My Pumpkin Obsession: Protein Shake and Italian Ice

9 Nov

This week I continued on my endless pursuit of eating all things pumpkin with two new pumpkin-flavored items.

I’m not sure how it is that I have never had Jeremiah’s Italian Ice in Winter Park, FL until Monday, but I’m pretty sure that my decision to eat Jeremiah’s Pumpkin Pie Ice as my lunch righted this wrong.

Jeremiah's Pumpkin Pie Ice

Jeremiah's Pumpkin Pie Ice

And tonight, I was shopping at Whole Foods when I encountered this new Odwalla flavor: Super Protein Pumpkin. Fall in my protein drink? Yes, please!

Odwalla Super Protein Pumpkin

Where else have you unexpectedly (but pleasantly) been surprised by pumpkin flavors?

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I Missed Tuesday’s Run

9 Nov

I missed my track run on Tuesday… and today for that matter.

After I opted to stay up until 1 AM watching Changeling Monday night, I knew I wasn’t going to wake up in time to make it to the track by 5 AM. So I told myself I would run after work. But I left work super late and exhausted and told myself I would wake up this morning to run. But I was so tired last night that I forgot to set my alarm.

I’m helping a friend after work today so I won’t be making this one up. But I will fester in my guilt all day.

By the way, Changeling was a great movie based on the most awful true story.

When you miss a training run, what do you do? Make it up? Skip it? Feel guilt? 

 

And I thought Adriana Lima woke up looking like that …

9 Nov

The Daily News recently published this article about Victoria Secret Angel Adriana Lima and her strict diet and exercise regiment that preps her for the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

Twice-daily workouts and goodbye to solid foods? No liquids at all 12 hours before the show?? Sad. I thought she just naturally looked this amazing.

It’s probably a good thing I wasn’t born with a model’s physique. Being a model sounds like more work than training for my marathon.

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Sweet Sixteen

6 Nov

I’ve spent my Sunday resting and following the 2011 ING New York City Marathon. It has me ridiculously excited for my first marathon, which is quickly approaching in January: the 2012 Walt Disney World Marathon. But before I can tackle 26.2 miles, I had to tackle yesterday’s sweet sixteen.

This is the second time I run my longest distance of 16 miles. The first time I covered this distance was over a month ago in New York City, where I ran 16 miles with my group leader’s friend, Kate, who was training for today’s New York City Marathon. It was a great run for several reasons: I felt strong, time flew by because I was busy catching up with my brand-new friend, and dodging the NYRR races taking place in Central Park that morning added a nice distraction from the mileage.

Not long after my first 16-miler, I was sidelined for a few weeks with tendonitis in my foot, so this was my first time hitting that high mileage again. I started the run a little nervous for how my foot was going to hold up.

The rest of my group was running 20 miles. Instead, I decided to aim for 16 and joined them 4 miles into their run at 5:30 AM. We were a small group: we started with six of us, but dropped to four after an injury sidelined one of our runners. The dark sky was clear and riddled with stars. I tried to snap a pic but the iPhone 4G doesn’t capture stars, just dark sky. Boo.

Shortly before 7 AM a pick-up truck approached us and the driver said, “Watch out for the drunk guy ahead.”

At this point we had been running for over an hour and I was bored. One of the runners in my group wanted to cross the street in order to heed this probably-smart advice, but I pushed us to stay the course. By golly, I needed a distraction and seeing this drunk guy would do just fine!

As we ran in the dark I tried to focus my near-sighted eyes, but couldn’t see anything. Finally one of us noticed someone up ahead:

Christine: Is that him?

Me: Where?

Christine: Standing in the middle of the street.

Molly: Well, if he’s standing in the middle of the street it probably is him.

Me: Where? I can’t see anyone.

Christine: Wait, are his pants down?

Me: What? His pants are down?? Shoot. I can’t see anyone!

Christine: Yeah, I think his pants are down. I don’t see any pants.

As I struggled to really focus and we quickly approached a drunk guy whose pants were apparently around his ankles, a police car approached. The patrol car lights helped me see a figure ahead quickly pulling up their pants. We saw the police officer get out of his car, approach the drunk guy, ask a couple of questions and by the time we ran by them, the officer had a visibly intoxicated guy with his hands on the hood of the patrol car and his legs spread, just like you see on COPS or Law & Order.

