Rockville Twilight 8k

Sigh.  I've been having a hard time writing this review because how many times can I start a race review talking about how hot it was and that it made me slower than I wanted to be.  I feel like that's been the trend in my last several races, the Pike's Peak 10k and the Lawyer's Have Heart 10k for sure.  And that every hot race makes me retreat to the air conditioned indoors so of course I fail to acclimate and then the pattern continues.  But I have a plan for that, so on to talking about the race for now.

Packet pick up was offered at a local running store in the couple days leading up to the race and it was very well organized and super easy.  We were in and out of there in a couple minutes with my bib and shirt.  I was able to pick up my friend's stuff too with no problems.

Festive start and finish area, complete with live music

The race starts and ends in the Rockville Town Center area.  This is fun because it makes logistics pretty easy.  There is plenty of parking in the nearby garages.  There are real bathrooms in the public library that can be used before the race.  There is also a fun celebratory area set up for the start and finish of the race. This is especially important since it's a night race :) The race is run by the Montgomery County Road Runners so it is very well organized, just like all of their races.

The course starts behind the town center and runs through neighborhoods, as well as past a local college.  I really enjoy the course.  It's kind of shaped like a capital "B" so not a straight out and back or even a loop.  The neighbors sit out and cheer you on so it felt like a nice amount of support, especially given that this is an 8k. There were lots of little kids offering high 5's :)  It was a little hilly, just enough to make it fun and keep it from being too boring.

This is a July race, so hot and humid.  Last year we got lucky with really mild weather but not so much this year.  The good news is that the race is well prepared for this.  There were plenty of water/gatorade stops.  There were also multiple spots on the race where a sprinkler system was set up so that you could run under the cool water and this really helped with cooling us down.  Some of the neighbors also had their hoses out and running to spray runners, which was much appreciated.

After the neighborhood portion, the last mile or so is on Rockville Pike, a major road, which was shut down for runners.  Last year, I felt like they were trying to open the road back up early but this year was much better from that perspective.  The road closures were still in place even though I was slower than last year. I'm not happy about that but I think it's just the difference in temperature from last year to this year that caused it.  I know I'm a stronger runner than last year and I have to stop letting the heat make me feel like a failure.

How can it not feel like a party with all that free beer?

The finish area feels like a big party and everyone was happy to be done with running in the heat!  I love finishing near the town center because there are so many bars and restaurants around to get into the air condition and celebrate inside.  We went for delicious tapas and sangria and ended the night on a high note.

Smiling cause the finish line is in sight!

 Overall, I love this race and will probably do it again.  It's really well run, it's fun to do a night race, I like the course and the support from the neighborhood as well as the water sprinklers set up to cool us down, and the overall fun atmosphere. The only downside is the heat but there's nothing that anyone can do about that in a July race.  Also, free photos just like with all MCRRC races.  All photos in this post are courtesy of the MCRRC photographers.

So my new tactic to deal with the heat is to just avoid thinking about the time at all.  I'm going to force myself to get out there and do my runs, knowing that they're just going to be slower.  I'm going to just have to have faith that putting in the work will result in speed gains when the weather cools down.  And for now, I'm going to concentrate on enjoying my time running.  Last Sunday, I met up with friends, explored a new trail, and enjoyed being goofy together.  Yesterday, I met an old running group on the track and had interesting conversations while we did our track work. I feel like if I concentrate on these types of incentives for now instead of the heat or the slow times, that's going to work out better for me.

Wine and Dine Half Marathon training - week 3

This week's training went ok for the most part.  I continue to struggle with the heat but I'm doing what I can and staying active.  I'm just trading in some inside time for time spent outside running.  Oh, and I've joined Instagram :)  Feel free to follow me here.

Monday -rest day

Tuesday - It was in the 90s and really humid when I got home from work, so I made a last minute decision not to go to the track.  Instead, I spent around 40 minutes on the elliptical.

Wednesday - 1 mile walk in the neighborhood plus strength training - I did 3 sets of the below circuit.

So many bunnies and pretty flowers on my walk!

Thursday - Ran on the treadmill at the gym, but this was a new treadmill and I accidentally stopped it half way through so I didn't get all the data.  It was about a total of 30 minutes and a bit more than 2 miles.

