Married: Month 7

Posted on January 24, 2012 | 9 Comments

Dear Seventh Month of Being Married,

When I think of this month, I think of it as the month we finally stayed home. I wouldn’t trade a minute of it, but all the moving and traveling over the previous six months was a little exhausting!  We spent our first holiday in our little 1-bedroom – celebrating the New Year with lasagna and hanging out on the futon.

We’ve finally slipped into a nice little routine, playing our roles as DTC’s newest power couple. You’ve really improved at remembering to make me coffee in the morning (Go honey!!), and I’ve just gotten worse about stalling and not wanting to get out of the car in the morning. I love making  your dinners (and I’ve been remembering to give you a break from gross, healthy food occasionally), and I usually spend my evening cooking, washing our workout clothes, hassling Boyd, and, well, blogging! If we’re really lucky, we get to watch an episode of West Wing and drink a second Diet Coke (we’re really trying to cut back)!

For some reason, we decided to start behaving like responsible adults this year and try to stick to a budget. This has DEFINITELY been a challenge since I usually think of my stomach first (food!), and we’ve been trying to get our grocery budget to a semi-reasonable amount. I know that sounds like an unromantic topic, but I’d only do it for you!! All of my single days were spent going straight to La Sirena with my paycheck to buy up all the American imports — you can only imagine how much Sabra hummus costs in the DR!  You’ve also been super helpful with helping me clean up around the house since I’m sadly no longer a stay-at-home wife! We’ve also been trying to teach Boyd some manners, but no luck there!

One of my favorite things we did this month was visit Colorado Springs! You were so sweet to plan to take me to the Olympic Training Center! Of course, my other fave event was Frosty’s Frozen 5&10! Although we didn’t get to run together, I LOVED being able to watch for you and cheer for you! Thanks for dealing with my endless chatter following the race – you’re so sweet! Can’t wait to run more races together and/or cheering each other on this year!

Finally, I’m so thankful for all the chances we’ve had to grow in our marriage. In many ways, but particularly through our Young Marrieds Sunday School class and our Marriage + Class. The best part is always discussing everything afterwards. And the M&Ms, since for some reason I’ve decided our class is the one place where I’ll eat candy! Something that really stuck with me this month is something our teachers said they remind each other of when they are making decisions, big or small,“Everything is negotiable, but Jesus & us.”  Love you, Kevi!

Best January Recipes!

Cookie Fridays  - this was a REALLY good month!

Date Nights:

P.S. Check out Months 1-6 in the Marriage Diaries tab or wedding stuff on the wedding page. The dress I wore leaving the reception (pictured above) was a total impulse buy from BHLDN. I bought it the week before on a whim, and it just happened to fit perfectly. I think I’m going to wear it for our first anniversary (one year – that is!).

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Rungry Race Aftermath + 5 X 800m

Posted on January 23, 2012 | 18 Comments

After the race on Saturday, we were feeling the need for some serious pancake action.

I learned something new about my husband! He prefers skinny pancakes (that’s about the only thing he likes skinny – haha). I generally make them thicker & fluffier so I tried to make them his way.

I think he just likes to have a whole STACK to eat. I also whipped up some “berry butter.” I used my favorite Melt buttery spread & food processed it with fresh blackberries, tsp of vanilla extract, and some nonfat Greek yogurt to tone down the fat content a bit. :)

I’m going to tell it like it is, guys. I ate a lot of junk food. I was so rungry all weekend. I was even found thieving Kevin’s popcorn. I don’t even LIKE his kind. When Monday morning rolled around, I was ready to get my act together.

In case you’re wondering how the Boykin looks at 6AM. He’s never too pleased when I come in the bathroom to get ready to workout! He’s just lucky he got to stay comfy.

“I got comfortable with being uncomfortable!” I did a Jillian Michaels 6-Week 6-Pack workout followed by 15 minutes of Nike Training Club cardio. The NTC totally wiped me out with burpees and tuck jumps, but it felt goooood to start the day getting my sweat on.

