Monday, August 29, 2011

What's for Breakfast on Monday

Yum! Pumpkin overnight oats with sunflower seed butter.
Delish!

I finally bought a recipe box yesterday so I could get rid of all these random magazines, pieces of paper, and scribbled recipes. That'll be today's project during work breaks.

I'm looking forward to a three-day weekend coming for Labor Day and my first long-ish run of this training on Saturday. I don't have too much extracurricular planned this week, but I might try to hit SFMOMA or the Legion of Honor.

Have a great week!



How was your weekend?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, August 28, 2011

In Bed...

It's Sunday morning at 8:41 and I'm just going to laze around in bed for a while.  I've been up for a while and already had my oatmeal spinach smoothie and was going to just stay here and do my run later.  However, once I heard the fog horns and started thinking about how nice it is to run Fisherman's Wharf in the fog with no tourists out, I got dressed and did my run for today (4 miles).

A lot of people don't like the fog, but I love this weather.  The only thing I don't like is wind!  Here are a couple of shots during a quick photo stop at 3 miles at Aquatic Park.  Cool, right?

You can't even see Alcatraz behind that big ship!

View of Fisherman's Wharf
This week's workouts went pretty much as planned except Thursday, but I still completed everything on the schedule.  Next week the running mileage will start to climb!

Monday - Run (5 miles Easy/5 minutes Tempo)
Tuesday - Strength Training Class (60 minutes)
Wednesday - Run (5 miles Easy/7 minutes Tempo)
Thursday - Strength Training Class Cardio (55 minutes - Elliptical, Stationary Bike, Stair Climber)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Recovery Run (5 miles Easy)
Sunday - Run (4 miles Easy)


I didn't really go out this week...shocker!  I think I was burned out after months of going out 3-4 nights a week.  I'm also suffering from allergies and sinus headaches that just wear me out.  I did manage to finish two great books.  Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh (a re-read of a childhood book that's on my 101 in 1001 list) and The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton.  The Lock Artist kept me riveted, so I'll definitely be looking for some of his other books.

I haven't done much cooking this week except experimenting with different smoothie recipes.  This one is the same as my oatmeal smoothie, but without the oatmeal.  Instead I added spinach and Trader Joe's frozen three berry medley (with Barbara's Puffins in Cinnamon flavor on top).  The taste was good, but I'm not into the seeds in my teeth from the blackberries in the fruit.


Yesterday I went to a birthday luncheon at Golden River Seafood Restaurant at Geary and 23rd.  My friend's mother passed away last year and this would have been her 80th birthday, so he generously included me in the celebration.  I really need to do a review of this place on Yelp to get their score up.  Three stars isn't a bad score, but I would put it in the four stars category.  I'm still not drinking (today is day 30 with no alcohol!), but they actually comped about ten large bottles of beer because my friend is such a good customer.

OK, I'm rambling now.  I cleaned out a huge cupboard in the kitchen yesterday along with two carts, so today I'm going to tackle either my clothing drawers or one of my clothes closets after my massage and spa time later.  If I have time, I might make the peanut butter scone recipe I found.

Have an awesome Sunday!

XOXO



Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Why Am I Working?!

I want to be outside!

Today is a rare sunny, warm day in San Francisco. I took advantage of that (and my supervisor being on a long lunch) and took a walk to the Ferry Building for lunch.

I picked up some Carrot & Ginger soup and a Hijiki & Soybean salad from Delica, one of my favorite spots. Their food is tasty and nutritious. The soup tastes so decadent, but there's no cream or milk in it. It's just carrots, onion puree, and ginger.

I couldn't be too healthy, so I eneded up having a scoop of Ciao Bella gelato (Belgian Chocolate S'mores flavor).  I started eating it before it started to melt and didn't get a shot of it.  I did get a shot of my view of Treasure Island and the Bay Bridge.

After that I walked around Sur La Table looking at all the cool cooking stuff (*sigh*) and then made my way back to the office.

All that and I was only gone an hour!

Hope you're having a wonderful Tuesday!

XOXO

P.S.  I posted this via e-mail and I had to recreate most of this post and it reformatted where I had the photos positioned, so sorry about that.  Live and learn on Blogger!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Me the Mummy

Here's a photo of me being wrapped like a mummy at our company picnic (with my co-workers faces obscured by my very talented spray paint job).  Our team lost this round, but ended up coming back strong at the end and winning the whole thing!  (Payoff:  Movie tickets....two for each of us!)

