C25K: Week 4 Day 1: Man Down!

Tonight was the first day of week 4 of the Couch 2 5K program, and I ran alone.  I'm not going to lie. It sucked.

Joe was unable to run tonight.  He had to make an emergency trip to the opthamologist to get something in his eye removed.  Turned out he had metal shavings embedded in his eyeball. Nice.  The doctor bandaged up his eye, and my poor husband had to drive home from Ft. Worth in the rain with one good eye.  Naturally, his good eye is strained from working double duty, and he wasn't up for running.  I told him to go lay down and rest.  He goes back to the doctor tomorrow.  Hopefully he can take that awful bandage off.   The doctor should have given him a leather pirate eye-patch--- much less pitiful than gauze and medical tape.  I told him he can wear a pair of my ridiculously large sunglasses to work tomorrow.  We agreed he'd look like Elton John or Cee Lo Green.

So tonight it was just me and my iTunes. And the drizzle.  And blustery wind.  And my new running shoes!  We hit up Luke's Locker in Ft. Worth this weekend.  The spring had sprung from my old pair of Brooks Ghosts, so I tried some Saucony and New Balance before ultimately sticking with the new Brooks Ghosts.  My mother will be disappointed I didn't buy American (Saucony).  Sorry, Mom. Sorry, America.  Maybe after I log 400-500 miles on these puppies I will give Saucony another try.

Week 4 is definitely the most challenging yet.  I've heard many people quit the C25K program in week 4 or 5 because of the significant increase in the length of the running intervals.

Tonight it was warm up 5.  Run 3 min.  Walk 1:30 min.  Run 5 min. Walk 2:30 and repeat.

I did it without stopping, but it wasn't pretty.  I'm pretty sure I was doing what is called "the Air Force Shuffle" when I happened to be running uphill with the wind in my face for one of those five minute intervals.  Oh well.  Next time will be easier, and I will have Joe with me.  He's a good pacesetter.

Cyclops Joe is no fun.  I need my running partner back.  :(

Shirataki Greatness!

I found another FABULOUS healthy recipe in Food and Wine that I am filing away as a keeper:

Quick Vietnamese Noodle Soup by Rocco DiSpirito.

Here's why I love it:

• tons of fresh herby flavor
• low carb noodles
• quick and easy to make
• satisfying
• an excuse to use extra chopsticks from last sushi take-out
• an excuse to look at Rocco DiSpirito.  What a hunk!

• beef
• Joe liked it... a lot.

I found everything I needed to make this dish at Sprouts, including the Shirataki noodles (in the refrigerated section by the soy products). I'd never heard of nor eaten these splendid noodles before, but I plan to use them as a sub for as many pasta dishes as possible.  3 grams of carbs?  Holy smokes! I'm a believer.

Actually, there was one ingredient Sprouts did not have and that was the beef tenderloin, which I had to buy at Brookshire's.  Doubting my knife skills I sheepishly asked the deli man if he could carpaccio  my tenderloin (yes, I just used carpaccio as a verb) using some of their fancy slicing machinery, but alas, my hunch was correct---raw meat is a no-go.  But I managed to get a pretty decent thin slice without totally mangling the tenderloin.

If you like beef carpaccio, then you will like this dish.  If raw beef scares you, just ladle the broth over the beef, and your problem is solved. It's lovely because the beef is so tender. 

My mouth is watering just thinking about this dish.

I love it when healthy food is delicious.

Thunk!

Yesterday after work Joe and I were relaxing on the couch when there was a loud "thunk" against the windows to the back yard. Had one of us thrown Oscar's toy against the window accidentally?  We looked at each other and Joe went to see what caused the loud noise.  Turns out it was a confused baby bird.  It sat stunned, blinking on the back patio while Oscar and Pheebs barked savagely from the living room. I finally managed to squeeze out of the house without releasing the hounds.  Joe seeing me struggling with the dogs said "It's going to die anyway." 

