Three Things Thursday

1. I went on a lovely ride with the ever-patient Alyssa last night. She clearly is going for canonization because I was a full 15 minutes late. Damn Google Maps and your inconsistencies. Also, I forgot to take a photo. Blogger fail. Here's an artist's rendering of our ride:

Via

2. Tomorrow, we're heading to San Francisco. Our plans include a trip to the Redwoods, a tour of wine country, an excursion to Alcatraz at night and possibly an open water swim lesson. And sourdough. Lots and lots of sourdough. Tara is watching Napoleon for the weekend, and I took him to work today so she could pick him up on her way home from work. He was a little mayor, checking out the office and making friends.

3. I finally did a CrossFit workout (WOD) as it was written! In CrossFit speak, this means I did it RX (as in, as prescribed). This morning's workout was a 200-meter row sprint followed by 10 squats while using a 35-pound kettlebell. This was repeated ever three minutes for seven rounds. It wasn't a particularly tough workout, but it's validating to finally do a WOD as prescribed.

Win it Wednesday: BarkBox

Napoleon works really hard for this blog. He's constantly modeling medals, proofing my work and trying to take naps while we're disturbing his slumber with our incessant activities. This thankless gig has finally netted him something tangible: a BarkBox!

Mr. Man, as we call him, is always very excited when I get mail. This is the first time a package has arrived for him, so he was beyond elated. Alas, he has no thumbs, so I had to help him out. The result:

What is this thing?

I smell stuff for me, mama

Just checking out the wares

BarkBox is a monthly subscription service that sends specially selected items to your furbaby each month. You select the size of your dog and your dog's birthday upon signing up and plans range from $19 to $29, depending on how long you commit to it and how big your pooch is. Also, 10 percent of the sales are donated to rescue groups.

This particular box cost $29 and was provided to me for review. Here's a closer look at what was inside:

This box contained two large bags of treats, two treat sticks and a new toy for the little boss (another moniker Napoleon gets in our household). It also contained a card suggesting activities for the puppy face:

If you have a picky pup, this would be an excellent way to try new treats and toys. Lucky for us, Napoleon actually loves the treats from ALDI ... just like his momma. This would be an indulgence in our house, for sure, but I do like to spoil our puppy baby from time to time.

If you want the opportunity to show the furriest member of your family some extra love, I've got a deal for you! I'll be giving away one BarkBox using RaffleCopter. The randomly selected winner will be announced on May 30, so enter now!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Take Time Tuesday

This week, I want to send a very special shout out to my dad. He's saved my butt several times in just the past few weeks.


Example one: When some jackass stole my catalytic converter, he drove an hour to swap cars with me, then drove a very unpleasant hour back to his house in my Harley-sounding space ship and spent the afternoon driving my busted up car around to get different widgets fixed. Did I mention that his guy saved us nearly $1,300 on the repair?

Then, he helped Tim with a tax issue that's going to save us a bundle. It's great to have his expertise on call and saving us time in addition to money.

Plus, he made us these steaks for Mother's Day and is rumored to be Napoleon's best friend when my parents watch him while we travel.

I'm very thankful for my dad this week and every week.

What's the best advice your dad gave you?

Scenes from the Weekend: The Peoria Road Trip Recap

Taking a page from Irina's book, I put together my photos from the weekend to help me recap all the fun we had running the Run River City Marathon Relay in Peoria on Sunday. Here's a look a what went down outside of my race recap.

On Friday, I took the day off of work and went for a one-mile swim followed by a 40-mile bike ride. Napoleon was exhausted just thinking about it. I rewarded myself with an iced coffee. 

When we rolled into town Friday afternoon, we visited Bradley to see what had changed. The top right is a display in the new alumni center. It's a serving set the college's founder, Lydia Moss Bradley, once owned. The statue at the bottom is her, and it's the Founder's Circle. We used to go pose with her after evenings of celebrating. The lower left is BU's new and amazingly equipped gym. It has state-of-the-art machines, a great pool, a climbing wall and various sport courts. 

Friday night, we visited our old haunt for dinner: One World. Best coffee and hummus in the world, hands down. I went with a sangria, then we split a Secret Garden pizza, a plate of hummus and spinach dip. The pizza wasn't as good as I remember, but the hummus was even better than I remembered. If you're ever in Peoria, this is the spot you have to do to. We followed it up with another college-day favorite, Kellehers. Great beer.

Saturday morning, I got up really early and walked around Peoria so I wouldn't wake up Amber and Rachael. I saw the sun rise over the Illinois River, checked out some statues and headed back to the Four Points by Sheraton. My quick review of this place: We paid $70 a night and it was worth it. The beds were comfy, but the toilet didn't really flush and the interior could use an update. We also went to BU for a group photo, as well as a quick 2-mile campus run. 

