Tag Archives: biking

On the road again!

Okay, not on the road traveling per se – but the bikes are out!

And a note on the sweet potato muffins from earlier, I used the Spark recipe calculator to calculate nutritionals. It’s pretty cool!

First off, though – must get to the important breakfast stuff. Banana custard oats topped with pecan butter and strawberry all fruit.

Delish! I did a little less oats to see what would happen and it was kind of like pudding. No running today because of the ride later. And the blogger run day is on Sunday, btw… 😳

We decided to bike to lunch today, since it was going to be in the low to mid 40s! Still a little brisk, but you all know if it is above 40, I’ll go. I was a little worried for John because he has not been doing as much as I have during the winter, but he did pretty well 😀

Filling up the tires:

It was all road riding because the bike path is still covered in snow. It’s 8 miles each way to get to Panera Bread, so a good ride! I was hangry by the time we got there, though. We had to stop a couple times for adjustments. The first ride of the season doesn’t always go smoothly.

I had clam chowder and a tomato/mozzarella sammie:

Yum! My date (also yum..):

Me with helmet head:

I so missed riding! I run a lot now, but if you asked me to choose between running and biking, I would be pedaling away before you could even finish the sentence. The ride home was a little harder as there was a bit of a head wind, and my sit bones were starting to get a little sore. Did a lot of standing up for the last couple miles 🙂 Legs felt really good, though. Total miles: 16, average of 12 mph. Good first season ride!

I got a little chilled, so I needed a good warmup of a latte:

That’s cinnamon on top.

We were pretty lazy for the rest of the day. Then it was time for dinner. Still using up those potatoes! I did one kind of like the other night, but it was a white potato with some laughing cow cheese and BBQ chicken. Really good!

Did some grocery shopping tonight since we are going someplace farther away for bagels tomorrow. Now I am ready to have some snacks and movie time!

Question: Any good plans for this weekend?

NROLW and more camera woes.

In an effort to be extra green this week, I decided that I was going to bike to the gym no matter what this morning. I didn’t even check the weather to see the temperature, I just bundled up and went. I knew it was above freezing because there was no frost on the car 😀

I have 1 week left of New Rules of Lifting!

Barbell squat: 2 sets of 8 at 85 pounds
Dumbbell squats with heels lifted: 4 sets of 15 at 20 pounds
Overhead shoulder press: 4 sets of 20 with 12 pound weights
Step ups: 4 sets of 15 with 25 pound dumbbells
Underhand grip lat pulldown: 4 sets of 15 at 60 pounds

Man oh man. I am not liking this part very much. I love lifting, but this is pretty intense. I tend to take a little more than 30 seconds between sets and that is what makes this so rough.

Walked on the treadmill for a bit and then biked home. The sun was bright and shiny, so the ride wasn’t bad at all. I cannot believe I am still getting on my bike in mid November LOL! Biking makes me so happy.

If you read my post earlier, you know I had steel cut oats for brekkie. Num, num.

I will show you a pic of my cafe au lait that accompanied it – even though the Broncos do *not* deserve to be featured on my blog right now…..

coffee1116

Annoying day at work today. Tough dictators makes for slowness and frustration. Ah well, not every day is quick and easy, right?

Took a lunch break for another waffle sandwich! I am so into sweet and savory right now.

lunch1116

This sandwich was roasted turkey breast, laughing cow cheese, and apple butter! And yes, to answer a question, I do toast the waffles.

So, my new camera is acting up. Okay, my refurbished camera is acting up. You can see what is happening on this post. That pinkish hue gets on a lot of my photos and the LED screen gets all funked up. It doesn’t happen all the time, but too many times to just deal with it. It’s under warranty, so I was on the phone with Olympus to get it straightened away to send to them. Of course, they won’t tell me if the repair is under warranty until they see the camera, but come on!

I am so addicted to taking pictures that I am panicking about not having this camera again. Although my mom is going to let me borrow her new camera.

Snack with my latte:

snack1116

So yesterday evening was not a good eating time for me. You know how I blogged about wanting to eat yesterday? Well I did. I managed to have some toast with apple butter, some dark chocolate chips and pretzels and a little leftover bread pudding during the course of the football game last night. And I did not feel full! What the heck is up with that? How could I possibly not be full? Bah! So, today is really one of those days where I leaned out the calories to make up for that.

No broccoli for dinner tonight! Heehee. I did a basic sauteed chicken breast and roasted brussel sprouts, plus some applesauce.

din1116

A-1 sauce for dippin’. I am in a roasted, sauteed vegetable rut. Like you all couldn’t see that for yourselves! Although, I like my ruts. Guess that’s why I get in them!

