For the main course, my mom and I split a gouda arepa (corn based) and a salad with chicken, avocado, and gouda.   And as my last dinner at home, I had one of my favorites-grilled chicken and peach salad with goat cheese. On the side was some whole grain bread rolled in sunflower seeds.   And then lunch this morning pre-airport was simple-2 eggs, half an avocado, cheese and crackers, and some English peas (unpictured).   Today, I went to my last home Crossfit, got a couple of episodes of Scandal loaded up on my computer to get in the mood, and said goodbye to my kitty.   I’m going to miss him! Catch you all from the other side of the country!

As a lot of you may know, I volunteered in the kitten nursery at the local humane society over the summer. It was a seriously amazing experience, and I do think it influenced me a lot. That being said, of course I have a ton of kitten photos. I think it is fitting that 12 days of Christmas is exposing my (not so) inner cat lady, between this and yesterday’s post!

So without further ado…9 kittens!

Confession: this was my favorite litter. It was so amazing to watch them grow up!

This little guy was probably my favorite kitten.

Any other crazy cat ladies out there?

It’s no secret I like cats. I feel like every survey I’ve done somehow ends up with every other answer being how much I love my kitty.

(Who just so happens to be sleeping purrily next to me as we speak.)

My phone pictures? Cats and food. And the food is a branch out from what my phone was like a year ago. I even made a calendar of my cats.

(Sidenote-apparently my Resident Fellows for my dorm have 3 cats! SO pumped!)

So volunteering in the kitten nursery this summer was an easy decision. Even if it was the early morning shift!

I mean, I knew they’d be freaking cute.

But I wasn’t prepared for the impact they would have on me. 

I loved every minute of the kitten nursery- playing with the kitties, cleaning litter boxes, getting meowed at constantly, hand feeding them, leaving COVERED in cat food. 

I learned how to syringe feed a kitten. I learned how frustrating kittens can be when they don’t feel like eating. I learned the impact one person can have on a kitten’s life.

I took this little guy under my wing. 

I could tell he was kind of falling by the wayside, which really upset me. Black cats are usually the last to be adopted. This guy was underweight and not particularly receptive to being syringe fed. I could tell by his charts that the previous volunteers had just given up-he was not given anywhere near as much as he should have. He wasn’t that receptive to syringe feeding (a lot of kittens aren’t), but I spent an entire hour with just this one little kitten. His paper said he was “antisocial” but I think it was more of shy, because he eventually purred for me. This kitty ended up being fine, and a ball of energy a week later once his weight was back on track.

I also experienced the heartbreak of losing a kitten. 

I fell in love with this little kitten the first week she came in. Her litter was so energetic and full of energy. 2 weeks later, she was so sick she couldn’t stand. She had lost a ton of weight-her whole litter was sick (and one of her sisters didn’t make it either) but she was the worst. I felt so helpless that day. This kitten had been a ball of energy 2 weeks before, and now was clearly suffering and not going to make it. I wanted so much to help them, but there was nothing I could do for them. 

I’ve always loved animals, but believed I could never be a vet because it would be “too sad.” I even avoid books I know will have sad endings (Nicholas Sparks, anyone?). But you know what? Sometimes the hardest things are the most worthwhile. 

My experience at the kitten nursery has me rethinking my whole career. I always thought I’d do nutritional research. But now, I’m seriously considering becoming a veterinarian. Because yes, when that little kitten died, it was sad. But you know what? They don’t all die. Most of them make it. What if I had an opportunity to save the life of an animal?

Wouldn’t that be worth the wave of emotions that came with losing one? Shouldn’t I put aside my OWN issues for somebody else? Sure, losing that kitten was unbelievably sad. But there are others out there that need help-that one loss shouldn’t stop me from saving the rest. 

Have you ever completely rethought your career? Have you had an experience that changed your life?

1. Today I half-moved into my dorm. I unloaded all the stuff from a storage unit, plus my bike and food. Which turns out to be pretty much everything except for clothes and me. 

2. Instead of carting my protein powder and cocoa powder to the dining hall to make a smoothie, I put together some “smoothie mixes” with cocoa powder, xantham gum, and chocolate protein powder. Just add milk, banana, and ice!

