8:11 PM Boston time
Hello everyone! Hope you had a good Tuesday! Is it really only Tuesday?! 
Anyhow, I am still taking a rest day from running per my coach’s schedule so I went to Marshall’s right after work to shop for some swim suits and pretty sandals for the vacation! I got some pretty good deals — one was $14.99 and the other $12.99 — love that! 
I’m sorry I didn’t get to blog during lunch — I didn’t leave the building and just ate lunch with my coworkers in the lunch room. We don’t have WiFi in our building yet so I couldn’t pull out my laptop and blog.
Lunch
I shared last night’s leftovers with Matt to bring for lunch today. It was still good but this dish definitely tastes the best right after cooking.
Still very good though!
There wasn’t very much left from last night so I had some other goodies on the side. I had an organic bartlett pear and a bluberry Chobani.
I also had my favorite lowfat chocolate milk — this has recently become a staple for me since it’s a great post-run drink! Next to it is what was left of my Chobani — I totally forgot to take a picture of it before I started eating it. It was almost gone when I remembered!
It was a yummy, satisfying lunch. It powered me through the rest of my busy afternoon!
Dinner
I was really tired from walking around all day so when I got home, I just put together a quick dinner. There is also a St. Bonaventure basketball game on so we gathered in the living room to cheer them on in tournament play.
I decided to make a veggie burger sandwich just like Sunday night’s dinner. This Gardenburger brand is really delicious! I also love that you can see the actual vegetables that the burger is made of.
I melted some Cabot mild cheddar cheese slices on top of the veggie burger.
It tasted so good with the Ciabatta bread I bought from Trader Joe’s and some baby greens.
I also had some Lightly Salted Kettle Chips on the side.
I ate my meal with a little bit of ketchup — soooo good! After I scarfed my sandwich down, I had another serving of chips. And then look what suddenly appeared on my plate?!
Yup — that’s right! More carrot cake bread and Girl Scout peanut butter pattie cookies!
It was quite a yummy day for me! Okay…that’s it for now. Time to get back to the basketball game! Enjoy your evening, bloggies!
Happy running & good eating!
Patricia
7:00 AM Boston time
Anyone else had a REALLY hard time getting out of bed this morning? I did! I did! For some reason, I felt more tired this morning than yesterday morning! Now that I’ve got my coffee though, I feel a little better!
Breakfast and Food Scanner App
I had grand plans to make myself an egg white and bacon sandwich on a bagel today, but since I could not get out of bed, I ended up buying myself an Egg White + Turkey Sausage Flatbread from Dunkin Donuts. I suppose I could have made myself a bagel with peanut butter again, but I wanted eggs this morning.
I also enjoyed my usual iced coffee with cream and sugar.
This flatbread is one of the healthier options on their menu, so I went for it because I know that it fills me up. I decided to consult my handy app called Food Scanner, which you can use to search for almost any food out there to get its nutritional information. You can also use it as a “food diary” by clicking “I Ate This!” once you find your food item. I use it primarily to ensure that I’m getting enough nutrients each day, especially protein, which I often don’t get enough of in my diet.
Aside from the amount of sodium in it, it actually isn’t that bad. Check out Food Scanner’s report on this egg white & turkey flatbread.
It actually has a lot of protein so I can hopefully get more of that today than my usual intake. I’ve learned from multiple sources that protein is just as important (if not more) in recovery from long runs as carbohydrates are. It is an important key factor in rebuilding muscle and tissue breakdown.
Roommate Search
For the past couple of months, I have been in search for someone to take over my room for the remainder of my lease. As some of you might have been able to tell from my blogs, I’m pretty much at Matt’s house everyday and we have discussed and decided for me to move in with him. Soooo…since I haven’t had much luck finding a new girl, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to make an announcement here.
If you know of any females (in her 20’s to early 30’s) who is looking for a room to rent, please let me know! You can have them email me at runfoodierun@gmail.com.
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That’s it for now! Enjoy your Tuesday — looks like another sunny one for Beantown!
Happy running & good eating!
Patricia
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my GARMIN 305 FORERUNNER RAFFLE here!
8:39 PM Boston time
Hi everyone! Hope your week is off to a great start! I already have a feeling mine will be loooong because I cannot wait for vacation!
