WIAW: Food Rut Edition

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, WIAW by chicken nugget girl

Since I skipped What I Ate Wednesday last week, I wanted to show you a beautiful and innovative recipe this week.

You know, the kind that healthy living bloggers post with the perfectly shaped homemade bean patties and ripe strawberries on the side glistening in the afternoon sunlight on a checkered tablecloth.

But of course, I forgot to research any new recipes during the week, and my weekend debauchery resulted in spending my Sunday afternoon trying not to throw up.

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When I arrived home after a Monday night Whole Foods run, I unloaded the same food I had last week. And the week before. And the week before that.

It was then that I knew the sad and painful truth:

I’m in a food rut.

My worst fear (well not the worst, but a pretty big one) has come true. I’m actually Chicken Nugget Girl again – only eating certain foods, not especially wanting to try anything new, getting the same thing over and over again at the same restaurant. The only difference now is that I’m just healthy Chicken Nugget Girl.

Part of the reason I was so excited when I first started eating clean was that I was finally discovering food in an unabridged way. I learned a myriad of information about the nutrients and deliciousness that food exudes. I was all about trying new foods and figuring out how to make them.

Now that I found healthy foods I like I’m sticking with them again. I’m going back to the food safety blanket of repetition. For example, looking back at the photos I took of food this week, I thought I could post my Mexican Friday meal:

Yum. But…. are you sensing some deja vu, too?

Omg, tomatoes. Omg, corn. Omg, avocado.

I thought about tricking you and posting some old recipe and raving about how I ate it this week. But I decided to be honest. I haven’t made anything of variety lately. And I’m not going to pretend I prepare and inhale awesome new recipes all day every day.

This week prompted me to reevaluate my healthy living goals in regards to food. I found out what to eat and how to eat it to lose weight, but I actually found a whole new self confidence by surprising myself and opening my mind (and my mouth) to new things. I was proud of myself.

Eating the same thing every day is boring. I want to buy different items at the grocery store every week and bring different things to lunch.

One day I want to not have to worry about if there is something I will like to eat at a family’s dinner party or at the exotic restaurant I’m out to dinner at with friends.

As much as food is about nutrients for me, I need to re-find my new found passion about it too.

Next week’s goal: make something new, fun, and exciting to eat.

Do you ever find yourself in a food rut?

Back to Reality

Long time no see!

I’ve been running around Southern Virginia for a few days (not literally) at Smith Mountain Lake with my Dad’s fam. I caught some rays, kayaked, jet skied (omg, best thing ever – I felt like Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider) and played lots of Hand and Foot, my new favorite card game.

No, I don’t have any pictures for you. I’m good at remembering to take pictures of my food, but bad at remembering to take pictures of me doing cool things. I need to work on that.

But, lucky for you, I did remember to take a picture on our special road trip pit stop of the best lunch on the planet.

That’s right, Bodos. Bodos Bagels is a legendary place of hungover happiness and glorious study breaks from college co-eds in Charlottesville. And it makes me so happy.

The thought of having a wheat bagel crossed my mind for approximately .2 milliseconds, but in the end I had to go with my usual-slash-never-tried-anything-else-because-it-is-so -good.

Plain bagel with cream cheese, a caesar salad with no cheese, and a large diet coke.

Bliss.

You know your gf is a blogger when you have to say, “Are you texting or taking pictures of your food again?”

Bwahaha.

I get to down this glorious concoction AT LEAST one more time in the near future – when one of my BFF’s ties the knot near C’ville in early October. Praise the lord.

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I have been cheatin’ up a storm lately when it comes to clean eating. I started the mini-vacay trying though! I brought some of my own food, and made oatmeal with sliced bananas and granola sprinkles every morning.

I’m going to a lake again this weekend for a quick trip, this time with my a cappella group – and I think bringing some healthy food again is the way to go. This time I’ll bring more options so I reach for carrots and wheat thins instead of the wavy ruffles. Mmmmm….wavy ruffles.

I ran once while I was there, but it was more of a trot/walk because it was hot, humid, and hilly. I’m not used to that shit.

