Dang!

I haven't posted since Monday. Woah. I am happy to report that I managed to find motivation the following day :) Instead of rushing over to the Marina Green for the scheduled 2 mile group run, I opted to run my flat office route...until I realized I forgot my access card. D'oh!

Since my home is on top of a hill, I decided to walk down to flatness and run until the timer on my phone went off. Seemed like a pretty good idea. 30 minutes later, I had completed exactly 3 miles...a pretty rough 3 miles. Yeeh. Dinner was leftover couscous salad (hooray for eating all my leftovers this week!)...exciting, I know.

Wednesday's run was MUCH better. I left my office and did the same timer thing (15 minutes, turn around, 15 minutes) and almost made it to 30 minutes, except the stupid light changed on me :( I got home, mapped my run and turns out I did 3.23 miles. In 29 minutes. O hey!

My run must have been an indicator for how the rest of my evening would pan out. I got home by 7 and knocked out some laundry and cleaning. I even sorted my recycling bin and broke down a bunch of boxes! Talk about productive ;) I also made a random quick dinner: Ghetto Tempeh & Swiss Sammich.

There's a whole lot of yellow going on in that picture. I sliced up my block of tempeh and spread some Nando's Peri-Peri Garlic Sauce on each side before baking.

Toasted up some bread, a slice of swiss cheese and a generous smear of my favorite mustard:

Dinner was served in no time.

Was it good? Eh, not really. It lacked greens and flavor. I ended up digging through my fridge for something to dip my sammich in. Sadness.

Since I had 2 slices of tempeh leftover, I made a similar sammich for Thursday's lunch subbing in hoisin sauce for the mustard. I crossed my fingers that it added enough flavor to keep my tastebuds happy.

Again, flavor fail. Belly was full and happy though! Happy all the way through my last group run...a whole MILE from the Marina Green to a bar. Haha. I love my running group. To justify changing clothes, having to shower, and rushing out of the office, I tacked on a little more for an even 2 mile jog to the bar.

(source)

At the Final Final in the Marina, I had a wonderfully balanced dinner consisting of a Racer 5 IPA and bowl upon bowl of free popcorn. Hey, they were addictive! I also chatted with fellow runners and managed to find a potential new long run buddy. Hooray :)

Weird science...

So you know how I was so excited this morning about how productive I was with the ab work, breakfast, blogging and getting stuff prepped for tonight's dinner? SQUASHED when I got back from the track to find this:
UMMM for real? Do you see the extra white parts and dark parts?? Totally not what it looked like when I cut it up this morning. I took a bite (before I saw the dark parts) and thought it was a little weird and then I looked closer and THERE WERE WHITE FUZZIES! EEEK! So I'm standing in the kitchen staring at this cube and I look closer at the dark parts - totally not edible. How in the world did my tempeh go bad in a day??? It was in a ziplock bag and in the fridge. Shouldn't it have been fine? Maybe this is why it was in an ultra vacuum packed bag? Ugh. Frustrating.

Thankfully we had some chicken tenderloins in the fridge waiting to get packed for the freezer. I subbed those in for the tempeh, boiled up some soba noodles and dinner was served in 15 minutes!

June Chicken Stirfry
4 chicken tenderloins, cut into bite sized pieces,
1/4 c onion, diced
1/4 c celery, diced
1 1/2 c snap peas
1 small green pepper, sliced
1 small red pepper, sliced
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp black bean garlic sauce
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp oyster sauce
2 tsp sesame oil

In a large pan, heat sesame oil and add chicken. Cook for 3-4 minutes, add sauces and cook for another 3 minutes. Add vegetables and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

I have a TON of stir fry recipes - something is always different each time I make one so that's why this is the 'June' Chicken Stir Fry :) I had some leftover diced celery and onions so I threw those in. Typically I'd do onion slices and thin slices of celery, but I kinda liked having the little diced bits in with the sauce this time around!

I served this over soba noodles because I wasn't really feeling rice for dinner. Plus, that would have taken a lot longer and I didn't have any patience after tonight's workout...

