Monthly Archives: July 2014

Fitness as of Late and I Made a Casserole

Happy weekend!

I wanted to talk a bit about fitness as of late, more exploring DC, and the big milestone in my life.

Wednesday I went to Crossfit and worked on cleans-as I already stated. I did some single leg RDLs after. Not a lot, and not heavy. But my legs were SOOOORE. Plus I was really sore from all the cleans. But holy hamstrings. Whew. I decided that my hamstrings have gotten weak and inflexible so I’m going to tack some single leg RDLs on the end of my workout every week or so. But not right before run club…

Lucky for me, run club was easy on Thursday. The fast people weren’t there, so we just did a basic 3 mile route at a reasonable place. Super easy.

Friday morning, I had a 4 miler at an early hour. I was taking it easy, but my taking it easy this week was faster than my taking it easy last week, so that’s always good to see! Getting faster!

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Friday evening was Crossfit. We did bench presses and negative chin ups. Despite doing bench press most weeks since I’ve been here, I can probably still count on one hand the number of times I’ve bench pressed. For some reason it was just one of those things I almost never did, so I’m sore from that!

Saturday morning I went to another OutRun. This week was the same instructor as the first time I went, and it was a much faster pace than last week’s OutRun! Lots and lots of hills too-I guess I don’t have to worry about the SF hills for my half!

This afternoon, I went to a big mall to get my iPod fixed. I dropped it on an early morning groggy run and jammed the power button down. I had to exchange it, but I’m happy I got the same model-I like that it has a clip!

Afterwards, I stopped at Arlington Cemetery on the way back.

It was so peaceful and quiet there. I don’t think I can accurately portray the sense of respect and honor, so I’m not going to try.

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I walked up high onto the hill, with an amazing view of the whole city. I sat there for a while, just looking down on everything. It’s amazing to me how much I’ve fallen in love with this city in such a short time.

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On a much lighter note, my milestone is that I’ve officially made a casserole. That makes me officially old.

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It has quinoa, spinach, corn, milk, and various types of cheese.

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It was good but not great.

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Then again, I just threw things together so I had no idea what to expect! Also make note of my loaf pan-aka the only pan I have.

Have you ever made a casserole? How did it turn out?

Long Commute

Hey guys! I’m half posting right now because I can’t go to bed with carrots in the oven, and half because I made a huge mistake in yesterday’s post that I feel so bad about! Thank you to Angela for pointing this out-the arepas were adapted from this Blogilates recipe, and I completely forgot to credit that so I edited it into yesterday’s post. Thank you again!

My day was long. I had a really long commute on public transportation this morning and had to leave before 6am for a 2 hour trip…which included a bus ride through 64 stops…

I packed breakfast because I didn’t think I could eat so early, and it was such a good one, although lacking in the beauty category.

Last night I made chocolate blueberry banana bread, by using my double chocolate banana bread recipe and substituting blueberries for chocolate chips.

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I made a delicious yogurt bowl featuring this, fresh blueberries, plain greek yogurt, and sunflower seed butter. I wish the pictures were better though.

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Lunch was at work again-today’s focus was roasted veggies. I learned that I love roasted parsnips!

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Another favorite was root vegetable gratin. Delicious!

After work, I made it to Crossfit and we did a lot of work on cleans, including a hang clean tabata for conditioning. That was tough! I did some single leg RDLs on my own afterwards because my hamstrings have been feeling light lately and I think those tend to help them.

Dinner was not what I was planning. I wanted to make a vat of fresh guacamole but I only had one small avocado that was ripe, so I whipped up a small amount of it, and then improvised a corn salsa, which I served with leftover parsnips “nachos,” plantain chips, and carrots.

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And now it’s very much time for bed. Have a great week!

WIAW on Stormy Days

Happy Wednesday! (Feel free to ignore the fact that I’m posting Tuesday night. You get the idea.) As usual, I’m celebrating WIAW with Jenn!

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I have lots of good things to share, including a recipe! Yay!

Before I get to food, let’s talk about workouts. I was all set to go to Crossfit after work Monday, but I walked outside to a giant storm, and then the Metro stopped running, so I missed the class, and didn’t feel like going to the late class.

