Exercise Diary: First week of HM training completed

And yesterday's 2-miler was hard.

I'm not sure why that is, but I'm glad I discovered this so early in the training, since the actual race is going to be in the early morning.  If I can't get used to running in the morning then I will be fucked.

I have run in early mornings before, when it was nice and warm out and I used to get up early on weekends and do my long runs in the morning sun.  And I used to like it a lot.  I had all the time in the world, I explored new routes, and I didn't have to worry about wondering too far away and lose the sun.

And I ate breakfast.  Not a large one, but one after which I didn't feel hungry.  It was health too: I finished the last of my homemade chia pudding (just add coconut milk to chia seed and let time do the rest).  And I drank water before I left.  Maybe it wasn't enough but I didn't want to wait too long for a big breakfast to digest before going out of the door.

I slept a reasonable amount too.  About 8 hours.  Granted I slept very little the night before and had a long day Saturday, but when I got up on Sunday morning I didn't feel like I had to be dragged out of the bed.

Apart from the fact that the TV shows were kind of dull and the gym was more crowded than usual (with more people going for the treadmill so I couldn't get my usual spot), I couldn't think of how yesterday morning was different from all the other nights.  My shoes were acting weird too.  The insoles, which normally feel fine, were particularly uncomfortable yesterday.  The arch support was way too high and I felt weird pain all over the bottom of my feet.  Not sharp pain that indicate some sort of acute injury, but annoying dull pain that made me slow down and want to stop.

I also felt tired.  Making it to the 2-mile mark felt particularly long and difficult.  I don't know if it was the psychology of having to be there and do two miles at a time I no longer regularly run, or if it was just the physical fatigue that seeped into my psyche, but it was just hard.  I blamed most of it on my lack of a better breakfast, since it's the easiest thing to fix for next time I guess, and I ordered a new pair of insoles as soon as I got home, but I think it's going to take more than those, and more trial and error to fully adjust to a better morning run.

Which also scares me, since weekends are supposed to be my long-run days.  How am I supposed to do that if it's the one day I'm mostly out of shape?  I could very feasibly switch my long run days to another night, like tonight when I have to be there for an hour anyway (for the newest episode of Castle), but I don't like this idea as much since the actual race day is on a weekend morning.  But temporarily it could be a solution, until I get my weekend morning routine set up and going.

If I'm doing this then I'll have to pretend that last week was all short runs (which they kind of were) and today is the first long run of the first week of training, or I'm simply switching the order of this week's run.  I'm not sure how much difference it will make to my body, but for someone who likes to follow a good plan it is slightly disorienting.

So 3 miles tonight then.  Which is still not that big of a deal but still good to get me into the routine.

Happy Running!

Half Marathon Training Week 1: 2/2/2

After a long but absolutely wonderful trip abroad (went to Japan for 8 days and Shanghai for 5), I came back with a stronger resolution to: 1) keep running, 2) lose weight/ become more fit, 3) run a half marathon this year, 4) try to run a marathon at the end of the year and 5) learn Japanese.

The last one has nothing to do with the theme of this blog but I'm a firm believer of knowing the language of the country you visit.  Obviously it's not possible (and probably not very necessary) if you speak English and visit a bunch of European countries in one trip, but although I speak English and Chinese and can understand most of what I was seeing and doing while in Japan, I felt utterly useless and often frustrated because I couldn't communicate with the people there.  And that's changing now, I'm slowing building my vocal and grammar skills using an app called Memrise, and since there is no time pressure, I figured that as long as I use it everyday to review what I have learned and keep learning a few new things a day I'm in good shape.

I just hope that running and exercise can be as easy.  I do feel a time pressure on this one, since my coworker and I decided to run the 25K event at the Pineland Trail Festival at the end of May, and although it seems so far away from this cold January, it's only about 16 weeks away.  And although I'm determined and excited to do this, I'm honestly uncertain of my physical ability to tackle this >half marathon event.

