Relishing the Two-Oh-Eleven

Ludicrous Resolutions

Many of us lose sight of our New Year Resolutions by the time March or April comes around as we get lost in our normal daily activities. Only until November or December is when we realize the resolutions we've once declared our commitment to failed. And another cycle comes when we create more and new resolutions every year. That's why the "Ludicrous New Year Resolutions" has such a nice ring to it. It's ridiculous, like we're playing mind games with ourselves thinking we're doing good for ourselves until it becomes worthless when we don't act. It's only better to make mini resolutions or rather, goals each month and success will be likely.

I'm just going to go ahead and jot down my resolutions... just for funs, so I can go back to it and see if I've met them by December 2012. I'm going to stick with realistic goals as I feel I'll accomplish most of them because they're my dream requirements, obviously. They won't be ludicrous and I am not going to associate any of them with food, the most common resolutions people make. I'm not going to lie--food is certainly my weakness and a year is just too damn long to be depriving myself of anything or set a strict eating regimen. I just stick to eating healthy 90% of the time. I have a life and those 10% of the time, I'll eat whatever my mind, cravings, and tummy please, thank you.

Resolution #1: Take the GRE.  (I'd also mention 'scoring high on the mathematical and quantitative reasoning part' but unfortunately, I'm a sucker at math.)

Resolution #2: Crush the PF Chang's Rock n Roll Half Marathon with a time of sub-2:00.

Resolution #3: Submit graduate school applications. Fingers crossed for SDSU, at least out of GWU and ASU.

Resolution #4: Start studying for ACSM Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist certification

Resolution #5: Continue and strive to be the best athlete I can be with patience, determination and focus.

Resolution #6: Read inspirational books for future preparations.

Resolution #7: Get involved in cardiology (i.e., internship)

Resolution #8: Get USAT-certified in coaching.

Resolution #9: Be grateful. Every. Day.

Resolution #10: Blog, blog, blog.... Finally a reason to practice creative thinking and writing skills!

2012 Tentative Races

Trisports.com Desert Classic Duathlon
Road Duathlon, March 10 2012

Duathlon National Championship
Sprint, April 28 2012

Iron Gear Sports Rio Salado Triathlon
Sprint, May 5 2012

TriRock San Diego
Sprint, Sept 9 2012

More to come...

Your Best Foot Forward

Found this article last night from one of my favorite websites, Competitor.com, and had to post so it'll remind me that little changes go a long way in training and racing. An interesting method of getting your feet amped up for a run!  

An effort to strengthen your feet can make the difference in your speed, form and resistance to injury.

Poor coordination of the feet is often the root cause of lower-leg running injuries. There are two main reasons for this: The neuromuscular pathway from the brain to the feet is the longest in the body, making for slow and inefficient coordination, and the small amount of muscle in the feet makes it difficult for the brain to coordinate proprioception and balance.

“There are 26 bones that make up the foot and ankle, dozens of joints and tendons that separate and move each bone,” says Dr. Kathy Coutinho, an applied kinesiologist, a certified chiropractic sports physician and an Active Release Technique (A.R.T.) provider. “A weakened structure in one area of the foot or ankle means all other tissues in the immediate area have to make up for that imbalance. Then begins the slow downward cycle of compensation and wear and tear that can lead to all sorts of nightmare injuries like the dreaded plantar fasciitis.”

By challenging the feet, you can create clearer neuromuscular pathways to the brain and therefore help prevent future injuries. The following drills will only take three minutes at the end of your warmup before every run. They should be completed in bare feet.

Six Every-Run Drills (do each for 30 seconds on a soft surface)

1. Invert: Walk on the outside of your foot.
2. Evert: Walk on the inside of your foot.
3. Adduct: Walk pigeon-toed, or with your toes pointing in.
4. Charlie Chaplin: Walk with your toes pointing out.
5. High heels: Walk backward on your toes.
6.Heels: Walk on your heels—do this one with shoes to prevent bone bruising.

Dead legs walking

Friday's gift at GTX (Great Times Crossfit) was the old school 400m lunge for time. I was thankful for two things--one, it wasn't an upper body workout because I was still recovering from Thursday's multi-station partner workout that left my chests extremely sore. Second, I love lower body workouts.

My first ever timed lunge turned out well. I might would've gotten a better time if I had known it was out to the curb AND back. Alas, when I saw some of my folks turn around a couple feet away, I realized I had wasted my precious energy fully dedicated to the first lap when there was another lap back I had to complete. I guess that was my blonde moment because I kept telling myself that the lap looked way too short to be 400m. I should've known better to do the math.

Saturday morning was my long cycle and I had planned on riding Mt. Lemmon. The night before, I had cringed at the thought of riding uphill because I had done three workouts with the lunge as the last grueling workout of the day. Luckily, I had a partner to ride with so that made things better despite the onset of my sore legs!  My three tools for a speedy recovery: green tea, vitamin C chewables and massage.

The next day I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be. I could've skipped the ride altogether if I didn't have anybody waiting for me at Catalina Highway. It was hard to get my legs moving at first but by mile three, I got the hang of it. The goal was to get to mile 5 but I ended up getting to mile 7 and back.

After that day, I was even more sore but didn't regret going on that ride. Let's say last week was a good week of high intensity and mental endurance training on achy muscles followed by a full day recovery at week's end.

Chocolate Cheese Danish

Made these little guys today and they turned out fabulous! Creamy, sweet with mild cheese flavor kinda like a chocolate cheesecake and not to mention, so... so light. It melts in your mouth and it's a great accompaniment with a cup of hot tea or coffee. Courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis. That woman has good taste!

Pumpkin-Nutella

I need to rave about this Pumpkin Nutella Bread I made last week. I'm a pumpkin epicure and love anything with pumpkin especially the desserts and breads. It's creamy, sweet and reminds me of the autumn season. My first attempt at the Pumpkin Nutella bread it failed after finding out the center was still soggy due to too much batter in the loaf pan. I cured it with foil during the last ten minutes of baking. It wasn't picture perfect but tasted fine. I decided to make another one and added more Nutella to the Nutella batter I had reserved from the last bread. This time, I nixed the loaf pan because it was too small and I wanted to cook the batter all in one. I used a 9x13 baking dish so it can spread out and cook evenly. It turned out beautifully and the swirls were much more visible this time. To darken or lighten the swirls, you can adjust the amount of Nutella into the reserved batter.

Perfect for a pre-workout snack or sweet treat when a craving hits! Happy baking!