Born to Run 5k recap and review

I never run 5k's, but I ran this one because it was a fundraiser for the Women's Center for Life. Unfortunately...
1. I was hung over. We got drinks to celebrate my promotion at work - which is finally actually coming to pass, two years later - and I cannot hold my alcohol. I had a martini and I felt positively ill.
2. Very few people showed up. There were only about 125 runners altogether!
3. Runners tend to group in packs, and only the "lead pack" followed the course. It wasn't marked, but we were following a biker. The slower runners lost sight and turned the wrong way, running more like 2.7 miles.

So... recap: I ran a 21:40, not as fast I would have liked, but I felt sick the whole time. First overall female in a very tiny field. I have no idea how to run a 5k, how to pace, what pace to aim for, etc. I suck at 5k's.
Review: The Hot Eight brass band played and Antoine's provided food, but this race needs some serious promotion and a marked course. Also my "trophy" is really strange.

What is up with the ribbon?

Foody Friday: Easy home canning

Down here at the tip of the USA we grow a lot of citrus, and even in a bad crop year the winter prices are phenomenal. I decided to save some of the delicious, dirt-cheap grapefruit by making marmalade. I based this recipe off a combination of my favorite orange marmalade and several other recipes, and I must say it is not only quite good but the easiest canning recipe ever. So if you have never made preserves before, this is an excellent way to learn.
This is a dark, rich marmalade, a little on the bitter side. If you like sweeter preserves, reduce the amount of lemon juice by half and add an additional 1/4 C brown sugar

Dark grapefruit marmalade
Ingredients:
4 grapefruit. I used pink but I imagine ruby red would be incredibly delicious! Do not prick or break skins.

3 C white sugar
2 C packed dark brown sugar
1/4 C lemon juice


Equipment needed:
Six half pint jars. You can buy them here. Run them through the dishwasher before you use them.

Large pot to make the preserves - I used a pasta pot.
Large pot to process the preserves - it has to be big enough to cover the jars with water. I used my big dutch oven. If your pot is smaller just process small batches (1 or 2 jars) at a time.
Candy thermometer is completely optional

Spoon, ladle, sharp knife; immersion ("stick") blender optional.


1. Wash the grapefruit and put them in the pot, peel on. Cover with water, bring to a boil, and boil for an hour and 15 minutes. You may have to add more boiling water as the water level goes down. Every so often you can turn the fruit with a spoon. PS - while you are boiling the grapefruit your house will smell amazing.

2. Drain the water out and let the grapefruit cool. I left mine in the pot overnight because I ran out of time to finish the project.
3. Chop the grapefruit up. It's best to do this in the pot so you don't lose any juices; an easy way to do this is with a short bladed knife or with an immersion blender after slicing the fruit. Just chop it up until the peel pieces are as small as you'd like them. Pick out seeds as you encounter them.
4. Add the sugar and lemon to the pot; stir as you bring the jelly to a boil. Boil for about 15 minutes or until it starts to jell. You can tell: it gets thick, darker, and the consistency of jelly. If you dip the spoon in, the liquid will cool into jelly on the spoon. If you have a candy thermometer, boil until temp reaches 220; I tried this but I got sick of the thermometer being in the way and got rid of it. You don't need it.

Seconds after this picture was taken I dropped the thermometer into the pot...then the sink. Not worth the trouble.

5. Ladle preserves into clean pint jars, filling almost completely up (if you have extra marmalade put it in your fridge; if the marmalade doesn't totally fill the jar you can't get a seal and the preserves will go bad in a few months. I got about another 1/2 jar which I stuck in my fridge and am eating on toast!).If you drip on the outside of the jar, it's no biggie - it will get clean in the hot water bath.

6. Screw lids on and prepare hot water bath by placing a towel in the bottom of a pot and putting the jars on it. Fill with water. Note to new canners: You may hear a "pop" as the jars seal at this point. You still have to process them in hot water to get a true seal.

What's for dinner, dear? Oh, a couple of jars.

7. Put pot on the stove, bring to a boil, and boil jars for ten minutes. You will hear each lid pop as it seals. When you are done each lid should be tightly sealed and flat.

