Category Archives: Running

Crock Pot Catastrophe

Posted on December 8, 2009 | 5 comments

Good morning! Before I get into the catastrophe I created last night, I’m going to focus on a positive thing I did today: I actually went to the gym this morning!! I know – I can’t believe I actually got up and went. It felt great. It’s so strange when you first try out a routine and you’re figuring out your timeframe and what works. Everything went well.

I left our apartment around 5:45 a.m. and was to the gym and getting on the treadmill by 6:00 a.m. Here’s what I did:

4 miles – 35:07
.5 miles – for a total finishing time of 39:57
75 crunches
25 alternating scissors
50 (25 each side) criss-cross crunches

That was actually a little more than I typically do at the gym after work. I was out of the gym and heading to the subway by 7:40 a.m. or so and even got to work a little bit early. I’m going to look into reserving one of the lockers and keeping some of my stuff there permanently. But it is kind annoying to lug all this stuff around all day.

If you workout at the gym in the morning and head to work straight from there, how do you minimize what you bring to the gym?

Now my eats from yesterday and the catastrophe.

Breakfast yesterday was oatmeal with 1 tsp of pumpkin butter, 1 tsp of almond butter, raisins and a swizzle of agave.

I never post it, but I ate my usual granola bar snack around 11:00 a.m. Since I hadn’t been in the office for a few days, my Monday was hectic and I had a ton of stuff to catch up on. The morning flew by.

Lunch was actually leftovers from last week when I made the rice and beans with grape tomatoes. It was still good and I pretty much devoured it.

Later in the afternoon, I had a Greek honey yogurt with granola (but it was camera-shy or I was just forgetful) and then I had two clementines.

After work, I was all set to go to the gym. I was heading that way, when all of a sudden I got a text from the Hubby saying. “Dinner burned.”

WHAT?! Now, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, on Sunday night I put a bunch of stuff in the crock pot for Monday night’s dinner. Before I left the house Monday morning, I asked Bill to turn it on LOW for 10 hours. I had adapted a recipe I found online and then asked for some tips from my mom before putting it together. This was to be my first crock potting experience. The darn thing has been sitting in our basement for about 3 years.

Here’s the before picture:

I threw together about 2 cups of chicken broth, 2 diced chicken breasts, 1/3 cup of balsamic, a dash of wine, 1/4 cup of chopped onion, one chopped garlic clove, carrots and spinach.

Being worried about my first crock pot dinner, I decided to skip the gym (bad I know!) and flew home to see what devastation awaited me. This was the scene in the kitchen when I arrived:

Sadness!! I was so upset. I made a valiant attempt to salvage the remains with some chicken broth and spices and the end result looked like this:

Hubby and I tried to eat it…but it was just awful. The chicken was dry and it sort of reminded me of cat food. I think if I ever try this one again, it needs a LOT more liquid. Alas, we gave up and I had this for dinner instead.

PB&J sandwich with carrots.

Then I had a little chocolate fix – hot cocoa – to make everything better.

We were so depressed about dinner that I decided to cheer Bill up by holding off on the Christmas decorating for one night and watching Bruno instead.

My take on this movie: it had some funny parts, but overall I wasn’t all that impressed. I definitely think Sascha Baron Cohen is an amazing actor for being able to pull off these incredulous characters, but watching his movies once is usually enough for me. And I liked Borat better than Bruno.

I went to bed shortly after we finished the movie, with my secret intent to get up early the next morning and hit the gym. I’ve stopped telling the Hubby that I’m going in the morning because then he just laughs when I snooze 18 times and never make it. This time I kept quiet about my plan and then confused the heck out of him when I left at 5:45 a.m.

And now I’m thrilled that tonight is free. My plan is to stop at the store, do a load of laundry, make dinner and decorate! It probably doesn’t sound very exciting to others, but to me it sounds divine.

Have a great Tuesday.

P.S. – I got a girl in the Secret Santa thing (we picked yesterday) and I kind of know her, so I’m less Grinch-like today.

5 Comments

Posted in Running, Uncategorized

An Official New York Road Runner

Posted on December 1, 2009 | 9 comments

Good morning blog world! It’s Tuesday – we made it through Monday – yipee! I was pretty darn tired yesterday and was still wondering if I was actually going to get sick. I woke up yesterday feeling a little bit better and hoped it was just a nasty allergy attack.

