Back in Action

Dayumnnn weather – you be lookin’ GOR-geous today!!  Keep it up

Today started out with some gym time.  I usually go do weights for about 30-40 minutes, but I felt pretty awful when I woke up, and decided to head in later at like 7:00 instead of 6:30. So I got in:

• 15 minutes easy weights (including pull-up machine…working on that!)
• 25 minutes abs class

Let me tell ya’ – doing ab work is dang hard with a boot on my leg.  I don’t know how much it weighs, but it ads to the intensity!  Of course I have to modify planks and such though.

Breakfast wasn’t eaten until 9:15 at work:

Voskos Greek yogurt (topped with a bit of granola)

…mixed with some Trader Joe’s honey apple butter.  It’s definitely yummy, but just reminds me of extra sweet applesauce.  It’s good, but I’d rather have jam (or pumpkin butter!!). 

While at work at snacked on watermelon which I was asked to cut up:

And a mini baby ice cream cone!  Cute.

Lunch (prepared in my wok – love love this thing) – stir-fryed broccoli slaw with ground turkey and enchilada sauce.  Sounds weird, but it was tasty!

 

Topped off with some Jalapeno greek yogurt dip (found at Costco) instead of sour cream.

I also snacked on 2 small random pieces of chicken while this was cooking.

And a couple carrot cake cookies for dessert.

I got this container 75% off at Cost Plus the other day, and have been plowing through.  Love you after-holiday sales!

 

I failed yet again at taking a picture of dinner at work.  It rarely rarely happens since I don’t carry my camera/phone around with me in my pocket (obviously), and we go straight on break into the cafeteria. Unfortunately, I just have to describe it to you

• Creamed spinach (so so good!)
• Steamed broccoli
• Vegetable soup (Au Bon Pan)

There are always 2 entrees, 2 vegetables (not always healthy steamed vegetables ), and 2 starches as options in the cafeteria.  Plus a salad bar, prepackaged wraps/sandwiches, and a soup.  The entrees are often foods I don’t eat (red meat, over-dried meat, meat with skin, etc), so I often go for the salad bar, veggie sides, and soups. 

Once home, I self massaged my tibial tendon (where I’m having lots of pain – right above my inner ankle), and snack on my new favorite dessert – frozen blueberries topped with a peanut flour sauce (will take a picture next time, promise!!). 

Plus hot chocolate! I needed to warm up someway after icing

 

By the way – yes I am counting calories (as part of my weight loss/fit back in my pants plan).  And today’s calorie count totaled out around 1500.  Probably a little more since I estimated on my peanut flour sauce and snacked on a few unmentionable carrot cake cookies I don’t necessarily like to talk calories on the blog (since I know many people do not like that, and I don’t want it to become all calorie talk since I don’t like that either), but I will occasionally talk about it.  Just the facts!

 

PS – yayyyy we made it through Monday!! (even though today is technically my Tuesday at the hospital, it is still my Monday at babysitting).

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Fact or Fiction?

Fact: My breakfast this morning reminded me of the American flag. 

Fiction: That these pomegranate seeds would be good until January 31st like the label said.  Last I checked today is the 28th and they were already tasting slightly tangy/gone bad. 

Fact: I still ate them though.  And plan to finish off the container today to prevent them from going…more bad.

Fiction: I ate only fruit and yogurt this morning. 

Obviously I added some cereal.  Quaker corn bran crunch to be more precise.

Fact: My boss was making sunflower seed butter cookies at 8:30 this morning.

Fiction: I completely stayed away from all said cookies and didn’t enjoy one crumb.

Fact: I ate one two.

Fact: I went for a walk with the babes today downtown to Starbucks and back (2.5 miles roundtrip).

Fiction: I took a picture of my Grande iced SF hazelnut coffee light ice.  With a splash of half & half. 

Fact: I love how I not only get a free dinner when I work, but I also sometimes get leftovers if I have enough food.

(Vegetable quinoa with grilled chicken.  Added some tomato-basil feta).

Fact: I’ve been pretty good about taking my calcium vitamin with lunch lately.

