Where did the past 2 weeks go?

Really? I am trying to do 1 post a week and I couldn't manage that last week. Two weeks ago was a blur since I worked a lot and late. Of course I can't complain too much since I ended up taking Thursday off to spend time with the kiddos. 

A tea party with the kids and Baabaa

This was the first week of soccer. Kevin is the coach and does really well with the kids. There are 5 kids on the team. Two girls and 3 (maybe) boys who are all 4. He is still working on getting them to understand that you can't use your hands. There are 2 more practices this week and the first game is next Saturday. They are certainly entertaining and fun to watch.

Mad shooting on goal

Another delicious box for the CSA this week. The Asian eggplant is long and skinny. We made eggplant parm again. I think we have eaten more eggplant in the last few weeks than in the last few years. With all the veggies and all the running, Kevin (and a little me) have really been craving carbs. 

Week 11

Basil

Bell Peppers (Sunset)

Cabbage

Corn

Eggplant (Asian)

Garlic

Onion

Saladette Tomatoes

Tomatoes

Green Beans

Not too much to say about my running this week. I got in it when I could find the time. My long run went really well!

Day 1 (M) - 7.04 miles in 59:29 - just a simple run around town
Day 2 (T) - Rest Day forced by too much craziness!
Day 3 (W) - 3.00 miles in 24:20 on CC track
Day 4 (T) - 5.73 miles in 52:31 - hill workout up the hill from CC to Highland
Day 5 (F) - Rest Day! Needed after a crazy week!
Day 6 (S) - EARC day at Canoe Creek - 4.08 miles around the lake on the trails in 41:26
Day 7 (S) - GREAT run on GTT from Twin Rocks up to near RT 219 and back. 15.0 miles in 2:12:07 with the mid 7 at race pace averaging 8:32 min/mile...which is faster than I was thinking, but I felt really good. Plus when the surroundings look like this, it's hard to not enjoy the run!

That put me at 34.85 miles run in a total time of 5:09:53.

Ghost Town Trail at Twin Rocks

The next week was also a blur with soccer and running again. The kids seemed to respond better at practice and were excited for their first game. Maddie's team did well and the game went better than expected. By the end of the game, they picked up on what they were supposed to do and the "goal" of the game.

Mad dribbling the ball up the field

Dad showing Maddie how to do a throw-in

Miles bugging out at the playground during Mad's practice

It was week 12 for our CSA.  Lots of tomatoes this week. Plus a variety of colors of sweet peppers. The red peppers are especially delicious. And more eggplant...this time I made Baba Ghanoush. We picked up fresh pitas from our favorite Greek restaurant to go with it. It was quite tasty and a nice change from eggplant parm. 

Week 12

Corn
Eggplant
Leeks
Peppers –Red & Sweet Banana
Red Cabbage
Saladette Tomatoes
Tomatoes
Broccoli

It was a busy week and my mileage was upped. I also got in my longest run ever - 16 miles. I am looking forward to a slightly dialed back week next week! 

Day 1 (M) - Rest day after a hard 15 miles the day before

Day 2 (T) - 3.48 miles in 29:34 - run home from Maddie's soccer practice from Revloc Park on the GTT

Day 3 (W) - 3 mile tempo run with warm-up and cooldown for a total of 5.51 miles in 45:50

Day 4 (R) - 3.57 miles in 30:50 - run home from soccer again

Day 5 (F) - 7.64 miles in 1:06:19 - missed this run on Monday, so put it in Friday. It was HOT out...

Day 6 (S) - 16.0 miles in 2:27:33 - the final 4-5 miles with Sarah...so much easier when running with people!

Day 7 (S) - A much needed rest day!

I ended up with a total of 36.2 miles last week in a time of 5:18:11. If you look at the 7 day period of Sunday to Saturday I ran a total of 51.20 miles! I don't have Kevin's mileage for the past 2 weeks. If I don't publish tonight...it won't happen! 