Some might say this is my best look...

Looks a little like a Vivienne Westwood, no?

How do you like your eggs cooked for breakfast?

Over easy.

Ask me anything on Formspring!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Week in Workouts

It's Sunday and I finally got a good night's sleep.  I had a major headache last night, so I decided to just stay in and go to bed early after watching a movie.  Harold and Maude is streaming on Netflix.  How have I never seen that movie?


My week went pretty much as planned this week as far as workouts, but with a few tweaks....


Monday - Run (5 miles Easy/6 minutes Fartlek)
Done!


Tuesday - Cross Train (55 minute 50 minutes) - I read the schedule wrong when I typed this.  It was actually 50 minutes of cross training, so I got up early and did 25 minutes on the elliptical, 15 minutes on the stationary bike, and 10 minutes on the stair climber.


Wednesday - Strength Training Class Yoga - This was going to be another cross-training day and I usually go to strength training on Tuesday/Thursday.  I realized that I needed to make pasta salad for our company picnic the next day, so I ended up coming straight home from work and taking care of that and then taking a 60-minute Vinyasa Yoga class.  It's still a form of strength training and I got some stretching in, too!

Thursday - Run (5 miles Easy/5 minutes Tempo) - Done! I did this out at Ocean Beach after our company picnic.

Friday - Rest

Saturday - Run (7 miles Easy/7 minutes Tempo) - I did this, but didn't really enjoy it.  I wasn't feeling well at all and wished I'd saved this run for Sunday!

Sunday - Run (4 miles Easy) - This was a lot more enjoyable after a full night of sleep and rest.  I could have kept going, but 4 miles was all that was on the schedule.


It's really overcast here, but I wasn't planning to go out today anyway.  I'm going to try to clean either a closet or my drawers and maybe bake a loaf of bread.  Later I have early dinner plans with a neighbor at a popular SF restaurant, so I'm looking forward to that.


Have a great Sunday!  XOXO

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Where Did My Saturday Go?

It's almost 4PM and I've done a lot today, but somehow didn't do everything I wanted to accomplish.

I started the day with a smoothie experiment.  Here's what I used:

1/2 c Oats
1/2 Frozen Banana
1 c Almond Milk
1 T Flaxseed Meal
1/2 scoop Whole Foods Vanilla Soy Milk Protein Powder

I mixed that in the blender, poured it in a bowl, and topped it with a few Barbara's Peanut Butter Puffins.  It was delicious, but hearty and filling!

Banana Oat Smoothie posing on my rug
I decided to drive out to Ocean Beach for my second run out there this week since I was up early enough and wanted to make a couple of stops out that way on my way back.  The run was kind of a struggle because I wasn't feeling great and didn't realize how much uphill there would be from mile 2.3 until my turnaround spot at mile 3.5.  I almost didn't do the 7 minutes of tempo because it was getting warmer, but I ran it between minutes 53 and 60.  It was worth it to see the 650 calories burned at the end!

I finally tried out the new Fresh and Easy store out in the avenues.  It wasn't busy at all around 10AM and is an alternative to Trader Joe's.  I mostly bought fruit and veggies, so I'll be interested to see if the produce lasts longer than TJ's.

After that I made a stop at Cheap Pete's to get frames for my Go-Go's and Duran Duran concert posters from The Fillmore.  They make frames specially sized already for the posters, so I bought a couple (one in silver and one in black).  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that they weren't the wooden ones that I bought before and I didn't know how to get the posters in, so I had to make another trip across town for a remedial lesson.  It paid off because they're now framed and beautiful!

I came home and made a little snack using the banana bread that I made early in the afternoon (I told you I did a lot today).  I tore up a thin slice of the bread and put it over plain Greek yogurt with strawberries:

Snack...posing on my rug again
Now I'm trying to get myself to relax.  Laundry, mopping and vacuuming might need to wait until later or tomorrow.  I'm still not feeling great, but I agreed to meet a friend and go out for a while tonight.  I'm not really in the mood, but I'll be on the guest list, so it'll be free.  If I rally, I'll go on to the next place, but not sure if that will happen.

Hope you're having a good Saturday!  I think I'll read my book now.

XOXO

What's the strangest thing you've eaten?