And 16 weeks is the longest training plan time I could find too.  I like this plan because it doesn't make you run for two days in a row, as opposed to the shorter plans.  I found early on that I need at least a full day's rest after every run since I tend to over do things.  As in, if I go for a run it has to be a long one since I've already invested my commitment and energy to go.  And I often found myself tired out or injured when I do that.  The non-running days are either filled with your-choice cross training slots or rest days, and I plan to fill those with either yoga classes or core work.  I found a series of 9 core exercises that promised a set of nice abs if you do it 4x a week for at least a month.  I don't think I can commit 4x/week to it, nor can I do the suggested number of rep, and I have too much fat protecting my abs so I won't be seeing a 6-pack in a month.  But I know that core muscles are important for running and I also know that if I keep at it for long enough it will pay off.

So Monday I did my core exercise since there was no new episode of Castle and I went running on Sunday.  The site where I found these exercises suggest 3-5x of 12-15 reps per move, but I decided to take it slow and only do 2x10 reps for each, just to see how it feels.  I'm still feeling it today, 2 days after my exercises.  I guess taking it slow was a good idea since I haven't had the thought to quit yet.

Yesterday I went for my first 2-miler.  That's the first week of the training plan: 2:2:2 miles.  Easy right?  It's gets longer later on but the short runs don't get too bad.  I hope by the time I have to do 7-12 mile long runs it would be warm enough to do them outside since I can't imagine the boredom of doing that on the treadmill.  But the 2 miler went okay, and I was proud that I did go since I had a serious issue of laziness last night, and the weather didn't really help either.

So so far so good, I really hope I can complete this 25K with ease and lack of injury.

Exercise Diary: Best Treadmill Run

By which I was very surprised.

I was going to go yesterday since it would give me a day to rest before my Monday runs, and there was an NCIS marathon on TV.  But I didn't.  I made spicy fried chicken and ate too much for lunch, and although I finished lunch by 2pm I still felt like throwing up by 6.

Which was pretty much what happened today as well, this time with creamed potatoes and spinach.  It was a variation on the creamed parsnips and spinach I made for Thanksgiving, but I realized that I don't really care for the slightly sweet root vegetable.  The result today was too much cream and too big a portion, I'm sorry to say.

My stomach felt like lead for most of the afternoon and I took a nap before my 6pm run.  I felt dizzy just lying still in bed and that was kind of terrifying, and I wasn't sure if I should go, but when I got up I felt most of the food had passed on to the lower intestines and I felt better.  I did a one-minute plank and walked around for half an hour before changing into the my gym clothes and left for the gym.

The run went really, really well.  Despite my big lunch I did drop a few pounds this week (yes even with the Thanksgiving feast and my fried chicken lunch yesterday) through dieting.  It wasn't a real diet, I just didn't feel like eating and when I did eat I didn't care for big portions or meat or a lot of fat.  I can't explain the origin of this lack of interest in eating a lot but I'm glad I did and didn't question it much.  And as a result I went back down to the weight I was before I stopped running regularly, and that was way back in June.

Anyways, probably because of my light body I felt extra energetic today.  I preempted my run with a 9 minute warm-up walk while searching for something suitable to watch (Brave that was playing on ABC family), and did 2 miles on my initial, faster speed (4.6 mi/hr, not very fast, but still).  This almost never happens to me, as I usually poop out after a mile.  Then it got hard for my breathing and my heart, but instead of stopping to walk I slowed down to a even slower jog and kept at that for another half mile before walking for ~2 minutes.  But I started to jog again until I finished an approximate 5K.  Then I walked for a bit more to cool down before stopping.  The treadmill read 53 minutes but my Nike+ said 46, and apparently I achieved my fastest 5K yet.  The time was similar to my last and only 5K race, at about 40 minutes (I ran that 5K with my Nike+ app running as well but the distance didn't quite match so it didn't register as a 5K, oh well).  I know I'm not very fast by any standards but I felt really good afterwards.  My foot didn't hurt, my ankle didn't hurt, and I didn't even feel that much fatigue in my muscles, which means that next time I can run a bit longer if the my time allows.  And if I drop a few more pounds maybe I'll even try to run a bit faster at some point.  Small victories~

Exercise Diary: Castle Mondays, Yoga Tuesdays

I did go running last week.  Not yoga though, my lab mate was very good at talking me out of it.

