Hiya! It's MOVING DAY! We're signing our new lease at lunch today and I will be picking up our keys on my way home :) Then we're loading up the UHaul and getting as much moved tonight as we can. I'm really really excited. I may or may not take off tomorrow to finish the job up, it just depends on how much we get moved tonight.
I knew this morning would probably be my last morning to get up and do an early downtown run before work, so I FINALLY jumped out of bed and went on a nice (albeit semi-asleep, semi-blind sans contacts) 3.5 miler with camera in tow! This is mayjah for me as I have been trying to get up for an early run for oh, six months or so. I was hoping to go a little further but I woke up too late and didn't have enough time...but 3.5 is better than nothing, right?
Pictures tomorrow for Photo Friday!
In the spirit of Thursday deals a la ChicRunner...here is a nice little nugget for anyone who wants to use it...
Gap's Give and Get Program starts today (It's Thursday July 30th just in case y'all haven't had your coffee yet) and runs until Sunday, August 2nd. Download this coupon to bring into the stores with you and you will receive 30% off PLUS 5% will go back to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society! (Not to my specific campaign unfortch, but to LLS in general.)
This includes ALL Gap stores in the US and Canada! Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Banana Outlet and Gap Outlet...too bad this doesn't include Piperlime...boo. Mama needs some new shoes!
So go out, buy some pretty things, and support a fab cause.
Alright kids, I have a busy day/weekend ahead of me so I gotta run! See y'all tomorrow :)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Dessert Party + Blogger Meetup + TNT Update
Guess who I met up with at my dessert party?
Why it's Diana from The Chic Life!
This past Saturday Matt and I headed down to Charlotte for my TNT dessert party that my mom was hosting.
We had tons of desserts that were donated to us by various bakeries, and my mom and I also made up her famous blueberry pound cake. I had gathered tons of giveaway items from local companies and I was hopeful that the event would be well attended and get me closer to my $3,500 fundraising goal.
I won't say that the entire party was a failure, but it definitely wasn't what I had hoped for. Not many people came. The good part? I raised $225! Better than nothing, right? Another good part? I got to meet Diana and her hubby!
After Kelsey posted about my event last week, Diana contacted me about it since she lives in Charlotte. I love meeting other bloggers because we always have stuff to talk about! Although The Chic Life is more of a food blog and she's not a runner, it was cool to chat about whole foods + healthy living with her. It was also nice that our boys could chat over some beers + cake + sports :) I hope we can all meet up again sometime when we're in Charlotte or they come to Charleston. (Thanks for supporting my cause guys!)
Diana was kind enough to let me steal her pictures, because if the above pic is any example, my point and click Nikon had nothing on her DSLR. You can read her recap of the night here!
All for a cause!!
The spread! Her pictures make it look much more chic than it was :) I guess that's her specialty though, right? I need to take some tips on that...
We had a beautiful flower arrangement donated by Willow. If you live in the Charlotte area and need flowers, this place is amazing. It's run by Tricia whose tag line is "organically inspired designs." We picked this up at her studio, which is run out of her gorgeous house in the Baxter Village area of Ft. Mill right off of I-77. Thanks Tricia for the fab arrangement!
We had two cheesecakes, this one is a chocolate cinnamon flavor. It was so-so.
This was strange indeed, some sort of frozen strawberry treat. It was actually pretty good. We dubbed this one the "ham and cheese" dessert. I've never seen or tasted anything quite like it.
YUM. My mom's blueberry pound cake. We had a little mishap making this. My mom was mixing everything up and we got flustered and distracted by some visitors and she forgot to add the sugar!
We had it all ready to go and were about to add the blueberries when we were like, hmmm this doesn't look right. We had to throw it out and start again. I guess there really is a method to the madness of adding ingredients in the stages that recipes call them to be added. But the second time was a charm as this was definitely the star of the evening.
And it's safe to say that this lemon topped carrot cake came in second. Delish!
The second cheesecake was a Bailey's flavored Irish Creme cake. Yuck!! I love Bailey's but this was nasty.
These were little chocolate marshmellow pies. Looked weird, but tasted great! Reminded me of chocolate Moon Pie's or Mallowmars but 100 times better. (I hate Moon Pies too.)
All in all this was a fun and relaxing evening, and although I didn't raise over $500 like I was hoping to, it was nice to see my family and of course to meet The Chic Life + Chic hubby!