I scooped up the bird and carried it out of the dog yard and set him on a low branch of a tree.  As you can tell from the pictures, he was really out of it.  He let me get inches away with my iPhone to snap the photographs. 

I left him alone and went back inside.  I told Joe I thought he was old enough to survive because he had plenty of flight feathers.  It wasn't as if he'd fallen out of the nest and couldn't fly back.  When I went back out to check on him, he was still sitting in the low branch I'd placed him on.  My heart sank.  Poor guy has brain damage, I thought.  But as I got closer, he hopped to a branch to get away from me. Yay! Then flew up into the big red oak tree, and I felt like I'd done a good deed. 

Anyone know what kind of bird it was?  I think it may be a meadowlark of some sort. Maybe not, he was on the small side.

Thursday's Run and Oscar

I headed down to my parents' casa Thursday evening because Oscar had a date with a vet in Waco for his neuter/ retained puppy teeth extraction surgery.  Since it was Couch to 5K Thursday, my mom and I headed out to the State Park for the run.  We figured since it cost admission to get in, we might as well stay and enjoy a glass of wine after the run.  And we did.  It was really windy and the campsites were full of Spring Breakers, but the run itself was nice.  There were a lot of hills, so it made things challenging.  I'm hoping when I run in my less hilly neighborhood tonight, it will seem easier by comparison.

I don't know about you, but my mouth always gets dry and gross when I run.  My mom, a runner, suggested runner's gum (or spitting).  Runner's gum promotes salivation, which is more appealing to me than hocking lugies.  But now I wonder--- can I chew gum and run at the same time?  We shall see.

Friday was the big day for Oscar. He didn't even know what he was in for.   Here he is sleeping on the way to Waco.

 He had the works!  Not only did he have three retained baby teeth pulled, he was also castrated, and got up to date on his vaccinations.

Poor boy wanted to cuddle.  He never wants to cuddle.

 So now I am nursing this little guy back to his normal, spastic self.  I hope he feels better soon.  It sucks to know he's not feeling well.

Voluntarily hanging out in his crate. I KNOW he doesn't feel well.

Spring Break is almost over, then it's back to the real world.  I'm excited that we will end the week with a special dinner at our favorite wine bar tomorrow night.  I get to try some food I've never tasted before...namely beef tongue.  I'll let you know how that goes. ;)  

Let the countdown to summer begin!

C25K Tuesday: Week 2 Day 1

Well well well...we are officially in Week 2 of our Couch to 5K training program!  We're back to running under the cover of darkness.  Nights like these are perfect for running.  Cool enough to make the run pleasant but not so cold my ears start hurting.

This week's sessions will be 5 min. of warm up walking, 20 min. of 90 sec. run/ 2 min. walk intervals  followed by a 5 min. cool down.

The first 90 seconds of running tonight was slightly challenging, but I think it was more because Joe was setting a faster pace after finishing an uphill walk.  I haven't decided if I like ambitious-runner-Joe or not.  I'm like, "let's just stick with the plan, man."  And he's all running a few seconds past the walk command. He's the optimist and I'm the pessimist, which is why he will outlive me---that and he seems to have more will power to push on past the limits.  Well, there's a name for that.  It's called recklessness! No reckless running on my part.  No sir!  I'm sticking to the rules on this one.

It's true that neon makes you look more tan.

On a sad note, we've suffered our second C25K casualty.  My new rad neon socks I bought on sale at Foot Locker (which I mistook for athletic socks when they are actually "fashion" socks) already have a hole.  Two pairs!  I thought perhaps the first time was a fluke.  Now I know it's me.  I need a pedicure.  Apparently, I'm ruining socks with my talon-esque toenail.  Oh darn.  Guess I'll have to squeeze in a pedi this week. :)

Braising fennel.  Yum!

