Race Day!

This morning I woke up and went over to the Lincoln Park Zoo to run the 10K with my dad. We got there pretty early so we had time to get warmed up and relax a little bit before the start. I was pretty nervous, but when the race started, I was ready to go. I ran the first mile a little fast, so I think that affected the rest of race, but overall the race went pretty well. My time ended up being 41:14, so I didn't break 40 minutes, but I can't complain because I enjoyed the race and that is my second fasted 10K.
Here are my splits:
Mile 1: 6:09
Mile 2: 12:44 (6:35)
Mile 3: 19:20 (6:36)
Mile 4: 26:18 (6:58)
Mile 5: 33:00 (6:41)
Mile 6: 39:51 (6:51)
Mile 6.2: 41:14 (1:22)
I'm not sure that the fourth mile marker was in the correct place, but the splits are close enough. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my race. I think I was a little tired going into it because I had a tough training week and this is my fourth race in 5 weeks, so I'm glad to have a little break before my next race.

After I got home from the race, I decided it would be fun to bake a couple things, so that's exactly what I did! I made brown butter blondies and maple pecan bars. The maple pecan bars were pretty easy to make and they tasted really good! The brown butter blondies were a little harder to make because I first had to make clarified butter and from that I had to make brown butter. Clarified butter is just butter with the fat and water removed, but it's hard to make because after you melt the butter, you have to get rid of the fat and water. It took me two tries to get it right, but I think I did okay with it. After I finally finished making the clarified butter, I had to let it cook until it turned brown. I'm not sure I cooked the butter enough, but I think the blondies turned out pretty good. I haven't tried those yet though. Here are some pictures of my treats:

Restful Day

Today was a pretty good day. After an uneventful morning, I drove downtown Chicago with my dad. We went to the Lincoln Park zoo to pick up our race packets for the 10K we're doing tomorrow morning. After we got our packets, we walked around the zoo for a little bit and then drove to our apartment to get settled. After we got there, we decided to walk to Michigan Avenue to shop around a little before eating dinner. For dinner we went to Cafe Spiaggia and the food was amazing! I had a dish called Perciatelle which was thin hollow pasta with La Quercia guanciale (a type of Italian bacon), onions, garlic, basil, and Calabrian peppers. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the flavors were amazing.

The rest of my night has been pretty boring, but I'm getting nervous/excited for the race in the morning. I really want to break 40 minutes in the 10K. I just need to relax and believe in myself. I know if I can run the first 5K in under 20 minutes, I can keep up the pace for the rest of the race. I also want to try to win the race. I'm going to try to stay up front from the start and then we'll see what happens. Whatever happens, I know I'll be happy as long as I'm having fun!

My First Post!

I started off my day with a 12 mile long run. I was hoping to go a little longer, but my legs were dead after a long week of training. I was also having some pain in my ankle, so I decided to cut my run short. I completed the run in 1:30:40, which is a 7:34 pace, so I was pretty happy with that. I have a hard time doing my long runs at a slower pace then my shorter runs, but I think it'll help my marathon pace, so I'm not too worried.

After my run, I was so tired, I just ate and watched tv on the couch for a while before deciding I should do a 10 minute core workout. I also went swimming after that because I really need to start getting some swimming in before my triathlon. It's crazy how swimming just 1000 yards seems so hard to me now. I think of how I used to swim 7000+ yards a practice back in college and I'm shocked at how so much can change in just a few years. I better start getting back in shape!

Besides all my working out today, my day wasn't too exciting. I did some baking for my brother and his friends to eat during the Blackhawks game. I made some awesome lemon bars and some blueberry cheesecake bars. The lemon bars took forever to make because I had to make the filling from scratch and then they had to cool for 3 hours in the fridge, but they were definitely worth it. The blueberry cheesecake bars were also pretty good, even though I'm not a huge fan of cheesecake. I think they needed more time to set because the middle was a little bit gooey, but they still tasted good. Here are some pictures:





I'm looking forward to tomorrow because it's my rest day and I'm going downtown to pick up my packet for the 10K I'm running on Sunday! I'm really looking forward to the race because I'm going to try to break 40 minutes for the first time and to win the race. We'll see what happens!