..and I might have a giveaway of sorts in the cards as well. Some of the items I gathered for door prizes I still have, so stay tuned!
Team in Training Update
My running fundraising total for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is $2,612. Which means I only have $888 left to raise to meet my goal! If you can donate anything I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks to the following bloggers/online buddies for donating to my cause even though we've never met in person!
Why it's Diana from The Chic Life!
This past Saturday Matt and I headed down to Charlotte for my TNT dessert party that my mom was hosting.
We had tons of desserts that were donated to us by various bakeries, and my mom and I also made up her famous blueberry pound cake. I had gathered tons of giveaway items from local companies and I was hopeful that the event would be well attended and get me closer to my $3,500 fundraising goal.
I won't say that the entire party was a failure, but it definitely wasn't what I had hoped for. Not many people came. The good part? I raised $225! Better than nothing, right? Another good part? I got to meet Diana and her hubby!
After Kelsey posted about my event last week, Diana contacted me about it since she lives in Charlotte. I love meeting other bloggers because we always have stuff to talk about! Although The Chic Life is more of a food blog and she's not a runner, it was cool to chat about whole foods + healthy living with her. It was also nice that our boys could chat over some beers + cake + sports :) I hope we can all meet up again sometime when we're in Charlotte or they come to Charleston. (Thanks for supporting my cause guys!)
Diana was kind enough to let me steal her pictures, because if the above pic is any example, my point and click Nikon had nothing on her DSLR. You can read her recap of the night here!
All for a cause!!
The spread! Her pictures make it look much more chic than it was :) I guess that's her specialty though, right? I need to take some tips on that...
We had two cheesecakes, this one is a chocolate cinnamon flavor. It was so-so.
We had it all ready to go and were about to add the blueberries when we were like, hmmm this doesn't look right. We had to throw it out and start again. I guess there really is a method to the madness of adding ingredients in the stages that recipes call them to be added. But the second time was a charm as this was definitely the star of the evening.
And it's safe to say that this lemon topped carrot cake came in second. Delish!
The second cheesecake was a Bailey's flavored Irish Creme cake. Yuck!! I love Bailey's but this was nasty.
All in all this was a fun and relaxing evening, and although I didn't raise over $500 like I was hoping to, it was nice to see my family and of course to meet The Chic Life + Chic hubby!
..and I might have a giveaway of sorts in the cards as well. Some of the items I gathered for door prizes I still have, so stay tuned!
Team in Training Update
My running fundraising total for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is $2,612. Which means I only have $888 left to raise to meet my goal! If you can donate anything I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks to the following bloggers/online buddies for donating to my cause even though we've never met in person!
- Ross K (my first donor and largest donor to date)
- Anthony L (third highest donor!)
- JennieBinSC
- Nicole B (Running Bebe)
- JoyRuN
- MaytonH
- Jennifer B
- Meredith (Balance for Mere)
- Eugene M
- NY Wolve (**Updated to add...inadvertently missed this donor! Hard to keep the real names and the blog names together when looking at my donation sheet :)
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wild West Relay + TNT Update
So... the Wild West Relay is quickly approaching...actually, it's in 13 days!
Although I almost backed out at the last minute, although I have absolutely no money, although I am moving the weekend before the race, although I have another test for work the weekend after the race, although two weeks after the race is my fundraising deadline for Team in Training, I am going and I'm excited about it.
For those of you who don't know about WWR, here's the rundown:
- 200 miles, 24 hours
- 12 runners per team
- 36 legs total
- 3 legs per runner
- From Fort Collins, CO to Steamboat Springs, CO
- 2 SUV's packed with granola bars, peanut butter, stinky people & G (that would be Gatorade now apparently)
- Lots 'o hills
- Lots 'o elevation
- Really, really challenging terrain but it promises to pretty amazing
- Amanda from Run to the Finish
- Melissa from Trying to Heal
- Bobbi from NHerShoes
- Shannon from Shannon's Scene: Take Two (and a Charlestonite :)
- Alesha my BFF from college (we also went to high school together!)
- Cynthia from Amber (Shannon's cousin)
- Julie (not sure if she has a blog, but I think she has run WWR before! or maybe that's Jennifer?? sorry guys)
- Jennifer (not sure if she has a blog either!)
