Gourmet Runner

What do you do when you discover giant marshmallows in your grocery store? a) Eat half the bag in 24 hours b) Make giant Rice Krispies treats (with rice chex) c) Drizzle Rice Krispies Treats with peanut butter and dark chocolate d) All of the Above D? You know me so well. Chocolate/PB glazed Rice Krispies treats: They may look terrible but when they taste that delicious I just don't care. Yesterday ended up being one of those days.  I started my run and about 2 miles in collapsed-some sharp pain that caused me to lay down on the treadmill for about 15 minutes. Not entirely sure what is wrong yet, I think a flare-up of some old medical issues (long story, I won't bore you all!) Thank goodness there were sweets in the house so I could eat my sadness on the couch: Mine are the non-hairy legs. Now, I may have been stuck on the couch but my cats were ready to start exploring. We have been in the house about 2 weeks and they were ready to explore the final front...

My entire life, I have been obsessed with reading. As a child I would read whatever I could get my hands on, whether that was a novel, a textbook or the back of a cereal box. I memorized the backs of shampoo bottles, along with the instructions in French. Today? My favorite book is this really smooth silver one with an apple on the front. It's pretty cool, because there are a billion pages to read and lots of pretty pictures. Not sure when I'll finish though. It's longer than a Russian history novel. My beautiful Macbook Air. Someone's else's beautiful photography. Ok, I'm only kind of joking. The reality is, I still love to read. But a lot of my free time is spent reading blogs and writing posts, which cuts into the rest of my reading time. I've recently discovered that I can walk on the treadmill at an incline and hold a book, which is about the coolest thing since sliced bread. I anticipate spending a lot of my "active recovery" days en...

Now, I know that I am lucky to work from home and have a pretty flexible schedule. But it still somehow seems impossible to try to get in a double digit run during the week. 2 hours of running before work = I might as well just go back to bed afterwards. 2 hours of running after working? I can barely handle the normal one hour or 30 minutes, and I definitely lack the motivation for any more. But this afternoon I checked my Run Less, Run Faster schedule--and today was an 11 mile run. So at 4:50 because I work from home and I'm a rebel  5 o'clock this evening I hopped on the TM and hoped for the best. Success! With 2 hours to think about what I wanted for dinner, I was prepared to hop off the TM and get dinner started straight away. The results: salads topped with chicken, lots of mozzarella cheese and some homemade croutons. (I won't bore you with a crouton recipe, but: cut bread. Coat with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake for 10 minutes.) Today was also apparently wa...

Running has a tendency at times to make me feel just a little less feminine that I might like. The curves might disappear just a little (well...the top ones at least. Bottom ones are still out in full force) and I spend more time fiddling with my Garmin than I do putting on make-up. So I love when I can show my interest in running with a beautiful, feminine piece of jewelry. I recently received two necklaces from the great people at The Run Home.   They have an Etsy store full of inspirational necklaces, bracelets and more for athletes. I received this beautiful necklace in the mail from them: A cute running shoe, heart, and a hand-stamped 26.2 charm. In all honesty, I don't think I'll wear this until I have finished the marathon in November. Kind of like wearing a race shirt before you completed the race! But it will make the perfect reward and I can't wait to wear it with pride. The Run Home sent everything to me perfectly packaged--like it was a gift. I loved that:...

Last week I did a review of Banjees courtesy of Sprigs . I fell in love with these wrist wallets for running, and I know the winner will love hers too! There were 181 comments in the entry for this giveaway. Thanks to Random.org, the winner was.... Comment #152! That belonged to Alisa, who writes Runs with Knives . She is a culinary student and a runner, with a great blog! Alisa, send me an email and you will win your choice of Banjee! Everyone else...don't worry! Head back here tonight for another giveaway. Something beautiful and sparkly, are you excited yet?!

Another week, another recap for the blog world! This week's workouts were dominated  by my new treadmill. I realized when compiling this post that I was on the treadmill every single day this week. Can't help it. Kind of like when you first fall in love and want to spend every waking moment with that person. I love you, Nordictrack 1750. I hope we're never apart.  Monday : Ran 7 Miles of Speedwork Tuesday : Ran 5k (3.1 Miles) Wednesday : Ran 6 Miles, Tempo Run Thursday : Walked 3 Miles, 30 minutes of yoga and 100 push-ups Friday : Ran 3 Miles Saturday : Ran 12 miles (1 warm-up, 4 mile race, 7 miles on treadmill afterwards) Sunday : Ran 6 Miles easy Total Mileage this week: 40 Miles (37 Running) I'm sad that I didn't get in my 20 miles this Saturday, but with everything else I'm not too concerned. This is the part where I complain about my lack of abs, even though I haven't done anything in WEEKS that resembles core work. Seriously. The best thi...

