Funny story and funny link.

I keep forgetting to post about my little masters swimming adventure on Wednesday.

The pool at the Y opens at 5:30 during the week, but I had been rolling up at 6:30 because it's usually pretty crowded right when it opens. I had to be at work at 8:30 on Wednesday, so I got there right at 5:30. I was the first one there, so I hopped into the first lane and went about my business. (I should point out here that there's only one lane divider rope that just sort of divides the pool in half, and people just use the lines on the bottom to stay in their "lanes." Good thing I finally picked that skill up!) So anyway, I'm in the first lane and about 15 minutes into my swim, another woman (whose name I eventually found out was Sue) got in the "lane" next to me and asked if I wanted to swim circles or back and forth. I said I'd rather do back and forth because I wasn't used to doing circles with other people, and she said that was fine. Ten minutes after that, two guys got in (so now there are four of us in the space of three "lanes") and sort of insisted that we do circles because one of them wanted to do backstroke. I offered to just get in a lane on the other side of the lone rope, and Sue said "no, I've seen you here before--you'll be fine with us!" At this point, I had no idea what the hell was going on, but I ended up swimming with them. Anyway, long story a tiny bit shorter, they were a masters swimming group that meets there every morning. If I had known, I would have picked a different lane to begin with, but it ended up being okay. They definitely made me kick my butt into gear, though, and Sue said I should join them for real. (Apparently, she joined the group by randomly ending up in their lane one morning too.)

This morning, the same lifeguard who was there on Wednesday was on duty and asked me how I liked swimming with the masters. I told her that I felt kind of bad about crashing their lane, but I didn't realize they had a standing thing going on. She said "oh, don't worry about it--they said you should start joining them!" The pool's closed for the next two weeks (grrr!), but I might consider it if going only once or twice a week is allowed. (Heh, and I'm pretty sure they don't know that I only know one stroke. :-p)

On another note entirely, here's a link to a great blog I found the other day: www.crankyfitness.com. Hilarious.

Change in plans.

I'm 99.9% sure that I'm going to opt out of the half marathon, and here's why:

• The whole tendinitis thing is an overuse injury. I'd rather be able to run consistently and run well than force myself to do this and make it worse.
• I don't think it's reasonable to go from a 7-mile long run (and I haven't even done that since before I moved) to 13.1 in a month. I think it would have been doable without the three-week break in the middle.

Rest assured, though, that I have a new plan of action:

• I'm going to sign up for the Oakwood Red October Run 10k on October 4. I know I can cover that distance, and it will give me something to aim for since I've never run an official 10k before.
  
• I'm going to do six miles this Sunday and keep my Sunday runs to that length for awhile, and build my two weekday runs up (or back up) to five miles each. (Slowly--adding a mile per week will keep me in line with the 10% rule. Once I get there, I'll work on adding miles to the Sunday run and maybe adding an extra short run during the week.
  
• I'm going to check into seeing a trainer to get a strength training routine.
• I'm going to be diligent about stretching.
• After I've built up a good, strong base (see bullet #2), I'll start a half-marathon training plan at the end of next April for a race at the end of next August.
  

Impressive!

Was anyone else able to catch the Olympic triathlon TV coverage? I'm watching it right now, and I'm amazed at these gals' ability to swim a straight line in the open water. (And damn, are they fast!)

The commentator is talking 10-12 seconds for the swim/bike transition. Wow.

Watching distance running, however, is kind of a snore. I tried to watch the women's marathon last night and the men's 10k earlier today, and couldn't get through more than ten minutes of either.

Back in action!

I just got in from five miles outside on pavement--no pain, no stiffness, no creaking. (I bagged making up the rest on the elliptical because the thought of being in the gym on such a nice morning was more than I could handle.) I considered going all the way to my six-mile turnaround point because I could see it from where I turned around for five, but I decided to err on the side of caution.

If I add a mile per week to my Sunday run, I can build up to ten by the race. I'm considering adding two next week since I was doing seven before I cut back and haven't been cutting back my overall activity level.

Yes!

Another week down...

I ended up sticking to my training plan this week, and just making up any miles I couldn't for-real run on the elliptical (going straight onto the elliptical from the track so I was still "going" the whole time without a break)--3 and 3 for 6 on Thursday, and 3 and 5 for 8 yesterday. I think 8 miles is my threshold for needing something more than water or the essentially calorie-free Powerade electrolyte mix-ins I found. I still haven't found a non-disgusting flavor of Gatorade, so maybe I'll stop by the running store out here (I found one in Southgate--ten or so minutes away--but I haven't been yet.) and see if they have any suggestions.