Friday - I stayed inside again and did a bunch of dance workout videos from You Tube. They were all short 4-5 minutes, so I did 6 of them and felt like I got a good workout in.

Saturday - rest day, though we had a fun date night with dinner and a play.  We ate at Sticky Rice on H Street, which has awesome veggie sushi, and saw one of the Capital Fringe plays.  We also went ahead and joined a gym, which I'm excited about.

Tater tots and sushi...yum!

Sunday - Went running with friends on a new trail by my friend's house.  It was fun to explore, we crossed a random stream, ran up some stairs we found a couple times (I did the Rocky pose at the top), and generally had a good time.

I forgot my garmin so went back to Runkeeper.  It seems like it was a bit inaccurate as my friend's GPS watch had us at 5 miles.

The section where the pavement ended and we crossed a stream

Sweaty selfie

Overall, we had a great week but it was definitely busy.  This week is going to be the same.  We're flying to Ohio for a wedding on Friday but I should still be able to get all my workouts in :) I hope you had a great week!  Anyone else spending more time inside than out with this weather?

Friday Five - favorite summertime drinks

It is time for the Friday 5 link up with Mar, Cynthia and Courtney!  This is a great link up and I love checking out the posts each week.  It also helps that it signifies the end of the work week :)  This week's theme is Favorite Summer Drinks, so here we go.

1.  I think it's been well established that I love brunch :)  And while coffee is great, I'm more apt to go for a mimosa during summer brunches.  A good mimosa is definitely a refreshing accompaniment to a delicious brunch.

2.  I've talked about making shrubs before, and I love them especially in the Summer. The tart fruitiness mixed with bubbly water makes for a wonderful summer drink. I shared my blackberry ginger shrub before.

3.  Mmm... I love chai lattes.  And I love getting them iced in the Summer.  Thinking about treating myself with one of these is pretty much all that kept me going through my long runs last summer.

4.  And speaking of long runs, I definitely go through a lot of nuun in the Summer.  I love popping one of these in my water before a run since it gives electrolytes with few calories.  And in the summer heat and humidity, I use them for short runs too.

5.  Iced tea has been one of my pleasures recently.  I've been loving the delicious teas I get monthly from Tea Sparrow and these past 2 months, they've been sending teas that are as good (or better) iced as hot.  I got this month's shipment earlier this week and can't wait to try all the flavors, quince green tea, ginger peach black tea, strawberry mint herbal tea and a vanilla honeybush rooibos.

I hope everyone had a great week and has plans for a fun weekend :)

Bang bang cauliflower

When I was in Boston a couple weeks ago, I had lunch at a random restaurant near my hotel.  I sat at the bar and asked the bartender for some recommendations.  She suggested one of their appetizers called bang bang cauliflower.  It was amazing and you can tell that I've been thinking about it since then!  It was fried cauliflower that was crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside, slathered in a sticky, sweet and spicy sauce.

So I had to try and make a version of it at home. I googled and it turns out that this is a dish that is not unheard of and various people have posted recipes.  None of the recipes I looked at were exactly what I wanted (mostly because i didn't want to fry the cauliflower and because I didn't want to buy too many new ingredients) so I decided to try my own version.  Here is what I came up with.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets

2 eggs

1 cup panko bread crumbs 

1 tbsp Garlic powder 

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons chopped scallions

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 tbsp sriracha 

1 tbsp cider vinegar

1 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Crack the eggs into a bowl and scramble them up. Place the breadcrumbs into a shallow plate. Add the garlic, salt, pepper and scallions to the breadcrumbs and mix well. Dip the cauliflower florets in the egg, and then into the breadcrumb mixture so they are well covered.  Place so a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

While the cauliflower is baking, mix the remaining ingredients together in a mixing bowl for the sauce.  Use as much of the Sriracha as works for your heat tolerance.  You definitely want the sauce to have a bit of a kick and not be too sweet. 

Take the cauliflower out of the oven after the 20 minutes is over.  I drizzled the sauce over top of the cauliflower but next time, I would actually toss the cauliflower florets in the mixing bowl with the sauce so they could get better covered.

