Takin' it Easy....

Yeah, okay, I admit it. I am slacking.  (With regard to both blogging and running.)  But I'm tired! :)

This week was an okay one; nothing much to report.  Work was crazy as usual.  I used the crockpot pretty much every day to make our meals - thanks to this site (well, to be more specific, the book that was created out of the site, called Make It Fast, Cook It Slow by Stephanie O'Dea.

Here's a  list of the delicious, fool-proof (no, seriously, fool-proof) recipes I have tried thus far using my slow cooker:

•  Basic chili
• Vegetarian "No-Noodle" Lasagna (eggplant and yellow squash slices act as "noodles")
• Chicken and dumpling soup
• Pork stew with peppers and eggplant
• Cranberry beef
• Korean ribs (aaamaaaaaazzzzing!!)
• Pineapple pork tenderloin
• Pomegranate beef

Here are some pictures (I didn't capture all of them, but here's a sampling).

Vegetarian No-Noodle Lasagna

Cranberry Beef

Pineapple Pork Tenderloin

Pomegranate Beef









So, that's been making me really happy over the past few weeks.

Recipes on tap for this week include White bean and turkey sausage soup and Buffalo Chicken Lasagna.  Nom nom!!

In other activity-related news, I've been doing a lot of yoga lately.  It's suiting the winter blues just fine.  And running is still happening, just on a lesser scale. The weird thing is that I think I still haven't recovered physically from the marathon in November, not necessarily only because I trained hard and it was a tough course.  I realize that I have never truly taken a break from running, even when I knew it was best.  So it's not just this past race that has me all tired, it's years of running without a set period of recovery.  Hence, recurring injuries and overtraining blues. 

I am also finding myself, for the first time in the winter, without a gym membership (well, if you count the "fake gym," I guess I do), and it's forcing me to come to terms with the limitations I naturally want - need? to put on my body this season.  I have said this before, but I think that in the past I have never taken time off at all because I was always nervous that I would "lose it" and that I would never come back.  Well, I know better now.  But I'm still taking some time off from heavy training.

Hope you guys are having a great end to the weekend! :)

Thankful for...the Weekend!

Man, now that I'm working again, can I just say how much I love the weekends?  Seriously.

Holiday spirit and thoughts of yummy food are in the air.  I love this time of year.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I love all the cozy sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, and delicious meals we all enjoy around this time.  And by the way, I still haven't given in and put on my winter coat...no way! :)  But that reminds me that either this week or next I'll have to make a switch-er-oo and bring up my winter clothing from the basement.  Booo!  But at least I'll be like, "Oh, yeah!  This shirt!" etc.

Yesterday I went to hot powerful flow with Claire and I sweated my face off!  Seriously, wow, it was great.  I like this class because it's very fast-paced.  It's not traditional Bikram, but rather, just a challenging vinyasa class in a heated room.  It was great for the (slight) hangover I had yesterday morning!  Washed it right out! :)

Derek and I walked over to Loop in the afternoon, had a cup of coffee and hung out with Rob and Claire, who just happened to be there too!  (Funny; I've never lived in a "small town" neighborhood like this where you could feasibly run into people you know all the time.)  Then I spent most of the day cooking.  Like I mentioned, we were invited to this party called "Drunken Thanksgiving" last night, hosted by our friends R and R.  I was going to do these pureed sweet potatoes with caramelized onions and then beets on the side, but then I decided to look up recipes featuring both ingredients, and found this one:

Roasted Beets 'n' Sweets

 Ingredients

• 6 medium beets, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 medium sweet potatoes, cut into chunks
• 1 large sweet onion, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

1. In a bowl, toss the beets with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil to coat. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet.
2. Mix the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and sugar in a large resealable plastic bag. Place the sweet potatoes and onion in the bag. Seal bag, and shake to coat vegetables with the oil mixture.
3. Bake beets 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Mix sweet potato mixture with the beets on the baking sheet. Continue baking 45 minutes, stirring after 20 minutes, until all vegetables are tender.

I did a few things differently.  First of all, I had to double the recipe, because there were going to be a lot of people at R and R's, and I didn't know how much food they were going to have.  Secondly, I have only ever roasted beets with the skin on, because it seals in the nutrients and keeps the color--plus, they're so much easier to peel when cooked; you just rub the skin and it pretty much falls off (wearing kitchen gloves of course!)  I also used fresh chopped garlic instead of powder.  Last of all, I needed to roast these veggies FAR longer than the recipe said.  After the beets cooled, I peeled and sliced them and then mixed them with the sweet potatoes & onions at the very end. This is how it turned out:

To be honest, I was pretty disappointed with the results.  I don't know why, but it just didn't seem seasoned enough despite the proper doubling of all the spices.  I had to keep adding more kosher salt and pepper.  Derek even suggested adding maple syrup at one point, but I didn't want to chance making it too sweet.  The one thing I didn't double were the onions, because I am not a huge fan of things with overwhelming amount of onions--but maybe there was something to that, like they might caramelize and give off more flavor?  I don't know.  Plus the colors freaked me out.  Maybe that's why the recipe said to roast everything together and to peel the beets beforehand?  Oh well. 

