Distance, Not speed.

Thursday was a ridiculous, horrible, chaotic work day. I'll spare the details but it was ridiculous. Thankfully I only worked 830a- 330p! I decided when I got off work i was running 7 miles if it killed me. I had to relieve some stress, i was so tense, and just on edge. I needed to let off some steam.

I ran on a new trail that H & I found. It's a nice trail, and I feel safe by myself on it. Usually H doesn't like me to run long distance by myself, especially on a somewhat secluded trail. Thursday I won the battle, I went.

All in all it was a good run. It was my first 7 mi, so it was kind of tough, but I powered through. My thighs started to tighten up but they loosened up. I only had to stop for crosswalks, and to change playlists on my i-pod (i'm not so good at multitasking while trying to run).


http://connect.garmin.com/dashboard?cid=2522571

I started out running to my newest play list:

Drop it Low- Ester Dean
Blame it - Jamie Foxx
Whatcha Say - Jason Derullo
Empire State of mind- Jay Z
Need you now- Lady Antebellum
Bad Romance- Lady Gaga
How Low- Ludacris
Party in the USA- Miley Cyrus
Becky - Plies
Medicine - Plies
Rude Boy - Rihanna
The way I are - Timbaland
5 Star- Gotti

Then I decided this wasn't working for me. It was to upbeat. I wasn't trying to run fast, just a steady pace, and that music wasn't helping me relieve any stress- It was getting me all worked up. So I changed it up to some Kenny Chesney. I love love love some Kenny. He has great caribbean music, aww, makes me relax!

work-out FAIL!

..and its all Brighthouse fault! Yesterday morning our internet was out. I tried to get online before I left for work and couldn't. At first I attributed it to my super moody computer.. Then after I had rebooted it 3 times i figured it probably wasn't the computer's fault. I looked at our modem thing for BH and only one of the lights was lit up.. I didn't try the phone or the cable- wasn't thinking that far ahead so early in the morning! Fast Forward to 7pm last night- I'm getting off work and trying to call Chris at home- the phone call won't go through. I call BH... the idiot lady tells me she can't do anything unless i'm at home? So you mean to tell me you can't check to see if there is an outage in our area unless i'm at home... IDIOT. i really dislike BH.   Chris calls me from his cell phone and says everything is out. cable,internet,phone.. I call BH back... next, smarter, lady tells me. Oh yes there is an outage and they are working on it.....which i see as i pull into our road bc there are 2 BH trucks sitting there.... So I couldn't do my on-demand workouts bc the stupid cable wasn't working. FAIL! instead we watched Ghosts of Girlfriend's past w/ Matthew Mcconaughy. Pretty cute movie.

In other news I am so sick of this cold. I mean c'mon. I only have so many sweatshirts, and i'm sure the people at work are sick of seeing the same three that I have in rotation. It's to cold in the office to not where a hoodie all day & scrub pants are exactly warm. I spend the majority of my day freezin my tail off! It's quite miserable.

Today I am going to run. I get off at 3:30, Chris & I meet w/ the bank at 5, so I can get a good long run in. Hallelujah!

Potato Soup. yum!

As I said, one of my 2010 goals is to make a new recipe each week. Potato Soup is my recipe for the week. I've been wanting some for a while now. I am used to my step dads, which is totally delish! But this is not my step dads potato soup.

I got the recipe from "Fix it and Forget it Cookbook" .

Here it is:

This whole cook book is for 3-4qt crockpots.. Our is 7qt. So I usually modify the recipes some. We usually have alot of leftovers, but they always get eaten.

6 potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 leeks, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 rib celery, sliced
4 chicken bouillon cubs
1 Tbsp. dried parsley flakes
5 cups water
1 Tbsp. salt , Pepper to taste
1/3 cup butter
13oz can evaporated milk
chopped chives

1. Combine all ingredients execpt milk and chives in slow cooker.

2. Cover. Cook on Low 10-12 hrs, or High 3-4hrs.  Stir in milk during the last hour.

3. If desired, mash potatoes before serving

4. garnish with chives.

 Next time i plan on adding some turkey sausage. we also put a little bit of cheese on top after we scooped it into our dinner bowls.

Jennie-O Smoked Turkey

soo it's probably not the most "healthy" selection of turkey I could have chosen, but it sure was easy and tasty. I have been searching for healthier "meat". I decided we would try out some turkey. So I saw this turkey thing at wal-mart last week while i was grocery shopping. It was two pre-seasoned turkey breasts. They were Applewood bacon seasoned or something like that. All we had to do was cut open the package, put them in a baking dish and in the oven they go. This worked out perfect for tonight. I had to work until 7 tonight so this was very easy for Chris to prepare. We had some cream corn to go with it.. again- i realize this was not the healthiest of meals..but that's what we had.

