stir fry sunday

I just got back from London. In a little bit I’ll blog about the running and eating I did over there. But first, let me tell you a story about the simplest meal ever. My dinner repertoire, not so good. Actually, it’s the routine cooking that I’m not so good at. Give me a recipe and a plan and usually I can make do. I was once a daring baker, you know. So, this one day,  I decide to make dinner, and I decide to do stir fry. Only this time, I decide to use beef instead of chicken. I decide to use frozen vegetables instead of fresh. I decide to cook brown rice instead of white. Any one of these changes might be a doable change. But if you take all three, and you take ME, well you are signing yourself up for disaster, which I did. It was the first time I ever made stir fry, something I’ve been doing since birth, or at least should be in my blood, where it ended up inedible. Let me say. I was humilated. Or just quietly ashamed.

A couple of weeks ago (before London), I decided it was redemption time. I went for tofu. Fresh vegetables. And knowing this is a brown-rice mostly household, I opted for udon noodles instead of rice.

And I came out the victor. Oh, thank goodness.

Let me add, that stir fry had some mighty crisp vegetables. It’s something you can never, ever get from that frozen crap, I don’t care how preciously organic it is.

Never. Again.

crossfit

If you haven’t noticed by the lack of posts, I’ve been somewhat lost since finishing the half-marathon. Training went great. Race was great. But as soon as I finished I was pretty much finished with running. In July I saw myself running less and less, almost as a last resort activity, and by August I was pretty much done with it.

A new Crossfit gym opened up a few blocks up the street from us earlier this year and I walk by it every day on the way home from work. So today I went in for a trial class.Today the class did what they call the “Filthy Fifty”. Teacher modified it for me since I was new and not experienced (though I had done a bunch of the exercises listed, I still count as inexperienced). It was something like this …

  • 15 box jumps
  • 15 jumping pull-ups
  • 15 walking lunges
  • 15 kettlebell swings
  • 15 knee elbows
  • 15 push press
  • 15 good mornings
  • 15 wall balls
  • 15 burpees
  • 45 down-unders (basically jump-roping)

So … I liked it. The people doing it were nice. The husband mentioned that he often sees a class running around the neighborhood (apparently one workout includes running up and down the hill). He mentioned the people he saw weren’t all that fit, but I don’t know what class that is because everyone in our morning class seemed in pretty good shape.

It’s not cheap, but if it is fun and gives me a good workout and I’m close to home and not a huge commitment, I see a lot of good reasons to try it out (it starts with an “Essentials” class and then you move into the big leagues). I’ll still need to figure out what to do the other days of the week, and if it even fits in my schedule. Hm… wheels are turning.

Teacher said I’d probably be sore today. Well, I was sore when I walked into the gym from my workout yesterday, so this should be double the fun.

When life gives you blueberries …

… Make Blueberry coffee cake.

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This recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com, New England Blueberry Coffee Cake. I chose it a) because it has ‘New England’ in the title and 2) far less sugar than many of the other muffin and coffee cake and crumble recipes. Should I find myself with many pints of blueberries in the future I will surely make this again. The crumbly topping was a tad more sweet than I like. I can deal with it now and will readjust for next time. The toddler liked and the husband liked and that’s all that really matters.

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Really tasty. I’ve been on an uber sweet kick lately. Terrible for my waistline. But oh so tasty.

P.S. am I the only who noticed that I stopped journaling the day I ran my race? Got to get back on that. But, July, you have been most enjoyable.

race! 6.23

Time: 7:30am
Where: Seattle
Workout: 13.1 Miles, my friends!
Notes and observations: I will probably write something longer about this later on, but if I don’t … this race was really great. I had a great training plan and felt really good when I finished Some memorable sights:

  • Watching two blind runners and their guides
  • Cheering on the marathon leader as he smoked us around mile 10
  • The number of weirdos texting and taking pics of themselves while running. I was like, really? put the friggin phone down!
  • Just the amount of people. like 22,000 of them. just wow.
  • The Mariners employees who held huge pictures of Ichiro & Felix outside of Safeco Field
  • While on the viaduct, I saw a ferris wheel on one of the piers. When did Seattle get a Ferris Wheel?

In all, a really great run and a nice course. A few unexpected hills (specifically one that popped up as you turned a corner in mile 5. But I never stopped. Such a difference over the last time I did the half-marathon 8 years ago.

My stats:

  • Overall: 3798 out of 14089
  • Division: 333 out of 1618
  • Gender: 1728 out of 9470
  • 5K:
  • 10 Km – 59:20
  • 10 Mi – 1:35:38
  • Pace – 9:35
  • Chip Time – 02:05:36
  • Clock Time – 02:38:14

Do you see that 9:35. I surpassed my goal of a 10:00 and even beat my reforecasted goal of 9:40. Sweet.

So. Now what’s coming up next? A bit of a breather from the running (though I plan to continue running, not as much as I had been while training for this.). I’m thinking of paying attention to my neglected bike for a few months while the weather is nice. I need to focus a bit more on the strength training, which sadly was dropped as my mileage increased. That is all.

Music: In addition to the plethora of local garage bands playing the route, Foo Fighters, of course. Somehow all of my favorite songs were shuffled to the first few miles of the race. It was nice to have that in my back pocket, figuratively and literally.

Run 6.21

Time: before work
Where: DT Bellevue Park.
Workout: 3.5 miles, 1′ on, 1’30” off x 8. Last run before race day!
Notes and observations: great weather! I wish Saturdays forecast could be as pleasant. Still feeling good. Trying to avoid the crud that’s been going around the office.
Music: the killers, hot fuss, for old times sake.

Run 6.19

Time: before work
Where: Bellevue
Workout: 3.5 miles, rolling hills
Notes and observations: I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. No blisters. No weird aches and pains. No huge struggles uphill. And I’ve most definitely just jinxed myself. One more run to go before race day. I’m contemplating what my next fitness goal will be. Cross fit, maybe. Not training for a marathon, that’s for sure.
Music: Fun.

Run 6.17

Time: 7:30a
Where: Burke-Gilman trail headed towards Wallingford & back
Workout: 8 miles LSD
Notes and observations: I like this thing they call tapering. A nice run, maintaining a decent pace for most of it. I learned that the Gu station on the course is at 7.8 miles so this was a good test to see how I felt at the eight-mile mark. I had been going off the after 50 minutes of activity benchmark, but I felt pretty good. Forecast calling for 60s.
Mile 1: 9.14
2: 10.01
3: 9.24
4: 9.30
5: 9.45
6: 9.32
7: 9.14
8: 9.14
Music: my “gym” playlist. Lots of randome stuff but I recall hearing a lot of Abba.

Run 6.15

Time: Before work
Where: around Bellevue
Workout: 4.5miles
Notes and observations: good hills, good weather, a nice break from a somewhat stressful work week. 45:36.11. Funny, sometime ago I had high hopes of doing a 9:30 pace or better but latly I’m eking through at 10 and I’m ok with that.
Music: Fun.

Run 6.12

Time: Before work
Where: gym treadmill
Workout: 5K
Notes and observations: not what I planned, but what I ended up with. Treadmill running is hard to get back into. The first mile was really a pain and many times I considered quitting. Then a song came on where I stopped and tried to focus on that song, and was then able to bring the focus back and at least complete the three miles.
Music: the airborne toxic event

Run 6.10

Time: 7:30 am
Where: Bryant to Green Lake and back via Roosevelt / Ravenna.
Workout: 10 miles LSD
Notes and observations: 1:41 … Good hills route, and I ran them all. The gel is still feeling iffy but I have no choice but to power through it.
Music: Foo Fighters! Yeah.