Evening snack for MNF:

larabar1116

This is pretty good. Nice coffee flavor, although I don’t drink sweetened coffee, so it was a little weird to have a sweet coffee flavor in my mouth. I like the gingerbread larabar better. What I really need to do is make more of my own.

Question: Are you in any kind of rut now?

NROLW and art with breakfast

Happy Wednesday! And Happy Veterans Day. Thank you to all veterans and those currently serving our country!

Another New Rule workout this morning. Ate 1/2 a Zone bar, bundled up and biked to the gym as it was 39 degrees

What a routine this was, too:

Barbell incline bench press: 2 sets of 8 at 55 pounds
Seated lat row: 2 sets of 8 at 60 pounds
Dumbbell squats with heel lifted: 4 sets of 15 with 20 pound dumbbells
Overhead shoulder press: 4 sets of 20 with 10 pound dumbbells
Step ups: 4 sets of 15 with 20 pound dumbbells
Underhand grip lat pull down: 4 sets of 15 at 60 pounds

Dang these are hard! The last 4 exercises are done in a circuit with 30 second rests. For the dumbbell squats, I used 2 plates on the floor to put my heels on. John texted me and was not feeling well enough to bike, so he told me to meet him at the coffeehouse and he would drive. I hopped on the bike and hit the path. How things change in a few weeks:

trail1111

Bagel and hot coffee to warm up!

bagel1111

This cafe showcases local artists, and there were some nice pictures by our table:

art1111

My back started bothering me again during the ride there, so I actually am glad John drove because I just put the bike in the car after breakfast and came home with him. It has something to do with the pushing motion on the pedal on my left side. I didn’t want it to feel as bad as it did on Monday, so I was smart for a change and took the ride home.

Another waffle creation for lunch (guess it is Waffle Wednesday!). I love my waffle sandwiches. Plus some homemade cashew butter and a local honeycrisp apple.

lunch1111

I can’t tell you how many times I am transcribing files about the H1N1 vaccine and how it isn’t available. Is it ever going to be around?? There is only 1 company in the US that makes the vaccine and they were unable to meet their promised production. Losers. I don’t want the H1N1 vaccine, but there are a lot of high risk people that need it.

Break time was a latte (not pictured) plus an Attune bar. Dark chocolate bliss…

attune1111

Was feeling the pasta vibe for dinner. Cheese ravioli with a sprinkling of mozzarella. And more broccoli! Think I should have named this blog Finding Broccoli instead of Finding Radiance 😉

din1111

I’ve been doing really well on the snacking front. Or not snacking front, I should say. Keeping cereal out of the house has made a huge difference. It’s funny how just a small change like that and the scale starts to drift downwards.

Hot 100 update:

1. Duathlon. DONE!!!
2. Limit the number of eggnog lattes this year to 2 or 3. Have not had any.
3. Keep a redline of weight in mind to not go over during the holidays. Under redline.
4. Complete the New Rules of Lifting for Women. Started stage 7 (Ow!!!)
5. Enjoy time with family during the holidays. Breakfast with my mom tomorrow

6. Better organization of time to be productive. Maybe a bit better?

7. Do some freelance writing. Pretty lame here this week.

8. Run at least 2 more official 5K races this year. 1 down, 1 to go

Talk to you all tomorrow!

NROLW and da bike!

Happy Monday! It was nice to take a little bloggy picture break yesterday. Don’t worry, I ate healthy 😀

Today started Stage 7 of New Rule of Lifting. The final cut. Each day will be different for the next 2 weeks.

Barbell squat: 1 set of 8 at 45 pounds (warmup), 1 set of 8 at 65 pounds, 1 set of 8 at 85 pounds
Static lunge with rear foot elevated: 2 sets of 15 with 25 pound plate, 2 sets of 15 with no weight
Push ups: 4 sets of 15 (man style!)
Romanian deadlifts: 4 sets of 15 at 65 pounds
Bent over barbell row: 4 sets of 15 with 20 pound weights

This was a kickazz workout! Holy cow! I reduced the weights to start with because of the higher reps, but had to drop the plate (not literally 😉 ) on the last 2 sets of lunges. Plus, the rest was 30 seconds between sets, so I was breathing hard for this workout. Raise your hand if you think I am going to feel this tomorrow!! I had better feel 60 push ups!

Gorgeous day outside. Came home to some pumpkin Cream of Wheat topped with cranberry sauce and a sprinkle of toasted pecans:

brekkie1109

Slow work day in the morning, so I took advantage and cleaned the bird feeders and put out a suet cake. Someone else decided they wanted to investigate….

squirrel1109

Lunch time! Egg salad along with half a grapefruit.

lunch1109

I haven’t had grapefruit in forever, but they were on sale. You know how I love a bargain!

