Hopefully after a few more races I’ll get the hang of the taper week.

After work last night I did a quick, easy two mile run. It was extremely windy by the water, and my ears were burning by the time I was finished. Thankfully no ear infections (yet)!

I drove home from work / my run and had soup and bread for dinner. This white bean soup was amazing. Of course it was high in sodium, but still. I loved the soup! Of course I loved the bread, too!

The soup was Alessi Tuscan White Bean soup and I highly recommend it!

Once again it was hard to get up this morning. I just wanted to sleep in way past my alarm. Finally I got up around 6 o’clock… maybe it was a little after. I can’t remember. Breakfast this morning was Kashi vanilla oatmeal:

I spent most of my day at work in the archives. By the end of the day I was a little tired and my friend commented on how much she liked my glasses. She snapped a photo of me in my glasses, and I made a funny face because I was tired.

Lunch was very good today – but it was a frozen meal. (I guess this happens to everyone from time to time – but I feel like I’ve been eating a few processed meals this week. Well, two if I could the soup and this!)

Lunch:

This was an Amy’s light and lean spinach lasagna. I loved it! 250 calories, 5 grams of fat, 540 mg sodium (still high ) and 11 grams of protein. I ate a snack bag of grapes on the side and had a lot of water.

On the way home I was starving and my stomach was talking out loud. So I had a Kashi granola bar on the drive home. Dinner tonight will be a salad, soup and a slice of bread. I’m looking forward to it!

I’m going to rest up tonight because I am leaving for the Cape tomorrow! See you tomorrow, bloggies.

Last night I did not sleep at all. I tossed and turned all night. I woke up (or did not wake up because I was probably never asleep last night) at 6:00 AM and felt like crap. I texted a colleague, and went back to sleep. I finally got some sleep and got up later in the morning. I made breakfast and heated up coffee:

I sat on the couch and assessed how badly I felt. I decided to get ready for work and go in. I had a busy day planned, and I got things done at the office, but not feeling great the whole time I was there.

At around 1 o’clock I bought a small tomato bisque soup from the caf. It was quite good! But I was running out of time as I had the soup at my desk, and decided to almost drink the last bit of it. I totally ended up burning my throat. After that I couldn’t tell if I had a sore throat or a burned throat.

Later in the afternoon I had another Fage Greek yogurt and a few carrot sticks. I did not run after work, I went right home and changed into my pajamas. I made some wellness echinacea tea. Eventually I had dinner. Whole wheat pasta and tomato sauce.

I’m going to bed now. I really cannot get sick before the half marathon.

OK. So, I finally got myself out of bed and went right downstairs to the coffee maker. Thankfully the coffee was freshly made and I poured myself a big mug of happiness It helped wake me up a bit while I got ready for work.

I got to the office at 7:30 this morning. What the heck happened to the days when I used to get to work at 7?!? I cannot for the life of me get to work before 7:30 these days. I am really getting fairly annoyed with my laziness! Anyhow. I had breakfast at 9 o’clock this morning. The other half of the bagel I had yesterday. I don’t know about you, but I always have a smaller half and bigger half of a bagel when I cut it. This morning I had the smaller half for breakfast But it was still very good. Peanut butter makes everything so much better!

I managed to get through until 12:35 (lunch time!) with only having an additional tea and a small container of skim milk as a mid morning snack. I am still trying to increase my calcium intake these days. I do think I am making progress. I hope so!

Lunch was very interesting today. It was sort of on the light side, but I liked the lunch a lot, too. I had a Fage yogurt, an orange and a small bag of Bare Naked granola (the kind with extra protein):

I did not eat the entire orange. I gave Katherine two pieces of it. We were both impressed by how good this orange was! I did not have an afternoon snack. I was tired during the day, and decided not to go for a run after work. I headed home instead. It is a taper week after all

It feels weird to not have to run a lot this week. Instead of running I came home, sat on the couch and relaxed for a few minutes. Eventually I started dinner. Dinner tonight was whole wheat pasta (with protein!), most of a chicken sausage and tomato sauce. On the side I had a salad and two small pieces of French bread. I also had a small glass of pinot noir. It has been a relaxing night, and I am looking forward to getting a lot of sleep tonight. I really hope that I feel better tomorrow!

