Lots of running around... but no running....

Busy day!   

I wanted to blog this morning, but just no time.  So evening is all you get.  ;-)

I packed up my breakfast this morning to bring to work. 

I've been on an oats kick this week.  Must be the cool weather that has moved into New England.

BREAKFAST

-oats: 1/2 c oats, 1/2 c almond milk, 1/2 c water

-toppings: apple, dried cranberries, walnuts, almond butter

At lunch time I headed home to walk Reggie.  It was cool enough at lunch time I had to keep my jacket on.  Ack.... back to weather where a jacket is a necessity and not an accessory, boo hoo. 

LUNCH

-ww tortilla, hummus, apple (yes still on the apple kick), little mozzarella cheese

Then I took some TJ's pirates booty to snack on at work.....

After work I stopped by the hubby's office to work on the road race stuff.  After about 2 hours of that I finally headed home to make dinner. 

I apparently was a bit wrapped up in stuff as I totally forgot to take a picture of dinner. 

DINNER

-grilled chicken

-TJ's mushroom risotto

-sauteed baby bok choy

-ciabatta bread

With all of the craziness I didn't get my run in :(  

I'm going to try to squeeze in some speed work tomorrow at some point.  I hope.  I will be happy when the race is over, the festival is over and things go back to "normal".  

So once dinner clean up was done, I made another mess prepping making tomorrow night's dinner.  Since we will be busy with registration and a concert tomorrow night, as part of the festival, we won't have much time to eat.  So I made some easy to re-heat food.....

LASAGNA!

Its not the heathiest recipe in the world.... but I trimmed it down where I could without sacraficing too much flavor.  I used TJ's Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage, ww pasta, some part skim cheese. Also I prefer to use the Newman's Own Cabernet Tomato Sauce.

Onions, mushrooms, italian chicken sausage, garlic, spices and wine.... smelled so good!

I took it out before it got too brown, I figure it will brown up a bit when we heat it up tomorrow night.  But it smells so good.  

I'm letting it cool a bit, throwing it in the fridge and then hitting the hay.  

Tomorrow is all about road race prep!  Getting racers, numbers, t-shirts all organized.  Getting the spreadsheet together for timing company.  Laminating signs that will give runners directions on where to go.  Organizing all the prizes and gathering any last minute supplies.  The weather unfortunately is not looking all that great, but despite the forecast we still have applications coming in!  I hope we will hit 300 runners.  Not too shabby for a first year race!!

What makes a race for you?  What gets you to come back again next year?

Have a great night!

Britt

Applemania!

Ahh fun night!  I'm sure I'll get more great pictures from the other ladies later on but I'll share the few I snapped. 

But first, remember my packed lunch from earlier today.....

Well I spruced it up with some brussel sprouts and broccoli at work.  Yum. Much better.

After work I ran some errands.  Grabbed some supplies for the road race, I felt a little sketchy about my purchases..... duct tape, 200 feet of rope and tent stakes.....  

Then I stopped by the grocery store.... again, to grab some pears for the recipe I found for ladies' night.  On my way home I stopped to trim up some hostas in the planter downtown, just cut back their flower stems so you can see some mums that we planted.

Changed and freshened up and was off to ladies night.  Soon my friend Aviva's house was a flurry of activity......  Lots of apple chopping going on!  I should have taken a picture of all the apples (I'm a bad blogger).  She had 3 huge buckets of them, a bucket of each variety.  They were all so yummy!

I started off as bartender but then Amy here got adventurous and tried her hand at it.  The results were delicious!

Caramel apple martinis!

My contribution to the meal was broiled apples & pears with rosemary. 

They smelled awesome and tasted great!  I would highly recommend it, especially since it is a quick, easy and simple recipe. 

Another martini.   ;-)

Plus so me water.

