Fitness Friday: National Running Day!

After so many injuries and still not running at 100%, 

on Wednesday, June 4th, I'm going to celebrate running 

Because I Can!

Click here to get your own badge and join me in a few miles on Wednesday!

Why do you run? (or walk, or spin, or zumba, or ...)

Thankful Thursday: things that make me smile

My super smart kids.  They both received academic honors this year and in a little over a week will be Seniors.  Hard to believe they will be graduating in a year.

Iced coffee on my deck in my favorite cup.

Fresh vegetables in a couple months.  Hopefully the neighborhood deer and bunnies don't eat it all before we get a chance.

Fitting back into my yellow jeans.  I haven't been happy with how my weight loss has stalled, but I took measurements and I've lost at least an inch in my waist, hips and chest and about 3/4 of an inch in my thighs. That has to count for something, too.

What are you thankful for today?

WIAW: gluten free doesn't mean calorie free

It's Wednesday, which means it's official weigh-in day.  You all know I'm scale obsessed so I weigh in more than once a week, but Wednesday's number is the one I count.

Last week I was really excited because I finally broke 150 after many, many months.  

This week?  Not so excited.  I haven't seen the 140's since then.  I thought I was eating very well all week.  I was being "good".  I didn't drink on the holiday and last night I cut a workout a little short so I could rush home and eat something paleo before my daughter's track banquet which was catering pizza and breadsticks. (This after having a meltdown on FB about how much I hate eating like this and not wanting to blow a month's worth of work for one stupid piece of pizza.)

I was "rewarded" with a 1.4 pound gain.  

This got me thinking about what I've been eating.  Just because a food is paleo or gluten free doesn't mean it's calorie free.  I've tried to find some substitutes to make me a little happier with this diet but the fact is, I'm still eating too many calories.  

I wanted to eat my burger on Memorial Day on a bun.  Those gluten free buns are 170 calories and what sucks is they don't taste that good.  I should have saved the 170 calories and $5 for 4 buns and just eaten my burger with a knife and fork.

I have a sweet tooth and have wanted dessert.  Avocado chocolate pudding with strawberries and coconut whipped cream contains "healthy fats" but it's still fattening.  Frozen banana "ice cream" contains a shit ton of calories, even though it's essentially all fruit.  

I need to cool it with the treats and replacement carbs I guess.  I know not all calories are created equal but it appears 1500 calories is still too many.  

Training Tuesday: Detroit Marathon week 1

I made it through the first official week of Detroit Marathon training.  It looks like I didn't have any rest days this week - oops - but the workouts weren't too hard so I'm not worried about it yet.

I'm using a training plan from Runner's World Smart Coach and this week I pretty much failed hitting the prescribed paces on the easy runs.  Basically, I'm running too fast.  Again, not worried yet but I'm going to need to reign it in once the long runs hit double digits.  

I decided to recap just the miles and paces here each week.  If you are really interested in my training, splits, or how I might have felt about a particular workout, you can always go friend me over at DailyMile.

Monday 5/19/14 - RUN Easy 3.13 miles at an 11:18 pace.  LIFT 40 minutes.

Tuesday 5/20/14 - RUN 5 mile Tempo with 3 at 10:50 pace.  WU/CD in the low 11's and Tempo miles in the 10:40s.  Overall pace was 10:53.

Wednesday 5/21/14 - XT Played 30 minutes of Glow Soccer at school. It was HARD but super fun.

Thursday 5/22/14 - RUN 2 miles at 10:39 pace (trying out the Nike Lunarglide 5).  LIFT 60 minutes.

Friday 5/23/14 - XT Walking 5 miles.

Saturday 5/24/14 - RUN Long 8 miles at 11:04 pace (about 1hr, 29 min).  I wore the Nike's for the entire run and felt pretty good. Going to keep the Nike's and see how they work out on some of the faster runs.  Again, this pace was much too fast (goal was 12:30 which isn't much more than a walk for me).  Even with walking a minute at the top of every mile I couldn't slow it down.

Sunday 5/25/14 - XT Bike 8 miles at 14.7 mph (33 minutes).  This was my first outdoor ride of the year and I spent the whole ride in fear of crashing or simply tipping over.  Clipped in is stressful, yo.

