Kitchen Evolution- it's a process...

I say I live in the "low rent" part of Boulder.  I say that with a grain of salt as nothing in Boulder is inexpensive.   

But seriously,  here's my house.  Nothing fancy - just the typical 3 bedroom/1 bath Ranch style track home from the 1960s.

When I bought it - like 10 college kids lived in it and it TRASHED.   I've slowly been remodeling - it's an on going process.

I've been working on the kitchen.  Here's a picture from a year ago.  I had previously upgraded from the 1960s appliances, but the kitchen was horribly cluttered and dank.   

clutter!

Things I didn't like:

1.  Having the washer in the kitchen.  When I first moved in,  there was a beige stackable washer/dryer in the kitchen.  When it broke I purchased better appliances and moved the dryer to the garage.  I didn't want to spend the money having plumbing installed in the garage so the ginormous washer stayed in the kitchen.
2. My nice stainless steel refrigerator was too big.  It was so big - I was unable to open my oven up all the way.  My stove/oven is gas - so to move it would be spendy.
3. No dishwasher - I hated the clutter a dish drain tray. (actually the box to the right of the pic is a dishwasher - fixin' to be installed).  
4. Cluttered  countertops.  Electric tea kettle, toaster, bread box, the afore mentioned dish dryer.
5. Old and chipped up Formica counter-top

Step one - new counter tops
I had the dishwasher installed.  That frees up a bunch of counter space. And I scored some Paperstone ( looks like soap stone) from some friends that had remodeled their kitchen

before - 1960s formica

ahh...so much better - less clutter!!

Next up - Move Stove and remove washer from Kitchen.

1.  The old 36" wide refrigerator had to go.  Do you know how hard it is to find a 30" refrigerator?  It's a pain.  Sold old one on Craiglist
2. Swapped the refrigerator and stove locations.  This entailed have the gas line professionally move ($$)
3. Move the washer into the hallway closet.  This was $$ too - as the closet had to be widened, a platform built to go over the gas line  that was put in with the stove location and a bit of plumbing redo.

wow!  amazing how much room the washer & old fridge took!

Step 3 - added Stainless Steel top prep counter & flooring.

1.  Flooring - this was a mistake.  My choice was based on the fact it would be temporary.  By temporary - I mean 2 - 3 years.   I want to put radiant heated flooring in the kitchen, but it's not in the budget right now - so I wanted something decent, but not stupid expensive that I could live with.   I'm not crazy about how dark it is...but what can you do?
2. LOVE the prep counter - I got it from West Elm.  Seems like I remember the price being $299, but when I looked online it was $399.  I called their Customer Service and they sold it to me at the $299 price.  Well worth it - a great size, seems really sturdy, great functionality and it looks great.  I was super pleased.
3. Also added a stainless steel pot hanger - freed up a ton of storage space
4. Also, from West Elm - added of their stack able shelves under the pot rack.

Step 4 -Paint

1. Used a saffron orange as an accent color (also did this in other areas of my house) and painted the other walls "pebble gray".   I didn't realize how dingy the sage green looked.  I loved that sage green for a long time.  The wall with an X is going to be knocked out to open up the kitchen to the living area - not quite sure when that will happen.

2. Got rid of the clutter on top of the refrigerator

3. The next pictures are before, during and after shots.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

DURING

DURING

AFTER

Step 5 - Changed out teak dining table, replaced dark hollow core door with glass door, painted

1.The dark hollow core door had to go.  I replaced it with an awesome door with reed glass.  Turned out fantastic and let in a ton of light.
2.  With the dark flooring I wanted something that would brighten the place up.  I found a DWR Saarrinen table on Craigslist.   I totally love it.
3. Painted "pebble gray" and added a little saffron orange accent.

Step 6 - Where's the washer

1. Like I mentioned previously - I moved the washer to the hall closet.  It was a bit of an ordeal, but I am so happy to get the darn thing out of my kitchen.
2. What do about a closet door?   Well - i hated the thought of a boring louvered door - so I bought some barn door hardware and purchased a frosted glass slab door from Home Depot.  
3. Turned out amazing!!!  I totally love the look!