For breakfast I had 1/2 cup of oats, tsp of pumpkin butter, handful of raisins and a splash of milk.

It was really tough to get moving and get out the door on time. I had to stop and grab a coffee to help keep me sane and awake. Monday mornings at work are typically pretty busy for me, so I knew the coffee would help.

I was surprised that the day actually moved along pretty quickly. I ate my morning granola bar at 11:00 and then the one or two new projects I started to work on kept me occupied and before I realized it, it was 1:45 and I hadn’t had lunch yet!

I trudged out in the rain and got a salad from across the street. The usual stuff: romaine lettuce, peas, carrots, cheddar cheese, walnuts and craisins.

My camera was a little off, so pics are looking blurry.

After lunch, I went onto the New York Road Runners site and browsed some races. I decided I wanted to sign up for two in January. And then I just bit the bullet and became a member. It’s about time I started running races in NYC and not just upstate. I typically try to run all my races with my running buddy Lauren, but as my hubby said yesterday, “she’s not always going to be able to run with you.” Sadness. So I signed up for these two races:

NYRR Fred Lebow Classic (5M)
NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Manhattan

Lauren WILL be able to run the Half Marathon with me!! YAY!! I will tackle the Fred Lebow 5 miler on my own – just call me Miss Independent. Unless my hubby surprises me and decides to run it as well. 😉

Any other NYC bloggers planning on running either of these?

I am generally NOT a winter runner, but this will be my attempt to keep running strong throughout the winter. If you’re a runner, do you still race in the cold weather?

My co-worker tells me that she actually runs better in the cold. Not me.

Later on in the afternoon yesterday I had some Greek Yogurt with granola and oats and two clemetines (gotta get that vitamin C to stay healthy!).

BTW – today at noon you can sign-up for the NYC Half Marathon Lottery . Can you tell that I have racing on the brain after my Turkey Trot? It’s an addiction.

I didn’t work out last night after work for a few reasons: 1) I was tired, 2) I’m going away on Wednesday morning for a business trip and needed to run some preparatory errands, 3) I haven’t actually hung out with Bill in a while, 4) I was tired.

So I left work, picked up some traveling necessities and headed home. I made this quick and easy dinner:

Here is my made-up recipe for it.

Asparagus Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers

Ingredients

3/4 cup chicken broth
2 chicken breasts
1/3 cup of diced onion
salt and pepper to taste
6-8 stems of fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 (7 ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped grape tomatoes
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, or to taste
1/3 cup shredded parmesean cheese

Directions

Heat the broth in a large skillet over medium-high heat with the garlic and onion. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and place in the skillet. Cook 15 minutes, until chicken is almost done.
Place asparagus and red peppers in skillet. Continue cooking 10 minutes until asparagus is tender. Place tomatoes in skillet during last 2 minutes of cook time. Sprinkle with vinegar. Top with parmesean cheese and serve.

It was yummy and the husband rated it as “pretty good.”

After dinner I had a small piece of the white cake with white frosting that Bill’s sister Christine made for his birthday and brought to Thanksgiving dinner. I was shocked that Bill was willing to share his cake. But then he told me that Christine made him promise to share with me – figures! It was great.

The rest of my night was quiet and I went to bed pretty early. However, Murphy decided to try to wake me up pretty much every two hours during the night, so I’m a bit tired again today.

I’m starting to get a little nervous about traveling tomorrow. I’m one of those people who is always afraid of missing a flight or forgetting something important or losing my luggage. Generally – just not a very relaxed traveler. Hence, I start prepping 2-3 days in advance.

Are you a good traveler – what are some of your helpful tips or tricks?

I AM excited about the possibility of running while we’re training in L.A. The weather there is looking nice and warm. I could certainly use a nice West-coast run. 🙂

Last note – I want to say congrats to my friend Becky for starting her new blog: Write On!! I’m so happy she is proactively seeking new creative outlets and will be able to share her passion and wonderful insights with others. Becky is one of the people in my life that I always “talk books” with. We typically like the same books and are ALWAYS asking each what the other is reading and for recommendations. Now I can just check out her blog and see that, as well as her feedback and reviews. I’m so excited – so be sure to check it out. She’s also on my Blogroll! 🙂 Love ya Becks!

9 Comments

Posted in Bloggers, Dessert, NYRR, Races, Recipes, Running, Uncategorized

Is it Really Monday?

