Our wonderful Sunday.. More good than bad :-)

After my husband and I had a good walk/run on Saturday, we planned to go out to the Forest Preserve Bike Trail again yesterday. I got up a little bit late but the weather was still good enough to run outside. Anyway it was still earlier than the time we went to the trail on Saturday 🙂 Because of what happened to Jeter on Saturday, we were going to leave him at home and only take Cappy. But when I told Jeter to go into his crate, he looked at me so sadly with those begging eyes as if saying “You can’t leave me here alone!! My leg is okay! Take me with you!! Pleeeeeeease!!!!” How could I say no to that face. And his left front leg seemed to be okay. I talked to my husband about him and we decided to take him too. But we limited his exercise only to walking and in case he showed any problem, we would cut the exercise and come back home.

Jeter and Cappy were very happy corgis at the trail. Jeter walked with my husband so nicely and didn’t have any problem 🙂 I walked/ran with Cappy. Boy, she wanted to run like the wind! Since I just got back to running, I tried hard not to run too fast but thanks to her, my pace was much faster than Saturday. Thankfully, my legs endured quite well 🙂 Getting injured is the last thing I want. We did 3 miles and it was a very good family exercise. As usual, Jeter and Cappy got a lot of compliments. I wondered how many people at the trail knew my corgis are the same breed with the Queen’s dogs who appeared in the London Olympic’s opening ceremony 🙂

“We are so happy!!!”

“Whew.. it’s getting hot!”

When we came back home, my corgis went into resting mode right away. We let them rest and went out for brunch. Yesterday, we wanted to go to the restaurant we never been before so our pick was “Country Kitchen” in Highland Park. There is a list of good brunch places by Chicago magazine which my husband found and printed. The Country Kitchen was one of many restaurant on that list. But it was not worth the drive. Okay price, meh food. I ordered the french toast and it was insipid. Pancakes and sausage links for my husband was blah. Our waitress was kind of indifferent. There was nothing special about that restaurant. But there seemed to be lots of regulars especially elders. Maybe we ordered the wrong things but anyway, we will not make a special trip to go there again.

But our day wrapped up with a great dinner and that made us forget our not that great brunch. My husband cooked Penne Primavera based on Master Chef Joe Bastianich’s recipes from Runner’s World(October 2010). Chef Joe – the son of Lidia (Lidia’s Italy) is a runner too. Since we read that article, we wanted to try his recipes. Yesterday my husband made Chef Joe’s Pomodoro sauce then cooked the beautiful, healthy pasta using lots of fresh veggies and Racconto 8 whole grain Penne Rigate. It was so delicious!!! One of the best pastas I’ve ever had 🙂

Super YUM!!!!

If you want, you can find Chef Joe’s recipes here HERE.

Today was a rest day from running for me. I played with my corgis this morning and once again my patient boy Jeter cooperated with me and I took this goofy picture 😉

That’s it for today. Have a good night!!

Day 133 – Polar HRM is alive again!

Yesterday at the race Expo, I saw the Polar heart rate monitor booth. Every race expo I’ve been, I saw their booth but it was the first time I saw it’s providing a battery change service. My Polar HRM batteries are dead. I use a Garmin when I run around the neighborhood but GPS doesn’t work right at the forest preserve trail so I just use the HRM over there. And at the gym, if I wear the Polar chest strap, the Polar treadmill shows my heart rate. I needed to replace the batteries but I kept putting off sending them to the service center because it felt like a hassle. Instead of doing that, I even considered buying another Garmin or a new HRM. Then I saw the Polar booth with battery changing service! I don’t need to send a package, I don’t need to wait, I don’t need to pay the shipping. So we went back to the expo again this morning. It was way more crowded than yesterday afternoon. I replaced the batteries for my wrist unit and transmitter. I bought a new chest strap too. Total cost was $35. It was cheaper than buying a new one or Garmin.

When we were done at the expo we went to Ina’s for brunch. My omelet wasn’t that good but the vegetable hash my husband ordered was pretty good. I wish I ordered a BLT sandwich instead of the omelet. One old lady at the next table was eating a BLT and it looked so good.

After going here and there and taking the doggies out, it was already late in the afternoon. I went to the gym and ran 3.24 miles. I didn’t want to do too much. I don’t know what to expect tomorrow. Yesterday my legs felt better but today, they felt heavy again. Two weeks ago I was cruising so well until I got that side pain. Since the side pain, everything didn’t feel right and it feels like I failed to get myself ready for the race. It is disappointing but well.. it will not be my last race. I will just try to enjoy it tomorrow.

