Turning into an Icicle at ICycle

Happy Leap Year! Day!

Today was my ICycle Homestart Fundraiser (again I just want to thank everyone who donated to me!  I exceeded my goal and raised $280!).  I worked a half day at the office and then headed over to the event.  It started to snow right when I was leaving work.

I arrived a little early so I chatted with my friend Anthony, who actually works for the organization, Homestart.  He told me I could use the gym Fitness International to get changed.  Since I had time to kill I went up to check it out.
This is when I discovered something horrifying.
I forgot to pack my running tights and grabbed a black tank top instead!  Gah!  Luckily I did pack shorts that I was planning on wearing over the tights (Is it just me or anyone else feel awkward wearing just leggings and nothing else over your butt?).

This was obviously not ideal, but what could I do?  I doubt this nice gym has a closet full of spare pants.

So I did what I had to do, I did the spinning class outside, in shorts, in the snow!

I felt a little silly because:
a.  My legs are extremely pale
b.  Lots of people kept asking me if my legs were cold, and I had to keep saying, "Yes, but I didn't mean to wear shorts, I just forgot to pack my pants!"

Exibit a: pale legs.

While I was a little chilly, I warmed up pretty fast, and I didn't turn into an icicle!

After the event, I headed over to the RaceMenu Office to pick up a medal they had for me.
As you may know, one of my main motivations for doing races is the medals! I love them!  The folks over at RaceMenu were awesome, we ended up chatting for a little while, and they even gave me a free T-shirt as well!
RaceMenu T-shirt + Medal= Success!

Overall a great day!  Now it's time for some quality time with my space heater.

I Lovermont Weekends

Is there anything better than playing in the snow like you did when you were a kid? (Especially when wearing your mom's snow suit from the 80's?)

Is there any better exercise than sledding?  (Especially when you have to walk back up a giant hill.)

 This weekend was a wonderful change of pace and scenery for me.

The fresh air, the powdery snow, the good company, and the yummy food... it was good for the soul.

hand cut fries

juicy lucy's stuffed with Munster and bacon

a wood stove to keep us cozy

I spent a lot of time preparing for this weekend, and it was all worth it. I food shopped, prepped, and packed. I also had to squeeze a 9 mile run into the work week since I wouldn't be able to run while in Vermont. I can't believe the 10 mile race is this Sunday! Time is flying!

 Here's my nike report from the run, can you tell where I ran out of energy? 

This Wednesday is the ICycle Homestart Event. I reached my fundraising goal (a big thanks to everyone who donated!) The weather report doesn't look too promising (snow??) but that's part of the point of the event. While I'm cycling outside for one hour in the cold, I'm going to imagine not having a home, and having to be out in the elements all day and night. It's a good thing I've become quite familiar with exercising in the cold this winter. This will be my third outdoor event this year! Remember when I said I wasn't going to do anymore outdoor events/races? So much for that..but after my very snowy weekend I should be able to handle it.


All photo's by CJ!

My Lousy Vocabulary and a Delicious Snack

The other day I forgot the word "apostrophe."
I was trying to spell a word and I was like, "what are those things called? You know, they're like commas in the air?"
Things like this happen quite frequently.
CJ is used to it by now, he just laughs and shakes his head.

Sometimes I forget a word can have more than one meaning.
Like the time my brother said he was doing research for one of his law professors.
I was like, "research? How do you do research for Law?"
At this time I was working at a clinical research center and I forgot that other types of research existed.

Sometimes I mispronounce/make up words.
Like the time when I was talking about a person I found annoying and I told CJ, "I wish I could exo-communicate them"
CJ was like "Huh?"
And I was like, "you know that word! It means to be kicked out of the church or something"
"I think you mean EX-communicate" he said.
 "....oh...."

While my vocabulary might not be the best, I certainly excel at other things, such as snack-making!

Here is one of my current snack obsessions:

Bananas with a peanut butter and yogurt sauce topped with walnuts
(I copied this recipe based on the dish served at Red Elephant Inn)

What you need:

1 banana

2 tbsp greek yogurt, plain or vanilla

1 tbsp peanut butter

1 sprinkle of brown sugar

Optional chopped walnuts

How to make:

Peel & slice up the banana

Mix the yogurt and peanut butter together until you have a nice creamy consistency.

Sprinkle in the brown sugar, however much you want.

Pour over the sliced bananas, and top with chopped walnuts!

That’s it!

 Quick, easy, tasty, and healthy!  Just the way I like my snacks!

ICycle Homestart Fundraiser Event

Hi Guys,
I need your help!
I'm doing a charity event for an organization called Homestart, Inc.

"HomeStart’s solution to homelessness is simple: Housing First.

At HomeStart, “Housing First” means that our first priority for every person is a stable housing situation. We then work with each person’s individual needs to provide services and support to make sure they are able to remain housed.
Since 1994, HomeStart has helped more than 4,000 homeless people move to their own homes.
Ending Homelessness. Changing Lives. HomeStart."

