My New Favorite Salad

The other day I was making lunch at my moms and was just using what she had in her fridge.  I didn't feel like making anything extra special so I was just throwing stuff together and I came up with this gem of a salad

Spinach 

Chicken

String Cheese

Craisins

Cottage Cheese

Gold Fish

Parmesan Cheese

A light drizzle of a dressing of your liking.

It was so good.  That since then I have made it three or four more times. I am really loving these days using just spinach leaves as my greens.  You all must try it.

On a side note I am sort of looking forward to school starting again.  Anyone else?  My kids are getting bored and I am getting bored of thinking of news ways to keep them moving.  Dance is starting back up again and my girls are over the moon excited.  But they still need something to do in the mean time.  So this is what I came up with last night.  I made my salad and really wanted to eat it outside.  I have been missing eating outside this summer since we are in a apartment and we have no porch.  But we do have a courtyard so I took my salad down and made the kids run around and around it.  I even kept them instreseted buy timing them.  I was calling it time trials and that made it even more exciting.  What are you all doing to keep your kids from killing each other??

-Heather

Short Fast Tempos = HELLISH

So I can't say my week has panned out like I thought.

To start, Monday morning I was supposed to go out and run 5 miles with 3.5 @ 7:30 pace.....well that didn't happen. My phone died in the middle of the night (alarm clock) and then I woke up late and said ahhh what the hell.  So I decided to switch gears and think maybe I could get a swim or go for a short bike ride later. But nope, I did absolutely nothing but hang at the pool with my little dude Peter.  It was SOO nice.

Pool, here we come.

Tuesday, I did wake my lazy self up and forced myself to get out the door with my running shoes on. It wasn't easy in the least but somehow I managed to do it.  I decided, "Ok, I missed my short fast tempo yesterday so I'll just skip running club today do that workout instead." So I started with a warmup mile which felt great and then proceeded to attempt 3.5 miles @ 7:30.  Well after 2 miles I stopped, felt like I was gonna die, lied down on the concrete sidewalk and looked up in the sky and wondered what in the world I was doing to myself =) Then I dragged my butt off the concrete (I had the outline of a sweat body on the concrete... did I mention it is HOT outside), turned up my music louder (I will be deaf later in life I'm sure) and finished 2 miles easy.

This is a picture of me in the ocean somewhere in the Caribbean shortly after I got married.  If I am gonna endure super hot weather I'd much rather be here.

Although I didn't go as far as I'd hoped I am glad I kind of figured out where I am physically.  So next week I am going to try and go 2.5 miles @ 7:30 and add 1/2 mile each week. Anyone with me?

After running I did attend barbell class like planned and I also found time to swim 1600m. So I figured, Tuesday made up for Monday.

Here is my delicious tuna sandwich I made for lunch.  I have made this recipe a few times now and I am never disappointed.  Thanks again Giada.  

Wednesday I did do what I originally had planned, and that was a mini run through of the Sprint Tri I am gonna participate in next weekend. I met up with some friends, we biked, ran and then swam. It all felt relatively good, we timed our swim so we could turn in our swim time for 100m. They want you to turn in how long it takes you to swim 100m at a normal pace so they put you in the correct lane when swimming during the race. I am coming in slightly under 2 minutes.

Today I am heading out the door shortly to run 10 miles. The bike ride I originally had planned isn't gonna happen until tomorrow morning. I don't really care because it was either go during the scorching HOT sun of the afternoon or wake up early Friday and ride then. I will go to Total Conditioning class Friday as well and possibly hop in the pool but my main activity that day will be the ride.  I want to head into boulder and kick my butt going up some hills. For some reason tackling hills on a bike is so much more fun then tackling while running....

This is a deathly steep hill in Stillwater that we ran up while I was just visiting.  So steep, they close it in the winter and they named it chili chute or something like that....?. Not fun, but a great workout. I don't think this pic does it justice but either way, steep enough that it needs to be mentioned.

It has been so crazy hot here that the motivation to go workout in the middle of it has been slim. But regardless some physical activity has been happening. It is interesting training for a Tri because now aside from running you are trying to think about the swim and the biking and it just makes for a busy workout schedule... kind of nuts.  I can only imagine how much training is involved with an Ironman.

I am missing my family all having fun up in Minnesota this week!  This is Heather and the Stillwater bridge with a picture of our hometown in the background.  Miss you guys! =)

Would you rather be in scorching hot weather in the Caribbean or your hometown?
me, Caribbean. I also wouldn't say no to Hawaii.....

Anyone out there made anything delicious lately?
That Tuna is always good, but I have also had some delicious salads.

Who's gonna eat some Fro Yo today?!?
ME, I decided today for my afternoon treat I am hitting up Red Mango for some strawberry Fro Yo topped with Mochi, M&M's, and Oreo Cookie =)


Happy Running all, and may we all make it through the scorching hot hot hot days of summer!  -Jen