Couch to 5K, Week 1, Day 1 (again!)

I haven't run since my last post about running. I don't even really have a good excuse. Except that we thought we needed for Alec to be at the gym with me so I could get the Channel 6 spouse's discount. Turns out we could have done it over the phone. But, oh well. At least now I am all signed up and I can go whenever I want even if Alec is too tired.

Since it's been so long, I decided to start the program over again from day 1. To recap, this is a 5-minute warm-up walk followed by alternating 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes. This time I did remember to make a note of my distance when the warm-up was over so I could calculate how far I went during the actual workout. I did 1.32 miles in 20 minutes. I don't know how long the first mile took, which is the time I posted last time. So I basically have no comparison to that run.

Days Until the 2009 Disney 1/2 Marathon: 346.

Bonus New Recipe - Peach Chicken

I was afraid the pizza crust wouldn't turn out again, so I planned a backup new recipe for this week. I had to do some work on Saturday, and while I did I had the Food Network on in the background. One of the shows I listened to was a new one "Healthy Appetite with Elie Kreiger." (I may have spelled that wrong.) Anyway, she made chicken with peach sauce. I thought it sounded yummy, so I printed the recipe to show Alec. He agreed it sounded good, so I added it to the menu for the week.

It even had an ingredient I wasn't familiar with - Rice Vinegar. Fortuneately, we easily found it at the grocery store (we have a pretty good product selection, because the store we go to caters to the foreign families stationed at the Air Force base in town).

It called for frozen peaches, but I couldn't find those so I used canned.

Here's a picture of the finished product. I served it over pasta because that was all we had. I wanted to do couscous, but I didn't realize we were out. It had kind of an Asian flair, so rice noodles might be good, too. I'll definitely be making it again, so I'll have to experiment!

Pizza Success!

I tried the pizza crust again on Sunday and it was a success! I was so excited. I didn't even have to use the space heater to get it to rise. One of the girls on the Nest suggested turning on the oven to 150, then turning it off and putting the dough in. She said she sometimes heats water on the stove, then puts that in a pan in the oven if it's too dry in the house. I honestly didn't know if it was too dry or not, so I used the water. In any case, it worked.


Here is the pizza crust before I topped it:

And here is the finished product. It's a BBQ chicken topping.

I was going to post the recipe, but it's late and I apparently printed it out & didn't save it on the computer. I'm too tired to type it over again, but I promise I will soon!

Two Resolution Activities Today

Today I accomplished two things on my New Year's Resolution list - I tried a new recipe and I went running!

First, the running. I am doing a program called Couch to 5K, which I heard about first on the Nest. Several of the girls on there have done it or are doing it and it seems like a good way to get started. Basically, it's a program that has you run 3 days per week, building up to the point where you can run 5K. This first week, I will do a 5 minute walk to warm up, then alternate running for 60 seconds with walking for 90 seconds for a total of 20 minutes.

And, today I accomplished the first day! I am proud of myself. I did my first mile (including the 5 minutes of walking - I didn't notice how far I went in that time) in 14 minutes, 33 seconds. For the Disney 1/2 marathon, I have to be able to run a 16-minute mile. My goal is to be able to do that by my birthday. Of course, then I'll have to work on sustaining that pace! By the time of the race, I want to be able to run about an 11 minute mile, as Kate figures that's what she'll be doing and we want to be able to run together. But, I have to reach the small goals first!

Oh, and for today's run, I wore my new pink running socks that Kate & Erick gave me for Christmas. Aren't they cute?






OK, on to the cooking. That was not as successful as the running. We make pizza at home a lot, and since Alec gave me a Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas, I decided to try making my own crust. I had a recipe from one of the girls on the Nest. It calls for both white flour and whole wheat flour. Well, after I'd already activated my yeast and put some of the dry ingredients in, I pulled out the whole wheat flour and it was infested with bugs (gross!). So, I decided to just add the same amount of white flour. That was probably my first mistake. But I put it aside to rise anyway and started on the topping, which was also a new recipe. Well, my second mistake was not having a warm enough place for the dough to rise, and so it didn't. So, here I was with this chicken topping and no crust!


So, I did what any good cook will do and I improvised. We had sloppy joes for dinner last night, and we had some sub rolls leftover. So, I took the provolone cheese that was supposed to go on the pizza and put it on the roll, then topped it with the chicken. It tasted good anyway and since the filling was something new, too, I decided it counts as a new recipe.


Plus, I said I was going to try one new recipe per week. I never said they'd come out well. Anyway, here's a picture of Catherine's Improvised Italian Sub:

Next week, I'll get some new flour and try again. And, I've already figured out that a good place to try the rising will be in the bathroom with the space heater running!

New Year's Resolutions

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to start blogging! I've been inspired by the people I know who blog, and it's a great way to keep up with family & friends I don't see often. Now people can keep up with me, too.

My other two major New Year's Resolutions are:

Start Running
This one was inspired partly by Alec and partly by my sister-in-law, Kate. Alec has been running for a while. He ran his first half-marathon in 2006 and in 2007 he ran a full marathon and 2 half-marathons. Since Kate and her husband, Erick, run, too, Alec asked them to run with him in the halves this year, but they couldn't do it.

Then, I got this crazy idea - what if I started running, too, and then all 4 of us could go to Disney World in January, 2009, and run the Disney Half-Marathon or Marathon? Alec said I'd never do it. I mentioned it to Kate on the phone over Thanksgiving and she was all for it. So now it's decided. We're going to Disney. Kate and I will run the half-marathon and Alec and Erick will run the full marathon. Well, I don't know that Erick has said for sure. But anyway, we're doing it. Kate has promised to keep up with this blog and help encourage me to meet my goals.

Oh, and my step-mother-in-law Julia is considering Disney, too! At first, she wasn't sure about it, so we told her there was also a 5K. She was thinking of that, but recently she said maybe she'd do the half-marathon.

Try one new recipe per week
I feel like we're getting in a rut with our meals. We have a lot of stuff we like, so I tend to make that over & over. I have all these great cookbooks, though, and get lots of recipe ideas from Food Network, magazines and the girls I chat with on a message board on The Nest. So, it's not that I don't have access to new ideas, it's just that I don't use them.

So, those are some of the things I'll be blogging about, plus life in general here in Texas!