Probably a Filipino dish I had a few years ago. It was a soupy dish made of pig blood (!) and it looked kind of like black beans and tasted a little like pate. They served it poolside at a BBQ with some bread to dip in it. I actually liked it, but it was strange (with pig blood and all).

Ask me anything on Formspring!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Is It Friday Already?

I survived my week!  Sorry I didn't do much updating (other than posting a few Formspring answers), but I like having photos on the blog and I didn't have time to download them from my phone until today.  This will be a pretty long post, so grab something to drink and get in a comfy position.

Monday was pretty much a typical day until the evening.  After work and running I attended a Yelp Elite BBQ party at Radius.  Here was the menu:


Unfortunately, I got there 30 minutes after the event started, but in that short amount of time they had already run out of the pulled pork, brisket, corn bread, and most of the potato salad!  The wings were pretty tasty though and I liked the space and the owner's impassioned speech about his employees and using local ingredients, so I'd definitely try it again for a regular meal.

Tuesday was a little more of a challenge because I had to fit in a cross-training workout along with work and The Go-Go's concert later at The Fillmore.  I decided it would be easier to work out before work instead of running around like a crazy person after work, so I got up extra early to do my 50 minutes of cross-training at the gym (25 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes bike, 10 minutes stair climber in case you're interested).

I met my friends at The Fillmore later and we took a photo of the collage that turned out to be what was used on the awesome free poster that they gave away!  

Artwork by Jason Mecier
The collage was gorgeous as you can hopefully see.  (The iPhone just doesn't do it justice.)  The artist's name is Jason Mecier and you should check out his website to see some amazing work.  He's a mosaic artist and will make artwork out of anything.  This piece of artwork had everything:  tampon boxes, make-up containers, bandage boxes...the works.  Really beautiful.  The poster was cool, too, so I'm going to Cheap Pete's on Geary and get one of their white frames:



Anyway, The Go-Go's came on at 9 and played until 10:15.  They were as good as all the times I'd seen them in the past and everyone had a blast!  The band was tight, Belinda's voice was strong, and they were all getting along and having fun.

I was counting and the first show I saw was their last tour in the 80's with Jane at the Greek Theater.  Then I saw them twice in the 90's:  once at Shoreline Amphitheater with The B-52's and Psychedelic Furs and later at The Warfield.  Then I saw them a few years ago at The Independent on Divisadero.  

Here was the setlist from my trusty iPhone notepad:

Vacation
Tonight
How Much More
Get Up and Go
Mad About You (cover of Belinda's solo song)
Lust to Love
Mother's Little Helper (cover of The Rolling Stones song!)
Automatic
Fading Fast
Cool Jerk
Cool Places (cover of the song Jane sang with Sparks)
This Town
Unforgiven
Our Lips Are Sealed
Skidmarks on My Heart
We Got the Beat

Encore:
Beatnik Beach
Fun with Ropes
Head Over Heels

Wednesday I came home from work and prepared a huge pasta salad for our company picnic on Thursday.  There was a lot of chopping and dicing involved, but here was the finished product:


I must say that it turned out really well!  Pasta salad isn't that complicated, but I did use a recipe that I ended up tweaking.  For one, it called for 8 oz. of tomato sauce to be mixed with 8 oz. Italian dressing.  That sounded weird to me and it sounded weird to other people, too, so I just used 16 oz. of Italian dressing.  I also omitted the mushrooms and used a yellow pepper that I had on hand.  Whole wheat pasta would have made this even healthier, but I wasn't sure how that would go over at a company picnic.  

Speaking of healthy, I made these awesome (and relatively healthy) "no bake" cookies right after the pasta was done:


Just oats, maple syrup, cocoa, and peanut butter.  They satisfy my sweet tooth without making me feel guilty!

After making the pasta salad and the cookies, I went to a free yoga class at Lululemon on Union St.  It was from 7:30-8:30 and it was the first time I'd taken a yoga class from an instructor other than one at 24 Hour Fitness.  (Oh, except a couple of Bikram classes, but that's a whole other arena of yoga.)  It was crowded, but I felt great after class.  I might start going on Wednesdays after my runs since it's so convenient.

Yesterday was the first night that I stayed in all week and it was so nice!  We left our company picnic at Golden Gate Park around 2:30 and I drove up to the Beach Chalet to change into my running gear and do my 5 mile training run.  It was so great for a couple of reasons:

1.  I ditched the heart rate monitor and decided to rely on what felt right as an "easy" pace instead of relying on the monitor.   Runs were becoming less enjoyable and I felt that I was able to converse (the path wasn't crowded, so I talked to myself for a while to see if I could carry on a conversation and keep my breath) running at my regular easy pace.

