What do you mean it’s not Sunday?

Posted: November 13th, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: food | Tags: breakfast, dessert, raw, run, salad, smoothie, swim, Thrive, yoga | 1 Comment »

I am loving having Wednesday off in the middle of the week (It’s Remembrance Day in Canada).  The last two days have felt like an extra weekend.

Yesterday I dragged my butt out of bed early so I could adjust my schedule and headed straight to hot yoga class. It was a new instructor and she was having some difficulty so the class didn’t flow quite as well as usual but it was still awesome. I think she might have been an athlete too, because we did a lot of pigeons, runner’s lunges and all my favourite poses for loosening up my ridiculously tight hamstrings and hips. I feel so much better with all the yoga I’ve been doing lately.

I also got a fantastic tempo run in. It was crazy windy out but I was feeling speedy and energetic. I always second guess myself on this route because there’s a giant hill halfway and I often question if I can keep my pace despite it, but it barely fazed me today.

Distance: 9km (5.6 miles)

Time: 47:40

Pace: 8:31 min/mile

This is right where I want to be with my tempo pace right now so I’m quite pleased. I felt so good at the end of the run, like I could have gone another 5k at that pace, so I’m stoked. Hopefully I can do another 10k race soon because I’m definitely on target to set a PR. My last 10k was May 30 and I ran a 51:46. My goal now is to make it under 50 min. It may be a lofty goal but I think I can do it.

Before yoga I was finally able to try Brendan’s Toasted Apple Cinnamon Cereal recipe from Thrive. I’ve been meaning to make this for months now but I’ve procrastinated because for some reason the long cooking time was throwing me off. It was more than worth the wait, though.

The best thing about this cereal, aside from the crunch factor, is the great roasted flavour the molasses provide. The “cereal” is pretty much a granola made with a ton of seeds and nuts and a coating made up of molasses, hemp oil and spices. It’s quite delicious. Unfortunately I ran out of almond milk the day before and forgot to soak any nuts to make some more so I ended up doing a cheater version of coconut milk. It was pretty much about 3 tbsp of dried, unsweetened coconut blended with just over 1/2 cup of milk and a couple drops of vanilla stevia extract. That blinding white blob in the middle of the bowl is some of the yummy coconut pulp left over after straining (holy overexposure, sorry about that). This is quite a lovely and quick milk solution when in a pinch.

For dinner I decided to try out Melissa’s Raw Pad Thai, which has been waiting patiently in my recipe folder for months now. I really wasn’t expecting this to turn out as well as it did.

It might not look like much – a bowl of red cabbage, carrot, cucumber and green onion may be a feast for the eyes but it isn’t that palatable on its own. However the dressing for this was outstanding and I almost gobbled up the whole (HUGE) bowl before remembering that we were going for dessert in an hour and I might not want a belly full of fiber first. This would have been even better if I’d had the mango & cilantro recommended but I’d used the last of my cilantro in a smoothie that afternoon. Damn me.

It was a good smoothie, though. You can’t really go wrong when pineapple & cilantro play together.

Post-dinner we went out with some new (!) friends for dinner at a great restaurant in town called The Ranche. The last time I was there the dessert was absolutely transcendent. I could have waxed poetic about the intricacies and perfection of that dessert for hours. And, like all good food, it had me swinging from the rafters. Alas, the dessert I had yesterday (the Sweet Potato Cheesecake with Marshmallow & Cranberry Beet Syrup), while lovely, did not quite reach those heights. I plan to go back to try the Banana Rum Sticky Toffee Pudding and hope for better luck. Not to be too greedy or anything. But I love sticky toffee pudding and would have chosen it had I not ordered my wine first and thought the cheesecake seemed like a better match for it.

I really, really planned to take pictures and even had my camera sitting patiently on the windowsill beside me, but I got wrapped up in friendly conversation and didn’t remember until my plate had been licked clean. Too bad, because the presentation was impeccable. I’ll definitely remember when I go back for seconds.

This morning I had a fabulous swim. I’ve been slacking hardcore on my swimming training lately. It’s unfortunately my least favourite of the triathlon disciplines and therefore the one I need the most work on, but I’ve had difficulty being motivated to swim since fall has arrived. Luckily I managed to make it there today and the best thing about midday swims is that I usually have a full lane to myself. It felt good to just get in the water, cruise, and let my mind wander. Unfortunately, since I tend to zone out while swimming I have a hard time keeping track of my stats. I think this is pretty close, though.

Distance: 1750 m (70 lengths)

Time: 42 minutes

Workout: 2 x 25m breast stroke, 2 x 750m freestyle, 2 x 50m side stroke, 4 x 50m breast stroke

Dan picked me up after the pool (he’s had the week off work) and we went to an early matinee at the cheap theatre. We finally saw District 9, which I’ve been wanting to see for awhile now. It actually exceeded my expectations (which were already quite high) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I had an early dinner/late lunch that was pretty much just thrown together on a whim. It consisted of roasted cauliflower with a crunchy coating of bread crumbs, nutritional yeast & red pepper flakes, sweet potato fries with chipotle seasoning, and a mushroom, onion & spinach frittata with a little blue cheese on toast. I may or may not have added some ketchup to this post-pic.

Tonight I went to see a play with a friend who got free tickets through work. It was called Speed the Plow, written by David Mamet, on the suitable topic of the movie industry (in case I didn’t mention it before, I work in film/television post-production). The play was really funny with blazing fast dialogue and very truthful subject matter. If it’s playing in your area I’d definitely recommend checking it out. I don’t go to the theatre nearly as much as I’d like because I really do think it’s a completely under-appreciated form of entertainment. The talent involved in even a local production is often amazing.

I’ve had a fabulous ‘faux’ weekend so hopefully the real one lives up to it

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