While I'm posting about getting healthy, we are trying out some healthier recipes from this month's Food & Wine Magazine.  Tonight's choice just so happened to be vegetarian.  Roasted Halibut with Wine-Braised Fennel.  I have to say, it was nice. Central Market didn't have halibut yet and said it would be another couple of weeks before they'd get some.  I subbed cod instead.  Not sure if that was a wise choice, but the seafood guy said it was the closest thing they had.  I didn't have to adjust the cooking time, so it was at least similar in that regard.  Also, this was the first time I cooked fennel, and I really enjoyed it.  However, I think I'd love anything that braised in wine.  It left me feeling satisfied, but not stuffed and feeling gross.

We're going to try this one out, too.  Spice-Braised Chicken Legs with Red Wine and Tomato  We bought some farro to try out, so I might cook that with it instead of rice.  Yum!

C25K Sunday: Week 1 Day 3

We drove out to White Rock Lake Sunday morning for a scenic jog (though I think brunch in the city was part of the allure).  Oh. My. Gosh.  It was warm and humid, and I thought I was going to die.  I accidentally messed up the timing of the starts and stops in the C25K app trying to change songs, and it was just a mess.  Joe and I were out of sync for 90% of the session.  He was running past the marks and I was all out of whack, and the heat was making me cranky.  Today's overall experience in a word: frustrating.

I'm going to stick to running at night.

Next week we bump up the 60 secs of running to 90 secs, with 2 mins walking between.  Eek!

C25K Thursday: Week 1 Day 2

I sneaked a picture of him in his sporty new gear. hehe

Tonight's training session was a little easier than Tuesday; it was the same intervals as the previous session, so nothing new to report there. We made better time and needed to change up our course a little.  The weather was nice...a little chilly at first.  As much as I LOVE summertime, I'm dreading hot humid nights.

As we ran I tried to focus on controlling my breathing, and that was strangely relaxing.  Part of gradually easing into the jogging allows me to do this.  Previously when I've tried to jump right into running a mile, my breathing was all over the place, and it just sucked.  So far so good.

  Joe made a proposition tonight.  He's volunteered to eat salad for dinner on our running nights.  And that's fine by me!

C25K Tuesday: Week 1 Day 1

Tonight Joe and I started the legit C25K training program using this app.  I'm glad we had last week as a "warm-up" to this program because it was certainly more challenging. Not in a terrible way though.  I liked that the music from my iPod played, and I got a couple of different cues to walk and run.  One was a verbal cue, and it also vibrated and sent a little text message. 

I think the intervals tonight were 5 mins of warm up walking, and 20 minutes: walk 90 sec./ run 60 sec. section, followed by a 5 minute cool down walk.  It was 2 miles winding through the streets of our neighborhood, which has some gnarly hills I hadn't previously noticed.  My calves are a tad sore, and I definitely worked up a little sweat.  I also noticed the pep in my step was fading toward the end of the 20 min interval.

Overall, I'm pleased with the app and Joe for willingly coming with me tonight :)  Didn't have to beg or nuthin!  He also commented that this program was more intense than the one I linked up last week.  I know I'm already feeling better physically.  I'm sure much of the euphoria is having that guilt-ridden feeling lifted for being sedentary.

Here's my iPod playlist for tonight's session (don't laugh too hard...some of it is a little random):

• Aaron Copland "Fanfare for the Common Man" Yes, I felt like an Olympian getting my walk on.
• Durrough "Ice Cream Paint Job"  Yeah, buddy! Roll'n like a big shot. hehe
• B.E.Ps "Just Can't Get Enough"
• B.E.Ps "The Time"  (both BEP songs had a nice beat for my pace).
• The Proclaimers "I'm Gonna Be"
• Billy Idol "Dancing With Myself"
• Heart "Magic Man"

Some People Buy Shoes...

Some people buy shoes; I buy sunglasses.  It's getting a little ridiculous.  Many people lose or destroy their shades, but I don't have this problem. I've only broken one pair in...well, ever.

