That's Italian!

I haven't blogged in forever because I haven't exercised in forever (until yesterday's long run... more on that later).  So this post is about food.  Yesterday, I made homemade cannoli and tiramisu for my girl Laura's 40th birthday party.  That was not so much clean eating, so instead, I'll report here on a healthy version of chicken parmesan I made the other night from the March/April 2010 issue of Clean Eating magazine.  The important thing is that I loved it - I give it an 8 easily, as did the cute husband overall (9 for the chicken, 7 for the whole wheat penne on the side).  Jimmy #1 did not like the pasta, but 99% of his pasta consumption is mac-n-cheese.  Jimmy #2 really liked the dish once I let him put butter on his pasta.  Anyway, the chicken was really good... panko bread crumbs and parmesan with a bit of dijon holding it on and obviously baked instead of fried.  And mozzarella on top.  The recipe calls for reduced-fat, but we still had a good bit of the real stuff from when I made the cute husband make fake Pokey Sticks the other night (not so clean either).  So the cheesy goodness probably didn't hurt the ratings.

Tomorrow's my birthday!  If I get my way, there will be warm carrot cake with melty cream cheese frosting at one of our favorite restaurants.  Good thing I ran 15 miles yesterday.

not feeling so good

I started feeling less than 100% Sunday evening sometime after hot yoga.  So the run yesterday did not go as planned.  I ran to the turnaround point and then walked home due to general achiness.  Today I have a cough and still a headache, so I skipped the hot yoga.  I'm hoping to feel better for a run tomorrow.  There's lots of discussion on the interwebs about when to run when you're sick (e.g., symptoms from the neck up, go for it; neck down, take it easy). 

Saturday's 7-mile run was great, but I'm feeling anxious about the 15-16 miles scheduled for this Saturday.  I made it to 17 miles a few years ago when I was planning to do the Marine Corps Marathon, and that's when things fizzled out.  There were other things going on, but part of it was that at 17 miles it gets hard (for me, at least).  I know it sounds like I'm whining, but this is my journal to keep track of the highs and lows of this alleged marathon training.  So when I get through Saturday, I'll look back and say pssh, what was I so worried about?  And that will show this wannabe cold.

No soup for you!

Welcome to Installment Three in our Blogging-About-Eating series. Tonight, I decided to make Winter Tomato soup from the January/February 2010 issue of Women's Health. So I announced my intention to the jimmies and was informed that Jimmy #2 does not like tomato soup (he ended up having leftover tacos) and that Jimmy #1 really did not want to try tomato soup if it involved onions and other grown-up flavors. So Jimmy #1 and I had tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, but his soup was the silly drinkable kind. The cute husband did humor me by trying a spoonful of the soup, and he gave it a 6.5 (out of 10) after a good bit of discussion on how strong the bay leaf flavor was. He tells me he's more of an eat-soup-in-the-summer kind of person. I think he's just being contrarian. Anyway, I liked the soup; the combo with the grilled cheese sandwich (which I totally invented) was exactly what I was craving on this rainy night.

I'll definitely try at least one of the other soups from this article. Both the Gingered Sweet Potato & Carrot and the Savory Moroccan look yummy.

I had a good workout week this week: Hot Yoga Sunday and Thursday, P90X Yoga X DVD on Tuesday, ran 3.69 miles each on Monday and Wednesday, and 7.02 miles today. Tomorrow, if I get going in time and can talk myself into delaying the Sunday morning Waffle House tradition, I may try the Power hot yoga class instead of the regular hot class in the afternoon. I dunno though. The tradition is sacred, and I'm not sure I'm ready to pick up the pace in hot yoga.

Shout out to my sister's friend Megan who successfully completed the Disney Marathon in near-record low temperatures and freezing rain.  I heard the water at the water stations was freezing and that the runners were slippin' and slidin'.  Yikes.  Megan, you rock.

It Doesn't Matter

Did I mention I'm done complaining about the cold? It's hard to whine about the weather here, in light of the devastation in Haiti. I'm sure you've heard, but you can donate by text:

 

• $10 to the American Red Cross International Relief Fund by texting "Haiti" to 90999 
• $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund by texting "Yele" to 501501

 

It doesn't get any easier than that. Plus, all the cool kids are doing it.

Moving Too Fast

Just to clarify, it's time that's moving too fast. I'm still plodding along at my very slow pace. According to my countdown clock to the right (which would never lie), there are only 100 days until this alleged marathon.

I decided enough already with the blog post titles about it being cold outside. It's really not that bad when one dresses appropriately. It would never be my choice, mind you, but the (Atlanta) cold alone is no excuse not to get outside and run. This is a note to my future self when I promptly forget this lesson next fall and start whining. It was 20 degrees this morning, and it really was okay.

Or, as my (marathoner/triathlete) friend Renee wisely said in a similar context: "Put on your big-girl panties and deal with it." Sometimes girlfriends only tell you what you want to hear. It's refreshing to have one who doesn't.

[Edit: Okay, I guess it's really 101 days, or 100 days and 23 hours. Still.]

freeze frame

In honor of the temperature being "20 feels like 10" when I ran this morning (although it now says "18 feels like 8"!), I listened to Episode One of Adam Tinkoff's new podcast, Burning 2010, wherein he takes on the challenge of burning 20 pounds in 20 weeks. Funny stuff, and of course I appreciate the end-of-show weigh-in, Biggest Loser junkie that I am.

