Tag Archives: biking

Out with the old, in with the new.

Yeah!  Football!  We grocery shopped yesterday.That meant we didn’t need to go after bagels, so we could bike there.  It was nice weather for biking, a little foggy, but not cold.  I was hungry by the time we got to Panera Bread!  It’s about 8 miles each way.

French toast bagel and coffee.  So good!

bagel

Fueled by carbs, we started to push the ride on the way home.  I decided to really go for it for the last 1.5 miles or so.  John was following me with the bike computer and he said we topped out around 18 miles an hour.  I was breathing really hard by the time I careened into the driveway LOL!  Felt awesome, though.  I just kept thinking about how fast I could go if I had a road bike.

After showering – I am all set up for football!

team

I do have to work, but I can do that with the game on in the background.

Lunch before the game:

lunch

Chicken wrap with a Flatout wrap.  Cedar’s lemon hummus and lettuce tucked in there.  Tasty.   Plus a super juicy red pear.

I am so concentrating on eating well today.  Sundays are really challenging for me, for whatever reason.

Those Broncos, I tell you – cardiac team for sure.  They won in the last 20 seconds!  Unbelieveable.

winnersGo team!!   Looks like I will lose my weekly picks, though, and have to take John out for dinner 🙁

Latte snack  – woohoo!

latte

Out with the old and in with the new:

I am embarrassed to show the wear and tear on these running shoes!  I desperately needed new shoes.

treadsneaks

Used my Dick’s gift certificate to purchase these new Sauconys.

saucony

They are so comfy.  I was looking at a pair of Asics, but the Sauconys have a wider toebox, which is wonderful for wide feet.  Plus the heel is a little lower, so no rubbing.  Took them for a 1 mile spin tonight and I loved them!!  I had a real bounce in my step and my feet felt very cushioned.  I am a Saucony convert now!

Yummy dinner and one of my favorites!

dinner

Seawatch clam strips.  These were baked in the toaster oven and come out all crispy.  So good.

Question:  Do you change out your workout shoes on a regular basis?

Bagel day and brussel sprouts

You know what Wednesdays are!  No lifting today, so John and I just headed out on the trail to downtown.  It was much earlier than normal since we just got up an went.

The decaf here is so much better!

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Plus my nummy bagel.  I know food shouldn’t make you happy, but it does for me sometimes 😀

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Day 2 of decaf is going well.  I am not nearly as tired today, and still no headache, which is shocking.

Singularly frustrating day with work today.  The AS team was messing around with the software, which causes glitches that end up interfering with productivity.  Lower productivity = lower pay.  Argh!  One of the large downsides to working on production.  I can earn varying amounts in an 8-hour day depending on the quality of the dictator or software glitches.

Tried a different thing with my wrap today.  I made my usual tuna and hummus wrap, but added cucumber to it.

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It definitely was different.  I really noticed how sweet the cucumber was, which I had never really thought about before.  Still working on this box of clementines, too!

For dinner I made another egg sandwich, but no broccoli tonight! LOL!  I did a variation on Alton Brown’s brussel sprouts recipe.

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I shredded it and pan sauteed it with some coconut oil, salt and pepper, and topped with dried cranberries.  Really good!  Even John liked it.  I think the texture of this is the most appealing, as well as the sweet/salty with the dried cranberries.  I actually think I must enjoy the cabbage family most, as broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts are some of my favorite veggies.  How weird.  You would think that someone who didn’t like vegetables much would like a different family of them!  Brussel sprouts were a food I never in a million years thought I would eat, let alone really like 😀  Thanks to my commitment to the Great Veggie Experiment, I have added some things to my repetoire.

Another good reason to eat from the cabbage family?   Studies have shown that the phytochemicals in them can possibly help prevent some forms of cancer!

Question:  Have you ever tried brussel sprouts?

Rest day and bike path.

Had a great night last night with some nice street music.  I was pretty beat by the time we got home.

Met my parents at Panera Bread for breakfast and I forgot to take a picture of my blueberry bagel, but know that it was tasty!  Then did some grocery shopping.  We saved $11 in coupons today!