I got some green in my lunch today with a totally loaded up salad – chicken, mozz, + a few tortilla chips w/refried beans. Lucky Kevin had a chicken quesadilla with all the toppings I had in my bowl.

Tonight’s workout:

Man, I was just exhausted, and when I got on the treadmill I was thinking there was no way I could do 800s. When I was originally planning the workout I was going to do my 800s and 9mph. That would be a good challenge for me. But I was just so beat, I stuck with the original workout.

- Workout via CNC -

I ended up running a total of over 7.0 miles because I did a long warm-up and cooldown. I’d love to do this workout another day when I’m not so tired so I can do a pace that is more of a real challenge. I need to make that 9.0 pace a thing of ease if I ever want to break a 20 minute 5k (ouch!).

Kevin made my day by taking me out for some Yogurtini so we could try out the new to-go containers Kristy got us for Christmas!! We tried the Maple Bacon Donut flavor, but I just wasn’t a fan. The snickerdoodle was okay, but I stuck with the basics – birthday cake, red velvet, and good old vanilla.  Yum!! Totally hit the spot although now I am FREEEEEEEEEEEZING!!!

By the way, thank you so much for all your sweet comments about the race. It made me feel so nice & happy! I love to hear your thoughts because some of you actually have an interest in running and know from personal experience the effort it takes. I really appreciate it! :)

What do you usually want to eat after a race (or long run)? Pancakes are extremely high on my list. So is pizza. Followed by the entire contents of the refrigerator.

Do you like your pancakes skinny or fluffy? Fluffy. But I’d take either over French toast in a heartbeat!

What’s one positive thing you did to start your week? Got up early & worked out, and ate vegetables at lunch! And I can’t say I’m sad that I got fro- yo!

 

 

 

 

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Race Recap: Frosty’s Frozen 5 & 10

Posted on January 21, 2012 | 37 Comments

Not surprisingly, I selected the 10 mile option. I prefer to run distances of 10k+ because I just don’t like to run that fast! I know it sounds crazy to non-endurance runners, but it’s true.

Let’s start out with my goals for this race:

I wanted to run it in 1 hour & 17 minutes or less. That sounds like a random number, but I did it on the treamill last weekend while watching the Olympic Marathon trials. I wanted to make it a reality in the great out doors.

I wanted to go out fast. It’s a personality flaw when it comes to running – I’m not overly competitive with anyone but myself. I don’t enjoy going out of the start being pushed & shoved by the masses. I prefer to start at a very conservative pace and keep it steady and slowly take people out one by one as they get tired. I’ve always finished with lots less to give, and I didn’t want that to happen again!

Can I just acknowledge two rookie mistakes? I wore brand spankin’ new shoes. I’ve been having panic attacks that my old ones were hurting my left knee. I was kind of in a lose-lose place because I didn’t want to risk running 10 miles hard on shoes that were bothering me knee. I figured you can live through a little foot pain so I decided wearing new shoes was the lesser of two evils. I wore them last night to the gym for a few easy miles… and they felt awful. But I stuck with my decision.

I woke up sore this morning. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I’m not good at resting. For some reason, I had the urge to do 15 minutes of squats & lunges yesterday afternoon, and I really didn’t cut back on my mileage much this week. Oh well.

There I go. Going out with some scary fast people. I will say I did something right. The shorts & jacket combo was perfect for the gorgeous 50ish weather. I did get hot when the sun came out in the last 2 miles, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Mile 1: 7:33  — Mission Go Out Fast accomplished! For the first 5 miles I stayed with a pair of 20-something girls who were clicking off 7 and a half’s like it was nada. I just pretended I was friends with them.

Mile 2 – 7:27

Mile 3 – 7:20  <—- That I should have KNOWN was a bad idea!

