Tag Archives: swimming

Endurance Sports Comparison

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I wasn’t going to post this morning (I ran out of time) but when I came across an infographic on Active.com, I knew I wanted to share it with you all to see what you thought.

(source)

I’m not surprised by the cycling, running, or walking numbers (although they are all somewhat controversial) but the swimming number really got me. I always thought swimming burned less calories? I guess it totally depends on your speed?

I promise to be back tomorrow with a longer post, but for now, thoughts on the infographic?

Midweek Musings

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1. The first few days of my staycation were wonderful. I kept thinking that I could get used to having free time, working out whenever I want, watching day time t.v. etc. Yesterday I got bored and started a bake-a-thon. I have two more days + a weekend before work starts, the question is how much more can I bake?

2. Another nut butter bit the dust earlier this week and made the perfect receptacle for overnight oats in a jar.

I only have three nut butters in rotation right now. My tastebuds are unhappy but I’m sure my bank account doesn’t mind.

3. Yesterday I had a swimming PDR –> 3,000 m! I actually really enjoyed it and wanted to swim the extra 200 m to hit about 2 miles but some strange man hopped in my lane and started running along one side doing high knees. This bothered me for a lot of reasons (he could have asked – I would have said yes, he wasn’t switching sides of the lane, & he wasn’t even swimming) and I had to get out of the water before I did something drastic like accidentally kick a lot of water at him.

4. Speaking of working out, my abs are burning from the whittle my middle challenge I talked about yesterday. I was hoping to do day 3 of my 5 this morning but I was too sore. Maybe later?

5. Veggie burger salads have made epic lunches this week. The one below is now different. I topped butter lettuce and raddichio with sweet potato, mushrooms, and a veggie burger. The dressing is a mix of hummus and Bone Suckin’ Sauce. Delicious!

6. My one eye had been bothering me a lot every night when I take out my contacts. I think I must have a small cut on my eye. Either way it’s annoying and I’ve been sleeping with a cold paper towel over my eye at night to soothe the pain. Lucky Ian, his girlfriend is soo attractive. (I have an eye appt today and will ask about it)

7. Last night I made a vegetarian paella. It was really tasty and gave me the opportunity to cook beans from scratch and you know what? It wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it would be. It just needed a little extra prep work.

I had some paella for dinner with a half-assed massaged kale salad.

I ended up going back for more paella, it was pretty good!

8. I haven’t run since last Sunday and I’m going crazy! I know the break was needed and will be worth it but I’m definitely going a little stir-crazy. I actually spent almost two hours last night working on my Goofy Race and a Half training plan. It’s almost finished and starts the second week in August. I’ll be sure to share more details then.

9. Speaking of running, is anyone else doing the Big 10k this Saturday? Originally I was planning on racing it but now I think I’m going to treat it as a training run and take lots of pictures instead :P . The weather looks awesome too, I can’t wait!

10. A month ago, Ian and I bought a Groupon for a cleaning service and they’re coming today. Neither Ian nor myself really enjoy cleaning and we do what we can to “straighten up”, sweep, and vaccum when necessary we don’t really get down and scrub the floors or clean under the fridge like we should. I’m looking forward to having that new apartment feel again.

11. It’s crazy how different cycling classes can be. I’ve been to two this week (same gym) and the one I went to this morning was a lot harder than the one on Tuesday morning. I get that workouts are different but you think they would have a standardized plan of what should be included in each class. Especially at the same gym. The other interesting this is today’s class was much less crowded than Tuesdays. Hmm..

12. I figured that I would get creative with breakfast during my staycation. Well, besides my Tuesday morning pancakes, I’ve been pretty boring and have eaten a lot of overnight oats.

This morning I had a batch with 1/3 cup oats, 1 T chia seeds, few shakes of cinnamon, 1/2 a sliced banana, handful of blueberries, a few blackberries, two sliced strawberries, 1 tsp sunflower seeds, and 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk.