We also made the decision to purchase a treadmill to help with our training. It's the Sole F80 and hopefully we will decide this was a wise decision!! We also got a new toy to go with the treadmill, the new iPad! It's a lot of fun to play with and the kiddos are really enjoying all the games that they can play.

Fun with Photobooth!

This week is a little more free time there are no longer soccer practices since the games have started. We are hoping to get caught up on things around the house and look forward to a extended Labor Day weekend!

Have a wonderful week!

Out with the old and in with the new

The 2012 Summer Olympics come to an end today. The USA men in the marathon this morning were a little disappointing. Meb Keflezighi finished in 4th, but Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman both dropped out. I guess we all have our bad races, but it's a shame that they couldn't have finished even if they didn't have a chance to win. We really enjoyed watching most of the events (synchro swimming and rhythmic gymnastics were lost on both Kevin and I), but it will be good to free up some time and get to bed at more normal hours! We are definitely looking forward to Rio in 2016. 

As such an exciting 2+ weeks of sports comes to a close, we will be beginning a new chapter of sports in the Doyle house. Mad is starting U5 soccer! She will be coached by her dad and is really looking forward to it. The team starts practice this week with games starting on August 25th. This should be interesting! I should have some pictures to post next week.

It was week 10 for our CSA. The new item this week was cantaloupe and it was delicious! We are finding ourselves eating many more salads and vegetable side dishes this summer and it's delicious. It has been fun to try all the new and different items. 

Week 10

Cantaloupe
Corn
Eggplant
Green Peppers
Head Lettuce
Kohlrabi
Parsley
Saladette Tomatoes
Squash
Tomatoes

It is week 5 of marathon training. I had another 4 day week, but the mileage increased slightly. I'll add in an additional day of running next week, so the mileage will continue to increase. Kevin has also continued to increase his mileage and hit 62 miles in the 6 days he ran. Here's what my training looked like - 

Day 1 (M) - 7 miles negative pace in 3 mile, 3 mile, and 1 mile segments. I hit the splits I wanted on a nice hilly route. The first 3 miles were at 8:48/mile pace, the second 3 were at 8:24/mile pace, and the last mile was in 8:11/mile pace.

Day 2 (T) - Cross Training by doing a Nike Training App workout that consisted of lunges, squats, pushups, ab work, and other strength exercises. I was so sore for the next 2 days!

Day 3 (W) - Easy 6 miles in 52:12 minutes

Day 4 (R) - 3.2 miles in 28:00 minutes plus 8 strides

Day 5 (F) - Rest Day

Day 6 (S) - 14.02 miles in 2:08:50...the weather was so much better than the week before, nice and cool and fall-like.

Day 7 (S) - Rest Day

Did you remember to check out the Perseid Meteor shower over the weekend? We didn't last too long on Saturday night (the peak was between midnight and 6 am), but saw many meteors. Kevin even saw 2 this morning when he went out for his run. Have a wonderful week!

Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without. ~Confucius

We enjoyed watching all the Olympic coverage this week. I gave up on not knowing the outcome to many races/events prior to watching the prime time coverage. It didn't spoil watching the coverage though. One of the big races we were able to actually see live was the Men's 10,000 meters. If you happened to have missed that race, you really should check out the highlights here. Did you know that Galen Rupp is the first American Male to win a medal in the 10,000 since Billy Mills in 1964? Here is a clip from that race in 1964...love the enthusiasm of the announcers.

I ended up working overnight from Thursday to Friday and was home most of the day on Friday. I got to watch the prelims for the Women's 100 m dash. In the prelims, women who hadn't met the Olympic standards were allowed to race if they were the only woman to represent their country. Really they didn't have a chance to medal, but a few where the first woman to represent her country in the Olympics EVER. On Sunday we watched the Women's Marathon. It was great to see Desiree Devila start the race even with her injury, but she could only make it 2+ miles. Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher finished 10th and 11th on a day with the Olympic record was broken. The weather was all over the map for the race. It was fun to watch and we look forward to the Men's race.

