A Case of the Runs

Note: Sorry if this sounds preachy... it's not meant to be! About five years ago at this time, I was applying for graduate school.  As an undergraduate, I had not considered subjecting myself to any more schooling, but somehow, I changed my mind.  Luckily, the whole process was fairly straight-forward, and in March 2007, I was admitted into one of the strangest races ever. Are you thinking about going to graduate school? Here's my advice: don't. Okay, let me qualify that -- by "don't," I really mean, "Don't do it unless you really, truly believe it's the right decision." "The Ukrainian" and I have this conversation once in a while.  As you may have gathered from my (recently updated!) About page , the both of us have logged in many, many hours of school for our ages.  You know my story , and "The Ukrainian" is up for his second master's degree (on top of his engineering license and project management cert

This entry will probably sound like a stream of thoughts rather than a coherent post, but here goes... Years ago, I posted this poem by Ed Cunningham because I thought it was funny. A taste: GREAT FOR THE LUNGS, GREAT FOR THE TICKER, CAN'T NOTHIN' GETCHA IN BETTER SHAPE QUICKER I also posted this entry about how running improves life.  And I know it has.  I've bonded with people over it, overcome my mental roadblocks with it, and I've been able to travel because of it .  I even started wearing contact lenses because of it. Over the years, my feelings toward this sport of choice have been extremely variable.  I've beaten myself up, mentally of course, for not doing as well as I'd like during races.  And then there were moments when I'd be up late at night, looking for a race that would fit into my schedule.  Even during graduate school, I knew that I could not give up training and racing.  It has been a permanent fixture in my life since t

I've seen a lot of online reviews for this DVD, particularly on Amazon  and blogs everywhere who swore by the "Shredding."  Last Christmas (yes, that long ago!), I received this DVD from my younger sister because it was on my wish-list. However, being the gym rat that I had been, I didn't get much of a chance to do this video until mid-2011.  I did this once or twice using my laptop instead of a TV, tucked away in my cramped bedroom. But as I've mentioned , I've pretty much converted to working out at home and running outside.  I'm pretty lucky that this has worked out so far, and I've actually seen positive changes in my physique.  I was mostly doing Jillian Michaels' No More Trouble Zones once in a blue moon.  The 45-min workout is pretty strenuous and made me feel pretty good afterward, but I never stuck with it.  Now, I do one of Jillian's videos once a week, on a day that I don't run.  This 30 Day Shred video is comprised of

UPDATE: 1/31/12 -- The winner of the prize pack is #4,  RunningLaur!  Please e-mail me your address, and I will arrange to have your coupons sent to you! ------ To clarify, the giveaway is NOT for spring rolls or fish sauce.  Read on for more details.  Sorry if you are already disappointed!! =P Lunar New Year / Tet  is among us (started yesterday and basically lasts 7 or 13 days, however much you want to party in your neck of the woods ;P), so I thought I'd celebrate the Year of the Dragon by doing a little giveaway and sharing a recipe for vegetarian spring rolls, Vietnamese style. The idea spawned from these Nasoya egg roll wraps that I was given the opportunity to try.  I liked that they contained no MSG.  Although I'm not sensitive to that stuff (I pretty much ate it by the barrel-ful as a kid and still came out OK, ha ha), a lot of people are. You will need: - 9 egg roll wrappers (may vary based on how much filling you place in each) - 4 or so Chinese mushroom

Happy Year of the Dragon! I took the above photo at the Tournament of Roses Parade that happened on January 2.  It was quite an experience to be seeing the bands, floats, and horses go by you in person! The Year of the Dragon is supposedly a good year to start businesses, have children, and get married . 

EVENT : Carlsbad Half-Marathon DATE : Sunday, January 22, 2012 LOCATION : Carlsbad, CA RACE BEGAN : 7:30 am FINISH TIME : 01:56:53 I signed up for this race last April ( click here for my commentary on that), vowing that I would train hard over the holidays to bolster my performance. Err, fat chance. I feel like the crappiest, laziest, runner on the planet.  As I mentioned in my race report two weeks ago , the longest run I've attempted since November is 6 miles, and things haven't changed since then.  Weekly mileage looks more like 15, consisting of 3- and 4-milers, and that's at the top of the range.  I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I'm honest, so there. As we were sitting in the mall parking lot on race morning, I was filled with a sense of dread .   Dread because I had been run down on sleep for a few days, dread because I still have fresh memories of struggling through the 50 mph winds at Camarillo two weeks ago, and dread because I didn'

I finally tried these ThinkThin bars after scoffing at them whenever I saw them in the supermarkets.  (Plus, they went on sale.) With a gimmicky name that uses the word "thin," I was skeptical.  Also, since the bar wasn't vegan, I was doubly dubious. On the upside, this bar contains 20 grams of protein and no sugar, so it's actually not a bad meal-on-the-go (part of that meal, anyway, if your appetite is like mine). The downside is that I didn't like the taste of this bar.  Eating it reminded me why I stopped eating whey protein (which contains little lactose and is generally OK for my intolerant self).  It is not nearly as delicious as Clif Builder bars, so I think it's unlikely that I will bother with them again.  Bottom line, if you are not vegan and don't mind the whey taste, I'd say it's not a bad energy bar.