There. You're done. Delicious marmalade for almost no work at all!

Ketchup

It's time for a catch-up post.
- Joey (little brother #2) left for basic training. We had him over for dinner to say 'bye and went to the Orpheus parade briefly so he could get a last glimpse of New Orleans before he left. I'm kind of upset over this whole thing. It's a tough position to be in: I support the military and I hope this is the right decision for Joey, but let's face it. No one want their family in harm's way.
- Our kitchen sink started backing up dreadfully last week but luckily Joey is a plumber on the side and offered to empty the trap. This fixed the clog but the problem was that when he unscrewed our old, metal pipes they were so eroded that they fell apart in his hands. This occurred on Lundi gras, so we couldn't actually get a plumber until Wednesday. It was a long few days of dumping buckets!
- I assume I had some sort of virus last week that affected my muscles; thankfully that seems to have resolved without ending in my death.I did hydrate and do all the right things for my kidneys, which are luckily resilient organs.
- Work has continued to be insane but I see the light - things are moving forward to open my new clinic, which will give me much greater freedom and control over my own workplace environment.
- I've worn my new Nike Tempo shorts that finally replaced twelve year old shorts I had to pitch, but I have one complaint. One pair is larger than the other! They're the same size, but I have to roll the waistband of the printed pair to keep it on. Variable sizing annoys me.
Have you ever bought multiples of an item of clothing, only to find out that the sizes were actually different? I was so excited to find another pair of my favorite jeans once ...but I bought a different wash. And they were humongous. I was heart broken!

Fury

I spent 35 minutes talking to a vendor yesterday and was awarded with a advertisement-laden chocolate bar. I earned that chocolate bar. And someone at work took it.
I'm out to get you, chocolate snitcher.

Shoe Evolution: Adapting to a Minimalist Shoe

Just a little over a year ago, I was hobbling around nearly lame from excruciating knee pain. Simple runner's knee had progressed to a major injury, and I ran my first marathon so injured that my patella strap popped off mid-race because my knee had swollen so much. Less than six months later I was running pain-free and getting faster with every race. How did I heal?
Simple.
I wore less shoe.
Take a look at my shoe progression.

Brooks Ariels, Saucony Triumph, New Balance, Karhu Fast, Saucony flats

1. I started out with Brooks Ariels, a massive shoe with heavy, solid arches that absolutely prevents any kind of pronation. The shoe weighs an incredible 12.3 ounces, and is about as flexible as a cinder block.Worst of all, I wore these with stiff orthotics! The result? Heavy, unnatural gait and severe knee injury that led me to the doctor.
2. Next came Nike Craptastics, a pair of shoes so cheap and poorly made that I got blood blisters from deteriorating insoles. I bought these from the same running store, as my doctor (typically) recommended new shoes for a knee injury. They felt all right on - wide toe box, good fit - but all wrong when I ran. They were also a stability shoe and my joints felt jarred with every step. My runner's knee was compounded by a gigantic black and blue bursa injury.

This is the only picture I could find of my Nikes (L) because they are no more.

3. The light! All at once I bought three pairs of shoes in my quest to replace my dying Nikes. About this time I started researching running gaits and knee injury, and I concluded two things: first, that pronation actually protects your knees, and second, that I do not overpronate. My shoes wear on the inside because I push off with my big toe joint. We call this, um, bunions. I settled on the Saucony Triumph, a men's shoe, because they seemed likely to stand up to many long runs. They are tough, but best of all they were a flexible neutral shoe. These were my first neutral shoes and in days my knee pain had subsided.
4. I moved on to a pair of now -discontinued New Balance shoes that are very lightweight, flexible shoes. I loved the lightness of this shoe and ran four marathons in it - however, I did not rely on it much in training because as you can see it has a very high heel. This cushy stacked heal makes me heel-strike, especially when I speed up, so I felt a little uncomfortable. I could tell that it was making me change my gait.
5. My beloved Karhu Fast Fulcrum shoes had been waiting in the wings all the while. I had been "saving" these shoes for shorter races because they have basically no outsole. But I love the nearly zero-drop heel and the superb flexibility. The "fulcrum" encourages mid-foot strike, which I like because I already mid-foot strike. I began a secret plan to train for and run the Mardi Gras marathon in these shoes, part of my move to more minimal shoes. I almost ditched the plan after I had a bruised toe following The Wall 30k, but I stuck with the plan and PR's at the marathon in the Karhus.
6. Because I have an addiction, I recently bought the Saucony Kilkenny flats. I like that they are basically no shoe at all, but the wells where the spikes would screw in decrease overall flexibility.

