Dare You To...

In honor of her 34th birthday and her 1st "blogiversary", Toni at Running, Loving, Living is hosting a virtual race!  


Obviously, I signed up right away. Why not? Just another great excuse to push myself to run at my best.

Today was when I planned to do it.  It worked in well to my running schedule for the week.  The only glitch was that I'd meant to do the run in the morning, but I awoke, got dressed to run, applied EverStride, and affixed my heart rate monitor, only to discover that my Garmin battery was drained. Oops!  So I plugged it in and postponed my run until noontime, and spent my morning fueling up and doing some reading for classes.


Finally, up and out!  This was the perfect day for a "winter" run, and it was actually beneficial that I waited until later in the day, because it was quite warm out!  Sun shining, crisp air, and a dry path; what could be better?

I was planning to run as long as I  could for the first 3.5 miles to time myself for the virt…

Is it okay to take a week easy when you're not feeling so well?  Of course!  Is it alright to do an indoor workout instead of your planned outdoor run, because it dropped below freezing and snow covered the streets?  In my book, that's a smart move.  However, do NOT use these as excuses to fall behind in your training plan or to drift further from your goals.

Last week, these two things happened at the same time.  Since the Boston 5k a few weeks ago, I've lost my mojo.  The combination of the weather and my awful head cold kept me from performing at my best, and kept me in the gym all week rather than outside running, and, even then, I didn't give my best.  And now, even today when I'm feeling better, I couldn't seem to get myself to the gym to log miles. Another unplanned rest day. Sigh.

This all meant I fell way below my weekly quota in working toward my 600 Miles in 2012 Challenge.  I logged 3 miles of treadmill running on Monday, but then the remaining mile…

So you remember, last month, I got my very first sportswatch: A Garmin 405CX.  I tested it, it worked out well.  Some of you may have seen the recent New York Times article about the inaccuracies of GPS watches.  For me, this isn't such a huge deal.  As of now, the maximum distance I cover in one run is 6 miles, and usually it's closer to 3, so any error might not affect such a distance. Further, I don't need it to be exact-exact.  In races, I'll trust the course planners' judgment, knowing that my own GPS may not be perfect.  It'll be good enough for logging my miles in 2012 for my resolution!

It was a great help in my training, helping me pace myself.  That's how I stayed strong during January's 5k Resolution Run.  You can see below, it wasn't perfectly steady (or maybe we can blame THAT on error?) but I continuously hovered around my goal pace: 10 min / mile.


HOWEVER, I've foundtons of uses for my sportswatch besides the GPS distance-tracker …

This weekend, get some vegetables into your brunch by making a vegetable omelet!  This is for newbies: Omelet-Making 101.



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Although I make omelets all the time, I'm always surprised when someone I know says they don't know how; they just scramble.  So this time, I dare you to make an omelet, and not only that, but to fill it with VEGETABLES instead of meat, cheese, etc.  This is one great way to get those recommended daily servings in, and early on!

Quick question: do you prefer "omelette" or the Americanized version "omelet"? Tough call, here.  I used to do the double-T French style, but recently I find myself spelling it omelet.  Guess it depends on how fancy I'm feeling?

You can choose whatever produce you like. Here, I chose baby spinach, button mushrooms, and plum tomatoes, but your options are endless: shredded carrots, avocado, broccoli, portobello mushrooms, onions, bell peppers...

Then, slice them and dice them.  Sometimes I keep them pretty l…

What a weekend!  Where do I begin?  Well, I guess I'll start at the very beginning ("a very good place to start..."), and in the middle, you'll get to read about my second 5k race!


From the start:
On Friday I traveled to Boston to visit my cousins Stephanie & Aaron.  Steph and I did some running-related errands (scoping out Garmins, buying running socks, trying on masks) before settling at home, where Aaron had prepared a deliiiicious eggplant parmesan dinner.


For dessert, Stephanie whipped out her ice-cream machine (ooh, ahh) and we tossed in Greek yogurt, sugar, and... was it vanilla? to make homemade FROYO!!


Wowww.  It churned and churned for 20 minutes before it magically emerged as frozen yogurt, tasting just like the best froyo in Philadelphia.  I like it because it really tastes like actual yogurt (because it is), but sweeter (sugar. duhh).  Delish!  We added all kinds of toppings, of course, although it was definitely tasty enough to eat plain.  Between t…