My night with Dream Dinners...

Tonight my husband and I tried out Raspberry XOXO Chicken from Dream Dinners, OMG!

Ray, The Man About Town, had given me one to try. Being that I am a somewhat busy mom of 3 that barely has enough time to think, much less think about and then cook up a made-from-scratch dinner.

A little bit about how Dream Dinners works; you can order or go in and purchase a premade meal off of their menu HERE or you can go to your local Dream Dinners store and make your own meals from start to freezer. I have not personally gone and done this, however after my  Rock n Roll New Orleans 1/2 marathon this weekend is over, I will be gathering the friends up, picking up some wine, and having a date with Dream Dinners in Mobile. I am so excited! Ray also let me know that you can pick brown rice/pasta and I was very pleased with that.

So here is how it went;

 I went to the freezer and grabbed this bag

 

When thawed out it looks like this

included was a bag of rice, and 3 raspberry marinated chicken breast, and INSTRUCTIONS. I dont know about you, but if I have everything prepared and something telling me how to cook it, I turn into a gourmet chef. That's normal right?

The recipe called for me to bake the chicken for 45 minutes

Boil the rice and simmer the leftover sauce from the chicken both 25 minutes

Here is what the raspberry sauce looked like simmering, YUMMY!

After 50 minutes of watching TV and smelling wonderful aromas from my kitchen, ding ding ding, it was ready.

I put the rice on first

Then cut the chicken up and covered it in the raspberry sauce

And then we ate! All of it! Trust me! It was fantastic!

If you are interested in checking Dream Dinners out, and you should be after seeing the awesome dinner I made, pain-free:), go HERE!

You can check out the newest menu, ingredients, even nutrition information.

Go put in your zip code and find the Dream Dinners closest to you, you will not be sorry.

Check out Ray, The Man About Town to find out what great things are going on in Mobile and dont forget to check him out on The Epicurious Hour FM talk 106.5 every Sunday morning at 9am.

Now off to bed, my 6.5 mile run and 1 mile walk this morning has made me tired. Good night everyone...Loving me some preweek race taper.

Raspberries = fitting!



My fantastic weekend recap...

I had a fantastic weekend to say the least! Starting Saturday my wonderful friend Ray, who is Mobile's The Man About Town (anything going on around town this man knows about it, check him out on Facebook HERE) had invited me to a wonderful event called the Brooks Calvacade Run for Relief 5k in Gulfport MS. it was a 5k run that was put on by Run-n-Tri Company in Gulfport. See this is us...

and this is the Brooks Calvacade

My BFF and her boyfriend Lee came over for the run, lets just say they had too much fun with the free swag from Brooks, hmmmm

but let me back up about 4 hours, Ray had mentioned that there was this great running track on the new Ocean Springs bridge and that it was 3.4 mile long back and forth, and suggested we run it. Of course I was totally in for this, since I am in love with bridge running since my double bridge 15k race last month. So we parked at the lovely Isle of Capri casino, where the monthly giveaway is fantastic...

A Cuisinart Muffin pan, who doesnt need that? Yeah, I know, this is Mississippi, I guess we like to cook muffins? Ray does, can't you tell?

Back to the bridge:) the Ocean Springs bridge had been taken out by a hurricane.

This was the bridge after the Hurricane in 2006

And this the new bridge with the fantastic walking/running track

How great is that? This would be my training place if I lived in Gulfport. If you live anywhere close, go do it! Well Ray had a fantastic run. He has ran a ton of 5ks and a couple of halfs, however he is a self proclaimed "shuffler", meaning he run/walks the whole race. I am all for run/walking, I do it myself sometimes. But I wanted to show him that if he paced himself he was a better runner than he thought. So I paced him at about a 12/13 min/mile pace and he ran the whole 3.4 miles nonstop, including a sprint in the end. Before this he hadnt run more that a little over a mile without stopping and walking. I was so proud of him, he rocked it.

1.7 miles times 2 baby! Way to go Ray.

They have also placed these awesome plaques along the run as mile markers and even at the half way point they have a bench you can sit on and take in the great scenery in the pass. Its fantastic.

So on to the race and the reason we came.

We got to the Run-N-Tri store around 1:00, I had only been in the Mobile store one time. Let me tell you, it is a fantastic store for everything running, swimming, and biking. They have a great selection of energy bars and gus. And ther shoe selection is to die for. Yes, I will be back there next month or whenever I can justify buying my 100th pair of running shoes by my husband;). I was so grateful to be with Ray who does some marketing with them, because they gave me this fabulous Run-N-Tri tech shirt

Its hot pink and blue and I LOVE it! Thanks Run-N-Tri!

