October 29, 2012

Speed work on the track

It was windy today! Jerry was off work, so I wanted to get my run done early to hang out with him. We got the kids ready for school and sent them off on the bus, and then I drove to the high school track to do speed work.

On my schedule: 6x400 at 7:51 (ish) pace. That means I would run six repeats of 400 meters (one lap around the inside of the track, or 1/4 mile) at a 7:51 ish pace. In between repeats, I can do whatever form of recovery I want, so I decided to do 200 meters of walking (half of the track).

I could feel the wind pushing on my car, which made me really want to skip my run, but I was kind of excited to do speed work. Once I got to the school, and stepped outside, I was freezing! The wind was really strong, and there was a mist in the air, making it even colder. I considered going home and doing the intervals on the treadmill, but since I was already there, decided to just get 'er done.

I started with a lap of easy running to warm-up. Then I picked up the speed for my first repeat. I had no clue what my pace was, since this was the first time I'd done speed work in a really long time, so I decided just to run really hard.

"Hard" is an understatement! Track workouts are supposed to be hard, and make you feel like you're going to puke afterward, so I knew I was on track (haha) for a good workout. When I was running into the wind, it was hard to even breathe--it was like the wind just whipped the air right out of my lungs.

I was very tempted to call it quits after just three repeats, because it was tough and not "fun" anymore ;)  But again, I was already there and halfway done, so I told myself, "Just one more, then you can quit." I kept going, and finally finished all six 400-meter repeats. I was kind of surprised to see that I was pretty close to my goal pace! Here are my splits for each interval (the first number is the min:sec to circle the track, second number is the pace)

Lap 1- 1:53 (7:34/mi pace)
Lap 2- 1:55 (7:40/mi pace)
Lap 3- 1:58 (7:53/mi pace)
Lap 4- 1:57 (7:52/mi pace)
Lap 5- 1:59 (7:56/mi pace)
Lap 6- 1:56 (7:44/mi pace)

I was so glad when it was over! Even though track intervals feel like torture, they are still kind of fun to me. It's not very often (like, never) that I see a 7 in front of my pace!

When I got home and showered, Jerry and I decided to watch a movie--and I chose The Day After Tomorrow, because I've been consumed with Hurricane Sandy. After the movie, we went to a few stores where I had things to return. At Hobby Lobby, I heard an employee say, "There's an alarm going off at Wal-Mart, and they evacuated the building." That was our next stop, so I was wondering what it was all about.

When we got there, tons of people were leaving the parking lot. I was confused, because there were still people going inside the store. So we parked and went in, and up to the service desk for our return. There, we learned that some guy got mad at the employee working there, so he ran and pulled the fire alarm on the wall, then ran out of the store. So that's why everyone was leaving.

We picked up a few groceries that we needed, and I noticed this:
Let me tell you, that stuff is SO good--but extremely caloric. I, however, cannot drink it anymore, because I associate it with a bad memory. After I had broken my jaw and was on a pure liquid diet (my jaws were wired shut), I had to get a lot of calories somehow. And when I saw this stuff at the store, I bought it. It was insanely good, and I pretty much lived off of it for a week or so. I can't even tell you how many cartons I went through!

Then I noticed that my tongue was feeling fuzzy and weird. Since I couldn't open my mouth, I had no idea what was going on. But it turns out that I had thrush from all the antibiotics I was taking! Thrush was not fun. And since I was drinking tons of this pumpkin spice eggnog at the time I got it, I associate the two, and this eggnog is forever ruined for me :(  Just as well, because it has a million calories per serving.

I have been craving rigatoni for some really strange reason (not any old pasta--it was specifically rigatoni), so I picked up the stuff to make it for dinner. My Ragnar team got into a discussion on Facebook about cottage cheese, and Mary and I both mentioned that we like cottage cheese with pasta sauce. So for dinner, I cooked rigatoni, and topped it with cottage cheese, spaghetti sauce, parmesan cheese, and a ton of fresh basil (I adore fresh basil). It was heavenly!
After taking the pic, I stirred it all together, and it looked really gross after that. But if you've never tried cottage cheese on your pasta, definitely give it a try.

I've been watching the news all afternoon, keeping tabs on the hurricane. It's kind of unbelievable how bad it's supposed to get. I just hope they're wrong. Stay safe, everyone!

17 comments:

  1. Your pasta was pretty much a de-constructed lasagna-yum:)
    The windy is crazy here in SW Ontario as well...I walked instead of ran this morning and really thought that I was going to take flight. What a mess of a day!

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  2. Those convos have been making me crave cottage cheese so much that I bought some tonight. I braved the wind today also and 2 mins into my run my nose started running. All I could think about was buying those gloves with the micro suede thumbs. Lol

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  3. Those convos have been making me crave cottage cheese so much that I bought some tonight. I braved the wind today also and 2 mins into my run my nose started running. All I could think about was buying those gloves with the micro suede thumbs. Lol

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  4. Totally just ate a bowl of cottage cheese with spaghetti sauce and lean ground turkey for dinner. YUM. Skipped the pasta. All I wanted was the cottage cheese.

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  5. How long ago was that marathon? Aren't you going to take a few weeks off hard workouts?

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  6. We totally put cottage cheese on our pasta! But I crave regular speghetti noodles, and my family likes tubes. 5 against 1, I always lose. BTW, what podcasts are you listening to? I vote for Katie podcasts to keep us running!

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  7. That looks and sounds delicious to me. I sometimes use cottage cheese in place of ricotta when I make lasagna. I have never thought about serving it deconstructed in a bowl like that. Duh! Thatnks for the idea. :)

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  8. I have some Silk brand egg nog in my fridge that you totally just made me go and have a little glass of!! I got the soy because unlike other nog, it doesn't have 300 calories for half a cup lol But I still feel a little guilty for drinking it. But it's just oh so good.

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    Replies
    1. Oh, and I LOVE cottage cheese in my pasta sauce, as well as Tabasco. How odd is that? Spaghetti with a scoop of cottage cheese and Tabasco all over it. My parents growing up would try not to gag :S

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  9. Oh my! That pumpkin spice egg nog sounds heavenly. I will have to check out to see if they have it in Canada.

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  10. Cottage cheese mixed with pasta sauce is a great idea!

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  11. Speed work is one of my favorites! But I bet yours is much "speedier" than mine. :) I bet pumpkin egg nog is amazing! And I am glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks of cottage cheese as a savory food. I would put it on pasta or eat it plain with a little salt and pepper, my DH (and nearly everyone else I know) wants to put fruit in it, which kinda grosses me out. :)

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    Replies
    1. Savory is the ONLY way I eat cottage cheese too.

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    2. Me too - love cottage cheese with fresh tomatoes and salt and pepper!

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  12. Looks yummy! Hope your power comes back on soon.

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  13. Katie- do you make separate meals for your family? I just find that my husband won't (and sometimes can't) eat all the things I'd like to make and try!

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  14. I ate cottage cheese in chili the other day!

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