Quick Recipes for Guests

Last weekend, just after I ran the NYRR Mini 10K, Billy's parents swung by for a visit.  His parents didn't want us going to "any trouble" cooking, which was good because we went crazy trying to clean up.  All in all, it was a great day, we got a lot of necessary cleaning done around the house and we had a delicious dinner at Amanda's in Hoboken.  However, before we went out I made some quick appetizers and we had some wine from the wineries out East (on Long Island).  The appetizers were easy but tasty.

Easy Tomato Basil Skewers
I heated up the grill and bathed some skewers in water.  I loaded the skewers up with cherry tomatoes in different colors, mozzarella and basil and grilled them until the tomatoes just popped and mozzarella was oozy. We served it with balsamic vinegar and little salt and pepper.

Baked Brie
I took brie put it in a small pie plate, heated the oven to 350 degrees and covered the brie with canned pears, honey and toasted walnuts.  I baked it until that was oozy and served with crackers.

Race Season....so far: Duathlon and 50 mile cycle

I have previously posted that I have been following a training plan for triathlon season made up of two different formats, one from triplyo (minus their plyo workouts that are for sale) and from Running Mag UK. I started following them just after the More Half.  At that point I had about 9 weeks until my first race and it is completely freaking me out that I am down to only a few weeks left and already into June!  When I realized I was on page two of both workouts I had to take a step back. 

I already did my first race so the jitters should be gone, but I usually end up jittery at every race.  The first race was the Ten Penny Ale Shamrock Duathlon and 5k in Glastonbury, CT run by the Hartford Marathon Foundation.  HMF runs great events so I was eager to sign up.  My friend Jen, who ran the More Half with me, also signed up.

I had gone up to CT on Friday since Billy was away traveling for work.  I was able to walk with my dad in support of NAMI (national association for mentally ill) on May 19th at their walk in Hartford in the morning then shoot down to Glastonbury for to scope out the race bike ride route.  Always a great and recommended idea.

Packet pick up didn't start til 3 so I was outta luck there.  Jen and I had planned to go up when she got to CT but unfortunately she hit a ton of traffic and was delayed, but that gave me time to say farewell to my parents who were hitting the road to my cousin's graduation and say hi to my friend Amanda who popped by with her lil cutie baby for a visit.

Jen and I left the house at the crack of dawn at 5:15 a.m. to head to be first in line for packet pick up at 6 a.m. we were near the first one's there and it was actually great because we had our choice of space for our bikes, which were right next to each other.  The race started at 7:30 and was a 5k, 16.1 mile bike and 5k.

We also had plenty of time to stretch and get ready and evidently it worked because I ran my fastest 5K in the opening run.  I tried to keep up with Jen but lost her quickly but evidently trying to see her from far away worked as I ran a 10 minute mile for the first 5k.  The bike was hilly but doable and my hill practice with Billy definitely paid off.  The last 5k I was very worried since it seemed everyone was done and I felt awful, but I found a friend running along at my pace and worked to keep up with her and was only 4 minutes behind my previous run in total. 

I was incredibly pleased with my results.  However as approach race #2 - the Women's Mini 10k nerves are creeping up.  My next big physical event after finishing the duathlong was a 50 mile bike ride Bike Boat Bike I did with Billy on June 2nd out in Greenport/Shelter Island. 

The scenery was amazing, riding along Shelter Island past fabulous homes and taking the ferry across was great fun.  You also passed all these amazing back country farm and vineyard areas along the route. The views of the water were great and we have some decent pictures - I will get the pictures from the first race with Jen as well as from our 50 miler and post them shortly.  We (Billy & I) were very excited at having gone this distance - previously this year we'd done some 20/25's and even a 35 while vacationing in Cape Cod along the CAPE COD RAIL TRAIL, which I highly recommend for cyclists. However, finishing 50 was a big accomplishment.  Shelter Island was somewhat hilly and provided a challenge but after that first 15 it was relatively flat until the end when around 40 you encountered some hills along the north shore.  We took a break at mile 35 and I was very glad because I had started to hate sitting on the bike.