After that we visited the Brooks Run Happy Calvacade of Curiosity double decker bus. this thing is huge and fantastic.

If you look closely you can see Mandy and I upstairs getting our gait checked. If you dont know what that means, they basically have you run on a treadmill, barefooted for about 30 seconds, and they record it. Then play it back in slow motion and watch how your feet and ankles hit when you run. Then they determine the correct shoe for your foot. Its really cool and if you have never had it done, go to your local Run-N-Tri store in Mobile or Gulfport and they will do it for free.

Here is the shoe that I had checked there and I LOVE them

Saucony Progrid Kinvara.

This will be my next shoe however

Brooks Pure Connect.

This was a smiliar shoe to my Saucony, but it did hug my foot a little better, so I will be trying these next. Maybe next month, I love you honey:)!

So after all the fun and festivities

See, fun=size 42 Brooks running shoe! AMAZING! HA!

It was almost Run for Hope 5k race time.

$15 entry fee amd a great tech shirt, well worth it! oh and also free massages from Blue Cliff, right Ray?

He didnt want to get up, trust me! However we were called to the start line.

I was a very organized race by Run-N-Tri and I was so impressed with their marketing manager Lisa McCombs, she was fantastic and so motivating. She headed up a couch 2 5K group that I got to meet and run with and it was so motivating to be with these first time race runners and they did fantastic. here is the pic of the group

Awesome job, you guys!

I ran with Ray the whole time and we made it to the finish line in perfect fashion

And so did Mandy, our watergirl!

They had great red beans and rice, oranges, apples, and granola bars, and of course BEER, Michelob Ultra! Then they had a wonderful awards presentation outside of Run-n-Tri. My friends Rebecca and Keith, won in their age groups. They got great trophys. Overall it was a great race, day, run, everything...thanks to Ray with The Man About Town , Run-N-Tri , Brooks Run Happy® Cavalcade of Curiosities Tour, and my super cool BFF Mandy and her boyfriend for hanging with me!

One last thing, this morning when my husband and I went to the flea market we were listening to Ray, The Man About Town , cohost a radio show on Sunday mornings called The Epicurious Hour - FM TALK channel 106.5 , where he recapped our day and let me tell you if you want to know what great things are happening around Mobile, listen to this show. It starts at 9am.

Until next race moment, heres a hint

Speedwork speedwork speedwork

Speedwork- Short, fast intervals with recovery jogs between; increases your leg turnover and maximizes your stamina and race confidence..
Melanie and I decided to put this to the test last night, here...

pretty huh?

I normally am not a "run around in a circle" type of runner. Its almost as mentally challenging as the dreaded treadmill. However when Melanie called me about doing speedwork with her, I jumped at the chance. Especially since we were going to be working out with "Coach" Ali, Melanie's husband. Yeah hes fast, REAL fast, like 17-18 minute 5k fast! 

Sorry Coach Ali for telling you to shut up under my breath like 50 time!

Here is the workout he gave us;

1 mile warm up

2x400 @ 2.25

2x800 @ 4.50

2x400 @ 2.25

1 mile cooldown

Sounds easy right? NOT! I ended up running all 400's do to the fact that I had ran 5 miles yesterday morning. But Melanie rocked the 800's out like a champ. We were under on all of our runs according to Mr.Garmin! we love him:)

So now I feel faster and Olympic ready

10 things I love about running...

   

 I was on Twitter today, yes I'm a "tweeter" big surprise! Who isnt? Anyways I thought tonight I would write about the 10 things I love about running after seeing a Tweet contest about it, so here it goes...

#10 New shoes every 6-8 weeks, justifiable? I think so!

#9 Finding social groups to hang out with that "hang" in the hours of 6am to 11am in stead of 11pm-6am ;)

#8 Learning that "anyone" can run, just in many different ways. Who knew there were like 1,000,001 ways to run?

#7 The fact that my T-shirt collection is extensive! I have a TON! Anyone need any?

#6 Realizing that the 8 miles to the airport sign by my house is not THAT far away, esp if you run it.

#5 I can lube in public, HA! Get your mind out of the gutter.

#4 ICE ICE ICE BABY, I love icing!

#3 All the really cool headbands I get to wear!

#2 Keeping 50lbs off for the last 8 mths, mainly running!

and

#1 The fact that I HATE RUNNING is what I LOVE most about it. It is such a challenge for me. And I LOVE every single minute of it!

