Update: Krista from Commitment is Liberating let me know that the recipe is available on Rachael Ray’s website here if you are interested.  Thanks Krista!  It makes me feel less guilty for possibly violating copyright by posting a picture of the magazine.

Over the weekend, while at the in-laws, I was flipping through a Rachael Ray magazine (yes, I admit it) and came across this recipe.  It is a vegetable stir fry and it looked mighty good.  I took a picture of the recipe so that I could make it at a later day.

That day was today.  After my swim, I headed to the store to purchase the necessities.  It was an interesting recipe because it included lots of things I have never cooked with before like Tabasco sauce, fresh ginger, bok choy, and black bean sauce.  On top of that, it included lots of fresh veggies so it was guaranteed to be healthy.  I did alter the recipe a bit and sautéed a cut up chicken breast because I thought veggies alone wouldn’t be filling enough.

After I got home, I realized that I forgot to buy the requisite egg rolls.  So, when I headed out for my run later in the afternoon, I stopped by the store again and picked a up few from the deli.  On my run, I ran into Kelly, a friend and former high school XC teammate.  We ran together for a mile or so while she did her cool down.  It was nice to have someone to chat with for a change.

Getting all the ingredients in order.

I did my best to get everything in order before I started so that I wasn’t running around too much once I got started.  I still found myself hurrying to get veggies chopped before the chicken burned and the sauce made before the veggies were over cooked.  It is nice that a stir fry cooks so quickly, but it really keeps you on your toes.

The veggies stir frying.  It is always so pleasing when the food is so colorful.

I stir fried the veggies in my favorite stir fry pan.  It has one side higher than the other to make flipping the veggies easier.  I tried to take a video of myself flipping the veggies.  It didn’t turn out very well and I ended up with a handful on the floor (oops!).  So much for showing how much easier the pan makes it!

The finished product on our new Asian inspired placemats.  How appropriate.

The meal turned out fantastic.  It will definitely be making a reoccurrence in the future.  It was super spicy though.  Maybe we’ll cut back on the Tabasco sauce next time.  We ended up going through an entire 2 quart pitcher of Crystal Light just to keep our mouths from starting on fire.

Enjoying the meal – and realizing that I really need a haircut.  Yikes!

7 is my lucky number.  Yes, I know, how unique.  However, 7 has been a big number in my life.  My birthday is July 7th (7/7).  I got married in July 2005 – the sum of the digits in 2005 = 7.  I got my dog Spunky when I was 7 years old.  Etc. Etc. The one thing I have never liked about 7 is 7 mile runs.  I don’t know exactly why, but I have never liked running 7 miles.  6 miles is fine, 8 miles is good too.  I think part of the problem is that I have never had a good 7 mile course. 

That changed yesterday.  I finally found an awesome 7 mile route and I flew.  I did 7 miles in 53:24 for a 7:36 pace.  All of my miles came in under 8:00 with my final mile coming it at a blazing 7:00 flat.  Not only did I have a fast run, but I was completely pain-free.  No calf pain.  No hamstring pain.  Let’s hope this streak keeps up.

Today, was a light day for me.  And it couldn’t have come at a better time.  I had a busy day at work and my stomach was upset all day long.  I did manage an hour on the trainer this evening after my stomach settled down a bit, but kept an easy pace.

Tomorrow, I am hoping to do a swim and run.  Because this is a lower mileage week than last week, I am planning on doing some more speed workouts during my runs.  I’ll be careful to listen to my body though and back off if I start experiencing any soreness.

Finally, Anne at Iron Dreams has a giveaway going on (see details here).  The giveaway includes some Tri-Swim gear including shampoo and conditioner to help defeat that post swim chlorine smell.  Also, cruise on over to Tri-Swim’s website if you are in need of a good swim workout.  They have a couple dozen different workouts available for free.

All of this run training is catching up to me and I am starting to feel some aches and pains.  I am really hoping that the aches go away quickly and don’t turn into full blown injury.  Right now, it is just soreness and not debilitating.

On Monday, as I finished my run, my right calf began to hurt.  It really didn’t affect my run and I actually had a great run despite the pain.  I finished 7 miles with 7:49 pace.  I even had a final mile of 7:16.  My calf just feels really tight – like after getting cramp.  I can walk pretty much pain free.  It is at its worse climbing stairs when I have all my weight on the one foot and even then it isn’t excruciating by any means.

I took Tuesday off from running per my marathon training schedule.  I did spend an hour on the trainer which seemed to help stretch out my calf.  I also did some stretching and core training.  I stuck to only upper body work with the weights to give the legs a rest.

