Who says you have to grill on Memorial Day?

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Not me!

I didn’t have any plans at all on Memorial Day. I needed a day to just be at home with my dog. If it wasn’t so gosh darned hot we might have gone for a walk or something. But K-dog’s black fur doesn’t hold up so well in the heat, and neither do I, come to think of it.

We spent most of the day lounging. But in the morning, while it was still relatively cool, I did put together a few things in the crock pot. I used my new Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook‘s recipe for Moroccan Chicken Thighs.

I don’t usually do foodie blog posts, but this was SO GOOD I had to share. I made 3 modifications to the recipe. I didn’t have a red onion so I used a yellow, I didn’t have canned whole tomatoes so I used canned crushed whole tomatoes. (The recipe said to take canned whole tomatoes and dice them which seemed to defeat the purpose of throwing things in a crockpot anyway.) I used bone-in chicken thighs that I de-skinned instead of boneless skinless thighs and just cooked for a bit longer. Bones = flavor, people. Plus, when they were cooked the bone just slid out of each thigh anyway.The rest of the recipe was golden raisins, cumin, chickpeas, and tomato paste.

It was torture as the house started to smell more and more like delicious food. About 10 minutes before it was due to be done, I whipped up some 5-minute couscous. And got my mason jars ready. ”Mason jars?” you ask. Yes, the whole point of this recipe was to make myself some meals to take in for lunches and I thought I’d try a technique I’d seen on this blog.

It went a little something like this.

Open lid and gaze at deliciousness:

Then layer coucous, sauce, and a chicken thigh into a mason jar:

(I am never going to make a living as a food photographer, sorry.)

I had the chicken out of the pot for dinner and a jar for lunch today. I already know I’ll be making this again, maybe a double batch! I’m not sure how the calories breakdown in this recipe, but without the skin on the chicken thighs, there isn’t anything in this recipe to make it bad for you!

Will Run for Wine

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My 2nd 5K (but the first one that I felt like running!) was called The Hair of the Dog 5K and began and ended at the Silver Decoy Winery in Robbinsville, NJ. It benefited various dog rescue organizations. Bestie and I made shirts for this one too:

Dear spare tire: please go away!

I think May 20th will probably go down as one of the most beautiful spring days in history. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, there was a lovely breeze, and the temp was hovering somewhere around 70F. The event was huge compared to my first 5K, there was about 900 people participating in the race. Some were walking, some were running, some were walking or running with their dogs. The backdrop was simply lovely:

The race was due to start at 10am on Sunday. Saturday we had driven there to make sure of where it was (about an hour away) and to pick up our race packets, but we still got there at 8:40am on Sunday, just to make sure. This was my first race using a chip timer (the angle of this shot makes my ankle look huge!):

And we just wanted to make sure we had done everything right. We also wanted to make sure that we were there for the community warm-up they had on the schedule. That was really great. The leader wore a mic and took us through some simple stretches and knee lifts and the like. The only part I didn’t participate in were the jumping jacks. I was afraid if I did those, I’d be too tired for the race, for pete’s sake!

The start line was crazy. We went to what we thought was the back and looked behind us after a few minutes and realized it had become the middle. I was nervous about running with so many other people, but honestly my main thought was “surely with all these people I won’t come in last this time!” The gun went off and people started crossing the start line. Bestie jogged to it, but I figured I’d save my energy and walk until we hit the start. The feeling of excitement was pretty palpable, I had some adrenaline going as we got started, navigating around the people with dogs (and this one small boy who kept crossing directly in front of me–where were his people, anyway??). After I had found my stride and a spot on the road and settled in for a bit, I pushed the button on my iPod Nano (it has Nike+) and it told me I was running at a 10 minute mile pace! What? I decided to slow down and let bestie go ahead if she wanted to, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep that pace up and I didn’t want to run out of gas early on. I’m still only running about a 13 minute mile normally.

This time, though, bestie stayed pretty much in my sights. The beginning of the course was on a regular (blocked off) two lane road through rural homes. It was pretty flat with some sneaky grades. The first water station was just a ways after the turn around cone. It was crowded (Bestie said she didn’t stop because it was so crowded, but ended up wishing she had.), but I squeezed in and grabbed a cup off the table and had a sip. Back down that part of that same stretch of road I went. This was not nearly as demoralizing as my first 5K because although people had gotten to the turn around before me and passed me on their way back, there were plenty of people that I passed in the opposite direction after I had made the turn around. Also, it wasn’t a true out and back because we took a side road through a swanky housing development. At this point I was starting to feel like I really needed some water. I hadn’t drank the whole cup just took a few sips at the water station. My mouth was so dry my tongue was sticking to the roof my my mouth. But I tried to focus on my pace and my breathing. I walked off and on here, but I tried to keep my walks really short. There were people from the houses out on their font lawns with their kids cheering us on, that was really nice to see!

As we came off the side road I could tell we were back on the road that the winery was on. I was feeling kind of low just then. I really think it was just not having water. They truly could have used one more water station than they had. But I knew we were almost there. I couldn’t see bestie anymore, but I didn’t think she was too far ahead of me. There was a girl nearby who seemed to be at about my level so I focused on keeping up with her. The last .1 mile was on the grass straight through the grape vines. I’d never run on grass before and I thought I would be worried about ruts and holes, but as soon as I saw the finish clock in the distance, I gunned it! Whatever I had left took me to the finish line. I finished with my best time ever 41:30.21. And that’s counting all the training runs. I do know that this is a very slow time, but I can improve on that, I’m just horribly excited that my race time exceeded even my training. Oh, and I wasn’t last! I wasn’t even close to last. Bestie came in about 2 minutes ahead of me.

And now I get to look ahead and set new goals. I’m done racing until after the summer heat. I don’t do well in the heat at all. And if I got dehydrated at 73F or so…

All in all, this was a lovely day! We spent a couple of hours at the festival afterward, had some wine, had some beer, laid around on the grass being proud of ourselves and already planning our next adventure.:

If It’s Not One 5K it’s Another

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Since the last time I talked to all of you, I’ve run two 5K races! Two very different experiences, and I learned  a lot from both. The first 5K was May 5th and it was a run to support a local center that supports families who have children on the autism spectrum. It was a small run, but I guess I didn’t really fully grasp how small it was until my 2nd 5K. There were about 50 runners. The course was at a park I’d been going to since I was just a wee one, but I’d only run there once before. It started at 8am on a muggy, foggy, pollen-heavy day. I hadn’t been feeling so great since the Wednesday before, and, in fact, I had stayed home sick from work on Friday. But bestie and I had trained and planned, we had made our own matching running shirts, for pete’s sake. She was so excited. I had to push it. I figured it was only about an hour out of my life altogether, surely even running while ill would be tolerable for 45 minutes or so, right?

Well I’m not dead, so I guess it was tolerable, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant. I was having a hard time getting enough oxygen right from the start. I plodded along while everyone, and I do mean everyone, passed me. It was an out and back, so first I watched everyone pass me, and then I watched them all run by me again in the other direction. (Note to self: avoid out and backs.) This did little for either my confidence or my desire to keep going. What helped with both was the fact that as they ran by me they cheered me on: “Keep going! You can do it! You’re almost there!” I took a drink at the water station at the halfway point and seriously considered stopping. But I’m not a quitter…and the car was on the other side of the lake. I walked a lot….slowly, too, trying to suck in some oxygen. The air felt wet and heavy. My legs felt like lead weights. I lost sight of bestie around some bends. I really hadn’t ever felt so discouraged, not even when I first started running. Probably about a quarter mile from the finish line I saw two ladies running in my direction. They had come back to get me! They ran the whole race and then came back to get me because they thought I might need some encouragement. They slowed themselves to my pace and ran the rest of the way with me. They talked to me about their first 5ks and encouraged me all the way to the finish line. Just before the finish line bestie appeared and crossed with me.

I felt sick and horrid, but proud to be part of the kind of community where two people would come back for a person they didn’t even know!  It took me over 48 minutes to go that 3.1 miles, and it wasn’t at all the way I had wanted my first race to go, but I learned a lot about my abilities and about the community of which I am now a part.

When I went to the doctor the Monday after the race, it turned out I had a sinus infection and bronchitis. So that horrid feeling? Not all in my head!

The second 5K, now that was a totally different ball game, I’ll write about that next.

Quick Training Update

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I have to write a post on Stevia, but I forgot to take my pictures this morning, so that might have to wait for tomorrow. But since my very first 5K is on Saturday, I thought I would give you a training/healing update.

Whatever my chiropractor did to my back on Friday, added to the fact that it was already feeling a lot better, made it feel almost back to normal! So I was excited to train this weekend (while still being careful to listen to what my back had to say about the whole thing).

Saturday morning I met bestie at the gym and we did 45 minutes on the elliptical. This was a huge progress point for me since January when I started this process, because back then, the elliptical easily defeated me. 20 minutes and my thighs were screaming and I stopped, and we really had focused on the treadmill. The elliptical told me that I did 3.1 miles in 30 minutes when I started cooling down, and by the end of the 45 minutes it said I had done just over 4 miles. Good stuff!

