Hollis Fast 5k

Last night I ran the Hollis Fast 5k with Gina, Callie and Dan. Its called "fast" because the course drops 224 feet from start to finish - definitely more enjoyable than some of the super hilly races I've ran in the past! Yesterday's weather was all over the place. The morning started out a little cool and overcast, but by noon it was over 95 degrees outside and extremely humid. I'd heard reports of possible thunderstorms that evening/night, but didn't see any signs of them as I drove from Boston to Hollis, New Hampshire for the race. Pat called to inform me that the sky was black and it was pouring rain, and practically begged calmly advised me not to run.

Then Gina called to say that there was lightening everywhere she looked. Still nothing where I was.

A few minutes later, this started.

I looked at the thermometer in my car - it had dropped from 95 degrees to 70 in the past hour. Then the lightening started. I saw what Gina was talking about - it was the type of lightening that looks like its connected to the ground and the sky - it seemed like it was surrounding the highway. Beautiful night for a run!

By the time I got to Gina's house the rain had mostly passed, and we only saw lightening a handful of times on the drive to the race. They pushed back the start of the race by 15 minutes ("to be sure that the storm has passed") and then we were off. Though advertised as a downhill course (and there were a few noticeable declines) the race felt mostly flat. And even though it was 68 degrees at the start of the race, it was extremely muggy and felt like it was over 90 degrees.

There was a little banquet at the end with pretzels, apples, yogurt and TONS of cookies (most of which were homemade, which was cool). I loved running through Hollis - its the town next to Nashua, but feels like its way out in the country. The roads are very open, houses are spread far apart, and farms sprinkle the neighborhoods. I told Pat if we end up living in New Hampshire I'd want to live here!

I didn't have any pockets for my camera or phone, so this is the only shot I got.

I finished the 5k in 24:24, so a pace of 7:53. I'm not sure what my fastest 5k is, but its not really one of my best races. I tend to prefer distance, since I can steadily run for a longer period of time better than I can sprint. It would be helpful to warm up before shorter races, but I'm usually too lazy to do that!

On a different note, I'd like to apologize for my lack of posts recently. I'd been on a pretty good streak of posting several times throughout the week (weekends are my vacation from computers) but lately I haven't been keeping up. Spring and summer is a busy time - between the high school and college graduations (and parties), bridal and baby showers, bachelorette parties, and weddings, its hard to fit in a full-time job, let alone other activities (like sunbathing, which I am in desperate need of!). I love blogging and following other people's blogs, but its a hobby, not my job. So as much as I'd like to be blogging more, I've been cooking and baking less, and have had less time to write about cooking, baking, running and other random things I like to tell you about. So please bare with me, I'll try to be better about posting more frequently, in between the weddings, showers, and hopefully some trips to the beach!

I've deviated from my usual oatmeal breakfast recently, and the past two mornings I've made myself a"to-go omelette" which have been a delicious change of pace! 

Heat a small skillet on medium. Cover skillet with cooking spray and add 3 egg whites. Once the whites have just started to cook (under a minute) add some thinly chopped bell pepper. 

Top with a couple handfuls of baby spinach, and cover the skillet. Allow eggs to finish cooking and spinach to wilt (3-5 minutes).

Fold in half, remove from pan, and stuff inside half of a pita pocket (or put on a piece of toast). My mom bought me these pitas from a local Armenian grocer and they're super soft and fresh.

To-Go Omelette!

These are perfect to bring with me as I run out the door in the morning!

And I even brought a side dish, tucked neatly into my cup holder.

Frozen watermelon!

My sister was telling me the other day about freezing her cantaloupe, so I tried freezing cantaloupe and watermelon. I love frozen fruit in the summer, my previous favorites have been frozen mango and frozen bananas. In my opinion, the frozen watermelon was better than the cantaloupe (but both are good) - the fruit is watery, so it is very similar to an Italian ice. So refreshing!