3. I absolutely killed this WOD last night. I knew it was up my alley-any time when we do only a few reps of a heavy lift is my forte. Since lifting over speed is more of my strength, I’m never the first to finish the workout. Well, on this one, I lapped everyone in my class and was the fastest of the day. I didn’t Rx it-hardly anyone did, but I still did the deadlift heavier than almost everyone. #winning

4. I decided to start my Mini Whole30 today, instead of having an entire day to think about and go crazy eating all the things I won’t be eating for the next week. Success? I think so. 

Mango iced tea, chicken chop salad, plantains. 

Egg whites, potatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, spinach; topped with avocado and nutritional yeast, plus bruscetta. A side of papaya. 

5. It was really awesome seeing some of my friends again! I love all my blog friends, but it was great to see real live people. 

6. I recently ordered a ton of things online, and my boots just came! Thoughts?

7. I had THE WORST run today. It was a 5 mile run-I started off at a good pace, but I made a poor shoe decision. GIven I can barely stand to run in my normal shoes, wearing my Brooks (which cause me the most foot pain) was probably not the best move. For some reason I got it in my head that they would be better. Running is becoming kind of tortuous. I had to keep stopping to walk because it felt like I was running on knives. And it’s so annoying because it’s definitely a shoe issue-I just can’t find any shoes that work. I think minimalist shoes would be better. Anything with a completely flat inside. The problem is the part on the inside of the shoe where it’s slightly raised where it’s supposed to be between your foot and toes. That just digs into my foot, hitting a nerve. After today’s run, I can’t even imagine my 11 miler this weekend. I got custom inserts made, but I conveniently don’t get them until AFTER both my 11 and 12 milers. Awesome. I have one more trick up my sleeve to try-my old running shoes which I LOVE (but are really old and worn out) plus a cushier insert to help take out some of the impact. It’s just REALLY frustrating. I swear, on some of these runs I’m THIS close to going shoeless. Grrr. Well, at least the scenery was pretty.

I hate my feet folks. 

8. I’m a little bit Crossfit obsessed. I know I really SHOULD skip it tomorrow-I’ve gone a lot this week, plus have to run and go to Spin tomorrow, but I’m sort of drooling over the workout. I guess I’ll see how my legs feel tomorrow evening. 

9. Today was my last day in the kitten nursery.

Happy Friday!

What’s going on with you right now?

Yesterday was my second to last day at the kitten nursery. I worked with 2 litters, and they were all black. I LOVE black cats. The litter of 4 was so sweet-all they wanted to do was climb on me and cuddle. At one point, all four of them had climbed onto me. I had to syringe feed them, which was difficult when at least two kittens were hanging off me at a time. One little girl loved climbing up my arm, onto my head. 

And now-a recipe! I’ve made this once before, but never bothered posting the recipe for some reason. If you look on my recipe page, you’ll notice a lot of the recipes are some type of salad with chicken. What can I say-I love them!

This recipe is sort of a variation of my Grilled Peach and Chicken salad. That salad is a little more summery; this one is more fitting for fall. Especially since I recently learned that fig season in California lasts until December. Yay! 

Fig and Goat Cheese Salad

Serves 3

Ingredients:

6 fresh figs

1 bag of lettuce

3 heaping T goat cheese

3 small chicken breasts (grilled)

Dressing (from Cooking Light):

3 T balsamic vinegar

2 T olive oil

1 T minced shallots

 1 T chopped fresh parsley

1 t Dijon mustard

1/8 t salt

1/4 t black pepper

1 garlic clove

Instructions:

Mix up dressing.

Toss together lettuce, figs, chicken, and dressing.

Top with goat cheese.

Enjoy!

For this recipe, you could use rotisserie chicken, but the slightly smoky flavor of grilled chicken compliments the tart balsamic and sweet figs better.

Goat cheese is my newest salad obsession. Slightly tart, but very creamy, it’s the perfect complement to the sweet figs in this salad. Share the love-try this out!

What do you like in a salad?

I of course have obligatory kitten nursery pictures. I only have a few more weeks-crazy! I’ll miss seeing those faces every week!

