Looking Ahead

Happy New Year long lost bloggies! I know I've been MIA lately...it's been tough keeping up with writing/reading blogs and I've actually considered closing up shop. No worries (for any of you still reading!), I'm not ready to do that just yet :)

Lots of changes have been taking place over here and I've been neglecting my kitchen. A lot. I've been exploring a lot of fun new restaurants, but I'm ashamed to admit that I've been Yelping more than blogging about them. Have you had a chance to check out the reviews?

I'm also trying really hard to take breaks from technology. You know, turn off the computer, TV, iPhone, etc. Sometimes you just need to do it.

So, what else has the beans been up to while neglecting the blog?

Reading

I've gotten really into reading lately. I used to read a lot as a kid (so much that I'd fall asleep with books in my bed every night) and now I find myself going through waves where I zoom through books. This recent wave has me reading a ton of fiction...which is new for me. I tend to lean more toward non-fiction (mostly memoirs), but these novels are a nice way to escape from reality.

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The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

I really enjoyed the way this book was structured. I liked that each chapter gave you a new perspective on the situation as it introduced a new character. What I did not like - I felt like it left me hanging at the end. I kinda wanted more from a couple of the characters.

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One Day by David Nicholls

It took awhile for me to get into the book, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. It's easy to get wrapped up in the bumpy relationship between the two main characters. Have you ever seen A Lot Like Love (if you haven't, just wait for it to come on FX or something)? That's what this book reminded me of at certain points. That and City of Angels. Random, I know.

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Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson

I picked this book up at the airport after watching the o so sappy TV movie (o yes, yes I did). It was a nice sappy read, but not as moving as I had hoped. I got a little misty watching the movie and hoped that the book would have me boohooing. Notsomuch.

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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

I'm only about halfway through and I really like the book so far! Not only does it explore the forbidden relationship of two teenagers during the war, but it also touches upon the strained relationship the main character Henry has with his father in 1942 and with his own son later on in life.

Traveling and Celebrating

It seemed wrong to head east for a long weekend, so I decided to spend a whole 11 days out there! My east coast tour began in Long Island for our annual family Christmas Eve celebration. Jamie drove up and we cleaned up in yankee swap:

I started out with a shake weight, but thankfully that got stolen by an unsuspecting tot and I walked away with a sandwich maker. LOVE! Do you have any idea how long I've wanted one of these? Insta hot pocket!

Christmas day was a blur, followed by a major white out!

O yes, hey snow storm! So instead of visiting friends in NYC, we stuck it out in the 'burbs and picked up some clothes for Mr. Bear

went into Lego overload

and reunited with a few friends

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Not too bad for a snow day :)

We had plans to head to NJ the next day, but woke up to just over 1 foot of snow! Eeek! Good thing I bought some galoshes and snow pants the day before ;) Hooray for snow fun!

Roads were clear the next day so we began the journey to Manassas. The 10 hour journey. That should have only taken 5.5 hours. Awesome.

The next day we explored glamorous Manassas followed by a day trip to DC (still can't believe we had to get a hotel room) and then I closed out my trip with a stop in Alexandria and Fredericksburg. Whew. Whirlwind tour! So happy to see everyone though.

Noshing

Pre-holiday week, I met up with friends and snacked at some fun spots in the city. Full reviews are on Yelp, but I'll leave you with names: Mamacita (tasty Mexican tapas), First Crush (fun wines and comfort food), Zero Zero (fancy pizza and pasta). They're worth checking out!

During the holiday week, I was determined to visit certain eateries I've been craving since I moved. On the list:

Southern style pho - I haven't found any noteworthy southern style pho yet in SF so I really wanted some Pho 75. Unfortunately that is way far from Manassas. Enter, Pho 234. It'll do.

Potbelly - I miss you Chicken Salad w/hot peppers!

Not pictured because I was just too hungry - Peruvian rotisserie chicken. Not quite EPR, but Super Chicken was Super YUMMY!

Yogging & Biking

Yeah, it's reduced to jogging. :( I'm slowly getting back into things, but I'm super cautious and it's really frustrating. Going from a minimum of 5 miles to maxing out at 2 is rough. Jamie and I did a run on the battlefield over the holiday week and it was a great change of scenery.