Panko and Parmesan Crusted Tofu

The past few days have been gloriously hot. Some may say sticky, sweaty and humid, but I have been loving every second of it. Last night I ended my salad streak and cooked dinner. It was so hot that I really should not have turned the oven on, but I had tofu in the fridge that was begging to be eaten. While the tofu baked in the oven and the artichokes steamed on the stove, Pat and I went for a walk to escape the heat, and then Pat installed the first air conditioner of the season. I usually try to hold off as long as possible (since once they're in Pat cranks them every night) but last night it was unavoidable.

I sliced the block of tofu into nine pieces and pressed them in between several layers of paper towels, then covered in a cutting board and cast iron pan. After about an hour of being pressed (to get the extra moisture out) I got to work.

Turn the oven to 375 degrees, then prepare bowls of egg white and panko crumbs with Parmesan cheese (please freshly grate your cheese for this - it makes a huge difference).

Cover a cookie sheet with tin foil (if you're lazy like I am and want to minimize dishes). Take each piece of tofu, first submerging it in the egg white, and then dredging it through the panko/parm mixture (pat it in to make sure the pieces are fully covered). Repeat with all pieces of tofu.

Then cook for about 30-45 minutes, until the tofu is golden brown. I didn't even flip the tofu because we went out for a walk - it turns out that it didn't need it, so don't bother!

I forgot to take a picture before cooking, but this is about 10 minutes in.

The kitchen will smell amazing as this cooks, and then your finished product will look something like this:

It will smell so good and look so good that even tofu critics will praise you (although Pat didn't go so far as to eat it, he kept saying how great it smelled and how he wished he liked tofu so he could eat it. Ha.).

Top with your favorite marinara sauce and more shredded cheese, and you have a delicious dinner!

After I took this out of the oven I realized that it would have been even better if I'd added the sauce and extra cheese for the last 5 minutes of bake time to heat it up and get the cheese really melty. If you make this, you should do that!

Panko and Parmesan Crusted Tofu

Serves about 3

Ingredients

• 1 block firm or extra-firm tofu
• approx 2/3 cup panko bread crumbs
• approx 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (or Romano would be great, too)
• 1 egg white
• marinara sauce and extra cheese for topping

Directions

1. Slice tofu block into 9 pieces of equal thickness. Layer several paper towels on the counter, arrange tofu pieces in a single layer, and then layer several more paper towels on top. Cover with heavy objects (such as a cutting board and cast iron skillet, or cook books) and let press for at least 45 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3. Measure panko and parm into a small bowl. Toss to combine.
4. Set up another small bowl with your egg white.
5. Submerge tofu in egg white until covered, then dredge through the panko/parm mixture (patting crumbs in to ensure that tofu is completely covered). Repeat with all tofu and place on a cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 30-45 minutes until golden brown. Add marinara sauce and additional shredded cheese and baked for a few more minutes, until hot and melty.

In the winter I'd probably have this tofu with a steaming bowl of pasta, but since it was so hot last night and I didn't want a really heavy meal, I had a steamed artichoke instead (steamed artichokes are the perfect accompaniment to any meal!).

 

This tofu was delicious - crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It had the texture of being fried, but was baked (panko breadcrumbs help this because they're much crunchier than regular breadcrumbs). The baked cheese was delicious on the tofu - Pat said he wished I made him a chicken version of this meal! I will definitely make this again - it was so easy and requires very little work/ingredients.

Salad Fever

Guess what? The sun finally came out! After over a week of non-stop rain and temps in the 40s, its finally starting to act a little like spring. When its cold and rainy all I crave is hot meals (usually covered in some kind of cheese)...and when its hot I constantly want salads. After a hot and humid run last night the only thing I wanted was a big salad.

Organic baby spinach, orange wedges, red bell peppers, boiled beets (hot, I don't really care for them cold), goat cheese, and toasted walnuts, drizzled with some balsamic vinaigrette. Toasting walnuts is easy, just bake them for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees - it really brings out the flavor a lot more.

With my salad I had some tofu. And some popcorn. Yes, I'm random.

