2010 March | See Cat Run

Who's afraid?

This is a kind of random post, but at least I'm posting, right?

First I'd like to share my 'usual' at my new favorite Mexican restaurant in town. This is their garden burrito: spinach, zucchini, squash, tomato, and onion. And its mostly spinach! Awesome Makes me feel better about those yummy margaritas.

Friday evening Hubs and I went on a double date with Dan and Alex. We saw Sherlock Holmes at the dollar theater (definitely amusing! I'd recommend renting it if you think you'd be interested) and then went to Agua Linda for a late dinner. Lots of chips and salsa, half the above burrito, and two shared pitchers of margs. It was a great evening.

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Flash forward to today. Saturday I spent some time perusing a book I've had checked out from the library since October: The Vegetarian Bible. Hubs and I spent a lot of time going through the "what do you want to eat?" "I dunno, what do you want to eat?" act last week, so I decided that I'd be prepared with two recipes we could have for dinner (and ideally leftovers) this week. Two's not too overwhelming when you're just starting out.

Dinner number one was a caponata of roasted vegetables. I can't share the recipe, but it was good! The cookbook has a huge reference section in the front with lots of information about different approaches to diet, lifestyle and nutritional needs, and all of the major types of vegetables. It's awesome! Something I'll probably renew for a long time

It also (coincidentally) goes along with Anne P's most recent post about trying a new food that you've always been scared of. I haven't been afraid of eggplant, per se, but it is pretty new to me. My mom has always disliked eggplant so I never had it growing up. I didn't really notice it in this except for larger pieces of skin which were still a little tough. I served it over some leftover brown rice so I didn't actually get taste much about the salad on its own. We do have leftovers though! I'll try again tomorrow.

Served with a piece of onion ciabatta bread.

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Dessert has an interesting story behind it:

I was sitting on a bench in front of the law school on my afternoon break, reading Women's Running magazine when a guy stops and says "hi, would you like a cookie?" I kind of hesitated and he explained that there was a tree one quad further up with cookies hanging from it encouraging people to give them away and he thought he'd brighten my day by giving it to me (was it that obvious my day needed help?). Well at that point my break was about up so I didn't get a chance to investigate further, but I told my coworker about it and she came back to the office with an armful of cookies for the office.

I didn't have time to sample my cookie before I got to man the service desk (seriously, my favorite part of the day most days) so I decided to save it for dessert. My coworker said they were good! The cookie tree was meant as a random act of kindness and I've heard theories that it was either a sorority or an art project. Either way they were popular!

And now I must get back to my bio pre-lab and the lecture homework. I'm trying to stay caught up this week since we have family stuff both Saturday and Sunday for Easter. I can't believe its already test time again!

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On another note, Ashley is giving away Bondi Bands! I've seen these everywhere and with my layers so short I need as wide a headband as I can get. Check them out!

We made it!

Happy one year anniversary to See Cat Run! I almost forgot, how silly of me

Today I decided to count calories to see where I stand. I typically feel like I don't eat enough and today I proved myself right. I'm not left hungry or anything but it occurred to me a few days ago that I never really increased how much I ate as I went from not running, to running a 5k, to running half marathons.

Breakfast was banana oats in a peanut butter jar:

I accidentally used too much cinnamon and had to estimate on the measurements of oats and water, so these really weren't very good and I didn't finish them. Lets call this about 350 calories.

Snack was my usual Post Shredded wheat'n'bran, mixed pecans, walnuts, and almonds (all in a 1/2 cup tupperware) with a jonagold apple on the side. I've been craving apples like woah lately. What's up with that? (estimated 230 calories)

I completely forgot to take a picture of my lunch (got distracted my a coworker) but I've been eating my spinach salads with about a tbps of Trader Joe's Goddess dressing and several pinches of nutritional yeast (whenever I eat past the above layer), and forkfuls of Private Selection (Kroger brand) roasted red pepper hummus, with about a serving and a half of Triscuits on the side (with more hummus). I never understood how bloggers could use just hummus on salads but now I completely do. This stuff makes my lunch! (about 373 calories total)

My coworker brought in York peppermint patties this afternoon, an office favorite! A bag doesn't last more than a day or two and we're a fairly small office.