But I went yesterday.  And it was a good class, unlike last time. Which was two weeks ago and it was terrible.  I think the key here is focus.  I wasn't last time.  I had lots of things on my mind, like lab experiments, and airplane tickets for trips back home. I was distracted by the bright light above me, I was unfocused by the new location I was forced to be in at that class.

But this time I was focused.  The class was only half occupied since most people have gone home for winter break, and we had a new teacher who introduced to us some new variations of poses. I felt stronger within each pose, but weaker in between.  The room was extra hot and humid that day and I had to take child's pose multiple times, for the first time ever.  But I didn't have a lot of other things in mind and was focused for the most part.  And it was a very good class.

Thanksgiving this week and my friend and I are trying to make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  She's brave enough to tackle the turkey and I'm just making the side dished, and the gravy. I'm making a mashed potatoes casserole, a vegetable dish, stuffings, and an ice cream pumpkin pie. The mashed potatoes is already too salty, and that is before I added any bacon or cheese... the pumpkin pie  looks okay, if my freezer will work as it should.  Stuffing is in the slow cooker, and hopefully it will taste fine. I'm excited to see how everything comes together tomorrow, although it is kind of ridiculous to do so much work just for a dinner.

Will post pictures and they usually look better than they taste.

Exercise Diary: iTouch fixed!

Ever since my acute manifestation of plantar fasciitis on my right foot I have not been running regularly at all.  And now that the summer, and fall, are over, I'm saddened that I probably won't be running outside until maybe April of next year, which is about a month after I started running this year.  Not that I have not been hopeful: last week at TJMaxx I bought a running jacket that looked as if it could fend off some cold.  Useless for the dead of winter, but I'm still leaving myself chances, should I want to run outside at some point.

I have been very hesitant to run outside, partly due to my laziness, partly due to my self-consciousness of being seen, but more due to the fear that half way through my run my foot would throw me a curve ball and I would be stuck in the middle of nowhere.  So the result is that I haven't been running outside at all.

But for the past few weeks, especially since the end of September, I have been running or ellipticaling  every Monday night from 10-11pm.  That particular time slot because Castle is on TV.  Since the cold set in I embraced the fact that I will not be wasting the nice NH weather by choosing to run inside, but rather I no longer have a choice (especially if I want to run in the evenings, although before this week there are plenty of hard core undergrads who run really late at night).  And watching an episode of good TV show really pass the time.  And on Tuesdays I sometimes go to yoga classes.  That's less consistent, because although I have a yoga buddy we are very good at talking ourselves out of going due to laziness masked as tiredness.  But I went last week and will go again tomorrow so hopefully the pattern gets to keep going again.

So the iTouch thing.  My GPS watch doesn't really do step count or stride measurements so it's useless if I'm running nowhere indoors.  Before I got my GPS watch I have been using the Nike+running app with a sensor that I bought separately to keep track of my runs.  Although the sensor works quite well I really wanted a map of where I went, and make my own routes, so the urge that got me the watch.  But during my recent runs something went wrong.  The sensor was obviously working, as it accurately tracked my pace, and the timer on the app was happily ticking away, but no distance was measured.  It happened twice and didn't make any sense.  I ended up fixing it by the oldest tech method: I turned my iTouch off and back on again.  And it worked...  My iTouch is old and has been behaving strangely lately.  I hope it doesn't die before I get an iPhone sometimes next year (although how I'm supposed to track my treadmill runs with an iPhone without holding it while running is beyond me).  But I really hope the iTouch won't ever poop out, as least not before the battery on my sensor dies.

