Monday, August 30, 2010

Oh Monday

about five hours of sleep plus lots of this



requires lots of this



That's my second cup of coffee so far. First bottle of water.

I should be telling you all about the nine-miler that I ran yesterday. But I won't be. Because I didn't.

I stayed out JUST a touch later than I intended to on Saturday night. And drank JUST a touch more alcohol. And I stayed up just a TOUCH later, to drink plenty of water on top of the bottle of Gatorade I chugged on my walk home. (and, while we're at it, I left just a TOUCH more Facebook messages for people than I intended to leave.)

So while I didn't have a hangover yesterday, I DID sleep really late. I think it was after 9 by the time I finally woke up. By the time I walked the dogs, it was nearly 10, I had no coffee in the house, and it was already 80 degrees. No chance was I running nine miles at that point. Instead, I hightailed it to Ants Pants for an iced coffee, followed by a quick trip to the grocery store. I feasted on a bagel with cream cheese, lox and tomato from the comfort of my couch while putting together a game plan for the day.

The good? That game plan involved some MUCH NEEDED home maintenance. I scrubbed my downstairs hallway, recaulked the seal of our door that my innocent lil' puppy managed to dig out, did laundry, replaced light bulbs in a ceiling fixture, vaccuumed three flights of stairs, de-dog-furred the hardwood floors, and cleaned the bathrooms.

The bad? That game plan DID NOT involve any running or, in fact, any gym-going at all.

I think I'll try to cover the nine miles tonight. I cannot believe it's less than three weeks until the Distance Run. I still haven't decided whether to run it or not, but I'm leaning towards running it...if only for the free t-shirt.

How was your weekend? Also, Distance Run roll call? Anyone else running it?

Friday, August 27, 2010

Unphotogenic

In a word, that's me - unphotogenic. That picture I use as an avatar? It's now more than three years old. I took it (arm's length self portrait represent!) the Friday after the bar exam, at my friend's apartment during our "holy crap that was unspeakably awful but we DID IT" celebration.

In the three years-and-one-month that have passed since then, I have not taken ONE. SINGLE. PICTURE. that I think is avatar-worthy. For a long time, I used a pic from my wedding as my default facebook picture...but I feel like that's only socially acceptable for a certain amount of time. Like, a year, maybe? So now it's back to ol' Miller-Lite-hat.

But - despite not taking good pictures, I am a truly lovely person. Inside and out! The camera...well, she just doesn't see it. Maybe one day.

Know what I have a lot in common with? Indian food.



Baighan bhartha is similarly unphotogenic but beautiful.



Naan? It never looks impressive. (Particularly so when I'm just snapping a pic of it without even pretending to move the foil out of the way enough to avoid the shadow.) BUT IT IS SO SO SO SO SO DELICIOUS. I ate that entire piece.



Cosmo (he's hiding in the shadows at the bottom there) and Sophie also love Indian food - they knows beauty when they see it. (That bitch Sophie, however, is SUPER photogenic. Too cute for words.)

And in the I-don't-care-what-the-pictures-look-like category? This fabulous discovery.



So much tastier than that cupcake-that-wanted-to-be-good. I love you, DiBruno's, and your overpriced "artisan" chocolate that I can get for about $2 cheaper at any number of corner stores. Like Food & Friends at 20th & Spruce.

Despite my rumblings on twitter last night, I ended up having a short but very enjoyable run. I covered about 3.2 miles in 30 minutes, with no rhyme or reason - just doing what I felt like as it came along. That meant starting with a 9:05 mile, followed by four repeats of 90 seconds each at 8.0mph (about a 7:30 pace) interspersed with 60 seconds of walking, followed by an easy job at 6.5 for the balance of my 30 minutes. Music helped - lots and lots.

Go download "Horchata" by Vampire Weekend. My friend called them "the Talking Heads of our generation," and the more I listen the more I agree. Clearly not for everyone, but "Horchata" is catchy and has fascinating, quirky lyrics. I vote appropriate-for-workout.

Tonight, PhillyGuy and I have reservations at 10 Arts by Eric Ripert. I admit, this place is only on my radar because of Jennifer Carroll and her Top Chef fame. Normally, I'm kind of "meh" at the idea of a chef including his name in the name of the restaurant, because...well, really dude? But I've heard a lot of stuff, running the gamut between straight hype and "overhyped," and the menu...she is intriguing. So I made us a reservation.

Hoping to get out of work early today to get my nails done before tonight's dining extravaganza. I'm thinking tomorrow I'll head to King of Prussia to do a little retail therapy and perhaps find a bag that I can obsess over as much as this one:



(Dear Carlos Falchi: I love you and your overpriced $4,000 exotic, out-of-stock and out-of-reach bags.)