I was actually excited to get back to my trusty cool (temperature-wise) treadmill at Crunch. And all day, I couldn’t wait to try out my new headphone plan.

I got the idea from this guy and trusted him because he recommended the BudFits which I use and love. Dummy me, I didn’t realize that the the problem was the remote on my iPod shuffle headphone wire getting sweaty instead of the actual earphones. This method is DIY, which is right up my ally = cheap.

But when I pulled them out at the gym, the remote was already long gone. I wasn’t sure if the remote wasn’t being responsive because of the plastic, so I ripped it off and tried again. Nope. It wouldn’t change songs or the volume up anymore. Blown.

(original via)

So I did what I had to do. I ran my 5 miles without music. And you know what?

It wasn’t too bad.

Maybe I’m channeling my new-found idols idols from Born to Run.

I did miss my music though, especially toward the end of the run. I don’t know if I should buy a new set of iPod shuffle headphones and re-try the DIY method, or if I should invest in some heavy duty waterproof headphones with a remote/compatible with iPod shuffle 3rd generation (which I have yet to find) or what.

I am glad to be back into my running routine though, nonetheless. The Tough Mudder is just around the corner, and I’ve still got a lot of work to do.

What music player/headphones do you use while you run? Puhlease help me figure out my headphone situation! What headphones do you use with your shuffle?

5Jul2012

Food, Fireworks, and Fun

Posted in Clean Eating, Food by chicken nugget girl

Hope everyone enjoyed their ~~day off of work~~ Fourth of July!

Look at this purty thing I took to my family’s BBQ.

Tuna and I were quite proud of ourselves. (He cut the strawberries and skewered half the flag!)

I got the idea from Pinterest.

Yesterday there was many a brewsky and a ~~shit~~ ton of “dirty eating.”

Maybe that’s the reason my new bikini from The Clymb looks like it is squeezing the crap out of my skin. I’m super bummed it’s too small for me. I always seem to do this about online ordering: i.e., get all excited and then the item doesn’t end up fitting me. Typ.

We watched the DC fireworks from my 16th floor balcony with friends – one of my favorite things to do.

I love turning up the WETA showcase of it on the TV so we can hear the slightly delayed music accompaniment to the fireworks.

Oooooh.

Da duh da duh da duh dun dun dun.

Ahhhhhhh.

The other cool thing is that we are so high up we can see ALL of the fireworks in the surrounding towns. It’s like a game to spot a show in the horizon. We can see the Alexandria’s fireworks, National Harbor’s, Bethesda’s, PG County’s, and more.

It’s freakin’ awesome.

Pretty blobs of light.

In other news:

I haven’t really had time to workout much this week, but I really need to make it more of a priority – which means long run on Friday after work. Wah.

Only one more workday until a four day weekend.

And….. because this makes me laugh in a horrifyingly guilty-feeling way…

Sorry I’m not sorry.

Did you make any red, white, and blue food yesterday?

Did you get to see some fireworks? I hope you did!

Food Anxiety and WIAW

No, this isn’t the kind of food anxiety you’re thinking of. It’s anxiety about not having enough healthy food in the pantry at all times.

It started last night as I went to prep my overnight oats in the usual fashion. Then I realized:

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I was out of organic rolled oats.

*!@!@%#^&^%#$.

Stop the press! Emergency!

Ok, so I didn’t have my overnight oats on a Monday morning for once. At least I have power. I’ll live.

But allllll morning on Monday I was grumpy because I didn’t have my normal breakfast.

The food issues continued as the day went on.

I usually bring my lunch to work, but since I didn’t have a chance to go grocery shopping over the weekend, I was forced to buy my lunch. I went over to the Cafe across the street from work, but they didn’t have power. (Of course my work had power though.)

I didn’t end up eating until 2pm after finally ordering a sandwich from Potbelly. At least I knew I would make it to Whole Foods that evening, and that all would be well on the food front soon enough.

It’s really weird – when I got home from the grocery store that night, and unloaded my goodies, I breathed huge sigh of relief.

Huh? That’s funny I was SO relieved to have healthy food in the house.

I realized that not having a full stock of healthy food in my cabinet makes me anxious.

