Fitness Journal: Friday evening run

The thing I know about myself is that if I make things a choice, I will almost always choose to not expend the effort/time/energy. So the key to actually doing these things is to not let it be a choice.

Today was my first day of using the Couch to 5K training program. I have an app on my phone that I’m running in conjunction with Runkeeper. It basically vibrates my phone when I’m supposed to switch from walking to running. Starting out, it’s a 5min warm up walk, 20 mins of alternating 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of jogging, with a final 5 min walking cooldown. I think that since I’ve been doing runs before ‘officially’ starting, I had an easier time with the 60 seconds of running that I would have otherwise. I’m tempted to skip ahead in the training program, but that seems like it’s asking for trouble.

Today’s stats:
Distance: 2.1 miles
average speed: 15:37

animals: 1 friendly cat! (too dark to take pictures)

Fitness Journal: Tuesday’s run

I was sick yesterday, so today is really my Monday. I am just starting running, in prep for a mountain climb out in Colorado the first week of August. Today was my first ‘run’ of over 1 mile. I use the word ‘run’ lightly, because I’m still in the run a block, walk half a block stage. I’m at 12:46 min/mile, but in my defense, I saw a family of what I’m sure are Guinea fowl and I had to stop and take some pictures. I also saw a kitty at the beginning of my run, so I had to stop to try and make friends (they were having none of it).

Run stats:
Distance: 1.22 mi
Speed: 12:46

Perfect Summer Sandals

A million years ago, I found the perfect summer sandal.

It was at Target. An Isaac Mizrahi collaboration. Metallic, snake skin textured gladiator sandals. In a word: PERFECT.

I bought my first pair in bronze, and I had my friends scour Target’s in their local cities for a silver pair (they were pretty popular and sold out quickly). I loved these sandals to death, and wore then everywhere, all the time, for everything for about 5 years (an insanely long time given I wore them daily for 9 months out of the year, but I digress). Then, one drunken SXSW, I woke up to a missing heel on the silver pair. A few weeks later, the ankle strap on the bronze pair snapped and I couldn’t fix it.

And thus started my quest for a new Perfect Summer Sandal.

My requirements were specific:
1. metallic (SHINY!)
2. gladiator style (looks classy!)
3. no thong/flipflop style (a different look)
4. comfortable (I walk everywhere I don’t bike)
5. flat (I have a bum ankle and a need to move quickly and get stuff done)
6. comfortable to bike in

Thankfully (and at long last), Target has again provided me with a Perfect Summer Sandal. They aren’t embossed with a snakeskin texture, and they aren’t quite as 100% perfect as the old sandals, but the are flat, comfortable, gladiator style, and come in a million nine colors, including gold and silver. And did I mention they’re cheap?!

They are the Alma Sandals from Target, sold for $16.99. I currently own them in Gold, Silver, Blue, Black, and White. I’m thinking about the Turquoise and the Red. They go with everything and I wear them everywhere; to work, to the grocery store, to a night out at the dive bar, to brunch, to buy new windshield wipers for my car. Everything!

As a bonus, they are currently on sale! If you are buying them online, Target is offering a Buy 1, get 1 50% off sale, and if you spend $25, you can get free shipping!

Recipe: World Peace Cookies

Chocolate cookies on a cream plate

I think I have found a new favorite cookie.

For a long time, I’ve been a fan of the classic chocolate chip cookie. Easy to make, hard to fuck up, always delicious.

These cookies take delicious to a whole new level. They are the World Peace cookies from Smitten Kitchen and they are easy to make and also amazingly delicious.

I’ve also discovered a new favorite ‘type’ of cookie. That is to say, you make up the dough and then refrigerate it for a few hours (or stick it in the freezer for less time). Later, you slice and bake. While the delayed gratification of the cooling period isn’t awesome, the near-instant gratification of slicing a cookie log, baking, and 12 minutes later having fresh hot cookies is very pleasing to me.

Notes for next time:

I don’t know if the directions are a little off, I can’t measure half an inch, I snacked too hard on the raw dough, or what, but I definitely didn’t get anywhere near 36 cookies. Next time I will make the ‘logs’ a little less thick and slice the cookies a little thinner (and maybe eat a little less cookie dough!). That said, 12 minutes was PERFECT and the cookies came out PERFECT, despite any failings on my part.

Also, the dough really is that crumbly. Just mash it together and stick it in the fridge. It’ll all come out just fine.

Review: REI Compact Travel Adaptors

REI Travel Adaptor

I got this great little travel adaptor set for a recent trip to New Zealand and Australia. Since I love small things, small boxes, and things that fit nicely into small boxes, it is basically designed for me to love it! Also, it worked really well. The plugs in Australia and New Zealand are basically the same as in the US, except instead of being parallel, the two prongs are angled in toward each other. In many sets, the prongs just rotate.

One note is that you do have to push a little hard to get the plug into the back of the adaptor. It was a little startling how hard I had to push the first time I used it.

The one downside to this adorable little set is that it is a little bulky. Depending on the socket arrangement, it is entirely possible that it would block access to other nearby sockets, but since I only had the one adaptor, that was never really an issue for me.

You can buy it at REI.

 

Alternative:

In their travel recommendations, The Wirecutter recommends the Ceptics Travel Adaptor Set. I am more dubious about this set since it seems like you are carrying around a giant jumble of stuff, or you have to carefully pick out only the ones you need (which, if you are like me, and like to be prepared for EVERYTHING and also unsure of how some of this international travel stuff works, seems stressful). But, in general, I think the Wirecutter has good recommendations, so you can check that out too.

Knitting Technique: Long Tail Cast On

This is the cast on that my mother taught me, but I always forget how to get it started.  Is it over or under or how do I get that first loop started?!?! Come to think of it, I think we did the slip-knot to get things started.

Anyway, this video is really great and goes through it very neatly, and you don’t even need the slipknot to get started!

source: Knitting Help