Until the next run...

Sweetheart 10K recap and a cold weekend!



Who would have thought it would drop down into the 30's in the South for 3 days, yeah 3 days only! And it would be during the weekend I have a 10k at the beach and my parents celebrating their anniversary AT the beach. But just like any true runner, you rise and dress for the occasion;),

See, we are not cold, we are at the beach and it is warm! NOT!

After a mile warmup we lined up at the starting line and at 9am and we were off. We had decided to use this as a pace run for our New Orleans Half, and not race! So we took off slow and maintained an 11:15 pace for the 6.2 miles. It was a great run and I am so glad I got to finally run again with my BFF, Jennifer.

Yes we like pink in all shades! Congrats on your first 10K, Jenn!

This race was fun and very non-competitive! I like those ALOT! heehee. Along the way we also met barefoot BOB, I dont think thats his name, but that what we called him, here he is and he was hauling it.

Barefoot Bob, he was cool AND barefoot! My hero...

I crossed the finish at 1:09:53, right where I wanted to be pace wise, and then it was inside to the post race nacho bar party inside the Hangout. If you ever get a chance to visit Gulf Shores AL, you must eat at the Hangout, it is fabulous. I am a firm believer in the whole RUN 4 BEER theory, trust me its a small reason why I run, and the fact that runners drink for free at MOST races, yeah I am all over that! However at this race they had beer AND

HAHAHAHAHA!

I will run FAST for these next time!

All in all this was a fun race with great friends and a great community, cold and all! I will be running this one every year! Get ready girls...

BFF's Mandy and Pammy,love yall!

Until next recap! PEACE!



Phiten disc...AMAZING!

I was in Phoenix Arizona last month for the P.F.Changs Rock n Roll Arizona marathon. See heres my proof, 2:03 finish? I'm going to the Olympics, NOT!

While my sister n law Hanna and I were enjoying the amazing expo, (which if you are anywhere near a city that the Rock n Roll Marathon series is going to be, running or not, GO to the expo, its amazing), anyways a guy from www.phitenusa.com booth stopped Hannah, and I kind of hung back a little bit. I was like oh lord what is he trying to sell her, anyways I decided to figure it out, and this really cool guy was like hey do you have any aches in your calves, shins, back that tend to bother you on a regular basis? I started to think yeah I have a ting of pain in my side shin on my leg that hurts a tad bit when flexed, so I pointed to the spot and he put this little disc on it, and asked me to flex it now. Pain went away, I was like no freaking way, so he continued to put them in lots of places on us, it was amazing. Now dont get me wrong it was easing the pain in those areas instantly, but when you took them off the pain was still there. But I didnt care it relieved the stress of those spots while I was just standing still, imagine what it would do for my running. I was SOLD! So $10 later and 70 disc in my hand, I have been using them since and have bought more. I have my running friends hooked on them now. They are amazing. Here is what they look like:

Bandaids? I know. When I run past people they probably think I cut myself shaving like 20 times, lol! And gosh I am freckly, oh well!

I would def try this product out given the chance, you can find all the products they sell here: www.phitenusa.com

I am going to invest in the pillowcases, my neck will thank me!

On another note I had a great 3 mile tempo run today and chest/hamstring workout in the gym, and saw an old high school friend of mine Amy! Its really cool to catch up with poeple you havent seen in a while, so hey Amy, you were rocking it in the gym this morning, keep it up!

I leave you with this...

To all of you...

Having a bad day? Thinking you cant run? Dont have the energy? Cookies look better than sneakers? Knees hurt? Back hurt? Too tired? Favorite T.V. show on? Putting it off till tomorrow? Next week? Next year? Well here some motivation and entertainment for you...

Sweetheart Run

A Happy Early Valentine's Day 10k run is just what this southern girl needs. I am going to get up really early on Saturday morning with this special person; my hubby, love him!

Isnt he sooooo cute? I sure think so!

Coming off of my 15k last weekend, I am looking forward to this shorter run. And a day at the beach with my husband and kids. I will def post a recap of this race, I have a feeling there will lost of costumes at this one, stay tuned! LOL...

What are your Valentines Weekend plans?

Shin Splints? stretch video...

SHIN SPLINTS AGHHHHHHHH

When talking to people about running or exercising, the number one thing I hear from people is that the reason they dont keep it at it is the dreaded shin splint. I know that they hurt, I too have suffered from them at one point or another. Usually they are caused by the wrong shoe or not stretching. However the good thing about shim splints is that as long as you treat them and let them heal, they DO go away. YAY. Make sure you do let them heal though, so you do not end up with a fracture, then you will be out for a while.