Fiction: Yummy orange carbonated drinks tend to help in absorption of calcium pills.  Especially when out of a stolen borrowed pint glass from the local pizza joint.

Fact: My old roommate snuck so many of these pint glasses in her purse that she had enough to give me my own set of 8 glasses.  Cool.

Fact: I went on a 1 hr 45 minute hike today.  Which probably wasn’t the smartest idea for my calf/ankle.

Fiction: I remembered to take a picture of my post-hike snack while chatting with the roommate.  Let’s say it was a small portion of plain yogurt with the rest of the pomegranate seeds.  (That part would in fact be a fact).

Fact: I froze in my tracks when I saw peanut butter cream cheese at Trader Joe’s today.  Yes.  Peanut. Butter. Cream Cheese. 

Fiction: Obviously I could resist.  And didn’t have any taster once I got home.

Deadly deadly stuff.

Fact: I waited to eat at babysitting tonight because I figured they’d have delicious yummy food, since they have in the past.

Fiction: I never use mixing bowls for salads.  Ever.

(Salad with tomatoes, goat cheese, and a sprinkling of walnuts.  With pear vinaigrette.  And a few veggie chips on the side.  Which ended up in my salad).

Fact: This dinner was enough to hold me over for oh…2 hours.  And then I had froyo.  Yummmm.

 

Tell me one fact and one fiction from your day!  Kind of like 2 truth and a lie, right??

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Weight of Baking

Sounds like many of you don’t think you can rock the running skirt I honestly think they’re kind of….strange too.  I just found one on sale and thought I would try it out.  I think we’ve all come to the consensus that Miss Skinny Runner is the queen of rocking a skirt and we should let her continue to hold that crown.

This weekend was full of baking, eating, and good times For Friday night’s potluck, I tried my luck (ha – no pun intended) at dough balls once again.  Instead of Mama Pea’s version, I made these  Cookie Dough Balls this time around (since I had real butter on hand and I also wanted to make chocolate chip ones).  Here’s the story in a nutshell.

The dough tasted rather….just…doughy.  Not sweet at all – that’s where I knew something went wrong. 

That’s when I realized I forgot to double the sugar.  Double the recipe, but only half the sugar?  And the comment section already seemed to say these cookies were under-sweet to begin with.

So I took to rolling my dough in sugar.

Meh.

Sure they turned out doughy on the inside.  But tasted bland and rubbery.  I know it’s my fault, and I’m sure the original recipe is delicious!  I just need to make it right.

Cookie dough ball fail #3.

Fail #1?  Doubled the oil.

Fail #2?  They turned out delicious, but very crunchy.

Maybe I should just leave ball-making to the pros.

At least we had delicious brownies and ice cream to bring to the get-together!

And I whipped together a batch of boxed sugar cookies I had stored away in the cabinet.  Boxed or not, they were still a hit

And we bowled!!  (excuse the dark, flashless photos)

Saturday was spent – get this – sleeping in!!!!  Have I mentioned yet how I now get Saturday’s off work??  Rather than working Saturday-Wednesday, I now work Sunday-Thursday (at the hospital.  I still nanny other days as well).  I lose 3 hours a week, but honestly this will do SO MUCH for my sanity, well-being, and social life.  I’m excited. 

I hit up my friend’s birthday BBQ for a bit and delivered her some cake

And baby cupcakes!

My mom is super into birthday cakes, and she passed down the tradition when she gave us our own bear cake pans this Christmas!  I was excited to try it out myself for my first time.

The frosting was definitely hard to do – I’m awful at the star tip thing, and it wasn’t sticking to the bears!  But it all tastes the same in the end, right?

Baby cupcakes are dangerous!!  I popped 3 in my mouth just while frosting. 

 

I also used my new yoga mat (review and giveaway coming soon!!) to complete Jillian Michael’s six-pack abs DVD.  This DVD is hard!  I honestly barely feel it working my abs (my abs weren’t exhausted afterwards or sore the next day), but it was tired from the squats and lunges she has you do!  Sad that I found this DVD more of a lower body workout than abdominal workout? 

I also competed some upper-body weights.  It feels really good to get back into weights/dumbbells.