Tonight was a gorgeous night for a track workout! No humidity, a slight breeze, AWESOME. I was feeling not so great when I left the office (I don't know how, but I still managed to get hunger pains after scattering my meals), but I made it to the track. We did a quick 1/2 mile jog and then jumped into this workout that I found on Runner's World:

PACE: Easy Jogging
1 mile w/5 strides

PACE: 5-K or Faster
1000 meters

PACE: Tempo
800 meters

PACE: 5-K or Faster
800 meters

PACE: Tempo
800 meters

PACE: 5-K or Faster
600 meters

PACE: Tempo
800 meters

PACE: All-out Blast
400 meters

To close out the workout we did a 1/2 mile jog followed by some stretching. Yes, we probably should have done a longer warm up and cool down, but I didn't want to tack on too many extra miles this week...this ended up being like 5.5!

I liked the workout even though it was a lot to remember (I even had it written down!). This might have to go my track workout 'to-do' list (I'm trying to keep a list of all the track workouts I like so I don't have to constantly look stuff up). Well, maybe it'll go on the 'do me once every other month' list ;)

Sorry for the short and scary picture post! I'm exhausted and have to be at work by 7am tomorrow to finish up stuff for a presentation. If I miraculously pop out of bed super early, you'll be the first to know ;)

late late late

I sat down with the intent to post this earlier, but got distracted...bear with me for being choppy! I'm feeling like an old lady and this is way past my bedtime.

I was so exhausted before, during AND after bootcamp this morning so as soon as I got out onto the street, I made a beeline for the closest coffee shop. Unfortunately the Starbucks was packed and I wasn’t feeling ABP so I decided to check out this place I pass by ALL the time on Connecticut Ave – The Daily Market. It’s located between the CVS and the entrance to the metro and has a really bright yellow and purple awning. I poked my head in and thought, eh, why not give it a shot.

This place is kinda like the Capitol Grounds Café near my office, minus all the Boar's Head meat in the case. They have smoothies, lots of fun beverages, bars, trail mix, chips, everything. What did I walk out with? A bagel w/veggie cream cheese, a banana and a large coffee. Ha. I'm thinking about checking it out for lunch one of these days. While I was waiting for my bagel, I saw a sign for the ‘Summer Deal’ which was a chicken breast sandwich with avocado, sprouts, tomatoes, sweet peppers and wasabi mayo for $5.29 (I’m not sure the ‘deal’ comes with anything though). Now, I’m kinda anti-mayo, but I think a small smear of wasabi mayo would totally make this sandwich a winner. I think this might be my Friday meal. Will keep you posted!

On the way to the office, I saw some folks with Team in Training shirts selling Krispy Kreme donuts by the metro station. I always feel like I should buy a box because I too was in that situation a couple years ago, granted, I chose not to sell Krispy Kremes by the metro, but I definitely struggled to fund raise. I passed on the donuts b/c no one really needs a box of donuts on a Wednesday. Perhaps I’ll buy a box on Friday if they are there…

And now the dinner experiment...oh boy, what an experiment it was. I wanted to make an asiany tofu salad w/a bunch of crisp veggies in a sesame ginger vinaigrette. I came across some ginger teryaki tempeh at the store and thought I would test it out. I've always been a little curious about tempeh so this seemed like an excellent opportunity to try it.

Here's my test batch:

My 'tempehtations' had pretty good flavor...the texture was just off. In my mind, I pictured this dish with fried or pressed tofu. These kinda fell apart and I didn't realize how grainy tempeh was. I think they'd be better all broken up in a warm dish. Maybe a stir fry?

Anyway, I bought this dressing at the store without prior tasting.
Verdict: not so good on it's own. I supplemented it with a splash of sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and some grated ginger. Mixed it up with the veggies, chicken and tempeh and voila!
After letting it marinate for about 30 minutes in the fridge, I mixed it up again and gave it a taste. The tempeh broken up wasn't that bad...and combined with all the crunchy veggies, the texture didn't bother me that much. I'd give it another shot.

Asian Tofu (or Tempeh!) Salad
1.5 c snap peas, blanched
1 small bunch broccolini, cut into 1 inch pieces, blanched
1/2 red pepper, cut into thin strips
1 c cucumber, cut into thin strips
1 package tofu (pressed or fried) or tempeh (seasoned)
1/2 c shredded chicken (optional)
sesame ginger dressing, enough to coat

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, let sit in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Told you it was a major kitchen experiment! At least it was edible :)

In other news, it appears that the NYC Half Marathon has sold out. Bummer. For all I know, it's been sold out for quite some time now but I've been so all over the place I haven't had a chance to follow up :( It kinda throws off my whole race schedule (see right)...what am I going to do with such a long break after June?? Definitely can use any suggestions for races coming up in June - August. Or maybe I'll welcome a few months of low key running??