Couch to 5k – Week 6

Week 6 has you doing a 5 minute warm up, 12 minute jog, 3 minute walk, 12 minute jog and 5 minute cool down.  Easy peasy.

Seriously, it was pretty easy, which means I could have probably pushed myself a little harder, but the point of this program is to COMPLETE a 5k.  Not get close to the end and give up.  So, I didn’t push myself.  I wanted to be able to complete this week, and I did.  And I’m pretty proud of myself.

Day 1:  Well, it rained pretty much for 3 days straight before I ran, which means the soccer fields I usually run on were water logged.  As were my shoes afterwards.  And still to this day L   They’ve been sitting outside with newspaper in them for over a week now and have still not dried completely.  Because my shoes were so wet, while I was running, I developed two blisters.  I feared this would put me out a couple days, but they actually weren’t as bad as they felt during the last running interval.

Day 2:  Winning.  I felt great after my run.  My runners high even came back!  It was a pretty nice day, a little warmer than I’d like to run in, but there was a breeze and a storm was brewing, so the temperature dropped a little bit towards the end.

Day 3:  This run I did while in NY on Seneca Lake.  I got up around 8am and got ‘er done.  There was a breeze coming off the water and it was perfect.  I even interacted with other runners!  A strange occurrence!  It was quite a lovely run and I was glad I forced myself out of bed in order to do it.  Because once I got back to MD, it was about 91 degrees and there is no way in hell I’d run when it’s that hot.

Bonus shot of the lake!

This week’s playlist:

Just Like a Prayer – Madonna

Set Fire to the Rain – Adele

Skin – Breaking Benjamins

Face Down – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

3 – Britney Spears

Chemicals Between Us – Bush

Cosmic Love – Florence and The Machine

You Can Do It – Ice Cube

All of the Lights – Kanye West ft. Drake and Rihanna

California Gurls – Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg

Project 52 – Week 19

There’s no place like the Finger Lakes.

Project 52 – Week 18

Project 52 – Week 17

Guess who I met?!

That’s right.  The Bloggess.  Also, Copernicus.

BEST. DAY. EVER.

Project 52 – Week 16

I don’t think we’re Kansas anymore…

Couch to 5k – Week 5 v2

Ok, so, this is my second attempt at Week 5. You can find the first attempt here.

Day 1: I really didn’t think I was going to do well today. I felt dehydrated, and frumpy, and gassy… but, I sucked up and ran. And guess what? I did it! It actually didn’t suck all that much (compared to last week’s attempt). I think the slight rain shower that showed up halfway through helped. When I got home and settled down, I realized I wasn’t all gassy and indigestion-y. Win win!

Day 2: Not so bad. Isn’t it funny when you get a in a mood to do something, and you just do it? And then it’s done? And it feels so good? Sometimes it doesn’t always happen like that. Usually I sit around for an hour and get up the energy to go running, and then I realize that if I had gone when I first said I was going to go I could have been back already. That was this day. It wasn’t too hot, but still hot enough to make me miserable. I successfully completed the run though, even though I almost got hit with a baseball. Almost.

Day 3: Done and done! I took my own advice and just ran instead of sitting around thinking about running. It was hot, it was humid, it was really buggy, and the trashcan I kept running by smelled like ass, but now week 5 v2 is OVER. Thank the sweet baby Jesus!

This week’s playlist… same as last week’s playlist because I freaking love these songs.

Countdown – Beyonce

Somethin’ ‘bout a Truck – Kip Moore

Somebody That I Used To Know – Gotye feat. Kimbra

Beers Ago – Toby Keith

We Found Love – Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris

Money, Cash, Hoes – Jay-Z

Take a Back Road – Rodney Atkins

Still a G-Thang – Snoop Dogg

Hey, Soul Sister – Train

Chicken Fried – Zac Brown Band

 

Police Week 2012

You can read more about National Police Week here.

These pictures were taking at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC during the candlelight vigil.

