Tag Archives: treadmill

Three Things Thursday {10-18-2012}

Posted on by
21

1. I started reading Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places last night and just like Gone Girl I can’t put it down! Dark Places has a different, creepier (in my opinion) vibe than Gone Girl but I’m really enjoying it. Looks like I’ll be reading her other book, Sharp Objects, soon as well.

2. My soreness/stiff legs from the treadmill finally went away! I can’t believe how much that 16 mile treadmill run wrecked my legs. It’s funny because I ran 16 miles a few weeks ago and I wasn’t running a speed out of my reach but my legs were so sore afterwards. I even had to rearrange some runs this week to accommodate extra recovery time. Good thing this week is designed to be a cutback week! My guess is that I was striding differently on the treadmill than I would outside? I sincerely hope that I won’t have to do any more long runs on the ‘mill until after training is over!

3. I tried a new kind of waffles today.

I forgot to pick up the usual ones at TJ’s last week and after 4 days of oatmeal, I was really missing variety [... in the form of waffles]. I stopped by Whole Foods on my way home last night and grabbed a box of these guys.

This morning I had two with sunflower seed butter, banana, and microwaved frozen strawberries. The waffles had a richer flavor than the kind I usually buy and I enjoyed it!

Also, can I ask how is it only Thursday? I keep seeing all of these blog posts or Facebook statuses claiming they can’t believe it’s already Thursday. No no no.. this week isn’t flying by it’s dragging on :P .

Either way I’m going to look on the bright side and say that we only have two more days until the weekend, that’s pretty exciting right?

Because I want to get ahead of myself, what are your fun plans for the weekend? I’m going home to Michigan and going to Ann Arbor for the Michigan vs. Michigan State game. I can’t wait!

Workout Update & a Gloomy Friday

Posted on by
11

Happy Friday guys! I hope it’s warm and sunny wherever you are today, we’re experiencing rain and chilly weather in Chicago :(

When I woke up this morning and had no pain in my heel, I was ecstatic. Yeah my heel felt a little tender but the dull pain was gone. I got dressed for the gym, grabbed my iPod, and left the apartment in a great mood. Maybe my injury wasn’t an injury after all? Unfortunately, I started to notice my heel within the first mile. It didn’t really hurt yet but I could feel it, and then the pain started during the last mile of my 4 mile run. Again, nothing sharp or excruciating, just a dull pain, almost like a bruise.

Boo, I guess my heel pain isn’t gone yet (obviously patience is not one of my virtues ;) ).

Not wanting to wrap up working out quite yet, I finished by biking on the recline bike (my butt hurts too bad from being on the upright one yesterday). I set the level to 8 and peddled away for 15 minutes and I have to admit I broke a nice sweat.

Anyway, I am glad that I’ve seen some progress with my heel, but that fact that it hurt more during/after running is a red flag. I’ve decided to take tomorrow completely off from running and cap my running on Sunday to 3 miles (I’ll put a new workout schedule at the bottom of this post). I’m hoping that not running tomorrow, drastically cutting back on Sunday, and taking Monday off will help. In the meanwhile, I’ve switched over to wearing comfy shoes all the time (tennis shoes, toms). I even brought a pair of toms with me today to change into at school/work because it was too wet out to wear them during my commute.

I’ve also decided that some running retail therapy is quite necessary, not only to boost my spirits but because honestly guys, I haven’t bought new running gear in years. My shorts are starting to fray, everything looks really overworn, and the apartment clothes dryers are shrinking all of my tanktops! I’m looking into buying a nice pair of shorts and at tanktop. I love this top but am clueless about lululemon shorts, any suggestions?

Breakfast
After my workout this morning, I enjoyed a big bowl of cereal.

I had about 1/2 cup Multi-grain O’s, 1/2 cup Toasted Oatmeal Flakes, 1/2 a banana, walnuts, chia seeds, unsweetened almond milk, and sunflower seed butter.

It was amazing. I make a mean bowl of cereal :)   

Lunch
I had class this morning and then went to work right after, so lunch was eaten at my desk. I had one of my favorite salads: spinach, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted potatoes, and half of a soy sausage topped with tahini and bbq sauce.

And some of these “chips”.

The beet chips are just okay. The first time I had them I really didn’t like them but today they didn’t seem too bad. I think I should have bought the carrot kind instead…

I also packed the last breakfast cookie for a mid-afternoon snack.

I’m so sad to see them go!

And here’s my new workout plan:

Second Revised Workout Plan
Saturday- swim + yoga
Sunday- swim+ cycling class + mini-run (tentative)
Monday- off

What are your weekend plans?

I Want a Snow Day

Posted on by
2

When I woke up and looked outside and saw a snowy mess, I really really hoped I would have a snow day today (picture does not do it justice).

However, after checking my e-mail and ABC school closings and doing a google search just to make sure I didn’t miss anything, I was forced to accept that I do in fact have class and work today. Bummer.

So I hit the gym for a 7 mile treadmill run. It’s days like today that I feel lucky to have access to a gym. Unfortunately, I am most definitely fighting some illness so I kept my pace a little above an 8 min/mile and took it easy. My main goal is not to get sick before my 19 miler on Sunday.

Breakfast
For breakfast I reheated the second half of my peanut butter quinoa with apples and honey with some almond milk and walnuts.

The almond milk puffed up the quinoa even more. It was really tasty.

No coffee with breakfast for me this morning. I was feeling dehydrated so I made myself drink water while eating and I plan on stopping off at Dunkin’ Donuts on my way to campus to use a coupon I received for a free coffee at the Blackhawks game.

Did you get snow last night? Do you drink coffee every morning?

