I Am Hardcore

Well, I've done a couple runs in the rain now, and I've been fully anticipating that a COLD run was going to happen sooner or later, since I'm training for a marathon in the winter and all.  Last night ended up being my rude awakening into WINTER running.  As you can see, the temps were a balmy 33 degrees (not so good at holding the thermometer while snapping pics!)!

Now, there are a variety of reasons last night's run might not have happened:

• I'm still recovering from this cold.
• It was friggin 33 degrees!
• I have 30 million things I need to do because I'm hosting my first cookie exchange later this week.
• I ran 19 miles the other day, don't I get a week off now or something?
• Did I mention it was 33 degrees outside??

In any case, I suited up in pants, a turtle neck, a fleece sweatshirt, a fleece coat, a fleece hat, and gloves.

Oh yeah, and my awesome reflective vest.  

Hello, my name is Brittney and I will be your crossing guard today...

I got in a frigid 4 miles.  Actually, the first mile was the only one that really sucked.  After one loop, I was actually hot in my three top layers and dropped my jacket off on my porch, before setting out for the remainder of the run.  I probably should have done more than 4 miles last night, but it was cold and I didn't want to push it too much with my cold.  Plus, I had a million things to do.  I considered it a win that I got in 4+ miles.  I forget what my time was, and actually, I really don't care, because this was not a speed work run, it was a test of will, and as far as I'm concerned, I passed just getting my butt out the front door in the dark cold when I could have been curled up with my puppy on the couch.

The funny thing about this whole outdoor run was that it actually could have been avoided.  I forgot that Greg was home most of yesterday, which meant I didn't have to rush home to let Clyde out like I usually do.  Had I been thinking cleary, I could have brought running stuff with me and run at work on the treadmill, INSIDE, where people are not turning into human icicles!  Oh well!  Like I said, the outdoor winter running was going to happen, so it might as well have been last night.

Back at the house, you can imagine what I wanted to eat for dinner.  Warm soup!  I found some lentils in my freezer and paired them with a piece of my Rosemary Focaccia bread.  Eh, the soup was not great.  I'm not sure how long it had been in the freezer, and don't know if that was the issue or what, but I probably only ate about half the bowl before tossing it.  I assure you that my hunk of bread was substantial though.

Next, it was time to let the Christmas cookie baking begin!  I'm making two kinds of cookies for the exchange.  Candy Cane cookies (almond flavored), and chocolate orange pinwheels.  I baked a batch of the candy cane cookies.  For this batch, I substituted Earth Balance for butter, since I know some of my guests need/prefer it.  I will say that I did find that the dough was not as pliable as it usually is and they do not taste quite as buttery (which is to be expected), as usual, but I think they still came out well.

I also worked on the pinwheels and they are ready to be baked tonight!  My to-do list is about a mile long, but I'm hoping everything comes together for my cookie party!

Sick Day

Monday I took a sick day.  I woke up right before my alarm went off and my throat still felt scratchy.  Not to mention I was achy, which may have been from the cold or the 19 mile run, or a combination of both.  In any case, I have like 500 hours of sick leave, and I wasn't feeling that great, so it seemed like a logical day to stay home and try to recoup.

The cold did not kill my appetite.  I decided to make a pot of steel cut oats and added pumpkin, pumpkin spice, maple syrup, and maple almond butter.

 While the oats cooked, I made myself some green tea.

  Hello, antioxidants.  Do your thing.

My warm bowl of oats!

Soon the boys were up and I got a kick out of Clyde staring at me from Greg's shoulder.

Tooooooooooooo cute!

It's love.

I did my fair share of relaxing and nursing cups of tea, and ate a big plate of leftover Chinese at lunchtime. Later in the day, I decided I ought to get a little more productive.  I made a shopping list, cleaned, and decided to try making this Rosemary Olive Oil Focaccia Bread that I'd seen on Diana's blog the other day.  I am notorious for buying packets of yeast and letting them sit in the pantry well past expiration without using them.  This was the night!

My ball of dough (by the way, do any of you people that use Blogger have issues with it flipping your pictures?).

The dough all sprinkled with rosemary, olive oil, Parmesan, and a little salt, ready for the oven.

Voila.

Greg and I enjoyed some before heading off to Lowes and Harris Teeter to buy exciting things such as caulk.  I love joking about caulk.  "Wow, there's a lot of caulk in this aisle."  "Greg, do you like caulk?"  "Do you think this caulk will be hard enough for us?"