 My motto is: the bigger the better. Not only do they provide more UV protection (wink), but they are also flattering on me. You see, I have a larger than average head.  At least I think I do.  I haven't exactly busted out the measuring tape and medical charts to check.

Anyway, giant shades give the illusion of a smaller cranium.  I wish I were kidding, but I don't think anyone is going to accuse me of having body dysmorphia anytime soon. In fact, I have a genuine fear of natural childbirth because Joe's got a big ol' dome, too.  I guess I'll cross that bridge if I ever come to it.

Do these glasses make my head look smaller?

These have a nice face lift effect. If only they could disguise the massive zit on my chin.

Most pairs I pick up at Target (such as the pair pictured above), or at a department store on sale.  Others are cast offs from mycousinamanda.  The most expensive pair were deeply discounted, thanks to my brother-in-law's Sunglass Hut employee discount.  Holla! 

I'm always on the lookout for a nice pair of white frame sunglasses.  I had my eye on the white wayfarers but, alas, they are too small in proportion to my noggin. Sigh. Just know I am jealous of all you people who can pull off the wayfarers.

Anyone else have an accessory problem?

Shellac Manicure

After hearing mixed reviews about the shellac manicure, including the one on The Pioneer Woman website, I decided to give it a go.  Actually, I went to the nail salon just wanting a regular manicure, and the manicurist talked me into getting the more expensive shellac manicure just as I was picking the perfect shade of nail polish.  It cost $30, not including tip.

So far my only complaint is a limited color selection.  Well, there were at least 15 colors available, but they were all pearly, and I wanted something different. In fact, I almost picked black because it was the only non-pearly shade. In the end, I went with the bronze-brown.  It's nice and shiny, and since your hands go under the UV light for most of the process, you don't have to worry about mangling the paint job right after you leave the salon.  I'm hard on my nails and a notorious polish-picker, too.  I'm hoping this will be a miracle manicure, meaning it will last more than one week.

Saturday in the (Fair)Park

Joe averting his eyes from kilted men on a windy day.

 NBC gave Joe tickets to the Irish Festival at Fair Park this weekend.  We decided to check it out.  It was interesting to say the least. The best part was the dog breed rescue booths set up in the pavilions.  I loved the giant Irish Wolfhounds. When I was a girl mycousinamanda had one.  Her dad used to tease me and tell me that I had to saddle the dog and ride her home.  She was big enough that I probably could have!

People dressed up in their kilts and ren. faire garb, and brought their dogs.

Joe's tattoo...on a stained glass light catcher. LOL

One of my Fair Park favs.

Did I mention it was really windy and cold?

Do work, son!  A restored mural at Fair Park.

We made the rounds and headed for Run On! to buy Joe some new running shoes.


And Saturday was Week 1: Day 5 of C25K.  We bought the C25K app, but since we got a late start and dinner was in the oven, we decided to stick with the website's suggestion to walk 5 min, run 3, walk 5 for today.  We'll start over on the iPhone app plan on Tuesday since it is a little different and looks to be a bit more intense.  Joe has really bought into the program, which makes me happy that we can train together. :)  I'll keep updating our progress.

C25K Thursday

Maybe Joe read my blog or maybe I just nagged him enough, but tonight we did our  walking  and running on Week 1: Day 3 of the Couch to 5K plan.  Joe had his headphones and I had the timer. He listened to Country, and I listened to our feet slapping the pavement, dogs barking, and Joe's weird breathing.  It's funny how we breath when we can't hear ourselves. 

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but my legs are a little sore from Tuesday night. Eek! (I also missed Jersey Shore tonight for my run.  Now that's dedication.) LOL Don't judge!

There's a C25K app on iTunes for $2.99  that I'm checking out. It looks like it may be worth the money.  There's this one.  And here's another one.   I am curious about the music, but I like the accountability...you can update Facebook and Twitter with your progress. 