I woke up to another warm day today, and after running and going to the gym I wanted another salad. I had salad for breakfast a few weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it. I guess I didn't stick with it because it takes a lot longer to prepare a salad in the morning than a quick bowl of oatmeal or a smoothie. Since I work from home on Wednesdays, I had time to make myself a big breakfast salad. 

Organic baby spinach, red bell peppers, and avocado. I squeezed some fresh lemon on top, sprinkled with cayenne pepper for a kick, and topped with some scrambled egg whites. I had a bowl of mango on the side and a glass of skim milk for extra protein.

Some of my friends have told me its weird that I like salad for breakfast. I would have said the same thing, too. Give it a try and then let me know if you still think its weird! It is very satisfying to fill up on something other than carbs (and this is coming from the carb queen) and it gives me more energy throughout the day.

Its been one week since I started my 30 day challenge (to run at least one mile per day). Here's how I've done so far:

Day 1 - 3 mile run; Bikram yoga class

Day 2 - 3 mile run; Bikram yoga class

Day 3 - 2.25 mile run

Day 4 - 3 mile run

Day 5 - 1 mile run

Day 6 - 1 mile run

Day 7 - 5 mile run; abs and legs strength training

Day 8 (today) - 2.6 mile run, back and bis strength training

As you can see, a few of those days I only ran the minimum 1 mile. Those were super busy days that I normally would not have done anything. My excuse would always be that I didn't have time, or that doing something as short as just one mile wouldn't make any difference. Since following this challenge, I've found a way to squeeze in a mile even in my busiest days, whether waking up a little early to get it done or quickly doing it when I got home late at night. Those mornings that I forced myself out of bed at 5am to fit in a quick mile were some of the best mornings - I love working out early in the day because it gives me such a boost of energy. If I didn't have to leave before 6am for work, I'd definitely do all of my work outs in the morning. 

I printed out a free calendar template I found online and have been marking down my mileage. Its a good way to keep track of what I've done and motivate myself to keep going. Even better is that I've heard from a few of my friends who are doing the challenge, too! I'm glad that other people are participating, and I think talking to each other about it helps keep us on track. If you can't run the miles, choose something else. My friend Chrissy has several injuries left over from college basketball, so running can be uncomfortable for her, but she's decided to do the challenge by biking and other forms of cross training! 

In terms of my other challenge, the 100 push ups challenge, that was a little bit later in getting off the ground. I actually just started it this morning. I did the initial test to see how many push ups I could do (to see where my training should begin) and I did 12. Not on my knees, either! I contemplated first doing this challenge with knee push ups and then doing it with standard push ups, but decided to try the real deal. I'm sure I'll be regretting this in a few days.

Anyone else want to join us in the 30 day challenge?

What are your favorite foods of summer?

Mine are salads and tons of fresh fruit. Oh and ice cream, that's pretty important, too!

Changing Things Up

This week I've changed things up a bit. Instead of oatmeal for breakfast every day and salad for lunch or dinner, I decided that a switch was in order. So every day this week I've had salad for breakfast! I know it sounds strange, but I've done this before, and it is really a great start to the day. I was originally inspired to do this when listening to the audio book of Born to Run on my way to Charlottesville. One of the chapters talked a lot about nutrition, and the author was advised to eat a large salad for breakfast. He wrote, "because a monster salad is loaded with nutrient-rich carbs and low in fat, I could stuff myself and not feel hungry-or queasy- when it came time to work out. Plus, greens are packed with water, so they're great for rehydrating after a night's sleep."

This morning's salad was made with organic baby spinach, 1/2 red bell pepper, organic broccoli slaw,  organic baby carrots, 1/3 baked sweet potato, several strawberries, and some hard boiled egg whites.

