It's less than a month until I meet up with Kim and her friends at the Riverboat Series. I am balanced precariously between excited and exhausted. Excited because I'm really looking forward to seeing my friends: Kim and many who I met at Dust Bowl last year. Exhausted because I'm in my hardest training week for the series. So far this month, I've run almost 109 miles. I have 3 double digit runs and two half marathons left before the series starts. Two of those long runs are today and tomorrow: days 5 and 6 of running with a 34 miles already on my legs (including 13.1 at race pace.) I know the key right now is mental strength. My body can do 20+ miles over the next two days. I know it can. I just can't let that little voice in my … [Read more...]
Unplanned rest day + a very beery WIAW
This was supposed to be a 50 mile week. Not.going.to.happen. I've been dealing with pain in the ball of my foot for over a year now. I recently made an appointment with a podiatrist to confirm that it is Morton's neuroma and to see what my options were. Interestingly, since I dropped a certain shoe out of my rotation (per his suggestion), I've been experiencing less pain - both in intensity and frequency. I almost canceled the appointment, but decided I wanted him to take a closer look just to be sure. While I was there, I mentioned that for the last few days I've had some discomfort on the top of my foot. You can guess where this is heading, right? After my foot had been tightly squeezed and prodded and he had me jump on one … [Read more...]
WIAW: Blue Apron Review
A friend of mine recently gave me a free trial of Blue Apron. Blue Apron is one of a number of delivery services that have popped up that provide you with recipes and all of the ingredients that you need to cook them. In this case, you get three meals, all selected by Blue Apron. The only choice you have is whether you want that week's meal, if you want meat/fish or vegetarian, and how many servings you want. If you are paying for the service, it is $9.99 per person per meal. Most important conclusion: the food was fresh and all of the recipes tasted good. Of the three, one was good but I wouldn't want again, one was good and I'd be happy to eat it occasionally, and one was good enough that I actually plan to use the recipe card … [Read more...]
What I cooked Wednesday
Without any really good pictures because I'm totally lame... We have been slowly revamping our diets around here. I guess you'd call it more of an attempt to eat clean. I'm going for more of an emphasis on unprocessed, whole foods. My kids (like many kids) LOVE chicken nuggets. Love them. Could subsist entirely on nuggets. Over the last year, I've worked really hard to expand their horizons and nuggets are no longer a several times a week meal, but they are still a frequently requested meal. As in, if I ask the kids what they want instead of just putting food on the table, the answer is 9 times out of 10, nuggets. (In case you are wondering, that 1 out of 10? Shoo asks for PB&J, Jones asks for Trader Joes Mahi Mahi … [Read more...]
A year in running & WIA race day
Miss Zippy asked recently "How was your year in running?" I can never resist a chance to look back at my running, so I took her up on it. Best race experience? Honestly, every race this year was the best.race.ever. I only ran half marathons - not intentionally, but somehow I didn't run my standard shorter races this year. But, if I had to pick one race, I'd say the Frederick Half Marathon. I felt awesome, the course was great, the weather was perfect, and I saw a couple of my favorite people on the course. Best run? I'd say every run I got to do with friends. Even the ones that hurt were more fun with people to chat with. Best new piece of gear? My Brooks Essential Nightlife jacket. I borrowed my mom's for … [Read more...]
Eating the Rainbow (WIAW) and International Dreams
Yesterday's Elf4Health challenge was to "Eat the Rainbow". I tend to be pretty veggie centric anyways, but I made an effort to add extra veggies to every meal. Added to the challenge was that I'm refusing to go to the grocery store until we finish all the produce and leftovers in the fridge. Red: red pepper, tomatoes in salsa and lasagna Orange: sweet potato, carrots Yellow: banana Green: arugula, romaine, green beans Blue/Indigo/Violet: Kohlrabi, raisins (we had no grapes or blueberries or anything else in the house, so this was hard for me.) White: Onions, cauliflower, mushrooms, cucumber (not on the rainbow per se, but they do have lots of good for you things in them) Today won't be quite as colorful, but I'm aiming … [Read more...]