2.  The route was one that I hadn't done in quite a while, so the variety made it more interesting.  I was running across from Ocean Beach, the path had small rolling hills and wasn't crowded, and the weather was nice and cool like I like it!  I have 7 miles to do on Saturday, so I might do this run with an additional 2 miles tacked on somewhere.

Tonight I'm still in a staying in mood and I need to rest up for the run tomorrow and all the other stuff I'm doing this weekend.  I'm going to put off making banana bread until tomorrow afternoon and read my new book from the library tonight and maybe watch the last episode of True Blood on my Netflix DVD.  

In addition to finishing my re-read of Harriet the Spy, I'm now reading Orange Is The New Black by Piper Kerman.  It's about a woman who did some drug trafficking for a girlfriend for a short time in her early 20's and then had to pay for the crime 10 years later when she was indicted and eventually sentenced to 15 months in a women's prison.  I just started it and I'm hooked!

How was your week??

XOXO


If you won a $1,000 shopping spree for any store, which store would you pick?

I thought about a lot of high-end places that I like (Anthropologie, Apple, Lululemon), but ultimately Target would be where I'd love a $1,000 shopping spree. I'd get a lot more for my money than I would at a more expensive place: running gear, underwear, electronics, inexpensive shorts and t-shirts, costume jewelry, DVDs and video games, things for my apartment...the list goes on!

Ask me anything on Formspring!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

If you could bring anything home from a hotel room, what would you take?

If I was staying at a Westin, I'd take home the whole bed (including sheet set and pillows). If it was any other hotel, I guess I'd just take home the maid to clean my apartment every day.

Ask me anything on Formspring!

Monday, August 15, 2011

What's your most-hated chore?

Cleaning the tub and shower! Mopping comes in a close second.

Ask me anything on Formspring!

FroYo Makes Monday Tolerable

It's Monday and I have a lot of extracurricular stuff to do in addition to my half marathon training. I have an event tonight (after running), a concert tomorrow night (after cross training at the gym), making pasta salad for a company picnic on Wednesday night (after another run), and strength training on Thursday night (after the company picnic).

I'm not going to worry about it because it will all get done. It's better to think about the Yoppi frozen yogurt from after lunch: Yellow Cake Mix and Cookie Dough flavors with just a sprinkling of almonds, mini M&Ms, and Thin Mint dust. This was less than $3...I just wanted a little taste of sweetness and a walk after my soup.





Updates on all my events will be forthcoming after they happen (assuming I survive). Have a good week!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Big Gay 10K

Yesterday was the Big Gay 10K race from Fort Mason to Fort Point (just underneath the Golden Gate Bridge) and back.  The morning started pretty chilly, but really cleared up and was pretty warm by the time we were on our way back from the bridge.  This outfit would have worked a lot better without the long-sleeved shirt underneath:

My outfit for Nike Half Marathon?
Note how sunny it was near the finish line!
The costumes this year weren't quite as crazy as they were last year (when there was a team of guys dressed as geisha or another couple dressed as The Ambiguously Gay Duo), but at least we had a penguin:

Penguin...bundled up in the fog at the start

My finish time was 1:04:59, which was more than two minutes less than last year and got me a spot at #17 in my age group (out of 43, not 17...ha ha), so I was happy!  A blinking pin for finishing was the icing on the cake...
Instead of a medal. This is cute!
Oh, that and going to dinner with my parents at Panama Hotel in San Rafael.  Half of my Dad's hamburger with bacon and avocado hit the spot.  I love the Fire Roasted Chile Stuffed with Quinoa (and mushroom and a bunch of other good stuff), but my body was craving beef, so we brought most of that home.  We also split a really good Apple and Strawberry Crisp with Tahitian Vanilla Gelato for dessert.  The perfect end to my running day!

I almost forgot what we split as an appetizer since we have it every time we go!  It was the Tuscan Toast Platter with roasted garlic, sundried tomato tapenade, goat cheese, and olives.  A great start!