- Jeri from JerBer Shares
- Moore (Alesha's friend)
- Dionne (Moore's friend and lives in CO)
- ...and yours truly
Although it looks like I get my most challenging leg out of the way first, way to plan Kristin, way to plan :)
A longer run, but a gradual descent. Gonna be tough on the quads after all that climbing earlier.
...and the final leg! I'm sure this one will be pretty tough because it will most likely be the next morning/afternoon. We probably will have slept for all of 15 minutes on the ground somewhere waiting on our next leg. But that's gonna be the fun of it, right? RIGHT??I will be running a total of 16.6 miles, with a total elevation gain of 1,608, total elevation loss of -2,180 with an overall difficulty rating of 9 on a scale of 1-12 with 12 being the hardest. Although my net elevation is -572 (the hardest leg's net elevation is 2,547) I'm pretty sure this is going to be a VERY challenging race for me. I actually would prefer to go up hills than down them, because descending always ends up hurting my knees and quads.
Last night I decided to start prepping for WWR and did some hill repeats. I ran about 1.5 miles to warm up (which included going to the top of my chosen hill-the bridge, obvi), then I started my 4 x .25 repeats, running back down the .25 each time. My Garmin died mid-run so I don't have my totals, but it was actually not that bad! I think total I ran a little over 4 miles? Maybe more, I'm not sure.
Next time I would like to do 1/2 mile repeats, which would be a lot tougher. The .25 mile was pretty simple and I could tell that doing at least 4 half mile repeats would definitely test my hill strength. I'm going be doing these a lot over the next two weeks to get ready!
Have I also mentioned that I haven't been running with an iPod in about a month?? Yeah, both of my shuffles are on the fritz and I just haven't had the time to mess with them. Plus, all of our long runs I run with people so there's no need for music...so it's just my solo runs that have been a bit quieter. It's actually been pretty nice...
Headed out tonight to Charlotte for my TNT fundraiser tomorrow night. Gonna be a quick trip, gotta get back in time for our TNT 14 miler on Sunday morning...then spending the day PACKING...as we're moving next Friday to....Mt. Pleasant! Yep, we're leaving our beloved downtown Charleston for a nice slice of suburbia. But we're not gonna be far away from downtown and I happen to love Mt. Pleasant, so I'm not upset about it. (For those of you not familiar with the area, Mt. Pleasant is just the town across the bridge from the downtown portion of Charleston, so, it's not like I'm actually moving away.)
***By the way...have you donated yet?? My running total is $1,867...so I'm onl7 $1,633 away from my goal! I'm also only $133 away from $2,000. Anybody want to make my Friday and help me reach $2,000 today????
Have a fab weekend lovahs!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Raw Creamy Zucchini Salad
This is by far my favorite raw meal that I've made. I keep coming back to it over and over again.
Creamy Zucchini Salad! This stuff is amazing and so simple! I don't know where I first saw it...I think here then here and it probably originated here...but basically (since I don't have a spiralizer) I shred up one zucchini (skin and all, length of zucchini) with my cheese grater, mix it up with 1/2 of a mashed avocado, juice from 1/2 a lemon, and some sea salt.
Kind of like a deconstructed guacamole salad + some zucchini?
I added some raw onion and tomato to the mix and plated it on top of some organic baby spinach. I mixed it all together when I got ready to eat it...Heather's right, who needs ranch or blue cheese when you have this creamy goodness?!
On the side I served it with some non-raw steamed acorn squash and (probably a bit much) Smart Balance Light (my "margarine" of choice) and some sea salt. (I wasn't too hungry tonight due to some happy hour cocktails and calamari...normally this wouldn't fill me up, but it hit the spot tonight.)
What I like most about the shredded zucchini, is that it's a fantastic stand in for pasta! It makes a very tasty (and nutritious) base for raw pasta meals. I've used it to make pesto "pasta":
I mixed up a "pesto" sauce with some fresh basil, olive oil, parm (so, not completely raw due to this addition) and sea salt. I topped this one with some avocado. Tasty!
I've also topped it with a raw tomato sauce that turned out nasty. Note: Don't blend raw mushrooms and raw tomatoes together in the attempt to make a raw pasta sauce sans sun dried tomatoes. It will come out brown and NASTY! :)
I haven't been too adventurous in my raw meals yet; been keeping it pretty simple since that's all I have time for.
