Woohoo ~ I am posting twice in one day. Ok, well, that’s not really what the woohoo is for….THE BIGGEST LOSER is on ~ Woohooo! Yeah for not having to wait until spring for the next season. Ok, so this is going to be snappy because I want to sit down with my NEW BOOK (more on that in a sec) and indulge in the show 😀
FIRST TIHNGS FIRST
Yesterday I signed up to run my SECOND ever HALF MARATHON! ~ The Shamrock Half Marathon on March 14, 2010!! I was first encourage by one of my AMAZIMG ex bosses who is for the first time ever running a half and now my AWESOME sister has decided to join in too! It is her first race and I am so pumped to do this together with them both….yeah! I am a bit nervous because I ran my first half marathon (Napa to Sonoma!) 3 years ago and did a Tri-Athlon (Tri-Girl-Tri) last year. But, THIS YEAR, I’ve done nothing, in fact, I took December off from exercising ~ oops! :) Anyway, I am PUMPED and ready to do it!
Here is my schedule EASING into things. I combined Hal Hidgon’s training plan with Jeff Galloway’s run-walk-run philosophy. I have a short time frame to work with so I modified it a bit 🙂 I may throw in some speed work and/or hills, but, my main goal is really just to finish and maybe beat my prior year time :)
Feel free to share any thoughts, advice or what not. I’d LOVE to hear what you all have to say :) I NEED all the help I can get for sure. Ohhhh and if you are training for any event now, I am open to helping to motivate each other. Comment away, email, twitter, facebook, g-chat ~ all of the above anytime 🙂
NOW SPEED POST!!!
Ok, I guess I am not doing so good on the FAST POST part…so here it goes….onto my eats and workouts for the past few days
EATS:
Warm Oat-y-ness!
1/2 c old fashioned oats
1 c water
1 mini organic Fuji Apple
1 Tbsp ground flax seed
dashes of cinnamon and vanilla extract
TWO BEST TOPPINGS ever ~ 1 Tbsp Crunchy Almond Butter and 1 Tbsp Organic Apricot Preserves
The Husband surprised me by showing up and taking me to lunch ~ LOVE him! We went to Mamarella’s and I ordered their FANTASTIC Beet Salad with Grilled Chicken ~ delish!
After work I came home and hopped on the treadmill ~ 3 miles run/walk/run doing 5:1 intervals. Yup, I pretty much felt like I was going to keel over….I MUST remember to not take time off like that again 😀
Dinner was FAST and easy involving some of my FAVORITE things since I wanted to watch The Bachelor 😀
ANNIE’S PEACE PASTA!!!
I am a sucker for FUN shaped pastas. I LOVE this flavor as a change from the white and orange sauce, but, I still like the traditional versions best 🙂
New frozen veggie ~ This one is my FAVORITE I think it’s the roasted almond slivers:)
CLEAN INGREDIENTS!
GREAT STATS!!
I ate an entire box of green beans :D
Plus a serving of Annie’s Peace Pasta
with a Trader Joe’s Chile Lime Chicken Burger toped with tomato, cucumber chips, ketchup and mustard.
Delicious, fast and EASY!
TUESDAY!!!
I woke up starving and pretty sure my stomach was going to eat itself. :) I toasted up 2 Kashi Strawberry Flax Protein Waffles and topped one with Artisana Organic RAW Cashew Butter and the other with Crunchy Almond.
With some “banana chips”
I was STILL starving but held out a few hours for snack. My mom had these Flat Bread Wheat Thins out over Christmas and I actually LOVED them.
Decent stats ~ 1 point for 2 BIG crackers.
I am super proud of Nabisco for using some REAL ingredients and getting rid of the HFCS and using brown rice syrup instead.
Topped with 1 Laughing Cow Lite Cheese Wedge and a mini organic fuji apple.
I didn’t realize until now that I am the total product reviewer on this post :D I saw these Chicken-Less Stuffed Cutlets at Trader Joe’s the other day and had to try them. I was sold on them when I saw that they were stuffed with corn and black beans – YUM!
I have to admit they looked a little funky when they come out of the package.
But, I quickly remedied that by topping it with a slice of light provolone and my mom’s homemade chipotle salsa. I LOVED the combination ~ smokey, BBQ, cheesy good!
And since I didn’t seem to get enough green beans last night, I had some more 🙂
I was too full for my cuties, but, they still wanted their picture taken. I am missing the cute little stickers on this batch….don’t they know that is WHY people buy them?! 😀
I am trying to fit in BOTH bananas and MILK since the potassium helps to get the lactic acid out of your muscles and relieve soreness.
We had a LONG afternoon meeting today so I knew that would require a Starbuck’s. I had a tall FF Chai Tea Latte for my afternoon snack.
TODAYS WORKOUT 2 easy miles run/walk/run with an easy 2:1 ratio since my legs are uber sore. My run was actually awesome and I felt great after lots of stretching.
Dinner tonight was a Pizza Compromise. The Husband wanted both Turkey Pepperoni and my FULLED LOADED VEGETABLE PIZZA. The top layer was turkey pepperoni and the bottom layer was all veggies 🙂
I had two slices (FYI – the turkey pepperoni only adds ONE Weight Watcher Point!)
Plus a side salad with Annie’s Cowgirl Ranch….delish!
