New chapter

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know I’m probably not going to be posting anymore. I have loved being part of the blogging community, but because of a lot of things going on in life right now (finishing up clinical/grad school, job searching, various personal things) I feel like I no longer have the time or desire to put up quality, consistent posts. Rather than make you guys keep reading the sub-par posts I’ve been putting up recently, I think it’s just time to take a break. I’m not ruling out starting a new blog in the future to chronicle my marathon training (and you all will be the first to know!), but blogging is something I just need to put on hold for a while.

Thanks for all the support, inspiration, and sweet comments throughout the past few months, you have no idea how much they’ve meant to me.

I guess November is spooky too…

Nothing major tonight because I’m not feeling well but GUESS WHAT I FINALLY FOUND???

I was so excited to accidentally stumble upon a huge display of these in my regular grocery store tonight. I resisted the urge to buy…. all of them, and just picked up 3 instead.

I’m off to the couch. I’m crossing my fingers that with an easy night and early bedtime I’ll be feeling better in the AM. All of my best friends from undergrad are in town this weekend which means inevitable sloppiness tomorrow night! Have a great weekend!

Cute toes

Hmm someone out in Internet land with a foot fetish keeps stumbling upon my little bloggie. From now on unless stated otherwise, you can safely assume that my post titles are ridiculous search terms because they crack me up on a daily basis!

Sorry for the lack of posting last night. I was in a mood and trust me, you would not have wanted to read anything I would have typed. Here’s a recap of my past 2 days in food pictures.

B-fast: To save you from having to look at the same breakfast picture 3 days in a row, I mixed things up a little bit yesterday and made a yogurt mess. It’s never too early for chocolate, right?


I swear there’s yogurt in there too.

My breakfast today was eaten in 3 parts (read: I snoozed for too long): a banana while making my lunch, a toasted bagel in the car, and some yogurt around 9:30.

Lunch: Yesterday’s lunch was my leftover burrito bowl. Sadly the picture is quite blurry but I suppose that’s what I get for being a guac-hog.

I took some extra chips and the aforementioned guac to top it all off.

Since I was running late this morning, I pulled the soup card for lunch again today because it was the fastest thing I could pack.

Snacks from yesterday and today:


I felt the need for some tea yesterday morning. BTW, if anyone can tell me where to find Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea you will be my new best friend for life.

I got home from work yesterday in the worst mood ever and immediately pounded a beer some chocolate.

Dinner: I only have dinner pics from tonight. To be honest, I just kind of grazed on several things throughout the evening yesterday. Tonight I had a plan, but first I needed a snack.

Yep, the whole jar. Ok just kidding. But I probably could have eaten the whole jar without too much trouble.

I picked up this at the store earlier in the week:

I added some steamed broc to up the veggie factor and topped with a bit of shredded mozzarella and some crushed red pepper flakes, because clearly crushed red pepper belongs on everything, and some marinara sauce.

Delicious!!

Exercise: I did some living room yoga yesterday after work and it actually did help to calm me down a little. Today I was dyyyyyying to run but my foot still feels a tiny bit achy every once in a while so I decided one more day off wouldn’t kill me. I did some stretches and a tiny bit of core work instead.

Ok that’s it for me tonight. I have articles (and blogs!) to read and TV to watch. See you tomorrow!

Long toes

Ok, so this search term at least makes some sense since I do actually have fairly long toes, although I’m fairly certain I’ve never mentioned them on the blog before…hmmm. Can you believe it?? Two posts in a row!! I’m getting back on track.

So b-fast this morning was a repeat of yesterday but it was just as delicious the second time around.

I went the easy route for lunch today and packed some soup and multi-grain crackers…

…Along with a pumpkin blueberry muffin I pulled out of the freezer from a batch I made a while ago and some of the biggest grapes I’ve ever seen!

Seriously, it’s huge!!

Other snacks:

When I got home from clinical, aka playing with children and occasionally getting scratched, bit, kicked, snotted on, or having hair pulled out I was about to gnaw my arm off so I ate a Z-bar before my run.

I was looking forward to a run all day. I really wanted to take advantage of the nice-ish weather and rock the shorts for probably the last time this season.

Mentally, I could have run forever today. But my foot started to ache about a mile in and I decided the smart thing to do was to play it a little safer for the next couple weeks rather than end up with a serious injury in the middle of marathon training in a couple months.

