What season is it?

What season is it? Seriously, I can't tell anymore.

Sunday we got our first big snow storm of winter. Four to five inches was dropped on us in about an hour. Even though it was 9 at night, the kids were out playing in it all over the neighborhood. Snowmen popped up all over!

We were graced with such pretty snow! That was Monday...today is Thursday....
..and today it is 72 degrees out. I just got back from my run and am lounging on the back deck typing this up on my iPad. Don't believe me? Here's the proof.

I have a love affair with my lounge chair.
Yep. Sunny and warm here! I'm wearing a sleeveless shirt and capri running pants. Since my race the other week I have had a severe lack of motivation. I've avoided the gym and I haven't wanted to run. Today was no different but it is so nice out I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to get out and walk the dog and then go running. I'm glad I did. I feel more awake and motivated now. I also had no foot pain while running. Yay! I'm glad all the rest did it some good.

In just a few weeks it will be 10K time again! Guess I should get on training for that...

What do you do for motivation? What makes you want to exercise/run or just sit on the couch and watch tv?

Guest Post: Liz Davies

Liz contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if she could write a guest post for my blog. Always up for something new, I loved the idea. Here is her article.

Cancer Patients and Survivors Need Exercise

Most people know about the benefits that exercise has for the average person but not many people know about the benefits that cancer patients can reap from regular physical activity.

Some of the most common side effects from cancer treatments (whether they are from chemotherapy, radiation, or a combination of treatments) include exhaustion, nausea and vomiting, pain, and weight management issues. All of these side effects can be lessened and even eliminated through exercise.  It has also been shown that recurrence of cancer can be lessened for cancer survivors and that survival rates are higher with those who exercise on a regular bases. Breast cancer was one of the first cancers that was researched when it came to exercise but now more cancers are being researched like colon cancer, mesothelioma cancer and pancreatic cancer.

Many times when a doctor makes a recommendation patients do not always follow the advice. This could be for many reasons such as lack of confidence the recommendation with help, laziness or just plain forgetfulness. Most doctors just make a recommendation for cancer patients to exercise but they aren’t handing them a prescription so many patients are not taking it seriously. Patients also often underestimate or overestimate their physical abilities and also fear returning back to exercise.

The exercise regimens recommended for cancer patients aren’t far off from the routines average Americans follow. The difference is that is can take patients and survivors a little longer to get the routine going and they often need a little more support. Finding the motivation and energy to take a daily walk can be much harder when cancer patients have their treatment side effects holding them back. Pushing past those has measurable benefits and can’t be ignored. The responsibility falls upon doctors to educate patients and for the patients to take control of their health and be proactive in their approach to exercise.

Liz Davies is a recent college graduate and aspiring writer especially interested in health and wellness. She wants to make a difference in people’s lives because she sees how cancer has devastated so many people in this world. Liz also likes running, playing lacrosse, reading and playing with her dog, April.

You can see her blog here: Musings of a Curious Mind

Virginia Is For Lovers 14K 2012

Two words: Girl's Weekend!
Once you are married you realize how important it is to have these. I love being with my husband, but it is nice to go off with the girls once in awhile and do those girly things like watch chick flicks (Breaking Dawn), shop and run races. Wait...run races? Yes, run races.

After running 13 races in 8 months last year, I decided to take it easy for awhile. The Virginia Is For Lovers 14K was not on my list, but then I received an email from J & A Racing a month or so ago and in it was a picture of the medal for this year's race. Sold! They always get me with the hardware...

When C told me that he would be going to Pennsylvania that weekend with his buddies for their annual mountain trip, I decided to see if my two friends that live in Virginia Beach would want to do the race with me. They are not runners but I thought it would be fun if they did the 1.4 miler while I did the 14K. They were excited about the idea and we had our girl's weekend planned!

I headed down to the beach on Friday after work. I should mention that Jess and Emily are two of my sorority sisters. Our other sorority sister, who earned the nickname Shrub back in college, came down with her family for dinner. Jess made Mexican...I carbo-loaded on homemade tortilla chips, they are so much better than the store ones!