Posted on November 30, 2009 | 4 comments

Good morning. It’s Monday – ugh! Back to the grind again. I promised a race recap yesterday, but I didn’t end up having a chance to post at all. So here it goes:

2009 Troy Turkey Trot
Since high school, my friend Lauren and I have run the Troy Turkey Trot together every Thanksgiving. From 2006 through 2008, I took a little break and didn’t run it. This year was my triumphant return!

Lauren picked me up on Thursday morning around 8:30 and brought my race packet with her. We headed into Troy in search of parking. This year, the race course was changed a bit and the starting place was different. We found a spot and started jogging in the direction of the old start. After jogging for about 5 minutes, we realized everyone else was running in the opposite direction. So we turned around and followed the masses to the new start. Oops! 🙂

After finding the start, we hung out for a bit and ran into a bunch of people from high school. We also met up with our friend Kelly, who was running the race unofficially, or as a “bandit.” We headed to the starting line to find her dad and a few other of her family members. Miraculously, we found them standing at about the 9:30 minute mile pace area.

We started chatting and then before we knew it the race started. It was PACKED!! Apparently, this was the largest ever Troy Turkey Trot. We were all crammed in trying to move, but it was a slow start. I had a slight goal in the back of my mind – to beat 24 minutes, so I started getting a little annoyed with the slow start.

Lauren and I tried to stick together and manuever through people, but it just wasn’t happening. So after about 5 minutes, we got split up.

In general, I will say this was a frustrating race. It might have been less so if we had started closer to the actual starting line and I didn’t have to spend the majority of the beginning of the race trying to weave my way through runners.

I was concentrating so much on not running over people, that I was shocked to find myself at the halfway turn-around point! I had already been running for a little longer than 12 minutes. That’s when I realized that I needed to pick it up a bit.

I started increasing my speed and then all of a sudden I saw a HUGE hill in front of me. Everyone around me starting groaning and some even cursed in anger. This was certainly a new addition to the course.

I made it up the hill and was finally almost done. My watch time was very different from the clock time, so I tried to pay attention only to my watch. It was getting close to 24 minutes, so I knew we were almost done. I spotted the finish line and starting kicking it in and sprinting to the finish. I knew it was going to be very close… and it was. I finished the race in 24:03. Sooo close to breaking 24 minutes!

I felt great after the race and was shocked at how quickly it went by. I can’t wait to run another 5k soon and try to break 24 minutes again.

Has your 5k time improved since running longer races, like 10k, half marathon, marathons?

Here’s a photo from the finish of myself, Lauren, Stephen and Stephanie. I look like a midget next to these tall peeps!

So that was my race recap – now I’ll try to give a consolidated recap of Saturday night and Sunday.

Saturday night I hung out with Becky and Josh and Chrissie and Dan. Becky, Chrissie and I went to high school together. We tried a new restaurant in Saratoga called The Irish Times. We started off with some appetizers, including nachos, spring rolls and wings. Here are the nachos and spring rolls:

My dinner was a burger (boring) and the picture I took came out terrible, so I’m leaving it out. After dinner, we headed to The Parting Glass for a few drinks. Ok – maybe more than a few:

And then we marvelled at how mini my hands look compared to Josh’s.

It was a fun night in Saratoga!

Sunday morning I was up fairly early, so I headed to the mall to finish up some shopping crowd-free.

Did you shop during the long weekend? Or will you be partaking in Cyber Monday deals?

When I came home I had a multi-grain English muffin with peanut butter and banana. Lauren and I had planned to go running in the early afternoon, so this was also my running fuel.

Around 1:00 Lauren came to my parent’s house and we headed out for a nice run. The weather upstate was gorgeous! A little brisk, but not freezing. We probably ran about 5.5 miles. I haven’t used mapmyrun.com to calculate the route we took yet, but we finished at around 52 minutes. We also challenged ourselves by taking on two big hills during the run. It felt great to finish.

