Crystal Run 5k Friday: Take Two

5ks are such a fun distance! 3.1 miles is still no joke, but you can run pretty fast the whole time without dying at the end (for the most part). Last night I did the same 5k I did last Friday – The Crystal Run 5k Friday. It’s right outside my apartment building and is just $20, so it’s hard to resist, even though my sister says I’m an “addict.” There are worse things to be addicted to, I think.

Last night was a 180 weather-wise from last week – absolutely gorgeous! It was clear and sunny, but still cool enough that I didn’t overheat. My friend/coworker Emily joined me for this race, the one who brought you the microwave risotto.

I feel like I look so short in that photo for some reason, but I’m not – promise.

This week, I’m guessing largely because of the perfect weather, there were sooooo many more people than last week. Probably twice the number at least.

The line to pick up your bib (even if you had paid beforehand) was SO long, but Pacers does a great job with race organization and had it moving super fast so we made it up to the counter in no time. The start area was also not surprisingly super crowded, but we managed to get in a pretty good spot.

One of the great thing about this race series is you really only have to show up a few minutes before it starts and then before you know it…

It’s race time!

I started off feeling a little frustrated with the crowds because it was so hard to go too fast, so I just relaxed a bit and did the best I could. Funny how that works – I kept looking down at my Garmin SHOCKED at how quick my pace was. I honestly don’t know what came over me, but I ran this race faster than I’ve ever run before.

The first mile was super crowded but I still felt like I was going really fast for me, so when my Garmin beeped saying I had done it in 8:18 I was happily surprised slash in disbelief. I don’t think I’ve EVER run a mile that fast before!

After the first mile, the wind really picked up and it felt like it was blowing hard against me. I tried to put my head down and just keep plowing through, focusing on one mile at a time. The Mile 2 marker came pretty quickly, and then I was onto the third and last full mile, rounding back towards the finish before I knew it. I was definitely feeling it a bit towards the end and knew I had finished really really fast, so was getting ready to be done!

Here are the stats according to my Garmin:

• Mile 1: 8:18
• Mile 2: 8:49
• Mile 3: 8:37
• Last .13: 1:08
• Total: 26:52

Official race time: 26:49!!!!

I honestly am blown away by how fast I finished this race. I know for some that’s not so fast, but for ME – that is like the wind. Last week, I couldn’t believe I ran a sub 28 minute 5k, and this week, sub 27?? I can’t even believe it! One second short of a minute faster than last week. I credit this to foam rolling and intervals!!

Love Emily’s face in our post-race photo.

That little speed demon finished in 22:42!!!

After we finished, we hung around the finish line cheering for other runners, and I almost keeled over when I saw this little guy approaching the finish.

He was probably 3 years old, and the cutest little kid ever. He was running SO fast at the end and I’m sure I scared him with how loud I was screaming for him, but I didn’t care! I don’t know if he ran the whole way or just the end with his mama, but either way, what a little guy.

What a fun race!!

What’s your favorite race distance? I used to think it was a 10k because I’m not really built for speed, but the 5ks are really growing on me! For a challenge I really love 10 mile races – half marathons are pushing it a little for me!

Race Recap: Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

Yesterday’s Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 mile race was by far the best race I’ve ever run!! I felt incredible both physically and mentally, and it’s ironic because I actually considered backing out a few (read: many) times both before and since last weekend’s half marathon and I am SO glad I didn’t.

So let’s rewind a bit.

First, I went to packet pickup on Saturday and it was pretty much a nightmare. It took 35 minutes of waiting in a line that was wrapped completely around the block, almost back to the entrance of the National Building Museum where the expo was, just to get inside the building.

Runners, runners, everywhere. Insane.

Once I finally got into the building, the waiting wasn’t over yet. There were lines and more lines leading up to the area where the packets were and it took another 15-20 minutes once inside to actually get my bib.

I will say that despite the waiting and crowds, it was quite well organized and I’m not sure what I could have expected with 16,000 runners. Yes, you read that right – 16,000.

After tackling the expo, grabbing lunch downtown, and then getting a haircut, I went home and took it easy for the rest of the night.

I laid my race gear out a lot more sloppily than last weekend…

A race pile, if you will.

