China

Running on Pride

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This morning was gorgeous and perfect for my long run.

Tate and I did 7.04 miles along this course in 64 minutes.  The sun was shining, the air smelled deliciously like fall, and my body felt great.  I am especially proud of myself considering that I took most of June and July off from running and only started again in August.

June started in Tibet at crazy altitude (running at 12,000 feet? hell no, my yoga routine left me breathless), continued in China with severe downpours and moved onto a week in bed in Beijing with a SERIOUS kidney infection.  July was spent recovering from my illness and getting another kidney infection that landed me back in bed for a week or so (luckily I was back in the U.S by then!).

It was great to have Tate along with me today, he ran about a half of a block in front of me the whole time and it motivated me to run just a little faster than my comfortable “jog” pace.  I WILL make my PR time goal of under 55 minutes for the Fall Classic 10K on October 23rd!

If you are just getting into running or just starting to think about longer distances, have no fear!  If you would have told me a few years ago that I would run a marathon in 2009 I would have looked at you something like this

In fact, when I started running when I was 16 or 17 I never thought I would get through 3 whole miles without stopping.  But then my love affair with running blossomed and in my early 20’s I started running 5k’s, which led to 10k’s, which led to a half marathon in fall 2006, which led to a marathon in spring 2009.  I am not fast and I was never that consistent with running until January 2009 when I moved to Peru and no longer had a gym, a yoga studio, dance rehearsals, or 8 classes to teach a week.  So take heart, if running more than 20 minutes (or 1 minute!) at a time seems insane to you, take it slow and let it progress naturally.

(One of my favorite things to do as a Personal Trainer is to get people running so feel free to e-mail me with any questions)

Lunch today was all about leftover roasted veg.  I was on a bit of a mad kick yesterday and threw practically all the veggies I could get my hands on into the oven.

There was acorn squash and garlic

Onions and celery

Carrots, parsnips, and sweet potato dusted with cinnamon and cayenne

And green beans

By the time the green beans came out of the oven I was done eating but I purposefully made loads of everything and it all made awesome leftovers.

I added a fried egg with hot sauce for protein and some homemade sauerkraut for raw food and a dose of probiotics.  My first batch of sauerkraut is delicious by the way!  I have never been one to eat sauerkraut regularly but after hearing so many praises about the health benefits of fermented foods I am happy to eat a couple spoonfuls with lunch (and it really is quite tasty).

The sauerkraut got me excited to make more fermented veggies so last night I whipped up a batch of kimchi.

Kimchi is a spicy fermented salad or condiment from Korea made with Napa cabbage, garlic, ginger, salt (which is what ferments it), and some form of hot pepper.  I also added carrots and daikon radish to this batch.  This jar is sitting on my pantry shelf fermenting as I type but on Friday it will be ready to taste and from then on it will live in the fridge until it’s all gobbled up.

Here’s a good article explaining the health benefits of kimchi.

Time to get a little more sunshine on this blue sky day!

Overworked and Lazy Susan

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(THIS POST IS FROM JUNE 22. SOMEHOW BETWEEN BEING ILL AND CHINESE INTERNET IT NEVER GOT PUBLISHED, SO ENJOY NOW!)


Yesterday, our last day in Wuhan, was all about the eating.

But first, I woke up determined to be more active and energetic and get over this sickness.  I did my yoga routine, which felt AMAZING, and then managed to squeeze out 5 sets of 10 push ups.   On my knees.   Better than nothing.  I took 3 days off from my arms/abs portion of June Goals and was eager to get back to it in even a minimal way.

And on to the FOOD!

Guilia invited us to attend a lunch that she was having with her students.  She teaches English to post-high school students and it was a little end of the term celebration.   The students chose the place and ordered.  And ordered.   There were 18 of us and something like 25 dishes!! It was obcene but a fun way to try many different things.   This was one time it was perfectly fine to be a vegetarian!  Tate made it his goal to try EVERYTHING and left stuffed to the gills.

Our table had a huge “lazy susan” and some sweet AstroTurf underneath.  All of the dishes went in the center and we used our chopsticks to pluck things into our little personal bowls as they rolled by.

These are the dishes I sampled.  The veg and the fish.

My bowl.  Bring on the garlic! Note the pools of oil everything is swimming in!  By the door to this restaurant there were 5 GALLON jugs of oil sitting there.  Ewww……

THE MEATS! (and a few other items I didn’t try)

Yes, in that last one Guilia is holding up a whole chicken foot.

O.k, I think you get the picture but there were at least a dozen more dishes!

Lucas enjoyed the ribs!


There was so much left over, it was tragic.  In China it is rude to finish dishes because it is a sign there was not enough food so for a social meal like this they purposely overorder.  We encouraged the students to take leftovers home but they weren’t interested and we were spending the afternoon walking around the city.  They were very generous and treated Tate, Lucas, Guilia, and I to this feast.  So sweet.

We wondered around Wuhan and took a boat ride into the lake and low and behold, 5 or so hours later we were ready to eat MORE.

We went for “hot pot”.  There are many versions of Chinese hot pot but the one we went to was a raw buffet of meats, veggies, tofu, and seafood and you cook it in your individual little caldran of boiling broth.   This was perfect for me because I could really load up on the veg and finally not eat a cup of oil with my otherwise healthy meal.

My plate before cooking.

I piled my plate high before the cooking.  It was a lot of spinach-like greens,  some mushrooms, tofu, tomato, cauliflower, and a few slices of sweet potato.

The “hotpot”.

By 9 o’clock we boarded the train for Beijing full and tired.

One more night on the train!