Now I am about to go do Day 8 of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred.

**I'm still thinking hardcore about the 3 day to the cure 60 mile walk.** Talked..well sort of..thru e-mail... to a girl who is on a team that is doing the walk. Possibly joining up with that team. Still going to the meeting Monday night in Lakeland to get more info on the walk. But I really am excited about it. I think i can try enough by October to complete 60 miles. =)

Susan G. Komen 3 day to the cure

Susan G. Komen 3 days to the cure

I heard about this event on the radio today after we got back from my run. I came home and went on the website and i'm itching to do this walk. Incase you haven't gone to the website yet its a 60miles walk in 3 days. The walk is in Tampa The proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen foundation. Each walker is responsible for raising $2300- this is a bit intimidating, but I REALLY want to do this walk.

I have no family members, that I know of, that have or had breast cancer. I "know" two people who have breast cancer. One was a women I worked with at a previous employer, and the second is the mother of someone I went to school with.

I just think this is a great organization to support. I haven't decided for sure if I'm going to do it. Chris said he would do it with me. That would be totally awesome if we could do it together.If Chris decides he doesn't want to do it with me then I can find a team to join, or I could do it by myself (not ideal).. 

So I will be comtemplating on this for a few days. I am signed up to go to an informational meeting on Jan 11 in Lakeland. 

Raising $2300 really makes me nervous. I don't even know where to begin. I have started writing some things down. & If Chris decides to do it with me then we will be responsible for $4600...plus $90 registration fee each. $4600 REALLY  makes me nervous!  
If you have any ideas let me know. I'm so not creative so i'm going to need help! 

Saturday & Sunday runs..

I had two good days of running.

Saturday: Chris & I got up and went to the Teco trail in Auburndale. Chris rides his bike while I run. Running is to much impact on his ankle, but bike riding is perfect for his ankle. So I am training for a 10k, and I need to start upping my mileage. Yesterday was my first 5mi run. I felt great the whole time. It was about 43degrees when we set out on the trail. I was layered. I had yoga pants on, a long sleeve C9 shirt from Target, an underarmour hoodie. I had on a beanie, gloves, and i also had the hood of my hoodie up. I made it to about 3mi before i started taking stuff off. i started with my gloves and worked my way through what I had on till I got to my sports bra and my pants. Lol. I was so hot. When we got back to the parking lot there were 2 ladies on bikes and one of them made a big ol' fuss about the fact that I only had on a sports bra.

Sunday:  Today Chris & I got up and went to a trail in Winter Haven and goes into Lake Alfred. We parked in downtown Winter Haven and headed out. I was only going to do 4-5 miles. Then Chris said "c'mon babe you can do 6 miles, whats one more mile".... so the stupid competitiveness in me kicked in and I had to complete the 6 miles. It actually wasn't bad. Again it was 42 degrees when we left. Today i only wore pants, a tank top and my underarmour hoodie. i also wore gloves and beanie.. I took my sweatshirt and beanie off at 4 miles. It was a good run. I felt really good. I know its not recommended to up mileage that quickly...  Afterwards we went to tropical smoothie and i got a delish low cal Hawaiian Breeze smoothie, yum yum!!!

I found another 10k i might want to register for in February. This one is in Christmas, FL and its a trail run, not on paved roads. I think it will be fun, i'm leaning more towards that one then then the 10k in Melbourne!

I also found a race in January that I am going to run. It's the Citrus Classic in Auburndale. i'm excited! I love races!

Hello 2010!!

2010 is here. It's a new year full of changes and new things. 

This year will be full of running for me: I have three running goals for 2010:  

1. Run 1000 miles = about 20mi/wk. 
2. Run a race every month
3. Run at least 1 half-marathon

I also have some cooking goals for this year: Finding new things to cook seems to be a challenge. I have a few cook books, and unlimited access to the internet, and food blogs galore.. Food goals:

1. Make a new dish once a week
2. Use the crock pot at least once a week.
3. Eat less beef
4. Eat more chicken & turkey (Chris doesn't LOVE chicken, so finding chicken dishes that he loves is going    to be a challenge in itself)

This year is going to be full of challenges. I'm excited to go further with running. I'm excited to cook new things. Ready! Set! Gooooo!!!!