What I didn't expect was how exhausted I felt during the run. Ech.

Wining

Just a few new bottles:

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Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut Rose - I was nervous this sparkling rose would be too sweet, but it was a very nice balance of dry and sweet! I tried to find a bottle for New Year's Eve, but failed.

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Altos Malbec 2009 - Cousin brought this to Christmas Eve dinner and it was pretty good...then again, I've never really had a malbec I didn't like.

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Finca Sophenia Malbec 2008 - I really liked this one. They were pouring this as the happy hour red at Vermillion and it was pretty bold at first, but enjoyable. Definitely looking out for this one.

Appetizing

Got to cooking at Jamie's place for New Year's Eve. Lots of fun mini treats:

Wieners in blankets

Meatball Wellington (recipe courtesy of The Food in My Beard)

a bunch of mini flatbread pizzas (a bbq chicken, plain, veggie, pepperoni)

and a HOLEY CARVEL CAKE!

Happy birthday, here's a gaping hole in your ice cream cake!

How did you close out 2010/ring in the new year?

You say it's your birthday

It's my birthday too...just kidding.

It IS my blog's birthday, though :)

A year ago today, after a month or so of marinating on the whole idea, I decided to take the plunge and start a blog. A few friends had suggested I blog about my cooking adventures but I was always hesitant since I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to read what I wrote. I sat down and knew I wanted to write about the three things I loved the most - cooking/eating, running and traveling. I figured it would be a great way to remember things and if people read my blog, awesome. If they didn't, not a big deal.

Who knew I'd find so many people near and far with similar interests? Who knew that a year later, I'd be blogging from a completely different city with a very different life plan mapped out? I certainly didn't expect it.

There have been some huge changes (living arrangements, jobs, etc.)

And I've swapped out these views (the views I've had for the past 10 years...memories!)

For these (so much exploring to do!)

And who knows what the next year will bring...

I hope y'all keep reading to find out :)

Love the one you're with

Well, when it comes to workout machines, I'm TRYING ;p I have to admit that when I went downstairs this afternoon, both elliptical machines were occupado so I decided to walk on the treadmill until one was open. That walk got me itching to jog and I totally started upping the speed when a machine opened up. Coincidence or sign?? HMM??

This morning I was catching up on blogs (still WAY behind) and noticed Kelly's Elliptical Challenge 2010. Perfect timing! I signed my broken self up and am psyched for this extra bit of motivation! Here's the quick rundown:

• Challenge runs December 27, 2009 to January 30, 2010.
• Each participant sets a personal goal - mine is to do at least 3 workouts (at least 40 minutes each) a week.
• Goals are logged in a shared spreadsheet and if you meet your weekly goals, you'll be entered to win a $10 iTunes gift card.

This afternoon's workout brings me to 80 minutes of elliptical fun. Yowza. I got a little sweatier this time around since I tweaked Tuesday's workout a bit. This time, instead of focusing on how much I dread the machine, I decided to focus on ways I could make it work for me/ways to keep me distracted haha.

I went with a higher crossramp level (10) and lower resistance level (1) for my warm up, recovery and cool down. For the tougher parts, I brought the crossramp level down to 6 and upped the resistance to 7. I'm sure those are really dinky numbers to the advanced elliptical lover, but hey, I'm trying!

Numbers ALWAYS distract me. Sometimes during a really tough long run, I'll find myself trying to do math in my head (usually calculating how far we have left or how much we've already run). It's not easy, but the minutes and miles FLY BY. Anyway, I nerded out and decided to pay attention to my strides per minute.
During the tough parts, I made sure I stayed between 185 and 195...sometimes jumping up to 200 if a good song was on. Recovery strides were between 165 and 175.

All I have to say is that nerding out made the time go by super fast. I think the hardest part was the 10 minute cool down! haha. Closed my workout out with some calf stretching and instead of toe taps, I did this other exercise recommended by my PT that has me doing laps in my living room. Basically I squat and walk on my toes. Quite a sight.

