i'm ready....

or, as ready as i'll ever be:

October and Fall Food

With the cool weather rolling in, I definitely started to look forward to some great fall food.  This month's issue of Women's Health had an entire article on various recipes you could make with pumpkin.  I've never made anything pumpkin flavored before, but pumpkin spiced lattes, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie are definitely some of my favorite fall foods!  So last week I decided to give one of the recipes a try: Pumpkin and Shiitake Risotto with Crispy Sage.  Here are all the ingredients I started with:

I modified this recipe slightly: I had plain canned mushrooms on hand so I used them instead of shiitake mushrooms.  I also used dried sage leaves to add flavor rather than frying up my own.  So, I skipped steps 1 and 2 and started my risotto:

Making risotto is a time-intensive process because you have to continually stir the risotto to avoid it sticking.  You also have to add the liquid slowly to allow it to absorb and cook correctly.  But, risotto is also one of my favorite foods, so I ALWAYS find the time and effort it takes to be worthwhile!

After the risotto was cooked it was time to add the pumpkin, cheese, salt, and pepper.

This might sound silly, but recently I had forgotten how much salt and pepper can bring out the flavors in a dish.  Although lots of different flavors added to the deliciousness here, I'm pretty sure that it would not have been the same without the salt and pepper!

This recipe made about 4 servings which I had throughout last week for lunch.  The flavors were amazing - pumpkin, cheese, risotto, yum!  It's also a very creamy, savory dish, so every day I felt really satisfied and full afterward eating lunch.  I highly recommend trying this at home - it wasn't very difficult at all!

Happy Fall, everyone!  What are some of your favorite fall foods?

last long run & goals for the half.

i'm finally blogging in october ABOUT octobter - go me!  so today's post is about my last two long runs before my half marathon!

sunday, october 2nd: 12 miles on the docket.  the weather forecast, pretty much amazing:

 

Oh hello FALL WEATHER!  Love it.  Pretty soon it's going to be time to pull out the cooler weather running clothes!  But not today.  I have finally found the absolutely perfect thing to wear on long runs, and I now refuse to change it up.  It consists of an American Apparel v-neck t-shirt and cotton shorts from Victoria Secrets.  M had on slightly warmer gear when she met me at our usual spot at 9am, but after a few miles she agreed that shorts and a tshirt were perfectly find for the low 50s.

We ran a new route for the 12 miler, one that I had been itching to try every since my friend A told me about a local trail I had never run on.  It winds through a few parks and changes name twice, but it's about 5 miles 

long, so we started about 1 mile away and decided to do an out-and-back route.

Have you ever had a run where everything just seems to go perfectly?  It's effortless, comfortable, enjoyable, even euphoric?  That is how I felt about this run.  I didn't look at my watch for the first time until 36 minutes in!  We found a water fountain with a bathroom on the way.  I was never too hot or too cold and I was energized the entire time!  Oh, and we found a dinosaur:

This was also the first run I decided to try some sort of energy chew/gu/gel on the way.  Per Susan's suggestion, I went with Power Bar Energy Blast Gel Filled Chews.  Unfortunately, I read the label incorrectly and thought that a serving size was 1 chew, for 190 calories.  So I took one chew with me (they are the size of maybe 2 fruit snacks) and had it 45 minutes in.  I did feel great and energized the whole time, but when I got home I realized that the entire package of chews (9 chews total) was 1 serving for 190 calories.  Energy fueling FAIL.  Ah well, the raspberry  flavor was delicious and I look forward to having them during the half!

The last mile of the run was a little rough, but we powered through and our time was 2:03:20 - which is a 10:17 pace overall.  RIDICULOUSLY fast for us on any day, and ESPECIALLY to keep that pace for so long.  Feel pretty spectacular!!! I can't believe we finished 12.0 miles only 6 minutes slower than we did 10.2 a few weeks ago.  Not sure if it's the cooler weather, us getting in better shape, or both (okay it's probably both), but I'm liking it!

Anyway, 12 miles was the max distance we had planned to run before the race - which is actually a little on the high side for a beginning half training program - but I think it was perfect for us!  I'm feeling very confident knowing that I only have to conquer an additional 1.1 on race day.

Fast forward a week to Saturday, October 8th: we are tapering!!!!  I had originally planned to do 10 miles but Susan suggested 6-8 would be better.  Since she has run 9 marathons I figure she knows what she's talking about, so M and I searched USA Track & Field's website for a good 8 miler.  We found a good one around campus and set out around 9am.  It was around 50 degrees and mostly sunny with very light wind - awesome!  The run started out great and the first 3 miles zipped on by.  Somewhere around mile 4 I started to hate whoever made this route - it was hilly!  There aren't many hills in Durham so I'm not sure how the author of this route managed to find SO. MANY. HILLS.  Even so, at mile 6 I remember saying to M "this time last week we were only half done - but now we only have 2 miles to go!" and a few minutes later "it doesn't feel like we've been running very long but it's been over an hour!".  Unfortunately M wasn't feeling quite as perky as I was and around mile 7 she started feeling less than fabulous :-(  Since this is my blog and now her's I won't give you all the details - the important part is we both finished 8 miles :-)  And, just like it was a sick joke, the last quarter of a mile was a very steep uphill for about .10 miles followed by a less steep but steady up hill for the last .15.  Not cool!  Either way, I finished strong in 1:23:33 for a 10:26 pace.  VERY pleased with these long run paces staying around/under 10:30.