So while I was at the gym this morning, doing my leg workout, I thought I would take and post a video of  a shin/calf weighted stretch that I do weekly on the seated leg press machine.

as you can see its a very easy, but effective way to really stretch your shins and calves out while keeping them strong. i start out at about 70lbs and usually do 4 sets, going up about 5lbs at each set.

Next time you are at the gym, try it. Let me know how it goes.

Motivational Monday

As I get my kids ready for school and myself ready for a short 4 mile run, I leave you with this:

I tell people who think they cant run or exercise, just get up and move!

What motto do you stand by when it comes to your health?

Double Bridge 15k Run Recap...

Double Bridge 15k Run

Pensacola Beach FL

WOW! What an exciting day, or should I say morning we had today. Let me start from yesterday though...

 We arrived in Pensacola Beach FL around 1:30 pm on Friday afternoon and checked into The Holiday Inn Resort on the beach, and let me tell you if you are going to stay in Pensacola Beach this summer,  this is the place to stay. Look at this pool right on the beach

Yep thats right, its a lazy river. I dont know about you but this was the highlight of the whole place. Yes it was cold and windy, and NO we didnt get in, but the fact that we got to hang out by it was good enough for me.

The hotel also has a full service restaurant that has a great healthy menu, however I have a treat I have to have when on Pensacola Beach and it comes from a restaurant called Flounders. Check this out...

Fresh Seafood Nachos and a Deisel Fuel, BAMMMMM! Oh and thats Mandy the BFF and awesome runner buddy! Whats up?

Heres what it looks like after 3 runners "prefueling" attack them...

Notice; no one wanted to be in this "guilty" picture ;(

My brother n law said that my sister needed to fire her trainer for making her eat this, that would be me and a big fat NO! Love you Tom. Back to the Race Recap

The Expo

They had it at the Hilton in the conference center. It was small but they did have quite a few vendors there. Newtons, Asics, 110% Compression, Saucony, Air Force pull up challenge, and alot local running and tri groups. Publix was the main sponsor of the race so we did get a great lime green gear bag from them, Thanks Publix! oh and look what we got free from Asics, ARM SLEEVES

As much as I love me some leg warmers, I was super excited about the arm sleeves...YAYA

A free pre race dinner was held at Hemingways at Portifino for the runners. They offered chicken alfredo and vegetarian marinara with garlic bread. Carbo load pre race, I guess! It was good, it was FREE, so we ATE! End of story!

Then we went back to the hotel for a 9pm bedtime...Goodnight!

RACE MORNING 4:45 AM wake up call.

We were so NOT wanting to get up, in fact we set 3 alarms on 3 different Iphones, just in case!

Did the normal wake up stuff, got dressed, looked out the window at the weather, brushed teeth, oh and TRIED to down some peanut butter, chocolate, and coconut flavored oatmeal we had gotten the night before, yeah that wasnt happening. EPIC FAIL!

Then headed down to the buses waiting for all the unawake people to travel to the start line 9.3 miles away. It was an uneventful ride and we all made it safely, so thanks yellow cheese wagon. I have many memories!

We had an hour before the race was starting so we of course hit the portalets first, took in the sight of the frist bridge we had to run over, cussed the 15-20 MPH head wind that wasnt going away tied our shoes, went back to the portalets, and then settled into out corrals,  fun huh?

At exactly 7:08 am we were off and ready to run.

Melanie and I had decided to we were going to run the whole thing at a 12 min a mile pace and run the whole race, nonstop! Melanie had only gone 7 miles in her training, so this was a personal record of hers, and she blew it out of the water by 2.3 miles. GO MELANIE!

This was what we ran over

thats a very long bridge in the background, heres what it looked like on the bridge

On this run you better not be scared of heights, water, or bridges, you would be screwed!

The Finish

We came in at 1:53 (12:15pace), which was right where we wanted to be. It was overall a very organized and exciting race. We couldnt of asked for a better set up, no delays, great music along the race course, lots of cheering spectators, the Marines that helped block side streets, the police that directed the traffic, and all the volunteers and organizers that made it a wonderful experience. Publix supplied the water and fuel for after the race, and they didnt run out, Thank God!

The afterparty was at Hemingways also. They had beer trucks and red beans and rice. Overall it was a great time. And you cant go wrong at the beach. Until the next race...

CHEERS!