After my 10K in December, I swore off cold weather races. And then Meghann, who was coming to NYC for an event, tweeted that she signed up for the Gridiron 4 Mile race during her time here. Knowing a meetup was looming, I bit the bullet and signed up as well.

Yesterday, I met Meghann and her mom and brother for lunch at Alice’s Tea Cup. If you can believe it, I’ve lived a few blocks away from there for 4 years and never went inside! So happy Meghann invited me because I absolutely loved it and I’m already itching to go back!

[Stolen from Meghann]

We shared scones to starts – Pumpkin and White Chocolate Cranberry. I actually preferred the White Chocolate one to the Pumpkin! I ate the majority of it since everyone else seemed to like the Pumpkin better. Fine by me!

[Stolen from Meghann]

I’d been salivating over this french toast on the menu: Alice’s Curious French Toast – French toast bites infused with apricot brandy tea, baked bread-pudding style and attacjed with fruit coulis, vanilla creme anglaise and sweet syrupy stuffs.

I don’t know what sweey syrupy stuffs are but whatever it is, I want it.

In the end I decided to go with a half sandwich and soup. I was so cold from my walk there and wanted to be warmed up by Tomato Basil soup, plus this sandwich sounded like the perfect thing to order at a tea house!

Cucumber And Watercress with lemon chive butter on whole wheat

It was wonderful! The lemon chive butter was especially amazing. I felt so dainty. I also ordered a pot of Organic Ginger tea. It was fantastic as well and didn’t taste too gingery at all!

Tea! Both these pics from Meghann’s camera as well. I felt like an amateur taking out my point & shoot when she had her fancy camera.

So this morning I was up before my alarm excited for the race! I was tweeting with Heather, Meghann and Ashley while getting ready. We were all so excited!

At my last cold weather race I wasn’t dressed warmly enough. During the race I was fine, but standing around before the race was unbearable. I planned better this time. I wore (all items are for running/workout) a long tank top, long sleeved top, jacket, wind stopping vest and a (not running) fleece. I wore running fleece gloves and big regular fleece gloves over them. I wore 2 pairs of running socks. I wore an ear covering headband and a hat over that.

I left my apartment at 8 and walked to the race. I found Meghann and Ashley standing in front of baggage check. I shedded a layer of warmth, my winter coat, and checked it with my bag. We met up with some other bloggers but they left because they were trying to PR and we were running for fun. We wanted to find Melissa and Heather (with Mark!) to run with but couldn’t find either of them.

All bundled up: Jesse along with Meghann, Ashley and me

We headed over to our corral. Well, mine and Ashley’s corral. Meghann is much faster but decided to run with us for a leisurely (for her) race and the fun that comes with talking the entire time. Ashley and I both run 10 minute miles during races.

Pink Corral. For girly runners:

We still had 20 minutes so we . . . bounced! The 3 of us just bounced up and down while talking. The sun was out and before the race started I was able to remove my fleece and tie it around my race so I could display my number and *maybe* actually appear in a race photo. I would probably have felt silly bouncing like that along but I loved doing it with friends! It warmed us up, except for our hands.

We briefly interrupted our bouncing to take photos:

And then the race started. I’m used to starting about 4 minutes after the race begins, by the time my corral gets to the start line, but today the wait was longer than usual for some reason and we started about 8 minutes after the start! Once we were off, things went smoothly. My hands eventually warmed up (I am definitely getting hand warmers for my half marathon)  and I started to feel my toes again. This was my first race without an iPod. We talked the entire time and we listened in on other people’s conversations. It is so interesting to hear what people discuss during a race — typically, other races! I really liked not wearing my iPod, although I would only do it again if I was running with a friend or the race provided entertainment.

Ashley and Meghann in action:

Butts:

I got a kick out of PINK scrawled across Meghann’s tush!

Best part about racing with friends? I finally get a RACING ACTION SHOT of myself! (You might know I rarely appear in official race photos). And yes, I realize how selfish I sound. But . . . pictures of ME! YAYYYY!

My awesome running vest in action. Love it.

During the 2nd mile, there were signs splitting up runners into which superbowl team they are rooting for. I don’t know or care about either team, so I asked which side we should run on. Ashley wanted the Colts to win, so we went on that side. We ran over the same type of tracking device at the start and finish lines, and that device tallied the percentage of runners for each team — how fun!