After our run, I had this for lunch and then again for dinner! So only one picture:

My mom made this soup and it was FANTASTIC!! I will definitely be making it. She got the recipe from the Food Network, here it is:

Tortellini Tomato Spinach Soup

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup minced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
4 to 6 cups chicken broth (can also use vegetable broth)
1 14 oz. can whole tomatoes, crushed through your fingers (I used a little more)
1 9 oz. package fresh tortellini or dried tortellini
1/4 cup of red wine
Salt and Pepper to taste
Dash of Parsley and Basil
6 oz. package fresh baby spinach – tear into pieces
Parmesan Cheese

In a 3 quart soup pot, heat olive oil over med. high heat and saute onion for several minutes then add garlic stirring for few minutes then add broth, wine and tomatoes, parsley, basil, salt and pepper; turn heat up to high and bring to a boil – add tortellini and cook according to package instructions. When tortellini is almost done, add spinach. Cook for a few minutes until spinach is wilted. Once you dish soup into bowls, shave parmesan cheese over the top and serve.

It takes about 10 minutes to prep. and approx. 20 to 30 minutes to cook.

It was soo yummy. Bill had some of it when he came to pick me up to head back to NYC and he said it was very good as well. Then we set off for home. Along the way, I don’t know if my allergies were acting up or what, but I started to feel a cold coming on. EEEKS! I hate being sick.

When we got home, I took some Severe Cold Sudafed, a vitamin c tablet and ate a clementine. Then I went straight to bed! This morning, I am feeling much better (knock on wood). Hopefully, if it was a cold, I kept it at bay. But I have a feeling it was just my allergies.

What are your “secret'” tips for killing a cold quick?

Happy Monday blog world!

4 Comments

Posted in Recipes, Restaurants, Running, Uncategorized

The Thanksgiving Aftermath

Posted on November 28, 2009 | 4 comments

Let me start with an apology – I have been a bad blogger. I’m not even going to offer up any lame excuses. I’ve been bad and I fully admit it. You’re not going to like my Thanksgiving recap because I didn’t take ANY food pics.

I know – the shame!! The guilt!! My hubby’s family doesn’t really know too much about my whole blogging “thing” yet, and I didn’t feel like Thanksgiving was the best time to spring it on them, so I felt totally weird snapping away like I normally would.

Have you encountered situations where you’ve kept the camera hidden away – if so, when?

My apologies in advance for this lame-o post. I PROMISE to do better at Christmas. I can tell you that I tried every dish at Thanksgiving dinner and several of the desserts. My homemade apple sauce went over well too!

So here are a few pics from the day, but please don’t be expecting to see any food. Sorry!!

Bill holding his nephew’s (yes, nephew) new baby – Kevin III. Three weeks old. What a little peanut!

Me and Bill’s nephew, Freddy. I mean technically, all of Bill’s nieces and nephews are mine now too!! I always forget that and refer to them as “his.” I’m an only child, so the idea of nieces and nephews is new to me.

And then just so this post isn’t totally foodless – I’ll put in a Saturday morning breakfast recap. I know – I’m such a bad blogger! No food recap for Thursday or Friday – I totally went off the grid. 😉

Here is the morning’s breakfast of oatmeal, a little milk, raisins, 1 tsp. of maple syrup and some kashi cereal:

Then before my mom and I headed out to do something Christmas shopping, I spotted some leftover banana pudding in the fridge. I seriously don’t know how there were leftovers of this. I had a small helping to fuel my shopping.

Shopping was a success! I managed to handle the crowds and get a bunch of presents checked off my list. Now I’m going to eat a light lunch and relax for a bit before I head up to Saratoga for dinner and drinks with some good friends.

Tomorrow will be a better post – I promise! I’ll have more food photos AND I’ll give a full recap of the Turkey Trot – it was CRAZY!

So please don’t hate me blog world for delivering a sub-par Thanksgiving recap. I promise I’ll make it up to you!

4 Comments

Posted in Holidays, Running, Uncategorized

Happy Thanksgiving and Some News!

Posted on November 26, 2009 | 5 comments

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I can’t believe it’s already here. I’m writing this post bright and early before my race (the Turkey Trot) at 9:30 a.m. I’m actually a little nervous. I haven’t run a 5k race in a long time. I’m hoping I can work up enough speed – I’m so used to longer runs now. Wish me luck!

I’ll get into my eats from yesterday in a minute, but first I just want to share some fun news. I recently started writing for Examiner.com as the NY Health and Happiness Examiner! I’m pretty pumped about this new prospect.

Those of you who know me, know that in my former life I was an aspiring journalist and freelance writer. But sadly, journalism wasn’t exactly paying the bills, if you know what I mean. Seriously, it’s the most difficult profession to get into and the most underpaid.