Then on Sunday we went to the park where our 5k is going to be on Saturday.

We didn’t have a course map, but we thought we could get a feel for the terrain, elevations and temperatures. We did the 5K in 45 minutes. That’s slow, I know, but aside from the fact that I’m a hella slow runner, there were a lot of people on the trails to negotiate and a bit after halfway I started to really wish I could lose my top layer. Too hot Lo is an unhappy even slower Lo, for reals! Still, I’m kind of expecting that to be about my time on Saturday, and I’ve decided to be OK with that. In fact, as long as we cross the line at some point before the timers leave, I’ll be very proud of myself. I’ll worry about getting faster after I cross this hurdle.

This morning I did the weight circuit for the first time since my back injury. I did everything at 50% of what I had been doing it pre-injury. That went great as far as my back is concerned, but it didn’t feel like much of a challenge. I guess that’s a good thing. I’ll mention it to my chiro on Wednesday and see what he says I can try.

Tonight bestie and I are decorating our shirts that we are going to wear during the race. That should be a good time.

And this morning I signed up for our next 5K, May 20th.

Woot Woot!

Growing while Standing Still

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I am really struggling with things to post about while I feel like my efforts have stalled while I heal. Nearly there, I think. I just want to be careful and not blow all the work by getting crazy too soon. I hate being neglectful of the blog, and miss conversing with you. I’ll try to be better.

While I’m moving at a snails pace myself, April has rolled by like an express train. This is coming up to one of my favorite times of year in Pennsylvania: Fresh Veggie Season! I am blessed to live in an area where I can easily, and fairly inexpensively, get farm-fresh produce from local farms, farm stands, or farmers’ markets. But I dearly love to grow my own.

Now that I’m in an apartment on my own instead of sharing a house that had a bit of land, I’m trying my hand at container gardening for the first time this spring. I’ve planted directly into the ground before, and used raised beds, but that’s not really an option for me this year. Two weekends ago I started some seeds using Burpee Starter Pellets. They start out flat but “inflate” when you add water, then you plant your seeds.

There’s zucchini, poppies (just for pretty), and peppers. I also have herbs, an eggplant, and strawberries. See the space for 4 missing pellets? Those are my green beans. They started sprouting about  two days after I planted them! They quickly got too big for that sort of confinment and now they are here (right), along with my roma tomato, which I did not start from seed. Believe it or not, they will grow into these containers.

(And speaking of the containers, I was quite proud of myself there. I bought cheapo plastic terracotta colored containers and spray painted them in MY colors. They came out great, and it took like 5 minutes each to spray them, if that.) It’s still a bit too chilly in the mornings to have them outside all the time while they are so little. But that’s one of the great things I’m finding about the containers. No big problem to bring them in and out. This was taken after dark, but they do have a nice sunny window.

I get excited to check on them in the mornings and when I get home from work to see how they are doing. And I can’t wait to start planning my meals around what I have growing right outside my door.

One of the herbs I’m going to be growing is Stevia, which is a natural sweetener. My next post will be how I’m going to make use of that.

Are you growing any of your own food this year?

Weighing Things

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I feel like I know myself fairly well at this point in my life. I know what motivates me and what doesn’t.

Being angry at myself does NOT motivate me and push me to work harder. I know it works like that for some people, but not for me. Publicly flogging myself does not often motivate me (although it’s probably necessary from time to time). For me, if I can pull something, anything, that I can truly call a success, no matter how small, no matter how insignificant it might seem, or how much I have to stretch to get there, THAT motivates me.

Right now, while I’m injured, I have decided that I’m not going to do weekly weigh-ins here on my blog. Note that I am not saying that I have given in to eating like crap every day and given up trying to get back running and dancing. I also did not say I was not stepping on the scale.

What I need to focus on right now is taking care of my injury and slowly getting back to the gym and to the activities that I love, as soon as my body is ready. I have to be willing to be gentle with my body and take things slow, maybe even take two steps back after I feel like I’ve taken one step forward. I don’t want to focus on my weight right now, publicly. Mainly because I think it’s inevitable that with my sudden and dramatic decrease in activity I’m going to gain back some weight. I know I can deal with that when I get fully back from my injury, because I was doing it before and I’ll do it again. For now, if I can pretty much maintain (+ or – 3 pounds) and heal, that’s enough for me.

Plans may change, of course, if I have to go a very long period without being able to truly get back to my fitness plan. IF that occurs I’ll have to really rethink my diet and eating all over again, and I will share that…but I really don’t anticipate that.