Apparently, we were in the minority:

Results from “Who will you root for?” split – SAINTS: 66% COLTS: 34%

I loved getting to know Meghann and Ashley more and the time really flew by. I know it was an easy pace for Meghann but for me it was basically my normal pace. I definitely got a nice workout but didn’t overdo it at all. I was worried because after my 5 mile run on Tuesday night, I woke up Wednesday with a foot injury. It hurt so much with every step I took. I have tendonitis. I am happy to say my foot felt great! It did not hurt one bit. I was so worried it would ruin my half marathon training, but I really think I will be fine.

Meghann took this gorgeous scenery picture. I feel bad taking all Meghann’s pics but I didn’t think to take these since I see the sites all the time. At my next race I think I will bring my camera again because I did have fun with it and it didn’t bother me while I was running like I thought it would.

Thanks Meghann!

Seeing the finish line is always an amazing thing, although we didn’t sprint. I was so focused on waving at this one race photographer that I didn’t notice 3 on the other side of me until too late! I just want to be in race photos!

My official time is 41:32 for 4 miles, with an average 10:23 pace. This was actually my slowest race ever! Not by much, though. I finished my last 4 mile race in exactly 40 minutes, and my 10K average was 10:13 miles.

After the race we met up with a big group at Arte Cafe for brunch! I finally got to catch up with Heather and Melissa. Heather was just a few minutes behind us in the race and Melissa was a few ahead. Too bad we missed them! Heather is hilarious, look at her “running” socks:

I also met new bloggers! I don’t have a list of people and their corresponding blogs although I might send out an email so I can get a list together, since they are NYC based like me, runners (like I attempt to be) and I had a great time talking to them all! Every was just so nice. I get intimidated in big groups but everyone was so welcoming today. The food was pretty good too, especially the muffins they gave out when we got there. So good and doughy. I was starving since all I had before the race was a green juice.

I might have taken 2 more muffins home.

I got a mushroom omelet, and it was pretty good. Ashley baked vegan macaroons for everyone and they were wonderful! They had the consistency of cookie dough and the taste of coconut custard pie. Yum!

And a group shot that Meghann took:

After brunch we stopped in at Alice’s Tea Cup (a different location than the day before) because Meghann loved her chocolate mint tea yesterday and wanted to buy some. I regret not trying hers when I had the chance! I was tempted to buy some tea but I don’t yet understand how to make loose leaf tea and I just want a better grasp before committing. Yes, I’m nutty and get nervous about strange things. But I live so close to Alice’s that I’ll just pop in when I am all set up to brew the tea at home.

I plan to go back to Alice’s Tea Cup soon anyway. I want to bring all my friends there. It’s just so cute and delicious. And I need to try that french toast. And a brownie.

Anyway, I took the bus back home and had the most amazing 2.5 hour nap. It was much needed!

I had such a great weekend! Racing with friends is so much fun, I hope I get to do that again. I skipped out on 7 am Core Fusion today (Monday) in favor of an extra hour of sleep and it was so worth it. Back this week with more Core Fusion recaps!

Click HERE for professional race photos from the Gridiron 4 Mile race!

I have a race recap for you! I am so excited about it! But that will come tomorrow. Eeee! (I am giddy)

I want to talk about Thanksgiving this week. I feel like it is always Thanksgiving. Every time I turn around, it is time for Thanksgiving again. Last year was the first year I got in a workout on the holiday. I couldn’t go to my own gym because I had stayed over at my mom’s the night before. My little brother was visiting from The Seattles and I wanted to spend as much time with his mushy face as possible. I get guest passes to a bunch of a gym’s through my company’s Global Fit account and I was thrilled to see Meadows Spa on the list. Meadows Spa is an all women’s gym that I was a member of for a short time when I lived at home. I actually used to come home from my full time job, go right from the bus to my car and drive to the gym to take a class (never did machines back then) after work. What motivation!

Anyway, I used the guest pass there in the morning and got a good 1:05 on two different ellipticals. It felt great and I was so happy to have done something great for myself before the huge meal. I was able to enjoy my meal much more too knowing I got a great workout in.

Which brings me to my Turkey Day Tips. I know variations of these have been floating around the blog world, but I’d like to throw mine in there as well along with my plans for this year. Oh, and while I do not eat turkey, I just love saying Turkey Day.

