Gourmet Runner

I had the best workout ever today. I walked a WHOLE mile. My treadmill was starting to really question our relationship, but with one 17 minute walk I have proved that yes, we are truly meant to be. Since the marathon (that would be almost 3 weeks ago) I haven't been able to run OR walk due to peroneal tendonitis in my right foot/ankle. Woe is me. Anyway, I have been feeling good for a couple of days so I tested it out and there was no pain. I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow it's still ok.... Along with the walk I did a 12 mile easy cycle, 20 minutes of yoga and 20 minutes of abs/upper body. Most of that exercise was because it's good for you and blah, blah, blah - but also because this whole HBBC thing is making me competitive. I want more points! To make sure I got in my veggies today, I had this: That dip in the middle is truly amazing. Just take plain Greek yogurt and mix in a tablespoon of parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and parsley. Tasty, high protein and...

What do a couple of TV repairmen, an 80 minute bike ride and a serious decrease in productivity have in common? Heck if I know, but that's what my post is about. Deal. Today we got a new internet service and TV. Our old internet service was super fast and awesome and roughly a gazillion dollars each month. No bueno. For some reason the same company booked our internet installer to come today, and TV guy to come tomorrow. Lots of last minute calls and changes, and they showed up almost at the same time instead. I love this. Maximum efficiency right here. Clearly we need two giant TV vans with repairmen at the same time. I wish you could have seen me sneaking around trying to take this photo. Dang big windows letting them see in. Anyway, now we have TV which means I expect my productivity to go down to an all time low. On the upside, I finally got so see what happens in Glee. It's a toss up I guess. Luckily I did make time to fit in a bike workout. I stalk people like Beth ...

You might remember a while back I did a giveaway for a necklace from The Run Home . I received a gorgeous 26.2 necklace to wear, but I felt a little odd wearing it until I had actually completed the marathon. Kind like sticking on the bumper sticker too early, you know? Now, however, I wear it any chance I get: This time I get to give away something a little more Christmas appropriate (it's ok, it's after Thanksgiving, Im allowed now!) - a gorgeous running ornament! I don't know about you, but basically now that running has somehow infiltrated my life, nothing is safe. I read running books. I wear running clothes. I eat runner's foods. I wear running jewelry. And yes, now I decorate my tree with running ornaments. This ornament actually surprised me - online, it looks more fragile but in real life it's quite solid, and is really well made. And compare it to the size of my hand - it's big! (AKA noticeable on the tree and everyone will comment, and yo...

You just know that starting out a blog post with a nursery rhyme title is going to be good, right? The rain was already going here full force this morning and I prolonged getting out of bed as long as possible by repeating rain themed nursery rhymes to hubby. Can I just say that he finds this undeniably hot? True story. Promise. Has anyone heard this one? Bear with me, I swear that this post is not (entirely) written for 4 year olds. "It's raining, it's pouring The old man is snoring He went to bed And bumped his head And couldn't get up in the morning." Is it just me, or is that the most sad, most depressing rhyme ever? NSF children, that one. Hey, kids! Let's sing fun rhymes about the rain. I know one about an old guy who gets concussed and dies! Not so much. To contrast with the depression of that last bit, here are the foods you MUST eat when it's raining, it's Sunday, and it's depressing to think about the fact that tomorrow is Monday: ...

I'm participating in Amanda's Holiday Bootie Buster Challenger over at Run to the Finish  this year. I may have made a little mistake though.... You can choose which level you want so sign up for, and I chose Advanced . Keep in mind at the time I was running 40 mile weeks getting ready for my marathon. Now...not so much. As in, 2 weeks, zero running miles logged. I'm still counting spinning, yoga, stretching, weights and pilates, along with points for eating 7 servings of produce each day. But I don't think I'll be winning any awards among the Advanced kiddos. See those last 2 empty bubbles? Yeah..... The HBBC started on a Saturday, the 19th of November, so here's my progress for that week: Saturday : Nothing. Not a great start, I'll admit. But I got my produce in! (1 point) Sunday : At home workout, 45 minutes of pilates and resistance training, plus veggies! (3.25 points) Monday : Nothing - not even all my fruits and veggies! Whoops. (0 point...

I have a confession to make. When I read recaps of people's spin classes, or the bike rides they took around town, I think "oh, that's nice." I NEVER thought it was a tough workout. Blame it on the fact that I can't actually ride a bike  - so I never knew what it entailed. And the longest I've spent on a bike in the gym was ten minutes or so...waiting for a treadmill to open up. A bum ankle is forcing me to look beyond running for a way to get my heart pumping, so I bought a used $25 spin bike. Twice this week I used it and while it was a workout, I kept wishing it could be harder or push me more. Whoops. Started regretting that last night during workout #3. I looked up "spin classes" on youtube and did my best to pretend I knew what I was doing. I still have no clue what I'm doing, but at least after an hour I was drenched in sweat and figured out how to actually adjust the resistance. Let's just say, I won't assume anyone's spi...