Couch to 5k – Week 5

I’ll give you a quick summary of how Week Five works.  You warm up by walking “briskly” for five minutes.  Then, you do a 8 minute jog followed by a 2 minute walk  – do that 3 times then cool down with another 5 minute walk.

It is unacceptable to think a person can go from running for 4 minutes to 8.  Completely unacceptable.

Day 1:  Not a good time.  It definitely sucked, but somehow I managed to pretty much power through.  I thought for sure I was going to bail out after 6 minutes, but surprisingly, I lasted 8 minutes.  Tell you what though; those 2 minutes of walking were NOT long enough.  I had to stop around 7 minutes on the second run, but then finished the third run.  I was pretty surprised!

Day 2:  Poor.  PISS POOR.  First run, 6 minutes, second run, 5 minutes, third run, 3.5 minutes.  NO JOKE.  I felt like I was Katniss in some Hunger Games shit, except I didn’t give a damn about saving Peeta.  It’s safe to say I’ll be doing week five again next week.  Womp.  Womp.

Day 3: So, I don’t know what’s going on, but my ankles, needs, toes, and shins are all going to be the end of me.  It’s impossible to keep up any sort of pace when I have to randomly switch my stride every three minutes.  Anyways.  So here I sit, after actually completing this running day, with swollen ankles.  Yippee.  But – at least I finished!  It was a nice temperature out, maybe if it was 5 degrees cooler it would have been perfect.  The sun wasn’t out – it felt like it was going to rain, it was wonderful running weather, in my opinion.

Stay tuned for next week.  Week 5 v2.  Boooooooo.

This week’s playlist:

Countdown – Beyonce

Somethin’ ‘bout a Truck – Kip Moore

Somebody That I Used To Know – Gotye feat. Kimbra

Beers Ago – Toby Keith

We Found Love – Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris

Money, Cash, Hoes – Jay-Z

Take a Back Road – Rodney Atkins

Still a G-Thang – Snoop Dogg

Hey, Soul Sister – Train

Chicken Fried – Zac Brown Band

Wild Rice Pilaf

So, recently, I decided to adapt to a more “clean” lifestyle.  I’ve taken baby steps to become more green, like using reusable swifter pads, and so far that’s all I can think of, but listen!  I’m doing my part, dammit.

Anyways.  For Christmas I received the Clean Food cookbook, (and so what if this is the first time that I opened it), and I finally took the plunge and added three recipes into the mix.

So far, the Wild Rice Pilaf (on page 82) has found a place in our regular rotation.

This recipe wasn’t too “out there” in terms of earthy crunchy stuff and was delicious.  The cranberries gave it some tart sweetness, and the wild rice mixture I used gave it a delightful nuttiness.

Like any recipe, I basically saw the ingredients more as recommendations and adapted it to our liking.  I’ll note my changes in italics.

serves 6

1 cup wild rice  I used 1.5 cups wild rice mixture because my grocery store sucks and didn’t have brown basmati

1/2 cup brown basmati rice

pinch of sea salt

3 cups vegetable stock or water  I used 1.5 cups of beef broth because I didn’t have vegetable stock and 1.5 cups of water

2 T extra virgin olive oil

6 shallots, diced  I used 1 large shallot and 2 garlic cloves

2 T mirin

3 stalks of celery  I used 2 because the third was kind of mushy

1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, diced  I skipped these because mushrooms are vile

1 T minced fresh rosemary

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley  I skipped this because I didn’t have any, but I did use about 1 T dried parsley

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place wild and basmati rice together in pot or rice cooker with stock or water and a pinch of salt.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat and simmer until liquid is absorbed (about 40 minutes).  Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté shallots [and garlic] in olive oil and mirin until translucent.  Add celery, mushrooms and rosemary and sauté 2-3 minutes.  Mix in cranberries.  Fluff rice with fork and fold into vegetable mixture.  Cook another 2 minutes to heat through.  Remove from heat, fold in almonds and parsley, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Adapted from Walters, Terry.  Clean Food:  A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source.  New York: Sterling Epicure, 2009, page 82.

Project 52 – Week 15

Another picture from my phone, but this time it involves alcohol, so that makes it better, right?