I did manage to get twice as much sleep (6 hours v. 3) by falling asleep around midnight and then waking up at 6am. It actually felt like I was sleeping in a little, since I was already on site at that time for the half marathon last weekend!

I made a quick breakfast:

A cinnamon raisin bagel thin (SO GOOD!!) toasted with pecan butter and raisins (nice touch). Perfect.

I set out pretty quickly after that and headed to the metro towards the mall. It was CROWDED.

And for some strange reason, everyone on the metro at 7:00am on a Sunday was heading to the race. Odd.

The metro gods were watching over me, so I got there in no time and started to actually get excited about the race.

It was PERFECT outside for running – mid 40s, clear skies, and beautiful cherry blossoms!

Since I got there a little on the later side, my corral was already packed and I couldn’t even get into it so had to stand on the sides.

I had to wait until the faster corrals started for there to be enough room for me to squeeze in. At the least the scenery wasn’t bad…

Despite the incredible number of runners, we moved along pretty quickly and before I knew it, we were off! I felt great right from the start. Mentally, 10 miles seems so much more doable than 13.1 to me for some reason. Something about that extra 5k gets me, and it’s where I really start to fall apart and question my motive for doing it in the first place. Starting off this race feeling confident from the beginning really helped a lot.

The course itself was amazing and very scenic, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom as we weaved all around the city and the monuments. It was also super flat, compared to last week’s rolling hills, so my energy level stayed pretty consistently high throughout the race. There were mile markers at every mile along with clocks, which was really nice.

As for fuel and hydration, I ate a GU at mile 4 and had a second one with me to eat at mile 8, but when I checked my pocket at mile 8 it had fallen out! Luckily I had a pack of sports beans with me to eat in case I didn’t want the full GU, but man, close call! I wore my Camelbak just like I did for last weekend’s half, and that was nice because I didn’t have stop at the water stations and instead focused my efforts on not  tripping over the discarded cups.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Mile 1: 9:27
• Mile 2: 9:29
• Mile 3: 9:08
• Mile 4: 9:13 (ate GU)
• Mile 5: 9:20
• Mile 6: 9:14
• Mile 7: 9:22
• Mile 8: 9:29 (ate beans)
• Mile 9: 9:34
• Mile 10: 9:22

Do you see what I see? All the miles are in the low 9 minutes, with 9:34 being my slowest mile! For me, that is FAST!! I was so excited because even though I figured I was going pretty fast, I wasn’t going for a particular pace and just was feeling really good and listening to my body. Each time my Garmin beeped and I looked down to see the pace for the mile, I was pleasantly surprised. Once we hit Mile 9, I was definitely feeling good about being almost done, but what a difference from how I felt towards the end of the half marathon. I felt like a million bucks!

Official Time: 1hr34min32secs – 9:27 pace!!!!!!

This is the first race that I’ve run twice, so I was excited to be able to compare my time this year to where I was a year ago – 1 hour 41 mins, 2 seconds. That means I shaved 6.5 minutes off my time from last year!!

What’s the best race you’ve ever run? Please leave links to recaps if you have them!!

The Worst One

Ugh. This picture sums it up.

I just had the worst run yet of my training. I think the truth it I’m getting burnt out and am just ready for the race itself to be here. Two week from today… come onnnnnn March 26.

Let’s rewind a bit. I started the day with some oats, my new pre-run fuel of choice. I made it in the classiest way I know how – in the microwave.

1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 cup water, salt, and a banana in the mix. I’ve been trying to make sure to eat some salt before my runs because I’m a super salty sweater. But more on that later.

Off I went all geared up and the day was actually perfect running weather. The first few miles went by pretty good and I ate some lemon-lime sports beans around mile 5. After that, it went downhill. Physically I felt totally fine, but mentally I was having a really rough time wanting to finish the run. I let myself walk a little bit, which I hate to do because for me, it sours the rest of the run. If I take a walking break, I just want to walk for the rest of the time rather than start running again. Case in point, after that small walking break, it was terrible. I forced myself to get to 9 miles, and then I walk/ran the last two, mostly walked. I was trying to go fast but all I wanted was for the run to be over, and then finally, it was.