Speaking of weights, remember this post?  Yeah, it might’ve been in July.  But I’ve been hitting obstacles for months – injuries, moving, a new job/routine to get used to, too insanely busy to exercise, more injuries, drinking, holidays….the excuses could go on.  But according to my resolution goal I made a couple weeks ago, I’m really buckling down on the weight-loss/toning up plan.

I want to include you guys and update you on my progress.  This is a life-blog about myself, anyways.  But I don’t want to overwhelm you all with weight-loss talk.  I know some blog readers out there can be sensitive towards that type of thing, and I don’t want to lose dear readers because they’re tired of typical weight-related issues! 

So I’m asking you guys – do you want me to post about my weight-loss journey?  Do you want me to post my weekly weigh-ins, progress, some daily food/meals (obviously I still won’t post everything), workout talk, etc?  Or is that too much?  Please, let me know your opinions!

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Ball-tastic

Yesterday I was supposed to cut back on sweets.

Oops.

How could I turn down such delicious layers and a chocolatey crust?

Today I was doing pretty well.  Until….

Wait – what is that?

Oh, just some dough chillin’ in the fridge.

I’m stopping by my friend’s tacky Christmas party tonight, and wanted to bring a little something.  Such as Dough Balls!

I followed this recipe, except I subbed in oil for the butter (I have no butter!  And I sure as hell wasn’t venturing out into the downpour for some.  No offense butter.)

Anyways, I use oil in many cookie recipes, and I actually like the result more.  However, these tasted….off.  Not much flavor.  Super oily.  They just tasted like….well….oil. 

It wasn’t until after they were baking that I realized I used double the amount of oil I was supposed to.  I thought I was using the 1/8 measuring cup, when really I was using the 1/4 cup (and even this I know is wrong, considering I was using dry measuring cups.  Sometimes I am quite the lazy baker). 

No wonder they tasted like oil.  Oh well – I’m not telling.

And I still ate too much dough.  Plus about 3 cookies.

Prior to ball forming, I couldn’t decide what to have for dinner.  I didn’t want to open up anything that I wouldn’t use in the next couple days (since I’m leaving).  And I didn’t have much to work with.

 

Ravioli?  Naww – I’m only home for 1-2 more meals before I leave and I won’t finish the package.

Soup?  Ehhh I’ve had soup a lot recently and feel bloated.  Soup doesn’t help that.

Cereal?  Had cereal for my afternoon snack.

Pancakes? Waffles? Oatmeal? Yogurt? All very acceptable dinners.  However I wanted something different than my go-to-lazy-girls-dinner.

Meatloaf or ground turkey? Frozen ground turkey.  Too bad.

Don’t know how it popped in my head, but I came up with a frittata!  I just mixed eggs, frozen veggies, chicken sausages, and garlic salt.  I didn’t have any cheese, so I opened some laughing cow wedges, chopped them up, and sprinkled them on the frittata.

I had 2 squares – one square with Laughing Cow Blue Cheese and one square with the Sundried Tomato flavor.

Yum!!  I felt super healthy.

And then proceeded to eat my weight in dough balls.

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Silver Lining

Happy Halloween!! 

My whiteboard creation – that would be a witch, mummy, bat, pumpkin, ghost, grave (with hands sticking out from the ground), vampire, and warewolf.  Talent right there.

I’m currently running on 5 hours of sleep…5 hours for the past two nights combined. 

Friday we watched a movie and I didn’t get into bed until 2 am.

Last night we went out to the bars, and I didn’t get into bed until 3 am.

Don’t ask how I got up at 5 this morning.  I’m just thankful that I did.

The past few days have been full of tons of treats.  Such as obligatory candy

Splurge cookies that I’ve had my eye on

You know you secretly like those frosted sugar cookies.

Now imagine them in pumpkin!

Fun drinks (+ wayyyy too many other drinks last night )

(Source)

I wanted to make these Candy Corn Martinis last year, but everywhere was sold out of candy corn!  They were okay.  I’m not a vodka person, and they were a bit strong.  But interesting to make!

The other night, we also went to dinner for a friend’s birthday where we literally devoured 3 bowls of chips amongst the 3 of us at our table.  Fast.  Plus a huge soda cup.

