Hummus

I love hummus. Although I didn’t try it until I was about eighteen years old, I believe that I have made up for those hummus free years. I love it on a bagel with onions and tomato. I chop up vegetables and use hummus as a tasty dip. I eat it with bread and lick it off my fingers.

I have been buying it from Winco but they recently raised the price and I cannot justify spending $3.50 on it. So I asked Andy to make me some. He found a fantastic recipe from Epicurious.com.

Yum!

The toasted pinenuts are so good in this recipe. I honestly think the hummus Andy made was much better than the store brand and cost a fraction of what the store bought kind does.

We’ve Come So Far, Haven’t We?

The International Athletics Federation, the sport’s governing body, has passed a motion to change the standard by which female athletes achieve world record performances in road races.

According to The Sun the ruling would be retroactive meaning that the IAAF will be stripping Paula Radcliffe of her 8 year record!

WHAT?

Radcliffe had male pacers. If you’ve ever had a pacer, you know that having a pacer does help you push yourself but doesn’t guarantee anything. Race Directors from some of the top races in the world: London, Boston, and New York have stated that they won’t adhere to the IAAF’s decision.

I only know of one all women’s marathon and that is the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Fransisco. When I Googled: All Women’s Marathons I did get results.

In my opinion this is a step back in history: women competing against women. In ultrarunning you see women like Pam Reed win events like Badwater that allow women and men to compete against each other. I enjoy running races with men. I competed in a triathlon that was all women. It was fun but seemed odd. We work with men, go to school with men, shop with men, get our hair cut by men – why shouldn’t we compete against them? Hopefully the IAAF will change their minds and allow racing to stay in the 21st Century.

My Hungry Brain

I’ve noticed something interesting: when I’m leaner and have been eating low calorie, low sugar, high fiber food – it’s easier to say no to delicious junk food. It’s easier to control my cravings. I don’t get that nauseous hungry feeling (if you’re chunky you know what I’m talking about). When I’m heavier and not being even remotely good about eating, then all hell can break loose close to meal times. I obsess about food and continue eating when I’m not hungry.

Well, I might not be crazy. A study led by Yale University and University of Southern California researchers have found that:

“What happens in lean people, when their blood sugar is not dropping, is that their executive function lights up — the area involved in making decisions,” explains Robert Sherwin, professor medicine at Yale and senior author of the paper, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. “This executive function controls the reward system, which is much less activated. But in obese people, that executive control is not activated when their blood sugar isn’t falling. So they have continued activation of their reward system and that system dominates even if they’re not hungry.”

You can read more here.

I’m no different than the millions of people trying to get a hold on their weight and ultimately their health. I have spans of time I do really well: eat well, get plenty of exercise and start chipping away at some of the weight that has accumulated. Then slowly that unravels and I’m eating enough salty snacks to satisfy a herd of cattle.

I started wearing a pedometer. I began on my most sedentary day: rest day + conference call overload. When I got home I checked and I had taken less than 4,000 steps that day. I was horrified. My desk job + love of the Internet + working downtown (everything is super convenient) + addiction to television was turning me into a lazy sedentary person. Granted I run but beyond that I don’t really do much. Yikes!! It’s 10am and I have 2084 steps under my belt so far. Let’s see if I can get to 6,000 for today..

Flickr Fun

So I attempted to clean out my Flickr account which has tons of duplicate and frankly uninteresting photos in it. So I went delete crazy. But then Flickr RSS Feed on the right hand side of my site was not displaying photos….So I Google my issue. After reading several pages, I just deleted the Widget. It’s a nice day. And I have things to do. Maybe its a synch issue and maybe not.

Mt. Shasta, Crater Lake, and Crazy 8′s

Andy and I took our annual post Labor Day vacation. We leave on Labor Day and head south for adventure. The traffic is light and campgrounds empty. It’s fantastic. We went to Grants Pass to raft on the Rogue River, hiked Mt. Shasta, viewed the majestic beauty of Crater Lake, and played numerous hands of Crazy 8′s. Here is the photographic evidence to prove it:

Nachos at Wild River Brew Pub

No photos please

Post river beer

Hell Gate, Grants Pass

Hell Gate, Grants Pass

We (Andy) drove over 1500 hundred miles through Oregon and California.

Mt. Shasta and a hippie van.

Normally I would tell you every place we went. But to preserve the beauty of certain areas, I am withholding the actual locations.

A meadow

Babbling brook in a gorgeous meadow

Crazy 8's

The Chef

We went to Arcadia, CA where Andy found his favorite burrito (Amiga’s) place alive and well.

Neither Andy nor I had ever been to Crater Lake so we decided to venture East. The Rogue River begins at Crater Lake.

The Rogue River

The deepest lake in the US

Snow!!

Stopped off in Oakridge, OR for a beer

Portland Trail Series

I signed up for the Portland Trail Series to supplement my training for the Sisters to Bend Marathon. We start in Forest Park at 6:15pm and run anywhere from 5-8 miles. You get points, there are raffles, etc. Many of my friends from the PDX Running Chicks group have signed up so its pretty great to see so many familiar faces.

Some of the lovely ladies from PDX Running Chicks

Last night we ran 6+ miles starting from Lower Maclay and ran up Wildwood toward Birch trail. I had never been on Birch trail before. This is my peak training week for the marathon which is very hilly (yep. I keep saying it!). So I’m running as much as I possibly can and not get injured. Earlier in the day, I ran two other workouts to get as much mileage in as I could. By the time the trail series rolled around later in the evening, I was running on some tired legs.

I ran the 6+ hilly miles at a 13:02 pace. I was shooting for at least 12 minute miles. But it wasn’t to be. I alternated between being angry at myself for not running faster, being thinner, and basically being better and telling myself it was okay. This was a training run to prepare me for a larger more important goal. I reminded myself that this was probably the first run of the day for most of these people. And lastly, I told myself at least I was out there running.

I know I’m making some great progress on my training. I see it in my times and endurance. But I cannot help but wish that the results were better. And I cannot help but wish that I was better. The farther you dream, the farther you need to go to get them. All told, I ran over 13 miles yesterday. That’s pretty good for a midweek run that was split into 3 different sessions.That’s pretty good, right?

Run complete!