The Sunday Ritual: Umami Burgers & Beach Time

Since I am reluctantly taking some self imposed time off until my knee issues get sorted out, I had a fair bit of spare time this weekend.  It's amazing how that happens when you take roughly 3.5 to 4 hours of exercise plus the stretching, showering and post workout food prep out of your weekend.  Not to mention the post run lounging / napping I like to do.  So, since I had the time, I made myself a rather ambitious to do list, most of it revolving around meal prep for the week.  I have to admit, once marathon training starts, I tend to wing it, relying mostly on leftovers or my favourite easy go to salad:  broccoli slaw with peppers, green onions, cucumbers, cilantro, peanuts, canned tuna all topped with either a sesame dressing or a peanut sauce dressing.  Incredibly easy with minimal prep.  And, it's pretty "clean" other than the dressing.  If I was uber organized, I'd make my own dressing but right now, that's a wee bit ambitious.  Although if I'm off for much longer, I will probably go down that road.  I do have a cupboard full of empty mason jars that are just begging to be used.

I usually make a big batch of turkey burgers along with some salmon cakes and then G will grill up a bunch of chicken breasts.  I also try to cook up a bunch of veggies as well.  I've almost run out of the turkey burgers and I didn't bother buying any canned salmon this week so there won't be any salmon cakes.  Since I bought a couple of packages of extra lean ground beef, I spent Sunday afternoon making some Umami burgers.  Oh yes.  I've been messing around with this recipe for a while and I think I've finally nailed it but I'll let you know once I actually have one of the burgers.  If it knocks my socks off, I'll post the recipe.  

What is umami you ask? 

Umami is defined as a savoury taste.  It is one of the 5 basic tastes along with sweet, sour, bitter & salty.  It is a Japanese word that means "pleasant savoury taste".  There is actually quite a science behind this taste as well and you can read all about it here.

Because I had all this extra energy and spare time, I spent Saturday afternoon roasting a huge pile of veggies & cooking some quinoa.  I roasted some zucchini, peppers, sweet onion & cremini mushrooms that I plan on adding to quinoa for a quick post workout dinner.  Top it with some feta cheese and a splash of balsamic vinegar and you're good to go.  I also roasted a sweet potato for some post work out carbs.  Then I got into the white veggies:  parsnips and cauliflower.  I cut the parsnips up like fries, tossed them with a bit of olive oil and salt and popped them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees.  Amazing.  The cauliflower was cut up, tossed with olive oil, garlic and lemon juice.  Also amazing and so. freaking. easy.  Now I have a ton of veggies that I can either toss on a salad, or use as a side dish in my lunch.  Love it.

Veggies:  roasted and ready to go!

Umami burgers...ooh yeah baby.

I'm setting myself a little challenge for the next couple of weeks and it's being fueled completely by vanity.  In two weeks, G and I will be sitting on a beach in Mexico, soaking up the sun.  That means it's bikini time.  For someone who's in her early 40's, I think I look alright.  I'm pretty lean but my goal is to fine tune my abs.  Anyone that knows me that's reading this is probably ready to smack me up the side of the head.  I know, I know...so very vain.  But I don't care.  I've never had really well defined abs so my goal is to get as close as I can to that state by the time we get to Mexico.  That is going to mean I need to step up the #plankAday work (I've been doing it about 3-4 times a week) and I am going to have to be really diligent about what I eat.  Especially in terms of sugar.  So that means no afternoon chocolate.  Whenever I feel like having something sweet, I am going to make myself a cup of tea instead.  I have a couple of awesome teas from Harney and Sons that satisfy my sweet tooth perfectly: Pomegranate Oolong and Hot Cinnamon Sunset.   It's like dessert in a cup.


I'm going to have to be extra diligent food wise because it looks like this will be a week of no running or cycling.  I have a sneaking suspicion that I may be given orders to rest my knee as much as possible when I see the PT tomorrow.  That means I'm really going to have to tighten up my nutrition belt for the next couple of weeks.  I'm always up for a challenge so lets see how I do with this one!