I got a massive and amazingly delicious fajita chicken taco salad.  This picture actually makes it look small.  But it was huge.  I only managed half after all those chips Leftovers!

 

Last night was tons of fun.  I ended up dressing up as….

The Tin Man!!  Unfortunately I didn’t get a single full body shot of my costume I’m saddened.  Here’s the only front view (and I’m oddly sitting, so my tutu is sticking out at a weird angle).

I was standing in the background of one picture, so it’s blurry and an odd picture, but you get the idea

My sister made the tutu, and then I made the hat.  Although the hat ended up falling off halfway through the night, and I also lost my heart.  So by the end of the night I was just a silver ballerina.  Haha.

 

What were you for Halloween?  What did you do this weekend to celebrate?

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Cookies & Nuts

Yes.  That’s as creative a title as you’re gonna get.

 

It’s been a while since I baked my favorite cookies.  When a friend’s birthday came up, I had the perfect excuse

However, when it came time to mix in the chips, I realized I had no chocolate chips.  I had debated buying chocolate chips the other day at the store, and I ended up putting them back on the shelf.  I guess I thought I had decided to buy them?  Not sure…

But I did have cinnamon chips!

Seriously – make.  these. cookies.  Life changing!  I definitely had a good 3 cookies worth of dough.  And probably 3 cookies of actual cookies.  And that was just in the afternoon.  So addicting.

I also think they make excellent post-run food.

I mean, made with oats, whole wheat flour, and canola oil – it’s like a super sugary energy bar cookie, right?

Right.

 

I’ve also decided that these make an awesome pre, post, & during (?? I’d stop during a run for these babies) run snack as well.

 

A seriously 100% impulse buy at Costco.  I’m usually so good at avoiding these.

Best cinnamon almonds ever.  No joke.

Dangerous.

Would you like some running talk?  Okay.

My run yesterday was great.  4.5 miles.  And today was another 4.5 miles.  Both were okay – nothing great, but not horrible.  Just normal runs.

And that’s good However, my knees, and left ankle are slightly bothering me.  As is my left inner shin at times.  I did get refitted for new orthotics, and I’m hoping that’s the solution here.  According the orthotics doctor (what are they called?), my ankle is rolling inward and my feet are just overcoming my current orthotics.  And my shoes aren’t super supportive.  So without the support of orthotics, I do think I’m feeling the pain from that.

I hope.

I just am not looking forward to buying another set of expensive orthotics :-/. Boo.

In din-din news….

Dinner was semi-homemade. 

Enter this rice:

These beans:

And this sausage:

Which I was really sad to see has lamb casing.  Boo.  Oh well

Give you this:

Yes….there were veggies and sausage under there.  Very good.  But very salty.

 

I can’t believe I haven’t asked….what are you all being for Halloween this year?!?!  I love love love Halloween and dressing up!  But you’ll have to wait and see what my costume is

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Quickie

Time for a quickie. No – that that type of quickie, you dirty mind.

A quickie post! I’ve decided last minute to go out on the town with my temporary roommates. Guess that means no long run for me tomorrow 😉 Such is life!

Breakfast was a yogurt mess!

Up close and personal.

I actually mixed some yogurt with cottage cheese becaue I didn’t have quite enough yogurt for my liking.

I picked up some lunch at Vons while out gocery shopping for my boss (nannying boss).

I got a small taster of butternut squash soup. Which was so so good. But so so bad for you!

And a sandwich. Rustic Italian bread, turkey, mustard, avocado, lettuce, tomato, onions, peppercinis, pickles.

Vons/Safeway sandwiches are BOMB and only $4.99.

Along with a beverage.

I was all of a sudden feeling super sweaty, lightheaded, and awful at work around 6:00. I was either all of a sudden very sick, or super hungry. I snagged some graham crackers and sneakily ate those in the elevator when I could. It helped. But dinner helped more.

Giant salad beast with black beans, kidney beans, cottage cheese, pineapple, olives, sunflower seeds, & honey mustard dressing.

With chocolate applesauce cake for dessert. I am not a cake person at all, but this was good!!

Monayyy.

