Looooonnnnng day...

I thought I would tackle this week's 15-Week challenge of the early morning workout today. What ever was I thinking?!?!

You see...I am not a morning person, and I am okay with that! But I got up at 5 am, got to work (walked in the dark...through downtown Calgary...in the dark...alone...in the dark and drizzle...should still be sleeping...in the dark!) just after 6, changed and went out to run my usual 4.65k loop. It was very, very quiet...except for all the people on their bikes whizzing into work, it was me and two other guys on the path for a run. And I discovered that I am not a morning working out person! Firstly, I am not fully awake - I think mornings should be banned, the world over! It's cruel and unusual punishment to force someone out of a nice, warm bed, and make them face the world before noon! Of course, now that I say that, I haven't slept in past 9 in years, and I do start work at 7am now...it's a good thing I love Boot Camp and Trainer Josh, otherwise I'd be back to sleeping till 7:30 and starting work at 8:30. But I digress...back to the actual run. I don't eat first thing in the day - ever...I have trouble some mornings just brushing my teeth! But I forced down a piece of celery with almond butter and craisons, and sipped some Green Monster on the walk in, so I would have something in the tank to burn.

It didn't work...my legs felt like lead wrapped around pipe-cleaners! Needless to say, the run was not fast, nor was it pretty...but I finished it. Hard to read on the Garmin, but I managed an 8:30/km pace and burned 278 calories.

Got back in the office (freaked out my coworkers when they realized I beat them all to work today...did you know they don't even turn on the lights at 6:15 in the morning?!?!), changed and finished my Green Monster. And inhaled a chocolate milk!

Lunch was a spinach salad with chicken, blueberries, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and maple pecans (cooked pecans in maple syrup until the water boiled off, and then laid out on a piece of foil to cool...YUM!), topped with evoo and balsamic vinegar (yes...I keep bottles in my desk). However...it's Thursday...and the deli downstairs does a wicked Mulligatawny! Which I never let myself enjoy, because I weighed in on Thursdays and I have this weird superstition of eating rice the day before or day of weigh in! But now that we'll be weighing in on Saturdays, I indulged. Kind of wished I hadn't, as I was FULL all afternoon. It was still fabulous, but I was full!

And immediately thought "what an idiot" as it's Boot Camp fit test tonight, and I've just ruined my measurements by bloating out my stomach! Good thing most of the class couldn't/didn't show, so we're doing fit test on Tuesday. I can say that I've lost 7.9 pounds in the last 6 week session!

It was a regular Boot Camp session then, with our beloved Trainer Josh back (we told him how much we missed his joking, singing, funny voices and stories while he was gone!) in charge...some running, followed by upper body work and sprints, lower body work and sprints, core work and sprints! Josh is awesome about keeping our cardio up for well over half the class, without it being strictly running. Feeling it in the shoulders again...can't wait for tomorrow night's class! Have I mentioned that I'm hooked, and that I've already signed up for another 6 week, 3x a week session?!

:)

All the talk about zucchini boats by Angie got me thinking of that for dinner, since I had a zuch of appropriate size waiting in my veggie crisper...the thing is, I've never made one before. So I went Italian...mixed sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, pine nuts, artichoke hearts, basil, fresh grated Parmesan and herbed goat cheese. And to add texture, I sprinkled some panko bread crumbs on top before baking...dang...I am a GOOD COOKER!!! It was quite tasty, although I did put a little too much goat cheese in it, and found it a tad rich. Didn't stop me from eating it all, mind you!!

Well that's it for me...recap

Monday weekly challenge: done
Wednesday workout challenge: done

Weigh-in: down 1.4

Don't know why, and don't care...what ever it is that I am doing this time around seems to be working!! And I am determined to keep it up!

Okay...time to put together lunch for tomorrow, and head to bed. I am seriously tired!

I heart my trainer

Especially having to 'try out' his partner at today's Boot Camp, when he took a well deserved break this weekend. I understand that everyone has different styles, but all I have to say is I am thrilled that my Boot Camp experience started with Trainer Josh, and not this lady. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done as well, or even renewed past the first 6 weeks, quite frankly. She reminded me of all the jock-chicks I went to high school with...didn't like them then, most certainly don't like them now!! And don't sass at me in front of everyone else because I can't keep up with you and your 5 pound weights, honey...check the number on the end of mine. Oh, that's right...that's an 8! Needless to say, I will extra appreciate Trainer Josh on Thursday.

Whipped by Safeway on the way home (10% Tuesday...what was I thinking?!) and grabbed a few things, before heading home to make supper. Grilled fish tacos, refried beans, avocado and quinoa with tomatoes and Epicure Fajita seasonings. Quite nice...found the recipe surfing the Epicurious website...great place to look for recipes. All you have to do is type in one ingredient, and a list of recipes will come up, from all kinds of foody magazines, like Bon Appitet.