More running news: I got another pair of running shoes.  I know, I know.  Although I haven't been running regularly lately at all (I even lost interest in my Runner's World magazines) I still have the urge to buy running-related gears.  Since the pond disaster I have purchased another pair of sports capris, sports bra, and running jacket.  And now the shoes.  They are Saucony Cohesion 7, not very high end within the brand and they were on sale on Amazon.  But I've always wanted to try a pair of Saucony, and ended up buying a pair of size 9.  They fit fine; felt slightly bigger than my normal shoes but not by too much, and after replacing the insoles with my own Dr. Voldemort (You-Know-Who, get it?)'s special insole they actually felt really good.  I did almost 4 miles today in them and my foot didn't really act up at all during my run.  My Archille's heels were unhappy, not sure if it's because of the shoes or the insoles, or just because I'm overweight and don't exercise regularly.  But my plantar fascia always acts up during my previous runs and it usually takes a week of not doing any more exercise for it to be normal again for the following Monday.  So hopefully with the new shoes my foot won't be as agitated and I can get more runs in during the rest of the week.

On the food side, lots of fall-related recipes tried over the last two months, mostly desserts.  Will dedicate a separate post on that.

Foodie Diary: Moon Cakes~

Ignoring the shameful fact that I have not been updating my blog as I really should (I even went to the gym more than a few times since my last post!), the food related posts on this blog has really been lacking, which is in no way an accurate reflection of what is actually going on in real life.  I have been trying quite a few new recipes recently, and I've only neglected to write about my culinary escapade is because although they are new recipes to me, they really aren't anything to write home about.

I recently upgraded my computer (finally) to Mavericks for the sole reason so that I can download Microsoft's Onenote.  It's essentially a digital notebook but the layout is quite amazing and very user friendly.  Thus I've started a recipe notebook and it's been growing quite robustly.

But anyway, today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, a Chinese holiday that falls on the lunar 8/15, a day that supposedly has the brightly full moon.  It's sort of like the Thanksgiving in America, a time when people get together with their families and to cherish the company of each other.

Another important tradition is to eat the moon cake.  It's an extremely sweet pastry filled typically with things like red bean paste, lotus paste filled with salted duck egg yoke, and weird things like nuts and even seaweed.  Personally I never really liked moon cakes, for I dislike any desserts that are overtly sweet.  But I like traditions and I like to try and make these things myself.  One of the few advantages of living in the middle of nowhere is that you have the motivation to make all the things you want to eat yourself.  Hey, it's more fun than doing experiments in the lab.

So at some point a few weeks ago I was inspired to make snow-skined moon cake, which is a more recently invention that involves very translucent crust made of sweet rice flour and fun, non-traditional filling that can involve fruit, chocolate, and even ice cream.  I somehow got into my head that it would be easier to make than traditional moon cake, but I was probably more interested in the non-traditional fillings.  I really don't like red bean paste or lotus paste.  My teeth are hurting just thinking about them...

Finding the ingredients proved to be a challenge that involved translations, wikipedia-ing, and endless search in the local supermarket.  I don't have easy access to an Asian market but our local store is more like a whole foods in that they like to carry weird stuff.  In the end I found everything I needed, or their appropriate substitute.

I first made the snow-skinned moon cake with green tea flavored crust and mango filling.  I don't have a pot for steaming so I followed a microwave recipe and although I followed everything to the letter the crust never came out to be what I expected.  The dough is very sticky, and the moon cakes don't look right if I add enough flour to make it unsticky.  In the end they came out not looking like the moon cakes they should look but rather like a bun with a very thick base.  They didn't look very nice since the green color made them look moldy.  But they tasted quite nice.

Normal people who make their own moon cakes usually all own their own mold so the finished products have all kinds of patterns on them.  I ended up ordering a set from Amazon but I don't think it's going to arrive till the end of the month (by then any spirit of the holiday will be long gone).  So for now all of my moon cakes take the shape of a fat disk.  I should've made my next set of moon cakes as squares but I had a brain fart when making them so they are also round.