The kiddos are really enjoying all the events of the Olympics. It's sweet when Mad asks if the runners are as fast as Mommy and Daddy. She is not afraid to tell you what she thinks about everything. The list of "Maddisms" is quickly growing. She is an awesome helper around the house. Miles is very into doing everything himself..."me do, me do" is a pretty frequent sentence out of his mouth. This includes picking out his clothes in the morning. The shirt is always a choo choo shirt if one is available. The shorts are usually what is available and there have been some interesting color combinations. Along with wanting to do everything himself he can be really stubborn and won't change for anything. 

It was week 9 for our CSA. Two new items this week were green beans and beets. The beans were just amazing raw. We roasted the beets and made beet, goat cheese, and pine nut sandwiches.

Week 9

Basil

Cabbage

Corn

Cucumbers

Green Peppers

Head Lettuce

Jalapeno Peppers

Squash

Tomatoes

Green Beans

Red Beets

As the title of this post would indicate, this was also a week about music. In this case, live music. On Friday night, JD Eicher and the goodnights played at PenEben Park in Ebensburg. The bassist in the band is one of Kevin's cousins (on the right below in all black). They play some covers, but most are original songs that are awesome. We really enjoy when they come to Eburg.

On Saturday night, we went to the (now annual) Clark's concert at the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum. It's a nice night out without the kids with all our friends. Despite a period of a little rain, it was a great show and fun night out. 

It is now week 4 of marathon training. The mileage was pretty consistent with the past few weeks, but I only ran 4 days instead of 5. The mileage will continue to increase this week as well. Kevin ended up getting in 60 miles last week. He also ran one fewer day than the previous week. Here's what my training looked like - 

Day 1 (M) - Fun workout; I set up an obstacle course around the backyard that the kids and I completed. We ran threw tires (ones I drew on the driveway), ran around trees, did jumping jacks, did situps, went under saw horses and over stepping stools, and to the finish. It was quite a fun workout.

Day 2 (T) - 6 miles in 58:31

Day 3 (W) - 2 x 1.5 mile workout, with 1 mile warmup and cooldown; the 1.5 miles were in 11:17 and 11:00

Day 4 (R) - Rest day - I need to start working in some cross training, but didn't have time this day

Day 5 (F) - 3.35 easy miles in 29:40

Day 6 (S) - 13.02 Long run in 2:01:19; it was hot and humid. I ran with Sandy on the trail for some shade, but the heat definitely got to me. I needed to finish strong and my last 3 miles were faster, but it was very tough and I was a bit out of it for mile 12.

Day 7 (S) - Rest Day

Enjoy the last week of the Olympics!

Bum, bum, bah bum, bum....

Ah, the iconic beats and horns for the Olympic Fanfare. There is something about that song and sound that I absolutely love. Yeah, I am an Olympics-aholic. I love watching all the events and hearing all the stories about the athletes. Kevin isn't a huge fan of the events that are determined by judges, but I will watch them all. So, for the next two weeks the Olympic coverage will be all that is on TV. When track and field (or athletics) starts on August 3rd...we will be glued to the TV! 


Unfortunately, we learned today that Desiree Devila will not be able to compete in the marathon in London due to an injury. It is always great to see runners that Kevin has a connection to competing at the highest levels. We'll still be cheering on the USA runners. This year, we'll also be cheering for Reid Coolsaet from Canada in the Men's Marathon. He was one of the groomsmen, along with Kevin, in a wedding for friends of ours. Plus, Kevin did run races against him years ago.


It was week 8 of the CSA and we got one of my favorites in the box - sweet corn! We also got eggplant this week. I used that and the zukes to make a vegetable lasagna where the veggies replaces the noodles. I also made my own sauce for the lasagna. It was a whole lot of work, but incredibly good. Maybe I'll make it again if we get more...but I'd also be ok with making eggplant parmesan too. 

WEEK 8
Carmen Peppers (sweet Italian) 
Corn 
Cucumbers 
Eggplant 
Head Lettuce 
Red Onions  
Salad Mix 
Squash 
Tomatoes














It was a good week of training. My mileage is picking up with longer workouts and weekend long runs. I ended up doing my long run at the Run with the Deer Fly 15k trail run. It was an incredibly challenging run, but a lot of fun! Here is a link to the race from my Garmin. I don't think it quite does the course justice. I tacked on a little at the end to bring my daily total to 10.60 miles instead of 11. 