Compare the heels on my Brooks Ariels and my new Saucony flats. Geez.

During this past year of shoe experimentation, I came to a few conclusions.
1. Our bodies are smart. We do not need to retrain our bodies to do something we are designed to do and have been doing all of our lives. If you over-pronate, it's probably to compensate for some gait or structural anomaly. A more flexible shoe lets your body work the way it has learned to.
2. If it makes you change the way you run, don't wear it. Honestly, I am not a fan of altering your running gait. I know many people are advocating Chi running and barefoot running, but if you have to make major changes to your stride to adopt a new style you are begging for injury. Running should feel natural to you. When I run, I don't want to think about how I am running. I don't have "perfect form" (according to whom?) but I also ran five marathons in six months injury-free. When I bought the Nikes, the short and  wide toe box seemed ideal for me. And indeed, the shoes fit my feet well. But they forced an uncomfortable, unnatural landing that hurt every step. I felt back and neck stiffness after a long run. The Karhus claim to adjust your gait (that's what the fulcrum does) but it works for me because that already IS my gait.
3. If it isn't broken, don't attempt to fix it. Sorry, guys, I had to correct that old and wise phrase! Don't jump on every running bandwagon. Are you in pain? Injured? Slow? No? Then keep the shoes you've got.
4. Go slow. If you make shoe changes, do it gradually by working a new pair in. I did this with all my shoe changes and I still rotate shoes. Right now I am wearing mainly my Karhus, but I wear my New Balance a few times a week because I'm cheap and I'd like to get my money's worth. Once a week I work in my flats. My Saucony's seem stiff and heavy to me now, so I have relegated them to gym only. 

Seriously?!

I was feeling a little perkier today and the weather is blissful. So I ran ten miles in 1:11, with the last seven miles all being under 7 min.

I like to run my fastest ten milers while trying to decide if my kidneys are actually failing or just nephrotic. 

P.S. I've never even run one mile under 7 minutes before as far as I know.

Sick and symptoms!

I have nothing cute and clever to say today. Maybe tomorrow I'll have energy to write. I've actually been feeling rather poorly and Monday/Tuesday were high drama over here (including sad goodbyes, parades, and eroded pipes) to be elaborated on further at a future date. For now I am trying to decide whether to try to hunt down a doctor or not.
For the last week my muscles have felt very weak and sore despite only minimal exercise (and no strength training and nothing new). Then just recently I have had flank pain, lethargy, nausea, low-grade fever, itching, and dermatological effects (petechae, rashes, eczema). I know it sounds absurd but I suspect myositis or myopathy for some reason, with resulting stress to my kidneys.
I do not take any medications and I have not been sick recently, but I do have a history of thyroid disease. That's really the only cause I can think of! I know I have to go to work tomorrow because I couldn't get coverage on such short notice, but if I do not start feeling better I will call my doctor. Unfortunately the last time I called her (years ago) it took over six weeks to get an appointment, so I don't have high hopes. Maybe my symptoms resolve without treatment!
In good news today, I got THREE packages in the mail, a pair of Banana Republic pants I bought on Ebay (the discontinued Ryan style, my favorite! I snap up every pair I see on Ebay!), a huge box of canning jars (I want to preserve some of the citrus while it is on sale at low winter prices), and one of the pairs of running shorts I bought on sale. They will be replacing running shorts I bought when I was sixteen years old and simply have to throw out because the elastic is so dead that they don't stay up. They've definitely done their duty, though!
How long do your workout clothes usually last? Besides these shorts, I also had some "Everlast" jog bras that I had for eight years!