It still ended up as a pretty good run even though I felt like I was struggling most of the way. Do you ever try to run and it just doesn’t feel natural? Like you forget how to do it and feel awkward and like you’re just clumping along? Or is that just me?

• Distance: 5.41 miles
• Time: 49:51
• Pace: 9:12/mile

In the middle of the run, I almost ran into (like for real, almost ran right into) Joe and Betsy who were also out for a run! You guys looked great!

The foot ache turned into a pretty decent throb by the time I was finished so I’m going to get some ice on that baby again tonight and am thinking about taking a few days off of running. I’m also begrudgingly considering the fact that it may be time to shell out the money for new running shoes. I love the ones I have now but have been wore them for the first time on May 24th, so they are almost 6 months old and I’ve been running a lot (for me anyway) since then. Incidentally, that was also the day I ran/hung out for the first time with the boy we all now know as the BF. Who would have thought…

Speaking of, the BF has off of teaching tomorrow since his school is cooler than the one where I work so he is on his way down to hang out for the night. I thought it would be nice if there was a delicious meal waiting for him when he arrives. If I were a good girlfriend, I would have cooked something.

If I were a mediocre girlfriend, I would have at least waited for him to get here before eating my own dinner. Whoops.

If I were a nice person at all, I would not have hidden the guacamole out of sight in the depths of my refrigerator. Don’t worry, I’ll share if he REALLY wants some.

What would YOU hide in the refrigerator to avoid having to share??

Hamster cotton bed

Do I have any readers left? Did the title of my post draw you in? There’s no exciting story behind it, just another one of the awesome search terms someone used to find my little bloggie. There’s also no exciting story behind my week long absence from blog land, unless laziness and lack of inspiration count as exciting.

So where did I leave off? Ah yes… so the morning after my half-marathon last weekend, I woke up surprisingly un-sore. Probably because I didn’t work hard enough… oh well. Throughout the day though, I started feeling an aching pain in the lateral aspect of my right foot. This escalated quickly from aching to sharp, stabbing pain with walking or any kind of weight bearing. Tuesday through Thursday were particularly painful to the point where I wasn’t walking normally. I put my PT skills to good use and was thinking it was an acute inflammatory process of some kind, probably a tendonitis or sprained ligament, but when it wasn’t really improving by Thursday more sinister ideas like stress fractures started running through my head. I was heading to my hometown for the weekend and decided that if it still wasn’t getting any better on Saturday I would make a trip to the ER for some x-rays.

Fortunately, Friday and Saturday were much better; I guess all the icing and the anti-inflammatories I’ve been overdosing on, popping like candy, taking responsibly for a week finally decided to kick in. A few weeks ago I had registered to run a 5k in the town next to my hometown for Sunday, and like the stubborn mule that I am, I was still itching to run it. I woke up early on Sunday and tentatively stepped out for a test run. I ran for about 15 minutes without feeling much more than an ache… it actually felt better to run than to walk! I decided to try the race.

The course was out and back on a trail; apparently there was a 3 foot long snake curled up in the middle of the trail at one point but I was either in a zone or it was gone by the time I got there because I never saw it. Too bad, I might have run faster! I knew this wouldn’t be a PR race, given the bum foot and the fact that I hadn’t run in a week so I just tried to enjoy it.

• Distance: 3.1 miles
• Time: 27:31
• Pace: 8:52/mile

All things considered, I can’t complain! The race was at 2PM (weird, right?) and I had a really difficult time deciding when and what to eat. As a result, I started feeling hungry about halfway into the race and was getting that “I need sugar and calories NOW” shaky feeling when I finished. Fortunately, the race gets top marks for having yummy refreshments at the end. I grabbed an ice cold water bottle, an orange slice, an apple and a turkey cookie (it was a Turkey Trot race) and started shoving food in my mouth like the classy lady that I am.

Somehow I managed to snag 2nd in my age group (ok, there were only 3 in the group) and was super excited to get both a medal and a turkey feather for my effort. (Worst picture ever, BTW)

Because let’s face it, everyone needs a turkey feather to hang on their bulletin board.

So what else did I do this weekend? FINALLY got a hair cut… seriously, it was getting out of control.

I love that Monday Night Football games give you an excuse to wear a football jersey around all day.

Purchased a ridiculous amount of greens at the grocery store. The spinach was 2 for $3 and the romaine was buy one get one free!

