Day: December 18, 2010

Running Early and Late

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COMMENT COMMIT Day 6

I accomplished even before I (publicly) committed!

I just returned from a 5 mile run and it turns out I have a new temperature threshold for running, 22 degrees Fahrenheit.   If you told me last month that I would think running in 22* was “not bad at all” I would have said “phew”.  But it really wasn’t bad at all.  The bad parts are that I haven’t had a real nights sleep in over three days (old insomnia issues are back) and my hamstrings are a wee tight today.

The first half of the run was a serious slog but for the second half my oats must have kicked in because I started running some sprints.  The 5 miles took 49 minutes, which includes a few minutes of walking.  All the means is that I am getting faster!  I walked at least 5 minutes of those and still ran finish with an under 10 minute mile average.  All that sprinting is paying off.

What are your workout plans for today?  If you haven’t participated in COMMENT COMMIT yet this week, it’s super easy.  Just write a comment to this post telling us what your exercise goals are for today and we’ll cheer you on.  This evening I will write a wrap up post and you can comment to brag all about your accomplishments.  No stress, no pressure, this is a resource for you to get support from others to help you reach your goals.  Let’s help each other be accountable!

I was up and out early today because, besides that I couldn’t sleep, Tate and I are driving to WV this morning to start the holiday festivities with our families.  We will probably be there all week, unless the banks decide to get their act together and we can close on the clinic FINALLY.

One last thing…

By request Tate has generously offered to share his recipe for last night’s soup.

Tate’s Now Famous Curried Lentil Soup


[image source]

In a large pot bring 3 cups of water and 2 cups of brown lentils to boil.

Instead of watching the pot as it wait to boil take  a skillet and heat 1 T of coconut oil over medium heat.

To the skillet add 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped green bell pepper, 3 chopped carrots, and 1 package of extra firm tofu cubed.

Once the veggie-tofu combo starts to brown throw it all in the pot with the lentils.  To the pot add 1 can of coconut milk, and a few handfuls of chopped kale.

Give the mix a few good stirs.  Now comes the key ingredient, the curry!  Our favorite is this green curry paste, which can be purchased for a few bucks at most Asian groceries and a few regular grocery stores.

Add curry paste to taste.  We like it spicy around here so we start by adding huge clumps but start small at first, it’s much easier to add than take away!

Serve hot!  This soup is an awesome meal and a bowl and can be easily modified by altering the veggies used.   Tate left the onions out for Kath and we didn’t have any tofu but this is his usual recipe. And this soup is even better as leftovers so you can always double the recipe and eat it for days.  Enjoy!

Whoa, look at the time! I’ve got to get on the road!

See you this evening for COMMENT COMMIT!

 

108 Done

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And 2 to grow on.

Wow, completing 108 Sun Salutations in one hour was one of the more surreal experiences I’ve had recently.

108 is a sacred number in Hinduism and yoga.   The practice of repeating the Sun Salutation A series 108 times is sometimes called Yoga Mala, as a mala prayer necklace has 108 beads.  A 108 event is often offered around the Solstice or Equinox (change of seasons) and as a fundraiser rather than for-profit.  The cost of tonight’s attendance was non-perishable food for the local food bank.  In addition to the canned goods, the studio pledged a $5 per item donation to a local woman who is ill with cancer.

Kath, our men, and I headed out in the late afternoon to walk 1.4 miles to Ashtanga Yoga Charlottesville, our Sun Salute host for the evening.  The boys continued on to the bar while Kath and I went inside and staked claim on a little plot of studio floor for our mats.  The studio swelled and was nearly overflowing by the time we got started.

I was relieved to learn that there was a teacher to guide us and count because I knew that keeping track would be tricky.  Here’s the way it was to play out, we would do 10 sets of 10 Sun Salutations.  The teacher would call out the start of each set.  At the end of each set we would pause in Downdog for 5 full breaths.

We om’d a few times and away we went.

After 2 I lost count.

After 15 the guy accross from me started to sweat.

After 30-some I started to sweat.

After 42 I started to drip sweat.

At 50 I took my 5 breaths in Child’s Post instead of Downdog.

At 70 I glanced over and noticed Kath’s ankles were beaded with sweat.  Thank goodness!  It takes a lot to make that girl sweat and I was dripping.

70-80 was my most distracted.

I then found out that it was actually 80-90.

Nope.  It was 70-80.  I guess I wasn’t the only one distracted, the teacher called 90 and after a pregnant pause people started to whisper, “we’re at 80”.  Whoops.

At 80 my upper body started to talk.  Not hurt, just talk.

90-100 was my best set.

At 106 I was sad it was almost over.

At 108 I was happy it was over.

And even happier that I had done it.

After a bit of chanting we took a vinyasa (number 109!) to get to the floor for some cool-down poses.  We spent about 15 minutes doing seated poses before taking vinyasa 110 to get to a final seated meditation.

I was surprised that a. the whole thing went so quick and b. it was mentally and physically easier than I anticipated.  Overall it was a really amazing experience and one I would jump at the chance to replicate.

The walk home was actually a great cool-down, I hope it prevents some soreness!  Kath and I were desperate to get out of our sweaty clothes so Tate put the final touches on dinner while we dried off.  Man, you know someone’s a good friends when you can eat dinner with them on a Friday night in your sweat pants!

Tomorrow might involve some seriously sore hamstrings and triceps but I feel great right now!  I also did this 20 minute cardio and strength training workout this morning.  This workout doesn’t have as much weight action as some of my other favorites from Exercise TV but I love her cardio drills, not a single jumping jack!

How did your workout go?