I was unhappy with my unsuccessful experiment with the snow-skinned moon cakes (if you see a commercially available product you will see how much I have failed), so I turned to try the more traditional kind.  The recipe I got from a friend called for custard fillings mixed with crushed salted duck egg yolks, but since they pack enough cholesterol to kill a small army, and can really be found anywhere near here, I decided to use shredded coconut instead.  Because of the unsweetened but also unsalted coconut my fillings came out to be too sweet, and I forgot to add the egg when making my crust (which I suspect made the product look so pale, but overall I was quite happy with this next experiment.

The color scheme was quite unfortunate since both the coconut filling and the crust turned out to be very white.  But they tasted great (confirmed by every friend who was too polite to refuse free food), a tad too sweet but falls normally within moon cake standards.  There is a small party on Wednesday for a friend who is going back to China and I think I will make another batch.  This time I'm thinking of making the filling a bit different and more colorful by substituting some flour with cooked purple yams.  We'll see how things turn out.

中秋快乐 everyone~~

Running Hiatus: a quick update

It's been a hellish nightmare since my last short run around the pond.

Surprising it may be (to me), it's only been two weeks since my last run.  But it seems so much longer than that.

The day after my run I could feel that something wasn't right.  The right side of my right foot felt like it was spasming.  I didn't pay too much attention to it.  I could feel it while walking all the way to work, and throughout the day.  Finally I had to admit to myself that it wasn't just a simple spasm.  I could feel the pain with every step I took, to the point that I was limping up and down the stairs and the hallway.  I didn't know what it was; it didn't feel like a regular plantar fasciitis, or any other foot injuries that I could think of.  It was like something went wrong with whatever connective tissue that went through the bottom of my foot, connecting my heel bone to my little toe.  Just that one part of the foot.  And I know it had something to do with my heel because I felt better walking on my toes.

It got so bad that I decided to leave work early and just get to home.  I didn't know what I was going to do once I got home.  But I desperately wanted to be in the private comfort of my home and just ice, warm, and massage the hell out of my foot.  In the end through some twisted logic my friend and I decided to get a pedicure, since part of the service involved a foot massage.  I left the pedicure with a nice shade of forest green on my nails, but in terms of massage I got next to none.

The next morning my foot got worse as I walked to work and I decided that I finally had to see someone.  I made an appointment with our health center, and though I requested for someone who may be specialized in sports medicine I ended up with some random doctor because she was the only available doctor for the time slot I could do.

The appointment was not very helpful at all.  She basically told me that I have a severe case of plantar fasciitis, which is sort of a relief since it's not something else I picked up, just a worsening of what I already had.  She told me to take a bunch of ibuprofen for an extended period of time, and at the same time do a bunch of stretches.  I basically learned nothing new from that meeting, except for the confirmation of what I had and the permission to take huge doses of drugs.

Since then I haven't been running at all.  I went to yoga once and was pretty sure I screwed up my foot even more during the class.  I thought about going to the gym and do something that's less impact on my foot but got lazy.  I gained a few pounds back from my inactivity.  I took the pills regularly for about 3 days before giving up the regime, and I wasn't even doing my stretches regularly.  All in all I was just being a bad patient.

I also got a pair of Dr. You-know-who's half insoles that promised instant pain relief for plantar fasciitis, and it worked to some degree.  I put them in whatever shoes I was wearing and they did help with the pain relief a lot.  Until recently.  So I decided that it's finally time to take my injury more seriously.

I don't want to get complacent with my injury.  I hated that my weight is slowing getting back to my pre-run days.  I was sort of depressed that because of those few pounds I couldn't fit into the clothes I was able to wear.  I get sad that we have beautiful running weather right now and I'm out of the game.  I'm angry at myself for not going to the gym like I planned to.  I know now that I'm not going to run that half-marathon, but I would be so disappointed in myself if I give up running altogether.

I've been good with my pills and stretching today.  This is my first step toward recovery and toward getting back to running.  I will get back to being active again and I will go back to running soon.  The weight has to go down and the fat has to be burned.  There is no excuse anymore.