Tag Archives: dieting

Fail…

I made this rice tonight:

Notice what I did wrong? Aren’t you supposed to boil the water first before you add the rice? No worries… I’m not eating it… I’ll ask James later how it turned out.

Last night, I made these whole wheat tortillas in the oven:

I thought they’d be yummy, nice and crisp. I may as well have been eating a piece of cardboard because that’s exactly what they tasted like… cardboard. <sigh> Time for me to resign as the family cook… the boys will have to make their own Mac & Cheese (bummer).

These…

… are the bestest, most sinful snack ever in the history of ever. Cinnamon and sugar crostinis, courtesy of Haggen’s (so, no, I didn’t make them; James and I did, however, eat an entire bag of them last weekend).

On a bright note, the rescue and rehab center I work at just released 3 orphaned goslings to a new family (geese are awesome at fostering other babies… because they can’t count). What makes this special to me is that I was the releasor of said releasees. It was amazing. The little goslings thought they needed to follow me, so they did, until I walked them over to their new family… then they made a beeline to their new brothers and sisters and never looked back.

Two are smack dab in the middle… a little smaller than the others but they’ll thrive now.

Two days later I went back to check on them. Yep, still there, still with their little yellow heads (look for the tiny tint of yellow).

Rock ‘N’ Roll Seattle is coming up, June 18th. I don’t even want to talk about my training… that deserves a post all on its own (hint: severe PF).

Have a great night/day!! Got any wisdom for Wednesday?

This, That, and The Other

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The flu bug in my house is thankfully all gone now. James got lucky… he was not affected. He thinks it has something to do with having gotten the flu shot. I don’t believe that for an instant. I think he avoided the flu because he’s meticulous about washing his hands and using hand sanitizer (inside joke because I don’t believe in getting the flu shot). Regardless, we are once again a healthy and happy family! I’ll be spending the next week bleaching and sanitizing everything we’ve ever touched. Yay.

Tuesday was Jamesy’s birthday! Even though AJ and I had some resemblance of an illness, we still managed to give James a nice, happy evening! I actually made some home-made cupcakes… with frosting! And I even made some type of chicken parmesan dinner for him that he really enjoyed. The secret was in the frying of the chicken pieces… I went full fat and full flavor for this baby!! Bread crumbs, egg, and milk for dipping, and good old fashioned vegetable oil for frying!! No oven baking… no boring panko crumbs… full flavor all the way! (I am such a rebellious soul, hehe) No worries… we went back to healthy on Wednesday (well, at least until Friday Happy Hour, :D).

Speaking of healthy, we got a new little toy… the Nutribullet by Magic Bullet! We’ve always made our shakes and smoothies in the Magic Bullet, but the motor started to die, so enter the Nutribullet! Much bigger than a Magic Bullet… kind of like a full size blender and super powerful. You can make 2 servings in one go, and not near as klunky to wash as a blender. We just love our little gadgets.

Can’t leave out the recipe book it came with, with lots of healthy smoothies to create!

As for work, it’s been a week! Fawns being born, ducklings losing their mothers, bunny nests being uncovered, fledgling birds that really don’t need to be rescued… it’s just crazy. Some of you may not be aware, but I work at a rescue and rehab for wild animals. A couple of tips if you run across a wild baby animal:

Geese will foster orphaned goslings. Ducks will kill ducklings that are not their own.

Birds: Parents will still take care of their young while they’re on the ground learning to fly. If you see parents in the area, leave the bird alone. It’s also okay to re-nest the bird. That thing where birds won’t accept their young after a person has touched it is just a myth.
Fawns: You will never see the mother. The mother will sometimes leave the baby for up to 12 hours to forage for food; however, she is still in the area. Fawns are programmed to sit as still as possible until mom returns. Unless you see obvious signs of it being hurt, leave the baby alone!
Bunnies: If your dog or cat brings you a bunny, get it to a licensed rehabber as soon as possible. Never, ever, ever feed a bunny milk, kitten replacement milk, or puppy replacement milk, or milk of any kind for that matter. They will develop bloat and die. If a nest has been uncovered, cover it back up in such a manner that the mother will have to disturb the covered area to get to her babies, that way you can tell if she’s returned to the nest or not. If she doesn’t return after 12 hours, take them to a licensed rehabber. (If a bunny is the size of an apple, it’s big enough to be on its own).
Squirrels: Put them back in the nest if you don’t see any obvious signs of injury. If the nest is too high, gently pinch their little toes until they cry out then leave the area. Mom will come down to get her baby and take it back up to the nest, but not while you’re still around.