I like the white and but decided to paint orange

orange barn door closed

there's that washer

 

Bath & Bedroom doors replaced w/frosted glass door w/fancy door knobs.  Other closet door was painted white

trading up...

Most of my road trips in the past have been with various guy friends.  In 2009 - I was able to ride with a bunch of awesome and talented girls and we did road trips, but over the years the majority of my mtn bike road trips have been me and the guys.   It looks kinda like this, this, this and this.  However; all my recent trips have been with my running girlfriends and it looks to be the upcoming trend...trading up!

Which bring me to my most recent trip to Eugene, OR.  My last road trip in March was with the girls and the trip this past weekend was with the girls too.  I've been having a blast hanging out with my girlies.

I didn't race (not even the half) because I didn't want to risk make my 'stress reaction' any worse, but man - what a fun time I had.  There was a lot of laughing, talking, sleeping and eating.  And for my other companions - they had some racing to do.

It went like this:

beautiful morning - this was the view from our hotel room in Portland

brunch in trendy, hipster part of town at Tastys 'n Sons



hipsters playing with their food


quick drive to Eugene and a stop at the expo

Terzah in her throw away clothes

All of us at the start - I did start with the racers, but intentionally went slow and pulled out way before the finish...couldn't pass up running just a few miles at sea level!
 

Kathy and Hannah - post race - Hayward Field - oh yeah!

Terzah finishing strong - we are so proud of her!   

Dim sum at Wong's King - I noticed all the neighboring tables were not speaking English - must be authentic, eh?

Love the name of this place
 
And a stop at Voodoo Donuts to bring a few home to friends and family.

Such a fantastic time - it was hard to be upset about being injured when surrounded by great friends. Kathy's version of the story here. I am very grateful for my life.

Plan B....

sigh...the best laid plans, eh?

 

using a bone simulator to help with healing the stress reaction of the tibia. 

The Eugene marathon is this weekend and it was to be my 1st marathon.  However; I'm injured with a 'stress reaction' on my lower left tibia.

So, there's a...

1.  100% chance I will not be running a marathon this weekend

2. 60% chance I will not start the half marathon

3. 35% chance I will start the half marathon and not finish

4. 5% chance I will start and finish the half marathon.

my mental state

I'm disappointed, but not bitterly disappointed or crushed the marathon won't be happening.  I've had a suspicion the last 2.5 weeks that there was a good chance I wouldn't run the marathon.   I had kinda gotten used to that possibility so when the decision was made it was disappointing, but not devestating.

I am also bummed because I felt I had a really good shot at a sub4 (a BQ for me) at my current fitness.   Last week I was cranking out 9:30 min miles at altitude and at a very low effort (high z1/low z2).    If I could run 9:30s at altitude - would could I do at a higher effort (9:07s - BQ marathon pace) at sea level?   Guess I'll never know...

BUT even tho I'm not running the marathon -it will be nice to launch into the rest of Spring and Summer with a very nice cardio base.

hope springs eternal

I had hoped to salvage "something" and run the half marathon.  I mean I don't want to totally waste the fitness I have and PLUS the opportunity to run at sea level doesn't happen very often.  I often hear that sea level is good for 15 - 20 seconds per mile faster.  My poor little ego would love to record those faster miles in my memory.

reality check

At this point in time - I am not feeling "pain" when I run.  However; I do feel a tightness in my lower calf.   

I told my pal, Dana about my plan to attempt the half, but not race it or stop if I feel pain.   Her words of advice "you have nothing to prove on a half marathon, you know how you are - you WILL compete if you start the half.   Maybe you should just look at this like a fun weekend and not race at all.  Racing may make the injury worse and it will make if a longer recovery time."

what to do

Before I talked to Dana - I was 100% sure i would start the half marathon.   But her words rang true.   Now to weigh the risk of even starting the half or making the decision to not run at all...

"she's on the fat side of things" - FUEL/Lactate/V02 test

I overheard this comment about me...
Craig H. - "If you had to guess...how is she looking?"
Rob P. "I'd say she's on the fat side of things"

This was my coach, Craig asking Rob (Exercise Physiologist @ BSCM) about my fuel burn capacity.   I've been working on becoming a more efficient fat burner and now was the moment of truth.  Either I had done the work or not - the machine they had me hooked up to would provide data - cold hard facts.

