Is this Thing On?

I took a bit of a break from blogging.

Partially because work was making me nutty, but mostly because I just wasn't feeling it. And I didn't want to post for the sake of posting.

I've been doing a lot of this:

- Lifting 2-3 days a week (always a two-day upper body split, either back/biceps and shoulders/chest/triceps, OR back/chest and shoulders/biceps/triceps, and I've been trying to add in a day of legs as well)

- Running 1-2 days a week (shorter intervals - anywhere from 2-4 miles, always with a half-mile warmup followed up some sequence of intervals, ranging from half-mile repeats to shorter, faster intervals to pyramid-type speed buildups)

- Other cardio, typically the recumbent bike on the "random" program, 2 days a week

- Hot yoga once a week

Eats have been boring but generally good for me. As I've mentioned before, I don't mind eating the exact.same.thing.all.the.time. So it's been plenty of grilled meats and roasted veggies, and plenty of plain Fage 0 and berries, and about once a week I make a grilled cheese using two pieces of fat free cheese, one piece of whatever amazing full fat cheese we have around (usually some type of sharp cheddar) and ham, and top that with an over-easy egg. That's my go-to dinner the night PhillyGuy has class.

We got in around 9pm last night from a couple days in Vegas. We were out there for a friend's wedding and make an extended weekend vacation out of it. I had booked myself a 10am hot yoga class this morning, but decided after waking up to switch it to 4pm so that I could spend more time with these guys:

(Cosmo is not ready to get up yet, either. We went for our usual morning walk and he immediately jumped back into bed afterwards. I tried to take his picture and Sophie was like "HEY MA! WHAT ABOUT ME!")

uh...hi

yeah. I guess if there's one thing I do consistently, it's "fall off the face of the earth."

I mean, it's not really falling off the face of the earth, though. I still tweet. And I definitely read everyone's blogs. But yeah. I get busy at work, I can't spare enough time first thing in the morning to put together an entry, and then I can't seem to scrape up the energy to do it when I get home at night.

BAH. Regardless, here's what I've been up to:

A couple months ago, Leslie posted on Twitter about a fabulous LivingSocial deal - $25 for five classes at Philly Power Yoga. I bought my pass and then immediately started stressing about it. I was more than a little anxious - I'm a casual yogi, if there is such a thing. I love yoga, but I can go weeks or month(s) at a time without practicing - and when I do practice, it's usually the P90X yoga DVD, which is vinyasa-style, but with more of a focus on fitness than on proper form and meditation.

When I think hot yoga, I think "real yogis." Whatever that means. I start picturing a room full of skinny, ripped experts in lululemon hot shorts with high quality mats - not the $24.99 nike special I picked up at CitySports, or even the Wunder Under crops I've made my uniform, being that I'm not particularly comfortable in anything spandex that stops anywhere above my knee a the moment.

Frankly, I was too busy being intimidated by my imagination that I wasted a LOT of time that I could have been practicing the best yoga ever.

I finally bit the bullet and just WENT one Saturday a couple weeks ago, and I was instantly hooked. I'm pretty sure I didn't even sweat that much during Broad Street 2010, for starters. I got there about ten or 15 minutes early, which gave me enough time to cram myself into a back corner of the room, far away from the mirrors (clutch) and to get adjusted to the heat (double clutch). And, okay, I'd be lying if I didn't spend at least a little bit of the class fighting away negative thoughts about how much more flexible I could be, or how much stronger I could be, or how my love handles get uncomfortably in the way of any kind of side bend. But honestly? I can't even tell you whether or not the class was full of experts. I was too busy focusing on my own practice, and even the negative thoughts didn't stop me from leaving with a fantastically relaxed and cleansed feeling.

Also bonus: after sweating out buckets, I get to stop on the way home and grab an iced coffee from my favorite neighborhood shop.

So good.

I had to miss class yesterday - I had an engagement party to go to at 1pm, and I chose to spend my morning getting my nails done rather than at yoga. That opened up a little extra time beforehand, so PhillyGuy and I took advantage by having breakfast at Ants Pants.