I also had some Santitas chips while waiting on the rice to boil…

Love tortilla chips. Wish we could keep them out of the house because it's very hard to keep my hand out of the bag. Even so I think I only had about one serving today. (York + chips, about 280 calories)

Dinner was another TJ's purchase. I cooked up some frozen shrimp and veggies (green beans, broccoli, onions, and mushrooms) and then added some TJ's Thai Curry Sauce

All served atop a bed of brown rice.

The sauce was pretty good, but I wish it were a little bit thicker. I enjoyed it!

With a glass of tempranillo wine, dinner comes out to about 705 calories. All told I'm about 150 behind the number of calories The Daily Plate thinks I should consume, and this is a rest day! Imagine if I'd had a 10 mile run today, I'd be 900 calories in the hole!

Maybe this is just an excuse to have a cookie…

Overall, my calories are well distributed though. I got 26.5% of my calories from fat, 56.5% from carbohydrates, and 16.8% from protein, all within healthy ranges (20-35%, 45-65%, and 10-35% respectively).

Something that surprised my a little is that I'm getting over 100% of the RDA of iron. I got about 88.6% from food and another 50% from my daily multivitamin, yet when I had labs run two weeks ago I'm below the healthy range and my doc wants me to start taking a supplement.

I think there could be two reasons for this. One is that the blood was drawn the Friday of spring break when we had been out of town the weekend before and I was off work all week and my eating was anything but typical (fast food, woohoo!). The other is that I'm probably not taking in much vitamin C so while I'm consuming plenty of iron, it's all from plant sources and so my body has trouble absorbing it. I really need to start buying strawberries or red bell peppers to add to my salads, I consume most of my iron at lunch!

My LDL cholesterol was also a little high, I think from the fast food, so I'm tempted to hold off on the supplement, start taking in more vitamin C, and on the next furlough day (my next day off) go back to the doctor and get retested after a 'normal' week. That day is another month out so I may not even remember to buy the supplement before then Besides, who wants side effects like constipation? Not I. I'd rather try to supplement naturally.

Alright, I've talked myself into waiting for a re-test.

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All in all, food has become so equated to money in my mind that I find it hard to justify eating more, because I feel like 'we can't afford it' which shouldn't be true. The issues is that I would rather eat whole foods: fruit, vegetables, etc, as opposed to something super cheap and affordable such as ramen noodles that have absolutely no nutritional value. It's something I'll have to put more effort into in the coming weeks. I know there must be cheap but nutritious snacks out there, I probably just need to go back to making them myself!

I think I'm going to take it easier tonight and head to bed on time (instead of late), so I'm going to skip doing more reading for biology and go massage my legs with my foam roller and then have a cookie, some bedtime tea, and read my fun book for a bit! Goodnight!

ING Atlanta half marathon

Does anybody else find the phrase "get your swag on" in their heads whenever they think of race swag? Cuz I do. All we really got from ING was the tech tee (soooo much better than last year's) and a box of Wheaties Fuel. But I we got some powder to dissolve in water for electrolites, a Publix bag, some Cascadian Farms samples, and Larabar samples!!! I've never been able to justify buying Larabars so I'm psyched to try them (clearly still haven't, part of me wants to hold on to them for a special occasion… which means they'll never get eaten).

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After my dad and I stopped by the race expo we drove the race course, which was cool, and I'm glad my dad got to see it. It went through so many of the big Atlanta neighborhoods.

Sarah and her parents (thankfully!) picked me up that morning, we got our bags checked and headed over to the CNN center to hang out and get in one more pit stop that didn't involve a portapotty.

The race started out downtown, here's the start line and the wheel chair line up!!!

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After winding through Georgia State University we crossed I-85 and I had to get a picture of the skyline in the near dawn light:

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We passed through midtown and the MLK memorial. Here's Ebenezer Baptist Church (and Sarah!):

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And the King house:

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We continued through the Old Fourth Ward (oh that takes me back to high school…) and on through the oh so funky Little Five Points. We ran down an ex-boyfriend's street and he and I would walk from his house to L5P all the time. Seriously, almost every weekend, the same route that I ran Sunday.

