End of January randomness.

ick. I'm sick. I have a stuffy nose, and a great cough. Lovely. 

It's the end of January and these are my running stats compliments of Dailymile.com 

Miles Run: 82:07
Total Time: 14:29
Lbs burned: 2lbs (I have no idea how they calculate this)
Total Workouts: 16
TVs Powered: 168:58
Gas Saved: 4.32
Donuts Burned: 50:07
Calories burned: 9,429

I started really running in September when I started training for my first 5k. I weighed 132. I am currently at 126, which I am very happy with. I did not start running to lose weight, I just started to get more in shape. I also changed my diet, and that helped my weight loss. 

Breakfast today- Honey bunches of oats with 1% milk


Lunch: what lunch? we forgot to eat lunch again. I don't know what we were doing. We were home all day. I re-organized our pantries.. trailer living does not leave much storage space. Cooking takes up a lot of space... ugh. 


Dinner: Chipotle Baja Pork Chops (yum)


Recipe: Chipotle Baja Pork Chops:

4-6 Pork Chops  ( I used 4)
Lawrys Chipotle Baja sauce (it's in the BBQ sauce aisle)
Potatoes- chopped/quartered
Carrots- sliced


Put pork chops in crock pot, cover in Chipotle Sauce. 


Chop up potatoes & carrots. I left the peel on my potatoes- put the potatoes & carrots in the crock pot, cover with more Chipotle sauce.


I added 1/4 cup of water and stirred everything together.


Cook on low for 2-4 hrs.


Lawrys makes several different types of dressing/sauces. I plan on trying several of the other tastes. Chris really liked this recipe. It was REALLY quick & easy. 


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Last night we went to Bass Pro Shop and I got a new running jacket, yay! This is not a great picture-- but its a cute little jacket, that was on sale. They had a lot of sales yesterday. I could have went crazy.. 


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Goals for February. 


Maintain my healthier eating regimen. I am really enjoying all this cooking, and looking up new, healthier recipes. I think Chris is enjoying it too. We both like a lot of different kind of foods, so this has been fun experimenting. Last night I spent a few hours on a food blog looking up new recipes. Check out my menu for the week on the side of my blog for what we are eating this week. 


Run 75-80 miles. I'm not sure how well this is going to work. My right knee has been hurting after I run my last few runs. I don't want to totally ruin my knee so I've been taking it kinda easy lately. I also don't know how much running my work schedule is going to allow.. 


Complete the 15k i am registered for in under an hour and a half. We'll see how that goes. I'm going to have to maintain a 9:40pace. We'll see. 


Gotta go. I forgot to get potatoes and popsicles when I went grocery shopping today =(      Gotta have potatoes for the potato soup. Doh!

Longest 5k ever.

Today Stacey and I ran in the Winter Haven Hospital Citrus Classic. The course was kind of rough on the knees; started out running on the road, then we had to run across a soccer field 2 or 3 times, and up an embankment. I am not used to running on anything other then road, and the combination of grass & road was not fun. After 2.5mi I kept thinking "how mad would I be at myself later if I just quit running and start walking"... i kept running. I PR'd with a time of 24:28, and according to dailymile.com , my pace was 7:38 

not good quality, it was taken on my sisters blackberry . i forgot my camera.

.... 


My right knee is bothering me quite a bit, i need to do some research and figure out what to do next. If i can just wrap it or if I should actually see a Dr.. Unfortunately I am the type that will procrastinate seeing the doctor.... i know what it's going to cost me to get an MRI if needed, and that alone makes me not want to go. 

Today has been a complete failure for eating. 

Breakfast:

Ham & Cheese Omelet
Grits
Whole Wheat Bread- plain

Lunch: ... well we ate breakfast at like 1030ish so I kinda skipped lunch.. Does Coffee count?  after the race i came home took a shower, then took a lil' nap.

Dinner: ugh... Fuddruckers. grilled chicken sandwich. and I ate some of Chris' french fries.... then i came home and ate a bowl of icecream. OMG ridiculous.

I really want to run tomorrow but I don't see that happening, not the way my knee is feeling. boo.

30 days till Gasparila!

YES! 30 days till Gasparilla, very exciting! I am kind of nervous, my knees have been giving me problems the last few days. I took yesterday off in hopes that they wouldn't bother me today....sort of worked.

I ran 5mi at a okay pace, i think it was 10:something. I started out w/ wrapped knees and they were making my legs ache. I took them off and they felt better. My knees didn't bother me to much during the run today. I am not running tomorrow due to the fact that I work open to close at work. Joy. 