I thought I wouldn’t be working much today, but turns out I was quite busy!   That’s always a good thing.  Took a break for some lunch and had Chobani with cereal and strawberries.

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Such a nice combo.  I also tried a new tea (bought with coupon!):

tea

This was good.  It was less cardamom and more peppery with cinnamon.  The hang tag saying was odd, though:

tag

What is that supposed to mean?

I am feeling quite tired today.  I do have difficulty taking a day off, but my legs especially are tired today.  It’s also hard because after a long bike ride, I have a tendency to be really snacky the next day.

We are pretty lucky to have bike paths around here.  There is about 20 miles of trail to go on.  Not all of it is paved, though.  There are chunks that are gravel or just dirt – so that is one reason why I would have trouble with just a road bike.  It’s fine for the 8 miles of paved path, but not the rest.  Some of the path is just a bike lane on the main road, which is not a place I like to ride, but you have to go on some to get to the path.  It is marked with a bike sign to let drivers know to share the road, but I had someone last week yell at me to get on the sidewalk?  What’s up with that?  It can feel very vunerable on the bike sometimes.

Anyway, there are so many beautiful things in this area to see and do.  We live in a small town, and not all is good (Fort Edward is a superfund site – thanks GE), but we enjoy it.  We do plan to move probably to Glens Falls in about 3 years or so.  I would love to live right on the bike path!

So, I am normally scheduled for work on Mondays, so I have to work.  Guess that makes it truly Labor Day!  😀 Not sure if it will be busy or not.

Question:  Plans for Labor Day (US peeps)?

Bike ride and delicious yogurt.

We finally decided on a bike ride today.  We thought we would get to Lake George, than continue on to Bolton Landing 10 miles further out.  The bike path stops at Lake George, so we were going to go on the road.

Fueled up with coffee and some pumpkin oatbran topped with peanut butter and cranberry preserves.  Yum.

oats

Although I do have to say that I much prefer other nut butters on pumpkin oats, but that’s what we have on hand.

Had a beautiful bike start.  Here is a picture of part of the paved path.

path

Sunny! Good thing it isn’t all like this or I would burn to a crisp even with sunscreen.

Got to Lake George and I had a clementine to get a little more energy.  Then we pressed onward.  I had to take a picture of this house – can you imagine living here?  It’s right on the lake, too.

house

After about 1.5 miles, the road had absolutely no shoulder and there was a lot of traffic.  We pulled into a tiny cul-de-sac for a fire hydrant (should have taken a picture) and decided to turn around for safety sake.  I was pretty hungry anyway.

We stopped at the Bank Cafe:

cafe

It actually is an old bank, and they kept the safe LOL!

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Breakfast served all day, so you know I had a bagel, but I wanted more protein.  Here is an egg/cheese/bacon bagel sammie.

bagel

It was really delicious.  Food tastes so good when you are hungry.

John had a ham panini.  This place serves local meat, which is pretty cool.

jsammie

We then relaxed on a couple of Adirondack chairs and watched the lake and all the boats.  There were tons of boaters out today.

lake

I would have loved something from the Lake George Baking Company again this week 😀  But, we decided to have frozen yogurt instead.  By the time we hit the yogurt place on the way back, we had already done 25 miles on the day, and my bagel was not quite enough for that type of riding.   This place is right on the bike path.

j

I got a nice carb hit from the yogurt:

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Cheesecake flavor with raspberry sauce.  YUM!!

That gave me an energy boost to get home with.  We ended up with total mileage of 34 miles today.  Nice.

I am posting this early, because tonight we are heading down to Saratoga for the Saturday art walk and then outdoor music.    There might possibly be coffee involved somewhere….  What a jam packed Saturday!

I am so thankful to have a hubby who loves to be outdoors and active with me.  :heart:

Beautiful bowl of oatbran and giant feet.

