The rundown: 10/28-11/3 + WIAW: my new favorite yogurt.

Better late than never, right? I meant to post this on Sunday, then yesterday, but I had a crazy day at work yesterday and spent my breaks doing today's homework rather than blogging. Anyway, here's what I did last week for my running schedule:

Monday, October 28th- rest
Tuesday, October 29th - 4 miles @ 12:02 overall pace (48:11)
Wednesday, October 30 - 5.05 miles @ 11:05 overall pace (56:00)
Thursday, HALLOWEEN! - 4.25 miles @ 11:45 overall pace (49:57)
Friday, November 1 - rest and prepare for my race!
Saturday, November 2 - CASA Superhero 5k - 3.1 miles @ 7:44 overall pace (23:59)
Sunday, November 3 - I was going to get up and walk a couple miles before my shift started at 6am, but instead took advantage of the fall back and slept in instead (sleeping in = 5am). I did keep track of the NYC Marathon on my phone, so that has to count for something?!

Total miles: 16.4 miles
Total time: 2 hours 58 minutes.

Really not-so-impressive mileage, hah, but I'm working my way up. I'm gearing up to start a half-marathon training plan this month in preparation for the Shamrock'n Half in Sacramento, so slow, easy miles are the name of the game.

I signed up for Run Eat Repeat's Pile on the Miles contest, so I'm hoping that will keep me motivated. My goal for this week is 20 miles.

Now, for What-I-Ate-Wednesday...

My good habit is my probiotic consumption (aka I like to eat a lot of yogurt). I'm always checking out the yogurt case at the store for new flavors and brands, and I make my own plain Greek yogurt in the crockpot. Since I'm a nursing and active mom, I can (and do) go through a lot of food, so my yogurt consumption is through the roof.

My coworker shared this yogurt with me because she knows I'm a yogurt fiend:

mmmmm... Noosa.

Well, actually she had strawberry rhubarb flavor because she adores rhubarb.

I almost wish she hadn't shared it with me so I could have discovered it on my own at Target. No matter, they're all fantastic. A day or two after she shared it with me, I went and bought a few more... mango and honey and another strawberry rhubarb.

Isn't this cute?!

Well, g'day to you!

The cow amuses me before I break into the yumminess. Seriously, this yogurt is so creamy and smooth. It's made out of whole milk, which contributes a great deal to its tastiness, and the flavors I've tried are great. Next time I hit up Target, I'm planning on picking up a few more.

Now, unfortunately, all the flavors I picked up have honey listed in the ingredients, so I'm not able to share it with the baby until after her birthday, and Sam and Mike are a little burnt out on yogurt (heh), so more for me! I'm not complaining ;)

So, now that I've shared my deep love for yogurt, anyone else have any flavor or brand suggestions for me? What did you eat this Wednesday?

Marvelously windy Monday.

It's a blustery day today!

It's another marvelous Monday! I'm ready for the week ahead. And I'm not going to let the two diet Pepsis that exploded in our freezer overnight get me down. (I'm choosing to look at it as an opportunity to go through the freezer abyss and take inventory, rather than a loss of a precious, precious commodity.)
 
This morning my kid came back from his weekend at his dad's. I miss him like crazy when he's gone! Sam was a little upset that his weekend away was the same as the Superhero 5k because he was wanting to pull on his Spider-Man costume and do the Little Heroes Dash. Oh well. There's always next year!

By the way, here is my favorite picture of all the terrible ones I took on Halloween.

That kitty cat is going to pounce on Darth Vader!

I'm still all super pumped about my new 5k PR from this weekend. My legs are feeling it though... And my torso, which is a little weird.

Julie has been a crack up lately. Her two bottom teeth have come through the gums and are working their way up, so she's started this adorable little tongue thing.

Blurry iPhone photos in low light conditions seems to be my thing.

Everything she's done in the past two days, she's done with her tongue halfway out of her mouth. I think she's just feeling the strange new feeling of her teeth! (Kinda like when you get your braces off, I think.)

Off we go to school again today, which meant we got our every-other-Monday Dutch Bros. And since it's November:

Move over, Starbucks red cup. I like green much better (and my Ugg-ly boots when it's cold and windy). Plus, that cup held a Caramel Eggnog Latte. Oh em gee, it was amazing.

By this time next month it will be nearly finals week, which I'm super duper looking forward to. It's been a difficult, busy semester between school and work, and my kids and Michael have been so amazingly supportive about me being back at school. I want to nominate Mike for sainthood with all that he has to put up with sometimes!

Yes, I am a troublemaker but I make up for it in cuteness!