DINNER

-pork roasted with apples, onions & cider

-broiled apples & pears

-pumpkin/cheddar cranberry ravioli w/a maple pecan cream sauce to which we added apples (this was a bit of a cheat as it wasn't from scratch, instead its from a local pasta company.  They make awesome pasta & sauces, Terra Cotta Pasta Company, so good though!!!)

Not the most colorful meal, but it was extremely flavorful.  We all definitely enjoyed ourselves and the wonderful apples from Aviva's house!

My camera forgot to come out for dessert..... oops. 

But we enjoyed a delicious apple crisp w/ vanilla ice cream.  The perfect ending to our apple themed dinner.  Ahhh.......

It was great to hang with the ladies and catch up.  We haven't done one our ladies's nights since July and even then it was a small crew.  Life gets so busy and we get wrapped up in all the craziness of it.....  it feels so great to take a break and have some belly laughs with friends.  Going to bed happy for many great reasons..... I know I'll be stressed again tomorrow, but I'll hang out in my happy place for now.  Plus the race will soon be done and tomorrow is my "Friday" so that I can be free to work on last minute race details on Friday (and get my haircut). 

When was the last time you connected with good friends and had some belly laughs?

Have a great night!!

Britt

An Apple A Day.... or two or three or four.....

Good Morning!

Well I didn’t get to bed as early as I had hoped this morning, but I only got to kettlebell class like a minute late…. So I got 2 minutes of jump roping instead of 3…. No big deal.

Today’s kettlebell workout was ok, several exercises but you did lots of one then switched.

With a partner we went back and forth, working and then resting while the other worked. We did 3 sets of each. Ex. I did one windmill on each side, then my partner did one windmill on each side, then I did 2 each side, etc. Once we got to 5 we started over again and did it all two more times. So by the end of windmills I was sick of them……..

Windmills- 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5 (26lb weight)
Suitcase Lunges- 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5
(started with 2- 32lb weights then switched down to 2-26lb weights on my second set)
Static Presses-1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5 (2- 20lb weights)
Pullups- 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5 (use a rubber band to lighten the load a bit, but still was a struggle by the last set)

After class I headed home to get ready for work and packed my breakfast, lunch and snacks.

BREAKFAST
(bit of a repeat of yesterday)
- oats made with ½ c oats, ½ c water, ½ c almond milk
- toppings: walnuts, dried cranberries, ground flax and little almond butter

LUNCH
Leftovers!
- salmon from last night
- quinoa from last night
- might grab some veggies from the cafeteria at work

SNACKS

-kashi granola bar

-apple or two

After work tonight I’m hitting the grocery store (again) to get ingredients for my contribution to our ladies night dinner, which is featuring an apple theme. One of my friends has some apple trees in her yard, so they have an abundance of apples. I’m thinking of doing a side dish and maybe a dessert, we are going to prep & cook at her house.

I might keep it simple with the side dish and do this,
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/105687
Broiled Apples and Pears with Rosemary

Although I also found an apple & sweet potato recipe that sounds yummy. For a dessert I might try to find a healthy apple bread to do…. Any suggestions?

Do you do cooking nights with friends ever? We have done themes in the past, but based on a movie we are watching or an event we watching/going to.

Hope you have a great day!

Britt

Sniffle sniffle

Sorry my nose is all stuffy still.......  blah.

In happier news.....Look at me, I'm blogging.... TWICE in one day.  Ahhh feels nice. 

I managed to escape work at lunch time for my 5 mile run, I felt pretty good despite the runny nose.  It is so nice to escape for a bit during the work day and get away from it all.  

Lunch time runs rock!

After lunch I enjoyed my lovely packed lunch.  

Plugged on through the work day and eventually enjoyed this beauty. 

It wasn't what I expected, but it was still pretty tasty!  

The new Kashi dark chocolate & coconut bar. It was kind of fudgy chocolate, hit the spot as a mid afternoon snack.

After work I hit the grocery store to grab some ingredients for dinner.  Then it was off to do some weeding downtown.  I love gardening, it feels great to do some manual labor and see a difference after just an hour. 

