More Grilling

and a confession.

First the grilling. One of my favorite summertime meals - spiedies.

While PhillyGuy manned the grill, I chopped up a bunch of brussels sprouts and half a sweet onion, tossed with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper.

While those roasted up, I made myself a fairly simple salad.



Romaine, red pepper, cucumber, and some olives mixed with chunks of feta and an olive oil/vinegar mixture that I picked up at the grocery store. Since I didn't bring my favorite vinegar to make a salad dressing, I relied on the oil from the olive mix to flavor the salad - which it did just fine.

I topped my salad with a bunch of spiedies.



For those unfamiliar, these are an upstate New York (well, Binghamton area - which is really not at all "upstate") tradition. It's just marinated chunks of chicken breast, but I can't quite replicate the marinade at home, so we stock up like crazy whenever we visit PhillyGuy's parents.

And now the confession.

This entire vacation, I've been scared to run.

This is kind of embarrassing. I brought plenty of workout clothes. Duck has a great path running along the main drag which is perfectly shady in the mornings. I have my shoes. I have my industrial-strength sports bras. My knee hasn't been bothering me at all, and I've been routinely running a couple times a week - not much, maybe 3-4 miles of intervals or repeats at a pop, but still.

Every day on vacation, I've told myself that I am going to start the day with a run. A short one or a long one, it didn't matter - I intentionally left my Garmin at home, figuring it would be a nice break to just put on my shoes and GO without worrying about time or distance.

And every day, I get nervous and make an excuse as to why it's not a good day for a run. Why am I nervous? I honestly don't know. I usually don't feel like going right away when I wake up, and then later in the day, when I DO feel like going, I talk myself out of it, rationalizing that it's gotten sunny and hot(ter), or that my husband wants to hang out. As if I couldn't even do 30 minutes or so, or as if 75 degrees is unbearably hot for a run.

I don't get this at all. I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself, and hoping that I just snap out of it in a couple of hours or days or whatever. But I don't like this feeling, at ALL.

Whew. Got that out. Now to enjoy our last day of vacation.

Sounds Familiar

Hmm.

I feel like history might be repeating itself.

Last year, when I signed up for Broad Street after months of successful and pain-free running, my knee started bothering me that very same day.

This year, when I signed up for Broad Street after even MORE consecutive months of successful and pain-free running (including a half marathon, dammit), and after making a public announcement about an ambitious goal, my knee started bothering me. This time, it had the decency to wait a couple of days.

Monday I hopped on the treadmill, eager to bust out my first three-mile "official" training run. I planned for three easy, steady-state miles. I actually spent hours psyching myself up, since I don't know when the last time I ran for thirty minutes on the treadmill at the same pace was...my hamster-wheel syndrome has left me doing lots and lots of intervals lately.

So color me shocked when my biggest challenge wasn't some kind of mental game. Nope. It was the twinge directly beneath my right kneecap that I haven't felt in months now. I kept going for a few minutes, since sometimes I get a little tiny pain that goes away after the first quarter mile or so.

But nope. So I fought back tears, hopped on the stupid recumbent bike, and felt sorry for myself for the next 40 minutes or so.

So what have I been doing (besides, of course, trying not to panic or overreact)? Quad-strengthening exercises from my PT last year. Elliptical and recumbent bike. P90X strength stuff. I'm going to try my damnedest to be patient, because even if I have to wait until February to start really training, I still have plenty of time to work on my speed.

In the meantime...I'll keep making lots of eggs.

With broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, salsa, hot sauce and cheese.

I'll keep working on my first knitting projects.

Scarf...

...and hat...

...the products of the beginner's knitting class that Sabrina and I are taking at Loop Yarn at 19th and South.

And I'll drink out of the cute new pink water bottle I bought myself today for no reason whatsoever.

And for now, I'll get ready to make dinner with PhillyGuy and snuggle with the sleepiest puppy in the world.

Life's rough.

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!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

So when you spend the weekend hosting a party and cooking up a storm, you don't really feel much like grocery shopping. Or, well, if you're me, you don't. So I spent the week eating leftovers. Leftover Trader Joe's vegan meatballs, leftover black olives from the chili toppings, and leftover tortilla chips from the gargantuan Costco bag.

I mixed in some baby spinach and dubbed it "vegan meatball nachos." Honestly? not so bad.

This morning, Stephanie and I had a running date to do ten miles. When I woke up, though, my right foot hurt. BAD. I couldn't really put weight on it when I stepped out of bed. I walked the dogs, hoping it would start to warm up and I'd be fine. No dice - I limped the whole time. So, I called Stephanie to bail on our date.

I'm hoping that a day of rest fixes things. I'm very sore on the side of my ankle/heel, and have no idea why. I'm planning to get up and run tomorrow morning. I'm not happy about this, and I'm frustrated and will probably post about this later this week.

For now, I'd like to show you how I spent my morning.

I've been giving this lil' guy quite the workout lately.