 Race prep! I bought a pair of Saucony Kinvara 3s at the expo for $55. This is a stellar price and they're a 10 wide, exactly what I wanted to try. Amber and Rachael studying the course map and my traditional pre-race pho. We went to Thanh Linh is a place we never went to in college, but who knows why. The food was quite good and the pho did the job.

Rachael and Jackie getting ready race-day morning; post-race Taco Bell lunch sauce that was very profound, and an iced coffee with puppy run.  Closing the loop on the coffee and Napoleon pics of the weekend.

Run River City Peoria Marathon Relay Race Recap

Back in the day, I did not run. In college, I occasionally went to the sparsely equipped on-campus gym to use the elliptical while watching reruns of Unsolved Mysteries. I kid you not. There were huge swaths of my college existent in which no physical activity took place.

This weekend, I experienced Peoria in a whole new way, through the eyes of a runner. My lovely fellow alumnae and I decided to give Peoria another shot and signed up for the inaugural Run River City Marathon Relay months ago. We made a whole weekend out of it and had a fabulous time (which I'll recap tomorrow).

On Saturday, we took the short walk down to the Peoria Riverfront Museum to pick up our packets. We were already leery - the course for the relay and the marathon as a whole had changed several times in the past week and we weren't sure who should run each leg based on the distances and elevations. The expo was disappointing - it was really just three tables for charities, a store and the place to pick up your stuff. When we asked for further guidance about the legs, the people there looked at us like we were aliens. It was 3:30 p.m. and the expo had been going on since 10 a.m., so we were surprised we were the first to ask.

After much discussion, we decided Rachael would go first (and babysit the baton overnight), Jackie would run second, Amber be next and I would run last. The legs were split into roughly 6.1, 6.3, 5.75 and 7.7 miles each, respectively, and at each exchange, we would have to  both pass over the timing mat with the baton at each interchange. Oh, and there was no race-provided shuttle, so we relied on fifth team member Chris to Sherpa us from stop to stop. Thank goodness he knows this city more than the people who wrote the directions.

Race morning, we donned our matching Beta Sigma Babes shirts that Jenny made us, walked down to the start line and watched Rachael start. Then I ate breakfast while waiting for the first exchange. Jackie picked up the baton flawlessly and ran a fantastic 8:55 overall pace. Our little firecracker is quite the speedy one. The following interchange went just as smoothly and then it was my turn to run.

By this time, the sun was high in the sky and the humidity was out. Lovely match, right? I noshed on my homemade running fuel, since it had been several hours since I last ate. The baton was quite sweaty and slippery by then, and I was also super scared I would drop the baton/spirit stick.  I took the baton from Amber, who told me there were no bathrooms and only mile markers on the odd miles, and no timing clocks. Welp, at least I knew.

My leg started through a nice residential area where families were sitting out watching the runners. There was a house offering gummy bears, another with sliced oranges and many with ice (THANK YOU) and water. There were also plenty of thoughtful residents who turned on their sprinklers. My favorite was a house that had a huge inflatable Santa with a sign in its hand that said "Respect Your Pace" and signs up the yard that said "Run Run Run As Fast As You Can, You're Going to Beat that Gingerman!" Adorbs.

As I may have mentioned, it was hotter than blazes. I felt bad for the marathoners and saw two medical assistance situations on my 7.7-mile journey. I also had to take a walk break midway through because of the heat and got annoyed that I was running through some very undesirable parts of Peoria. I kept counting down until when I would see the ladies again - we all got to rejoin our team in the last .3 miles to finish together, and I was there before I knew it.

We actually had to pass another team in the last few hundred yards because we wanted to make sure we got our own team photo. We finished together and found water, oranges and bananas in the finisher's chute. I got stretched out and met up with Chris and Kristin, our Peoria-based support crew, then wandered on over to the post-race "party." I say this in quotes simply because it consistently of a really great cover band that I would have loved to watch, but there was not a lick of food to be had. There was a food truck charging for snacks and a Michelob Ultra truck serving unlimited beer, but no bagels or snackies. There really wasn't any reason to stick around after finishing.

Thank you, Chris!

The lack of post-race food and on-course bathrooms perplexed me big time. It was fine for a relay, but if I was running the full marathon, I would have been pissed. They charged $75 for the full (if you bought in early), and I wouldn't feel like I got my money's worth in that instance. Every distance also got the same medal with different ribbons, so especially if it was my first marathon, I'd be a bit underwhelmed. It's strange for a 5K to get the same medallion as a marathon. The Web site also over-promised, saying there would be a bacon stop and a mariachi band. Those never materialized.

Also, I don't know how we could have done this race without Chris. There was supposedly no on-course parking, even though I noticed lots of cars downtown that we had to dodge.

