Givings and NaNoWriMo

Where did we leave off?

Birthday run!

11/19/2014

 

Funny that this run was literally almost the exact same time as the previous one!

Thanksgiving run!

Little did I know that I was training for the 2014 Seattle Half Marathon during these runs... Cliffhanger!

In the meantime, I've been spending a lot of time with family and friends.

I turned 26!

5 days later, so did JW!

We hosted Thanksgiving...

As well as Friendsgiving!

I also won NaNoWriMo and wrote over 50,000 words this month!

Phew! Next I'll be sure to update the decision to run the Seattle Half Marathon on a whim...

Feels Like Training Again

It's official! In addition to the 10K, I'm officially also training for the Bellingham Bay Half Marathon on September 28!

My training plan is following the half marathon, and I'm just kind of shoving the 10K race in there. It's in less than a month! Man, time really is flying.

Friday morning started off with a really perfect training run - 4 miles in the hills, all negative splits, with my friend Chelsey.

No pictures of us because I figured we looked like death at 5:15 in the morning.

I wanted to wake up early this morning to tackle my farthest distance in this training cycle yet: 9 Miles. I hadn't run that close to 10 miles in.. what feels like forever, and I just wanted to get it over with this morning, meaning around 6 or 7am. Well, I didn't get out of bed until about 7:45 (naturally), and didn't get to my destination until about 8, starting my run around 8:15am.

Another deer sighting! There were two, but I could only catch this one.

I tried out a new trail - the East Lake Sammamish Trail. This trail connects to Marymoor Connector, which is what I start on mostly, but I go the other way, towards the Sammamish River Trail. Sometimes I'd go towards the East Lake Sammamish Trail, but would only get a little ways before I turned around back to Marymoor.

I tried to go to this trail when I ran 7 Miles on Wednesday, but was thwarted by no free parking. Well this time, I figured it out! I just parked at the McDonalds across the street, and it turns out that tons of other runners/bikers do that as well.

The run was pretty good, but I was feeling kind of tired. I ate two prunes with peanut butter in the middle as my fuel around Mile 3- first time I've done that! It was pretty good, just kind of messy.

I'm doing really well with keeping my last mile my fastest, but man this was a mentally tough run. I stopped at Mile 1.5 to take a picture of the deer, and thought I was going to stop at the halfway point, but I made myself push through. I'm happy that there's so much green in my paces!

I feel like I've gotten slower though? I keep looking at my Seattle Half Marathon paces, all in the 8s, and wonder how the hell I did that. How did I get so fast? And I seemed to have gotten super fast by accident, too. So many of my posts are like "I was tired, but I still ran super fast!" without any kind of effort. Was it because I was training for the marathon, and was just ecstatic that I wasn't running 15+ miles? Hmm.

After my run, JW and I got brunch at Issaquah Cafe, which was DELICIOUS.

The pancakes are JW's (pumpkin! jealous!), but mine was the "Potato Burrito" and it was GLORIOUS. "Scrambled eggs, baby reds, ground sausage, Tillamook cheddar, diced tomatoes and green onion wrapped in a flour tortilla, drizzled with avocado cream sauce" With a side of fruit. YUMMM. JW also got the Eggs Benedict, which were delicious.

With a long, early run on Saturday, plus delicious brunch, plus officially registering for the half, it really does feel like I'm back in the thick of traditional training again. Woohoo!

More Day 1 Meals

Yesterday continued with more delicious meals for the Summer Shape Up!

Lunch: 
Grain, Bean, & Veggie Salad

1/2 cup quinoa/rice blend (Near East) = 140 calories
1/2 cup reduced sodium black beans (drained and rinsed) = 110 calories
a bed of "power greens" ~ 50 calories (didn't measure)
1/2 avocado ~125 calories (didn't measure)

All mixed up it looks like a bunch of goop, but it sure was tasty!

Calorie Total: 375 

Snack: 
A blend of my own Trail Mix

1/4 cup Cheerios = 25 calories
1/4 cup Walnuts = 45 calories
1/3 cup Almonds = 40 calories
Dark Hershey's Kisses = 2.25 kisses, chopped

Nom nom nom

Calorie Total: 155

All this (plus breakfast) was just enough food to get me through my yoga class!