The other thing was that we got to R and R's kinda after everyone else, so the food was already out and people had mostly eaten, so it really got untouched.  I know it wasn't because it was gross, but I felt bad.  I guess the upside is that it was fairly healthy.  But I will probably never make this again!

The rest of the party was really fun.  R's home-brewed beer was a big hit--especially the wheat one!  I also tried an Irish red.  We ended up playing Rock Band for about three hours and it was awesome!

Today, Claire and I met up for a longer run...about 6.5 miles!  Yay!  I feel back in the groove.  This was our route -- two bridges connecting Tremont to downtown.  I wore my Nike arm warmers for the first time and I was EXTREMELY pleased. 

They kept my arms warm but not too hot.  I could have rolled them down but they were fine the entire time, and that's saying a lot because I usually get really hot.

Now I'm sitting down with a cup of coffee relaxing.  Even though that darn ice pack is back on my foot, I would have never been able to do 6.5 miles a week ago!  Yay!  Tomorrow's off though.  Maybe I'll get the chance to catch up on all my dumb reality shows on DVR.

Powered by Chocolate

...Aren't we all a little bit more motivated when we pop a piece of chocolate into our mouths?  Whether it's out of guilt (and we're working off what we already ate), or as an incentive (high mileage = free pass for lots of chocolate)?  Ha ha.  Well, today my usual pre-run meal variation just wasn't cutting it.  I needed a little extra boost...so I reached into the freezer for two mini Snickers bites!  YUM!

I actually waited quite a long while to run today, although I was up early.  I had to bring the car back yet again (last time for awhile, I promise!) and was waiting on S to give me a call back about it.  I was getting antsy waiting...not only because I wanted to run, but because I had other errands to do with the car, and also because I didn't want another bomb dropped on me about $$$ like last time!

Turns out all was fine (just needed an alignment this time) and - WOW, there is a difference in the way the car feels.  I guess it was worth it.  Well, it was definitely worth it in terms of safety, but in terms of how the car is driving...it's much better too!

Went for a 4.5"ish" mile run.  Didn't bring my watch today, so aside from the somewhat inaccurate mile markers on the towpath trail, I didn't have a strong concept of how much time I spent - probably close to an hour including cooldown and stretching - plus I took a detour off the main path and I'm not sure how long that part is because there are no markers there. 

A couple things about running in parks with mile markers: ONE: It's nice for speedwork and you want to time your splits and you don't have a Garmin (or you just don't feel like waiting for the ^@*&!%* thing to load!). TWO: they are great for long runs, when you don't want to have to look at your watch but just wanna know when you've finished your distance wtihout worrying about time.  BUT, THREE:  like I said, the measurement is slightly off, especially because I've heard that most paths, race courses, etc. are measured on all the tangents and would measure the shortest distance from point A to B on the path, not taking into consideration all the curves and stuff that, were you sticking to your correct side of the path, you'd have to run through.  So in a way, the timing is slightly slower/you are running slightly longer if the course is really twisty and curvy (like this one is). 

Whatever, it was still a good run. I have come to the conclusion that sometimes, today included, I really like running without a watch.  It's like, the only thing I have to be accountable to is finishing the run, not worrying about my time.  Save the time obsessing for speedwork and races -- two things I am forcing myself to take time off from until December.  Still practicing the every-other-day rule until I feel no more pain, I am not running tomorrow but going to hot yoga (finally!) with Claire at Inner Bliss in Rocky River.

This evening, I made the pretty bad mistake of doing some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.  I just hate it there so much, I can't describe it, but it is cheap and close by so I sucked it up and bought just a few things I needed (mostly things with the brand "Great Value").  Plus, I felt right at home in my flip-flops, baggy sweatshirt, unwashed hair, and sweatpants.  Nice to feel that you don't have to impress anyone at Wal-Mart.  (By the way, if any of you really like Wal-Mart I am sorry and I don't mean to offend anyone.)  I was behind the slowwwestttt family in history - isn't that always the case? and even though we were in the "20 items or less" line, it took forever and I was certain my ice cream was going to melt before getting home!  Oh well, I had to go.  It was time to re-stock up on some staples, like light mayo, butter, sugar, as well as some skim milk and yogurt (Weight Watchers has a large vanilla yogurt now!  Yay!). 