On Friday I just relaxed (my workout "Rest" day) and got a gel mani and pedi (with extra 10 minute leg massage...aah), bought some more hair dye, stopped by Trader Joe's, and then made this salad for dinner:


This salad looked crazy and there was a bunch of stuff hiding in it, but it was mixed greens, avocado, carrots, chickpeas, a Spicy Bean Garden Burger (ripped up!), alfalfa sprouts, and a few crumbled up pretzels to add some carbs and crunch.  The dressing was my own concoction:  1T Greek yogurt (plain),
1t Sweet & Sour Mustard (from TJ's), 1t minced garlic, and a couple of shakes of soy sauce to make it a little more liquid.  Yummy!

Today I'm chilling at my parents' house after an early 4 mile run and a shopping spree at Target.  We're catching up on the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Hilarious!

XOXO

P.S.  Bear with me while I goof around some more with the design of this blog!


Thursday, August 11, 2011

It's My Friday and I'll Gloat If I Want To

I almost said "Well, it's Friday!" when I realized that it's only Thursday.  It's my Friday since tomorrow's my Friday off.

Here was how the day started:


Note that it's August 11th, but this was how it looked when I was waiting for the bus at 7AM (late again...oops). 

It's been a good week for workouts.  My lower right calf was having little cramps yesterday, so I decided to do elliptical and bicycle cross training instead of strength training, which is what I did on Monday.  It might be caused by either wearing heels and walking a lot or possibly my running shoes.  I'm just under 200 miles on the shoes and they should be good until at least 300, but it might be time for a brand change.  The Mizuno Wave Runner 13 treated me well, but the 14 doesn't seem to be an improvement over that model.  I'll see how today's run goes.

Speaking of runs, the Big Gay 10K is on Saturday!  I'm not sure why I put an exclamation point there since it's not quite as exciting as last year when we had a team of gals and we all dressed up for it (see my Running page for a photo of my outfit).  This year everyone flaked, so I'm probably not dressing up for the run, but I'll enjoy seeing all the other funny outfits.  I needed to run 6 miles on Saturday anyway as part of training and this is for a good cause (SF Aids Foundation) and will be over by 10:15 for me, so I was happy to sign up as an individual.

This week was also good for getting up to speed on a couple of other social networking sites:  Formspring and Pinterest. 

I've been on Formspring for a long time, but never really answered any questions.  I decided to pick that up again since it's a good way for people to find out about me (on here at least).  My previous post was an answer to one of the questions that I liked, so I'll probably post some of my answers from time to time.  You can also ask me a question through the Formspring badge in the sidebar of this blog.

Pinterest is what has become an addiction in the span of just a couple of days.  The idea is that you create "boards" (kind of like inspiration boards) where you can "pin" images of people/places/things/whatever that you find on the Web that you like.  If you go into my sidebar, you'll see a link to my Pinterest site and it'll make more sense.  It's cool because you can also "like" the pins that other people have posted or you can "re-pin" on your own boards.  If you think it's as cool as I do, just go to www.pinterest.com and request an invite to join.  (I received mine on the same day.)

Well, back to work.  More tomorrow or this weekend!

XOXO



If you were to have a theme song, what would it be?

Just Can't Get Enough - Depeche Mode

Ask me anything

Monday, August 8, 2011

Dinner Musings

I went to strength training class tonight and was tempted to make my Oat Protein Pancake (yes, again), but I had (well...still have) some perishables to eat. Here was my dinner:





Yes, the plate was on my rug. I was hungry and wanted to watch mindless celebrity entertainment for a few minutes, so this was most convenient. This was my leftover broiled tofu and some of the sauce I made on Friday sitting on mixed greens, chickpeas, sprouts, and carrots. It was quite filling, but also light!

It didn't really compare in awesomeness to my dinner on Saturday night at Frances (17th & Noe). Frances is a cute neighborhood restaurant with friendly staff, but it's really difficult to get a reservation. Fortunately, my friend "inherited" someone else's reservation for a four-top at 8PM, so I was invited to go along with another friend of hers.

I wasn't quick enough to snap photos of the maple bacon beignets (O.M.G.) or chicken wings, but I did manage to get shots of a few things. (Oh, I also missed the salad. Shoot.)

Here was my entree...Chicken with Panzanella Salad:





I was envisioning something like the Zuni Cafe Chicken with Tuscan Bread Salad when I ordered. This wasn't anything like it, but it was flavorful, light (which I wanted since we ate later than I normally do), and the chicken was SO moist. (My last experience with chicken was of the fried variety at Wayfare Tavern. It was their specialty, but it was really dry. I'd had better fried chicken at KFC and for a lot less money!) It had some broth that you can't really see here, greens, and potatoes. I would order it again, but I might want to try some of the other items on the menu first. (My friend had the Bavette Steak and her friend had Halibut.)