As we ran by, my group ribbed me for not taking a picture to capture the moment. Okay, I admit it… I’m scared of taking pictures of police officers while they’re trying to do their jobs. However, I did get to capture this moment of the sun rising:

Sunrises are one of the best parts of running in the early AM

I also got this picture from my favorite little trail, nicknamed “the Dinky Dock”:

View from the dinky dock

Around mile 11, I asked my group if they wanted to play the Name Game. The way I play it, one person starts by saying a famous person’s first and last name. The next person has to say a famous person’s full name whose first name starts with the same letter as the previous person’s last name. For example, if I started with Beyonce Knowles, the next person would have to name a celebrity whose first name starts with the letter ‘K’ like Kevin Spacey. The next person would have to name a celebrity whose first name starts with an ‘S’ like Sigourney Weaver. If at any point someone uses a celebrity whose first and last name start with the same letter (for example, Janet Jackson) then the turn goes back to the person before you and the direction of the game reverses (for example, we were playing counter-clockwise, so a double letter name like this would change the direction of the game to clockwise).

The Name Game surprisingly kept us pretty entertained/distracted for 3 or 4 miles. However, around mile 13 my IT band in my left leg started to hurt and by mile 15 I couldn’t talk anymore. My silence didn’t seem to bother my group as they were running mile 19 and were struggling as well.

I pushed myself to pick up my legs and when my watch said 16 miles I almost cried out in joy.

After 16 miles, my dogs were barking

So energy-wise, I felt good throughout the run. But this long run was definitely harder than my last 16-miler a month ago. And while my tendonitis didn’t seem to bother me, I wonder if it’s changed my stride without me realizing it? I’ve already stretched and rolled my legs and hips three times since yesterday’s run and plan to do it again tonight. Let’s see how I feel Tuesday morning.

What interesting distractions have you welcomed during a long run? 

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Running in Grass Skirts and Coconut Bras

4 Nov

I was recently introduced to the wonder that is www.joggingjeans.com, which is a blog that consists of… well, people jogging in jeans. Which is preposterous, yet hilarious. Well maybe it’s not that crazy. I mean as kids, didn’t we play and run in our jeans all day, every day? It never seemed to bother us then, right? You never see a kid stop their fun and say ,”Wait guys. Let me put on some more appropriate clothing for running.” Nah, they just take off.

This got me to thinking about the most ridiculous things I’ve run in:

  • Cross-trainers – When I first started running almost five years ago, I ran in an old pair of cross-trainers I had in my closet. It pained Donnie to see me run in these and he eventually bought me my first pair of running shoes when I started to complain of ankle pain.
  • Street clothes – Recently my friends and I traveled to Cleveland, OH for a wedding. We had a layover in Atlanta. Due to bad weather and a delayed flight, we had less than one minute to get across the Atlanta Airport. Despite this being an impossible challenge, we tried anyways. Running in low-rise jeans, a regular bra and flats was a massive fail and my sprint quickly turned into a really slow jog. We missed the flight (not because of how slow I was, but because the plane had already left without us) and ended up sleeping in Atlanta.
  • Street clothes (again) – When a friend was struggling during her marathon earlier this year I threw on my running shoes and started to run along side her for a little motivation. I’m so thankful that she said she was fine, because running in tweed shorts was sure to give me some massive leg chafing.
  • Coconut bra, lei and a grass skirt – In 2008, Donnie and I ran Muddy Buddy here in Orlando, FL. They really encourage you to dress up for this bike and run obstacle course so I hit up the dollar store for inspiration. The two grass skirts, two coconut bras and two leis later I had our costumes for under $10! Who cares that our grass skirts caught caught in our borrowed bike’s spokes and we were picking out skirt for hours? At least we had epic race pics:

Donnie and I on the final stretch of Muddy Buddy

Around mile 3 we figured out that it was best to tuck our grass skirts into our shorts to avoid getting caught in the spokes. Wish we would've remembered to untuck for this pic.

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve run in?

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Sharing the Road

2 Nov

Yesterday morning I ran 4 miles with my training group. Due to this past weekend’s Marine Corps Marathon and this upcoming weekend’s New York City Marathon, our group was small. The three of us ran on the road, making sure to be mindful of cars.

