Niki's Neverending Adventure

Hope everyone had a good Wednesday today!! I am currently catching up on my recorded shows on the DVR. I had a nice 4 mile recovery run this afternoon. My legs felt tired but not too dead. My calves were the most sore and I even took one of Sadie’s tennis balls and massaged all the knots out this evening. Maybe I should get a foam roller?? Anyone have one or use one? I kept a pretty good pace, especially for it being a recovery run! I did 4 miles in 39:36 at a 9:54 min/ mile pace. I’m hoping my calves feel better by the morning for my speed work!!

 

Tomorrow I have to give a presentation in front of not only my class by the 2nd and 3rd year CRNA students too. I am DREADING it! I absolutely hate public speaking. I get so nervous and spacey and my voice literally shakes! Not to mention I go from shades of white to bright red. So I am not looking forward to this at all and can’t wait until tomorrow is over with! The only good thing about tomorrow is Bunco!! Looking forward to going to that after my presentation. So any good public speaking tips would be greatly appreciated, as would happy thoughts and prayers for tomorrow:)

 

I wanted to share with ya’ll this recipe I made tonight for Chicken Chili. I got the recipe off of Kristin’s blog and it was so delish!! I get so many great recipes from her! And,  I have tons of leftovers!! Here’s the recipe:

 

Chicken Chili

serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 small onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 28oz cans tomato sauce

1 can black beans, drained & rinsed

1 small can baked beans

2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded (I used my leftover Rotisserie Chicken)

2 Tablespoons chili powder

Heavy dash of cumin

Dash of cayenne pepper

Dash of red pepper flakes

2-3 Tablespoons brown sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Sauté onions in a large soup pot, in olive oil for 10 minutes on medium low until translucent. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for another 2 minutes.

2. Add tomato sauce, black beans, baked beans and shredded chicken to the pot and stir to combine. Add seasonings, stir to combine, turn heat up to medium and let simmer for 15 minutes.

3. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Top with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, crackers and enjoy!

 

 

 

Ya’ll, this was so good and so easy!!

 

 

I topped it with a little Light Sour Cream and some shredded Cheddar Cheese. Yum-O!!

 

 

I made some Jiffy Cornbread Muffins to go with it! You can’t have Chili without cornbread!!

 

Seriously, try this recipe!! Well, I’m off to get my beauty rest! Goodnight!

Posted in: on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at at 9:15 PM 4 comments    

Finally we have some fall temps here!! When I woke up this morning it was a lovely 50 degrees!! Perfect long run weather! I was ecstatic. I did have to think a little bit more about what to wear, shorts or capris…tank or t-shirt?? I figured I would rather be a little chilly in the beginning so I went with shorts and a t-shirt. Ended up being PERFECT. I headed out to my usual long run place and headed out for my 9 miler. My legs felt a little more tired than usual and I figured my time would be a little slower, but it wasn’t!! At the beginning of the run I kept glancing at my pace on my Garmin to make sure I wasn’t going too slow or too fast, but by the 2 mile mark I was in my groove. I really just need to let myself run (on my long runs) and not worry about the pace at the beginning because I always get into my groove without trying!! I stuck in a bunch of hills on this run mainly because I really just love hills! Crazy, right? I would much rather run hills than run flat. Anyone else like this?? I think it’s kinda neat that when I go to do my long runs each week, I see the same runners and walkers every time! I’m getting to know their face well!!

 

My run was quite uneventful, actually really relaxing! I did see some crazy looking ORANGE mushrooms growing from the ground! Anyone ever seen orange mushrooms before! Wish I would have had a camera to take a picture!!

 

I did 9 miles in 1:35 which is a 10:34 min/ mile pace! Last week I did 10:43 pace for my 8 miler so I am super happy to have gone longer and a bit faster today!!

 

Normally after my runs my tummy is not very happy and I don’t end up eating anything for hours. However, today I was starving when I finished and could not get food into my tummy fast enough!! Here’s what I made super fast:

 

 

2 mini ww bagels, one with PB and one with cream cheese, a banana, and Awake tea! Perfect meal!!

 

Running question: At what mileage do you start incorporating gels, shot blocks, etc. during long runs? I’m at the 9 mile marker and not sure if I should be fueling during my runs. Currently I am just eating a zbar one hour before my run and taking sips of H20 every 3 miles or so and it has been ok up to this point. So I was just wondering when I should start using fuel on my runs!