• Mile 1: 9:07
• Mile 2: 9:40
• Mile 3: 9:41
• Mile 4: 9:45
• Mile 5: 10:23 (including .1 mile walking break)
• Mile 6: 9:58
• Mile 7: 9:45
• Mile 8: 10:09 (struggling)
• Mile 9: 10:09 (struggling)
• Mile 10: 11:13 (walk/run)
• Mile 11: 11:02 (walk/run)

So the good part about all this is I finished the 11 miles even though I really didn’t want to. Also, I did it in 1 hour 50  minutes 51 seconds, which is an average of a 10:05 pace. My first half marathon was a 10:21 pace, so even if I mentally struggle as bad on race day (which I hope I don’t!) I can still PR in the half.

Another good thing was I had a smoothie waiting for me when I got in from my run, which made me force a smile.

Can you tell how much I don’t mean that?

Have you ever tried freezing a smoothie before? You mix all the ingredients together in a blender, pour it in a bowl, and then ltierally place it in the freezer for a few hours. The texture of the smoothie turns slushy/sorbet-esque and is SO delicious to eat with a spoon.

In the mix:

• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 medium banana
• handful of frozen strawberries
• handful of frozen pineapple
• vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup peanut flour turned into PB by adding 2 tbsp water and some salt(16 grams protein!)

So delicious.

You know how I mentioned above how salty of a sweater I am? A lot of times on my long runs, I literally have salt crusted on my face afterwards. Don’t look at this picture if you’re eating…

See that around my nose?? SALT! Gross. I’ve been trying to eat salt before and after my runs to replenish because of this little issue.

On with the weekend!

Have you ever had a bad run in training? How do you recover?

And, what’s your favorite post run or post workout snack or meal?

Running, Friends, and Downtime: The Perfect Weekend

It is so  hard to accept that this weekend is over! It was just what I needed – a perfect mix of running, time with friends, and relaxation.

First, let’s talk running. On my training plan, I had a 3 mile speed workout at goal pace and an 8 mile long run for this weekend. I wasn’t sure if I’d do the 3 mile goal pace run, but when Saturday came around and it was cold and dreary out, I was not feeling the 8 miler, so I ended up pounding out the 3 miles on the treadmill in the afternoon. My goal pace was 9:31 min/mile (6.3 mph) when I started this training plan, but I’ve definitely noticed myself getting faster as a result of the speed work, so on Saturday 6.3 mph was feeling pretty easy, so I upped it to 6.4 mph (9:22 pace) and felt really good for the whole 3 miles. I ended up finishing in 28:10, which is fast for me! I definitely felt like I could keep running at the end, so that was a great way to finish the run.

On Sunday, the weather was BEAUTIFUL. It was in the upper 40s, sunny, clear and just perfect for running, so I was kind of excited I ended up waiting until Sunday to do the long run. If you remember from last weekend, my 7 miler ended up having to be on the treadmill, and it was slightly painful. This time, I felt awesome. It’s crazy what a difference there is in training this time versus last time. Last time, I remember feeling so defeated during each and every long run, hoping that one day it would just “click” and not be so hard. It was only during the last long run – the 12 miler – where that happened, and then during the race itself.

This time, training has felt GOOD. There have definitely been some runs that are harder than others, but most of the time I’ve physically felt really good during the runs, even if I’ve struggled a little bit mentally. Yesterday’s run was no exception. I pounded out 8 miles, and the only mentally rough part was as I was approaching the 4 mile mark because I did an out and back run, and was getting anxious to get to the turn around point. Otherwise, I was feeling good, strong, and confident during the whole run – such a great feeling!

Funny enough, I wore both my Garmin AND my Polar this time. Here’s the stats:

I finished the 8 miles in 1:16:17, which is an average pace of 9:32, which I’m very happy with since I felt really comfortable the whole time. If I can maintain that pace during my half (another 5.1 miles), that will put me at my reach goal, finishing in under 2:06 (cutting 10 minutes off my time from my first half marathon!). Overall, a great weekend for running!

Now, let’s talk friends.

Saturday, Katie was in town since her parents live just outside of DC. We have been talking a lot over the last several months over email, phone, and g-chat, but had never met in person until this weekend. We had SUCH a great time!

We ended up going to Café Asia in Rosslyn, because they do happy hour even on Saturdays. They have a bunch of appetizers for $3, cheap (but delicious) sushi, plus really reasonable wine, sake, and beer.

All these appetizers were just $3 each!