Normally Friday is the start of my weekend, but it was so slow on Sunday that I am picking up some work today.  Not a full day, but just doing bits here and there.  I went for another foggy run this morning.  The temp was perfect – mid 50s.   Dates and nutbutter fuel.  I ate the last of the dates this morning.  Dates are a food I never knew I loved so much!

dates

I decided on a 4 mile go around.   Felt quite good, although the first mile my legs were pretty stiff from yesterday’s workout.  Finished in 43:36.  My standard pace.  I have not been all that motivated to push the tempo that much.  Guess I should have made that my September challenge 😀

Feeling like fall a bit, and John ate the last banana, so I opened up the big can of pumpkin (be warned there may be a lot of pumpkin items coming up!).  This bowl just screams fall and deserves a large photo:

oats_edited1

  • 40 grams of oat bran
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin
  • 10 grams craisins
  • 18 white chocolate chips

So good.  Foodgasm.

Oh, and my nice muscular thighs?  Turns out they could be my key to long life!

Picked up Pixie today – so happy to have her home.  I thought her feet looked big before, but they are swollen today and are like clubs!

pix1

Doesn’t this look like some kind of alien being? LOL.  Poor kitty.

Cold mornings, but the days have been warming up beautifully.  I did work outside including mowing the lawn and string trimming.  It was hard to make myself sit inside and do work, so I haven’t done a whole lot.  We were trying to decided whether to bike for yogurt or dinner, and dinner won out!  That meant lattes at home:

mocha

We went the back way around the bike trails, since the pizza place isn’t too far from our house and we wanted a longer ride.  Of course, the back way includes some really long hills.  Good thing I have those big thighs – they help immensely!

Arrived at Arthurs after going 6 miles where I had a side salad:

salad

And the most wonderful pizza.  It’s like a pan pizza, but the dough is not oily at all, soft inside and crispy outside.

za

John and I shared a small cheese with feta.  These pieces look bigger than they are in real life.  I ate my half – I was so hungry from all the exercise today!

On a whim, we biked to visit my parents, as they are only a mile or so from Arthurs.  I didn’t realize I would get way laid by chocolate chip cookies!  Oops.  They were good, though.  😀  Thanks Mom!

Relaxing tonight.  I am a little tired from all the calorie burn today.  We are trying to decide on a hike or a bike ride tomorrow.  Weather is going to be mid to upper 70s and sunny.  Could it be more perfect?  I think not!

September challengers – have a great weekend!  Weekends can be hard, but stick to your plan!

Question:  Favorite pizza?

Bagel day and the kitty

Well – I had success last night with the cupcakes.  I planned on having 1 and a cup of coffee, and that is what I stuck to!  I really wanted a second one, but it was the start of my September challenge and needed to be on the correct foot. It was a small cupcake, too 😀

cuppycake

No weights this morning as I had to drop off Pixie at the vets at 8 a.m., which is smack in the middle of normal Wednesday weight lifting.  So, we  decided just to bike to bagels this morning.  I’ll do some weights tomorrow instead.

On the way there, we saw some turkeys!  I think it was a mom and a few little ones.

turkey

Got to our usual place where I had my usual multigrain with maple cream cheese!  Yay!  It was tasty.  I was really hungry.

brekkie1

Lots of work to do today.  All the doctors are back from summer vacations, so the work is piling up.  Guess that is a good thing 😀

I was excited to try the Chobani pineapple yogurt for lunch.

cho

I opened it up and found that it was fruit on the bottom, which I don’t care for too much (it’s way too sweet for me).

yogurt

This yogurt really had a tasty pineapple flavor, but it’s too sweet.  I mixed in some Kashi Heart to Heart (love).