FUEL test results:

For the past 3 months I've been doing the following:
1. Ran most of my miles at an embarrassingly slow pace (seriously, just look at my DM stats!)
2. Ran my long runs without any fuel - only water.
3. I changed my diet to be higher in fat.  45% fat, 20% protein, 35% carbs (no processed carbs - except the occasional pancake). 

Here are the results:

• Zone 1 & 2 - ~50% fat burn - 50% carb burn
• Zone 3 -       ~42% fat burn - 58% carb burn
• Zone 4 -       ~36% fat burn - 64% carb burn
• Zone 5 -       ~26% fat burn - 74% carb burn

I just emailed my coach the info - but according to the BSCM nutritionist I met with tonight - she said the fact that I am still burning 26% fat when I'm hitting that anaerobic zone is outstanding.  She said many people are at 100% carb burn in this zone.

Based on this information my coach will draft a marathon fueling plan and starting with this week's 18.5 mile run.

With my layman's knowledge - I'm guessing he'll have me run at ~160-162 HR for marathon pace.   As a guess - I'm thinking I can store ~1200 grams of carb (I'm 4'10") so at a 418 carb burn per hour that will last me 3 hours.  Well i KNOW I won't be running a 3 hour marathon - so I'll need to fuel with at least 400-600 calories in order to avoid bonk mode.   But I'll wait to hear from him on specifics.

I'm stoked to have this data to help formulate a (hopefully a smart) marathon fueling plan.

And the question remains - will my body tolerate and be able to process 400-600 calories while running marathon pace??

Lactate - red line on chart above

Rob said that typically when people hit LT that red line jumps dramatically - since mine wasn't a super big jump that means I have more of an endurance physiology.  He said "You'll never win a 5k."   :(

Coach Craig wanted this data to verify my zones were correct.   They were a little off - but close.   One of the big discrepancy was Zone 1.  I've been running a lot of my Zone 2 runs at 145/146 HR and it turns out that's the top end of zone 1.  whoopsie.    But I don't mind, that means I can now run a little faster to be in zone 2.

V02 Max result

Coach Craig could care less about this result.  He says he would not use this number to plan my training and it was up to me if I wanted to do this test.  BUT since is was part of the package of testing and I'm a total numbers geek and had V02 max test from 9 years ago to compare against,  I most definitely wanted to do this portion of the test.

Now you hear that as we age we lose V02 max capacity.  In 2004 - I was 42.5 years old.  I am now a 51 year old, post menopause woman.  I was very curious on how much I lost.  Keep in mind, I had never done anything athletic (I don't think being a semi-pro pool player counts as athletic) until I was 40.  So, in 2004 - I only have 2.5 years of mtn biking cardio under my belt.  Now at the age of 51 - I have ~11 years of cardio experience(9.5 years mtn bike/1.5 years running)

Surprisingly to me - my V02 max increased by 10!   whoa - i was shocked, surprised and happy - maybe there is hope after all!  I had to laugh...my weight is almost exactly the same as it was 9 years ago.   Max HR decreased dramatically.

And to see what the last 41 seconds of a 5.5 minute V02 max test looks like - check out this video.  You can hear me groaning in pain at the end.




Yeah - I have no idea why I am smiling in this picture...they are sticking my finger to get blood.

 

post race data analysis ad nauesum - moab half race report

What a difference a year 11 months makes

11 months ago (6 months after I took up running) I was at the tail end of training for my first ever half marathon.  My lofty(to me) goal was to run a sub-2 hour.  On April 15,2012, I ran my first Half Marathon and I ran a 2:01:38 (boo!)   On May 19, 2012, I accomplished my goal on my 2nd attempt and ran a 1:57:18.

Fast forward to the present.  I'm training for my first marathon.   I'm using a couple of back-to-back weekend half marathons as training runs - a challenging trail half that was last weekend and the Moab Half was yesterday.

The plan for the Moab race is to have a hard run to stimulate stress, but not truly race it so I could be recovered enough to increase my training load this week.  I knocked out a 1:58:42 on a rolling (77 net downhill) course.   To think that was my big goal for last year was a sub-2 and now I can knock out a sub-2 on a training run,  that makes me happy to see how much progress I have made in a year.