Sorry for the lack of pictures! I'm off to prep some appetizers for a NYE party I'm headed to this evening in Arlington. Definitely remembering my camera!! Hope everyone has a fantastic New Year's! Mine's going wonderfully so far...especially after getting a mid-morning call from the birthday boy Okinawa! Yaay :)

MCM Part Deux

Where were we? Ah yes, the Mall. V and I were feeling pretty good but decided to reserve some energy for that silly bridge. We passed a Sport Bean station on the way so I grabbed a pack. Seemed appropriate since I really hadn't consumed anything since random pretzels near the Lincoln.

Normally I think Sport Beans are gross - way too strong of a taste and I think they even taste a little mediciney. However, at this point in the run, they were the best thing EVER. Just the sweetness I needed. I ate them slowly as we ran and felt a second wind coming on!
V and I agreed to pick up the pace a bit once we hit the Castle and we could see the rest of the pack making their turn onto 14th Street...uh oh, here we go!
As usual the gradual hills of the bridge (I think there are 3 inclines over the 2 miles) slowed us down. I think this was when our estimated finish went from 4:54 to 4:56 to 5:03. This was also when I accidentally hit stop on my watch. Oopsie. Good thing I knew we were 9 minutes off the gun time :)

I got another burst of energy just as we said bye to the bridge and entered Crystal City...which was promptly squashed. Why? Um, my foot got stuck to the street at the water stop and I almost fell over! Wtf?!? Spilled Powerade makes the streets sticky! Lots of spilled Powerade makes it extra sticky! Gah! Knee felt weird after that and I tried to shake it off. V and I wound our way through Crystal City looking for our cheering section and passed a bunch of people handing out beers - um, not feeling it at mile 22, thanks.

Crystal City was PACKED with spectators and random flags on both sides of the street.
We ran past Jamie & company at mile 22ish and 23ish and realized we were approaching the home stretch! Only a little over 3 miles left! By the way, no one said it would be a lonely 3 miles! Columbia Pike to 110 felt like the longest run ever!

We ran through the Pentagon parking lot and then had to loop around onto 110, back where we started. MJ was blasting from the speakers (you bet I got a bounce in my stride as Thriller played. psh) when we hit mile 25 and V was getting ready to start her big push for the finish line. I on the other hand, was just starting to feel a not so cool pang inside my left ankle. I knew we still had that monster hill to tackle so I held back a bit - no jogging it in!

Dear monster hill to Iwo Jima, I hate you. You were terribly steep and painful when I ran up you during the 2006 10k and didn't know the finish line was still a bit further. How dare you challenge my 26 mile-tired legs!

I charged up the hill and was almost out of breath at the top, but found enough energy to sprint to the finish, though my sprint must have resembled marching...hi jelly legs.
Final time - 5:10. One minute faster than Chicago. With hills. With an injury. With 4 weeks off. I'll take it!
So I'll aim for under 5 again next year...maybe I'll tackle the streets of Chicago once more, or maybe I'll explore a new city. Any suggestions?

I learned a few new things this time around:

• Next year I'm upping my longest run to 22 miles.
• Cross training is my friend, not the enemy.
• Running with a friend makes everything more fun.
• Having cheerleaders means no bag check ;)
• If I can PR with hills 'taking it easy', I know I can dip below 5 hours.
• I'm allergic to temporary tattoo sticker sheets.
• Tattoo stickers do not hold up with sweat.
• I actually like sport beans late in a run.

Check out the massive medal ;)

MCM Part I

As most of you know, I had a few goals for this year's MCM - finish under 5 hours, make sure V finished, and have a good time. Then the injury set in and those goals were swapped for another set - finish, don't f-up the achilles, and make sure V finishes and has fun. I knew I needed a backup plan, but really hated to admit it. I was actually consistent with my training this year and felt really strong. Of all 3 years of running, why did I have to get injured now?!?!

I eventually got over the frustration (and by eventually I mean Friday night) and accepted that this was not going to be a race. I mean, I took a good 4 weeks off of running (minus a few scattered 1-2 milers), what could I expect?

V and I planned to meet up at 7:15 near the Arlington Cemetery stop since neither of us was checking a bag (yay for cheerleaders!). I got a little delayed, thank you metro for your special detour, but still got there with time to spare.

We made our way to the start line and crept into the 4:30ish area. Yes, we were those girls. Whatever. We weren't alone and you know it. I ate a Mocha Clif Shot around 7:50, per race day ritual, and anxiously awaited the start.
We finally crossed the start around 8:09 (the importance of knowing this will come out later on) and V whipped out her phone to see if our cheerleaders received the text messages we signed up for (MCM offered a text or email option to track your runner). No such luck.