Naturally I made a giant salad for lunch today: spinach, romaine, sliced peppers, some chicken breast for protein, almonds, and a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese.

I also had an apple and a PB granola bar and ate the pretzels as an afternoon snack.

Oh, and b-fast was noteworthy too: I had a yummy cereal mix with a banana and some OJ.

I perused Facebook the cereal box labels while eating and noticed that I got 48% of my recommended daily value of fiber just from the cereal!

That must be why I felt full allll the way until almost 11! Usually my stomach is growling by 10:30 which is bad because I never have time for a snack.

Dinner (so far) was non-noteworthy and non-healthy but delicious just the same. You can’t go wrong with leftover pizza as far as I’m concerned. I’m sure there will be more food to come… I’m in a grazing mood.

I’m hoping to get back on track with consistent blogging, working out, and eating this week. Other goals for the week are:

• Write a paper (my LAST paper of grad school!)
• Get as much done as I can on the inservice presentation I have to give at my clinical site
• At least open my board review book…
• Do some blog updates (blogroll, race recaps, etc.)
• Do some form of exercise every day (today I did yoga)

It’s good to be back! See you all tomorrow!

What makes a runner?

Hi everyone! I hope you all had fun and safe Halloween weekends! As promised, I have a race recap for you! But first… I baked some brownies on Friday afternoon because I was having a fun catch-up night with some of my best friends. Aren’t they pretty?

The sprinkles are for celebration! Between engagements, nearing graduations, new jobs, and job interviews we are growing up!

On Saturday, I managed to sleep in all the way until 7:30 AM! Yay! I ran some errands in the AM and in the early afternoon the BF arrived and we hit up the Spirit of Pittsburgh half-marathon expo. I was not so impressed by the substance or organization of the expo, but I was also in a foul mood because I was mad at the BF (aww our first fight! Don’t worry, we made up) so I don’t think I was in the right frame of mind for it either. I did pick up some of this:

I have a super sexy and probably permanant sports bra outline of chafage and am hoping this might make it slightly less permanant.

One thing that WAS pretty cool was the reusable bag to hold all the expo goods. It will be great for groceries because it is giant!! I could kneel in it!

I am also a fan of the long sleeved technical tee!

Plus, my race bib had my name on it!

Race morning dawned very very cold. I shouldn’t complain because I know many bloggers will have to run in weather much much more frigid than this…. but I was freezing!! Here we are chilling out (haha get it?) in the parking garage pre-race.

The race itself was… rough. I was sort of expecting this because I have felt so completely exhausted all the time since returning from Minnesota 2 weeks ago and my runs have been pretty crappy and not long enough. I started out with a goal of 2:10. After losing the 9:55/mile pace group somewhere around mile 7 or 8, I adjusted my goal to beating my previous half-marathon time of 2:18.49. This definitely felt do-able (TWSS) until the 11th mile dragged on for what felt like a million years. It never ended! At that point I decided the goal was just to finish in one piece.

I was also starving! I had a too small bagel with PB for breakfast before leaving my apt and a banana about 40 minutes before the race started, and I think I definitely should have had more for breakfast. I ate a Clif Z-bar at mile 6 and an orange slice at mile 8 but was still massively hungry near the end of the race. Enter a well-deserved egg, bacon, and cheddar sandwich on an everything bagel with apple cinnamon spice tea.

Here are the non-impressive stats:

• Distance: 13.1 miles
• Time: 2:21.47
• Pace: 10:48/mile

 

I was really disappointed by my time for a while. Then I decided that just being able to run 13 miles is a huge accomplishment in itself. I realized long ago that I’ll probably never qualify for Boston or win a race (FYI, I did win a junior varsity cross country race once in the 11th grade, just in case anyone really wanted to know that. But back to my point…), but that’s never really been why I run anyway. Yes, I enjoy competing in races and, to be honest, beating people. But in the past several months, I’ve started craving the run itself just as much as the race. I love the feeling I get when I get to the top of a steep hill. I love hearing the gravel crunch underneath my feet. I love watching the seasons change on my favorite trails. I love running alone and having the time to myself and I love running with the BF and having that special time to talk and get to know each other more. I love having something to work toward, be it a faster time or a longer distance. I’ve realized that while every run won’t be my BEST run, every run can be a GREAT run. I’m ok with that, and that’s what makes ME a runner.