Here were the desserts we ordered. The first was a chocolate cake with banana in the middle with an insanely delicious salted caramel ice cream. The second was panna cotta. Both were excellent!













I didn't try the wine because I'm still not drinking, but it turned out OK. I'm SO used to having wine with dinner, but I actually survived fine with sparkling water. My friend told me before we went that SHE was not drinking for the month of August either, so that helped.

Not drinking actually made dinner more pleasant in a lot of ways. I have to say that the restaurant was pretty warm and loud, so I think wine would have made me tired and less likely to enjoy my meal.

If I go back and am on the sauce again, I'd try their house wine. I've heard that you can order their blended wine (they blend it in house) and it's only $1/ounce or something.

Well, I'm pooped and have to be at work at 7AM, so I'm going to decompress from my iPhone light. I think I'll read Harriet the Spy, one of the books from childhood that i loved (check out my 101 in 1001 list). Hope your Monday was a good one!

Later, gators!

XOXO

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Off the Grid

I finally went to Off the Grid last night.  If you live in or around San Francisco, you've probably heard of it.    It's a group of street food vendors that collect every Friday night from 5PM-10PM at Fort Mason for a few hours of great food, entertainment, and even beer and wine.  It's popularity has spawned a bunch more of these throughout San Francisco on various days and at various times.


The trucks are all in a large circle, so I first walked around to figure out what I wanted.  If you can believe it, there were already some lines and quite a few people sitting and eating already when I arrived at 5:10!  That speaks to the popularity of this event.


Eating a couple of smaller items instead of one larger item seemed like the way to go so I could try a couple of different trucks.  I started with the Yucatan at Chaac-Mool and had Conchinita Pibil taco ($4).  Looks tasty, right?

It was!  It was a small taco with pulled pork and lime.  It was full of flavor, but you can see that it was a little drippy and hard to eat sitting in a chair in the wind, so I had to eat it fast.

Next I moved on to the Chairman Bao truck, which specializes in Chinese buns (like the pork buns you get at dim sum).




I probably should have had the pork or pork belly, but since I had already eaten pork, the "new" spicy sesame chicken ($3.75) seemed like a good choice.


This was SO good!  It was easy to see why there was a line of about 25 people by the time I walked by again a few minutes later.  It was really windy and cold (summer in San Francisco), so I decided I was full.  Next time I'll try the Creme Brulee truck or get a cupcake for dessert.  (Maybe if I'm drinking alcohol I'll get a beer next time instead of water!  The Alembic had a nice little tent set up...)

Oh, I didn't stop at Curry Up Now, but I've visited their truck in the Financial District.  You have to get there really early if you don't want to wait, but if you have a chance, try their Chicken Tikka Masala burrito.  Heaven!


I got up this morning and made Baked Chocolate French Toast and then went on a 5-mile training run.  Soon I'm going to make the broiled tofu that's been marinading since last night, so I'll take a photo if it turns out well.  I also made what is supposed to be the best vegan, soy-free, gluten-free sauce on the planet, so I'll post the link to the recipe if it tastes as good as I've heard!

Happy Saturday!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Sun!

Hmmm....need to retract my statement in the previous post about the weather being chilly. It's still cool out, but at least it's sunny. Let's hope it holds until my early evening street food grubbing at Off the Grid is over!

TGIF, y'all.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Recipe for Oat Protein Pancake

I have another new eating obsession (besides the Overnight Oatmeal) and that's the Oat Protein Pancake (see photo in my prior post).  I ended up having this for dinner last night, too!

I got the recipe from an awesome blog called Run Eat Repeat.  Unfortunately, I can't find the exact post where she gave the recipe, but I wrote it down from her instructions.  It's really easy and filling!
  • 1/3 cup oats
  • 1/3 cup of Egg Beaters (or egg whites...it's usually the whites of 2 Large eggs)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
  • Cinnamon to taste
  • 1 tablespoon flax seed meal (optional)
I didn't have the flax seed meal, so I didn't use it, but I'm going to buy some and let you know how it goes with that.  (I saw the King Arthur brand at Safeway, so I'll probably pick it up there.)  I mixed everything well and then poured it into a non-stick pan that I sprayed with cooking spray.  Then you pretty much cook it like any other pancake.  It's kind of large, so you might make two (or get another spatula to help you turn it, which is what I did.)  You can then top with whatever you like.  I think next time I'll mix it up and use almond butter and maybe shredded coconut as a topping.  Hmmm....

