Self Magazine Cleanse Diet - Part 2

My running shoes were getting pretty old and needed to be replaced for a while.  Finally got over to Ultramax (where a $30 credit waited because I've spent $250), and found out that my current model of Asics were discontinued.  I didn't particularly care for the newer version.  I decided to try on a few other kinds of shoes and settled on some Brooks Adrenalines. 

Thursday:
Breakfast: After the fiasco with throwing up a green smoothie during my workout on Wednesday, I just couldn't face another smoothie knowing that I was going to do my longest run in 9 months (and my 2nd longest run ever).  So I defaulted to a standby pre-workout meal - peanut butter and banana sandwich with a small glass of grape juice and some water.

The workout from one of the days called for a slower longer workout - an hour.  But Susan and I had decided last week to tackle what Susan wants to call "Pumpkin Run 2013" - she wants to make shirts for it and everything - even if just for the 2 of us.  This would take us from the North Jeff City trailhead up the Katy Trail to Hartsburg (well known around here for its annual Pumpkin Festival which happens to be this weekend).

The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  The leaves haven't really started to change except a few trees here and there, but the sun was shining and the air was fairly cool.  Don't think we could have asked for more.  We dropped her van at the end and drove my car back to the North Jeff City trailhead.  The first 4.2 miles took us to our usual turn around point.  We snapped a quick pic and ate a few sport beans.  Apparently my pic didn't save on my phone.  Doh!

About 7 miles in, my knees started to complain loudly.  My hip has been bothering me for a week, but it wasn't really feeling any worse.  My feet were starting to hurt, but the shoes were doing great - no blisters, etc.  Susan had to kind of drag me through those last couple of miles.  I did some counting off of paces in between walking.  We managed to finally get to Hartsburg for a total of 10.4 miles!  I've never been so happy to see all those pumpkins.  We stopped a couple folks getting ready to go on a long bike ride to take our picture.  Then we headed off for more water and to find someplace to eat lunch.

Dottie's Diner looked busy so we stopped in.  When we found out they didn't take credit cards (welcome to small town America), I counted out the cash I had and determined I had us covered.  I had a grilled chicken salad (that was on tap for one of the dinners this week).  I was pleasantly surprised that it had mixed greens (not just iceberg lettuce like a lot of restaurants), big yummy tomatoes and grilled chicken with a little cheese.  I didn't need dressing with all that goodness.  If it had just had some boiled egg, it would have been perfect.  Susan had a chicken wrap and I even had enough money for a tip.  Yay!

I foam rolled my legs and took it pretty easy in the afternoon. 

Snack: cucumber spears and whole wheat pita with lemon-garlic-yogurt dip - relatively tasty though I still wonder how good I would think things were if I weren't so freaking hungry.

Dinner: baked a pork chop, topped it with this cherry chutney and served it with barley and roasted asparagus. Decent enough flavor, but I like pork chops plain too.  Not sure I'd screw with the extra steps for the chutney next time.

Friday:

Breakfast: Cherry-Almond-Vanilla Smoothie - tasted gritty.  Only choked about half of it down. 

Snack: Made this early partly because it made sense to run the oven earlier in the day and some because I knew I'd be hungry with the smoothie fail.  Curry Kale Chips.  They were ok.  Not as good as potato chips.

Lunch: "Veggie Lover" wraps - except I don't eat tempeh (not even sure where to buy it) so I cooked a little super lean ground beef and used it with the sauté of mushrooms and shredded carrot with the balsamic vinegar, chili powder and soy sauce.  I wrapped it up in a whole wheat wrap with romaine and sliced tomato.  It wasn't too bad to eat. Not sure I'd bother to make it again.

Dinner:
I repeated the salmon, barley, kale cooked in water/OJ/soy sauce/ginger from the other night because it was handy while my family and one of my son's friends ate pizza (my favorite kind - spicy chicken - from our favorite place).  I think the salmon steak was a little bigger this time and I didn't eat it all. 

I didn't get a workout in coming off the super long run yesterday so I pried myself out of the recliner and went for a short run tonight - 2.9 miles in the neighborhood by moonlight.  It was still pretty warm so I worked up a good sweat.