Once sauced, put the cauliflower back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes.  These were delicious!  Even though they weren't fried, the panko gave it a great crunch, the cauliflower was tender on the inside, and the sauce provided a perfect burst of flavor to liven up the cauliflower.  Like I said above, I think it would have been even better if I had tossed the florets in the sauce so they were completely covered.

I'm will be linking up with Lean Lena for Tasty Tuesday and with Deborah and Tina for Meatless Mondays.

Wine and Dine Half Marathon training - week 2

This week went pretty well. It also went by really quickly, which I guess is the usual sign of a busy week.  Here are the workouts for the past week.

Monday - rest day

Tuesday - met my old running group at the track.  I ran a mile with them to warm up, and then did some 400s on my own.  It ended up being a beautiful evening, not too hot, and the speed work went well. We finished up with a cool down walk while we chatted and finished catching up.

Wednesday - rest day, with runners world recovery yoga and foam rolling

Thursday - running on the treadmill at the gym since I had a free pass for the week

Friday - Jillian Michael's yoga

Saturday - 8k twilight race.  Super hot and another super slow race :( the recap should be up later this week.

Sunday - I went back to the gym to try out a class.  They had something called Bang Power Fitness that I had never heard of so I gave it a try.  Wow, it was such a fun class!  And I felt like I got a great workout. It was a dance fitness class with weighted gloves (optional) set to hip hop music.  It was high energy, really positive, and a lot of fun.  I wasn't planning to join this gym but I'm actually considering it just for this class.

I hope you all had a great weekend! 

Friday Five - Race swag

It's time for the Friday Five and linking up with Mar, Cynthia and Courtney.   I love this week's theme, race swag!  I have many reasons for running that don't include race swag but free stuff is always a nice bonus.

Most races give a shirt, and I've gotten some nice shirts, but my favorite pieces of race swag are the ones that are a bit unique.

1.  I my be biased since the Richmond Half Marathon was my first half marathon, but I loved their swag!  After you finished the race, you got a blanket in addition to the medal.  The blanket is super soft, we have it on the couch in our basement, and I use it all the time.

2. The Richmond races also gave finishers a hat.  This has also come in useful for runs in the rain.  In fact, I wore it at the Rock and Roll half and it was invaluable since it kept the rain off my face for the whole race.

3. Of course, medals are always great :) My favorite is still the one from my first Disney race, the Tower of Terror 10 miler.  This may also be because it was my first longer distance race.

4.  Speaking of medals, I love finisher premiums that aren't exactly medals but something with some practical use. The Pike's Peek 10k provided a bottle opener.  And I just read that the Park's half marathon (I'm going to be volunteering at that one) is going to be having a medal which is also a wine bottle stopper.  Love the creativity!

5.  Does food count as swag?  I always love a race that has a fun after party with great food.  I was sad that I couldn't enjoy the Rock N Roll Half after party because of the rain.  Hopefully next year will be better.  But the Pike's Peak 10k had a fun after party and of course, the food couldn't be beat at the Fit Foodie 5k.

Fresh squeezed orange juice after a race tasted amazing!

I hope everyone had a great week and a great weekend ahead of you :) I'm looking forward to the Rockville twilight 8k tomorrow but it looks like it might end up being another hot one. 

Wine and Dine Half Marathon training - week 1

Well, week 1 of training for the Wine and Dine half didn't necessarily go according to plan since I was still recovering from my sprained ankle.

Monday - rest day
 

Tuesday - I was hoping to start back with running today but my ankle still hurt so I went with strength training instead.

Wednesday - rest day

Thursday - about 40 minutes on the elliptical plus recovery yoga from the runners world website

Friday - Jillian Michael's yoga

Saturday - rest day that included going tubing on the Shenandoah with a bunch of friends.  We had a great time but I might have indulged in too much alcohol.

Sunday - back to running but it ended up being a tough run and my slowest 5k in a long time.  It was hot and humid, it had been three weeks since my last run, and I was probably still feeling the effects from the day before.  Hopefully the runs will get better.