How was your day today? I hope your week is off to a good start so far. It is supposed to be a warm day tomorrow – so I am going to do my BEST to get a run in after work. I am also going to try get to work before 7:30 in the morning. Fingers are crossed! See you tomorrow.

I just looked up Hal Higdon’s half marathon training guide to see what I should do the week of a half marathon. Wow – I love taper weeks! Today I ran 3 1/2 miles and now I only have two TWO MILE runs left for the week! I am planning to run on Tuesday (tomorrow) and maybe Thursday. On Friday I’m going to wash all of my stuff, write out a to do list, and start packing.

For me running is a delicate balance. This morning I overslept. I was supposed to get up at 8:15 but instead, I hit the snooze button and went back to sleep. Eventually I woke up at 10:30! What?! Well, I guess that is what we have holidays for… sleeping in.

For breakfast I had two big mugs of coffee and half a bagel with peanut butter. It took me a really long time to get my act together today. I finally started cleaning my room and doing a few things around the house. At around 1 o’clock I was finally able to get started on my errands.

At 3 o’clock I got ready for my run. I tried my new Brooks running jacket – it came in handy because it was so windy outside. I did a low key 3 1/2 mile run and it was pretty cold. I had a really hard time motivating for the run – but I am glad I did it and I felt better after.

For my afternoon / post run snack I had a big salad at around 5 o’clock and a few Laurel Hill lime chips. (I love these chips!!) Then I started the oven and eventually heated up another piece of Saturday night’s fish and a baked potato. What a great dinner!

That is pretty much all I have to report. I’m packing my running things tonight and hopefully I can just get a two mile run out of the way tomorrow after work. I’m going to pack a breakfast and lunch for tomorrow and hopefully I can be efficient this week.

Do four day work weeks ever seem longer to you than five day work weeks do? Sometimes I feel like four day weeks can be an eternity. I hope this one goes by quickly.

See you guys tomorrow!

So far my weekend is going pretty well. I’ve got to do some housework today. But yesterday I had one of those sort of perfect days when you get a little bit of everything done. It all started with an early morning visit from a friend who brought me a large Dunkin’ Donuts coffee with skim milk. It tasted amazing and was the perfect thing at 8:30 on a Saturday morning.

My sister made me breakfast on Saturday morning – amazing scrambled eggs. She added milk and some sort of cheese, and the eggs were great. I can’t remember the last time someone made me breakfast. It was nice. I had a piece of toast, too.

Eventually I motivated myself to get a run in. I ran 6 1/2 miles outside and it was a beautiful day! The only somewhat difficult thing about this winter is figuring out what to wear on my outdoor runs. Yesterday I had on my running tights, a long sleeved under armor shirt (a heavier weight, made for cold days I think) and a fleece vest. Half way through I put the vest on a park bench, and picked it up on my way back during my first loop. When I finished the first loop, I dropped the vest off at the car. I was definitely a little warm. My ears were a little cold, but I knew I would be too hot if I had my hat on. It is all a delicate balance, I guess!

After my run was finished, I stopped by City Sports to see if I could pick up some sort of jacket for next week’s half marathon. I wanted to have some foul weather gear just in case it was raining or snowing. I picked up this cool Brooks running jacket, which was 50% off on the clearance rack – not bad!

This is a shelter jacket. It will help protect from wind (and I am sure it’s going to be windy regardless on the Cape next weekend) and rain but it is not waterproof – that would be impossible because you would not be able to breathe in the jacket. I am sort of a superstitious person when it comes to certain things. I thought that if I bought a ‘rain jacket’ maybe it would not rain on race day. The forecast, seven days out, says that it will be sunny and 42 degrees! My fingers and toes are crossed – I would love a day like that for the race.

After City Sports I stopped by East Side market where I picked up some Kashi granola bars, Luna bars, Fage yogurt, Bare Naked granola, soy milk, and a couple of other things. I came home and ate a small piece of pizza for my post run snack (by this time I was starving!).

My sister, mom and my sister’s boyfriend made dinner last night. It was wonderful. They used a few recipes from Ina Garten’s Back to Basics cookbook. We had roasted broccoli, baked potatoes with Greek yogurt, and haddock with whole grain mustard and capers. Everything was delicious.

