Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Vegan Bacon Cheeseburger and I Guess I'm Speedier Than I Thought

Yesterday I met up with Kim at the Ilax Studio for lunch at a local vegan restaurant, Native Foods Cafe. I gave up meet for lent and Kim is vegan so this was a great place for us to enjoy a delicious meatless meal. Based on Kim's suggestion, I went with the:
Vegan Bacon Cheeseburger

And boy was it delicious. If I wouldn't have told you it was vegan, you wouldn't have known. It was THAT GOOD. We had a pact ahead of time to agree to only eat half of our meals and save the rest for later. Uhh, that worked until about 2pm when we both needed a post-lunch "snack" where the rest of our meals were consumed simultaneously. Haha, I guess we were both thinking the same thing! We were so busy eating and talking that we almost forgot to take a photo of us together.

Thankfully we remembered at the last minute before walking back to our respective work places. The weather was so beautiful yesterday, I was very happy to have an excuse to go out and enjoy it! Through our discussions, we decided it would be fun to plan a blogger run/meet up somewhere between the south and northern suburbs. There will be more on this to come! If you're in the Chicago area and interested in finding out about more local bloggers, check out Chicago Running Bloggers!


Wanting to really enjoy the weather, last night I did some speedwork and decided to do it outside instead of on the treadmill. This was a great decision as it truly felt like spring last night!
Pepper followed me around the whole time
I was getting ready to leave, and
whined the entire time I was gone.
I have never used the "interval" function on my Garmin before and decided to give it a try (ala OuaL). I did 5x400m with a 400m jog in-between. This workout has worked for me in the past so I decided to stick with what works! (Right now my race goal is to break 40:00 for the Shamrock Shuffle.) I was excited about the challenge of running into the wind. Thanks to the beeping of the Garmin, I didn't have to worry about my exact route or focal points at the end of the distance. I just ran until the beep! I didn't know what pace I was running, but I thought it was probably around 7:20 mile pace. Only when I changed the function away from the metric system did I see my actual per-mile splits:

6:37
6:50
6:31
6:39
6:26

Either there is something wrong with my Garmin, or I was going pretty fast. Some of these were into the wind too (although I don't know which ones. I'm guessing the 2nd one). My first thought was OMG I'm running in the 6's... THE 6's?!?!?! This is something I haven't done before, and considering I didn't know my time at all for these splits, they are pretty consistent. I guess all that hill work and long miles has been paying off. I am hoping/thinking my Shamrock Shuffle goal is accomplishable (if these times are in fact correct)... And maybe the sub 23:00 5k is also in my future?! We will see in the months to come I guess! Have you had a workout where you went faster than you thought, without realizing it?

14 comments:

  1. Damn, you're fast!

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  2. Thanks Kelly! I am hoping I'm able to translate some of this to an actual race. We'll see! :)

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  3. A Chicago-area blogger meet up would be AWESOME! Thanks for organizing, I look forward to hearing the details!

    Wow, you are fast! Usually I have the opposite problem with my runs where I feel like I am going SLOWER than I thought, without realizing it. But on rare occasion I do have those solid runs where the speed (by my standards!) feels effortless - so motivating! I wish I could time those good runs to occur on race days!

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  4. Chicago Running Blogger Meet Uppppp!

    Also I'm not surprised by your 6s! Only because when we run together we're at the same pace and I've been pulling some (but not all) 6s during my recent fartleks.

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  5. Also what if we did the meet up on the lakefront on a weekend? Since we're 'Chicago' running bloggers ... we could start near Grant Park for those of us who would take the Metra in, or need to park. Just a thought. Or maybe a bi-monthly meet-up and do a different location each time, to try out different popular trails (like Waterfall Glen, the Prairie Path, etc).

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  6. Once we have some suggestions/ideas/concrete thoughts/dates, I'll coordinate to try and post something through the Chicago Running Blog website!

    I totally know what you mean and have felt slower than I thought on runs before... Usually there is some sort of catalyst for that feeling. (I was hungry and hadn't eaten yet, upset stomach, women problems [TMI?]). I wish every race day was a great running day. I guess that means that we have to run more races right? Then the odds are in our favor!

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  7. Meetup Wassuppp!!! [Insert "raising the roof" motion]

    Awesome! Maybe we should try to do some speedwork together some time? I know Hal Higdon says that speedwork with a buddy can yield better results for both parties. Just a thought! :)

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  8. I love this idea. I think if we get the ball rolling and have different locations, different people can meet up at different places, depending on their own logistics/schedules. Yay for blogger meetups!

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  9. BLOGGER MEETUP! that's so funny you were talking about this last night because I was just thinking this! i NEED To meet all you ladies!!!!!!
    BLOGGER MEETUP!!

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  10. Maggie put up a survey on the Chicago Running Blog website about a possible meetup. We're trying to see what location works best for everyone! I know we're trying to plan a Shamrock Shuffle meet up too. I'm not sure if you're running this race or not, but you should still come out and meet up regardless! :)

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  11. Super speedy! i need to try that aspect of the garmin! I struggle enough with on and off though. I also just became painfully aware of how close shamrock shuffle is and how slow i still am!

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  12. That's okay.. you're focusing on completing your first marathon! There will always be more 8ks! :) Also, we have our Get Lucky half marathon to be ready for! Wahooooooo!!!

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  13. I love all the little hearts you added to your dish! HA HA HA! Lunch was so good. Love that place. And had a blast with you yesterday!

    I hope the meetup works out and we can all find a central location. It's a PITA to go in to the city on the weekends... but I bet the majority will want to :)

    I am not surprised by your splits. Are you sure you don't want to work with Britt now? LOL. I know you WANT to... :)

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  14. Haha, those hearts were TOTALLY necessary! I had fun yesterday too! Now that my husband knows Native Foods is "right by my work" I'm sure he will want me to stop there on my way home from work. I may be close to 200 points before you know it! Ha!

    I'm excited for the potential blogger meetup. Hopefully we'll plan something in the morning and things won't be too crazy yet. :)

    I think I can achieve more being coached by someone that knows what they're doing. I'm hoping that Britt and I will work together this summer! :)

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