Summer Rolls, Crab Wontons (with this sauce that you would want to bathe in it tastes so good), and edamame. We also got a bunch of sushi but I forgot to take a picture.

I asked the bartender to take a picture of us, and for some reason he moved over to the side behind the beer taps and got a picture at a really awkward angle (when there was plenty of room to get our photo right in front of where we were sitting).

Thank you, bartender.

We had a blast and it was just what I needed to unwind and have fun during the weekend!

And finally – the relaxation portion of my weekend. There was plenty of that. Friday night, I ended up just coming home, watching a movie, and vegging out for the whole night. Saturday, I slept in (until 10:30!), and then was busy for most of the rest of the day but it was all fun stuff. Sunday, Wil and I went to church in the morning and they did an awesome message about controlling your anger (over everyday things), and then we went out for lunch at this cute little Vietnamese restaurant – Saigon Saigon. They have this awesome deal for a bento box for lunch for just $8.95, even on Sundays!

It came with the entrée (I ordered grilled shrimp), steamed rice, house salad, and a spring roll. I asked for a fresh spring roll rather than the fried kind and they gladly replaced it.

My date (with his bento box):

He got the grilled pork for the entrée and the rest the same as me. All the food was fabulous, and so cheap! We will definitely be frequenting this place on Sundays after church because there also happens to be a Harris Teeter grocery store right there, so we hit it up after lunch to get a few things for the week. Besides my 8 miler, I ended up spending the rest of the day at home and laying low watching the Super Bowl. There were a few parties but we both just decided being lame and staying put sounded more appealing.

Perfection.

How was your weekend? What was your favorite part?

Apartment Gym Tour

Woohoo it’s finally Friday! Three big reasons I’m happy today:

1. I have no major plans this weekend besides an 8 mile run and some much needed relaxation.
2. I got an email yesterday and it looks like things are going to work out with me working for Weight Watchers!! I still need to figure out a schedule and make sure there’s a meeting I can “own” and commit to every week, but assuming my availability works out with the open meetings, I got the job!! Exciting stuff.
3. I ordered Beth’s Journey business cards! My friend Sydney designed them for me, and you can see them here. It makes me feel legit!

Good stuff!

Last night, I was having a lot trouble getting motivated to go to the gym. It was one of those nights where I just wasn’t feeling it. Since I skipped Wednesday night’s workout, I really needed to get a 4 mile run in so I’d be in good shape for running 8 this weekend. My main strategy in getting myself ready to workout even if I don’t feel like it is to change into my gym clothes immediately when I get home so I have less of an excuse.

Then I remembered I’ve been wanting to give you guys a tour of my apartment gym since I work out in there almost every time I work out lately, and that was the final push to get me out the door.

I’m lucky that my apartment gym is pretty nice. There are three separate areas – one side with the cardio and weight machines, one side with free weights and a weight station, and a separate room with some spinning bikes and a good amount of room to stretch in and do ab work.

For cardio, there are 3 treadmills which have been recently been replaced so they’re in really good shape (and they sync with my Polar HRM so I can see my heart rate the whole time!)

There are also 2 ellipticals and 4 bikes, so 9 cardio machines in total.

On the opposite side of the same room, there are six weighed machines. Lat pulldown, row, shoulder press, chest press, one for your calves (can’t recall the name!) and one for your quads.

On the other side of this room, there’s an area with more weights.

I like this part a lot because there’s a mirror I can stand in front of when I’m doing free weights, plus its pretty open so you don’t feel as crowded as you do in the area with weight machines.

The last part of the gym I got a really crappy picture of because people were in there and I didn’t want to skeeve them out.

This is a separate room with these 3 spin bikes, a few ab machines, and the other side of the room that you can’t see is just open space with some mats and stability balls for stretching/floor work.

The best part about the gym besides the fact that it has a lot of equipment to choose from, is that its on the penthouse level of my building, overlooking the airport. The treadmills face directly out the window towards the airport, so when I’m running I can watch planes take off and land. I love that.

I left the gym feeling a lot better than I felt before I went…

Creepy, yes, but also happy I got in a good workout.

I pounded out 4 miles in 38:36, and felt really good once I got past the first 2 miles. I ended up running the last 2 miles at a 9:22 pace (6.4mph) and it felt surprisingly good. I really think the speed work is starting to pay off!