As for this guy below, he was afraid to come down out of a tree because of a nearby barking dog. A citizen thought he was stuck. He was “freed” from this position and still wouldn’t come down. But once the dog was quieted and no one was around, he came down on his own accord. (If you’re unable to make out what it is… it’s a raccoon, and a very healthy one at that!)

I am now about to attempt my first 3-mile run after a 2-week break. As long as I don’t cough up a lung in the process, I’ll be good to go. After all, my next half is only a month away. Holy crap.

Have a great week!!

Race, Recover, Repeat

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It’s been a week now since the SLC Half-Marathon, and I have to be honest, I’ve been nothing less than a sloth this entire time. Actually, I’ve been too busy at work to even think about running, even having to bring work home with me for a couple of nights. So I’ve taken this recovery thing to heart. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. However, it all begins again on Tuesday…

That being said, time to focus on the weight loss again and get rid of the winter gain. I eat oatmeal for breakfast and I like to add peanut butter to it for the protein and flavor. But this has a huge detrimental effect on the waistline. Looky here:

190 calories and 7 g of protein for my favorite type of PB. I quite possibly put more than 2 tablespoons in my oatmeal (what can I say… I love PB). And no, I don’t measure it precisely the way I should… ain’t got time for that, so a big ole dollop of this deliciousness ends up in my oatmeal daily, along with all the calories and fat (16 g!!). Let’s check out the ingredients:

A few of those ingredients I don’t recognize (mono and diglycerides? hydrogenated vegatable oil? rapeseed?). Thankfully I have my blogging friends to keep me on the up and up. There’s big talk going around about powdered peanut butter. It took me months before I’d even attempt to look for it in the store just to see what it was all about. And while I wasn’t actually looking, I did run across some kind of PB powder finally.

It’s looking somewhat similar to the protein powder I put in my water-based smoothies. Have a peek at the back side:

Sweeet! 50 calories, 5 g of protein, and 2 g of fat! The sugar content is the same, but 3 g is not too bad. Also, it has a total of 3 ingredients in it… peanuts, sugar, and salt. Just add water and stir (something to keep in mind for the zombie apocalypse? or are we over the zombie thing these days? I’m actually not… I still have a kid who plays Call of Duty). Anyway, this will now go in my oatmeal as my peanut butter, AND, I’m going to plop a couple of tablespoons into my banana smoothies for added flavor there as well. Again, my smoothies are water-based, so I don’t have to worry about sugar or calories from milk or yogurt. I’ll let you know how this plan works out.

Moving on…

Last week in Salt Lake while I was touring Temple Square, Jamesy was hitting the race expo without me. And while he was there, he bought me a present!! Awwwww… he’s awesome! We’re going to be participating in a 6-hour hamster run in August (round and round for 6 hours… how far she goes, nobody knows), and he got me my own Camelbak vest so I can stay nice and hydrated! What a wonderful husband! (How am I going to talk him into buying me those fancy-dancy trail shoes I’m absolutely going to need?!!)

Yesterday was a big shopping day at our house, getting ready for our celebratory karaoke night and all! No worries… we were totally prepared! Costco rocks!

No, we weren’t drinking the Gatorade last night… look one shelf up. That’s Jamesy’s beer supply… but I had to hunt to find the wine supply, hidden nicely in the back of a cupboard…

You may not be able to tell, but that’s 3 bottles deep, plus 2 more in the fridge. Now don’t get all judgemental on me… the alcohol will last us at least until next week! What can I say?! Our karaoke celebration went off swimmingly! No worries… I didn’t record anything on video so I won’t subject you to that torture!