This past week was pretty easy from a training and paces standpoint (as evidenced by not being able to go slow enough on any of them or take rest days).  I won't lie though.  The paces ramp up really fast and I'm not convinced I can hit them.  We shall see.

Meal Monday: Spaghetti Squash with Italian Chicken Sausage

I bought a spaghetti squash last week at the grocery store not knowing what I was going to do with it.  Pinterest came to the rescue with a few ideas that I combined into this one recipe.  It was so incredibly easy that I ended up throwing together another batch for lunch with leftover squash the next day.

Spaghetti Squash with Italian Chicken Sausage
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash, cooked and "spaghetti'd" (I think I did mine cut in half and cooked for about 12 minutes in the nuker)

2 Italian Chicken sausages (I like al fresco sweet Italian with red and green peppers because it doesn't have cheese in it)

Sliced red bell pepper

Fresh baby spinach

Minced garlic

Olive oil

1/2 to 1 cup Marinara Sauce (I like Rao's Marinara)

Fresh basil

Directions:

1. Slice the chicken sausage into pieces and saute in large skillet with olive oil and minced garlic. After a few minutes, add the red pepper slices and saute until crisp but tender.  When it's almost done, add the spinach and saute until slightly wilted.
2. Add about 2 heaping cups of spaghetti squash and 1/2-1 cup marinara sauce.
3. Mix until combined and heated through.  Top with basil to serve.
4. Devour

This is probably one of the easiest recipes EVER and it was so yummy.  You could really change it up by using different flavors of sausage, adding other veggies, etc.  You will probably have leftover squash so feel free to experiment!

Have you ever had spaghetti squash?  What ingredients do you think would make this even better?

#TBT timehopping

Have you heard of the timehop app?  It's a fun little way to be reminded of what you were doing and posted 1, 2, 3 or more years ago.  

Some days the hops are really funny and honestly, some of the posts are probably ones I would rather have forgotten about.  These three posts occurred exactly one year ago yesterday.

This is one I'd like to forget.
Trying to come back from my stress reaction/fx 2 years ago.
 I feel like I'm going through this all over again.

3 years ago I was coming home from Fitbloggin!
That was one of the best weekends ever and I can't wait
to get to Savannah this year.

This one cracked me up. That's my girl in the tiedye passed out
in a hotel hallway with 3 of her gymnastic teammates after a meet.
I miss her competing in gymnatics and can't believe it's been 4 years since she quit
to pursue high school sports.

So, a bit of nostalgia thanks to timehop.  Do you have timehop?  What's been your favorite "hop"?

WIAW and a Weigh-in Goal Met

I was really bad about taking pictures of food this week.  Bad blogger!

I have a recipe for a great spaghetti squash and chicken sausage dish that I'll share next week, but in the meantime, here's a "dessert" I tried.

I was really jonesing for cookies the other day, so I found this recipe on Ziplist.  If you click the link, you'll see that my cookies look nothing like the ones in the picture.  Also?  Between the coconut oil, Ghirardelli chocolate, and almond meal, those 10 cookies were probably the most expensive 10 cookies I ever made.  The texture seemed way off from a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but at least they tasted ok.

Now, onto that weigh-in goal.  

I finally broke 150 again :)

In the 3 weeks I've been eating paleo-ish, I've lost almost 10 pounds and I'm the lowest I've been in 6 months.  It's a good start.  

I took some measurements today but they aren't showing much change.  1 inch lost in my waist and about 2 inches in my hips.  Nothing else has changed but a few of my pants are feeling a little more comfortable.  I still have a long way to go though.  Seeing results makes me a bit more motivated not to cheat.  

Training Tuesday: Slacker Week

Ok, not really a slacker week but much less than I've been doing :)

This past week focused on recovery and going out with friends.  I was super sick on Thursday, so I skipped my planned workout that day and then decided Sunday was going to be a well-earned rest day.

Totals for the week:

Running 13 miles

Biking 0 miles

Swimming 0 miles

Lifting x 1

Now the real work begins.  I'm trying to wrap my head around the paces SmartCoach came up with, but for now I'm going with it.  This week doesn't look bad but then the speed work goes nuts.  Not sure I can still run a 9:31 mile or his the tempo goal in week 3 but we shall see.  I said I'd give it at least a month before I adjusted anything so after the step-back in week 4, I'll adjust if needed.