After eating it I felt so much more awake and full of energy. They say that you're supposed to "eat the rainbow" so this was certainly a good way to start off my day! I've been doing the breakfast salads for three days so far and they are surprisingly more satisfying that a big bowl of oatmeal. I've just had one embarrassing encounter since I started - yesterday morning I had my half-eaten salad on my desk when someone from another department in the hospital came to my office for a meeting  (at 9am). He looked over and said "are you eating a salad?!" so I explained that I'm changing it up a bit. Then my office mate poked her head over the file cabinet and said "I thought I saw you eating salad yesterday morning!" Both of them were not convinced when I explained how good it was, but the man I was meeting with did say that he might "change it up" and have steak and potatoes for breakfast the next day. Not exactly my point, but that's okay.

I was really bad on Sunday and didn't foam roll or ice bath after the half marathon. In fact, I barely stretched. Sometimes I just get caught up in the excitement after a race and forgot! I was a little sore on Monday, but not too bad. I wanted to go to Bikram, but then looked at my bank account and realized that my rent for May had just come out and I have 3 bridal showers in the next 2 weeks, and Mother's Day coming up this weekend. So I think I'll need to wait until next week to cough up the money for Bikram. I also might have blacked out for a few minutes on my way home from work on Monday and when I came to there was a lovely shopping bag with two new pairs of shoes in it sitting beside me. Whoops. So yeah, no Bikram for me this week! Do you like my new shoes? I got some closed toe flats for work (we can only wear closed toe shoes which I think is so sad) and some new strappy wedges:

p.s. Pat doesn't know about these new shoes. We'll just keep it our little secret! I don't know how bad he'll feel for me when I say that my bank account is near empty if I've just gone shoe shopping. But trust me - one pair was on sale and I had a coupon so I got an amazing deal!

So without Bikram, Monday became a rest day for me.

On Tuesday I went to the gym and biked for a quick 35 minutes. My right knee was bothering me so I iced it a few times throughout the day.

On Wednesday I made a little more of an effort. Still no running (I like to stay away from running for at least a few days after a long race) but I did get in some more cardio and finally got back to some weights:

• 22 minutes of hills on stationary bike

• back and biceps weight training (I started with 2 sets of 15 reps of everything since its been a few weeks)

• 22 minutes on elliptical

• went through my abs circuit twice (6 different exercises in the circuit)

• 22 minutes of hill walking on treadmill

*20 minutes + 2 minutes cool down of each = 22 minutes (and my favorite number)

I have some exciting news! Well exciting for me, and I guess anyone who lives near a Great Harvest Bread Company (because maybe this will inspire you to purchase some of your own). A Great Harvest was just opened in Nashua, which I was very excited about. I'd sampled the Cinnamon Chip bread after the Charlottesville Half Marathon and have been thinking about it ever since. Today I finally got into the Nashua branch to buy myself a loaf of Cinnamon Chip bread... and they were out! Except for the three loaves I spotted on their bread shelves, but those were reserved. "Really? Are you sure?" I pleaded. The owner, Jeremy, said that two of the loaves were being picked up tonight, but the third was being picked up tomorrow morning. He said that he wasn't planning on making a batch of Cinnamon Chip bread tomorrow, but that he would so that I could have this last loaf of bread. I couldn't believe my luck!

When I got home I saw this on Facebook. I love these guys already!

I've been telling Pat about this bread, so I know he'll be excited to finally try it (and to shut me up) and Kathryn is flying up tomorrow so I can share some with her!

I did make the mistake of having a slice...and then another...

This bread is moist, chewy, light, perfectly cinnamony (yes that is a word) - its bread that requires no butter because it just perfect on its own. I may even go so far as to say that its the most dangerous bread I've ever had. Saving some for Pat and Kathryn is going to require amazing amounts of willpower. I hope I can do it.

What's your favorite breakfast food?

What takes priority when you're low on cash? New shoes or some other treat?
*Mom before you get mad - I've already paid all of my student loans and credit card bills this month and I promise that I got really good deals on both pairs of shoes! :)

Easter

 

Easter this year was really wonderful. Instead of rushing from house to house and fitting in as many relatives as possible, I relaxed. Don't get me wrong - I love to see my family and don't think its a holiday without them, but sometimes having a low key celebration is just perfect. This year it was. On Saturday night my brother, his girlfriend and I went to my dad's house for an Easter dinner and then went to the Easter Vigil. At our church, the Easter Vigil always begins outside and we gather around a fire as the priest says prayers and we all light our candles. Does every church do this? It just occurred to me that I've never been to an Easter Vigil anywhere else. My dad has been in charge of building a fire in the large basin every year since I can remember, and this year my brother helped him, too. Its really nice that they worked on something that is such a special part of the ceremony. 