Turkey Day Tips

1. Schedule your Turkey Day workout. Otherwise it gets easy to lounge around with your family or watching the parade or football or whatever it is you do to lounge. I scheduled my workout — a Core Fusion class with one of my favorite teachers (my favorite teacher Brynn is no longer at CF, sad). I was so happy to see that my other favorite, Barbara, was teaching on Turkey Day, so I jumped at the chance to take her 11:00 am class. Now that I signed up, I am obligated to go. And excited to! If I happen to wake up early on Thursday I might try to get in a quick cardio workout as well, but if there’s no time, no worries! I know I will feel amazing after Core Fusion — I always do! Plus, I have been meaning to get my butt there more!
2. Plan your Day After workout. Knowing you have a workout planned and ready to go the following day might help you not stuff yourself to the point of food coma, or, as my brother and I like to say thanks to Chris Rock, “the itis.” And a workout the day after Turkey Day will just feel nice, knowing you had a fantastic day of indulgence and now you are back to treating your body well. I already scheduled my Day After workout – another Core Fusion class with the same great teacher! I was happy to see Barbara is teaching on Black Friday because it made me really want to sign up for the class. She usually teaches on Wednesdays when I am at my writing class, so now I have two great opportunities to take her class!
   I will probably do a cardio workout this day as well since I will have more time.
3. Work out throughout the week. From Sunday – at least Friday of Turkey Day week I will be/have been working out. More than I usually do but it makes me feel that much better about the festivities.
4. Enjoy! If you workout before or after Thanksgiving, great! If not, also great! The point of this holiday is to enjoy your time with family and friends and eat delicious foods you really only have once a year. So enjoy it and don’t feel guilty or bad or anything negative at all about indulging — or over indulging. Just enjoy.

Looking for a fun and challenging Turkey Day workout? Read this post from Well + Good NYC, a great blog I just found out about. While this blog is NYC-centric, there are great ideas in the post for everyone, so check it out!

Speaking of NYC workouts, remember when I struggled with the decision to join a gym? The day after I made the decision and joined, I received an email from the PR Director at New York Sports Clubs. She had read about my issues with having little money but wanting to work out in a motivating environment, and she offered me a complimentary month! While I was really happy, I had also just joined and wasn’t sure if the offer was still valid. After some working things out, I am happy to say I received my free month and that makes me so happy! I am very impressed with NYSC’s keeping up with what people are saying in the social media/blog world and their generous efforts to make sure I got to belong to a gym. The signs of a great company. Thank you, New York Sports Club!

Speaking of NYSC, I wanted to update you on how I’ve been doing with my new membership. As for my home location, I’ve only gone twice, both times to spin. My evenings have all been so busy so I haven’t gotten there after work and I have been too tired to make it in the morning. But that is OK — since I have been using the location across the street from my job! I can only use that location during off peak hours which has been working out well.

Remember I discussed scheduling a Thanksgiving workout earlier in this post? Well, I’ve benefited from scheduling all my workouts when I go during the work day. I’ve found that if I block off a time in my Outlook calendar, I make it to the gym. If I don’t, I tend to let work wrap me up and I don’t make it. So I block off a time, go across to the gym, get in a quick 30 minute workout and get right back to work. It is as if I was never even there! As if I didn’t work out, except that I DID.

I love, love, love this new arrangement. I am kicking myself for not doing this sooner. Then when my day is done, I am done. No workouts hanging over my head, taunting me. I’m in, I’m out, I’m done.

I was doing elliptical mostly. I did the arc trainer once and I did the elliptical/stairmaster hybrid once. Then yesterday, inspired by Janna, I did a machine I haven’t done since I belonged to my old gym: the stepmill.

I forgot how hard this thing is! I did 30 minutes and I was dripping by the end. My shirt was soaked through! What an amazing workout when you are strapped for time. I will probably incorporate this into my workouts much more often now. Hopefully soon I will have less of a hard time on actual stairs! I definitely recommend the stepmill if you need a quick but tough workout. Just don’t attempt to pick up a water bottle or a BlackBerry during it because you might fall off. It requires focus and balance!

Another reason my gym membership has been worth it. The building gym doesn’t have this machine! And NYSCs are everywhere. The other day, I went with the boy to his haircut appointment and there was a NYSC across the street. If I’d known, I could have brought clothes and gotten my workout in. Next time!

