Born For This

Dance was okay last night…I got to dance with a lot of more experienced guys, which is fun unless they’re show-offs.  I firmly believe that the roles of the lead are to make the girl look good, make the girl have fun, and to look good himself in a subtle-yet-confident way.

When we got home, we finished off the last of the “cheesecake” and banana “ice cream”.

My night was cut short after that because I had hives that started on the bridge of my nose.  I have no idea what caused them, but I am sometimes allergic to raspberries…perhaps last night was one of those times.  I put my cranky, itchy, blotchy, welt-y self to bed.

Running with Lizards

I had a great 3 mile run this morning with a bunch of lizards!  I’m trying to identify what I saw…so far it looks like anoles (which I knew), skinks, and whiptails.  (I miss running where I grew up – the wildlife there was more along the lines of fluffy squirrels, chipmunks, and the occasional deer and rabbit.) I found this handy lizard identifier (in case you ever need to, you know, identify a lizard).

(like the one on the left – more info and copyright: Wikipedia/Alistair J. Cullum)

I set a goal for myself of 32:20, but I didn’t make it – finished in 34:30.  That’s still my fastest 3 mile run this year, but…well, you know how it is when the legs just won’t go any faster!  My real killer this time was that I had to take two real breaks and 4 mini-breaks (street crossings, less than 10 seconds each, but still…).  I am trying to be rational and accept that running miracles are few and far between I will keep working until my legs and lungs can get to where I want them to be.

Speedwork

I’ve been a bit haphazard so far with my training, hesitant to set tough goals for myself and still in awe that I am actually running so much (with a dash of scared-to-schedule-because-I’m-changing-jobs). Since I have the week off, I plan to do a mini-bootcamp of speedwork sessions because I’ve decided I really want to run my September 5k in 30 minutes or less.

I finished a 5k on July 4 in 39:40.  I was happy with that time because I hadn’t been doing any speed training, I hadn’t run much outside in the heat, and I hadn’t done a race in (mumble)  years.  Ok, 8 years.  I have done plenty of fun fitness things in those 8 years, but I stopped running races because I felt silly since everyone in my age group seemed lightning-fast and I didn’t have time to put into Real Training.

Now that I’m older and more mellow (kind of), I am much better at accepting things as they are before getting bent out of shape and trying to move mountains overnight.

Anyhow, this means that my 5k pace needs to be about 9:23 per mile.  2:07 faster per mile than my average pace on today’s tempo run.  I am convinced I can do this in the 6 weeks before my 5k.

Today’s speed session:

• 5 x 440 repeats (quarter miles) at 6 mph. (I cheated and tried to do the last one at 6.4 but had to drop back down to 6 halfway through)

I also stayed for 30 minutes of strength training, during which I did just about every exercise in the world!

• Squats with shoulder presses
• Lunges with bicep curls
• Shoulder flies (two kinds)
• Tricep extensions
• 21 curls
• One-legged squats on the bosu
• Balance exercises on the bosu
• Push-ups and planks on the bosu

Breakfast

I was finally starting to feel tired so I came up for this:

This beautiful green monster contained:

• 3 kale leaves (curly green)
• applesauce
• flax
• 1 banana
• 3 strawberries
• a splash of agave (I’ve been feeling a bit off, so I didn’t want anything too bitter)
• almond milk

As crazy as it sounds, there might be more working out this afternoon!  I am also looking forward to some time poolside, and perhaps some Italian cooking.

I am still in awe about yesterday’s run.  I was dejected when I got home because I thought I had taken 2 hours and 15 minutes to finish 8 miles, which would fall under the “snail” category in my book.  It was a delightful surprise when WB reminded me that I had left the house at 8, not 7:30.

I credit some of the speed to my desperate “fight against the clock”, and more of it to my Camelbak.  I have never worn my Camelbak on a run before and I was worried about chafing and other annoyances.  No problems so far, so…fingers crossed.  I credit the last three miles to the damp mini-Larabar I clawed open at mile 5.5.  I’ve never eaten during a run before – the larabar might have been a bit too dry, but I think the sweet dates were what pushed me through my last few miles.

After the run, the farmer’s market:

This week’s haul!

Microgreens

Sprouts (lentil this week)

Yellow pear tomatoes

Eggplant and peppers (from the sprout man – we love him!)

I only had about 20 minutes before my meeting, so I put together a quesadilla with some lentil sprouts and ketchup:

My meeting was not the most exciting way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but it was good to see some folks that I only see at these meetings.  (Ok, I’ll be honest – after my run it was reeeally hard to keep my eyes open in the freezing-cold a/c while we reviewed policies that I used to teach.  I get so sleepy a few hours after long runs, and combined with the cold…it was a challenge to stay plugged in.)