But that is why I love this dish! A) Avocados are one of my fave foods, B) Zucchini is probably my favorite veggie, C) This takes all of 5 minutes to make. So...If you haven't tried this combo PLEASE go out and do it now! Matt even had a bite (unwillingly) and said it "wasn't bad at all." So, I guess that means it's pretty YUM.
***
Ran 14.49 miles this Sunday with TNT. Felt great! Back in the game baby ;)
Creamy Zucchini Salad! This stuff is amazing and so simple! I don't know where I first saw it...I think here then here and it probably originated here...but basically (since I don't have a spiralizer) I shred up one zucchini (skin and all, length of zucchini) with my cheese grater, mix it up with 1/2 of a mashed avocado, juice from 1/2 a lemon, and some sea salt.
Kind of like a deconstructed guacamole salad + some zucchini?
I added some raw onion and tomato to the mix and plated it on top of some organic baby spinach. I mixed it all together when I got ready to eat it...Heather's right, who needs ranch or blue cheese when you have this creamy goodness?!
On the side I served it with some non-raw steamed acorn squash and (probably a bit much) Smart Balance Light (my "margarine" of choice) and some sea salt. (I wasn't too hungry tonight due to some happy hour cocktails and calamari...normally this wouldn't fill me up, but it hit the spot tonight.)
What I like most about the shredded zucchini, is that it's a fantastic stand in for pasta! It makes a very tasty (and nutritious) base for raw pasta meals. I've used it to make pesto "pasta":
I mixed up a "pesto" sauce with some fresh basil, olive oil, parm (so, not completely raw due to this addition) and sea salt. I topped this one with some avocado. Tasty!I've also topped it with a raw tomato sauce that turned out nasty. Note: Don't blend raw mushrooms and raw tomatoes together in the attempt to make a raw pasta sauce sans sun dried tomatoes. It will come out brown and NASTY! :)
I haven't been too adventurous in my raw meals yet; been keeping it pretty simple since that's all I have time for.
But that is why I love this dish! A) Avocados are one of my fave foods, B) Zucchini is probably my favorite veggie, C) This takes all of 5 minutes to make. So...If you haven't tried this combo PLEASE go out and do it now! Matt even had a bite (unwillingly) and said it "wasn't bad at all." So, I guess that means it's pretty YUM.
***
Ran 14.49 miles this Sunday with TNT. Felt great! Back in the game baby ;)
Dessert Fundraiser this Saturday in Charlotte, NC Area!
Hey y'all! Just a quick update for anybody out there in the Ft. Mill, SC/Charlotte, NC area!
I'm holding another dessert night fundraiser this Saturday, July 25th from 7 to 9PM at my mom's house in Fort Mill, SC. She lives about 15 minutes outside of Charlotte so it's pretty close for any of y'all in the 704 area!
We're gonna have all you can eat desserts, coffee, Bailey's (yum) and hopefully some wine if I can get it donated, in exchange for donations.
I raised about $500 at my last dessert night for my Team in Training fundraising campaign and I'm hoping to shatter that number with the help of my mom at this event!
If you're in the area I would love to meet you! We're going to have plenty of desserts and some fun giveaways as well :) I've got a few "marathon inspired" donations from local companies so far that I'm either going to auction or raffle off...you gotta stop by to see what they are!
If you wanna indulge, shoot me an email for the deets: ChasRunner at gmail dot com
Have a fab Monday!
***Edited to add***
Awesome local companies making this event rock!
I'm holding another dessert night fundraiser this Saturday, July 25th from 7 to 9PM at my mom's house in Fort Mill, SC. She lives about 15 minutes outside of Charlotte so it's pretty close for any of y'all in the 704 area!
We're gonna have all you can eat desserts, coffee, Bailey's (yum) and hopefully some wine if I can get it donated, in exchange for donations.
I raised about $500 at my last dessert night for my Team in Training fundraising campaign and I'm hoping to shatter that number with the help of my mom at this event!
If you're in the area I would love to meet you! We're going to have plenty of desserts and some fun giveaways as well :) I've got a few "marathon inspired" donations from local companies so far that I'm either going to auction or raffle off...you gotta stop by to see what they are!
If you wanna indulge, shoot me an email for the deets: ChasRunner at gmail dot com
Have a fab Monday!
***Edited to add***
Awesome local companies making this event rock!