  I noticed this bag of Vegetarian Hamburger mix in an aisle at Whole Foods one day and thought that it seemed like a cool concept.  I'm always totally jealous when I see convenience foods like this that are not meat- or dairy-free.  While it's not the healthiest thing, I want to have those sort of options, too! Some time later, I was contacted to try this mix, which makes about six "burgers," or equates to about a pound of "beef." First, you combine the contents of the bag with water and let it sit for a bit. I followed a recipe that they sent me for Southwestern burgers, so the following ingredients were added... The patties.  I have to confess here that "The Ukrainian" did most of the work at this point. Pan-fry... Here's the finished product (doused in BBQ sauce) with a salad.  "The Ukrainian," a "meat guy," said he liked the texture of this faux burger, as it was a little chewy and meaty.  I found it

It's supposed to be a government holiday today, but I am no government worker, so it's another day of workout videos (and maybe running after work) for me. Now, some people might look down on workout videos that aren't Insanity or P90X (2!), or assume that people who do workout videos aren't still "runners."  So far, I don't feel that either of those reactions are always true. I've barely stepped foot in a gym for two months, yet I feel trimmer and just as fit with my running as I did when I was running more miles per week.  My weight has been coming down, and I get to work out from the comfort of my own home -- which gives me little excuse not to do it. I'm not sure what it is -- new challenges? not phoning it in on a boring cardio machine? but I now have to restrain myself from buying too many of these DVDs too soon.  One of my more recent purchases is this Bob Harper Ultimate Cardio Body one. This video is different from Jillian 's

A while back, I was watching a Rachel Ray cooking show with my older sister and newborn niece, and when she made a reuben sandwich with sauerkraut, I nearly died. The next day, I wanted sauerkraut so badly that I hit up a local hot dog place that served veggie hot dogs with sauerkraut on top.  More than the rest of the hot dog, I enjoyed the pickle-y goodness and had to replicate it at home. Cue Tofurkey.  I have previously eaten these fake sausages before and knew they'd be good in a dish with my beloved sauerkraut.  "The Ukrainian" pan-fried them with onions and enoki mushrooms (weird, but good!) and doused them in Lee Roy's BBQ sauce that we got from Foodbuzz Festival . "The Ukrainian" put his in a roll. As a side note, I also made a side of stir-fried broccoli.  I don't know how I could have only taken one, blurry picture, but here it is.

Here is a post that has been sitting in my Drafts folder for a while.  I wanted to wait until the whole "peanut flour" craze died down a bit. I got onto this bandwagon after I randomly spotted it at Trader Joe's and was hoping to use it as a vegan protein powder.  Made out of unsalted, ground-up peanuts only, it is high in protein and healthy fats.  When I realized the whole protein shake thing wasn't happening, I started putting it in my oatmeal instead of peanut butter.  This saved me from destroying jars of peanut butter in a short time yet still have the peanutty tastes in my oats. Then, the peanut flour could no longer be found.  I had to order three bags online .  While I haven't used it for baking yet, I did use it for microwave "cakes." Okay, so these don't taste like cake, but it does turn oats and a few other things into something bread-like.  My normal concoction was: 1/3 c. oats (instant or old-fashioned work fine) 1/4 c. egg whi

...but Sartre is smarter??? (reference joke here ) First of all, a huge thank you to those who provided such thoughtful comments on my last post about wedding woes .  All of your stories were so fun to read.  We think we've  made a decision, but that can wait for another time. ;) Anyway. A few weeks ago, my friends came over to help use christen the lonely fondue kit (and three-tier tray). Tier 1: carrots/celery Tier 2: (banh mi) baguette bread Tier 3: mini pretzels and more bread... plus some salami hidden in the back Some Private Selection BBQ chicken thin crust pizza served as an appetizer while the fondue was being prepared.  These pizzas are kind of small, although it's not a "single-serve" pizza.  One of my guests pretty much annihilated the pizza within a few minutes. So I used a generic fondue recipe that contained garlic, gruyere and swiss cheeses, cornstarch, and cooking wine.  Since I was being cheap, I used a gruyere+cheddar blend, which