I had some cheese and crackers after I got home, then watched some Food Network since it was time for Giada and Ina.  After some stretching and some time with the foam roller, it was time for WB to be home from his weekend workshop (quite a weekend at the office for the two of us).  We had a mini-date night with takeout from the healthy mexican place, and some shopping/browsing, followed by gelato.  I got a combo of vanilla, cantaloupe sorbet, and violet – girly, but super-tasty.

We got home and curled up for some shark-related Dirty Jobs (love that show – I didn’t watch TV for years, but it’s nice to have on lazy weekends) with some tea.  I had some Tropic of Strawberry that we got on the Celestial Seasonings tour.  It’s got a sweet, tropical, fruity flavor – notes of fresh strawberry, pineapple, coconut and banana, backed by a sweet and tart hibiscus base.

Delicious!

I am feeling kind of apprehensive about tomorrow morning’s run.  The good news is that if I can get home before 9, it shouldn’t be hotter than 82º.  I’m giving myself 2.5 hours to finish 8 miles, but of course I plan/hope to finish far sooner than that.  I just made myself a super-long playlist (almost 3 hours) with my current “pace song” about every mile or so to keep me on track.  I can’t wait to see how it goes!

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen….

Lunch

I caught up on some Thrive in 30 lessons and became inspired to eat some pseudograins.  (I also became inspired to try to kick my dairy habit, but I can’t imagine doing that at the moment since we just bought a lot of cheese and yogurt…it will also require some serious planning on my part for calcium and protein intake, as well as fat, so timing will be important.)  There are also some cool recipes in the next episode, some of them not unlike the dessert recipe at the end of this post!  I’ll be done with the first 10 lessons this weekend, so I hope to share some tips and questions.

Anyhow, lunch with pseudograins…sounds like a call for buckwheat crepes.

I mixed 1 cup of flour (mostly buckwheat, with a tiny bit of brown rice flour) with 2 “eggs” made with flax and water, a bit of melted butter, and some olive oil.  I didn’t have any normal milk, so I had to use vanilla almond milk.

The first crepe never comes out well.  There are many funny French sayings about this.  Me, I have only a photo.

But the later ones came out quite well.

I ended up with 4 nice crepes that I saved for another meal with WB, and two broken wrinkly ones that I ate with some broccoli, pesto, and nutritional yeast.

Then I got sucked in to a few episodes of Wife Swap, finished the laundry, and took a nap since I didn’t sleep so well last night…or can I blame it on the tryptophan in the buckwheat? I was not the only one who got some extra sleep this afternoon.  It’s nice to have some time off.

Dinner

I wanted food from the Whole Foods raw bar tonight…unfortunately, I believe the nearest one is in Austin, which isn’t exactly around the corner.  We made do with some treats from Whole Foods, plus some bonuses.

We purchased some spicy cauliflower…

“Bali Barbecue” tofu (it tasted like Whole Foods tofu…chewy, cilantro, sweet and sour-ish)

and some teriyaki sweet potatoes.

I added the last of our farmer’s market produce – tomato slices with brie on Mary’s Gone Crackers.

But what I was really excited about was dessert!

I really wanted some raw “cheesecake”, so we made a home version on a whim that was mostly raw.  The cake ended up a lot more like a lara bar because I didn’t soak the nuts beforehand – in fact, I didn’t even grind them at home!  The cake was made of:

Crust:

• Pecans
• Flax seed
• olive oil

I whizzed the first two in the food processor until they had a uniform texture, then added enough olive oil to make everything stick together.  I pressed the crust mixture into a glass dish and went on to the cake.

Cake:

• Pitted dates (my tiny cake contained about 12)
• Almond butter (should have been soaked almonds, but it was still tasty!)
• Agave nectar
• Apple juice

I whizzed the first three in the food processor and ended up with a big, gummy ball WB drizzled in the apple juice until the paste had thinned out into something that was still gummy but put up less of a fight.  We put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes to…well, just because.

When it was time to eat, I decided to make some banana “ice cream” – I’ve been seeing it on quite a few blogs, which makes me happy!  I used to eat this all the time, but it’s much nicer to make it now that we’ve got our spiffy food processor.  I whipped up two bananas and about 1/4 cup of almond milk.

The final product, topped with some beautiful raspberries:

Seriously, this was heaven.  It wasn’t anything like a cheesecake, but it was delicious.

Tomorrow is looking busier every minute – after my run I’ve got to dash to the farmer’s market before a meeting at noon.

