Labor Day Weekend

What a week it was...all due to a crazy deadline at work. BUT, I am happy to report that I kept up with my running despite working 60+ hours.


Last Sunday to loosen our legs a bit, Kevin and I went for an hour mountain bike ride. I tracked our ride through Patapsco State Park using Trail Guru - a very cool iPhone app.


The map below shows the path we took through the park.


You can see more about our ride HERE, including a scary picture of me after the ride. Sweaty helmet hair is tough to fix.


Other workouts this week included:

• Mon - 6 mile run
• Tue - Arc Trainer 40 mins, Row 15 mins
• Wed - OFF
• Thu - 6.2 mile run
• Fri - OFF
• Sat - Lift 40 mins, upper body and abs only.

Which brings me to today -

• Sun - I am happy to report that I completed 14 miles this morning.

It was a tough first 3 miles because we were on a main highway and I always seem to feel miserable during the first 3 miles of any run. We had a great bay breeze from the water and eventually got on more secluded back roads. 14 miles later, I was thirsty, hungry and my legs were aching. Came home and ate a donut. It tasted DELICIOUS.

I have lots of other things to show you and write about, but I forgot my camera cord and am down at the beach for the Labor Day Weekend.

Let me give a quick shout out to my DAD and SISTER though...HAPPY BIRTHDAY to both of you!

In the meantime - you can find me on TWITTER HERE - since I am officially addicted. Fun to see what people are up too. My famous favorites to follow - Chris Cooley, Taylor Swift, Andy Roddick, Demi Moore, Jessica Simpson, Serena Williams, Rick Baylis, Ruth Reichl, and many others...


oh and you will also find me at the beach or pool RELAXING - Mango Mojito and good book in hand.
Enjoy the rest of your labor day weekend!

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Full Day

Lately, I have been on an egg kick in the mornings. But yesterday, I wanted some good old OATS. In the mix: oats, skim milk, cinnamon, bee pollen, blueberries, 1/2 banana, spoonful of natural PB.

I needed all that good energy for the hour and fifteen minute Total Conditioning class that I took with my sister at her gym (Lifetime Fitness in Columbia, MD). That gym is HUGE and AMAZING. The class completely kicked our butts - I had no idea that my body could produce that much sweat. I munched on a Peanut Butter Larabar on the way home.


This is what I saw when I walked in the door after class. Oscar was ready for his walk. For lunch, I knew I wanted to have a salad because we had SO many veggies to use up, but I wanted something HOT. I sauteed yellow squash, mushrooms, and onions in a little EVOO. Seasoned with oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Placed on top of field greens and topped with feta cheese.
Oh wait, what are those things on the side? Oven roasted potatoes. I sliced up potatoes and tossed in EVOO, salt, and pepper then baked at 450 degrees for 30-40 minutes, flipping once or twice.
Later on, my sweet tooth hit me, so I combined a container of Honey Oikos Greek Yogurt, grape nuts, and blueberries. That hit the spot.
Later that night, even though my entire body hurt from Total Conditioning, Kevin convinced me to go mountain biking. It was a beautiful night - check out that sky!
Unfortunately, the trails in Patapsco were not that beautiful. They were extremely muddy from all the rain we have been getting. After falling in a mud pond and then a stream - I was irritable and ready to go home.

We stuck it out and eventually got back onto some trails that weren't as muddy - that is when it became fun again. Kevin got this video of me biking through a stream. Wheeee!

By the end, I was tired, but felt good to get back out on my mountain bike - it had been awhile. We have the Off-Road Duathlon in a few weeks, so we HAVE to get ready.
For dinner, I had made a Beef Vegetable Soup earlier in the afternoon that turned out better than expected. I say that because I just sort of threw a bunch of stuff in a pot and hoped for the best.


