Race Preps

Following on yesterday's post...

As I was preparing for this race, I was thinking about times and paces and all  At several of my previous races, I've used one of those pace bands - the wrist band with times marked on it for mile splits so you can keep track of your pace for your goal time.  Usually they are free at the race expos for the bigger races (Clif bars is one vendor which usually has them).  Well, with the race in Temple being a little local thing, no expo, no pace bands.  I've always used the mental math to help the miles pass in these races.  Some people sing, others chatter, I calculate pace and time left and what I need to maintain and so on (yes, I am that dorky).  So I like the pace bands to give me a starting point to play with. 

Enter the magic of the Internet!  

A quick search reveals lots of sites to find free printable bands.  Enter your goal time, the miles (or km if you prefer) are calculated.  Print it up, cover with clear tape (or something similar) and there you go!  

However, there are LOTS of sites out there.  A simple Google search will turn up waaay more than you'd imagine.  Some are good, some too complex to be user-friendly, some prone (unfortunately) to being virus-infected.  And all are a little different in the format and what they offer.  I'm compiling my list here to tag some of my favorite ones.  I'd suggest looking at all of them and seeing which format works for you.  Things like font, font size, spacing, and other layout-type details are really more personal preference.  Gotta play around with them and see what you like, y'know?

• Pace Tag- from the Ottawa runners' web page.  Formatted as a small enough pace chart to attach to your watch, instead of a full band.  Lets you include pacing for walking breaks too, which is nice.
• Lucozade - a nice and simple format.  Produces your band as a pdf, so you can save it; that's pretty unique, when most of the other bands were web-based.  Useful, too, if you typically have the same goal time (just need to save it once, then can print it up again as needed).  Also includes a handful of free training plans.  Site does give you a warning about cookies used by the site.
• mymarathonpace.com - very customizable, including adjusting your pace (slow start, fast finish, etc).  Handy if your race has hills, or something else that might affect pacing.  On the other hand, that can become more complex than one might need.  Also prints in a format where you see both the elapsed time and the pace for each mile.  Will be very useful for those VERY large races where the early miles are too crowded to really get up to speed, and I'll need to adjust my pace accordingly.
• RunTex - another very simple format.  And hey, some Texas representation on the list too, I guess?  :)
• Runners' World - yes, this is the UK site.  I haven't found the same thing on the US site, but other than automatically coming up in km not miles, it is pretty easy to navigate :)
• The Seattle Marathon - yup, the race webpage itself has one.  Very basic, only half or full marathons (some of these other sites offer 5ks and other distances too).  Still, nice and clean and easy.
• Marathon Guide - automatically comes up with the marathon distance (not surprising, considering the source) but also lets you enter individual distances, so you can make a band for a 10 mile or 30 mile race, or whatever distance you need.

And then, if you're looking for something different and don't mind spending a little, there are temporary tattoos!  PaceTat is the main site for those.  They come at a marathon distance, and then you can trim it down to the distance you need.  I haven't tried these personally, but they're reported to be very durable.

Silly thing is, I didn't use one on this last race, and (as I mentioned yesterday) I still PRed.  I would still prefer to run with a band, and I don't think this was one of those "stop worrying about dropping time and then you will relax and thus drop time" cases. I didn't make a race band this time because I was seriously unsure of what I would be aiming for time-wise!  Hadn't done many long runs, so really didn't know what pace would be comfortable or how out of shape I truly was.  Hard to plan a goal time that way.  Next time though, will be printing up one of these for myself!

Back in the Saddle

Or at least, back on the road.  Back in December was my first long race in a very long while, the Jingle Bun Run half marathon.  Last time I ran a half marathon was before we moved to Texas, so over a year and a half previously - yikes! And as life settles down, I'm needing my Big Race Motivation again.  This is a local half, so not too expensive.  A good way to get back on the horse, right?

So why am I writing about it now?  Because my race shirt finally came in the mail!

I had done race day registration, since up until the last I wasn't quite sure that I'd feel up to it.  Texas weather bounces around something crazy, and it tends to make my knee ache.  No need to be running 13 miles when I'm hobbling about.  But, with this being a tiny local race, they had race day registration, so I could make my decision as late as possible.  That also meant that they were out of my size shirt on race day, so mine had to be mailed to me.  But it came!


Mom always laughs that I take wonderful race pictures.  I have to say, mile 11 in a half marathon does seem to work well for me.  Mile 13, a little rougher :)  Still, I could see my time and could see the finish line, so the big grin is very genuine!

