Tag Archives: jogging

Da weekend and what’s blooming!

Yay!  It’s the weekend for me!  Still got up way too early.  I just cannot sleep in, no matter what time I go to bed.  Decided against the Y, since it was really nice out this morning.  Upper 50s, a little breezy and dry.  Perfect running weather.  I decided to go on a jog this morning and do 4 miles.  Finished in 42:35  – not too bad.  I must have been going a lot faster after the first mile.  First mile clocked in at 11:15, so somewhere in there I really picked up the pace.

Came home to some oat bran with the maple banana sauce and walnuts.  So good. We got a bunch of overripe nanners at the store earlier in the week, so we have been eating them up like crazy.

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Finally got to pick blueberries with my mom!  It was such a gorgeous day.  We kept commenting on how nice it was today.  Big bucket of blueberries:

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About 3 pounds worth.  Yummy.  Plus the pint I probably ate while picking 😀

Then we hit the smokehouse to stock up on meat.  We were hungry by this time, so we visited the MilkHouse Cafe in Argyle.  Tiny little place, very dinerish:

cafes

Typical greasy spoon menu, although breakfast looked pretty good (too bad they weren’t serving it at that time.

cafeI decided on a grilled cheese sandwich and some clam chowder.  The chowder was excellent!

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More garden blooms.

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This is really funny  – we carve pumpkins and then sort of compost them over the side of the porch into the garden bed.  Well – lo and behold, we now have some pumpkin vines coming up on the side of the house!  Not sure if the squirrels will eat these or if we will have pumpkins in a month or so.

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Allysum:

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This is what happens after the clematis blooms die.  Don’t these remind you of truffula trees (Lorax anyone?)

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Walkway – all of those black-eye Susans are self-sown. I didn’t plant a single one of them near the path!  I just left them because they looked pretty.  That is the great thing about gardening, there is always a surprise every year.

walkway

John is going away tomorrow morning (after we bike to breakfast!), so I might actually get some stuff done tomorrow around the house that really needs it.

Hope you all have a great weekend planned!

7-miler!

Well, I did my longest run to date!  7 miles!  Here is me early this morning with a protein drink prior to hitting the pavement. Cheers!

prerun

I am smiling way too cheerfully for so early in the morning, don’t you think??  I did cover up the hair with a hat, though.

I did a 3 mile loop which brought me back by the house where I grabbed the water bottle and snack I set on the porch and continued down to the high school track for the last 3.5 miles (counting the distance from home to track here).  I had dates with nut butter in a container.

datesI had one after mile 4.5, then I snarfed the rest right when I finished.   It took me 1:24 to do the 7 miles, with a couple water stops.  S…l…o…w…  I actually think I did a smidge more than 7, but who is counting, right?  I have found that jogging at 5 mph is the most comfortable pace for the distance runs.  Who cares if that is a slow pace?  I don’t get tired, I am not panting for breath and I have a good rhythm.  Yay me!

Took the best shower in the world when I got back home.  Usually I eat right when I get back in, but since I munched on some dates, I decided to desweat first 😀

Breakfast was oat bran with some of my yummy banana maple topping with coffee.  Sooooo good.

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We went grocery shopping last night and I got some more blueberries finally!  Tired of waiting for the weather and time to pick again (although I am going this Friday, darn it!).   Decided to make my yogurt and cereal with the blueberries.  It’s hot today!

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Today is John’s birthday.  He is now 41 – just like me!   Happy Birthday to my bestest bud!  Took him out this afternoon for a yogurt treat (although he got the real deal ice cream).  We rode the scooter there instead of biking.

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Birthday boy

I had frozen yogurt vanilla/chocolate twist and had some peanut butter sauce on it since I ran 7 miles LOL!  (Gotta justify, right?)

yogurt

And yes, it was every bit as delicious as it looks!

I am taking J out for dinner tonight and we are just about ready to leave the house.  We are going to the Irish Times in Saratoga.  I’ll post pics tomorrow.  Hope it is good!

Catch you all later!