Second question: At what mileage do ya’ll start taking ice baths? So not looking forward to this!!

Posted in: on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at at 10:48 AM 6 comments    

Hey ya’ll! I have had an awfully long day today:( The BIG TEST was this afternoon and it was just as bad as we all expected. No one felt good about it. I knew those chapters so well and they make the most random test questions that I wouldn’t have known even if I studied more! I hate that! Well, at least all my classmates felt the same way! They keep telling us, it doesn’t matter what your test grades are, just learn and understand the material. Well that’s all fine and good but when you have to keep a B average to stay in the program, then you have to worry about grades to some extent… Ahh, I digress. Not looking forward to finding out what grade I made.

 

On to happier things… it was SO nice to come home from such a long day to dinner already cooked! As I mentioned in my earlier post, I had a pot roast cooking away all day in my slow cooker!!

 

 

I bought these liners to try out today… anyone ever use them?? Love the idea but I felt like my meat and veggies kind of had a “plasticy” taste. Made me kind of weary to try them again!! Great idea though!

 

 

Here’s the liner in the slow cooker… simple enough!!

 

 

I then chopped up an onion, some red potatoes, and carrots and put them in the bottom of the slow cooker. I also added 1/2 cup H20 to the veggies.

 

I also browned the meat on both sides (seasoned with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper) before placing on top of the veggies. This picture lighting makes the meat look funny! I promise it looked normal! Haha.

 

 

Here’s the final product! Yummy! I cooked it on low for 10 hours and the pot roast was so moist! Looking forward to these leftovers!!

 

I may or may not have had some more ice cream after dinner ;)

 

I watched a new show called Trauma tonight and really liked it!! I am loving all the new medical shows on TV! Anyone else watch this tonight??

 

Well I am hoping for a nicer, more relaxing day tomorrow but I doubt that will happed! Goodnight!

Posted in: on Monday, September 28, 2009 at at 9:27 PM 3 comments    

Good morning friends!! Hope you are having a good start to your Monday morning!! I had my alarm set for 7 am but wouldn’t you know, Sadie had other plans. She woke me up at 6:30 and by then I was already a little awake so I just went ahead and got up. We went on a walk around the block (about a mile) and then I came home and did 20 minutes of a strength workout. I thought I would share with ya’ll my little workout area in my house.

 

 

This is technically supposed to be the dining room but I figured I would never use a formal dining room and turned it into my workout area!! It opens directly into my living room (they are basically like one big room) so my treadmill is directly in view of the TV! This is a MUST for treadmill running!! It also makes it easy to walk and watch my shows I’ve recorded to get in a little more exercise! I bought Al the weight bench for Christmas and we both use it a lot! Good investment! I also have some free weights in the corner that you can’t really see that I use a lot. Just wanted to show ya’ll my “little gym”!

 

 

So this morning I was in a cereal mood so I had:

 

1 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch (Honey Flax flavor), 1/2 cup skim milk, and a small banana. I also had a cup of Almond Amaretto coffee! It was good but lately I have just been more fond of tea! Probably would have liked that better this morning than coffee!!

 

 

I am about to head off to my study group before my “BIG TEST” and then I have lab this afternoon! I got my Pot Roast going in the slow cooker already and I am so looking forward to having dinner ready when I get home tonight! I will share my Pot Roast recipe later!

 

 

I hope ya’ll have a good start to the week and I am going to leave you with the cutest pup in the world:

 

Sadie being her lazy self!! Isn’t she precious??

Posted in: on at at 9:15 AM 4 comments    

I had a good running week this week! Due to the rain I had to shuffle some runs around, putting me running 4 days in a row again! Oh well, I managed it:) So here’s the recap:

Monday: Strength Training and Walking

Tuesday: Fartleck Run 5-4-3-2-1 (5 miles total)

Wednesday: Strength Training and Walking

Thursday: 8 miles @ 10:43 pace

Friday: 4 miles @ 9:57 pace

Saturday: 4 miles @ 9:38 pace

Sunday: 5 miles @ 10:25 pace

Total: 26 miles!!

