We're all a little (coco)nuts!

      Hi pies!  Happy hump day.  Hope all is well in your world.  On my end, I am having a splendiferous day.  Why, may you ask?  No, not the weather.  Still the same old dreary nonsense out my window.  But it's inspiration to make some lovin' in the kitchen (get your mind out of the gutter people, this is a family blog!)

      First things first, though.  It's officially 17 days left till my Ironman and I'm trying to hone in the final workouts before starting taper next week.  On tap for today- a 2.5 mile swim and a track workout.  I ended up shortening the 2.5 mile swim to 2 miles, as I ran into my friend Joe at the pool who just did IM Cananda and wanted to relive his race-totally worth it, IMO. What a trouper!! The workout- 2 mile swim @ IM pace in just under an hour made me feel pretty good!! Track wokout is tonight post soccer game at the school.



Source

But let's talk about the better part of the day, shall we?  Even though lately my world has been quite crazy, with the help of some lovely produce at the markets and sales at Top's, I have gathered some ingredients in order to stretch my culinary experiments in the kitchen!  Today, we skipped right past dinner (just some seasoned veggies and chicken sausage) and went for the good stuff!

Remember sno-balls, those lovely little confections from the 80s that basically could live to be about a 100 in any envrionment but were oh so tasty?  Yup, me too.  Let's make 'em over (slightly at least :-P)

Sno-ball Muffins

Whatcha need:
1 box of strawberry cake mix
(you could make your own, but let's be real, I work, too....so we used boxed)2 Egg whites
.5 cup coconut
8oz. Yogurt (I used non fat strawberry)

Let's not be fancy, here, ok?  Throw it all into a bowl and mix, mix, mix, mix for about 2 minutes.



Pink goop.  But tasty goop.


Fill into muffin pans....if you at too much dough, it will fill 9 cups. If you are incredibly boring have a will of steel and don't eat dough, it should fill 10-11 cups.

Bake em up in an the oven-set to "Bake" (yeah, I went there) at 350 for 2-22 minutes or until cooked through. 

Pretty little pink muffie guys.



Plate Em ((if you want to be civilized about it)



EAT.
 

They might not be gorgeous, but they did get the hubster's seal of approval. And I'm cool with that.  After all, a man's gotta have his sno balls right?  (Yeah yeah, TWSS).
Quitting while I'm ahead :-)  Enjoy your evening!

Cabbage Patch!

Well, it could be worse.  Usually if it looks like a Monday, acts like a Monday and feels like a Monday, then it is.  But not today-it's Tuesday!  Just means one less day till the weekend, yes? 

Other than that little ray of sunshine, it's just a rainy Tuesday here in my world.  No, I'm not being a Debbie Downer, it's really raining :-)...and according to the magic fairies weather guys, it's gonna be rainy all week.  So excited.  No, really.  After the 90 degrees and humidity that have been plaguing New York like it's their job, some cool weather is super awesome.  And I love running in the rain! (Just not a downpour!)

Know what else rocks when it's a chilly (well, relatively, but 60 degrees is chilly when you're used to 90), rainy day?  Soup.  Yum-o.  Especially with the plethora of vege-tam-ables around these parts lately!  So, I gathered up some of the veggie guys that I wasn't too sure what to do with and presto-we have a yummy, filling bowl of soup!

Cabbage Patch Soup

The Goods:  one head of cabbage, an onion, two summer squash, a head of garlic, one can of tomatoes (14.5 oz-or you could use fresh!), basil, salt and pepper, and 1 quart of chicken stock (I used bouillon). 

Fresh n good!  Saute the onion and garlic in a skillet with some EVOO.  Pour into the soup pot. Chop up the cabbage in small pieces, toss in the pot.  Ditto with the summer squash.  Add the can of tomatoes and your spices. Lastly, add in the quart of stock and water to taste.  Simmer those flavors together on low for about an hour and enjoy the scent of veggies that permeates your kitchen.  Fabulous.

Enjoy your veggie love with a side of fresh bread (well, I bought it.  Hey, I made the soup.  You can't have it all!!)