Anyway – I learned about Examiner.com and liked that I could write about what I wanted and do so within my timeframe. As of right now, I have two articles posted, but am sure I’ll be churning out some more soon. Feel free to check out my page and articles:

Finding holiday balance
Happiness: on a budget

I’m very excited about this opportunity to write creatively and I really welcome your feedback and ideas! You can subscribe to get notifications about my latest articles (subscription is free).

So now back to the blog. My eats yesterday began with a breakfast of oatmeal, 1 tsp. of pumpkin butter, 1 tsp. of peanut butter and a handful of raisins.

Lunch was eaten early because I was soo hunnggry! I usually wait till about 1:00, but 12:30 hit and I lunged for my food. Reduced fat triscuits, Laughing Cow Original Flavor Light Swiss Cheese, and some carrots.

Our office closed yesterday at 3:00 for the holiday, so I ate my afternoon snack right before I left. I had Greek yogurt with Flax Plus Granola and oats mixed in.

After our “early dismissal” I headed to Penn Station (the bain of my existence – hate it soo much) and waited eagerly for my train. As I expected, it was PACKED with holiday travellers and worse – an HOUR late! I found a seat, settled in and proceeded to read David Copperfield for a while. I am happy to say I really and truly am almost done!!

What are you currently reading?!

I was raveous after my trip and was thrilled to see that Momma B (that’s my mom’s nickname) had a nice little dinner all ready for me.

I am getting this recipe – it was delicious. Pasta, chicken, grape tomatoes, chicken broth, artichoke, roasted red peppers. I gobbled (giggle) it up and then had some banana pudding that my mom “had made too much of.” Yeah right. I ended up only eating about 2/3 of this.

Then I set to work making some homemade apple sauce for today! YUM.

I drank water throughout the night in preparation for the race today. Although it’s a very short race, I’m a big believer in proper hydration! Then I went to bed super early because I was exhausted. 🙂

Oh and here’s a picture of my big bully kitty attacking one of my parent’s cats. Murphy is the mean looking tabby about to attack. They look vicious, but they never actually hurt each other. It’s apparently how they “play.”

And now it’s almost race time and then lots of good eating with the Callahans! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

What was your favorite dish of T-Day?!

My final, final note: I came across this article yesterday about The Biggest Loser and it got me thinking. Take a look:

On ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Health Can Take Back Seat

Then I saw part of the Biggest Loser special and decided that I think the show does more good than harm. What do you think?

5 Comments

Posted in Books, Running, Uncategorized

Poor Planning, Poor Me

Posted on November 20, 2009 | 5 comments

Happy Friday – Finally!! To be honest, this week went by pretty fast for me. Except now today is dragging. But first, my Thursday night recap.

When I left you in my Thursday afternoon post, I was getting pumped up to go running with my co-worker after work. Alas, it did not happen – sadness. The skies were threatening rain and she didn’t seem too eager about the idea in general, so we postponed.

That can mean only one thing – a date with the dreaded treadmill. Boo. But I survived. On Wednesday night I actually forgot my iPod and had to run sans music. Thank goodness for TVs with closed captioning. Last night I remembered my iPod – so I was golden. My workout:

4 miles on the treadmill in 35:05
1/2 mile cool down
85 crunches
15 leg lowers
stretching

Then I headed home and threw in a load of wash and made some dinner – by which I mean I reheated my leftovers from the night before. I LOVE leftovers! And I added a pinch more curry to the dish – yum.

Do you plan ahead and make extra food so you’ll have leftovers or are you not a leftovers fan?

I promise I took a new pic, it’s not just a repost from the previous night.

And then I needed some dessert. I threw together a glob of plain Chobani Greek yogurt, dollop of peanut butter, a little granola and crumbled up the remaining two pieces of chocolate from the night before to make this mess:

It was yummy!

Then I packed for my trip upstate this weekend and watched Grey’s Anatomy. Was anyone else thrown by the jump from Thanksgiving to Christmas in a span of 5 minutes?! All of a sudden Mark’s daughter had been living there a month and there’s a Christmas tree? What?

Again, I got to bed later than I wanted, but made some progress on David Copperfield – I’ve surpassed page 600! My “To Read” List is soo long, I really need Copperfield to end soon. But I will admit, the story has gotten a little more captivating.