  

We totally lucked out with the weather for the race, too.  60, overcast, lightly misting at times... perfect for running 2+ hours!  The following week was sunny (and Texas KNOWS sunny) and about 10 degrees warmer.  I definitely don't think I'd have done nearly as well with weather like that!

 

Another bonus to this race was that the race photos were free!  The photo company took the pictures and then uploaded them to a set on Flickr.  Maybe because it was a relatively small race, or maybe because it was the Christmas season, but the photos weren't barred or blocked or whatever, so any of the runners could download pictures in which they spotted themselves!  Flip side to free pictures meant that you had to look yourself up (they tagged race numbers in the pictures, but didn't match them to names) and they were only at one point on the course, plus start and finish.  But those are VERY small prices to have free race pictures!  Thank you PhotoWolfe!

And the most exciting thing about this race (and why I'm so excited to have the shirt to wear and brag) is that I dropped TONS of time!  About 9 minutes, in fact!  So, a race that I wasn't sure I'd even feel up to running, was one where I dropped tons of time!!  The course was twice around a loop course.  I had never done a race like that, and was worried that it would make the race seem longer, kinda a "Oh, we're only here" sort of feeling.  I think it went quicker mentally though, because I knew what was coming, knew how much further I needed to go.  Broke a long race into smaller mental pieces, I guess.  So great weather, quick-feeling course... whatever the reason though, I had a great race!

A final silly side note, I did prepare a costume for this race.  I've run short races (5Ks) in costume, but this was the first long race I'd considered it!  Just a small one (see below): bunny ears in a Santa hat, plus a bunny tail!  Being a bunny person, every time I saw "Jingle Bun," I thought "bunnies."  It comes, of course, from the sponsor (Schlotzky's), meaning sandwich buns!  Anyway, I figured I'd be a Jingle Bun!  Just cut slits in a cheap Santa hat to feed the ears of a bunny headband through.  I ended up not wearing them, though they were waiting in the car for me.  It was kinda misty and felt almost muggy once we got underway and started warming up, and I didn't want a bedraggled bunny tail.  Still wore my striped knee socks (toe socks!) though.  :)  Next year I'll be a Jingle Bun, maybe!

 

Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday: Some Necklaces

Another week, another Wednesday!

This week is a crafty post, showcasing a couple of necklaces using Pinterest pictures as inspiration.  Only one of the inspiration posts had instructions, mind you, so it's mostly just my takes on the original pieces.

First up, a button choker, from a post in Art Bead Scene.  The original post was about using buttons in one's jewelry projects, so check it out.  There are some fun ideas in there, beyond the Wild Horse Choker that was the inspiration for my necklace (the choker is named for the design on the button, a running horse, in case you're curious).  It's a very simple necklace, just a shank button with leather cording.  I found a large flower button that I liked at Hobby Lobby, so combined with some black leather lacing... Ta-da!   A nice neutral casual choker!

The hardest part was the knotting, so that it would slide enough to be adjustable but not slide out.  Just took a few tries to get the knot the right tension.  I also chose to omit the decorative bead at the knot.  No particular reason; I simply didn't have a bead that matched the brass/antique gold-ish button well enough :)  Sorry that the picture below is blurry...

The second piece is based on one in an etsy store, the Moving Waters Necklace by SC Designs Distinctive Artisian Jewelry.  The inspiration piece is all blues and pearls and sterling silver, while mine is more earth-tone jades and black.  Still, the basic idea of the one-sided beading and the beaded drop from a center ring carried through.  I like this one a lot, as those greens and neutrals coordinate with a lot in my closet :)

 

This is one of my mid-length necklaces, though the drop does make it a little longer.  Here it is being worn, so you have a sense of scale (Again, sorry it's a little blurry; I'm not great at the self-shots).

The last necklace has a pair of inspiration posts.  The first place I saw it was the simple News In Style post.  Yes, there are instructions there, but just the one pictures.  The second place I saw this style necklace was a post at Blue Cricket Design.  I used the instructions at Blue Cricket design a lot more, as they are more detailed and give a lot more helpful advice.  However, I didn't find usable chain at our hardware stores.  The style of chain they had was a different sort of link (or much heavier gauge), and just would not work for this project.  So, instead, I used a colored chain from Hobby Lobby.  The ribbon coordinates with flecks of color on the chain.  A very simple project, and I'm pretty please with the final results, as is Scruffy.

A Quick Knit

This was a SUPER fast knit that was churned out over the 20+ hour car trip (one way) back home for my sister's wedding. 

 

The pattern is Lara's Cowl from Coats & Clark.  Available free online, a plus. 