I had the mediterranean omelet special, with black olives, feta cheese and argula and a side of fresh fruit.

And, naturally, we split an order of sweet potato fries. These are hands down the best sweet potato fries I've ever had - long-cut sweet potatoes fried up so that they're slightly crispy at the ends, but soft and delicious in the middle, sprinkled with kosher salt and served with sour cream and a sweet chili sauce to dip.

Amazing.

Time for me to head out. I've been having a lot of knee issues these last couple of months, but I'm going to give running outside a shot today. I really, really want to run Broad Street this year, but I need to take stock of where I am. Can you believe it's only six weeks away?

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!

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!

Halloween 11

It was a GOOD RUN today several days ago when I started this post.

I was a little nervous about this week's long run. Not only was I on target for eleven miles - the furthest I've ever run - I was doing it solo. But I shouldn't have worried.

I estimated that it would take me close to two hours - and I beat that time by a few minutes. I started from my house and ran down 24th Street to Locust, picked up the Schuylhill River trail, ran up behind the Art Museum to Kelly Drive, did the Kelly/West River loop, and then back down the river trail. I hit 11 miles right at the corner of 24th and Locust, which gave me a nice half mile to walk home.

I was feeling really, really good. Every time I've run the loop, I've used the East Falls bridge as my first walking break, and then picked up again on West River. On Sunday, I started feeling the distance a bit by mile 8, and I told myself it was fine to walk/run a bit. I ran half a mile, walked for a bit, and repeated as necessary until I was done...sort of.

During the last quarter mile, I ran straight into some kind of dog-walking Halloween extravaganza. I estimate about forty dogs, all in costume, and their owners. Wandering around in circles. Standing and stopping in the middle of the river path. Walking three or five deep. Talk about a freaking obstacle course!



Even so - I can't complain, AT ALL, about a time of 1:53. Moreover, this was the first long run I've done where I didn't feel completely and totally spent afterwards. Every run I've done for the past month, I scream internally for the last quarter mile, gritting my teeth and begging for it to be done. And then I finish the last mile and I'm like, WOW. No way in HELL can I imagine myself running any further!

Not today SUNDAY. This was the first run I've had where I finished and felt confident that - yes - I COULD do another 2.1 miles on top of that. I mean...holy shit. I might not be the fastest I've ever been, and I sure as hell get passed constantly while I'm running on Kelly. But regardless - I'm going to run a half in a few weeks. For real.

In the meantime, let's see what else I've been up to since I last posted, based on the pictures I uploaded nearly a week ago and intended to post on Sunday. This should be fun.

Hmm. I've eaten a lot of honeycrisp apples.



I took my first ice bath and ate homemade mac & cheese while I was in there.



I've chilled at home with a black sulfur mask on.



(The dogs did NOT like this mask. Cosmo wasn't sure it was still me, and he kept sniffing my face really close to make sure it was okay.)

I've been drinking a TON of Celestial Seasonings holiday teas, in the new ING mug PhillyGuy brought home for me. (I'm out of Candy Cane Lane and need to restock. Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride is OMGHOLYCRAPAMAZING. I am NOT a fan of the Sugar Plum one - too sweet and spicy, I like my tea a little milder. And Gingerbread Spice = delicious. But nothing will ever top Sleepytime Tea as my all-time favorite.)



My dogs have snuggled with their new non-stuffed squeaky toys.



And they've stolen my spot on the couch every time I've gotten up to get more tea.



So, yeah. This has been another crazy week at work...what else is new? I've worked late, I've dealt with frustrating clients and frustrating borrowers. I gave poor Sophie a bath last night because she walked straight into Cosmo's stream of pee when we were on our walk. That's about it.

What distance should I run this weekend? 12? 13? It'll be my last "long run" before the half - next weekend I'll scale it back to 8 or 10 miles. I'm not going to do much of an official taper because my mileage has been low overall.

Yay Cardreader!

