REDEMPTION

thank god.

I was up early(ish) yesterday, and had plenty of time before crossfit to make breakfast. Of course, I didn't have much in the way of, you know, breakfast food. I knew I wanted eggs.

Delicious, over-easy eggs.

I improvised while the eggs were frying and ended up heating up the last of a rotisserie chicken I had pulled apart over the last week, dumping the eggs on top, pouring on a bunch of corn and black bean salsa, and mixing everything together.

At the last minute, I threw a handful of grape tomatoes on the side and called it good.

So, my fifth On Ramp class was at 11am yesterday. I was feeling a little disheartened after Thursday's pullup disaster, so I was happy to see that the WOD focused on a couple of (what I thought were) my strengths: short runs and deadlifts. My legs are definitely stronger than my upper body.

And halfway through the skillwork, I got to hear the eight most beautiful words in the english language:

"You're gonna be really good at this lift."

Skillwork was to build up to an easy set of three deadlifts, and then take it down by half for the WOD. We started to run out of time, but based on how my last three at 95lbs felt, I think I'd have been easily able to do 135lbs for the easy set of three. My form was good and I felt strong - which was so, SO refreshing after hanging there helplessly like a fish on the pullup bar the other day.

WOD was fabulous. Three rounds for time of "the short run" - a loop around the block that I estimate to be about .17~ish miles (not sure - definitely more than a tenth but less than a quarter mile) followed by 10 deadlifts. I lifted 95lbs for the WOD. Looking back, I could probably have pushed myself more on the runs - my hamstrings were burning on the last two - but I finished sweating and feeling good in 6:07.

Post-crossfit refreshment:

I felt completely redeemed in that class and I can't wait to go back. Yay crossfit.

Like the other night, I came home starving and craving something cool and refreshing. I threw together a quick salad with the last of what I had in the fridge - cucumber, tomatoes, olives and peppers, with some feta cheese.

Topped with my last two salmon burgers. Time to go back to Costco.

How's your weekend?

Bitter, Party of One

Most mornings I make my first cup of coffee at home and drink it on my way to work. Within 30 minutes of getting to the office, I'm ready for cup number two, so I head down to DiBruno's for the most delicious iced coffee I know of. I get at least one cup a day, sometimes a second one mid-afternoon, so the baristas know me and get my large iced coffee ready while I'm in line, so it's sitting there for me when I get up to the register.

I've lamented before the fact that DiBruno's hasn't jumped onto the bucket-o-beverage bandwagon with most American chains. The largest size they offer is a (very reasonable) sixteen ounces. Some days, that's plenty. Most days, I suck it down instantly and wish I had four more waiting for me. I could get an extra-large 20 (or 30 or 40 or whatever) ounce iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, but...it's just gross. It's weak, kind of flavorless and sort of reminds me of dishwater.

Well, this morning, I didn't make my coffee at home. I figured I'd head straight to DiBruno's instead. And much to my disappointment, they were out of large cold cups...so I was stuck with twelve measly ounces.

Let's say it didn't last long. And that I'm glad Starbucks is on the bucket-o-beverage bandwagon.


DiBruno's may as well have given me a shot of coffee.

It's no secret that work has been pretty stressful for me recently. Lots of hours, but also a huge sense of urgency where everything has to be done NOWNOWNOWNOWNOW - which does great things to my blood pressure, I'm sure. I've been trying to force myself to the gym, even if it's only for a half hour or so just to get a good sweat, because it really does help.

Yesterday, all I wanted was to run. Work and related obligations had kept me out of the gym for three days, so I was starting to get a little stir-crazy. But naturally, my knee was bugging me for most of the day.

And I just start to get bitter. I see people on the treadmill and I get consumed with jealousy, and let me tell you, it ain't pretty. "OH, it must be NICE to be able to RUN WITHOUT KNEE PAIN. You're not so great. I could do that too if my knees didn't hurt." I even get bitter towards people who DON'T have knee pain but choose not to run, like they're somehow obligated to engage in that particular high-impact activity just because their patellas are in the right place all the time.

Most of the time, that bitterness subsides once I get moving doing whatever it is I end up doing instead of running - whether it's yoga or hill intervals on the bike or just lots of [relatively] heavy lifting. I recognize that it's not rational, but I just can't help it sometimes.