On Sunday morning I slept in, finally dragging myself out of bed when I heard my mom blow drying her hair. It was really nice to get a full eight hours of sleep - that doesn't happen often! We had some tea and toast together as we prepared brunch. I made strawberry peach scones and my mom made bacon and her famous scrambled eggs (she holds the title for best scrambled-egg maker). 

I based these scones on Jenna's recipe for whole grain strawberry pop tart scones (but added peaches and made a few other minor adjustments). For my second time making scones, these came out really well - I think they tasted great - and Pat loved them, which is a big deal coming from a former scone-hater. The batter was very wet and a little bit hard to work with (I had to bake a large circle for 15 minutes before I could cut them into pieces and then bake more) so I'm going to make another attempt at them this week and see if I can get the recipe to work a little bit better. I will certainly post about them if I'm successful!

A little while later Jim and Kristi joined us, and we all enjoyed our Easter brunch.

I was conservative with the bacon and didn't finish my eggs because after brunch I needed to go for a long run. My next half marathon is this Sunday, so I needed to get in one long run before then - the last long run I did was the C-Ville Half Marathon. 

After letting breakfast settle for a bit I headed out into the beautiful sunshine. The day before had been very cold and rainy, but Easter was gorgeous - sunny and in the mid-70s! Just being outside felt wonderful. I didn't have any GU or other running supplements with me so I brought a small bag of jelly beans to keep my sugar levels up. I think the Easter Bunny would have approved.

Its been years since I did a long run in my hometown and really explored on foot, and as the miles passed, I realized that I was having a great time. I've been bogged down by sore muscles and heavy legs in the past few weeks, so I'd almost forgotten what it was like to run and not be counting the minutes until I could stop. I can honestly say that I loved every minute of my run! 

Some highlights of my run (roughly in order of appearance):

• Spring flowers in bloom everywhere I looked (I especially love crocuses, daffodils and tulips).
• Running by my old middle school.
• Katie's old house that is so full of memories. From 5th grade through senior year of high school, I probably spent half of my time at her house.
• South Bridge Boat House - my dad loves coming here to rent canoes and boat down the river.
• Running through the center of town, past all of the familiar (and new) shops and restaurants.
• Seeing the Sunday morning bike crew gathered in the town square, refueling and chatting together.
• The Old North Bridge - which now has bathrooms and water fountains (very exciting when you don't pack water on a long run in the heat!)
• An SUV full of guys hanging out the windows yelling "HEY-O!! Happy Easter!" (I think they may have had a few mimosas at their Easter brunch).
• Hutchin's Farm - the organic farm I worked at in high school and one summer of college. The fields are even more beautiful than I remember and I immediately wished I could run through them and look at all of the baby produce being planted (but decided to restrain myself - running into your old boss after 8 miles of running isn't the best way to reacquaint yourself). I mostly worked in the farm stand, but one summer I planted and picked berries - that was a long, hot summer.
• Church-goers in their Sunday best, leaving church and enjoying the sunny day.
• Running past my old elementary school, which was recently rebuilt and is the first green building in Concord (the high school is being worked on next).
• On my cool-down walk I ran into some neighbors that live a few doors down from my mom and had a chance to catch up with them.

I'd planned a ten mile run but ended up doing eleven miles. I felt great throughout the whole run, and didn't feel tired at all when I finished, I felt refreshed! Why can't every run be like this?

I ran at a comfortable pace the entire time and only pushed myself to go faster at the end. My finishing time was 1:42:54, which is a pace of 9:19.

After my run my mom and I sat down to have a snack and chat. I started with another scone and some hard boiled Easter eggs.