Meal Monday: Paleo Zoodles and Meatballs

So, in my quest for more paleo-ish friendly recipes, I found this gem!  I've been struggling with missing out on our usual Friday night pasta dinners and this substitute might be even better.  

Have you heard of "zoodles"?  Zoodles are basically zucchini noodles made with a spiralizer or julienne slicer.  I used my love of Amazon shopping to buy this spiralizer and it worked great. 

I tried it out on my daughter since she's the most adventurous eater in my family and it was a real winner.  Our only complaint was that I didn't get the zucchini noodles cooked quite enough.

This is a mix of a couple different paleo recipes I found on line, so I'm going to just post the links instead of typing them all out.  This way, you can pin them or whatever you want.

The Meatballs came from Change of Pace (discovered on Ziplist).  The only change I made was using dried minced onions instead of fresh onions because those are a little easier on my stomach.  I probably used about a pound or a little more of ground chuck and I got 18 good-sized meatballs out of this.  Easily enough for 4 people.  Baked in the oven for 20 minutes they were perfectly done.  I put about 1/2 in the sauce and the rest in the freezer.

The Sauce I used was a brand I saw on somone's site (I think the same page as the meatballs).  Rao's Homemade Marinara sauce was delish and is paleo/gluten free.  Granted, it's 3x the price of Ragu, but also tastes about 50x better.

The Zoodles were so easy to make with my spiralizer!  I ended up using 3 zucchini between Kay and myself because they were really small.  I read on Against All Grain to lay them out on a piece of paper towel, sprinkle with salt, and put in a 200* oven for about 20-30 min. This will get them to sweat some of their liquid so they don't water down whatever sauce you use.  The noodles were pretty hot when I took them out of the oven, so I didn't cook them further, but I should have.  They were a bit crunchy still but very yummy.

Kay and I laughed at our attempts to put the zoodles onto our plates.  The strings were VERY long!  She ended up putting some shredded cheese on her zoodles and meatballs but I didn't add anything else.  I'm 99.9% sure my son would NOT eat this, but it would be easy to make some pasta for him, as well as throw in garlic bread for those in the house who can still eat bread.

Have you ever used a spiralizer?  

Fitness Friday: racing to train?!?

Oy vey. So, I said this year I would train smarter but I just signed up for a race to get in a 10 mile run. I was thinking about running a 2 mile warm up, the 10k, and then a 2 mile cool down. But plans changed a bit.



Reeds Lake is my current 10k PR and only sub-60. I know I'm in no shape to run that fast this year so a bit of the pressure is off. After speaking with a few friends and Mindy reminding me of their 5k/10k double, I figured out my 10 mile run! I've also never run a double so this should be fun. Anyone in the GR area want to join me?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thankful Thursday: run dates

It's always fun when Brea comes back to town to visit her family.  

We met up for a  run and thought we were running late, but we were 30 minutes early since the running store was on their summer group run hours.  When did summer show up?

Since the people that run from that particular store are insanely fast and we wouldn't be running "with" them anyway, we decided not to wait until 6:30 and just headed out for a very nice 3 miler and then hit up Harmony Brewing for dinner.

Lots of conversation about Brea's last semester of college (yes, I'm old enough to be her mom and I'm proud of all she's accomplished), the job interviews she has coming up, and the hiking/running adventures she's planning for this summer.

Oh, to be 22 again :)

WIAW, a Weigh In, and a Funny

As I suspected would happen, between this being week 2 of paleo-ish, Aunt Flo visiting (sorry - TMI and I really hate using that as an excuse), and going out with friends this past weekend, my weigh-in was definitely less than stellar.  I'll get to that in a minute.

First - WIAW.  I think I've found just about the perfect breakfast.  I've been sauteing some veggies (today was green, red and yellow peppers, jalapeno, and shitake mushrooms) then throwing in a scrambled egg.  If I use two eggs, I can usually make it like an omelet, but with one egg it ends up more of a scramble.  Topped with homemade guac and served with a side of fruit, it's been keeping me full until at least 9:30 or 10.  Not ideal but better than starving at 9:00.  My coffee with sugar-free french vanilla Coffeemate helps with the sweet tooth.  No, it's not paleo but I don't care.