I then came home, snacked on some cereal from the box, zucchini & hummus, and am now about to get ready to go outttt.

I’m leaving tomorrow late morning to head home for a few days! I have a surprise concert tomorrow night to go to. Anyone wanna take a guess at the concert?! 😉

PS: My grandma sent me this in an email, and being the US history buff that I am, thought it was hilarious.

PPS: I did promise you pictures of the cookies I snacked on last night. First up, the amazing chocolate white chocolate chip cookie.

These cookies are so doughy!

And the peanut butter one.

My work has some dang good cookies!!

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Battle with the air mattress

Today my long day of hospital orientation definitely brought me back to the days of 2 hour long lectures taken back to back all day. As sad as I was to graduate, I do not miss those boring days. Imagine your most boring class dragged on for 7 hours, with a few 15 minute breaks sprinkled in. That was today.

I made sure to prepare breakfast last night as I knew I would be up and at it early this morning.

Overnight oats yummy yummy in my tummy.

Yay for more jam from Target!

I even chopped up my nectarine last night this morning at 1 a.m. for easy access. Yes 1 a.m. The same time I also mixed in more oil to my maple peanut butter becuase I couldn’t stop thinking about how dry and flaky it was.

I obviously have been having a hard time falling asleep. No offense air mattress.

Actually yes. You should take offense.

I felt like I was betraying this mug by drinking coffee out of it. It looks like a tea type of mug.

How quaint.

I made sure to pack snacks for my break. Am I the only person in the world to get hungry during break time? No one else brought snacks.

I’m sure they were all envious of me crunching my way through Kashi cereal and some cocoa roasted almonds. Plan ahead people.

Lunch was actually pretty awesome! They had many sandwich options, including turkey on a croissant and a roasted veggie one. I chose the veggie and ate outside.  It was so warm out today, and freeeeezing indoors!

It was kinda greasy. But oh well.

Sorry for the odd glare. I also grabbed a couple pieces of fruit (instead of chips) and stashed them in my purse for future consumption 😉 Budget planning my friends.

I went back and snagged a really good peanut butter cookie on second thought.

+ 2 sodas. Oh darn.  Does it help that I drank one 2 hours after the first?

But I did get out on a run! So happy I did 🙂 I don’t know if it was the time of day, that it was still warm out, or what – but it was hard!

Pre-run I had a couple bites of nut butter:

It was one of those runs I felt like I was going pretty fast, but when I looked down at my watch, I was barely going below 10 minute miles. What? I hadn’t even walked yet! I wanted to go 4-5 miles, but ended up stopping at 3 and decided to walk a mile rather than head home right away.

Distance: 3 run + 1 walk = 4
Time: 28:38 for the run; 46:23 for the whole thing.

I got a phone call from a friend during my walk, so I came home and decided to have a snack rather than dinner just in case my friend wanted to grab a bite to eat.

Canteloupe sprinkled with peanut flour.

This melon was super ripe and soft! I got all the way down to the rind!

But then decided to just make dinner soon after.

1 egg + 2 egg whites cooked up with the seasoned potatoes with herb butter sauce (that sounds fancy).

Tupperware the potatoes were stored in. Classy, I know. But it saves dishes.

I topped it with this mango chutney I’ve been using on almost everything.  Costco – will you marry me?

And another bite of chocolate hazelnut butter to kill my after dinner sweet tooth.

Ok ok, I know nut butters are a healthy fat. But there is such thing as too much! I’ve been going crazy with all my delicious nut butters in the cabinet (especially my new maple PB). I really think I’m going to give myself a challenge.

No, I’m not going to deny myself of nut butters completely. But I am going to measure out my portions for a week. And limit myself to 1 serving per day. That can be split up however I want – 1 Tbsp at breakfast, and 1 Tbsp at night. 2 Tbsp all at once or 1 tsp every few hours. Who knows. I’ll just total 2 Tbsp at the end of the day max. It’s expensive, and I think I need a detox from it.

Now I’m tired. Yawn. I have my long 8:30-8:30 day tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep!

Hey air mattress. Yeah, I’m lookin’ at you.

It’s on.

Once I fold my clothes, that is.