No photos today because I'm posting from work (don't tell), but at least it's my early day.  I'm planning on hitting up Whole Foods for some nutritional yeast so I can make this vegan sauce that I've been reading about that can be used on almost anything.  I'm going to try to make that this weekend, so standby for photos and a recipe then! 

After grocery shopping I think I'll finally swing by Off the Grid at Fort Mason.  Off the Grid is a collection of street food vendors that serve all different types of cuisine and it happens every Friday from 5-10PM complete with music and booze (which I won't have since I'm on my "no alcohol" kick).  I've been meaning to go for ages since it's really close to my apartment, but something always comes up or else it's freezing and windy.  (Actually, it's pretty chilly today, but I think I'll take my chances and go on the early side.)  I heard they're having an Indian food vendor this week that hasn't been there before, so I might check that out.

Today's my training "Rest" day, so no workout today after a tough one at the gym last night (strength training class with hardcore shoulder and bicep reps) and a long walk home loaded down with my purse, workout bag, and a heavy bag of groceries from Trader Joe's.  I'll enjoy the break, but tomorrow I'm back at it with a 5-mile training run.  Now that I have a heart rate monitor, I've been reading up on training zones for various types of runs and realized that I just found out that I'm running way too fast on my Easy and Long Runs.  I'm going to slow it way down tomorrow.  I guess the body learns to burn the energy from fat vs. carbs if you're running at 65%-75% of the maximum heart rate on those types of runs.  Eventually, the slow run becomes faster as your body gets used to running that way.  We'll see.

Happy Friday!!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Officially in training...

I was going to post this last night, but I got caught up in what any good iPhone user knows all so well....software update.   Gah!  It took over an hour and by then I was too tired to do anything.

Anyway, I'm in my first official week of training to run the Nike Women's Half Marathon.  I'm following the same schedule that I followed for my prior three half marathons, but I'm trying to exclusively do the "Advanced" level plan.  That has slightly more mileage, but the big difference is that it has runs scheduled four days a week instead of three.  I figure I'll need to do four days when I start training for the Napa Valley Marathon in March 2012, so I might as well get used to it.

I've been inspired by some of the blogs I've been reading to change up a few things on the calendar to try to increase my speed.  The schedule I've been using has some speed workouts (Tempo and Fartlek), but no "track" workouts.  Now that I have my fancy, schmancy Garmin Forerunner 305, it'll be easier for me to work those in.  I'm thinking that maybe on some of my shorter runs during the week can incorporate those, but I'll have to see how it goes.

Speaking of my Garmin Forerunner....I love it!  It's amazing all the stuff it can do.  Look at it!

I guess this post doesn't mean a lot if you don't run, but this little device does everything I need.  I had a short run Monday night (4 miles) and it was great to know my pace at all times, get a reminder at 2 miles (so I knew when to turn around), and to get accurate mileage.  (I've been using Runkeeper on my iPhone, but I would notice that if the runs had a lot of twists and turns, the GPS would cut corners and inaccurately display my miles.)

Tonight I tried out the heart rate monitor and set alerts when my heart rate got over the "comfortable" zone, but it was driving me crazy beeping every time my heart rate got over 140 BPM.  I felt like I was hardly moving and it would beep.  I was running, so it was hard to keep it in the 130 range.  Anyway, last night and tomorrow night are my cross training days (strength endurance classes at the gym and a walk home) and then Friday is my rest day.  Saturday will be 5 easy miles and then Sunday is 3 easy.

As far as diet goes, I've been eating more vegetables and fruits and keeping track of my fiber and generally eating healthier (aka "eating at home").  I've been making overnight oats for several days in a row, but I've become addicted, so I'll probably make more for tomorrow.  (I've started adding unsweetened cocoa with a teaspoon of honey and it turns the oatmeal a nice chocolatey brown.)

Tonight I was starving before my run, so I made this oatmeal protein pancake that I read about (topped with sunflower butter and a few M&Ms as a treat).  It was easy, filling, low cal, low fat, and delicious!


That's it for me for tonight.  I think I'm off to obsessively study the downloaded data from my Garmin and then read.

What did you have for dinner?