Feel free to comment if you think that I’m making the wrong choice here. I value your opinions!

I’m Comin’ Back: Post 1

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One of what will probably be an endless stream of whining and feeling sorry for myself interspersed with small moments of joy. Just kidding, I hope it’s not like that at all.

Let’s see. Last night I went to line dancing…just to watch, right? Do you believe that? That is what I meant to do, but then I thought “I’ll try just this one….” Honestly I didn’t dance very much and what I did, I did very gingerly for sure. No swinging hips (that hurts!), no stomping (too scared!). It was good and bad at the same time. Good because it felt right to be back there, but bad because I absolutely hated sitting out dances that I know and love. I iced a bit while we were there and took an Aleve when I got home just before I went to bed.

This morning I did 30 minutes of run/walk intervals, 3 on, 3 off as recommended. That went really well! In fact, my bestie and I covered very close to the same distance (her 1.98 miles me 1.96 miles) and she ran for longer stretches. So at least now I’m confident that I’d still be able to finish a 5k before the timers go home, even if I have to do intervals.

Thank you for your encouragement yesterday, I really needed it just then.

Strugglin’

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You probably haven’t noticed, but it’s been quite some time since I’ve blogged. Truth is, I’ve been avoiding you.

I hurt. My back hurts, and it just keeps hurting (with tantalizing days when it doesn’t and I try to do too much). It hasn’t been that long, in the grand scheme of injuries, but I’m going to tell you how I feel right now. My heart hurts.

I feel like it’s unfair, so unfair. I can’t run, I can’t line dance, I can’t Zumba. For the first time in my life I was getting proud of my strength and fitness level and now I’ve got nothing.

What sucks about that is, at this point, while I can’t exercise, I’m finding it very, very hard to care about eating right and the other aspects I could have control over. Just now, when my calorie intake becomes even more important because I really have no means of exercising, I feel so depressed about not being able to exercise that I start to get all “what’s the friggin’ point? Pass me the cheese fries.” This isn’t good, I know this isn’t good. I can’t seem to stop it. I feel helpless, and out of control and that makes me want to eat. I’ve always been an emotional eater, as well as someone who eats when she is bored and HELLO? I’m emotional and bored.

Today I signed up for a 5K on May 5th, since the one I was supposed to have run on April 21 has been cancelled, and I probably couldn’t manage it by then anyway with this blasted injury. But with the help of my chiropractor, I’m going to assume that May 5th is a good possibility. Truthfully, I’m going to do that race if I have to crawl it. And the chiro said tomorrow morning I can try 3 on 3 off intervals if I think I can handle it, but not even to try if it was still really tweaking.

Sigh. Sorry, I’m not faking it very well just now.

Sidelined!

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Well crap. I may have sustained my first running injury. My back hurts worse today than it did yesterday. Why oh why oh why didn’t I know to stretch my lower back before running on asphalt, or before running in general?

And as I sit here with 800mg of Motrin flowing through my bloodstream and with a Thermacare wrap on my back, yet still in pain, I’m thinking “what the heck am I going to do now?” Because I certainly can’t run like this. And I need my lower back in working order to lift weights, too. It doesn’t seem like I’m going to be able to get any exercise in until this inflammation dies down. So it had better die down soon. Now that I’ve started a good routine, I don’t want this to become an excuse to stop.

I’m also going to have to really REALLY watch my eating if I can’t run or lift.

Such a bummer!

source

In semi-related news, this is going to be a busy weekend, and my back just has to hold out. Tonight it is going to have to deal with sitting through the nearly 2 1/2 hour Hunger Games movie (yay!). Tomorrow and Sunday are all going to be wrapped up with a Rally Obedience Trial that I’m not only competing in with K-dog, but I’m also the Trial Secretary for. Which means I ‘m in charge of making it run smoothly, which means finishing the mounds of paperwork, helping tomorrow with all the set up, and being on my feet all day on Sunday for the trial itself. This was a really bad time to get hurt (as if there is ever a good time).

How do you maintain a healthy lifestyle when injury sidelines you?

A Question for my Runner Friends and Readers

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Now that I’m running for longer distances outside–and I know 3 miles doesn’t seem like a long distance for some of you, but it’s still a marathon to me–I’ve been noticing that my lower back gets really tight. Painfully tight…about 4 hours after my run. It’s better, though still hurts, when I keep moving. If I have to sit for any length of time, like at work or in the car, it stiffens really badly and I have to stretch it out. OUCH! What am I doing wrong? My form? My breathing? Tightening everything too much when I’m pushing myself not to quit? Any advice would be really appreciated!