Lucky for me, last night my knees actually behaved just fine while I was running. I ran about 1.2 miles in ten minutes, increasing my speed from 6.5 to 7.0 to 7.5 as I went. I probably could have gone farther, but given the pain I'd been having earlier in the day, I didn't want to push my luck. And happily for me, that was all I needed - it was enough to get me started on sweating, enough to get my heartrate up, and enough of a start that I didn't have any trouble keeping my heartrate up when I moved over to the bike for another 20 minutes. I wrapped it up with P90X chest, shoulders & triceps (I don't really care for this workout - too many weird moves), and returned home a much happier Chrissey.

I love endorphins. I also love that it's Friday. Plans for the weekend?

Distracted

I have been incredibly distracted this week.

Especially yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I did plenty of work...but I'm WAY OVER one particular deal that I feel like I've been working on for ages, and it's been taking its toll on me. I did more than a little bit of Google-reader-stalking and twitter-refreshing.

I also spent about half the day fantasizing about the dinner I was going to make. See, I think I mentioned yesterday that the only groceries we really have in the house are frozen chicken and a giant Costco-sized bag of broccoli florets. For some reason, I became obsessed with the idea of making broccoli with pasta sauce. And I mean OBSESSED.

I went home, walked and fed the pups, made a new playlist and hit the gym for a sweaty and somewhat painful half-hour on the treadmill...while thinking about the broccoli that was to come. I did three miles of half-mile repeats at 7.5mph, with recovery at 6.0mph, totaling about 26 minutes and some change. I was a red-faced sweaty beast, but I was happy. And during my cooldown and stretching, I just could NOT stop thinking about my broccoli pasta. And how I could post about it.

So, I made my dinner. I steamed up a buttload of broccoli, drained off the salted water and added a chopped onion. While that was sauteeing together, I sliced up a few chicken breasts, seasoned with garlic, onion, salt, and Mrs. Dash tomato basil pepper. Dump in the chicken, stir to sear on all sides, dump in jar of whatever marinara-style sauce I had handy, bring to boil, simmer, done.

And yet...you'll notice that there are no pictures. Of anything. No pictures of the bright green broccoli, no pictures of my finished bowl (I served my portion of the broccoli-chicken-sauce conglomerate over a couple handfuls of baby spinach and topped the whole thing with a couple shaves of sharp provolone and some grated Locatelli), nothing.

I haven't blogged a dinner in...I don't know, a long time...and yet I couldn't even remember to pick up my stupid camera to document my broccoli bowl. Told you I was distracted.

But it's okay. The longest week ever is coming to a close. I have my iced coffee (though I need a second one this morning, I think), I have my Fage 0, and I have a growing checklist of things to do today that don't involve much human interaction...so I'm happy. PhillyGuy and I are probably going to dinner tonight...maybe Pub & Kitchen, where we haven't been in ages? Maybe Resurrection Ale House, where we go ALL.THE.TIME. (but it's so tasty!).

Or maybe we'll stay home and I'll drink wine and wear sweatpants. The possibilities are endless.

Happy friday!

More Soup

Um, yeah, I made soup again.

It's been cold lately. Very cold. And I had a bunch of carrots and celery left over from the last time I made soup.

And PhillyGuy was insistent that I make it the EXACT same way I did last week.

So I did.

He tops his with tons of Locatelli.

I prefer mine straight, and poured over a handful or two of fresh baby spinach.

In the meantime, I've been running again - much, much shorter distances, but I've been working on trying to build up at least a LITTLE speed again.

Tonight, all I wanted to do was sweat, and I didn't care how. This meant that I ended up running a very random three miles:

.75 at 6.5mph

.25 at 7.0mph (I started itching to run a little faster)

.25 at 6.0mph (I slowed down thinking I'd start doing short and fast intervals...)

.25 at 7.5mph (...but then I decided otherwise)

repeat 6.0/7.5mph intervals for a total of three miles, with a pickup during the last .25 so that I ended the interval at 8.0mph

Altogether, I covered three miles in 27 minutes exactly before slowing it down to walk for the next three minutes. The gym was packed tonight, and I like to be considerate of that whole "keep your cardio to 30 minutes" rule (even though I'm pretty sure NO ONE else does...my college gym had that "rule" and no one enforced it, and I remember how frustrating it was to be sitting there like an idiot waiting for a treadmill).

Sophie has been a little stinky lately, so I gave her a bath tonight after the gym.

She's pretty good about bathtime - she doesn't love it, but she doesn't fight it, either. She just kind of gives up and submits, standing there like a pathetic little drowned rat while you scrub her. And then it's time to get out and shake off.

And that's when she gets what I call "the bathtime zoomies."

Apparently, getting wet makes her a little nutty.