So, we ran this morning (our usual 3.4 miles) and we'll run again Wednesday... and Wednesday will be our LAST run before the half on SUNDAY.  Crazy.  I think it's time to make my goals public and official, as Susan often does.

2011 Ramblin' Rose Women's Half Marathon Goals:

• Goal A: 2:17:39.  This would be a 10:30 pace.  I would feel like a freaking rock star.
• Goal B: 2:24:12.  This would be an 11:00 pace and would make me feel like a respectable runner.
• Goal C: 2:27:00.  This would be an 11:14 pace and would qualify me for a Corral for my next race!
• Goal D: 2:37:19.  This would be a 12:00 pace and would be a slight improvement over my pace from the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in April.
• Goal E: Finish and HAVE FUN! (and not get kicked off the course, which you will if you fall below 15:00 miles).

The race is only 6 days away... and advice for first half marathons?!?!?

September cooking, part 2!

The second new recipe I tried during September was chopped pepper steak.  This was also a biggest loser cookbook recipe.  Fairly simply - it involved making "steaks" out of ground beef, rice, and some other ingredients.  We had been eating a LOT of chicken in our house recently so I was grateful to find a new non-chicken recipe to try.
First, I made the mixture:

Looks awesome right?  Okay no, raw ground beef never looks appetizing.  Oh well.  Anyway, next I shaped it into steak patties to cook:

They look like nicely shaped hamburgers in that picture, right?  Siigh, if only they had stayed together that nicely.  The ended up more like this:

This is actually a consistent problem with me trying to make any sort of hamburger, meatball, etc.  If I'm supposed to shape meat to stay together, it WILL fall apart.  I think it's probably a lack of practice.. I've probably made hamburgers/this type of thing less than ten times in my life.  I will say that despite being a complete and total crumbly mess, the flavor was great!  I served this with a side of rice and a mix of cooked peppers/onions.

So, there you have it - I managed to make two new recipes in September!  I also ran really consistently.  I use the running AHEAD Training Log on Facebook to track my runs (good to know when it's time for new shoes), and a looking back I can say:

• I ran a total of 69.7 miles
• I had three long runs: 9.3 miles. 10.2 miles, and 7.8 miles
• I ran 16 times overall - which is basically every other day on average!
• My pace varied from 9:08 on a 2.7 mile run to 11:29 on my 10.2 mile run
• That being said, on most of my runs my pace was in the 10:20-10:40 range, which means I am getting faster over time (this summer it was more consistently around 11:00).

Well, it's 6 days into October, so perhaps I'll start posting about my October cooking and running soon :-)

September cooking, part 1

I'm a terrible blogger.  But, while I had a free moment, I did want to share with you some of the recipes I tried in September!  The first new recipe I tried was BBQ Bacon Meatloaf from the Biggest Loser Cookbook.  First step, cook some chopped onions and turkey bacon:

 Next, mix some oats and milk and whatnot:

Then, basically combine the oats with garlic, Worcestershire sauce, ground turkey, and the bacon/onion mix.  Put the mixture into a loaf pan, spread BBQ sauce on top, and bake!

The night I made this I wanted asparagus, but something beyond my normal (and fairly plain) steamed asparagus.  So I used two of my favorite new websites to look for a recipe: GoJee and Pintrest.  If you haven't seen GoJee, you basically type in an ingredient you are craving or that you have, and it will suggest recipes.  It also allows you to input ingredients you don't have/don't want/are allergic to.  It looks like their long term plan is to hook up with various grocery stores so that if you use your savings card and link it to Gojee, Gojee will know what's in your kitchen.  Pretty cool idea, although it doesn't have my grocery store yet.  Pintrest is basically a way to save pictures/links of things you like on a virtual pin board, and lots of people have "favorite recipes"/"recipes to try" as a board.
Anyway, GoJee helped me find a new asparagus recipe which I modified based on what I had an laziness and I ended up with delicious asparagus lightly coated in bread crumbs:

With a small side of (fake, out of the box, yet delicious) mashed potatoes, dinner is served:

 

The meatloaf was good, but I think it needed more Worcestershire sauce and more garlic in the base - the overwhelming flavor was the BBQ sauce on top.  I like BBQ sauce, but it kind of left the middle parts of the meatloaf lacking taste.

I managed to try two new recipes during the month of September, so hopefully I will be able to post the second one soon!

happy september!

