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!

Post-Colfax: Meals and the Next Step

Ever since I saw this recipe for Mexican Black Bean Spaghetti on FoodBuzz, I've been dying to try it out. Unfortunately, Whole Foods didn't carry the black bean spaghetti, so I opted to use quinoa instead. I bought some black beans to keep the black bean taste.

I didn't include jalapenos or sour cream, but it turned out pretty alright. I think I undercooked the black beans, and I didn't warm up to the taste of quinoa right away, but my salad tonight made me come to terms with it at last.

This was made using spinach leaves and the leftover ingredients from the "spaghetti." Basically, quinoa, tomatoes, corn, and black beans. I think I can get used to quinoa as part as my regular diet!

I've spent this week recovering from the half marathon, and starting tomorrow I should be ready to attack my training plan. I've based it off of Hal Higdon's novice marathon training plan with a few modifications based on my summer and autumn plans and my weekly schedule. I also included crosstraining, yoga, pilates, and Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.

The basic structure of the plan goes like this:

• Mondays: Strength-training day. Spend 15 minutes on the elliptical to warm up, lift some weights, do some pilates, and cooldown with another 15 minutes on the elliptical.
• Tuesdays: Rest.
• Wednesdays: Rock Bottom Running Club to run 5K, easy. 30 Day Shred day.
• Thursdays: Interval training, alternating between speed and hill every week. 30 Day Shred day.
• Fridays: Easy run of slowly increasing distances. 30 Day Shred day.
• Saturdays: Cross-training and yoga. Cross-training most likely going to be biking and/or swimming.
• Sundays: Long run day

There will be races in there, I'm sure, and my training plan will adjust accordingly. I'll do my best to coordinate my long runs with the races as often as I can.

Also, telling my coworkers about my switch in diet has been extraordinarily helpful, too! Charlotte gave me her copy of Vegetarian Times, and there are a few great recipes in there and great tips to help with some of the things I've been struggling with. This is definitely my next grocery list. I'm excited to try out recipes outside of salads!

As far as the iron diet goes, I took a look at the multivitamins I've been taking, and there is no indication of its iron content. Next time I buy some, I'll definitely be taking a careful look at the nutrition label. Fortunately, the food I've been buying has a good amount of iron in them (quinoa has 20% of the recommended daily allowance!), so I should be fine.

Half Marathon Countdown

With my half marathon coming up in four days, it's time to sit down and figure out my goals for it, not to mention some plans leading up to it. This way, I can approach the race with as little stress as possible!

Goals / Plan of Action
* Finish in under 2:30:00. I would have tried for a PR at this race, but taking into consideration that it's a race I've never run before, my injuries, and my recent bout of illness, I will be happy finishing around my average time. It will still be a challenge, but it will be an achievable challenge.
* Run the first mile in 10:00+. One of my biggest problems with running races is that I always start too fast. If I can pace myself to run the first mile at the pace I hope to keep for the majority of the race, I will be happy.
* Walk through every water station. This has always been my tactic for running races longer than 10km. I have a hard time running and drinking, plus it gives me a little bit of a break every two miles.
* Eat a couple of gels at miles 5 and 10. This will have me re-energizing about every hour. I have the PowerBar raspberry-filled gels, and I will be packing 5 of them.
* Finish strong and with a smile on my face. This is absolutely my most important goal. Regardless of how anything turns out, I have to remember that I trained as best as I could in spite of everything and that not three years ago the idea of me completing a half marathon (and my third one) was not anything I ever dreamed.

So, for the rest of the week, here is what I plan to do:
Wednesday: RBRC 3K run/walk in lieu of the weather and my illness. I want to get out there, but I don't want to provoke my cold more. No drinking tonight! Complete Week 2, Day 3 of the sit-ups, push-ups, dips, and squats challenge
Thursday: Easy run of 2 miles. If it's raining, snowing, or near or below freezing temperatures, this will be on the treadmill so that, again, I can keep my cold under control. If I have to run on the treadmill, I will run easy hill intervals.
Friday: Rest day!
Saturday: Some light stretching, maybe some easy yoga. Bedtime: 9pm for a good 7 hours of sleep.

As far as my meals go, I don't plan on changing much. Keep up my current diet with a heavier focus on carbs Friday and especially Saturday. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Luckily, my being sick will help make sure I get plenty of rest. There is a silver lining to every cloud!

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!

Running Success!

35 degrees isn't as cold as I thought it was going to be. I layered up--two pairs of pants, long sleeve shirt, windbreaker, and vest--and I still had to shed the vest and jack a few times during the run (I had to put it back on a couple of times when a wind blew or snow decided to flutter down). All in all, the cold wasn't so cold, and I need to stop being a big baby about it.

The run itself wasn't so bad; I managed it just fine with only one run break in the last mile and a half. So that's 9 miles down, and the half marathon is in two weeks. Next week, 10-12 miles for my last long training run!

Later today, I'll be continuing the six week challenge for sit-ups and dips! Oh, it feels good to call myself a runner again.

Tomorrow: A Run in the Snow After All

Hello there, uterus. We meet again.