So, it was a little depressing at the vets office today.  I have shown you pictures of Pixie’s giant feet before.

pixShe has 7 toes on the front, but she also has extra toes on the back feet, which is pretty unusual.  The problem is that some of them are deformed and the claws grow really funny.  The vet recommended I get her declawed to prevent ingrown claws and infection.  She also has this problem on the back feet with one toe (yes, she is just weird!).  I have been putting it off because I really didn’t want to have her declawed, but I have to put her best future interests ahead of my own feelings.  So she was taken in today to have that done.  She will be gone for 2 days!  Although we will go visit her tomorrow.  As if I didn’t feel bad enough, the receptionist handed me a card that Chloe was due for her rabies shot this month.  For those of you who don’t know, Chloe was my 18-year-old cat who passed away at the end of March.  I realize that I had forgotten to tell them that she had passed away, as I took her to the cremation place which is at a different vet.  Of course, they wanted to talk about what happened, as they liked Chloe a lot (she had spent a chunk of time at the office in the last year and a half).  I kept my composure there, but started crying as I walked home.  That kind of put me in a funk today.  Now the house is all empty.  I really miss both of the kitties.  At least Pixie will be back on Friday.  It’s amazing what pets can bring into your life and the hole they leave when they aren’t there.  I am not going to fill that with food, however.

Snack with afternoon latte:

craisins

Not Raisinettes, but Craisinettes!  They are covered in milk chocolate, but I had a coupon and really wanted to try them.  Very good.  Too good.

Dinner was another grilled wrap.  Don’t you love getting into food ruts? LOL.

dinner1

This one was the usual broccoli, laughing cow, and chicken, but I added a little A1 sauce to it.  Yum, but a bit messy.

Did some shopping at Dick’s tonight where I got some new lifting gloves!  I’ll take a pic tomorrow of those.  I think I might get some running shoes with more of the gift certificate money, but I can’t decide.  So, we went out for coffee 😀  Decaf Americano:

coffee

I was going to talk about coconut water today, but I will save that for tomorrow since many of you probably didn’t even make it down this far LOL!

Hope all you September challengers are getting off to a great start!

Le ride!

It’s my weekend.  Yay!  Another chilly night in the 40s.  It’s crazy!  No gym this morning, but could I sleep in?  No!  I woke up at 6am…. sigh.  Then I just laid there for an hour trying to make myself get back to sleep LOL!

Fueled up for my ride with protein pancakes and blueberry sauce!

brekkie9

Extra good on a cold morning.

This is the shirt that I got the other day for $10 at TJMaxx!  It’s a New Balance.  I loves me a bargain.  John proclaimed this his favorite outfit!

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Side note: Did anyone watch Project Runway last night?  Doesn’t this shirt look like the bowling ball dress? LOL!

I new that I wanted a sweet treat at the lake, so that meant packing a lunch and not buying something there (even though I love the little Indian place there).    It was a nice ride, maybe a little breezy, but nice and cool so I didn’t get really sweaty.

Arrived at the lake and ate on the dock.  I had a tuna/hummus wrap, Food Should Taste Good Chips and applesauce.  Except I forgot a spoon!  Good thing it was kind of drinkable 😀lunch16

View from my wrap:

wrap

Since I was by myself, I could dawdle around the stores and did a lot of window shopping.  Riding a bike is good shopping control, as I couldn’t carry much home in my bag!

Lots of flowers blooming today, including a bit of globe thistle.

globe-thistle

And this little bumblebee hard at work.  Look at all that pollen on his legs!

bee

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Was hungry for a snack at this point!  I wanted a latte, but knew there was another stop on my agenda first:

lgbc

I decided on an almond danish.  I was like a cinnamon roll, only with almond filling.  Yum.  Then I picked up a skim latte (hey, gotta save somewhere, right?) and sat at the beach and enjoyed:

snack6

There was latte art on this, but it disappeared as I walked to the beach!

I then biked home, the harder of the 2 ways because you start with a 2 mile climb uphill!  John actually met me at the frozen yogurt place on the bike path, although I didn’t get anything there.  It was nice to have him accompany me the rest of the way.

30 miles done!  I remember last year how I was so scared to bike to the lake and how tiring it was.  Now it’s no problem.  The hills are still tough, but it is a fun ride!