The weather was perfect and I really didn't need my top layer, but it wasn't a throw away! I knew my crew was going to be on the Key Bridge around mile 4 so that was my planned hand off. V and I were off and running through the streets of Rosslyn and all of a sudden there's Jamie, his mom and my folks. Woah, unexpected! No handoff but it was nice to see them early on!
We tackled the rolling hills of Lee Highway and Spout Run, enjoyed the gorgeous fall colors, ripped a sticker tattoo off my leg, text messaged and chatted w/our entourages, and got a good steady pace going during the first 4 miles. My original plan was to run the first 4 or 5 miles to break free of the crowd and then run/walk. I was still feeling good when we hit the Palisades so I decided to just keep chugging along. V and I shuffled up hills so we wouldn't waste energy and took it easy on the downhills. By the time we hit Georgetown, I was still feeling good and told myself I'd make the switch around mile 10.
Mile 10 quickly came and went and I was so pumped about seeing our cheering sections scattered along the steps of the Lincoln (and the crowds of spectators in general) that I just kept going. V and I kept checking in with each other to make sure we were okay and it was all systems go, go, go!
I revised the game plan once again when we hit Hains Point (oh, Hains Point). Since I had felt good through mile 10, I figured why not just run the first half and take the second half as a run/walk? Genius! However, my body had something else in mind...

As soon as we got to the TNT water stop at the tip of Hains Point, I was too excited and feeling too good (in the legs) to stop. My breathing got a little off because of nerves/excitement so I slowed down a bit, but those legs...they held up! This was also when I realized I had not eaten any of the gels I packed. Oops. I don't know if my stomach was upset or nervous or what, but I couldn't bear the thought of eating a Chocolate Clif Shot. I actually told V I wanted to suck on a salt packet. Bizarre-o.
Since you should never, EVER drink just water for 26.2 miles, I ended up taking some Powerade (it's like they knew I loved Blue Powerade) and water at every other water stop. More text messaging/calling took place and once we hit Mile 16/the Lincoln Memorial, V grabbed some pretzels from a random spectator and we saw our entourage waiting to cheer us on! Jamie and fam picked up a couple strays this time around - Susan, who finished the 10k earlier that morning, and Steph, who trekked all the way from Baltimore! SO excited to see everyone!!

By the time we hit the mall, the track your runner text messages finally started coming through. Based on our half marathon split, we were scheduled to finish in 4:54. NIIICE. V and I are Army Ten Miler vets so we knew what came after our little jaunt on the Mall...the 14th Street Bridge. GAH! Sometimes I wonder what I hate more, the bridge or Hains Point...

Done aaaand DONE!

Hey all, I'll have a full race recap at some point tomorrow, but for now I'll leave you with these tidbits:

• ran the whole thing b/c I felt FIIIINE until like 24 miles in when I started feeling a little pang inside my ankle (same ankle w/the achilles pain)
• V was running STRONG!
• I love having a cheering section!!
• Temporary tattoo was a STICKER and the majority of it fell off at mile 4. I think I was allergic to said tattoo because I now have some skin discoloration on my right leg. WTF.
  
• V and I were on track to finish in 4:56ish for the first 30k, but that damn 14th Street bridge is the END of me!
• Sport Beans were actually not bad when I grabbed a pack on the mall
• I had a Mocha Clif Shot at the start and didn't eat any of my gels for the rest of the race. MEH?
  
• I think next year my long run will max out at 22 since I've fallen apart around that mile marker every single marathon. It's a sign.
  
• Even though I came in at 5:10, I still PR'd...only by a minute, but freaking awesome considering I went into it injured!
  

And check us out at mile 23
That chipper look on our faces - LIES ALL LIES! haha. Hope all the other MCMers had fun!! Gorgeous day for a run!!

Buns and burnout

I think I'm suffering from running overload or just life overload. I was SO exhausted during this morning's run - not leg or lung tired...sleepy tired! Could be due to the busy week or it might just be that we woke up at 5am for today's run. Ha.