Before our run, I went to Target to grab a couple of more neon sports bras and another pair of capri leggings. I bought some last week and I love them so much I went back for more. Actually, I went there to pick up a few items for care packages for my brother and his girlfriend.  They are both deployed overseas presently (in different locations).

Aren't they cute?

Today was just productive.

The reversible dress is done!

Now, it's on to the bloomers!

I like being productive.

It's Wednesday. Word.

Somehow I ended up at Joanne on Sunday. I picked out a reversible dress and bloomer pattern (and that fabulous floral print featured above) to start a new project for Maia, mycousinamanda's baby girl.  I couldn't help myself.  I usually end up at Joanne or Hobby Lobby when I am procrastinating something else I'm supposed to be doing and end up buying a bunch of material with no plans.  But I had a plan, Stan.  Oh yes. Here's what I've got so far.  I still need to make the shoulder ties and bloomers.  But OMG...I want to make a matching set for myself. No?  Sigh.

 I love that floral print so much I want it plastered to my walls. How about a bedspread? Throw pillow? Thank God I have Maia.  She satisfies my obsession for all things pink and frilly.  And just in time, too.  My nieces are outgrowing the pink and frilly and now opt for a wider color spectrum. In fact, one niece pretty much hates pink, I think.  It was a sad, sad day for this auntie.

I bought pre-made ruffles for the bottom. There's a lot of steps and I'm impatient. I thought about nixing the ruffle all together, but then I thought the better of it; it won't be long before Miss Maia will break my heart and ditch the ruffles. And pink. Then I might have to start making dresses for Phoebe, and I'm just not ready to go there. I'm only twenty-nine for Pete's sake! It is one thing to buy the occasional dog sweater or Halloween costume, but investing hours of labor into a project is just not something I'm sure I could feel good about. I'm weird like that.

Anyway, I'll put pictures of the whole set when I finish. 

Oh yeah, I'm blonde again. After the initial shock wore off, I think I feel comfortable being a blonde once more.  The much needed haircut helps. Even Joe commented when I declared my need for a cut, "Yeah, it's kinda at that awkward stage."  "Boy, please! What do you know about the awkward stage?" Actually, I think I said something about how he sure knows how to make a girl feel pretty. So a month after that little exchange and about two months worth of roots showing, I finally did something about the sad state of my hair.  I'm sure some of you have a betting pool going for how long this color will stay put before I dye it. ;)

Couch to 5K Challenge: Day 1

Okay, so part of my New Year’s Resolution for the last year of my roaring twenties was to work on getting in shape.  So far I’ve not made any progress; unless you count chasing Oscar around the yard. I kept telling myself to get a gym membership, but all the gyms nearby are kinda janky and crowded.  I don’t like working out with grunting meatheads. It’s just awkward.  While I’m trying to watch Oprah on the treadmill and tune out the guttural noises coming from the weight bench...it is just distracting, and I don’t need another distraction on the treadmill. That could end badly.

One of my co-workers mentioned a training program called From Couch to 5K.  I’ve started many an ill-fated 5K training programs, so I’ll see how this goes.  I’ve enlisted Joe to train with me, and we’ve got the schedule worked in to fit our school schedule.  Here’s the link if you want to take a gander.

Today is Week 1: Day 1.

Joe is coming off the GMAT and I off of proctoring TAKS.  As much as we will probably want to melt into the couch and open a bottle of vino, it’s really important that we set off in the right foot.  Look for updates on our progress.  We both HATE running.  This could be bad.

***Update***

Big surprise, Joe bailed on me tonight. But I couldn't flake out on my very first day, especially after I wrote a blog about it! I hit the pavement about 10:00 this evening for 5 minutes of brisk walking, 2 minutes of jogging, and another 5 minutes of walking. It wasn't bad at all.  In fact, it was so chilly that I really felt that I could have done more running.  I'm going to stick with the schedule though. Don't want to get burned out.  Tomorrow is a rest day, then I'll be back at it on Friday. Stay tuned.