June 22, 2009

As I write this I'm watching Run, Fat Boy, Run, which is kind of reminiscent of my own running training. Slow, out of shape person, often in ineffective and/or ridiculous-looking workout clothing, tries earnestly. I don't have a pudgy old Indian landlord or a chain-smoking reedy gambling addict pushing me along, just my own need for personal validation and lack of recognition of the probable long-term impact this is all having on my joints.

Anyway, despite the comedy of errors, or whatever it all is, I'm supposed to be running in a race this weekend, a 7.5 miler in Cambridge, Mass. What I didn't think about when I signed up for the race was the fact that my homecoming/graduation party is on the day before the race. My dad has already bought a case of wine, a million bottles of beer, and enough cheese to kill me 10 times over. So, there is a significant likelihood that I am going to be unable to run due to post-cheese coma or hangover. Also there's the fact that I've hardly run at all in the past year. However, I've done two 5-milers on the treadmill in the past couple weeks, along with a few shorter runs, and I feel generally good. The t-mill is obviously not as high-impact as pavement, but for me psychologically, being able to bust out 5 miles on the thing means I've broken through a huge barrier. The variety of cable TV watching options at my new gym is probably to thank for that.

So, that's happening. I'm running a bit, and I love it despite the awfulness of treadmills. Must find outdoor routes, probably over on the rail trail a couple towns over so I don't get hit by cars while running. I just got back from a couple days in NYC that were basically an orgy of bagels and martinis, followed by a massive Father's Day brunch yesterday, so I'm trying to recalibrate myself here and eat a lot of veggies today.

In other big fun food news, I finally got around to trying this recipe for cold-brewed iced coffee that I've been meaning to make for ages and ages. I mentioned it to my mom yesterday and magically she pulled the necessary equipment out of a cabinet. I hadn't even thought to ask if she had a non-electric coffee maker stored away somewhere, since I'd never seen one, but she did, so I was able to throw it together immediately. I ran out to Trader Joe's and picked up some fresh-ground organic sumatra and mixed 1/2 cup of that with 4 cups of cold water in ye olde coffee pot. Stirred it around and put it in the fridge overnight to brew.

And this morning, this is what I ended up with, after straining the grounds out twice. It smelled fantastic, but tasted slightly weak to me at first. But as I had more of it, I decided it was not too weak. Plus, I have a bit left over so I can add that to the brewing water for tomorrow and it'll just get stronger and stronger. Too bad it's freaking freezing here and not iced coffee weather at all! I was wrapped up in a shawl at class today drinking this stuff from an insulated mug.
Before I ran off to class this morning I also had my now-usual breakfast of soy yogurt with Kashi Go-Lean Crunch. This isn't my favorite breakfast of all time--I really miss my banana-spinach smoothies, but I haven't bothered putting the olllld blender here to the test with that. Plus bananas go so fast in this house that I have only bothered trying to buy them once. We'll see what happens with all that, and maybe the veggie smoothie breakfast will return since it does make me feel more alert and vitamin'd-up all day.

And I packed up my morning snack: a scrumptious organic apple and pack of almonds. I've been listening to Jillian Michaels podcasts like it's my damn job (available here, under the Sunday column) and she is all about the organics, and she's got me mostly convinced. I think I'm probably going to end up buying her new book which is all about maximizing/controlling your metabolism by cutting out food and environmental chemicals that cause bad side efffects.
Packed lunch, too, which I usually chow on in the car on the way home. A hummus, tomato, parsley, and sprouts sandwich on Trader Joe's flourless sprouted wheatberry bread, and some organic baby carrots on the side. This bread is the best bread of all time. It isn't for everyone, I guess, since some friends I've recommended it to have really hated it, but I started buying it like 4 years ago and I honestly don't even like non-sprouted breads anymore except after I've toasted the hell out of them. They're too squishy and sugary.

Back to the compulsive listening to Jillian Michaels podcasts, though, she is a pretty awesome motivator. Really, I've been kind of struggling with stress management since I left NY, and listening to her makes me feel more grouunded. Truly, taking the bar exam is not going to be the worst thing that's ever happened to me, and the shitstorm of my law journal editorial board transition is going to be ok and is not all my fault. I'm going to work on being more present and not engaging in escapism (hello, binge drinking and all-day tv-watching). And dealing with this crap so that in a month and a half it will really ALL BE OVER OH MY GOD.