The event is called ICycle.
It's a outdoor spin-a-thon that goes on for 12 hours. 
In order to participate, I need to raise $250 by next Wednesday. 
Please, donate to me and help me reach my goal!
My Fundraising page:
http://www.crowdrise.com/icycle/fundraiser/amysinclair1
You can donate through your amazon account, or directly to me!


From the Homestart page: HomeStart ends and prevents homelessness. 
If you're homeless, HomeStart is your realtor.  Much like a real estate agency, HomeStart helps you find permanent housing by assessing your background, financial ability, and a variety of other factors.  But once HomeStart puts you in a home, they make sure you stay there.  HomeStart provides stabalization services like money management, life skills training, etc. to make sure that you re-integrate into the community and never become homeless again.  

That's how HomeStart ends current homelessness, but HomeStart also prevents it before it starts.  If you're on the verge of losing your home, HomeStart offers emergency assistance that helps you stay in the home and avoid costly taxpayer shelters.  Usually HomeStart can keep a family in a home for $700, while moving that family into a shelter, could cost taxpayers upwards of $40,000 (nevermind the moral cost.) 
So you ready to help HomeStart end homelessness?  Then sign up, raise at least $250, and let's see if you're as tough as some of our clients.  Also while you're riding, just think, you're only outside for an hour, imagine if you were homeless.  

"I hate the cold and I really hate the breeze.  When you're homeless, you can't even feel yourself you're so cold.  It's all you can think about.  And when the wind blows, you want to be anywhere else but outside"  

"I was talking to a client the other day and he told me how grateful he was for HomeStart. HomeStart helped him get his first place, manage his money, go to school, but he was the most grateful to HomeStart for getting him out of the cold."

My First Loaf!

I have been dying to make bread for a few weeks now.  I don’t know exactly why I felt such a strong desire to make bread from scratch, but I knew I had to try it.  And now, 22.5 hours later, I have successfully made my first loaf of bread.  I feel like a domestic goddess.

I used a cookbook my mom had called “My Bread- The Revolutionary no-work, no-knead Method” written by Jim Lahey.  He developed the no-knead Bread-in-pot technique.   It’s really simple, all you need it water, flour, yeast, salt, and time. 

The instructions call for a cast iron pot, which I didn’t have, so I went out and bought one yesterday.   I found one for fifty bucks at Homegoods.  It’s  porcelain enamel coated cast iron, so it’s really heavy!  In an ideal world I’d have a Le Crueset dutch oven, but this will do for now. 

Making the Dough:

First, I gathered all the ingredients.

3 cups bread flour

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoon yeast

1 1/3 cups cool (55-65 degrees F) water

Corn meal (for dusting)

In a medium bowl, I mixed the flour, salt and yeast.  I then added the water and stirred with a wooden spoon until it was a wet sticky dough.  I had to add another tablespoon of water to get it to be sticky to the touch.

I covered the bowl with saran wrap and let it sit for the fermentation period.  This can take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.  I let my dough rise for 18 hours.  

The book says to pay attention to the “visual keys” of a successful rise, such as a bubbly surface with a darkened appearance.

Once the dough has risen, I took it out of the bowl, and laid it on a floured cutting board. 

I folded it and shaped it to be more round, and placed it seam side down on a tea towel dusted with corn meal.  I loosely wrapped the tea towel over the dough.  This is when the second rise begins.  I let it rise for a little less than two hours. 

note the indentation, bottom left

The dough is ready to be baked when it passes the “poke test.”  Gently poke the dough with your finger to make an indentation ¼ inch deep.  If it holds the indentation, it’s good to go!

While the dough is in the second rise, I pre-heated  the oven and the pot.  Once the oven was up to 475 degrees,  I placed  the dough in the pot and dusted it a little more with corn meal.

I baked the dough for 30 minutes with the lid, and then another 15 minutes without the lid.  

And it is so beautiful!

I think I did everything right. As soon as I took the loaf out it was making some cracking sounds, called “singing.”  The “singing” occurs when the bread starts to cool, and the crust is shrinking and cooling, and the steam is escaping through the cracks.  

The bread must cool for at least an hour before slicing.  Once cool, I sliced it and had a photo shoot... then I had a serious bread binge. 

Why You Should Drink Chocolate Milk After a Tough Workout

Hey!

I’ve been pretty productive today.  My biggest accomplishment so far has been running nine miles.  My training plan suggested running 8 miles, but since I was feeling pretty good and the race is in two weeks, I decided to do nine.  It took me 1 hour and 29 minutes (9:58 pace).