Now, about that weigh-in.  I knew it would be bad and it was. No loss but rather a 1.2 pound gain.  Sonofabitch.  Yes, 153 is better than 159 from a couple weeks ago, but I hate that I now have to lose that 1.2 again.  I was really hoping to start marathon training in the 140s but that isn't going to happen.  I still don't really know the best way to fuel for long runs when I can't have carbs and my body hasn't figured out that it has a shit-ton of fat it can burn instead.  I'll keep plugging away though. Tonight and tomorrow will be tough since I'm going out with friends and the places are not exactly paleo friendly.  Tonight is my favorite pizza place in town and my friend Laura suggested the bacon nuts.  Yes, they are paleo but I'm also trying to lose weight, so nuts mixed with bacon isn't exactly a healthy choice.  I'll probably just end up having a naked side salad tonight because the pizzas aren't gluten free and I'd rather have a beer if I'm going to cheat and have gluten.

I was in a pissy mood about the whole scale thing and trying to figure out how to handle the next 2 nights of meals when I saw this on Facebook. Yes, it's completely inappropriate but it made me laugh.  Almost as good as that damn camel.

Training Tuesday: and so it begins

I gave myself a little Mother's Day present on Sunday.

GULP!  Training officially starts on Monday!!

5/3 River Bank Run 25k Relay #racereport

On Saturday, May 10th, I ran in my 3rd relay race.  I've done a 200 mile relay (The Fred - LOVED) and the Grand Rapids Marathon Relay (Eh).  This one also fell into the "Eh" category, but there were definitely aspects to the weekend that I loved.  Getting to spend the weekend with Corey and finally meet her hubby were 2 of the highlights for sure.  The run? For me, notsomuch.

Anyhoo...Going to write a recap that's probably a little long so if you want to grab your beverage of choice or just skim the pictures, I'm totally ok with that.  A 25k is a long-ass race, so the recap is going to be similar.

Friday afternoon, Mike and I met up with Corey and Glen and our friend Joe at the expo.  Since this wasn't my first River Bank Run expo, I knew exactly where we needed to head and what I wanted to see.  Corey and Glen loved the expo because there was all sorts of free stuff like water bottles and samples that they don't get in Trinidad.  It was cute watching them go from booth to booth.  We grabbed our packets and when the guy at the relay booth handed us a bright blue track baton, we were both like "WTF???" Yes, we had to run the entire relay carrying an actual track baton.  It was not awesome.  One thing that was full of awesome was this free green-screen photo booth where Corey and I practiced our handoff :)

After we got our packets and grabbed lunch at Freshii (sorry, bad blogger didn't take a picture), Mike and I headed to our daughter's conference track meet while Corey and Glen headed back to their hotel.  We met up later that night for some carb loading at Founder's Brewing.  I mean, where else would you take out-of-towners for beer???  (Side note - carb loading minus bread really defeats the purpose. I was very pissy most of the night and finally said "screw it" and had beer - the lowest carb/calorie one they make. Eating my sandwich minus the incredible sourdough was both difficult and sad.)

Aren't we cute? 

Race evening was my usual zero sleep (ok, maybe an hour between 3 and 4) and an extremely early wake up because my son was volunteering and needed to be downtown by 5:15.  I ate my usual bowl of oatmeal (but a full cup vs the 1/2 cup I usually have) and coffee at about 4:15 am.  I wasn't going to be racing until close to 9:30.  Not planning for more food was a mistake.  

I do love Grand Rapids in the early morning hours.  The river is beautiful and we were able to chill at Corey and Glen's hotel before we needed to head down for the 25k.  Glen was running the 5k and we actually saw him on the TV coverage.  Corey got video and it was quite hilarious.  While at the hotel, I ate a hard boiled egg, but by the time I was boarding the bus at 8:15 to go to the exchange zone, I was starving.  They had bananas and granola bars on the bus so I ate a banana but I skipped the granola since I didn't know what it might do to my stomach.