I’m a ghost

Hi friends! You may have started to think I was a ghost for disappearing for so long. The truth is I’ve just been having a downer week and didn’t feel like posting. Here is a brief sampling of some food I’ve been eating:

Pizza salad!


Typical lunch sides/snacks:

Have you tried these? I swear, they taste like real ice cream.

On Tuesday night, I had Chinese food with my friend Emily. We had the worst service ever, but I had leftover lo mein and rice for the next day, which is how I judge restaurant quality.

Today I snuck in a quick run during my lunch break.

• Distance: 2.7 miles
• Time: 25 minutes
• Pace: 9:15/mile

 

I spend a couple afternoons each week in the therapy pool with some of my kiddos, so I figured since I’m going to be sweaty anyway (the pool is about 92-96 degrees which I swear takes the room temp up to almost 100) I might as well at least run first. I packed a ton of snacks since I wouldn’t have a chance to eat an actual sit-down lunch.

Mmm Subway…


Today I was feeling sad so I ate ice cream. Yes, I’m well aware that you’re not supposed to do that. I did it anyway.

And baked pumpkin blueberry muffins:



And yesterday I received a special surprise in the mail! A couple weeks ago I won the Tuesday Trivia contest on Fit Chick in the City, and Jess was kind enough to send me a Lululemon headband! Since I recently discovered this store and was obsessed with everything in it but sadly too poor to buy anything, I am super excited to now have a headband…

…and this cute little bag which makes it look like I might be cool enough to shop there.

Thanks Jess!!

That’s about it for me. Oh, and I’m running a half-marathon this weekend. Did you forget about it? Because I’ve been trying to…

Have a happy Friday everyone!

Pumpkins and pizza

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend. I’ve been busy eating, running, and doing fall things. Here’s a couple random food pics to start things off…







All my students (my current and last rotation is in a school for children with disabilities) are getting sick with flu or strep throat, so I’ve been taking my temperature obsessively and chugging this like it’s my job:

Yesterday morning I went for a pretty crappy run. I took these for mid-run fuel.

• Distance: 7.5 miles
• Time: 1:15.35
• Pace: 10:04/mile

This was a slower pace than my long-ish runs have been lately. I wasn’t really feeling it yesterday. I seem to keep “forgetting” that I’m running a half-marathon next weekend. Should be interesting.

I declared yesterday fall activity day. Early in the afternoon I baked some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!


I like them gooey so I baked them for the low end of suggested baking times.

The BF came to visit with pumpkins for carving, but first we needed some dinner. I made Jenna’s best pizza dough which turned out great! The BF wanted pineapple and ham on his half while I covered mine with bell peppers and crushed red pepper flakes.


It was delicious!

Then we set to work on the pumpkins. The BF absolutely loves Halloween whereas it is my least favorite holiday, but I thought pumpkin carving could be considered a fall activity, not just Halloween.




It was my first time carving a pumpkin by myself!


Can you tell who it is?

I think they turned out great!

Of course I saved all the pumpkin seeds.

Today I covered them with cayenne pepper sauce, tabasco sauce, chili powder, and cumin and baked them at 300 degrees for about 40 minutes. I think these will make a great salad topper!

My afternoon was spent doing a million loads of laundry and watching my Steelers beat up on the Vikings. How was your weekend?

Discoveries

I’ve made some discoveries this week. Allow me to enlighten you:

1. I eat the same basic things for lunch every day. My “main portion” might be different, but the “side dishes” are always pretty much the same.







2. Salad + leftover Chipotle chips = deliciousness


3. Guacamole is even better than salad dressing.

4. Little kids have a lot of snot. And they will try to wipe it on you.

5. Little kids spread swine flu like a wildfire. Wash your hands. A lot.

6. These are yummy!

Sadly the free sample I requested from the company must have been crushed in the mail because I pretty much had a bag of crumbs. But still good to eat!

7. Popcorn is an addicting snack. It’s also easy to drop on the floor. I still ate it. Don’t judge. You know you do it too.

8. Monday’s running discovery: If I sprint the first mile as fast as I can (for an unknown reason), the second mile will feel like death.