What's awesome on your Monday?

CASA Superhero Run 2013

Sorry in advance that this is going to be wordy! I'm just so excited. (and excuse the exclamation mark abuse. It's inevitable.)

Today (well, yesterday now, because I hadn't finished this recap, heh) was the inaugural edition of the CASA Superhero 5k. When I first heard of it, I knew I wanted to do it. I've been looking to do a 5k to see where I am speed-wise now compared to March 2011, the last time I ran a 5k. However, I was a lame-o and didn't really wear a costume. I wanted to make something original (like an official Ms. Whirlwind costume) but I ran out of time so I went as an Anonymous Runner.

Of course, me being me, I didn't register until right before the race. The benefits of a small community race :)

My mom met me there so she could watch Julie while I raced my little heart out. I asked her to try to get some pictures during the race, but she had a photo taking malfunction when I was finishing. I told my mom it was okay that she didn't get any pictures of me finishing because I was too fast anyway. *wink*

And we're off! (I'm in the blue shirt and blue Vibrams)

I set my Garmin's virtual partner the night before for my optimistic pace goal. I really really wanted to beat my best time of 24:14. That was a 7:47 min/mi pace, so I set it for 7:46. I wasn't sure how feasible it was, since I've been inconsistent with training and I ran a two mile race in August where I could only maintain a 8:10 min/mi pace (and probably couldn't have held it a third mile).

Finally race time! We were to self-seed, but I think I sorted myself a little too far back.

There were no mile markers on the course, but a lot of motivational signs. (I didn't take any pictures because I left my phone with my mom, and I was racing, darn it!)

Mile one, I focused on getting into my pace groove. I kept glancing down at my Garmin to check how I was doing against my virtual partner, and was surprised to see that after I freed myself from the starting congestion, I was a few seconds ahead of goal pace and feeling pretty good! Except for my toes being a little chilly, my body felt revved up and ready to go.

Mile two, I focused on getting ahead of the guy dressed like a hot dog in front of me (he ended up winning a prize for the most creative costume!) I was still maintaining a pace about ten seconds faster than my virtual partner!

During mile three, I passed two Clark Kents (who ended up stripping off their shirts and whipping off their glasses when they crossed the finish line, heh) and increased my lead on my virtual partner to about 20 seconds. By this time, I was super focused and working really hard. When I came onto the Sundial Bridge again for the finish, I was having some crazy tunnel vision going on and although I was looking around for my mom and Julianna, all I could see was the clock saying 23:xx. I put on a final burst of speed and crossed the timing mat.

Oh my goodness, I PRed!! My reach wasn't such a reach after all! Final chip time was 23:59.2.

Not only did I PR, I also placed in my age group for the very first time ever ever!! I was 19th overall, and second woman for the 20-29 age group (number one beat me by three minutes and she was first female overall-seriously impressing me).

See my medal?!

Jules wants to eat it.

Yay!

Overall, very fun race and for a great cause. They had a free photo booth there, which my mom, Julie, and I used, but the pictures were so bad I think I would be grounded by my mom if I posted them online.

Definitely feeling a bit sore today, but so, so proud of my new PR. Now I have a realistic view of what I should shoot for in terms of my half-marathon goal!

November? Seriously?

I think a sign that I'm getting old is that my mind is blown that it's already November. It doesn't seem that long since last October.

A year ago yesterday, I was in the midst of my phlebotomy internship, and pregnant with Julie. I took Sam trick-or-treating after I left the hospital (he was Spider-Man and I was a deviled egg, with my belly being the yolk ;) and then we went to Chipotle and got cheap burritos since we were in costume.

This year, I worked until 6:30 and so we didn't get to do so much trick-or-treating, but it was enough for Sam, because he wanted to head home after an hour. Little man was tired. Julie was hanging in there, but she was super tired too.

(I'm going to have to get them to dress up again so I can take more pictures because all my pictures turned out horrid. Nighttime photography is not my friend)

Anyway. Crazy October. It was a big month for us!

Tomorrow is my 5k race and I am getting myself pumped up. I'm calling all the candy (and those pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from work, yum) that I inhaled yesterday "early carb-loading." I did it for performance reasons, okay?

(Now I'm going to have to PR, ha ha.)

Scenes from my run yesterday.

Wednesdays are probably one of the best days of the week because they are my outdoor run days. On this one wonderful day of the week, the stars align and I have the time and babysitting necessary to go commune with nature. 

(I might sound a little hippy dippy crazy, but I love running outdoors because it puts me in a spiritual Zen-type meditative frame of mind)

The weather was gorgeous. Totally out of the ordinary for nearly-November. It's been chilly in the mornings (not unusual), but the afternoons have been warming up to high-seventies. 

