Model Behavior

I had a big post all ready for you on Monday and of course my computer crashes while I’m posting it and my Internet goes down for days This is the first chance I’ve had to get online at a local coffee shop. I guess I can’t complain though since I don’t actually pay for internet at home, I live close enough to the apartment club house to steal theirs Anywho, prepare yourselves for a glidingcalm style food photo post, then later on some fitness updates:

I used to drink about a pitcher of crystal light a day until some of the new information came out about artificial sweeteners, now I switched toe La Croix as a more natural alternative, although it’s expensive so it’s not an everyday thing! I can’t wait till crystal light comes out with a stevia sweetened product!

I busted out the first of the squash stock with this little guy, not sure what kind he is, but he made some delicious squash fries a la mama lovin!

Eaten alongside an orange and more La Croix as a post run hydrating snack

I also enjoyed three cups of tea while I ate Wonderful book, very moving, educational, and motivating!

I LOVE these crisps from brothers all natural and I was so happy to see my local grocery started selling them! I used to go far out of my way to a health food store on the other side of town for them! I mixed them into some soy yogurt, coffee flavored…not a great combo I admit.

And enjoyed along side plain toast, my favorite way to eat toast!

Chips and wholly guacamole, a little too tasty….and good news, the chips were only 2 dollars!!!

Bret’s been bugging me to make caprice salad so I picked up the fixin’s while we were at the farmers market on Saturday, 3 heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, and basil straight from our deck.

Sliced thin and marinated in balsamic vinegar

Then I cooked up a few of these puppies to have on the side, again, not sure what kind this was, and honestly it wasn’t my favorite, it wasn’t bad tasting, it just didn’t taste like anything

And topped with the strips of basil…summer on a plate.

Fitness Fun!

I have continued to run since my somewhat disappointing experience with the half marathon, but have mostly been concentrating on speed rather than distance. I participated in a 5K “thunder run” this Sunday with the goal of pacing 10:00 minute miles. I know this is painfully slow for a lot of you, but this is really fast for me and it was a pretty intense goal, some of you may remember when I was trying to hit 5 miles in one hour during my half marathon training? That should give you some idea of how fast this is for me. Well, I made my goal….barely! 9:56 miles! I was feeling really good about myself until I got this email from the Lincoln Track Club with my results:

Name: Jessie Popelka
Distance: 5K
Time:   30:51
Pace:  9:56
Overall Place: 220 of 328
Place in Gender: 128 of 150
Division M2024 Place: 19 of 19

128th out of 150 in my gender and LAST PLACE in my division?!?!?!?! OUCH All the more reason to get my butt in gear for the next run I guess. The next race is September 12th, it’s a 5M run at a very hilly and challenging park south of town. Since I know from the half that hills are my week point, I know I need to do a lot of hill training between now and then, hence this workout plan was born:

Monday: 3 mile hill run

Tuesday: incline walk + weights

Wednesday: 3 mile hill run

Thursday: incline walk + weights

Friday: Long run (4-6 miles) on semi hilly path

Saturday: weights/shred

Sunday: OFF

I found a very hilly park by my house with a 1.15 mile loop that goes around it. Monday was my first attempt and it was horrible. I only made it 2 laps around the park and it took me an embarrassing 34 minutes I was stupid to wait until 11:30 to go and the heat was a major factor, it was 88 and blindingly sunny out there, I was nauseous and drenched in sweat the whole time.

Today’s attempt went much better, I got my butt out of bed and was at the park by 8:45, it made all the difference in the world! It was cloudy, rainy, cool, and wonderful! I finished my 3 miles in 36 minutes! Still not great, I mean it’s still a 12 minute mile, but it’s a huge improvement from the first try and I have 5.5 more weeks to increase my speed! I’ll keep ya’ll posted on how this progresses!

Out with the old, in with the high tech!

My ipod is piece of crap, it no longer creates playlists and the battery life is about 40 minutes from fully charged to dead. My phone, is an even bigger piece of crap and I have only been able to use it on speaker phone for months now (this gets embarrassing when your in a crowded store…)

Both of these problems were fixed in an instant when my wonderful mother presented me with this little gizmo:

A new blackberry storm!!!!! My mom works at verizon and got this as a promotional giveaway for free, she used it for a few weeks, decided it was “too much phone for her” and lovingly passed it on to me! My first reaction was extreme excitement, but then I realized I couldn’t afford the plan attached since the Internet service brings the service plan to almost 80 bucks per month! But my mom graciously agreed to pay my phone bill for a while until I get settled in NY, she said she would feel better knowing I had something like this in the big city anyway, THREE CHEERS FOR MOM!!!

It gets hooked up the 19th of August, I can’t wait!

See ya on the flip side!