I woke up this morning in a flurry to gather all my odds and ends for my trip and made a lazy breakfast of Kashi Cereal with blueberries and skim milk.

I got to work, realized I forgot my ID card to get in, and decided that I was going to need some coffee. So my morning snack was coffee and a granola bar.

At my office, it’s kind of a hassle to enter the building if you don’t have your ID card. You pretty much feel like a criminal. You have to wait to be “escorted” up by another employee. I didn’t really bring much food with me today because of all the other junk I had with me, so lunch became a desperate situation. And I didn’t want to leave the building and have to go through the whole “escorting” thing all over again.

This is what I managed for lunch (forgive me). Some Progresso’s Chicken and Wild Rice soup that was in my food drawer (yes, holy MSG, but desperate times people…), Chobani peach yogurt with oats, and a few Rice chippers.

So the soup is really the only less-than-good food on my lunch list, but it was just such a disappointment. I used to eat these cans of soup for lunch ALL THE TIME, but since trying to eat “cleaner” and cut out unnecessary chemicals, I’ve been avoiding them. Oh well.

And lord help me, but my only snack for the afternoon is a banana (no pic).

I’m a little scared to see how ravenous I’ll be by the time I get to Albany at 7pm. Or to see if I can hold off buying something terrible at the train station. I’m out of here at 3:30!!

Dinner tonight will be with my good friends Stephanie and Rachael at my uncle and cousin’s restaurant Beff’s. They have the best nachos in the world… my restraint will be tested – I make no promises.

Some interesting headlines:

Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious

U.S. Food Safety Likely to Get Overhaul in 2010

Have a great weekend all! I’ll try to post as much as I can – I am pretty sure some delicious food will be had this weekend. 🙂

5 Comments

Posted in Books, Running, Uncategorized

A Great Weekend to Run

Posted on November 15, 2009 | 3 comments

It’s Sunday and I didn’t get any blogging in yesterday. But I did get something else in… a nice run!! I woke up to a light drizzle yesterday, but checked weather.com and it said no “real” rain was in the forecast until later on. Ever since marathon-training, I’m an eat-before-I-run-runner, so I had a multi-grain English muffin with peanut butter and banana before I headed out.

Then I went for my much-needed run. I did probably around 5 miles on the East River Esplanade. I tried to figure out the exact distance on mapmyrun, but the site doesn’t show the esplanade, so it’s hard to estimate. That’s why I really want a Garmin!! I ran what I guess to be 5 miles in 46 minutes, not my fastest, but not my slowest. Then I did some stretching afterwards.

About an hour later I was hungry again, so I had some Greek yogurt with Flax Plus Granola.

The rest of my afternoon consisted of two loads of laundry, a little boob tube and this (yes, I’m STILL reading it):

And I may have napped for 3o minutes by accident. Oh well! Then it was time to eat some food and get ready for my friend Alexondra’s apartment-warming party on the West Side. For dinner I finished up the lettuce and some veggies and fruit in the fridge: lettuce, cheddar cheese, apple, grape tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts, raisins – balsamic vinegar on top.

I’m a bad blogger – I forgot to bring my camera with me to the party! But I can tell you that her apartment is gorgeous – what a great find. And there was some tasty homemade humus which I nibbled on, along with a glass of red wine and 2 beers. Then I called it a night. I knew I wanted to get up and try to run again today.

Today’s weather was even better for a run! Again, I had some breakfast first: oatmeal with pumpkin butter, flax seed and blueberries.

Then I set out for Central Park – it was 60 degrees outside! It’s 1 mile from our apartment to Central Park, so that serves as my warm-up and cool down. If I hit the lights right I can fly there non-stop, which happened this morning and helped set my pace. Here are my times:

1 mile warm-up there: 9:13
6.1 mile CP Loop: 51:30
1 mile cool down home: 8:30

I calculated my average mile time for the loop and I was averaging an 8:26 minute mile! That’s almost exactly where I need to be to qualify for Boston. However, I felt like I was pushing it and was pretty tired after the loop, so I don’t know if I’d be able to sustain that speed for 26.2 miles. It’s something to work on.

I also feel like I tend to run faster in Central Park because there are soo many runners and I’m the kind of runner that doesn’t like to be behind people or too close to other runners, so it seems like I’m constantly focusing on passing the next runner.

Do you have certain running routes that push you to run faster or harder than others? What helps you increase your speed?

