Contest Winner

I'm a bit of a sucker, I'll admit it.  I love a good raffle and rarely hesitate to enter my name and address for a chance to win something cool.  A couple weeks ago, my favorite restaurant La Tasca was running a promotion for a ten dollar gift card via a facebook contest.  Basically, they cut a paste a picture of sangria onto a picture of a Spanish scene and you had to tell them how many you saw.  Let's be real, if you have the IQ of a doorknob, you could win this thing. 

Ok, maybe not so much sangria
as orange rectangles ;)

Finally, my doorknob IQ paid off!  I was the chosen winner for the second day of the contest :)  What's even better is that I told Alex about the contest and told him to enter on the third and final day and he won the third day!  Yaaaaay, tapas for all!  The ten dollar gift card barely put a debt in our bill but as always the food was delicious and I went away fat and happy. 

It was such a good thing that I went running with my friend Jenny that morning.  It was a beautiful 4.6 miles around Burke Lake Park and the weather was perfect once we warmed up.  Some guy on the trail came up behind us and said "Come on ladies, sprint all out for ten seconds!"  I immediately used pregnant Jenny as a reason not to follow his command.  Jenny may have done it had it not been for me ;)  She's a personal trainer and teaches boot camp classes a million times a week.  She's pretty amazing.

Kara?

The next day I was supposed to get up and go to Burke Lake again with the Ridge Runners but I overslept and decided to run up and down Dale Boulevard.  I should have traded in that few extra minutes of sleep for running around Burke Lake.  Instead of a beautiful wooded trail with plenty of shade, I was running on the far more hilly road and sucking exhaust while the sun beat down on me.  I suppose I thought it was going to be cold like the morning before so I put on a long sleeve tech shirt and tights.  Wrong choice.  I was sooo hot.  I literally wanted to die.  Somehow I managed not to die and actually ran seven miles.

Overall, it was a really great weekend!

Running Late

Woo hoo!  I got up and ran my three miles Tuesday morning :)  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is the small victories that sometimes need the most celebration!  It felt really good to sweat.


I'm sexy and I know it

Want to know what's even better?  No, it's not money or something delicious to eat.  I ran again yesterday for 4.36 miles.  I know, I know, I'm almost a runner again!  Not going to lie, the run was rough.  The hills really sucked the life out of me so obviously, I'm still trying to get my legs back into running shape. 

Yesterday evening, Alex and I met with our photographer for an engagement photo session in Occoquan at Rockledge Mansion.  In true Andrea style, I tried to do way to much during the day so when it came time to leave, I was still trying to put a few curls in my hair so it didn't look like an air-dried mess (I know, wah wah wah).  It was no surprise that while we were trying to get there, we hit every.single.red.light.  By the time we arrived, we were twenty minutes late, I was grumpy and completely felt like calling off the session.  Luckily, Heather  is amazing and didn't act like it was a big deal at all that she was waiting around for us.  I'm soo glad that we did the shoot.  Heather showed us a couple of pictures on the screen of her camera and they looked amazing!  She said it will take her a couple of weeks before the photos are ready for us to view and I cannot wait!  I will definitely be sharing (whether you like it or not).

Are you horrible with time management too?

Will Power is a Muscle

And mine has atrophied. I stuck to the 10k training plan for the first couple weeks (although loosely) and as of recently it has fallen by the wayside.  Alex and I took Julia to the rec center yesterday to go swimming with Stacy and her daughter.  The rec center is close to my house so I decided to after hitting the pool that I would run home.  It was a chill 50 degrees and raining and the run home was miserable.  It turned out that the distance from the rec to the my house if only 1.85 miles and I was so completely grumpy about being cold that I didn't even run up and down my street to round my mileage off to two miles.

I would be angry too if I didn't have a sports bra on...

Despite my mediocre run, I spent a delightful evening cooking dinner with my daughter.  Perhaps it's the parental controls that we are using on the TV or just a budding career in the culinary arts, but Julia's favorite channel is the Food Network.  It's so weird because I am not really one to watch that channel.  Or maybe Julia is getting tired of the meals that I cook and has decided to take matters into her own hands....

The highlight of the meal was green bean fries.  Hold on, they were good!  I promise.  Alex usually chokes down a vegetable or two but for the most part he tries to stay away from them all together.  He actually went back for seconds of these fries!  It was a vegetable miracle :)

Here's the recipe:

Green Bean Fries

8 ounces green beans, trimmed
1/2 cup wheat flour
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups Italian bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
salt
ground black pepper

I blanched the green beans (put in boiling water for 3 minutes, immerse in ice water, and dry with a towel) and then set up a three station breading area.  The first dish had the wheat flour, the second the eggs, and the final dish had the Italian bread crumbs, onion powder, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Once the green beans were breaded, I put them on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet and baked them at 425 degrees for fifteen minutes. 

They were absolute perfection when they came out. 


Anyway, I did some strength training this morning and have three miles planned for tomorrow morning :)

Advocare?

When I began this blog, I really did not intend for it to be a weight loss blog.  I wanted it to document my efforts in becoming healthier and being a better example for my young daughter.  Weightloss is a part of that journey and I will talk about it from time to time but ultimately, it's not the driving force of the blog.  I'm not sure that this counts as a confession, but I think that we are all pretty aware that over the past few months, I have not been the greatest role model in healthy eating and exercise.  It's true, I have gained around twenty pounds.  