This morning's run was pleasantly cool and dry...the best kind of running weather. We set out on a 12 mile out and back route on the W&OD trail around 6am and it felt good until about mile 5. That's when the sleepiness kicked in (I think that may have been when my Mocha Clif Shot Gel wore off too). All I wanted to do was stop, walk and curl up on the grass. Wow.
V and I kept going after Jamie hit his 10 mile turnaround point and I snacked on a Luna Moon since I heard my tummy growling. I figured eh, it's just one and the sugar will do me some good. Um, 10 minutes later, tummy wasn't so happy. Remember the two other times I tried solids during a run? This confirmed I should never have solids again. It was just one little Moon! ONE! Agh.

On the way back, I decided I needed to make a pit stop at the one 'rest area' we know of on the trail. I booked it there - I was feeling that bad. Tried to open the door - LOCKED! Men's Room - LOCKED! WTF? It was close to 8am at that point...why wouldn't they be open??? UGH! So we took it slow and easy the rest of the way since we only had a little over a mile left. Started to feel that pang in my Achilles again soon after so we walked a bit. It felt better after about 1/4 a mile so I figured, eh...let's take it to a jog. That lasted all of 5 minutes. Done. No f-ing around. We probably did 11 miles and that's fine.

I'm getting really concerned now. Can you bruise your Achilles?? I mean, it only hurts every so often and it's a bruisy feeling. Plus, it was pink when I took my sock off. Maybe this new pair of sneakers has a weird bump that's been poking me? So weird. It doesn't hurt any other time. Might also be the new cute work shoes. There is a little nubbin in the back that might have irritated me. *sigh*

Post-run we stopped at Best Buns Bread Company in Shirlington because, well, I was craving a chicken salad sandwich...AT 9am! I grabbed a Chicken Salad Sandwich with Apples, Walnuts, Dijon Mustard Sauce and Watercress on Rustic Italian Bread and a small Americano - um, definitely needed caffeine.
You bet I wanted to tear into this as soon as I got into the car, but I waited the 15 minutes until we got home. :) DEVOURED half before jumping in the shower haha. I liked the flavor of the Dijon Mustard Sauce, but I thought it was a little too creamy. The watercress, walnuts and apples added some fun crunch and the flavors went well with the Dijon. The bread was perfectly squishy in the middle and crusty on the outside! I'm a big fan of chicken salad on crusty bread :)

Off to work and then celebratory dinner for Jamie...will post last night's and tonight's dinner soon!

Keeping it random...

Long time no post about food! Sorry, it's been tough dealing with a cranky computer and closing stuff out before vacation.

Last night we dropped my sick computer off at Jamie's mom's house before heading out to grab some dinner. Jamie's monthly Mexican craving kicked in and we found ourselves checking out Los Tios Grill in Alexandria. From the website:

Los Tios Grill describes their dishes as ‘’Fine Tex-Mex & Salvadorean Food.” Los Tios could also be described as the newest smash hit restaurant in the trendy Del Ray shopping and dining area of Alexandria.

Los Tios Grill was FANTASTIC. I might say it's the best Tex-Mex food I've had in a long time! It looks pretty small from the outside but when you walk in it's massive. One downside is that it is really loud and echoey - we could barely hear each other talk.

I forgot my camera, but while I was Googling for images, I found a post Olga from Mango & Tomato wrote back in May! You should check it out :) She's got pictures of the two desserts we got - the Ice Cream Sopapillas (well, imagine there being a scoop of vanilla ice cream) and Tres Leches Cake. I do have a soft spot for Sopapillas (fried dough drizzled with honey), but combine it with vanilla ice cream? Amazing. I love how the honey gets a little thicker with the cold ice cream and the texture and flavor of the sopapillas changes when you mix it in your mouth with the cold vanilla...MMMM. Love it! Don't worry, we didn't just eat dessert ;p

For dinner, I decided on Mexican Combination #2 - Tamal and Beef Soft Taco served with rice, refried beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream and guacamole. Best. Tamale. Ever. I've had my fair share of really dry and dense tamales so imagine my surprise when I dove into a super moist and flavorful tamale! The rice and beans were equally delicious. Great flavor, not too salty. Not going to lie - it was a pretty large plate and I DEVOURED it all (I'm convinced I hadn't consumed enough calories from the day before or yesterday morning) and didn't feel uncomfortably full. I also started thinking 'hm, this would be perfect post marathon' haha.

