Lots of Room for Improvement

Good evening!

I have very little good to report. Truth is, I took a two-day whirlwind tour of New York City and ate terrible things - McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, two NYC pizza joints, etc. - and visited a few too many bars. I even had cheeseballs at one of the bars. Regarding my training, it was a GIANT step backwards. Not that I have to make up the difference, it was just unnecessary. I had fun but there were many moments I was wishing I was asleep, running, or eating vegetables. Actually, those moments happened quite a bit. To be fair, I should note that during my visit, my friend and I walked just under 100 blocks on the island of Manhattan. It works out to be seven miles. We were severely dehydrated however and I wonder if it just made my headache worse.

MOVING ON.

That's the theme of my life and training lately. Moving on. Today I woke up and had two fried eggs and a couple slices of toast with a tall glass of cranberry/pomegranate juice. At work, I sipped a medium sized coffee and enjoyed a big handful of raisins before lunch. I haven't got a photo but I will soon. Before my trip, B-May experimented with a pot pie of sorts of mushrooms, brussel sprouts, spinach, peppers and whatever other veggies we had in the house. Tacked on four little oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for a filling and redeeming meal. Seltzer water for a drink.

Dinner was excellent! This was a huge step back towards Taming the Craving. Gnocchi with roasted cauliflower. B-May whipped up a cream sauce to hold it all together and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner.

Okay, so now for What I Learned Today: I would rather be moving than sitting on a barstool past midnight. It was immature taking the trip I did - though it comes with some good stories - and the fact that I still have hot-burps from lousy beers is a telling sign. There's fun to be had in going out on a bender but it's no good maintaining that as a lifestyle, even if it's just two nights in a row.

Ironically, B-May and I are contemplating a beer out on the town tonight or ice cream. Speaking on rare occasion, my liver, says ice cream.

Later!

Uh...Half marathon? Yes!

There's been nothing subtle about my life lately.

To project a self-fulfilling prophesy, I brought my friends to Dos Amigos Burritos for the namesake burritos. I ordered a fish burrito with guacamole (for an extra dollar) and sipped a Coke for lunch. I have never been to this staple of Portsmouth dining but it was amazing. I'll be back very very soon.

After they left B-May and I took a walk and debated on dinner. It didn't take long to decide on a vegetable calzone which we started on as soon as we got back. The pictures tell the story and one can easily deduce that it, too, was amazing. (B-May also allotted some of the dough taken from the enormous calzone and worked it into three breadsticks we eagerly dipped into a olive oil concoction on par with Not Your Average Joes).

For dessert I had a couple more of the bites (see last post).

This morning was sort of epic. First of all, we woke up at 6 30am. Then we each ate half of a bagel with some peanut butter. Then we ran 13.1 miles.

13.1 miles! That's a half marathon! I felt pretty good during miles 1-8 and 10-13.1. Miles 8-10 were a different story. I developed a devil of a blister on my left foot and my legs gave up the whole running thing. What I Learned Today: run like B-May. I need to slow down my pace when I put on the big miles. She did amazing. She said her legs were sore too - after all, she is human - but for the most part, when I needed to walk, she never stopped running. Very impressive girlfriend!

Our run ended right next to a convenience store and I quickly downed a quart of Gatorade, B-May half that much. I wolfed down a couple waffles and tall glass of milk before running a quick errand (no pun intended) to Maine, during which I sipped a Diet Coke.

At work, I had one of the portions of our macaroni and cheese with veggies. Like before, I added a bag of Wheat Thins and four of the bites. Not completely awake at work, I picked up a Coke and got the necessary caffeine kick to get me through.

When I got home, B-May and I celebrated the completion of our run with a beer each and generous bowl of ice cream. Typically, I'm sheepish to share a photo of one of my favorite snacks but given the serious mileage we put in today, I don't mind posting this sweet snack on the blog.

I am thoroughly exhausted. Bedtime.

Later!

A Run and a Regret

Before I wax poetic on why I can't seem to bring myself to blog a regular basis, I have to boast about these amazing waffles!

I can honestly say (and B-May can testify) that I made these all by myself. One step towards autonomy! Granted, I followed a recipe from Betty Crocker, but made it my own by adding a banana and a solid handful of almonds! Excellent breakfast that I had to wait for because we didn't have eggs, among many other things needed at the grocery store.

So back up a little: Shortly after my previous post B-May and enjoyed a simple but veggie-licious take on macaroni and cheese. We made excess macaroni and cheese. Seriously, there are three tupperwares in the fridge, and three in the freezer. It was out of hand. Four types of cheeses and peppers and mushrooms. Filling but, given the whole wheat macaroni base, it ranked on the healthier side of things.

For dessert, we baked oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies. Lots of good things there. Strangely, the recipe did not call for an egg which is probably why they look like bites and not traditional cookies. Triple (or quadruple?) the number of bites here to arrive at my total consumption that night.

Breakfast the next morning was next to nothing. We stopped for coffees and chai lattes, respectively at Caffe Killim in town. This was at 6 30am because we were headed back down to the Commonwealth despite the rain for the Somerville Homeless Coalition 5K. I've already said it was our first race exactly a year ago. As such, we've been eagerly awaiting to see our improvement since then. At press time, I have not been able to dig up the official times but I recall something around 26:25 for myself, and B-May just 30 seconds or so behind. That's five minutes better (at least) than our times in 2008. And I ran it in my Five Fingers!

Afterwards, we were treated to a post-race BBQ of sorts put on for runners by a couple local restaurants in Somerville, chief among them, Anna's Taqueria supplied grilled chicken and grilled veggie breakfast burritos. These were of course excellent.

And there was mixed fruits and corn bread. I ate a lot of corn bread.

Soon after, I was back in New Hampshire for work and during work enjoyed leftover macaroni and cheese and some of B-May's homemade applesauce - despite not having a spoon. I just finished fishing out the pasta with my fingers like a Beudoin when a generous co-worker offered me spoon for my applesauce. It was good timing.

Work proved to be particularly stressful and so a co-worker joined me for a couple of beers at the Coat of Arms in Portsmouth. I had a Black and Brown - Guiness and Newcastle and a Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale. Both were pleasant treats I slowly sipped.

All caught up! I have friends from college arriving soon - I forsee burritos at Dos Amigos - and other hearty portions in my immediate future.

Later!