Had to get a pre-race team photo :)

My bus left for the first exchange zone right around the time Corey started running her 6.8 mile leg.  We were figuring it would take her a good hour between the time it would take to get across the start and then run her section.  I was able to see the elites come flying through, which was very cool.  The lead guys did that leg in about 32 minutes and the lead female in 36:30.  It was unreal.  Then, guess what?  She CRUSHED leg 1 and showed up about 5 minutes before I was expecting her! Crazy girl held an 8:26 average pace and set a huge PR for that distance.  I grabbed the baton and was off.

I already posted about my run on DailyMile and I don't want to re-post a bunch of it here, because frankly, it really sucked.  I know starting in the middle of the 8:20/8:30 pace pack really messed with my head because I started way too fast (there were high 8s and low 9s the first 1/2 mile) and then when EVERYONE is passing you, it's pretty defeating.  I felt like I was slow and in everyone's way.  I also was running immediately into all the hills without much of a warm up.  My legs (and my head) were pretty much trashed 2 miles in so once I hit the bigger hills, I was done.  I even made a stop at the first aid station for sunscreen because I didn't put any on at zero:dark:30 in the morning and my entire 8.8 miles were going to be in direct sun.  I walked so many times that I seriously thought about just sitting down. Between my head, the heat (it had gotten into the high 50s/low 60s by the time I started), and the hills, I was beat down and really discouraged.  After Corey did so great on the first half, I completely tanked the 2nd half.

All those blue dips down were the times I walked. Fail.

Once we hit the flat sections again about 6 miles into my run, I started to get bad cramps in my legs and even took Gatorade at about the 14 mile mark (my 7ish). I could not will my legs to move and was getting really pissed at myself.  I'd watched the 8:30, 9:00, and 9:30 pace teams pass me and I was determined NOT to see the 10:00 pacers.  I really wanted to maintain under an 11:00 pace for this run and I failed.  I averaged an 11:07, but when I looked back at my Garmin data, it looks like when I was moving, I was running at a pretty good clip - definitely in the 10s with some 9s.  Just all those walk breaks screwed me.

seeing my splits with "best pace" breakdown made me feel a bit better

I managed to pull it together somehow and ran my last .8 miles at almost the same pace I ran my first mile.  Nothing like bringing the horse into the barn - even on the stupid uphill last 1/4 mile to the finish line. I crossed the finish and went to the girls handing out medals.  They told me the relay ones were all the way at the end where I had to turn in my baton.  Did you forget? I'd been carrying that f*cking baton for almost 9 miles!  I wandered up and down the finish shoot and never saw where to get our medals but I did find a banana.  Everything else I saw was stuff I wasn't supposed to eat.  I also saw another relay girl wandering and looking lost and confused.  We finally found someone who directed us to a tent OUTSIDE the finish area where we got our medals and ditched our stupid batons.

I ran my 8.3 miles in 1:37:11.  A very disappointing 11:07 pace.  I met up with Glen in the finisher area and then a couple minutes later, Mike showed up.  Corey had gone back to the hotel to shower so I got in line to get my free beer (a gross Michelob Ultra because by the time my slow ass finished there were out of anything better) and bitched about my race to my friend Pete.  

Overall, Team Made in Michigan did really well.  We even managed to place 1st in our AG (however they figured that out) and since the team was listed under my name, I had a bunch of friends messaging me that I got first in my AG. Um, NO.  That was just some weird fluke in how they reported the scores.  I will never see a "1" by  my name again though, and honestly, I don't like it in this instance.  The relay results should have been listed by team name - not by team captain or however they chose to do this.  Now, I have a bunch of people thinking I ran a 25k at a 9:60 pace (also dumb - isn't that a 10:00 pace???), which is a total lie.  I didn't run this, Team Made in Michigan did. We finished in the top 30% or so for all-women teams and just under 50% overall.  Considering how badly I tanked, it's a wonder we weren't DFL.

Loved the shirt design but it's HUGE. Last year they ran small
so I sized up this year. Big mistake and I'll never wear a shirt
I paid extra for now.

After the race, we headed back to Corey and Glen's hotel to shower while they hung out at the post-race party.  We met up with them for lunch at San Chez, which is one of my favorite restaurants ever and even more so now since they brought me the most incredible gluten free bread.  The food, my bloody mary and Corey's bubbly were pretty great too.  So, other than a crappy run for me, this was a really nice weekend.  I'm not sure I'll ever run the 25k relay again because I wasn't crazy about the whole finish line crap and running with runners way above my pace, but at least I went out there and ran almost 9 miles of hills in the blazing sun and got to hang with Corey and Glen in the process.

