Sidewalk: 1, Me: 1

I will claim victory in my battle against the sidewalk!

I had a minor accident involving a stumble and some concrete yesterday morning as I tried to start a 3 mile run. Luckily my minor damage will probably heal in a week and doesn’t impede running (tested that today), especially with the running endorphins covering the stinging sensation of my open wounds and the cold autumn air.

I had some low mileage weeks since I last wrote on here, but I’m looking forward to fixing that soon.

DONE:

Su 10/23:   3.06 mi 31:00 (avg. 10.13 min/mi)

M-W 10/24-26:   rest days

Th 10/27:   2.12 mi 25:00 (avg. 11.79 min/mi)

F 10/28:   2.12 mi 24:00 (avg. 11.32 min/mi)

Sa 10/29:   rest day

= total 7.3 miles

Su 10/30:   3.06 mi 32:00 (avg. 10.46 min/mi)

M-W 10/31-11/2:   rest day

Th 11/3:   2.55 mi  25:00 (avg. 9.8 min/mi)+ 30 min. Baron Baptiste power yoga video

 

PLANNED:

F 11/4:   1.49,

Sa 11/5:   3.55 mi,

Su 11/6:   rest day

=weekly total of 10.65 miles

 

M 11/7:   1.49 mi,

Tu 11/8:   3.0 mi,

W 11/9:   Yoga 30 min, rest day

Th 11/10:   3.16mi, 

F 11/11:   rest day

Sa 11/12:   2.55 mi

=weekly total of 10.2 miles

 

GOALS:

1. Pace of 10 min/mi. or less

2. Yoga after running at least half the time, if time allows

3. Increase my per week mileage to 12 by 11/19, 13 by 11/26, 15 by 12/3, 17 by 12/10, 20 by 12/17, and 22 by Christmas! I don’t have a race planned yet, and am working on increasing mileage and maintaining the running habit for now.

4. Make 30 miles/week in early February, doing a long run of 13 miles one week!

5. Sign up for a 10k or half-marathon for early next year!

 

Smoothie recipe of the week:

Chia seeds are our current ingredient of the week and are a yummy addition to this smoothie. I started with a base of a terrible recipe for pumpkin frozen yogurt that was too grainy and just not fitting to our tastes. Mix the following in a blender until smooth:

3/4 c. greek yogurt

3/4 c. pumpkin puree (I used Libby’s canned pumpkin puree)

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1 yellow banana

handful of raspberries

5 ice cubes

2 tbsp of mixed seeds (chia and flaxseed)

 

Cheers!

 

 

Ginger fizz smoothie.

I’ve been seriously slacking on exercising lately, which I at least partially attribute to my job hunt and the exam I took for my online class yesterday. I put off studying until yesterday and of course did more poorly than I hoped.

I missed two interviews on Tuesday because I attempted to get a first interview during a job fair, and ended up standing two hours before I realized it would be at least another few hours until I would probably speak with hiring managers. By that time, I was grumpy, hungry and needed to leave for another interview. On my way home, I stopped for some coconut water and a Nutz over chocolate Luna Bar, and then promptly missed my second interview due to rush hour traffic, and third due to my knees and hips aching from standing too long (the third would begin with a 3 mile run, and achy joints would get me nowhere in a run).  Frustrating!

At least things perked up yesterday, when I sent in a barrage of job applications, contacted some new contacts and made delicious vegetarian shepards pie. There’s something ironic about eating Shepard’s Pie while watching Hannibal (we did last night), so I’m glad it was the vegetarian version! eeks. Ours was vegetarian because I added some buttah to the cauliflower and potatoes mixture. To make it even awesomer after pre-preparing it and stuffing it in the fridge with the potato portion on top of the lentils, I put it back in the oven for 20 minutes at 350, covered, then 20 minutes uncovered, which browned the topping nicely.