At the start of the season, I had wanted to work on my cycling more as I could use some speed and endurance and I have a huge downfall of not standing up to get uphill and applying brakes on the downhill but I am getting better and the training of being on the road and not a spin bike is helpful.  During our Memorial Day trip to Cape Cod we did 35 miles on Day 1, 15 on Day 2 and 20 or more on Day 3 (which was actually in CT as we'd gone back to my parents and that was on the Farmington Rail Trail. The trip to Cape Cod was great, we stayed in Chatham and as a reward for running early each day and working out and going biking on our last day there my toesies got a spa reward.

Happy Training and Racing! Keep on TriN!

National Running Day: June 6th Slow & Steady Wins the Race

Yesterday was National Running Day.  Did you go out running?  You couldn't miss the commotion from NYRR and the Hartford Marathon Foundation expressing their excitement on Facebook and Twitter. 

This week I had originally wanted to get in a little more swimming practice and take care of my legs but I couldn't ignore such a great holiday and ended up going for a nice, slow run on Wednesday. I have a race coming up this weekend and my legs had biked quite a few miles over the weekend. I had taken Monday off following a 50 mile bike ride on Sunday and on Tuesday I had done some sprint work and had run 3.5 miles after a doing circuits, which were pretty intense because we had 2 guys show up so the women wanted to official kick their ass.  We did 3 sets of 5 cardio exercises with 50 seconds on and 10 off - power squats were always #5. The other 4 alternated - spider pushups, burpees, one leg squats, wood choppers, jump lunges, etc.  I had a bit more time Tuesday for a run because I was up early and I wanted to take advantage of the great weather.  I did do a swim for about 20 minutes on Wednesday; however I am getting nervous that I should be swimming more with the races quickly approaching.  Eek! 

I ended up in a different area of the city for work yesterday, Wednesday, down in Chelsea, and was in close proximity to Paragon Sporting Goods and I since still had a $10 gift card from my previous purchase of a new triathlon suit, I decided to swing by.  I have been looking for a good running outfit now that will be comfy and eliminate chafing while still looking cute and decided to try a running skirt.  A few friends swear by them and I figured it couldn't hurt. Turns out, in honor of National Running Day, they were having a SALE!! Of course rather than by the one skirt I ended up buying a cute black skirt.  Pink tank top that was on sale for the holiday, two new sports bras from Nike, and a pair of odd shorts from Nike that have bike shorts built in.  I tried on the skirt his morning and it looks nice but I am wondering what it will be liking running.  Now I am breaking every cardinal rule in the book of running by debating wearing it this weekend for the Women's mini 10K so I am determined to test it out tonight or tomorrow evening so as not to have any problems. 

Last night my friends and I went to Eataly, the Mario Batali restaurant so an extra run wouldn't hurt anyone.  The place was fantastic and while my friends were too stuffed for gelato I thought that was a crime against man and had some ice cream.  I am back on the diet wagon again, putting my calories and food into myfitnesspal and following my training plan. I plan to do a quick update now on races and will post how the 10K went next week. 

Happy National Running Day and Keep on Tri'N. 

Weekly Workouts: Burning Boot Camp & Rolling Hills Spin

After Monday this week was flying by.  I posted Tuesday morning about my latest smoothie concoction and have been meaning to post here again in regards to my weekly workouts.  This weekend my friend Jen and I (same friend I ran the very hilly More Half with) are doing the Ten Penny Ale Shamrock duathlon.  The race is two 5Ks separated by a 16 mile bike ride. My thought was that this would be good race prep and a nice way to gauge how well I am training and how prepared I am for the Olympic race I am dying to take on.  This week I ended up teaching an extra Spin class on Monday, which was good because the New York city area was hit by rain all the beginning of the week.  Since I was at the gym I was able to make myself run. I hate the treadmill so whenever I have to use it I play games on it. Either surges or a fartlek or tempo changes every five minutes. 