After the nursery, I drove one highway exit away for training run #2. I ran by the bay where I normally would do my long runs. It wasn’t my first location choice for a shorter run, but one highway exit was all I could manage in that traffic! 

Being the smarty pants that I am, I failed to bring my Garmin. That wasn’t really an issue for me. I planned to run for time, but I kind of failed with that too. Luckily, when you do enough hard, long runs in a place, you have a very good sense of when you have 2 miles left. Since my run was 4 miles, I hit that out and back point from memory and it was fine. I felt kind of tired-the run felt long. At the same time though, I think I was going at a good pace. My original plan was 3x per week of running, but I think I’m going to bump that up to 4 for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, me feet weren’t great by the end-my new inserts aren’t the solution…

Overnight oats were exactly what I was craving for lunch, so I whipped them up from my vanilla yogurt that was on its last legs. 15 minutes of waiting, and they were good enough for me!

I listen to an audiobook on my long runs. I had the idea a week or so ago that in the afternoons, instead of reading a book, I should just take my audiobook and go for long walks. This summer, I’ve felt pretty sedentary when I’m not working out. 

I really enjoyed it-my walk ended up being 2 hours long and very hilly. I’m thinking these walks will be decent training at least for the downhills of my half, sicne the movement is pretty similar. 

Here are some of the views:

I didn’t sleep enough Thursday night. I had a 5:10 wake up for spin Friday morning. The thought of staying in bed could have crossed my mind if it wasn’t for this.

At 5:08 am, this guy busted my door open (not really sure how…) and started meowing his lungs out for me to get up. Not for attention, not to be petted, but so I would get my rear end out of bed. So, on 5 hours of sleep, I got up before my alarm. I don’t understand how he knows. When I wake up early for a workout (or the kitten nursery) he always wakes up and gets ready with me. I’m not sure how he can possibly know the day and time, since Thursdays I wake up an hour later. I swear, that cat!

After spin, I refueled with a plum, and eggs with kale and chive and onion cream cheese.

After a quick nap, I helped my mom take our car in for service. While the car was being worked on, we headed downtown in search of a coffee shop.

We happened upon a little place that attracted us with its produce and Blue Bottle coffee. Blue Bottle for some reason sounded familiar to me, so we decided to check it out. 

I ordered an oat bar and a cappuccino.

How adorable is this??

We got talking about health, nutrition, weight, eating plans, and life. We ended up staying for 2 hours, leaving only when the parking meter was going to run out. This little discussion sparked my last post, as well as another one I wrote at the same time, which should appear on Monday. It was really, really nice. 

That evening, I went to Crossfit and was able to Rx the workout (go at the prescribed weight/height of box). The workout was 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 of kettle bell swings and box jumps. The kettle bell swings were a non-issue. The box was higher than I was expected…And I thought for sure the workout would end with me picking pieces of Aurora out of the box. I have a bit of a fear of box jumps-and a pretty little scar on my shin to prove it. I’ll spare you the pictures of when it first happened. When I first began working with my trainer 3 years ago, I bashed my shin REALLY badly in one of the first sessions with him. He later told me he thought I’d never be back after that! I did it again a year ago, and now box jumps always make me nervous when I know they’re not a super easy height. 

I was worried also that I’d be tired at the end and mess up. It took intense focus, and a lot of nerves, but I successfully Rxed the workout! I don’t care that I was the last to finish-I still did, I pushed my boundaries, and had a ton of focus.

That evening I visited my sister in her new apartment where she invited a whole bunch of friends over. It was a ton of fun-pizza, boba, games. The highlight was learning how to make paper airplanes-which of course degenerated into all out paper airplane warfare. 

That’s all I have for you today! Also-expect a recipe coming your way soon!

What did you do this weekend? What is one exercise you’re terrified to do?

Let’s go back a few days, shall we? Wednesday was my last day of Health Psych, and I had a final. I had to do some last minute studying after spin, which meant no nap. So therefore, a cappuccino was a necessity. One bonus to making your own-you can add as much milk foam as you want

Every time I drive in to school, I’m amazed by how beautiful my campus is. Always perfectly sunny. 