Happy weekend! Anyone want a 9 mile running buddy on Sunday morning?

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Cupcake

So shortly after I posted my last entry, wherein I bragged about wearing sweatpants to work...you guessed it. In rolls my boss. Even though she TOLD ME on Friday that she WASN'T COMING IN.

Oh well. No one said a word all day, so I'll just pretend that means she didn't notice I was wearing Luon.

Of course, even though she decides to come in on the day I rock my sweatpants, she took TODAY off instead. When I wore, you know, functional pants with a tab waist and zipper and made of fabric that did NOT contain 80% spandex.

Whatever.

Today, one of the big legal research powerhouses came in and hosted a "cupcake party" for us. Since it's late summer and everyone and their sister is on vacation (except me...boooo), it was a small scene. Just me and a couple of partners. I rarely have to do research, as I do mainly transactional work, and partners...well, even if they need research done, they aren't exactly the ones logging in to do it.

But I did have a specific question, so I ran in, asked it, chit-chatted with our rep, and then grabbed a cupcake on my way out.



I really, REALLY wanted to like this. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's miniature - base is probably a little larger than a standard bottle cap (soda/water/whatever; smaller than a Snapple cap). There are little sparkly bits of red sugar.

Um, but...I don't know. It's wrong. I thought it was going to be a cappucino-type flavor, and maybe it was. But all I could taste was butter. That frosting literally tasted like someone whipped a packet of Via in with a big ol' stick of butter and maybe a gallon of sugar.

Blech. Not for me. Give me my Lindt Fleur de Sel any day.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Yoga Pants at Work

Yup. I'm doing it.

What a beautiful freakin' morning it is. Sunny, low 70s, (relatively) low humidity.

What a perfect day to rock some lululemon to work.



Pretty sure this isn't in our "business casual" dress code, strictly speaking.

But I'm also pretty sure I can go the whole day without interacting with anyone in the office. Bosslady's out. My secretary is out. I haven't been working for anyone else lately. And I am flanked by empty offices.

And besides - other than the pants, I'm dressed "professionally." Cardigan, shell, pearls, watch. Hurrrrr's did. Makeup's did.



I'll be comfy all day, and no one will be the wiser.

On a more serious note...I am considering selling my bib for the Rock'n Roll Half.

I have just NOT been training properly. I do my long run on the weekends, and that's it. And it's showing.

Sure, I've been getting in my lifting and some other types of cardio (mainly the bike)...at least up until the past couple of weeks, when I hit a bit of a bump and let it get the best of me. Part of it is that it's been stinkin' hot and humid, and I've noticed that while my knee rarely bothers me during or after an outdoor run, it almost ALWAYS acts up on the treadmill. So, on hot and humid days -- which has been, um, all of them, lately -- I don't run.

And then I get out to do my long run and it's a big struggle. I always, ALWAYS feel amazing when it's done, but it's tough when your first six miles are kind of lame and you don't start to get into a groove until the last two. I go back and forth, though - I will (probably) feel better about myself if I just suck it up and race. But I might not. I might either (1) struggle for 12 of the 13 miles, only to finish with a time so slow I don't feel accomplished at all, and/or (2) actually hurt myself since I'm not in "half marathon" condition, physically.

I guess my bottom line is -- I could fake ten miles for Broad Street. I'm not so sure I can fake 13.1. And I'm not so sure I want to try.

Thoughts?

Friday, August 20, 2010

Proof

that I'm eating my veggies:



Leftovers for lunch today.

My approximation of shrimp fried rice. I stir-fried garlic, half a chopped Vidalia onion, half a package of sliced and chopped white 'shrooms, and a ton of fresh green beans together with some olive oil, a dash of sesame oil, soy sauce, and ginger. I deglazed with cooking sherry, tossed in some shrimp and let it cook for a few minutes while I microwaved a package of Uncle Ben's made some brown rice. Toss together, scramble in some eggwhites, top with fish sauce. Voila.

I'd show you last night's originals, which were (shockingly) much more photogenic...but I once again left my cardreader at home.

It's Friday blogworld! PhillyGuy and I are grilling steaks tonight at home. I'll probably make some roasted green beans/mushrooms/onions on the side...and just maybe pick up a bottle of vino on my way home.

Plans??

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Swear I'm Not Dead

I swear.

I've been in a bit of a slump lately. I've been going through some stuff in my personal life - nothing earth shattering and I'm not dying, don't worry! - but it's been taking its toll on my energy levels and motivation.