I also got some sweet potatoes and a bunch of onions and thyme because I am going to try a recipe my friend sent me for this pre-Thanksgiving pot luck dinner we're going to tomorrow night.  Actually, come to think of it, I don't even know if it's a pot luck; it was just called "Drunken Thanksgiving" and the hosts are providing their home-brewed beer and they're inviting a whole lot of people, so I want/need to bring at least one thing anyway.  In addition to the sweet potato dish I am thinking of roasting this bunch of beets I've been saving for a little while.  Does anyone have a good suggestion or recipe for a dish featuring roasted beets?  I was just probably going to let them come to room temperature after roasting and then slicing them and tossing them with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, kosher salt and fresh pepper.  Unless anyone else has another idea! :)

Another thing I'm looking forward to tonight...relaxing with a big glass of Sangria!!

Stuff

Today was a pretty good day.  Woke up really early and felt like I got a good hold of the day (sometimes, because I go work afternoon to evening, I sleep way later than I like).  Enjoyed my coffee and went for a run along the Towpath Trail - 4.2 miles.  I felt no pain in the foot at first, but then it gradually came back - of course.  Nothing too bad, though.  Also, for the first time since the marathon I felt the desire today to go fast.  I didn't really, because I "know better," but I am feeling myself getting stronger.

The run was also a pretty emotional one.  For some reason, I kept thinking of my dad (for those of you who don't know, he passed away 12 years ago).  Also, my husband and his sisters lost their mom 9 years ago this past Sunday, and I was very grateful to be able to spend time with all of them to honor her on that day.  So I guess I dedicated this morning's run to both of them.

At one point, I was just getting so into it, and was sweating so hard that I felt drops of it falling off my face (I usually don't sweat that intensely other than in races).  Then I realized that it wasn't only my sweat...and that it had started to drizzle.  Ha ha. :)

Because I have been getting sorta tired of coming home at 8:30 from work and then deciding what to throw together for dinner (and to add insult to injury, Derek has also had to work late these past few weeks so he couldn't take care of cooking), I prepared a simple but delicious meal for tonight: Stuffed peppers.  I got everything ready this afternoon, including cooking the rice and hollowing out/steaming the peppers, and stuffing them.  Then I just put them in the fridge and popped them in the oven when I got home.  I used the following recipe, substituting ground chicken for ground beef (and changing around some of the spices, adding tomatoes and garlic powder..well I guess the recipe was just a suggestion!).

Now I am very tired. 

But I have this last thing to say: I love The Biggest Loser and all, but Bob's annoying "let's eat something new and cool - or just chew gum" complete with over-the-top product placement really irks me!  It is so cheesy.  The new "green" Ziploc bags are made with 50% wind power....WTF?! Also: still can't believe Shay got kicked off last week.  And why did Jillian get all bent out of shape about Rudy not revealing something private about his past?  It's not like everyone is comfortable sharing everything. 

Anyway!  This post has reached a new level of tangents and rambling. Time for bed!

Recap

Ok, once again, sorry for being out of the loop.

Some recent news:

1- I got an offer to tutor kids after school part-time. Yay! Still looking for more work, but at least this is a start. First training session begins October 10.

2- Sent an email to a principal in the area offering to volunteer at her elementary school. I figure it's a good way to get exposure, help out, etc.

3- Also sent volunteer requests to Shoes and Clothes for Kids as well as Team in Training (alumni)...should be great!

4- Been baking/cooking even more now that mom got me that Martha Stewart cupcake book...good thing I'm marathon training!

5- Signed up for yelp and have been writing lots of reviews. I'm trying to figure out how to link them directly here, but until I do, you can click on the right-hand side of the page on that little yelp map and you can read the reviews. I've done mostly Cleveland places, but I did touch a bit on NY pizza places and one place in Madison so far.

I also started reading New York Magazine's "The Cut" Blogs again, now that Gossip Girl, as well as the Hills and the City, are back in full force. You may keel over laughing if you read this article about last night's Gossip Girl!

What else?

Not much.

Training this week is as follows:

Mon 9/28 - 4 miles, Towpath Trail @ Canal & Rockside
Tues 9/29 - pilates
Wed 9/30 - 6 miles, Steelyard Path
Thurs 10/1 - 6 miles, TBD
Fri 10/2 - Off
Sat 10/3 - 20 miles!!!!!!!!!!!! Last one!!!!!!!!!
Sat 10/4 - Off or an "easy 3" (By the way, love those T-shirts that say "On the seventh day, God did an easy 3.")