3 miles on the treadmill with no breaks in 38:20.

(That is not superhero fast, but it’s right at my most recent 5k pace, which is very very exciting to me.)

The things my legs have learned in the month since my 5k!  They are amazing.  And my heart rate never went above 174.

I wasn’t even lame about my warmup – I did a total of 3.4 miles, which is my run + .25 mile warm-up and enough cooldown to get my heart rate down to 120.

Sometimes running (and life) seems best viewed with averted vision – everything comes together when I look away.

It sounds silly, but my biggest hurdle in running right now is my brain.  As soon as the idea of stopping crosses my mind, I can’t shake it – I end up taking a lot of little breaks that I don’t even think I need (since I could have kept going after my distance was up today).  I’ll have to hunt for some tips on how to get my brain on board with my running plan – I’d love to finish Saturday’s long run with fewer breaks than my last long run!

Other than my 20 minute new-job-related meeting this morning I did nothing but watch TV, do housework, catch up on online chores, and work out.  After my run, I did weighted wide squats, shoulder presses, bicep curls, tricep extensions, shoulder flies, and lunges.

And all I ate today:

Seriously – for breakfast and lunch I had some plain Mary’s Gone Crackers with Kirsch cheese and economy Brie (a cheap celebration, what can I say?) I finished off yesterday’s green monster, too.

I also had a piece out of the tiny Whitman’s Sampler we got on a whim last night:

A new grocery store had its grand opening and we were tempted into buying all sorts of things that were out of character.  Sadly, they didn’t carry most of our favorite products in their organic sections.  We had a good time nonetheless – they have a cheap fresh fruit bar and a big salad bar, so I could see us stopping by for the “lazy lunch” that we end up eating on weekends around 4 p.m.

I’m off to do an ab workout and get ready for dinner, whatever that will be.  We tend to cook for ourselves most nights since he loves pasta and bread and I can’t eat them, but I was hoping to step up to the (dinner) plate and cook a few special meals during my time off.  I don’t know if I’m up to doing it 24/7, but it’s kind of fun to play “housewife” so far.

Know the one I mean?  Can’t sleep, can’t quite pin down what’s wrong….

I’ve suffered from extreme Sunday Night Feeling my whole life, but I’ve been working hard to start the week well-rested and enthusiastic.  Turns out I might not have been having enough fun on the weekends!  I think we took care of that for sure this time (though I’m still antsy…but there are some extenuating circumstances*…).

Saturday

I felt lousy when I woke up for my 6 mile run – too much rich food at night without eating enough during the day had taken its toll.  We call that feeling the “dinner hangover” – no alcohol necessary.  I got a late start and I couldn’t stand the thought of eating anything, so I moped around the apartment for about 30 minutes before braving the blazing hot morning (almost 90 at 7:45 a.m., gross but I’ve learned to survive).

The first mile was terrible and plodding.  I included my .25 mile warm-up in my overall mileage (or so I thought) as a way to pacify my petulant thoughts – a free quarter mile!  It didn’t help me get very far – my first mile took 22 minutes.  I could have crawled.  I’ve been putting a lot more time into a slow warm-up since it seems to help keep my soleus happy, but there were snails honking at me as they passed.

I don’t normally keep track of my splits, but after I noticed that I had taken 22 minutes to drag my rear through the first mile I made yet another mental bargain: if the second mile took 18 minutes or longer, I’d just turn around and go back home because it wasn’t worth it.  I felt so tired and clumsy that I was near tears!  So it was funny when I checked the time at the end of the second mile and it had taken me 14.5 minutes, which isn’t far from the pace I’m looking for right now in my long runs.

Intrigued, I checked again after the third mile.  10 minutes?!  I had even walked the first bit of mile 3.  Mile 4 – 11 minutes, still with some walking.  Miles 5 & 6 – back down to 13 (amazing that I could talk some sense into my legs since I have been running negative splits).  I “accidentally” took the long route on the last mile, which meant I finished up at a total distance of about 6.28 miles…just don’t tell my brain that I didn’t hold up my end of the “free warm-up” bargain.

I’m really enjoying the long runs, but I got too late of a start on this one – lawn crews were already working by the time I was back in my neighborhood, which meant stinky gasoline fumes and lots of dust and debris in the air.  Lesson learned: no more Saturday mornings without an alarm set.

I was accompanied by a playlist of all the bands I liked in high school since I recently finished backing up my CD collection to my iTunes library.  Poe, Garbage, Better than Ezra, R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins…it was pretty darn awesome.

