Half Training Week 11 Complete

This was my penultimate week before the Disney Princess Half, which is coming up so soon, Sunday February 27th. This was my highest mileage week, 22 total miles, and also included my longest run this training cycle, 11 miles. I'm still thinking after this race it will be time to replace my shoes, it's probably time now, but, I don't want to run the race in new shoes, silly I know, but they always tell you not to run a race in new gear, so I'll be abiding by this and making the half my last race in my trusty lime green Mizuno Wave Inspire 6's before I switch over to my new pink Inspire 6's that I bought on discount a couple months ago that are now waiting for me under the bed.

Monday began with an easy 5 miler, but it was anything but easy. My legs felt tired and heavy, my left shin was especially tight and achy still, I had to stop a mile into the run to stretch and massage it a little. Other than that I tried to keep the pace slower and mellow and just try to get it done. I was very happy when it was over and I could check it off my calendar this week.

 

Tuesday was tempo day, Tempo Tuesday! I'm still unsure how I feel about tempo runs, part of me likes them, part of me loathes them. The goal for this one was 1 mile warm up, 4 miles at a 10:12 tempo pace, and 1 mile cooldown. I blew it out of the water! My left shin was still achy and tight, I stopped after mile 2 and stretched and massaged and loosened up and was fine. I kept the tempo miles at a fairly consistent pace (just look at those 9:4x splits) and mellowed it out for the cooldown. Overall, a great tempo!

Thursday I ended up doing my long run due to traveling over the weekend. I had 11 miles on the schedule and it seemed overwhelming at first, but I knew I could do it, I've done it before, I could do it again. The weather was about 67 degrees out and cloudy, but incredibly windy. Nothing hurt on this run and I felt great. I ended up taking one and a half Chocolate Outrage GUs, one at 3.37 miles and one at 6 miles. I carried my handheld water bottle, which I have been doing on most outdoor runs longer than 3 miles lately, and I refilled it when I took the GU at 6 miles. I love the handheld, I love being able to sip on water whenever I need it and not having to worry about finding a water fountain or ducking into a store or gas station or the gym. Overall, I think I kept a pretty steady pace, and I walked away from the run feeling like a bad ass, definitely confident that the PR I am so lusting after at Disney is possible! Here's hoping I have a good day that day!

Totals:
Monday: 5.06 miles, 51:38, 10:12 av pace
Tuesday: 6 miles, 59:34, 9:55 av pace
Thursday: 11 miles, 1:50:17, 10:01 av pace

Pear and Blue Cheese Pizza

I've been meaning to blog this recipe for a while now. My obsession with this pizza began on Christmas Eve when my family went to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner, the Cheesecake Factory, my aunt decided to order the Roasted Pear and Blue Cheese Pizzette from the small dish menu as her entree and let me have a bite. From that bite I was smitten. I knew I had to have more and find a way to make it at home and make it healthier since I know the one at Cheesecake Factory is probably loaded with calories and fat and I could lighten it up quite a bit at home. First things first, we begin with a homemade whole wheat crust. I use my breadmachine to make the pizza dough, I'll include my recipe for that in the case you may have a breadmachine, if you don't any pizza dough will do, but a thin dough seems to be the winner with this pizza or pizzette. I decided to keep it small, using my smallest cookie sheet as the baking pan, the sheet measures 13 1/4" L x 9 1/4" W x .625" D, it's the perfect size for two people or makes two meals for one it seems.

Pear and Blue Cheese Pizza (Hot Housewife Original, adapted from Cheesecake Factory menu item)

Ingredients:
1/2 of 1.5 lb whole wheat pizza dough recipe (see below) or any pizza dough of your choosing that will fit in pan

3/4 cup Italian Style Six Cheese Blend Shredded Cheese, Divided
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
1/2 D'anjou pear, peeled, cored, and sliced thin
1 tsp olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
2.Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface to desired thickness, I prefer it thin and with my dough recipe and this amount to fit in the pan, the dough ends up being fairly thin.
3. Spray cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Shape dough into pan.
5. Drizzle and then brush the EVOO on the dough.
6. Peel and mince garlic and then spread on dough.
7. Sprinkle half the Italian cheese on dough.
8. Arrange sliced pears on pizza.
9. Sprinkle the 1/2 cup of blue cheese crumbles on top of pizza and especially on top of pear slices.
10. Sprinkle remaining half of Italian cheese on top of pizza.
11. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
12. Cut and enjoy.

I cut into 8 slices and each slice is roughly 95 calories, 3.5 g fat, 12.5 g carbs, 1.7 g fiber, and 3.5 g protein using the whole wheat dough recipe below.

Breadmachine 100% Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (1.5 lb):
Add to machine in order listed
1 cup water (80-90 degrees F)
3/4 tsp honey
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 3/4 tsp yeast

Set breadmachine to pizza dough cycle and 1.5 lb loaf size and let it do it's thing. When it's done, for the pizza recipe above you will only need half, so divide the dough in half (I use my food scale to ensure I make my dough balls equal halves by weight) and then use half and tightly wrap the other half in plastic wrap and then place in a freezer Ziploc bag and freeze for another time.

 

Half Training Week 10 Complete

Another week done, glad it's over. This week was harder to get through thanks to 2 days of snow being dumped on us in my area, which in turn closes down the city, and I ended up doing some traveling which interfered with my long run plans. It was a hard week to get my mileage in and while I was supposed to get in 21 miles this week, I only ended up getting in 16 miles.