Did you run the 5/3 River Bank Run or another race this weekend?  How did it go for you?

Fitness Friday: Race Bling Excitement!

source

The bling whore is happy!  I'm earning this medal tomorrow in the 25k Relay.

Then I opened up my email this morning and saw THIS from Rock N Roll Chicago!

Is that not the coolest medal EVER???? I love the Bean :)

Any upcoming races this weekend?

TTT: burgers, speed and Grease?

Three randoms for Thursday

Burgers are best on a bun and with fries,
2 things my kids had last night
that I didn't.

I woke up at 5:45 this morning to bust out 2 miles.
Bust out I did.  Can't remember the last time I saw 9:30s.

I'm getting my hair colored tonight at a beauty school. I'd received
a free service for attending a GNO event and could choose btwn
color, cut or facial.  No way I'd let them cut my hair and facials make
me break out, so color it is. Just please, God, don't let me end up
looking like Frenchy.

I've had the "Beauty School Dropout" song in my head for days now.  Have you ever had your hair done at a beauty school?  

WAIW: paleo-ish week 1

About 10 days ago, I made the decision to try eating paleo-ish in an effort to get my weight and eating habits under control.  What's "paleo-ish"?  I've upped my protein, veggie and fruit consumption and started eating sweet potatoes.  Other than fries, I don't usually eat regular potatoes anyway but I need something to replace some of my carbs.  I've cut out all grains (with the exception of oatmeal before long runs and a little bit of oatmeal in last night's meatloaf), no dairy, and for right now, no alcohol.  I'm still putting non-dairy flavored creamer in my coffee because I'd probably cut someone if I didn't have at least one thing that makes me happy. I haven't gone nuts and bought a bunch of weird and horribly overpriced flours or switched from soy sauce to coconut aminos - whatever the eff those are.  So, paleo-ish.

Some of the foods I've tried have been real winners.  The Chicken Fried "Rice" I posted on Monday has probably been my favorite new meal. For Cinco de Mayo, I had homemade chicken fajitas wrapped in lettuce.  This was a little bit disappointing when the rest of the family is eating tortillas but it was passable.  The Mongolian Beef with Broccoli over cauliflower rice was decent but missing something. I need to work on that recipe a bit.

There were also some flops.  The avocado stuffed burger was just a PITA to make and I think would've tasted better with the avocado just on the top.  Also, I really hated eating a burger with a knife and fork while everyone else had theirs on buns like normal people.  The bottom right hand picture was a big time flop.  That mound of grey stuff is supposed to be an avocado turkey burger.  The flavor was ok, but as my son pointed out, it looked like puke.  The kale and sweet potatoes were good though.  For breakfasts, I've been eating eggs scrambled with veggies or made into an omelet with a side of fruit.  I decided to make little egg cups (like in a muffin tin) and those were just ok.  I think I'll stick with taking extra time to cook the eggs in the morning.

I did make one mistake by having a Diet Coke one day for lunch.  I was up a pound the next day.  Maybe completely unrelated or maybe not.

As for weight loss?  I lost 7.2 pounds between last week Monday and today.  I'm sure 90% of that is water weight and just like on Biggest Loser, this coming week will probably suck for a loss, but it's a start.  I was really hoping to be back into a better decade today and I missed it by almost 2 pounds. Probably won't see it next week either.

So, yes, I'm going to try to stick with this.  I DO plan on having a beer after my race on Saturday but I still haven't figured out what I'm eating Friday night.  I'm also still looking for paleo-ish recipes that don't require a ton of super weird or expensive ingredients, so if you have ideas, hit me up in the comments.

Training Tuesday: Double Digits and T - 5 days until River Bank Run

Last week turned out to be a pretty decent training week.  Do you see that "10" on Saturday?  That was my first double-digit run since the end of December!

I'm getting kind of bored with writing out each day's workouts since they are all over on Daily Mile (and you all are probably bored reading them).  Maybe once I pull the trigger on Detroit, I'll start logging the workouts in more detail here.