- Charlotte Running Company
- Carolina Pilates
- Kairos Yoga
- Willow Florist
- Birds of a Feather
- Starbucks Coffee
- Carswell Bakery
- Sayago's Hometown Cafe & Creamery
Friday, July 17, 2009
TGIF!
Sorry that my past two posts seemed to be fishing for compliments...I didn't mean for them to sound that way! I was just excited about my new hair & then about my exam....I'm really not that narcissistic :)
Last night I had a meeting at 6 after work, and the last thing I wanted to do was go out and RUN. Especially when I was hungry and it looked like it was about to storm...Matt was even trying to convince me to stay home. But I headed out anyways and got in a nice 3.5 miler. Nothing spectacular, but a good way to get back on track. I also did some squats, lunges and whatever that thing is where you "sit" on the wall for as long as you can. I'm a bit sore today!
Tonight I'm heading out to run the bridge after work with Shannon...I love running with friends it makes it so much easier & I'm probably 99% less likely to back out of it...
Thanks for the thoughts on my venture into raw foodism. One thing I dislike about healthy living blogs is the fact that when one thing gets popular, everyone jumps onto the train just because its what everyone else is doing. I know raw foodism is "the cool thing to do" currently but I really believe in the foundation of thought behind this diet choice. Plus the food combining aspect is what really intrigues me. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not just trying this out because I don't want to be left out. I'm trying it out because it makes sense to me on some levels.
You've seen meat on this blog and you probably will continue to see meat on occassion. I'm not a vegetarian but as Matt would say, "You pretty much are." I just don't like meat as much as veggies, and I've always been that way. Plus I am painfully aware of how inhumane the meat industry is in America, and that also plays into my veggie loving ideals.
But I also love cooked foods, so I'm not giving up on all of that just yet! I just want to incorporate 1-2 raw meals a day into my diet.
Did I bore anyone yet?!
While I'm not running out to buy a dehydrator anytime soon, and I'm probably not going to fork out the $$ for sprouted breads...I'm going to see where this thing takes me and go from there. I hope you will stick along for the ride :)
Of course, I'm also gonna throw in some running + racing here and there...that is what this blog is about, right?!
I also have realized that I want to start showcasing this fantastic Southern city of mine a bit more...so many people love Charleston and come from miles away for vacation, yet I hardly ever talk about it. I want to share with you all this city that I have come to love over the past year. The beautiful row houses, the beaches, the lush green marshes and the water front paths that I run on...so more to come soon I promise!
Hope everyone has a fab weekend, I think I've got 14 on the schedule for Sunday?
Last night I had a meeting at 6 after work, and the last thing I wanted to do was go out and RUN. Especially when I was hungry and it looked like it was about to storm...Matt was even trying to convince me to stay home. But I headed out anyways and got in a nice 3.5 miler. Nothing spectacular, but a good way to get back on track. I also did some squats, lunges and whatever that thing is where you "sit" on the wall for as long as you can. I'm a bit sore today!
Tonight I'm heading out to run the bridge after work with Shannon...I love running with friends it makes it so much easier & I'm probably 99% less likely to back out of it...
Thanks for the thoughts on my venture into raw foodism. One thing I dislike about healthy living blogs is the fact that when one thing gets popular, everyone jumps onto the train just because its what everyone else is doing. I know raw foodism is "the cool thing to do" currently but I really believe in the foundation of thought behind this diet choice. Plus the food combining aspect is what really intrigues me. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not just trying this out because I don't want to be left out. I'm trying it out because it makes sense to me on some levels.
You've seen meat on this blog and you probably will continue to see meat on occassion. I'm not a vegetarian but as Matt would say, "You pretty much are." I just don't like meat as much as veggies, and I've always been that way. Plus I am painfully aware of how inhumane the meat industry is in America, and that also plays into my veggie loving ideals.
But I also love cooked foods, so I'm not giving up on all of that just yet! I just want to incorporate 1-2 raw meals a day into my diet.
Did I bore anyone yet?!
While I'm not running out to buy a dehydrator anytime soon, and I'm probably not going to fork out the $$ for sprouted breads...I'm going to see where this thing takes me and go from there. I hope you will stick along for the ride :)
Of course, I'm also gonna throw in some running + racing here and there...that is what this blog is about, right?!