This was a particularly sweaty class.. I was grateful for my new headband!

Dinner: 
Mexican Lasagna

3 whole grain corn tortillas = 272 calories
1/2 cup red kidney beans = 110 calories
1/2 cup low sodium black beans = 110 calories
4 oz Pace mild salsa = 160 calories
1/2 cup Fage greek yogurt = 64 calories
1/2 Green Bell Pepper = 16 calories
1/2 cup Lucerne Mild Cheddar Cheese = 240 calories
Grilled Chicken Breast = 216 calories

It looked so good I started to cut into it before I remembered to take a picture..!

Calorie Total: 1,192 

The original recipe made 8-10 servings, which is why I halved it to get it to 4-5 servings. So, I cut it into fourths and ate my 298 calorie serving. I also added 1/4 of an avocado on top!

Looks a little messy (and it was) but OMG this was delicious!!

It was the perfect amount of food for the day, and I didn't feel hungry at all! I highly recommend each of these meals! Thanks, Anne!

Summer Shape Up, Day 1

Ever since we got back from our epic vacations, I've been in a total food rut. I haven't had any inspiration in the kitchen, and after going out for all of our meals for 3 weeks straight, it was really hard for me to not grab Panera Bread on the way home or go to Chipotle with JW whenever we were feeling lazy.

Fortunately, Anne at fANNEtastic food and Gina at fitnessista are hosting the Summer Shape Up, and I've decided to participate! (at least, in the food part! I'll probably do something different with the fitness.)

It officially started yesterday, but I realized there was enough leeway to be able to catch up and not be too behind. So, last night I went grocery shopping and got just about everything I needed to fill our pantry. I must say, it's really exciting to see our pantry full of food! Usually it's pretty sad.

Yay! I love seeing it so stocked!

I’ll be doing the plan a little bit differently, since most of the recipes are for 4+ servings and it’ll most likely only be me for breakfast and lunch – so some days I’ll just have leftovers from the day before so I don’t waste anything. I'm thinking I'll probably be on Week 1 for about double the time.

I’ll also be counting calories as much as I can because that’s the only way that I can keep myself on track! This isn’t Anne’s suggestion, though.

The first recipe on the plan for breakfast was called Simple Baked Oatmeal. Click to see her original recipe and instructions! Mine came out like this:

What's inside (aka how I tweaked the recipe):

Dry:
1 cup uncooked, extra-thick whole grain rolled oats = 380 calories
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed = 209 calories
3 small chopped prunes = 60 calories
1/8 cup chopped almonds = 80 calories
1 Tbsp. cinnamon = 20 calories
1/2 tsp. baking powder = 0 calories

Wet:
3/4 cup skim milk = 68 calories
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce = 25 calories
1 chopped banana = 90 calories
1 Tbsp. oil = 120 calories
1/2 egg, beaten (since I halved everything else, I needed to half this as well! I just dumped the other egg half.) = 35 calories

Calorie Total: a whopping 1,087 calories. Yikes! So even though I halved the recipe, I still had to fourth it to make it a reasonably caloric breakfast.

1/4 of the recipe: 272 calories. I wanted to add some Fage Greek Yogurt on top, so plopped a 1/4 cup on top, adding 33 calories, to make this breakfast a total of 305 calories.

Not very pretty! It kind of fell apart while I was trying to get it out of its pan.

Flavor: Really sweet. Unfortunately, I decided to pair it with my Mocha coffee (sweetened with Truvia), so I think I just overdid it on the sweetness. Some tea would have been great with this. But I might try putting in even less brown sugar (1/8 of a cup maybe??) next time. To make this less caloric, don't add nuts!

Don't get me wrong, it sure was yummy! I know what I'll be having for breakfast for the next three days...

Good Eats, A Bad Run, and A Longhorn (Hook 'Em!)

Helloooo, world! I'm back from Austin after a whirlwind trip and have finally found the time midst all the wedding planning, unpacking, and laundry folding to blog a bit!

I wanted to round off my Austin trip with a few pictures I took of the last couple of days that we were there.