After my fantastic run I came home, stretched, showered and had a snack. Chobani Greek peach yogurt with more blueberries, apple, and Flax Plus Granola with Pumpkin. The pumpkin bread is finally gone – sadness!

Murphy also stretched a bit:

Now it’s time for the not fun part of my weekend…CLEANING. Our apartment needs a really good once over. So that is my plan for the remainder of the day. I’m thinking dinner tonight will have to be quick and easy, because I’ll probably be exhausted. Have a nice Sunday!

3 Comments

Posted in Books, Running, Uncategorized

Dinner on the Fly, Biggest Loser Makes Me Cry

Posted on November 11, 2009 | 8 comments

Well, unfortunately my tentative plan to run outside with the hubby last night did not come to fruition. He’s been very stressed and busy with work lately and he ended up having to work later than he thought. So I was forced to hit the gym and treadmill after work. My workout consisted of:

4 miles. increasing speed from 6.3 to 7.2 (averaging a 9 min mile)
100 crunches
25 alternating leg lowers (for abs)
Extensive stretching

Check out this article in the NY Times about running in tough weather: Train the Mind to Run Right Through Winter. I don’t mind a little rain or snow, it’s the absence of light that holds me back. I think NYC is a pretty safe place, but I don’t like to test the limits more than necessary.

When I got home from the gym I began throwing together dinner. I wasn’t working from a recipe or anything, but it ended up turning out delicious! Here is my make-shift recipe for it:

Tomato and Goat Cheese Stuffed Balsamic Chicken

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
10-12 grape tomatoes halved
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of goat cheese
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle of Asiago cheese

Preparation
In a small bowl or measuring cup combine the balsamic vinegar, chopped onion and grape tomatoes. Set to the side.

Slice a pocket into each chicken breast starting in the thickest area of the breast. Fill the pocket with as much of the tomato, balsamic and onion mixture as will fit. Then insert 1 tablespoon of goat cheese into the pocket as well, spreading it out as much as possible.

Place the filled chicken breasts in greased baking pan. Drizzle lemon and balsamic vinegar over the top, salt and pepper lightly, and sprinkle a dash of Asiago cheese. Cook in the oven at 375 for 20-25 minutes. Remove and drizzle the remaining balsamic vinegar, onion and tomato mixture overtop. Serve over lettuce or rice. Here’s what it looked like:

The hubby gave it his seal of approval.

After dinner I had…can you guess?

More pumpkin bread!

The rest of my night consisted of watching The Biggest Loser and getting emotional (why do I always end up crying?!), and then reading David Copperfield for a bit (I’m 440 pages in – moving slowly but surely).

I have to say, I didn’t really want Shay to leave BL yet. And did I miss her “big reveal”? I only saw Daniel’s. My bet is that they are going to have her on again next season – just like they did with Daniel. I’ve never watched the show before this season, but for some reason I got hooked this time around. I think the transformations are amazing. I’d like Jillian to come train me for a day or two.

I got to bed later than I wanted, but had a very good night’s sleep (no kitty waking me up at 5 am!)

Breakfast this morning was a multi-grain English muffin topped with peanut butter and banana. I got a little eager and started eating it before I took a picture – notice the big chomp taken out:

Today’s lunch is a repeat of yesterday’s leftovers. Why did I have so many leftovers you may wonder? Well, the hubby took one look at the Quinoa dinner I was preparing on Monday night and promptly decided he would not eat it. He went out and got two slices of pizza for himself instead. Hence, I ended up with more leftovers than anticipated. Note to self: for the time-being, only make Quinoa dinners when Bill is not home for dinner. Hopefully he’ll come around later.

Snacks for the afternoon will be two clementines and a bag of raisins and walnuts:

It looks like I’ll be hitting the treadmill again tonight to up my mileage for Pile on the Miles. I’m praying this weekend is nice so I can do a nice long run in Central Park.

Are there any recipes you make that your significant other refuses to eat? How do you accommodate varying likes and dislikes in your household?

Am I the only one who cries when watching The Biggest Loser?

8 Comments

Posted in Books, Recipes, Running, Uncategorized

I Miss Sunlight

Posted on November 10, 2009 | 4 comments

I don’t know what I was thinking last night when I went to bed, but I set my alarm for 5:15 a.m. so I could get up and run outside. I checked the weather and it said that even at 6:00 a.m. it would be a balmy 55 degrees!