Warm bowl o goodness

The veggie guys

See, now the rain isn't so bad.  Now go put on your fuzzy slippers and enjoy your bowl of soup.  Black and white movie on the couch optional, but strongly recommended. 

Oak Tree Half Marathon-Trekkin’ with Cows

Okey dokey, here we go!  It’s  a rainy kinda Monday out there….got some grocery shopping in (tons of produce meals to come this week-woot!) and a speed sesh on the bike, and now it’s time to relax before the full steam ahead week I’ve got.  So, armed with some hot cocoa (what, it’s only 64 degrees here!) and mellow tunage, I give you the official race report of my impromptu half Marathon yesterday.

The Rationale:  With my Ironman fast approaching (3 weeks!) I wanted a brush up race, but nothing crazy (like the half Ironman I thought to enter and was quickly vetoed by you lovelies.  Thank you!)  As I was perusing my training plan for the week, I saw 13 miles @marathon pace for Sunday and thought.  Cool.  I’ll pay 40 bucks to race, get a shirt, a medal, some cool swag and a chance to ran where I went to college and consumed way too many beers.  So 6 days ago, the hubster and I signed up to race.  (No, he raced to 5k.  Idiocy in our family is usually limited to me ).
Race Morning:  Up at 6, out the door by 7 with some pb toast and an apple.  Drank my coffee and tried to deal with some random GI issues (not sure where that came from, I eat the same thing every race morning.  In hindsight, I shoulda popped an Imodium, but I forgot. )  10 minutes out, I realized that wasn’t the only thing I forgot.  My shoes sat on the bed back at home, lazing away in protest of the 13.1 I wanted to run in them.  Da^&it.  The hubster turned the bus around (bless him) and we got my shoes.  Good thing I remembered that soon, or else I woulda tested out the whole barefoot running thing  in a less than ideal way.  Pfft. 
We got to the site, picked up our packets (awesome swag bag with natural nut butter, how cool??) and did the obligatory pit stop.  Met up with Mom P and Dad G who came out to cheer us on (yeah, they must like us or something ) and soon we were off.

Pre race-dont I look excited?

Miles 1-3:  This was without a doubt the highlight of the course.  Starting out I had set my garmin to reflect my avg pace, and was aiming for about 8:50-9:00 minute miles (my marathon pace is a 9:10, Ironman marathon is about a 10:00-10:30, but half marathon pace is a 8:5-8:20, so I figured this was a good compromise).  This was the best part of the course, hands down.  We ran into town, along Main st and by the pizza shops and bear fountain (thought of my roomies back at Geneseo and our drunken escapades in the fountain, at Mia’s and at the bars, lol) and then wound our way back up to the Elementary school.  Started out way too fast, per usual (hit mile 2 at 15:51…oops).  I looked down at the garmin and tried to sloooooww it down, this was a training run, I reminded myself!  Mile 3 was pretty comfortable, settled into an 8:15 pace, still fast but much better. 

Miles 4-9:  At mile 3.5, we turned off the pavement and headed onto a dirt and pebble path.  This was pretty rough, there were decent sized rocks in the road and it was hard to get any kind of groove on.  Mile 4 was mostly downhill, which rocked until I turned around and saw mile 11, which meant we were gonna need to tackle this beast on the way back.  $hit.  Oh well, enjoy it now!  Legs felt ok, stomach still a bit off, but nothing crazy.  The aid stations were situated every 2 miles and were pretty decent, except the volunteers weren’t great at telling the truth when you asked if they had water or heed .  Oops.  I made a few cup exchanges at some of the stations, but no biggie.  Hydration was key, it wasn’t too warm (mid 70s) but the humidity was as thick as fog, and it hurt to breathe.  2 minutes after a water stop, you were sweating like a beast and ready to just take a nap.  But we were all going through it.  Miles 5-7 were the beginning of the end.  The road began to roll, and there was no momentum in those hills.  The rocks got bigger, and there was no worn path.  I leapfrogged with another woman through these miles, and we kept cheering each other on to make it up the hills.  I saw my pace drop to an 8:45 by mile 7 and figured it was nice of the surface and hills to keep me honest!! 
Mile 7 turned us back onto the road for a half mile, and I have never been so glad to see pavement.  I flew through that half mile, but before I knew it, we were back on dirt.  Crap. 