Both Jamie and his mom went with Salvadorian platters -Carne Asada Salvadorena (grilled beef steak with mexican rice, refried beans, salad and 2 tortillas) and Pollo Guisado (stewed chicken served with mexican rice, salad and 2 tortillas). Jamie's steak was quite flavorful, but a little too chewy for me. It came with this spicy sauce on the side that tasted like the green sauce they serve at El Pollo Rico (translation: deliciously spicy).

I'd definitely recommend a trip to Los Tios Grill if you're in the DC area. The service was really fast and the food was excellent. The drinks looked pretty good too...everyone had a massive margarita on their table. MMM Margaritaaaa. It's probably a 30 minute drive or so from DC into Alexandria...unfortunately, I can't think of any public transport :\

We're having 'clean out the fridge' dinners this week which really means large salads with whatever veggies and toppings are in the fridge. I figure we'll be eating tons of heavy Hungarian cuisine, so salad seemed like an appropriate last meal ;p

While we ate tonight's bowl of veggies, we decided to check out What Would Brian Boitano Make? on the Food Network. I had heard about this show from a few friends and mentioned how every time I hear Brian Boitano's name, the song from the South Park movie always pops into my head. Um, hello. Didn't realize that it was the theme song! Genius.
Of course the episode we DVR'd (wow, no more Tivo) was the one where he makes a ton of bacon dishes for the roller derby girls! I must admit - dude is not bad in the kitchen. I mean, some of the dishes were a little too bacon-y (even for me!), but overall pretty delicious looking! Have you checked this show out?

I'm off. Time to begin the packing process! Hooray!!! If anyone out there has any fun Hungarian food recommendations or must sees/eats in Budapest, let me know!

Mmm. Beefy.

Hello again! Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! It was absolutely gorgeous out today :) Warning - this might be a long, scattered post!

After I left you yesterday, I threw a quick salad together (surprise!) that I hoped would keep me full for the 6 hours of work at job numero dos:
I killed the rest of our bag of romaine, added a can of tuna, some slivered almonds, mandarin oranges, chow mein noodles and some freshly ground pepper. I topped it with some of that sesame ginger dressing I've used in the past. Not exactly my favorite salad, but it filled me up!

Since I've been super stressed between both jobs, running, blogging and cooking, Jamie offered to pick up some of the cooking/dinner responsibilities so I'm a little less crazed during the week. Chef Jamie came out in full force as he planned to make last night's burgers out of ground meat made from scratch. BOLD!

Jamie cut up and pulsed some chuck roast in a food processor and made some massive burger patties while I was at work and paid me a surprise visit as we were closing up shop (this is a big deal because I keep telling him he should stop by so he can get his shoes checked out). We took a leisurely walk back and the burger patties were ready to hit the grill pan!
I was a little concerned about all the white (FAT!) spots, but whatever, fat=flavor in red meat and most of it ends up draining off anyway. Jamie manned the grill pan (which I'm certain does nothing but leave grill marks on your food) while I prepped the toppings. I made some quick (lazy) guac
and sliced up some tomatoes and pepper jack cheese
B.o.B suggested doing a cucumber salad as a side dish and it would have been perfect - crisp, cool & light! Unfortunately, we didn't have any cucumber in the apartment and were trying to push off the grocery store trip to Sunday :( Ah well, next time! I scrambled for whatever veggies we had on hand. Frozen cauliflower won.
I nuked them for 2 minutes so they'd defrost and then popped them on the toaster oven tray, sprayed them with a little bit of olive oil (thank you to my almost dying Misto) and sprinkled them with some salt and pepper. Popped them into the toaster oven for about 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees. Super easy.

Ze burger in all it's glory on a potato roll with some romaine remains
Jamie's experiment with the making his own ground beef was pretty sweet. It was like eating a steak in burger form! Mine was cooked medium-ish and had great texture - it's hard to explain, but it was just a lot nicer than a regular ground beef patty. Kudos to the chef ;) I still think the cut might have been a little too fatty for my taste though. Fat does add flavor, but this was just a smidgen too oily for me.

