2015 Racing Season

I am so thrilled to share this with you guys! Here it is, my official 

training and racing schedule for 2015 into 2016!!!

I have been playing around with the dates for two or more weeks and it's been driving me crazy. The half marathon training plan is 6 months long but the marathon season ends in late February here in Houston so it took some pretty serious effort to get all the scheduling figured out. I'll have to cut my 10k training short but since the half marathon training plan is so long I'll have plenty of time to adjust. 

Last year the biggest fault in my training was that I tried to do too much too quick.  I'm hoping the long training plan will help me gently increase my mileage and give me lots of prep for the marathon training. 

And then there's THAT! A marathon! I had originally planned to have completed a marathon by now but it just wasn't in the cards. Like I said, too much too quick. I wasn't really prepared for the physical requirements and the time required to truly train for a marathon. This time I'll have two years (!!!!!) of running experience behind me and I think I'll really be able to do it this year. 

I'm so excited to finally have hard dates, you all know how much I love a good plan. I'm also playing around with the idea of getting sponsorship from family members to help cover the cost of running gear, race entries, and babysitting costs. But more on that later. 

Time to get to work!!!

-Ri

How would you guys feel about me doing weekly updates on how my training is going? Maybe bi-weekly? 

Baked Tilapia Dinner Recipe

One thing we've really been working on over here is eating healthy, whole foods. We are trying to shy away from processed foods in general and steer more towards a "whole food, plant based diet". (Thanks Food Matters!) 

My favorite thing to do is to take regular recipes and make them healthy so that is what I'll be sharing here on the blog! If I take a recipe from pinterest I'll always share the original link.

At some point I'll start photographing the process and making it all pretty but for right now I'm going to just focus getting the recipes down so stay with me.
 

Tilapia is one of those fish that is just so easy to make. I'm not a big fan of salmon so if the recipe isn't perfect I'm probably not going to eat it. Tilapia on the other hand is so fresh and light it almost always comes out great. 

We love making it in the summer. It makes a perfect light dinner that won't bog you down.
I usually serve it with some rice and freshly steamed veggies.

4- 4 oz tilapia fillets

1 tablespoon (ish) of melted butter

Lemon Juice

Adam's Seasoning (or your favorite Cajun seasoning)

Nature's Seasoning

Paprika

Pepper

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Salt and Pepper 

Preheat the oven to 375

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, spray with nonstick cooking spray. 

Spread some melted butter on the fillets. 

Sprinkle seasoning on the fillets to taste. I used the Nature's Seasoning and Adam's Seasoning as the base so I probably used 1/4 of a teaspoon of each on each fillet and then just a small sprinkling of the other spices. 

Bake for 20-25 or until the tilapia is flaky and no longer translucent. 

Squirt some lemon juice on top before serving.

This is a really easy recipe and it can be adapted so many ways. 

-Ri

Aramco Half Marathon - 2015

I'm officially a runner!!!!! 

Waaaaaay back in October, when I was still on track training for a December marathon, a friend called me to see if I wanted to do the Aramco Half Marathon with him. Um, YES!! I signed up with all the fervor of a new runner. 

And then life happened. All through November I ran with horrible shin pain and finally in December I called it quits with the Marathon training and decided to take two weeks off to heal my shins. Well two weeks turned into three, into four, and then suddenly, oops! It's a week before I have to run 13.1 miles. Crap. 

I. Was. Terrified. Because of the way the permits worked for the race, you had to get to mile 9 with a 13:45 minute/mile pace. That's how fast I run on a good day...after a diet coke...with the wind at my back...going downhill. Needless to say I was sure I was going to get picked up and be disqualified. 

It was early. So very early. I heard parking would be nearly impossible to find but luckily a friend shared with me a top secret, slightly illegal place that he parks every year. We parked and then waited oh so impatiently for the race to start. I worried about my slow pace while listening to King worry about his pace (he runs about five minutes faster than I do...he had nothing to worry about. But it was his first half so fear is understandable). We finally made out way out to our starting corral where we waited...and waited...and freaked out...and waited. :) forty five minutes after the gun start, I finally crossed the start line. 

"Oh My God. I'm so scared. Omg. Omg.
Don't have a panic attack. That would be embarrassing."

We passed a fire house! They were super nice and cheered us on while they leisurely enjoyed their morning coffee. 

Seriously. The signs are the BEST! I laughed so hard at this sign I startled the person next to me. 

See that guy in the white shirt? He's juggling. My though process went something like this:

Hey, is that guy juggling?!?!?!
Omg, he is totally juggling! That's so awesome!

Wait.

Did I just get passed by a guy juggling!?

Halfway there! This is my first race selfie!

Ok, so this is the big achievement. I fought so hard to run 10 straight miles with no walking. I am so very proud to be able to say I have run double digits. By mile 9 EVERYTHING was hurting but I pushed through it and dragged my slow self to the ten mile marker. 

Around mile 12 I was over it. I was exhausted and everything hurt and I just wanted to finish. I kept telling myself to just run it so I could be done but I just couldn't run anymore. 

Once I hit downtown I knew I was in the final stretch so I ran the last mile or so. People were watching, I couldn't NOT run! ;)

I don't have any pictures of me immediately following the race, the finish line was so clogged with spectators that Barry couldn't get a shot of me. The race has photos for sale but they're like $30 a photo, that's not happening right now. :)

Barry met me with roses and a beer, it was such a sweet gesture! 

It was a great experience and I'm so proud of myself! Now that this race is behind me I'm going back to the basics. I know I can run long distances but I'm not very fast so I've started a 5K training program. I'm hoping to be able to run a 5K at a sub 10 minute per mile pace. It's a big jump for me! I've signed up for a chip timed race in March to keep me motivated. 

-Ri

What are some of your fitness goals for 2015?