Mile 4 – 7:25

Mile 5 – 7:30 Yay! Halfway through! Wait, I lost my friends!! Hey guys! Where’d you go? We got 5 miles left! My 2 pacers apparently took an extended break  at the turn around. As in, I never saw them again. I can’t believe they deserted me. How rude!! I really struggled to get back in the groove after that.

Mile 6 – 7:36 My slowest mile, and the beginning of the end.

Mile 7 – 7:50 I was fading fast! I started telling myself Shalene Flanagan’s mantra: COLD EXECUTION!!!!!!!

Mile 8 – 8:16 Totally fell apart. I actually walked a FEW times. I just couldn’t catch my breath!! I would walk to the count of 10, and then start running again. Being tired near the end race was totally uncharted territory for me. I almost found it confusing.

Mile 9 – 8:35 Dying. Same as mile 8. But then……

My running buddy angel, Brooke, showed up to coach me through the last 1.5 miles. I was so thankful – I almost cried!!!! I had been running by myself for a few miles, and it was just so wonderful to have someone to run with me!!

You can see her off to the left peeling off right before the finish. ;)

Mile 10 – 8:31

Overall time was just a hair over 1 hour, 18 minutes. I actually ran about an extra .10 miles which probably added about 30 seconds, but that’s the way racing goes!

I was just so happy to be done!

I’m just wiping away the gross saltiness and trying to breathe!

I was disappointed not to make my time goal. But I was thrilled that I was spent. I know that sounds weird, but I feel frustrated when I finish a race with a lot to give. I left it all on that course, baby!!!

But then!!! We were chilling, hanging and about to leave, but we thought we’d check the standings first.

I won first place in my age division!!!!!!!!! I was shocked. I knew that there weren’t very girls ahead of me (it was out & back), but it’s probably the biggest race I’ve ever run (over 1000 participants) so I was NOT expecting anything. And my prize was a gift certificate to Runner’s Roost. So much cooler than a medal!! Hooray!!! What an awesome surprise!!


As much as I hate to share the spotlight, my hottie husband also had a great performance today finishing the 5 mile in just barely over 40 minutes!! Good job, honey! I actually got to watch him finish because the 5 mile was at 9 and the 10 mile didn’t start till 10:15. Just in case you wanted to run both! :) Seriously! I loved watching all the finishers come in. The crowd was pretty lame so I was really the only one cheering. I need to get a cowbell before our next race!! I love watching races. I cried my eyes out when I saw a couple finish in just under 10 minute miles. I was so proud of them since it was clearly their goal and they nailed it!! It totally got me psyched up for my race.

Yeah. The new shoe situation came back to BITE me. I couldn’t WALK after the race. I limped back to the car. Funny that they didn’t bother me a bit till I stopped running. I feel a lot better after I hot showered them!!!

A few thoughts on the race itself:

  • Cute long-sleeved shirt, but too big as always!!! I guess I should have asked if there were kids’ sizes, but I’ll live.
  • Slipped on patches of ice in several places. That scared me.
  • Nice flat course!!
  • Fun atmosphere at start/finish
  • Maybe I should do the Snowman Stampede next month (the next race in the Winter Distance series).

We were STARVING by the time we got cleaned up and showered. We had just enough money in this week’s food budget to grab some Qdoba for lunch. Good thing, since I wasn’t exactly up to walking around the kitchen!! It really hit the spot after a tough race.

Next time:

  • I’m not gonna be in new shoes!
  • I’m going to train a little more outdoors. Treadmill training is fine & dandy, but I was coughing up a lung even in the very mild January air. I wasn’t used to that outdoor feeling.
  • I’m going to run negative splits. Really my preference anyways!!
  • I will rest more!! Whether I like it or not.
  • If it’s a 10 miler, I will beat today’s time!!!

What’s your most common racing mistake? Starting too slow. I definitely did the opposite today!!!