Fellow residents of America - I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful! Everyone else around the world - I hope your Thursday was bearable! It was a quiet day at home as I prepared a feast for 2, but we spent the evening with friends, neighbors and babies that I came very close to taking home with me. Their moms said no, what spoil sports. There are plenty of photos of the the table, the turkey, the leftovers....but also plenty of me sneaking pieces of turkey skin. Ah, thats crispy goodness. I thought this was a close up table shot.... Busted again! Manly carving The best part : leftovers! After a wonderful day of eating, drinking, and pretending to care about the football score, Hubby and I are attempting to brave the madness of Black Friday in order to get a TV. Yep, it's official. We can no longer deal with watching the Office two days late on our laptop. Since there's absolutely no way I'm getting any of you guys TVs (sorry bout that) let me give you...

Happy Thanksgiving Eve everyone! I'm pretty excited about tomorrow, although I must admit I feel like a bad American right now. I'm trying to explain about Thanksgiving, traditions and special foods to hubby and all I managed to say was that you eat a lot of turkey. I'll keep trying. I'm in charge of our little meal (for two) which somehow involves a 15 pound turkey. 8 for him, 7 for me. Hope that's enough . There doesn't seem to be a way to avoid T-day leftovers, so I wanted to think of some creative ways to use them up. And turkey sandwiches don't count - that one's a given. So here is my roasted sweet potato and carrot soup! Start with with leftover roasted veggies - whatever you have on hand after the meal would probably work, but for this I used 1 large sweet potato, 3 carrots, 1/2 an onion and 5 cloves of garlic.  They go in a pot of chicken stock, about 1 quart of liquid. I added some salt and pepper to taste, heated it all up for a few minu...

This morning I did the best workout I could without any cardio, and it resulted in one hour of easy yoga, 15 minutes of ab work and 15 minutes of resistance bands for upper body. All good, but...I need my cardio fix. I need it bad. So I bought the $25 cheap-o used exercise bike I mentioned yesterday. I rode it for about 90 seconds tonight and I'm already in love. It has a pretty sad little monitor for tracking distance, speed, etc., but I plan on wearing a heart rate monitor and just going by time anyway. It's official though - the room can be considered an official "office/gym" instead of just a "room with a tiny Walmart desk and a giant treadmill." So that's exciting. See the little plugs and wires in front of the TM? That's because one day I had a fantasy of sticking a TV up there. Ah, dreams.... To celebrate picking up the bike (any maybe because we drove 45 minutes away to pick it up and I was STARVING) we went for lunch at Moe's.  I...

I got a lot of great suggestions for how to eat my 2 pound marshmallow. And I got a LOT of people who emailed to ask me where I got it from, so I thought it any of you were interested: Plush Puffs . I saw it months ago on the Food Network show Unwrapped (guilty pleasure!) and begged for it ever since. Thanks for delivering, hubby. I decided the only way to start eating something like this would be straight up, tearing off a hunk with my mouth: I believe I made the right decision. After a while we decided to get slightly more creative, and made indoor s'mores. That's graham crackers spread with nutella, and a giant hunk of marshmallow in between. Since then the marshmallow has been slowly shrinking in size. But there is no nutrition information on it since it's more of a specialty item - which means, no calories! So awesome. Got lucky on that one.  I decided to get a little more creative, since it's clear there is enough marshmallow to last me until my next ...

Oh, it's a pain in the (expletive of your choice) alright, but I'm also literally dealing with a pain in my foot. I feel so fortunate to have avoided all injuries, both major and minor, during training for my first marathon. But since then? Not a mile has been logged. Any and all short attempts at walking resulted in pain. A sore ache in my foot became a sharp, pronounced pain. I avoided talking about it in the hopes that it would go away, along with the other mild aches and pains brought on my running 26.2 miles - but no such luck. I was also hoping none of my Daily Mile buds would notice. But Ali from Running with Spatulas had to go and be all observant on me: It's now official - I'm dealing with peroneal tendonitis, also known as "ankle-ouchy."  At least, that's the technical term I'm pretty sure. Please Note: Not My Foot I'm icing, resting and compression with the best of them. I bought some compression socks to try out - the...

I have a tendency to exaggerate a little. Maybe a lot. Things I eat are the best in the world - until my next meal. The movie was my absolute favorite  - until the next time I'm at the theater. So you are forgiven for thinking I maybe just found a slightly larger than normal marshmallow. But you would be wrong. Exhibit A: Yes, that is a 2 pound marshmallow. What else would you expect me to get on my birthday? By the way, thanks to everyone who sent message, emails and comments to me wishing me a happy birthday - gracias! Hubby and I had a great dinner with friends on Thursday night, and then a trip to Chattanooga on Friday for lunch in a restaurant I was really excited about - 212 .  They are a slow-food restaurant, so everything is from the area. LOVE that. The decor was horrendously outdated, but you can forgive them for that because the food was amazing. I had local baked chicken on a butternut squash/pear risotto: And hubby went with the trout, spinach and sweet pota...