Monthly Archives: October 2011

pumpkin curry

October 31, 2011 – 21:13

I love curry. And I also love anything with coconut milk. Combine the two, and you have one of my favorite dishes! I have a few curry recipes that I have collected the past couple years. They are all a little different, and all delicious. When I saw Jenna’s recipe for Thai red curry last week, I immediately put it on my meal planning list for this week.

Jenna used kabocha squash in her recipe. We ended up with 6 sugar pumpkins from the garden, so I used pumpkin instead.

For some reason, Max goes crazy for pumpkins. He really wanted the pumpkin I was holding, so I gave it to him to see what he would do with it.

I know we should not encourage behavior like this, but it’s so funny! He played with it for awhile before starting to eat it.

Crazy dog. I think he would have eaten the entire pumpkin if I let him.

After I took the pumpkin away from Max, I roasted it. Since it was a small pumpkin,I roasted another one too and figured if I didn’t use it all I could use the leftovers for something else.

I got all the ingredients ready while the pumpkins roasted. I changed a few things from the original recipe. First, I used pumpkin instead of kabocha squash. I didn’t include fish sauce. I have a feeling the fish sauce adds to the dish, but I didn’t want to use it. I also didn’t use tofu. Since my stomach has been giving me issues lately, I didn’t want to eat tofu. Sometimes it messes with my stomach. So I used chickpeas instead.

Holy smokes, this curry was so good! It had great flavor. I really liked the chickpeas and didn’t miss having tofu in the dish.

I had leftovers for lunch today, and I think it actually tasted even better today than it did yesterday!

Head on over to Eat, Live, Run and get this recipe.

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On a random note… I have big news I’m going to share tomorrow! No, I’m not engaged. But it’s exciting stuff. So come back tomorrow to find out what’s happening!

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Heart Rate Monitor Training – Week 1

October 30, 2011 – 09:57

I finished the first week of heart rate monitor training. The schedule in the book is as follows:

Monday: 4 miles @ <70%
Tuesday: 4 miles @ <70%
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 4 miles @ <70%
Friday: 4 miles @ <70%
Saturday: off
Sunday: off

I ran 4 miles on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I ended up taking Friday off because I was feeling really tired. In addition to the schedule above, I also went swimming a couple times, went to a strength training class, and did a Computrainer ride. I also hadn’t taken a full rest day for a couple weeks, so even though I wanted to run on Friday I decided to take a rest day. Maybe I’m doing too much? Here are some of my thoughts after the first week, a couple of which probably indicate I’m working out too much right now.

- I can’t keep my heart rate below 150 (70% of my max) in the first mile unless I take frequent walk breaks. My average pace for the first mile has been between 11-12 minutes. I’m assuming this is okay.

- I am able to settle into a pace for the last 3 miles where I can keep my heart rate below 150 without walking.

- Even though my pace has been REALLY slow, I’m tired after running for 45 minutes. I think it’s a different kind of tired though. It’s hard to explain, although maybe it’s just that I’m really bored. Because running 11 minute miles is really boring.

- On Monday my average pace was around 10:15. On Tuesday I had to slow it down a little to keep my heart rate below 150, and my average pace was around 11:00. I thought this might be due to drinking coffee on Tuesday. But then my average pace on Thursday was 11:30! And I hadn’t had any caffeine on Thursday. I think this might mean my body was getting tired and I needed a day off.

- It’s cold enough outside now that I can’t warm up during these slow runs. I usually don’t start sweating until I have run 2 miles. And my hands are always freezing during the entire run.

- My heart rate during the bike workout I did on Thursday was between 170-185 for the entire hour. I have a feeling that doing hard workouts on the bike might affect building up a running base with the heart rate method.

- It’s kind of embarrassing running so slowly. But then I remember that most of the people I see when I’m running I will never see again, so I don’t care anymore.

So far, it’s been very interesting to pay attention to my heart rate. I think it’s going to be helpful to for me to figure out when I need rest days, and to make sure I’m running slow enough on easy days. I think I have a tendency to do too much, so hopefully this will keep me in check and I can stay injury free.

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30 degrees

October 26, 2011 – 12:41

It was 30 degrees this morning when I went swimming. At an OUTDOOR pool!

When I was getting ready to leave the house, I was thinking that it would be totally acceptable for me to get back in bed. But then I thought about the fact that I would be so happy I went swimming after my workout. So I headed to the pool.

I was so relieved to see a few cars in the parking lot when I got there. I was still thinking that maybe people don’t swim at the outdoor pool when it’s below freezing. Because, really it sounds like a crazy thing to do. But they do! The usual 5:30am crowd was there.

I had my own lane this morning, but by 6am the pool was pretty full. For some reason, the number of people swimming this morning still surprises me. And makes me happy! Everyone swimming this morning must have been very motivated to exercise.

Luckily the water was warm, because the air was freezing. I swam lots of laps, got out of the pool, and was so happy I braved the cold to swim outside this morning. The outdoor pool is only open though October 31, so I’m hoping to get one more workout in before I have to go back to the indoor pool for the winter.


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