I also have realized that I want to start showcasing this fantastic Southern city of mine a bit more...so many people love Charleston and come from miles away for vacation, yet I hardly ever talk about it. I want to share with you all this city that I have come to love over the past year. The beautiful row houses, the beaches, the lush green marshes and the water front paths that I run on...so more to come soon I promise!
Hope everyone has a fab weekend, I think I've got 14 on the schedule for Sunday?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Back on track...
So I've started like three different posts this week and haven't published any of them...I have been so uninspired with blogging I just didn't want to post something for the sake of posting...But I felt the need to give you all an update!
This past weekend I was glued to my desk (er, kitchen table) studying for my General Securities Series 7 Exam (stocks, bonds, options, variable retirement plans, brokerage services, etc.) that I had to take again on Monday...remember when I failed the first time?
When I took it before I seriously underestimated the vast amount of material this test covered, and did not spend as much time studying as I should have. I mean, the exam is 6+ hours long! So this time around I knew I would have to devote a lot more to studying. Which I did. All throughout this past 30 days I have had to wait to re-take the test I was studying in between work, meetings, running and fundraising. Plus Friday through Monday morning I barely ate anything, was crazy cracked out on caffeine, and did not sleep much in order to cram into my brain everything I had been studying for the past three months!
(This was in no means healthy at all, actually Matt told me I looked "bulimic or something" on Monday afternoon. I was a wreck! But believe me, I have made up for it this week with everything I have eaten.)
Monday morning came around and I headed to the testing center feeling...optimistic yet scared. When I broke for "lunch" after the first half of the test (130 questions) I felt....good but not 100% confident in all of my answers. The second half was brutal, and by this point I think I had given up and realized that I wasn't going to score at least the required 70% to pass.
I was thinking up new careers, envisioning what I would tell my office...making plans to skip the country....then finally I was finished and had about 15 minutes of my allotted time left...I couldn't bear to press the 'I'm done' button so I went back through some of my answers...until finally the time ran out and the screen went blank waiting on my results...I couldn't bare to look!
But finally I did and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the word: PASS
I almost couldn't believe it. I was now certified to work as a stock broker! I never thought I would ever utter that sentence.
So needless to say, running (and blogging!) has fallen by the wayside and I am seriously in need of getting back on track. After a 6 PM meeting tonight I'm hitting the streets to get my body moving again. (Um, hello Wild West Relay in THREE WEEKS???!!!)
In other news, I have been tying to tweak my nutrition and eating habits over the past few months, and are becoming more curious with a partial raw food lifestyle. Food combining is really intriguing me and I've been juicing a ton.
I hope to soon start posting more pictures/recipes of some of the things I eat in order to include some in the new Healthy Yum website that I was so excited to be invited to be a part of! (Well, anyone can be a part of it actually, so I guess I was excited to be included in the invite :)
Just a bit of a sneak peak of some of the raw foods I have been enjoying lately...
Carrot + Apple Juice
Cabbage + Greens + Veggies + Peanut Sauce Salad
(Not exactly raw because of the peanuts, but DELISH! Lived on these last week!)
Raw Creamy Zucchini Soup with Sprouts
This past weekend I was glued to my desk (er, kitchen table) studying for my General Securities Series 7 Exam (stocks, bonds, options, variable retirement plans, brokerage services, etc.) that I had to take again on Monday...remember when I failed the first time?
When I took it before I seriously underestimated the vast amount of material this test covered, and did not spend as much time studying as I should have. I mean, the exam is 6+ hours long! So this time around I knew I would have to devote a lot more to studying. Which I did. All throughout this past 30 days I have had to wait to re-take the test I was studying in between work, meetings, running and fundraising. Plus Friday through Monday morning I barely ate anything, was crazy cracked out on caffeine, and did not sleep much in order to cram into my brain everything I had been studying for the past three months!
(This was in no means healthy at all, actually Matt told me I looked "bulimic or something" on Monday afternoon. I was a wreck! But believe me, I have made up for it this week with everything I have eaten.)
Monday morning came around and I headed to the testing center feeling...optimistic yet scared. When I broke for "lunch" after the first half of the test (130 questions) I felt....good but not 100% confident in all of my answers. The second half was brutal, and by this point I think I had given up and realized that I wasn't going to score at least the required 70% to pass.