We couldn’t resist playing some hooky this afternoon and going for a bike ride! You can’t let a 65 degree day in November pass you by without spending some of it outdoors. Did 15 miles. My back started to hurt a little bit when we stopped on a hill and had to start going up again. It twinged a little for most of the ride, and then the last 1/4 of the route was misery! I don’t know what I did to it, but it sure hurts. Hope it will be better tomorrow. It was a bummer to end the ride on that note. Maybe there is another bike ride somewhere before winter?? 😕

I soothed myself with a post ride snack:

snack1109

Dinner was quick because I didn’t feel like doing much. Clam strips, broccoli, applesauce, and a few pieces of pan fried sweet potatoes that John cooked up.

dinner1109

Tonight is finishing up work (due to the hooky bike ride!) and then MNF – Go Broncos!! I’ll be joined by these 2 (one of whom won’t be watching the game 😛 )

jp1109

Question: Do you have bird feeders?

Biking and bagels and health watch news.

The rain finally ended overnight with the low at 47 when we woke up. That is within the bike riding threshold, so we hit the road. Decided on street route only, as the path probably would have eaten us alive like quicksand! I don’t mind the road riding on an early weekend morning when the traffic is very light. We actually go a little faster since the road is smoother. Interesting how much the gravel path slows you down.

Panera bread for a chocolate chip bagel and 3 cups of coffee! :O

bagel1025

The ride home was a little slower. John just wasn’t feeling fast today, so I let him go ahead. I tend to really push the pace, but didn’t want to leave him behind (aren’t I the good wife??).

Sigh… back to work today. It is nice working at home and can have the football on in the background. I just pay attention when the good stuff happens LOL!

Speaking of work in the medical field, I was contacted by the Healthcare Association Watch about preventing health-care associated infections. Here is a link to more information on that where you can watch some videos and read more about what can be done. While it is important for those of you that are health care workers to follow these guidelines, it is also extremely important for all of us to take our own protective measures. When you see your physician – don’t be afraid to ask him/her to wash their hands before examining you! There is no reason for you to leave the office with an illness you didn’t come in with.

Regarding my camera – it does not have a viewfinder hole, just the LCD screen. I can actually buy the same camera refurbished for $85, which is less than it would be to actually get mine repaired. What is up with that? So, I am going to do that.

Here is what my camera looks like turned on:

cam1025

Isn’t that lovely??? This will also be my pink item of the day!

Snackage today:

snack1025

I really miss the macro function on my camera. All of my pictures look so ordinary on the old camera (Okay, done whining!).

Candy corn has entered the house, but it is under lock and key. I have allowed myself to have 1/2 a serving (which is 10 kernels) at a time, which John dutifully doles out to me.

kernels1025

I am making an internet confession here that I eat candy corn in a strange way. I love to bite off the bottoms and save the white tips for last.

cc1025

I don’t know why, but I think the tips taste the best. Or maybe I am just weird.

On a great note – I won the football picks today! I’m on a roll thanks to the Steelers and the Bills. Now I just need to decide where to have my football dinner this week heehee!

Question: Do you have any strange food mannerisms?

NROLW and bagel day!

Back to the gym today! It was dark when I got up, so I put a reflective band on my leg for biking. Then I realized that I forgot to put my bag rack back on my bike after the race on Sunday. D’oh! So, by the time I got done fumbling that on, it was much lighter out. 😀

I have missed my lifting! I am backing up into stage 6 a little since I took a week off. Workout A:

Negative chin ups: 3 sets of 1 (still just dangling there).
Lat pull down: 10 sets of 2 at 60 pounds (slow release)
Barbell split squats: 2 sets of 10 at 65 pounds
Pushups (the real way!): 2 sets of 10.

John arrived just as I was finishing the pushups and off we biked to bagels! Oh how I missed my bagel. Haven’t had one since last Wednesday!

Come to momma!

bagel1021

And le cafe.

coffee1021

Really nice day for biking. I wasn’t sure if my legs were a little twingy from the workout or a little leftover duathloning, but it was so great to be back on the bike! My favorite sport.

Spied my pink item while at the cafe:

pink1021

I love Wednesday mornings. I don’t have to start work until 10, although sometimes I start early – but not on Wednesdays! I enjoy the time with my hubby and relaxing.

I decided on something way different for lunch:

lunch1021

Microwaved sweet potato topped with pan sauteed broccoli and chick peas with a wedge of laughing cow (plus some cumin seeds thrown into the saute pan). I give this a thumb’s up and it was very different for me. I never used to like sweet potatoes.