Friends make my life even better

I'm keeping this section short as I'm gonna to focus on data analysis - but I had great travel companions.  No drama, no stress - just lots of fun. See pictures below

Kathy, Terzah, me - waiting at the start

still waiting

Terzah feeling up some guy's bunny ears.  :)

we rode in style in the Audi - Kathy looks a like a teenager

The data

Ok...now the fun part.  The plan was to run by zone PE.   I had no idea what my pace would be with HR and PE being my guide.  Let the chips fall where they may. 

The race plan was to start conservatively with a mid-zone 3 PE for miles 1 -3, for miles 3 - 9  take it up to a high z3/low z4, 9 - 9.5 take the biggest hill on the course easy and not spike the HR, 10 - 11.5 mid-z4, 11.5 - 13.1 high z4.

Here's how it played out

• yellow arrow shows where mile 3 ended - I'm happy there is an obvious jump in effort
• green arrow shows were mile 9 ended - HR jump not as obvious, but the HR trend is. 
• This shows how much I was holding back - this makes me happy
• My splits are consistent for the terrain

Super stoked my decoupled rate was 2.11% - this makes me VERY happy.  The explanation for the term "decoupled" can be found here.  But basically it determines how much heart rate drift there is - which is an indicator of fitness. 

This is key comment in the decoupled article

Negative splitting

I wasn't consiously attempting to negative split - again I was just following the plan.   I negative split by 3 seconds.  Most of the elevation gain is in the 2nd half of the race. My avg pace for the entire race was ~8:50(I need to work on my tangent running) -  the last 6.6 the part of the course with the most elevation gain was 8:50 (NGP was 8:38 !) 

1st half of the race

2nd half of the race

Sea Level estimate

Of course I'm curious about what my time estimate would be at sea level.  Luckily on the internets there's a calculator for that.( www.runworks.com/calculator.html )  My 1:58:42 is equivalent to a 1:54:25.  Eugene is a sea level.  I know it probably isn't exact, but it definitely gives me more confidence.

 
Results

I finished 19th out of 125 in AG - 15%, 451 out of 1875 in gender - 24%. Again - super stoked my AG is so strong and so deep.

 
Final thoughts:


It was nice seeing how the numbers played out afterward.   I had no idea what to expect timewise - I was guessing anywhere from a 1:55 - 2:10.   I'm am cautiously optomistic about Eugene.  It will still be very, very tough to reach my goal, but I think I'm on the right track!

hmmm...Salida trail half race report

hmm....that's how I feel about the Salida Run Through Time Trail Half Marathon.  I was hoping to beat my time from the Golden Leaf.  I incorrectly thought this was exactly like the Aspen race, but looking back - there is a bit of a difference.  The elevation range was 7000 - 7800 - about the same as Aspen. BUT this course had 400 ft more elevation gain and the course measures a half mile long.  Both Anne and I had 13.6 on the ole garmin.

My Golden Leaf time was 2:36 - so I was hoping for a 2:30 or better.  I finished in 2:45 - yowza!  Of course I was disappointed, but surprisingly (to me) not bitterly disappointed.  My overriding feeling is one curiosity and determination to improve on my most glaring weakness.

Salida Bound

I traveled with Anne  on this trip.  We left Boulder ~5pm and of course we got caught in a blizzard near Fairplay. Seriously, it was white out conditions and we were driving ~5mph trying to stay on the road hoping no one would plow into us.  Luckily for us, when we reached Fairplay and stopped at a gas station a plow truck driver came into the store. He was heading toward Salida and told us to follow him.  That definitely eased the stress of the rest of the trip.  It was still sketchy, but with his lights, plowing and sanding - it was a LOT better.

We hit Salida ~9pm (too late for packet pickup) and hit up The Fritz for dinner.  I LOVE that place - damn good food.  We sat at the bar and had a nice dinner and chatted with some handsome skiers.  (poor us)

We finally got to the hotel - Holiday Inn Express.  Thankfully our room was really nice and get hit the sack pretty quickly after we got there.  We both slept poorly. (typical)  But got up at 6:30 to eat and prep for the day.