Of course, I had to make it. Because let's face it, my name isn't that common, so it's REALLY COOL when I find something other than Dr. Zhivago or Tomb Raider with my name in it :)

It was a really fast knit too.  Like I said, all in the car trip.  I think the actual knitting took less than a day and a half of driving.  The only reason it's listed as longer on my Ravelry project page is that it took a few days for me to get a chance to block it and weave in the ends!

 

  

The yarn I used was Berroco Sundae, colorway 8717 Stilton.  It's a pretty nice wool-acrylic blend, more wool than some of them.  It does tend to fuzz a bit, but a lot of single-ply yarns are like that.  I wouldn't use it for anything really hard-wearing, but I wouldn't mind using it again.  For something that gets LOTS of wear, the fuzziness would probably be more of an issue.  Also, for where I'm living, it'd probably be pretty warm for much more than accessories!  I knit this in October, after all, and it was nearly a month before it cooled down enough to wear it.  Silly TX!

 

In the pictures above, with all the sunshine, you can see the stitch pattern so much more clearly, but it does wash the colors out a good bit.  The downside to working with dark yarn, after all.  In real life, the yarn is like a heathered Black Watch tartan - dark navy and greens all mottled up.

I used the entire 3 skeins of yarn in this project.  The only alteration I had to make was shortening the final boarder just a little because I was running out of yarn.  Other than that, no alterations or variations.  Pretty straight-forward.
 

There are a lot of ways to style a cowl this big, as I've learned.

 

 

And a final silly pose, all snuggled into the nice warm hood that it makes.  Just because :)
(And yes, that's why my hair's so fuzzy in the other pictutres!)

 

 

It's raveled here.

Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday: One for Zach

This is a recipe a family friend made regularly for him in school, and he's been asking me to try it for a while.  I found a bunch of variations on Pinterest from numerous blogs, food.com, and cooks.com, and have combined the pieces I like into one recipe.  Take your pick for where you want to start, as this appears to be a classic recipe!  

So here goes.  

And yes, I'm posting this partially so I have all my notes on the recipe in one place :)

Frog Eye Salad 

(or as he calls it 'Frog Salad' - I think I like that name better, less witches' brew-ish!)

 

Ingredients

• 1 c. sugar
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 2 1/2 tsp. salt (divided)
• 1 3/4 c. pineapple juice
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 3 qts water
• 1 tbsp. cooking oil
• 1 (16 oz.) pkg. acini de pepe or rose marie orzo (we use orzo) 

• 3 (11 oz.) cans mandarin oranges, drained
• 2 (20 oz.) cans pineapple chunks, drained
• 1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 (9 oz.) carton non dairy whipped topping (i.e. Cool Whip)

 

Optional Ingredients

• 1 c. miniature marshmallows (yeah, these aren't exactly optional in our house!)
• 1 (14 oz.) can fruit cocktail
• 1 (14 oz.) can peaches 
• 1 (14 oz.) can pears 
• 9 oz. maraschino cherries, halved
• 2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1 c. coconut

Instructions

1. Combine sugar, flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. 
2. Gradually stir in pineapple juice and well-beaten eggs. 
3. Cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened. 
4. Add lemon juice.
5. Cool to room temperature. 
6. Bring water for pasta to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon oil and remaining 2 teaspoons salt
7. Add pasta and cook until done (about 10 minutes, or according to package directions). 

 
8. Drain, rinse and drain again. 
9. Cool to room temperature. 
10. Combine egg-juice mixture and pasta, mixing lightly but thoroughly.
11. Refrigerate overnight (or, at least several hours) in air-tight container. 
12. Next day, mix in rest of ingredients, tossing lightly.  If it seems dry, add in some of the fruit juice from the canned fruits as well.
13. Chill in air-tight container. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

 

Variations

• The coconut makes a good topping, apparently.  Zach's not a coconut fan, so I didn't include it, but there were several versions that included it.  Those recipes did say that if using the coconut as a topping, don't add in the coconut with the other fruit.  Instead, sprinkle it on top when you're ready to serve.
• The mix-ins are very customizable.  The fruits can all be adjusted to include ones you prefer.  And the marshmallows are optional (except in our house!) so if you're looking for a little less sugar in the dish, that's one change to make too.
• The recipe on food.com was a noticeably different variation, using vanilla pudding and milk instead of the cool whip.  Haven't tried it yet, but might be worth a try.

Do note, there is a lot of chilling involved in this one.  It's a very easy dish to put together, but it's not a last-minute option, with all of the fridge time involved.

Stores well refrigerated for up to a week.  One recipe version also said that the salad also may be frozen, but noted that freezing will alter the texture a little.