I am kickstarting my return to Core Fusion with my Turkey Day schedule as well. I opted not to participate in Angela’s Whittle My Middle challenge because I have 25 Core Fusion classes to use up and I know they would whittle my middle and strenghten my core better than I could ever do on my own. But I haven’t been using the classes aside from a really great beginner yoga class that I didn’t hate a couple weeks ago. Starting Thanksgiving, I am back in Core Fusion mode. I will be whittling my middle there and strenghtening my butt, legs and arms as well. I can’t wait to get stronger again!

A quick random note on workout clothes. I was on eBay trying to find the Lululemon Run Swiftly Tech L/S shirt that is sold out in my size everywhere, and I came across some auctions for the Brisk Run Gloves that I have. In Lululemon stores & online, they cost $26. On eBay, they were being sold as Buy it Now for $40. Rip off! You could just buy it straight from Lululemon.com with free shipping. Always check to make sure you aren’t being ripped off on eBay — that made me really angry.

And lastly, some quick food news. I made amazing pumpkin pancakes. So perfect and fluffy — without a doubt the best pancakes I ever made. I used Arrowhead Mills Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix. I replaced the vegetable oil with coconut oil and I added in a couple healthy spoonfuls of Whole Foods organic canned pumpkin. Perfection.

And if you want a book of healthy, easy, yummy recipes please check out Jen’s PriorFatGirl e-Cookbook. It is an amazing collection of over 50 recipes submitted by Jen’s readers and put together by Jen herself, with tidbits on getting some movement into your day from the ever popular MizFit throughout. It makes a great holiday gift and is an invaluable resource for yourself. I have one and I can’t wait to use it. The cookbook costs $5, with $4 of it going to the YMCA, which promotes healthy living for millions of Americans. Click here to learn more and order your copy!

How do you fit a workout in on Thanksgiving? Ever done anything unique?

I will be back tomorrow for my 4 mile race recap and playlist!

So much to post about and really no time at all! I just uploaded all my Seattle pictures but I will have to get to that later this week. Or next. For now, I will leave you with a little food porn from my trip:

I will get into more detail when I write my Seattle post!

Anyway.

What is amazing about running is how easy it is to improve.

Let me start from the beginning of my story.

I had mistakenly assumed that after my October 25 5 mile race, my outdoor running days for 2009 were over. But then I went to Seattle and the weather was gorgeous. We took the pup to Green Lake and I ran the 2.8ish mile loop. My stomach was bad — I had eaten breakfast 6 hours earlier — so I had to walk a bit, but overall it was a beautiful run. At the end I met up with my brother, Mallory and Santana and I took Santana’s leash and we even went on a little confusing (for pup) run together!

Then I came back to NYC and found myself waking up twice before work to run in the 44 degree weather. And I didn’t even feel that cold! I did about 3.5 miles both times and decided I could keep this up until the weather hit the 30s.

This past Sunday was an unseasonably warm day and with temperatures reaching 65, the boy and I had to go for a run. The plan was 5 miles, which is a bit longer than the boy’s usual distance but I wanted to keep my mileage up in preparation for our 4 mile race on November 22.

I took the boy into a section of Riverside Park that is gorgeous in the fall! We ran past the point where I typically turn around for 5 miles and kept going until we reached tennis courts at 119th street where we turned around to come back. That was the 3 mile point! At this time, the boy went off ahead of me since I slow him down, and we both started on the 3 miles back home.

The longest I ever ran before this was 5 miles and both times my knee was killing me towards the end, so I was a little nervous about this. I had been feeling well during this run; all I had to eat was a green juice and while I did get a right ribcage cramp, I was able to battle it with my breathing. The first 3 miles went quickly since I was talking to the boy and watching a stream of people dressed in purple doing a walk for Pancreatic Cancer.

The next 3 miles ended up being really great! I felt strong, my music was great (testing out my next race playlist) and once I hit 5 miles I couldn’t stop smiling knowing I was PDRing (and feeling fantastic!) the entire time. When my Polar hit 6 miles I stopped, with a time of 1:02:17! I ran 6 miles! I ran for an hour!

I came home, ate and napped for 2 hours. At night we went to the most incredible dinner at Blue Hill, but I’ll save that experience for another post.

Stats:

Distance: 6 mi
Time: 1:02:17
Avg pace: 10:20
Max pace: 4:11 (that can’t be right)
Avg HR: 170
Max HR: 187

I was so happy to have run 6 miles for the first time in my life. It is crazy how just a few months ago I could barely run for 20 minutes and I proclaimed that running is not for me. Even more crazy is that today was another beautiful, warm day in New York City and I decided to go for another run.

