A Case of the Runs

Last Friday, I took to the streets in 80-degree weather to meet my goal of finally doing a long run.  Of course, I've been doing a lot of 13.1's , but it had been quite a while since I actually ran any sort of real distance outside of racing. And by "quite a while," I mean November  (and by "long run," I mean anything above six miles... "long" to me these days). Things have kind of fallen apart for me since then.  I had a very disappointing marathon, moved, got engaged , and then have kind of struggled to stay engaged in my day job.  By the time I'd get home, I'd be lucky to get 3-4 miles in a few times a week, and by the time the weekend rolled around, I had a race packet to pick up and race to run. So my eight-mile run through my new neighborhood was definitely an accomplishment . My true goal in this run wasn't just to get in mileage.  At this point, less than a month before the LA Marathon , I knew my window for mileage ha

Gosh, I feel a bit slow in my blogging lately.  Work has been pretty busy... all-day meetings and traveling around has not been good for both the blog and my eating patterns.  Working and blogging are not compatible, especially if I still want to do things worth blogging about, like cooking.  By the time I get home, I just want to unplug.  Blogging what? To make sure I don't need to cook every night, I make food in batches like this: Twice-baked potatoes with goat cheese and chives.  Basically, I baked scrubbed and pierced potatoes at 425-deg for about 20 minutes, scooped out the middles into a bowl once they kind of cooled, mixed the mashed middles with a tsp of Earth Balance, goat cheese, and chives, and stuffed it back into the potatoes.  Another 15-20 minutes in the oven, and now I had a salad accompaniment for a few days. Casseroles have become a staple for sure... one prep = many lunches and dinners.  I used frozen tortillas for this and was surprised they were even

I'm pretty close to polishing off a bag of these chocolate disks from Adora .  How did I eat 30 pieces of chocolate??? Each 30-calorie, individually wrapped piece contains half of women's daily calcium requirements and 40% of Vitamin D needs. I'm pretty sure I get enough Vitamin D from living in Southern California.  However, milk and I don't like each other, and my diet isn't perfect to get it in other ways.  These seem to work in a pinch. For those of you with similar issues as mine (mild lactose intolerance), the dark chocolate variety is actually lactose-free.  I didn't taste any chalkiness from it containing calcium, but I'm not a chocolate snob... beyond the fact that I think dark chocolate rules over milk chocolate. Overall, these gave me another excuse to eat chocolate.  As if that's needed... ------ FTC Disclaimer: I was sent samples of this product to review and was not compensated to provide a positive review.

As you might know, I've had an obsession with vegan mac 'n cheese. I didn't document too many steps of making THIS "Mac 'N Shews" recipe, but here is some of the dish aftermath: Food processor, strainer, straining cloth, big pots, small pots, and knives made this is a longer process than I had hoped. But the result was pretty darn good. I followed her recipe exactly, except that I replaced half of the pasta with a broccoli crown that I had. This was my first time making cashew "cheeze," and although it still isn't quite the cheese that I know and love (not my stomach, though!), it does give food a creaminess that other vegan faux-cheese foods seem to lack. This casserole-type dish made plenty of leftovers, and for some reason, a lot of leftover cashew cheese.  Stay tuned for how I ended up using this.

EVENT:  Rock n Roll Pasadena Half-Marathon DATE: Sunday, February 19, 2012 LOCATION: Pasadena, CA RACE BEGAN: 07:30 am FINISH TIME: 01:57:13 This race was a little bit of a last-minute decision, as my company was forming a fundraising team for the Cure Mito charity, which benefits research toward mitochondrial disease .   I have a small history of races in Pasadena , including my PR marathon . After a week that I spent worrying because I had two presentations at work for a worldwide team, I was relieved for the weekend but felt dread because of my many races as of late .  While the presentations went well (whew!), I was still nervous for this last race in this cluster that I had scheduled. On Saturday, "The Ukrainian" and I headed to the expo early.  We decided to take alternate transportation there to avoid parking, traffic, and hassle. This expo was strangely quiet for a Rock n Roll event (see other RnR recaps ), but perhaps we just went early.  Since I

A while back (I'm way behind), a rep for Honey Stinger sent me an assortment of products to try. I have seen this brand at the running store and wondered what it was all about.  Basically, the quick energy from honey is supposed to keep you going strong. I tried the Ginsting gel first (pictured in the center), on one of my long runs.  The consistency is a quite thin compared to other gels and, as the name implies, tastes much like eating honey straight up.  This might be a treat for some, but since I don't ever take honey with my biscuits, I had to remind myself of the benefits of the gel (B vitamins, electrolytes, etc.) as I ingested it. The second item I tried was the waffle .  It was kind of like a thin, bendy waffle and was a bit crumbly.  It was not as sweet as the gel and is probably better suited toward cyclists than runners.  I tried eating this during a long run and found it hard to eat because of the dryness.  However, this probably means it's good pre-r

It's Valentine's Day in this neck of the woods, though this day doesn't really bear much significance for "The Ukrainian" and me (see this post , this one , and maybe even this one  for times when I was more festive ). I'm probably going to cook him something, or perhaps he will cook with me, but in general, this isn't really an eating out day, a gift day, or really a day for anything beyond our typical means.  In fact, I'm pretty sure he'll be working all day until my bedtime, so perhaps I've got a date with the television.  But, in the spirit of today, I thought I'd provide an update on our wedding conundrum ... to not have one and not have to feel awkward or waste money... or to have one as an insurance against my future, possibly-regretful self. Yep, after much jabbering, we went with the latter option.  So, folks, without going into details about why, the wedding is on! Notes (sorry if the spacing is poor... I tried fixing it

EVENT: Los Angeles Chinatown Firecracker 5K and 10K DATE: Sunday, February 12, 2012 LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA RACE BEGAN: 08:05 am; 8:35 am FINISH TIME: 23:44; 59:00 On the Wednesday after last week's half-marathon , I did a light jog and tweaked my right knee.  Ugh!  I wasn't totally surprised, as it hasn't quite been right since I was training for my last marathon . Anyway, because of all the races as of late, I really had to psych myself up for this one.  Why I decided to race both the 5K AND 10K is beyond me... perhaps the Asian in me responded to "for just a few bucks more..."  I originally only registered for this event because my friend wanted to run it, and we all kind of jumped on the bandwagon.  This race was also one that I spectated back before I started running when my older sisters ran together. The day before, I was timing my teenage sister's mile time, running behind her, right after drinking a spinach and flax smoothie.<-- don'

This might be the first, or only time, that I have done a post like this.  And to be upfront, it'll probably be a rarity.  It's not that I don't care for other blogs... I can barely keep up!   However, I think that the blogs you read do say something about you, so here goes... maybe you'll find a new read. In no particular order: - Cindy's Cooking & Food Porn : Cindy is one of my friends in real life, so I'm probably biased here.  Her recipes are often lightened up a little but still very indulgent.  This post on The Treats Truck's triple-layer bars is just unfair to my dessert-loving eyes. - A Journey Toward Pull-up in 5 Cheats or Less : Okay, so this is another one of my real friend's blogs (I guess I don't make friends well over the Internet?), but it's notable because she's doing the new P90X-2 and tracking her progress in close detail.  I LOVE how real she is, and it's great to see someone follow the program closely <-

I've definitely been cooking a lot lately.  Some meals are more elaborate than others, and this post focuses on the "less elaborate" category. "The Ukrainian" sometimes cooks, too.  This noodle bowl below came together in 10 minutes, thanks to a tub of yellow miso that I used to make vegan mac n cheese a long while back.  A can of corn, tofu, and some yamasa (fish cake slices) completed this lunch. I like making most things from scratch, but in a pinch, these Tasty Bite meals work really well.  I've eaten a few of these Indian-themed boxes by now (great for emergency lunches at work).  The food comes in a pouch, which you dump into a bowl and zap.  Many of the meals are vegan, too, and fairly low in calories. (You have to get over the sight of strange oil in the pouches, but once you mix it, it seemingly disappears.) I had some leftover roasted cauliflower and gave it a second life by adding the contents of this Bombay Potatoes package.  Since I d

I saw this Core Fusion Body Sculpt  DVD while reading more about The Bar Method  DVDs.  As I've said way too many times here, I've been depending on these DVDs for a good part of my workouts nowadays because I've essentially quit my gym. The two methods are kind of similar, focusing on small movements to tone the body.  I also feel this method has helped my overall fitness, including my running fitness. So while that picture of a butt on the cover isn't exactly what I want to see, I do want to share that it (the DVD!) has worked its way into my regular rotation. The disc consists of five 10-minute workouts -- upper body, thighs, seat, abs, and stretch.  You can do one, or play all, of these to make up your workout.  Each workout is narrated either by Liz or Fred, so get used to the changes if you're doing the whole thing. Here's my review of each of the segments: Equipment needed: sturdy chair or countertop, a strap/towel, two 2-4 lb. weights, small

EVENT:  Surf City USA Half-Marathon DATE: Sunday, February 5, 2012 LOCATION: Huntington Beach, CA RACE BEGAN: 7:45 am (wave start) FINISH TIME: 01:55:56 (First race of the Beach Cities Challenge ) This was my fourth Surf City Half-Marathon event (see 2008 , 2009 , 2010 ).  Last year , I ducked out and volunteered for two days instead.  Thinking back, I'm not sure why I skipped out, since this race is always so well organized and one of the flattest ones out there. But keeping with the volunteering tradition, "The Ukrainian" and I spent nearly six hours at the humid expo tent, distributing bibs to people who apparently run about the same pace as me (bibs 7000-7999). I think I've said this before , but it's unbelievable how many people never show up to pick up their bibs... that's like $100 per sheet of paper, yo! Of course, this was after we picked up our own bibs and waited in lines like this to sample Clif bars . We ducked out sometime aft