We left on Wednesday- JW and I made it to Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill, and I had a delicious waldorf salad with some roasted garlic bulbs for appetizers. It was SO GOOD.

We met up with our friends John and Ashley, who we were staying with that night, and met their cute dog Ronnie:

She and JW bonded immediately.

(She's curled between my legs!)

And that night, we went to Salt Lick, where I had never been! It was AWESOME.

BYOC (Bring your own... cider :P)

JW, John, and Ashley

Me and my old roomie Sarah :)

Food, glorious food!!! This was plate 1 of 2. 

I was SO FULL after that meal - oohhh man. I usually am never that full but I'm telling you, Austin just has the best food. Ever. That night, JW and I shared a twin bed and had the worst sleep ever, haha!

The next morning (Friday) we got out on the road to head towards the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort, where my old roomie Amanda's wedding would be held. It's about 40 minutes away from Austin, and the rehearsal dinner wasn't until 7:30 Friday night, so we stopped by the mall to walk around. Of course, we ended up at CPK because it's delicious.

Yummy Quinoa & Arugula  Salad, with added chicken (not pictured)

After that, we headed out towards the resort. It was tucked behind these winding roads and we even saw some deer!!!

I've literally never seen this sign before!

Deer!!

Getting ready to jump!

After we checked in (and saying hi to Amanda and meeting her fiancé Anand!), I attempted to run around the resort. Unfortunately, fueling and sleep are everything when attempting to run- and neither of those things were very healthy on Thursday and Friday. I wanted to run for an hour because JW had an important phone interview, but I could only make it for 2 miles.

I felt so exhausted after this- I felt like I was going to throw up during the last mile. Also I couldn't really find a good place to run - I was just kind of running on the sidewalks, dodging the golf carts and people checking into the resort. So I just decided that 2 miles was enough, after running 12 miles in the last three days.

Feeling verrrrry tired

I sat on this bench for a while before I felt well enough to get up and walk around, and then remembered that there were some longhorns on the resort, so I walked over to say hi.

The guy in the above picture kept badgering the longhorn and trying to pet him - and the longhorn hit him a couple of times with his horns! It was so crazy - I kept telling the guy to step away from the fence, but he wouldn't listen to me. I wonder if he was day drunk. You can see him in this picture gathering grass to give to the longhorn to try and "build trust" (his words), but then the longhorn would just turn its head to try and hit him. It was so bizarre!

Next up: Amanda's Rehearsal Dinner!

Running Again, and 9 Year Anniversary

The day after Christmas, on JW and I's 9 year anniversary, I decided to go out for a run in my new running shoes. It was absolutely glorious and I would have gone on for so many more miles if I had the time - but I had to go home to get ready for our anniversary date.

The first two miles were with my dog, and the last two were just by myself.

I love that I can still run fast and even with a dog, my first mile was 9'20"- I still remember when I first started running and I thought it was a triumph if I got close to a 10 minute mile. Now 9 minute miles are starting to become my norm! It's a great feeling.

My shoes and new water bottle are awesome - the Wave Rider 17s make my feet feel awesome, and the water bottle fits nicely in my hand and is a great way to sip on water without carrying around a heavy belt around my waist. Pictures to come!

Later that night, JW and I went on a date at Al Biernat's.

This dress has gotten a lot of use this holiday season!

We were literally the only people in the restaurant...

Granted, not many people eat dinner at 5:30pm...

We told the waiter it was our anniversary and he surprised us with this free dessert!

It was quite delicious :)

All done with dinner!

After that, we went to the mall and saw American Hustle. It was okay - I don't think either of us were in an artsy film kind of mood, so it felt like it dragged.

That night, we met some of our friends from Seattle whose families live in Texas (like us!) in Southlake and hung out until 2am. We went to Whataburger and it was glorious. We just had to get in a Whataburger visit while we were in Texas!! I was pretty tired from the days events so I didn't take any pictures, but I'm sure you can imagine it.

Clearly you can see that South Beach has gone out the window, but as it should - being on a diet between Christmas and New Years just seems wrong. We'll be back on track after New Years..... maybe. :D