Do you take time on the weekend to prep meals for the week or do you just wing it?

The Sunday Ritual: On Hiatus

I can't believe we're halfway through a long weekend!  I had Friday off and spent the day running around.  Saturday was a nice lazy day.   I slept in and finally made out for my run around 9:00 am.  The afternoon was spent shopping and puttering around.  It was the perfect lazy afternoon.  I made a batch of my homemade tomato sauce with ground turkey to go with some spaghetti squash.  Luckily there were leftovers so I've got lunch for Tuesday!

This morning I swam and now I'm lounging on the couch icing my achilles.  Yup, I did something to in on my run yesterday.  It's sore to the touch but I'm not having any issues walking.  It was slightly bothersome while I was swimming but it wasn't painful.  It was just kinda *there*.    I am hoping that it's not anything too serious.  I've got another half marathon coming up next weekend and it's going to be part of my last long run before NYC so I really don't want to miss it.  I may just take the week off running to be safe. 

This afternoon we're headed to my parents place in Guelph for the big family get together so I won't be cooking.  I have a couple of recipes I want to work on and I'm fresh out of turkey burgers so I'll probably spend Monday afternoon cooking.  These next few weekends are going to be very busy so I'm going to have to get my cooking in whenever I can.  Which means The Sunday Ritual will be taking a bit of a hiatus.  I'll bring it back when things calm down after NYC. 

Given that we're heading up to the parental units this afternoon for our annual Thanksgiving feast, I don't think I'm going to be at a loss for food this week.  My mom usually makes a ton of food which usually results in some good leftovers that get packed up into a goodie bag for us.  I really love this holiday, probably more than Christmas to be honest.  My parents live in Guelph about 50 minutes north west of Toronto so the drive up is beautiful.  The Hubs' entire family also makes the trek out to Guelph so there ends up being about 14 of us in total.  Makes for a rather loud and chaotic get together.   Hubs and I usually toss the baseball around with his niece and nephew, then we usually congregate in the family room and chit chat while the football game is on.  The game usually starts the banter between Hubs and my dad.  Both are very opinionated when it comes to football so the conversation is always entertaining.   My sister and I polish off a bottle of wine between us which usually results in me napping in the car on the way home.  I look forward to it every year.  It may be loud and chaotic and my family may be slightly crazy but I love them to pieces and I'm thankful for each and every one of them. 

What are you thankful for?

Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions?

The Sunday Ritual & Another Race!

I can't believe it, another whirlwind weekend is almost done.  I think this whole two day weekend thing is really just plain wrong.  Two days is far too short to really decompress from a stressful week of work, get your weekend errands done and get some good down time in there.  A three day weekend would make so much more sense.  You'd have a bit of extra time to get things done and get some good chill out time in there.  But, I don't make the rules so I'm stuck with a 2 day weekend.  Might as well make the most of it, which I definitely managed to do.

I spent Saturday morning running around and getting a Computrainer lesson from G.  I spent the afternoon meal planning, did a little cooking and tried to stay off my feet as much as possible as I was going to be racing this morning.   I hit the sack around 9:30 pm and slept relatively well until my alarm went off at 4:45 am.

G was going to be racing with me.  It had been 10 years since his last half marathon!  10 years!!!  He's spent the majority of those years doing triathlons which has kept him in pretty decent shape.  He wasn't sure what to expect today and neither was I to be honest.   I'll save my full race report for tomorrow but I'm pleased to say that we both had great days.  G finished in 1:40:49, which is a PB for him by at least 7 minutes if not more.  Not bad considering he's getting up there in years and has just started really running again over the last couple of months.   I managed to snag the Overall Masters Female win with a time of 1:33:36 on a course that was about 500m too long.  So realistically I would have been sub 1:32 had the course been correct.  I might have even had a PB.  Oh well.  I'm not too fussed about that though.