Weekly Stats:

Total Miles: 13.96 (see? I have achieved complete sloth mode)
Total Steps: 31,716
Total cross training: Hahahahaha!

Next up will be Jamesy’s Motivational Music Monday. Will I stick with his “theme,” or will I be the wayward child and go totally off the wall? Stay tuned…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Credit: Raptor Resource Project

Jamesy and I have had a wonderful child-less Valentine’s weekend! As well, it’s been great for AJ to get out, get unplugged, and go play in the snow! AJ is due back any moment now, and while James and I have very much enjoyed our alone time together, both of us are going to be very happy to give him a nice Valentine’s Day hug.

Our special Valentine’s Day treat to ourselves… shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate! Happy Valentine’s Day to my forever sweetheart and the best husband ever!

There are only about 3 weekends left before the Lake Sammamish Half Marathon, and today was our normally scheduled long-run day. After lazing around for most of the morning waiting for the rain to stop, we finally decided to suck it up and hit the trail; James for 12 miles, me for 10. I was not thrilled about going for my run today for some reason. Just one of those days, I guess. But then again, 10 miles is a long way to have to wrap your head around.

Still, out I went. The weather was beautiful, nice and misty, cool but not freezing, and not too many people on the trail… which was good as I just wasn’t in the mood for people. However, I did run into a couple of teenagers/young adults who seemed like they were up to no good. There is a marijuana … store… that backs up onto one part of the trail, and these kids were peeking in the fence, almost casing the place really… I just had a bad feeling about them. So I steered clear, pulled the headphones out of my ears so I could hear them and everything around me, and kept my eye on them until they were out of my line of sight. What on earth do you do in a situation like that? Yes, I had a bad feeling, BUT, what if they were just being curious and really only looking around? They weren’t breaking any laws so I couldn’t justify a call to the police… or should I have called them just because? They weren’t even trespassing… they were just… creepy. <sigh>

Anyway, the run went fairly well other than that little blip above. I started to get tired at about mile 8, was going to make a loop around my house to give me that last mile, BUT, once I actually saw my house, my body and mind said, “oh hell no,” and that was that. I officially ran 8.6… tsk, tsk. I’m feeling a bit bad about that as I only have 1 long run left, but hopefully if I nail my mid-week runs, there won’t be any serious repercussions from the setback of cutting today’s long run short.

To sum it up, I ran 19 miles this past week and am on day 45 of the 2016 run streak.

Favorite song on playlist today: Charlie Puth — Marvin Gaye (pretty fitting for Valentine’s Day, ;D)
Number of cookies, pictured above, consumed thus far: 4
Number of calories per cookie: 200 (good thing I ran long today)
Number of fish that perished in my care this weekend: 2
Number of dinners I ruined this weekend: 1 (I’m getting better!)

James has written a wonderful little training update at 50 in 50 Marathon Quest… go check it out! As well… a huge shout-out to Miss Dorothea of Wanderwolf Running for running a screaming fast marathon today, a BQ time (!), with some really cool bling!! Well done Dorothea! Very proud of you!

Would you have called the police had you been in my situation? How did you “treat” yourself today? What’s your favorite race bling?! Have a great week!!

Me? Run A Marathon?

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No.

But this is the conversation between The Motivator and I tonight:

ME: I think I need to train for a marathon.

JAMES: <shocked look, jaw dropped>

ME: If I train for a marathon, it might help me get faster in my half-marathons.

JAMES: Let me write this down… “Let it be noted that on January 31st, Paula said she wanted to train for a marathon.” This way when you’re saying ‘why the f*** am I doing this‘ in about 8 months, we can review my notes and know it’s because you said you wanted to.

I didn’t say I wanted to run a marathon, just train for one. 😀

And so it begins… again…

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What a cool-looking dude!