I woke up Wednesday almost pain free.  It was still lingering, but much better.  My 6 mile run went fairly well.  I took it nice and easy.  I had a little bit of tightness at the beginning of the run, but it was nearly gone by the time I finished my run. 

Unfortunately, though, my calf tightened right back up about an hour after my run.

So, here I sit, finishing up some work while I ice my calf and hope that it heals quickly.  I’ve got 21 miles on the schedule for Friday and really don’t want to have to miss it.

I had a pretty good weekend to wrap up January. 

I started the weekend with my weekly Friday long run.  It was a light-ish week this week with a long run of 14 miles.  After 20 last week, 14 miles seemed like a dream.  If you remember my post about the 20 miler, I felt great for the first 14 miles and it went downhill from there.  So, I figured that 14 would be a breeze.  The funny thing is that this time, I felt great for the first 8 miles and it hurt for the final 6 miles.  I guess it is always the last 6 that are the hardest even if it isn’t a marathon.  I ended up finishing better than I thought I would in 1:57:59 for an 8:25 pace.

I took all of Saturday off to rest.  While I may not have run, biked, or swam, it was hardly a rest day.  There was no kicking up the feet and sitting on the couch.  Jennie and I spent the day cleaning the house from top to bottom.  At the end of the day we ended up with a sparkling clean house and a pile of stuff to take to Goodwill.  It was a very satisfying feeling.

Today, I got back to action and actually did a mini triathlon throughout the day.  I started this morning with an hour on the trainer.  I did some one leg drills (my new evil friend) at the end of the ride for good measure.  After lunch, I headed up to the pool and did 1800 yards in the pool with 8×100yds as the core set.  I actually hit 1:28 for my first 100 – first time under 1:30!  Unfortunately, I didn’t get under 1:30 again.  The rest were in the 1:34 – 1:36 range.

Later in the day, after getting a few more things done around that house, I headed out on my run.  It was pretty windy, but other than that the weather was a bit warmer than it has been.  I finished the run really strong with the last two miles coming in at 7:34 and 7:37.

In case you weren’t keeping track, that is an hour bike ride (19.6 miles), 1800 yard swim (1 mile), and 6 mile run for a total 26.6 miles in 2:28:57.  Too bad my T1 and T2 times were horrible otherwise it would have made for a good “race” .

Here are my totals for January:

Running was obviously the focus for January (and will continue to the focus until my April marathon). I’d like to get a few more bike rides in February than I did this month, but it is so hard to get motivated to ride on the trainer.  I’d actually even settle for the same number of rides, but for longer rides.

On the work front, things are settling down a bit.  I have put out most of the fires that January brought and things are starting to get cleaned up.  I will be spending the next couple weeks training a new hire, so I’ll have to reschedule my some of workouts because my schedule won’t be as flexible.  Nevertheless, I think I should have more time for training.

Work has been horrendously busy these past few weeks.  It feels like I keep starting my posts lately with something about how busy work is.  Sorry for being redundant.  However, the work is affecting my training – and not necessarily in a bad way. 

The exercise has been a great stress reliever.  It also gives me something to look forward to as a break in my day.  However, I am also finding that I am running faster and I don’t know if that is necessarily a good thing.  I have a my long 20 mile training run on Friday and I had wanted to take my runs this week fairly easy to rest my legs.  Yeah… That hasn’t worked. 

I went out for my scheduled 7 mile run on Monday with the goal of 8:30 miles.  When I got home, I looked at my watch and it was under 56 minutes.  Whoops.  Sub 8:00 miles.  I felt great though, so I can’t complain.  My swim went the same way.  I did 1800 yards in under 31 minutes which is a personal best for the distance.  What the heck!?!

On Tuesday, I had an hour on the bike.  Armed with some episodes of 24, I hopped on and got started.  I did a 20 minute warm up and then 2 minutes hard with 2 minutes recovery for the next 30 minutes and then did a 10 minute cool down.  It was a hard workout and my legs felt rubbery afterwards.  Also, for some reason, my toes were all tingly – almost like they were asleep.  That has never happened to be on the trainer before.  Sometimes it happens when I bike outside in the cold, but never indoors.

Which brings me to today.  I was able to restrain myself and take it easy on my 2000 yard swim.  After my swim, I went out to lunch with a couple guys from the pool.  I had 3 Yesterdogs.  Not the healthy training food, but oh so good.  I also had a 6 mile run planned.  I wasn’t able to tear myself away from work until 5:30 which meant I would have to break out the reflective gear and lights for my run.  I went out easy, but felt myself speeding up.  I did my best to hold back, but again ended up finishing faster than I would have liked with an 8:05 pace.

Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy with how my workouts have gone this week.  However, it does worry me a bit about my long run.  Hopefully I can maintain this energy level for that run as well.