And then, thankfully, the taper begins. I felt so strong today though, and I am ready to conquer 20 once again. And then 26.2 in exactly 4 weeks from Sunday!!!

Also, next weekend (Oct. 11) I've decided to run the Towpath Half Marathon with Claire. Good times!

Kristin came to visit last weekend, which was wonderful, and we went apple picking at Heavenly Hill Farm in North Royalton. Here are some of our photos:




On a final note: made some buttermilk biscuits with this recipe by the Food Network's Tyler Florence....one thing: there MUST have been a mistake on the recipe because it calls for a full tablespoon of salt. Blecch! I am annoyed that these were pretty much ruined...but still fun to make. :)

Let the River Run

Ok, so, remember all that complaining I was doing? It was stupid. Why? Because I just ran the best half-marathon ever! So, here's the race report for the Cleveland Clinic River Run...

Claire and I ran this one together, which was great, because even though we didn't really chat during the race, it was great to have someone there going through it with you. We are about the same pace, so there was no "pressure"...although we agreed that if one or the other needed to run ahead or fall back, it was o.k.

She picked me up at around 7, and we got to Wallace Lake in Berea by 7:15 or 7:20. This was a point-to-point course, so we both signed up for the shuttle that would take us from the finish (Memorial Field in Rocky River) back to the start where we parked. I was excited to run this race, because I had recently discovered (thanks to Claire) the Rocky River Reservation, part of the Cleveland Metroparks, which is spectacularly beautiful. Plus, I read online that it was a net downhill course, and that it was fast -- and I had never run a course like that for a half-marathon...or any race, for that matter, other than the Patrick Joyce 5k in August.

The start was "cute"...by this I mean that it was small, and they kind of rang a little bell when the race began. They did, however, have mats and the new "shoe tag" technology. Started off a little fast for my pace, but we were at the WAY back of the crowd and I would have felt a bit embarrassed going any slower. So I said to myself, "you held the pace for the 5k, and this isn't that fast, you've done tempo runs before, just do it, it'll be good practice." I was thinking for quite a while that the McMillan Calculator didn't quite work out with me...that I could hold an ok pace for a bit, but that once I got past the 5 mile mark, I just slowed and slowed. Therefore, 10ks, halfs, and the one marathon I did were MUCH slower than they should have been according to this calculator. So I said to myself, "you've been training really hard, and maybe you just haven't been trying as hard as you could during those longer races to maintain that 'comfortably hard' threshold pace in order to get the most of your training." And you know what? I DID keep the pace today, and it worked!

I'll break this race into thirds. The first third's splits were as follows:

Mile 1 - 10:08
Mile 2 - 10:16
Mile 3 - 10:05
Mile 4 - 11:13 (hmm, a bit slower)
Mile 5 - 9:49 (that's why!)

At this point, Claire and I had been running pretty much side by side. But then she had to use the bathroom, and ran up ahead to do that, and said she'd hopefully catch up with me. The next few miles are the "solo" ones:

Mile 6 - 10:35
Mile 7 - 10:57
Mile 8 - 10:48
Mile 9 - 10:15

It was around this mile when a huge-ass hill presented itself...I was prepared because Claire told me it was coming. Speaking of Claire, just as we were climbing the hill, she caught up to me. We supported each other throughout the last part, which is always kind of the hardest. (Actually, for me, the "Rodney Dangerfields of running" -- the middle miles -- are the worst.)

Mile 10 - 11:04 (by the way, cumulative time at this point was 1:45, the fastest ten miles I have ever run!)
Mile 11 - 10:18 (can't believe I am STILL under two hours! Wow!)
Mile 12 - 10:42 (OMG, cumulative time is 2:06, I can't believe it!)
Mile 13 - 10:12, and the last .1 - 52 seconds.

Finishing time: 2:17:12 -- a new PR by over ten minutes!! Wow!

So the moral of this story is...even when you feel disgusting and that nothing is working...TRUST YOUR TRAINING :)

Got water and a banana - was "proud" of myself for not partaking of the pizza and ice cream they had in abundance...I say that in quotes because to be honest, I thought I would be sick at the thought of it. :) But I really did feel great afterwards, not delirious like the last half in Madison, and I hardly even got that "brain drain"/gross fatigue that sets in during these races. I guess running 18 miles the previous weekend puts things a bit in perspective :)

Anyway, on to other things...tried two new recipes this weekend: Eggplant Parmesan last night, and Tea Cakes with Jam in Citrus Glaze (!) today. (My mom recently got me this book by Martha Stewart on the art of making cupcakes.) Speaking of which, I've got to go make and glaze my cakes. Pictures to follow. :)

Ugh.