We were back home by 10:45 am.  Gotta love that.  I've managed to have a nice hot epsom salts bath, make myself some food and now I'm sprawled out in the good corner of the couch (G is off to Washington for work) in my Salmon compression capris.  I think I'll probably spend the next few hours here until I feel ready to stand in front the stove and finish up the rest of my Sunday Ritual.

On tap for this week:

Mashed cauliflower (currently cooking), roasted fennel (all done) and this soup.  I may add some sauteed ground chicken to the soup to get some protein in, instead of the pasta.  This bit of cold weather has me craving soup and comfort food.  I also have to make my frittata.  I alternated between eggs and quinoa last week for breakfast.  I didn't mind the quinoa but I think I prefer eggs in the morning.   Yesterday I used up the rest of the basil from the garden as well as a bunch of cherry tomatoes to make a Mediterranean inspired dish with eggplant and extra lean ground beef from Gourmet Nutrition Vol 2.  I'll top it with a bit of feta cheese when I re-heat it.  It's the perfect thing I can freeze as well so I have one container in the fridge and the other in the freezer.  Lunch is taken care of for 2 days this week.  Awesome.  If I get my soup made, that will cover me for another couple of days and perhaps a dinner.  And, I still have a couple of chicken burgers from last week in the freezer.  All sorted for the week.

Melanzana Riccha (eggplant in a meat sauce)

Roasted Fennel

 I had another good week of training this week.  I didn't get a bike ride in despite getting a new toy this week.  Shocking, I know.  I'll make sure I get a ride in this week.  I had several really strong swims this week and 2 really good runs, along with a solid race.  Here's how my week panned out training wise.

Monday:  Swim:  Fin & stroke work with snorkel.  2150m  This was tough.  Snorkel work is always hard. 

Tuesday:  a.m.:  Run and weights.  Did 20 minutes on the treadmill (4:06km) and then 40 minutes of weight work.  p.m:  ran with my group.  Did East to Ellis which is a really hilly route.  10.80km in 49:49.

Wednesday:  Swim:  2250.  Lots of stroke work again. 

Thursday:  40 minutes of weights and 9.28km run with 4x hill repeats and a serious set of stairs.

Friday:  Swim:  2100m.  Another day of stroke work.  Led the lane for most of the swim. 

Saturday:  OFF

Sunday:  3.04km warm up then 21.5km race. 

Totals:

Swim:  6500m
Bike:  nada
Run:  48.68km
+ 1hr 20 minutes of strength training for just under 8 hours of workout time.

Another productive week.  Looking forward to doing it all over again next week.

What did you get up to this weekend?  Did you race?

The Sunday Ritual, an Open House & Another Week of Chaos

I can't believe it's Sunday already.  Where the hell did the weekend go?  Seriously.  What happened?  I know I didn't sleep through it.  Oh yeah, right, we opened our doors to our friends, family and neighbours yesterday for our Open House / Housewarming.  Kids running wild in the back yard, neighbours getting hammered in the kitchen, friends catching up with each other and family being family and totally goofing off.  Wowza.  Talk about a good time.  Due to our Friday night Costco spree and the generosity of everyone that attended, we now have an overabundance of snack food (mostly chips) and booze (mostly wine).  I guess that means we're just going to have to have another party in the not too distant future.  

Standing at Attention!