After work, I decided to get a haircut! It’s been way overdue so, during lunch, I just went ahead and scheduled an impromptu appointment for after work. I went to my usual place in Coolidge Corner called Dellaria’s Salon, right by my old neighborhood. I always get my hair cut by Leslie — she’s awesome and I also love that she doesn’t push products at you after a cut, ya know? She does a great job every time and she’s not super pricey like most places on Newbury Street. It’s also nice to revisit my old ‘hood since I don’t get to hang out there often — except when I run by it!
I then stopped at Trader Joe’s after my hair cut to pick up a few things I needed for dinner tonight. Oh how I miss Trader Joe’s too! Coolidge Corner is really a great place! It’s about 2 miles or so from the Boston Marathon finish line and it’s really fun to run by it — there are lots of people throughout the course but even more so in this area. I’m getting pumped!
Anyhow, I finally got home after what seemed forever, but Matt was working late so I had time to get started on dinner. Tonight, I was craving Giada De Laurentiis’ Chicken in Lemon Cream with Penne dish from her book Everyday Pasta.
Instead of penne, I used some pipe rigate that I already had in the pantry. Isn’t that an interesting name?
I love the smell of Herbes de Provence while the chicken is cooking!
Here it is with the pasta, chicken, and lemon cream sauce together. Almost ready!
The lemon zest and juice definitely help make the sauce taste as good as it does.
And finally, the parsley!
Yum yum lemony pasta in a bowl!
For dessert (of course!), I enjoyed a two (or maybe three) Peanut Butter Pattie Girl Scout Cookies!
Great dinner tonight!
I had a break from running today so I’m off to enjoy 24! Good night, blog friends!
Happy running & good eating!
Patricia
7:01 AM Boston time
This morning, I woke up to the sound of chirping birds! At first I thought it was Matt’s roommate’s dog, Oskar, whining outside, but they were birds! Spring really is coming!
One of the best things I love about living in New England that I never had in California is the changing of the seasons. I just love that time when things are changing and there is excitement in the air when spring is about to come!
By the way, here’s a quick snapshot of last night’s dinner. I had a Gardenburger veggie burger pattie in a whole wheat bread sandwich with a side of mixed greens drizzled with a little of Annie’s Lite Tuscan Italian Dressing. To drink, I had a glass of Organic Valley Lowfat Chocolate Milk. I only have one picture, unfortunately, because the rest of them turned out to be really blurry. Not really sure why… In any case, I thought one picture is better than no pictures!
Breakfast
I woke up starving this morning so I immediately toasted myself a whole wheat cinnamon raise bagel and spread some Teddie’s peanut butter over each slice. There’s nothing like PB to power me through my day…or my morning at least.
At Dunkin, I also ordered the usual iced coffee with cream and sugar to drink with my bagel.
My legs are actually not too sore today — they’re sore, but not as much as I expected. Ro and I really took the time to stretch right after and I think that helped a lot! We also made sure to re-fuel within 20 minutes of finishing, so hopefully that helped with recovery.
Garmin 305 Raffle
Don’t forget to enter my raffle by going to www.runfoodierun.com/raffle — it’s a great training tool, not only for running but for other activities such as cycling. I also really believe in the cause that I’m fundraising for, so I hope you will consider helping us out! I truly believe that we also need to focus on preventing disease as much as we are focusing on eliminating disease. I hope you will help me out!
That’s it for now! Gotta head to work!
Happy running & good eating!
Patricia
5:15 PM Boston time
Hi everyone! Hope you’re enjoying your Sunday! If you are in Boston, I hope you had the chance to get out there and enjoy the beautiful sunny day we’ve had! I can smell SPRING coming!
Before I do a recap of yesterday’s fun eats with my friend Megan, here’s a recap of today’s long run!
Week 13 Long Run: 20-Miler
I was scheduled to do an 18-miler today, but I ended up doing a 20-miler. I felt pretty good during the later miles – at least until mile 19 – so I kept going. I guess I was also inspired by the good weather and all the runners that were out there today!
Here are my overall stats: 20 miles / 3:17:16 / 9:51 pace.
I was pretty happy with it considering I had only prepped (mentally) for an 18-miler! I also just wanted to get a nice long run before we left for ME-XI-CO!
Today, I practiced my fueling strategy again. I fueled up with an energy gel every 4 miles, but to be honest, after 3 Clif Shots (the chocolate kind), I got really sick of it! I might go ahead and bring other snacks with me on race day — like pretzels or something with a lot of salt — just to vary it a bit. Of course, I gotta make sure my stomach will tolerate whatever other snacks I bring while running. Do you guys have any suggestions as to what other things to bring on a long run, other than the regular old energy gels?