Um, that was tasteless, sorry!  Anyway, I'm glad I took Monday to recoup.  I felt infinitely better by the end of the day.

A Rough 19 Miles

My 19 mile run had its issues, but I got it done.

First, I awoke Sunday morning with a scratchy/sore throat.  Not much else felt off, so I decided I was doing the run.  I popped some non-drowsy cold meds hoping to keep the symptoms at bay.

Second, I checked the forecast and here was the hourly:

So basically I didn't have much hope of the temps getting much above 40 degrees during this run.  I knew it would be a chilly one!  I bundled up.  I wore Nike tights, a New Balance long sleeved tech shirt, Target half zip fleece, cheap Old Navy gloves, Nike running socks, and my old Asics.  I'm still having some issues breaking the new ones in and didn't want to have problems with them on the 19 mile run.

I had a (previously made, frozen) waffle with real maple syrup and piece of Dakota bread toast with PB and banana.  Like most avid runners, I'm a little sick of PB and banana on toast, so I mixed it up a little.

I headed off to meet Michelle at our usual running spot- the trail.  Once there, I got out my stuff and realized that my new handheld water bottle filled with half water, half Gatorade, had leaked all over the place in my backback!  Luckily my phone, Garmin, and electronics were in my purse and did not get wet.  A bunch of other stuff was soaked, but most of it was back-up stuff (socks, a hat, etc...), so it wasn't a huge deal.  I also noticed that my Garmin appeared to be on low battery.  Lovely.  Luckily Michelle had hers and it was fully charged. 

We talked strategy and decided we'd go out 3.5 miles on the road sidewalks and back to get in 7 miles before hitting the trail for the remaining 12 miles.  The first 7 went well.  The biggest issue was adjusting my nose to the cold (maybe because of my cold), and I found that I was getting kind of a runny nose for the first 3 miles or so, but once my temperature acclimated better, it seemed to stabilize.  Both of us felt like we'd dressed appropriately and the miles flew by as we talked about work and I told Michelle about a recent episode of Oprah with the Pamela Smart case (anyone else see that one??).  That case took place in NH (my home state) and I was surprised to learn more about it than I'd previously heard.  It was interesting.

On our return to the trail, I mentioned I might want to duck into McDonald's and use the bathroom and Michelle had to go too, so that ended up being a great decision.  The trail as a port-o-potty that might be the grossed I've ever seen, so I did NOT want to use it!

Back at the trail parking lot we fueled (I took a Vanilla GU and had some Gatorade), and strapped on our belts and gear for the next 12 miles.  I had brought extra water and Gatorade, so I was able to refill the water bottle that had leaked.

Pretty early on in the trail run, we both started feeling it.  I think it was only about 2 miles in when my familiar lower back pain/pressure snuck up on me again.  We pressed on though.  We stopped about twice on the way to the end of the trail to stretch.  My new water bottle continued to leak when I was running, which was kind of annoying.  It wasn't that different than carrying a small Gatorade bottle though, because they leak on me too and at least this bottle had a strap to go around my hand.

We reached the end of the trail just shy of 13 miles and stretched and fueled more.  I took a chocolate GU (YUM) and then we headed back out.  Around mile 15, I wanted to walk very briefly.  Walking actually felt as bad or maybe worse than running though, so it only lasted about 1/4 of a mile. 

Just before we hit 17 miles we saw Kelly and Brad coming towards us.  They too were out for their long runs! 

After the 17 mile marker, the last two miles were ROUGH.  I asked Michelle about people hitting the wall in a marathon, and now I feel like I kind of understand it better.  My low battery Garmin died at 17.9 miles and our time was 3 hours and 11 minutes at that point.  After mile 18, it was REALLY hard to go on and finish.  Everything hurt- my back, my legs, everything.  I didn't want to turn my head to look at anything- just stared straight ahead.  I felt whiny and tired.  We realized we were going to be just shy of 19 miles upon reaching the trail parking lot and I told Michelle I was fine with that, I didn't care if I reached 19 miles.  She insisted I was going to reach 19 and made me run out on the sidewalk until we did (it was like .02).  I did it, but goooooooooooooosh did it hurt! 

Here's me back at home, post 19  (I looked psyched, I know):

Clyde wanted in on the action.  Doesn't he look cute in his new sweater??

And here's my lunch, post 19, two mini pizzas:

Greg laughed when I got these out and said, "How many do you want?"  He didn't expect me to eat two.  I was like, "I just ran 19 miles, and I'm tired and hungry and these are easy to make!"