So then I asked myself: why?

Really, what am I worried about?

I’m lucky enough to be able to buy food when I’m hungry. I don’t need to worry like many people if/when I will be able to acquire my next meal. I know I’m not going to starve.

Am I worried about falling off the clean eating wagon if I don’t have food in the house? Maybe. I can definitely see myself ordering pizza if I don’t feel like going to the grocery store when I’m out of food.

If I order pizza and don’t keep up with my healthy eating habits, I guess I am scared I’ll gain back the weight back that I lost.

So….maybe it is the kind of food anxiety you’re thinking of, if the underlying cause of it is about weight.

And that’s not necessarily what clean eating should be about. It shouldn’t be about obsessing over what you’re eating so much that it causes anxiety.

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I need to remember that I control what goes into my body and that if I don’t have groceries, I am not going to magically gain weight. I mean, c’mon, the Giant near me is 24 hours.

Time to take a chill pill and calm the eff down.

*****

So…..I’m not going to post everything I eat for What I Ate Wednesday. It doesn’t matter EXACTLY what I put in my body, as long as the majority of it is healthy and nourishes my body AND my mind.

As a reminder to me about what What I Ate Wednesday is about I’m going to try giving you a sneak peak into the general things I’m eating this week and my awesome din din creation last night rather than a play by play of exactly what I consumed.

My weekend breakfast lately has been a yogurt/fruit/granola combo, since I’m too lazy to make a breakfast involving any type of cooking on Saturday morning.

I’ve taken to buying a new pack of granola, a new yogurt tub, and a new carton of blueberries when I’m halfway done with the first pack/tub/carton. Anxiety alert. Maybe I should start buying new food when I truly run out of old food, like a normal person.

My nuun shipment came in on Friday! Very exciting.

So far I’ve tried the cucumber mint and the goji berry green tea. I’m a little hesitant to try the tangerine ginger flavor because I’m not usually a fan of orange flavors. But I’ll try it, I promise! I drank the goji berry green tea flavor on my treadmill and it wasn’t too flavorful to have on a run.

Tonight’s dinner was an oldie but goodie:

BREAKFAST BURRITOS

Whole wheat wrap
2 eggs
Cheddar cheese
Guacamole
Salsa
Chopped red onion
Chopped and sautéed potatoes

And to keep up with this month’s WIAW theme, check out my daily mile page to see my fitness log.

Have a fab fourth!

Are you weird about HAVING to have food in your house, too?

What are your Fourth of July plans?

28Jun2012

Oh, What Da Hell

Posted in Food, Running Gear, Tough Mudder by chicken nugget girl

I am all kinds of excited about several things today. You probably don’t care at all, but I figured:

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I’ll share ’em with you anyway. 🙂

1. I now have my own domain name.

I was reading a post by Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers about the importance of self hosting your blog.

It was a spur of the moment decision – having my own domain name was something I really wanted to do, but didn’t want to spend the 20+ bucks to do it.

Luckily, I decided to give myself a ‘lil haircut last night (don’t worry, just a trim!) instead of getting it cut this weekend.

DIY, bitches.

So because I saved a buck trimming my hair, I shelled out some dough for a domain name.

2. I discovered The Clymb.

No, not the Miley Cyrus song.

(original via)

But The Clymb. It’s like Rue La La or Ideeli for fitness gear. My dear friend Vicki sent me the link and I immediately made a much needed purchase.

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It’s Billabong. I guess that counts as fitness. They also had a periwinkle/pink one which I wanted until I saw that it was covered with FLAMINGOS. I am deathly terrified of flamingos. So…yay, palm trees.

I’m going on a lake vacay next week and I needed a new bathing suit. All mine are too big for me now (yesssssssssssss.)

3. I did a pull up!

After a mediocre spin class tonight, I ventured down into the scary section of the gym: the weights/jungle gym/open area.

There were some girls training for cross fit and doing those swing pull up thingys:

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Soo coool.

When I was ~~little~~ younger I could always do tons of pull-ups. I still have the girl’s pull up record at my elementary school – I did 26 pull ups. Don’t forget, I probably weighed like 100 pounds back then. Ha. In middle school and high school I loved the pull up fitness test day because I could always beat the girls (and some of the boys) with 12 or 13 pull ups.