I was thinking up new careers, envisioning what I would tell my office...making plans to skip the country....then finally I was finished and had about 15 minutes of my allotted time left...I couldn't bear to press the 'I'm done' button so I went back through some of my answers...until finally the time ran out and the screen went blank waiting on my results...I couldn't bare to look!
But finally I did and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the word: PASS
I almost couldn't believe it. I was now certified to work as a stock broker! I never thought I would ever utter that sentence.
So needless to say, running (and blogging!) has fallen by the wayside and I am seriously in need of getting back on track. After a 6 PM meeting tonight I'm hitting the streets to get my body moving again. (Um, hello Wild West Relay in THREE WEEKS???!!!)
In other news, I have been tying to tweak my nutrition and eating habits over the past few months, and are becoming more curious with a partial raw food lifestyle. Food combining is really intriguing me and I've been juicing a ton.
I hope to soon start posting more pictures/recipes of some of the things I eat in order to include some in the new Healthy Yum website that I was so excited to be invited to be a part of! (Well, anyone can be a part of it actually, so I guess I was excited to be included in the invite :)
Just a bit of a sneak peak of some of the raw foods I have been enjoying lately...
Carrot + Apple Juice
Cabbage + Greens + Veggies + Peanut Sauce Salad(Not exactly raw because of the peanuts, but DELISH! Lived on these last week!)
Raw Creamy Zucchini Soup with SproutsMore to come later! Have a great Thursday y'all!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
there's a new gal in town
In case you haven't heard...
I chopped off my hair!!! I'm in love with it and also with Katie at Strawberry Blonde Salon! She did a fab job!
Busy busy week....some running...lots of other stuff. Hopefully can get back to blogging normality next week. Have a fab weekend lovahs!!
xoxo
ChasRunner
ChasRunner
Friday, July 3, 2009
Foto Friday: Pig Pics!
(Stacia, some girl I don't know & me)
(that's me on the left with some of our Habitat committee)
(Jason & Sandy!)Since I have today off I headed out for a run this morning around 8 AM. I decided not to run with Kara last night as I just kind of wanted to chill, especially since I could get it in this morning.
After wrestling with two iPods for about 30 minutes I headed out the door with one I thought was working. It wasn't. So I left it downstairs in the office and headed out for a nice, silent 5 miler.
I decided to run one mile and then take a minute or two walk break. I did, and it turned out well! My average pace for 5.03 miles was 9:56. Much better than yesterday's 10:25 average pace for 4.5 miles!
Just made myself some green juice and now I'm about to head somewhere to get my study on.
Sweet and Creamy Summer Green Juice
- 2 large kale leaves
- 1/2 cucumber
- 1 peeled lemon
- 3 large handfuls of spinach
- 1/2 apple
- 2 carrots
- 1 teensy tiny bit fresh ginger (I don't like my juice spicy)
I hope everyone has a safe and happy July 4th! I will probably be drinking on a beach somewhere tomorrow after our group 12 miler :)
{Just a reminder, if anyone can help donate to my TNT fundraising campaign, I would really appreciate it! Even if it's only $5!}
Thursday, July 2, 2009
i've lost my marathon mojo! + heart rate training
So I know I promised some healthy nutrition posts this week...and they will come. Just maybe not today :)
Tuesday night was our TNT practice. I ran there again (1.9 miles or so) at around a 10 minute pace.
{I've lost my marathon mojo and I need to get it back! I've been struggling to maintain a quick pace during any of my runs this week.}
After some chit chat we started in on our heart rate training workout.
First we did two warm up laps around the track to loosen up the muscles. Then our plan was to run four more laps (one at a time) at different paces and measure our heart rate after each lap to determine what percentage of our max heart rate we were running at.
The ultimate goal being to find the pace with which we run at about 70-80% max heart rate, so we will know what pace we should be training at to avoid over-training or "going out too hard" and getting injured.
Well I am not the most coordinated person, so at the time I was really confused with what was going on and I don't think I once calculated everything accurately! But basically if you don't have a heart rate monitor (should have worn mine, ughgghhh) this is how you figure it out:
Then we continued this process for 3 or 4 more laps, each time increasing our speed. The point of this whole exercise was to figure out where our "easy" pace was (70% of max heart rate) versus our "all out and I want to puke" pace was (85 to 90%). That way we know what pace we should be training at to avoid injury and getting tired too quickly.
I know I'm going to dig out my HR strap today and use it on my speed workout tonight to see where I'm training at.
