Kayaking Fun

Okay, so Kevin and I went kayaking for the first time yesterday. Used a two person kayak. Had lots of fun (!!!) except for one aspect.

So it should be pretty obvious that I've got loads slow-twitch muscles...and very little upper body strength. Kevin has long arms; they're strong. And, you have to be in-sync with one another in a two-person kayak.

Kevin and I will be trying out the seperate kayaks next time.

Sad Day for the Running Peoples

Kevin and I visited with Kayla, Terrell, Brian, Trina, and Seth this weekend. We all went on a run on Saturday (minus pregnant Kayla, of course). Kevin and I did an 11-miler (whooo, that was humid and hot, but a lot of fun). Sad news: Trina, the fearless leader this summer, has hurt her achilles tendon and may not be able to make it to the half. We're praying for her right now!

Refried Go Power

Yesterday was the third day that Kevin, Seth, and myself have been eating off of a big pot of cooked beans (that's not all we've been eating, that's just a side that's lasting a long bit of time). It's got a mix of pinto, black, kidney, and red. Kevin cooked it up on Monday so yesterday I turned it into refried. Most recipes for refried call for like four cups of cooked beans and two cups of oil. Yuck! I've modified the recipe to where it's got like two cups of water and a table soon of oil (kind of like mashed potatoes). Way better.

Anyway, that's one of the carbs we've been running on lately. Yesterday, we took off toward campus around 8pm or so and played a little three-person football. I've come to realize that I need to work on two things in order to become the next Dallas Cowboy rookie of the year:

1. I need to work on acceleration and speed. I lose Kevin and Seth in about the first 3 seconds the ball is loose and it kind of looks like I'm not even trying hard; might as well just stand still and sacrafice the body with a good tackle...then die after a after short life.
2. I need to be able throw the ball farther than 12 yards...and do that accurately.

So, although I had a lot of fun running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, maybe pro football is not for me.

I'll always have the beans.

After sprinting around a bit, we came back to the house, I made refried for the next day, and then I went on a two mile run (see my time to the right). I'm pretty disappointed that I haven't sped up since I've been training for the half this summer (even by an average of 10 seconds would be great, please?!!). But I've come to realize that those large leaps of improvement only happen once a year. I had a leap around December-January where I started runing very long distances easily under 11 minutes per mile, so I'm not yet due for one.

But I'm having fun. "Run on" allergy peoples!

Long Road to the Marathon

So I've been blogging off and on for a while this summer (can you blame me? it's summer!!!). I apologize! But for a while now I've been working hard at training for various races and the upcoming big two (the half marathon and the full) and it's been consuming my creative energy. Also, I've been avoiding blogging because I haven't really been thinking a whole bunch about food lately (trying not to so that I can loose a few pounds for the races). But just now I thought "Hey, this is my blog! I can do what I please! I don't have to always talk about food!" So I'll be blogging a lot about my training for the next two to three month and if food comes up, which I'm sure it will, then I'll talk about it. Sound good? Good!

So last weekend Kayla and Terrell witnessed our pain in the local sprint triathlon (300 yard swim, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run). I killed on the bike with my best time yet of 16 mph (even though we've gone biking only like 3 or 4 times prior to the race), which totally supports my husband's belief that I'm more of a natural biker than a runner. The swim would have gone a little better if I had remembered to take off my watch before hand and if I had put my goggles on before the horn. Needless to say, my mind was not in the right place for the open water swim and I was hyperventilating for about 1/3 of the distance. Then I just held on for the run at about a 10:30 or so pace. A triathlon is just such an interesting experience, lots of transitions, multiple sports, we have to do one at least every summer.

So now were ramping up for the big half marathon with the rest of the family. At this point, I've counted 7 people from Kevin's side of the family will either be running the 10K or the half marathon in August. All because little Trina wanted to run this summer. Crazy!

So this past weekend was our second long run in the training for this race. We went out to the favorite hilly country road and started running at about 7:15. Ran 9 miles in an 11:02 pace. Boy it was hot for the last half. I'm pretty sure it was at least in the mid 80s but the humidity was pretty high so it felt hotter.

Last night, Kevin's cousin Seth went with us on a 4 mile neighborhood run. It's always nice and cool around 10 pm, so I went a little bit faster and ran a 43:17 or a 10:49 minute per mile pace. I'm not quite up to par with what I did for my last half in January, but that's pretty much a given considering it's summer time and I'm a couple of pounds heavier from eating all those gluten-free, carb-filled, rice-based, ready-made foods I discovered all spring semester (mmmm...gluten free, 120 calorie for two oreo cookies!!!! Yummm!!!!). Anyway, it was really fun to run in a pack. We don't do that too often, mainly because Kevin runs at the speed of light, and it's not very convenient to find someone who's available and at your same speed for every run.

Also on the running front, Kevin and I bought these reflective running bands for our ankles at Academy sports for about $5. They seem to work really great for our late night runs and I feel a little more confident about not getting run over. That's always nice.

So that's about it. I might blog more often now that I've come up with a new strategy. And no need to fear! I'll come back to blog about food and recipes more often after the ordeal is over.

In the words of my boss with some minor modifications, "Run on" allergy peoples!

The Whole Foods Mother Ship

I went to Austin this past weekend to visit the folks and we hit the gluten free, milk free, yada yada mother load! We picked up waffles, goat cheese, Oreo-type cookies, and bagels!!! I'll post pictures next week.