Anyways, this meant Monday was rest and today was a 3 miler! After pouring all afternoon, I decided to take a chance and go for it during a break in the rain. I did my usual 3 mile route.

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Yeah. I live here.

And this is not a bad turn around point:

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Yes, the Washington Monument is EXACTLY 1.5 miles away, so it should be pretty clear why this is my typical route now!

On the way back, storm clouds began to threaten. It started POURING right as I was running up my block. Talk about lucky!

The run also felt fantastic. I was running on rested and not “just woke up and it’s 6am” legs, plus I’m been working hard in my training, and it’s certainly paying off. This is week 3, and each week I’ve done this route. I’ve done it faster each week, and each week it feels better. Week 1 was super slow for me-10:18 pace. sat week was 9:48, and today was 9:29. And it wasn’t like it was an all out pace, so it’s a good start!

Now onto the part everyone actually cares about. Food.

Breakfasts have been the same old-sunflower seed butter with lots of fruit! Plus chai tea since I’m laying off the coffee.

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Lunch Monday was leftovers of Cheesy Mushroom Quinoa plus some yogurt.

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Lunch on Tuesday was extra special. I was on trip at work, and the food they prepared us was amazing and beautiful.

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I’m not sure how much I should talk about work on here, but I will say this gives me so much hope for the future of America’s school food system!

I piled my plate high with all kinds of delicious salads. One of my favorites was a ginger root salad. This is the first context in which I’ve actually enjoyed beets!

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I also got to take leftovers home with me, which made a great pre-run snack/dinner.

And finally-for the recipe!

Coconut Flour Arepas

*Edited to add: this is based on the fantastic Blogilates recipe for healthy quesadillas!

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Ingredients

2 T coconut flour

1 ear of corn

2 T water

6 T egg whites

1/8 t baking powder

salt to taste

Directions

1. Mix together coconut flour, water, egg whites, and baking powder in a small bowl.

2. Remove the corn from the cob, and add to mixture.

3. If mixture is too thin, let it sit a moment. The coconut flour may take a bit of time to absorb the water, but this will still be fairly runny. Add salt if desired.

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4. In a large pan, add a touch of olive oil and heat the pan.

5. Once pan is hot, pour mixture into pan.

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6. When bubbles begin to form on the surface, flip and cook through.

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7. If desired, sprinkle with salt, and fill with desired fillings. I used smoked gouda.

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Delicious, and comes together in minutes!

What is your favorite type of cheese?

Not for everything, but I love goat brie. If you haven’t tried it, you absolutely need to!

 

The Easy 5 Miler that Turned into a Tempo Run

So I did end up running this morning. And run, I did. I wore compression socks all day Saturday and Saturday night, so my calves were much better in the morning. I decided to still run in the socks though, just in case!

After a leisurely breakfast and morning, I headed out around 10:30am for an easy, slow paced 5 miles. Or so I thought.

About a mile in, I happened to run into some people from the Run Club I’ve been going to. I ended up joining them. They are MUCH faster than I am-and I’m especially slow for me right now since speed work was long in the past!

The scenery was much better than my planned route though.

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And I finally saw the Jefferson Memorial!

Talk about a death of a run though. I ran with them for a bit over 2 miles. We were going at about an 8:40 pace. I have never been so grateful for stop lights! And I’m sure heat wasn’t helping matters!

I took this picture when I broke off from them as proof I was actually running kind of fast (for me).

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Granted, my 5k time is much faster than that, but that is a totally different setting and training level! My legs were dead heading back.

But the views weren’t bad.

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It’s weird to see the monuments when it is actually light out and crowded! Not so many people there at 6am!

I also found ducklings in the reflecting pool. So cute.

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That was definitely not the boring, easy 5 miler I had been picturing, but that should make me faster in the long run (no pun intended). (Well, sort of intended.)

I refueled with a Dunkin Donut breakfast sandwich (my stomach was all weird but I needed food, so something bland) and a DECAF iced coffee. I’m not a fan of Dunkin coffee…it tastes too sour, or fruity or something.

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As far as the rest of the day goes, it was low key. Did you guys watch the World Cup game? I was rooting for Germany. For no particularly good reason. People from my University organized a meet up to watch the game, so I watched it there. It was super loud and crowded though. And not going to lie-not the most exciting game, at least until overtime!