Everyday should include a little chocolate especially when it is for a good cause, right? :) I received this bar as part of my Christmas present from one of my FAVORITE people ever 😀
I had 3 squares and savored each one slowly. I LOVE it but you don’t really taste the blueberries 🙁
NEW BOOK~ I LOVE Tosca Reno and have ALL of her books (and her cookbooks too!). She is the person who got me started eating clean with her very first book a few years back. She has updated her original book so I had to check it out! I will post a review for you all when I finish….Yeah!!!
P.S. AMAZON has it on sale super cheap ~ click HERE to check it out!
SPEED POST, RIGHT? Haha ~ oh well….Off to read, relax and enjoy The SHOW!!!
See you all tomorrow for a NEW YEARS GIVEAWAY!
NITE!
WOW, awesome challenge!! Good luck with it!
Love the eats- I found it funny when I noticed the stuffed chicken burgers were made in Canada, then why are there no TJ’s in Canada for me?!? lol
I love Tosca, I NEED to read her new book!
Have a great Wednesday!
xo
Kris
Yeah on another race! I am running my first half at the end of March. I look forward to following your progress 🙂
YAY! congrats! I’m so excited to hear how the training goes! (and I think you picked a great race – I was seriously considereing it last year!) 🙂
YAY! congrats! I’m so excited to hear how the training goes! (and I think you picked a great race – I was seriously considering it last year!) 🙂
Congrats on the half-marathon! I hope to sign up for a 2010 race, too.
That pizza looks delish!
Congrats on signing up for the half-marathon! The pizza looks delicious and of course the Annie’s mac and cheese 🙂
Danica! I am slowly catching up in the blogging world!
I am so excited to see that you are running a half marathon! I wanted to sign up for the Napa to Sonoma this year, but it’s already full! Your training plan looks great and way to go for sticking to it so far!
Can’t wait to catch up! I hope you had a great holiday!
P.S. I’ve never seen the peace sign mac and cheese. I will have to get my hands on some of that!
🙂
Congrats on signing up for the half marathon! I am excited to hear how your training goes.
I just signed up for my first half marathon! I am doing the Portland 1/2 on 10/10/10! It feel so far away but I am sure time will fly. I have done a few 5K but this will be my first half marathon.
Danielle
Eats look so good! From the salad with chicken and beets, peace pasta with burger, pizza with two layers(?) so cool, and blueberri chocolate!!
I wanna try em all!!
Jenna
Oh yeah and those TJ curlews chickens!!
danica…your eats are looking MIGHTY FINE! and congrats on the half marathon sign-up! that is awesome, amazing and can’t wait for you to cross that finish line!
lots of love and peace – in honor of annie’s peace pasta of course 🙂
Oh boy, I’m sooo excited to know you are running a 1/2 marathon. Hubby has been BUGGING me to agree to run in the Reggae Marathon (doing the 1/2 marathon run/walk) in Jamaica in Dec. I have NEVER run in my life and I wanted to start with the 10k but he and a trainer we know well at the gym seems to think I could run that tomorrow and I wouldn’t be challenging myself. So, if we can book our favorite resort that will be the plan. I am so nervous! Been starting my research on running and some of it scares me to death. That would be my first race unless I did something in the mean time here in IL. Any tips would be welcome and helpful. I’ll be doing a blog post on it soon so you can reply there if you would rather.
Oh and when you say “3 miles run/walk/run doing 5:1 intervals” what does that mean?
All your eats look yummy. I love pasta. Oh and I have a surprise coming up on my blog that has to do with Tosca so be on the look out!
Hi Angie,
Yeah for getting into running! I wouldn’t sweat your husband and the trainer. it’s awesome that they believe in you so much, but, you should go at a pace you feel comfortable with. I am sure most people could go out and walk with some running a 5K and 10K. However, I guess the question becomes, how well do you want to perform.
For me, when I first started running honestly I could go aobut 1/4 of a mile before I was huffing and puffing. So, i started small with a goal of being able to run continuously for 30 minutes. I was already pretty good at walking up to 4-5 miles a day. Then, I did a few 5K’s plus a 10K before training for my first half marathon. I gave myself 6 months to go through all that with 18 weeks of training before my half.
I am by no means a runner and I am definitely a penguin runner….slow and steady 🙂 I know I will never be one of the speedy people and I am ok with that.
I LOVE Hal Hidgon’s training schedules and I follow the Jeff Galloway method for running. He is an awesome runner who has tons of books, a blog and run over 100 marathons. He uses a run, walk, run method for running which means that you do intervals. You basically run anywhere from 3-8 minutes and walk anywhere from 1-2 minutes in between.
5:1 – run for 5 minutes, then walk for 1 minute. Then, repeat.
When I first start out running I usually start at 2:1 and work up to 6:1. When I did my first half I did that method through the 11th mile and then ran all the way through to the end.
This method is supposed to really help running not be so taxing on your body and also allows you to go further. I actually go faster and can run longer when I do this versus running straight through.
Everyone is different though so you have to find what works best for you. You can find lot of great information online at coolrunning.com and runnersworlds.com as well.
Good luck and definitely keep me posted on how it goes 🙂
P.S. I am by no means an expert runner or any of that – I run for fun so the above is just my opinion 🙂
Danica
Hey congrats on training for the half! I have been considering it myself this year, but it’s kind of scary! I love your training plan though, I may steal it! xoxo