A Hero Among Us!

My new hero...Jamie Oliver!  His show Food Revolution is awesomeness in it's purest form!  Okay, Okay, yes, I know, I'm behind the times.  He was in WV for an entire season and I just blew it off thinking, huh, that's cool!  Well I watch about 90% of my television through Hulu on my tiny laptop while I'm sewing and since the regular season is over and True Blood STILL hasn't begun, I've been watching like my 4th and 5th choice programming (including the Bachelorette....bleh!). But I ran across his show and thought I'd give it a go for lack of another choice and WOW!!! I watched 2 more that day!

Back story....my brother was in middle school/ highschool when I was in college and I remember my mom worrying about what he was eating because they could bring cold lunch or go to this little "store-like" area that sold pizza, soda, hotdogs, you know...kid crack.  He would fight her on wanting to eat at school b/c his buddies did and he didn't want to be "lame".  I remember feeling powerless and sad because here these kids were doing school, sports, homework, in other words demanding tons from their growing bodies and a 1/3 of their nutrition was crap!  I am in my 30's now, my brother is a grown man and doing quite well and loves it when I send him homemade banana bread (he's single and still doesn't bake).  But I can't help wondering if all that did any permanent damage to his body. 

Enter Jamie Oliver!  He's getting in the schools and exposing, yes EXPOSING (like it's dirty b/c it is) their food practices to a public audience!  He's well aware of budget restrictions and health code guidelines, but he's not just exposing, he's FIXING!  He's offering ways for kids to get healthier!  In one episode he taught a single father of two boys (11 and 15) and his sons how to cook so they could quit using fast food as a lifestyle.  In one challenge he sent the father to procure a meal through a drive thru and he had the boys prepare a meal in that same time...the boys did it cheaper, quicker and healthier!!! Duh!!!!  They were throwing around the football when dad returned with the nasty fast food option.

So....if you have not watched this awesomeness please do!  Get your friends and family to watch it, but unfortunately I'm probably preaching to the choir here.  Still, it's good for all of us to refresh our nutrition know-how.  I love the magazine "Clean Eating".  Very inspiring! 

And a little bonus here....go pick up some "Jane's Crazy Mixed Up Salt"!  It is great for grilling!  Just use it sparingly unless you sweated out your salt for 3 hours, then go crazy! Ha!

Speed

Apparently my system is playing bouncy ball.  I was sick at the beginning of last week, then better towards the end of the week, then sick again this week!! What's up??!!  Anyway, I'm fed up! Fed Up!  I went running anyway ;)  I only did 4 miles, I should have (if I'd been on schedule), doing a 7 mile run yesterday and a swim followed by a weights session.  Well THAT didn't happen. I'm just happy I'm out of bed. 

So on my "run" today I got to thinking about speed.  I always try to run my fastest even though it might not be my goal for the day, but this is because I want my average speed to to be an 8.5 minute mile.  I'm not even touching that right now!  I'm around 9.5.  Now I know, I know, I almost exclusively run hills and that perpetuates my speed problem, but my husband can do some smokin' fast runs on these hills!   This gets me thinking more....what is fast?  Is fast a number?  Is fast a perspective? Is fast goal?  I have a friend who went from overweight and smoking to running a regular 7.5-8.0 min/mile.  I stand in awe of her!  I then stand in envy....here I am...healthy always, and athlete x3 years now and I'm still slow (in my opinion) as molasses in January! 

I know I should do speed drills, sprints, Fartleks, etc, but even these don't seem to help my dilemma.  I wonder further...am I just slow? I do blame my mother for smoking in the '70's while she was pregnant, but that can't be the only thing wrong. 

So I leave the question out there....what is speed?  Where does it hide?  How do I find it? 

Under the weather?

I have been feeling under the weather for the past two days.  What the heck does that mean anyway? Under the weather?  Hmmm....well I feel like crap (I can tell you what that means!).

I've been really working on listening to my body too, so I've not done an actual workout since Monday when I did a crossfit with my friend Andrea (the one I run with).  She's an animal!  She's a body builder and personal trainer, I'm so fortunate to have her as a friend b/c I can learn a ton from her! 

There is a whole lot of talk on the tri-circuit about "cross fit" so I thought I'd share my story.  I learned about it and have been doing it inconsistently since last year.  It's a combination of cardio and muscle building, but you don't stop b/t exercises (usually).  Here is a snap shot of what we did:
1 minute each: walking lunges, pushups, mountain climbers, tricep dips, squats with weights pushing up over head when standing, etc.  It was intense and 2 days later my legs are STILL sore.  I believe adding something like this does hold a lot of benefit. It's good for training intervals as well as gaining muscle and muscle endurance. It's also something you can do in a class or with a friend, which is nice from time to time. 

For the rest of the week I intend to swim/bike tomorrow and run on Friday, we're then doing a walk on Saturday to benefit the Children's Hospital in Charlottesville, VA on Saturday.  Good cause, but always hot!!  

Hope you all are having a good week and I tried a new recipe that if I like it I'll post it!!!  Blackbean burgers...yum!