I was inspired by Heather's post earlier this week. Pumpkin cinnamon buns? Seriously? Bring it. BRING IT. Especially this morning, when I was up and chipper, and it was 7:30 and my plans for the next few hours had been kind of blown. Since I didn't have many of the ingredients on hand (spelt and whole wheat flours, etc), I googled around for an alternative recipe, and ended up with this guy.

Rolled out, after the first rise:

Filling ingredients:

Spread over the softened butter and pumpkin dough.

All rolled up.

And ready for the second rise.

Are you doubled in size? Who can tell? It's been a good amount of time, so you're going in the oven, period.

Oh. Wow. Hello there.

Yes, I think it's important to slather you with as much cream cheese frosting as humanly possible.

GAAAAAAAAH.

Now, the only problem is that I have fifteen of these suckers left. But I guess, in the grand scheme of things, it's not a bad problem to have. Who wants to come over and finish these off?

GAH!

Too long since I've posted!

Let's start with the bad news. That I've already gone sort-of-public with, on Twitter, and I've known in my heart for a while.

I'm not running the Distance Run this weekend.

I'm very unhappy about it, but the fact is, I let my emotions get the better of me and neglected my training far too much over the month of August. Could I fake it? Probably. But I might actually hurt myself, and I know I'd be disappointed with my performance. I know myself, and the last thing I need is to spend 13 miles ragging on myself for failing to train.

The good news? I still get to hang out with a bunch of blogheads coming into town this weekend for the race!

The BETTER news? The (inadequate) amount of training that I DID do leaves me in a good place. My knee is OK, my endurance is OK, and I'm ready to start training for the Philly Half in November, which I just registered for!

On to the fun stuff. It's been a while since I've posted. Part of it is that this has been an insane week at work, and I just haven't had time. Part of it (the BETTER part) is that it was an equally insane weekend - but I was too busy HAVING FUN. Saturday we made an impromptu decision to have some of my siblings over to watch the Penn State game and make dinner. Sunday we hung out with some friends from law school who I haven't seen in forever. Add to that the cleaning and house-prepping, and the gym-ing and grocery shopping, and BAM! that's a full and fun weekend.

Last Friday (god, has it seriously been that long?) PhillyGuy and I went out to celebrate our anniversary. Yup - Monday marked two.freakin'.years since we got all dolled up and said "yup, you're the one" in front of our friends and family.



To celebrate, PhillyGuy made us reservations at R2L, a restaurant at the top of Two Liberty. We started with a drink at the bar while they got our table ready -- and he managed to snag us a very private, corner table that looked out over the Western part of the city.





Frankly, I expected this place to be decent food and all ambiance. I was blown AWAY - it far exceeded my expectations. We started with a braided loaf of pretzel bread while we perused our menus.



Appetizers were bacon-wrapped scallop potstickers and crisp cheese risotto.



Risotto balls might be up there with the greatest decadent treat inventions.





We split a bottle of wine with dinner. After seeing Murphy-Goode Liar's Dice zinfandel on Jenna's blog so many times, I was very excited to see it on the wine list. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the world's worst picture of a delicious bottle of wine:



PhillyGuy also had french onion soup. The presentation was fun, but the soup itself was pretty "meh."



We also split two entrees. The veal, served five ways - including a meatloaf, a brisket, tenderloin, sweetbread and a gravy - tossed with potatoes:



and the halibut, seared and served over a smoky corn salad:



Un.Be.Lieve.Able. I can't pick a favorite, but I guess I'm leaning towards the halibut? Or maybe the veal? Or the risotto...GAH I DON'T KNOW.

I ended with a cappuccino, and we shared two dessert plates.



I love artistic foam! Beignets (which were actually a variety of fried pastries, including donuts, beignets, and an apple fritter) and a trio of dipping sauces:



and the "Cinnamon Toast Crunch." you had me at "donut ice cream."



I would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this place for a swanky night out. The view was amazing, the ambiance was fun (if a little slick), but the food far surpassed my expectations.



Oh, and just in case you were wondering what we did on our ACTUAL anniversary?

Sweet Lucy's BBQ in the northeast.





I may love me some sweetbreads and cappuccino, but ribs and messy, vinegary Carolina BBQ sauce is where it's REALLY at for me.

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?

Upstate NY 1, PhillyGirl 0

PhillyGuy and I spent the weekend in his hometown up in upstate New York.

Road trippin' puppies. This is how Sophie likes to ride:

Checking everything out.

Some of PhillyGuy's friends from high school were tying the knot - high school sweethearts who have been dating FOR.E.VER. The wedding was outside at a beautiful location next to the river...in the direct sunlight. I know I was quite toasty - I felt so bad for all the guys in their suits & ties, and I just can't fathom how hot the bride must have been in her gorgeous -- but HEAVY! -- gown.

Ridiculously fun? They had a caricature artist at the reception. I insisted that PhillyGuy and I get ours done. The finished product:

Um, meet my husband, Rick Moranis. You may know him from such films as "Ghostbusters" and "Little Shop of Horrors."

