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By Liz, November 24, 2009 8:53 pm

Haha, that’s probably what you are all thinking bout now! I am really sorry for completely dropping off the face of blog Earth. The weekend was kinda crazy and hectic and the weekend craziness ran into Monday. But here I am all ready to give y’all the full recap!

So let’s get down to business…STATE!!

First, the stats: I ran the 5k in 21:34 which is my best time all season. I sure went out with a bang! My team got 8th out of 32 teams competing. I was personally 155th out of 200 runners. So, I was kinda back in the pack but whatever. I mean, at least I was at State! Although I ran a great race for my last XC race at my school, I still feel like I could have done better. If y’all remember my race at Mt. Sac two weeks ago, I mentioned that I really dug and pushed my pain threshold. This race, I didn’t work as hard as I could have. It was hard and painful, sure, but it wasn’t as intense as it should have been. I credit all that to the fact I wasn’t sure what I was racing for. The past few races have had a lot of meaning to them. At WSC regionals, I was running to be at least the 7th girl on the team so I could go on to So Cals. At So Cals, it was all about going on to State. And then I was at State and I wasn’t really sure what my motive was for running the race of my life. It’s kinda like when you complete a goal, such as losing weight, and then you reach that goal and you don’t really know what to do with yourself. So, long story long , I just didn’t get my head in the game until about halfway through the race. Eh, I still set a PR so I can’t complain. Also, my aunt and uncle, grandma, mom and dad and Jacob all came to watch me run, so that was very special.

Some pictures of all the fun:

All the gals dressed up for dinner on Friday night. Aren’t we so perty!

Cougars cougars are the best! C-O-U-G-A-R-S…Goooooo Cuesta!!!

Just workin my butt of going up a hill

Me and my Grandma after the race.

I am actually really happy that the season is over. It was a ton of fun, I’ve made some amazing friends and I’ve gotten faster and faster as the season progressed. However, I am happy that for this whole week I am not supposed to run or do much of anything active. I am also looking forward to the short off-season I will be getting to focus on more strength building, yoga and other fun activities I do not get to enjoy as much when my focus is just running.

So, that was Saturday. There was a drive home, relaxing and such, dinner and a bit o partying included in the rest of the day and night. I do want to highlight the dinner I made Saturday night which was fab-u-lous!

I made a stuffed kabocha squash dish. I baked the kacocha at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. While the squash was baking, I cooked some quinoa (1 c. dry). After the quinoa was done I mixed in a chopped apple, dried cranberries and grated zuchinni(1 med sized). I seasoned it with cinnamon, nutmeg and about a tsp of maple syrup. I let this cook on low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the kabocha squash was all baked and tender, I added chopped walnuts to the quinoa mixture, then stuff each kabocha half with the quinoa. I sprinkled more cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup on top and put the stuffed kabocha back in the oven for 5 min. I served it with green beans on the side. Super super yummy!! It was a sweeter dinner, but not overly sweet…I went light on the syrup. This dinner was also very satisfying. I recommend it for when you’re in a fall mood. While this was baking it filled the kitchen with fall-y smells. It made me happy.

Let’s see…what’d I do Sunday? Well, I worked…but then I saw New Moon. I’m just gonna say off the bat that I have not read the books (but I am going to). Also, I didn’t really like the first movie much. New Moon wasn’t half bad though. The acting was a wee bit better. The action scenes were cool. Jacob and Edward were hot (Jacob being a tad hotter ). However, there were some scenes that were waaaaayover acted and just too dramatic. The highlight of the movie though was the scene with Thom Yorke’s (from Radiohead) song “Hearing Damage.” Really cool song and cool scene.

Yesterday was pretty darn great. Another great Monday in the books. It’s funny, because last Monday was really good, too. Funny, eh?

I did the usual stuff…like working, yada yada…but the afternoon and evening were special. As you all very well know, it’s Thanksgiving in the US this Thursday. Since all the roomies and I are parting ways on Thursday to spend time with our families and stuff, we decided to do a roommate Thanksgiving last night. We did the whole shebang…turkey, green bean casserole, mashed taters, rolls, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and stuffing. Yum-o!

I filled my plate with all the goodies. I almost finished it all too…ate about 3/4. Jacob did the turkey…which was pretty darn amazing for his first turkey ever. Kudos Jacob! I made the cranberry sauce using Jenna’s super simple recipe. It was waaay better than canned….I loved the chunks and tartness of the scratch version. My other contribution was pumpkin pie.