Over the course of the afternoon we talked and munched on other treats - fresh fruits and veggies and Easter candy. The day was wonderful - it was so nice to sit and talk with my mom and just relax.

Now I hope we can get some more of that warm weather to carry us until summer! I'm done with cold and rainy days!

Sweets and Sweats

Let's start out with the sweats, shall we? On Friday I told you all about my first two Bikram classes. I loved them and couldn't wait to do more. I made it home in time on Friday afternoon to hit the 4:30pm class, but this one didn't go quite as well. I thought that since I saw so many people wearing just little shorts and sports bras that I should try that, too (instead of capri spandex and a t-shirt or tank top) so that's what I did. I wore a pair of running shorts and a sports bra. This was bad for a couple reasons. First of all, running shorts aren't really ideal for hot yoga. The material isn't stretchy and isn't absorbent - it just got wet and clung to me. Halfway through class I started getting nervous that I would lean too far into a pose and my shorts would split, revealing my super classy pink tie-dye undies from Vicki's. Luckily that didn't happen, but the fear of flashing an entire room of strangers kind of ruined the peaceful mindset I was looking for. The second problem was that with so little clothing, my sweat had nowhere to go but to run down my body and drip even more (instead of being mostly soaked up by my capris and t-shirt). Everything was slippery and I actually felt hotter with less clothing on. On top of that, all I had was a water bottle full of warm water because I didn't have time to fill it with ice before class. This combination of things did not add up to the best experience ever. Shorts and sports bras might work for some people, but I quickly found out that I prefer spandex and shirts. 

After class I made myself a big salad to curb my hunger until Pat came home (incidentally, dinner ended up being a second round of salads). I find that after class I'm craving fresh fruits and veggies more than anything else.

Very green and orange salad!

My salad was a bed of organic baby spinach, some organic baby carrots, avocado, and a segmented orange. After segmenting the orange, I squeezed the "skeleton" (not sure what the stuff that's left over after the pieces have been cut out is called) to have fresh orange juice as my dressing, then dusted it with some ground pepper and sea salt. Delicious!

I didn't do another Bikram class on Saturday because I had my last "long" run before the half marathon next Saturday. It wasn't really very long, I just ran 8 miles because I'm tapering down this week. I wasn't terribly happy with how the run went. The first couple miles felt good, but then I slowed down and my legs felt tight and heavy as lead. I'm thinking that this is because I did three days in a row of Bikram and my body isn't used to the extreme stretching or poses. I finished my 8 miles with an average pace of 9:00 minute miles. Not the pace I'm hoping for at the race next weekend, so we'll see how this week goes. I'm going to do a couple short runs (2-4 miles each) throughout the week and rest on Friday.

The rest of Saturday was spent running a bunch of errands with Pat. I brought my car to the shop to have some last minute check ups done before my road trip to Charlottesville on Wednesday. We bought a new GPS, since Pat's was stolen. I borrowed a couple audio books from the library to listen to on my trip. We did all of the grocery shopping, went out for ice cream cones, and even fit in a couple episodes of Mad Men. On Saturday night we met up with some friends to go bowling. I hadn't been bowling in forever - it was a lot of fun!

On Sunday morning I went to my fourth Bikram class. The alarm went off at 6:45 and I surprised myself by easily rolling out of bed and heading out the door. Class went from 7:30-9:00 and was the best yet. I was wearing the right clothes, had a big bottle of ice water, and enjoyed a pomegranate popsicle on the way home.

The Bikram studio in Nashua has a freezer full of many different flavors of Edy's Fruit Bars which is such a great way to end class. When I got home I made myself some breakfast:

Egg whites with spinach on whole wheat toast (with some melted light Swiss cheese on half), drizzled with Sriracha hot sauce, and a side of cantaloupe.