We decided to try a new place for dinner.  Kind of like a local Denny’s.  They serve breakfast all day, so you know I wanted to go there!  I decided on an omelet made with eggbeaters.  It was so tasty!

dinner19 The home fries were very good and not too greasy.  The wheat toast was buttered, though.  Didn’t stop me from eating it!  We so bad wanted a piece of pie, but I had already eaten a danish, so had to say no.

This is what my day looked like activity-wise:

gwfNow it’s relaxing time with Futurama and probably some football!  Hope your day was as great as mine was! 😀

NROLW and Bumble coffee

Nice and cool this morning – so refreshing!  I was so hungry when I woke up today.  Had the very last piece of Ezekiel bread with the last of the apricot jam and PB for my snack.  Tasty stuff.

toast2

Here are some more stealth shots of my new gym.

cable

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I’m in in the last couple workouts from Stage 4 of NROLW.

Today was B:

  • Deadlifts: 1 x 8 55 pounds, 1 x 8  65 pounds, 1 x 8 75 pounds
  • Bulgarian split squats:  3 x 8  35# plate
  • Underhand grip lat pulldown:  1 x 8 60#, 2 x 8 at 70#
  • Reverse lunge with forward reach:  3 x 8  10# dumbbells (yay!)
  • Prone cuban snatch:  3 x 8  10# dumbbells (super yay!)
  • Crunches, reverse crunches, lateral raise
  • Back extension machine (instead of prone cobra) 3 x 8  at 90#

I decided to do the back extension rather than the cobra because I am tired of that one.  😀  I’m feeling strong and it feels so good!

Texted John (I can’t believe I have actually sent some texts recently!) to meet me and bike onward to breakfast!  Speed on the way there, just under 12mph.

Someone there wanted my coffee.  I love this guy – one of my favorite Christmas specials 😀

bumble

And the brekkie!

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Biked home.  Speed on the way home hit 13.5 mph.  Think it was the bagel and the carb boost?  Indeed.

Light on work this morning, which is a good thing because I was meeting someone at noon.  Noon is lunchtime for me, normally – so it was an ‘on-the-go’ lunch.  Been a while since I have had one of these!

zone

Some cereal snackage when I got back (oooooppppssss…..).

cereals

More delicious coffee after trying to get into a work rhythm.  If I didn’t actually see blood come out when I do donations, I would assume that my veins are full of coffee.

latte4

John grilled steak for dinner – yum!  Haven’t had steak in forever.  I so love our local smokehouse.

dinner17

Usually I go and get a bunch of chicken (I’m cheap).  John went and came home with a $8 per pound steak!  One piece of meat that is really worth paying good money for is steak.  Never buy cheap steak.  Other cuts, yes – but not steak.  So good.

Dessert:

chips

So, I am feeling a little aimless without having a goal since I am not doing the half marathon, although finishing NROLW is a good goal!  I’m doing a couple 5Ks, but it’s not quite the same.  I saw a duathlon in the paper in October this morning, and I just  might go ahead and do that.  It’s 2.2 mile run/16 mile bike ride/2.2 mile run.  I think that might be a good way to send out the active season.  I had an odd desire to to a brick the other day (what was I thinking??), so maybe I should do it.

Or really, what I should do is buckle down and take off the last 10 pounds instead of dinking around.

MST3K from Netflix tonight!

Question: What are your lunches (or any meal) on the go?

NROLW and green eggs, but no ham!

Don’t forget to enter the Fullbites giveaway! It ends tomorrow!

Went to my new gym this morning.  There were only about 3 people there, so that was nice to get used to a new environment.  It definitely seems much smaller than the Y (because it is, duh…), so it feels a little cramped to me.  At least it is clean, though and the people there were good about wiping down equipment (yay!).  I was also totally excited about the cable machine because it is adjustable!  The one at the Y, I could only to a reverse or regular woodchop because the pulleys were stationary.  Today I could actually do a horizontal woodchop, like is called for in NROLW!  Happy me!

Here is a video of the horizontal woodchops:

Anyhoo, the workout today.  Oh, I biked to the gym, which is a shade over 2 miles from home.

