Martha's So-Called Life

things I want to do better in 2013

I've never really been into New Years resolutions.  I think it's a little silly (and wildly unsuccessful) to decide you are going to make drastic changes at the beginning of each year.  I know I'm not good at sticking to things for long periods, but if that works for you…more power to you!  I do think that the new year offers a good jumping off or starting over point.  But really, why wait until then…if you have something you want to change…do it now, don't wait!

Rather than decide I am going to drastically change my life on 1/1/13, I have come up with some things that I want to do better this year.  Some of them will happen, some of them will happen partway, and some of them won't happen at all, but maybe if I write them down I will at least be more conscious of the fact that they are things I want to work on.  

1. Take more photos with my nice camera.  I have a nice camera which I use a lot when I travel, but for most of my daily photo needs I use my iPhone.  I want to change this habit and use my "real" camera more often. 

2. Stay in touch.  I'm horrid at staying in touch with family and friends near and far.  It's unfortunate.  Mostly it's because I'm lazy (see #5), but sometimes I truly just forget about people.  That sounds terrible, but I don't think it's as bad as it sounds.  I am extremely fortunate and have what I feel is a large number of friends…sometimes it's hard to keep track of them all.  They don't all live near me and they are not all a part of my daily (or almost daily) life.  I suppose it's not so much that I forget about them as it is that I lose track of how long it's been since I last communicated with them.  Thank goodness for email, text messages, and Facebook because all of those things allow me to send a quick note to say hi without committing to a whole telephone conversation when I remember that it's been six months since I last heard from so-and-so.

3. Exercise more.  Not just run more (I want to do that too…I have goals to achieve!), but find something that balances out running and do that too.  For awhile I was doing PiYo…but then my PiYo instructor BFF decided to move somewhere warmer.  I won't hold it against her because I probably would have done the same thing given the opportunity she was presented!  I'm thinking Yoga might be a good alternative if I want to go to an actual class.  I also found a total body strength workout through Runner's World that seems reasonable, quick, and easy. 

4. Have good news more often. If you know me, you know I am not always the most positive person.  I work with someone who always asks "what good news do you have for me?" when I call her with something negative to say.  It's often hard for me to come up with "good news."  I'm going to work on that.

5. Be less lazy. From exercising to cleaning the house, I need to spend less time sitting around wasting time!

6. Eat more veggies.  I am currently in the process of reevaluating my food philosophies. Part of that involves eating more vegetables.  I feel like we do a decent job of eating veggies, but there is always room for improvement.  I plan on dong a post about this when I'm a little more solid in where I stand on food and eating well.  

7. Help Kiva be a better dog.  She's smart and has tons of energy, which she does not always put to good use.  She loved going to obedience class and was definitely a better dog when we focused on that.  We've become kind of lax in our practice of working on her skills in the last few months (see #5).  There are a couple of obedience classes that I want to do with her, but I also want to make sure we work on things at home more often than just when there is a problem.  She has developed some annoying habits in the last few weeks (mostly barking at everything which came on quickly and for no obvious reasons…I'm hoping it's just a phase) that I would like to work on correcting as well so they do not become a lifelong habit for her!

8. Send more real mail. This kind of falls in line with #2, but I love it when my friends send me birthday cards, etc. but I am terrible failure at sending them to other people!  I'd like to send some real mail to someone at least once every few weeks…considering the amount of time I spend being lazy, I should be able to make time to do that…right?  

What things do you want to do better in 2013?  

Photos are various highlights from 2012 via my iPhone.  

2013 disney princess half: week 7

Sunday:
10 miles, progression 
6 miles, easy 

I decided that going out and running 10 miles when you haven't run more than 3.5 miles for several weeks was probably a poor choice...so I just decided to run until I felt like turning around and then come home.  It was also 0°F out, so I was happy for the shorter run. 

5.75 miles/1:05:21/11:19 avg pace

Monday:
rest

Tuesday:
Ladder Intervals 

I'm proud of myself for actually doing this...on Christmas.  I think I was inspired by the fact that it was 28°F out and snowing!  

2 mile warm up, 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 2 min, 1 min @ 5K pace with 400m recoveries, 2 mile cool down.

Here's what they looked like (my goal pace for the intervals was 9:30 - 9:45/mi)

Some of the intervals and recoveries are a little wonky because I was trying to do math in my head while running...or sometimes I started the interval and forgot what time I had started it at so I had to guess when I had to stop.  Close enough.  

Merry Christmas to us...we love snow!!!

5.64 mi/1:04:16/11:23 avg pace

Wednesday:
rest

Thursday:
6 miles, easy

Nothing exciting to report with this run.  I just went out and ran 6 easy miles.  That's it.  

5.75 mi/1:04:28/11:13 avg pace

Friday:
rest

Saturday:
AM: 8 mile progression
PM: 4 miles easy
rest 

While I was almost positive I was not going to make a double workout...I did get up intending to run the 8 mile portion of my planned workout.  However, mother nature decided she's pissed off at Alaska and after only three days of reasonable temperatures, it warmed up to 40°F and is super windy.  I manged to slip on a patch of ice, and fall flat on my back.  My butt, knees, elbow, arm, and wrist all hurt.  So I decided I wasn't running.

I have also almost quintupled my mileage from last week and the week before and run more miles than I have in one week since the beginning of September.  So in the interest of preventing (further) injury...I didn't run.  

Totals for Week 7:
Miles: 17.2
Time: 3:15:11 

how to annoy the heck out of your boyfriend while traveling

Have an opinion about nothing…even though you have an opinion about EVERYTHING. Though I am one of the most opinionated people I know, I manage to have an opinion about very little when it comes to daily life. This is exaggerated when we are traveling.  Where should we eat?  I don't care.  What should we do today?  Whatever you want.  I actually think that this is more related to my inability to make a decision about things than my lack of an opinion.  Sure we passed 4,000 restaurants on our walk…but I definitely don't want to be responsible for figuring out which one we should eat dinner at.  