With my shoulders already seizing and aching, I had one more set of blinds to install (wah...) but these ones went in rather easily. Hopefully they stay there! Managed to get the hallways clean lat night and despite the rain (yet another awesome light show last night!!), they still look good today. I hate it when I clean for hours, and then someone tromps in all muddy and don't really care, because they rent and someone else cleans up...oh, that's right...ME! This would 'splain lots as to why I stuck with the furbabies and not the human variety, by the way!!

Going to tidy up from dinner and head to bed. I am beat. But at least I can sleep this week...+32 on Saturday to +10 today! Lord, I love this city!!!

Schneider duties complete

As I've mentioned before, I am Schneider for my little apartment building (only 13 suites)...that is I am the caretaker/landlady. For a substantial reduction in my rent, I collect the rent, do the bank deposit, take applications for new tenants, walk-through for move ins & outs, general cleaning inside and outside (that includes yard work) and small maintenance. I don't have to do painting, plumbing (THANK GOD!) nor do they make me play with electricity!!! They (the management company, a lovely husband and wife team who are both sweet as pie) seem to know and acknowledge my limitations as easily as I do!
Anyway, I've been putting off cleaning the hallways during the heat wave, but finally decided I had to get it done today. And I just had a tenant move in who needed new blinds installed. If there is one part of my duties that I openly despise...it's installing blinds. I measure, I mark, I measure again, I drill and it's all WRONG!! Argh!!!!!! And it doesn't help that I live in a very old, 67 years to be precise, building that is all wood and plaster and I'm sure a little spit and duct-tape!! It's very frustrating to say the least...took me 2 hours to install the blinds, replace the screening in a frame, and screen in another window for this guy. I still had to vacuum the hallways and stairs. I live in a 3 story walk-up, that has double staircases...why I will never know...just means 2 x the steps to vacuum and then wash. So started that after a brief water break and now it's 8:30 and I haven't had dinner yet! Not wanting to get into cooking a meal at this time of the night, I decided to have a Green Monster. That tide me over till morning, and I'll make the fish tacos I was planning on tomorrow night.
And with all the rain we're now getting, I'm happy I got the grass cut yesterday...at least I don't have to worry about watering the flowers this week. Boot Camp may be a tad on the damp side, but I enjoy running and such in the rain. Keeps everyone else away!
Happy Monday, everybody.

Relaxing Monday off...

It's Heritage Day here in Alberta (well, most of Canada celebrates something today, although there are a few hold-out provinces, like Quebec and Newfoundland...which is odd, because they seem to have a lot of provincial holidays between them both!) so I managed another glorious sleep-in (other than getting up at 5:45 to feed the furbabies...don't mess with their routine!) till 9 am. Legs are feeling yesterday's long run, which is good. I miss that feeling...tells me that I've worked hard.

Dinner last night was good and simple. I roasted some of the baby potatoes in my toaster oven (which ROCKS!! I rarely use my regular oven, since I am just cooking for moi), after tossing them in a mixture of evoo and butter (a tsp of each)...once they were golden brown, I tossed them in another tsp of melted butter and some Epicure Lemon Dilly dip mix. Yum, yum, yum! With that I cheated a tad, and bought a roasted turkey breast at Safeway...which will become lunch meat, as it was rather dry. Sad... And, as this week's Weight Watcher's challenge was to try something new (for you) from the vegetable/fruit family, I had a kohlrabi salad. I used my mandoline to slice red onion and the kohlrabi bulb super thin, and then tossed that with a mixture of evoo, lemon juice, S&P and capers. Served over some fresh spring greens, it was an interesting salad. The kohlrabi, to me, tasted a bit like turnip (which I do not like) but it wasn't unpleasant. Still reserving final judgement on it.

So what to do on a day off from work? I'm putting on my "Schneider" hat and putting up some blinds in one of the suites (just about my favourite job to do...can you sense the sarcasm??) and then vacuum the common hallways and wash the floors at the entrances. At least it's much cooler out today (and that means inside the building too), so it won't kill me. There was a wicked storm that blew in about 1 am...the lightning actually woke me up, long before the big rumblings and booms of the thunder did. Quite the light show. And then pounding, pounding rain...living on the top floor of a flat roofed building has it's drawbacks, but it finally lulled me back to sleep. It has since stopped, but it's dull and gray out there still. Which is fine...I was growing weary of the intense heat.

Have a great day off...if you get one, that is...

After the run

It felt good...granted my right foot was acting up by the end (pain in the arch/ankle which then spreads to the shin/knee/thigh/hip...amazing how they are all joined together!) but this was the longest I have run since Vancouver in May!! Oops...how did THAT happen?! Maintained a good pace, although H-woman's Garmin and mine varied on the speed. We were both close for distance, but her garmin clocked her going faster, yet we ran side by side. Hmmmm...

There was a bit of that wind-storm that hit northern Alberta (just sad about the Big Valley Jamboree) down here in Calgary too last night. I do recall running around closing windows, when suddenly anything not tied down in my place was blowing about, but we really saw the effects on our run this morning. Many branches and such down on the ground, and there was a rather large tree to climb over on the pathway, but the biggest shock was the remnants of a HUGE tree that went down in one of the older neighbourhoods we run through. The Fire guys had already been there, based on the fact that most of the tree was cut up and removed from the road, but the poor truck that it landed on was still there! Or, should that be what was left of the poor truck...the trunk of this tree, still in the ground, had to be 3' around, and it broke a good 3' off the ground. And, very sadly, a 3 year old was killed by falling debris when the family was walking beside one of the many construction sites in town.