Oh yeah, there was also an encounter with geese barring the way

There was a nearby gym which was having a free outdoor barre class and I had planned to do that as well.  Sadly, the class was full but they gym was having a regular Pilates class at the same time and offered to let me do that for free instead.  I really enjoyed the class and felt like I got a great core, hip, and thigh workout. I also got a free 2 week pass to the gym, so I'm going to be checking it out this week :)

I hope everyone else had a great week!  My plan for this week is the track on Tuesday, yoga on Wednesday, running and weights at the gym on Thursday, yoga and strength training on Friday, a twilight 8k race on Saturday evening and checking out a class at the gym on Sunday.  Anyone have big plans for this week?

Friday Five - fitness trends

Happy Friday, everyone!  It's been a busy week and I'm definitely happy to see the weekend.  I'm also happy to be back to linking up with Courtney, Mar and Cynthia for the Friday 5 link up!  It's always a great group of bloggers and a bunch of interesting posts.

 The theme for this week is fitness trends that we won't be trying. I love how many different fitness options are out there these days.  It really does feel like there's something out there for everyone.  But by that same token, there are going to be some things out there that don't necessarily appeal to you either.  Here are 5 things that I've decided are not for me.

1. Boot Camp - I just am not motivated well by yelling.  I look at these types of fitness classes and cringe.  I know a lot of people love them but I'm happy to stay far away!

2. Minimalist shoes - though I think the trend might be moving away from these . But I have a running friend that continues to try spread the gospel of minimalist shoes.  I know they work great for some people but I really think it depends on your foot and they're not for everyone.  My feet need stability shoes.  They've been working well for now so I'm going to stick with them.

3.The "militarization" of fitness - I read a really interesting article about this a couple weeks ago. Since the article says it better than I could, here are some words directly from the writer.  "There is a massive trend in the fitness industry to glorify exercise as an all-out war on the body...
This trend is a symptom of a much larger disease. We live in a culture obsessed with aggression, and it has found its way into every facet of our lives, even our workouts...Well, exhaustion actually is a status symbol in our culture. And that’s the problem—we’re working and training ourselves to death...Being chronically exhausted is not the key to success. It's a race toward disease and dysfunction."  This is definitely something I see as being problematic and something I struggle against.  But I am trying to treat myself with love and generosity instead and I feel like that's a better path to holistic fitness for me.
 
4. Hot classes - I know several people that swear by hot yoga but I've never tried it and don't plan to try it.  I seem to be always dehydrated.  I'm trying to work on that but hot yoga or other similar classes are definitely not for me.

5.  Obstacle races - I've always stayed away from these because I'm worried about hurting myself.  But I may be talked into one of these later this year so we'll say.  This may be one of those never say never type of things :)

Any fitness trends you're excited to try or definitely planning to stay away from?  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

One Pot Pasta

It has been way too long since I've shared a food related post!  It's not that I haven't been cooking, it's just that things have been busy and a lot of the food we've been eating has been really simple.  Summer is one of those times that things seem to pop up, we're always busy, and that complex recipes just don't get made.  So I've been trying to find dinners that can be made in a hurry without taking up too much time.  And when I discovered the concept of one pot pasta, it made my day!  Delicious, easy, and quick. Not a lot of clean up either.  Lots of veggies. Apparently this has been a thing people have been doing for a while and I just haven't heard of it until now for some reason.

The thing that makes one pot pasta perfect is that you pretty much just throw all the ingredients into a giant pot and let them cook together.  No need to make a separate sauce for your pasta or sautee veggies on their own.  You don't even need to drain the pasta.  Just chuck everything into a pot, keep stirring, and then add a couple things at the end and you have a healthy, delicious, and fairly economical dinner.

The recipe I used to may my first one pot pasta dinner was from Oh My Veggies.  If you don't know this site, you should definitely check it out.  I always find great recipes there. I adapted it a little bit for what we had at home so here is my version.