Miles 10-12:  Brutal.  This part was mostly all uphill, hitting an 18% grade at parts.  I was done playing the game.  I decided to just take my time and keep my HR down as much as possible, as I knew the course went back to road at mile 12.  Thank goodness for tunage.  I started running during song versus and walking during every other chorus.  Apparently an abercrombie shirtless dude decided I was playing a game with him, and on one hill looked over at me and said “Hey, why do you try to run past me when I stop to walk…it’s like you don’t want me to be ahead of you?” chicked ).  Mile 12-back on pavement.  1:50, 9:02 pace.  Cool.  I knew I could do a sub 2, which was perfectly fine with me at this point!!  I enjoyed the last mile, passed abercrombie dude, and headed to the school to finish.  The last 40 yards was on the track, which was sorta neat.  Picked ‘er up, finished in 1:59:07, 13.16 according to garmin, 9:03 pace, bazinga. 
Post Race: Had some fruit and nut butter, a bunch of water, and checked out the results with the hubster. 5th AG 9out of 18, small race), 23rd OA woman (out of 118) and top half overall.  Not too bad!!  With that done, we headed into town for the real reward of the day-Mia’s Pizza.  YUM.  This used to be the hang out post bar in my college days, and I haven’t had it since 2004, when I graduated.  It was just what the doctor ordered.


Thoughts:  While this was nowhere near my half PR (1:50), I had a good time.  I am perfectly fine with my time, as I did a 100 miler just a few days before and didn’t taper in the slightest.  I thought the course was rough….the elevation wasn’t too bad, but the hills were long and some were steep.  The terrain made it even rougher, and I think if I did it again, I would wear shoes with more cushion (I wore my brooks ghosts, which are super light).  Even at my best, I think I could have done a 1:52-1:53, so this would not be a course to PR in….but the race was well run, with good swag (hello nut butter!) good shirts/medals, a pretty course (way out in the boonies) and a good time of year (usually-except for the humid humid day we had).  I would certainly do it again!

Mia's.  Love.

You WILL get in mah belly.

Round the Old Oak tree

Full race recap coming tomorrow, it’s been a long morning!!  Quick stats:  1:59:07 (clocked 13.16 miles), 9:03 pace, 5/18 in AG, 23/114 women overall, 122/275 OA.
Not bad for a training run!  This course pretty much spit me out at about mile 5 and chewed me up good.  I never realized that 75% of the race was run on dirt/pebble mix roads (they were wicked!!) But it’ll be good practice for trail running next year!!
More thoughts later.  But I do have some pics for you….

Pre Race....I think I look like I want to just take a nap!!

Mile 2....no, my feet don't touch the ground.

Mile 13....finish round the HS track

Does it count if I don't step on the timing mat?

Post race sweat glow

Finisher medal and the stats!!

And that was all.  Solid effort for the day…and much better than my old Geneseo tricks ...though of course a Mia's trip was in order for a slice!!!
  Next race….Chesman Iron distance!!!  WOOT WOOT

Paint by Numbers

Off to a great start for the weekend!  The hubster and I picked up some kilz ceiling paint with the intent to paint all our ceilings in the house in the next month or so.  12 rooms, 3 hallways…..2 done today!!

Paintin' the Office

Paint supplies!!

apparently I thought my shirt needed some character

Or maybe I just like to draw on myself...

Labor of love!!

Along with a 30 mile ride, yoga, and gardening, and direct TV installation, all before 6pm.  Success in my book!
On tap for tonight:  Time to make like 70 year olds and have the early bird carb dinner…someone signed up for a half marathon on a whim 6 days ago! (Yup, I’m dumb.  But in my defense, I did have 13 miles on my plan today.  plus, it’s at SUNY Geneseo, which is my alma mater and only an hour away!)  Now let’s hope the split pea soup lifts by tomorrow…it’s a 9am start!!  I see some Mia’s pizza in my future for lunch…haven’t had that stuff in 7 years!!!