James and I were doing a finger count tonight, and there are now 38 days until our next half-marathon in Lake Sammamish. Don’t know why we thought it was 6 weeks away; hence, the counting on our fingers. So today began the start of my next short and sweet training cycle. As I just did a half and don’t really have the time on the calendar, I won’t be cutting back in mileage much. My long runs for the next 4 weeks will be 8, 10, 12, 6, then 13.1. Hmmm, that’s kind of scary. But doable, especially as the weather is now cooperating and all the snow and ice has moved east (sorry East Coast). Once again, I can run outside! (Happy dance!)

Tonight was a scheduled 3 miles. However, I was feeling pretty good and decided to attempt Mo Fo Hill, my nemesis. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. At least I got some major work in on improving my VO2 (major major). And just when my legs were feeling pretty good after my recent half, now my quads are screaming at me. No pain, no gain! (lovin’ those good old motivational mantras right now!)

Meeps is thinking he could really go for some overall body toning…

I also really liked the workout that Alana had posted on Living Out Loud, so I wanted to give that a try after my run as well. A great workout! I had to forego a couple of things on her list because my legs just weren’t having it (like the sumo squats and jumping jacks), but it was a great way to kick-start some toning and strength training (as my quads were already screaming at me, they especially weren’t too impressed after the wall sits). So if you are in need of some toning, give one of Alana’s workouts a go! She has lots of different ones to try. Thanks Alana!

And the super good news is that I ordered a new pair of Brooks Glycerin’s 13, a full size larger this time (see, I really did learn my lesson). I will have them just in time for my 8 miles this Sunday! I’m so excited! Can’t wait! (You can read about my adoration of the Glycerin’s here.)

As well, it’s time to lose all that vacation weight! Have you ever noticed that most everything in Hawaii comes with a side of chips/crisps? So the dinner menu tonight consisted of spaghetti squash as the main course for Meatless Tuesday (it’s really supposed to be Meatless Monday, but… well… today is Tuesday).

And yes, according to my 5 running apps, the streaking continues…

Have a happy week! 😀

If you were to rule Mondays as meatless, what would you choose to serve?

My Week In Review

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Okay, really… it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m doing a weekly summary! I just ran a half-marathon last week! Of course I’m going to put my mileage in black and white! 😉 But actually, have you ever noticed that when you go on vacation, it’s not truly restful? You’re on the go all the time, so much to see, so much to do! It’s probably the most active you’ll be all year!! Hence, I’m documenting those miles because they totally count. I wore my Garmin watch all the time as I wanted credit for all those steps I took!

January 16 — Our first full day in Maui, the day before the race. This is the day I wanted to stay off my feet. I logged 7.85 miles… but only 1 of them was actually spent running. I’m sure the rest of them were spent lollygagging. My biggest mistake here was not wearing my running shoes the entire day.

January 17 — Race day! 17.75 miles or 34,901 steps. Cooool! I kinda like the way the steps log. They look way impressive. For those who don’t race or run, there is a lot of going to and fro’ on race day, so the set mileage of the race isn’t the only mileage you get.

January 18 — (Monday, in case you’ve lost track). Keeping in mind this is the day after the race, so with a lot of soreness and ouchies… 4.97 miles. One mile was dedicated to running… the rest were dedicated to visiting the pool, bar, and whatever food we could find and get to easily. We also meandered around the resort to stretch… it only hurt when we stopped. 🙂

January 19 — 5.49 miles. We walked to Castaway Cafe to have brunch, then hung out by the pool, just as it should be!

January 20 — 5.53 miles. Really, more of the same… blah, blah, blah, pool. 🙂

January 21 — 3.54 miles. Okay… this kills me. We spent the entire day on our feet at the Maui Ocean Center. It felt like we walked for miles and miles. This was the least amount of mileage recorded.

January 22 — 2.5 miles… homeward bound. Oh how sad. One mile was dedicated to running, and I’m guessing 1.5 miles was from traipsing around the two airports!

January 23 — 2 miles. First day at home… I don’t even know how I got 2 miles to be honest! Only 1 was actually dedicated to running.