I've heard from some friends and some blog friends that they're afraid to try Bikram. I was really nervous about going and waited until I had a friend to go with because I was convinced that I'd find a way to embarrass myself the first class. I've only been four times at this point, so I'm still quite a beginner, but I urge anyone who's interested to give it a try (even if you don't have a friend to go with you!). All of the instructors have been really welcoming and put absolutely no pressure on you to do anything aside sit there and breath. I thought I'd be too hot, class was too long, and I'd look stupid next to everyone else. You actually get used to the heat (once you've found the clothes that work for you), class goes by pretty quickly, and you'll see that there are people of every level in the room with you, so it isn't at all intimidating.  I'm so glad I finally went!

Bikram? 

Speaking of lots of baking...I made about 175 cookies, 25 cupcakes, and platters of cheese, crackers and grapes for the get together on Sunday night. I didn't remember to take any pictures of the cookies, aside from this delicious picture of one of the doughs:

Cookie dough with butterscotch chips and white chocolate chips

I made two types of cookies (although basically the same idea): chocolate chip and butterscotch/white chocolate chip. I used the Chewy Chocolate Chip recipe from a few months ago - I wanted to try a new recipe but Pat insisted that I make these (they're his favorite).

I cheated for the cupcakes. Rather than baking from scratch I tried Paula Deen's mix for white cake. I was surprised that it didn't call for a few sticks of butter, and even more surprised when I saw that just 2 tablespoons of oil was needed and she suggested egg whites instead of full eggs. For the frosting I used a can of store-bought vanilla, and jazzed it up with some color and added sugar to make my favorite CRUNCHY SUGAR frosting! Yum! All you need is:

Sugar In The Raw, Frosting, Food Coloring

I learned this from my friend Krissy. All you do is add Sugar In The Raw to frosting and it creates a crunchy, sugary frosting that makes ordinary cupcakes a lot more fun.

This looked more violet than blue in person. Just cover your cupcakes in frosting, and if you want, add some sprinkles on top.

These are delicious!

I wish I'd taken pictures of the full display of cupcakes and cookies, but it was barely set up before dozens of hands began reaching in for the goods.

Its very cold and rainy outside now, and I'm trying to convince myself to get outside for a 4 mile run. Doesn't sound too tempting at all.

What are your favorite kind of cupcakes?

My favorites are carrot cake, coconut, and white cake with crunchy sugar frosting!

Tea and Crumpets (and a 12 miler)

Once again Trader Joe's has outdone itself. I stopped there on the way home last night to pick up some essentials, and came across these babies:

Cinnamon crumpets! I'm not sure if these are a new item or not, but I'd never seen them before and snatched them up. This morning I threw a crumpet in the stove for a few minutes and topped it with crunchy almond butter and banana slices. Yum! Great way to fuel for my run. I had a big mug of Irish Breakfast tea on the side to wake myself up a bit.

I set out for my 12 miler, expecting it to be in the mid-30s but it was only 24 degrees! The first few miles were a little chilly! I picked a new route to run - I've found that if I run the same route too many times I get bored and don't push myself as much.  

I usually wait to refuel until I feel like I need a boost, and at that point its too late and I start to lose momentum, so today I began a little earlier than usual - after 4 miles I started eating a Power Bar chew every 3 miles. I made an effort to kick it up to a faster past for the last 2 miles, and in the last 1/3 mile I ran as fast as I could. It hurt but it feels good afterward, and I believe that you won't improve unless you push yourself. 

I finished the 12 miles in 1:43:22 for an average pace of 8:35 minute miles. I'm happy with that!

When I got home I made myself a protein smoothie to drink while I stretched and foam rolled. Foam rolling really hurt this morning - everything was pretty tight. 

Smoothie included: 1 cup skim milk, 1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein powder, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup frozen berries and 1/2 cup frozen organic cherries. Cherries are said to boost recovery and reduce inflammation after a tough workout.

A little while later I had my first snack (of I'm sure many) today. More crumpets! I had a crumpet with butter and strawberry jam and some scrambled eggs (3 egg whites and 1 egg yolk) for protein.

Love these crumpets! Feel great after my run - just one more "long" run until the C-Ville Half Marathon (and that one will be shorter for tapering). 

Happy Saturday!