 

Makes 25 servings.  YES - this makes A LOT!  I actually don't have a container/casserole dish/serving bowl big enough to hold a batch, so it chilled in my fridge in my biggest mixing bowl (which is ENORMOUS, by the way).  So, if you aren't making this for a function, it's an easy enough recipe to halve.

Homesickness: A Knitting Project

No, this project isn't as depressing as the title sounds.  Still, though, it is a project that reminds me of home.  The yarn colorway is Virginia Beach, my hometown.  I honestly never though of VB as a 'brown town', especially after living in the Mojave and in Central TX.  Maybe the tweedy brown is supposed to be the Virginia Beach sands?  The pattern name is the area of Virginia Beach where my high school was (is) located.  And I guess it is good for homesickness too, those days when you just want to wrap yourself up in a blanket and pretend you're somewhere you aren't (usually via book or movie, for me).

My project is raveled here.

 

The yarn I used was Lion Brand Hometown USA.  Big, bulky, acrylic.  Not much more to be said, really.  It comes in some gorgeous colors, though, and it's honestly not the scratchiest acrylic I've used.  I'd use it again if I find the right project.  And, being Lion Brand, it was easily available, even in my tiny town.  Hobby Lobby didn't carry the yarn, but Wal-Mart did, so between the two in our area, I was able to get enough for the project.  I did have to compromise and ended up with 3 different dye lots of the colorway - I know, I know, cardinal knitting sin.  I was anxious to get started on the project, though, and didn't want to wait for a restock!  It worked out pretty well, anyway.  The yarn is mottled enough, and the pattern busy enough, that you really can't tell.  Had it been a solid color, I probably wouldn't have gotten away with it, but it worked out just fine with this combination.

The pattern is the Pembroke Wrap by Andrea Rangel.  It was first published in the Fall 2011 Interweave Knits, and is now available in the online Interweave store. 

It's a very straightforward pattern in most respects.  The only part that hung me up was at the end of the Arrowhead lace, where she talks about following the chart until there are 3 repeats.  I was reading that as 3 repeats of the whole chart vertically, not 3 repeats of the pattern horizontally.  I think it was all my issue, but in case anyone else makes the same mistake, don't try to just continue on in the lace for another repeat or two of the chart.  Your stitches won't match up and you'll be pulling your hair out! 

 

I liked the pattern and I liked my results, but I don't think I'd make this again, unless I was using a lighter yarn.  It's very bulky (bulky yarn, duh) and I just like something a little lighter weight around my neck, especially here in TX.  Too hot to get too much use from it, worn around the neck like that!  In a lighter yarn, though, this could work.  I'll stick with the sock-weight shawls for the most part.

I did make a few modifications to the original pattern. 

• I wanted it bigger than the original pattern, to be something nice and snugly to wrap myself in when I needed a warm hug.  In other words, I wasn't making a bandana sort of neck shawl like in all the pattern pictures.  I wanted a bigger, wrap-all-around-my-shoulders sort of shawl.  A blanket with shaping and a button, really.  So, I needed another repeat.  A Ravelry user had already figured out how to add another lace repeat before the lace edging, so I followed her directions.  You need the separate directions because the end of the lace and the beginning of the lace (if you're repeating the chart) don't match up in stitch count.  This user had worked out how to start the next chart repeat and adjust your stitch count to make it all work out.  Another bonus?  As she pointed out, this also means that you can use a lighter weight yarn for the shawl as well.  Thank you, thecalicolover! 
• The other modification I made was inspired by another Ravelry user, Lana-Luna.  I really liked how she added the button to keep her wrap in place on her shoulders.  So, I found some nice dark wood buttons that looked nice with my yarn, and added some myself!

Two last pictures.  The picture below of the left shows the pattern better.  The one of the right is closer to the true color.

 

I'm Back!

No, I'm not lost in the jungle.  Not fallen off the face of the earth.  Not dropped into a cave either (not even intentionally!).  I'm still hanging in there.

 

I realize it's been about 3/4 of a year now since my last post.  I'm not giving any excuses, just know there is a multitude of reasons.  In short, Real Life got a bit too much to handle, and I couldn't find time or thought or energy to put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard, whatever) to blog. 

 

But I'm back now! 

 

I'm finally feeling better, with life settling down a good bit.  It's a very good sign that I'm actually ready to chatter again about what's going on in my little corner of the world.  I'll be posting some catch-ups over the next few weeks - knitting and crafting projects I've finished that I want to share, recipes I've tried, movies I've watched, books I've read... all my usual stuff.  So, expect a flurry of posts over the next few weeks as I catch up, and then things should settle down into a regular rhythm again.

 

Anyhoo, it's good to be back!