Stretch it out

Happy Friday!! Once again I’m happy it’s the weekend, despite having to work. Weekends just always have a wonderful feeling about them :)

I woke up before dawn this morning to go for my “long run.” I fuelled with an iced coffee in a frosty mug, and a wasa cracker with PB and smooshed dates.

Even though my iPod conveniently died right before I left, I still had a wonderful run. The beautiful pink sunrise over the river kept me occupied. According to Gmaps Pedometer, it was about 4.55 miles in 45 minutes. I’m happy with a 10-minute pace for my long runs. No need to push it as I get into longer distances.

Unfortunately, my left ankle has been hurting all day. Whyyyyy does running hate me?? I don’t get it! I keep my mileage and speed low, run on even trails, have new fitted shoes, and do a combined warm-up/cool-down of walking for 20 minutes! Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of stretching, rolling and icing I do. The only thing I can think of is that I run like Phoebe from Friends.

Anyone have any ideas??

I ate a plate of fruit to make me feel better.

Oh yeah, there were a couple waffles with AB & yogurt on the side ;)

Then there was a bunch of working, highlighted by a giant turkey and hummus pita.

One of my coworkers started bugging me while I was trying to eat this. I don’t know about you guys, but my meal time is my meal time. I hate being bothered while I’m eating!! How am I supposed to conduct pointless small talk when I’m up to my ears in hummus and spinach?? Not cool. Come back in 15 minutes.

I’d been planning on making spring rolls for dinner tonight, and went with something completely different as soon as I got in my kitchen. I’m not very good at planning meals. I like coming up with things on the spot depending on my cravings. I don’t know what tonight’s supper says about my cravings…

 
Let’s start with that cottage cheese mess. Underneath is what I thought was a purple sweet potato, much like the ones that grace April’s blog. But I was duped.

The package said “Purple Sweeties.” But I missed the small print which said “golden flesh sweet potatoes.” Apparently they’re purple on the outside and golden on the inside. They were a little more potato-ey than regular sweet potatoes, but still quite good! I wonder if they will still turn me orange? :P

I also randomly decided to eat a can of sardines in a mustard sauce that’s been in my cupboard for a while.

I mashed it up with some green onion, tomato and capers and topped it on wasa crackers. This was my first time trying capers and I really liked them! The vinegar/salty taste complimented the mustard sauce perfectly. Overall, an odd and perfectly satisfying dinner! I love whipping things together on a whim. Plans shmans!

So I thought it would be fun to follow up my rolling post by sharing my favourite stretches at the moment. They’re very reflective of the areas that ail me the most – hips, quads and glutes.

 

Except, on that last one, I put my hands around my shin to get a deeper stretch. Soooooo good!

What are some of your favourite stretches? Include a link if you want, and I’ll put them up in a post tomorrow!

Have a great start to your weekend!! :D

Rolling rest days

Hello everyone! Uff, I was up for a good chunk of last night due to crazy thunder and lightning storms in my area. Even with my fan on jet-engine high, and my black curtains, I could still hear and see it. I’m a little zombie-ish today!

Luckily it’s my rest day, so my body is very happy with me. One of my favourite things to do on rest days (besides eating, that’s um, recovery, right?) is foam rolling. Some of you may remember I bought a foam roller back in May to help with a hip injury.

Foam rollers are basically like your personal massage therapist. It’s a cylinder of dense foam, so quite light to pick up, but hard to the touch.

To use it, you just lay whatever muscle you want to massage on it and roll back and forth. Sometimes, it feels really good, sometimes it can be quite painful!

The foam roller is most commonly used for your back, calves, hamstrings, quads and IT band. All types of athletes and non-athletes use foam rollers to massage their muscles at home. For more info, check out reviews on Runner’s World and Bicycling Magazine (my two bibles).

There’s also the question of when to foam roll. A lot of people like to do it right after activity to loosen up their stressed muscles. Personally, doing this usually leads to muscle cramps for me. So I like to wait until before I go to bed and just spend 5-10 minutes rolling out my muscles.

I especially like doing this on rest days, when my muscles are usually the most tense. I do a combo of rolling and stretching, especially my finicky IT band. It also helps loosen up my muscles for my upcoming days of planned activity.

Foam rollers are also relatively inexpensive and easy to transport and store. So it’s definitely something worth looking into if you suffer from a lot of muscle soreness and stiffness! I bought mine at a local running store.

I don’t credit my hip recovery to the foam roller, but I think it definitely helped. Hopefully regularly rolling out my leg muscles will help keep my hip from seizing up on me again :)

Question: What’s your favourite way to soothe sore muscles?

I also ice like a maniac. The slightest pain after exercise immediately gets the iced pea treatment! :P

 

Eats!

Just a few eats for today. I started off with a glorious batch of blueberry protein pancakes. It’s how I cheer myself up after a bad night, or when I have a rough day ahead.

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp ground flax

All blended up! I’ve been making super fluffy batches lately. I think it’s a combo of the extra baking powder and fat from the flax.

My grocery store also started stocking one of my favourite Luna flavours again.

Munchmunchmunch.