Honestly, I haven't had much inclination to blog for these past couple weeks (um, no kidding). And even if I had, what would I do? Show you pictures of me eating every carbohydrate (simple, complex, white, wheat, and chocolate chip cookie dough) known to man? Tell stories about how I haven't done any running except for my weekly long runs, and how I haven't gone to the gym more than 4 or 5 times in two weeks?

Thrilling. And not super-healthy.

It takes its toll. The last thing I felt like doing Sunday morning was getting my butt out of bed and going for a run. I did it - and I made a really big effort to fix the problems I had with last week's run, and to make this one an honest reflection of my capabilities. But...I was being hard on myself, and it showed.

I filled my camelbak with ice and Gatorade, and tossed a random Clif gel in the zipper pocket to eat at my turnaround point. Fun tunes on the iPod, Garmin on my wrist, and I was off. I made a conscious effort to keep my pace slower and as steady as possible -- I don't need to do what I've been doing and burn out before I get halfway there, right?

But my slower pace is an effort for me. My body's preferred pace naturally falls around 9:15-9:30 these days, and to take it down to 10:00 takes a conscious effort. I felt awkward and plodding. My camelbak was bouncing and I couldn't find a place to jam the spout so that it didn't snag my headphones. I couldn't seem to shake the negative thoughts. "You're too slow for a camelbak. People who run this slow don't need "fuel," they need to work harder and get better. You can't even run 8 miles today - how are you going to run a half next month? You should just drop out and forget it."

No bueno. No bueno AT ALL. I managed to shake the negativity a bit by my last couple of miles, and I did do a much better job of pushing myself through without stopping, AND of leaving the garmin on when I did stop to get a more honest look at where I am. Splits:



The fact is, though, I'm not going to get OUT of this lil' funkslump unless I just freakin' do it. I could sit around and wait until I FEEL like eating veggies, fruit & yogurt...or I could just EAT that stuff and get rid of the half a pizza that's been in my fridge since Saturday.

I did that this morning. Bye bye, dried-out pizza. (I suppose it's actually a good thing that the half-pizza sat there in the fridge, drying out, instead of me eating the rest of it Monday night.)

I could sit around and wait until I FEEL like going back to the gym and spending some QT with Tony, or I could just GO EVEN THOUGH I WOULD RATHER SIT ON THE COUCH IN MY FAVORITE SWEATPANTS.

I did that yesterday. 35 minutes of cardio (25 on the bike, 10 on the elliptical) and P90X chest/shoulders/triceps. (Note: weeks and weeks without doing a one-armed pushup will have a pretty big effect on your ability to attempt one-armed pushups. Rocky Balboa I am not.)

I could sit around and wait until I FEEL like going grocery shopping...or I could just get in the car and go.

I did that last night. Now I finally have fresh fruit again. Cherries! Peaches! And my precious Starbucks VIA. And green beans to roast with onions and mushrooms. Thus making it far, far less likely that I will either order a pizza, or walk to the corner store where I will suddenly decide it is far less work to purchase a bag of pita chips & tub of hummus for dinner.

I'm getting there. I even ate veggies for dinner TWO WHOLE NIGHTS IN A ROW. (I took pictures, too, but I forgot to bring my card reader to work.)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

No Supervision

You know...I love my job and I really love my boss. I lucked out, for sure. But I can't lie...I still love those days when I know she's not coming in.

It's not like I do anything differently, really. I guess I could. It'd be tempting to come to work in yoga pants, for example. I truly don't think anyone would notice, because when she's not here, I may not need to interact with anyone else at all, except my secretary. Who isn't going to judge me. (At least, I don't think she'd judge. And if she did, she'd still be nice to me, so whatever.)

But there is just something freeing about knowing that I don't need to get X done by Y time. Which means I can blog at 9am and not feel guilty about it.

Distance Run/Rock & Roll Half training is going...OK. I had a 7-miler this weekend, which was also my first ever run with my brand-new Camelbak. PhillyGuy was away, so I couldn't take pictures for you, but I dig it. I bought the Annadel:



Not too big, not too tiny. I filled it about 1/3 of the way the night before and laid the bladder flat in the freezer overnight. In the morning, I filled it the rest of the way with lemon-lime Gatorade. Since the ice was in a big sheet, it took longer to melt and kept my Gatorade nice and cold.

I got a later start than I wanted, and didn't hit the road until just after 9am. I ran a nice out-and-back on Kelly Drive and the Schuylhill River trail. As I was running out, I started thinking about how I should build in a cooldown period. Oh! Wouldn't it be great to make it so that I wrapped up my seven miles just as I was exiting the trail back onto Locust Street? Then I'd have a nice half-mile walk home to cool down, instead of running straight back to my house and having little to no walking time. Great! I'll just run an extra half mile out before I turn around.