No Crusts Please

PhillyGuy and I hit the gym tonight together for the first time in a long time to do some cardio. I was in the mood to do some intervals, so I did:

- easy 2 mile warmup at 6.0mph

- 8 intervals: 60 seconds at 8.0, 60 seconds recovery walk at 3.8

- easy cooldown at 6.5mph for the last .4 miles or so

I had intended to do five miles, but PhillyGuy finished up before I did and I didn't want to make him wait, so I cut it short at 4 miles. It was a REALLY good run - I never felt bored or tired. The warmup was easy but felt good and didn't drag. The 8.0 stretches felt strong and I recovered quickly.

Afterwards, we got some takeout. I didn't feel up to grocery shopping last weekend, after Thanksgiving, so we were completely out of vegetables by the time this weekend rolled around. Enter the veggie stromboli:

Ever since I was a kid, I've hated crusts. On anything. Bread, baked goods, whatever. I even eat the middle and leave the edges of cookies. So when I eat something like a stromboli, it ends up looking like this:

Pile of crusts on the side.

Scavenged crust left on the bottom, after I've eaten all the veggies, most of the cheese, and ripped out the soft doughy bits from the outer crust.

I don't think I'll ever understand why my parents were so adamant that I should eat my crusts. "They'll make your hair curly!" they used to say. Liars! My hair is not curly, there are no nutrients in the crusts or anything like that...I just don't get it.

What lies did your parents tell you to try to get you to eat stuff?

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

So PhillyGuy and I successfully hosted our first (albeit miniature) Thanksgiving. Thanks to some faithful bloggers and my personal favorite food nerd, Alton Brown, the menu was fantastic. I brined my eleven-pound turkey and cooked it perfectly. I made pumpkin scones for everyone for breakfast. I even got to use our wedding china for the first time.

(Incidentally, I always thought we got five sets from various people. Turns out I should have opened the boxes. Truth: we got four place settings and one set of four soup bowls.)

Anyway...the sad thing? I did not get to document ANY of my culinary prowess. Because I left my f&%^$ng memory card AND card reader at work. Fat lot of good a camera with no memory does.

BUT.

I remembered to bring it home today, because I was super-freakin-pumped to show you what PhillyGuy and I spent Saturday night doing: DECKING THE HALLS.

I love, love, LOVE decorating for Christmas. I forced him to watch Love Actually, I drank Trader Joe's Candy Cane green tea, and I Christmas-ified the house.

(Editor's note: I uploaded and posted this picture before I realized PhillyGuy's creepy foot snuck in there, and I'm far too lazy to take another one...so, sorry about that. Have some colored lights to make up for it.)

Best part? Tonight, after I came back from the gym - and MAN, did I ever work up a sweat - two miles in under 18 minutes for the first time in for-flipping-ever, followed by P90X chest & back - I got to hang out on the couch, lights off, reading on my new Nook Color by Christmas-tree-light.

It's okay - I don't mind being a nerd.

Short and Sweet

Yeah, I have like seven posts backed up in my brain. And no time to sit down and write out any of them. IMPORTANT QUESTION AT THE END!

Quickie:

Last week I intended to run my last LONG training run. I planned to do twelve miles. We spent the weekend helping my mom move, so I pushed the run until Tuesday.

And then Tuesday I was crabby and not feeling it. I headed out solo. I dressed too warmly. My camelbak was annoying me. I was really bored and distracted - and not the GOOD kind of distracted. I started playing games with myself. "Self," I said around mile five, "you don't have to run steady miles. Let's do intervals!" So I'd run a quicker half-mile, then walk for a tenth of a mile, and then repeat.

And then I decided that enough was enough and I didn't need to do twelve miles. So I did nine instead.



Whatever. Mental stamina...I does not have it. I hit nine right after the end of the river trail, and then walked the .37 miles to the little grocery store by my house before remembering to turn the Garmin off.

Stephanie and I met up for our last long run this weekend and knocked out 7.5 miles along parts of the race route, which I swear to god I will post about sometime before the actual race.

In the meantime:

Does anyone want to plan to run the half this weekend as a group? As I told Stephanie this weekend, my (somewhat lofty) goal is to average ten-minute miles. My other, more realistic goal is to finish without crawling or dying. Anyone who wants to join the cause is more than welcome - I do far, far better when I run with friends.

LESS THAN A WEEK TIL MY FIRST HALF!