My running photography philosophy: I don't stop or break stride to take a picture. When I'm running, it's constant forward motion. 

With that being said, here's some sights I saw on my run:

The pedicab! I've never actually seen anyone ride it, but I love how he's decorated it for fall. 

This is a turtle pond. The kids and I walk up this way every so often and watch for the little turtles pop their heads out of the water. 

 

People were out fishing in waders! I would say that's an indication of how warm it is, but people who like fishing seem to really like fishing and will do it in any weather. Kinda like runners, huh?

There was a band practicing in the park, and they were pretty good. It was nice to have some accompanying music. 

Ah. I cherish my Wednesdays. I hope this weather keeps up ;)

Anyone else have some beautiful scenes from a run?

Baked Eggs, Italian style

Oh boy, it's already Wednesday! I worked yesterday until 9:30 and was showered and in bed by 10, so it doesn't really feel like I did anything with my Tuesday except for my early morning run and prepping for the day before taking the kids off to school. Workdays are always crazy like that. It's the nature of the twelve-hour-shift beast. Then we were all up bright and early to seize the new day.

Anyway, for this What-I-Ate-Wednesday, I want to share this recipe I found on WeightWatchers.com and modified to make into little individual sized dishes. Here it is:

Baked Eggs, Italian style! Though the egg is hidden beneath the romano cheese.

So we go through a LOT of eggs around here. It seems like every other week I'm at Costco buying another five dozen, plus every so often we'll be able to buy some farm-fresh eggs from various sources (those are my very favorite, especially when the yolk is ORANGE!)

We all love them. Mike and I take hard-boiled eggs nearly every day with our lunches and usually fry them for breakfast, while Sam knows how to make a scrambled egg for himself in the microwave. Meanwhile, little miss Julie is very fond of the yolks.

This recipe is an easy and tasty way to change up our Old Reliable. It's basically like a pasta-less lasagna in a way, with the eggs functioning as the noodles. It may sound a little weird, but it's awesome!

Baked Eggs, Italian Style, for an Individual Portion
-1/2 cup of your favorite marinara sauce
-1 egg
-red pepper flakes or Tabasco to taste (if you want it spicy)
-1 Tbsp Pecorino romano (or parmesan, but I prefer romano)
-any random veggies you want to toss in the sauce, like spinach, mushrooms, etc, or fresh herbs like basil

To assemble, I put the sauce in a 6 oz custard cup, mixed with a pinch of red pepper flakes and some chopped mushrooms, then made a little well in the sauce and cracked the egg into the indent. I sprinkled the top with romano and then baked it at 350 degrees F for about 18 minutes until the white was set.

I made five portions the first time I made these (because I only have five custard cups, heh) and inhaled two for breakfast. Mike polished off the other three later, because they reheat pretty well in the microwave.

But seriously, so good. You have to try it.

Anyone ever heard of a dish like this before?

linking up with 

I like being contrary. I like Mondays.

Oh Monday, Monday. I'm rather fond of you.

I know I sound crazy, but hear me out. I've had my share of weeks where going back to school or work sounds awful, but lately I've been looking at the positive aspects of Mondays. It's a new week, new you!

This week is going to be marvelously awesome for a number of reasons:
*I'm done with all my midterms, so I'm that much closer to finishing out the semester, which means I'm that much closer to starting my nursing classes. The closer January comes, the more excited I get.

*My coworker just called and told me that the tamales I ordered from another coworker have arrived. Yessssssssss. *fist pump* (Rafa makes the best. tamales. ever!)

*Thursday is Halloween! It's little miss J's first Halloween (she's going to be a kitty cat), and Sam is going to be Darth Vader. I haven't tried Jules' costume on her, but Sam wore his to his school's Halloween Carnival on Friday, and he has perfected the Vader breathing sound. It's hysterical.

I can't wait to take them trick-or-treating! Last year wasn't so fun with my pregnancy back pain (but I did love my deviled egg costume), but my sister and I are taking our kids together.

*I signed up to be an independent designer with Origami Owl, which looks to be a lot of fun. Look at how cute this jewelry is!

I love how it's similar in concept to a charm bracelet, but in a new and beautiful way. I'm having so much fun making mockup designs.

*Saturday is my 5k race, and I get to run on this beautiful bridge:

I just love the Sundial Bridge. Hopefully the scenery will distract me from the inherent pain of 5k pace.

 

Breathtaking

Here's to a terrific week! I'm linking up with Marvelous Monday, so I hope your Monday is fantastic too!