My final went well, and I finished early enough to come home and relax before Crossfit. Given the title of the post, I thought I’d share this week’s WODs with you. 

Wednesday’s strength portion was back squats. At my box, we have quarters of the year-every quarter we work on different strength lifts. I think last quarter it was cleans and deadlifts-too bad because I would have loved that! This quarter it is snatches, back squats, and presses. Presses are hard for me-I’m bad at anything overhead, and I’m so used to push presses! I do love back squatting though. Anyways, here’s the WOD:

4 rounds:

5 Deadlifts

10 Toes to Bar

100 double unders

This workout doesn’t look bad, right? The deadlifts were on the heavy side but definitely doable (155 for me). The killer? Apparently if you can’t do double unders, the sub is 3-to-1 single unders. Which meant I did 1200 single unders….Ouch. The good news? My calf held up great! So hey, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

Dinner was a good one. We made sloppy joes with turkey meat, and chopped in celery for some extra veggies. Served with a sweet potato with cheddar and coleslaw.

The highlight really though was “dessert.” My neighbor brought us a ton of fruit from his fruit trees the other day!

That’s a ton of apples! But I had an idea for them-never fear!

I saw a recipe for apple custard on Sugar Free Mom a while back and have been wanting to make it ever since. The recipe is super simple-and no sweetener- just apples!

I made a quick whipped cream-just heavy whipping cream whipped up, no sugar. Sadly, I had a slight mishap that ended with cream shooting all over the kitchen, so I never really got to the point of stiff peaks. But still good enough for me!

(Sidenote- don’t try whipping cream in too small a bowl so that little flecks spray out, and then try covering the bowl with saran wrap while you whip….)

I REALLY liked this. The touch of nutmeg reminded me of the holidays. I think this would be better if it was blended a little more, and maybe even with different apples. I’m thinking I can easily make a lazy college student version with apple sauce in the microwave! And the best part? It was a great snack the next day too! I highly recommend this recipe!

Thursday morning was a little crazy-kitten nursery and then straight to a meeting with my professor.  The good news is my little black kitten is doing infinitely better! He’s gained weight and is incredibly playful. Naturally I kind of hoarded him….and took tons of pictures. Black cats who are super energetic do not photograph well though. 

The only issue with my shift-we have a really small shift to start with, and somehow I ended up having to syringe feed an entire litter of kittens by myself. Kittens are surprisingly not receptive to having food shoved in their mouths…It was bad because I had to leave by a certain time, but all worked out in the end. 

I’m starting to rethink my career choice. The current plan is to do nutritional research. Which still sounds really appealing. But at the same time, I love animals, and I love working with these kittens. So maybe a vet? I’m doing animal behavior research this summer which does connect. I would never want to do surgery though! I couldn’t handle that. 

Thursday I was planning to do a mile run and then Crossfit. I don’t want to shock my calf when I start training again next week. However, the calf soreness starting coming in in force (yayy 1200 jump ropes…). My whole body just was not feeling anything at all, so I took a rest day. I don’t plan rest days into my schedule, and this is why. It’s easier for me to just judge when my body needs a break, and give it a day then. 

Dinner was turkey burgers, with an idea stolen from Audrey. Stuffing a burger with laughing cow! We had turkey burgers filled with a triangle of garlic and herb laughing cow. This was good, but would have been better if our grill hadn’t died. We have to make the burgers in the oven, and that combined with unseasoned meat led to really bland burgers. On the side was green beans and sweet potato wedges. 

On Friday, I had lunch plans with my best friends from high school. I decided to at least try to look somewhat cute, so I wore a dress. And since I was proud of myself for making an effort, I look a selfie with horrible lighting. 

I need a haircut really badly! I didn’t even realize how long my hair has gotten!

We went to lunch at a formerly Malaysian-turned-Chinese restaurant. We’ve been there a few times before before it was a Chinese place, and they still have many of the same menu items. We ordered Pad Thai, Curry Chicken, and Mango Chicken.

Everything was delicious, although I hope my face doesn’t rebel from the peanuts in the Pad Thai!

It was really great to talk with these friends. I haven’t seen them in so long! We still keep in constant contact though, so it was as if nothing had changed. 