Then I basically ran/walked the 1.9 miles home...I was a tired girl!
Wednesday night I really was not in the mood to run after work but I knew I needed to, and I'm glad I went. I ended up covering 4.5 miles with an average pace of 10:25. It was hot. It was muggy. And have I mentioned I've lost my marathon mojo?!
Just so I can start to be accountable again, here are the sad splits (yes, I took a walk break during mile 4):
When I got home I did 2 regular 1 minute planks and 2 side 1 minute side planks, one each side. I was going to do more but the boyfriend and the grocery store were calling...
Tonight I'm planning on hitting the streets for a 40 minute speed workout with Kara Goucher. I know I shouldn't be doing short speed intervals since I'm marathon training and all, but I bought her workout on iTunes with a gift certificate I had (thanks Meredith!) so I'm gonna test it out. I might also do that killer conditioning workout if I have time.
HAPPY FRIDAY!! :)
Tuesday night was our TNT practice. I ran there again (1.9 miles or so) at around a 10 minute pace.
{I've lost my marathon mojo and I need to get it back! I've been struggling to maintain a quick pace during any of my runs this week.}
After some chit chat we started in on our heart rate training workout.
First we did two warm up laps around the track to loosen up the muscles. Then our plan was to run four more laps (one at a time) at different paces and measure our heart rate after each lap to determine what percentage of our max heart rate we were running at.
The ultimate goal being to find the pace with which we run at about 70-80% max heart rate, so we will know what pace we should be training at to avoid over-training or "going out too hard" and getting injured.
Well I am not the most coordinated person, so at the time I was really confused with what was going on and I don't think I once calculated everything accurately! But basically if you don't have a heart rate monitor (should have worn mine, ughgghhh) this is how you figure it out:
- Run one lap at an easy "I'm comfortable with this" pace.
- Time your lap and remember it. Or use a stop watch and stop it.
- Immediately at the finish line stop and count your heart beats in a 10 second period.
- Go write down the beats per 10 seconds, as well as the time it took you to run the lap.
- Multiply the heart beat number by six, to get your heart rate per minute during your run.
- Consult a heart rate chart (such as this one below) to see what percentage your HR for that lap falls under.
- If you're easy lap HR was above 75 to 80%, you were probably going out too hard. (This below chart is not the one we used, but it's pretty similar.)
Then we continued this process for 3 or 4 more laps, each time increasing our speed. The point of this whole exercise was to figure out where our "easy" pace was (70% of max heart rate) versus our "all out and I want to puke" pace was (85 to 90%). That way we know what pace we should be training at to avoid injury and getting tired too quickly.
I know I'm going to dig out my HR strap today and use it on my speed workout tonight to see where I'm training at.
Then I basically ran/walked the 1.9 miles home...I was a tired girl!
Wednesday night I really was not in the mood to run after work but I knew I needed to, and I'm glad I went. I ended up covering 4.5 miles with an average pace of 10:25. It was hot. It was muggy. And have I mentioned I've lost my marathon mojo?!
Just so I can start to be accountable again, here are the sad splits (yes, I took a walk break during mile 4):
Split | Time | Distance | Elevation Gain | Elevation Loss | Avg Speed | Max Speed | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summary | 46:53 | 4.50 | 683 | 777 | 10:25 | 07:07 | 504 |
| 1 | 10:12 | 1.00 | 189 | 295 | 10:12 | 07:41 | 113 |
| 2 | 10:04 | 1.00 | 194 | 189 | 10:04 | 07:07 | 112 |
| 3 | 10:22 | 1.00 | 197 | 180 | 10:22 | 08:26 | 115 |
| 4 | 11:31 | 1.00 | 82 | 79 | 11:31 | 08:49 | 109 |
| 5 | 04:42 | 0.50 | 21 | 35 | 09:23 | 08:08 | 55 |
When I got home I did 2 regular 1 minute planks and 2 side 1 minute side planks, one each side. I was going to do more but the boyfriend and the grocery store were calling...
Tonight I'm planning on hitting the streets for a 40 minute speed workout with Kara Goucher. I know I shouldn't be doing short speed intervals since I'm marathon training and all, but I bought her workout on iTunes with a gift certificate I had (thanks Meredith!) so I'm gonna test it out. I might also do that killer conditioning workout if I have time.
HAPPY FRIDAY!! :)
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