I spent yesterday afternoon running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.  Up and down the stairs, inside, outside, showing people around.  I didn't sit down at all until about 6:00 pm.  I hardly drank any water and I didn't really eat very well so I suspected that today's run was probably going to be a little on the sucky side.  Surprisingly, it wasn't.  Sure my hamstrings were super tight but other than that, I actually felt ok.  I was out for 2 hours and I covered just over 24km.  It was the perfect day for a run and even though I was a bit tired and sore, I enjoyed every minute of it.  Because I didn't drag my butt out until almost noon (so very late for me!) there was a whole different vibe to my run.  Not too many runners out at this point in the day but lots of families and cyclists.  And fishermen.  Yup.  Apparently the Credit River is a hotspot for salmon fishing.  As I was coming back from my turnaround point, I saw a crowd had gathered on the bridge over looking the river and down by the Port Credit Marina.  So of course I stopped.  I finally saw what everyone was looking at.  Some tattooed dude with a fishing rod was wrestling with what I guessed was going to be a very large fish.  Sure enough as he pulled it out of the water everyone gasped.  The thing was massive.  I ran along over the bridge and down to where the other crowd was.  I had to see this up close.  Got up close and was even more impressed.  It was a salmon and it had to be at least 30lbs, if not more.  Crazy.

That's the first time I've ever seen anyone catch anything in the Credit River.  I see guys fishing there and around the corner from there all the time and I've never seen anyone catch anything until today.  That was the highlight of my outing.  The second highlight was the weather.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.  It was sunny with those beautiful fluffy cumulus clouds and a nice cool-ish breeze.  Amazing.  Perfect way to cap off a weekend and get me ready for another week of insanity at work.
Speaking of which, I have absolutely no plans for food prep today, other than my fritatta.  Gary is going to be away for work, and I'm going to be shooting 3 days out of 5 this week which is going to mean long days and catered food.  I've got a few pantry items that I can bring in to fill in the off days (thank goodness for canned tuna!).   What I need to make sure I do is bring in healthy snacks.  I tend to fall off the fitness wagon when we shoot because I end up eating things like chocolate covered croissants and overindulging on cheese and crackers.  So the will power is going to have to be on high alert this week, especially because I will probably miss a couple of workouts due to work.  I know for sure I'll be missing my Thursday night run group and there may be a swim workout that gets missed, we'll see. 
I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that despite the craziness of this past week, I actually managed to get in most of my workouts.   I opted to skip my swim on Wednesday because I was exhausted and I didn't get a ride in yesterday because we were getting ready for our housewarming but those were the only two workouts I missed.  I got in all my run workouts which I'm pumped about.  This is how it all went down:

Monday:  off

Tuesday:   12.96 run (9km at tempo pace)  + 40 minute weight workout included testing my 5 rep max for deadlift and bench press.  I managed 95lbs for my deadlift and 65lbs for my bench press.  My chest was sore for days after that.  And I'm sure that's probably why my hamstrings are super tight.

Wednesday:  Off

Thursday:  First day of Auto-Reg training in the a.m..  Very strange but I think I get it.  I need to figure out a game plan when I get to the gym.  Did about 45 minutes of weights. 
P.M. Run group workout was a doozy as well:  15x 1:00 minute with 1:00 minute rest.  This workout sounds easy but it's not.  It lulls you into a false sense of security....Oh I can bust my a$$ for a minute, no problem, especially if I get a minute rest after!.  You have to resist the temptation to go out like gangbusters and blow your brains out because if you do, by the time you get to the 10th interval, you will be crying.  You'll want to quit and you will be a LOT slower.  I know because I made that mistake the first time I did this workout.  I didn't make that mistake this time around.

Friday:  Swim, which totally sucked.  Coach moved me up a lane with the really fast people and we did pull and paddles which is my absolute nemesis.  I have gotten better but my kick is my strong point, not my pull.   Whenever I use a pull buoy my rotator cuff gets very angry at me, especially if it's super tight, which it just so happens to be right now.  So, I only did part of the workout, then decided to swim some of it, still felt like crap, so I got out.  Meh,  Some days are good and some days aren't, nothing you can do about it.

Saturday: Off - I had thought about doing a ride but didn't have time. 

Sunday:  24km scheduled, 24.08km run.  Great way to close out the week!

Totals for the week:

Swim:  1600m
Bike:  ZERO
Run:  49.60km
+ 1:25 in gym time.

Not bad.  Hopefully next week will be similar!

Did you get out and run this weekend?  How far did you go?