I wasn’t sure how my knees would handle this since they usually kill me after 4 miles, but yesterday they were fine throughout all 6 miles — no pain at all. I decided to just run 2 or 3 miles and if I am hurting, I’d stop. I set out and the first mile was definitely a challenge. My legs felt heavy, which I had never experienced before. Once I got past the first mile, they loosened up and I felt great. Whenever I glanced down at my Polar, my pace was faster than normal (around 9:30) but I felt comfortable. I decided to run down this little path that goes under a highway exit underpass to see where I’d end up.

When I came out on the other side, I had to do a double take. I felt like I was in Super Mario Brothers and went down one pipe and came out the other end in a totally different part of the level!

I was on the same path as I started out, along the water, but I was on the OTHER side – a side I did not even know existed! A SUPER MARIO BROTHERS PIPE WARP RUN!

Okay, let me explain. I run along the water on the Hudson River Greenway, starting at 68th street. At around 84th street, there is no more river path; for the past year or so, they have been building an extension so that the path will go straight up and when it is complete, I won’t have to run up into the park. I can stay along the water.

So when I ran up into the park and took a path that brought me under the highway exit, I expected to be brought into the other side of the park where I run my longer runs. I usually get there by crossing a street but I thought this would take me underneath the crosswalk and back into the park so I wouldn’t have to cross any busy street.

Instead, I came up on the Hudson River Greenway — on the OTHER SIDE of it. It is right at the other point of the construction to extend it. This means that when they finish the extension, I would go straight along the water to the point I was currently at. Does this make sense? I feel like I need to draw a picture but I don’t have a scanner.

As I said, I never saw this path before; it was along the water, stunning views of the George Washington Bridge, but it felt strange. Like I was on my usual waterfront path, but in a section where nothing was recognizable. A section so close to me but I never knew existed. It was SO weird! I kept glancing backwards to try and make sense of how this perfect running path had been here all along and I never knew to take advantage of it.

Because I wanted to run along this path, I ended up running a little longer than planned. By the time I got to a section where the pavement became extra smooth and the designated area for those on feet became narrow, I was at the 2 mile mark. As much as I wanted to keep running and see how far up I could go, I knew it was time to turn back to make this a 4 mile run. I had to be careful on my knees after running 6 miles the day before!

Despite having ran 6 pain free miles the day before, I had another amazing, happy, pain free run once again. The 4 miles was not only easy, my legs were going so much faster than normal! My typical “comfortable pace” is around 10:15. Throughout this run I was running at 9:15 without trying and feeling very comfortable. For my last mile I knew I could really pick it up and for the first time in a long time, I did! I was no longer running to be comfortable, I was running to be STRONG. I sped up, my breathing picked up, and I finished my 4 miles in 38:26! Aaaahh! I felt perfect, not like I was about to die as I had in the past after pushing myself hard. And the time went so quickly, I ran a mile more than I had planned, much faster than I had planned. I wonder if I could do this for my race in a couple weeks?

Distance: 4 mi
Time: 38:26
Avg pace: 9:40
Max pace: 8:06
Avg HR: 174
Max HR: 192

This is a low max HR for me! Yet another way I know I am improving.

THIS is why running is so amazing. A few months ago I could barely run for 25 minutes. I almost gave up on it — and once proclaimed to the boy that running was not for me — and I am so glad I didn’t because it seriously is just SO easy to improve! I ran 6 miles on Sunday and then 4 on Monday with no problem at all! I used to get the worst knee, hip and abdominal pain within a few minutes of running; now they are all kept at bay. Not gone, but definitely improving. And on top of that, Monday’s run was so much faster than my usual runs — and it felt so natural! I am so sure that if I keep this up, I will become a faster runner and won’t have to “take it easy” during my races. It only took me a few months to improve this much, so imagine where I will be in a year?!

Thanks so much for all your feedback yesterday when I was debating a gym membership.

After my post, I set out to do some further research. And my research was fruitful!

I am really, really good at the internet. As I said in my last post, my company didn’t offer a real discount. At least, not one that employees could actually find on the intranet. But with my talents, I found another company’s website for employee offers, typed in my own work email address, and before I knew it I was on a webpage for employees of MY company — with an amazing discount right there! All I had to do was sign up and it was mine! Why is this information nowhere on our intranet?