What Went into the Pot:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 white onion diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1-2 cups shredded cabbage
• Beef Stew Cubes
• 2 splashes of red wine
  
• 1 package frozen soup vegetables (okra, green beans, corn, potatoes, celery, onions, carrots, lima beans, and peas)
• 2 cans Hunts Tomato Sauce (14.5 oz each)
• 2 cans Beef Broth - fat free (14.5 oz each)
• 1 can Hunts Diced Tomatoes in Sauce (14.5 oz)
• 1 bay leaf
• lots of ground black pepper
• salt to taste
• splash of Worcestershire sauce
• a bit of dried oregano
• a bit of dried basil
• about 2 tablespoons of fresh parsley

We picked up some cheese bread from Panera on the way home that was perfect for dunking.
I topped mine with feta cheese because I am a firm believer in that fact that cheese makes everything better. :)


Hope you are getting out there to enjoy this wonderful summer weather!

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Rockburn Reloaded Mountain Bike Race, 3.22.2009

Pre-Race Eats


Sunday morning, I woke up and had a great pre-race bowl of steel cut oats.

The race didn't begin until 10am, so we had time to digest a bigger breakfastSteel cut oats, banana, coconut, pecans, honey, and the last of the almond butter.


The Race (10 miles total; 2 five mile loops)


After checking in to get our bibs and markings, Kevin and I got on all our gear and went for a quick ride to warm up. It was a lot colder than I expected and I felt under-dressed.


We lined up according to our category group and I noticed there were only about 10 women in the beginner category. I also noticed that most everyone had clipless/platform pedals. I knew that would make it harder for me to keep up since the clipless pedals are much more efficient.


As I watched the two male groups go before us - I vowed to myself: Dont be the last woman and pass some men!


Classic newbie mistake: I started out waaay too fast. Meaning that after a few climbs - I thought I was going to die. You know the feeling in your throat when you sprint or go hard - its like a horrible knot in your throat and you feel like you may throw up? Yup - had that...for most of the first loop.


I tried to calm myself down, but found myself pushing harder since I didn't want people passing me. There weren't many log jumps, which was good for me because I am still learning how to clear those. About halfway through the first loop, I came around one corner and see Kevin sitting there with his bike. He had started 2 groups ahead of me, so I knew something was wrong. He cracked the chain ring on his bike - his day was over. Poor guy.

At that point - I was cursing myself for only riding once before this and was wondering if I would be able to breathe/make it through the second loop. Kevin, my sister, my niece and nephew were there cheering me on as I finished the first loop so that helped give me the adrenaline push I needed to keep going. The second loop felt slightly easier and I could mostly breathe again. I guess because I knew what to expect and was able to save myself for some of the more difficult sections. I even caught up to and passed a few men which gave me more confidence. The list at the end of the race said I was the sixth woman to finish out of ten. I am happy with that! I think I finished in 1 hr, 20 mins because the sport category race began at 11:30am and I came in before they started. (It was a pretty low-key event, so they didn't have anyone timing the race)

While I managed to smile in the picture above - my legs were wobbly and my entire body felt exhausted. A slug probably would have beat me in a walking race. But, I felt happy to have finished and feel that it was just the practice (wake-up call) I needed for the Adventure Race in a month!

Post-Race Nourishment

We headed over to Donna's Cafe/Coffee/Bar in Columbia to get some lunch after the race. This is a local chain that has a Mediterranean flair with a ton of great, healthier choices. Coffee was ordered immediately.

I decided on the Veggie Burger with sweet potato fries. The fries were great, but then again, I dont think I have met a fry I didnt like. Unfortunately, the veggie burger had a strong black olive flavor and since I don't like olives, this didn't sit well with me. I managed to eat half and then picked off of Kevin's salad.

We had a football game later that afternoon and my plan was to cheer everyone on with a beer in hand. Unfortunately for me, we were short on women, so I had to play some of the game. My legs ached like I had just run a marathon.