Anyway, it's been a struggle trying to get back into a really good exercise routine and making healthy food choices.  I'm slowly getting back into the routine of early morning workouts but the food is still a struggle.  A couple of months ago, Patrice called me up and told me about a new product that she thought I might be interested in.  Once I realized that this was a new business venture for her as well, I was turned off and I told her that I would think about it.  Since that phone call, many of Alex and my friends have tried the product and have had good results from it. 

The product that she is selling is Advocare.  Like I said, many of our friends have done the 24-day challenge and have seen results with it.  Apparently, these products are supposed to help me increase lean muscle mass and decrease body fat.  I decided to give it a try and I am currently in day 4 of the cleanse.  Just for fun (and mostly for myself to see if I wasted my time and money), I have posted some before shots:

Yay, ugly bathroom photos



Good thing the flash covers up my face
so you can't tell if I was sucking in or not ;)

At the very least, I'm hoping that the next twenty four days will help me to reset my eating habits.  Twenty more days to go!

Do you know of anyone that has done the 24 day challenge?  


Do you think the word gullible starts with ME?

I'm a baby

All right, folks.  The 10k training program is off to a rough start.  I got on the treadmill for three miles yesterday but it was not a fun.  The backs of my heels have open wounds on them and running just isn't enjoyable.  I started out with some lovely spiderman band aids over them but unfortunately they were small and came right off.  I stopped after a mile and switched over to the massive band aids but alas, I was already sweaty so they didn't stick at all.  I stopped again after the second mile and took my shoes off and decided to run the last mile in my bare feet. 

It's kind of funny how much louder it is to run on the treadmill in your bare feet rather than in shoes.  I could definitely feel different muscles being used and today my calves are pretty tight.  Not sure this is something that I am going to incorporate into my regular routine but it was definitely interesting.

After I completed my sad three miles, I did some weight training.  I have to admit that I have missed working out with weights like I did with Patrice.  Although it was enjoyable at the time, I am paying for it dearly today.  Not only are my calves tight from the barefoot running but my butt and thighs are hardly cooperating today.  I was scheduled for five miles this morning and I cried uncle and stopped after a slow two miles.  I will attempt the other three tonight!

In more successful news, I taught Julia how to use a vacuum cleaner!  What's even better is that she hasn't caught on to the fact that it is work. Yes, I will be exploiting this to the fullest ;)

I heart vacuuming

Are you a baby about sore muscles?

Are you successful in getting your kids to clean up around the house?

Planned Redemption

At least, that's what my mother always told me.  As per usual, I'm not the most obedient daughter and seldom put this little gem into action.  Of course, just in everything, Mom was right and that's why I missed a new PR by one stupid second.  My next 10k is just a month away so let's get planning!

Adaptation from Mr. Higdon's Intermediate 10k

I give each and every one of you permission to check in on my progress.  Shoot me an email and I can give you my address, cell phone number and other ways to harass me about sticking to the plan.  Seriously folks, give me some peer pressure!

Am I seriously supposed to be intimidated
 by someone in an argyle sweater??

Anyway, my next race is the Apple Blossom 10k on May 5th.  I have never run this race before nor do I know anyone that has run it.  I hope that it's not 6.2 miles completely uphill so that I have a fighting chance at a PR.  Come on, 59 minutes!

Are you a crazy planner or do you fly by the seat of your pants?

Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k Race Report

So I ran the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k this past Saturday and had a blast.  For the first time EVER, we had four out of six members of my family running!  Of course, my trusty running partner (my dad) was there, as well as my two brothers, Jeremy and Sean. 

Jeremy loves to run!

We all drove down Friday night and stayed in a hotel and that was the best idea EVER.  For the Maymont 8-miler, I drove down to Richmond that morning and I was very tired to say the least.  The weather in Richmond was pretty crapolicious; it was cold and rainy.  There were about forty thousand runners so waiting to get across the start line was the most miserable part of all. 

All smiles before standing in the rain

Everyone in my group actually got to the race about 45 minutes late but there were still waves crossing the start line so we jumped in and were able to start running within fifteen minutes.  Of course, as with all large races, it was very crowded and slow going for the first quarter mile or so.  The race was down Monument Avenue and they shut down the entire road for the event so there was plenty of room for running once it cleared out a bit.  There were plenty of port o' potties along the course and plenty of water and powerade too. 
So let's be honest for a moment.  I have not been running like I should have been to meet my goal of 59 minutes for this 10k.  In fact, as of the morning of that run, my revised goal was to finish the race without walking any part of it.  Well, I was successful in not walking it and it was pretty easy to keep my mind off of how much I wanted to die by listening to the bands and spectators cheering us on along the way.  That has to be my favorite part of this run.  There are so many great groups that come out to cheer on the runners and it is a really fun atmosphere. 

Even though I didn't make my original goal time, I did finish the race with an overall 9:45 minute/mile.   I was kind of excited about that until I realized that I finished one second after my finish time for the Turkey Trot 10k I ran last November.  One second??  Ugh.  Oh well, I guess I can still bask in the glory of beating my dad and my two brothers :)

Have you ever missed a PR by one second?