I tried to do a pull up last week and I couldn’t even do one. Embarr.

But then I tried again today. SUCCESS!

For now. It is slightly petrifying that the Tough Mudder is in two months and I can only do one pull up. I got a lot of work to do, folks.

4. “Healthy” chicken nuggets exist.

Need I say more?

Hallelujah.

Happy Friday!

27Jun2012

Good Sesame/Bad Sesame

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Run, Running Gear, WIAW by chicken nugget girl

We’re halfway through the week! Thank goodness.

As soon as I woke up with a migraine this morning I knew it was going to be a rough day.

Why the headache? Who knows.

Though I don’t think it was from dehydration after my 5 miler last night, I used it as an excuse to order some nuun! (I’ve been wanting to for awhile. :)) Yes, I am beginning to have a running-gear ordering problem. #dontjudge

I ordered the Mixed U Sampler – the natural hydration options.

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I’ll let you know what I think!

Anyway, I think I over-did it with my activities/running around yesterday: work, babysitting, the gym, the grocery store, and hanging at Tuna’s. I left my apartment at 9:20am and didn’t get home until 11:00pm. My all day headache showed me I need to slooooowww dooowwwwn today.

*****

As usual, thanks to Jenn for hosting the What I Ate Wednesday link party!

This week, my overnight oats were summery and fresh with a yummy fruit substitute.

Mmm hmm.

Peaches subbed for bananers. It is so yummy with the peaches and blueberries mixed!

I had to run errands for work this afternoon and missed my usual lunch time. By the time I got around to eating at 2:15pm I needed to eat both my lunch and my afternoon snack!

I tried the herb blend of boxed salad this week – yuck! I definitely won’t be buying that again. It’s too flavorful for my ~~plain ass~~ taste. As my friend Mal would say, it tasted like leaves.

However, those sesame sticks are freakin’ amazing. I bought a tub of them yesterday in an attempt to spice up my boring lunch salads and they are a keeper. I can’t wait to eat ’em again tomorrow.

The hummus on the side was my much needed protein. Protein = brain food.

And my favorite flavor:

Lara bars are on sale this week at Whole Foods – go get them while they’re cheap(er)!

My din din tonight was inspired by our WIAW hostess herself. You can find the recipe I used for Quinoa Fried Rice here:

http://www.peasandcrayons.com/2012/01/keen-wahhhh-adventures-in-cooking.html

I don’t think my version was as tasty as Jenn’s, but it was still pretty good.

I reached for the soy sauce and instead accidentally poured sesame oil in the skillet. Uh oh. Though I like my sesame sticks, I don’t like sesame oil. This is why I’m Chicken Nugget Girl. I can’t explain why I like one food versus another made of the same thing!

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After that mishap, I added a little too much actual soy sauce.

Next time I’ll have to use more vegetables. I only used peas and onions (are onions vegetables? I’ll have to look it up.) Plus, my egg scrambles were too chunky. Lessons learned.

I have been craving my evening snack forever:

Glorious.

Original Puffins and milk!

Have you tried nuun? What’s your favorite flavor?

What did you eat this week?

Sweet Treats and Running Geeks

After my Saturday morning run (treadmill 5K) I chowed down on a fancy raw granola bar from Starbucks on my way home from the gym.

It was the first time I tried this brand and it was amazing! The bar had just the right amount of flavor and chewiness. I’ll have to see if they sell them at Whole Foods or if it’s just a Starbucks thing.

On Saturday night I went to a cookout in Baltimore to celebrate a friend’s birthday – and one of my fab friends from DC brought sweet treats a la Georgetown Cupcake.

So. good.

I had chocolate on chocolate, but I also tried a bite of birthday cake flavor.

Even if you are a clean eater or healthy eater you have splurge every once in a while. If I didn’t let myself cheat here and there, I would definitely have a hard time eating clean most of the time.

Another example of splurging/firsts/sweet treats from the weekend:

I know frozen yogurt is all the rage right now, and I finally got to try some.