There was one catch, though. In order to take advantage of this offer, I had to commit for a year. I started weighing my options once again, trying hard to rationalize a 1 year commitment. But it kept coming back to one problem — I don’t expect to be employed past April, and there is no way I can pay for a gym membership without having a job!

I rationalized and rationalized. I emailed lots of friends. I had multiple phone conversations with the boy. I tried talking myself into just going for it. I still was not ready to commit. And then I got a phone call.

The membership director I spoke to on Saturday called to check in on my decision to join and to see if I was able to find I discount. “I have a website open in front of me right now with this discount,” I told her. “But it requires a one year commitment and I just don’t think I can do it.”

She started thinking, suggesting all the ways I might be able to use another discount. “Does anyone in your apartment belong to NYSC?” Nope. “Did you used to be a member?” Nope. “Were you a member at another gym recently?” Yes! “Do you still have your barcode from that gym?” Yes! “That’s it. We have a discount for you.”

And that is how I got a pretty good price on a month to month, commitment-free NYSC membership! In order to pay for this, I will be cutting down on one medical treatment a month. If I find that I am suffering too much, I can just cancel my membership (with 30 days notice).  I am so glad I didn’t sign up on Saturday. I KNEW there had to be a better offer and I got one!

I went to the gym after work to sign the papers and get my membership card and I was all set!

That is, until this morning when I woke up to an email from the PR Director at NYSC who read my blog entry about my dilemma with a very generous offer. How cool is that. I love when companies step up. I can’t reveal yet what the offer was since I am waiting to hear back from her on my follow up email, but I am hoping to be able to save a little bit more money . . . it might be too late though.

Either way, now I have a gym membership! I can use my “home” location at any time and all other locations (such as the one across the street from my job) during off peak hours and weekends. Not a bad deal! And there is another location pretty close to me that has some good classes on the weekend’s, so I am sure I will be heading over there a couple times. And working out during the day by my job. I have to start leaving gym clothes at work again. And I can spin again! Once I get the hooks back in my shoes, that is.

Another thing that is annoying about the building gym that I forgot to mention yesterday: I only have access to it when the boy is home because I need his key to get in. That is why I bought the rebounder, which I still plan to use, but now I have this my new gym as an option as well. Perfect.

After all the excitement of joining the gym, it was time to meet some friends for dinner at a restaurant I was very excited for. The plan was for Missy, Melissa, Gena and I to eat at Peacefood Cafe on the Upper West Side. I read about it in a Vital Juice newsletter and given its convenient location to my apartment, knew I needed to try it out. The menu sounded divine!

I got there early and sat on a bench in front of the restaurant. Nearly every person who walked by made some comment about the restaurant’s name. Think “Oh, Peacefood. Just what I need. More peace in my food!” in British accent. I guess not everyone is ready for the Peacefood!

Unfortunately, Melissa had to back out since she was given some urgent work to do, so it was just three of us. The restaurant itself was adorable. We each ordered tea that came in large mugs that I loved. I got peppermint and it was delicious. I had obsessed over studied the menu during the day and wasn’t able to decide between these two choices:

Roasted Japanese Pumpkin (Kabocha) mashed and seasoned with a little sea salt, ground black pepper and extra virgin olive oil, topped with caramelized onions, ground walnuts, vegan goat cheese and seasonal greens

or the

Mushroom Duxelle with roasted sweet peppers, onions & zucchini

As much as I wanted to finally try kabocha after reading so many blog raves, I was really craving pizza so that is what I went with. Luckily, Missy ordered the kabocha sandwich and Gena ordered a side of kabocha, so I could have the best of both worlds.

I made the right choice. Seriously, that might have been the best pizza I have ever had. It tasted amazing, and the peppers and zucchini really added something special to it. Everything was cooked to perfection:

AMAZING. Devour is too dainty a word to describe what I did to that.

Gena got an amazing salad topped with some delicious looking avocado. I took one look at her giant salad and felt a pang of envy. When I see a salad like that, it makes me miss salads so much and depresses me that I can’t eat them (my stomach will not allow it). While I couldn’t taste her salad, I could, however, taste her roasted kabocha!

Cut off a piece, put in mouth. Chew, chew. Chomp. Swallow.

The verdict? Ehh.

Maybe it was so built up to me from other blogs? Maybe it wasn’t a particularly sweet kabocha? I don’t know. What I do know is that I would take a sweet potato over that kabocha any day. It just didn’t taste that sweet to me. I will need to try again, but that is my first impression. So I am not in any big rush.