I was such as goof and almost forgot to take a picture until I ate half!! Silly me :p Not to toot my own horn or anything, but my pie turned out really good. I used the regular Libby’s pumpkin pie recipe for the filling. However, I cut the sugar down a bit (by about a 1/4 cup) and I added more spice than called for. I love my pumpkin pie spicy! For the crust I just coarsly ground 1 1/2 c. pecans in the food processor and mixed the nuts with 2 tbsp melted butter and 2 tbsp sugar. I pressed the but mixture in the bottom and sides of a 9″ pie plate and baked it for 15 minutes before filling it with the pumpkin mixture. Justin (my roommate) made real whipped cream to go on top. Sooo good! I also got a special treat to go along with the pie.

The Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc from Bianchi. I really liked it. I thought it was great along side the pie, and even good by itself. It was definitely sweet, almost too sweet at first sip. However, this was one of those wines that as you keep sipping it just gets better and better and you notice new flavors with every taste. Unfortunately, I don’t think my roommates liked it that much. I liked it though and would buy it again in a heartbeat.

Whew…today was not nearly as exciting as the last few have been. I had school…which almost no one was at by the way due to the holiday. I went hiking with a couple girls on the team after lunch, which was fun. It was the first “workout” I’ve done since State and it felt good to get the legs moving. Our hilly hike lasted about 2 hours. I love doing exercise with friends because the time just flys! I had a great time.

Nothing much else going on here now. Just some vegging out in front of the tv and hanging out with the boy (aka Jacob). Have a great night and I promise I won’t be m.i.a. tomorrow! Adios!

Comments (6)

By Liz, November 20, 2009 10:07 am

Good Morning! Today is Friday, as most of you probably already know. However, this isn’t just any Friday…no…today I am leaving for my State Cross Country meet. I have to admit, I haven’t given the actual race a lot of thought. I’ve been thinking about how excited I am to be going, I’ve been thinking about seeing my family afterwards (my grandma, aunt & uncle, mom & dad and Jacob are all coming to watch) and I’m looking forward to the rest and relaxation I will enjoy once the season is over. But aside from all that…now… it is time to focus, focus, focus. I truly want to run the best race of my life, and to do that I need to get my head in the game (or race ).

So that’s what’s going on in Liz’s world.

I did eat some breakfast this morning.

Apple Crisp Oats was on the menu this morning along with a mug of green tea. Just so you guys know, I have a mug of green tea almost every single morning. I just don’t usually photograph it or mention it. Just an fyi there.

Last night I made muffins for the team…

I decided to switch up my usual Super Powerfood muffins and make a few alterations.

Changes:

1c canned plain pumpkin instead of applesauce

omit zuchinni and apples

add 1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice to dry ingredients

Other than those two changes the recipe is exactly the same. I had a nibble of one last night and I think they turned out pretty bomb.

I decided to just go all and make another batch of muffins, too.

I made some banana nut muffins from this recipe. Like usual I made some changes, too.

Changes:

Made muffins instead of bread (baked for 30 min at 350 oven)

Used 1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup almond flour

1/4 cup flaxseed meal

And that’s that! I had a nibble of this one too and again…pretty darn delish! I think the team will be pleased.

Okay…so I still have to pack up for the race and only have an hour…so it’s go time!!

Adios guys!!

Comments (9)

By Liz, November 8, 2009 2:17 pm

Hellooo there! How’s Sunday treatin ya?

I’m floating on cloud nine right now because Friday I ran one of the most amazing races of my life annnnd the girls cross country team is going to STATE IN TWO WEEKS!!! I’m beyond stoked!

Let’s catch y’all up…

We left on Thursday morning at around 10:30am. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off all morning…getting my food together, packing and I had to take a test early for one of my classes. That’s what I get for not planning ahead, but thank goodness for Jacob who is a sweetheart and helped me make my snacks and pack up. Love that guy!

I wore my new Skins all day on the can ride down to LA. My legs felt amazing the whole way. I didn’t take any picture of my eats…I just nibbled on 1/2 a veggie sandwich, one of my homemade Liz-a-bars and drank lots and lots of water. We stopped at a shopping center about halfway there and I picked up some crack Starbucks. Tall cafe Amerianos with a splash of half and half with 2 pumps pumpkin spice=my new love.

When we arrived at Mt. Sac (the college the race took place at) we ran the course super easy. I ran 3 miles super slow in 30 minutes.

We were all pretty pumped for Friday and in great spirits!

We checked into our hotel, chilled out for a bit, then headed to dinner at Romano’s Macaroni Grill. I had some rosemary bread, a side salad and whole wheat penne with tomato basil sauce, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, shrimp and parmesan cheese.

It was a pretty good dinner for eating out. I ate about half of my salad and pasta, so didn’t end up too full.