 

Todays 5 miler was good but tough. Being that it was my 4th day of running in a row, my legs were beat. They were tired this whole run and it didn’t really help that it was a hilly 5 miles. Even though my legs felt tired, my breathing felt great! I’m sure I could have kept going at that pace for a few more miles at least! I’m glad I didn’t push it because I don’t want to over do it. Tomorrow is an off day and I am looking forward to being able to sleep in a little (only until 7am but that’s sleeping in for me!!). Tomorrow is my BIG TEST that I have been talking about all week. I am so ready to just have it over with! Ugh, so sick of studying the same thing over and over!!

 

Here’s the rest of my eats from today:

I had some Chicken Salad that I made earlier today on a bed of Romaine lettuce and a Honey crisp apple! The apple was divine and everything else was really yummy too!

With a nice glass of Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc!

And some Butterfinger Ice Cream for dessert! Note: I may have had a little more than this and am now totally regretting. Al bought this yesterday, it definitely wasn’t my doing because I have no ice cream self control!!

 

Gotta catch up on some blogs and then go to bed! I’m sleepy:) Goodnight!

Posted in: on Sunday, September 27, 2009 at at 9:52 PM 0 comments    

Kristin did a post on meal planning recently that made me interested in doing it myself!! I started off last night looking at the Kroger ad for this week and writing down everything that was on sale. That way, it might just help me think of meals using the on sale items!! Then after that, I picked out 4 meals that I wanted to make and listed all the ingredients that I didn’t have on hand. I then made a grocery list and placed everything into sections of the grocery store ( like produce, meat, dairy, etc.) so it would be really easy and quick to navigate the store. I also added the staple items that I would need for breakfast, lunches, and snacks! Simple right?? Well the planning was a little more time consuming than normal, but it was definitely easier to navigate the store! I really kinda had fun doing it this way! Haha. Here’s what I got:

Here is a lot of the miscellaneous items I got. Sugar, eggs, clif bars (they were only $1 each!), butter, yogurt, tea bags, whipped cream cheese, almond extract (I put this in my oatmeal!), milk, frozen mangoes for smoothies, mini ww bagels, Kashi Go Lean Crunch and Mountain Dew and Gatorade for Al.

Here’s the produce: Honey crisp apples, bananas, tomatoes, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, 2 onions,carrots,  kiwis, peaches, celery, and red potatoes.

This is the meat and canned goods. I got a pot roast, a rotisserie chicken, salmon filets, black beans, baked beans, jiffy cornbread mix, tomatoes, tomato sauce, alfredo sauce, and pepper.

 

Got a lot right?? Well I spent $115.88 which is less than I normally spend. Usually it’s around $125. I don’t know how some of ya’ll only spend $50 a week. I think I would starve. Please enlighten me on the money saving skills! I already use coupons and buy sale items and store brand.

 

Here are the meals for the week:

1. Pot Roast with Red Potatoes, Carrots, and Onion

2. Chicken Chili with Cornbread

3. Spicy Chicken Alfredo with a side salad

4. Brown Sugar Salmon with Brown Rice and Broccoli (this is the meal Al requested, he loves it!!)

 

I am also making Chicken Salad for just myself tonight with some of the rotisserie chicken and the rest of it will be used in the chili and pasta dish. For lunches, I will be having salads, bagels with cream cheese, and leftovers. And for breakfast, my normal, cereal or oats. So I think everything will get used up! I would love any more tips ya’ll have for meal planning and grocery shopping!!

 

Here are my eats for today so far:

For Breakfast I had 1 slice of ww toast with butter, a small piece of pumpkin bread (it’s about gone) and a chai tea latte made with skim milk.

 

For lunch I had leftover chunky tomato soup and 2 mini ww bagels with whipped cream cheese. Loving the whipped cream cheese! Have ya’ll ever tried it??

 

And for my afternoon snack/ study break, I had 4oz of blueberry oikos yogurt with 1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch.

And some Black Tea for a little pick me up!!

 

I will be back later to post dinner and my week 6 training recap (including today’s run)! Hope ya’ll are having a GREAT Sunday!!

Posted in: on at at 6:00 PM 3 comments    

I was lucky enough to get to stay and have dinner with my parents tonight! I love eating over there because they always have something good! Plus, like I said earlier today, my pantry is super bare (more on that later…) So here’s what we had:

I made a super yummy Summer Salad with mixed greens, cucumber, tomato, onion, gorgonzola cheese, and strawberries with Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing!