Are you better at math than I am? Because I was AWFULLY surprised when I hit my 7 mile point when I was still on the trail. Not just still on the trail - I hadn't even made it to the steps at JFK/Market Streets. Oh...DUH. An extra half mile out before you turn around is NOT an extra half mile. It's an extra mile. And I am a total moron.

Oh well. I had a nice mile long walk home with the Garmin turned off. Splits:



Eh. Those splits are a little deceptive, to be completely honest with you, blogworld. I took a couple of "stretching breaks" between a few of the miles. Like between miles 2 and 3...and again at mile 3.5. And again at mile 4.5. And again at mile 5. And then I just straight up walked a bit during mile 7 - but, of course, that's actually reflected in my time. So even though my Garmin tells me I covered 7 miles in 1:08.52, it actually took me more like an hour and twenty minutes, because I paused the garmin during my stretching breaks.

I need to stop doing that. Breaks are OK, don't get me wrong -- but it's not helpful to me to look at my time and say "oooh, I did 7 miles and averaged a better-than-10-minute pace!" when, well, I didn't.

Ok. Moving on. Another side effect of my training? My poor toenail, which bruised and eventually fell off after Broad Street, has not been able to grow back properly. Brace yourselves for gross feet pics:



Oh, you poor thing. It doesn't hurt or anything, it just looks...well...busted.



I've been telling my pedicure ladies to just leave it alone. They don't seem to mind. I'm afraid to paint it, like somehow the nail polish might inhibit the regrowth process and I'll be doomed to have a busted toenail for the rest of my life.

Meh. Now, who's ready for food pictures??????

Monday dinner:



Mexican crockpot chicken. I throw mushrooms, onions and peppers (usually -- I didn't have any on hand this week) in the crockpot with a bunch of chicken breasts (frozen works too if you forget to thaw them), black and pinto beans, cumin, paprika, chili powder, salt and pepper (or a packet of taco seasoning for the really lazy), and dump a jar of salsa over the entire thing. Cook on low for 8 hours. Come home to delicious chicken that falls apart when you stir it.



I like to serve it with hot sauce, black olives, green chiles and plain Greek yogurt.

Breakfast today:



I treated myself to a delicious DiBruno's whole wheat bagel with their lox spread.



SO GOOD, even if I did have to scrape 2/3 of it off. And it took about four hundred times longer than usual, because I scraped it off and then performed surgery to dig out the lox pieces and put them back on the bagel.

I suppose I should get to work now.

Anyone want to join me for an 8-miler this weekend? Assume a 10:00 pace. And assume that I will actually run the entire time, which I generally do when I have someone with me.

Friday, August 6, 2010

OK, Really Facebook?

...REALLY?



This quick entry brought to you by the screwed up ads on my Facebook. Just did a quick 38-min yoga video from On Demand - now heading out to get bleach (since I am a total moron and ruined a whole load of white t-shirts by throwing in a NEW PAIR OF BLACK PANTS...gah), Stacy's pita chips and Bobbi's black bean hummus for a night on the couch.

...ok, REALLY?

Thursday, August 5, 2010

I'm Not Growing Up, I'm Just Burning Out

I saw my favoritefavoriteFAVORITE band ever on Tuesday night.

I love Green Day. They've been my favorite band ever since 1993 or so. They've gotten me through some tough times and some great times.



I'm emotionally tied to it all, and seeing them is always a crazy nostalgic experience for me. Every album (and really, every song) is tied to a different period in my life. I can't hear anything from American Idiot without being transported back to my very first semester of law school, and all of the insane and overwhelming feelings that came with it. "Nice Guys Finish Last" is one of the songs I played during the Bar Olympics back in 2002 or 2003, when I took 2nd place flipping bottles around and pretending to be Tom Cruise.



(I think they're on stage here, and I'm jumping and screaming and trying not to spill my vat of beer.)

I played "Waiting" pretty much on repeat while I was studying for the bar exam and waiting (heh) for my "real life" to begin. Perhaps it goes without saying that "Basket Case" and "Longview" and everything else from Dookie makes me feel like I'm still in seventh grade at a dance in my Catholic school's auditorium/gymnasium/cafeteria. And let's not even get into how many songs are on my running playlists. There is no better song for that (awfulAWFUL) kick at the end of a 5K than "Playtpus" (to be quite frank, this song expresses pretty perfectly how I feel about running 5Ks, actually).

The other highlight of my week has been this.



Dark chocolate. Bacon. Possibly my two favorite foods. Combined. I'm dead. Dead dead dead dead.

I haven't worked out this week yet. But I will. I swear.