After dinner, we had a meeting with our coaches. We talked about our goals for the race. Brian, the head coach, talked a lot about pain threshold and pushing past our limits. Pain is my personal obstacle, so talking about this really hit home. I vowed to myself Thursday night that at the race I would push myself, push past my limits, and embrace the pain.

Thinking, talking with the girls, sleep…

6:30am came early. We got dressed in our uniforms and went for a shake out jog/walk as a team before breakfast. Breakfast was my usual pre-race breakfast…1 slice Ezekiel bread, spread of peanut butter and a banana. I drank a cup of green tea, too. I have to admit, I was pretty nervous and contemplative about the race. I did not want to break the promise I made to myself. I am really scared of the pain of racing…it hurts!

So, we arrived at Mt. Sac and hung out for a bit.

All the girls drew and painted fun stuff on their arms and legs. Some people did paw prints (we’re the Cuesta Cougars), and others wrote motivational words on our hands. Here’s what I wrote…

The caterpillar represents our connectedness as a team. All our initials are in each part of the caterpillar’s body.

Here is the race in pictures:

So, I kept my promise to myself and pushed my pain threshold. I finished in 21:49 for a 3-mile course. That is my best time I have ever ran a Cross Country race. I am so proud of myself and my team. We kicked some real XC butt!! We placed 7th as a team out of 28 teams. I placed 125 our of 186 people. This race will really go down in history for me as one of the best experiences of my life.

It was so great to be done with the race. I watched and cheered on the guys (They placed 18th out of 28). After awards and such, we piled back in the vans and headed home. Lunch was at Souplantation…a salad, soup, bread, pasta, pizza, fro-yo buffet place. Totally my kinda buffet! I definitely ate my $8.30 worth of food!

I was pretty exhausted when I got back home at 8:30pm. Bed was niiice!

Yesterday was really really really boring. I worked 8-5, felt really sick all day and went to bed super early. I didn’t eat much either because my stomach felt weird all day. Ick.

Today has been going much better…

I woke up and ran 7 miles in 66 minutes.

I made whole wheat pancakes and eggs for breakkie….which I completely forgot to take a picture of!! *slap on the hand* It was delicious though, trust me.

I rushed to work…and made it just on time!

I ate one of my new favorite foods for lunch…Oh Kabocha squash, you are delish!

And, I also had one of my oldie but goodie favorite foods…Celery and peanut butter never goes out of style!

I have something to look forward to after work, also. Jacob and I are getting me a special purchase…and we’re visiting a good friend who we don’t see nearly enough. Fun stuff!

Depending on when I get home tonight, I may blog later tonight or tomorrow. Have a great Sunday evening guys!

Comments (6)

By Liz, November 4, 2009 11:19 pm

Hey guys! I have been really slammed with life in general lately, so I apologize for my lack of posts. However, I am here to chronicle my past few busy days. There are some interesting tidbits to discuss!

Okay so Monday!

I ate one of these….

Have I mentioned that I am in absolute love with Chunky Strawberries? Haha, I am truly obsessed!

I did some Trader Joe’s shopping and got some crazy cool stuff…like Sprouted Wheat Bagels (yum!), Pumpkin Butter (yummier!) and Peanut butter filled pretzels (the yummiest of yum!). I got other things too (like 5 jars of peanut butter-what addiction?) but those 3 items are definitely the standouts of the bunch.

So, the real excitement on Monday began after I got home from work and TJs. This was the day that I was finally able to get some new running shoes. My old shoes are kinda…what’s the word?…GROSS! They smell like dirty gym socks and are covered in dirt…not to mention that the cushioning is completely worn out and I have put almost 700 miles on those babies. Yep, it was time for a new pair. So, Jacob and I ventured down SLO to get me a new pair. Sadly, the only stores that sell my shoe are 45 minutes away and my work (running shoe store) doesn’t carry my brand. Okay, so I get to the first store…don’t have my size. I get to the second store….don’t have my size. At the second store though I got a new pair of racing flats that were only 20 bucks!! I couldn’t pass that up, especially because there are holes in my old ones. But, I still didn’t have the prize in hand. I went to a third store…and they didn’t have my size! I was kinda pissed. We had just spent precious time and gasoline to go down to SLO to buy me some running shoes that I was in desperate need of, and we came out fruitless! However, we made the best of the situation and decided to go out to eat for a dinner date. We ended up going to get Indian food, because Jacob has never had it before. Oh, that boy needed to be enlightened. Now, I’m a bad blogger and didn’t bring my camera with me. I wasn’t planning on needing it, as I thought my shoe expedition would be a quick one. But let me just tell you, the food was amazing. I definitely ate my fair share…plus a pint of beer. Hey, you gotta live a little! We don’t go out to eat very often, so I thoroughly enjoyed our night out. Only drawback, we got home kinda late from out unexpectedly long outing that I had to stay up late and do homework. Boo!