Would you rather…. make your goal time or place in your age division? That’s a tough one. It was really nice to place, but I don’t think I would have been disappointed if I made my goal time and didn’t place.

How do you strategize your races? Even pace? Negative splits? I’m experimenting. I want to know!

What’s your favorite distance to race? It would have been awfully nice to stop at 8 today!! Haha.

 

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Cookie Friday: Vanilla Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on January 20, 2012 | 11 Comments

Making chocolate chip cookies scares me. I hate it when they turn out poofy or flat or ugly!! What a girl needs is a reliable chocolate chip recipe. Yesterday as I was leaving work, a co-worker said,”And bake some cookies if you have time!!” I can’t resist a challenge, and she had mentioned before that she likes homemade chocolate chip cookies. As someone who loves to cook and bake, I have a little mental file on the food preferences of everyone I know. Can you believe my father-in-law dislikes peanut butter? He’s not allergic. He just dislikes it!

Anyways…

Vanilla Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies (via Two Peas & Their Pod)

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3.4 oz. package vanilla instant pudding mix
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat and set aside.

2. Using a mixer, beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add in pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

3. Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until slight golden and set. Remove cookies from oven and let cool on baking sheet for two minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.

Isn’t the vanilla pudding a cool secret ingredient? It seriously made them turn out perfecto!

Mixing.

I just like to put filters on pictures when I have a particularly dark or shadowy picture (which is all the time in this apartment!!). I’m like so tricky, right?

Kevin eating his balanced diet – a cookie in each hand!

I have 1 hour and 14 minutes until gym time. I’m going to relax!! I have to rest up for race day tomorrow so I’m going to take it super easy.

Two other cool chocolate chip cookie recipes: Skinny Chocolate Chip Cookies and Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

What do you do on Friday nights? Just curious what cool people do these days. Friday night is usually like my most tired night so I’m super lame. For us, it’s usually very similar to week nights with gym time, making dinner, blogging, and Kevin doing homework. I will say Friday is hands down the least busy night at our gym!

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Denver Date Night: Chick fil-A

Posted on January 19, 2012 | 21 Comments

Today’s workout: 4.51 miles of literally running errands. Lovely weather in Denver today!

We’re Minnesota kids!! We’d seriously  never been to a Chick fil-A!! I know I love the healthy food, but before there was healthy food in my life – there was chicken & fries!

I almost got run over by the drive-thru customers while taking this picture. Kevin rescued me as usual.

We supersized. I’m not kidding. We go big or go home. Or as they call it at Chick fil-A – upsizing!! They have really good sauces there too. Kevin and I are sauce lovers. I’m not a fan of ketchup, but if I was I’d be very impressed by the dip & squeeze packets.

You can’t say it’s not a classy restaurant – they had fresh flowers on the tables!!

We were a little disappointed that they had the pop refills behind the counter. That’s an important amenity to us. I’m too timid to ask for a refill myself. Good thing I have Kevin the Courageous to do it for me. Haha.

Why was I wearing that gorgeous green Garmin?

Earlier…

We picked up our t-shirts and chips for Frosty’s Frozen 5 & 10! I purposefully left my Garmin on to play the part. ;)

Doesn’t he look like he’s signing a marriage certificate? Awwa… just a race waiver. I enjoyed chatting it up with the race volunteers about how Kevin is running the 5, and I’m going for the 10 miler. At least we signed up for a race before going to Chick fil-A, riiiight?

Oh boy. Even earlier than THAT, I had my interview. Ummmm….. I don’t know how to say this nicely. It was a definite N-O! I knew before I even went into the interview that it wasn’t going to be a good fit for me. Part of that may have been the fact that they kept me waiting 45 minutes (during which time apparently they didn’t realize I could hear everything they were saying), and the overall tone was just not professional. I was hoping for at least a good warm-up interview, but I was kind of disappointed.