Monday, it was mainly my shins, triceps and back that hurt the most. I managed to take a walk in the park with Oscar but just laid around for the rest of the night to try and let my body recover. Tonight, I hope to do a light workout - just not sure what that is yet.

Anyone know a light, recovery workout that is good for loosening up sore muscles?

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Wed/Thurs Eats and More

Wednesday PM

On the way home from work, I munched on about 5 pieces of Butterscotch Bark (butterscotch chips, peanuts & pretzels) that looked like this:
Courtesy of my grandmom, who likes to keep me full of sweets. :)


I am excited to report that last night, Kevin and I were able to fit in a 50 min mountain bike ride before sunset. We started at the same location as the race will start on Sunday, so now we know exactly where to go and what type of trail we are up against.


My legs felt strong, which I am attributing to spin and the Jillian Michaels workouts where she makes me do a million squats and lunges. The weather was great and it felt good to be out there again.


Afterwards, it was getting late and we were 20 mins from home, so we decided to stop by Pei Wei for dinner. (please excuse the blurry iPhone pics)


Jasmine @ Sweet and Fit has been making me drool over the Vietnamese Chicken Salad Summer Rolls, so we had to start with those.
So light and fresh and TASTY. We will be getting these EVERY time we go there from now on!

I ordered Vegetable & Tofu Pad Thai for my main meal and it did not disappoint. HUGE portion, so I took a bunch home.


Thursday


Breakfast was another variation of steel-cut oats. I finally found the unsweetened coconut lots of people have been mentioning.
...and I just noticed it says to "Refrigerate after opening". Mine is sitting at home on the counter right now - oops!!
In my bowl: Steel Cut Oats, agave nectar, coconut, chopped pecans, almond butter. Not a horrible combo, but I definitely missed the sweetness of my banana.


This is what my packed lunch looked like for today. Leftover Tofu/Veggie Pad Thai, 3 cuties, and a Chocolate Peppermint Luna bar, which should get me through the afternoon.

Wanna see inside?
Oh and I also brought two fortune cookies for dessert at lunch. Pei Wei puts a huge bin of them out for all to take, so I TOOK.


Random

Does anyone else have a desk calendar? Mine was a Christmas gift from my parents: Words to Woof by, 365 smiles for Dog Lovers. I thought today's was cute. I guess I am biased towards golden retrievers though. :)


What type of desk calendar/regular calendar do you have?

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Corned Beef & Cabbage plus Other Stuff

As soon as I walked into my house after work yesterday - I wanted to eat the air because it smelled that good. I asked myself a million times - why don't I use the crock pot more often? But, I still don't think I could do it every day for a year - now THAT is impressive!


After Oscar's walk in the park, we waited out on the front steps for Kevin to get home so I could watch his face as he walked into glorious smelling house. (I nominate myself for the "weird foodie award" for the day.)


I tried to hold back, but ended up sampling too much corned beef and cabbage before heading to the gym. I paid for it by having a horrible cramp for the first mile of my run. I managed to run 4 miles, but it was slow-going, and my stomach was yelling at me for the corned beef and cabbage shaking around in there.



Coming home, I felt icky and wasn't up to more corned beef and cabbage, so I took a picture of Kevin's plate.
Everything caramelized nicely and had a ton of flavor. The meat would fall apart to the touch...extremely tender. The one drawback of this meal - the meat was too fatty for me. I hate seeing the fat on meat and had to pick around the pieces I ate earlier.



I had a whole wheat pita w/ almond butter and honey for dinner instead. It was melty and dripping everywhere, so no picture.


Other Stuff


Whipped up steel cut oats, honey, almond butter, strawberries, and chopped pecans for a filling bowl of goodness this morning.
Served in one of my new bowls. This is a great medium-size bowl I picked up over the weekend as I am trying to improve my bowl/plate selection - for your viewing pleasure.


First Mountain Bike Race

As I was updating my Race Calendar list yesterday, I realized that I have my FIRST-EVER mountain bike race this weekend. I think I have been in denial it was so close. I have not been on my mountain bike in months and the thought of competing in my first race makes my stomach flip-flop.