Ingredients

4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth

8 ounces pasta, uncooked (I used some of the basil fettuccine we got from the farmer's market)

1 small onion, halved and sliced thin

1 pound broccoli florets (I used the already chopped broccoli in a bag from the grocery store)

1 1/2 pounds asparagus, ends snapped off and cut into 2-inch pieces

4 ounces sliced white button mushrooms (about 1 cup)

 1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (less for milder heat; more to increase heat)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small handful fresh parsley, chopped (about 1/2 cup chopped)

1/4 cup almond milk (the recipe called for heavy cream but this is what we had on hand and it worked really well)

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest

Additional salt and pepper to taste

 Veggies and pasta before the broth is put in, you can see that the pot is pretty full!

I put the broth, linguine, onion, broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper in a large pot over high heat and poured the olive oil on top.  The pot looked really full and I was worried because it didn't seem like the liquid covered all the veggies, but once things started to cook down there was definitely enough liquid.  Nothing to worry about :)

Here is the liquid level at first.

Once it came to a boil, I set the timer for 7 minutes. Also, start tossing constantly with long handled tongs.  This will help prevent the pasta from sticking.

As soon as the 7 minutes is up, add the parsley, almond milk, Parmesan, and lemon zest and continue tossing, for 1-2 more minutes, until the pasta and veggies appear tender. Let the pasta sit for a couple of minutes and the sauce will continue to thicken. Taste and add additional salt and pepper or cheese if desired.

And that's it!  How easy is that?   This made 4 servings and it tasted good microwaved the next day as well as fresh from the pot.  And apparently, it was so good that I forgot to take  a photo before eating it all up. Blogger fail :(

There were a couple tips with the original recipe that really helped.  Mainly, use a really big pot because of all the turning and make sure your pasta takes 9-11 minutes to cook so that everything is ready around the same time.  I was worried the veggies would be too mushy but they turned out perfectly.

I'm linking up with Lean Lena for Tasty Tuesday and will be linking up with Deborah and Tina for Meatless Mondays.

Weekly Update

This is the first weekly update since I started this blog that I don't have any workouts to report.  But that is because I had hurt my foot last weekend while we were camping.  I rested my foot until Thursday when I went to the doctor since there was still some pain and I was still limping.  She indicated it was a sprained ankle and that I should be fine in 1-2 weeks.

This was actually good news since I was a little worried it could be a stress fracture.  I will take 1-2 weeks over 4-6 weeks anytime!  She recommended rest, ice and an ace bandage, all of which I did for the rest of the week.

I did probably take the diagnosis too much to heart and walked more than 10,000 steps on Thursday.  We also went to the zoo Friday and that involved a ton of steps.  We had more than 10,000 by 11am.  That probably wasn't the wisest idea so I went back to resting it more for the weekend.

The doctor also said that I could resume running once the pain was gone.  I am happy to report that the pain seems to mostly be gone (it's been more than a week since the injury) so I'm going to try running tomorrow as this week starts my training plan for the Wine and Dine half marathon in November.  I'll take it slow, and if it hurts, give the ankle a couple more days rest before trying again.

I hope all of you had a great 4th of July weekend!

Baby panda photo since she was being particularly adorable Friday :)

Fit Foodie 5k

I'm finally getting around to my review of the Fit Foodie 5k.  I've already seen several reviews of this race up and I'm sure you have too :)  But here is my perspective on it.

I saw a bunch of reviews of this race last year and it looked like a lot of fun so I knew I wanted to give it a try this year.  But the price was a little daunting.  However, a friend of mine found a discount (either Groupon or Living Social, I can't remember which) where it was $30 for the race and we were happy to jump on that.  This price included the race and the runner's village afterward but no shirt.  It also didn't include the happy hour the evening before the race or the workouts/brunch the day after the race.

We decided to make a weekend of it and get a cheap hotel room close to the race.  We had our own dinner/happy hour Friday evening before the race :) We all knew that we were planning to treat this race as a fun run and not worry too much about time so we indulged in a couple drinks and yummy food.

The race was in the Mosaic district in Virginia, and I had never been here before so it was a new location to me. There was plenty of parking and we had no problem at all.  We were also doing packet pick up on race morning but this went smoothly as well.  There was very little line and the packet just consisted of the bib at that point so we didn't have to go back to the car.  One of my friends did have to use the bathroom and the line for that was so long that she didn't make it back to the start line until after the race had started.  But that seemed to be the only logistical snag.