I foamed rolled, took a jacuzzi bath, and then put on lounge wear.  I had warned Greg that I would probably be kind of useless for the rest of the day, and I definitely was.  This 19 miles hit me a lot harder than 17 miles did last week.  I did not want to move.  I pretty much parked my butt on the couch and watched The Sex and The City movie, which I hadn't seen in a couple years since I saw it at the theater.  I also ate a big bowl of popcorn.

For dinner, I requested Chinese take-out.  I ordered won-ton soup, a spring roll, and vegetable delight with brown sauce and brown rice.

Mmmmmm good! 

Even though I'm kind of sick with a cold, and sore from the run, I did still feel like the marathon will be doable with another 5 weeks of training.  The cost goes up after today, so I bit the bullet and .....  REGISTERED!

26.2, here I come!



Clyde's Exciting Saturday

Clyde had quite the exciting day Saturday.  Our doggie daycare hosted a Christmas Paw-ty (heh heh), and since our dog is such a social pup, we decided to take him.

The place was already packed with humans and K9s when we got there.  Some were strolling around the main area, and some were in the designated small and large doggie play areas.  There was food, picture taking, some vendors, etc...  Initially we went into the small doggie play area with Clyde and watched him mingle with his similar sized friends.

We left him in there to play for a little while so we could scope out what was happening elsewhere at the paw-ty.



Greg and I both got some refreshments and peeked in on the photo shoot area and vendor area.  We decided we wanted to do a Christmas picture with Clyde so we got him out of the play area and got in line.  After several tries to do a picture with Clyde alone, it just wasn't going to happen (he'd run every time we let go), so we opted for a family shot of us.  They're supposed to email me the copy.

After our pictures, we took Clyde into the the vendor room to sniff around.  He met another mini Dachshund that was close to his size, only red.



We let Clyde play for a little while longer, then headed out to run a couple errands.  We went to Petsmart for bunny food and Christmas presents for Clyde.  Here's a sneak peak and Clyde's presents:

While there, we heard a, "Ho Ho Ho" coming from the corner.  They had pet pictures with Santa going on!  We had to do it...  Clyde was a good sport.  Much better behaved than the crazy Yorkie that went after him!  Here's the money shot:

One more stop at Dicks Sporting Goods for running fuel for me, and we were on our way back home.

This was the scene for the next couple hours:

We stayed in last night, which felt SO GOOD after two night in a row out.  I did a leftover remix with my enciladas from the other night and put them over salad.

I made a quick dressing of EVOO, Red Wine vinegar, and a shake each of cumin and chili pepper.  I added tomatoes, red pepper, and corn to the salad too.  My theory that the enchiladas would taste better reheated than the first night was actually correct.  The sweetness of the plantains had melded more with the other veggies and it was all yummy veggie goodness.

After dinner we relaxed and I had a coconut popsicle, which Clyde got the last couple bites of.

Pay no attention to my wild hair...   Next up, a recap on my 19 mile run!





Back On The Grid

Wow, I've been completely off the grid the past couple days.  Sorry about that!

The holiday season has definitely kicked off for me, and my normal schedule has gone from normal busy, to intensely busy!

Wednesday night I did my own made up strength training/ab workout which involved some weights, crunches on the exercise ball, lunges, planks, etc...  Still trying to strengthen that core so I'm not feeling the lower back pressure on long runs!

After my workout, I got to work on making some treats for Jen.

Pretty much since I met her she's graciously offered to come over and let Clyde out for me once in a while when I'm in a pinch (or too lazy to trek home and then back out after work).  This week was one of those times.  She lives close by and loves my dog, but it's still time out of her day and I wanted to express my appreciation for her doing that.

She recently discovered she's got some lactose issues, so these treats needed to be milk free.  I know Jen loves peanut butter, so that was an excellent place to begin my recipe search.

I used this recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies. 

Now, they may look and taste great, but this recipe wasn't the greatest.  I found that when I mixed my PB and almond milk to form the "wet" ingredients and then started mixing in the flour, baking soda/powder, salt, etc... there was WAY too much dry ingredients for the amount of wetness.  I ended up leaving out about a whole cup of all purpose flour and even then, the dough was really crumbly and didn't want to stay together.  I basically had to mash/squeeze each ball with my hands into a ball and then pray it held together in the oven. 

They did taste fantastic though.  I'm on the fence about whether I'd make them again or not.  For sure I'd leave out a lot of flour if I do.

