Say It, Do It

I saw this idea on Fit Chick in the City, so I figured it would probably be a good idea to join in!  It's basically the planning out of your workouts for the week and hopefully saying it out loud and planning it out will help with the follow through.  Here goes.

Monday: 5 x 1000m @ 5k pace with 200 recovery job between each interval.  Abs.
Tuesday: Biceps, back and legs. 2-3 mile run, slow.  Abs.
Wednesday: Tri's and shoulders.  4 miles, hills (read: overpass, it's Florida)
Thursday: ~15 mile bike ride. Abs.
Friday/Saturday: Rest one day, 10 mile run the other day.
Sunday: REST

There you have it.  I'll give an honest report next week on how it all shook out!

The Weekend It Rained...

1.  It rained all weekend.  You would have thought it was at least a tropical storm, but apparently it just formed too high in the sky for the weather men to consider it a tropical storm, so we just had a ton of rain, wind, and a little overflow of the bodies of water in the area.  

Here's the pond at my parents house

2.  The only productive things I did this weekend involved cleaning and hanging out with the hubs, which I consider productive!  Oh and some relaxing...rest, in a sense, is productive...

3.  Our house leaked from all that rain.  It made us very unhappy.  

John has owned the house for 3 years.  It's not like it's a new house.  First it just came in through one of the sliders and by the end of the weekend, it was coming in everywhere. Stupid housing boom and your crappy construction.  Hopefully it's an easy fix and thankfully all but one room downstairs is tile.  We'll find out today since the rain finally stopped!

4.  I spent some time with the girls Saturday night for dinner, fondue and fun!  It was good night.

5.  The Gators lost again.  You'd see my big sad face if you were here with me.  I expect it for the rest of the season now though.  I'll still cheer.  Go Gators!

6.  I won my first giveaway!  It's the prettiest necklace!  And it's from one of my favorite bloggie friends!  Thanks Melissa! 

How was your weekend??

It's OK...

...to be in a foul mood for no particular reason.

well, there's a reason...it's more like nothing in particular happened that set me in that direction.

but, I'm working on it...

...to get in a bit of extra workout time today because it's been a "fat week" by doing jumping jacks and squat jumps every time the opportunity for a bathroom break or water cooler run presents itself.

200 jumping jacks and 40 squat jumps and counting...

and yes, I'm at work

hoping no one catches me

that would be awkward...

...to only want to eat PB&J and an apple for lunch for the next week.

reliving my youth?

...to feel that the only cure for my foul mood is a ride on my road bike later.  

it better not rain

...to 'dislike' facebook.

...to plan dinner as 'whatever's in the fridge' because all you want to do is grab a hot shower after bike ride and lay on the couch with the fuzzy blanket catching up on the dvr. *modernfamily*

...to realize tomorrow is another day...and you can be nicer then!

Go link up with Neely & Amber!

Easy Chicken Enchilada Soup

I made this easy soup recipe last night.  If you're looking for something quick and yummy on a cool evening for dinner, look no further!

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Ingredients:

1 can nacho cheese soup
1 can cream of chicken soup (I used the healthy one)
2-1/2 cups of milk
1 can of enchilada sauce (10oz)
1/2 small can of green chilies chopped
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast cubed

Cooking Instructions
-Cook chicken however you prefer.
-Combine soups, milk, enchilada sauce, and chilies in a pot and bring to a boil.
-Add cooked chicken and reduce heat to a simmer for about 15 minutes.  Cook longer if you prefer a thicker soup.


A few tips from my experience last night:
We ate the soup with tortilla chips.  I also bought a spicy enchilada sauce and put in most of the chilies and it was a spicy soup.  You could tone it down by just using mild enchilada sauce and fewer chilies.

Also, the cheesy soup gets really hot, and if you spill some on your finger, it will still burn like fire the next day.

Enjoy!

One Month From Today...

Today, marks one month until:

I'm ready to run it.  My goal is to break 2 hours.  I want to be a rock-star like Megan!  Hopefully I can kick up my training a notch for the next month and rock Savannah!  

So...I realize I have not talked about running much lately.

A couple Saturdays ago, I ran the Miracle Miles 15k.  It was a horrible race for me, minus meeting Paula & Michelle.

