Moving, Running and Eating

My life is in boxes right now. Yup, that's right, boxes. The papers are all signed, the moving van is booked, and the count down is officially at 5 days to go until we move into the new house. Did I also mention that I'm running a 10km and hoping for a personal best item in 6 days? oh right, forgot about that. I seriously think race organizers should send out a reminder a few weeks prior to the race saying, 'hey, remember that race you signed up for? well it's coming up so you better start training!" I've been so focused on the half marathon that I forgot about the 10km I signed up for next weekend. ooops. Well at this point, I'm just assuming that my training for the half is good enough for the 10km. That logic makes sense, right?

With the big move coming up, we have been attempting to clean out the fridge and freezer of all the leftovers. The meals have been really random and there have been a few flops along the way (tip: pasta in the slow cooker does not work). It has also been tough to keep to a clean eating plan as the leftovers tend to be some of the packaged and processed goods that made it to the back of the fridge. Despite the challenges of eating well with minimal food, we have had some really tasty meals. Bill and I have healthy fall-back stir-fry recipe that we both love and could probably eat every single day, so that has made a few appearances in the last few weeks.

Spicy Peanut Butter Stir-fry

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Chili Hot Sauce Paste
1 tbsp Peanut Butter (Natural)
3 tbsp low-sodium Soy Sauce
2 Chicken breasts, cubed

1 bag frozen Asian-style vegetables
1 cup Brown Rice, cooked

Directions:

1) In a large frying pan, on medium, heat oil and chili paste

2) Add chicken and cook

3) Add PB, once it melts, add the vegetables and soy sauce
4) Cook until vegetables are soft
5) Dish over rice

Serves: 4

Half Marathon Training: long or short run?

Last Sunday I did another one of my long runs for my half marathon training. I am having issues staying mentally motivated for these runs but I keep telling myself that the race will be even further so suck it up. Since we've had some nicer weather here and the snow on the race course has started to melt away, I decided it would be a good time to run a bit of the course.

Map of Race Course (green = race course, red = what I ran)

I felt like it was a good idea to run the course because now I'm aware of some of the challenging sections, like the steep hill at the 15km point. But I also feel like it might not have been a great idea because when I finished I thought "oh crap! I have to run how much further on race day?" Then I mapped it out and f-bomb, that is far! Oh well, I know I can do it but I definitely think I need to work on my mental game. So the long and the short of it [haha pun intended] is that my long run really wasn't so long in the end. *Tear*

Working Out When Sick

Last week I had a cold. It was not fun. My head felt like it was 200lbs, my nose was running like a tap, and I had that dry cough that leaves you with a man-voice. I was so attractive, I don't know how Bill could have resisted me. Anyway, when I get sick I have the mental debate of should I work out or not. I always want to workout but sometimes rest is just as important, or so I'm told. Well I decided to workout and then research to see if it was ok. Ignorance is bliss sometimes. The verdit: it's ok to workout when the cold is above the neck but only moderate intensity. Sweet! I like finding out that I'm right.

Here are some links on the topic, if you are interested and if you want a more trustworthy source:

Mayo Clinic

CNN Health

About.com

Shredding it in Golden

When you live in a city that has 6 world class ski hills within a 3 hour drive, you pretty much have to go out to one of the hills for a weekend of snowboarding, hot tubbing, partying. It's an easy getaway for the weekend after a stressful week at work. I don't go snowboarding often but when I do, this is the way to do it. On Friday after work, Bill and I hoped into the car and proceeded on the most nerve-wracking 3 hour drive on a snow covered one-lane highway, in the pitch black, with oncoming semi-trucks. It was sketchy, but completely worth it when we pulled up to the condo on the hill and saw 4 feet of powder. I mean how can you complain about this:

Kicking Horse Ski Resort