7:23AM

I'm just about to leave for my 3rd training run - we're running 6 miles today. I couldn't leave though without thanking all of the people who have donated thus far! Thank you so much for your generosity and support. 


We had our Jumpstart holiday party last night and it was a great time. The people I work with are so fantastic and it's always great to spend time out of the office with them. I got a lot of questions from people about how my training is going, which is so encouraging. I'm hoping to get a group of Jumpstart staff out to a Saturday run or, more realistically, start organizing after work training runs since so many people are runners at Jumpstart. 


I'm looking forward to more hills today, which I can really tell are going to help come race day. This is definitely a short post, more later (and I still need to post the peanut butter recipe!). 


Have a great weekend!

first flakes.

So last nights run, which was supposed to be yesterday mornings run, was the epidomy of Rick's mantra - "the difficult runs are the best for mental strength." It was cold, it was a bit windy, I had a slight clothing malfunction and I didn't feel well half way through. All I kept thinking is 'this is making me stronger mentally and a stronger runner' and I think that definitely helped me get through the run - that and the fact that my destination was home. 


The highlight however of the night was that it was lightly snowing! I love the snow and can't wait until we get some real snow soon. I think it's the reason that I can get through New England winters; I cherish snow walks. 


I made the peanut butter the other night but forgot to take pictures during the process, however, I will definitely post the recipe this weekend because it was so good!


After last night's run, I'm really looking forward to cross training tonight!

2 down, 18 to go.

Sunday was our second team run - again a very nice morning, yet colder than last week. Coach Rick had a sports psychologist speak to us about motivation, race day jitters, facing our fears and overall mental health during training. I found it very interesting, considering I at one time thought about going into sports psychology. It's such an interesting field the studies the mind of athletes, what makes them tick, why they do what they do and ultimately how the good ones are the most mentally strong.


I did became a little anxious as we began talking about race day and how all of the mental preparation that motivates you day after day to train and run is in the end just practice to be mentally tough on marathon day. Rick made a great comment that really resonated with me - he said that your worst runs are actually the best training runs because you learn the most about yourself when facing adversity. I had always thought that was true to a small scale since I always feel the toughest workouts and most grueling conditions were the most rewarding, but never thought of it as a building of my mental toughness. 


We ran 5 miles on Sunday in Newton, starting in the same general area - we will start at the same church from here on out. I really am enjoying the team runs because they are going to include lots of hills, an element of running that I enjoy but don't necessarily seek out. I ran with Jen, the other Jumpstart employee on the team, and we discovered we run at similar paces. I'm looking forward to running with her more!


On a VERY exciting note...I bought a food processor! I'm so thrilled because I've wanted one for so long (merry christmas to me!). I will be making homemade peanut butter tonight and can't wait to share the pictures and recipe :)


Tomorrow morning I'll be running 4 miles - hope it's not too windy. 


Goodnight!

my fate is in the schedule.

Happy Wednesday! Today I went to the gym, which is conveniently right across the street from my office. I have no excuse to not go - that can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. I've started week one of my training, which will be the easiest week yet. Today I did 1 hour total of cross training:

• 10 minutes warmup (elliptical)
• 40 minutes strength training
• 10 minutes cool down (elliptical)

As the weather gets colder and colder, I think I'm going to look forward to the cross training days more and more. I will run on the tredmill from time to time, but my goal is to run at least 3 of my weekly runs outside per week. 

I'll be using a training plan that my coach Rick put together and it is very well designed, focusing on rest and total weekly milage (note the pattern of Saturday runs). Below is the schedule - I hope you'll follow along with me (and hopefully some of you might run with me!). Click on it to enlarge.

Tomorrow I'll run 4 miles (outside) and I'm looking forward to Saturday's run with the team, especially since we'll be having a holiday party that evening! 

Have a great night :)

team training - day 1.

Today was the first team run and I couldn't have been more excited for it. It's really amazing all of the work that has been put in to support the charity runners! A few years ago a coalition was formed for all education-based charity runners to help support training and fundraising over the course of 5 months before the actual marathon. Rick Muhr, our coach, is one incredible guy. Not only is he an expert runner, but he is incredibly inspirational and has stories that really make this experience more of a journey than an undertaking. 


Fortunately I'm a morning person so the 6AM wake up time wasn't terrible. We started the morning with a talk from Rick and were out on the roads of Newton for our first run. We originally thought it would be about 4 miles, but turns out it was closer to 5. I was feeling great though! Our training will be mostly on the actual Boston Marathon route and today we tackled Heartbreak Hill. It wasn't so heartbreaking when it was the start of a run, but there better be some cheering support on marathon day because I can definitely see how that's going to be a beautiful challenge after already having run 20 miles. 