6-miler and Crispy Fruit

Decided today would be the 6-mile run, as there is a 5K race Saturday morning so I wanted to space it far out from that.  John went with me, although just to do 3 miles around the track.  Fueled up with the english muffin/nut butter combo.  I wish I had let this digest a wee bit longer before heading out the door.

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I was going somewhat fast, my goal today was to finish in 1:10 or less for the 6 miles.  I did it in 1:07.  I finished 3 miles in 32 minutes, so I got slower in the last half (but some of that was for liquid breaks).  Overall pretty consistent, though. I brought along a coconut water to have after the first 3 miles.  Drank some at 3.5 miles, then 4.5 miles and 5.5 miles.  I was starting to feel a bit fatigued then, but a little voice actually told me to keep going after 6 miles – which I promptly kicked to the curb 😀

I wore my trisuit for this run.  I so love this outfit!  Yay!  I will wear it this weekend for the race.

I think I will make a decision on the 1/2 marathon once I get up to around 8  or 9 miles and see how that feels.

I won a drawing over at Annabel’s blog Feed Me I’m Cranky of some Crispy Greens dried fruit which arrived today (thanks Annabel!).

crispy

She also generously put in some Amazing Grass samples, so I will get to trying those soon as well.  I had to try the dehydrated pear:

pearIt looks like cubes of crusted white bread, doesn’t it?  Tasty though.  Not really crunchy like a dehydrated fruit that has oil on it.  40 calories for the whole bag.  Fun!

Another new  food item I tried today is this strawberry pluot I got at the store the other day:

plum1It is supposed to have a taste of strawberries, and it kind of does!  It is more tart than a plum, with a berry background.  Really yummy and super juicy.  Grocery stores are really stocking some of the most interesting things now!

I can’t even begin to say how much easier it has been to get my eating back on track after stopping the intense triathlon training.  The scale is starting to drift back down again, which makes me happy.  I think you really can hinder weight loss with a lot of exercise, which is why I really did not focus on weight loss while training (although I could have been more careful LOL).

Question:  Have you tried any new produce this year?

5 mile run and feuling for exercise

Got up today and decided on another 5 mile run (or jog, I guess… whatever).  I fueled up with a wheat english muffin, 1 half with PB and the other half with the last bit of almond butter.  This is toasted, but doesn’t look like it in the picture.

muff

So this is about 150 calories.  I found it to be good fuel for the run.  Not too much, but just enough to keep me energized.

I knocked some time off the last one!  I did the 5 miles in 57:15  (last time was 59:01).  Still not pushing it, but staying comfortable.  Yay – and it burned 600 calories!

I only fuel for longer workouts.  If I was only going for 3 miles, I would have just done that and come back and eaten breakfast.  During the week, I exercise first thing in the morning.  Now that I am done with the triathlon, I am settling into a less intense workout program, which is kind of nice!  When my workouts last longer than an hour, I fuel up before hand.  Except for running – anything over 3 miles gets morning fuel.

If I exercise later in the day, I do not fuel up as I have been eating all day prior to that.

While if you exercise on an empty stomach, your body will have to dive into its fat stores to gain energy, but this is wasteful (IMHO).  That makes the body work harder than it should just to get energy, let alone burn it – making your workout less effective and making you more tired.  Your muscles store about 300 calories of glycogen at any given time – which is your fuel for workouts).  That covers about 3 miles of jogging (100 calories per mile).  Anything over that and you should give your body some fuel to consume that is mostly simple digesting carbs with a bit of protein and fat so your body doesn’t “flash” through it with a glucose spike.

This is why carbs are really important in a diet when you exercise just as much as protein.

Great pre-workout snacks tested by me?

1/2 bagel with nut butter

Zone bars

english muffin with nut butter

cheese and crackers (if you can eat that in the moring.  I don’t like cheese when I first get up, although I could eat it for the rest of the day all day long).

Banana and nut butter

Stonyfield yogurt smoothie

I have found these fuels to be the optimum ones that give me energy without feeling full and not making me ravenous when I am done.

What are your workout fuels?

5 miler and 5 a day!