Thanksgiving prep and WIAW
Every other year I host Thanksgiving. It's usually just us and one other family, but somehow I always end up with a stupidly big turkey. Since I have the smallest oven available in a first world country, I cook the turkey on Wednesday and then heat it in the crockpot the next day. Last time I hosted, the turkey nearly won. This time, I'm prepared: I bought a fresh turkey and I'm putting it in the oven shortly. I've also pared back our meal plans to only include the things that "make" Thanksgiving for all of us, so I have a reasonable number of things to put together. I'll likely bake the pie and crisp today as well. The kids are home with me and the weather sucks, so having the oven on all day won't be a bad … [Read more...]
Walking and WIAW
My kids had the day off yesterday. It was called a teacher workday (and it is the end of the first quarter), but it intentionally coincided with election day since many of the schools are polling places. Luckily, both kids got invited to do activities with friends, so it was a win/win day - we all slept in AND my kids were busy. In addition to voting, I had a bunch of errands to run. I admit, I generally drive when I need to run errands. But yesterday, I needed some exercise since I hadn't walked the kids to and from school, I knew I had some time before the kids came home, and I was able to map my errands in a relatively efficient manner. So, I voted, went to the grocery store, went to the library, went to Starbucks (my treat for … [Read more...]
Random thoughts and WIAW
This week has been weird. The kids had off Friday and Monday (Shoo had Thursday off as well) and my parents were here for the weekend. These are good things, but it still threw me off. Yesterday I took my parents to the airport, went grocery shopping, and attempted to get caught back up at work. And today has been just crazy. Work, ride at Revolve, work some more, pick up one kid, work some more, blog, pick up other kid... Still have homework time, cello lesson, and dinner prep to get through (and probably some more work.) Since I seem unable to focus, here are some random thoughts from my day: I just got a box of product from Designer Whey as part of a sponsored campaign. I've fallen deeply in love with the Triple Chocolate … [Read more...]
Slump + WIAW
I don't like summer. There. I said it. I sometimes feel like the only person on the planet who could happily live someplace where the temperature never goes above 75 degrees. I just don't like being hot. And let's not talk about the Virginia humidity. Gross. I struggle every year at this time. Just as we are hitting the time where I'd like to spend all of my time sitting directly in front of my AC vent, my kids get out of school. I love my kids, but having to work to keep them active and entertained at precisely the moment when I am struggling to force myself out of the AC is not a good thing. It doesn't help that a) most of their friends go to all day camp since both parents work full-time, b) there is no neighborhood pool, … [Read more...]
Cutting the cheese for WIAW
No, I'm not talking about flatulence... I'm talking about actually cutting cheese out of my diet. Dairy and I have a rocky past. Both of my boys had milk allergies as babies, so I had to cut all dairy while nursing. (Yes, even the trace stuff in processed foods. Yes, it sucked. And it sucked for almost 3 years while nursing Jones and more than a year with Shoo). I'm not sure I could ever go back to that strict elimination and I have zero intention of giving up my milk in my coffee or the occasional bowl of Greek yogurt, but it's time to decrease the amount of cheese I eat. I'm a Wisconsin girl and I firmly believe that everything tastes better with cheese, but quite frankly, it's not the best kind of fat and it's taking up too … [Read more...]
WIAW brought to you by Schwan’s
"They" say that timing is everything. I was recently given the opportunity to receive some food from Schwan's for review. I jumped at the chance and they asked me to tell them what I'd like to try. You know how you should never go to the grocery store hungry? Well, you should also never peruse a food delivery site while hungry (and a little bit stressed.) If you do, you might just bypass the really awesome looking healthy things like salmon and wild rice pilaf that are on their new LiveSmart menu and head straight for the comfort foods. In fact, I sent them a long list of yummy foods and told them to surprise me. They did not disappoint me. Can you say "comfort foods"? I knew you could. And it was soooo good. After five … [Read more...]