I was having so much fun playing with food today that I decided to carry that on for dinner! We had cooked chicken and I had made the cranberry sauce last night. Well, in the spirit of fall, I made a sandwich panini style! I used an Arnold sandwich thin, sliced chicken breast, cranberry sauce, and Cabot light cheddar cheese and smashed between 2 hot pans:

sammie21021

All that was missing was some stuffing and it would have been totally perfect!

And you know a girl needs her chocolate! Love those Attunes!

choc1021

Question: Are you a meal inventor, or do you follow recipes?

3-day weekend and bleeping cold!

It’s so cold out! I wanted an outside bike ride, but again, this morning it was 30 degrees when I woke up. So, I waited until later. I am going to put flannel sheets on the bed tonight (I am such a dork to get excited about that…).

It was definitely a morning for warm oats. I made banana PB&J oats:

oats1015

This was with the Silver Palate oats. This bowl kept me full from 8 until noon! I am shocked. I did supplement with mid morning tea:

tea1015

This is good tea. My very favorite tea is good old fashioned Constant Comment, though!

I will spare you my boring lunch of tuna sandwich today. I had it toasted to keep warm. It stayed cloudy and I knew it wouldn’t get much warmer, so a bit after lunch I put on a long sleeve technical shirt, my workout jacket and a fleece jacket and headed out for a ride. It was so cold! Windy, too. I just did a 9-10 mile easy pace ride. My legs feel pretty good. Another couple easy days and they should be fresh for the duathlon! I had some company on the canal for my ride:

duck

There were about a dozen ducks swimming in the same direction I was going. Coming back the wind was at my back, so it went quicker. I did not even get the least bit sweaty on this ride. I have to remember that I did a run last December when it was 15 degrees out, so I can do it in the mid 30s.

I was thoroughly chilled to the bone (bicycle-sicle!) when I got back and John made me a latte and I bundled back up in a sweatshirt. I was happy to get this! (This is my work station).

lorilatte

Last day of work for the week. I am taking Sunday off to chillax (to quote Lynn) after my duathlon. I am going to freeze that day! I am more worried about the weather than the actual duathlon. Overnight temps are supposed to be 30 degrees and a high in the mid 40s. The duathlon starts at 9 am, so it will be around 35 by my best guestimation. I need to revamp my clothing ideas for that day and just layer up. I think my technical turtleneck is in order. I just worry about getting too hot with that on, since it is really hard to get off (it’s tight) I would have to wear it the whole time.

Pink item for the day!

pink1015

Ice cream is so unappealing right now LOL! Guess that’s a good thing.

If you like pumpkin like I do, Fat Fighter TV has posted links to 10 healthy pumpkin recipes (including one of mine!). Pumpkin butter is on my agenda.

Dinner was a happy accident. We had a bit of ground turkey and I just sauteed it and then dumped in the rest of the steamer veggies with cheese sauce that we had leftover from the other day. It came out yummy! Plus, John made some jalapeno corn bread. I am all about the warm stuff today.

din1015

Having a little problem with snacking since this afternoon, though. Not sure if it is lack of sleep or the cold (a little from column A, a little from column B). Dark chocolate chips and wheat thins make a great sweet/salty combo, but not in large quantities :O

Tonight is blanket time and writing time. Feels great to be on the eve of 3 days off!

Question: What is your favorite tea?

Holey Donuts and fall flavors

Phew – I have too much to say and not enough posts, so I am sorting out stuff (plus I don’t want to bore you all).

Before John’s race today, I had a lovely fall-inspired breakfast with whole grain cream of wheat, pumpkin and dried cranberries, topped with slivered almonds:

PA100005

Delicious! Cream of wheat has 50 less calories per serving than oatmeal and yet, I was so full after eating this! Yay for whole grains!

It was really weird just watching in this race today. I have always been a participant, so it was weird waiting around. I just decided not to do this one with the duathlon coming up, plus a 5K on Halloween. I don’t need to do it all! I got in some pretty pictures at this race spot:

Wild asters

Chicory

After John ran his fabulous race, he wanted a bagel – and you know I am not going to turn down an opportunity for that!!

More flavors of fall with this cinnamon apple bagel. Sooooo goooood!!!