Happy SEPTEMBER!

I started this post on September 1st, but got side tracked for seven days.  Sorry blog! August was filled with long, hot, humid days, so although I love summer, waking up to the 1st day of September with cooler temperatures was nice!  Even now at almost 9am it's only 68 outside.  Amazing!  I recall my September 1st run being very pleasant as a result.


Saturday M and I had our long run of 9.25 miles.  As most long runs, it had ups and downs.  I accidentally made a route that included a rather large hill in the first 5 minutes, so that was not fun.  After getting to the top of the hill my calves were unhappy and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to recover and make it the remaining 8.75 miles.  We stopped to stretch and walk a little around the 1 mile mark and after that things got WAY better.  And by way better I mean we still run really slow but I wasn't hating my life.  Miles 2-3 were fun because we were running along new roads with pretty houses that I wish I could afford to live in.  Miles 4-6 were fine because it was fairly flat and familiar territory.  Mile 6 was a hot mess: we ran into guys doing weed-whacking and I got grass in my eyes.   Mile 7 was kind of tough because I knew at the end of the 7th mile was a hill I hated, even though it's not actually that bad.  The beginning of mile 8 was terrible because we were running down a long (albeit flat and easy to run on) road and I knew we had to just turn around and come back and the ONLY thought I had in my mind was "if we turned around now we'd be done sooner".  Luckily, as soon as we got to the end and DID turn around, I cheered up and even picked up the pace because I was so happy to be at the home stretch.  The rest of mile 8 was pretty fabulous, and even the painful hill at the beginning of mile 9 was fine.  The very last bit was rough.  We ran to a traffic circle and then we just had a little bit of a road left to our finish line.  That "little bit of road" was WAY LONGER than I thought.  We'd never run down it before and driving it doesn't seem like a very long distance.  It's 0.34 miles.  I know, that's not very far.  But I swear it dragged on for hours.  HOURS.

Anyway, we finished up our long run in about 1:43:47 and I felt pretty good about it.  With a few stops to walk and a few evil hills, an 11:14 pace is nothing to be ashamed about.  This weekend we will conquer 10 miles, and so if we go even three steps farther than 10.0, it will be my longest run ever.  Pretty excited (and maybe terrified) about that!!!

Lots of the bloggers I read were setting goals for the month of September, or listing what they were looking forward to.  I kept trying to come up with a list of either of these things, but nothing too terribly exciting came to mind.  Potential goals include: keeping up with running, doing more strength training, cross-training more consistently, and trying to cook new things.  Things I'm excited about: trip in two weeks for a friend's wedding (wedding #8 of the year) and the beginning of FOOTBALL SEASON!  What are you excited for this month??  Do you have any fun September goals?  Perhaps ones that I could also adopt?

cardio dance.

Hello!  Happy Hump Day.  This week has felt really long, but at least we are more than half way done!

On Monday M and I were supposed to run but my legs were tired from Sunday's long run, so we took a break.  I went for a 2 mile walk and did some weight training at home instead.  Then Tuesday I was just too sleepy to run... oops!  So, I ran in the evening on the treadmill.  I was really proud of myself - I finished 3 miles in 30:50!  I wanted to run a bit farther/longer but people were waiting for treadmills and my foot kind of hurt.  Luckily after stretching and an ice pack my foot feels fine, but I didn't want to push it.

Today I went to my very first cardio dance class.  I'm trying to get better about cross training, so I asked my friend A if she would go to spin class with me tonight.  She already had plans to go to cardio dance, so I went with her to that instead!  It was fun and I definitely worked up a sweat, but I'm not sure if I would go regularly.  I was worried there would be long and complicated routines, but the steps were easy and there weren't long sequences to learn.  I managed to not care what I looked like and just focused on trying to get a good workout from it.  The class is one hour long, but between stopping after every song (so the instructor could find the next song and allow us to get a water break) and warm up / cool down, I probably only got 30 minutes of cardio in.  Also, the class was FILLED with freshman girls.  One of them saw A's Wisconsin shirt and got really excited that she was from Wisconsin, until A had to tell her that she was in graduate school and they couldn't be friends... haha.  I have heard other teachers are more intense, so I might have to look into them.  A and I decided we might alternate spinning and cardio dance every other week and see how that goes.

Since I had some time before cardio dance I also did weights at the gym.  I think I need to get a personal trainer, at least for one or two sessions.  I have a routine of what exercises I do (mostly arms), but I am not sure I'm doing all of the best things or hitting all the muscles I'd like to be hitting.

The Philly Cheesesteak Casserole was not nearly as delicious as I recall it being from last time I made it.  Reasons why: using milk instead of half-and-half, possibly using less cheese, and using ground beef instead of steak.  It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't as flavorful as I remember.  I also think it might be because I mixed in the peppers and onions afterwards instead of baking them in.  I did that so Scott wouldn't have to eat the peppers, but I think the flavors didn't seep in as much, if that makes sense.