 

At mile 6, I took an energy gel since I was starting to lose steam.  I think it helped.  It did make me really thirsty since it’s so sweet, but that was the only negative thing I noticed.  At nine miles, I started my cool down.  I walked a little bit, then stretched my legs.  Afterwards, I iced my knees because they were a little stiff.  And by ice, I mean frozen corn and peas. :)

Did you notice that my Nike plus report is green now?  That's because I made it to the green level! That means I have ran 162 miles with Nike Plus, and 104 of them I ran in 2012.  That seems like pretty big news to me!

To refuel after the run, I made a turkey and cheese sandwich with carrot sticks and a side of cottage cheese.   

I love toasted bread!

I mixed up a big glass of chocolate milk to drink.  When I was in college, I took a sports nutrition class and I remember learning that chocolate milk is the perfect thing to drink after a workout.  The ratio of carbs, protein, and fat, is just what your body needs to start recovery.

Fitness magazine says, “Compared to plain milk, water, or most sports drinks, [chocolate milk] has double the carbohydrate and protein content, perfect for replenishing tired muscles. Its high water content replaces fluids lost as sweat, preventing dehydration. Plus it packs a nutritional bonus of calcium, and includes just a little sodium and sugar -- additives that help recovering athletes retain water and regain energy." Source

As an added bonus, it’s delicious, and it really brings me back to my childhood when I used to chug chocolate milk like it was nobody’s business.

In unrelated news, I just bought myself a 5 quart cast iron pot and I plan on making some bread in it.  I just made the dough and now it needs to rise for 18 hours since I’m trying out a “no

knead” method.  I’ll post about that tomorrow!

The Pea's Knees (V-Day edition)

1. We went out for V-day to this amazing little place called Donatello's. We were fortunate enough to have a gift certificate we recieved from a very generous friend. Lucky us!  We went to this restaurant last year too, but I was sick and could barely eat anything.  I was glad we got to try it again because the food is really good!  I give this place 4.5 out of 5 Peas!

2. This was my Caprese salad. It was just perfect. Look at that cute little stack.

3. CJ got the lamb.  He said it was cooked well, but he wished it was more rare.  Why are men obsessed with raw meat?  I just don't get it.  I swear he would eat raw meat if I allowed it. 

In Running news....

4.  The Black Cat race is a little over two weeks away.  Freaking out!  Can I do it?  Probably.  Will I be fast?  Probably not. This weekend I'm planning to use an energy gel when I attempt to run 8 miles again. 


5.  I'm currently debating whether or not to sign up for the Wallis Sands Half Marathon in Rye, New Hampshire.  It's May 6th, 2012.  If I get 10 Comments on this post by Monday, Feb 20th, I'll sign up.  How about that?

The Best (and Only) Way to Eat a Cupcake

Would you be mine if I made you pretty pink cupcakes?

These cupcakes were made with love (did you know they put love into the cake mix?)  They were mixed by hand (but only because I couldn't find the electric mixer) and they should be eaten in the form of a sandwich (the only way to eat a cupcake, right Matt?)

If you don't know what I mean by eating it as a sandwich, allow me to enlighten you:

Step one:  Pull off the bottom of the cupcake.

Step two: Place bottom of cupcake on top of cupcake

Step three:  Enjoy!

I'm pretty sure I've changed the way you eat cupcakes forever sooooo you're welcome. :)


Happy Valentine's Day!

An Achy 8 Miles and Recovery Banana Pancakes

Hello!
Yesterday I ran 8 miles on the treadmill.  This was no easy feat for me.  I didn't eat enough beforehand so I was really struggling to get through it.  I started running out of energy at mile 5, and really had to push myself to finish it.
I really wanted to do the 8 miles because I needed to get it under my belt.  The 10 mile race is coming up, and I only have a few more long runs on my training schedule.  I have to make each one count!

I finished in one hour and 24 minutes.  I felt a little achy after so I iced my knees and relaxed for the rest of the day. 

This week's Fitness Schedule:
Monday: 3 mile run
Wednesday: 4 mile run
Thursday: 2 mile run
Saturday: 8 mile run
(Hopefully I can fit some yoga in there somewhere.)

This morning I had wanted to go to this free Crossfit event, but I realized that I haven't given myself a rest day in over a week.  The event was called "Tough Love" and it was the WOD (workout of the day) and then an hour yoga class.  I really wanted to go because I thought it would be great to get to try Crossfit for free since it can be pretty expensive.  Oh well, I decided to skip the class and make some banana pancakes instead.

I was really channeling Jack Johnson this morning.

  

I'd share the recipe, but I didn't make them from scratch.  We just used box mix and added some chopped up bananas to the mixture.

When they were done, we sprinkled them with more chopped bananas, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and maple syrup.

I definitely made the right decision this morning. Pancakes > Crossfit.

 One of the pancakes accidentally came out in a heart shape.  How sweet!

Weekend breakfast's are the best!

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday!  I'm off to frost some Valentine's Day cupcakes for my work party tomorrow.
Pictures to come!