Baked Plum Cheesecake Oatmeal

Posted on by
8

Last night Ian and I stayed up late finishing the Friday Night Lights series.

(source)

I’m really sad it’s over. By the end of the show I was really attached to the characters and almost felt like I was a student at East Dillon High (wait, you mean I’m not from Texas?) Obviously, I really enjoyed watching FNL and I highly recommend it to everyone, regardless of whether or not you like football!

Another thing I did last night was bake plums. Sound random? Well, for whatever reason, Ian and I picked up plums a week and a half ago at the grocery store. Yes we knew plums were out of season, but we took a gamble and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, the plums were incredibly bland and tasted like water. Ick! So rather than throw them all in the garbage, I cut them in half, sprinkled them with brown sugar and cinnamon, and baked them for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

The result? Sweeter, somewhat more tasty plums that made a great addition to my breakfast this morning.

Baked Plum Cheesecake Oatmeal
1/3 cup oats
1/3 cup almond milk
1/3 cup water
1/2 baked plum (one side), chopped
~1/3 cup cottage cheese
1/2 scoop protein powder
cinnamon and vanilla to taste
drizzle of agave (or maple syrup)

Cook oats, almond milk, and water over medium heat until they start to thicken. Stir in plums, protein powder, cinnamon, and vanilla and turn down heat to medium-low. Cook for 3-5 minutes stirring frequently. When oats are almost at your desired consistency add cottage cheese. Cook another minute or so, taste, and add agave/maple syrup as needed.

The cottage cheese adds the cheesecake-like taste to oats. I promise it’s good, but if you’re still a little wary try mashing a banana in to the oatmeal as well. That will help cut some of the cheesey taste.

I topped mine with Cookie Butter and walnuts.

Served with coffee and an adora disc.

Workout
It was raining this morning so I hit the treadmill for a 5 miler. I warmed up at 7.5 mph for half a mile and then increased my mph by .1 every mile so that my last half mile was at a 8 mph. Increasing my speed kept me occupied and I never really got bored.  It looks like it might rain/snow a lot this week, so I’m going to have to keep finding ways to make the treadmill enjoyable.

I have a super busy day ahead of me, enjoy your Tuesday!

Have you ever added cottage cheese to oatmeal? What did you think?

A Presentation, Work Drama, and an Easy Friday Night In

Posted on by
8

Catchy title don’t you think? Don’t worry, I do what I can :P .

My Friday started bright and early with a 7-mile treadmill run. After a night packed with homework (i.e. very little movement), my legs were really really stiff this morning. In order to loosen up, I treated the first 3.5 miles as a recovery run and set the treadmill to 0 incline and 7.5 mph. My legs felt a million times better afterwards and I finished my run with negative splits, ending at 8.0 mph. No more stiff legs here!

Breakfast was a big bowl of my new favorite cereal, Trader Joe’s Toasted Oatmeal Flakes.

I had about 1 cup of flakes, a small handful of TJ’s mini wheats, a couple of walnuts, raisins, and 1/2 a banana with almond milk.

The problem with this cereal, I can’t stop eating it. I’m obsessed! I went back for seconds after finishing this bowl.

This morning I had to give a presentation about risk factors for stomach cancer and as I didn’t know all that much about them until last night, I felt a little unsettled going into class. But, I rocked my presentation :) . For whatever reason the stars aligned and my presentation wasn’t a flop. You know that feeling you get when something you do goes well? I was on a high all morning.

Lunch was one of my favorite salads: arugula and roasted veggies topped with hummus and bone suckin’ sauce.

I also had 1/2 a pita with the leftover hummus and a plum. It was delicious but not very filling. Not sure what I was thinking when I packed my lunch last night? Hmm…

Work was pretty mundane until around 1:45 when I walked into the bathroom and found an undergrad student-worker keeled over and sobbing on a chair (yes we have two random chairs in our bathroom). I guess she had passed out in the bathroom and was feeling really weird. A coworker of mine had already called an ambulance and was with her so I got her some water while someone else found her supervisor. She ended up being okay, but they still took her to the ER just to make sure.

Definitely not a normal Friday afternoon at the office.

It’s been unusually warm here for February, so after the ER debacle, I took a mid-afternoon walk to the nearby grocery store to pick up an afternoon snack (note to self: packing better lunches saves you money!).

I had a protein-packed snack of plain Fage 0% and cocoa dusted almonds.

Nothing beats the combo of chocolate and tart greek yogurt :)

While Ian and I usually go out for “date night” on Fridays, after dinner on Wednesday, we decided it would be better for our wallets and our waistlines to stay in tonight. Plus, this week is Restaurant Week in Chicago and we have fancy schmancy reservations for Sunday night so we have that to look forward to ;) .

Staying in did give me an opportunity to make Chelsey‘s white bean and basil pasta!

I had to substitute sundried tomatoes for roasted tomatoes but otherwise I followed the recipe pretty closely and I loved this pasta! It was really flavorful without being too heavy.

What a great Friday dinner :) . I’ve missed cooking these past few weeks.

Unfortunately, right after dinner we lost our Internet connection (hence the late blogging). Ian is clearly the more computer-literate of the two of us so while he was dealing with our service provider, I baked dessert.

I make Katie‘s Breakfast Pizzert. I divided up the two servings into smaller serving dishes so I could have one for dessert tonight and one as a light breakfast tomorrow.

I also made a protein icing with 1 T peanut flour, 1/2 T protein powder, 3 T greek yogurt, and 1/2 tsp maple syrup and plopped it on top of the pizzert. Yummy!

Friday Night Lights is on the agenda for the night. Have a great evening!