Wednesday Write-up- Waffle Edition!
If you read my blog, you know I’m a pilates freak. And by pilates, I mean waffles. -Zach Galifianakis Yep, I did it! I followed Deborah’s advice and made her cinnamon coffee cake waffles ASAP! I seem to be incapable of following a recipe as written, however, and I hate when people make a thousand changes to a recipe and then write a “review.” So let’s just say my waffles were based on her idea- I made a few changes to make them vegan, and used teff flour (not that teff flour is actually interchangeable with the flours her recipe called for- but it worked.) I kept the basic idea of coffee, cinnamon (and nutmeg and allspice) and a scoop of protein powder. My waffles didn’t come out as pretty as Deborah’s- teff flour is very dark brown- but they were delicious. But I’ve been doing more than sitting around eating waffles! I just finished reading Into the Furnace: How a 135 Mile Run Across Death Valley Set My Soul on Fire by Cory Reese. I’ve been wanting to read this book for years, ever since I discovered his blog. Cory lives in Utah and blogs about his amazing running adventures. His race recaps are hilarious and the photos are beautiful, and I promise if you read them, you’ll start making plans to move to Utah and run 100 mile races. Or at the very least, you’ll put the St. George marathon on your bucket list immediately. Unfortunately (for us) Cory hasn’t blogged much in the last couple of years, but here is a recap of his “Cor-Run-a-Virus 100 Miler,” where he ran a .9 mile loop around his neighborhood, for 100 miles. The title pretty much says it all for this book- Into the Furnace is the story of Cory’s experience running Badwater 135, known as the “World’s Toughest Foot Race.” The descriptions of the heat and his sleep deprivation are intense. He also explains how he trained for the race (in addition to all the running miles, he sat in a sauna for hours at a time to build up his heat tolerance.) I love stories like this, and Cory writes in a very inspirational way. Cory self-published this book, so basically he’s a blogger just like us! Except that he runs crazy long distances and took the time and energy- in addition to everything else he does- to write not just one, but two books. His first book, Nowhere Near First: Ultramarathon Adventures from the Back of the Pack, is now on my (extremely long) TBR list. I hope everyone is having a great week- check out Cory and Deborah for some fun and inspiration!
Weekly Rundown- Warming Up
It was a good week! We started off with chilly mornings (in the 50s) but by the end of the week we had morning temps in the 60s- perfect running weather for us Floridians. My foot isn’t really any better or worse, and I added a couple miles on this week. I’ll take it, happily! I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for this weekly rundown. Monday Monday was my day off as usual. Tuesday 3 mile run followed by Gauntlet Plank workout. This workout has 11 plank variations, and I do each one for a minute. Not consecutively, because that would be super-human! I can get through the first four in a row before I have to take a break. My cat is very supportive during these 11 painful minutes. Wednesday Another 3 mile run and the foot felt fine. I couldn’t face another plank workout afterwards, so I did some pushups instead. Thursday Strength training day. For whatever reason I had a very, very strong aversion to my barbell this morning, so I did body weight exercises instead- the Runners Touch and single leg squats. I’ve shared it before but I’m sharing it again because I think the Runner’s Touch is a great exercise. In this video the guy is wearing shoes, but I do it barefoot to work the muscles in my feet. I also did my assisted pullups, followed by “negatives” where you use a stool or bench to boost yourself up into the pullup position, then lower yourself down as slowly as possible. Ouch. Friday Running! After a day of being stuck indoors doing strength, running outside felt like a huge treat. Another 3 mile run, followed by the plank workout. Saturday I sucked it up and got out my barbell for squats and deadlifts. I’m currently squatting 45 pounds, which means if I were in the gym I would be squatting the bar (sigh!) I add another 10 pounds when I do deadlifts, and that’s all my barbell can safely hold. Which means if I want to add any weight I’m going to have to get back to the gym. Not sure how I feel about that! For now I can add more reps to the weight I’m already doing. When I went to do pullups, I found that a muscle on my right side was alarmingly sore. Even doing them assisted with a band, pullups are really hard for me and I know (from experience) that I can’t mess around if something hurts, so I skipped them. Sunday I woke up sore from the weights yesterday. Anyone else have the experience where your legs are really sore, the soreness disappears while you run, and then comes back immediately afterwards? So strange. I ran 4 miles! Not a “long” run, but getting longer! To end I’m sharing a quote from the book I’m reading (which I’ll talk more about later this week.) The author uses quotes to begin each chapter, and this one is attributed to “unknown”: “I hope there are days when you fall in love with being alive.” Have a great week everyone!
Do Politics Belong on a Running Blog?
Good question. Politics nowadays are so divisive. The whole point of blogging is to build connections and bring people together. Do we really want to alienate fellow runners because they didn’t vote for the same person we did? How many of you have had that sinking feeling when you realize a person, who you thought you liked, voted for the wrong person- and then you start to think that maybe you don’t really like them so much after all. I know I have. It’s come to the point where being a Democrat or Republican is comparable to rooting for a sports team. I grew up in a north suburb of Chicago, and we were all Cubs fans. I literally didn’t know one single White Sox fan growing up, and nothing you could have said to me would have convinced me that the White Sox were a better team. People vote Democrat or Republican in a similar manner. Most people (including myself) couldn’t actually discuss in detail any specific policy their candidate supports, but we all know who we’re voting for- we won’t vote against our team. And there are a lot of factors that go into becoming a Democrat or Republican, and interestingly, recent studies have shown that some of them are inherited. Certain characteristics, like a craving for novelty, the propensity to feel disgust, and the tendency to sense danger all influence whether people are conservative or liberal, and these are things we’re born with. It’s probably a good idea to have a mix of these characteristics in a society to balance things out. In this post I had my little rant about how politicians and the media are trying hard to polarize us- but in the end I still believe our similarities are greater than our differences. I say, put whatever you want on your blog! Personally, I like a strong, well-stated opinion. But I’m also wary about writing anything that will enforce the “us” versus “them” notion. In the end I believe we all want the same things, and especially in this blogging community, we need to build each other up and not alienate people. Hey, but this is a running blog after all so I’m going to share this clip of Joe Biden running! Not bad for a 78-year-old who isn’t actually a runner. And of here’s one Kamala Harris out for a morning run- and here she talks (briefly) about her workout routine: “It has nothing to do with your weight… it’s about your mind.” I sure we’re all united in hoping for a peaceful day tomorrow.
Weekly Rundown- Moving Forward
Well, it wasn’t an exciting week around here, but since nowadays exciting seems to equal bad, I’ll take it! The only change in my foot situation (which I like to call the “deluxe” version of plantar fasciitis) is that I had a mindset shift. I decided to stop babying it so much, and proceeded (cautiously) to add a fourth day of running to the week. This week I’m linking up with Deborah and Kim for their Weekly Run Down! Monday Monday was my day off, as usual. Tuesday 3 mile run. I’m sure running slowly, but it feels great. After running through the sweltering Florida summer, we’re getting our reward this month. Beautiful morning temperatures in the 50s! I did the Gauntlet Plank Workout after this run. Wednesday This title of this blog could also be “The Reluctant Strength Trainer.” If I could just run every single day I would be in heaven. Since I live on planet earth though, I’ve been very good about strength training twice a week. I do squats, deadlifts, and pullups (using a band to assist- dreams someday of doing an unassisted pullup!) Lately I’ve been adding some single leg exercises as well, and on this day I did single leg squats. Funny thing about this photo! This was as low as I could go, and it felt like my thigh was parallel to the floor. Ha ha… not quite! Looks like I have some work to do. Thursday 2 mile run. This was my added 4th day of running so I kept it short. But it felt great. Followed up with Gauntlet Plank Workout. Friday 3 mile run. My foot felt fine, even after running two days in a row. Victory! It was a busy morning so all I did was run (living the dream!) Saturday Strength training again, and this time I did the Runners Touch. This one is hard if you’re not used to it! I’ve done it on and off throughout the years, and one thing I like about it is it takes a lot of foot strength to keep your balance. I need more foot strength right now so I’m adding this into my routine several times a week. Sunday Words can’t really describe how much I miss doing a long run on Sundays. I miss getting up early and heading out for 2-3 hours with my gel and podcasts. SIGH. Today I ran 3 miles and guess what- it’s way better than 0 miles so I’ll take it. It’s hard coming back from an injury but I’m going slow. I’ll get there eventually! Followed up this run with the Gauntlet Plank Workout. One last thought. You know that question “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?” (34, by the way. That’s not my actual age- that’s my imagined age, ha ha). The other day I came up with a similar question- “What would your body look like if you didn’t know what it looked like?” In other words, if there were no mirrors and you just had to go by how your body felt. With all these planks, I think I might have a six pack! It’s settled, I’m getting rid of my mirrors and just going by feel! Hope everyone has a great week!