Ok, just so that nobody thinks I'm dead, I thought I should update the blog a minute. Ok, done.

Just kidding...sort of.

The truth? I have been super unmotivated and kind of down lately. Still can't find a job. Been applying everywhere under the sun and I am so frustrated. But I don't really feel like elaborating at the moment.

Also, the training has been fine - did my 18-miler last weekend and this weekend plan to do the Cleveland Clinic River Run with Claire. But I am feeling really tired, with leaden legs (and now my left leg is actually bothering me quite a bit and I haven't been able to get a good run in since Saturday). Did some cross-training this week, but it isn't the same, and I just feel gross. Also, been trying to eat a bit better, which is working and is actually making me feel better with more energy (had been partaking in the pizzas, chips, and ice cream a bit too much, resulting in sugar highs...and lows...and grease-hangovers. Not good for running!). But, I don't know. I need to be lifted out of this funk.

I guess it doesn't help matters that today is the 8-year anniversary of the Twin Towers attacks. I just miss my city so much, and I want to be there with my family and friends. Cleveland is fine, actually better than fine, but I need my support network. I am so grateful for Derek, and for the few good friends we have here...but I miss everybody else. :(

Anyway, this made me feel a bit better. Also, Derek and I booked our flight for marathon weekend! We are getting in Friday night, October 30, and leaving at 4:15 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2. Thinking about the marathon, and my opportunity to pay tribute to my city, makes me feel so strong and proud. So much so that I am (temporarily) willing to suck it up and cut back a bit on the mileage right now in order to not totally mess up my chances of running in November. I am annoyed that I haven't been able to get in my quality miles this week, but I have learned from experience that a couple of days of will not only aid healing, but it will also not derail all the good training I've put forth thus far. So, yeah. Good chat, self.

On another note, you (and I say "you" meaning..who? I think only my mom and maybe one other person ever reads this) might have noticed that I have been posting more pictures of food lately. I have really been cooking and baking up a storm. So I might just send MMS messages to the blog ('cause I have it synced up to the phone) of what I've been doing. For example, this morning, I baked some homemade banana nut muffins. Hmm, maybe I'll send a pic of those after I post this. Or wait - maybe I will send it now, so it will arrive on the blog first, thus, right after this paragraph...? Anyway. Take care for now. I will try to do the same.

To Market, To Market

So, one great thing about Cleveland that Derek and I have discovered is the West Side Market, Cleveland's oldest marketplace. This amazing marketplace has two main components: the indoor Market itself, which features vendors selling an array of different foods, such as meats, cheeses, homemade pasta, grains, salads, breads, fish, sauces and oils, and the like. The other part is what is referred to as the "Fruit and Vegetable Arcade," a partially-outdoor Farmer's market selling ripe, locally-grown, delicious fruits and vegetables at an amazingly low cost. (Yesterday I bought a box of strawberries, a box of blueberries, one mango, 2 pounds of cherries, 2 pounds of grapes, 4 nectarines, a bunch of asparagus, and a bag of salad for 10 bucks. What a great deal! And they smell and taste awesome.)

In the above picture you'll see a tilapia filet with sauteed zucchini and yellow squash, as well as a helping of a "supergrain" that everyone is going crazy for these days -- quinoa. They had different types of quinoa at the market, including red, black, and white. The woman suggested as a "first-timer" to go with the white, as the black is a tad more sturdy when cooked. Basically you cook this grain like rice. It's very simple to make. I added a little bit of salt to the water when I cooked it. I liked it, but I didn't LOVE it. The closest thing I could think of that it reminded me of was couscous, although it wasn't as moist or soft. I would try it again, though, especially since it's supposedly a complete protein that has all of the 8 (9?) essential amino acids (or something like that).

Continuing in this tradition of going to the Market during the week (did I mention it's open Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, AND Saturdays?!), I paid a visit yesterday and got (in addition to the produce I mentioned above) this funky-looking squid ink pasta and fresh tiger shrimp. According to the guy selling me the pasta, the ink is mainly for color, but it does give the pasta a slight seafood-y taste, briney, like salt water. He was right. This pasta tastes delicious. It's not overly salty, but it gives the pasta wonderful flavor. We sauteed a little onion, garlic, asparagus, and the shrimp (which we sprinkled with a little paprika and jerk seasoning) in olive oil. After we cooked the pasta (which took only 2 minutes because it was fresh), all we needed to do was add a little olive oil and mix everything together. We squeezed some lemon on there and topped it off with ground black pepper. It was a delicious summer meal! We were proud of ourselves. :)