There are strawberries. That makes it healthy. Yeah.

I opted for the standard vanilla and chocolate combo with a dash of birthday cake. The G-town Cupcake birthday cake flavor sparked a craving!

My mom got chocolate with walnuts, kiwi, dark chocolate chunks and chocolate sauce. Ok, typing this is making me hungry…

My mom also re-gifted me the below array of amazingness:

Yessssss

Looks like I know what I will be reading for awhile!

Coincidentally, Netflix alerted me that I have some more running geek merch arriving soon.

(source)

Netflix so kindly tells me:

“This biopic stars Billy Crudup as Steve “Pre” Prefontaine, the Olympic runner who overcame a physical abnormality to become the top American runner in the early 1970s. The film follows Prefontaine from his early years at the University of Oregon under the tutelage of Coach Bill Bowerman (Donald Sutherland), through the grueling Olympic trials and the 1972 Munich Olympics, and ultimately to Prefontaine’s tragic death.”

Sweeeeet. Embarrassing that it now looks like I am OBSESSED with running. But I guess that’s the point, right? I’m obvi still a hardcore beginner runner, but the only way to eventually become a hardcore still running runner is to throw yourself into it. At least, that’s the way I’m doing it.

I better go hide my new bookshelf of running reads before Tuna finds them next to my half-eaten pack of shot bloks or I’ll never hear the end of it.

What’s your favorite frozen yogurt combination?

Are you a geek about running too? Or just a natural?

20Jun2012

My Favorite Weekly Holiday

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, WIAW by chicken nugget girl

Happy What I Ate Wednesday!

This week, my overnight oats got a makeover. They got blueberrified.

Basically, I was tired of taking thirty seconds to slice strawberries, so I switched up my O.O. fruit this week. And boy am I loving it. I didn’t realize how much of a blueberry lover I am. I even used to avoid blueberry muffins. Oh how times have changed.

*****

I’ve decided I’m completely sick of my hard boiled egg salad every day. Please don’t make me eat any more hard boiled egg salads.

This week, I opted for a different form of protein on my luncheon lettuce.

Quinoaaaaaa.

I added some shredded cheese and olive oil dressing, and it wasn’t too bad.

*****

Since we are snacking sensibly this month, I gobbled down some hummus and veggies in the mid-afternoon. This was my first time trying scallion and parsley hummus. It’s kind of a funny color, but I like it!

Let’s be honest, the veggies and hummus only kept me satiated for approximately one hour.

Emergency raisins to the rescue!

*****

I bought the ingredients for a yummy looking crab, tomato, and avocado salad for a sweet recipe my mom sent me. (Thanks, Mom!)

In my haste to make my fancy salad, there was a terrible casualty:

Nooooooooooooo.

But. But. My O.O. fruit!!!

Now I understand why Whole Foods always puts the rubber bands on produce and eggs. Maybe I should start doing that at home too and not just for transit.

Will you still be friends with me if I violently and aggressively re-wash the blueberries and eat them? Yeah. I think that’s fine…

Back to my version of the Crabby Summer Salad.

The best part – it involves almost no cooking. (I say almost because I put the salad a-top leftover wheat noodles.)

CNG’s Crabby Summer Salad

Ingredients

1/2 Avocado
1 Tomato
3/4 cup corn
1/4 cup chopped red onion
Olive Oil
1 Lime
Crab Flavored Seafood Sticks a.k.a. “Fake”Crab
Cilantro
Salt
Pepper

Note that this is an individual portion of the Crabby Summer Salad. I’m thinking I’ll at least double this recipe and make it for Tuna and I this weekend.

Directions

Chop up the onion and put it in a medium sized bowl with 1 tsp olive oil and the juice of 1/3 of a lime.

(I actually used white onion in my dish because the store was out of red onions when I went. It was waaay too oniony with white onion. I’ll definitely have to use red next time.)

Heat up the 3/4 cup of corn (I used frozen) in the microwave and dump in the bowl.

Add some cilantro, salt, and pepper.

I used some jalapeno too – that’s what the green things are. I wasn’t really a fan though, so I’m not using it in the official recipe. However, feel free to add your own ingredients! Cooking is all about making a recipe your own.

