Starting Already

What you ask?  The anxiety filled, sleepless nights that accompany any big event.  I woke up at 2:22 am last night, and didn’t fall back asleep until sometime after 3 am.  When I finally did fall asleep, do you know what I dreamed about?  The half marathon Sunday.  In my dream/nightmare, I was at the expo picking up my bib and other crap, and got distracted by a Lululemon vendor.  Obviously a significant amount of time passed, and before I knew it there was 15 minutes until the race started.  Yup, in my dream/nightmare the expo was the same morning as the race.  Anyway, I was rushed to the start and didn’t get to go to the bathroom.  Sigh.  Three more nights of this.

Prior to my sleepless night full of tossing and turning, I got a great tempo run in, cooked an awesome dinner, and watched The Pioneer Woman kick ass on Throwdown with Bobby Flay.  My second to last run of my training plan was a 5 mile tempo run, with 3 miles at 8:57 pace.

• 1 mile warm-up @ about 11 min/mile
• 2 miles @ 8:57 pace
• 1 mile ranging from 8:49-7:30 pace
• 1 mile cool-down @ 10 min/mile
• 5 miles in 46:38

The run felt pretty good, one more 3 miler tonight and then the race on Sunday, yikes!  Oh and in case you’re interested in receiving text message updates on my progress during the race, here is the link to sign up to track me.  It doesn’t always work, but it’s free, so it’s worth a shot I suppose.

After my work-out, I came home and made one of my favorite dinners.  I’d sort of been cheating on my chicken lo mein recipe lately with an easier version that just involved using a teriyaki marinade, but last night I made the real thing.

This recipe is super easy, and I originally only made it with tofu, but last night I mixed it up with some chicken.  The best part about this recipe is that you can throw in whatever veggies you happen to have in the fridge.  Here’s how it went for me last night

• 3 cups of chicken broth
• 1/2  cup apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar
• 8 tsps low sodium soy sauce
• Sesame oil (I never measure, just kind of judge by taste and smell)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cup diced carrot
• broccoli
• corn
• snow peas
• 3 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
• 3 servings of your choice of noodle (I used Trader Joe’s Rice Sticks)
• Red pepper flakes

Cut up your chicken breasts into equal sized pieces, place in bowl with 3 tsps of soy sauce and some sesame oil, let marinate.  Into a large sauce pan, add about 2 cups of chicken broth and 3 tsps of soy sauce.  Let it start to simmer, and then add your chicken breasts.  Once the chicken has started to cook, and is no longer pink, add in your vegetables and vinegar.  Let the whole thing simmer, covered, for about 6 minutes.

Add the noodles, and remaining chicken broth if necessary.  At this point, you can also taste your sauce and add more soy sauce and sesame oil if you want.  Stir in the noodles, cover, and allow to simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed and the noodles are cooked.  If you are using regular spaghetti noodles, you may need to add more liquid.  Once the noodles are cooked, and the liquid absorbed, remove your pan from heat, sprinkle with red pepper flakes, cover and let it sit for 5 minutes.  This will give the red pepper a chance to meld with all the other ingredients.  Then you’re good to serve!

Well, it’s finally Thursday, only one more day of work after this!  Oh, and Pottery Barn called me yesterday to set up delivery and my bed, dresser, and night table arrive in VA on the 27th.  Just like me!  So excited.  Have a great one!