When a car comes, our group does the following:

  1. Yell “car back” or “car front” loud enough for the whole group to hear. The front and back signifier lets everyone know if the car is coming from behind or ahead.
  2. Run along the curb facing traffic. If a car is traveling fast or we aren’t sure if they can see us, we’ll jump on the sidewalk instead.

At one point during our run an oncoming car honked loudly at us and it seemed that they swerved towards us, not away from us. In a quiet neighborhood at 6 AM, I couldn’t help but think how rude of a gesture this was on so many levels. I felt bad for anyone that was sleeping in the houses around us because they got awoken with a nice little “$@%& you” honk in the wee hours.

When this sort of thing happens, I try to just wave and smile and remind myself that we’re supposed to be sharing the road. I imagine the driver as that kid in kindergarden that would punch you if you tried to play with one of their toys.

Runner’s World has plenty of similar stories online, but this one takes the cake. Chase a runner with a tire iron? What a lovely gesture! But a commentator John 3-13 makes the best point: “I run into the hostile ones too, but what leaves a lasting impression are the considerate ones.”

How true! For my last half marathon I trained by myself and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated the random words of encouragement I would get from strangers on my long, lonely runs. I’ve heard “Nice run,” “Better you than me,” and my personal favorite “Nice legs.” (That last one I now use for marathon posters.) I’ve had drivers stop traffic to let me cross, honk and wave, and move over to the other side of the street to give me plenty of room to run.

What nice gestures have you received from drivers while running?

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Peaches in My Salad??

31 Oct

Sliced peaches ready for my salad

In my quest to try to eat healthier, I’ve been looking for new recipes to try. I recently came across a recipe in a magazine that caught my eye and I tore it out in case I got brave enough to try it. I must apologize because I don’t remember which magazine I tore this recipe out of, but I’m pretty sure it was one of the women’s healthy living magazines. (Let this be a lesson to all magazines – Listing your title or website at the top or bottom of every editorial page is important for this very reason: reckless people just like me!)

I slightly altered the recipe for simplicity. It was absolutely delicious and I already can’t wait for lunch tomorrow to have more.

Here’s what you’ll need for the salad:

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 peaches, cut into wedges

1 bag spring salad mix

1 cup sliced almonds, toasted (I bought a bag of roasted sliced almonds)

4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

And here’s what you’ll need for the dressing:

1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt (I just bought a single serving of Publix brand yogurt)

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons honey

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

salt and black pepper

1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine 1 tablespoon each honey and vinegar with a fork; add peaches and stir to coat.

Coating peaches in honey and vinegar

2. In a large nonstick pan, sear peaches over medium heat for about 3 minutes per side or until caramelized. Remove from heat and let cool.

Seared peaches

3. While waiting for peaches to cool, whisk together yogurt, lemon juice, mustard, and remaining honey and vinegar in a medium bowl. Drizzle in oil, whisking constantly; season with salt and pepper.

The dressing

4. Divide spring salad mix among four plates. Top with goat cheese, sliced almonds, balsamic peaches and a drizzle of the dressing.

I paired my salad with some Publix rotisserie chicken (my favorite flavor: mojo). My dinner was absolutely delicious. The sweetness of the peaches combined with the balsamic and honey mixture was a pleasant surprise and the goat cheese wasn’t overpowering. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this salad dressing, but I think I’ll be making it on a regular basis!

Rotisserie chicken with yummy salad

When I texted my sister about my delicious salad, she responded with the following text: “Eww. I don’t like fruit in my salad.” I don’t blame her… I can’t stand mandarins in any salad, but this is worth trying.

Do you like any fruit in your salads? Which ones?

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Happy Halloween

31 Oct

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Happy Halloween!

Don’t take candy from strangers. Or zombies.

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Halloween Costumes are Fun

30 Oct

Every year Donnie and I love to dress up and head downtown for what never fails to be the best amazing people watching night of the year.

I always tend to pick my costumes by makeup. I love to play with makeup and Halloween is the perfect time for me to indulge. Donnie, on the other hand, tends to pick a costume day of and usually bases his decision on materials available or whatever slim pickings are left at the costume store. Here’s what we chose this year.

This year I dressed up like Natalie Portman’s character as the Black Swan from the movie, Black Swan. The makeup for this role was epic and I was dying to recreate the look.