Dub him the travel guide since he's been to all these places before (even if it was a long time ago). For our last trip, I told John he was the travel guide since he had been to most of the places we were going before (in college, 7 years ago).  Then every time I saw something and asked "what's that?" he would say "I don't know" and I would proclaim that he was the worst travel guide ever.  

Rely on him to be your translator even though he forgot to brush up on his German. This speaks for itself (oh, a pun!).  I like to say that I now speak almost as much German from our five days in Vienna as John does…but that offends him so I won't say it…very often.  Seriously though, German is a pretty easy language to pick up (especially when you have a translator who speaks the language at a kindergarten level). 

Don't pay attention when he's trying to explain your route with the map and agree with his assessment of the situation even when you have no clue if he's right or not.  Sometimes it takes me longer to figure out where we are on a map…I'm not a good map navigator…and often he was done explaining where we were going and how we were going to get there before I had even figured out where we were on the map.  I'm much better at navigating by landmarks and retracing my steps.  Fortunately we never got completely lost.  

Insist on looking through your room one last time even though he claims that he has everything.  On our trip last year, John left our power and plug adapters in our hotel room when we spent the night in Amsterdam on the first night of our trip.  He claims I never asked if he had everything...I distincly remember asking (becasue I always ask).  Ever since then I have not believed his claims of having all of our belongings before we leave a place.  Needless to say he got annoyed with me constantly checking behind him.  

Moral of this story...don't go on a long trip with someone unless you can bicker and still be friends in the end. We've managed to get through a big trip twice and we still like each other!  

a white christmas

It's snowing again!  Thank goodness.  I was a little jealous that the rest of the US was having severe winter weather and all we were having was cold.  

Kiva and I went for a run.  She tried to catch all of the snowflakes for the whole hour we were running.  I think she got in as many vertical miles as she did horizontal ones...

Last night we celebrated Christmas at John's mom's house.  John got me a Vitamix!!  I'm pretty excited about it...but also feel terrible that he spent so much money on me (especially since I didn't even come close with him).

Today my dad came over for breakast and then we went to my Grandma's for ham this afternoon. 

All in all a good day...made even better by the snow!

a december playlist

Here's my Christmas gift to you...music.  

I included the one Christmas song I actually like (because it felt wrong to make a December playlist and not have any Christmas music on it) and the rest are songs that I have been loving lately. 

Enjoy!

what we're eating 12/24 - 12/30

Less planning this week than last week...mostly because I had less time to plan.  

Here's what is on the menu for us this week

Monday: Dinner @ John's Mom's house

Tuesday: Christmas lunch at my Grandma's (leftovers if we need dinner)

Wednesday: Chicken Curry

Thursday: Flank Steak

Friday: Shrimp Tacos

Saturday: Spaghetti Squash Bolognese (from Practical Paleo)

Sunday: Salmon Chowder (still haven't eaten this!)

2013 disney princess half: weeks 5 & 6

Pathetic.  That's all I have to say.  I'm not even going to give you the nitty gritty details because there really aren't any.  It's been miserably frigid, I've injured myself, gotten better, and then got sick, and am now better.  Anyway, I guess week 7 is going to be a fresh start.  I'm hoping I can get over the mental block I have about running in the cold.  

Week 5:

3.6 miles/39:29/11:04 avg pace

Week 6:

3.5 miles/39:33/11:11 avg pace

I'm already off to a better start this week as I have already almost run more miles than the last two weeks combined (and it's only the first day of week 7).

Here's hoping I can keep it up!

macadamia nut crusted salmon (and side dishes)

Last night for dinner I made Macadamia Nut Crusted Salmon.  I sort of followed the recipe for Macadamia Nut Crusted Sole from Practical Paleo...but I changed a few things as I went and it turned out quite delicious!

I also made roast sweet potato wedges and this braised cabbage (except I used cranberries instead of raisins and chicken stock instead of apple cider).

For the salmon

1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts (or any kind of nut you like)
zest from one orange
1/4 cup shredded (unsweetened) coconut
salmon fillet (I will be honest, I have no idea how big this fillet was, it was 1/2 of a red salmon...from my freezer, enough to feed 3 people)
butter or coconut oil or olive oil

Heat broiler on low (I set mine to about 400°F).

Put salmon in a baking dish, coat with melted butter/coconut oil/olive oil.

Mix nuts, orange zest, and coconut in small bowl.

Spread evenly over oiled salmon.

Cook for ~10 minutes or until the salmon is just barely done in the middle (cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of your fish).  Don't overcook!!  

europe photos: vienna

sick day

John's been sick the last few days...and now I'm sick.  I've had a drippy nose (gross, I know) for a few weeks, but yesterday it decided to settle into my sinuses.  Then, by last night I had a temp and was feeling worse.  

This morning I managed to break a sweat using the paper cutter and get my heart going well above my target heart rate just by walking up the stairs.  In fact, as I sit here typing this my heart rate is in the 90s, because apparently when you're ill typing counts as extreme physical exertion. I wonder how I can add that to my training log...

I slept in until 10:30 (well, got up at a normal time, took my car in for an oil change and then went back to bed).  And I have been trying to drink lots of fluids.

Kiva is under the impression that she is sick as well.

I'd like to say that I'm surprised that I'm sick, but I'm not.  If there was a time that this was going to happen, it would be on or near a holiday - most likely my birthday or Chirstmas...I cannot tell you how many times I've been sick on or near one of those two days, but it's rather common for me...that's just how I roll.