We played penny poker and rocked out to The Kangaroo Song by The Big Wu. We even let Shrub's 2 year old take pictures :-)

Saturday morning I was up early. We had been checking the weather all night because they were calling for rain. We got really lucky and the rain held off!

Our pre-race photo!

Last year I somehow ended up in corral 1. I was either running faster, or I lied when I put in my finish time...anyways, this year I started in corral 3. I held up my iPhone and took a picture from way back. I have had my iPhone for about a month now and I have a slight love affair with the thing. I remember when the thought of carrying a computer in your pocket was just a crazy idea. It's hard to believe it is a reality now. Makes it so much easier to take pictures too!
So while we were waiting to start, the announcer told us that a couple was getting married on the course. They let the bride and groom and wedding party have a 10 minute head start in front of everyone else. They stopped at the half way point, had the ceremony and then finished the race. So cute! I never got to see them but my friends did and they said it was cute.
This race was pretty hard on me this year. I've been having some issues while running and I can't figure out why. My weight is up and I have a sneaking suspicion that my thyroid is acting up again and trying to run with this extra weight is rough. My left leg and foot fell asleep about 3 times and I had to walk to get them to wake up. My right foot was also in severe pain. Last Thursday I noticed that the top of my foot had a bump on it and it hurt really bad, like I had a splinter stuck in my foot. The next day the bump was down and it did not hurt so bad. Then while I was running it felt like someone was slamming the top of my foot with a hammer. This was some serious pain. I pushed on like I always do and tried to make the best of it
Jess and Emily came to see me at mile 5 after they had finished their race and they made me signs! I laughed when I saw this one but it didn't click in my head till mile 7 or so what it was. It meant a lot to me that they made me signs :-)

We are kind of obsessed with The Hunger Games....

And they caught me again near the finish with this sign :-)

Sisters really are the best.

I was sooo happy to cross that finish line and not only get inside, but get some food in me and some free beer. Not to mention getting off of my foot. They had a band playing so after we got our beer we sat on the floor and stretched and hung out. We really had a good time and are ready for the next one!

 

Yuengling sponsored the race. I thought the handle was pretty cool.

I give the weekend a thumbs up!

All pain aside, it was a great weekend. My foot is finally starting to feel better today but still a little tender. I'm really hoping it is nothing serious. I figure I will give it a few days of rest and then try to go for a run and see what happens.

Happy Valentine's Day!



I Love You Cupcakes

While at work today I decided I needed to make cupcakes. One way to tell my husband, "I love you" is with white cake with chocolate icing, it is his favorite. Cupcakes needed to be made today.

I remembered having a box of white cake mix in the pantry so I stopped by the store on the way home and grabbed chocolate icing, eggs and cupcake liners. All set to go, I headed home. Of course the first thing I do when I get home is change into yoga pants, t-shirt and sweatshirt as always. After getting all situated in the clothing department, I headed down to start baking, open the pantry....and no box of cake mix.

Well, crap.

Having changed my clothes, I was not really in the mood to go back up and change and I really didn't want to go back to the grocery store. Being the creative person that I am, I grabbed my iPad and started looking up recipes for cake mix. How hard could it be really? It's just a box of what looks like flour, I got this.

Oh no, I don't got this.

I keep things like flour and sugar in the house, but I do not keep things like dried milk, (wth?) self rising flour, or a sifter. Apparently I need to invest in a sifter.
I randomly started searching vegan recipes because one thing I have learned is that vegans put together a lot of random ingredients and come up with some crazy good food.
I found a recipe that I had most of the ingredients for and just changed a few things to make them white. I have to thank Oh She Glows for this one. Here is her recipe.

This is my version of it.

I Love You Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Dry

• 2 cups + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

Wet

• 1 & 3/4 cup water
• 1/8th cup apple cidar vinegar
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Note: I only used confectioner's sugar because after 1 cup of sugar, I was out of regular sugar. Next time I am going to us 1 and 1/8 cup of regular sugar because they could be a tad sweeter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix together the wet ingredients in another. Mix both together with a mixer on low-medium speed until just mixed. Put paper liner in a cupcake pan and bake for about 20 minutes. Be careful not to overbake. They should spring back when you push them gently in the center.