  • Barbell squat/push press:  3 x 8 at 45#
  • Dumbbell 1 point rows:  3 x 8 at 25#
  • Step ups:  3 x 8  at 30#
  • Push ups:  3 x 8
  • Static lunges with rear foot elevated:  3 x 8  with 25# plate
  • Cable woodchop:  3 x 8  50 pounds
  • Plank:  3 x 2 minute holds (dying!)

It’s going to take me a while to feel at home at the gym, I think, but I’ll get there.  I do have to say that I do *not* like that they play music.  What they play is not even close to what I want to hear.  At least it wasn’t blaring, so I could put on my headphones and not hear much of it.  Listened to Sweeney Todd!

John met me at the gym and we then biked for bagels!

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I was a little tired after the weight workout to do road biking, but I knew the end result would be worth it:

bagel6

New employee was a little skimpy with the cream cheese…

Then I had to bike home!  Total bike trip was around 11 miles, so definitely a good workout today.

I made something interesting for lunch:

lunch10

It’s a tuna pancake!  It was supposed to be a tuna burger, but I think I needed more tuna.

  • 1 – 2.5 ounce can of tuna
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons of oat bran
  • lemon pepper seasoning

Mix together and spread into a heated frypan.  Cook a couple minutes on each side until golden brown.  I served it on top of a bed of greens with a bit of feta cheese.  It was interesting, I’ll say that.  I was going for a tuna burger, but I think I needed more tuna as I could not form this into patties.  And… the last of the fresh blueberries (other than the ones I froze).

Work, work, work, then dinner!  I got a late start on dinner because of doing some stat files.  I continued the egg theme to dinner.  I sauteed up some broccoli, then minced it really fine.  Beat 1 egg with 2 egg whites, added the broccoli and scrambled it up.  It made my eggs green Sam I am!  Topped with some Laughing Cow.  This was excellent.

dinner12

After a late night of work, John and I went out for coffee.  Decaf skim latte (the ‘why bother’ drink).  With a touch of honey and nutmeg.

latte

It’s finally supposed to be cooler tomorrow!  I have been wanted to make some biscotti, so maybe that will be my chance.

Question:  Do like tunes when you work out?

Bagel day!

It’s Sunday, so you know what breakfast was!  I finally got about 8 hours of sleep, which I really needed.  I have been getting daily headaches now for the past week, and today was the first day I haven’t woken up with one.  I am just feeling fatigued, though.  John asked me if I wanted to bike to bagels and after I thought for a while I agreed, although I probably should have just scootered it and let him bike.  I did not enjoy the ride.  Sunday is usually my rest day.

Anyhoo – 8.5 miles later and I was noshing on this:

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and drinking this:

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After some nice chit-chat, it was time to head home so I could get started with work.  We saw a friend while biking home!

deer

Usually I can’t get my camera out fast enough to take a picture, but she was not in any hurry to cross the canal.  She was out pretty late in the morning, kind of surprised to see her.

Busy at work today, which is good!  Have our new downstairs AC going (thanks Mom and Dad!), so it was quite comfortable.  I still wanted something cool for lunch and made a blueberry monster!

bluepower

  • 1 cup of blueberries
  • 1 packet of super greens
  • ice cubes
  • 1/4 cup yogurt
  • water
  • 1 scoop vanilla protein powder.

It was quite good and cool!  For crunch, I paired it with this:

pbar

Have any of you tried these?  Excellent!  I am in love, just when I was breaking my bar addiction. 😛

Here was dinner and my new veggie – 8-ball squash!  I’ll post the whole deal in a bit.  I also made an egg salad with extra egg whites.  That’s a first for me, as I am a real yolk lover and wasn’t sure if I would like it as much – but 1 yolk seemed to be enough.  I wanted the extra protein since I am so tired.

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I was so productive that I finished up work in 6.5 hours!  Yay!  I am done for the night, bummer there is no football on.

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for a giveaway!

Jury duty starts for me tomorrow and I am on call all week.  I have never done this before, so it should be interesting.  I can walk to the court building, which is good.

Check back later for my Great Veggie Experiment post!