I topped them with homemade granola and a drizzle of maple syrup. Totally hit the spot.

Any ideas on how to keep busy these next two days? Are you running the Big 10k? Which team are you supporting?

Race Photos

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Good morning and happy Wednesday!

Guess what? The ALS 5k race photos became available earlier this week. The race was on the smaller side so the photographer only shot pictures at the start and finish but don’t you worry, yours truly was still captured in some awesome photographs.

The following three photos (shot right after one another) are my favorite. You can clearly see my shirt riding up as I cross the finish line and then for who knows what reason, I decided to arch my back showing even more skin.

Obviously the shirt was out of my control but seriously, why am I arching my back? The goal is to go forward not backward right?

I can’t say that I’ve ever loved a race photo of myself, I always look glazed over or completely out of it. Oh and some part of my body is always misbehaving/doing something awkward. What can I say, my running skills are not photogenic :P

Have you ever taken a good race photo?

In a brief update, workouts have been going full-steam this week. Yesterday, I ran 4 miles in about 31 minutes and then swam a 2,000 m interval workout and then today I ran 7 miles in 46:30. I was expecting a cool down last night but we never really got it. It was 77 degrees at 5 am this morning and the sun wasn’t out. It looks like we’ll see cooler weather later this week though. My fingers are crossed!

In terms of eats, I have been enjoying many of my usuals. Yesterday I tried OhSheGlows Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Vegan Overnight Oats.

It was so good that I made a slightly different version for this morning.

I mixed 1/3 cup oats, 1 T chia seeds, 2 T blueberries, 1 chopped fig, 1/2 banana, shake of cinnamon, 2 tsp sunflower seeds, and 1 cup of almond milk. This morning, I removed it from the fridge and added a sprinkle of KIND granola and a little maple syrup. I also enjoyed an almond butter spoon. It was delicious!

I have been all about the one-pot meals lately too. Dinner last night was an easy millet bowl. I cooked enough millet for two and then sautéed kale, chopped carrot, basil, and figs (need to use them) in a little vegetable broth. I stirred the veggies into the millet along with a balsamic mustard dressing (balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey).

Yum!

In terms of work, my last day at my old day is this Friday. I can’t believe it is coming so fast! My new job starts next Friday so I’m taking some time to myself to relax and to take care of some much neglected errands. Also, thanks to everyone who congratulated me when I posted about taking the new job last week. I do plan to write more about the transition soon but I have to wait a few days, I hope you all understand!

Have a wonderful day!

Beautiful Blogger Award

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A few weeks ago (or last week, they’re all running together) the lovely Mary from minutes per mile nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger award. Thank you!

So now, I get to tell you 7 things about myself. Enjoy!

1) One of my favorite things about the blogging community is the sharing of ideas. Whether it be training tips or recipe ideas. I’ve actually starting hoarding recipes and I probably have 1,000 bookmarked. Last night, I made Emily‘s Roasted Cauliflower Tahini Salad. It was awesome!

2) I really don’t like feet. Especially toenails. I get the shivers every time I clip mine and I won’t even tell you how close I was to passing out when I lost the toenail on my pinkie toe.

3) I ran cross-country in 6th grade and really liked it. By 7th grade I had decided that running wasn’t a social enough sport and decided to play basketball instead (I really loved it basketball back then). Did I tell you I’m 5’3. #poorlifedecisions.

4) I can’t run/workout with iPhone ear buds. Instead I have to buy the old crappy clip-ons from CVS or Kmart so they stay in my ears. Does anyone else have this problem?

5) I don’t miss dairy all the much (besides cottage cheese) but overnight oats are not the same without it. Enter cold oatmeal. It’s much more filling than the raw oats and it’s cold. Win-win!

6) I used to drink like 4 diet coke cans a day. Then I decided it was unhealthy and cut cold turkey. I haven’t had one since.