Thursday was my office Christmas party after work.  Jen ended up having a doggie emergency of her own and couldn't let Clyde out for me, but it wasn't a big deal, I ran home, took Clyde out, touched up my make-up (while playing fetch with Clyde), then headed out to par-tay.  I think this was my first office Christmas party solo.  Somehow Greg has magically been off for the others in the four years we've lived here.  My organization likes to mix things up venue-wise and sometimes does formal hotel ball room style ones, sometimes we do a dance club, and sometimes we keep it really low-key and do a bar/restaurant, which was what we had this year. 

Do you have an office Christmas party?

We had the Christmas party at an Irish bar in Charlotte this year. 

It was actually funny, because out of all the venues I've previously taken Greg with me to, this is one of his favorite places in Charlotte and he missed it!  Anyway, it was very casual and I had a great time chatting away with co-workers that I sometimes just talk to on the phone and don't always see.

Friday I had a shorter day at work so I took advantage of this and swung by Jen's on my way home to finally drop off the cookies and see how her dog Nati is doing.  They're still not sure what is wrong with him. 

Poor Jen!  I was glad that the PB cookies could dull her pain a little.

I headed home for a late lunch of blue corn nachos, with pureed pumpkin (crazy right!), black beans, spinach, salsa, and chedder:

Let's see that again...

I really liked the addition of the blobs of pumpkin in there.  Definitely gave it a sweet/savory tastebud party, but savory was still very present.

After my nachos, I got in a 5 mile run, in 49:09.

It's getting kind of chilly outside!  I definitely took advantage of running in the daylight while I had the chance!

My friend Sarah had invited me to dinner that night.  She texted me with the time and location and I decided I would be social and go.

There ended up being 14 of us at Loco Lime, including Kelly, who texted me just as I was pulling into the parking lot to invite me.  We didn't know that each other were coming til the last minute!

I started with this margarita, that totally hit the spot.  I love a salted rim!

I chose the vegetarian enchiladas as my entree, after eating waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many chips with salsa and guacamole.

Here is the description:  Our vegetable enchiladas are filled with sautéed Portabello mushrooms, roasted corn relish, sweetplantains, grilled zucchini, and topped with yourchoice of green tomatillo, white queso, or citrus chilired sauce garnished with queso fresco. Served with rice and beans.

Kelly raved about the plantains in the vegetarian dishes, so I was intrigued.  Honestly, I thought they made the enchiladas a little too sweet tasting for me as opposed to the savory taste I'm used to in most Mexican dishes.  I think I would have enjoyed them more on the side than in my burrito, but I understand I'm probably in the minority of people that feel that way and I still liked the enchiladas a lot.  I ended up eating one and about half the rice and beans and have lots of leftovers, so I'm interested to see if the flavors meld more when I reheat it.

Photo shenanigans ensued post dinner:

Can you tell I was getting sleepy??

Tim and Sarah!

And Thomas!

I had a great time, but called it a night after dinner.  I left the late night partying to the younger kiddos. 

Two nights in a row I was out past 10pm!  I know, I'm an animal. 

My Christmas List

 Hey, welcome to December!  The nice 40 degree temperatures showed up just in time to usher in December today, and I am currently listening to my Christmas Mix.  Let all the holiday fun begin!

I love reading what other people want for Christmas or their lists of favorite things this time of year.  

And yes, I did watch both crazy episodes of Oprah's favorite things this year.  I totally believe in giving to others, and am trying to pick out the perfect things for my family members (which is always tough!).  I also regularly fill a stocking for a needy child each year, just so you know I'm not a greed monster!

But anyway, just for fun, I thought I'd make a list of some stuff I'd like.

I usually have a hard time thinking of things and Greg ends up picking out some electronic gadget for me, since that is his area of expertise.  This year, I tried to give people some better more specific ideas for me.  Here are some of the things I mentioned to my family (when they asked) I wouldn't mind receiving.

The Jonathan Adler Dachshund Christmas Ornament

 

This awesome camera bag, from Etsy.

The Kind Diet

A Lululemon Gift Card

A new yoga towel

Yoga mat bag

About 800 more pairs of these pajama pants (they are my favorite).

The latest Emily Giffin book.

Anything by Michael Pollan.  I still have yet to read any of his books, but have been wanting to for a while.


You might have noticed that I didn't really list any running stuff.  I'm in pretty good shape with running gear now, and after the marathon, I'm not sure I'm going to do as much running.  I see more yoga in my future after January...

Of course, I always love gift cards to Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, and ITunes as well :)

What's on your list this year?