Treadmill convert!

So I headed across the street to the YMCA today to attempt to conquer my fear/animosity of the treadmill. TOTAL success! I loved getting totally lost in the music without having to worry about ice, cars, hills, potholes, etc etc. I can totally see the benefits of not having to worry about weather and safety, and I also see why people use it for speedwork. It's nice to be almost "lazy" about speedwork, you know you are going a certain speed as long as you don't fall off so you don't have to constantly be checking the pace and pushing yourself. My biggest problem with the treadmill has always been boredom, so doing an interval workout was perfect, because it broke up the run into chunks. I did this workout, which my marathon coach had sent out for this week.

1 x 200 5K Pace (7:53)

1 x 200 walk to start

1 x 400 5K Pace

1 x 800 10K Pace (8:11)

1 x 800 5K Pace

1 x 400 5K Pace

1 x 200 5K Pace

1 x 200 walk back to start

1 x 1600 Intermediates - marathon pace- I felt good and ended up doing 1.25 miles

The paces are from the McMillan Running Calculator , a great tool for race training. If you are not familiar with it, you plug in a recent race time (I used my two mile timed trial from the end of my last marathon training - it was in September but who's counting?) and it tells you all the different training paces that are recommended. I think it's a great tool for training but I'm not so sure about this 9:08 marathon pace thing.

I did some sort of short walk/easy run in between each interval (except for the last 400 then 200 at 5K pace...what's the point?) and did a half mile warm up and cool down at 10:00. I was really confused at first because the treadmill speeds were just single digit numbers and decimals. I know they are telling you the miles/hour, but since I teach first grade, my math skills are limited to things like "Di'Quann has four apples. Zaire has two apples. How many apples in all?". Converting miles/hour to minutes/mile WHILE running and figuring out my new ipod touch was a little too much for my brain.

Luckily I figured out that if you just wait (if only I'd accomplished last year's resolution to be patient!) the display actually tells you your minutes/mile speed so all was well. The new interval playlist on my ipod was perfect AND I got to wear my new marathon spring training shirt (short sleeves, too cold to run in it now). Obviously I knew I was going to look like an idiot playing with all the buttons so I had to show that I actually had run before. I'll definitely be heading to the treadmill for speedwork in Feb. when my grad class takes over my Tuesday nights and I can no longer go to track workouts :(.

Another thing that I claimed to hate but could be a little awesome? ESPN! I'm still going to turn off the TV like my life depends on it when I see sports center, but whatever show I was watching where crazy gross 400lb muscular men pull giant trucks was an awesome distraction.

PS I also did Jillian's 6 weeks to 6 pack abs for the fifth time!

Tonights dinner is featuring all sorts of wild new things and experiences.
I chose this recipe from my new Master Your Metabolism cookbook. I had never heard of laksa (who has?) so I figured I'd give it a try. I needed all sorts of things I had never bought, like lemongrass, coconut oil, fish sauce, and brazil nuts.

THIS JUST IN: Don't go on a grocery shopping trip to buy all sorts of obscure ingredients you have never even heard of on New Year's Eve around 2pm. WORST DECISION EVER. Next year I'll just save all my Christmas shopping for the mall at 5pm Christmas Eve instead.

We prepped the soup this morning while I did my weekly meal/snack session (I spend Sunday getting everything as ready as I can for the week).
Can't chop veggies without sharp knives!
Here's what lemongrass looks like....did you know? I sure didn't.
The new garlic press!
Up close

You put all this stuff in the magic bullet to make the laksa paste, and then saute it in the coconut oil and add the broth and veggies and shrimp. Both the paste and coconut oil smell amazing so I am pretty excited for this soup. I'm off to go make some bread to go with it in my new bread maker!

I was going to share this dinner with my husband, as is customary, but I am still trying to decide if I should forgive him for eating the last TWO brownies while I was at the gym.......(I mean, he could have totally left me one!)