I have been totally slacking in any kind of cross-training or upper body work outs. I haven't done anything in weeks. Today I dusted off my resistance bands and did a little arm work out. I can't post it because I don't remember what all I did, but I think my arms might be a little sore tomorrow. 

Tonight's dinner was a big fat FAIL. Kielbasa & Cheese casserole. Chris didn't like it at all, I thought it was okay. Something just wasn't right. The recipe didn't call for anyone kind of liquid. How you can cook something for 8hrs w/ no liquid makes no sense to me...and clearly doesn't work in the Kielbasa & Cheese casserole recipe. It was kinda dry, and the sausage was burnt. Boo.  I will have to try this recipe again, but add some kind of broth or water to it. 

Tomorrow we are going to have Salsa Chicken & Black Bean soup. I got the recipe from this http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ website. It's a very cool website. Nothing but crock-pot recipes, and that is exciting!! Check it out!

My day of rest.

..... was much needed. My knees were bothering me again today. I guess tomorrow I will wrap them all day and give them some extra stability. Other then that I don't really know what to do. I plan on running 4-5mi tomorrow. Rest Thursday, and maybe 3mi on Friday. I have a race on Saturday and I really don't want to push it to much this week. It is really important to me to be able to do my best on race days; even if this is only a 5k. I've PR'd, and placed my last two 5k's... I'd like to do the same on Saturday.

I went and picked up my new glasses this morning. They are super cute.

Breakfast today was Honey Bunches of Oats w/ Cinnamon & 1% milk. .... After some convincing we now drink 1% milk.. We were not big milk drinkers before, and we still aren't but we use it in our coffee, and now cereal, and oatmeal when we have that. ... Chris likes Whole milk :::gaggggg::::...oh its so thick and ew.

Lunch was left overs from last night; creamy cooker chicken..

for snacks I had Chobani (blueberry) greek yogurt, pretzels, and string cheese. I am obsessed w/ pretzels.

dinner was Beef & Lentils (another new recipe)... it was pretty good, different but good.

1 medium onion (you'll leave this one whole)
3 whole cloves   (spice aisle in case you are wondering)
5 cups of water
1 lb of lentils ($.94 at walmart, woohoo)
1 tsp salt (i used kosher salt)
1 bay leaf ( spice aisle)
1 lb. ground beefe
1/2 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup of molasses (uhm, by the syrup i believe)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp worcestershire (i think i'll leave this out nxt time, i think that was the strong taste...maybe BBQ sauce instead)
1 onion finely chopped

1. stick cloves into whole onion- set aside; i carved out a hole in the top of the onion and put the clove their.

2. in large sauce pan, combine water, lentils, salt, bay leaf and whole onion w/ cloves. Simmer for 30 minutes


3. brown hamburger w/ chopped onions.



4. meanwhile, combine all remaining ingredients in slow cooker, stir in simmered ingredients & browned hamburger.


5. cover. cook on low 6-8 hrs  (i cooked for 7.50 hrs)..


we also added shredded cheddar cheese to ours when we put it in our bowls to eat. 


It was good, not my favorite recipe in the world. but pretty good none-the-less..   The prep time was kinda long. I got up at 5:45, and had everything in the crockpot ready to cook by 6:30.... i did other things in between, so this could be why it was a 45 min prep time...


Tomorrow we are having Kielbasa & Cheese Casserole.


Good night. I have to get some studying done... .... i'm reading about diseases and treatments..fun times.


2. 

Nice 'n easy.

I decided that today I needed a nice & easy recovery run. My right knee was bothering me all day at work, but I wanted to run to loosen up my legs. My friend and I did 2.something miles around the lake- i forget the exact mileage, and it really doesn't matter. I think it says it on the side of my blog in that dailymile thing...

This morning i totally went bezerk on caffeine. I had coffee on my way to work, then my coworker texted me on her way to work and said she was stopping at Hardees; did i want anything... ugh... Dr pepper... so then I drank a dr pepper through out the day, i also drank water through out the day.... now tonight i'm drinking more coffee as i'm doing homework/studying..holy caffeine.

I did start out w/ a some what good breakfast this morning. I had honey bunches of oats w/ banana slices.



For lunch I had toast w/ nutella & some chobani blueberry greek yogurt- this is not a typical lunch, but we had no lunch meat, and no left overs so this is what i had. I hate eating out for lunch, it bothers me. I'm a freak about saving money on lunches if at all possible... so toast and yogurt it was. yum.