I finished the active part of my night with an awesome bowl of rice and beans.

With black beans that will change your life, cilantro rice, some oven roasted tomatoes that Wil brought home, 1/4 of an avocado, plus some chopped cilantro. So fresh and so delicious.

What’s something making you happy today? Where do you do most of your workouts? How far do you have to travel from your house to get there? I’m really lucky that I only have to go up a few floors in an elevator, or else just outside if the weather is nicer and I’m going out for a run or bike ride.

Mind Games and a No Bake Cookie Recipe

Hi guys! I hope you guys are enjoying your weekend so far. I know I am.

Yesterday, I had a 7 mile run on my schedule that I wanted to get out of the way first thing (aka 10am). I fueled up with a banana topped with 1 tbsp reduced fat peanut butter (2 pts+) before heading out.

I was actually pretty excited for yesterday’s run because its been too long since I’ve run outside in the cold weather and I really enjoyed it the last time I did. I got all geared up, headed outside, and started zoning out to my music. As soon as I got to the start of the Mount Vernon Trail where I was planning on running, I saw this:

Yeah, no thank you. I am clumsy enough on my own without the assistance of ice, so I immediately turned around and headed back to my apartment for the treadmill to pound out the 7 miles.

Mentally, it was rough. The treadmills only go up to 60 minutes, so I had to break it into two cycles since it takes me 70 minutes to run 7 miles. To keep myself entertained, I kept changing my mind about when I would stop the first cycle and start the second one. Originally I was going to pound out 2 miles and reset it for 50 minutes to finish the last 5, but by tricking myself I somehow ended up waiting until the 57.5 minute mark (5.75 miles) to start the second cycle, and then I only I had to run 1.25 miles on the second one. I understand that this makes me sound totally crazy, but somehow that made the run feel more tolerable and go by relatively fast. When it was over and my clothes were so wet it looked like I jumped in a pool, I stretched for more than 10 minutes – a new record.

I’ve never seen 1000+ calories on here before! An exciting moment.

I wanted something to refuel with a good amount of protein, and then I remembered these cookies I came up with the other day that are super simple, quick and delicious. I tweeted about them and was asked for the recipe. Ask and I shall deliver.

No Bake Mini Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (4 pts+ for entire recipe)

I’ve seen several recipes for no bake cookies before using just a few ingredients, and I’ve been wanting to experiment with using peanut flour for things other than just oatmeal or on toast, so I realized this could be the perfect solution for a cookie that would deliver on both taste and on the nutrition front. These cookies are also great because the whole recipe makes 4 small cookies, and you can easily half it to make just 2 little cookies, or multiply it to make a larger batch. I personally don’t do that well having a whole batch of cookies in my house, so for me the small yield is perfect.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp peanut flour (15 grams)
• 2 tbsp rolled oats
• 2 tsp mini chocolate chips
• 1 packet truvia
• dash salt
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp water

To start, combine the peanut flour, salt, and water, and mix it until it forms a peanut butter paste.

To that same bowl, add the rest of the ingredients (oats, truvia, chocolate chips)

Mix everything together to form your dough.

Form into 4 evenly sized dough balls, and place them on a piece of wax paper.

For a size reference, here’s my beautifully manicured hand holding one.

Now, place them in the freezer for at least 10 minutes and they are ready!

That’s it! These babies have 4 pts+ for the whole recipe, so 1 pt+ per cookie if you make them this size. Because of the peanut flour, they have a good amount of protein (8 grams in all 4) so they are actually quite filling as well as totally delicious. You could also use regular PB instead of the peanut flour, but that would affect the points+ value, and you could also try mixing in different things (shredded coconut, raisins, nuts, etc) to change it up a bit.

Do you play mind games with yourself on gym equipment to make it go by faster? Also, what’s your favorite kind of cookie? I love white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies plus peanut butter kisses, both pretty equally. mmmm.

Back At It

Thank you guys so much for all your comments and support on yesterday’s post! It seems like a lot of you can relate to feeling like you barely know your old self anymore. When you lose a significant amount of weight and/or make drastic changes to move towards a healthy lifestyle, a lot more changes than just the way you look to others. For those of you just starting or thinking about starting on your journey, realize that it’s much more important to focus on the day at hand and making smart, healthy decisions for yourself right now, rather than looking too far ahead and getting discouraged. I promise you that those little choices you make will eventually add up to huge strides in your own healthiness journey and before long, you’ll have a similar story to share.