They were calling for a Winter Storm to continue - so we left out plans open of whether to attempt to drive home after that race or stay in Salida another night.  We would play it by ear.

Same old - same old/ uphill = slow & downhill = not-so-slow

My pals from Summit County made the trek in the morning - Mike and Rebecca Kane and Pam M.  

The temps were in the low 30s to start - it looked like the weather could go either way - so of course I over-dressed.  I just don't have the nerve to dress correctly.  I'd rather suffer with too much on than with too little on.   This is the only picture I took that day.

me and Anne before the start - yep -i'm the short one.  hmm...kinda have a 60s vibe going on w/the headband & red socks

So here's the course profile - my garmin clocked elevation range 7000-7800 and a tad under ~2400 ft of climbing in 13.6 miles.   

The plan was to not blow myself up on the uphills and try to make up time on the downhills.  I've ridden many of these trails on my mtn bike, I was hoping the trail Uncle Nazty would be included - it's gots some of the nice chunky stuff that I love...but alas,  no UN - but there was some good tech.

The climbs really were draining to me.  I was my usual slow self and I'd watch Anne, Pam and Rebecca pull away - I just hoped the downhills would come soon.   I never saw Rebecca after mile 3, but Anne, Pam and I did some leap frog action the entire race.

me slogging on the uphill

The climb at mile 6 was steep(I recall riding up it on my mtn bike - I cleaned it but it was a lung buster on a bike) and it was faster for me to walk than attempt to run.  Tho there was a lot of downhill - it was very rolling and so there weren't many long sustained downhills.   

It started snowing a bit around mile 9 and that was the low point for me.  I couldn't get my legs to run uphill - I was worried about my mental toughness at this point.  My brain would look at the terrain and tell my legs "you could run this!"  and my legs would "oh HELL NO! we are doing just fine walking".  Everyone once in a while my legs would obey - it was probably a 50/50 deal they would listen.   I had thought by looking at the race promoter's website that it would be all downhill after mile 10 - but you can see my the elevation profile - that was NOT the case.

The only really highlights of the race for me were the downhills.

A New nickname

I was conservative on the downhills - it is still fresh in my mind what happened in Tucson and my focus is the Eugene marathon - i don't want to screw things up.   

Anne and Pam would pass me on the uphills and I would pass them on the downhills.  As I said i was being conservative, but based on where I was in the pack (2/3 of the way in the pack) - my downhill running was faster than my race companions.

I'm not saying i'm a great downhill runner - but I am competent.  Anne said whenever she'd hear someone quickly catching up to her on the downhill - she just assumed it was me. Everyone one i passed on the downhills made nice comments.  I also heard a few things from spectators "wow - look at that pace!"  "damn - the girl is flying".

I'm sure at the front of the pack is a different story - I'm sure I'd be the one moving over to let people pass.  But I'll take what I can get.  :) 

Anne gave me a great complement by saying "You look confident and in control as you are whizzing past.  You are so much faster than everyone else.  I'm going to call you the *Downhill Demon* ".    I've had a few nicknames in my life and i kinda like that one. Thanks Anne!

Aftermath

First of all - I LOVE this race and strongly recommend it.  The race course is challenging and fun (there's a marathon option too), the price is great- I recall it being around $45 and a very cool vibe all around.

I loved this email quote from the race promoter "We do not provide a finisher medal, bouquets of flowers, space blankets, etc. at the finish.  We have a light meal. All finishers get a limited edition art print card.  We are a smaller non-profit race and there are no bands, dancers, jet flyovers, etc. along the course."

My Summit County friend, Mike Kane won his AG (50-59) and also placed 15th overall.   I LOVE this picture of him - "Eye of the Tiger" pops into my mind with this pic.   His wife Rebecca (she's in my AG) finished 4th and I finished 6th out of 14 in AG.  I'm very proud of Anne - she did very well - she beat her Aspen race time!!  Pam finished strong too.

"eye of the tiger"

Mike w/his award, me standing on tip-toes giving him bunny ears, Rebecca laughing in the background

   
You know - I was feeling just "hmmm" after the race, but now after typing this all up - it was a damn fine time.  yeeHAW!