• Distance: 1.88 miles
• Time: 18:35
• Pace: 9:53/mile

9. Thanks to Gina, I discovered that today is National Love Your Body Day! I read her post when I got home from work and was convincing myself that I didn’t want to run, and she convinced me that I should take that step (literally!) to better my health (and hopefully avoid swine flu…). Thanks Gina!

• Distance: 3.33 miles
• Time: 32 minutes
• Pace: 9:36/mile

10. Mac and broc is still the best post-run meal ever. End of story.

11. Waffle Wednesday is still the best day ever. End of story.

What did you discover today?

Perfect day

Hi kids! I’ve returned safely to Pittsburgh. Friday was a wee bit stressful, as I got a 6:30 AM text from my father that there was a problem with his plane and it had to return to Pittsburgh (he was flying up to MN to drive back with me). Fortunately, the problem was discovered only about 20 minutes after they had left and fortunately he was able to get on a different flight to Detroit and get a connecting flight to Rochester from there. How scary is this though… he said that when the plane came back to land in Pittsburgh, there were no other planes or people anywhere in the landing area but there were about a dozen fire trucks lined up waiting for the plane. How freaked out would you be if you saw that??

Anyway, he arrived shortly after lunch and I was able to sneak away for a few minutes to meet him before my afternoon patients. After I finished, we took the shuttle back to my car and then hit the road right around 5 PM. Our plan was to just start driving and see how far we got before neither of us could drive anymore. We ended up doing really well, each dozing for short periods of time while the other drove. I didn’t get really exhausted until about 6AM Saturday morning somewhere in Ohio. My dad took over for the last little stretch of the trip then.

After unloading my stuff at my apartment, we hit up a Pittsburgh favorite, Pamela’s, for breakfast. In my delirium I forgot my camera, but I was absolutely ravenous and ate 2 eggs, 2 enormous crepe pancakes, and a piece of bacon. I was so hungry at that point I really would have eaten just about anything. The breakfast was absolutely delicious! I decided the best method would be to stay awake for as long as I could. I spent several hours cleaning my dusty apt, unpacking, and sorting mail. I was excited to see a package from Lisa, it was the Nut Clusters I won after making an inappropriate comment about the name, I’m sure you can use your imagine and come up with something similar. I’m so glad I can score free snacks by being sarcastic and immature.

I finished up around 3:30. I laid on the couch dozing and watching HIMYM on DVD until the BF arrived around 7. I was so excited to see him!! We haven’t been together too long, so this 2 month separation was about 1/3 of our entire relationship.

The plan was to chill out and watch some movies. I told the BF to pick something he wanted to see because I was pretty sure I’d be passed out within the first 40 minutes. He picked a horror film, which I cannot stand, so when we got back to the apt, we watched a couple more episodes of HIMYM and then I went to bed around 10:00 while he watched part of his movie. So that was my Saturday.

Today I had possibly the most perfect Sunday ever and filled with my favorite things. I woke up around 7:30 feeling relatively rested, but definitely still lacking sleep. I didn’t want to sleep forever though because I need to get back on a good schedule before my next rotation starts tomorrow. I hit up the grocery store to restock my kitchen. I took my time perusing the aisles and found some things I’ve been wanting to try. I love having a full fridge!

After unloading the groceries, the BF and I went for a run. I knew it was going to be slow after almost no running for the past 2 weeks, spending 14 straight hours in a car, and going for almost 40 hours on almost no sleep, but I really wanted to just get a few miles in. We kept a steady pace, took a couple walk breaks, and just enjoyed each other’s company. It was really nice.

• Distance: 5.53 miles
• Time: 53:35
• Pace: 9:41/mile

After the run, I scored major best girlfriend ever brownie points by making chocolate chip waffles for breakfast. Delicious, no?

Then we settled in on the couch to watch the Steelers game and I started to tackle my Google Reader. Really, is there a better way to spend a fall Sunday afternoon than in sweats, curled up on the couch under a blanket? I think not. At half time we made a Chipotle run. We have this down to a science now, chicken burrito with black beans, tomato AND corn salsas, lettuce, cheese, and a tiny bit of sour cream, cut in half. It’s the perfect amount when paired with some chips and guac.


Then we took a picture because we were happy after the Steelers won. It would be a really cute pic if I didn’t look so freaking exhausted!

And that was my perfect Sunday! I am still bumming around and have a feeling I’ll be in bed around 8:30 tonight. Gotta rest up for tomorrow!

What’s your idea of a perfect day?