Moving along – though I desperately miss the perfection that is San Diego, I have to admit it does feel pretty good to get back into my normal routine and be sleeping in my own bed (though the beds at the Westin ARE heavenly). Because of the severe weather alerts that actually did come true, I got let out of work at 3pm yesterday in hopes of beating the storm home. While I did get home before the storm, I immediately went out to the grocery store to pick up a few things. I could have made due with frozen veggies, grains, and the tofu and tempeh in my fridge, but I really wanted to get some fresh fruit and veggies and stock up the kitchen. So I did. And the drive was kind of intense with slush/snow, but the supermarket was shockingly not busy at all and I was able to zip around the store and be done in less than 30 minutes. Luckily, too, because as I was pulling back into my garage afterwards, the weather was getting worse and worse and let’s just say I was glad not to be driving anymore.

After the grocery store, I ended up doing a 35 minute tempo run, and it felt wonderful. I was trying to figure out why I felt so good during the run, and I’m pretty sure I was experiencing runners high, for the second time ever. It’s crazy how runs can be so hit or miss, and this one just felt so good that I was almost disappointed when it was over.

Man I love my Polar. I honestly don’t know if I can go back to the Garmin, even when I start running outside again… You’d be proud of me though – I stretched for 8 minutes after my run. I think that’s a record for me.

After a quick shower, I whipped up a quick and healthy dinner with Wil, and it felt so good to be back in my own kitchen. I picked up a few parsnips at the store, and I just love them.

This might be obvious to some, but I only learned it within the last several months. If you cut a parsnip in half before you start chopping it, it makes it way easier to handle.

Same story with carrots. You slice those ones in half again, and then chop them to your desired size, trying to get them all about the same.

I used to always try to cut them in half lengthwise while they were still intact, and they would always come out so uneven. Doing them this way helps a lot.

Anyways, I ended up roasting two large parsnips and four carrots in a little evoo, salt, and pepper, making some red quinoa (1/2 cup dried, rinsed, added to 1 cup of water, boiled, then brought to a simmer until the water was all gone – about 15 minutes total), and steaming just under a pound of shrimp for Wil and I for dinner (plus lunch for me today).

Plus a little cilantro for some green and extra flavor. Super simple and clean, but totally delicious. I love steaming my own shrimp – just a touch of salt and they are sweet and flavorful on their own without much seasoning. Plus, they only take 3 or so minutes to cook this way. (This is the steamer I use, which works really well for veggies, too. Best $17 I ever spent.)

What’s the thing you miss most about being home after you’ve been away (even if you are really enjoying yourself!)? For me, it’s definitely cooking my own meals.

Perfection

I am seriously considering not coming back to the east coast… I love it here.

For starters, here was yesterday’s fruit infused water selection:

Lemon and lime, grapefruit, pineapple, and strawberry. It seriously makes guzzling water so easy slash delicious. I had one huge water bottle each of the pineapple and strawberry today. So good. These alone are enough to make me want to stay.

What’s more, I went outside for a 45 minute walk during lunch and I couldn’t get over how amazing it was outside. It was 72º, sunny, and just slightly breezy – literally the perfect weather. Since I only had 45 minutes, I walked away from the hotel for 20 minutes, looked up, and realized I was right by the grocery store I went to when I first arrived. I ended up running through the store quickly to pick out lunch, then turning around and walking the 20 minutes back towards the hotel, making it right on time.

Since I didn’t want it to end, I ate my lunch outside on the covered patio next to where the course is. The bulk of it was a humongous (literally 2 pound) salad:

A base of spinach, topped with feta, chickpeas, kidney beans, green peppers, baby corn, tabbouleh, roasted corn, tuna, hard boiled egg, and black bean and corn salad. Plus more that I’m sure I’m forgetting. It was enormous, and I ended up eating about 2/3 of it for lunch, and the rest for a snack around 3:30.

I also picked up a small container of sunomono:

Sunomono is a Japanese salad with a vinegar dressing with just a touch of sugar. I’ve had it in sushi restaurants before with different types of fish, but this one just had cucumber and seaweed. It’s super light but so delicious. I ended up pouring the leftover vinegar dressing over the salad after I gobbled it down.