This week's numbers 

Running 17 miles

Biking 14.7 miles

Yoga x 1

Lifting x 3

Walking 6 miles

I did see a new-ish chiro this week (that would be the giant BLANK on Thursday). I had worked with him before my stress fracture 2 years ago and just wanted his opinion again.  He feels my foot issues are being cause by a lack of strength/activation in my hip and glute.  Sort of makes sense.  He also found my quad was a mess, so I'm now rolling like crazy and trying to strengthen my glute.  I actually felt pretty decent after my 10 mile run on Saturday and even managed a 6 mile walk on Sunday.  Maybe we're on the right track.

In related news - the 5/4 River Bank Run 25k Relay is this coming Saturday!! I'm so excited to see Corey again and run with her on Saturday.  Running a good chunk of my segment on Saturday tells me I'm not going to be setting any PRs, but I know I can finish and collect our bling at the finish line!

What's your next race?

Meal Monday: Chicken Fried "rice" - a winner!

In my quest for paleo-ish, healthier dishes, I stumbled upon this recipe from The Lemon Bowl, Sriracha Chicken Cauliflower "Fried Rice".  

I'm not going to repost the whole recipe - if you want it, you should go give Liz some blog love, because this isn't the first of her recipes that has been a real winner.

I did make a few changes - no white onion because they bother my stomach and no sriracha because we didn't have any well, we did but it expired 2 years ago #fail.  Instead of chopping up carrots, I bought a bag of the frozen peas and carrots and used 2 cups. This was perfect.

I loved this meal.  It really tasted just like fried rice.  I can't explain it.  Maybe it was the sesame oil or something but this dish will definitely making another appearance.

A note about the cauliflower rice.  There is a video in the link that shows how it's done.  Cut it up, throw it in a blender, fill the blender with water, blend and drain. DONE.  I might have tried to squeeze more of the water out because it didn't crisp up quite enough, but for my first attempt, it worked for me.  This also made excellent leftovers the next day.
Have you ever had cauliflower rice?

Fitness Friday: how do I fuel and how do I celebrate?

So, if you've seen any of my other posts this week, you know that I've been re-vamping my eating to be paleo-ish.  I've cut grains, most sugars, and dairy.  This has worked great this week - as of this morning I've lost just over 6 pounds since Monday.  Don't flip, I'm sure at least 5 pounds of that is water.

Now I have a huge issue though.  All my usual pre-long run/pre-race meals are off limits.  

Gone is my ability to eat my usual chicken parmesean on Friday nights.  This is also one of my family's favorite meals, so my guess is I'll be cooking it for them and then eating plain chicken and a sweet potato or something while they enjoy this.

Gone is going out with friends after the race to celebrate.  I also usually have a beer the night before a race and now I can't have that either.  I know I'm whining about stupid shit, but it kind of pisses me off and this is exactly why I didn't want to go paleo in the first place.  One of my friends suggested chips/salsa and cider instead of beer, but those aren't exactly healthy alternatives (and technically, corn chips are also off limits because they are a grain).

Corey is coming in next week Friday and mentioned going out Friday night and then after the 5/3 River Bank Run race on Saturday.  I have no idea where we will go or what I'll be able to eat/drink when we get there.  It kind of takes the fun out of a weekend with friends.  

I'm not really looking for suggestions because I got a ton of them on FB.  Most included brown rice (also not allowed) or rice noodles (not allowed).  I'm hoping that my dinner tonight of plain chicken and a sweet potato helps me get through 10 miles tomorrow morning.  If not, I'm pretty much screwed for race day next week.

TTT: giving thanks x 3

Just a few fun things to be thankful for today.

Some days, my job really stresses me out, especially at this time of the year.
Having one of the HS special education students draw me yesterday
made my day.  I really love the eyelashes :)

My boy might have a job this summer!  Really hoping his interview goes well
and I'm proud of him for going for it.

My girl PRd in discus at her meet last night by almost another foot,
throwing 72'11".  She ended up taking 3rd in the event with
 G'ville going 1-2-3 out of 12 varsity throwers!

I'm also giving thanks for the restraint I had this morning in our staff breakfast.  I stuck to my eating plan and didn't eat anything that was off limits.  What I did eat, I logged into MFP.  Hopefully those 3 strips of bacon don't undo the 6.4 pounds I've already lost this week.