PA100034

Good thing this place is 15 miles away or I would be there every morning 😀

I was lucky enough to win 3 boxes of Holey Donuts in a drawing on Nutricious is Delicious, and the donuts arrived packed in dry ice. 3 kinds:

Donut Holes

Low fat donuts

Holey Donuts Cinnamon Rolls

Sorry about the photo quality here. I was pretty excited to try these after seeing them everywhere on the net. I tried a couple donut holes: Vanilla Raspberry and Boston Cream:

Holey Donut Holes

Heated up in the microwave. I have to say that I was a little underwhelmed. The flavor was good, but they didn’t taste like a really good, hot and fresh donut. I thought they were a bit dry. I feel a little bad saying this, because I am thrilled to have a chance to try them and the company was very generous. John had one of the regular size donuts and said the same thing. Definitely a nice snack, and it will take a while to get through the boxes (Mom and Dad – guess what??), but I wouldn’t be ordering them for delivery. If they had a store where they are made fresh (which I hear is in the works), that would be another story.

Went out for a gorgeous bike ride today. John did his own brick by coming with. We did 14.5 miles. I love biking so much. I run a lot, but I am a biker at heart. I am getting really excited for next week. I just hope it isn’t raining. If it is anything like today, I will have a great race.

Found silly Pixie laying in one of my plants today. I don’t know why she wanted to lay like this! It doesn’t look very comfortable and she was there for a couple hours.

Pixie and plumeria

I will have a new veggie experiment for tomorrow that I actually had for dinner tonight. Yum! I need to sign off before this post becomes to epic.

Question: What weird thing does your pet do?

Netflix and comfort foods

I never thought there were people who didn’t know what Netflix is! The ads are so ubiquitous, but guess that is just the US. I love that not only get you get movies, but you can get exercise DVDs, documentaries, classics, TV series, etc. Not to mention the instant download to watch movies on the PC! Guess I should get something from them for the endorsment….

I am glad you are all liking the videos! Wish the quality was better, but it is my digital camera after all. Of course, too fine of a quality and you will really see me in my morning state! Note the hat will almost always be on in the mornings 🙂

Rainy day today, so no biking to bagels. I caught myself almost starting to drive to the Y, as I have biked to my new gym since I joined there and it was weird to drive! I had to get John so we could have our bagel.

Mmmm….. don’t you want some?

bagel

At the coffee shop, I spied my pink item for the day!

pinksoap

A bar of pink handmade soap!

Work today was slow. It always seems like when I breeze through a day, the next day is full of tough files and my productivity takes a nosedive. Weird. It was chilly and damp, so I felt like something warm and comforting for lunch and decided on this:

I added some protein powder and did my blueberry layering technique (patent pending).

cw2

This really was comforting and warming!

Afternoon snack was a new (to me) Larabar flavor:

For some odd reason, this bar really, really reminds me of a raspberry zinger. Think it is the coconut texture. I used to eat those a lot. I remember the good old days when a Charlie Brown special came on TV and they were always sponsored by Dolly Madison. I’d say I was dating myself, except I have my age posted right on the sidebar anyway 😛

I had trouble deciding on what to eat for dinner, and decided on a wrap with sauteed broccoli, chicken and some Laughing Cow spread.

din

Looks boring, but quite tasty 😀

If the weather is nice tomorrow, I will take you on a bit of the bike path via video 😀

Question: Ever have Dolly Madison treats? Which one was/is your favorite?

Brick and pink pictures.

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today is my hump day.

In honor of breast cancer awareness month, I am going to take a picture of something pink every day for the rest of October. Here is today’s item.

PA060029

I flipped my schedule around today and got to work at 7:30 this morning! It was cold this morning and I just wasn’t wanting to spend the morning out knowing it was going to warm up later. Not to mention that my upper body is so sore from yesterday! All up and down my sides – it’s crazy! So, I had some of this:

PA060016

Yum, cafe au lait. Plus some warm banana oats:

PA060011

A couple hours after lunch, I was ready to do my brick! John joined me, so we did a bit of a stop during the bike ride. We rode for 8 miles to Cool Beans and had a bit of fuel of a biscotti and coffee.

I love training days that are relaxed like this! If only I could stop for coffee on race day 😀 We then biked home and I went out for a 2 mile run. It felt pretty good. I am really getting used to the transitions again now.

It was weird exercising in the middle of the afternoon, though. One thing I do like about my job is the flex time option. I just need to work for 1 hour at my scheduled start time, then I can flex the hours if needed as long as I finish my work in a 12-hour window. Can’t do that with an office job! I just wish it paid better.

Dinner was one of my staples!

dinner

Familiar and satisfying.

Twin Peaks on DVD tonight – how about that for a flashback! I love Netflix. I am a film noir lover and it’s great to find those old gems.

Recently enjoyed movies:

Rope
MST3K (tons of these)
The Woman in The Window
Run Fat Boy Run

Question: Are you a NetFlix subscriber?