I was famished when I got back (having been too grumpy to pack a snack in the pocket of my adorable Lululemon running shorts), so we headed to my favorite breakfast place.  I had a delicious plate of migas with guacamole, but I forgot to take a picture   Silly, hazy, post-run brain.  Sounds like a good excuse to go back soon!

We went to the library and then went out for coffee.  I’m trying to read my book club book, but it’s not going too well so far – lots of battles, wenches, and swords.  I’m committed to finish at least the first 100 pages.  Then we hit up Nordstrom’s anniversary sale, where I did a SURPRISING amount of damage.  Photos on their way once I make sure I’m not returning it all

In between somewhere I had:

(A brown rice tortilla with brocolli, pesto, and a little nayonaise)

and:

I will miss summer when it’s gone – so many tasty, fresh treats!

Sunday

We’re going out of town for a few days soon, so I’ve been trying to use up everything that could go bad.  This morning I used up the last of our cottage cheese to make:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c buckwheat flour
• 1/3 c brown rice flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon ground flax
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 c cottage cheese
• 1/2 c almond milk

Procedure:

• Heat oiled or nonstick pan on medium-high heat
• Combine ingredients (technically, everything in the list before the flax (my egg substitute) should be combined first to ensure that the dry ingredients are well mixed before liquid in introduced.  Ask me if I care on a Sunday morning when we’re starving!); some lumps may remain.
• Ladle batter into hot pan and cook about 3 minutes on the first side (for 4″ pancakes), then flip and cook about 1 minute on the second side
• If possible, serve topped with blueberries you’ve recently picked yourself

Those were enough to tide us over for a morning of errands and cleaning.  We may have also devoured three more episodes of Mad Men (season 2 is crazy!).

Speaking of devouring, there was also some lunch:

(broccoli, pesto, and reduced fat Organic Valley cheddar on a brown rice tortilla with pan-fried tempeh)

…followed by the last of this:

(seriously, it’s the most amazing caramel chocolate bar – the fact that there aren’t more photos might be a good testament to that.  Tons of gooey, soft caramel peppered with bits of nut, restrained by a chocolate shell…divine.)

And somehow, after I worked with my mom on her new budget (and perhaps passed out asleep on the couch for an hour or two), it was time for dinner!

That lovely display is: roasted eggplant (with sesame-soy glaze), roasted squash (with chervil, paprika, and fresh garlic), polenta with peas (topped with yellow cherry tomatoes sauteed with garlic) and…a cheese quesadilla on a brown rice tortilla, because I clearly can’t seem to eat enough of those tortillas in one weekend.  The squash was a team effort, just short of throwing a dart into the spice cabinet and using whatever it pierced.

The squash and eggplant were soft and perfect!  I love that veggies cook so quickly – these spent just about 15 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

Time passed, laundry was folded, and a walk was taken.  The litter box was also cleaned.  After that strenuous activity, I chilled out with the Yoga for Runners podcast from yogadownload.com.  I’m always amazed by how much tension I carry in the right side of my body – the first half of the flow series was torture!  My half moon was much closer to Injured Dog (you know, when dogs limp around with one leg up in the air?  Like that.), but I stuck with it nonetheless.

And then it was much closer to now, and we continued the celebration that is the week or so leading up to my birthday with:

(a small ramekin of chocolate cherry ice cream) and:

Celebration figs!  These figs are *amazing*…I may or may not have sworn today that my request for a last meal would be these figs and a bowl of fresh whipped cream.

Each fig is filled with a chocolate-brandy ganache, then enrobed in, what else, more chocolate!  They’re just plain perfect, and yet another reason to move to Spain.

But alas, Sunday nights aren’t all chocolate and blogging – they’re also when I make my plans for the week.  We’ve been setting household goals (like not leaving a million jackets on the dining room chairs, and doing something with the mail rather than leaving it all over the sideboard, and maybe even sweeping before the cat fur tumbleweeds overtake every corner), so my list includes whatever we’ve agreed on for the week, any important to-dos, and my workout schedule.  This week ends with our exciting trip out of town (location unknown – a surprise birthday trip!), so I also got to put down some fun packing reminders!  I do love having something to look forward to.

*The extenuating circumstances will be done with by the end of the month, after which I can stress about them publicly on this blog rather than keeping them nestled in my anxious little brain.  Decisions are tough!  But I know that I’ll make the right one in the end.

I missed another run yesterday, eek!  It’s not like I am totally inactive on days I don’t run, but I don’t want to lose all the progress I’ve made.  I’ve got my weekly long run tomorrow morning, and I love those (so no worries about skipping it, even if it’s raining).

And…it was worth it once again   I think I have some exciting news coming!