After dinner we played games for hours. It was a fun night.

Happy Sunday morning, everyone. I’ll be back in a bit!

Today was a much better eating day! But I will admit, I started my day off with a small peanut butter cookie. (My mom made these cookies on Sunday and they are still around the house. I love them!)

I enjoyed coffee as I drove to work. I got to the office at 7:45 this morning… my arrival to the office seems to be getting later and later this week. I have got to get back on track with getting up early.

My real breakfast this morning was Kashi oatmeal.

I was very busy today at work, so I did not get to have my actual breakfast until 9:30 this morning. Strange to think that I had already been awake for four hours at that point. I’m sort of glad I had that peanut butter cookie at 6:30 this morning!

Lunch today was sort of small. Half of a peanut butter and jam sandwich on whole wheat (low sodium) bread and an amazingly juicy pear! I ate at my desk after going outside and walking for a little over a mile, about twenty minutes of walking. I had a busy afternoon, so even though I was starving, I was not able to eat the second half of my sandwich until 3:30 in the afternoon. I love my busy days at work, especially when they are fun.

After work I changed right into my running gear and hit the path by my office and ran 4 1/2 miles. It is so great to get my exercise done at work and I just really like knocking off the commute back and forth to the gym. I could see this run at work happening at least a couple of times a week. It is a really nice change of pace for me. I cannot wait to Spring Ahead on Sunday, March 11th. That is just a few weeks away! It is one of my favorite days of the year, I must tell you

On my car ride home, I totally snagged a snack out of my purse. On Sunday I had a chance to hang out with one of my favorite people, which I just love doing. During our time together my silly friend handed me a bag of Clif “Shot Roks” in the chocolate chip cookie dough flavor. (In case we were in need of snacks during our day) In all honesty, I totally forgot that the snacks were in my purse, so at the end of the day, I forgot to give them back. But guess what??? When I was driving home from work / running, I remembered that they were in my bag. I totally opened them up and ate two of them while I drove. (About sixty calories in two ‘bites’) I like these snacks. I might order some because I can’t figure out where to buy them in stores. They are pretty convenient when I’m hungry and driving for 40 minutes and i know that dinner is at least an hour or more away from being consumed. (For the record, my friend is only silly because if you give me something to put into my purse, there is a very small chance you will ever get it back if you don’t remember. If it’s up to me, I’ll forget!)

SO. After my run I ducked back into the office and used the restroom and then hit the road to drive home. I was pleasantly surprised by how awesome my commute home was. I was home by 6:20 PM. I stretched, did some foam rolling and then showered and changed into my comfy clothes. (Ahhh!) Once this was all done, I heated up the last of the baked whole wheat pasta (how much do I love the fact that I was able to eat this baked ww pasta Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – SUCH A TIME SAVER!) Along with the pasta, I had a handful of Pirate’s Booty (as I waited for everything to heat up) a few carrots and a glass of light Silk Soy milk.

After dinner I had to get back into the kitchen to make my famous cranberry, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I was able to get a half batch of the cookies put together and baked in about 30 minutes. That must be a record for me! Mom tried one right out of the oven, and I tried one about an hour after. They passed our taste test!

Ok. I am in bed and ready to turn in for the night. I’ll see you guys tomorrow – have a great Thursday, please!

How was your day today? I had a pretty good day – and I’m not going to lie, I had a few treats It started with breakfast. I had an amazing cranberry orange muffin from Seven Stars that I picked up for myself yesterday afternoon. (I am always thinking ahead when it comes to Valentine’s day gifts to myself! Kidding… sort of.) This muffin was amazing. I love Seven Stars so much. They are the best bakery. I love this muffin because it was not overly sweet. The cranberries and orange gave everything a great balance. I will definitely have another one the next time I am due for a muffin!

Lovely:

I also had a small piece of birthday cake (it had fruit on top, which made it even better – the cake itself was light, fluffy and wonderful!) around 11 o’clock this morning. I went for a quick walk at noon and ate my lunch at my desk at 1 o’clock. Lunch was half a bagel, a pear and a Greek yogurt.