Day 1 (M) - 5.04 miles in 43:22, mid 3 miles @ faster 
Day 2 (T) - 3.53 miles in 31:39, plus 8 striders up my road
Day 3 (W) - 6 miles in 50:38 with negatives splits for 2 mile segments - 1st 2: 17:34, 2nd 2: 16:41, 3rd 2: 16:21
Day 4 (R) - Off day due to thunderstorms in the morning and evening
Day 5 (F) -  3.13 miles in 26:22
Day 6 (S) - Rest Day with a walk with Maddie & watching Kev/Dad win the 5K
Day 7 (S) - Run with the Deer Flies 15K in 1:35:47, plus a little extra


That brings the total this week to 28.3 miles in 4:18:50. Kevin also got in a good week. His long run yesterday consisted of running 9ish miles, winning the Homecoming 5K (and a pie!), and then running another 5 miles to finish the day at 17 miles. For the week he ended up running 53.5 miles.


Enjoy watching the Summer Olympics! We certainly will be.

Another year older

A highlight (for me anyway) of the past week was my birthday. It's hard to believe that I am 32. I had an enjoyable day, even if I had to go to work. Kevin and the kids treated me very well. It started with beautiful flowers the day before my birthday and ended with a delicious dinner of Paella (we did throw out the clams that didn't open).

We tried to go to an Altoona Curve game on Thursday, but it ended up being rained out. It's been so dry all summer and the one night we actually make plans, it rains. Figures. We'll try for another game.


It was week 7 for our CSA. We definitely have a surplus of squash and tomatoes. We grew cilantro in one of our pots at home, so I made salsa with that and the fresh local tomatoes, garlic, hot peppers, onions, and limes (not local).

Week 7

Cabbage 
Cucumbers (or as Kev referred to it, a Ucumber)
Green Peppers 
Hot Banana Peppers (yellow) 
Kale 
Onions – red and white 
Squash 
Tomatoes 
Shell Peas












This was week 2 for marathon training. My workout on Wednesday ended up getting moved to Friday due to thunderstorms. Contrary to popular belief, we aren't completely crazy when it comes to running. There are some times we won't be out or have the kids outside! The start of my long run on Saturday was tough, but I made it through. My runs/workouts for the week - 

Day 1 (M) - 5.02 miles in 43:07

Day 2 (T) - 3.06 miles in 27:10

Day 3 (W) - Off day due to thunderstorms, should have done some XT, but didn't get to it

Day 4 (R) - 3.17 miles in 32:07 with Sarah

Day 5 (F) - 6.07 miles in 51:13; 3 x 1 mile - mile 1: 7:52, mile 2: 7:37, mile 3: 7:33

Day 6 (S) - 12.11 miles in 1:49:36 - last three miles with some friends and it was a great way to end the run

Day 7 (S) - Rest day!

This gave me a total of 29.43 miles for the week in 4:23:13. Kevin finished the week with 59 miles (in 6 days), which included running 26 miles on Saturday and Sunday alone. Ok, so maybe he is crazy!


Enjoy the cooler weather while it lasts!

And it begins...

As of July 9th, Kevin and I are officially training for the Richmond Marathon. It really was something I threw out there on a Thursday evening and by Friday afternoon we were signed up! Craziness.

I decided to use a training plan from the book - Train Like A Mother. This book is the sequel (in a way) to the first book by the two authors - Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell, Run Like A Mother. The plan is for towards finishing your first marathon with training 5-6 days a week. You can tell that the plan is geared towards busy moms because one day on the "down" weeks are for fun workouts. This can be bike riding with the kids, going to the pool, shooting hoops, relay races with the kids, or maybe even an obstacle course...with the kids. The plan is actually 20 weeks, but since the marathon is 18 weeks out I have modified it a bit. I am doing week one to get back into a routine and then will jump to week 4. I have a pretty solid base from training for the 15k on July 4th, so hopefully this will work. I also moved the days around a bit to fit my schedule more (hard days on M and W, with easy days on T and R).