After weeding I headed home to make dinner for the hubby, my dad and myself.  :-)

DINNER

-baked salmon: 400 degrees, 15 minutes, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic and dill

-Jerusalem artichokes: sauteed w/ olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper (they are a tuber from the sunflower family and were delicious! got them from our CSA)

-pesto quinoa- just added some homemade pesto to the quinoa

-sliced tomato

(not the greatest picture.... I was hungry apparently LOL)

Thank you for the well wishes on the race and for finding time for myself.  I'm feeling a bit less stressed.   I'm looking forward to a ladies night at a friend's house tomorrow night, its apple themed..... 

Do you have any great recipes involving apples?  Anything but a main course.... dessert, appetizer, etc. 

Have a fabulous night!!  I'm hopefully getting to bed early so I'll be on time for Kettlebell at 6am tomorrow (lately I've been showing up a few minutes late.... oops).  Just hoping I don't need the Nyquil again, although my nose is so stuffed up!

Britt

Sweet dreams.....

Last night I had to do it, had to take some Nyquil.

The night before I tossed and turned with an achy shoulder (from what I do not know) and a stuffy head/nose. I needed sleep and I needed something to dry my head out….enter Nyquil. Ahhh….. finally sleep.

I enjoyed my sleep so much I kept hitting the snooze button so today’s run will be during my lunch break. Try to get in a quick 5 miles. Thank goodness we have a locker room here with showers.

I am on it this morning and got my breakfast and lunch packed for the day, plus a couple snacks.

BREAKFAST
-oats w/ 2/3 c almond milk and 1/3 c water
-mix-ins: walnuts, dried cranberries, almond butter and ground flax

LUNCH
-sandwich thin w/ turkey, provolone and pesto
-toppings to add later tomato & artichokes

SNACKS
-TJ’s pomegranate greek yogurt
-Kashi’s coconut dark chocolate granola bar (just found these, cannot wait to try it!

After work its off to do some weeding downtown and get things spruced up for the festival & race this weekend!

Do you have any fall festivals where you live? Does it include a road race?

Have a great day!

Britt

And back to your usual programing.....

Oy!  

Its been crazy busy around here... so much so that my blogging had to take a back seat.  :(

I've also had less computer access so that hasn't helped the situation either. 

Last I blogged.....

I had just completed Reach the Beach!

Since then its been lots of work, lots of plants, lots of road race planning, celebrations with friends, my dad visiting/leaving/visiting again!  

I really hope the race goes smoothly..... if it does I think it will be HUGE next year!

I'm looking forward to having Friday off and just getting lots done in preparation for the race.  So many little details and big details like making sure we will actually have enough volunteers..... I hope we will!

Then of course I'm also training for the NYC Marathon!  It of course hasn't gotten the attention I should be giving it.  I think I'll be holding true to my norm.... my fall marathon will be slower than my spring marathon.  But in some respects I want to enjoy it and not stress about time, which I can do as I'm already qualified and signed up for Boston.  So I can enjoy NYC with no real time goal..... which is a good thing!

FOOD

BREAKFAST

-oats, dried cranberries, shreaded coconut, some camera shy granola w/ skim milk

Snacked on some more camera shy granola.......

LUNCH

-1/2 wheat wrap, chicken salad, loaded w/ veggies lettuce, carrots, tomato, pepper, onion and cucumber. 

Little more of that granola.... dangerous thing to have at my desk. 

DINNER

-turkey burger on a sandwich thin

-kale chips, baby turnips, turnip greens

Alright.... back to yapping with the dad.... well my dad yapping.......  he's a bit of a talker.  He lives in the Northern Adirondacks, all that alone time in the woods leads to a chatty cathy when he is visiting!

I promise I'll be BLOGGING again!  Also I hope after the race is over to finally be moving over to my new site, www.runnerbelle.com  :)

How do you stay sane when things get busy?  Even when it feels like there is no "me" time or down time.  

Have a fabulous night!!  

Britt