All that said, we had a great time running the relay and thought that was very well-done. It was a fun way to run together without being side-by-side and still accomplish something pretty amazing. Since this is the first year of the race, I think they just have a few kinks to work out before runners will start clearing their schedule for this event. It's awesome for Peoria and its economy to have this race as a tourism draw and I look forward to the day that it's a destination race.

Cost: $35 for the relay with early registration

Time: 4:06:34 for the whole marathon, which is 8th out of 50 female relay teams. My 7.7-mile leg was 1:09:54 for an 8:58 pace.

Pros: Awesome medals, nice gender-specific tech shirts, free parking, unlimited post-race beer, fantastic community support.

Cons: Sparse on-course bathrooms, poor pre-race communications, tiny race expo, no post-race snacks, not a lot of signage on course (for the relay or the race itself), no instructions available for the relay hand-offs or procedure, would have been great to know there was live tracking before the event

Would I run this again?: The relay, yes. I think that have a bit of growing to do before I'd run the full (but I'm not ruling it out).

Cooking with Kelly: Homemade Peanut Butter Running Fuel Recipe

My stomach isn't what it used to be. I used to actually look forward to taking gels on my run. I mean, they tasted like frosting and I needed it because I'm running, right?

Alas, part of my tragically terrible PR attempt failure earlier this spring was what polite people refer to as "digestion issues." Those little gels were doing rather unpleasant things to my insides, which caused me to slow down considerably in the last quarter of the race, missing my PR.

In planning my triumphant underdog comeback, I investigated and tried new fueling strategies. I decided to make my own running fuel so I could control the ingredients and ensure it was all real food that agrees with my system.  I knew I'd need a combination of carbs, sugar and fats, and I wanted it to taste like something I would look forward to eating.

As was evidenced last week at my PR-setting half marathon, I've found something that's easy to digest and gives me the boost of energy I need to cross the finish line.

In terms of storage, I froze my fuel into half-Tablespoon size balls, then placed four into a snack-sized ziptop bag. I cut off one end of the bag and put it into my handheld water bottle so it was easy to grab a fuel ball and pop it in my mouth while running.  This does require a bit of chewing, but I found it to be a welcome distraction on the trail.

Creeping doggy wants some noms

Homemade Peanut Butter Oat Running Fuel Recipe

1 cup quick-cooking oats 

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2 Tablespoons chia seeds
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 teaspoon kosher salt (I like things salty, so this is optional)
1 Tablespoon raisins
1/2 Krema smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1 Tablespoon coconut oil

Mix together the dry ingredients, then set aside. Place the peanut butter, honey and coconut oil in a microwave-safe dish and heat for 30 seconds on high, then stir to combine.

Use a fork to mix the dry and wet ingredients together. You may need to add an additional Tablespoon or two of water to get it all mixing together.  I used a round 1/2 Tablespoon measuring scoop to portion these out and then froze them overnight.

I ate one at mile four and nine of my last half marathon and went for a PR, but you'll want to try these out before race day to make sure everything works for you.

The Secrets of my Recent PR Streak

The past few weeks, in spite of my sickness, have been awesome running wise. I posted a new 5K PR, then a few weeks later, took five minutes off of my best half marathon time. This is quite miraculous as these have not been my primary goals - I'm currently a little more than two months out from the Racine 70.3 Half Ironman, which is my big goal race.

So how have I come back from a horrific half marathon earlier this year to post two consecutive PRs? Here's what I've done differently that have contributed to my recent success.

1. Run less. I haven't been running as often, perhaps two or three days per week. But the days I do run, I run hard, adding intervals, speed play and time trials at least once a week. I focus on intensity in these sessions.

2. CrossFit. I am consistent with getting to my CrossFit Endurance sessions twice a week.

3. Cross train. As a triathlete, cross training is basically all I do. I'm working different muscles every day, so I don't fatigue as fast, but I am working hard most sessions.

4. Weight control. I was never that big, but every pound helps. I'm much leaner now than I was this time last year, thanks in part to the previously mentioned training techniques.

5. Pacers. Dan really helped push me to my PR on Sunday, for which I am very grateful.

Homemade running fuel

6. Visualize. I spend a little bit of time before I fall asleep most nights thinking about my upcoming race. I picture my desired pace displaying on my Garmin while I feel comfortable and in control.

7. Nutrition. I've nailed the night-before meal, and the answer is pho. It's a Vietnamese dish that's comprised of a salty broth with noodles and a bit of meat. It agrees with my system and doesn't seem to weigh me down.

8. Ditched purchased fuels. I've decided that my tummy just doesn't like the gels, chomps and bites that I used to enjoy. Instead, I've been making my own fuel at home with ingredients that I know agree with me. Come back tomorrow and I'll share the secrets of my new favorite running fuel.