I’m Moving

I’ve decided to take the plunge and move the blog.

Make sure to come over and visit me at: http://goodnweird.com/

Grounding into Triangle

I just got back from a lovely 60 minute yoga class at Lululemon and I was able to meet up with Sarah for the class.  Every Saturday at 10 AM Lululemon in Burlington hosts a FREE yoga class.  The class was a slow flow – but I had an “ah-ha” moment during class.  While I would prefer a faster, sweatier, vinyasa yoga – I realized a slow flow class allows me to focus on my alignment and enables me to relax and breathe into a pose.  Definitely more slow yoga on the way for me.

On my way home, I remembered today is my day as part of Kate and Tina‘s May Yoga Month, I was selected to showcase TRIANGLE (or trikonasana).

Triangle is one of the most beautiful poses to me – you ground into the floor with both feet, stretch your arms far apart from each other, and feel lightness and vibrant throughout your whole body.  I always imagine I’m in between two window planes during the pose.

Alignment (according to Baron Baptiste):

• Heels are in one line
• Keep both legs strong
• Scoop your tailbone down and under (your booty should not be sticking out)
• Keep your upper arm active (and straight)
• Twist your torso
• Gaze at your upper hand

Modified version below – and the one I am more likely to do in a practice.

Breathe in the pose for five full breathes.  With each breathe, relax your mind, and your body will follow.

Relax, Breathe, & Flow.

And my yoga helper obviously assisted:

I’VE MOVED!  HEAD TO HTTP://GOODNWEIRD.COM TO STAY IN TOUCH!

This Week’s Workouts

So far my workouts for the have looked like this:

Monday – 60 minutes of light yoga

Tuesday – got dressed for a run but then didn’t go

Wednesday – 4 mile run in 36 minutes

Thursday – 7.3 mile run in 65 minutes

Friday – To Be Determined

I’d like to get in another 10 miles over the next three days (I count Sunday as this week), which shouldn’t be too hard.  Tomorrow I’m heading to Lululemon for 60 minutes of yoga, and Sunday I may go to my old gym for a 90 minute yoga class.

Jason and I are starting to prepare for our next marathon.  If we decide to pull the trigger (we are looking at The Twin Cities Marathon on Oct. 3), we will start training May 31 with an 18 week program.  I’m hoping that we run around 20 – 25 miles the next two weeks to get some confidence before embarking on a full training program.  Since our marathon, we’ve just been running for fun and without a set plan. Typically we’ve been running 15 miles a week for the past two months and I feel a bit nervous about training again.

I’ll write more about our training program as we get closer to starting it. We aren’t really following one set program but are going to decrease our running days, and increase our cross-training days.   We both felt like we lost a lot of muscle during our last marathon training because we ran 5 days a week and didn’t do much strength training for the 5 months.  This time we are planning to run 3 or 4 days a week (with an emphasis on speed work), cross-train 2 or 3 days a week, and rest one day.  I’m really excited about building in cross-training days.  My goal is on cross-training days to do 60-90 minute yoga class; as well as regularly doing some strength training from home.

Have a lovely Friday.  What are your plans for the weekend?

Leftovers for Lunch

The one thing I love about cooking dinner at home each night is LEFTOVERS for lunch the next day.  This past year I have finally realized how much money I save by not eating lunch out each day – if you aren’t doing it, hop on the train and enjoy a huge infusion of $$$ in your wallet.  Since Jason works from home, I get to grab up each night’s left overs.

Last night we made a tofu, veggie and rice stirfry. Stirfrys are by far my favorite meal to make and eat as leftovers.  It’s such a simple meal.  We did make a homemade marinade for the tofu which was dang good.

Blackberry photo 😦

Jason’s Special Tofu Marinade:

3 tbsp Water

3 tbsp Soy Sauce

2 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 tbsp for fresh ginger (minced very fine)

3 cloves of garlic (minced very fine)

1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (or rice wine vinegar would work)

2 scallions finely chopped

Mix all this together and then marinade tofu for at least 30 minutes.  I poured excess marinade on the veggies and tofu while they were stir frying as well.

Trying New Yoga Studio

When it comes to going into a new yoga studio, I revert back to my pre-pubescent, shy, little girl mentality.  I am always nervous about not knowing the check-in procedures or how the studio is set up.  I fret and fawn, and get myself all worked up over the first few moments of walking into a studio, all the while knowing that yoga studios are some of the most welcoming places.  The amount of stress a new studio causes me usually means I stick with a tried and true studio or I take weeks and weeks to build up the courage to walk through the new doors.  Yesterday, after weeks of delay and anticipation, I finally took the leap and headed to Evolution Yoga.