For dinner we had a new chicken recipe.

Creamy Cooker Chicken = totally delish!
 6 chicken breast  i used 4
 2 cups of sour cream
1 package of dry onion soup
1 10 3/4oz can of cream of mushroom soup  (we had no cream of mushroom, i used cream of chicken)

1. combine sour cream, dry onion soup, and cream of mushroom soup in crock pot and mix together.
2. put chicken breast in mixture and make sure all the breasts are covered.
3. cook on low for 8 hrs.

freakin' delish. we loved it. we put it on some wild grain rice and it was totally awesome.

this was the finished product::: note::: i am not a food photographer, and this was after i had already put the leftovers in tupperware for lunch tomorrow.. It doesn't look pretty but it was yummy!

Tomorrow we are having Beef & Lentil soup... Never had it before, we'll see how that turns out.

 I get my new glasses & contacts tomorrow, YES! i'm super excited. I got some cute new Tommy Bahama glasses, yayy!! I've had my current glasses for 2 yrs, and i'm completely out of contacts. boo. Running w/ glasses on is not cool =(

Tomorrow I am taking a rest day from running. I have a 5k on Saturday and I really want my knees to be feeling 100% so that I can run well. I think i'll do some upper body or something tomorrow when I get home from work.

G'nite. I have to get back to my homework now. Boo =(

This weeks menu & other randomness.

I know I already posted today but I'm bored. Chris has a friend over & they are playing Mario on the Wii.

I made our menu for the week so that I could grocery shop appropriately. I have found that making a menu reduces the number of misc. grocery items I come home with. 


This is what we are having, in no particular order. All of them are crock pot recipes.


Italian Pork Chops with red potatoes & carrots
Beef & Lentils
Kielbasa and cheese casserole (...we are actually have turkey sausage, not kielbasa)
Creamy Cooker Chicken
Potato Soup


All but the Potato Soup are new recipes, and they are all crock-pot recipes. I am obsessed w/ my crock pot. It just makes my life so much easier. Yes, sometimes the prep for some of the recipes is tedious and time consuming, but I don't have to come home after work and stand in the kitchen for an hour making dinner. I thoroughly enjoy coming home from work/running and dinner being done. yay! 


So, I went to wal-mart to grocery shop..i hate it, but it really saves me money so I just suck it up and go. I was looking for cloves, whole cloves. I've never bought cloves before. I don't have a clue where to look. I ask a lady who is working in the fresh produce section do you know where the cloves are :::blank look::: "Is that food?".....  me- ::eye roll::: walk off. oh brother... i found them on the spice aisle..no thanks to the great employees of wal-mart. 


I'm still trying to find a hotel for our anniversary. We decided that we are going to go to the Tampa Aquarium & do the Shark Feeding + see everything else at the aquarium. We are also going to stay Saturday night in a hotel. This is MUCH more then I was originally planning. But Chris was planning something WAY larger then this... but we talked about it and we can't justify spending as much as he was planning on spending when we are trying so hard to save for our down payment.  I am still really excited. I absolutely love aquariums/Sea World. I've never been to Tampa, and it's one of the top 10 aquariums to go to. I'm just excited. I can't believe it's already been a whole year. goodness, how time flies!

Into the double digits!

Today was my first double digit run. I ran 10.2 miles; whew it was kinda hard. The first 5 miles seemed SO slow to me, but in actuality I was running a 9 min mile.. but gosh it just seemed so slow. I forgot my Garmin so I couldn't really tell where we were at until we saw the markings on the ground. (this trail has the mileage carved into the trail).. from 4 to 5.1 miles seemed to take the longest, i was getting very frustrated. I was ready to turn around, but I kept pushing because I wanted to get 10miles in today. We finally reached 5.1miles and I stopped, had a power gel (BLECH!!! it was tangerine , nasty)...The 5 miles back was tough as well. There was a strong wind pushing against me the whole time. It took me an hour to get back, and it was only a 45 min run the first 5mi. ugh. My right knee was really bothering me. I kept getting the feeling that it was going to give out at any second, so i kept slowing down my pace, and then speeding back up. I was so happy to see the truck =)  

All and all it was a good run. I mean it was my first 10mi run. My total mileage for the week was 27miles..which is by far the most miles i've run in one week. I'm also thinking this may be why my knees are also bothering me.

In other news: Our 1 year anniversary is in 2wks. Holy crap~