Thursday was made even better with a short run of 1.5 miles at a 10 min/mile pace followed by 20 minutes of a Jillian Michaels dvd with hubby.

I ran out of coffee and desperately needed caffeine, so I was hoping for green tea at breakfast, so today started with a Spicy Carrot Green Tea Smoothie (the “spiciness” comes from the ginger):

8 baby carrots, washed

1 tbsp. ground fresh ginger root

1 cup of unsweetened green tea

1/3 cup of sparkling water (I used pomegranate flavor)

2 tbsp. whole oats

1 banana

1 kiwi

1 tsp. white granulated sugar

5 ice cubes

 

Blend until smooth and enjoy!

 

Fitness and Health Goals this week:

1. Run 10 miles total, -1.5 mi. already done; I’ll likely do two 2.5 mi. runs and a 3.5 mile run

2. Drink more water and tea!

3. Map all my runs and workouts this week, and make time for those runs so I stay in shape! It helps me to see my workouts, and because I’m slightly compulsive, I want to fill in all the little squares of the MapMyRun Calendar with runs and workouts!

 

Cheers!

Pumpkin cravings…

I thought I might not jump on the pumpkin recipe bandwagon, but a recent trip to Ghiradelli Chocolate in downtown San Francisco left me with some unfulfilled cravings. The shop is apt at luring in potential customers with their simple decorations and of course the greeter at the door offering free “samples” of pumpkin chocolate squares.

DROOL….

Unfortunately I didn’t buy any because I having no paycheck means a $20 package of pumpkin chocolate happiness is money poorly spent. But the pumpkin chocolate combination was so delicious that I’ve been thinking about it ever since Saturday, and even purchased a can of pumpkin at the store to try my hand at making something with it (and to fulfill my one “novel ingredient” per week goal)! Luckily there was a container of organic chocolate chips in the freezer waiting for a purpose, so I made these delicious chocolate chip pumpkin muffins and a pumpkin banana smoothie to munch on while studying for my online class. Next up? These pumpkin gingersnaps, which we surprisingly have all the ingredients to make!  I loosely based the smoothie on this recipe, but my version was prepared with a limited spice collection:

Banana pumpkin smoothie

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. honey

1/2 tbsp. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup milk

1 tbsp. vanilla

1 cup ice

1/2 tbsp. flaxseeds

Blend all together until smooth, stirring as necessary. Sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon.

 

I’ve been trying to keep up with a workout habit lately, and I say habit because it’s not anything that resembles something that anyone could label as a “routine”.  I’ve been all over the place trying Jillian Michaels’ workouts, courtesy of the library of Contra Costa and of our South SF friends, and running fairly increasingly longer distances a few times each week. I’d like to sweat 6/7 days, because it makes me feel more awake and more focused on tasks at hand! I’d also like to hit 10 miles of running per week by the end of October, which I think is do-able, as long as the cooling weather doesn’t turn me into a slug.

This last week… (yes, I realize that calenders don’t start on Wednesday, but I don’t care)

Wednesday: 0 miles

Thursday: 0 miles

Friday: 1.85 mile run 10:48 min/mile, 

Saturday: Long walk in SF from the airshow to Chinatown and back to Bart (very very slowly, and very far),                                                                                               Monday: Jillian Michaels Shred Step 1 20 minutes                                         Tuesday: 2.4 miles at  11:40min/mile (I walked about 5 minutes of the total time; Boo.)

Planned workouts (for a total of 7.7 miles this week)

Today: Jillian Michaels Shred Step 1 and Step 2 DVD (40 min)

Thursday: Run 1.85 miles, Gaiam Yoga cooldown (Hulu)

Friday: Jillian Michaels “No More Trouble Spots” 40 min. workout

Saturday: Run 2.5 miles

Sunday: Run 1.49 miles

Monday: off! (interview day)

Tuesday: Run 1.85 miles, Yoga cooldown (Hulu or netflix)

 

Cheers!