Had a goal to do a 5-mile run this morning.  Had some fuel of a toasted wheat english muffin with a couple tsp of almond butter.  Wish I could just blob the nut butter on there!

emuf

I then went to the track and hit a comfortable pace.  I lost speed when training for my triathlon because I stopped doing speed work.  I wanted to finish the 5 miles in under an hour, and I just made it!  59:01.   And I could have gone further, too. That is a shade under a 12 mile pace, which is about 2 minutes slower than my 5K pace.  I know this is horribly slow to a lot of people (not that I care LOL) But, I wasn’t pushing or anything, just going for distance.  I want to test longer runs before I commit to doing a 1/2 marathon.   At this rate, it would take me about 2.5 hours to do a 1/2.  Do I really want to run that long?? I definitely need some knee braces for the longer runs.  I do not want any injuries and I would rather be on the cautious side.

I was really hungry when I got back and made some pumpkin oats with protein powder:

oats4The oats steamed up my camera!

  • 40 grams oats
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin
  • 1/2 scoop protein powder (stirred in at end)
  • topped with a spoon of cranberry preserves (found at the local smokehouse!)

Glad I did the run early in the morning, because  a light rain has settled in for the day and has continued.

Lunch was so good!  I was craving something salty (think it was from sweating so much during the run).  So I decided to scramble 1 egg with egg whites and topped with feta cheese.  Served with a side of those FSTG sweet potato chips (yum!!) and a wonderful nectarine.

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I didn’t have any veggies for lunch and I really try to get at least the 5 a day recommended F&V per day.

For snack, I decided to have some fruit with my latte.  Going on the 2nd day without a protein bar!

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nana

Zipped through my work today!  Yay!  I was done by dinner time.  Decided to pile on the veggies – at least 2 servings of broccoli here, plus another turkey burger on a wheat pita.  Yum!

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Had a bit of a sweet craving, so nabbed one of John’s butterscotch candies!

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I’ll have another small snack later while watching the Tour!  It’s a hill day and should be exciting!

Fruit and veggie tally for the day:

Pumpkin, broccoli, banana, strawberries, nectarine.  A total of 6 servings.  And no cereal!!

Question: How many servings of fruits and veggies do you get in a day?

Brick and GoWear fit

Well, the weather wasn’t promising when I got up, but I decided to go for the brick anyway.  John actually decided to join me for the bike leg, which just about made my jaw fall on the floor.  He is usually sleeping when I get up and leave the house for the Y.

First, I fueled with this (half before the bike and half after the bike).

smoothie

We then biked for 6.7 miles in about 1/2 hour.  That was with a couple stoplights in there.  John went home and I continued to the school and ran 3.25 miles around the track.  It took about 37 minutes.  I am definitely slower after the bike, but that’s okay.  At least I ran the whole thing!

Here is what the brick looks like on my GoWear fit:

brickThen you can see me sitting on my butt working.

After watching Alton Brown last night and his blueberry episode, I knew what I wanted for brekkie.  Num!

cakes

I love this plate – just got it last week!

Lunch was the old standby:

lunch

For snacks, I had the same as yesterday, only the cinnamon chips were mixed with some dark chocolate ones.  The cinnamon chips are made by Hershey and you can find them in the baking aisle with the other chocolate chips.  They are good!

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For dinner I was in the mood for eggs  again (for the 3rd dinner in a row!).  I made a giant salad with some of the POM vinaigrette, hardboiled eggs, toasted pecans, and provolone cheese.  Kind of a chef salad without the meat.

salad

Today was the end of my work week!  Yay!   No work until Sunday.   Exciting girl that I am, I might go to the library tonight LOL!

10K and fueling

No weights this week (although I have to say that I look forward to starting them again next week!).  It was a beautiful morning, so I ran at home.  I tried a different pre run fuel:

newtons

Whole grain fig newtons! I haven’t had these in a while, but a training book recommended them as an easy preworkout snack.  Yum!  They were good in that they didn’t fill my stomach up, and I got some quick energy from them.  I then proceeded to jog for 6 miles again!  I think I am getting the hang of the longer runs.   I need to try one on a day where I have a full breakfast and then run an hour later (whenever I find the time!).