To recap everything I started to post yesterday before the noon whirlwind came and transported me away on a tornado of work, meetings, and very,very, very good news…

In addition to being a bad runner yesterday, I was a bad eater again (seeing the relationship, no?).  After my tasty breakfast, I stayed on track with my mystery bundle…

Cherries!  I still consider them such a luxury food (in my head, I’m still usually  a grad student who has $8 a week for food and gas and all other non-rent expenses), but they’ve been on sale supercheap – must be a good year.  Unlike what happened with blueberries…we’ve got a lot of blueberries around because we go blueberry picking every year, but this year the heat and lack of rain really made the crop kind of sad (lots of bushes looked like they had grown dried blueberries rather than the standard fruit).  We still picked about 12 pounds over two weekends, which sounds like a lot but…the way we eat them…:)

I had some company while I ate my cherries: Sneak Peek: Real Housewives Of Atlanta , Season 2 – Real housewives of atlanta season 2 sneak peek – Jezebel. I liked the show better when it didn’t feel like Bravo was really trying to show the worst about these women…I don’t think any of them signed up to be made fun of, and as a trained documentarian I wish they’d let the story tell itself.  (I mean clearly, we’d get the message that these ladies aren’t quite all there upstairs, but in a much more satisfying way than the endless parade of excess and “record deals”.) (Also, yes, high standards queen over here.  I didn’t watch TV at all until the past year or so…strange for someone with a background in film production?  Why yes, thanks.)

Things broke loose a bit at work after cherry time.  I had a lot of urgent things to get done, and before I knew it it was lunch time.  So I had:

No lunch.  I had already gotten a phone call about the potential good news that was coming my way and I was stressed about work, so my stomach was in no mood for food.  I spend lunch with my man at least once a week, and today was our day.  He took me for frozen yogurt:

(looks decadent, but you’re looking at less than 300 calories there)

and then we went to the book store because I have my first assigment for my new book club:

Seriously.  Not kidding.  (At least it was only $2.)  I’m being a good sport, but I’ve never read a romance novel in my life.  I was actually embarrassed to be carrying the book, with its bare-chested headless cover dude and swooshy font, and when I went to pay I slid it across the counter face-down.  I didn’t think the book club was going to be one of the “I’m so cool and girly and REBELLIOUS, new feminist order power!” book clubs, so I’m hoping there will be a sea change as the membership grows (or I might just join them for drinks).  I did a quick flip through the book and saw lots of “pelvises” and ye Olde Englishe…have to say, not enthused, ready to be surprised and learn some lesson about Why I Shouldn’t Be So Serious.

My man was amused by the whole thing (though he’s not familiar with the whole feminist-book-club-knitting-circle-roller-derby trope, so I don’t think he completely understands).

(you can’t see it, but he’s laughing.)

I got a Very Interesting Phone Call around 3 and spent the rest of my day juggling work and my New Information.  We decided it was time to celebrate when I got home, so I had another lame burger-sprout combo to stave off the hunger that had suddenly returned, while he went out and returned with the following:

• Amy’s rice mac and cheese (and an Amy’s Indian dinner for himself)
• P. J. Madison Cherry Chocolate ice cream
• a Green & Black’s chocolate caramel bar
• a Lake Champlain 5 star caramel bar (variety is key, no?)

We curled up on the couch and watched the Mad Men.  I never thought I’d say this about television, but I love that show!  I watched a few episodes during season one, but never really got into a habit…we started watching season one together on OnDemand and really became addicted quickly.  We’ve been saving season 2 for a special occasion (and until it was closer to season 3 – August 16!!), so tonight was the perfect night.

(Truthfully, we would normally go out to celebrate, or at least break out the champagne at home and keep it a bit classier.  We’re saving that round of celebration until I make my Big Decision, so last night was “cozy celebration”.  This news will actually merit a huge party, but all in due time.)

I don’t like waiting until the end of the day to consume most of my calories (our decadent grazing didn’t even get started until 8)…I don’t count calories very strictly, but I know what the range is for everything and try to keep things in balance.  Today was way out of whack, but at least most of the chocolate and ice cream are left over   I was torn between being upset with myself for missing two runs in a row or “learning to relax” (who, me?) and just basking in my good news…as long as the basking stops interfering soon, I’ll be content in that glow.

Today is casual Friday, so I’ll be able to squeeze in some yoga in my cube at lunch and, depending on the heat, maybe even a walk.  I keep extra sneakers at work with the idea that maybe sometime I’ll go for a walk, but between the heat and the fact that sneakers don’t usually complement my outfits very well, it hasn’t happened very often.  I haven’t even started my day yet and the bus comes in 30 minutes!