I learned two new pieces of advice today that I think are worth sharing for runners out there. 

1. Rick preaches the importance of running efficiently, something I've heard before but never really seen in practice. He says to "run like a grandma on a frozen pond." As strange as it sounds, it really works. A way to put this into practice is to count your steps in one minute - everyone time your right (or left) foot hits the ground, count that as one. In one minute, your foot should have hit the ground 90 times (180 total for both feet). This helps keep your stride efficient and your body from getting tired faster. 
2. Walking during a run is a good thing! For every 9 minutes you run, you should walk for 1 minute. This allows for your heart to regain strength and pump blood - essentially it's like taking a break between reps during weightlifting. I was always a naysayer of walking/running, but I'm definitely going to start trying this out!

All in all, a great Saturday morning and I can't wait for next week's team run! This week, I'm also going to post my training schedule to give everyone an idea of what my next 5 months will look like. Anyone that would like to join me for a run - please let me know!

Have a great weekend :)

running with camera.

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I enjoyed some great company this year in Rhode Island and was able to go on a run the morning of the festivities. 


I took the day off today and was fortunate to have BEAUTIFUL (cold) winter weather. Though in the mid-40's, it was so sunny today that I decided to take my camera out for my run. I ran 40 minutes (not including quick picture breaks). Not some of my best photos, but a little insight to what I see when running in Cambridge. Enjoy!

Harvard Footbridge - there's salsa dancing on it in the summer!

A pair of rowers on the Charles. 

I've always loved this mural; it's on the side of a nightclub on Western Ave.

A new great place in Central Square - mostly vegan cafe with GREAT  hot food! 

Dana Street in Cambridge!

A building on Harvard's campus - this is the first time I've ever run through the campus; probably the last. 

Top of a gate leading into Harvard yard. 

There's now a Clover Food Lab in Harvard (On Holyoke Street). Hooray!

So the streets in Cambridge/Harvard Square need some serious work. The bricks are a bit slick and in general there's a lot of work that should be done to the sidewalks - especially for people like me that trip, a lot.  

Along Memorial Drive 

Green Street!

Great view of Cambridge in all it's glory!

Looking forward to tomorrow because we have our first marathon meeting. The days are counting down until the training officially starts. Boy does time fly by. 

baby it's cold outside.

It's only the beginning of cold weather and yet today I found myself reminiscing about summer with my boyfriend. I went on two runs this weekend - 4 miles on Saturday and 5 miles today (Sunday). I tried to pick the "warmest" times of the day so both runs were around 2:30PM.


I ran into Huron Village on Saturday, which has become one of my favorite places to run. For long runs I like to go up to Fresh Pond and back - the houses in that area are so pretty and I usually see many dogs. I should have paid more attention to what might be happening in Cambridge that day because I completely missed the fact that it was the Harvard/Yale game and it had let out not that long before I was running through Harvard Square. Needless to say it was a mess.


This evening's run was much quieter - I chose to to run most of it along the Charles on the Boston side. I mapped out a 5 mile route and headed off in: long running pants (fleece lined), gloves, t-shirt, and sweatshirt. I left the hat at home this time around because it wasn't has windy as it has been. I downloaded the most recent episode of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, which is such a great podcast in general, but also a great one to run with. I was a bit embarrassed when I started laughing out loud though when I was passing by people. 


Today was the first day that I used a wonderful gift my boyfriend gave me as an early Christmas present - The Stick! It's great for muscle soreness, knots and chronic injuries. I've liked using foam rollers in the past, but this really help you target certain muscles and I don't think it's as painful overall. I imagine I'm going to be using this a lot from here on out. 


What's a Sunday without baking? I made a few things tonight - I'll share them soon. 


Goodnight!

after dinner cooking.

Today will be my first of many posts about food. I'm not an expert by any means but I'm very interested in nutrition and food, specifically our bodies are fueled for physical activity. I have took an introductory nutrition class at Roxbury Community College last spring; it was a great opportunity to build my knowledge about the topic and I'm even more interested now in food and nutrition since finishing. 


This fall I've focused on eating local, seasonal foods as much as possible and have been buying a lot of squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and turnips. I've discovered many types of squash in the last couple months (acorn, buttercup, etc.) and so tonight I decided to try spaghetti squash since I've eaten or cooked it before. I found this great recipe on allrecipes.com and had most of the ingredients already on hand. The original recipe is below - the crossed out ingredients were substituted by the ones I've added next to them. It turned out great!


Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tablespoons sliced black olives hot peppers
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil rosemary
My Addition: 3/4 cup chickpeas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. Place spaghetti squash cut sides down on the prepared baking sheet, and bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a sharp knife can be inserted with only a little resistance. Remove squash from oven, and set aside to cool enough to be easily handled.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onion in oil until tender. Add garlic, and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, and cook only until tomatoes are warm.
4. Use a large spoon to scoop the stringy pulp from the squash, and place in a medium bowl. Toss with the sauteed vegetables, feta cheese, chickpeas, and rosemary. Serve warm.

I also cooked a few other things tonight because I had more energy than I knew what to do with, which usually leads to me cooking or baking. Here's a list:

- Homemade Vegetable Broth (recipe from Moosewood Cookbook); froze for later use

- Ginger Roasted Winter Vegetables (recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance); will eat this week for lunch/dinner

- Vegan Black Bean Burgers (recipe from Veganomicon); froze individually for quick dinners in the next couple months

Finally, I made Roasted Chickpeas. These are a great snack and great source of protein. Since I eat a mostly vegetarian diet, I'm always looking for new ways to get protein. Vegetarians/vegans need to keep mental notes of what their eating to make sure they are eating enough complete protein; mixing and matching the right foods is easy (more on this topic in a later post). 

By the end of this cooking extravaganza, I realized that it might be a good idea to have at least one picture, so my roommate was nice enough to take the one below.

Ingredients (adapted from an allrecipes.com post)

• 1 (12 ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt 
• cayenne pepper
• dried thyme

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Blot chickpeas with a paper towel to dry them. In a bowl, toss chickpeas with olive oil, and season to taste with salt, thyme and cayenne pepper, if using. Spread on a baking sheet, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until browned and crunchy. Watch carefully the last few minutes to avoid burning.

Run in the morning - rain rain, go away. 

i love multi-tasking.

Today was definitely not as nice as yesterday; those 60 degree days are a runners dream and it may have been the last of the season. I went for a 40 minute run today with Lauren R. along Memorial Drive and into Huron Village (so many beautiful houses!). I'd never run along Memorial Drive in that direction on a Sunday - it's so great to be able to run on the closed road. 

Lauren and I had been talking about getting new shoes for some time so we decided to multi-task and end our run at Marathon Sports in Cambridge (Porter Square). I bought my old shoes at this location and have been happy with them, although I now understand the difference between half trainers and full trainers. My old shoes were half trainers, which are light and extremely comfortable, however, they can't take as much wear and aren't made for longer runs. They were fine for training, but when I ran the BAA half-marathon in October I had some pretty nasty blood blisters on two of my toes. 

This time around I decided to go with a more sturdy shoe; I bought a women's Mizuno brand shoe. Something I've learned over the past year is to buy a half or full size larger than what I usually wear - I almost bought a 10 1/2! The staff at Marathon Sports were great and I even learned something new about how to treat IT band problems. Apparently the root cause is due to weakness in the hip flexors and abs since they are connected to the IT band; by focusing strength training in these areas it's possible to prevent future pain. 

I walked home in my new shoes and they feel great. I'm really looking forward to going for a run in them this week. Here's a picture: 

New Shoes!

On the way home we stopped at the new location of Clover Food Lab (my favorite lunch truck in the Boston/Cambridge). Clover opened in a new location in Harvard Square so we grabbed some quick food - more about Clover in the coming weeks!

It's official.

I've been named a member of the Jumpstart Boston Marathon team. In my usual style, I was completely oblivious to the fact that my co-workers set me up (as well as the other staff member who was accepted) and gathered everyone to celebrate. Lauren F. is one good fibber, I'll tell you that.

So now the hard part begins; the planning, the training, the fundraising. It's a lot to take in but I'm looking forward to the first team meeting, the first team training run, and my first fundraising event.

I'm also looking forward to sharing my experiences with anyone who wants to join me by reading my blog and participating at events (if you're remote - you'll be there in spirit!). I promise you that the events won't let you down :)

As for the blog, I intend to post 4 times per week. Each post will be different and focus in different categories: training, food (nutrition and recipes), articles, video, podcasts, etc. Over the next 5 months I hope that you'll find at least something interesting or useful that you can apply to your own training or everyday life.

I also want to say a big thank you to Mark, Katy and Shrina for having the faith in me to accomplish my goals on behalf of Jumpstart. I'm so honored to be a part of this team and that my co-worker Jen will be my teammate.

Any feedback or suggestions you have - please share! I'll see you out there!