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For dinner, I made a repeat of last week, but I totally messed it up. I screwed up cooking the quinoa-it ended up drying out a bit, so I added water to the whole thing, and it came out ok, but the texture wasn’t quite as good as last week. Still tasted good though!

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Plus leftover brussels sprouts on the side.

Overall, I’d say it was a pretty successful day, although I didn’t do that much! I’m glad I got to finally visit the Jefferson Memorial though!

What did you do this weekend? Who were you rooting for?

I Don’t Understand the Cupcake Craze

Hello everyone!

This morning, I went to another OutRun!

I fueled up beforehand with some banana-oatmeal balls and blueberries.

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The workout was fun-it was in a different place this time, and included plenty of hills, including trail running. I generally hate trail running-although to be fair I now have a good excuse for hating it. I have foot issues that are worse on trails-and the foot doctor even confirmed it. Not sure if I ever talked about this specifically but all the pain and numbness I talk about in my feet on long runs is apparently something called a neuroma, which is scar tissue build up on/around the nerve. This is probably from years of bruised feet when I played softball and had the cleats stick up through the shoe into my foot. Anyways-the foot thing isn’t an issue on shorter runs anyways!

I only wiped out on the trail once! By some miracle I landed perfectly, without a scratch. This OutRun was-I guess I would say-an easier workout than the last one. It was a larger group, so there was more pace differential so I didn’t feel like I was pushing the pace much. However, I’ve logged a lot of miles this week-kind of out of nowhere-so my legs were dragging a bit. I was especially worried about my calves. They were super tight, and my left one wasn’t feeling that great, so I kept a close eye on it. Not sure if my “long run” (5 miles) is going to happen tomorrow though, just as a precaution. I’ll play it by ear, but it is definitely not worth it to push myself and get hurt 2 weeks into training. I’m currently wearing compression socks, hoping they work their magic!

My running for the week was as follows:

Mon-off

Tues-3 mile training run

Weds-November Project+running there and back, so ~3 miles?

Thurs-Run Club. Between 3-4?

Friday-4 mile training run+maybe a mile or so at Crossfit?

Saturday-OutRun, about 4 miles

Sunday- (5 miles)

While the mileage isn’t that high, it’s much more than I’ve been running lately. The thing is, I don’t know what to cut out! It’s definitely something to figure out, especially as the long runs get longer.

After the workout, I decided to try my luck at Georgetown Cupcake. The line is always INSANE there, so I was hoping that before 11am, it would be reasonable! It was better, but it was still a wait, and I ran out of water so I was SO thirsty! I bought 2 bottles of water there. Worth every penny.

I had a lava fudge cupcake.

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It was a chocolate base with cream cheese frosting and fudge sauce on top.

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It was good, and the fudge on top was definitely a nice touch. I don’t get the gourmet cupcake trend though, now that I’ve had a few of the “best” places. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I could make the same thing, or better, myself at home! Sure, it wouldn’t look as nice, but that’s really not the important part! I’m much more on-board the gourmet ice cream trend that seems to be sweeping the San Francisco Bay Area. How am I going to make liquid nitrogen ice cream at home?? (Wait-new life goal!)

So while this famous cupcake was good, I won’t wait in line for another!

Since I ate a pre-lunch cupcake, I decided I should get some veggies in my system. I happened to pass a SweetGreens-they’re seriously everywhere! I got the seasonal salad, which has peaches, goat cheese, basil, and balsamic. I added chicken.

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I really liked the basil in this. It was such a nice touch that gave the salad a whole summer-y feel.

After lunch, I walked around Georgetown a bit, and then walked home.

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My afternoon has been really low key. I decided to save the exciting things for tomorrow. I’m meeting up with some people to watch the game, and depending on if I’m running or not, I might hit up a Smithsonian.

For snack, I had some leftover brussels sprouts. They were a little firmer than I would have liked, so I heated them up in the microwave liberally to cook them a bit more. I then topped them with smoked gouda. Delicious.

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Since I ate plenty of veggies in my snack (that bowl x2 or 3), I opted for a simple dinner of an egg and some very egg heavy chocolate chip pancakes.

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They came out super dense, and not the most amazing things ever, but it got the job done!

Have a fantastic rest of your weekend!