Tuesday was pretty run of the mill. School, school, school. The most notable part was my speed workout at cross country practice. I did 2×200m then 4×800m then 2×200m. It was a very fast workout. The first 200s weren’t timed. My 800s were supposed to be at 3:24. My actual splits were 3:21, 3:18, 3:16 and 3:13. My last 200s were :45 and :40. I was a speed demon! Again, I exceeded my coach’s and my own expectations regarding my abilities. I’m very proud of myself. Total, including warm-up and cool-down, I ran 4 miles. SoCals here I come!

And now we have arrived at Wednesday, good ole Humpday!

My day started off with a swim. I created a good little workout for myself: 2oom warmup, 6×300m. Between each 300 I would alternate either 10 pushups or a 1 min plank. I did 30 pushups altogether (a few of them were girl pushups) and 3x 1 minute planks. Total, the swim was 2000m. It took about 45 minutes.

Okay, so I gotta throw this out there….I have a new addiction. Lately, I have just been craving coffee! Yesterday and today I stopped at Starbucks and got a tall black coffee with 2 pumps pumpkin spice and a splash of half and half. Boy of boy, this is good! I need to refrain from making this a habit though, as my bank account will slowly get drained if I do.

Next order of business…breakfast…

Featuring 2 of my TJs foods: Sprouted Wheat Bagels and pumpkin butter. The other half my bagel is smeared with peanut butter. And if you didn’t realize, that yellow blob in front of the bagel is eggs.

Work work work…uninteresting leftover soup was consumed with a pear and my other super cool TJ find:

Whoever thought to put peanut butter inside of a pretzel was a genius!

Look what was waiting for me when I got home!

My new pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 12s! Since no stores had my shoe, I resorted to buying them off the Internet and I got 2 day shipping, because I needed these guys bad! The Wave Rider is my all time favorite shoe ever. They were my first shoe when I began cross country in high school, and I haven’t gotten sick of them yet. Yay for new shoes!

Check out my old pair:

Can you say “well worn”? These were subsequently thrown in the trash. The stench was so bad on these guys, I couldn’t even keep them or kick-a-round shoes. But first, I had to get a side by side picture, so y’all could see the striking difference.

Go Mizuno!

I also bought two nifty items at my work today.

1) a new pair of Superfeet for my insoles.

These were recommended to me by my podiatrist when I broke my foot two summers ago. I’ve been wearing them in my running shoes ever since. They add a bit of arch support and really cup the whole foot so it feels comfortable and locked in place. These are great and I highly recommend them. It’s cool also, because they sell them at my work, so I get a discount…yay!

2) My second item was a pair of Skins compression tights

I have been wanting a pair of these for forever! However, I didn’t want to spend all the money (they retail for 100 bucks!). I just found out about a program that the Skins company offers to store employees (not Skins store employees, but employees of stores that carry their products) that gives them 30% off wholesale, which brings the price down to 40 bucks. That’s a big difference! So, I bite the bullet, and decided today was the day to get me some Skins. Check out the website on the link and read about them. This product may be expensive, but I can already tell that these work! My legs feel fresher and less sore. These will especially come in handy when I’m riding in a van for 5 hours down to LA for SoCals tomorrow. I’ve been hanging out in these all day.

Pretty darn comfy. My legs feel awesome. I’ll give a full review on these at a later time when I can test them out a bit more.

I spent most of the afternoon today baking my Superpowerfood muffins for the team tomorrow. Sadly, they turned out a little burnt, but they taste okay. I also made homemade Larabars for the first time. I used this recipe. They look just like a Larabar!

I took a little nibble and they taste just like a Larabar, too! I made PB & J Larabars, although I have ‘t had the real version yet. I used dates, dried cranberries and peanuts. Simple and delicious. I made these because one of the girls on my team is hypoglycemic and can’t eat flour or refined sugar. So, I wanted to make something that she could eat, too. I hope she likes em!

The rest of the afternoon included some of this…

and this…

(Barbara’s Shredded Oats in fat-free milk)

plus I did some homework. This evening I had a work meeting where I was served chili, salad, rice and bread for dinner. No pics though, it didn’t seem appropriate. More homework after that…and now I am here, typing away.