I eat really random things the night before long runs and races so it's no surprise that I scarfed that down before this morning's scheduled 11 miler. No joke, I'll usually have sushi, Mexican, piles of meat...pretty much anything except for pasta. The one time I did pasta before a half marathon, I felt like complete doodie. Yes, I said doodie. My theory is that you should always stick with what works for you, even if it's weird. I also can't really eat that much pre-run. My typical pre-long run/race breakfast doesn't go beyond a handful of Triscuits. Half a bagel - forget it. My stomach will be rioting. Do you have any pre-race quirks or food habits?

This morning's run started super early (well, super early for me) since Jamie and I were meeting new running buddy out in Shirlington, VA. We left the apartment a little after 6:30 to make sure we'd be on the trail and running no later than 7am. New running buddy isn't really a new buddy, she's just new to our running group. Anyway, I was scrambling to get out of the apartment (as usual) and left without my Body Glide. I didn't want to waste time going back to the apartment, so I figured, eh, whatever. It's not that sticky out, I'll be fine. I will never go without Body Glide again. Totally got chafed on my left inner thigh...my new 'hot spot'. UGH.

I really need to justify spending the money on a Garmin (or at least price it out with my discount vs. on Ebay). We ended up running only 10.5 miles along the W&OD Trail since we had a space out moment where we couldn't remember if there were .5 mile markers or if there were only mile increments. I'm slightly bummed that we turned around too soon and ended up short .5 miles, but then I remember it's JUST .5 miles. We all felt good during and after the run AND I finally slowed down and we finished at just under 11:30 pace.

I highly recommend the W&OD Trail to anyone doing long runs in the DC Metro area. It's shaded, fairly flat, quiet and full of friendly bikers (not the grumpy ones that seem to frequent the Capital Crescent Trail). I've run it in a bunch of different spots and plan on doing our 17+ mile runs on it (probably starting all the way out in Reston - a good 45 minutes from our apartment)...it's great for zoning out :)

So I'm trying really really hard to pay attention to my training paces instead of just running everything at the same pace all the time (which I was guilty of doing in the past). I came across a nifty training calculator on Runner's World earlier this year and plugged in a half marathon time. I used 2:10 as my half marathon time (my average) instead of my PR and here's what it spit out:

Based on your half marathon race time of 02:10:00, the paces of your different training runs should be:

11:22 min/mile	Easy run training pace
9:31 min/mile	Tempo run training pace
8:36 min/mile	Maxmum oxygen training pace
7:58 min/mile	Speed form training pace
11:22 - 12:46 min/mile	Long run training pace
4:24 min/800	Yasso 800s training pace

These paces aren't too off from what I've been running (well, I take speed a tad slower because I'm a baby ;p) I know I've been running my long runs faster than I should be...they're the same as my weekday runs. Just a fun calculator I thought I'd share :)

After this morning's run, we stopped at the Teet for some sandwiches (at 9:30am, mind you) because I was absolutely STARVING. Jamie grabbed a sausage & pepper sub and I picked up a not so good turkey & brie sandwich that had an unexpected smear of cranberry sauce - GROSS! I also snagged a bottle of this:

Yes ladies and gents, I drank my first green drink
AND LIKED IT! haha. Not going to lie, the list of ingredients and color wasn't really appealing, but it was a bottle full of fruity deliciousness! A little richer/thicker than I expected when I picked it up, but not too bad! I'll never knock green drinks again :)

Ran off to job numero dos where it was surprisingly busy, talked to a ton of customers about water bottles for some reason and came back to a delicious smelling apartment. Chef Jamie was at it again! Since he picked up some ground beef yesterday (as backup in case his ground beef experiment didn't work), he whipped up some of his Gramma's Sloppy Joes. Now, I am partial to my mom's sloppy joes that involve a crap ton of ketchup, but these are pretty damn tasty too.

I walked into this cooking:
Jamie said he made a couple alterations to his gramma's recipe, so stay tuned for all the recipes.

Here it is served up on leftover potato rolls:
Sloppy? Check. Delicious? Check, check!

Phew! That was one monster of a post! I'm off to crash so I can get up early to chop some veggies at DC Central Kitchen and then helping Susan as she makes her triumphant return to the District tomorrow afternoon. I think tomorrow's dinner will make use of the mini paella kit Jamie's dad gave us...mmmm paella :)