My attempt at my 8-mile run did not go so well, and I plan on hitting the gym sometime before my friend's housewarming party later tonight to lift some weights and work on the push-ups and squats. My menstrual cramps are always about this bad: I can make it out for maybe a mile before I'm doubling over on the side of the road in pain and nauseated.

This time, I hoped to prevent that by doing three specific things: I took a couple of pills of Extra Strength Tylenol, I put a heating pad on my abdomen, and I ate a banana (since one of the benefits--theoretically--is that it helps relieve the pain of an angry uterus). None of that worked, and I came trudging home thinking of ways to make running in 30-degree snowy weather less awful. Mostly, though, I think I just need to suck it up and just run it tomorrow. I need this long run, since I didn't do one last week.

Hopefully weights are low impact enough that I can manage, but even just sitting on my couch all day so far, I've been curled up in pain. Luckily, after tonight this should pass; if this lasted any longer than a day I would bother my doctor about prescription painkillers.

But this answers all my questions about why I've been feeling so down in the dumps all week. Oh, periods. Why do you have to mess with my hormones so?

Looking Ahead

I'm feeling a lot better today! And I'm also back to the eating habits I'm trying to instill for myself. Oh, Mom and Dad. I love you and I thank you for so many things, but every time you visit my pantry and my fridge gets stocked with the exact junk food that I just cannot resist.

Because of this week, though, I won't be weighing myself on Saturday or Sunday but next Friday. That should hopefully do the trick.

The weekend is looking to be pretty awful, weather-wise. More rain and snow, coming our way! The worst of it will be Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning, it seems, so instead of running 9 miles on Sunday, I'm doing it tomorrow. Which means I want to eat pasta, but I'm not so keen on cooking a new recipe tonight and spaghetti isn't really appealing. Maybe I can defrost the leftover carbonara from Easter and devour that with a side of salad? If I can't do that, I'll be researching Panera Bread's pasta options, and if that doesn't work out for me, I guess I'm stopping into Whole Foods and getting a pasta salad.

My four mile run yesterday was really nice, and not as long as painful as I'm used to. I even did the same old boring route as usual! Maybe running by the little kids' soccer games helped motivate me; maybe I'm just that much more in shape. I even got Week 1, Day 2 of the sit-ups and dips done, too, on top of helping my friend pack (even if I was more morale support than anything else)!

Today is my "rest" day, and aside from my daily walk at work, I'm feeling antsy enough to do something else. Maybe I'll go do a little shopping, or play one of my dancing video games. I'm getting off work early today, so I don't want to just laze around and do nothing at home. Oh, I'll figure it out. :)

For a Friend

Yesterday was Wednesday, which means it was another week of the Rock Bottom Running Club! This time, I really didn't intend to run with people, just run, since this "down in the dumps" feeling I've been experiencing all week has been absolutely awful and I thought maybe a good solo run would do the trick. I've concluded that my down days is now for one of two reasons: I really am getting sick (I felt dehydrated even though I'd been guzzling water all day like nobody's business--at least 100 oz by the time I started to run!), or it's that time of month.

Eventually, I caught up to one of my work friends, who was part-jogging, part-walking the thing. I jogged next to her for a bit to chat and eventually wound up jog/walking with her the rest of the way. She just went through a break-up with her boyfriend and has had a stressful week trying to find a new place to live and getting all the logistics set up, and I hope that my presence during the route was at least helpful as she vented to me some more.

In any case, as much as I have hated myself for sub-par workouts and over-indulging in cookie dough this week, at least I put one thing in perspective yesterday: friendship is more important than exercising. I like to think that having a friend with her helped.

Next week, I'm going to attempt the 5K. After all, next weekend is my last long run before the half marathon, so I might as well up the mileage for the Wednesday runs at least. Maybe for the morning runs on Tuesday and Thursday, too.

Today, after work, it's 4 miles and some dips and sit-ups. Another weigh-in on Saturday or Sunday... but a part of me is telling me that due to this week's awfulness, I should hold off on that until next weekend. We'll see.

Maybe it's time for another read-through of Operation Beautiful. If this depression is purely the cold/flu that's been going around the office, fine, but that doesn't mean I have to feel emotionally crappy. If it's something else, I definitely need some positive words and positive thinking, especially since I'm on the precipice of self-hatred again.

Victory is Mine!

I did it. I ate the banana. And it's really not as bad as I remember it to be. I think tomorrow, though, I'm going to try it with cereal. Or in a crepe.

Anyway, today is also the start of the One Hundred Push-ups and the Two Hundred Squats challenge! Tomorrow I'll be starting the Two Hundred Sit-ups challenge. I'm only going to do these three challenges at a time; after I finish this, I'll do the One Fifty Dips while keeping up with the push-ups, squats, and sit-ups. Then after that... maybe I'll "man up" and do the Twenty-Five Pull-ups. Uh, no promises on that one, though.

Easter Body Measurements

Ah, Easter in Colorado.