I know I complain about the cold (um, pretty much every day), so I had to remind myself this morning that when I did crew in college, I got up at 5 every single weekday morning to run the 2.5 miles to the boathouse (and then spent the next two hours moving quickly over a river). In Massachusetts! So I really need to suck it up through this next month or two.

head, shoulders, knees, and toes

After yesterday's 13.825-mile run in sub-freezing temperatures, it all hurt, especially the knees and toes. As I told the cute husband when I staggered in, I'm getting too old for this... stuff.

So I took gu with me for the first time in this training season (mmm... chocolate outrage and espresso love), but for some reason I didn't take any water or even any cash so I could stop at any of the numerous gas stations or grocery stores that I passed to buy some water. So I skipped the gu because I don't know about eating (not sure that's the right word exactly as it's a gel, but the alternatives sound gross) it without water. But the gu helped in that I stopped to get it at Sports Authority before my run and while there I saw the big cold weather product display and very wisely purchased a balaclava (baklava? this is starting to turn into a dessert blog), which had the desired effect of simultaneously keeping my face and neck warm and making me look like a bank robber.

Anyway, I feel a lot better today. It helped that I didn't have to do much last night and the cute husband kept refilling my water glass so I didn't have to get up. We'll see how hot yoga goes today...

On an unrelated note, Seven Pounds is a really good movie. Just have tissues nearby if you watch it.

Eat It

It's been awhile, but I can finally offer you Installment Two in our Blogging About Eating series.  This week, we had two of the Six Healthy Chicken Recipes from the January 2010 issue of Fitness Magazine (which was in my stocking... thanks, Santa!):

So last night, we had Chipotle-Glazed Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes.  It was hard to fairly evaluate this one as either our oven or the recipe was off.  So the sweet potatoes never got done, but Jimmy # 1, the cute husband, and I still gave the chicken a 7 out of 10.  Jimmy # 2 isn't really on board with the rating system.  He said he didn't like it, but he ate his whole piece, which is saying a lot.  Ms. Prien was here too for the season premiere of The Biggest Loser (woohoo!), but I forgot to get her two cents.

Tonight, we moved on to Mexican-Style Chicken Soup, which Jimmy # 1 gave a 7, the cute husband a 5.5 (he deducted a point because there are tomatoes), and Jimmy # 2 gave it a 4.  The fellas all put cheese on top, which always helps.  (The avocado garnish was wasted on them.)

All that said, I'll make both of these healthy dishes again; I'll just raise the oven temperature on the chipotle chicken and offer a gimmick (i.e., chips) with the soup.

Tomorrow night, I relax: the cute husband is making his famous chili as we hunker down with wintry weather and still more football.  At least there will be chili.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

I just downloaded this 1973 (a.k.a. best year ever) song by Elton John (whom I have mixed feelings about (I'm expecting a Britney Murphy [may she rest in peace] tribute version of Candle in the Wind any day now)). I've found that I can run just as fast (read: slow) to a ballad as to a faster-paced song, so I just try to have songs I really like on the running playlist. While we're on this topic, I do like listening to a song that starts out slow and then picks up momentum (i.e., Fix You) while I start my run up a hill out of our neighborhood.

Anyway, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or 2009, or something. I had a good workout week with jimmies out of town: 12 miles Sunday (since we were traveling last Saturday), hot yoga Monday and Wednesday, and 3.7 miles each Tuesday and Thursday. I'm heading out for 6 miles as soon as it warms up (looks like I might be waiting awhile... it's currently 28 degrees, feels like 17... brr!).

Rumor has it it's time to make some Resolutions (or I'm running a little late... I'll work on not procrastinating next year). After a (very) little thought, they're basically the same as the top 10 for the rest of the country, tweaked just a little because I don't smoke, and I don't feel a need to give up my weekly glass of red wine or pint of fruity beer. So here you go:

10. Stop smoking. Floss every day. (Inspired in part by 5 Habits to Break in 2010.)

9.Be nicer to other people and don't lose my temper so easily. In other words be more patient. Okay, maybe. I'll modify this one slightly to Keep Going to Hot Yoga, as yoga and running do a good job of mellowing me out.

8. Quit drinking. Drink more water.

7. Quit taking recreational drugs. Cut out the refined sugar/processed foods and Eat Clean.

6. Spend more time with the family and friends. Superbowl Party at Casa MarathonDelusion/SweetestLittleHeadCase!

5. Read more books. Hmm, maybe I'll start taking MARTA again so I can read more. Although my goal here really needs to be Return Books on Time and Stop Single-Handedly Funding Library Expansion Projects.

4. Learn Something New. I'm still catching up from my career change in April, and I'm planning to run my first marathon this April, so I'm just going to focus on those two and my still-new yoga practice.

3. Get Organized. Yes. I need to get this paper thing under control. It's no Hoarders situation, but with 3 cats and 2 jimmies, we have to be ever-vigilant.

2. Go on a diet/lose weight. And more specifically, run 1,000 miles this year.

1. Get out of debt and handle my money better. Enough said.

Happy Twenty-Ten!