Day 119 – Progress, brunch, and test drive

I managed to sleep on my left side last night. I still can’t sleep on my right side but it was a big improvement from only sleeping on my back 🙂 I will never take it for granted about being able to sleep on my side!!

I felt much better than yesterday. The pain in my left side is not gone completely yet, but I’m sure sooner rather than later, I will be 100% pain free. But I didn’t forget I’m still day-to-day. So it was another easy running day at the gym. I ran 4.02 miles. It was such a beautiful sunny day but the wind was crazy! When we were driving on the highway, our car was pushed by the strong wind. Anyway, Saturday late afternoon was the best time to go to the gym. There were about 10 people but the gym was so quiet and peaceful.

We went out for brunch at “Katie’s kitchen” this morning. I had a chicken salad sandwich on wheat bread and sweet potato fries. They were so good and made me happy. After the brunch, we headed to a Toyota dealer for a test drive of the Prius V. We wanted to compare the V3 and the V5 but they only had a V3. It was a cool car but before we make any decision, we will test drive the V5 and maybe some other hybrid cars. New car smell was nice though 🙂

Day 106 – running outside & shopping for corgis

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Today it was windy, but warm enough to escape from the stinky gym and run outside. I took Jeter and started to run around the park near our house. There were many dogs and their humans in the park. Jeter … Continue reading →

Day 99

Since I started my 100 day project, I usually go to the gym with my husband in the morning on the weekends. So it’s been awhile since we went out for brunch. Today, for the first time this year, we went to our favorite brunch place – Katie’s kitchen. Yes, I didn’t go to the gym in the morning. Instead I ran outside in the afternoon 🙂

Usually I don’t go outside to run unless the temperature is above 50 degrees, but today, even though the temperature in the afternoon was about 35 degrees, the bright sunshine was too tempting to resist. I ran around the neighborhood. I took Jeter and we ran about 2 miles together. Then I ran back home and switched him with Cappy. I ran another 2 miles with her. Then I ran by myself. My mileage for today was 6.27 miles. Jeter used to run 9-10 miles on a weekend with me before but when I stopped running he also didn’t have many chances to log many miles. And during the winter my corgis’ activity level went down. So I didn’t want to make him run too much today. Cappy loves to run but she never ran long miles before. My dogs need to be trained before running serious miles with me. Anyway, it was fun to run around the hood with my corgis. Jeter always runs at my pace so he’s a good running partner for warming up and for a slower run at the beginning. Cappy is an ideal running buddy for a tempo run or speed work. She loves to run faster 🙂 My corgis enjoyed their running with me and looked so happy. Their happy energy boosted my mood up. I ran faster today. Even though the wind was cold, I sweated a lot. It felt so good.

My husband made a really, really good chili today. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a good day. Now, just one day more to completion of my first goal!!

Day 30

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It was a long, fun, and wonderful day. Today was our annual Christmas date and ornament shopping day. I went to the gym at 8 am in the morning but didn’t have much time since we need to take our … Continue reading →

Day 21

Last night I took NyQuil and went to bed extra early. And today I woke up without any sore throat or congestion,yay! But my husband said he has a sore throat. So I told him to rest more and went to the gym by myself. I ran 4.51 miles and felt great. I wiped the machine like crazy before and after the run:) There were more people at the gym but thankfully no chattybirds. Even when I use my iPod at the gym, watching someone who chats more than exercises is still quite annoying. But this morning I didn’t need to worry about it so my running was more pleasant 🙂

After I did my running for today, we went out for brunch. Today we went to our favorite brunch restaurant “Katie’s Kitchen”. It’s bit of a drive but totally worth it. We always got great food there and today we had happy stomachs again. My husband ate one of their special – short ribs with onion and mushroom, grilled mashed potato with white American cheese + 2 eggs + panettone bread toasted with honey cinnamon butter. I stole some of his bread and it tasted wonderful! I had a chicken salad sandwich and sweet potato fries. Yum yum. Like you can assume, I don’t change my diet a lot. I just try to control the portion and improve the quality of the food I eat.

So today I completed my 3rd week(28.61 miles). Everyday I accomplish something!