Finally -- after two freaking weeks of no new pictures (well, except the ever-reliable crappy blurry Blackberry photos) -- I've got a new cardreader. You know, one that ACTUALLY works with my memory card.

And that means I can finally share with you the reason for the delay:

And the artist:

"What? I didn't do anything. I swear!"

So, approximately fifteen days ago, I was getting ready to leave for what I planned on making a six mile run. It was a sunny, moderately hot morning, and I was pumped to test out my new running skirt:

It's actually a tennis skirt, but whatever. The only issue is that is doesn't have any pockets -- but no worries, I have my trusty SPIbelt just for this reason.

About a mile into my run, I realized I'd forgotten my water. I don't drink a ton of water on runs, but I do like some -- if nothing else than to avoid cottonmouth. I have a small (8-ounce) amphipod that straps onto my hand. I dig it because it's small -- while it doesn't hold a ton of water, it also doesn't weigh much. Apparently, it weighs so little that I don't even notice it's there! (Or, more importantly, when it's not.)

I wasn't too concerned -- even though it was definitely hot out, my 6-mile route runs down the Schuylhill River trail, up past the Waterworks and onto Kelly Drive. There's a water fountain exactly two miles from my house, which is well-positioned -- I figured I'd run my two miles, drink, another mile out and back, stop for another drink, and then get my planned post-run coconut water at the end. No problem, right?

Except. There was something going on near the Art Museum that morning. There's a spot where the trail forks - you can keep going on the trail itself, which goes under the road and then back up to the Waterworks, or you can hang a right and pick up West River Drive. This morning, for some reason, they were forcing all runners/walkers/bikers/whatever onto West River Drive. Which meant missing my perfectly-positioned water stop.

No worries, I thought. I'd run West River Drive once before -- about a year ago, I did the 8.4 mile loop that goes from Kelly Drive to West River Drive. I hadn't brought water that time either, and remembered stopping at a fountain on West River Drive. I figured I'd just make sure I ran to the fountain.

So I'm running. I'm running. I'm making decent time and feeling good, if a little thirsty. I'm watching as my Garmin rolls over to three miles. Hmm. Now what?

I had no real interest in extending my run -- the last thing I need to do is reinjure myself, you know? So I figured -- OK. I'll just walk to the water fountain! And then turn around and run back.

So I pull off into the grass to slow down. Quick stretch of the hip flexors, and I started walking. And walking. And walking. At 3.25 miles, I was still thirsty, my heartrate way down, and there was no water fountain in sight. "It's gotta be here close," I reasoned. And took off running again.

That freaking water fountain was 3.8 miles out. OMGOMGOMGOMGWATER! It looked so amazing that I was worried it was a mirage. But no, no...definitely not. I gulped down my fill, stretched a bit, and headed home.

And wow. Was that a brutal run home. Extending a run by 1.6 miles probably doesn't seem like much to a lot of you, but I was basically just waiting for death to take me. Even with my quarter-mile walk, I managed to cover the first six miles in just under an hour, which made me happy -- and also made me want to die. In fact, I spent a good five miles solid just wondering when sweet death would take me.

My remaining 1.6ish mile run/walk/jog/shuffle hybrid home could not have ended soon enough. When I finally hit the sweet, sweet air conditioning of my corner grocery store, I could have melted right there. The coconut water was the most glorious thing I've ever tasted. When I finally made it the couple blocks home, I more or less had to crawl up my stairs.

My post-run "OMG I AM HOME" face:

Serious case of the sausage fingers from being dehydrated:

...and I had to wait two weeks to document this because these pictures were trapped on my camera. Thanks to Little Miss Sophie. Let me tell you, this really seemed like a much better story at the time :)

How was everyone's weekend?

Yeah. Again.

I am so streaky with this blogging thing sometimes (read: ALL THE TIME).

Friday I bailed out of work early to make it out to our friends' wedding. PhillyGuy was a groomsman, so I had to get there solo. Talk about a perfect evening for an outdoor ceremony!