Evolution is both a yoga studio and physical therapy clinic.  In addition to an impressive class schedule, Evolution offers a Community Class, Monday – Fridays on a sliding fee scale.  It allows people not able to afford a full-class price to pay what they can, and others to truthfully evaluate their ability to contribute for their yoga practice.  I love the concept of opening yoga up to more people.  One of my major frustrations with yoga studios is the cost and keeping it an exclusive from people who can’t afford $20 drop-in fees or monthly memberships of $150.

Yesterdays class was with bubbly Julie.  Julie was a delight of a instructor.  Her style was much different than I am typically used to, so it made me be more aware of her instruction and words.  She gave clear instruction and thoughtful words regarding the poses.  The class was much slower than I would normally go to which allowed me to really focus on alignment and opening.

While I enjoyed my class and the studio, and I will definitely be back (I can’t pass up an afford yoga option); I am still searching for a studio in Burlington that will steal my heart.  Where are you Bapiste studio?  It is certainly fun trying new studios and different kinds of yoga which allows me to expand my knowledge of the practice but at the end of the day I want a studio that touches my soul and allows me the kind of practice I prefer.  It’s sort of like testing driving new cards – it’s fun to try out a new ride but at the end of the day I always just want to come home to my time-tested car.

What is your favorite yoga studio?  How do you feel about trying out new studios?

Cashew and Sunflower Seed Maple Cinnamon Butter

My home internet is out for the next two weeks so my posting is going to be a bit sporadic.  The weather in VT was amazing this weekend.  Jason and I went hiking Sunday in Woodstock at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park (and our second stamp in our national park’s book).  It’s a gorgeous park with easy hiking trails – definitely a great way to spend a few hours if you are ever in Southern VT.

I also spent some time on Sunday preparing my food for the week ahead.  I tend to use Sunday nights to prepare some essentials for the week – like cleaning greens, chopping or shredding veggies for salads, and making nut butter.  I found a super simple recipe a few months ago and now make nut butters at home instead of paying $$$ for less than stellar products at a store.

Pretty much this recipe can be altered for any kind of nuts (I’ve made almond butter and walnut butter).  Just have some patience when making the butter – timing depends on the type of nut you use.

Be warned – this concoction is amazing!  I can’t stop eating it.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds
• 3/4 cup of cashews
• 1/2 tsp of honey
• 1/2 tsp of maple syrup
• a dash of salt

Start with nuts and seeds in food processor

About 90 seconds after beginning to process

It will look like this around 3 minutes

At 4 - 5 minutes it will look like this

At 6 minutes in

Around 8 minutes it starts to redistribute but keep going until the oils release

At 10 minutes the nuts release their oils, and the nut butter is ready. if you want to add the honey and maple syrup stir in by hand now.

A few days in DC

Hi lovelies – Sorry I’ve been MIA.  Sunday morning Jason and I woke up and made the 9 hour drive to DC.  I had a swanky work dinner to go to Monday night so we decided to make a little trip of it.  Sadly my camera died in the first 5 minutes of driving 😦

On our drive down, we stopped in Valley Forge, PA for a few hour walk through the National Park.  We got a National Parks stamp book for Christmas and now Jason is determined to get all 360 stamps 🙂  The day was gorgeous and it was great to get out of the car and walk around.

I was planning to “borrow” some photos on the internet of this lovely park but sadly my internet is working too slowly.  Damn internet.  Luckily we are getting that problem fixed in two days.

We made it down to DC Sunday evening late, and crashed – it was a long day.  Well before we crashed, we got Chipotle for dinner.  I heart Chipotle.  It is the meal I look forward to most when I have the opportunity to partake in the deliciousness (ie. Vermont does not have a Chipotle — please come here!)

Monday morning we woke up and did a 6 mile run from our hotel, around the National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Capitol building. It is so inspiring to be among all those incredible building – the history and beauty are breathe-taking.  Sadly I also planned to “borrow” photos to recreate our run but maybe another day.

Rest of Monday involved work and my work dinner. It was a huge fundraiser that was a bit intimidating but I need to get better at the schmoozing aspect of my job.  We hit the road early this morning and made it back to our house in plenty of time to unpack and watch LOST!

Amazingly my legs feel great after the half on Saturday and all driving.

Have a lovely night.  Lost starts in 1 hour.

Race Vermont 1/2 Marathon Recap

Last night Jason and I made an agreement after looking at today’s forecast.

Expected Weather Saturday, May 10

We agreed that if we woke up at 6:00 AM without an alarm and if it wasn’t thunder-storming, we would do today’s 1/2.  Well as expected, we both woke up at 6 and it wasn’t even raining!  So we put on our gear (I added a running jacket just in case it started to rain) and headed to Shelburne.

The race was organized by Race Vermont and they did a great job.  There were 153 registered runners so logistically it was manageable.  We got to stay inside the field house until the whole group of runners walked about .3 miles to the start line – which was just a guy and a timer – and when everyone was ready – he said Ready Go and we were off.

