fitness | wild in the wilds

April Showers

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Martha B

I swear I’ve been trying to post the past few months here. It’s just been an overwhelming time at work, and in my spare time I could have either run or talked about running, and we all know which is more productive. Anyway, with my intense work season winding down and my favorite time of the year for running ramping up, I figured it was time to give the old blog a whirl again.

When last I left you, I was going through the post race season sads. After a disappointing DNF at Sinnemahone, I decided to reevaluate my goals. This in turn lead to a winter of just running for fitness and fun. My mileage stayed respectable, and I consistently started running with people who are more talented than I am, which in turn kept things challenging and helped me maintain a pretty good level of fitness without being on a “plan.”

I signed up for the PA Trophy series again this year, which is already in full swing. I finished Mile Run Half Marathon in early April in basically the same amount of time I finished my last trail half last season, so it’s nice to know the wheels didn’t just fall off this winter.

Post race with my lovely training partner Jen, who crushed my time by over 10 minutes.

After a few weeks of recovery came Hyner 25k this past Saturday, which is one of those races that as the hobby jogger I am, I’m never fully prepared for. Pretty much the strategy was just run as fast as you can until the first 1600 foot climb and then just get complacent in whatever pack you end up in. Ok, ok, I did get a 23 minute PR from my time last year and finally cracked the 4 hour barrier, so I must have did something right.

Post race festivities with my Sunday runday crew.

This past week has just been an exercise in radical recovery. I started feeling physically well on Tuesday, but mentally I’m drained and I can’t catch up on sleep for anything. I’m kind of rolling with the punches as this Sunday is the Greenwood Forest Half Marathon. I hate racing back to back weeks, but I’m just treating this as a nice long training run for things to come with no real goals except to check out a race I haven’t done before.

I’m glad to be back and hope to update regularly as I definitely miss this. Hope everyone has had a pleasant winter and early season races are all treating you well. Talk soon!

Manual Labor Day (weekend.)

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Martha B

Fact of life: owning a bar is not conducive to chill holiday weekends.

Sure, I could just stack the schedule like a jag, but I’m a big old softie and I wanted my employees to each have at least once day to get out and celebrate however they want (which I’m assuming is a lot more exciting than what I would be doing – run, laundry, hibernate?) While yesterday and today are long days for me, tomorrow is an easy one, and then Monday we close completely for a little R&R (or in my case, yard work. Fire wood needs chopped, flower beds need ripped up… nothing says Labor Day like manual labor, ya’ll.)

This life, it’s all about making the most with the time you have. I am sure a lot of people work a lot worse schedules than I do. I know a lot of people who are a lot busier. Balancing your have tos with your want tos is a slippery slope to navigate, but I think I’m starting to figure it out. Here’s some things I’m definitely looking forward to in the next couple days:

Runs:

I rested yesterday and today. This was totally unplanned, but I allowed myself an anything goes week after Mega, and the direction things were going was that I needed a couple days off. I was dragging so hard on my Thursday run that even though it was shooting lightening from the sky, I didn’t feel any sense of urgency to hurry my ass home. Kinda felt meh yesterday morning too when I woke up. I felt better today, but I decided the dogs needed a nice long hike and I needed some time to marinate in a vat of coffee.

Sunday starts a nice high mileage week with lots of fun stuff planned.

The Big Inch – perfect for some short fast fun with hills.

Tomorrow I’m going to kick off the week with 8 miles of hills that make your lungs come out your nose. Monday, I get to hit the trails with my training partner Jen for the first time since Mega for hopefully a half marathon of climbing and bombing.

Reads:

Kindle Unlimited is pretty high up there on my list of things I don’t want to live without (don’t worry Big A, you are #1 on said list). Here’s my current TBR pile for September.

I’m pretty sure I’m the last runner on the planet who hasn’t read Eat & Run, but I figure it’s appropriate coming into one of my highest anticipated mileage months ever. While Jurek is a rockstar and I’m just some dumpy broad who thinks it’s cute to eat a whole pizza after a long run, hopefully this will inspire me to find a more moderate approach to fueling.

On a side note, I just finished up Running for Health and Happiness by Jason Fitzgerald of Strength Running. I will do a comprehensive review in the next week or so here, but it was a really decent read.

Brews:

When the work weekend is done, and the yard work is under control, you better believe Big A and I are going to be doing a little celebrating on the deck. On tap for Monday?

I was putting off pumpkin beer as long as possible, but the Penn Brewery Pumpkin Roll is a hot commodity in my neck of the woods. We could only get one case for the bar as of now, so I am hoarding some for myself because it’s probably my favorite of the pumpkin variety.

I haven’t tried New Belgium’s Ranger yet, but I’ve been pleased with the other samples I’ve received from them including the Snapshot and Fat Tire, IPAs are my jam, so I’m definitely looking forward to giving them a test drive.

Feeds:

No holiday weekend in my household is complete without a little feasting.

Photo and recipe from PopularPaleo.com Click the pic to take you there!

These sweet pepper poppers from PopularPaleo.com have turned into one of my go-tos ever since I tried the 21 Day Sugar Detox a few months ago. The only alteration I make to the recipe is that I make a pouch out of foil and cook them over indirect heat on the grill. I made the mistake of taking these to a Memorial Day party, and now they are highly requested everywhere else I’m invited. Fortunately they are super easy.

I think they will be an excellent accompaniment to this Grilled Flank Steak with Chilean Salsa.

Photo and recipe from http://traegergrills.com Click the pic to check it out.

I also have a whole mess of various zucchinis and squashes to tend to. And a farmer’s market haul of sweet corn and salad fixings, so we will be eating good!

Well, this was fun. I’m going to start counting down the hours here soon before my “weekend” starts. Hope everyone is picnicking, playing, and sucking every last drop of fun out of what’s left of summer. Until next time…