Building Momentum

Going into week 4 of training, I had one thing in mind: crush it. My coach had set a new pace to hit on my speed workout, I was feeling the strongest I had ever felt, and I was also hitting all of my nutrition goals (according to My Fitness Pal, anyway). The weather was all over the place this past week; From the most rain I feel like we've had since we moved here all the way to snow. Yes, I said the big 's' word. My friend texted me Thursday evening with the words "Go outside" and I knew that only meant one thing.

Friday Morning's View

Un-fucking-unbelievable. I guess this is the first snowfall Fountain Hills has seen in over 15 years or something? As we drove through town Friday morning, there were tons of cars pulled over on the side of the road with people standing outside of them taking photos and selfies as if they had never seen the dreadful white stuff before. Sure, it's pretty, but only when it's seen far up in the mountains! Either way, we all survived the blizzard of 2019 and now, as I write this, it's 72 and sunny. It's as if our regularly scheduled program was interrupted by a paid infomercial that lasted longer than it needed to. Okay, enough about the weather. Let's take a look at our training recap numbers:

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  2/18 - Easy miles w/strides

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  2/20 - Fartlek

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  2/21 - Recovery miles

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  2/23 - Easy miles w/faster finish

Yes, three runs on the treadmill (dreadmill). I know I speak for many runners by saying running on the treadmill straight up sucks. With the rain and Saturday's post snow and cold temperatures, I wasn't about to risk unsafe conditions. Wednesday's fartlek run was literally gold. If I could frame every moment of that run, I'd hang it on the wall for everyone to see. If you remember last week's fartlek, it wasn't 100% great. I had to walk 4 of the 8 recovery intervals. I don't know what sparked inside of me but this week was money. Out of the 12 intervals, I only had to walk half of one; give or take, 30 seconds. After Thursday's recovery run, I did my scheduled yoga session. This time, it was in my living room since we had a lot of chores to take care of before our guests arrived. What better person to turn to for yoga at home than Adriene Mishler (Yoga With Adriene). She is a great yoga guide for those of you who prefer to practice at home. I'll be back in the studio next week. Fast forward to Saturday and it's as if I had just started running again. My body just wasn't in the game. We had friends come into town this past week so my sleep schedule was off, my eating times were off, everything was off. My 'fast finish' turned into intervals. I could have easily quit and went home but I stuck with it. You can't win them all. If you went through an entire training cycle without at least one run feeling terrible, then you deserve a noble peace prize. These workouts, however, are what turn us into stronger runners mentally.

Back to friends being in town. Our friends Kyle and Tania (my designer of all things pretty on this blog) flew into Phoenix Thursday night. It was great to have them here. It almost felt like we were home for a moment. I also love that we have a home large enough to host people now. We adventured to some pretty neat places including Biosphere 2 and went up to Jerome. Although we spent most of the weekend in the car driving places, it was great to spend time with them and see some amazing scenery that even Adam and I had yet to witness since moving here. We're big science geeks and Biosphere was spectacular. To think eight people spent two years inside it is incredible. I doubt the world will ever be as sustainable as it is capable of being because, well, humans are careless, but dare to dream! Sunday, we drove up to Jerome. It's all the way up at 5,000ft and the views are spectacular. It's an old mining town. We had lunch at The Bordello of Jerome. Its history is in its name! It really was a fully operating bordello for the men who mined. Hey, they needed some action too. Amazing food and I highly recommend stopping there if you ever venture up to the small town. I mean, how could you turn down a salad that looks this good:

Another great feature of Jerome is wineries! Well, to be more specific, wine tasting rooms. They don't grow the grapes up there but it was nice to try a wine that's from the state we live in. I learned that Arizona has a designated area for growing grapes to produce wine with. We hit up Cellar 433 to see if it would please our palettes. Spoiler: it did! They have two levels and even have beer on tap for those who may not like wine. I suggest heading downstairs, especially if Tony is serving. Down there, you will find a delicious Syrah as well as some other grand choices. He was super knowledgeable about all of their wines and serves each one in the perfect fashion. Don't even get me started with the views. You literally won't want to leave.

My recipe share for the week is a curry! Probably the simplest curry you could ever make so there really is no excuse not to try it. Amazing taste, not many ingredients, and the best part? It all cooks in one pot! Well, not including the rice. I cook my rice in a pressure cooker so it only takes 6 minutes but you do you! My biggest piece of advice for this one is to cut your carrots small. They'll cook more evenly and won't be crunchy. Don't cut corners by using unsweetened coconut milk either! If your grocery store has sad looking kale like ours does, spinach works just as well. As I said, it's simple, nutritious, and delicious. Peep the photo down below of the final product and click here for the recipe!

I swear, I'll get better at this photo thing. I had my DSLR out more this past weekend than I have in the past five years. Oh 50mm 1.4f, how I missed you.

That's all she wrote this week, folks! Next week is our final four workouts before race day. We'll see how performance improves and what the finishing result brings. I'll also share some of my favorite podcasts that keep my mind occupied while I'm pounding the belt on the treadmill.