Look what I won

I won a giveway from Natalie over at Lil Runner.  I now have some fall flavors of Clif bars.  Yum!

I survived Hopeapalooza

Last week was such a crazy week, I can't believe I survived.  My little girl is 3 years old.  I can't believe it.  I feel like she is a child now, not a baby or even a toddler (I know she is technically still a toddler, but it doesn't feel like it). 

Little Miss Hope Cecile has been giving us drama from the very beginning.  Not only was she conceived with love, but also modern science and medicine.  Then when I was 20 week pregnant, her growth dropped a little.  They told us not to worry but come back for another extensive ultrasound in 6 weeks.  We did and she had dropped even more, being diagnosed with borderline IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction).  I was put on modified bestrest and told to consume as many calories as possible (easy to say after they freak you out so bad that the thought of food makes you want to vomit).  I won't take you through all of the details, but the specialists wanted me induced after she stopped growing at 38+ weeks which was something I didn't want, but had been so upset for so long, I just wanted her out and healthy.  The induction went well and relatively fast for inductions and my "miracle" baby was born on Oct. 14, 2008 at 7:30am (yep I labored all night long).

3 years later, . . .

For her birthday, we took her out to dinner and to see Disney on Ice - Dare to Dream.  Dinner was nearby the arena at Johnny Rockets.  Little Hope wanted a "pink" shake and chicken fingers.  And they have a very good veggie burger, so I was happy. 

At first, she didn't like the show. 

We were very close, it got dark fast, and it was loud, so it was a good 20 minutes before she calmed down.  She survived and really enjoyed the second half.  The next day was her family birthday party, aka Christmas for Hope. 

For dinner, I did 2 veggies soups, vegetarian chili with butternut squash (pretty much used this exact recipe), and baked potato soup.  The chili is very good, btw.

For her cake, Hope wanted a pink cake with pink icing and pink ice cream. 

It was a whirlwind weekend, but we survived and lived to tell the story, including this guy . . .



Faux egg salad Sandwich

So I blogged a week or so ago about my Vegan Cobb Salad.  I know what you were thinking.  Great, but what am I going to do with the rest of can of chickpeas?  Well I will tell you.  It's called "Faux Egg Salad" and it's delicious.  And even better, you don't have to dirty a lot of dishes or gadgets. 

It's very simple, but very yummy. 

Serves 1

Ingredients

1/2 cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 T mayo (vegan or regular)

1 T diced pickles

Pinch of salt and pepper

2 slices of great bread (I used pumpernickel)

Nondairy butter (or regular butter) (optional)

Directions

Place chickpeas in a small bowl and mash them with a fork.

Add mayo next and continue to mash.  You can have it as smooth or lumpy as you like it.  The first time I did it, I kept it pretty lumpy, but the next time, I smoothed it out more (I prefer smoother).

Add in the pickles and salt and pepper to taste. 

Lightly toast bread and pat with a little butter.

Place chickpea mixture on bread and serve.

This is a great, filling lunch for vegetarians and vegans when you want something with some bulk.  I love it!

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Half marathon - Race Recap

Oops.  Should have gotten this out sooner, but blogger is just taking a back seat to everything right now and things have been crazy. 

Timeline

Saturday:  The hubs studied all day for his exam so I was on kid patrol.  We went to Home Depot for their Kid's Workshop (it's free BTW) and the little lady made a helicopter.

Then it was off to the "Expo" to get my race number.  Not much to do there so I just grabbed my number, shirt, and swag and left.  The rest of the day was typical.  Kids went to bed, the hubs and I watched some football and then he left to spend the night out to get a good night's sleep.  I was feeling very nervous.  I felt like I hadn't trained enough, and was concerned about hitting a wall (I know it's only 13.1 miles), but I was nervous.  With my lack of sleep, I felt weak.  I set my alarm for 4:50am.  The little guy woke up at 1:00am.  That was pretty good for him.  I fed him, then put him back to bed.  At 4:20am, my daughter woke up with a bad dream.  She was crying.  I went in there to help her.  Calmed her down and at 4:30am, the little guy woke up.  I fed him (this was going to hurt my pumping that I was supposed to do at 4:50am) and tried to put him back down.  Didn't work.  For the next hour, I was back in there every 5 minutes.  He would not go down.  At 5:30am my sister arrived to watch the kids and I was off.  I told her good luck (he didn't go down until 6:15am btw). 

I drove over to the race, not far from my house.  Got there in plenty of time.  Had my pre-race snack of banana and almond butter.  Went to the potty (no line) and then went back to the car because I was freezing.  I had debated about what to wear.  I decided on running capris, dryfit shirt, and a long sleeve dryfit shirt.  I knew I would be fine for the race, but I was cold now.  I sat in my car for 20 minutes and then I had to pee again.  Well now the line was super long, so I scratched that idea.  I did a warm-up lap and ate my Clif Shot Blok and got in line.  It was a smallerish race.  2,500 runners or so.  