Returned from the run and had a little rest while I inhaled another litre of water, then decided that darn grass wasn't going to cut itself! Short of buying a goat, I guess I needed to get my butt out there. It really doesn't take long, especially now that I use the good old-fashioned type of reel mower, and I worked up more of a sweat, so it's all good.

Now I am enjoying a well deserved Green Monster (with almond milk, almond butter, protein powder, sprouted Chia Seeds, frozen banana, Mandarin orange slices and, of course, spinach!), some more water and then I think a wee lay down on the couch may be in order. After all, I am looking a tad disheveled!

Haven't decided what's for supper yet, but I did pick up baby potatoes, fresh peas, baby carrots, patty-pan squash, kohlrabi, basil, peppers (red, green and purple(?!)) and tomatoes at the farmer's market yesterday, so it'll be something fresh and chock full of veggies!

Later!

Resuming the Sunday morning runs

Melissa's is just over 6 weeks away! Ack!!!! So today, H-woman and I are running 11.25km (or 7 miles). It's been a while for me since I've run this long, so it'll be interesting to see how long it takes to get the "groove back".

Brekkie consists of an Ezekiel English muffin with almond butter and raspberry jam, and a serving of Liberte Orange Mango Mediterranean yogurt (it's dang good, but I wish I had looked at the fat grams BEFORE I purchased and tasted it!! Oops!!! 14 per serving...what was I thinking?), and a glass of chocolate moo.

Dinner last night was very good! I just received the latest edition of the Clean Eating magazine, and inside was a recipe for Thai Coconut Shrimp. Yum!! The sauce consisted of red peppers, tomatoes, Thai green curry, basil leaves, light coconut milk, onions, ginger and garlic. While that burbled (official cooking term...) away, I dipped the biggest shrimp I've found in ages in egg white (after tossing in S&P and some chai seeds - was supposed to be ground flax, but I had chai, so I used them) and then in shredded coconut. Arranged on my clay baking sheet and baked for about 15 minutes, or till the shrimp were cooked and the coconut golden. Served it all over a cup of brown and wild rice (I just add about a tbsp or more to the regular brown rice and cook it all together...great flavour and texture). I was a tad full, because I did cook more shrimp than I needed, but it's been awhile since I had them, so I indulged!

Okay...breakfast is now in me, water bottle and running gear ready, so I'm off to H-woman's. Run update later.

Man, I wish this would save your drafts for stupid times like crashes and idiots behind the keyboard (that'd be me!) who accidentally close the file!!! Argh!!!!!

After waking up from a great night's sleep (10+ hours), I caught up on some blogs, and then walked over to the local vets to get some chow for the furbabies, who were apparently starving to death. Grabbed myself a coffee (my usual 5-shot latte, but over ice instead of extra hot...it's already +27 out there!), and came home to plan the day. Breakfast included an Ezekiel muffin spread with almond butter, fresh raspberries and a drizzle of maple syrup. Yum!

Last night's Boot Camp was awesome...painful and exhausting, but awesome! Still trying to recover from Thursday's extra leg workout (ALL legs, as a matter of fact), so our run up Douglas Fir was a little slow and stiff, until I could get the kinks worked out. Some of the people in the group were doing their fit test, as it was the last night of this session, so there were only 4 of us doing the run. I finally got to the top (when did it get steeper and longer?!) and managed to push out a couple of sprints up the final staircase. Back to the group, and massive upper body work. Shoulders and back are definitely feeling it today.

Came home, wanting a burger for supper. No meat thawed, so I walked over to Safeway to pick up the fixins'. Dilemma...how does one have a cheddar bacon burger without running the risk of having leftover cheddar and bacon in the house?! Answer - visit the Safeway meat counter, where they sell Cheddar Bacon burger patties! Shredded cheese and bacon already mixed in...it was perfect, and exactly what I wanted. Fresh and ready to throw on the grill. Grabbed a whole wheat kaiser, some pickle slices and sweet potato fries, and called it dinner. The burger grilled up beautifully (the shredded cheese made an awesome crispy crust on the outside), and was exactly what I was craving. Used the Epicure Sweet & Spicy Mustard as the only topping (besides pickles)....YUMMY. That mustard is sooooooo good...I've already gone through 3 jars since we introduced it in June (and that's me personally, not just for party samples). Do try it if you can, but act fast...it's seasonal and will be off sale as of the end of August. Back to dinner...add a wee Guinness, and I was a happy girl!

So, now what to do today? I need to cut the grass, clean the building (which I will do tomorrow, since it's supposed to be cooler), laundry, change the litter, clean the kitchen, do the dishes, the list goes on...ah, life as a single gal in the big city. The good times never stop!!!

Have a great day, and enjoy your long weekend (if you are celebrating one, that is!).