Tuesday, I taught the bootcamp class and I took my motivation from bodyrock.tv. They've been doing videos on burn and sculpt and I thought that might make a good class.  I combined high energy "burn" movements with high weight sculpt moves.  We did 5 heart pumping moves, ie. Jumps in the step, toe touch pushups with burpees, wood choppers, skater jumps etc.  We alternated this with 4 or 5 sculpt moves using a high weight. I used 15lbs for lunges, bicep curls, lunges, dead lift, overhead press, etc.  I had 2 sets of burn moves and 2 of sculpt moves and after the warm up each set too about 5 minutes so all together 40 minutes total. It is a 55 minute class.  We cooled down with abs and I can tell you I felt it. Wednesday!

I had started using a second Olympic tri training plan in conjunction with the tri plyo one.  This one is from Runner's World UK.  It gives more detailed workouts, which is especially nice for the pool, when I am usually out of ideas. I felt I was getting more out of my two pool workouts. 

To prep fori the season and provide a good spin workout I did rolling hills on Wednesday and Friday. One minute flat in the saddle, thirty seconds on a seated climb with the last ten seconds alll out and then a one minute climb in three.  My new favorite tunes for spin are David Guetta and Sia Titanium, Nicki Minaj Starships, and Calvin Harris Let's Go.  For running I am liking Wild Ones and Breathe Carolina blackout.

Wish us luck this weekend!

Happy training and keep tri'n!

Surprisingly Delicious Smoothie - Chocolate Almond Strawberry

In the morning, I rarely want to get up never mind eat breakfast.  I am the worst morning person despite teaching at 6 a.m. I typically end up coming home, showering and laying on the coach for 30-60 minutes, especially during allergy season when I am exhausted.  Since I had no time to cook eggs and pack a lunch, I decided to make a smoothie - which I drink while getting ready and toss in the sink on my way out of the door.  This way I know I've eaten something when I get into work and have to head straight into a meeting.  Normally I make Ellie Kreiger's Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie and to it I add some chocolate protein powder but today my bananas had rotted and my milk had joined our milk graveyard (aka our collection of rotten milks both mine and Billy's) so I combined what I initially thought would be terrible and turned out to be delicious so I thought I'd share.  With nothing in the house I combined:

5 Large Frozen Strawberries (I always try to keep frozen berries for smoothies)
1 heaping teaspoon of almond butter
1/2 cup Chocolate Zico Coconut Water
Half a container of Strawberry Greek Yogurt (I hate the other half)
1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder

It looked positively frightening.  However knowing it was this or nothing I whipped up the magic bullet - SUCCESS - it tasted delicious - I kinda wanted to freeze it and make ice cream out of it or just put it in a bowl and sprinkle granola on it.  YUM.  I think the frozen berries made it thick and the butter made it creamy and it tasted great. 

I had just come from my morning workout - I am on Week #4 of training for an Olympic triathlon  -- I've yet to sign up (mostly b/c I am short on funds and slightly scared but we'll get there).  I can definitely see myself getting more fit.  Today I started the day with a mini du (10 minute run all out, 45 min spin class, 10 min jog), a little core and then swimming for 30 minutes.  I will post about my week's workout this week as well as our Burn/Sculpt bootcamp class.

have a delicious day! Keep Tri'n!

April Road Races Bring More & May Training

April was a busy month so I haven't given myself a lot of time to post entries, which I need to correct.  However, I did have a packed month.

Starting off right on April 1st (April Fools), I ran a 15k run to benefit Colon Cancer in Central Park.  I had been running long distances pretty consistently while training, but I thought a race atmosphere might be good practice for the More Half Marathon I had signed up for with Jen on April 15th.  After over-training and injuring myself at a race last year, I decided to try to train a smarter this year. I ran my fastest consistent miles for a distance over 6 miles at that 15k.  I was able to do the whole thing without any walking as well, which made me feel very accomplished. I am definitely a fan of the 15k.