You can also lick the batter right out of the bowl. It's pretty tasty. Remember licking the batter off the spoon as a kid? I used to LOVE doing that, and then my mom got salmonella poisoning once from a raw egg that was in the batter and licking the spoon was banned from our house. I have since been paranoid to lick the spoon that has anything containing raw egg. Nothing to worry about there when it comes to vegan baking!!

I like to tell myself that these delightful cupcakes are extremely healthy and almost fat free. I know I am kidding myself because of the sugar, but they still have to be better than the store bought ones with butter and everything else in them.

Enjoy!

One week till race day!

I have one week till race day and I am extremely unprepared! I went out this morning and ran 7 miles and it kicked my butt, to say the least. My right ankle, left knee and sciatic nerve were just hateful of me today. They were basically begging me to stop. After about mile 5.5, they gave up though and the pain went away...or maybe I just stopped noticing it. Either way I was glad it was gone and hussled to finish my run. Not only was it chilly today, there was a breeze...a cold breeze. Blah. On the bright side, I had on my new Lululemon define jacket!! This is my first piece of Lululemon gear and it was definitely worth the money! Unfortunately for my husband and our bank account, I'm now addicted.

That's my jacket! But not me...only in my past life was I that skinny.

It has cuffins (basically a built in mitten) so you can just flip the fabric over your fingers when needed. It is also really soft and surprisingly warm for being so light. The FedEx guy delivered it last Saturday ( I was on pins and needles for over a week waiting for it while it made it's way from Washington State to the east coast.) and I have gone running in it twice now and worn it to yoga once. Fabulous!!!

The other great find this week was this baby right here...

It's the Oster MyBlend and I think it's my new favorite toy. I make smoothies often and take one to work nearly every morning and the whole washing of the blender was getting really old. A blender is not the easiest thing in the world to clean and the hubby and I were getting really sick of constantly disassembling it to get that dried bit of banana out. One of my friends found this and we were blown away so we had to go get one! I got the blue one, I'm obsessed with anything teal or close to teal.

Here's how it works, the top that you see is actually covering the bottom of the bottle. You throw whatever you want in there, screw on the end with the blades, flip it over and attach it to the motor, push down and blend! When it's done, you take it off, flip the bottle over, unscrew the blade end and screw on the top. Ta-da!!! Rinse off blades, throw them in the drying rack and head out to start your day!

When someone like me who has only minutes to get ready in  the morning comes across something that makes my life easier, I'm sold.


What's you favorite new found piece of running gear or thing that makes your life easier?
Anyone else have sciatic nerve issues while running that can give me a tip?

73 degrees?!?!

Happy Groundhog Day!

It's hard to believe that yesterday was the first day of February, especially since the weather was SO gorgeous! It was 73 degrees out when I left work. Needless to say I wore a running skirt and a tank top! My run ended up only being a little over 2 miles because my calves felt like they were made of lead for the first mile. I don't know what was going on but they did not want to move. After my gorgeous run I took Cricket for a quick walk around the block. I'm trying to make sure we get out and enjoy these awesome weather days because you never know when the cold is going to swoop in and dump 2 feet of snow on us. We have weird weather in Central Virginia.

Loving on the pup before our walk.

Even though these warm days are wonderful and are helping to beat off the winter doldrums, it's giving the kids spring fever WAY early. The winter months are hard enough as a teacher, throw in spring fever and you are all ready to run out of the building screaming. At least it let's them get out for recess and burn off some energy.

I have a race in 2 weeks. It's my first race since the half back in November. I am so NOT ready for it because I have been a slackerrrrr. I am going to be running slow as a turtle. Ah well, it will be good to get back into racing mode. It is a 14K so that is almost 9 miles. I ran five on Sunday and it went pretty good, so I think I will be OK. I hope to do at least 7 this weekend, then it will be go time.

 Forgive me, I watch a lot of Cake Boss.