This used to be my favourite flavour, but S’mores has taken over in its absence. My store only stocks three other flavours – Toasted Nut n’ Cranberry, Lemon Zest, and Caramel Nut Brownie. Decent flavours, but probably the lamest ones!

You’re going to be shocked by my dinner…

Tempeh burger with butternut squash and almond butter. I got lazy, and the squash and fresh jar of AB were calling my name. If you haven’t tried this combo yet, I highly suggest that you do! Since I don’t cook with oils (cooking oils hurt my tummy) this is a great way to sneak in a little fat with my dinner :)

I’ve also progressed to 90% chocolate without the peanut butter.

Straaaaaight up. This is so rich, all I need is a little piece after dinner to satisfy my after-meal sweet tooth (yes, I have something sweet after every meal, usually a hard candy). Now my 70% stuff just doesn’t taste right. It’s kind of like when I switched to drinking black coffee. Bitter at first, but now that I’m used to it, I can’t go back! I’ll be at 100% a la HEAB soon ;)

That’s all for me folks! I’m thinking of switching to doing two posts a day. I used to do it back before exams and term papers forced me to one update a day. But now that I’m only working 40 hours a week (it’s such a luxury now!) I’m thinking of going back. For me, it actually takes less time to do a couple shorter posts than one big long one. It’ll take you less time to read too ;)

See ya tomorrow! Maybe in the a.m.!! Until then, I’ll be twittering away ;)

One stellar breakfast

Hey! Good news, I am “blah” free today :) I shut the movie off at 10:30 last night, and even though my body tried to get me out of bed at 5:30 this morning, I forced myself back to sleep to get a full 8 hours. After that, I felt much better. I probably average around 7 hours a night, but I’m finding that I need at least one night with 8+ a week.

I started off with a little yoga for runners. It’s been a while since I’ve done this one, I forgot how great it is! After making friends with my legs again, I got to work on one stellar breakfast. 

French toast waffles!!! I microwaved two Nature’s path maple cinnamon waffles, drenched them in egg whites and cinnamon, then pan fried them. SO good! I dipped them in an almond butter-fake syrup mix. I love waffles :)

I spent my morning in bed, reading and internetting. I wanted to wait for the morning traffic to subside before I went out for my hill bike workout. But I also wanted to beat the heat again. So happy I went out before noon!

Duration: 1:02
Distance: 23 km (14 miles)
Avg speed: 23 km/hr (duh)
Max speed: 44 km/hr (27 mph)
Avg HR: 138
Max HR: 167

I only did the hill o’ death once this time. My legs were screaming this whole bike ride. I’ve put them through four straight days of vigorous torture now. I’m so happy tomorrow is a rest day!! I’ve been walking around like this these past couple days…

 

 

I’m also happy to report that my new bra worked! I tested it out before I left. I just wet the sensors on the bra, clipped my Polar transmitter to it, and it worked! I didn’t wear it for the bike ride though, because I was scared it wouldn’t work for the whole ride :P I’ll have to test it out for a whole workout next time. Bytheway, it’s a Running Room brand bra. Running Room is a Canadian chain and carry a lot of their own products. Most of them are pretty good, I recommend their socks ;)

Lunch was a “kitchen sink” of sorts.

It was a mix of:

• 1/3 cup Mediterranean cottage cheese  
• 1 can tuna
• 1/3 cup garbanzo beans
• whack of heirloom tomatoes
• green onion
• green pepper
• a mushroom (using up all my veggies!)
• 1 tsp sundried tomato dressing

  

This was verrrry good. A nice summery lunch. Surprisingly not that filling though. Protein alone just doesn’t do it for me!

I then proceeded to go to the grocery store and spend waaaay too much money. Funny thing is, I made a list and bought only things on it! I think I actually spend less when I go in without a list…

It was so freakin hot by the time I carted my groceries up to my sweltering fourth-floor apartment, all I could muster was a pita for dinner. And oooohhhh what a pita it was…

• hummus
• swiss cheese
• turkey slices
• tomato
• onion
• mushrooms
• zucchini
• green pepper
• broccoli sprouts
• spinach

I have a confession to make. I used store bought hummus. I discovered it back when I bought some to bring to the cottage. It’s President’s Choice organic hummus. Usually I can’t stand the store bought stuff because it’s runny and salty, but this stuff is neither. Still not as cheap as the homemade variety though. Might have taken a couple bucks off my crazy grocery bill!!

Then began an evening’s worth of desserts…

Popsicle.

Caramel.

 

I also just had a chocolate vitamuffin, fresh berries and am now sucking on another popsicle! They’re quite good at cooling me off actually. This time of night is the worst, because it’s hotter in our apartment than it is outside. I sat on the balcony for a little bit and could feel the waves of heat from inside coming through the screen door.

Thank you for all your movie ideas! Everyone has such diverse tastes, I love it! I never answered the questions myself though. The one movie I really want to see is Julie & Julia and the one movie I think everyone should see is High Fidelity. Nick Hornby + John Cusack + music snobbery = love :)

Now for today’s question: what’s your idea of a stellar breakfast?