Race started at 7am.  I was off.  I felt ok.  Looked at my watch (sometime I typically don't do) to see how my pace was.  About 8:30 at the beginning.  That was good.  I didn't want to go out too fast.  Now I am not sure if it's age, lack of sleep, or lack of training, but I used to be a 1 mile warm-up girl.  After one mile, I was ready to go.  Not anymore!  Now, it's at least 2 miles.  Those 1st 2 miles were hard.  I felt awful.  I thought, there is no way I am going to finish this, let alone averaging 8:17 minute miles.  After mile 2, I said (to myself), ok, all miles under 9:00 minutes would be great for me.  Mile 3 - 9:00.  Crap!  Ok, from now on.  After that, I started to get into a groove and my legs started to really loosen up and feel better.  I was only getting water at the hydration stations, because you never know what the gatorade is going to taste like.  Sometimes it's watered down and that's great, but sometimes, it's really strong and that is not good for my tummy while running.  At mile 4, I took off my long sleeve and tied it around my waist.  Around mile 5, I had another Shot Blok and then another around mile 9.  Basically, when I noticed my energy getting low, I had one.  I was familiar with the route from doing this race 2 years ago (last year I was pg so I couldn't run it).  Miles 10 and 11 were hilly and that sucked because both splits were over 9:00 minutes, but other than that, I stuck to my under 9 minutes and kept it consistent. 

At the end, I started picking people off.  Thank you to the course for giving me 2 small downhills at the very end.  So nice!  I saw a guy right in front of me at the end, so I just took off.  We ended up tying according to official race results, but in my eyes, I beat him. 

Would have loved to have finished under 1:55:00, but oh well.  Maybe next time.  Average pace was just under 8:46.  Not bad considering I have a 6 month old at home who doesn't let his mommy sleep.  :)  Hey, I am trying not to beat myself  up over my crappy time. 

After finishing, I grabbed my food and water and started to walk around.  There was a place to get a massage but I was holding all my food, so I decided to just go home.  No fan support for me.  Lucky for me, my daughter greeted me at the door and loved my new bling (race medal). 

We spent the rest of the day going to the park (pretty day) and watching football.  The hubs called at 2:20pm saying he was just now breaking for lunch because his computer crashed on question #9.  Took them over 2 hours to fix.  He also said the test was hard.  His goal was to start back by 3:00pm so he would call me around 6pm when he finished.  5:30pm hit and after that, I just kept looking at the clock.  At 6:02pm, he called.  HE PASSED!!!!!  I was so relieved and excited for him.  So while I didn't PR my race by means, I got the chance to run and hubs is a genius.  Good day!

Race Results

Chip Time:  1:55:11

Overall:  685

Sex Place:  209

Division Place:  44

Vegan Cobb Salad

There are few things I miss since going vegetarian a few years ago, but now that dairy is out of the question, I have been mostly vegan for the past 2 1/2 months (ok, some ice cream has fallen into my mouth a couple of times, but that's it).  For the most part, I can make anything that I had before in a vegetarian or vegan way.  The problem is when I go out.  Now I don't go out very much and definitely even less with kids, but when I only sleep for a couple of hours continuously, and try to run, maybe work that day, straighten up the house, make lunches for the next day, etc. I am pretty tired and making a lovely dinner is not a priority.  Of course, I would rather be in the kitchen making a yummy dinner than cleaning the house or doing laundry.  So I have had to down play dinner for a past few months.  One thing I used to love is cobb salads.  I never made them at home, but I used to order them a lot.  Now I know they are not healthy, but boy they were yummy.  Well this is something I really can't order anymore, so I had to come up with something I could do at home.

Vegan Cobb Salad

(serves 1)

Ingredients

2-3 cups romaine lettuce

1/2 plum tomato

1/4 avocado, chopped

1/2 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 strips of veggie bacon (I used Smart Bacon by LightLife)

1/4 cup celery

1/4 cup non-dairy cheese (I used Daiya cheddar shreds)

2 tablespoons of your favorite dressing (I wanted creamy so I went with Goddess dressing)

Directions

1. Make bacon according to packages (I have microwaved it and cooked it on the stovetop, if you have the time use the stovetop)
2. Spread out lettuce
3. Take each ingredient and line them up over the romaine
4. Sprinkle on the dressing

Yes, simple directions, but like I said, this was never something I made, I usually just ordered it in restaurants.  I haven't found a restaurant that does vegan cobb salads, so this is a great way to get my fix.  The chickpeas are a great substitute for eggs here.  And I usually got mine without chicken anyway, so I don't miss a thing with this version.

Do you have any meals you now make at home that you used to get only when you were out?

Last scheduled run before the big day

So I ran my 3 miles on Friday and only missed one run this week (work and lack of sleep are to blame).  I am not feeling great about the race, but I am excited to be getting out there. I had planned on running a race in Aug and Sept but I got sick in Aug and my lack of sleep made it hard for me to get out of the house early to race. Picked up my race number today. Not much there other than some shirts for sale. I had both kiddos so I just grabbed my Number and headed out (we had just come from Home Depot Crafts, Hope made a helicopter).

I have never run a half this unprepared. I did not get all my training runs, and I have not slept a full night's sleep in 6 1/2 months. My legs had a hard time recovering from long runs because I can't sleep more than 2 1/2 hours at a time. Should be interesting.

I am a competitive person but I am going to try and go out there and treat it as a nice long solo run. I have a new mix on my iPod and the weather will be cool (43 degrees at the start). I hope that will be enough to keep me loose. I set my Garmin virtual partner for 8:23 min pace, which would have me finish just under 1:50:00. Not a PR by any means but I would find that respectable. We will see how respectable I do tomorrow.

Also, just as I finish my race, my poor hubs will be taking the patent bar (9am-4pm). So if you are going to pray for anything, pray for him to pass. That is more I portent then my little race.