I’m sorry – but can we discuss for ONE MOMENT how much I love Fage Greek yogurt!? I can’t stand how much I love it. I want to eat more than one a day. I just might start doing that. Since I started eating Fage again, this flavor, strawberry & goji is my favorite. Amazingly good and 13 grams of protein. Can’t beat it!

My afternoon snack (yes, for some reason I had an afternoon snack!) was a small homemade (with love by mom) peanut butter cookie, which just happened to be gluten free.

After work I changed into my running clothes and ran five miles at work. It was a pretty good run. It was a bit breezy since I was running right next to the water, but I made it through. It was a nice experience to get my exercise done with right at work. I figured that even though it took me a little bit longer to get home since I was driving home at 5:30 (sort of the height of rush hour?) I saved 40 minutes by not going to the gym. (15 minutes each way to the gym, at least along with time spent in the locker room, etc.) So I am going to start running at work a couple of times a week I think. I hope to get the office running club back in order soon – but I’m having a hard time rallying the troops at the moment.

On my drive home I had a mini-Larabar (I am almost out of my mini stash – it must be time for a race. I really hope that one of my upcoming races will be sponsored by Larabar!) and water. Unfortunately when I got home I was in a lot of pain (not running related, stomach related). I literally ran to the shower, cleaned up and crawled into bed. I started feeling better once my medicine had time to work, and was able to eat dinner once I started to recover.

Dinner tonight was a bizarre mix of left overs. More baked pasta, a small piece of french bread and one side of a twice baked potato. WOW – holy carbs, right?? I found this dinner to be hilarious. Oh, I had some green peas, too. I ate dinner on my mom’s Valentine’s day gift to me (a really cool tray – more on that later).

After dinner I saw that I had a package. I had ordered these books myself, and because they came in today, I decided it was a Valentine’s day gift to myself:

I will let you know what I think of these books once I have some time to go through them.

Ok. I’m signing off and going to bed for the second time tonight. Hope you all had a great day! See you tomorrow.

So, the funniest thing happened this weekend. I never turned on my computer! It was sort of crazy – and kinda cool, too. But I did miss you (of course).

On Friday after work I had to get a small coffee on my drive home because I was so tired. I got to the gym. I did the elliptical for 30 minutes and then I did some more strength training for my legs and the muscles around my knees. Leg press, leg extensions, the hip exercises and a few other things.

When I got home I made two small pizzas using the pizza shells from Olga’s again. I love these things!!! One pizza was a fresh mozzarella, fresh tomato, basil and garlic. I brushed the whole wheat pizza shell with a teaspoon of EVOO. The other pizza was sauce, cheddar and chicken breast. These pizzas were really great and they just tasted so fresh. I loved both of them:

It was supposed to snow on Saturday. At first they were calling for 5 – 6 inches in Providence. In my head I had written off the possibility of running outside on Saturday. The snow was supposed to start late on Friday night and snow through out the overnight hours and continue during the day on Saturday. I woke up at 8 o’clock Saturday morning and looked outside. I saw a couple of flurries, but there was nothing on the ground. I was so confused.

I made and started the coffee and threw in some laundry. I figured the snow was just starting and it was going to be an all day affair. Funny thing… the snow never really started. The forecast was a “miss”. (Shocking!) But I still did not run outside. It was freezing rain and icing at some points, and I just did not feel like dealing with it. My hope had been to do 6 miles on the treadmill. But I just could not slog through it. I just hate the treadmill, and it just was not happening on Saturday. I think it is possible that I had not eaten enough because I did not start running until 1 o’clock, and by that point I had just eaten a piece of whole wheat toast, peanut butter and half a banana.

To remedy the situation of not enough fuel, while I was on the treadmill I started thinking about what I was going to have for dinner. I created a baked whole wheat pasta dish with fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce. This was a hit! (According to me) It was sort of like a lasagna or something…

This is not a great photograph, but I was starving and I just had to eat… You understand, don’t you?

I had a small bowl of this baked pasta. It really did prove to be amazing fuel for my Sunday run. It was freezing outside, but I still ran 5 1/2 miles. I felt great, if not a bit cold. After my run I warmed up with a tall 1% hot chocolate from Starbucks. I enjoyed every sip!

