Tag Archives: preparation

Remind me to thank John for a lovely weekend {Ian Malcolm}

Posted by Melissa on July 16, 2012 4 comments

Base building for Philly is well underway and I’m really happy with the way things are going. Our Tuesday/Thursday runs have been pretty consistent pace-wise and as the Saturday long run mileage increases, the pace has been decreasing. Definitely headed in the right direction! There’s still two weeks until training “officially” starts, but going into it with a solid base will without a doubt help kick it off on a high note.

Believe it or not, the training plan for Philly is STILL under construction. I made the mistake of playing around with SmartCoach on the Runner’s World website and now I’m rethinking some of my training paces. However, it WILL be done soon and then I can finally stop obsessing (and stressing!) over it.

Saturday morning Brad and I ran a steamy six (well, 6.2) miler at Brushy Creek.

We recently upped our intervals to 4:1 and surprisingly, we haven’t been struggling. Ideally I’d like to keep bumping up the intervals a little every couple weeks so eventually (after 10:1) walk breaks will be wiped out completely. Probably could have done this from the beginning, but after a few low mileage months I didn’t want to push it right off the bat.

Our running pace was in the 11-12:00 min/mi range, with a final overall (with walk breaks) pace at 12:43. Still not where I’d like to be, but getting there. Temps were at a comfortable 73 but the humidity was at 93% and the air was THICK. At one point we stopped to stretch, using a railing for balance.The entire railing was covered in condensation! The run was a certified sweatfest. BUT! We were done by 8:30 and had the rest of the weekend to do important stuff…

like stop for some caffeine to power us through grocery shopping with the crazies

and use a $3.50 coupon + rogue gift card in my wallet to update my summer nail polish collection:

watch a Friends marathon

cook a super clean dinner Saturday night {I shared the giant piece of pork with Bo – he’s most certainly not spoiled. at all.}

read this book

watch the CMT Top 20 Countdown {love the top 3}

prep meals for the week {asian turkey meatballs + fried rice}

wonder why our Body Issue of ESPN the Magazine had Jose Bautista on the cover instead of Gronk

uncork a bottle of cab mid-afternoon on Sunday {hello, cheat day!}

inhale a delicious plate of Chicken Tikka Masala

and watch Jurassic Park for the 37893rd time.

After grocery shopping post-run on Saturday morning, we didn’t leave the house for the rest of the weekend.

And it was AWESOME.

How was your weekend? Do you like country music? What’s your favorite part of Jurassic Park?

A PR Attempt

Posted by Melissa on July 2, 2012 7 comments

Sunday morning I found myself rested and wide awake at 7am, thanks to the magnesium I’ve been taking every night before bed – holy deep sleep! After catching up on blogs and Twitter, I decided to take advantage of an early start on the day. On Saturday I had given the house a deep clean and came across a Starbucks card with some money still on it so I made trip out to grab us some iced coffees.

We’ve cut way back on coffee, as in we don’t even keep it in the house anymore, but it’s nice to have every once in awhile. I’ve been loving this So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer lately.

The consistency is nearly identical to that of regular flavored coffee creamer but with less fat, calories and sugar. A small splash of it in iced coffee is delicious.

Once back at the house I got to work on our meals for the week:

It was just after 8am when the pots and pans hit the stove. I had a secret {lofty} goal to be finished with cooking and cleanup before noon. Whipping up breakfast would need to happen at some point too, adding another obstacle in my way. But the thought of breaking my, ahem, Sunday Cooking PR time was very appealing.

I’ve made the chili countless times but this time added more beans (garbanzo rather than cannellini), used fat-free sour cream and fat-free half & half.

The Green Chile Corn Muffins are simply a box of cornbread mix

with one cup of reduced-fat cheddar cheese and one can of fire-roasted diced green chiles added in.

The crock-pot pulled pork is another Eat Live Run recipe and honestly one of the easiest recipes ever. Season pork, brown in a pan, and then add to a crock-pot with diced onions and BBQ sauce. After 6-8 hours of simmering, the pork is so tender it falls apart on its own. Perfect and amazing.

This macaroni salad from Skinnytaste far exceeded my expectations! I didn’t think it would be very creamy but it tasted every bit as good as any full-fat mayo-laden macaroni salad you’d find at a 4th of July BBQ. The recipe yields 16 cups so unless you’re bringing it to share with a party, I’d recommending halving it.

The egg salad recipe was made up on the fly: hard-boiled eggs (shocking ingredient, no?) less than a tablespoon of reduced-fat olive oil mayo, a few teaspoons of Dijon mustard, cayenne pepper and S&P to taste.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering if I nailed that PR: