A Case of the Runs

Most of my workout clothes are from Target or other discount stores and are often not in the best taste .  Some of my nicer ones I got as gifts . I am of the breed who thinks that if it's comfortable, it doesn't really matter what brand my clothing is.  Yes, sometimes brand is a hint of the quality of the clothing, but not always.  And when it comes to workout clothing, they all die in my sweat, so they are all seen as equals in my book. Tops are easy, as I accumulate all sorts of shirts from races .  I've gotten to the point where if the shirt isn't women's cut or doesn't fit well, it goes straight to donation, as my workout clothing drawer is pretty full already.  Since it takes me a long time to wear out any of my gear, even the cheap ones, I don't even think about buying replacements that often. As for bottoms, while I have many, they have kind of served different purposes.  I basically only wear my Nike tempo shorts (gift) to races/long

This entry marks the end of the third week (actually, I'm on Week 4, Day 2, but who's counting?!) in which I have been doing these Insanity workouts .  That means that a third of the program is done, and by now, I know the workouts pretty well. In this update, I want to elaborate on the question of "How hard is it?" for people who haven't tried this workout yet.  Anyone who has seen the infomercial can probably recall a ripped Shaun T (the instructor) sweating like crazy, and according to "The Ukrainian"'s brother, you're spending half the time kicking your knees to your chest and going, "Shoop, shoop!" That desciption is... mostly accurate.  The workouts so far are around 40 minutes and involve a "warm-up" sequence that is repeated a few times, a period of stretching, a workout period, and a cool-down period.  The "warm-up" alone will get you sweaty and tired , and yes, it does involve lifting those knee

It's giveaway time! On a long run recently, I took a couple packs of Sharkies Organic Sports Chews  with me to keep me going on a hot day.  I got through those 15 miles  eating these, versus normal gels.  I've been opting to eat chews over gels in my running nowadays because I just find them more palatable and easier on my stomach for some reason.  Plus, they do pack a few more calories, which is a good thing in this case. I normally associate cute little chews with candy, but these actually contain natural electrolytes.  Plus, they were light to carry and very tasty, too!  Each pack is about 140 calories.  The only downside I found to the sport chews is that they stuck to my teeth a tiny bit more than my normal choices, and the packaging gave me a fight at times.  This could easily be solved by conslidating them into a baggie pre-run, or eating them BEFORE running would be much easier than during. Want to win the prize pack below?  It comes with these Sport Chews, a neat

I work out in the morning before work, so this means that I'm often time-pressed to get it done and then look presentable . This also means that I often don't have time to wash my hair.  I know... this is gross, even to me, but at least I shower.  My long, thick hair requires lots of time to dry and such, so rather than show up to work with wet hair, I decided that I'd start washing it after work to prevent blow-drying (another time-kill as well as bad for hair) or over-washing since I always like to have clean hair when I sleep. So I've been wearing headbands and pinning my hair to ensure that it stays off my sweaty forehead.  Minimizing hair-to-sweat contact means I can do my gross thang (sic) without being completely crusty.  Yes, I use the word "crusty" to describe things besides food.... I started off with a Goody-brand one (drugstore), but that would sometimes pop off during my workouts, even slower-paced ones.  I also have a very basic generic one

Well, two weeks are done, and I'm still here.  This week was a little challenging because of a weekend trip, but I did the best I could to work around it. This past week's routine consisted of: Monday - Cardio Power & Resistance Tuesday - Pure Cardio Wednesday - Pylometric Cardio Circuit and light cross-training in the PM Thursday - 4 mi run (in lieu of Cardio Recovery) Friday - Cardio Power & Resistance Saturday - Pure Cardio (was also supposed to do Cardio Abs also but laptop went kaput, so deferred to Monday) Sunday - rest Reflections from Week 2: No Fit Test this week, so I can't gauge any real progress yet.  The only other indicator would be weight, but that's been a funny (not funny "ha ha" but funny "strange" or funny "@#%^") thing... not really changing in spite of my efforts to keep within the calorie limits set by MyFitnessPal .   I read that this is a normal side-effect of muscle building and fluid amassing

All I wanted was tomato soup. I didn't have any cans of diced or crushed tomatoes in the cupboard, and I doubted that tomato puree would yield a very good result.  I've done crazy things in the past like combine pasta sauce with water, which wasn't too bad, but don't try that!  No, I wanted to make something that was essentially from scratch.  Surprisingly, a simple recipe was kind of tough to find on Google , so I just winged it. In such a simple dish, all of the ingredients matter -- at least that's what I have heard.  So using on-the-vine tomatoes and a good olive oil would make a huge difference.  Recently, I received a sample of Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil and decided to use it here. So here's the recipe... note that I am not really a recipe blogger, so if the directions seem imprecise or otherwise weird, you know why!  Also, I'm pretty sure you can add more or less of things and still get an edible soup. =) Homemade Tomat

Doing all the workout DVDs I've been doing  lately, I knew it would be inevitable that I'd eventually spill over into infomercial territory. I have avoided doing this in the past for several reasons , the first being cost.  Luckily, I was hooked up past this obstacle.  =) Second, I figured that these types of programs are probably no better than running and just working out consistently.  I've been working out to videos for about six months now and sometimes I do get a little bored (just as I do in the gym, mind you), but in combination with running outdoors, I'm still just as fit as when I was a gym rat when I'm eating properly. Finally, these programs are very " committal ."  "Committal" is a word my sisters and I use out of its true definition to describe large servings of food that you need to "commit to" in order to finish... but in this case, it meants that you really have to dedicate yourself and follow the program closel

One of my most popular posts is my review of Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred , a workout DVD divided into three levels, each being about 20 minutes (plus warm-up/cool-down). Ripped in 30 is sort of the sequel. As those who have been reading here for a while know, I sort of became a convert to fitness DVDs when I moved 10 miles away from my gym and found that the one at work is a bit limited.  Given that my living room has some space, I decided to see how long I could stick to videos and find myself trying more and more of them.  Thank goodness for Amazon . This DVD has four levels, each running a total of about 35 minutes counting the warm-up and cool-down, whcih is a touch longer than 30-Day Shred.  Contrary to its title, "Ripped in 30" doesn't mean "30 minutes" -- the workout itself is still the same three circuits of  3 minutes Strength, 2 minutes Cardio, and 1 minute Abs .  The "30" actually means 30 days -- so you're supposed to d

EVENT:  OC Half-Marathon DATE: Sunday, May 6, 2012 LOCATION: Newport Beach/Costa Mesa, CA RACE BEGAN: 6:15 am FINISH TIME: 02:03:26 I did this race three years ago and returned for the Beach Cities Challenge .  The course went through some changes since last time -- less time in the "back bay" area and definitely more elevation changes.  I remembered it as a flat course, but this one had rolling hills, including longer climbs at Mile 8 and 11.  Rolling hills are normally a strength of mine, at least in the past. "The Ukrainian" had to pick up my packet for me on Friday since I couldn't get out of work to get down there, and I had a conference on Saturday.  He reported that the expo was small and crowded, and he didn't come back with too many goodies. Back of the shirt.  For some reason, it said v-neck on the D-tag, but it's not? I've decided not to bash my time, although I normally would, with it being five minutes slower than the l