Later that evening, I was back at Crossfit for a brutal WOD. It was:

3 rounds:

20 burpees

20 front squats

20 box jumps

The worst part? They made us go really heavy on the front squats. I had to break mine up into 5s, and it was still a strain. This workout was weird for me-it’s not like my legs were burning, I just couldn’t physically lift more than 5 in a row. I guess that’s the point…Plus I think I was suffering from my lack of naps in the last week- I depend on those!

Dinner was really ugly-not a whole lot of color. I made a kale and chocolate smoothie. Since I have a Vitamix now, kale can be blended much smoother, so I’m fine adding it to a smoothie now. Since I was worried about the bitterness of the kale, I added some frozen mango as well. Although, thanks to Jessie for her recommendation on how much xantham gum to use-it turned out great!

After complaining about how small our glasses are, I decided I should probably just use a bowl. On the side were carrots and laughing cow, plus some lentil crisps. It was a very dirt toned meal.

The lentil snaps are the same brand as snap pea crisps. When I bought them, I didn’t even realize they were lentils-I thought they were just a different flavor of snap peas! I loved the flavor though-it was definitely something different.

Aaaand that brings us all the way back to today’s WOD. AKA the reason why I’m having trouble typing. And why raising my arms is a joke right now.

For the strength, I worked on cleans. I didn’t miss any of the strength days, and Saturday is usually a make-up day. I really haven’t’ worked on them from the ground in a long time, just from the hang. My stupid gym at school doesn’t have bumpers, so it’s not really an option. I was a little off balance today, but still felt good.

The WOD:

5 rounds:

10 thrusters

10 push ups

This was arm suicide. My legs? They felt fine. My arms were DYING. At least this was a quick workout. My wrists are destroyed though, between all the front squats yesterday, and then the thrusters today. And since we “finished too quickly,” we had to do 100 sit ups afterwards. 

Sorry for the crazy long post- I’m finally catching up on Fringe with my family and it’s super addictive! And now I’m off to lunch!

What are your plans for the weekend? How do you plan rest days? 

Yesterday was a good day, AM spin-VERY early. I am no longer ever having dark chocolate before bed-I was seriously dragging! I spent the rest of the morning finishing up my final presentation for Health Psychology. I did a study on the effects of aerobic exercise versus yoga on reducing stress. Fun fact-in Psych studies, to induce stress, you make your participants count backwards from 400 by 7s, yelling at them to go faster and making them start over if they’re wrong. Fun! 

Lunch was a basic one-tomato soup with cheddar (seriously SO good) with a side of popcorn. That popcorn is kind of significant-it was some of the swag I got from my half marathon’s expo!After my 3 hour class, I hustled my way over to Crossfit for a 6:15 class. It was a decent WOD-not a lot of heavy lifting so not one of my favorites. We did kettlebell clean and jerks, which were really weird. I’ve never done them before so I stuck to a low weight; I didn’t want to smash my wrists!

I stayed after class to clean up the box. That was my first day of cleaning. It’s really not too bad-wipe stuff down, sweep, mop. I actually really like just being around the box/fitness environment. There was a small WOD going on while I was cleaning, so I got to watch them suffer. It’s a cool way to get to know the trainers better (and earn a free membership!). It took me about 45 minutes.

At that point, I was more than ready for dinner! We had asparagus with garlic aioli, plus cornbread (with whipped butter and honey). The main dish was a butternut squash-chicken vegetable soup, recipe found here. 

This morning I was awake early for the kitten nursery morning shift! And since you obviously need to see kitten pictures…

You know how I’ve said many times before how I’ve picked out which kittens I’m dying to adopt? Well this time I REALLY have. The difference is this one kitten really does need me. He’s a little black kitten. He’s by himself, and he’s misunderstood. (Cliche, right?) To some he may seem like an anti-social cat, but I know better. He demonstrates all the personality facets of a typical black cat. On his sheet, someone notes he doesn’t like to be touched, and is kind of antisocial (TYPICAL black cat). He seems quiet and withdrawn, but given my black cat experience, that’s not exactly it. I’m worried that this behavior might not be conducive to future adoptions, or future success in his adoptive family. Even worse, he would really do better in an environment with fewer variables-different people caring for him everyday, people with not enough time. He’s losing weight, which is bad. I think this is because people are not putting enough time into him. I had him out for at least 45 minutes today. He doesn’t eat a ton on his own, so I had to syringe feed him. He’s fussy but eager to eat; if one didn’t have enough patience he’d be written off. In addition, he kept wriggling away while I was feeding him to wash his face…yeah that’s a black cat all right. 