I’m pretty exhausted. I’ve had a busy busy day. Tomorrow I am leaving for SoCals at around 10am. I still need to pack and stuff…but I’ll do that in the morning. I’m racing Friday morning at 10:30 (send those vibes my way!) and getting back Friday evening. So, till then…tata for now!

Gotta catch some Z’s. Night guys!

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By Liz, October 28, 2009 10:12 pm

Ahh, another hump day is over. Wednesdays are always pretty darn stressful for me. I actually didn’t think I had much homework this week, but since Tuesday I’ve had quite the load of assignments piled on me. But hey, I’m halfway through the semester…so I just gotta get through it.

I was planning on getting up early to workout this morning, early as in 6:30. However, my plans changed quick once the alarm went off. Instead I slept in till 8 and had a leisurely breakkie.

It was an oats in a jar kinda morning. Sadly, this was my last jar of peanut butter. *moment of silence*

This jar of oats included 1/2c. oats and 1 tbsp. chia seeds and 1/2 an apple cooked in water, cinnamon stirred in at the end and topped with walnuts. But of course the shining star was the ooey, gooey peanut butter lining the jar. Ahh, the simple pleasures of life my friends!

I made my lunch, sipped some tea and watched the Today show before heading out the door for work.

At work I got another large shipment of Asics shoes in, so that took up a good 3 hours of my 4 hour shift. Lunch was had around 11am. I got hungry for lunch really early today.

Lunch was a whole wheat tortilla wrap filled with 1/4c. of hummus, 1/4 of an avocado, lettuce, carrot, broccoli, radish, grape tomatoes and about an ounce of fresh parmesan cheese. Here are the innards:

For dessert I had that pear peeking out from behind the wrap.

Since I had lunch so early, I got hungry right before my shift was over. I was planning on working out after work, so I munched on half of this clif bar for a pre-workout snack.

Workout today was an easy recovery day at the gym. 45 minutes on the elliptical (incline 4, resistance 10, avg stride per min 165). Then I did some core work, lunges and squats with a 10lb medicine ball and 3 sets of 10 pushups. After that I swam a relaxing 1000m in the pool, which took about 20 minutes. The other half of the clif bar was eaten immediately after working out. I was pretty famished!

Post workout snacking this afternoon included a hard boiled egg:

Jacob was my lovely hand model for that pic. My other snack was the super special thing I got at the store exactly 1 week ago. Remember my hint was HEAB. Well, sorry to disappoint you Allison, but it was not almond butter (although almond butter is pretty spectacular). It was actually…..drumroll please…a Kambocha squash!

Those are 3 of the 4 quarters of the cooked squash. I prepared my squash by following the directions on the sticker that was on the squash.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 370 degrees F and cut squash into quarters.
2. Get baking sheet, place quarters face down on sheet and fill the bottom of sheet with water (I think the water prevents the squash from sticking to the pan)
3. Bake for 30 minutes
4. After 30 minutes, turn squash over and top with a mixture of 1 tbsp melted butter, 1/4-1/2c. honey, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake for another 20 minutes.
5. Eat up the wonderful goodness!

Here is the quarter that I munched on immediately after baking:

I gotta say, this squash quite literally rocked my world. I was a bit wary to try it when I first saw it on Heather’s blog. No offense Heather, but you have quite the adventurous palate and I was a bit intimidated. But boy of boy what this squash good! The texture was buttery and smooth…almost creamy. The taste was slightly nutty, almost bland…so the honey and spices really helped kick it up a notch. I now have a tupperware full of cubes of Kabocha goodness. You can bet you’ll be seeing this for a while around these parts.

Let’s not forget about dinner though.

I had a mini steak seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder, sweet potato fries/chips baked the usual way in 425 degree oven tossed in evoo, salt, pepper and cumin, and a huge pile of steamed green beans. Oh, and tons of bbq sauce of course!

You know it’s Halloween time when the candy starts coming out!

One of my roommates bought trick-or-treater candy yesterday, so dessert was pretty obvious. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted more, a Take 5 or a Reese’s cup, so I just had both. I’ve been good though and kept these off limits to just after dinner and only 1 or 2 candies…no more!

Okay, well I still have some major studying to do…the story of my life.

Oh wait…I almost forgot to tell y’all how the race went yesterday! Quick recap: I ran a 22:41. The course was hilly and the weather was crazy windy. That was also a PR for that cross country course. My teams’s #1 girl won the race, and our girl’s team as a whole won 2nd. The guys team got 5th. It was our home course, so we totally represented. Like usual, I always have doubts about my performance, and I know I could have pushed a little harder. But all in all, this was one of my best races all season. So…yay for me and yay for my team. So Cals here we come!

Good night guys!