Anyhow, here are my splits and the Garmin page: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26402263.
Splits:
Mile 1 – 8:56
Mile 2 – 9:57
Mile 3 – 10:02
Mile 4 – 9:28
Mile 5 – 10:03
Mile 6 – 9:59
Mile 7 – 9:37
Mile 8 – 9:47
Mile 9 – 9:55
Mile 10 – 9:46
MIle 11 – 10:21
Mile 12 – 10:02
Mile 13 – 9:35
Mile 14 – 9:52
Mile 15 – 9:46
Mile 16 – 10:04
Mile 17 – 10:02
Mile 18 – 10:16 (not bad for the last couple hills, including Heartbreak, right?! )
Mile 19 – 10:12
Mile 20 – 9:26 (not bad for the last mile! )
I’m so happy that I was able to do this long run today! It’s a great mental boost for the training!
Sunny Saturday’s Eats
After Megan picked me up to go shopping, we decided to make a pit stop for lunch because we were both hungry. She had heard that the New England Soup Factory in Needham was good so we gave it a try!
They had so many different kinds of soups there. I decided to order a soup + sandwich combo — I chose the Lima Bean with Butternut Squash & Kale soup with the Little Italy sandwich, which was made of Genoa salami, ham, imported Italian olives, roasted red peppers, and shaved parmesan. It also came with a side of roasted red pepper vinaigrette to drizzle on top.
The Lima Bean soup was really tasty — especially the tiny cubes of butternut squash. It was a unique addition to the soup.
The sandwich was equally good and really filling. I drizzled the side of vinaigrette before each bite.
As soon as I realized that they had cookies there, of course I had to get one. I ate half of it right away and saved the rest for later.
I like that the cookie was not too sweet and had the perfect chewy consistency.
Once Megan and I were all fueled up to shop, we spent the next 3-4 hours browsing around at Marshalls and Forever 21. I found a few sun dresses, but other than that, we were quite disappointed with the selection. 
I still need to look for a swim suit so I might try to go again after work this week. If I don’t find anything worth spending dinero on, I will have to make do with my old ones!
After tiring ourselves out from shopping, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the Publick House at Washington Square in Brookline. This is one of my favorite pubs in Boston — they have a great selection of beers on tap and bottled, and a very tasty menu! Megan and I love going here. Actually, Matt and Megan’s mom also looooves this place, especially the mac n’ cheese!
While we waited to be seated, we sipped on some beers at the bar. I chose the BBC Raspberry Strong Ale from the draft (on the left), while Megan enjoyed a bottle of the Avery White Rascal Wheat Ale. Both were yummy and went down easily!
I limited myself to one beer ’cause I didn’t want to get dehydrated for the next day’s run!
When we were seated, we immediately ordered some of the Monk’s Frites, which were basically delicious fries that came with two dips of our choice. We ended up getting the McChouffe garlic mayo and the creamy Wostyntje beer mustard.
Both Megan and I enjoyed them very much! 
Can’t go wrong with fries!
For dinner, I wanted to branch out from my usual order of the Mac N’ Cheese, so I decided to try their House Made Veggie Burger. The burger itself was made of shaved carrots, green peas, zucchini, fresh cilantro, and cumin.
On the side, I had some mixed greens with a citrus-y vinaigrette.
I, of course, took advantage of the extra toppings they offered so I added some bacon and swiss cheese to my burger. It was a good decision – very delicious!
I had to take a couple more photos before I could start eating — it just looked as good as it tasted!
It was a great veggie burger, but Megan’s didn’t seem to have been cooked all the way. The middle felt cold so she ended up sending it back. At this point, we were actually satisfied with just sharing one burger since we filled ourselves up with the frites! I like saying that word — FRITES!
After dinner, my sweet tooth kicked in, of course! Since Athan’s Bakery was right across the street, I decided to take a peek inside. I wanted to see if they had a chocolate croissant, but they didn’t have any so I settled for a carrot cake bread!
I enjoyed a couple of slices when we got home…it was my pre-bedtime treat!
Well, guys — I’m off to do some laundry and grocery shopping! Hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday evening before the work week starts again!
Happy running & good eating!
Patricia
