Long run

I was thinking I'd have to do my long run tomorrow morning before work, because I am going to be out of town all weekend, but as it turns out, I'll be home by noon on Sunday.  So I am going to run fifteen miles on Sunday afternoon rather than running 15 miles tomorrow morning at 6am.  Preferable in SO MANY ways.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The best chocolate chip cookies in world, as far as I'm concerned, are my friend Betsy's.  They are, hands down, the most deliciously perfect concoction ever, and I have loved them for years.  Because Betsy is incredibly wonderful, she shared her magical recipe with me and I am able to make them for my friends and coworkers.  I made them for carpool today and one of my carpool mates ate his dozen before the day was over.  Here's the recipe:

Betsy's Chocolate Chip Cookies


Nouns-
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 - 2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Verbs-
Preheat oven to 375.  Cream the butter and sugars together.  When smooth, add the vanilla and egg and beat on medium speed until smooth.  Stir in the baking soda and salt and add the flour gradually until a stiff dough forms.  Drop large spoonfuls of dough two inches apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes or until light brown.  If your oven is crappy, like mine, you should rotate the cookie sheet halfway through cooking.  Cool on the pan for 1-2 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool.  Yummers!

Fitocracy

So I joined this site called Fitocracy, which is a new social networking/fitness/game thing.  Basically, you put in all your workouts and it gives you points for doing each exercise.  If you get enough points, then you level up!  Neat!  And it gives you quests!  The quests are exercises you've never done before or distances/quantities you've never done before, and in addition to the activity points, you get bonus points for the quest.  And you can follow people, and they follow you, and you can give each props and comment on workouts and whatnot.  Apparently there are also "achievements" you can unlock, but I haven't unlocked any yet.  I am totally in love with this thing.

As a result of the quests, I am doing all kinds of things I would not normally do.  Sometimes that's good; a few extra sit-ups before bed to get the points, or a new exercise at the gym to broaden my workouts a bit.  But sometimes it's a pain.  There is a reason I don't do the barbell bench press.  I hate it.  And yet, by awarding me arbitrary and non-redeemable points for doing it, this website has induced me to go do barbell bench press.  Is that crazy or what?  Bench press.  And barbell quats.  Last week, it was lat pulls.

But, even though I'm a little weirded out by the psychology of this... that I'll do random exercises for illusory internet "points"... I totally love the site.  I love the points, the levels, etc.  Unfortunately, most of my Fitocracy friends are not really playing, so I don't have a very big network, and I would like to share the love.  I have 9 Fitocracy invites left if anyone else wants one!

Meal Plan

This week has nothing very novel, just some quick and easy standbys.  Tonight we are having the fish, because everything can be cooked in the rice cooker or toaster oven and it's too hot to stand over the stove.

Spicy Orange Glazed Tilapia with Quinoa and Asparagus
Strawberry Spinach Salad with Grilled Chicken
Corn and Bean Chowder in the Crockpot
Black Bean and Butternut Burritos
Chicken Casserole


The casserole is for The Husband while I"m out of town this weekend.  It is not fancy Food Network casserole, but the canned cream of something soup kind of casserole that The Husband absolutely loves.  We are classy classy folks!

Real Women

THIS POST is an amazingly true thing.  I should inscribe this on the inside of my eyelids so I will see it every time I blink.  Or perhaps I should inscribe it on the outside, so everyone else will see it.

The discussion of realness was really interesting to me, because it reminded me of the passage from the Velveteen Rabbit about how one becomes "real" through love.

Marathon Training

This morning's run was harder than last week's.  I blame the sun.  Last week, the sun woke me early and I went out early in the sunshine and it was lovely.  This week, the alarm woke me to a grey and dismal sky, and I simply could not get myself moving.  The Husband was up and in his running gear while I was still in my muttering/shambling morning zombie phase.  He had to wait a while for me to get some breakfast, get stretched and lace up my shoes.  Bright sunshine makes such a huge difference; without it, my sheer force of will is barely enough to convince my body to move at all let alone keep moving for fourteen miles.

In any case, I finally dragged my sorry self out of bed and out of the house, and I ran 2 miles with The Husband, which was hard for him, because I have short little legs and he really wanted to go faster.  But he politely paced me for two miles, then he went home and I ran another 12 miles.  For funzies.

This morning's run was not full of butterflies and bunny rabbits.  It was just kind of drab.  For an hour or so I regretted not doing my run yesterday with a group.  Yesterday it was sunny and I would have had some social interaction, and that seemed preferable to the slog I was on.  But gradually I hit my stride and my mind quieted and I appreciated the overcast sky as I got to mile ten and wasn't overheated or thirsty or sweating or sunburned.  I got lots of good thinking in, and also about an hour of total mental silence, which was lovely.

I did skip a short run this week, so I might have been affected a bit by that, but the running itself felt fine.  I felt like I had found my "forever" pace, a rhythm where your body feels like it could really keep on doing this forever.  That lasted until Mile Thirteen, when I could feel my hips starting to creak and my knees complain and each downslope was more of a barely-controlled plummet than a descent.  Still, I ran it.  Yay!

This week's training will have to be compressed a bit, because I am going to Colorado on friday to visit my seester, and I don't want to take time out of my visit to do a long run, and nor do I want to do my long run at Altitude.  I am such a flatlander now that 15 miles at 6000 feet would be a really really bad idea.  Really bad. So I am going to try to get my long run in on Friday morning before work and then maybe do a short run while I'm in Colorado.

Arts and Crafts

Last night I set out to make baby shower invitations for a shower for my friend Miriam, otherwise known as the most adorable pregnant lady in the world.  I am not naturally very artistic, despite an excellent art education as a kid (thanks, mom!) and though I'm a ridiculous perfectionist in other aspects of my life (should the period be italicized after an Id. cite?)  I never managed to get my mom's eye for aesthetic detail or her ability to perfectly execute the images she has in her head.  In fact, I"m a bit of a mess.  The invitations are very cute, but they're also a little ... handmade ... looking.  Which is fine, because they are handmade.  And I'm sure Miriam appreciates my making them, smudges and all.  This process is just making me doubly and triply grateful for my mother and Miriam and their assistance with my wedding save the dates and invites two years ago.  Miriam made the most awesome save the dates ever, and my mom made handmade paper for The Husband and I to make our invites from.  And I'm sure in an hour when I'm yelling at the printer and trying to get the inserts perfect, I'll be doubly and triply grateful for Betsy, who dealt with printing maps and other nonsense for the wedding.

I am surrounded by such creative and skillful people.  So lucky am I.