Quickie

This has to be a quick post, since I have a very exciting day. Even though I'm a fourth-year associate, I'm still the most junior person in my office...which starts to suck after a while, because there's no one for me to pass off work to. Until now. One of our nearby offices has a first-year associate who (miraculously) wants to do bankruptcy work, and BOY do I have plenty of it. So, he's coming into the city today to hang out, meet Bosslady and I, and -- most importantly -- grab some assignments from me.

I feel like dancing! But instead I need to pull stuff together to give to him. So that means a very quick weekend recap.

I started Saturday with a great nine-miler with Claudia from Sunrise & Cherries. I love meeting new running buddies, and it's a big bonus when we're running the same pace. We hit up the Schuylhill trail and knocked out nine miles on the Art Museum loop in about 1:32, chatting the entire time.

And good thing, too, because I proceeded to spend the next several hours doing this:











And preparing all kinds of appetizers. Here's the initial spread:



Please see cameos by what I've dubbed "OhSheGlows Canadian Hockey Nuts," and pumpkin pie dip inspired by Caitlin. Everyone raved - there was a lot of "Wait, did you actually MAKE this?" which I'm going to go ahead and take as a compliment.

(Please also see cameos by my husband's harmonica, which he uses to entertain the dogs, and my nacho hat, which was a wedding gift from my stepmother. My sister and I each got one. They are heirlooms.)

No pictures of the rest of the eats, though, since I was too busy, you know, eating and setting up and hosting and generally hanging out. I refilled all of the dips several times, and eventually let everyone loose on the chili and meatball sandwiches. Despite my certainty that I'd made an embarassing quantity of food, there were barely any leftovers. I made FOUR PACKAGES of Trader Joe's meatless meatballs, and threw almost four pounds of ground turkey in the chili...and somehow, almost all of it went. My excessiveness has been reinforced.

It should come as no surprise that I spent most of Sunday decked out in my finest:



It was a tossup between my Phillies sweats and my Eagles sweats. Eagles won out only because they're new, and there is NOTHING in the world quite like brand-new super-soft fleece. Apparently, I made the right choice, since the Phils swept even WITHOUT my pants' support.

How was your weekend?

Friday Night Adventures

Adventures in baking, that is.

But first. Sometimes, there's only one thing you need at the end of a long week.



Okay...maybe two things.





After enjoying some Murphy-Goode pinot noir and a couple pieces of Lazaros - my favorite delivery pizza in the city! They do some crazy magic that makes the crust juuuuust right, the sauce is sweet but not too sweet...I love it! - I got down to business.

REAL business. The key ingredient in Friday night's baking adventures was...



BACON.

Yeah, I went there. I made bacon chocolate cupcakes with homemade caramel buttercream icing. I used Scrumptious Photography's recipe - no adaptations at all. Except that I made a half batch, which should have yielded 12 cupcakes rather than 24...but it actually ended up yielding 16.

I started with the cupcakes. Melt together your chocolate and butter. I used the metal bowl of my mixer as a double boiler:



Stir in your sugar:



While the chocolate cools, whisk together your dry ingredients and chop your super-crispy bacon.





After adding your eggs, one at a time, to the chocolate, it's time to stir in the dry.



And then your secret ingredient - fold in most of the chopped bacon. I say "most" because I decided to reserve a bit to use as topping/decoration for the cupcakes...couldn't tell you how much.



Once it's all just incorporated, fill cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.



While the cupcakes are baking, start the icing. By, you know, MAKING YOUR OWN CARAMEL.



I MADE MY OWN CARAMEL, BITCHES! Honestly, I think you'd do just fine using store-bought caramel topping, but making your own is surprisingly easy. And then you get to say "I MADE MY OWN CARAMEL BITCHES!"

This is what FOUR STICKS of butter looks like beaten in with eggwhites and sugar.



And then it's time to switch to your paddle attachment to blend in your HOMEMADE CARAMEL!





MAN, this frosting is delicious. I mean, wow.

Now, my decorating skillz are...shall we say...amateur. But for having never made cupcakes before? Ever? Let alone making them from scratch and making the icing from scratch and using an icing tip for the first time in my life?



I can deal.





Thank goodness Stephanie and I had a running date this morning. I only ate a couple bites of cupcake, but way more than my fair share of frosting and batter while I baked :) We braved the Kelly Drive/West River Drive/Art Museum loop, despite yesterday's insane flooding, and covered 8 miles in about 1:25.



Busy day - time to go get my haircut, hang with some great bloggy friends for a fun event at Sabrina's, and then out to the 'burbs for a "Diaper BBQ." Some of my bacon cupcakes might make the trip out with me...