The race didn't start until 7:30.  In Florida, that's no good.  We ran directly into the sun, it was humid, hot and after mile 5, I wasn't feeling it. at. all. Florida runners just aren't made to run more than 4-5 miles when the sun is out March-December 15.  It's just a fact.  I don't do well with the whole heat and humidity thing when it comes to running anyway.  I ended up averaging a 10:00/mile throughout the race.  A couple years ago, I would have been thrilled to be able to do that and run 9 miles.  Now, I am not.  I have to run 9:00's and under to reach my 1/2 marathon goal.  I know bad races happen...I've had a few, but it bummed me out and I felt like all my training did nothing for me.  I know that's not the truth, but it's how I felt.

We look happy here, but that's because I knew where a good friend of mine was going to be taking pictures haha.

So...that's why I haven't talked about running in a while.  I'm over my pity party now thankfully!  I had a good speed workout on Monday and am doing a tempo run today, so I'm back in the saddle again!  The weather has been much more kind to us this past week and being outdoors is bearable, and shall I even say, enjoyable??  Hopefully I didn't jinx myself saying that.

Dear Savannah Weather on November 5th,

Please cooperate for this race.  If it could be in the high 40's-low 50's at start, I would love it (and you) very much.  You might become one of my favorite cities if I PR there.  Just sayin'...

Yours truly, 

Christina

What are your ideal race conditions?

What races do you have coming up??

Fall Lineup Lovin'...

If you remember here, I wrote about some of the new shows I would be watching.  I've given them a couple weeks and now it's time for a review...

I wanted to like it.  I really like Christina Applegate.  It has some funny parts, but I just can't get into it.  I feel like I'm just burning daylight watching it.  Ditched.

Love it!  I really like Zooey and think the shows pretty funny.  John & Christina give this show two thumbs up!  Keeping it!

I thought the first episode was hilarious!  The second one was funny, but it was not near as good as the first episode.  I'm keeping it for now, but if it doesn't go back to episode 1 standards, it will be getting the boot.

I really like the show.  I love seeing how different flying was back in the 60's.  There is also a pretty good storyline going on with one of the girls.  I don't want to give too much away in case you haven't watched yet, but I would recommend it!

I wasn't sure about this one from the beginning, and I'm still not sold.  I watched the first episode only, but I think an hour is too long for this show.  I don't think that I will be getting into this one.

I thought the first episode went a bit slow, but after watching the second one, I think this show is going to be awesome!  Don't give up after the pilot...give it one more week, I think it's worth it!

Whitney is pretty funny!  I think it's fun to watch shows where there is real life stuff going on with people versus extreme drama that a lot of shows are based around.  I'm keeping this one too!

What new shows are you loving or hating??

Mixing Up Mondays

I'll never complain about it being October (it's my favorite month) but, where did the year go?!  I cannot believe that we're in the 10th month of the year already!  Goodness.  Before you know it, we'll be talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Walmart has skipped Halloween and Thanksgiving and already has their Christmas stuff out.  Really?!

This weekend, we spent all day Saturday on the lawn and garden.  The day included two trips to Walmart and Home Depot, oh the horror joy!  It was time to mulch to the flower bed, replace grass from a certain incident that happened a few weeks ago and get a little festive for fall.  Oh, and plant a garden!  I'm excited for fresh veggies!  Thankfully, the weather was perfect for spending some time outside...and that really got me in the mood for fall goodies!

Pumpkin recipes anyone??

My first favorite pumpkin recipe is from Joy the Baker.

These pumpkin cookies are now a fall staple at our house.  I make myself wait to bake them until a little further into October because once I start baking them, we eat the whole batch and then I bake more and we eat more and it becomes a vicious cycle...until I loathe the thought of eating one more cookie.  I think they're that good (so does John).  They're the consistency of muffin tops (win!) and are so yummy.  Joy recommends butterscotch chips, which are good, but I experimented with white chocolate chips and like that much better!

Pumpkin bread is another favorite.  I'm going to share a family recipe with you for this one.  My grandma has been making this bread forever and it's yummy!

Ingredients:
1 cup oil
3 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 can pumpkin
2/3 cup of water
3-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon nuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Cream together oil and sugar.  Add all remaining ingredients, mix well.  Add batter to greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour.  Yields 4 loaves.

I hope you enjoy the recipes!  They're two of my favorites for fall!