Tuesday I had a hectic day of running all around town, but I had to squeeze in 4 miles, so to the treadmill I went and pounded it out, 4 easy miles with negative splits.

 

Wednesday I got up early and needed to beat the snow and get in 7 miles of speed repeats. Holy moly was that hard! My left shin started aching and the gym was a sweatbox, I was literally soaking wet. I had to stop once during the run to stretch and adjust my shoe and rub my leg a little. I'm wondering if my shoes are starting to go, they only have around 200 miles on them, but the wear pattern on the outside of the left heel is pretty bad, the soles are pretty slick, and the left is what is bothering me, the right is fine and the right shoe is fine as well, so that's what's making me think maybe it's the shoe. The repeats were really a mental battle. It was supposed to be 1 mile warm up, half mile recovery jog, then 3 miles of speed repeats at 9:33 with half mile recovery jog between each, and then 1 mile cool down. I pounded it out though and victory was mine in the end.

 

 Saturday I was supposed to take on 10 miles, it didn't happen. I was out of town and didn't pack the proper clothes to run outside, so my only option was a treadmill. Ten miles on a treadmill in a hot gym is just torture, plus my shin was still achy and truthfully, I wasn't properly fueled or in the right mindset to do such a long run. I made a deal with myself, crank out 5 miles, half the scheduled mileage, and call it a day. I did it and was just happy it was over, and even managed some negative splits, woohoo!

 

19 Miles Wrapped

This training week is now logged in the books, and it was an awesome week for the most part! I had 4 runs scheduled for this week, 2 easy 2 milers, a 6 mile tempo, and 9 mile long run to close out the week. I decided this week that even though I would be forced to do most of my runs on the dreadmill, I would still pull out the Garmin and use it to time my splits. Why this never occurred to me before that I could do this I have no idea, but this makes a number obsessed runner like me very happy, especially when I can see the negative split I so know that I am logging when I am toying with the treadmill speed. So I set off this week with all gear in hand and ran my little heart out.

Tuesday an easy 2 miler was on the schedule, I love running 2 milers. They are so easy and I feel like I can just go. I always tend to be pretty conservative throughout the first mile though, as I want to sufficiently warm up, and I don't want to deviate too far from an "easy" pace, after all it's not supposed to be a speedwork session, but still, I find them quite fun. My training plan says my "easy" pace should be 11:56 or something ridiculous like that, I think that is way too slow for me, so I always tend to go quite a bit faster than that, but using the Garmin to time the splits was awesome because now I was able to see just how much faster, something the Nike+ never allowed me to by just giving me the average pace. There was a bit of a conflict this go round with the Nike+ and the Garmin, and I don't know if it's because I was late on pushing the start on one of them, or because the Nike+ ended up needing to be recalibrated at the end of this run, but Nike+ says the run was 20:27 and an average pace of 10:13, Garmin says the run was 19:54 with 10:13 and 9:40 splits, making the average pace 9:56. Big difference there. But alas, I think it's because the last time the Nike+ was calibrated it was outside, not on the 'mill.

Thursday was a 6 mile tempo run, and it was the worst run of the week. I could not focus, I just could not get my head in the game or zone out. First off I had my right contact lens in inside out, so every time I would look out the corner of my eye, everything was blurry, plus it was pretty scratchy. Every mile was a struggle. I stopped several times to stretch, catch my breath, fiddle with my eye, towel off, finally at mile 4 I couldn't take it anymore and went into the restroom and fixed my contact.

Friday was another short and sweet 2 miler with a negative split. I accidentally hit the lap button on the Garmin twice, so that :06 should be added to the 9:58 for a split of 10:04. Felt awesome compared to yesterday's disastrous tempo attempt.

Today's 9 miler was probably the best run I have ever had! It was a cool 54 degrees out and partly sunny out, perfect running weather! I wore capris and a short sleeve Under Armour tee, it was a little cool at first, but I warmed up a few minutes in. I also ran with my hand held water bottle filled with water and took my Chocolate Outrage GU at halfway, 4.5 miles, and learned it is very difficult to try to eat the GU, chug down water, run, and breathe all at the same time, especially while your nose is clogged. I finally gave in and ending up walking for a few seconds after eating the GU at about 4.70 miles so I could fish my tissues out of my SPIbelt and blow my nose. I'm proud to say I paused only once, for about 15 seconds at about 6.25 miles or so to try to refill my water bottle at a water fountain, but the fountain did not work, so disappointed I went along with my almost empty bottle. Lesson learned, during the half I will need a larger bottle or I will need my aunt to switch out my bottle at about 6 miles, and maybe again somewhere else along the way, better have her carry two just in case. Also, check out those negative splits! Most of the run was comprised of negative splits, except for lap 5, which is where I had the brief walk break where I had the GU and blew my nose. Other than the water situation, the run was amazing and I felt great, I could have gone on for a few more miles, my legs felt great, I was in a zone, I credit it mostly to the weather, I think the weather definitely influences my run more than I think. I can't wait for this week, I'm hoping we have nice weather again when I tackle my 10 miler next weekend.

Tuesday: 2 miles, 19:54, 9:56 av pace
Thursday: 6 miles, 1:02:56, 10:29 av pace
Friday: 2.01 miles, 20:40, 10:17 av pace
Sunday: 9.01 miles, 1:30:42, 10:04 av pace
Total Miles: 19.02 miles, 3:14:12, 10:12 av pace