That said, hey, I’m thankful to be in a position where I can be choosy, but I’m anxious to work with kids again. I’m not sure how long my temp job is going to last, but if I get laid off I can study my NASM book and work on getting a piano!! I think I’d make an excellent self-employed piano teacher/personal trainer. And I’d be a great boss to myself. Actually, knowing my personality I’d probably be a slave driver.

The good news is that I got to go to Starbucks afterwards! I had that nice lemon water and a skinny vanilla latte while I caught up on some blog reading and waited for Kevin to get off work. Good day!!!

Have you been to Chick fil-A? What’s your favorite order? I loved my nuggets and waffle fries!!

Preferred type of french fry? I think I love crinkle fries the most. But I love them all.

If you could be (or are!) self-employed, what would you like to do? Personal trainer, piano teacher, blogger *duh*, and I’d love to teach online someday, but that’s not exactly self-employed.

 

 

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Posted in Food, Eating out, Denver

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Jump In + Greek Yogurt with Warm Black and Blueberry Sauce

Posted on January 18, 2012 | 14 Comments

I wanted to mix up my cardio a little bit today(don’t worry – I did my 5k+ run), and ventured into the gym to jump rope.

I broke out my Crossfit timer app for this one. I was foolish enough to leave it on the setting I used in a previous workout. 12 rounds of 50 seconds of work + 10 seconds of rest. That was a brutal jump rope workout. Let me advise you that 50 seconds is a really long time to go maximum effort with a jump rope. I’m a pretty good jumper, but the time was just crawling. I’d suggest 30 or 45 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest. The beeper on the app was nice and loud so I could hear it in the gym. I’m sure everyone in the near vicinity appreciated that! :)

Next time I want to jump rope, I’m going to plan to wear pigtails!!!

By the way, I totally have a goal to learn to do double unders. Predictably, I just finished watching several You Tube video tutorials - here’s the best one!

I had a student try to teach how to do them last year when I taught high school P.E., but I never quite got it!! They did teach me to do the criss-crossy jump thing. You can’t say I’m not teachable!!! By the way, I could school them all in an endurance jumping competition… and the mile run. ;)

I had kind of a small lunch today so I made a smoothie for dessert/afternoon snack. Do you like my funky office refrigerator smell blocker? Haha. Unfortunately, this TOTALLY upset my stomach while I was working out today. Should have just drunk it right away when I made it. I was rewarding myself for surviving the office till 3PM, and I got punished for it!! Haha.

You were just waiting for the zucchini to show up, right? I had planned to make it into noodle-less lasagna, but I had to downsize to a ramekin since my zucchinis were so mini. I used the same recipe as the Turkey Spinach Mini Lasagnas with exception of swapping noodles for thinly sliced zucchini.

I really didn’t slice it thinly enough. I’m not too handy with a knife. I think it would’ve been a lot better if I had done it correctly because the result was some pretty crunchy zucchini. I really enjoyed this dish even with the zucchini substitute, but I’m not going to lie – I missed the noodles. I love you, carbalicious pasta!! Kevin got the normal one. I pick and choose when to torture him with nutrition.

Greek Yogurt with Warm Black and Blueberry Sauce (adapted from Cooking Light)

  • 2/3 cup frozen blueberries
  • 2/3 cup frozen blackberries (we had fresh – yay!)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • Truvia or sweetener of your choice to taste
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 2 cups plain 2% reduced-fat Greek yogurt

Preparation

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; gently boil 10 minutes or until sauce thickens.

2. Spoon 1/2 cup yogurt into each of 4 bowls; top each serving with about 1/4 cup sauce. Serve immediately.

Can you do double unders? I’m so jealous. I learned a lot of tips from that video so I’m eager to try again.

What’s your favorite kind of berry? Blackberries are my fave.

Thanks for all the well wishing on the interview tomorrow. I’ve put myself in the mindset that it’s a warm-up, but maybe I’ll surprise myself and really want the job after seeing the little school. :)

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Healthy recipes, Uncategorized

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