This is Gena’s big salad with the kabocha in the background.

Then I tasted Missy’s kabocha sandwich. I don’t have a picture here yet, but when she posts it I will be sure to steal it. The star of her sandwich was without a doubt the caramelized onions. They were so sweet and flavorful! Delicious!

Aside from the food, our meal was great because we had so much to talk about. This was my first meet up with Gena in such a small setting; while we have emailed countless times, we’ve only seen in each other in large groups, so I am thrilled to have gotten the chance to sit down and eat a meal with her. And Missy is one of my closest friends (for those of you who don’t know, we met in Israel 2 and a half years ago), so there was great company!

As I looked around the restaurant, I was especially happy to see that it was pretty filled up. It is so great to see a vegan, healthy restaurant doing such good business.

Of course, we will have to do it again with Melissa — who, I might add, is running in the NYC Marathon on Sunday! Good luck to Melissa, I know she will do great! Melissa is my running idol since she went from not being a runner to running (like me) to running marathons (not like me. yet?). And she introduced me to Girl Talk.

After we paid the check (imagine 3 girls; 2 english majors and 1 blonde trying to do the math) we walked to the counter and spoke to the restaurant owner. This man was so nice! I asked them if they deliver and they said they do! The boy and I are BIG into food delivery. As I mentioned, SeamlessWeb is my best friend. But there aren’t many places on there that are affordable and healthy. The healthier options are a bit pricey. And I am always wary of what goes into making my food these days. So I was so happy to learn that Peacefood Cafe delivers. I plan to start ordering and trying everything on the menu! And I emailed SeamlessWeb to suggest they add Peacefood Cafe to their service.

Before leaving, we approached the pastry display. The desserts all looked so good! I bought a mini brownie (keep in mind, everything is vegan) to take home. When I got home I tore into it! Sorry, no picture. But know that it was so so so so good! I have been craving a brownie for about a week now, and this one really hit the spot. Perfect small treat for my sweet tooth!

If you’re in NYC, I definitely recommend stopping at Peacefood Cafe. They also had a lot of smoothies that I am dying to try, like the Chocolate Mint – Cocoa, Avocado, Mint, Agave. Yum. Wow. I want that right now.

And of course I want to try lots more menu items. I expect this restaurant to become a staple for me.

I’m going to the Seattles tomorrow morning very early, so I probably won’t be back on the blog until the middle of next week. Maybe a little surprise before then. Maybe not. I might be spending too much time smushing this little girl:

True story. But first, an admission: Although I technically live in Manhattan, the apartment is so far away from the thick of it all that the boy calls it a suburb of Manhattan. As a result, I have never in my nearly 4 months of running outside run on city streets. One of the benefits of being in the burbs is having an actual running trail right in front of the apartment. All I have to do is run down a ramp and I am there!

I skipped my planned 5 mile run on Sunday — my last 5 mile run before next Sunday’s 5 mile race — because I got my hair blown out on Saturday (redeeming my free visit from Blow — remember that story? Well let’s just say this visit did not go smoothly either. More on that in an upcoming post). As a result, I did not want to mess up my hair. I chose to forego my training plan run in favor of pretty hair.

I set my alarm to wake up in the icy cold Monday morning for a boring treadmill session, but when I woke up my stomach was not having it. So the run had to wait. Tuesday had a much better forecast, so I decided to get an outside run in Tuesday morning — perfect. On Monday night, my stomach once again rebelled. This time, in the form of a pregnant lady’s belly or perhaps a basketball. I happened to glance down and was shocked to see my stomach in front of my face. It was huge! Massive. I looked pregnant and my maternal instinct told me to lovingly rub this massive bump of a belly. So I did.

My love for my unborn air bubble quickly subsided when I started to freak out. I have seen my tummy in all states of bloat, but this seemed worse than it has ever been. Or, more likely, worse than it has been in a very long time. Not only did I look about 5 or 6 months preggo, but the skin was taut and my stomach felt very strange to the touch.

In my freak out state, I took a photo of the belly, shirt rolled up in pregnant lady fashion. I sent it to Cassie in a state of alarm. I sent it to my brother with the message “GET IN MY BELLY.” I started to get worked up not only because I was in extreme pain and felt so much discomfort, but because I am still a girl and I can’t help but associate big belly with fat. Obviously I did not go from skinny to fat in the course of a few hours. But tell that to the girl with the giant balloon belly. Balloon Belly! That’s what they’ll call me!