From L5P we continued past Jimmy Carter's library and the Carter center, after which Sarah and I had to go our separate ways:

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From mile 7 on I was alone but I got to run through Virginia Highlands where I spent a lot of time growing up. This is the store I bought my wedding dress from! It was in a slightly smaller location at the time though.

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After rounding a corner and grabbing a Luna bar at about mile 8 I got to run past my middle school:

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And got to see my parents! That was really cool! They came out in the rain to see me

From there we ran through Piedmont Park with more views of the skyline:

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And came out by the corner of my high school!

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Another run through midtown… once we got to mile 10 I started taking one minute walk breaks at each mile marker. The hills were killing me!

Next up was my dad'd Alma Mater, Georgia Tech! I had some friends who went to college there after high school that I'd occasionally go visit too. I'm a huge Tech fan (and currently living in the town of their rival!)

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Stadium!

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As we were passing the stadium the marathon route joined the half again and we started getting passed by the super marathoners (guy on the right in the blue shorts)! That was pretty cool.

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From Tech we headed back downtown and to the finish.

I'm serious when I said the hills killed me. I ran this one 6 minutes slower than Disney. I also kept a faster pace than I might have otherwise in the first half in order to get Sarah off to a good start. It was really cool getting to run through all of my old haunts though. The full marathon took Sarah through our alma mater, Agnes Scott. That would be a fun route to travel too

And I ran in my Disney tee and actually got a "You go, princess!" at one of the water stops I didn't realize until I was looking at the race photos just how huge it is on me though. Lame!

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I still had a smile while crossing the finish line though! It was such a struggle to run the last few blocks. I lost the mental fight this time, but I don't mind. I was doing it just to do it, not to PR or impress anyone. I'm happy, and that's all that matters!

Mid-week catch up

I didn't get to blog yesterday because I had a powerpoint to put together for my lab's presentation tonight, so we're going to back track a little.

This week I'm basically repeating the last week of my half marathon training plan (except sunday when I did 7 instead of the 10 on the sheet) so yesterday I did an easy 2 mile run in my new hat! I've been wanting a hat of some sort for sun protection since last summer and I spotted this at The Academy (sports store where I bought my shoes) for $9.88. Sold.

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(Like my race wall? Looks kinda dinky at the moment, but I'll have more stuff added Sunday evening! And yes, we have a scorpion on the wall. It's the Hubs from his trip to Malaysia when his dad remarried. I clearly sit with my back to it and don't have to look at it.)

I've also set a few goals for myself this week. I will do 20-30 minutes of yoga a day either immediately following a run to stretch or immediately before bed. There's a good chance it will be the same three flows because they are all focused on gentle stretching, particularly in the hip area, right where I need it (I swear to god, pigeon and cow face are my heaven and hell, respectively.

I have also rearranged my mornings a little bit. Before the break I would roll out of bed, pee, and layer up to walk the dogs while the space heater warms the bathroom for my shower. This week my alarm is going off, I pee and turn on the bathroom space heater, and my goal is to do 15 bicycle crunches (per side) and 15 girlie pushups before hitting the shower. I know this isn't much, but my arms and abs need work and we're starting with baby steps. Each week I'll either add 5 more reps or do a different type of crunch and change the placement of my hands in the pushup (to work slightly different muscles). As the habit builds I may add even more to it. So far so good on this one, and somehow with my morning rearranged (maybe because I'm not getting dressed twice?) I've had a good 20 extra minutes each morning this week. Yay!

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Yesterday's dinner is blog worthy because I tried something new! Or rather, tried cooking something new. I tried quinoa when Hubs and I got lunch at Earthfare's salad/hot bar a month or so ago and yesterday was my first try at cooking it myself. Thankfully I'd starred a few recipes in google reader just for such an occasion and a quick search pulled up Mama Pea's Spanish quinoa, which I had almost all of the ingredients for, or close enough anyway.

