Woodlawn 5K, Yoga, and Personal Goals

So there's this great market in Liberty, NY called Catskill Harvest. Delicious, homemade soups and sandwiches, old school sodas, (Cheerwine included!) and delectable local and organic goods. Needless to say, while living upstate, I frequented this establishment quite often. One of the items that I purchased and "used" today is their chocolate covered coffee beans. I say use, because I ate them pre-run.

I was rather upset about the run Brad and I had on Tuesday. 3.1 miles and it took us over 30 minutes. Granted, hills were involved, but still, we should have at least broken 30, especially with a 5k coming up this Saturday. We've been training for distance, not speed, but I still want to post a good time on Saturday because it's my home turf of Woodlawn. So I had to regain my confidence. And much to Brad's chagrin, I did. Thanks to coffee beans and my own insanity.

Today we ran 4 miles, 2 uphill and then turn around and run 2 downhill. Our 5k time was 26:19 and our 4 mile time was an insane 33:25. A new PR! I've never been so proud. Brad thinks that it might mess with our chances of posting a good time on Saturday, but it boosted my confidence so I know I can still, or rather, we can still run fast. So now I'm off to my very first yoga class at the Bronxville adult school to stretch it out. Thank you dark chocolate covered coffee beans. Thank you!

Mas Mas!

So Mas in Spanish=more.

Mas in French=farmhouse.

Hence, Mas Mas!

Mas is one of my all time favorite restaurants in NYC. Silverware magically appears and disappears. The short ribs are what dreams are made of. The wine pairing is generous to say the least. And now, they're opening a sequel! Mas (La Grillade).

It's going to be located: at 28 7th Ave S and both Zagat and Urbandaddy are offering early tickets before the official opening. Zagat's is tonight, 4 courses with wine pairing for $110 (tax and gratuity included), and Urbandaddy's is Sept. 30 for 5 courses and $125 per person. I'd loveeee to be on that list!

Hopefully I'll get there eventually so I can give a real review. But if it's anything like the original, then prepare to die and go to heaven. Or just go to the original to be sure and order the short ribs. Sigh, happy face, sigh.

Hot, Cranky, Monday Night Dinner

What do you do when you're sweating through your dress shirt, everyone at the address has had a bad day, and the last thing you want to do is cook?

Create amazingness.

Southern "Fried" Chicken (it's healthy! and not exactly fried...) on top of a bed of greens. Delish. AND... It only takes about 5 minutes of prep.

Salad:
Spinach, grape tomatoes, a little cheese of your choice, and red onions.
(Dressing of your choice, I like Kraft's free ranch or Italian when chicken is involved.)

Chicken:
Soak in a mixture of one cup buttermilk and 2 tbsp hot sauce for at least an hour, but better if you're uber organized and do this for 24 hours. Yeah right.
*If you don't have buttermilk, add 1 tbsp of white vinegar to 1 cup milk. Voila, buttermilk. The name makes it sound like it should be awesomeness. Labels lie.

While that's soaking up the juices, throw the following in a plastic bag:
1-2 cups panko bread crumbs
1 tsp-tbsp onion powder
1 tsp-tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp pepper
1-2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 tbsp parm (or shredded cheese which is what I did)

Once the chicken is sufficiently soaked, throw it into the plastic bag and shake and bake like you love Nascar.

Then, place on tinfoil in a baking dish and shove it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. After approximately 30 minutes, shove the chicken into the oven and cook for 35-40 minutes.

Take it out, let it cool for 2-5 min, slice it up, and toss it on top. FANTASTIC!

Kudos to Runners World Mag for the chicken recipe :-D

8 Mile

I have to be honest. I don't really know what they eat in Detroit. But I do know that I ran 8 miles today, up and down some major hills. Intense. And obviously how Brad and I spend our last precious hours at the cabin. :) So how does one celebrate?

Filet Mignon.

And obviously football.

So I'm tempted to give away my super-secret amazing filet mignon recipe. But alas, it's so good, and soooo easy, that I feel like the mom in Ray Romano's tv show. I kinda have to keep it for myself. At least for now. Let's just say it involves 3 ingredients. And it's exceptional.

