling rather than running.

Then I hit the gym for a 20 mile elliptical session. Yeah, you may think I’m kidding but I’m not. Julia had mentioned to me that when she was sidelined from training for a marathon, she substituted a 20 miler with the elliptical. At first it sounded absolutely crazy to me… almost 3 hours on the elliptical? No thank you. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that it made sense. While swimming and biking are great to do for cross-training, the elliptical is the closest thing to running without actually running. Plus, by doing 20 miles on the elliptical, I was forcing my body to keep my heart rate up for a long period of time while also doing the same motion over and over again.

So, I ellipticalled the first 10 miles, took a bathroom break and stretched out my toes, and then hopped back on for the last 10 miles. It was tough but I’m glad I did it. Plus, I’m now super caught up on the news, so win-win?

When I got back to the apartment, Ian was up and ready to eat, and as our apartment is still really really warm, we decided to check out a new breakfast spot, Waffles.

After all of the carbs & beer yesterday, I wanted something a little healthier for breakfast and ordered a spinach, mushroom, & gruyere omelet with eggwhites.

Ian had the cheddar and short rib waffles

The best part of either of our dishes was the side of potatoes. Yum!

After brunch we ran our weekly errands by foot and are now relaxing on a couch in front of a fan. Plans for the afternoon include working on my capstone (thesis) for a bit, making dinner (it’s been so long since I cooked) and trying to wear out the furball who has been full of energy lately.

Have a wonderful afternoon!