With two weeks left to the race and just over a month until The Hoboken Shelter Celebration Event, life got very busy and I completely forgot to keep posting to this blog.  Circumstances weren't perfect before race day.  We ended up vacationing in Newport from Thurs-Sat and on Sat I drove back from Newport to  NY to run the race on Sunday.  Newport was amazing - we stayed in a beautiful hotel called Forty One North that was gorgeous and had the most beautiful bathroom.  Early Saturday morning, Billy's sister and I were able to go back to do yoga overlooking the marina.  I held an imaginary wedding there because the backdrop was gorgeous. I loved Newport, there was great biking and amazing walking and running along the beach and marina and the cliff walk. But not in good race prep, I ended up out very late on Friday and was exhausted on Saturday and did a long walk with the family, so needless to say by the time I got home Saturday night I could've slept for days.

The More Half Marathon was tough, tougher than I imagined.  The hills and steamy weather didn't make it any easier; however I made my goal of a 2:45 half marathon along the hills.  This is Jen and I before the race...when we still were excited about running.

After 13.1 miles and trudging up the hills. I made it to the end and ran my way to the finish line and got my medal.  Some notes on Central Park, there are some serious hills, especially as you get up towards Harlem and going around it twice does NOT make it any easier.  But it was great fun to see so many women running/walking and out moving.   I will say the Central Park More Fitness Half Marathon seemed much harder than the 15K.  I did have to succumb to walking a bit on the Half Marathon. But one thing about the Half, you never leave feeling like you didn't do anything that morning. 2,000 calories later, I was ready for some eats and a nap. This is what I looked like at the end. (see left.)

I had been doing some informal triathlon training so after the More Half I gave myself a light week.  The pain definitely kicked in two days later on Tuesday when I couldn't jump off the ground to demo for bootcamp.  Monday I had felt fine and had gone for a run and taught a kickboxing class.  However Tuesday, Wed and Thurs I took it easy.  Friday I got back into spin class and by Saturday I decided to run a 5k in Liberty State Park. The race was close by and convenient and the weather was amazing. I ran an amazing race, 32 minutes and made a new running buddy.

I found a 10 week Sprint/Olympic training program online and started in on the 23rd one week after the More Half.  Week 1 went great and the diet went well too. Week #2 which was also the week of the Shelter event was pretty good on the training side but not so good on nutrition as working late nights and early mornings for the event led me to have a few extra snacks and enjoy some cake at the event as well as a celebration brunch with my parents and a dinner from the boyfriend who unfortunately had to miss the event. Billy and I have been out using the bikes and this past weekend we logged 25 miles.  Starting week 3 this week and with unexpected rain and event recovery in progress, I started with a rest day Monday. This past weekend after my event recovery I logged 7.2 miles on Sat and Sun 25 miles with Billy on the bike as well as a 30 min run and 60 min bootcamp. I was still sore today and decided to finish cleaning and grocery shopping today rather than run in the rain.

Jen and I are planning a duathlon this month and at the end of the month we are taking in another New England favorite and heading up to Cape Cod for a 2-day getaway.  June beings a serious month of races, tris and bike rides so I am hoping now that the Shelter event is over to log some training time and get back to keeping track of the diet. Hoping to log my progress with triathlon training weekly as well as upload some new spin playlists, bootcamp workouts and recipes.

Hope everyone has had an amazing April and kept on tri'ing (and running).

Exciting News and what Pasta and Power Squats Is

  Pasta and Power Squats: A Girl Fires Up the Gym and Kitchen is a blog about my adventures as a group exercise instructor, runner and triathlete as well as my kitchen experiments, good or bad as they are. I was certified as a fitness instructor in 2006 to supplement my nonprofit income at my first job. Now, I love both jobs equally and don’t think I could give one of them up. 

I just added twitter to my blog so you can follow my posts on twitter and a gadget to receive P&PS by email.  Super getting social today!