First 5K Thoughts

Well, if you've been following my blog or twitter account than you are well aware that I'm running my first 5K tomorrow. I've trained and mentally prepared for my run but I'm still a bit nervous. I'm nervous because I set some goals for myself that I'm not sure I will be able to accomplish. I'm very competitive with myself and have a need to accomplish the goals I set for myself. My goals would be easy for any runner to accomplish but for me they are challenging.

So, what are my goals:

1. Finish the race in 45 min

2. Run the entire race.

Yes, I'm nervous but I'm also VERY excited!!! I've wanted to do one of these for a long time and I'm finally doing it and I'm doing it for a great cause. (You can read about the cause here).

Let's take a look at yesterday's eats:

Breakfast

1 red delicious and 1 fuji apple sliced up:

and dipped in a teaspoon of heated up Maple Almond Butter:

Very good and filling!

Dinner

I made my husband and I some Runza's! You can find my recipe here.

I love these things and they would be good with any type of filling!

This time around I made the filling with ground turkey instead of beef.

Dessert

A refreshing and simple bowl of sliced up strawberries. I could eat strawberries every single day, love them!

Well, it's time for me to lay out my stuff for tomorrow race. I want to have everything ready for my early wake-up call.

Question:

If you are a runner when did you run your first race? What was it and how did you do?

And She's Back...

It's been over a month since my last post and I think it is about time to start blogging away. My big project at work is complete, woohoo!!! I'm still working away at some personal issues but to be honest I will be working on personal issues my entire life and I think this blog is a good way to work out some of the issues that will pop up over the years.

I do want to thank everyone for your kind words and well wishes. The blog community really does have a bunch of great people in it!

I've done a lot of things during my month long hiatus so I thought I would just touch on some of the more interesting items. If you follow me on twitter (TraceyVeggies) you probably already know about most of these things but I can give you more detail about it on this post:)

Running - I'm happy to say that I'm doing a good job with my running plan. I've worked my way from sitting on my bum all day to running 25 minutes straight. This is really impressive for me since I haven't run more than 5 minutes at a time during my entire 33 years on this earth. So, yeah, Go Me!!! Plus, running is a bit easier when you have these views to look at while doing it:

My first 5K is going to be May 1 - this Saturday. I'm doing the Run to Remember which is a race that benefits the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation. The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing assistance to the families of our fallen heroes. This is such a great cause and I'm excited that it will be my first 5K experience!

Fleet Feet - A couple weeks ago I started getting really bad knee pain while I was running. I was bummed and frustrated because I thought this meant I wouldn't be able to continue my training for the 5K. I'm happy to say that I didn't just give up but instead headed to Fleet Feet to see what they could recommend to help reduce the pain.

I had the BEST experience at Fleet Feet Chicago. I ended up waiting about 30 minutes to sit down with, what I will call, a shoe specialist. I told my SS (shoe specialist) what type of exercise I was doing and the pain I was feeling in my knees. He put me on a treadmill and video taped my feet while I ran for about a minute. He slowed down the tape and shared with me the issues that could be causing the knee pain.

He picked out about 6 pairs of shoes that he thought would be good for me. I tried them out by running on the in-store track strip. I decided on a wonderful pair of Brooks sneakers, inserts and knee sleeves!

Old Town Oil - I found this amazing store which sells specialty olive oils and aged balsamic vinegars. If you are like me and love having balsamic vinegar on your salads or dipping a piece of french bread in a delicious tasting olive oil, you will love this place.

I love that this store does on premises bottling. The oils and vinegar are in spouted containers that allow you to taste before you buy. Once you pick the items you want an employee actually bottles and seals right in front of you, so you know you are purchasing the same product you just sampled! How great is that!

I wanted to take the entire store home with me but I knew that just wasn't possible so I made a touch decision and chose 1 vinegar and 1 oil.

The Jalapeno Balsamic vinegar has such an interesting taste and I love to add it to my salads!

The Garlic Olive Oil is so good I can't even put it into words. I've added it to salads, tossed veggies in it and roasted them in the oven, all kind of yummy creations can be done with this EVOO.

Freds - I was a bit leary of posting about Freds for fear that everyone would find out about this little gem located in the new Barney's building on Oak street. I really liked that I was able to get a seat on the patio without having to wait a couple hours. Freds is a restaurant with a little outdoor patio which is perfect to have a couple cocktails and dessert plate on a nice spring day. The food was okay, drinks were good, dessert was great and the view was spectacular!

The dessert plate was huge and plenty for the table to share:

I hope everyone has been doing great and I look forward to diving back into the blogging world!

Blog at ya later!

Earth Day Cocktails

Happy Earth Day!!!

I had to hop on the blog to let everyone know about a cocktail that is being offered at Lockwood restaurant located in the Palmer House Chicago.

treetini

"Treetini is a cocktail that uses local/seasonal ingredients and plants a tree for every cocktail purchases. Trees are planted in an area of the world that is in dire need of the replanting of trees to enrich and hold the soil together. One tree over a 50 year lifecycle can provide air pollution control, recycle water and control soil erosion.

Have a treetini today, plant a tree!"

What's in a treetini?

Veev acai spirit, st. germain liqueur, pomegranate liqueur, fresh lemon juice

I had the opportunity to try this cocktail a couple days ago and it was delicious. I really liked everything about it! Plus, you can't go wrong when you have a cocktail for a cause!

Everyone should go out and sip a treetini cocktail today!