Registration was a breeze – the only bummer was I thought we got a regular cotton t-shirt with registration but it turns out you could buy a technical shirt for another $28.  Registration without the t-shirt was only $30, which included 4 water stations with Gatorade, use of the Field House’s showers, saunas, and hot tubs post race, and a lunch provided by Starry Night Cafe.

The course was through the village of Shelburne, Shelburne Farms, and along Lake Champlain.  It was a great combination of roads and trails – probably about 7 miles of roads and 6 miles of trails.  The course had a few long grueling hills but overall I would say a moderate course in difficulty.

I was very impressed with the quality of runners at the start line.  There wasn’t one person that looked like they weren’t a runner or would have serious trouble finishing the race.  From the beginning, Jason and I planned to stick together for the run.  We started in the middle of the pack and quickly caught up with a group that we ran the first six miles with.  Around mile 3 it started raining (fairly hard at times), and continued for most of the race with a few short breaks.  At six miles we decided to start pushing ourselves a bit harder, and passed about 20 people over the course of the next 3 miles.  At 9 miles we hit the last hill and knew we could over take the rest of the folks just ahead of us.  We caught up with the guy leading that pack and he said it had been quite a while since he had seen people ahead of him.  We plunged ahead and picked up the pace a bit more.  I was really wishing I had packed a goo around mile 10 – I was in desperate need of some fuel.  Luckily the race had a Gatorade stand around there and I took a couple of cups – such a saving grace.  Jason and I ran the next two miles continuing to push each other (Jason led for those miles and really was the one that pushed us to keep up our pace).  At 12.5 miles we hit the last Gatorade/water stand and could see the finish area.  Sadly there still were no folks ahead of us to try to catch (overtaking runners during the race is really the best way to motivate me).  We made the last turn and say the finish line.  They had created a small shoot for us to run through for the last .1 miles and as we entered it I saw our time – that helped provide the last needed boost to finish strong.

We finished in 1:43.33!!!!  I was really hoping to finish at 1.45 but didn’t really think it was possible.  Our average pace was 7.54 / mile.  I ended up finishing 7th overall in the women and 4th in my age division.  Jason also finished 4th in his age division.  We crossed the line as the 31st and 32nd finishers!

Volunteers handed us water after the finish and we quickly headed for our car to get warm clothes and change.  The lunch provided by Starry Night Cafe (which is an amazing restaurant) was great.  They had cornbread, vegan chili, fresh fruit salad, a quinoa veggie cold salad, and greens with balsamic vinegar.  Jason and I loaded up our plates and beelined for some comfy chairs.

The last runner crossed about 2 hours 36 minutes – and they quickly released the race results.  Overall this is a great race that happens twice a year – the next one is in November and we plan to sign up to do it again!

Have a great Saturday!  We are off to see a matinee of Iron Man 2.

Eating a Full Lunch

A few days ago, I mentioned my struggle to eat a fulfilling lunch and how that was effecting my hunger for the rest of the day.  Again I am going to preface this with the statement that I don’t count calories and I don’t really feel the need to calculate my daily food intake, however, I do find analyzing my eating a different points of the year helps me understand what might be going on with my body.  I have really been focusing on eating a nutritionally dense salad or sandwich for lunch each day this week.  One key – I have discovered is making some grains and throwing those on a salad along with some olive oil and vinegar (or some other kind of nutritious dressing).

Today I made a spinach, tomato, broccoli, and green pepper salad (about 150 calories, 1 gram of fat, 8 grams of fiber, and 9 grams of protein), then added millet from my grain-off the other evening (another 155 calories and 1.5 grams of fat), and then topped it off with an olive oil – apple cider vinegar dressing (adding another 180 calories and 20 grams of fat).  My lunch nutritional total was: 450 calories, 22 grams of fat, 11 grams of fiber, and 13 grams of protein.   This lunch kept me full for 3 hours.

Sorry the salad was about 3/4 ate when I remembered to take a picture.  The millet was an excellent addition to the salad.  I crumbled about 3/4 a cup of it on top of the salad and it provided a great texture to the salad as well staying power.

If you want to find out more ways to beef up your lunchtime, Gena did a great post yesterday on making a lunchtime salad meal.

Today I’m not planning any exercise – resting for tomorrow’s 1/2 marathon.  The weather is not looking so good which means it is a possibility that I won’t run it. Rain = Unhappy Kristina.

Short and Sweet

Workout: 5 miles in 48 minutes.

I went for a run with a few co-workers during our lunch hour today.  It was actually quite nice – besides staring at my computer and looking out the window dreaming about being outside – we headed out to a path that runs behind UVM and through a neighborhood that I didn’t know existed.  The five miles felt good and was a great way to breakup the day.

Now I’m heading to a friends how for a bbq – hopefully the weather cooperates.