Tempeh Japanese Curry

Last night, I tried my hand at my usual curry recipe, but instead of beef chunks, I decided to try out tempeh.

Now, my curry recipe isn't anything spectacular. Just chop up some onions and potatoes (and tempeh) and use this amazing Japanese curry mix that I not only grew up with but won my work's chili cookoff my second month on the job.

Even though the box advertises curry with meat, as far as I understand, there are no animal products in the mix. The ingredients list wheat flour, palm oil, canola oil, salt, sugar, curry powder, spices, caramel color, and fancy shmancy scientific sounding names that, after looking them up, are definitely not based in dead animals. This is especially good news for me, since I just cannot get enough of this curry!

The only real bad thing about this curry is that its percent daily value of sodium is 34%. But hey, that's to be expected when you use prepackaged sauce.

As far as the tempeh goes, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly not this.

I had no idea what to make of this when I saw it. I shrugged, chopped it up, and threw it in the skillet like I used to with beef.

It sort of looks like tofu in there, doesn't it? If it weren't for the cobblestone pattern, I would have expected tempeh to taste almost exactly like tofu. Good thing I didn't, because I would have sworn of tempeh forever.

Now, to eat the curry like the Japanese do: with steamed rice! If only I had pickled vegetables on hand.

Delicious! I could come to accept tempeh in my curry from now on. I'm sort of curious how tofu would hold up, too. I suspect I will be making another batch of curry here in the next month or two (it's my favorite, after all!), so I'll give tofu a try then.

Tonight was also another RBRC adventure! Last week, to prevent injury, I did a jog/walk with Charlotte for the 3K; today, with the Bolder Boulder five days away, I decided to run the 5K. Now, with another weight loss stagnation looming (and with 2 lbs left to go for my May goal weight!), I decided to change something up with my routine. Instead of an easy 5K run, I decided to take it up a notch in terms of speed.

I finished the run with a 10:21 pace, which isn't bad, but I would still like for it to be faster. Still, I can't complain, since I was getting much too used to an 11:00+ pace. During my run tonight, I came up with a list of reasons why I can and cannot run faster than I have been.

I CAN RUN FASTER BECAUSE...

• I'm 15 lbs lighter than when I ran my fastest mile at 8:13, and when my easy runs were a 10:30 pace.
• I'm eating a lot healthier now than ever in my entire life.
• I'm running more than I used to, and I've been running longer than when I ran my fastest paces. I have run 2 half marathons in the past three months. When I ran my fastest, I was working towards the half marathon distance.
• It's in me. At one of the half marathons I ran, I reached the mile 1 marker with a time that indicated that I could PR if I was running a 5K, easily.

 I CAN'T RUN FASTER BECAUSE...

• I haven't been.

Moral of this story? It's time to challenge myself during my runs and just start running faster. That's the only way I'm going to do it. I haven't done intervals in a long time; it's time to start that back up again. When I go out for my "easy" runs, I will definitely up the pace. My long runs are the only runs that will be at an easy, manageable pace. Everything else? Well, I'm never going to get faster by just increasing my distance!

For dinner after the run, I decided to try the roasted vegetable pizza.

It's basically salad on a pizza crust, and it was very yummy! Dark green leaves, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, onions, and goat cheese. Amazing. It might be my regular eat at RBRC. I ate half, and the other half is waiting for me for lunch tomorrow!

The Daily Mile

Earlier today, I signed up for the Daily Mile. Here is my profile, backdated to Sunday so that all my runs in May are recorded. Of all the run tracking apps I've used, I like this one the most, so far. It's super user-friendly and without too many bells and whistles. It's like old Facebook but for keeping track of your workouts!

I did the 5K at the Rock Bottom Running Club today, and it was really nice! The course started off uphill and ended downhill, which is a nice change from my neighborhood run, which start downhill and end uphill. The woes of living on top of a hill. The only real complaint I had with the run was the wind, which made me wish I wore pants in what would have otherwise been perfect shorts weather. Also, I took a wrong turn near the end, which increased my run, but I'm not so upset about that. Nothing wrong with running a little extra, after all!

I'm thinking that soon, I'll be adding pictures to this blog. No idea what of, yet. I guess it depends on the topic!

A Bit on Running

Second week of the Rock Bottom Running Club was met with the second week in a row of rain. This time, the rain was cold, but it actually felt really nice.

Again, I wound up doing the 3K run instead of the 5K, but the biggest reason for that is that I want these Wednesday runs, at least for a little while, to be more about running with friends than working myself too hard. Right now, of all my friends doing the run, one does the 5K but he is twice as fast as I am at least, whereas my other friends do the 3K. One of them runs at about the same pace as I do, so it works. Besides, what good is exercising if you don't have fun with it, at least every once in a while!

Also, note to self: man up and run, no matter how cold it is outside. I didn't do my morning run today because it was near freezing, and I did not much relish the idea of freezing for 45 minutes. It's supposed to warm up considerably tonight, at least. That's good news, so when I get off work I'll get out there to do my four miles. Ugh, I can't wait until the sun comes up before 6am and the coldest temperature of the day doesn't dip below the 50s.

Rockbottom Run Club

Last week, one of my coworkers told me that her chiropractor and fellow kickboxing enthusiast was starting up a running club over at the Rock Bottom Brewery here in town. It's structured similar to the Jack Quinn's Running Club downtown and the Irish Snug Running Club up in Denver; a whole bunch of people get together, run a 5K, and come back to enjoy drinks/spaghetti/whatever at the sponsoring bar/restaurant. It's super casual; there is no official start time, no gun time. You just show up when you can, run as soon as you get there, and if you do ten runs, you get a free technical T-shirt. It doesn't matter how fast or slow you do the runs; it's more of a social gathering than a workout.

Last night was the inaugural run of the Rock Bottom Run Club, and there was a good dozen people who showed up despite the rain. The founder is doing a couple of things differently; there is not only a 5K portion but a 3K, and just to get the word out about the run, if we complete five runs, we'll get the free shirt. Right now, we get discounted appetizers and drinks if we do the run--not too bad!

I'm very busy Tuesday nights, so Jack Quinn's has always been out of the question for me. The Irish Snug would be an option if I lived in Denver, or if it was held on a weekend (which kind of defeats the purpose). What I like about this new running club is that it's a ten minute drive from home and it's on a day of the week I can handle.

There are still some kinks to work out. For example, a couple of people showed up with their GPS watches and iPhones to measure out the courses and found that they were both a quarter mile short of a 3K and 5K. The restaurant was packed, so we couldn't find a table right away; during the next couple of weeks we're going to try to reserve some tables just for the running club so that we don't all have to be separated from each other. There was talk of a sign, but we'll see.

Overall, though, the experience was great. I met a few new people, and I talked to others at the bar who seemed interested in doing the run next week. This is definitely something I plan on making part of my weekly schedule.

http://www.meetup.com/Rock-Bottom-Run-Club/