Oh my gosh. I almost forgot to tell you: For the record – I love, love, LOVE my new running shoes!!! More on that tomorrow!!

OK. I don’t know about you, but when I was in bed last night watching Downton Abbey, I kept thinking – how is it already Sunday night?? The weekends are never long enough.

I was [sort of ?] lucky that I had to leave work early today and go to a doctor’s appointment. I had a lot of plans for the rest of my afternoon, but things did not really pan out. I thought I would be able to get a run in after my appointment. But everything took longer than I had planned, and I was just kind of tired after a long day. I figured after three days of working out it would not be the end of the world if I did not run today. Sure, I feel a little bit guilty, but I’ll survive.

I hope you all survived your Mondays too! See you tomorrow.

Last night I set the coffee maker to start at 5:30 so when I was up at 5:38 there was a fresh pot of coffee waiting for me. Score! I had a mug of coffee while I got ready for work. This was a nice change for me, normally the first time I get a sip of coffee is when I am in the car starting my commute to work.

I enjoyed my mug of coffee while getting ready and then I enjoyed another travel mug of coffee on my drive in to the office. Breakfast this morning was amazing and filling:

An Arnold’s wheat thin with peanut butter and slices of a banana. (A half hour later I finished the rest of the banana.) I am glad this breakfast kept me going for a while, because I had a very busy morning and early afternoon at work. I had lunch at 12:45, and it was a very good salad:

Spinach, tomato, scallions, avocado and croutons. The dressing was a Newman’s lighten up, and there was one tablespoon added. In addition to this salad I had four whole wheat crackers and a tablespoon of peanut butter. (Yes, there was a lack of protein in this meal.) I was still hungry after lunch (shocking!) so I had a mini-Larabar, coconut flavor.

The mini Larabar took care of my hunger until I was in the car heading to the gym. During the commute I had half of a protein bar.

Once I got to the gym I did some strength training. I did leg presses, leg extensions (for the quads), leg curls for the hamstrings, and hip abduction & and adduction for my hips and gluts. FUN TIMES. But I know that I have been slacking on my strength training, and if I want to remain injury free, I really need to get back into the strength training. I will try to do my lower body twice a week.

After twenty five minutes of weights, I got on the elliptical machine for twenty minutes. Then I had a lovely (killer) session with my personal trainer. We did upper body strength training mostly, but we covered all of our bases – and yes, abs of course!

Once my two hours at the gym were complete, I headed over to the market for fruits, vegetables, a greek yogurt and a loaf of bread. I went home, unpacked the groceries, made my salad for tomorrow and made a quick dinner.

Dinner was a Dr. Praeger vegetable burger, a piece of whole wheat toast, guacamole, and sliced tomato. Does this look weird or does it look amazingly good??? It was so good. Oh – and while I made this, I snacked on a few Lauren Hill lime chips and guacamole.

Ok. That is my day in a nutshell. I have to go to bed – I hope you all had a great Wednesday! See you tomorrow.

For some reason I am starving today. I woke up very hungry. Sometimes when I have this on-going hunger I worry about how much food I am eating. But not today, because everything I have consumed has been somewhat healthy. I have come to accept that there are just some days that you are hungrier than others, and as long as you are filling up on healthy foods, you’re good to go. (Honestly, there are even some days when you are not going to eat healthy 100% of the time and that is healthy too, as far as I’m concerned.)

As I said, I woke up starving. I could not even wait to get to work before I started eating my breakfast. In the car I had half a banana. When I got to work I had a peppermint Luna bar. An hour later I had the other half of the banana. At 11:30 I had about 15 pieces of Kashi Island Vanilla cereal. At noon I went for a 30 minute walk. I heated up my lunch a few minutes before 1 o’clock. I had an Amy’s light & lean meal (more on that tonight) which was 210 calories and 10 grams of protein. About an hour after that, I had my Greek yogurt with a few fresh blueberries thrown in.

Guess what? I’m still hungry. I think I’m going to break into my carrots soon and I also have a mini-Larabar stashed somewhere.

I am drinking a lot of water, which sometimes helps when I am very hungry – no such luck today.

I hope you are all having a great Tuesday! See you in a bit.