Step 1

The rest is simple – cut up one small tomato and one half of an avocado.

Deliciousness

Cut up one stick of “fake” crab, pull apart, and mix in.

You can eat the salad by itself, on greens, pasta, or meat.

Enjoy!

I certainly did.

What did you make to eat this week?

What is your favorite summer dish? I love picking crabs at the beach!

18Jun2012

Purple Stride 5K Race Recap

Posted in Food, Race, Run, Running Gear by chicken nugget girl

Race day started out bright and early at 6:30am. Surprisingly, I popped out of bed just fine.

I quickly ate a some whole wheat toast with peanut butter and chia seeds and gulped down a cup of black coffee.

While I was waiting to catch the first train of the morning, a middle-aged runner man with a mustache approached me.

“Are you running the 5K today?” he asked me.

I told him I was and proudly explained that it was my first race.

My new bud congratulated me and gave me some running tips that he learned in his 35+ years of running.

“Double-knot your shoes.” Ok, that’s easy enough.

“Run the first two miles comfortably and then give it all you’ve got.” Got it. Don’t go out to fast.

“There’s always a hill at the end, so make sure you save some steam.” Steam. Sounds good to me.

Thanks for the race advice, mustache runner man!

I arrived at Metro Center with plenty of time to spare, so I popped into the Starbucks nearby to go to the bathroom (I figured they were going to be much nicer than porta potties) and bought a bottle of water.

I walked two blocks down to Federal Plaza where the race was.

There was a lot of purple to support Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, which was what the donations for the race/walk were for.

Freedom Plaza

There were plenty of runners, walkers, volunteers, and spectators mulling around.

I went on a 5 minute warm-up trot and stretched for a few minutes. Everything felt good and I was ready to go.

I found my friend Stephy!

Before the start, I was pretty nervous full of adrenaline.

I liked running toward the Capitol!

The first five minutes were really fun. I loved all the people running together at the start – some shot ahead of me, and some people I passed. I felt like I was running pretty fast, about a ten minute mile pace, which was my goal. I tried to reel it in a little bit, and run comfortably just like the mustache runner man said.

Remember how I lovingly put together my 5K race playlist so that Tubthumping played as I crossed the finish line? Well, I was so pumped/nervous/excited that I turned my iPod shuffle to the shuffle setting and didn’t change it for the whole race. Whoops. But to be honest, I couldn’t even really tell you which of the songs played. My nervousness made my brain/ears slightly blackout. Guess I didn’t need to complain so much about my headphones this past week.

The course was an out and back loop combo with some random baby loops on the side. It was nice that it all flat (mustache runner man was wrong about there always being a final hill) but….

THERE WERE NO MILE MARKERS.

I died. Both on the inside and out.

Stephy told me afterwards that the water stations were at mile marker 1 and 2. Wish the race peeps would have told me that.

I made it to the first water station (and ran right past it) in the low eights. So – fastest mile I’ve run since sixth grade.

However, I had no idea at the time how far I had gone. So I kept on running my ‘lil heart out at the same pace.

At about the 12 minute mark, misery set in.

I was starting to get really tired, slightly nauseous, and grumpy. For me, getting grumpy while running can either be a really good thing and make me run faster or a really bad thing and I give up.

I didn’t give up quite yet. I ran for several more minutes and made my first big mistake.

Stopping at the water station at mile 2. I should have just grabbed a cup and kept running! Once I stopped, I was dunzo.

I got to the second water station in about 19 minutes, so that means I ran my second mile in about 11 minutes. (Though remember, I still had no idea WTF my distance or pace was.) Since the first water station was only 8 minutes out of the race and I was already back to it, I figured I only had 8 more minutes to go. Wow! I’d would blow my goal out of the water!

After a 30 second water break, I started running again. I was toast.

When I finally rounded the bend for the last straightaway, running away from the Capitol Building, I realized I still had about .50 or .75 miles to go.

Nuh uh. No way.

(source)

My choice was to vomit or not vomit.

I chose not to vomit.