As I tend to do, about four hours before the event, I spontaneously decided that I hated absolutely every single dress I own. So, I went on an insanely frantic shopping spree at South Moon Under -- I seriously think I tried on 15 dresses in less than 30 minutes, and I ended up buying the first dress I tried on. Despite the fact that when I first tried it on, I was convinced it was horrible and made me look like a grandmother. The next 14 dresses were so much worse, though, that I tried the first one on again, this time without the chic, classic strand of pearls I wear to work. Um, yeah -- totally different look.

I was hellbent on having someone get a picture of me and PhillyGuy in our finery, but...um, I forgot. And the best I could do was this picture of us making faces at each other.



Close enough, right?

It was a pretty crazy week and PhillyGuy and I barely saw each other. So, we decided to head out for a date night.

Um, so I'm a total class act. And I wore the EXACT same outfit to dinner that I'd worn to the wedding.



DON'T JUDGE ME.

We had dinner at Tequila's at 16th & Locust. The last time I was there, I had wanted to try a cocktail made with jalepeno-infused tequila, but they were out. This time, I was in luck -- plenty of spicy liquor left. I started with a Short Rib:





Chips and salsa...and pickled jalepenos:





We split the night's special guacamole, made with crabmeat and papaya:



I scarfed down about 2/3 of that bowl. Easily. PhillyGuy's not a "dip person," whateverTF that means...I don't really compute. All I know is that it translates to more guac for me :)

For my entree, I had the Salsa Tequilas over shrimp. Which I assumed would be, well, salsa. Over shrimp. It was not at ALL what I pictured:



But it was REALLY, REALLY tasty.

We also split churros for dessert, but I was so transfixed by the sugary cinnamony goodness that I forgot a picture...boooooo.

The rest of the weekend was pretty chill -- which was just what the doctor ordered. Gym here and there. My hip is feeling 90-95% better...which naturally means I'm ready to hit the pavement and reinjure myself run. We'll see -- I booked a doctor's appointment, but I couldn't get in before July 7. Um, great? So I may as well try to recreate the injury in time to find out what it is, right?

How was your weekend?

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

WHEW. Um, so where was I??

Oh yeah -- Friday's Phils game!



PhillyGuy's birthday was last week. As part of his present, I picked up tickets for the game. But not just ANY tickets...



Diamond Club, baby!

Yeah, our seats didn't suck. Right behind home plate, 14 rows back. Worth EVERY penny!



Any baseball game requires a hot dog. Period.



I also had a few of PhillyGuy's nachos, and we shared a bag of roasted peanuts later in the game. Any time I eat roasted peanuts, I chew the whole thing up -- shell and all. PhillyGuy was horrified at this -- in fact, he called me a "dinosaur." (Right, because that's what dinosaurs ate. Peanut shells. WTF.)

The Phanatic started the game off by acting out "Casey at the Bat" while it was being read aloud as part of a "Phanatic About Reading" promotion they were doing that night.





It was ROASTING and super-humid, but we had an awesome time. The seats were incredible -- you could see each pitch move, which was fascinating for me. I have such terrible hand-eye coordination that I considered it amazing if I could even throw a ball directly at someone's glove, let alone force the ball to spin and move in different directions to screw with someone's head in the meantime.

Massive exodus to the subway after the game:



The rest of my weekend was pretty uneventful. My hip is still really bothering me -- but I haven't even had time to make a doctor's appointment, because naturally, my week has been insane since I got back to work. Such is life -- at least the days are flying by and it's almost the weekend again!

PhillyGuy somehow managed to snag a FREE TICKET for tonight's Flyers game -- so he's down at the Wachovia Center in a huge luxury box with food and open bar. Must be nice, right?? Honestly though, I didn't make it home until after 7 tonight, and by the time I walked the pups (who LOVE to play in the rain!) and got changed, it was almost 8. I'm so, so happy to be sitting on my couch watching the game from the comfort of my sweats, while my puppies wrestle on the floor in front of me. Dinner was a salmon burger over a salad made with baby spinach, blackberries, blueberries and crumbled feta:



I whisked together balsamic vinegar, a tiny bit of olive oil, mustard and some honey for the dressing. It's good, but I definitely got a little pour-happy with the vinegar. Still delicious, but super-tart.