First you pour some wine (this was my addition)

I used 1/2 cup dry quinoa, a generous dose of chopped red onions which have been in the fridge since the weekend, 1 c. water instead of vegetable broth, 1/4 c. Earthfare marinara instead of tomato sauce, and used Mrs Dash, basil, salt and pepper to make it more of an Italian dish to serve over some pasta and veggies that were on their last leg (can't even remember what all it was). It was awesome! The seasonings needed a little work, and I definitely would have preferred veggie broth but don't have any on hand. And Hubs finished off the pot! I think we've found him his vegetarian protein source Now I just need to try all the curried versions out there, yummmmm…

This week I've been eating the low sugar, brown sugar instant oats we bought for the trip because I can't bring myself to dirty a pot for stove top oats. This morning I had the brilliant idea of adding a container of Mott's natural style apple sauce (I've been craving apples for weeks now and we're out again) and cinnamon, along with my oatmeal. No picture, but it was really good! I've got another applesauce container, we'll see when I cave and use it.

Tonight's dinner is a large portion of the chili I made a few weeks ago that I pulled out of the freezer and thawed. Served with McCormick cajun seasoning (because I didn't add salt while cooking I don't mind that this has sodium in it, it was a good pick!), whole wheat goldfish (uh oh, another bag open, we'll see if it can last through 24 hours), and the Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat you see in the back there. The stressful part of my week is over (until this weekend when I'll start stressing about the race) so I thought I'd have a beer to celebrate.

I've unfortunately been eating at my desk a lot lately, usually reading blogs, because we lack a dining room table. There's a little shelf underneath at the back that Ollie has found he can climb up on and get my attention to ask for some lap time. So this is what I have to contend with anytime I eat:

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A word about the race… I'm fairly certain its not going to be a PR for me, and I'm okay with that. I just feel the need to announce it here so that I don't feel like people will look down on me for it (something I'm always super sensitive about, I can't actually think of a person that would do such a thing). On the two runs I've done since Disney my legs have been very tired and still a bit tight; I'll be facing hills, which Florida allows you to avoid; Sarah wants to start out a tad fast for me so I'll probably tire very quickly in the second half; and they're calling for rain, which I've managed to avoid (super worried about blisters from wet feet and really don't want to soak my new shoes!). All of this I am fine with. I proved that I can do it with Disney, this is just for fun. A race with a friend through a lot of my old stomping grounds.

New shoes, new race!

Jeez, I'm such a bad blogger I honestly don't even know where this week has gone. I had a doctor's appointment and went back for labs to be run (my cholesterol tends to run high and checking my iron levels), we applied for an apartment (and were accepted)… yesterday we saw Alice in Wonderland and hung out with the gang (who were all in town for break). Other than that I've just sort of slept a lot and now I'm way behind in my reading for my test Tuesday.

I decided that as a treat for the break I'd have yogurt this week (the fact that Chobani was on sale 10 for $10 definitely helped). This pomegranate was great! I didn't like the blueberry as much and I have a strawberry still waiting to be eaten.

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Friday night I was twiddling around on a certain somewhat local race's website (more on that momentarily) and decided it was time to buy new shoes. One of my feet hurt so bad after last weekend's race that I was worried about a stress fracture (but rest and ice cured it). And then I noticed yesterday while calling around to various sport and shoe stores that I actually managed to rub a hole in the webbing of one of my 2140s (where my pinky toe would be). The tread has been gone for months as is. It was time.

So I upgraded a model.

I had planned on taking my time getting new shoes and getting fitted again, but I'm on kind of a strict timeline this time. Since no one had my current model I just bought one newer since I know it works for me.

And its official… as of about 20 minutes ago I'm running the ING Atlanta half marathon!

The reason for the rush on shoes is that the race is next weekend… I'll stay at my parents' Saturday night (and hopefully see my favorite aunt before she flies back to Texas!), take MARTA (Atlanta's mass transit) to the race, meet up with my running buddy Sarah, and win myself another medal! Sarah's running the full marathon so we'll only have about 7 miles together, but she's agreed to stick with me and my slow pace for those seven. It's after that the scenery will get interesting for me anyway. I get to run by my middle school and high school, and through my dad's (and several high school friends') college campus, Georgia Tech! I'm pretty excited.