Came back to eat a bowl of oats cooked with a banana and cocoa powder, topped with some peanut butter that I made with cocoa powder.  Chocolately delicious breakfast!p6080003

I used a really ripe banana.  The store sells overripe bananas at a discount and I got a bunch of 8 for 59 cents!  I keep them in the freezer and pull them out for cooking.

There was also an awesome sale at the grocery store where bulk pine nuts were 99 cents a pound – regularly $19.99 a pound.  What a steal!  So we got a big bag of them and I incorporated them into my wrap:

Chicken with feta cheese, spring mix and the pine nuts.  It was tasty.

wrap

Long day of work today.  Sometimes it is very sad doing transcription.  There are so many people out there who ignore their doctor’s advice and pay the consequences.  Then they have to take so many medications, sometimes 10 or more in a single day!   I can’t imagine how they keep those straight.

I was in a fruity mood for dinner.  I used this tropical fruit mixture with pinapple, mango, papaya, strawberry protein powder and water.

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With baby carrots.  It was more like a lunch!

Question for you – do you purchase produce past it’s prime ever at a discount?

Spring Garden and Breakfast

Woke up a little early this morning.  I went out for a run and decided to do another 6 miles.  I ran one 5K loop back to the house, had 1/2 a balance bar and some water, which I left on the porch, then John joined me for the second 5k.  That was fun!  We then met my parent’s out for breakfast – they wanted to take me out for my birthday – thanks parentals!!  We went to Samantha’s Catering, which has really great prices and wonderful food.  I can’t believe that I ordered oatmeal LOL!  But it came with maple syrup and milk, plus a side of homemade wheat toast (carb overload, anyone?)

oats

My parents each got the french toast, which looked to die for.  Think John and I might come and split an order of this:

toast

Been a nice day today.  I got a chance to spend a good amount of time cleaning up my garden bed.  It looks quite good for late spring!  We have had rain and it is nice and green.   Unfortunately, we have almost no free dirt to garden in.  The back of our house has a large workshop and garage on it, so I am limited to the front of the house and a wee bit on the side.

Here is the front.  When they did road work and laid new water and gas lines, they tore up all the front yards, almost right up to my garden, so the lawn looks pretty sorry now, but it is getting better:

front

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Some close ups of my roses:

This is High Society climber that is pretty short right now:

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This is Sunsprite – and I will talk more about this rose in a couple weeks, it has very special significance (teaser!)

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This is a Knockout Shrub – you can see it is the biggest in the picture and blooms like a son of a gun all summer. Not too fragrant though.

knockout

Here was an earlier picture from May with my black and white tulips:tulips

It’s latte time!  We are going to a New Orleans inspired place for dinner called Bistro Talullah.  Yum!  Good thing I ran 6 miles today, right?

10K!!

I was going to go to the Y this morning, but since I wasn’t swimming, and I am lifting weights tomorrow (only 2 lifting workouts this week), I decided not to waste the gas driving to the Y to run.  It certainly was nice enough this morning to head outside.  I fueled up with half a Balance bar (approx 100 calories) and then proceeded to run 6 miles  (I like the sound of 10K better, though)!!   Took me about an hour and 15 minutes. We used Map My Walk to plan out several different 5K loops from our house,  so I did one of them, and then did a second one.  I definitely can go further than that, which is kind of exciting!  I would for sure need to refuel after 6 miles along with a big water stop to keep going.  You know, I commented on my chubby thighs yesterday, but  they are quite muscular and can certainly do a lot for me, so thank you thighs!

I need to just take a day and see how far I can go.  My knees were complaining a little bit towards the end.  I was diagnosed with chondromalacia patella back in college (dare I say 20 years ago??), and my knees sound like rice krispies when I flex them (which I do to bug John sometimes, stinker that I am) – but they really are never very painful.  I might think about some braces or wraps for longer runs just to be on the safe side and prevent injury.

Not to mention the bonus of burning over 700 calories with that run, after which I had this!

bagel

Anyone who has read my blog a lot knows I loves me some bagels!  I actually had someone comment once that I wouldn’t lose weight eating bagels.  Guess they should have told me that 100+ pounds ago…..

I am just enjoying those post run endorphins now!