How was week one?

Day 1 (M) - 3.01 miles in 26:22

Day 2 (T) - 3.06 miles in 27:53

Day 3 (W) - 2 mile warm up (WU), 2 mile Tempo (mile 1 in 7:58, mile 2 in 7:50), 1.62 miles cool down (CD)

Day 4 (R) - 4.07 miles in 35:07

Day 5 (F) - Rest Day - this is usually a rest day or a cross train day, I decided to take the rest this week

Day 6 (S) - 9.34 mile Long Run (LR) in 1:21:26

Day 7 (S) - Rest day - this is always the rest day

This gives me a total of 25.10 miles in 3:38:39 for week one. For week 2, the mileage is increased to 29 miles with a long run of 12 miles. I ended up running my long run last week alone due to vacations and other running buddies with injuries. I'm hoping I can change that for the upcoming weekend and all future long runs, since they only get longer!

Kevin hasn't quite finalized his plan yet, but ended up getting in around 55 miles last week. He is lucky that 2 running friends are also doing a marathon on the same day (one is doing Richmond and one is doing another one), so they are all working together with what runs are what days to train.

This was week 6 for the CSA. New additions to the box this week were garlic, cucumbers, and green peppers. 

Week 6

Basil 
Cucumbers 
Garlic 
Green Onions 
Green Tomatoes
Red Tomatoes 
Head Lettuce 
Squash 
Sweet Peppers 
Swiss Chard

I think we may make some pesto this week with the basil, since we also planted some and it grows like weeds. I'm not sure about the green tomatoes. We may try them fried. This summer is about trying new things with veggies since we are at the mercy of the farmer for what we get.

The big event for the week was Bonnie's visit home and the release of Lazlo Athletic Brands, L.A.B. This is a line of running clothes in honor of Up-N-Running's favorite canine friend Lazlo. The shirts have some very cute designs (that aren't all dog related), so if you are in the greater Pittsburgh/Cranberry/Valencia/Saxonburg/Butler area, you should stop by and check it out!! Eventually Kevin and I will get something up on the UNR site too.

It's been a busy week and there is no slowing down from here. I'm looking forward to the upcoming week....we'll see how long I can stretch out the birthday celebration!

Happy Summer!

The Summer of Veggies

We joined the Blue Goose Farm CSA this year to get fresh local veggies. We aren't as lucky as in the Western PA/Butler area to have a Farmers Market practically on every corner. We also don't have a yard where we could plant a garden, so this seemed like a great option. The weekly deliveries were supposed to start 6/13, but due to the nice spring it started a week early. This was especially awesome, because the first box was picked up the day we got back from vacation.


What have we gotten so far?



Week 1 (didn't think to take a picture)

Garlic Scapes 
Kale 
Lettuce (Red Butter & Tropicana) 
Strawberries 
Swiss Chard

Week 2

Garlic Scapes 
Kale 
Lettuce (New Red Fire) 
Snow Peas 
Sugar Peas 
Strawberries 
Broccoli

Week 3

Bok Choy 
Garlic Scapes 
Green Onions 
Head Lettuce 
Radishes 
Snow Peas 
Sugar Peas 
Strawberries 
Summer Squash

Week 4

Basil 
Cabbage 
Head Lettuce 
Kohlrabi 
Snow Peas 
Sugar Peas 
Summer Squash 
Swiss Chard 
Tomatoes












Week 5 (didn't get to take a picture)

Dinosaur Kale 
Green Onions 
Head Lettuce 
Parsley 
Snow Peas 
Squash 
Tomatoes 
Cabbage


We have eaten so many salads and delicious things with the veggies. At one point, I opened the fridge and all I could see was dairy and produce! Not a bad thing. If you ever have an abundance of kale, make kale chips....quite tasty! 


It's been dry lately, so hopefully that doesn't impact the weeks to come.


Happy Summer!