And also a little worried. I went out today to try for 8 miles and my legs were tight and because of the time change (I forgot about it) I didn't get to eat as early as I usually do so I had to stop a lot due to side stitches. Sarah was great, very patient, but I couldn't even reach an 11:00 mile. Sarah wants to start out at 10:30 miles next week which would normally be easy, but today's run is messing with my head a bit. Plus there are hills. There weren't any hills at Disney (sorry y'all, on-ramps don't count). So this race is going to be harder. But I'm still psyched! I'm planning to do 20 minutes or so of yoga every night before bed this week to get these hips and quads back open.

And now its time for fro yo and another few minutes of studying before yoga!

Blue Monday

Let's not forget about Monday! Hubs and I got up not quite as early as we would have liked (which worked out fine since we kind of ran our of stuff to do at Universal in the time we had) and after finding that the hotel wanted you to pay for their continental breakfast we pulled out our groceries and made our own. Really all that the hotel could have added to ours was some cream cheese.

I had coffee (these coffee singles really are pretty good), an apple, a banana, and low sugar maple instant oats.

We stopped by Publix to grab me a bandaid since my Chacos had given me a nice blister Sunday afternoon and then headed to another $14 parking fee. We were cutting it too close for the 11:00 Blue Brothers show so we headed to Islands of Adventure instead. I immediately got dragged on this:

The Hulk. I tend to get kind of motion sick on coasters so I was not a happy camper during our 30 minute wait, but since its more twisty-turny instead of lots of drops it really wasn't that bad. Which is not to say that I agreed to do it again, but I walked off just feeling shaky instead of nauseous.

We wandered and got lunch and then checked out a water ride. Since that got us soaked we figured we'd ride a second.

And after this we walked over to Jurassic Park and rode the third. Sunlight has never felt so good, my friends.

We spent a good 10 minutes at the fencing around the new Harry Potter section so that I could obsessively get tons of pictures.

Hogwarts!

Hogsmead!

There will be a new coaster going up there too. We're totally going back with my in-laws when it opens

After realizing that we'd done the interesting things at Islands of Adventure we headed back to U. Studios and saw the 3:30 Blues Brothers show. Fun fun! Both actors were great, though Jake was more similar in looks than Elwood. They even had the tattoos (written in pen) on their knuckles.

After another ride on the Mummy we walked past all of the Blue Man Group stuff and Hubs stopped to ask how much tickets for that night were. As we were about to walk away (can't afford $85) the salesman asked if we were college students. We got tickets for $30!!!

Since we had a few hours to kill we decided to be tourists and eat at the world's largest Hard Rock. Since it was probably 5:30 or so we were seated right away. We ordered drinks (long island iced tea for me, margarita for Hubs) and ultimately decided that they were way to weak for the price. I ordered the California burger with ranch and guacamole and we hung out and played with the giant touch screen while we waited. It's pretty freakin' cool, up to five panels (I think) and you can stretch or minimize items, search for others, and even 'throw' things into other people's views. And all of it was Hard Rock memorabilia from all of their locations: letters, clothing, guitars… Pretty snazzy. Not really worth the price though, which we knew going in.

And Blue Man Group was amazing. What did you expect me to say?

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Sunday run-day

So when that pesky ol' alarm started going off at 2:30 Sunday morning I strongly considered sleeping till 3, like the husband. But I got up and started chugging tepid coffee, smeared some peanut butter on a whole wheat bagel and ate a banana.

Hubs and I headed to the hotel lobby to try to meet up with Kate and hop a shuttle to the race. Well we found this when we got there and opted to meet Kate at the race start instead.

Both worried and excited:

Lots of cold runners. Lots of porta potties. But we got fireworks!

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I started out the run with Andrea but she trained with the Galloway method and we separated after the first three miles or so.

Pirates and sunrise!

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Got excited to find an NMA shirt wearing Vibram Five Fingers

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Castle!!!

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Running through the castle…

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Unfortunately after the castle we ended up on mostly back roads and highways. Seriously, who thought it would be appreciated to start in on the boring scenery, no spectators, and no characters/djs around mile 7ish, when it starts to get hard? Not appreciated. I did find MizFit again though

Almost there!