All the warming up

Once we got our bibs, we joined the group warm up that was going on.  It started at 7am and it was fun.  There was some dynamic stretching and some dancing and the guys leading the warm up was definitely engaging.  One of my friends thought he may have been a little too chipper.

As soon as the warm up was done, we headed to the start line.  There didn't seem to be any sort of wave start or lining up by pace.  It was just a mass of people and we all kind of started at once.  But it wasn't too bad.  A little congested at first but I felt like it cleared up pretty quickly.  The course was very strange, with lots of doubling back on itself, hillier than expected, and there was one spot with a really smelly dumpster, and we had to pass that spot twice.  It was made worse by the fact that it was a super humid morning.  We all felt like we were dripping with sweat by the time we were done.

The other strange thing is that it was around the 3 mile marker, but the first time we past it my Garmin indicated we were around mile 1.5.  We were very confused and a little worried that maybe we had missed a turn somewhere.  But there were tons of people around us and all going the same way, so we weren't sure how that was possible.  But then as we got to the finish line, there were volunteers directing us to keep going and directing people that were actually finishing to the finish line.  So we ran right past the finish line and kept going to finish the second half of the race.  I was definitely not a fan of that, mostly because it was just so confusing.

But the race itself was probably the least important part of this event.  It's a weird thing to say but even though I didn't love the race, I will probably do this event next year and my friends all agreed.  And that is because the runner's village after the race was so awesome!  Once we finished, we were handed a bag and a bottle of water.  The bag had some coupons, discounts, and a couple snacks.  Then there were tons of tents with local restaurants giving out food samples.  I have no food photos because I pretty much shoved everything right in my mouth! 

I felt like there were plenty of options for vegetarians and one of my friends doesn't eat gluten and she felt like there were plenty of options for her as well.  The lines weren't too long except for a couple booths so we just skipped those.  Some of my favorites were the cheese samples, the house made poptarts, the Korean tofu, the kale salad, and the gazpacho.  But there really were tons of options, and so much swag that we began running out of space in our bags!  There were also several photo opportunities and we definitely took advantage of those :)

Lastly, there were stages with fitness demos and cooking demos going on and I thought that was a really nice touch.  There was also a tent for a gym where they were doing massages, assisted stretching, foam rolling, etc.

All four of us felt like this was something that we would definitely be interested in doing next year.  The 5k itself was just ok but the experience afterward made the whole thing worth it.  It was very family friendly, we saw several kids and strollers.  It was also walker friendly and very supportive down to the last person to cross the finish line.  There were also 2 water stops, which was great given the humid weather. 

Now, I'm not sure I would pay full price.  I would probably still only do it again if I found another discount like we used this time.

Weekly review

I'm definitely behind in posting this, but better late than never!  I had a mixed week last week.  It was busy at work, I had to travel to Boston for a meeting, and then get ready for a weekend camping trip.  But it was an active week, even if there wasn't that much traditional working out in there.

Monday - Rest day, but I got in some extra steps walking around the airport waiting for my flight to Boston, which was delayed.

Tuesday - Rest day.  I meant to get up early and use the treadmill but I had gotten in really late the night before due to the flight delay so that didn't happen.  I did at least walk the mile from the hotel to the meeting and the mile back.  I also walked around the harbor a bit after lunch.  It was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed the breeze off the water.  Sadly, my flight was delayed yet again and I ended up spending 7 hours at the airport.  But at least I made it home that day.

Hanging out by the water

Wednesday - Elliptical Machine

Thursday - Jillian Michael's yoga

Friday - We left for our camping trip with friends and got in a good amount of hiking around this day.

Saturday - It rained most of the day so didn't get in as many steps.  But we did have an impromptu dance party in the evening since we were going a bit stir crazy.  There was at least a solid hour of dancing.

Sunday - More hiking around, plus outdoors yoga in the morning since one of the people we were with was a yoga instructor.  I love yoga outside.

Sadly, with the muddy, uneven terrain, I seem to have hurt my foot.  I'm taking it easy this week in the hopes that resting and icing will make it better.  If it's not better by this afternoon I will probably call to make an appointment with the doctor.  I'm supposed to start Wine and Dine half marathon training next week and want to be able to start it pain free!