I found this tutorial on YouTube on how to make it happen:

I had some leftover white costume makeup that I used for my face to get that pale look. I used my regular makeup to create the eye portion: black waterproof liner, black pencil liner, silver pencil liner and silver liquid liner. On my cheeks I used cheek stain and on my lips a dark red lip liner with black pencil liner for shading and a ruby red lipstick to top it off.

On Amazon.com I found a black halter leotard and a black tutu. I chose the halter style for the added support and I got lucky because it’s super comfy and I can pair it with sweat pants for strength workouts or yoga (which is on my TO-DO list). I had to search the Fashion Square mall high and low for white opaque tights (I found them in the very last department store I walked into). By the way, white tights are not flattering on my body type at all, but I was trying to stay true to the costume. Needless to say, I won’t be wearing these again. For shoes, I wore my pink flats from Aldo, which resemble ballerina flats. The tiara I got for $1.99 at Party City. I picked it up in the kids birthday section and popped the purple stones off that were on it.

As for Donnie, he left all brainstorming for a costume until the day of as usual. I’m not sure why, but the cult vampire flick The Lost Boys popped into my mind. I suggested he go as Keifer Sutherland’s character in the movie, David. Donnie loves that movie and quickly got excited. Although he didn’t have any luck finding the blonde wig that would’ve completed the look, he picked up some fangs and some fake fingerless leather gloves at one of the costume stores. And while at Target, I completed the look with some $4.99 cross earrings I found at Target (I was there trying to find the white tights). He wore a black t-shirt and jeans and I tried to mold his hair into a mock mullet. We added some leftover fake blood leftover from last year and his look was complete.

Here’s our final look:

Me and Donnie Halloween 2011

What did you dress up as for Halloween? Did you plan ahead or decide at the last minute?

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A Dark and Dreary (and Wet) Run

29 Oct
HiddenLight.jpg
 
Photo Source: Matt Gibson 

This morning our group met up at our usual spot at 6 AM to run 6 miles. My training schedule called for a 10-mile run this weekend, but since I was out of commission with my tendonitis for almost three weeks, I’m trying to ease back in slowly.

Earlier this week I had suggested that our group leaders should have our route go by a local cemetery, it being our pre-Halloween run and all. I was super excited when they agreed. I was even more excited when I woke up this morning and it was drizzling. This would set the stage for our run perfectly!

Unfortunately, it was a little too dark and I was a little too chatty, and the first time we ran right by the cemetery without my noticing. Lucky for me, we had to pass it one more time. After I mentioned how exciting it would be to actually run through the cemetery, one of my group leaders gave it some thought and agreed. It wasn’t hard convincing the rest of the group to join. Well, except for one person.

We spent the next minutes addressing some very valid concerns. The conversation went something like this:

Emily: I’ll go, but I just want it to be known that I’m not excited about this.

Me: Don’t worry. If a hand pops out of the ground and grabs someone, it can grab me.

Emily: How can you be sure it will grab you first?

Me: I’ll go first. But if something grabs me, what will you do?

Emily: I’ll pick up my pace and the group will thank you later for making us run faster.

Me: Oh, well what if I trip and hurt my ankle. Would you stay with me until help comes?

Emily: I know the way back best. I would let Christina stay with you.

Christina: But you’re the group leader.

Emily: And as group leader, I would run the group back, get my car and come back and get you.

Christina: Even without zombies?

Emily: It’s still a cemetery.

The conversation continued as we headed back towards the cemetery. And as we got closer the drizzle increased to a steady rain.

As we neared, I noted a car sitting in the parking lot of the cemetery with it’s lights on. This is how scary movies start. I picked up my pace.

The actual run through the cemetery was dark (we could hardly see the trail) and quiet. All you could hear was the crunching of the pebbles beneath our feet. It was serene. I couldn’t help but think of the tears that have been shed by loved ones here.

And most importantly, our run through the cemetery was uneventful. No ghosts. No zombies. No hands shooting out of the ground and grabbing my ankle.

Afterwards, we ran back to our cards making a squishy sound with every step. Our shoes and socks were soaked at this point.

And I never bothered to turn back around to see what happened to the car that was sitting in the parking lot.

Have you ever run through the cemetery? If so, how was your experience?

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