Author Archives: E.M.

Marathon Training – Week 19 (Again)

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I don’t know if you remember this, but for Week 19 of my first attempt of training for a marathon, I did ZERO miles. I am proud to say this past week I did all of the 23 miles I was supposed to!

It started with a marina run with the boyfriend. He hasn’t jogged in months, and then he goes with me and does 2 miles in less than 20 minutes… I guess I should use that to my advantage and go a little faster than my 11 min/miles. The weather has been so nice (50’s) that I couldn’t wait to go on my weekend runs. So much fun!

As for my eating habits, they were good during the weekdays. I made parmesan-crusted tilapia and spaghetti squash with chard. Delicious and healthy! Can’t say I kept the momentum going over the weekend… had chips, chocolate chip cookies, tons of sushi, chipped beef with gravy, steak, and lots of drinks while bar hopping in Midtown. BTW, I found a new favorite cocktail at Z Bar: a 1944, which is the original Mai Tai with 3 kinds of rum and orgeat (almond simple syrup).

Parmesan-crusted tilapia
Cocktail at Z Bar
Spaghetti Squash with Chard

Marathon Training – Week 20 (Again)

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Even with a gym membership, I just couldn’t bring myself to train for my April marathon during the month of December due to the really cold weather and the holidays. Since I had missed four weeks of training, I had to change my plan. Now, instead of the Reno Marathon in April, I’m shooting for the San Diego Marathon on June 1st, which is just a few days after my birthday. Click here to see the training schedule.

For my first day back to training, I went to the Sparks Marina with my friend B. who is training for a 10k. We did one lap together, which is 2 miles, very slowly, and then I did another lap on my own for a total of 4 miles. I’m glad I found the marina because when I get home from work it’s already so dark, the well-lit marina is my only option for outside running.

As for my long run, I did 7 miles on Saturday. Yay! It wasn’t difficult at all and now I feel like I’m back! It was very windy, but that didn’t stop me. The next day I completed my 5 miles even though I had an incredibly busy day celebrating a late Christmas with the boyfriend. I did a total of 21 miles during my first week of marathon training. So good to be back on track!

Pre-run walk with the dogs

Pre-run walk with the dogs

New Year’s Eve (and eating) in New Jersey

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Okay, I know I said this a couple of posts ago, but this time I will really try to be quick. We spent New Year’s Eve with the boyfriend’s friends in New Jersey. For lunch we went to Stafford Diner, where D. got his favorites: creamed chipped beef and scrapple (pork trimmings – yuck). At night we had a blast drinking with the adults and playing with the kids. If NYE was any indication, 2014 will be a great year.

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Happy 2014 from D. and E. 🙂
Midnight Kiss

Running, Eating, and Traveling in Philadelphia

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It had been one month since my last outside run, but I was committed to my tradition of running in every big city I go to. In a very cold morning, I did a 5 mile loop around Valley Forge National Historic Park in about one hour, stopping for pictures here and there. This park is about 15 miles from Philly and it was the site of an American Revolutionary War encampment. It felt so good to run again! I really needed a break, but now I was ready to start training again.

In the afternoon the boyfriend and I tried to do some sightseeing, but it was so cold I really didn’t want to be outside, so we just did a quick city tour by car, walked by the river for a little bit, and spent the rest of the day at the Barnes Foundation, an impressionist / post-impressionist museum. We had to get tickets online in advance and when we got there we still had to wait in line, but it was worth it to see their extensive collection of paintings by Renoir, Monet, Seurat, Van Gogh… I always love it when I get to see an original of something I’m teaching about and the week before was all about Monet.

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To end our day we walked to Love Park, which has the “Love” sculpture by Robert Indiana. Super cute with all the Christmas decorations!

M. (the boyfriend’s sister) and I
Love Sculpture
The boyfriend and I

As for eating, I had to try a Philly cheesesteak, but since we went to a middle-eastern restaurant (Saad’s), that wasn’t even the highlight of lunch: the lamb shawarma was amazing! I love cities and all the options for authentic places.

Falafel
Philly Cheese steak
Lamb shawarma

Dinner time was “meet the boyfriend’s parents time” too! We met them at  McCormick and Schmidt’s, which is a chain from California I had never heard of. It turned out to be really fancy and really good, which is my cup of tea. Best of all, the boyfriend’s family is awesome. So glad everything went well!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Eating and Traveling: Christmas in Minnesota (and Reno)

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So sorry it’s been taking me so long to update this blog, but with the holidays and all, I needed a break from running and writing to be able to fit more eating and traveling. In order to be able to catch up on everything, I’ll try to keep it short. Pictures tell a better story anyway!