Here's what this week looks like...

Monday--off!
Tuesday--3 miles (outside!), weights or core (probably core to save myself a trip to the gym)
Wednesday--swim
Thursday--3 miles running, 4 miles elliptical
Friday--bike, weights
Saturday--swim
Sunday--3 miles running, 6 miles elliptical

This week's cooking adventure consisted of hosting a barbecue for my family. The menu looked like this:

• grilled pork tenderloin with a store-bought cinnamon chipotle dry rub (Thanks to my dad, I also learned how to regulate the temperature of my grill. Mine's charcoal, not gas, so I thought the only settings were "lit" and "not lit." It turns out that you can make it less hot by closing the vents partway. Good to know.)
• buffalo-style green beans
• southwestern baked beans
• chocolate cheesecake (I used chocolate graham cracker crumbs because I couldn't find the pre-crushed Oreos and I was not about to scrape the filling out and crush my own. I also subbed Hershey's Special Dark cocoa for the regular cocoa.)

I was really pleased with how everything turned out, and everyone else seemed to like it too.

In totally unrelated news, I'm getting settled in here and and I'm slowly but surely learning my way around. (Heh, I no longer have to Mapquest or GPS my way to Meijer.) The Henry Ford called out of the blue the week I moved and said they had another part-time stack assistant position (which is what I interviewed for earlier in the summer) open up and they wanted to offer it to me! I, of course, accepted and I go to orientation on Thursday. I guess we get to tour the whole museum and Greenfield Village, which will be fun since I haven't been to either in years. I'm still looking for another part-time gig to supplement this one, though, which brings me to the next bit of unrelated news...

I went on an interview at the DIA (for a position in their research library) on Friday! I think it went well and I'm feeling pretty optimistic about it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :)

Grilling adventures...

I totally forgot to post about my grilling fun over the last week. (I need to get it in before classes and work start again!)

The flank steak with cilantro almond pesto (click to see the recipe!) was stellar. I made the pesto earlier in the day and wasn't wild about it when I tasted it, but once it was actually on the steak, it was really good. I'd never had flank steak before, and I'll definitely be buying it again. I've already used the leftovers in a salad one day and in a wrap another. And yes, I still have three servings left in the freezer. Why can't stores sell steak in increments of less than a pound?

The beer can chicken was pretty much a disaster. I discovered that the lid wouldn't fit on the grill with the chicken standing upright, so I had to do some quick thinking and decided to just put a peach inside and grill it that way. I checked the temperature before I took it off the grill, and the thermometer read 180 like it should. I let the chicken sit for ten minutes while I grilled some veggies (asparagus and portabella mushrooms--yum!), and then cut it open. I discovered, however, when I went to portion out the leftovers that it was nowhere near cooked when I got past the first few slices. The pieces I had already eaten were cooked through, but I had to toss the whole rest of the bird because, ew. This was my third failed attempt at cooking a whole chicken (the other two were in the oven), so I think I'm done with that particular entree.

Boo, hiss.

So, the ankle. I thought it was all good after my first two-mile run last week. I did six on Thursday and it was a little rough, but not painful enough to make me stop or anything. On Friday, it was really stiff and sore again so I made an appointment at the student health clinic on campus. I had done some reading before I left (thank you, CADL) and was a little worried that it might be an achilles strain or tendinitis. I was supposed to do eight miles on Sunday, but I was nervous and only did four-ish. (I did, however, do the bike and elliptical to round out the whole 80ish minutes the eight miles should have taken me--I figured I should at least keep building up the cardio endurance.)

Long story longer, I was fine after the four on Sunday and fine after three this morning, but I went to my appointment anyway. The nurse practitioner I saw said that it's tendinitis, but that it was good that I'd taken the week before off and that I backed off after the six last Thursday. She said I don't have to back off from running entirely, but that I should keep it to three miles three times a week (and to try to avoid concrete) for the next two weeks and then to ease back up gradually after that. She also gave me instructions for icing it (which I had been doing anyway) and gave me some stretches to do. It turned out that she was a former runner and she's done the Crim and a few half marathons herself. She said that since I'm already at the point of doing seven miles, I should still be fine for Capital City even with the little break.

So. At least I can still run some, and at least nothing else is off limits. I think I'm going to do what I did on Sunday for the other days I have longer runs scheduled, and do alternative cardio to make up the rest of the time I'm supposed to be running. Everything I've read about long runs says that the point is endurance, and even though it won't be all running, I think it would still be beneficial to be working that whole time.