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And I did it! I walked six of eight water stops (took poweraid at those six) and stopped to walk and eat half a Clif Shotblock gel they were handing out around mile 8.5. I finished in 2:23:34, which I'm very happy with. I told myself ahead of time I could walk the water stops and I definitely wanted to take a walk break after mile 9 but pushed through to the next water stop. I knew how much I'd regret it if I let myself be lazy. I had no idea what kind of time to expect but figured it would take about 2.5 hours.

Overall it was more a test of will than of fitness. I started out nice and slow (haven't actually uploaded my Garmin stats yet) and it was more of a fight to convince myself not to take extra breaks than it was to keep my legs moving. Totally a mental game. And I really wasn't very sore the day after either.

Unfortunately Hus didn't get to see me at all. I thought I saw him at the first spectator station (about mile 1.2) but didn't know where he would have gotten the hat he was wearing so told myself it wasn't him (I was on the other side of the pack anyway, and it turns out he bought it). He said he got the first two progress texts at 8:30 and then the final one when I finished. I was pretty disappointed not to see him, but so many of the spectator stations had the runners looking into the sun to try to find family members that it didn't much matter. He was at least at the family reunion area when I got there! And he bought me a present:

Which I totally wore the rest of the day.

After a brief stretch, a cold water rinse (to try to forestall inflammation), hot shower, and half hour nap, we headed to IHOP for a post race brunch. I got a pancake combo with eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, and two buttermilk pancakes. Greasy diner food will always be my treat meal.

Afterward we headed across the highway to Universal! We explored Universal Studios and had ourselves a blast.

We checked into our hotel for the night and I spotted a grill and pub across the parking lot so we headed across to Kool Katz restaurant. I have to admit I was expecting a bit of a biker bar from the outside but the inside was more like any Chilis or Applebees type restaurant around.

Beer has never tasted so good as after a 13 mile run followed by an afternoon of sun.

Their pulled pork sandwich leaped off the menu at me. I was still in celebration mode and it seriously hit the spot.

We sat and watched the Academy Awards for a bit (not that we could hear them) and went back to our room and crashed hard. I think I'm still catching up on sleep. It's 9:00 and I'm ready to pass out. I promise to write about Monday tomorrow! Goodnight.

Sunny Saturday

Dear god, where to start?! It was long weekend, which means three long blog posts for you guys. More fun for you, right?

Unfortunately not only was Disney's Princess Half Marathon happening this weekend but the National Dance Association was holding their championships at Universal, so our hotel options turned out to be rather limited Friday night. No picture. Wasn't worth it.

Saturday morning, after checking out of said crappy motel, we had a few hours to kill before lunch and headed to Celebration to check it out. So cute! It's a planned community my dad mentioned to me, suggesting that we could grab a cup of coffee and stroll. Well we grabbed a cup of coffee and sat.

The weather was perfect! Hot in the sun but the breeze just a tad too cool to sit in the shade.

We were eventually kicked off a bench to clear a shot for the independent film being shot there, chatted with a shop keeper for a few minutes and headed to…

Pizza Fusion! As mentioned before, I got to meet almost all of my favorite bloggers on Saturday! Group shot:

Ashley, Leslie, me, Julie, Kate, Anne P., Meghann, Kelly, Caitlin, Andrea, Ryan, Katy, Megan!

Hubs and I started off by sharing a half portion of the Fusion salad with raspberry vinaigrette.

Followed by a personal sized Farmer's Market pizza : A farmer’s medley of roasted artichoke hearts, red onion, roasted zucchini and roasted Portobello with tomato sauce, mozzarella, provolone and parmesan.

This was awesome, seriously!

And we got to check out Meghann and Caitlin's Girlfriend Getaway Chevy Traverses! I have to say, I'm not an SUV fan, but once there are kids in the picture we may consider one. I remember how much stuff my family would haul just for beach vacations and now that seats fold down into the floor it would make life so much easier .

After lunch I dragged Hubs to Disney's Wide World of Sports for my first ever race expo! Jeez it was crazy down there. I picked up my bib and my swag and wandered around for a bit. I bought a 13.1 sticker for my car and I ran into MizFit! I felt like such a dork introducing myself, but she's just as cool in real life as on the blog.