Salmon burgers, much like Chobani and acorn squash, are another blogworld discovery of mine. I had a coupon, so I picked up a package at Costco. Um, WHY did I forget how much I love salmon?? And how did I manage to go for so long without the convenience of something you can pull out of the freezer and cook in less than 10 minutes? THANK YOU, BLOGWORLD. I would clearly be lost without you.

How's your week going? Do you eat the shells of peanuts or am I a dinosaur?

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.

Quick & Dirty

AHHHHH.

I want to write a real entry! PhillyGuy and I went to our local farmer's market/weekly food stands on Saturday and I took pictures and everything...and I just have NOT found the time to even upload the pics, let alone post about it.

My boss is out this week -- I really thought I'd have a nice easy week. Nope. Instead, not only did she leave me with MORE than enough work to keep me occupied, I'm left to handle all of the day to day stuff that comes up. Like this stupid closing on this stupid deal that JUST WON'T END.

It's my fifth week of P90X, but due to some scheduling issues, PhillyGuy and I repeated Week 3. So this week is our "Week 4," which is a "recovery" week. What that means is a break from most of the weight-bearing or intense lifting exercises, and replacing that with two days of yoga, two days of "Core Synergistics," and two days of "StretchX."

Last night, I could not WAIT for yoga. I headed home, walked the pups, and by about 7:15, was settling in with my mat and the windows open to the beautiful night. The first 45 minutes was tough, as always, but I'm really seeing some improvements -- I can hold Crane for longer (um, which means about 5 seconds at a time instead of 3-4, but believe me, that's something) and I got up into Warrior 3 on each of my legs without too much struggle. Trust me, it still ain't pretty, but that's OK -- I'm definitely improving.

However, that last 45 minutes -- which is my favorite part! -- really started to drag. I got bored. I started wondering how the dogs were doing downstairs. I started thinking about what I was going to wear to tonight's Philly Foodie/Blogger Meetup. I had to fight with myself not to turn off the DVD when I still had 25 minutes left. BUT...I didn't turn it off. I didn't pick an outfit or go visit my dogs. I finished the workout and still felt refreshed and happy at the end -- maybe not quite AS refreshed and happy as usual, but I'm glad I did it.

The length of the YogaX DVD is a common criticism I've seen in P90X reviews. The four times I've done the workout before, I never had an issue with length -- I felt every second of that first 45 minutes, while my legs burned and my body shook and I tried like hell to keep myself in poses. But the last 45 minutes always flew by. We'll see if I'm back to "normal" with my second pass through it this week.

This morning, I did Core Synergistics. Fancy name for -- surprise, surprise -- a lot of very core-centric exercises. Not that much direct ab work, but lots of planks/chaturanga variations, pushup variations, and hollow-hold type exercises that force you to roll around on the floor. My personal jury is still out on this one -- this is going to be another routine I head to the gym for. It involves a lot of dumbbell work that you can't substitute bands for. I'll try it with better weights later this week.

The other thing with Core Synergistics is that it's one of those workouts where it's VERY easy to just go through the motions and "phone it in." If you're not concentrating 100% on flexing what needs to be flexed and working what needs to be worked, you'll find yourself with your butt floating in the air, not really breaking a sweat, and generally wasting your time. There are better ways to waste an hour -- like on my couch watching the Kardashians, not rolling around on my guest room floor. Not to worry -- Tony is constantly barking at you to "DON'T JUST KIND OF DO IT!"

So, that's the quick n' dirty on the first third of Week 4 of P90X. Monday we take our progress pictures/measurements/etc -- that will be great motivation to stay on track while we're up at my inlaws this weekend.

So pumped for tonight -- this will be my first blogger meetup! I feel so legit now :)