Thursday, July 16, 2009

Back on track...

So I've started like three different posts this week and haven't published any of them...I have been so uninspired with blogging I just didn't want to post something for the sake of posting...But I felt the need to give you all an update!

This past weekend I was glued to my desk (er, kitchen table) studying for my General Securities Series 7 Exam (stocks, bonds, options, variable retirement plans, brokerage services, etc.) that I had to take again on Monday...remember when I failed the first time?

When I took it before I seriously underestimated the vast amount of material this test covered, and did not spend as much time studying as I should have. I mean, the exam is 6+ hours long! So this time around I knew I would have to devote a lot more to studying. Which I did. All throughout this past 30 days I have had to wait to re-take the test I was studying in between work, meetings, running and fundraising. Plus Friday through Monday morning I barely ate anything, was crazy cracked out on caffeine, and did not sleep much in order to cram into my brain everything I had been studying for the past three months!

(This was in no means healthy at all, actually Matt told me I looked "bulimic or something" on Monday afternoon. I was a wreck! But believe me, I have made up for it this week with everything I have eaten.)


Monday morning came around and I headed to the testing center feeling...optimistic yet scared. When I broke for "lunch" after the first half of the test (130 questions) I felt....good but not 100% confident in all of my answers. The second half was brutal, and by this point I think I had given up and realized that I wasn't going to score at least the required 70% to pass.

I was thinking up new careers, envisioning what I would tell my office...making plans to skip the country....then finally I was finished and had about 15 minutes of my allotted time left...I couldn't bear to press the 'I'm done' button so I went back through some of my answers...until finally the time ran out and the screen went blank waiting on my results...I couldn't bare to look!

But finally I did and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the word: PASS

I almost couldn't believe it. I was now certified to work as a stock broker! I never thought I would ever utter that sentence.

So needless to say, running (and blogging!) has fallen by the wayside and I am seriously in need of getting back on track. After a 6 PM meeting tonight I'm hitting the streets to get my body moving again. (Um, hello Wild West Relay in THREE WEEKS???!!!)

In other news, I have been tying to tweak my nutrition and eating habits over the past few months, and are becoming more curious with a partial raw food lifestyle. Food combining is really intriguing me and I've been juicing a ton.

I hope to soon start posting more pictures/recipes of some of the things I eat in order to include some in the new Healthy Yum website that I was so excited to be invited to be a part of! (Well, anyone can be a part of it actually, so I guess I was excited to be included in the invite :)

Just a bit of a sneak peak of some of the raw foods I have been enjoying lately...

Carrot + Apple Juice

Cabbage + Greens + Veggies + Peanut Sauce Salad
(Not exactly raw because of the peanuts, but DELISH! Lived on these last week!)

Raw Creamy Zucchini Soup with Sprouts

More to come later! Have a great Thursday y'all!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

there's a new gal in town

In case you haven't heard...


I chopped off my hair!!! I'm in love with it and also with Katie at Strawberry Blonde Salon! She did a fab job!

Busy busy week....some running...lots of other stuff. Hopefully can get back to blogging normality next week. Have a fab weekend lovahs!!

xoxo
ChasRunner

Friday, July 3, 2009

Foto Friday: Pig Pics!

(Stacia, some girl I don't know & me)




(that's me on the left with some of our Habitat committee)

(Jason & Sandy!)

These of course are all from last Sunday's Habitat for Humanity Pig 'N Pluck at Bowen's Island. I don't know some of those people, I just thought the pictures were nice :)

Since I have today off I headed out for a run this morning around 8 AM. I decided not to run with Kara last night as I just kind of wanted to chill, especially since I could get it in this morning.

After wrestling with two iPods for about 30 minutes I headed out the door with one I thought was working. It wasn't. So I left it downstairs in the office and headed out for a nice, silent 5 miler.

I decided to run one mile and then take a minute or two walk break. I did, and it turned out well! My average pace for 5.03 miles was 9:56. Much better than yesterday's 10:25 average pace for 4.5 miles!