 

We also had grilled teriyaki chicken sandwiches with pineapple. I only ate about 1/2 the bun before I discarded it.

 

With a small glass of Sauvignon Blanc!

 

Here’s it all together! It was so good and I’m stuffed!! I also had a few candy corns that my mom had in the candy dish!! Love Halloween candy!!

 

I ended up finding some new shorts today at Sports Authority. I really like running in spandex type shorts because they don’t move around very much and I wanted a pair a little longer than my others. All shorts end up rubbing my legs no matter what I do so it helps to have different lengths so they don’t all rub the same spot!! I am so ready to be able to wear my running capris and pants and not have to worry about this issue! Come on cooler weather!!

 

I decided that I am going to try meal planning and am working on that tonight! I will post more about that tomorrow! Have a great night!

Posted in: on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at at 8:01 PM 2 comments    

Finally! No rain today and the sun is even out! The only thing that could possibly make this day any better is a little cooler temp, but hey I will take it! I decided to run after class again today and it was much hotter than yesterday with that sun beating down on me!

 

I did the same hilly 4 mile route as yesterday but today I ran it in 38:22 averaging out to a 9:38 pace. That’s 19 seconds per mile faster than yesterday! And pair that with a hotter temp and the sun beating on me at noon, and it makes for a hard run! I was exhausted when I finished but so happy I was able to push myself extra hard!

 

I live in a relatively small, country town outside of Memphis. I have never seen anyone else run out here, EVER. I know Erin runs in our town too but I think we are the only ones! Haha. And the people out here act like they have never seen a person run before! I constantly have people stare at me, like stare as they pass then jerk their head around and stare more! I also get a lot of honks when I run the main road and that irritates me most of all! Don’t honk at me unless you know me. Period. And today I had a dog in a car pass that was barking at me. Geez people/dog… I’m just a runner. Get used to it:)

 

Today has been a breakfast filled day so far! One, because I love breakfast foods, and two, because my pantry is pretty bare!! Here’s my breakfast:

I had one small container of blueberry Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch, and 1 tsp. of Naturally More PB. It was super good! I need to eat this more often!!

 

I also went to Starbucks on the was to my Anatomy class and decided to try a tall nonfat Awake Tea Latte(I have been seeing these floating around the blog world and decided that I needed to try it)! The verdict?? Loved it!! I am a huge tea fan anyway so this was awesome, especially since it’s only 120 calories!!

 

And for lunch, another breakfast dish:

Oatmeal!! Mine contained 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 skim milk, 1/3 cup H2O, 1 small banana, some golden raisins (love these!!), and 1 tbsp. of Naturally More PB. I literally can’t eat my oatmeal without some kind of nut butter! I think it just really makes the dish!!

 

I don’t plan on having breakfast for dinner though, but I’m still not sure what I’m going to have!!

 

I need to run out to Sports Authority and pick up another pair of running shorts since I am down to 2 pairs (Sadie likes to eat them for some reason…) so I think I might do that and visit my parents too! Hope ya’ll are having a great weekend so far!!

Posted in: on at at 3:08 PM 3 comments    

Hey friends! Hope ya’ll are having a wonderful day!! I’ve been semi busy with school but I was able to fit a run in around lunch time. I set my alarm this morning so I could run before class, but I am finding it very difficult to make myself run in the dark. I keep freaking myself out. So needless to say, I went back to sleep after I realized it was raining and going to be dark for my entire run. I really wish I could get over this fear of the dark! It’s not that I live in a bad area at all but it’s more on the country side than city, therefore lacking in the streetlight department which makes it really dark! I really love running much better in the morning right when I wake up and this is really throwing me off on days I have class! Any tips on how to get over my fear and just run in the dark?

I did have a really good 4 mile recovery run this afternoon though! I was going back and forth on if I should do this run or not. I was feeling tired and hungry and was not really in the mood to run. But I knew once I headed out and started running I would feel great. The hardest part literally is getting yourself out the door. The entire run I was thinking about how glad I was that I decided to run today! I really just felt my love of running rekindled on this run. I just feel “RIGHT” when I’m running. Simple as that. Can’t imagine life without my “me runs”! I kept telling myself to keep the pace down, it’s a recovery run after all but I just felt like going strong! I would say my effort was medium. Not too hard but not as easy as my long run pace either. I ran 4 miles in 39:50, with a 9:57 average pace. I felt really good about this! Surprised at how sore my legs WEREN’T from my 8 miler yesterday!