Cin city

Eight years ago, Friday nights involved more than a few of these....with some raucous games of beer pong and long island iced teas.

Now that I am an old married lady...  Friday nights are spent hangin out with this guy....

And alot less drinking of the long island varieties of tea...moreso the Western new york virgin iced teas :-) (or as we call it, Sun Tea!)

While it's not Sin City...it's still pretty fun.  We'll call it "Cin City".  Now, these kinds of things excite me come Friday:

Not hot dates...hot books from the library.

Instead of cheesy slices from college town pizzeria at 2am...cheesy veggies!

And lest we forget dessert...instead of zeppoles (fried dough)....we do Monkey Bread (healthy style):

Cin-less Monkey Bread

What you need for success:  One tube small biscuit dough, 1/4 cup splenda/truvia, sprinkles of cinnamon, and spray butter.
The Steps:
1.  Cut each dough round (10) into quarters.  Place in a pie pan.
2. Sprinkle the top with splenda and cinnamon.
3.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
4.  Spritz butter spray on top of biscuits.
5.  Broil 2 minutes.

Voila.  Yo' monkey bread, all for about 500 calories for the huge honkin' dish.

Just desserts.

Up close cin-less goodness.

Step 6.  Eat.
Step 7.  Feed to yo favorite Monkey. (If there's any left).

I guess I'll share :-P

Happy long weekend, friends!!  Enjoy!

Mental Health Day

Hello friends!!  After a long and trying few weeks, I decided to take a day off from the world.  (No worries, I didn’t call in sick with the plague, my boss was totally on board with me taking the day off).  Lately there has been way too much unnecessary stress in my life, and I’ve definitely been feeling it.  So, even though we have a 3 day holiday weekend coming up, I decided to just take a lil one day vaca from responsibility and did what I wanted.
Of course, the irony here is that my mental health day would be most people’s idea of hell.  Yup, it was time for the last 100 miler before Chesman (in 23 DAYS!!!).  The ride was supposed to happen on Saturday, but I signed up a few days ago for an impromptu half marathon at my Alma Mater, SUNY Geneseo, on Sunday.  (Yeah I know, there were so many things wrong with that statement.)
Thus, the ride needed to happen a few days before so my little leggies weren’t quite as sore (hey, I’m not going for science here.)  The catch?  I wanted to do it on the trainer.  This is a tool I use for a lot of shorter rides, power work, and some of my longer rides.  While riding outside is so much more fun, you get more bang for your buck on the trainer (I have a set up that allows you to ride any terrain in the world, which makes it awesome to actually train the race course, or any course) and is a crap ton safer than riding on the road with traffic (still have some PTSD from getting hit by a car during a training ride a few years ago).  It’s no sub for learning how to handle your bike, but a lot of pros swear by it to get faster, and that’s what I’m working on!!  So I decided that at least one hundred mile ride should be on the trainer….to give me something to be happy about on race day (Imagine pedaling straight for 6 hours with no coasting or breeze to cool you off in a humid basement-yeah, that’s mental training, too!!)
Average person’s mental health day:  Sleeping in, eating chocolate, and watching bad TV on the couch.
Rae’s mental health day:  Doing 100 miles on the trainer, eating powerbars and bananas (on course food!) and watching bad TV Soap Opera re-runs for almost 6 hours while riding with no fan in a super humid basement.

Evil cat.

Did I mention we keep the cat box 5 feet from the trainer and the cat pooped at mile 8?  Wow.
So….5:34 hours, 2 powerbars, a pb sammich, a banana, and 2 gu’s, 5 episodes of Young and the Restless, 6 bottles of water and Perform, and 2 pee breaks later…I had my hundred miles.  Then, to frost the cake, I did a 15 minute T run.  Success.
Mental Health Status-feelin’ better about life.  Nothing like some quality time with me to get me revved up for whatever life can throw at me.  And I’m pretty sure that after that mental HTFU session on the computrainer (I did the Ironman New Zealand course-which is flat save for 5 miles of uphill on each loop) that Chessyman will be superfun on the bike!  (Or at least as superfun as 112 miles can be )

Please don’t have me committed.