The best thing about running a random distance race? Automatic PR, baby! The Eton 4-Miler is a tiny little race, but at $25 and only 15 minutes from home I was really excited for it. I started with a one mile warm up and then, naturally, posed for a picture: Don't let the singlet fool you--it was COLD! Even after the race and the awards it was still 55 degrees. It's definitely fall here! My plan for the race was to stick with 8:45 minutes miles, and gun for a 35 minute finish. I promised myself I would stick to the plan and not go out too fast, which is always my problem. I did it! Within 4 minutes of running I found myself near the back of the pack...EVERYONE and their mother had passed me straight away, but I stuck to plan. Here am I after 1/2 mile (the first part was a loop back to the start): After the first mile I held my speed and a lot of people slowed down. Loved passing people--it doesn't happen to me often! The race was really beautiful, on rolling hills and ...

Oh my gosh, not those melons. These melons: Last night dessert was a massive bowl of cut up watermelon and cantaloupe. Leave it to me to really remember how much I love summer fruit on the first day of fall. Genius. P.S. Yep, this is what I wear when we have people for dinner. Pure class. I promise I made an awesome dinner, but um...we had people over. And I was busy getting everything together and forgot to take pictures. BOO. I made some baked chicken tenders, a mix of roasted potatoes (plain and sweet) and some broccoli. So good, and since hubby got thirds of the chicken I think it's safe to say I will add it to the ol' dinner rotation. And now to pick your brains about running and racing. I am running a 4-miler tomorrow morning. There are NOT a lot of races in my area, so this is really exciting and only 15 minutes from home. BUT I also have a 20 mile run on the agenda tomorrow. What's a girl to do? Here was my thought: Warm-up: 1 mile Race: 4 miles Eat, st...

I don't know about you, but when I wake up in the morning the first thing I think about it not, "YES! I get to work out today." Maybe some of you guys think that, but most of us normal people don't. I definitely rely on different motivational tips and tricks to keep me working out most days. I wrote a guest post for A Healthful Gluten Free Life   today about how I stay motivated each day to stay fit. Check it out!  She has a really great blog featuring some amazing recipes and photos. Yesterday's creation? This little (edible!) jewel in honor of Lion King 3D: Also--yesterday's post on touching thighs got a range of comments, and made me realize the following: 1. 99% of you have thighs that touch. Thanks for the support. 2. Body Glide must make trillions of dollars each year. It seems like they could charge $60 for each tube and we would still all buy the stuff. I <3 Body Glide. 3. Rose is freaking hilarious. Her slogan about the issue? "Boys ...

...because they are ALWAYS hanging out. Besties. Never leaving the other's side. I'm pretty fit, enjoy healthy meals, love to run... And my thighs touch. left thigh.right thigh super.close.together. In high school, I would thumb through clothing catalogs and try to understand how in the H-E-double hockey sticks I could have legs that didn't touch. I blame Victoria's Secret models for my teenage obsession with getting the thighs to separate. I blame her. I remember my mom once telling me that thighs weren't supposed to be apart. They were supposed to touch at the top. Ok mom, whatever. You find me a 15 year old girl who listen to what her mother says about body image.  So why did this random thigh topic come up today? Well, today I had another run on my treadmill. I busted out some new shorts that haven't been worn in close to a year, and did 6 tempo miles: While running, my thighs were literally "eating" my shorts. You know the feeling? W...

So excited to bring you all another giveaway. While this one is definitely an amazing product for runners, it's also great to have with you...anywhere! If you are anything like me, before you set out on a run you have to figure out what you need to carry with you, and where to fit it. Between gels, chews, keys, even a phone--I need a small purse. I've tried things to fit around my waist--and they just don't feel right. So I asked Sprigs if I could try out their Banjee wrist wallets on some runs and review them here. Success! Sprigs makes these wrist wallets in a ton of styles/sizes/colors, which I love. Each one is reversible, so you get a more solid color on one side, a fun design on the other. I even got one that is reflective in the dark--perfect as the sun sets earlier and earlier now! The smaller ones are perfect for a gel and some keys, and they DON'T move around when you run. Bonus.  I also got to try one of the larger ones, which I thought would be perfe...

Guess who showed up on my doorstep this morning? If you've been paying any attention lately, you know I've been waiting for a special delivery for a few weeks and the waiting has been driving me crazy . But today my true love arrived.... Getting a little frisky... You know what they say about when kids get christmas presents, and they end up more excited just playing with the box? That was me. Hubs was working so hard putting it all together and I just kept interrupting for photo breaks with the freakin' box. In my defense, it was propped up against the wall and looked JUST like a mummy's sarcophagus and then a vampire coffin. Promise. After playtime I had to try out the treadmill out myself. I got the Nordictrack 1750 --thanks to Kari's recommendation. Already happy with my choice. I did my speed work on the treadmill today, and it looked like this: 2 Miles easy - 9:42 pace 1 Mile HARD - 8:11 pace 400 meter recovery (walk/jog) 2 Miles...