Plus, a side of grapes.

Unfortunately those needed to be carefully picked over because a lot of them were soft. Boo.

Besides the gorgeous weather, San Diego itself is also beautiful. Once the class wrapped up around 5, I went outside for a run by the harbor, which is just a few blocks from the hotel. The timing was perfect because the sun was just setting and made the sky such pretty colors. As soon as I got close to the harbor, I was so excited to keep running along it!

The run itself was super low key. I stopped a lot to take photos because I couldn’t soak it all in with just my eyes. A few of my favorites…

Saying it was a run to remember would be an understatement. I honestly didn’t even realize until I was writing this that I didn’t have my ipod. I NEVER run without music!

Since I stopped so much and kept bringing my heart rate down, I burned less calories than usual but that was a-ok with me.

I’m guessing I ran right around 3 miles (which is what I set out to do) because I stopped the watch each time I stopped to walk.

If you could pick up and move anywhere in the world without factoring in logistics (money, family, children, job, etc) where would you go?

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas from back in DC! Whew! What a fun and food filled few days it has been, but I can’t tell you how happy I am to be parked on my couch and back home. 🙂

Yesterday morning started EARLY. We woke up at 7am to hit the road to my parents house, and arrived before 11am. It was really nice because we got to spend a lot of time with my parents, sister and her hubby, and my niece and nephew – Claire and Ben!

True love in picture form of me and Claire. Me in Church attire – her in Christmas PJs!

Claire and her dad, Dan, goofing around with the carrots for Santa’s reindeer…

We spent the day decorating gingerbread houses, eating way too many Christmas cookies, and then watching the kids open gifts.

And obviously taking self portraits. 🙂

My job with dinner was making the meringues for dessert!

They turned out way better than expected despite a few technical difficulties during the preparation process. I need a mixer badly so I can make these at home. So good.

My mom set the table up really nice.

And we had potroast (salmon for me!), asparagus, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms. My sis is doing Weight Watchers too, so it was awesome to have someone else on board with healthy eating – even during the holidays. After dinner, Wil and I hit the road with my parents to head to Philly, while Heather, her hubby, and their two kids headed home to NYC to await Santa’s arrival.

We went to my sister’s church for a candlelight service, which was so nice. Afterwards, we headed to her house for dinner #2 – fondue!

My job was bringing a salad, so I searched around for a few recipes and actually went with a Weight Watchers recipe for health salad. It’s basically a slaw like salad, but very colorful and Christmas-y looking because I went with red cabbage.

The salad was sooo good. Only 1 pt+ on Weight Watchers, too, and was really satisfying and had a lot going on for a salad. It was also super simple to throw together, and is something you can make in advance because it just gets better as it sits. Because it was dinner #2, it was pretty easy not to go too overboard with the fondue, which I was happy about. I enjoyed it and definitely had enough, but didn’t leave feeling sick or over-cheesed (is there such a thing?) like I was expecting. I only had one glass of wine with dinner so I was the self-appointed DD, and drove the four of us back to NJ to spend the night at my parents.

We slept in late since we got home late, and I woke up and decided to start Christmas Day off right with a run outside!

It was my first run outdoors in AGES and I forgot how good it feels! I didn’t take my garmin or polar outside, just ran listening to music and enjoying the serenity and alone time. I ran for 40 minutes and am guessing it was around 4 miles, though I’m not sure. I felt fast since it was chilly out, but I really have no idea how far it was. I do know that I miss running outside so much and hope that I suck it up and try to run outside more despite the cold, but no promises. 🙂

After a breakfast of eggs and toast, Wil and I got on the road home and got back to DC around 5. We headed to Chinese for dinner, and I went with egg drop soup, green tea, and Mongolian BBQ. I’d never had that type of BBQ before, but basically they have a buffet with all different veggies, meat, and sauces, and you add everything you want to a bowl, give it to the chef, and then they cook it for you right there. It was great because they didn’t use any oil, but it was still so flavorful and delicious. I used every veggie they had, plus shrimp and scallops, and some teriyaki sauce. No pics, but I can assure you it was delicious.

Immediately after dinner, we headed to our final destination – the couch.