While waiting around for our brunch of ham, asparagus, and carbonara, and after having my small breakfast of a Special K cereal bar and a multivitamin, I decided to do a check on my body measurements since I didn't yesterday. The plan I'm on encourages a weight loss of 1.5 lbs a week, and I dare say I've done it! Hopefully in two more weeks I'll reach my maximum goal weight of 120 lbs, at this rate.

Weight: 123.8 lbs

Body Fat: 26.6%

Body Water: 53.5%

Muscle: 36.1%

Waist Circumference: 29"

No change to my waist circumference, but I should not expect to see that for a few more weeks yet. But from last week, I've lost 1.4 lbs, 0.5% body fat, and gained 0.2% in both body water and muscle. I guess this means I'll keep on what I'm doing.

After my parents head back up to Denver, I'm either going to go on my 8 mile run or head to the gym to do some intervals on the treadmill. (I'm a big baby and whining about the snow on the ground and the cold, plus it's supposed to rain this afternoon.)

I also discovered a couple of 6-week programs that I'm going to implement into my training: One Hundred Push-ups, Two Hundred Sit-ups, Two Hundred Squats, and One Fifty Dips. There's also Twenty-Five Pull-ups but 1) the site isn't launched yet and 2) I, uh, don't want to. Each of these programs requires three days a week to dedicate to them, and I'm in the process of figuring out a good way to implement them. But starting tomorrow, it's definitely going to happen. Maybe today I'll do the initial test for all of these so I can figure out a good starting point for myself.

Happy Easter!

Weekly Recap of Training

Monday: 15 minutes stairmaster, 30 minutes of weights, 15 minutes cycling

Tuesday: 3 miles

Wednesday: 3K

Thursday: rest

Friday: rest

Saturday: 3 miles

Sunday: 6 miles

The big thing to note is the 6 miles today: I did it! After last week's multiple failed 3+ miles, running the full 6 miles today was just the ego boost I needed. Starting this week, I'll start timing my runs again; I turned off my watch because my focus wasn't so much on how fast I was going but whether or not I could finish my runs. Having a watch on when I was trying to take it slower than usual would have done more harm than good.

Also starting this week are morning workouts, minus Wednesday nights' running club runs. The sun is out earlier now, and will only keep rising earlier and earlier. Besides, I always feel a lot better working out in the morning than I do in the afternoon, when I'm often exhausted and want nothing more than to curl up on my couch and watch TV or play video games.

Since my parents are coming to visit this weekend for Easter/Dad's birthday, this week is a little... strange. I will be ridiculously busy on Sunday, so that is my rest day, but Weights on Friday will be a relatively easy day, too, to let my muscles recuperate a little bit.

And so! Monday Weights will be a hard workout, and Tuesday's 4 mile run will be slow and easy. Wednesday's 5K with the running club will be a bit harder, and Thursday I will probably do some fartleks. Friday's Weights will be relatively easy, and Saturday morning's 8 mile run will be slow and easy but long enough that it will still be a workout.

Counting yesterday and today, this is eight days in a row of working out. I MIGHT wind up taking either Tuesday or Thursday off depending on how I feel. Don't want to overwork my muscles too badly!

Half Marathon Training Plan

Another part of keeping healthy and feeling better about myself is exercise. I will be running the half marathon portion of the Colfax Marathon in May, after an unfortunate bout with tendinitis in the most crucial part of my already suspect marathon training.

This last week has been rough with my running: my 3 miles were easy enough, but I could not run more than that though my plan was to have a couple of 4-4.5 mile runs. Today, I plan on taking it easy with a simple 3 mile run despite it being my long run day, just for confidence's sake. (After I finish this entry, I will be getting ready for it; what is this freezing weather and high winds? The sun is deceiving.)

Here is my training plan to get ready for the half marathon, based off of Hal Higdon's novice half marathon plan with some modifications.

What "Weights" mean is that I will do about 30 minutes of cardio (most likely on the elliptical) before doing some weight training as prescribed by my personal trainer. The weight training consists of squats with a 20-lb barbell, arm curls, lunge (ugh) with hand weights, among other things, including ab and lower back workouts. The purpose is to build lean muscle, which will help in keep up my strength for long distance running as well as burning fat.

Wednesdays will be my speed training day. If the weather is agreeable, I will be doing fartleks; if not, I will go to the gym and do intervals on the treadmill (ugh). Since this is April in Colorado, it is hard to predict the weather patterns--one day it is 80 degrees, and the very next day could bring a blizzard, which is why I have to make a plan like this.

Which brings me to Tuesdays/Thursdays. Those are my easy run days, and I would love to do them outside if possible, but if not... hello, treadmill (again, ugh). I will care little for my speed on those days. The only reason I plan to wear a watch is to practice wearing one during the half marathon, which will be there to keep track of my pace and my timing.

Since I live in an extraordinarily hilly neighborhood, I see little reason to do any hill training. If my easy run days take me indoors, perhaps I will focus on regimented hill training on the elliptical, but I believe that ending my runs on the steep uphill back to my apartment will suffice.

Every Sunday, I'll post an update on how my training is going. Hopefully it'll all go well!