7) I have really bad luck with electronics and cars. They always break/fall apart on me. My old car was a VW Beetle and it ALWAYS drove different/broke down whenever I drove it. However, it was totally fine for everyone else. I’m also a computer virus magnet. Don’t even ask my mom how many computers we had that got viruses. Yikes!

I’m also supposed to nominate 7 other bloggers but I think it’s more fun to get a discussion going in the comments. Tell me something about you!

In terms of workouts, tonight I’m running the Strike Out ALS 5k (you still can too, they will have registration open until 6:25 tonight!), so I kept my swim workout short and simple. Just 1,650 meters at more normal speed. Hopefully I’ll be able to get in some sprints later this week.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Happy 4th!

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Happy 4th of July! I hope all of you are enjoying a day off and doing something fun today! I used my extra time this morning to fit in a longer workout but before I tell you about that let’s discuss last night’s dinner.

Yesterday was one of those days that just dragged on. I was incredibly tired and all I wanted was to get home and lay down on the couch. However, by the time I got home I felt motivated to get stuff done. I did two loads of laundry (and I hate doing laundry), cleaned the kitchen sink area, prepped breakfast for today, and made a batch of OhSheGlows‘ Perfect Veggie Burgers.

The burgers take quite a bit of prep work but are SO worth it. I did make a few substitutions: instead of bread crumbs I used gluten free brown rice cereal, I omitted the parsley (if I’d had herbs I would have used them- they bring a lot to the burger), mixed chopped almonds & walnuts, substituted pepitas for sunflower seeds, and used tomato sauce instead of soy sauce.

I baked 7 of the patties and then pan fried the one I had for dinner. As many veggie chips and salsa were consumed while cooking, I had my veggie burger on arugula topped with curry avocado.

It was so good! I love the mix of nuts, seeds, and beans in these burgers. The texture is awesome.

I ended up freezing 5 of the patties. I did this last year and they held up really well and made great easy dinners.

Dessert was 1/3 of a banana mashed and microwaved and then topped with crumbled gf, vegan brownie.

It was small & sweet. Just what I was in the mood for!

This morning I woke up bright and early to squeeze in a run before the heat hit. I just barely made it, at 5 a.m. it was already 80 degrees in Chicago. This weather is insane. I debated skipping my run but knew I’d feel better if I at least made an attempt, so I laced up my running shoes and headed out the door.

Thankfully the sun wasn’t completely up yet so it didn’t feel too brutal outside and I was able to complete a slow 4 miles. Even though it wasn’t my best run and it was incredibly hot outside, I felt good for doing it. I also didn’t have to use a treadmill. Woohoo!

After my run, I grabbed my swim bag and headed to the pool. My gym and pool were both fairly empty and I was able to grab a good lane right away. This is the swim workout I did:

300 m warm up
3 x 400 m
100 build, 200 fast, 100 slow
4 x 100 50 fast, 50 slow
200 build, 100 fast, 100 slow
2 x 200 m
100 stroke pull, 100 freestyle pull
100 stroke kick, 100 freestyle kick
100 m cool down

Total: 2,000 meters

For stroke I swam breast stroke which made pulls and kicks take forever but hopefully I’ll be a better swimmer for it.

Breakfast was something new. I’ve been having trouble finding a cold breakfast that holds me over longer than 2 hours. If I could eat yogurt or eggs this wouldn’t be a problem, but without protein in the morning, I’m getting hungry for lunch really early.

Enter an avocado cold oatmeal parfat. Last night I mixed avocado, 2/3 of a banana, and 1 tsp of maple syrup and mashed them all together. Then I cooked 1/2 cup of oats and 1 tsp chia seeds with 1 1/4 cups water. I layered them in a glass and put them in the fridge overnight. Unfortunately, the maple syrup seperated out from the avocado (brown in the picture) but after remixing it all together, the parfait was really tasty and incredibly filling!

I topped it with blueberries and walnuts.

I’m off to relax and then beach (I think). Have a wonderful day!