 

I always run with my IPOD because I just really love listening to music. A lot of times though, I am so spaced out I don’t even know what I’m listening too! Haha. But every run I always think I need to add different songs to my playlist. I literally have been listening to the same playlist for like 6 months! I recently have been listening to KLOVE (a Christian music station) a lot more that I used to. I love worship and I feel super close to God when I’m worshiping, doesn’t matter where I am, church, car, running, etc. So I was thinking about some good songs to add to my list and I wanted to share some that I thought of.

 

I absolutely LOVE, LOVE LOVE Casting Crowns and their newest song, Until the Whole World Hears, is AMAZING and I will be adding this to my playlist for sure!!

They are actually playing a concert in Memphis on October 15th! I would LOVE to see them! Anyone want to go with me?? :)

 

Here’s another one I really like. It’s by Britt Nicole called The Lost Get Found.

They are both pretty upbeat and I know they will be perfect for my playlist!!

 

Any other great running song suggestions would be GREAT!!

 

Sadie and I are having a girls night tonight! I’m already in my PJ’s and have a bunch of shows DVR’s to watch! I love relaxing nights!!

Posted in: on Friday, September 25, 2009 at at 6:52 PM 2 comments    

I had a WONDERFUL 8 miler today!! After last week’s not so hot 8 miler I was a little nervous about this. I woke up not really in the mood to run plus it was lightly raining and dark outside. I really just wanted to hop right back into bed but I knew I had to run. The first improvement from last week is my pre run fueling. Last week the 1/2 slice ww bread with PB upset my tummy almost the entire run! So this week I decided to have this:

PB Zbar! Love these! And it worked out perfect! No upset stomach or side stitches at all! Finally found something that works!!

So I drove to my long run “spot” and headed out. I just told myself to go slow because last week I went out way too fast and was dying the last 1/2 of the run! So I tried not to look at my Garmin and just run comfortably. I thought about all kinds of stuff from school to how to make my blog more interesting! Ha! And then I zoned out. That’s the best part to me about long runs, I can totally zone for miles and then have no recollection of it! It’s relaxing in a so not relaxing way! I saw a lot of other runners which is nice to see and keeps me going. No walk breaks were needed and I actually added in a lot more hills than I normally do on my long run and I really felt great the WHOLE time! My pace was 10:43 for 8 miles which I am pretty happy with! Loved how I felt at this pace, although I would like to be a little faster for the half… but we’ll see:)

I am SUPER swamped with school and really trying hard to concentrate on that right now so I may have to cut my 5th run of the week out for a few weeks until school settles down. I hate to do this because I feel like I really do benefit from some extra mileage but I think it will be ok to have 4 solid runs and just cut out a shorter run for a few weeks then reevaluate. I’m just afraid that if I don’t do this, I am going to start to resent my runs because it takes away my much needed study time. What would ya’ll do??

I felt in the mood to post my other eats today so here they are!!

Making a Fruit Smoothie after my run this morning. I added 1 frozen banana, some frozen mango and berries, and 1 cup of skim milk.

Super yummy! It made a lot too and I definitely drank it all!

My awesome lunch included:

Scrambled egg with veggies(broccoli, red onion, and tomato) and celery with Naturally More PB! This was a wonderful lunch! Loved the egg-veggie combo! Oh, and I put ketchup on everything, including my eggs:)

And for a sweet after lunch treat:

This is an Apple Pie Fruit Roll from the apply farm in Nancy, KY where our lake house is! These things are the best! My mom brought me and my brother some home from the lake last weekend! I only have 1 more left!

Not sure what I am going to do for dinner. I may pick up a Lenny’s sub because I have been craving one! I LOVE that place! And other Lenny’s sub lovers?? Or I may just make grilled cheese and tomato soup which I have been craving also! I am so PUMPED for Grey’s tonight!! And, my huge test got moved back to Monday so I can actually watch Grey’s tonight instead of study! Yea!

Posted in: on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at at 1:17 PM 2 comments