Afterward we headed straight to Disney's All-Star Sports Resort to check into our hotel. We were in the Surf's Up complex, so cute!

Not very well sound-proofed though. Even with ear plugs I could hear the kids in the pool and every toilet flush around us. Not conducive to pre-race sleep!

But its Disney!

Had to taste Ryan's awesome raw macaroons

Then we ended up at a Panera for dinner. I wanted something safe for my tummy and Disney makes you pay for internet.

I got this awesome plate of carbs (definitely would have preferred an apple instead of piece of bread on the side, but he didn't ask and I didn't think about it). Half a garden style vegetable soup (with pesto!) in a bread bowl, and half a frontega chicken sandwich (smoked & pulled white meat chicken, mozzarella, tomatoes, red onions, chopped basil & chipotle mayonnaise, grilled hot on our Focaccia). Everything was amazing and I ate all but the baguette.

I also bought a cup of coffee to take home for the next morning. Disney doesn't provide coffee makers in their hotel rooms! The hotels we stayed at for half the price all had coffee makers!

Thanks to Panera's free wi-fi I posted that brief post and we bought Universal tickets! I was seriously feeling the lack of internet the first day or so, but I kind of hated to come home to it (maybe because I know that I've got three massive blog posts in my future and am a true procrastinator at hear )

Back at the hotel I got my race outfit laid out and my bag packed. I was in bed by 8:30 but definitely don't think I started dosing off until 11 or so, and definitely didn't sleep will until later than that. My alarm was set for 2:30, but that's another post!

Twas half mary eve…

And all through Orlando, many princesses were gathering, all wearing tiaras!

Treats were received:

And clothes were laid out…

Alarms will ring early, hotels lack internet.

Now dash away, dash away, dash away all…

Have a good nights rest, and happy race day to all!

My bags are packed…

Or perhaps I should say "how to travel on a budget." Or "when broke." Hubs and I are taking quite a bit of food with us to minimize money spent on food out. Instant oat (maple brown sugar, low sugar), coffee singles, dried plums, dried apricots, apple sauce (mine natural, his with cinnamon and sugar), cereal, mixed nuts, chocolate chips (trail mix!), bars, bagels, my pills (last few doses of antibiotics, fish oil, calcium, multi), and some Yogi bedtime tea, just in case. Yes, and a bar of chocolate and some TJ's nutty bits. We're also taking a jar of peanut butter (for me), bananas (for me), apples (for both), and cokes (for him).

Clothes! I should probably toss in some undies before I forget

Electronics (two cameras with accompanying chargers and USB cables, ipod/headphones, Garmin, tripod, will add computer tomorrow), sunscreen, shoes, race waiver, hotel reservation info. Other toiletries to be packed tomorrow after they're used. The boots on the right are taller and slouchy, but since they're slick on the inside I fold them over to wear under jeans and up when I wear them with a skirt or over jeans. Ollie thinks he needs to come.

And I worked on my race playlist! I'm sure I'll continue to play with the order as the weekend goes on. I'd have more fun stuff on here, but iTunes raised their prices at some point, so I'm having to limit my purchases. These songs generally want to make me get up and dance and/or sing along. All I ask is that they keep my energy up!

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I had my last run today before the race! It went very quickly, again! I don't know what is up with that! More worrying is the fact that I tried to slow down at the end and just couldn't seem to. Hope I don't burn myself out!! I was supposed to do an easier tempo run of 5 miles, two for warm up/cool down and the middle three at 10:55/mi.

Mile 1: 10:34
mile 2: 10:19
mile 3: 9:41
mile 4: 9:42
mile 5: 10:14

I have no idea what our wifi situation is going to be like on the road, but I'll make sure to post sometime on Sunday! It's way past my bedtime… goodnight!

See Cat Run

Adventures in running and budget eating

Who's afraid?

We made it!

ING Atlanta half marathon

Mid-week catch up

New shoes, new race!

Blue Monday

Sunday run-day

Sunny Saturday

Twas half mary eve…

My bags are packed…

Oldies