Just made myself some green juice and now I'm about to head somewhere to get my study on.

Sweet and Creamy Summer Green Juice
  • 2 large kale leaves
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1 peeled lemon
  • 3 large handfuls of spinach
  • 1/2 apple
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 teensy tiny bit fresh ginger (I don't like my juice spicy)
I hope everyone has a safe and happy July 4th! I will probably be drinking on a beach somewhere tomorrow after our group 12 miler :)

{Just a reminder, if anyone can help donate to my TNT fundraising campaign, I would really appreciate it! Even if it's only $5!}

Thursday, July 2, 2009

i've lost my marathon mojo! + heart rate training

So I know I promised some healthy nutrition posts this week...and they will come. Just maybe not today :)

Tuesday night was our TNT practice. I ran there again (1.9 miles or so) at around a 10 minute pace.

{I've lost my marathon mojo and I need to get it back! I've been struggling to maintain a quick pace during any of my runs this week.}

After some chit chat we started in on our heart rate training workout.

First we did two warm up laps around the track to loosen up the muscles. Then our plan was to run four more laps (one at a time) at different paces and measure our heart rate after each lap to determine what percentage of our max heart rate we were running at.

The ultimate goal being to find the pace with which we run at about 70-80% max heart rate, so we will know what pace we should be training at to avoid over-training or "going out too hard" and getting injured.

Well I am not the most coordinated person, so at the time I was really confused with what was going on and I don't think I once calculated everything accurately! But basically if you don't have a heart rate monitor (should have worn mine, ughgghhh) this is how you figure it out:
  • Run one lap at an easy "I'm comfortable with this" pace.
  • Time your lap and remember it. Or use a stop watch and stop it.
  • Immediately at the finish line stop and count your heart beats in a 10 second period.
  • Go write down the beats per 10 seconds, as well as the time it took you to run the lap.
  • Multiply the heart beat number by six, to get your heart rate per minute during your run.
  • Consult a heart rate chart (such as this one below) to see what percentage your HR for that lap falls under.
  • If you're easy lap HR was above 75 to 80%, you were probably going out too hard. (This below chart is not the one we used, but it's pretty similar.)

Then we continued this process for 3 or 4 more laps, each time increasing our speed. The point of this whole exercise was to figure out where our "easy" pace was (70% of max heart rate) versus our "all out and I want to puke" pace was (85 to 90%). That way we know what pace we should be training at to avoid injury and getting tired too quickly.

I know I'm going to dig out my HR strap today and use it on my speed workout tonight to see where I'm training at.

Then I basically ran/walked the 1.9 miles home...I was a tired girl!

Wednesday night I really was not in the mood to run after work but I knew I needed to, and I'm glad I went. I ended up covering 4.5 miles with an average pace of 10:25. It was hot. It was muggy. And have I mentioned I've lost my marathon mojo?!

Just so I can start to be accountable again, here are the sad splits (yes, I took a walk break during mile 4):

Split
Time
Distance
Elevation Gain
Elevation Loss
Avg Speed
Max Speed
Calories
Summary 46:534.5068377710:2507:07504
110:12 1.00 189 295 10:12 07:41 113
210:04 1.00 194 189 10:04 07:07 112
310:22 1.00 197 180 10:22 08:26 115
411:31 1.00 82 79 11:31 08:49 109
504:42 0.50 21 35 09:23 08:08 55

When I got home I did 2 regular 1 minute planks and 2 side 1 minute side planks, one each side. I was going to do more but the boyfriend and the grocery store were calling...

Tonight I'm planning on hitting the streets for a 40 minute speed workout with Kara Goucher. I know I shouldn't be doing short speed intervals since I'm marathon training and all, but I bought her workout on iTunes with a gift certificate I had (thanks Meredith!) so I'm gonna test it out. I might also do that killer conditioning workout if I have time.

HAPPY FRIDAY!! :)