As for anti-social? Not exactly-he’s a sweetie if you get to know him better. I tried to feed him in my lap, and that didn’t work because all he wanted to do was sit on my shoulder. I’m not sure how I’d be able to at least foster him, but he needs something. 

In other news, I had full intentions to work out after the kitten nursery, but instead went to Whole Foods and ate a muffin. And bought cinnamon kettle corn-ADDICTIVE. In my defense, I probably needed a rest day anyways. 

One more thing-I posted my first “real” article on the local fitness blog- The Link Between Heart Disease and Mile Times.

What’s you mile time?

Back in the day I was able to break 7:00. I definitely can’t do that anymore! I want to do a timed mile soon though!

Since this post was supposed to go up yesterday, this becomes accidental throwback Thursday!

And what, my friends, are we throwing it back to?

Last year’s Giant’s Race!My sister and I ran the 10k last year. What’s this? Yeah, um. I won my division last year! What? How did THAT happen?

Well, I’m super proud of that! To be fair, my age group isn’t huge. But I’ll take it! Next year I’m considering doing the 10k again…and training to win. We shall see!

Back to the important stuff…food and exercise.

Yesterday morning was an early spin class. Yes, I get up at 5:10am in the summer for my own pleasure. Yes, I’m a college student. Yes, those are oxymorons. 

My calf continues to feel better, especially after spin. I refueled with a chocolate protein smoothie, with 1/2 cup less almond milk than usual. Plus a small slice of toast with sunflower seed butter.Yesterday morning I took my dog out to the park to participate in his favorite activity ever-soccer. He goes absolutely crazy for soccer balls. I wish I had gotten a picture of him, but I left my phone in the car so it wouldn’t get slobbery. It’s funny, he got mistaken for a puppy again. This happens regularly! Umm no, he’s almost 12? 

Before class I whipped up a quick lunch of leftover spinach quiche. After class, I hustled over to Crossfit. It was a little close-I hate rush hour traffic! The WOD was 7 rounds of 100m run, 5 toes to bar, 10 deadlifts (115), and 10 overhead squats with a 25 pound weight. I Rxed the weight, but did knees to elbows. It took me about 17:00-on the slower side. I wasn’t going to really push my calf on the run! (And *knock on wood* it’s feeling good as new!) 

I made myself a little snack plate, plus the leftovers from that morning’s smoothie. 

Trader Joe’s spinach and kale bites-not bad but they shouldn’t be microwaved (not that they have microwave directions…) They heated super unevenly! But tasty other than that!

Plus crunchamame, peas, and half a mango. It was perfect!

Sadly, I did not get enough sleep last night. I had to get up early this morning for the kitten nursery, and I had to stay up to sign up for fall classes….and the system failed. Grrr. I can’t believe I’m already signing up for classes though! Where has the time gone? 

-Granted, I still have almost 2 months of summer….

Also, please tell me how much I’m going to hate myself this quarter-here’s the current schedule plan: Chem, Chem lab, Physics, Physics lab, Bio, a unit of labwork. 

Ughh not even one fun class in there….

And since I love you all, here are some pictures from the kitten nursery this morning; we got 5 new litters of really little kittens! I had to syringe-feed a litter and I came home covered in cat food….sacrifices people!I love this. 

After changing out of my cat food caked clothes, I made myself a fruit bowl topped with sunflower seed butter. 

And one last thing-how cool is this? At the lab I work at, I had to take pictures of printer cartridges to be returned because they were defective….3D printer cartridges! The “ink” that was leaking everywhere was wax and plastic. Crazy.

What was/is your favorite subject in school?