Alas, when the alarm went off, I looked at my windows and saw that it was still pitch black outside. Running along the East River in total darkness did not seem like a smart plan, so I snoozed (a lot).

So begins my frustration with the fall/winter months. It’s too dark to run outside in the morning and too dark to run outside after work. I guess I’ll be paying a visit to the dreaded treadmill tonight. Sadness.

How do you cope with seasonal barriers to running? Does anyone run during their lunch breaks? I’ve thought about that, but I doubt my co-workers would appreciate my sweatiness after. Any other creative ideas?

Breakfast today was oatmeal with almond butter, flax seed and a little agave.

After setting my alarm for 5:15 and snoozing until 6:15 (yes, I should have just reset it), I was pretty tired and needed a big coffee and water to revive me.

Lunch today is boring – leftovers from last night and yogurt.

When I packed my lunch this morning, I added a little Newman’s Light Balsamic dressing to this (I figured it might dry out a bit) and it definitely made it tastier.

Snacks this afternoon were an apple and the remainder of the rice chips. I can’t believe these chips lasted me a full week. I think they will be a definite re-purchase.

A running update…I’m trying to convince the hubby to go running with me after work. He could use a stress reliever and it’s so freaking nice outside! I’m hoping he’ll agree.

I think tonight for dinner I’ll make balsamic chicken with grape tomatoes and whatever else I can find in the fridge.

Fun Fact: Since my entrance into the blogging world, I’ve found quite a few other healthy living bloggers who reside in NYC. I’m hoping that Megan, Chelsea and I will be able to get together sometime in the near future… maybe even for a run! A mini blogger-fest of sorts!

4 Comments

Posted in Bloggers, Running, Uncategorized

Where Did the Weekend Go?

Posted on November 8, 2009 | 4 comments

I can’t believe it’s Sunday night already! This weekend flew by. We headed up to Albany on Friday night after work and pretty much just went to bed when we got there.

Saturday morning I got up around 9:00 (nice to sleep in a bit) and started laundry and had some breakfast. Breakfast was oatmeal with flax seed and banana with coffee.

Before we knew it, it was almost time to head out for the wedding. Bill’s co-worker Tom was getting married in Hudson Falls at 2:00 p.m. Tom actually helped set the two of us up way back when.

The reception was held at a really cute farm in upstate New York. When we got there, we ran into two girls with whom I went to high school and ran cross country/track (Jen and Michelle). Turns out they are Tom’s cousins. Small world.

Dinner was great – salad, chicken, roasted potatoes, pasta, etc. Unfortunately, I did not take any food pics at the wedding. Sorry! But here are two people pics:

IMG_0578_1

IMG_0580_1

We also happened to sit at a table with a guy who is an organic food distributor. He primarily supplies upstate restaurants and businesses, but has recently seen a lot of interest from businesses in New York City. It was great to hear that a healthy food business is thriving. I’ve been trying to eat as naturally as possible and I’m glad to know that it’s something restaurants are starting to focus on.

Here is his website: H. Childress and Sons

How do you incorporate natural foods into your diet? How often do you buy organic?

The wedding was a great time – we headed out around midnight.

Sunday morning I was up early to watch my friend Stephanie run the Stockadathon 15k with her friend Jeannette in Schenectady. I munched on some delicious pumpkin bread my mother made and a banana before heading out.

Jenny and I went to Jess and Bob’s house, approx. the 2 mile mark of the race, to cheer them on. I had a nice big cup of coffee and Jess, Bob and Jenny had some yummy-looking bagels (unfortunately I don’t really like bagels).

Desmond was also hanging out with us:

And then the runners came!

Jenny’s uncle also happened to be running the race and was right in front of Steph and Jeannette. Don’t they look so chipper?!

After they passed, we finished up our breakfast and headed over to the finish. They did great!!

Do you have a running buddy? How do you stay together during races? Do you always stay together or only during some races?

The weather was gorgeous and the runners inspired me, so I went for an hour-long run when I got back to my parent’s house. I even managed to work in a few big hills. Then I snacked on a few things:

Soon it was time to head back home – hard to believe the weekend was over already! When we got back to the city I had an easy and quick dinner of Amy’s Organic Pasta and Three Bean Soup, celery with peanut butter, a clementine.