This morning, I laced up my shoes and headed out for a five mile run. The temperature was in the low to mid-70s, which is definitely the coolest it's been in a while. I was feeling pretty good...for the first quarter mile or so. After that, a combination of the hills, the humidity and my general dehydration started to kick in, and I was struggling. HARD.

My usual route at PhillyGuy's parents' house is a loop that's just over four miles and super easy. Run up his street, hang a right, follow that road around in a big loop down main street and past a golf course, hang another right and generally cruise in home. Even though there's a LOT more incline in his town than what I'm used to here in Philly, it's not so bad - there's basically one climb from about mile 1.5 to 2.5, and then I end with a good .6 mile downhill that cruises into a flat stretch for the last quarter mile to his house. I headed out to do that route, plus a jag down his grandparents' street and back up for an extra mile.

And then...blech. That extra mile. The first half mile was either downhill or flat, but turning around and heading back left me struggling up a LONG hill. It was rough -- I was bargaining with myself the entire way back up just to keep from stopping to walk. At the top of the hill, around 2.16 miles, I had to stop and stretch and catch my breath. I had serious cottonmouth and the humidity left me feeling like I was swimming. The idea of continuing on my route -- another half mile or so of straight uphill -- was just unbearable.

So, I swallowed my pride and turned around to run back. Altogether I covered 3.25 miles in about 32 minutes, and struggled the.whole.freakin.time. Splits:

Mile 1: 9:39

Mile 2: 9:59

Mile 3: 10:07

.25 nub: 2:17

It feels good to be home - I'm chilling on the couch watching Kourtney & Khloe while Cosmo naps next to me. How was your weekend?

Absent Blogger

Yeah, I'm on vacation. That's what I've been doing. Vacationing.

Lots of sleeping in. Walking and playing with the puppies. Some shopping. Today, we spent the day at Great Adventure riding rollercoasters. PhillyGuy spent $15 on one of those "throw the softball in the milk can" games trying to win an oversized stuffed dog, with the goal of bringing it home and watching Sophie wig out.

But guess what?

I'm injured again.

Something during my six-miler on Sunday must have irritated something, somewhere. And I'm feeling it deep, deep in my lower back/left hip. Nothing on Runners World seems to match where and how I'm feeling it. It was kind of "eh" yesterday, so I skipped my scheduled easy two-miler, and PhillyGuy and I did Yoga X in the living room instead.

Bad idea. Something in all of those "haha look how long I can make you hold warrior poses and runner's pose!" really tweaked whatever it is that I screwed up on my run, and it was much, much, MUCH worse. I took some tylenol and limped around the house -- every time I took a step or shifted my weight, I grimaced.

It wasn't quite AS bad today, but I was definitely walking with a little bit of a limp around the park. Walking didn't make it better or worse. Massage doesn't help -- it's not a muscular pain.

I made a helpful diagram:



Very realistic, huh?

So...I'm going to do what I usually do. Which is cross my fingers that when I wake up tomorrow, it's magically all better, so I can do my planned mile repeats. I guess the smart alternative would be to go to the goddamn doctor, AGAIN, and ACTUALLY GO to physical therapy.

Blech.

For now, I'm just going to sit here watching the Flyers.

Dream Theater

First of all:



I cannot put into words how much I love my commute. I walk 1.17 miles (according to my Garmin -- I ran it one day because I was curious) through some of the prettiest neighborhoods in the city. Even when it's cold and not-so-gorgeous, I look forward to my 15 or 20 minutes of peacefulness. And on mornings like today, when it's mid-60s and sunny? I get ridiculously, ridiculously excited about it.

What really kills me, though? For some reason, I was wide awake at about 4:55 this morning. I flipped on the news and sat there for a minute, petting my dogs and generally thinking how awesome it was that I had a whole hour before my alarm was going to go off.

(Not that I get up when my alarm goes off. Since at least high school, I've been setting my alarm for 20-30 minutes before I actually need to be out of bed so that I can hit the snooze button a few times first. Don't ask me how I started that habit, but it's just how I roll.)

And then, I was like "WAIT A MINUTE, PHILLYGIRL. You have all this extra time. You're not tired. You're awake. Let's get out of bed and go for a run!" I was very pleased with myself. The sun was coming up, but I'd still be able to watch it rise. I'd put my Garmin out on the balcony to catch a signal while I got dressed. And I'd be able to start my day knowing I'd gotten in a good 5 or 6 miles.

Know what happened then? I must have fallen back to sleep mid-thought, because I DREAMED that I got out of bed, got dressed (I even dreamed that I was down to my one gray pair of lululemon wunder under crops and that all the black ones were in the laundry!), and got out the door. I even dreamed that my Garmin picked up a signal immediately (which should have been a sure sign that this was not reality, since that NEVER happens). And I was off.

And the next thing I knew, my alarm was going off. It was 6:05 and I was most certainly still in bed, not rocking my Garmin or my lulu's. I wanted to kick myself.

Oh well. It would have been the perfect morning to run -- but it was also the perfect morning to walk to work with an iced coffee and flipflops and a big dumb grin because it's so freakin' gorgeous out.

Happy Friday!