I also was alarmed about my health. Why was this happening now? What was going on? The boy, a doctor, performed the doctor tap tap test, and bestowed on me the clinical diagnosis of air. Cassie agreed. The boy was concerned that something else was going on as well, and we discussed which hospital’s emergency room we would grace with our presence should my condition become worse. Luckily for both of us (me because pain sucks and him because he is studying for a big test) no ER visit was necessary. We fell asleep and although I woke up throughout the night nauseous (the boy says the word should be nauseated. why?), I was able to get up at 6 am for my outdoor run.

Because it doesn’t get light until 7 am now, I was not comfortable running on the path by the water in the dark. I opted to run on city streets which I had never done before, being in the burbs and all. I was a little worried about the traffic lights but figured it would be a nice change of pace. And it really was. I loved this run!

I felt great the entire time, comfy in my new Zensah leg compression sleeves and new Zobha workout pants (purchased at an online sale to have another pair of workout pants that can double as work pants, stretching to fit around my tum). There was lots to look at and no route to follow, so I got to explore the city. I ran where I wanted, when I wanted. Sticking of course to major populated streets. Thanks to my Polar RS300X sd, I knew my distance the entire time. I really just went with it on this run. If I wanted to run on a certain street or look for a restaurant I’d been meaning to try, I did. If I wanted to circle around the same block twice, I did. I felt extra camaraderie with the runners I ran into because we were running on the street! Sure, anyone can run on a running path. But here we all were on the street! Instant bondage bonding. Eventually, I headed home to make my 7:00 am curfew, and arrived at the door after 40:35 minutes of running 3.61 miles.

And today I felt so much better about my pregnant bloat that I felt comfortable sending the picture to a bunch of friends. I am so proud of my little bundle of joy air. Okay, proud is not at all correct. Coming to terms with it is more like it. I have not been feeling well at all lately . . . and my days of fitting into my pants have returned. Just in time for pants season. Woo hoo. I will call the surgeon next week to check in.

So, back to the matter at hand — almond cookies. Kinda.

So what happened was Gena posted this Almond Milk recipe and obviously I had to make it, and have to going forward every week of my life. So I made the milk, purchased a nut milk bag, and wound up with lots of almond pulp in addition to my heavenly milk. By the way, never buying Blue Diamond again.

I didn’t want to just toss the almond pulp like I toss my juice pulp every day, and the boy happens to love all treats almond (as do I), so I decided to make some almond cookies! A recipe online here, a recipe online there, I didn’t fully read any but I got the gist of what to mix together to make cookies. The problem? I don’t own all purpose flour. But! My gluten free pancake mix is actually called pancake AND baking mix. And they provide a recipe for muffins right on the bag! I figured, if it can make muffins, it can make cookies! Right?

So I mixed up all my ingredients (including agave! no sugar!) into a yummy batter. Then I greased a baking pan and shaped the dough like cookies on the pan. See photo:

Put in the oven at 350. I don’t actually know what cooking temperature is good for what, but I vaguely recalled reading the number 350 in one of the recipes I fleetingly glanced at.

After a little while, I went in to check on the cookies. They looked big and puffy and in major need of a flipping. I flipped them all over, thinking they looked suspiciously more like pancakes than cookies. They cooked on the other side and when I deemed them finished — can you imagine the delicious almond smells making their way through the apartment? — I removed them from the oven. They were definitely ready. But they definitely were NOT cookies.

The almond cookies I baked turned out to be almond pancakes.

I accidentally made pancakes! I am thinking this flour does NOT work to make cookies.

I have to admit, they taste great. Like, really great. Like, I’m upset I already ate dinner because I would have loved to have an almond pancake dinner. After eating some large crumbs/chunks of pancake, I put the pancakes on a plate and covered it in tinfoil. The boy emerged from his chamber of study and tasted a pancake. He LOVED it. I am so happy because I think he is generally skeptical of agave. But he does love his almond flavored treats, and this certainly qualifies. And now he has breakfast for tomorrow! He even gets to pour maple syrup on it.

So even though I failed miserably at masking cookies, at least I have a recipe to use with my almond pulp until I figure the whole cookie thing out — almond pancakes! Only next time, I think I’ll use my griddle . . .