January 24 — 3.31. A 2-mile streak run with the rest of it being logged as doing normal, boring, everyday tasks, such as grocery shopping.

Total miles (for the past 8 days): 52.94. I kinda wish every week could be this productive!! And if you want to get super technical, if I knock last Saturday’s mileage off, then total mileage for the 7 days would be 45.09. Proof positive we are more active on vacation than not, 😀

Great eateries in Maui:

Slappy Cakes — Fabulous breakfast/brunch food! Make your own pancakes on the skillet at your table or have them made. They also serve breakfast skillets and other breakfast items. 5 stars!
Castaway Cafe — I had biscuits and gravy with eggs. To die for! Best gravy ever! They’re a cafe on the boardwalk, so they serve everything. 4 stars! But only 4 because the service was a bit slow. They only had 1 person at noon helping the entire restaurant.
Maui Brewing Company — Home made chips/crisps! The burgers are wonderful! Apparently so is the Brisket Dip Sandwich! It’s a brewing company… beer is home brewed, so quite delicious as well! 5 stars!
Coconut Fish Cafe — With a name like that, how can you go wrong! A favorite amongst the locals! 5 stars! (I don’t usually eat my fries, but these I couldn’t resist).
Plantation House Golf Course — Views of the ocean were killer! Fish and chips were fantastic! 5 stars! Go there! This is a must if you’re ever in Maui! (Beware of very small parking spaces).

Sadly, I think that’s it for Maui for this year. Time to get back to reality as my training plan picks up again on Tuesday! But then again, training is half the fun, so I look forward to the challenge, especially as I’ve learned a lot from running the Maui Oceanfront Half-Marathon!

On a side note, I turned 49 today. Pretty soon my tag line is going to have to say “trials and tribulations of a 50-something novice runner…” Good thing my mind still thinks I’m only 21… and only 21 just so I can legally drink, 😀

Do you find that you’re more active on vacation than you are any other day of the year?

Maui Oceanfront Marathon

48 Replies

Can I just start by saying this race was an ass kicker? No? Okay then, I’ll just let you know how it went.

Our day started at 2 a.m. James got up, showered, dressed, and prepped for the full marathon. I had to get up to take him to the place where he caught his shuttle bus. He had to go a few miles up the road as his race was point-to-point, and his bus left around 3:15 a.m. I was back in bed by 3:30.

I wasn’t actually able to fall back to sleep after that, so I just laid there and rested until my alarm went off at 4:30. James had a kick-off time of 5:30. The half-marathon started at 6:35, and my in-laws came to pick me up at about 5:30 or so to take me to the start line (it’s not a proper race without numerous trips to the port-a-loo before gun time, so it’s important to get there plenty early to stand in the loo lines… over and over again). My father-in-law, Rick, was running the 10K, and his race started at 6:40. We both had the same start line, both were an out-and-back, and no, we don’t understand why they sent out the faster-paced 10K group after the slower-paced half-marathon group, but whatever.

Rick and I had a helluva time trying to get a selfie. Neither one of us could work the camera that early in the morning and it was super dark. OH! Of special note… when you start a race in pitch black dark, DO NOT put the lid down on the port-a-loo!! Just saying!

It all started off wonderfully… the sun eventually started to come up… there was a cruise ship docked with all its lights on that we could look out onto… there was a beautiful sunrise. But then we got up to the highway with which we were to run our various distances… all 1550 or so runners… on one shoulder of the highway… the busy 2-lane highway.

Unfortunately, a 70-year-old man went down at mile 2. He was running the 10K and had apparently passed me going out (I started at the back of the pack so as not to interfere with any of the fast runners). And when the emergency vehicles come with their sirens and lights, what do all the cars on the busy highway do? They pull over to the shoulder of the road, don’t they… where everyone was running. But I didn’t have a clue there was a runner down… and this was wrong on so many levels.

I passed that man at mile 2… EMTs were doing CPR on him with chest compressions. That’s enough to scare the hell out of anyone and disturb their mental game, especially as he was an experienced runner. Try to shake that sight from your mind while you’re in the midst of a hard-ass run. It ain’t easy… both my father-in-law and I had to pass him on the ground… and we both were shaken.