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Going with the flow

I might have lied last night when I made my list of 5 things I ate. I might have gotten hungry while signing my lease and stopped for froyo on my way home.

Cake batter again. How can I possibly say no to this little joy?

Muchos apologies for such bad car lighting & no camera flash.

This A.M. I searched high and low for my oats. Where did they go?!? Finally I found them in a random cupboard. PHEW. Heart attack averted.

Cold canteloupe on hot oats? Why, that’s new!

And let me tell you – it worked!

• 1/3 cup multigrain oats
• 1/3 cup almond milk + 1/3 cup water
• Cinnamon
• Peanut flour
• 1 egg whisked in
• Canteloupe (obviously)
• Nut butter!!!

I liked eating this in a mug. It made it more exciting.

No hospital job today, but I did nanny. Snacked on some almonds while we frolicked in the park.

I’m definitely taking advantage of nannying during meal times. Especially when they have food I like. 😉 Here we have a gardenburger on whole wheat with mustard & BBQ sauce.

And here we have a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie trying to imitate the gardenburger’s pose. Copycat.

Shoot – I had 2 of these at work too. I was thirsty and out of water. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

Guess what I did after work? Well, after hitting up the bank and filling up my gas tank. ROAD TRIP!!! Yes, I’m calling a 30 minute drive to Target a road trip. It was exciting.

I picked up a few necessities (PB & jelly obvs), a few treats (new bathmat for my new bathroom!), and a few good deals ($5 plain T-shirts & some on-sale-Annie’s products!). While shopping I snacked on some popcorn, but when that didn’t cut it, I broke out the bar.

My last bar 😦 Although I’m not sad to see this particular one go – not a fan of apple cinnamon flavored things.

Oh and a Target drink. Lemonade light. Still full of artificial crap. But at least not a soda? Can I say that? I’m at least getting Vitamin C…maybe?

I barely made it through the door before I got to work on my peanut butter. I’m obsessed with flavored and sweetened PBs, but I can’t afford to constantly buy them. I’ve made my own cinnamon-raisin PB, and attempted my own honey peanut butter. This time I wanted some maple PB!

• 1 container plain peanut butter
• 2-4 Tbsp maple syrup (I used 4)
• Sweetener (optional – depending on how sweet you want it)

Mmmm I definitely ate my fair share. I feel like I’m scraping the cookie dough bowl!

Awesome. So now I have some maple peanut butter for $1.79 (Skippy was on sale at Target. Now that I think of it I should’ve bought 2 for that price) + the cost of the maple syrup (which was free since it was my old roommate’s she left in the fridge). Score.

I fully intended on running after this delicious pre-run fuel, but my ex/future roommate (what do I call her during this awkward transitional between houses period?) called inviting me to Taco Tuesday.

Um. Hello. My name is Taylor and I love food. And tacos. And a good deal ($1 each – what what!).

So much for a run. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

2 soft chicken tacos – partly devoured at this point in time.  And fully devoured within seconds after taking this photo.

+ a few chips. And another soda. Oh dear goodness, I need to cut back on my soda consumption.

I’d say I can try and get up early to run tomorrow before my hospital orientation, but let’s face it – I’m still getting used to the fact of waking up around 7:00 a.m. to shower. Let alone waking up at 6:00 to run.

Baby steps. Baby steps.

Maybe after orientation at like 5:00. Perhaps.

And right now my left calf is non-stop twitching. Like those eyebrow/eyelash twiches….but in my leg. Interesting. Maybe my body is rejecting all the caffeine and soda today. Sorry body.

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Self-Portrait

Seriously. Full of self-portraits. Or perhaps it should be titled “Taylor has yet to master self-portraits with her Iphone.”

I just about died on my run today.

Okay. That’s a bit of an overstatement. But I sure felt like I was about to.

I set out planning to go 10-10.5. Since I’m getting pretty bored of the routes around my house, I drove about 15 minutes to our downtown area to run the trails and neighborhoods down there. I also got up “early” to beat the heat. But in all honesty I didn’t get out the door until 9:45. That’s really not beating the heat much.

Miles 1-3: Felt pretty good. I walked for 1 minute about every 9-10 minutes. Towards mile 3 it started to get tough. The sun was really getting to me.

Miles 4-5: Getting more tough. There were a lot of hills around this point of the run, and I started to walk every 5 minutes or so. Around mile 5 I really started to doubt going 10. As I tweeted “Dyingggg. Only 5.2…halfway! Will probs cut it short.” I paused for a bit in the shade and ate half the fuel I packed –

Cashew butter & peach jam on sandwich thin (ate half)

Giving myself a 2-3 minute break in the shade made a HUGE difference. I powered up the rest of the hill quite refreshed.

Mile 6-7: These miles were in mostly shade and it’s amazing how much easier the shade made my run. I was still struggling, but not nearly as much. At mile 7 I literally stopped and leaned against the fence almost crying that I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do a full 10. No way José. I decided to do a run 1:30/walk 1 minute pattern. I know this sounds like a ton of walking. Heck! It’s almost half walking, half running! But honestly, I figured that if I focused on just finishing (and not speed or the time I would finish in) that I could do it. I could finish all 10.

Mile 8-9: SO. MUCH. BETTER. The shorter running segments with more frequent walk breaks kept me going. My legs weren’t dying anymore. I wasn’t getting chills. I wasn’t feeling like I was gasping for air. It allowed me to finish my planned 10 miler.

Mile 10: The path I was on for the last 2 miles was almost 100% shaded, allowing me to run a tad longer with less frequent walk breaks. In fact, I ran the last 1/2 mile straight. Once I finished I cooled down a bit on some benches in the shade.

Relief!! 10 miler done! Welcome back to double-digit land!!!

(Please ignore my creepy neck.  That sometimes happens when I smile strangely)

Okay, fine. This is really how I felt. Special, I know.

Few! Thank you Mr. Garmin for holding out the entire time.

Finished in 1:42.43.  So 10.24 pace even with all the walking.

As proud and happy I am about this run, HOW ON EARTH DID I USED TO DO THIS ALL THE TIME? I know I’m building back up from a base of…um…nothing. But I’ve done this before. And I don’t remember it being this hard. When will it get easy again? Boy oh boy.

Now my thoughts on the walking. I always used to be a runner who hated walk breaks. I would only break at stoplights or when pausing for water/food. I’ve been including walking breaks into my runs post-injury to keep it easier on my knee. Today I almost reached a 50:50 run:walk ratio. To some, this might seem like “cheating.” Heck, I probably would have used to view it this way. To some, I didn’t actually “run” 10 miles. But if you add up all my walk breaks, it probably was less than 1 mile. And I’m proud of what I did! And of my knee. GO KNEE 😀 You rock.

Moving past the essay I just wrote…

Pre-run fuel was overnight oats.

• 1/3 cup oats + 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1 scoop soy protein powder (1/2 serving)
• 2/3 cup almond milk
• Banana cream pie yogurt (Lucerne brand)
• Cinnamon & maple syrup
• Peanut butter

This A.M topped with:

• Cashew butter
• Blueberries
• Apple butter

Post-run I had the magnificent idea of Starbucks. I’m sure I stunk out the entire place when I walked in.

Hello sugar, chemicals and crap carbs, caffeine and protein(?).

A couple hours later – the quickest lunch possible. 2 veggie dogs on sandwich thin halves. With a nectarine.

Eaten while melting reading outside.

This book’s description reminds me of Face on the Milk Carton. Easy peasy read. I got through over 100 pages today in an hour.

I swear I melted away liters of sweat water. Mmmm water I love you. Please replenish me.

Snacks:

Watermelon slices x4

Source

1/2 yogurt container with cashews & PB mixed in

2 Diet Cracks

(Repeat photo!)

A few cheesy fries my sister made.

And a few bites of my other sister’s cupcake.

Dinner was BBQ chicken – I had 1 1/2 breasts (tee hee. I’m mature) a scoop of rice, and a multitude of grilled onions.

And then I made these puppies to bring with me on my roadtrip tomorrow.

I’m sure I had 2-3 worth of dough. Mmmmm dough.

What are your thoughts on the walk/run (typically known as the Galloway method) training?

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