Before we get to the deliciousness, let’s talk fitness and the status of my calf. I’ve been going to physical therapy all week, and I think it’s definitely helping. My physical therapist is great-my dad is friends with him since my dad has all kinds of things wrong with him. I’m getting the whole 9 yards-calf exercises, stretching, ultrasound, laser treatment, electrocution. Ok maybe they don’t actually call it electrocution, but what would you call getting electricity pumped into your leg?

Wednesday was another spin class. It’s one way for me to keep up my cardiovascular fitness. My spin teacher actually just tore her calf muscle, and she can’t exercise at all for like 6 weeks, so I shared miseries with her. After spin, I tested my calf by doing a lap around the parking lot with almost no pain. 

This morning was the real test though. I wanted to run 2 miles, so I went to the track. That way, if I had to stop, the farthest away I’d be from the starting point was 200 meters! To be honest, I was expecting running to be painful. And it wasn’t. Thank goodness! At least not for the first mile. My calf started hurting a little bit after that, so I called it quits after a mile and a half. I didn’t want to push it-that’s what race day is for!

All I could think of today-legs don’t fail me now!Not after all this work!

Then tonight at Crossfit, I felt no pain and was able to do everything, which I am ecstatic about. I ran 1400 meters total during Crossfit, so my total mileage for the day was almost 3. 

So the verdict? I’ll be fine by race day. It starts hurting when it gets tired so the next step is rebuilding strength. I’ll be good to go for race day, but the rate of healing will determine how ugly the race and aftermath is. I can’t help but think I jinxed myself by ordering this shirt:

So the plan? Crossfit tomorrow morning. If it still feels ok, I’m going to try for 1.5 miles. Then, I’ll try another 1.5 in the evening. I want to get the mileage in, but having recovery time will really help. Of course I’ll back off if I feel pain. My family and I are going to San Luis Obispo this weekend, so Saturday we have a hike planned. I found a great route for my run on Sunday. It’s a 5 mile loop, which I’ll attempt to run, but walk as necessary. 

Ok, enough of that. On to the food!

I had a great salad from Cooking Light the other day- an Avocado Cobb salad! The dressing was made with creamy avocados, and the salad included chicken breast, hard boiled egg, avocado, goat cheese (it called for bleu but that freaks my mom out), and tomatoes. It called for bacon, but I don’t eat it and the only bacon we had was gray…so we subbed chicken sausage, which was actually quite delicious!

Wednesday night I went to the Giant’s game. They lost, booo. But that doesn’t take away from the delicious food offerings at the San Francisco ballpark!

For dinner, a Cha-cha bowl. It’s rice, black beans, and chicken breast topped with a veggie slaw (with pineapple!). They were able to make mine without rice and with extra veggies-yum!

We also enjoyed some unpictured garlic fries-I mean it is a ballgame, right?

And no AT&T park visit is complete without a Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae. If that doesn’t taste like San Francisco, I don’t know what does. 

And of course a windy selfie. Only in SF would you bundle up to go to a mid-summer baseball game. I broke out the leg warmers and uggs, sweatshirt, fleece Northface, and a blanket. Brrrr. 

Sadly, all the ballpark food (ok, probably mostly the fries and sundae) left me with a stomachache today. I decided that I need to make more of an effort to base my meals off of fruit and veggies, so I decided a bowl of assorted fruit and sunflower seed butter would do the trick for breakfast. 

Here’s an obligatory kitten nursery photo. The kittens are doing much better! They were all pretty healthy and VERY energetic. One little guy thought it would be the most fun thing in the world to constantly, out of nowhere, leap from the table onto my shoulder, which is a bit of a problem since we’re technically still on quarantine.

This evening, I went to a local farmer’s market downtown. I didn’t take a ton of pictures, but I thought you nut butter fans out there would appreciate this vendor:Maybe I’ll have to try butterscotch sunflower seed butter! I wish my face didn’t hate nuts…Last year I got my dad chocolate bacon peanut butter.

I also got some beautifully delicious figs. I love figs but they’re always super pricey at the grocery store.

And another highlight?

Mini pies. Sweet potato and lemon strawberry. They were just perfect, and not too sweet.

I’ll leave you guys with that! Have a great Friday!