Back to the race, running on the slanted shoulder of the highway, I ran about 6 miles into the sun, as it got hotter and hotter (James passed me at his mile 20, my mile 6… we exchanged a kiss). But no, I promised I wouldn’t complain about the heat, especially as they had aid stations about every 1 to 2 miles with misters to cool you off, although there came a point where the misters just didn’t work anymore, and the aid stations became far and few between. But, again, I’m not going to complain about the heat because I haven’t been able to run outside for ages, and it’s been awesome…

The bottom line is… I didn’t do enough long runs in my training to pull me through strong (illness, sucky weather, rebelling against the treadmill), and I actually did realize this before the race even started, but this was probably my one and only chance to knock Hawai’i off my half-marathon state list, so I had to do it regardless.

By mile 10, I was struggling. My feet were swollen and blistered from the heat of the highway. I started to get super angry… angry with the race, the cars, my feet, the freaking hills, not being able to see any whales… you name it, I was pissed off about it.

The outcome? Eventually I crossed the finish line. Smiling. My time wasn’t good or pretty, but I made it and I crossed. And now I get to enjoy a week of fun in the sun. But I gotta tell you… it was hard as hell getting up the next morning to continue with my run streak… but I did… we both did, and it hurt… badly.

My son AJ… he slept through it all.

The runner down at mile 2… so far as we know, and from what the race director has told all participants, he survived. He had a heart attack but was successfully resuscitated.

Not a race I care to repeat… but really happy I did it just this once.

Pre-Race Jitters

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Yes… pre-race jitters. I have them. James has them. It’s that exact energy that propels us to the finish line. In the meantime, I’m doing what I can to keep from freaking out. Like sharing my pictures from today, 🙂

We did go for our streak run early this morning. I wore the GoPro on my head to see how that would work. It’ll be fun to see what it picked up, but I haven’t had a chance to even see yet.

Three generations… they all walk the same and have the same leg build.

We wanted to stay off our feet as much as possible for most of the day, although that didn’t seem to happen. We ended up walking to breakfast. Did I mention my in-laws from Boise were here also? James’s dad will be running the 10K. (We all ran the FitOne Boise Half together in September).

Breakfast at Slappy Cakes. Carb loading with pancakes!

Then we had to maneuver to downtown Lahaina for packet pickup, which was across from the famous Banyan Tree. An amazing sight. There was no expo as this is a relatively small race.

After packet pickup, we went to the in-laws’ hotel for a small afternoon happy hour, then back to our hotel room to put our feet up. By day’s end, we had put in just over 6 miles (per my watch).

Flat me is all ready to run… Go Hawks!

James has arranged for a wake-up call at 2 a.m. He has to catch the shuttle bus at 3:15 to take him to somewhere 26.2 miles down the road. He has a start time of 5:00… mine starts at 6:30. And once again I ask myself… why, why, why do I do this… but then I remember… ah yes, it’s for the bling…

Echoes of My Neighbourhood #2

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This is my wonderful little neighborhood….

The covered bridge at our entrance.

One of the residential streets…

The playground…

The trees right across from my house. I get very nervous when the wind blows (you can see how they tower over the street light)

The trailhead where most of my runs begin.

Driving to work I pass a lot of farms. Every year, this particular farmer stacks bales of hay and spray paints “Go Hawks.” Love it!

In response to Jackie’s challenge at A Cooking Pot and Twisted Tales, Echoes of My Neighbourhood. She invites us all to share pictures of our own little corner of the world. Thanks Jackie!

Never A Dull Bling

The trials and tribulations of a 40-something novice runner

Tag Archives: dieting

Fail…

This, That, and The Other

Race, Recover, Repeat

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Me? Run A Marathon?

And so it begins… again…

My Week In Review

Maui Oceanfront Marathon

Pre-Race Jitters

Echoes of My Neighbourhood #2

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