But, I will comment on something food-wise. Harvest spice coffee from Quickchek? Definite go, even if they did use it to replace my all-time favorite of marshmallow. Also, the bell pepper soup is delicious. Slightly creamy from the cheese, flavor, a small kick... Quite delicious. If you don't have a WaWa, don't fear tooooo much if you can get to a Quickchek. Not as amazing, but definitely not awful.

Leather, Costco and Cherry Wheat

New couch! Finally! Let's talk about football, Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, and Costco salmon dinners. Ohhhh heaven is a place on Earth. And that place is my living room.

So we finally sucked it up and bought a couch.

And a Costco membership.

Both, brilliant moves on our part. The boneless, skinless, individually packaged Purdue chicken at Costco is actually insanely tasty. Plus, they have delicious freeze-dried, individually packaged Wild Alaskan salmon, which means it's good for you (not farmed) and easy to make (13 minutes at 400 degrees). I highly recommend both. And throw in a bag of their frozen veggies which are terrific at breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Also, the chicken salad with the cranberries and walnuts. Delicious. And perfect on the 40-calorie-per-slice light Arnolds bread with a pink lady apple on the side. Great lunch. Healthy, easy to make, and insanely tasty.

Oh, and the Sam Adams cherry wheat is just icing on the cake, care of the McLean discount beer joint practically across the school from my old Catholic elementary school.

Plus, I have a certain GB QB in fantasy which made last night's football game even that much more enjoyable. After running 4 insane miles on extremely fatigued legs (ran 3 miles in 24:07 on Tues, and being on my feet all day for work is something new), this was a perfect evening. Granted, I fell asleep somewhere in the 3rd quarter, but still, I have a couch that's so comfortable I can fall asleep on it!

Work may have started, but life is GOOD!

One Month of Training, Good News, and Going Forward

Labor Day Weekend. Wow, you came fast.

So here's a quick update since the only people who purport to read this are friends/family anyways...

1. Best news of the week: No students 'til Thursday!!! I thought they were coming Wednesday. They're not! I love you, UFT. Finally, a chance to get into the groove before the halls are crowded with hugging teenagers.

2. Kerri persuaded me to attend my 10 year high school reunion. Day after Thanksgiving at Theater Bar in the city. Kerri might just be the only person I remember. Haha. Go Stuyvesant! Way to represent at the MTV music awards, by the way. <3 Beastie Boys.

3. Brad and I are in week 4 of 1/2 marathon training. We started a week earlier, so this is technically our 5th week of running, our 4th week of training. I feel great: motivated, accomplished, stronger... So far, so good! Seaside half is still about 1 1/2 months away and we haven't signed up yet--I wanted to make sure we had significant running under our belt so I don't pay and get injured like Asbury. So I'll be signing up in the next week or 2 I believe. I'm very excited about it--one of my bucket list goals.

4. One more weekend in the cabin. Kind of sad. But it was a great summer--felt long and relaxing and I'm so glad we had that opportunity.

5. Sunday=Funday at the races. Baltimore is going to be shut down so Indy cars can race along its streets. And yours truly will be in attendance, thanks to the fact that ABC is a "family first company" and loves racing. Whistles go Whoooo Whooooooo!

Ok guys. That's my life in a nutshell. Wishing these clouds away, looking forward to the beach tomorrow and the B&T tomorrow night. Plus, our 3 miler and 7 miler respectively in the next 2 days. Hope there are some good waves! I'd like to bring my 7" fun board down and hit the surf!

September 1st PRs: Celebrate with Bradford's Pork and Beans

So Brad and I had a 5 mile tempo run to accomplish today. 2 miles easy, 3 miles fast. After nursing a recurring hamstring/groin injury, I was feeling nervous about that, though rather confident overall with my new kicks. So we kicked it up a notch. And then kicked it up again.

And posted a Turkey Trot reminiscent time of 42:41.

Holla! And that was with a pretty slow first mile.

So proud.

So, time to protein it up, though I now know that's a fallacy... but still...

Brad cooked tonight. First, we made organic green lentils, which I love. Very simple. Throw them in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, and then let simmer for 40 minutes.

In the meantime, we took Shea to the lake to play. Good times had by dog.

Next, we added Boston Baked Beans and chopped up hot dog pieces. Let it simmer for a few minutes more. And there you have it folks. Post run love.

Oh, and Giants football. XOXO World.