Sweet Tea and Speedwork

My husband's family is from the south, and the first introduction I had to "real" sweet tea was when I went to visit his family. I will never forget the first time a waitress asked me if I wanted "sweet or unsweet" tea. Mmmmm.... sweet tea.

Here's how to make a gallon. Easy, cheap, and gooooood.....

(this glass was full, but I made the mistake of changing the batteries in the camera before I took a photo, and Wade started drinking it!! I was like, "uh hey that's for my blog picture, do you mind??" And he, in his typical fashion, calmly said, "I don't mind at all." ....and kept drinking. Brat.)

You need some tea bags (I like the family sized tea bags that Lipton makes, I use 4 tea bags for a gallon. If I use regular sized tea bags, I would use 12) and sugar (I use 3/4 cup for a gallon of tea)

So I fill my dutch oven pan like 3/4 of the way with water:

See- these are the kind of tea bags I like. If you have Target where you live, I believe they're under $2.00 for a box of 24 tea bags, so it really is a good deal.

Whether I am using the large bags or the small, I always tie the strings together in a knot so that it's easier to remove the tea bags when you need to discard them:

Then just bring the water to a simmer. I personally don't like the tea to boil, I think it tastes bitter if it boils. So I bring it to a simmer then let the tea bags steep for like 10 minutes or so. I swish them around a little to make sure they're getting all the tea juice out into the water. (tea juice?? I can't think of what else to call it....)

In the meantime, you could dump the sugar into your gallon pitcher. I like this oval one, because it fits well into my fridge:

So then, after the tea steeps, fish the tea bags out (I use a slotted spoon to do that) then pour the hot tea over the sugar into the pitcher. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Then fill the pitcher the rest of the way to the top with water and stir.

Voila! You have made a pitcher of sweet tea! Now you can demand that the other people in your house fan you while you sit in your rocking chair and sip sweet tea.

....ok, yeah, that probably won't even work. But it's a nice thought.......

So, yesterday afternoon I did my first structured speedwork session!! Oh man, it was SO hard to get out there!! I was tired! But I laced up and headed out.

THE WORKOUT:

The workout I planned was:

• warm up
• 6 intervals of ~3 minutes at 5k pace followed by 2 minutes at long run pace
• cool down

WHAT I DID:

• warm up- .70 miles @9:08 (all paces are in minutes per mile)
• #1 3:00 @7:35
• #1 2:00 @9:29
• #2 3:00 @7:24
• #2 2:00 @9:29
• #3 3:00 @7:15
• #3 2:00 @8:54
• #4 3:00 @7:33
• #4 2:00 @8:27
• #5 3:00 @7:10
• #5 2:00 @9:11
• #6 3:00 @7:32
• #6 2:00 @8:38
• cool down- I walked to my house from the end of the block

WHAT I LEARNED:

• I learned how to set my Garmin for interval workouts! This was really helpful!
• next time, I will decide on and set a goal pace, both for the speed intervals and the rest intervals. Toward the end I was getting tired and felt like I was just trying to run fast during both. This will also help me feel like I can shoot for a goal and feel like I hit my target.
• I normally only use body glide for long runs, but since I am carrying a few extra pounds and I was running hard, I need to use body glide next time (sorry if that's tmi but I am trying to be helpful in case anyone wants to try these workouts)
• Some good, kickin' songs on the iPod help when you get tired
• Don't eat or drink much the hour prior to the speedwork

So there you have it!! I have to say, I thought this workout would be a complete bust, considering I did weights Tuesday and a trail run yesterday morning, but I feel really good about it, and proud of myself for getting out there even though I was tired!!

.....I promptly proceeded to "spend" all the extra calories I burned with some pizza....... ha ha.

Have a great day!!

DINNER TONIGHT:

Date night with my hubby!! :)