I need to do this to prepare myself for the Adventure Race in April and then the Off-Road Duathlon in July. I am entered in the Cat 3 (beginner) division and we will do two 5-mile loops. The course is described as "five miles of fast single track and double track through forests and abandoned farmland." They stagger the starting times, so hopefully some scary PRO wont push me off a cliff on a single track, as he laps me. This is who I picture:
Since the weather is back to spring-like conditions - Kevin and I are going to try to get a ride in tonight. Few important things that have to happen before that:

1. get some air in my tires
2. find my helmet
3. see if I have any cool mountain bike gear for my first race. ;)
   

Man, I am wordy today...hopefully I will be back later tonight with a mountain bike ride recap.


Blog Set-Up

I think I am just about finished updating all the content for the new the blog layout.

Let me know what you guys think - anything else you would like to see?

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Labor Day (Turkey Mini Meat Loaves and Mango Drink!)

This morning started out with another variation on the breakfast burrito. This time it was turkey bacon, tomatoes, egg whites, cheddar cheese, and some taco sauce. I also had half a banana. For a mid-morning, pre-mountain bike snack - I mixed some non-fat vanilla stoneyfield yogurt with Go Lean Kashi Crunch, blueberries, and a drizzle of honey. Today's workout was an hour and a half of intense mountain biking through patapsco valley state park. I have slowly been getting better (thanks to guidance from my boyfriend, who got me into riding) and today I did more log jumps than ever before. I almost fell a few times, but the fear is starting to go away. Usually, Kevin rides ahead and then waits for me, but today I was pretty close behind him, which means i am not riding my brakes the entire way. Yesss.

After our big bike ride, we stopped by La Madeleine for some lunch. I ate way to heavy, but I was SO hungry. I got a half creamy mushroom soup and half french dip with au jus. Chips came with the sandwich and i tried not to eat too many of those. I did have two slices of whole wheat bread to dip in my soup. They had mango iced tea which was so refreshing. I added a splenda to sweeten it up a little bit.
Later this afternoon, Kevin and I walked oscar to the park and started this navy seal workout. Basically, we did 4 sets of 15 push-ups and 20 sit-ups (the kind with someone holding your feet so you come all the way up). Each week, you increase the amount of reps and are supposed to do this 3 times a week. Let's see how this works in the coming weeks!

For dinner, I had taken out ground turkey and wanted to find something to make that was healthy. So I found this recipe on cooking light.com for Turkey Mini Meat Loaves. These were OUTSTANDING. I followed the recipe exactly except that I didnt have fresh parsley, so I used the dried kind, but I didnt think it mattered much. Also, I stuffed a few of the little loaves with gorgonzola cheese and then some with shredded cheddar, which made it nice to find little pockets of cheese throughout!!! Oh and since my package of ground turkey was about 20 oz. - I almost tripled the recipe. Here are the cute little loaves about to head into the oven. Since I only had a sixer muffin pan, I rolled the rest into meatballs and stuck those on a regular baking pan.
While those were in the oven for 30 mins at 350 degrees. I sliced up some zucchini and sauteed them in PAM with fresh ground pepper. I also toasted some pine nuts for the whole wheat couscous I had on the other side of the stove.
For the whole wheat couscous, I followed the package directions, but used chicken broth, only 1 TBSP light whipped butter, and added in some dried parsley, garlic, salt and pepper.I also came up with this new, amazing drink tonight. The weekend guests left some sparkling water and I had picked up some Mango Nectar juice from TJs. The juice was a little too sweet by itself, so I added some sparkling water and had this sparkling mango juice. A little vodka would be good in it too....another time!
Here is my plate from above, I added a few crumbles of gorgonzola to the zucchini also! Hope everyone had a great, relaxing holiday weekend - I know I did!

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