At 24 minutes in to my first race, I started to walk. Defeat. I walked for 1 minute and people started passing me by the dozens.

Once I started walking, I kind of gave up. I still had 5 whole minutes to get down the last damn straightaway. Maybe I could still finish in under 30 minutes.

I ran for another minute. And walked for another minute. Etc.

Nope, not making it in under 30. My unofficial time was 32:29.

******

After pouting for a little while, I decided to not be too too upset about the whole thing. I pulled the under 30 minute goal out of my ass, so that shouldn’t really matter. It was my first race and I didn’t know what to expect.

I’m glad I did it, even if the race didn’t go exactly how I had planned it to go in my head. I’m glad I woke up and got to feel like a real runner for 24 minutes on Saturday morning.

P.S. Congrats to Speed Demon Stephy, who finished in 22 minutes!

15Jun2012

‘Twas the Night Before Race Day

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Music, Race, Recipes, Run, Running Gear by chicken nugget girl

and all through the apartment….

Just kidding.

Kind of. I am being a slight weirdo and over-analyzing/over-preparing/being over-excited about tomorrow. But just because it’s my first race! Well, my first “distance” running race. I know it’s not a big deal, and you probably think I’m a nutcase.

But it’s so fun to pretend that I am an actual runner; that I’ll actually get to do a race recap and actually get to be part of the running world for a morning!

I stuck with my Runner’s World/Insightful Friend via her Personal Trainer race week plan this week.

1.) Hydrate and Fuel

I did some research on how much water I should be drinking per day since I was having dehydration issues.

Livestrong.com told me:

“MayoClinic.com suggests that drinking about 2,000 mL (2 qts.) of water a day is adequate, since food sources also contribute some water to each person’s diet. Another guideline from the Institute of Medicine is that men drink about 3000 mL (3 qts.) daily and women 2200 mL (http://www.livestrong.com/article/527779-how-many-milliliters-of-water-should-you-drink-a-day/#ixzz1xtqMEXOP).

To test out my hydration intake, I kept track of exactly how much water I drank on Wednesday.

– 5 camelbaks of water = 750 mL each
– 4 cups of water = 500 mL each

Total water consumed on Wednesday: 5,750 mL

Ok, I think I’m drinking enough water now.

I took a healthy snack to Book Club Thursday night for all of us gals to munch on.

And made a delish chocolate peanut butter smoothie for a snack this afternoon.

CNG’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

Ingredients
– Skim Milk
– Ice Cubes
– Chocolate Whey Protein Powder
– Cocoa Powder
– Unsweetened & Unsalted Organic Peanut Butter

Directions
Mix 1 cup of skim milk, 4 ice cubes, 1 scoop of protein power, 1 heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder, and 1/3 cup of peanut butter in a blender on SMOOTHIE setting.

*****

2.) 3 mile run outside in the heat.

It actually wasn’t too hot out, but I was glad to run outside again anyway. The weather for tomorrow morning is supposed to be around 70 degrees, so I should be just fine!

This run was my last-run-before-my-first-race-last-renewal-of-confidence-run.

It was great. My headphones worked, nothing hurt, and I ran it in 30:37. My under 30 minute goal for tomorrow may be attainable!

Though either way, I have to remind myself that it doesn’t really matter. I’m only racing against myself. I’m going to try not to put unnecessary pressure on myself for no reason.

*****

I picked up my race packet last night at Pacer’s in Silver Spring.

I’m glad I don’t have to worry about registering in the morning.

I’m racing! I have a number!

I was stressing out what to do with my stuff during the run. I didn’t want to bring my iPhone with me and check it in the bag check, just since you never know what could happen. So instead, I decided to shell out $24 for a cool ~~fanny pack~~ racing pouch. Now I don’t have to worry about my phone since I can keep it on me! I’m also going to take my ID, some cash, my metro card, and some chapstick.

And don’t worry, I’m not so ridiculous that I think I need to use shot bloks for a 5K. I just wanted to buy them! I will probably try them out on my long run next week.

I’ve got my playlist all set. There will be praying to the running gods to keep my headphones working. Hopefully I will make my goal time so that Tubthumping will be playing as I cross the finish line.