We exchanged gifts and are now watching TV and laying low – my perfect night! I got Wil a new case for his ipod, a travel mug, some Calvin Klein sweaters, Good Eats 2 (AMAZING book – I got him the first one last year), a tripod light for photography, and some chocolate covered cashews. Our limit was $200, and he totally threw our agreement to the side with my gifts. Argh.

He got me the Kinect for Xbox 360. It is sooooooo cool, and is kind of similar to the Wii, but you don’t need a controller. It basically hooks up to your Xbox 360, and you stand in front of it and do a few tricks so it can detect your body and movements, and then you are the controller when you play. You have to jump, duck, move around, etc, and there are tons of levels and different activities in the game that comes with it. In addition, he got me The Biggest Loser game for it, which I tried for 10 minutes and already started breaking a sweat with. I also got a robe, some clothes, and a new digital camera. Still trying to figure out how that all adds up to less than $200…

How was your holiday, if you celebrate? What’s the best gift you gave or received? Best meal shared with friends and/or family?

Night at the Newseum

Happy Saturday!! Hope your weekend is off to a good start. Mine is!

Last night, I went with some of my girlfriends to an afterhours party at the Newseum. This was the first time the museum did an after hours event, and it completely sold out! The event was from 8 to 11 and they had several exhibits open plus a cash bar and food provided by Wolfgang Puck. It was SO fun! We started out at Jess and Amy’s apartment.

Lianne, Jess, Amy, Tiffany, Me and I’m drawing a total blank! Notice the sunglass display on the wall behind us… 🙂

We cheersed with some champagne before heading out to the event.

Which was SO crowded!

We somehow managed to slip in really quickly even though there was a long line. Unfortunately it was really crowded and I didn’t take too much advantage of checking out the exhibits that were open. 😦 Everything looked awesome though.

I only ended up staying until 10:30 or so because I was exhausted. You couldn’t buy any drinks or food with regular cash (even though the invite info said cash bar). Instead, you had to wait in a really long line to purchase sheets of paper with dollars printed on those and use the fake money to buy drinks or food. I wasn’t really up for that so I left. When I got outside the museum I felt so turned around that I walked the complete wrong way to try to find the metro. It was so chilly out that it was quite unfortunate I was wondering around out there for longer than needed.

This morning I ended up waking up super early for me on a weekend – around 7:30. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I ended up making some coffee and then hitting up the gym. I had a banana as preworkout fuel, and then got in a great workout.

I started with running a mile on the treadmill to warm up at 6.0 mph (10 minutes) and then did the following circuit 3 times:

• 15 deadlifts with a bicep curl (12 lb free weight in each hand)
• 15 tricep curls with a 15 lb free weight
• 15 lunges on each leg
• 15 shoulder presses (at 10 lbs on a machine)
• 15 chest presses (at 20 lbs on a machine)
• 50 jumping jacks

After the strength training, I got back on the treadmill for 30 minutes and covered 3.1 miles. It was actually a run I really had to fight for because I started feeling a little nausceous during the last leg of it. I ended up slwoing down a bit and drinking some water and pushed through, and in the end was glad that I did.

Not too shabby.

After the workout, I was HUNGRY. I ended up throwing together a delicious but super simple breakfast with what I had in the fridge. The highlight was a veggie scramble with grape tomatoes, red onion, corn, mushrooms, and some tarragon.

I started by sauteeing the onion for a bit, then added in the mushrooms, then the corn (which was frozen) and the tomatoes. I found the tarragon in the fridge so decided to throw that in there too. It was SO good. I forgot what a difference fresh herbs make! The whole plate:

The veggie scramble, one sunny side up egg, a toasted arnold thin, and 1 serving of hash browns. I used only nonstick spray to cook everything  – no oil.

After breakfast I showered, packed, and then ran around to pick up a few last minute things because I’m about to head to Philly for the night! We’re doing dinner at a fancy restaurant in Philly for my mom’s 60th birthday (which is Thursday). Tomorrow is my sister Wendy’s actual birthday (the one who lives in Philly), so we’re going to go to her church in the morning and then to Dim Sum for her birthday lunch. Lots of fun ahead!

Do you use a lot of fresh herbs in cooking? What’s your favorite? I try to use fresh herbs but I honestly don’t know very much about which herbs go with what. My favorite herb is cilantro, followed by basil, probably because those are the two I know how to use the best in cooking!