Monthly Archives: August 2011

Keeping Myself From Getting Bored on the Treadmill

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Lee | 18 Comments

I had a stiff neck all day yesterday. Either I slept funny or it was from lifting on Monday, but either way my neck was really bothering me. Nevertheless, I went to the gym after work anyway. I figured if running was really painful, I’d just stop but I wouldn’t know until I tried.

Remember how I was so excited about the new branch of my gym? Well, the newness wore off, I guess, and I’ve been going back to the old branch. I go to the gym at about 5:45 and the only thing on tv is news. Much to Jason’s chagrin, I don’t really watch the local news. I prefer to get my news online. Although, if I am watching, I’ll watch his channel. So, if I’m not really into what’s on tv, there’s really no point in going to the gym with the personal tvs. More than just that though, the older gym has become considerably less crowded. I’m at the point where I’m running more than the 20 minute time limit that you are allotted when people are waiting, so it’s a huge perk not to have anyone waiting.

I ended up feeling totally fine while I ran. Better than fine, even. It was one of those runs where it felt easy. I did 4 miles. I did the first two at 5.8mph and the second two at 6.0mph. Jason’s been running too. We’re doing a 5K together next weekend and he’s been doing the Couch to 5K plan. He’s at the point where he’s running roughly 25 minutes straight and has been asking me how I do it without getting bored.

Here’s what I do and it’s sort of weird. Every song, I’ll look at my ipod and see how long that song is and I’ll figure out what time it will be when the song is over. So if I’m at 11 minutes and I see the next song is 4 minutes long, I tell myself that when this song is over, I’ll already be at 15 minutes and so on and so forth. I have no idea why this helps me but it somehow makes me feel like I’m kind of ahead of myself. I also sometimes will switch up the speed when a new song comes on, but not always.

I actually have a What I Ate Wednesday post photographed, but I’ll have to post that tonight because I’m getting short on time.

If you’re a treadmill runner, how do you keep yourself from getting bored?

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Posted in Running

Cleansing Food

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Lee | 19 Comments

After a very indulgent weekend of food and wine, I felt pretty bloated and gross. So I went to the farmer’s market and bought a bunch of green fruits and vegetables. I actually didn’t realize that nearly everything I bought was green until I got home.

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Green apples, broccoli, lettuce, zucchini, kale, avocados, spinach that you can’t see and limes. I think my body was subconsciously telling me something, that it needed cleansing food. I also got some red grapes, but they didn’t go with the green theme.

I know that some people rely on greasy food to combat a hangover, but I honestly find myself craving healthy food, especially vegetables when I’ve had too much to drink the night before. When I used to go out a lot, I would often get a Whole Foods salad the next morning while all my friends were getting Chik Fil-A or Waffle House. I never said I was normal. It works for me.

I wanted to get some of those chia muffins while I was at the market, but they were out. Guess I shouldn’t go on Sunday nights. Next time.

I did, however, get the ingredients to make veggie burgers and corn for tonight. I originally thought about grilling them, but by the time we got home from the gym and showered and everything, it was already 8 so we just baked the veggie burgers and corn. I used Mama Pea’s veggie burger recipe and followed it to the T.

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With the burgers, we had a side of corn. I coated the corn with 1/2 tbsp melted Earth Balance, lime juice, chili powder and salt, wrapped them up in foil and baked them for 20 minutes. This was an easy and satisfying weeknight meal.

Long weekend this weekend! We’re actually going to Las Vegas. I’ve never been. Any recommendations?

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Posted in Drinking, Farmer's Market, Vegetarian

Too Many Corks

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Lee | 13 Comments

The alternative title to this post should be “In which I am reminded why I don’t go to festivals with free wine.”

Backing up.

At about 9pm on Friday night, I decided to join Laura in running the Run for the Park 5K the next morning. I’d done this race previously, two years ago, and remembered it to be a decent race. I got there around 7:15 and registered and found Laura.

The race was a little hillier than I remembered. As usual, I went out too fast and got tired after the first mile. There was a big hill in the middle which was difficult but the last part of the race had a nice downhill. I ended up finishing in 30:45. I’m okay with that. It’s not my best effort but it’s certainly not my worst either. I’m usually satisfied if I can do a race in less than a 10 minute mile and this was 9:55.

After the race, I went home to shower, took a short nap and headed back to Grant Park to go to the Corks & Forks festival. Corks & Forks is tasting event from several different Atlanta chefs and part of the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival. Ten different restaurants were participating. Because I don’t eat beef or chicken, I didn’t know how much of the food I would be able to sample.

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Fortunately, a lot of the restaurants had fish. I sampled:

• tuna tartar from BLT Steak
• tuna and red snapper ceviche from Graveyard Tavern
• watermelon and tomato gazpacho from Murphy’s
• some sort of beet salad from Market
• seafood mousse from Legal Seafoods
• some sort of punch from Rosebud
• shrimp and grits from Wahoo
• key lime pie from Seasons 52

My favorite was the tuna tartar.

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And there was wine.

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I think part of the problem was that since they were tastings, I wasn’t sure how much I was drinking and drank way more than I normally would. Fortunately, my friends live walking distance from the festival, so I went to their house afterwards and promptly fell asleep on the couch.

Needless to say, I kind of feel like ass right now.