Minnesota Winter

Minnesota Winter

Minnesota was cold. Very cold. We had negative numbers for the low and single digits for the high. And that was even before the whole Arctic storm hit! The last day was nice though, and I could watch my host sister K. and my host nephew C. go cross-country skiing and make snowmen.

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The rest of my time in Minnesota involved relaxing, reading, playing with the niece and nephew, watching Christmas movies (oh, how I love “It’s a wonderful life”!), and eating. I love the Christmas traditions they have there, like decorating cookies, making lefse (Norwegian flatbread), and opening my stocking on Christmas morning! Christmas Eve at Grandma’s is also very special, especially with the kids opening presents from Santa.

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Christmas fun wasn’t over on the 25th. A couple of weeks later the boyfriend and I had our own little Christmas celebration with the dogs. Morning walk, gluten-free egg-free banana candied nut muffin (yes, yum! I should totally post this recipe one day!), bacalhau, my Brazilian lime pie, and a talent show where I sang “Santa Baby”. Plus, I got a glass door for my bathtub and a pre-Christmas dinner prepared by D. with baked brie and all sorts of goodies. I’m a lucky girl.

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More: My Christmas Party

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Every year I have a Christmas party and this year it was another great one full of friends, food, and wine. Oh yeah, and kids. I think there were more kids there than adults. Note to self: hire a babysitter for the next get together. Also, congrats to my friend B. who has been to EVERY SINGLE ONE of my parties for the past 5 years.

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It was a crazy weekend with another Improv show on Friday and another holiday party on Saturday. The Saturday one was at Soule Domain, a really nice restaurant in Tahoe. Thanks to my friends L. and T., D. and I made it home safe after an overdose of good food and wine. I know Thanksgiving has passed, but I can’t stop being grateful for my good friends, so thanks everyone who made it to D.’s show and to my Christmas party and shared some holiday cheer!

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Marathon Training – Week 18

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The title of this post is totally misleading. Yes, I am supposed to be training for my marathon in April, but because of the cold, ice, and snow, I just can’t bring myself to do it. Plus, the holidays are around the corner and I have way too much to get done before the end of the year.

That doesn’t mean I just gave up. I did get a two week pass to Anytime Fitness. Since I can’t run outside, then the next best thing would be to use a treadmill. I did go for two days and both days I ran/walked for 6 miles, so I guess my training for this week consisted of 12 miles, which is probably less than half of what I’m supposed to be doing.  I also skipped Kaia Fit and yoga altogether. Still hoping next week I’ll do better…

More: The Random Holiday Play Generator and Improv Show

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My super talented boyfriend is part of an Improv group who was doing the second part of a holiday show special, so last week I gathered my friends to go see him. The first part of the show were holiday skits, some of them pretty funny, like “A Jehovah witness’ Christmas” and “Santa’s twerking video”. The second half starts with D. asking the audience for a title, and from there they make up a play. You’d think it would be extremely confusing and that it wouldn’t flow well, but this group is so creative and professional, it seemed like they had rehearsed the “Holiday Painting” before, which was the title an audience member suggested. Tomorrow they are doing one last show for the season, so if you’re in Reno, go see them at the Potentialist Workshop at 8 pm!

Improv Show
Improv Show
Z Bar

Marathon Training – Week 19

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For Week 19 I was supposed to do 23 miles. How many did I actually run? ZERO. Yes, you read it right: 0. I am so mad at myself, but at the same time I don’t know how it could’ve been different. We got tons of snow last week, making it hazardous to run outside. I actually tried going to Iddlewild Park, but it was pure ice. Plus, I was also sick, which made it impossible to even walk with all this cold air. The highest temperature was probably 20 degrees this past week, so on Saturday I pretty much just stayed home and did nothing. Literally. I usually do an average of 25,000 steps on a Saturday, but this past one I got less than 500! My eating habits continued to suffer too: Olive Garden, Panda Express, Little Caesar Pizza, a whole batch of chocolate chip cookies… How can I get the strength to go on with this marathon training when I am so ready for winter to be over? Wait, winter hasn’t even started yet! I need a new plan…

Snow Day
I think I need to shovel
Snow at Iddlewild

More: Thanksgiving

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I could go on and on about this year’s Thanksgiving: how my students made the cutest paper turkeys, why my Trader Joe’s meal didn’t work out, how I made amazing chocolate pecan and pumpkin pies in gluten free crust, but all I really want to do is quote Tom Hanks again in Sleepless in Seattle: “It was like… magic.”

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