Comfort Food Ideas

I know I haven't put much up on nutrition and food, but I thought I would drop a couple ideas for easy cheap comfort food meals. Last week, I made this Burrito Pie, which I found on Allrecipes.com. It was great for dinner as well as filling me up at work as lunch. The amount posted in the video ended up with 6-10 servings, depending on the size of your helping. If you are a fan of Mexican food, you will love this and make it many more times.

Otherwise, I was thumbing through my Everyday Italian Cookbook from my favorite chef, Giada de Laurentiis.

I found a recipe I'm going to attempt to make this weekend. I think it looks delicious, lets hope it turns out. I picked this one, because it looked like I had most of the ingredient at home and aside from the prosciutto, it didn't look too expensive to make.

                                         Here's the recipe for Chicken Saltimbocca:

I Gotta A Basketball Jones...

My weekend was full of college basketball. I know I wasn't the only glued to the TV, or actually for my it was my phone. I found the March Madness Live App, which you can watch all games if you have a cable provider otherwise you get something like 5 hours of any network access, then once your time runs out you can watch any game that's being played on CBS. Needless to say I used it non-stop. 

With all the upsets, I wonder how many of you still like your brackets? 

I have too many brackets to say that I called all the upsets, yes, I got lucky on picking Dayton to the Sweet Sixteen, and on a couple other of the first round games. My Final Four is still alive (Louisville, Florida, Arizona, & Michigan St.) and other then Duke, my Elite Eight teams are still kicking. Wait, I had Villanova in one of my brackets to the Elite Eight.

Now I have to try to get another group of peeps to see if there is any interest in a Sweet Sixteen Bracket. This way its a fresh start for all of you who had a Kansas v. Wichita St. Final match-up. Good Luck for all of your brackets in the upcoming week!!

This Week's Workouts

After a long lay off of nothing, I'm slowly getting back into getting my runs in. It also helps that I have signed up for the Soldier Field 10 Mile, it forces me into running so I don't waste my money when I show up downtown and can barely finish. Anyways, here is what I've done over the last week.

SATURDAY - 4.05 Mile Run, After many months of missing the Naperville Riverwalk, I managed to squeeze in a run while Vanessa had an appointment. It was fun running along the river's edge and listening to the high water crash against the shores.

SUNDAY - Nothing

MONDAY - Nothing

TUESDAY - 25 Push-ups, I've been able to knock out some push-ups on my breaks at work.

WEDNESDAY - 50 Push-ups

THURSDAY - 4.37 Mile Run, I ran along Theodore Ave. & Ridge Rd. in Plainfield after work. Night runs are always nice because the temps are a little cooler and its very quiet. Even though I had the headphones on, I still enjoy a run with no one else out and chasing my shadow from the moon light. Also did 90 Push-ups at work

FRIDAY - So far today at work I've knocked out 100 Push-ups. Ive been keeping track of all my Pushups on the dry erase board in the conference room. I'll also try to use the dumbbells that my co-worker has in his office to do some curls, shrugs or lunges when I have the time.


UPCOMING WEEKEND:

Not much planned this weekend, after all the activity we did last weekend, I still feel as if I need to catch up on sleep.Probably will sneak a run in on Saturday and if I can get up for one on Sunday, Ill be happy. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Until next time...

March Madness

As we enter Day 2 of the NCAA Tournament, we are all staring at the TV or our brackets. We all hold our breath and watch for 2 weeks, the 19-20 years battle each other for that "One Shining Moment". One of the most exciting 48 hours of basketball with all the Cinderellas attempting to fit into their glass slippers.

I saw a note from ESPN, that after 4 games completed, only a little over 5% of the 11 million brackets, still had a perfect bracket. Most of that was due to Dayton's upset of Ohio St.



I feel as if I have the same Final Four as everyone, which I'm hoping doesn't backfire on me. With the seeding getting such grief for how teams ended up, but I still felt as if there were 4 dominant teams in each bracket.  In most of my brackets I have Florida, Michigan St., Arizona, & Louisville with each of them winning depending on my specific bracket.

I wish everyone the best of luck in their various pools, except for anyone in one of mine. Enjoy the upcoming weekend of basketball!

Check out how my brackets are doing here:

ESPN Bracket-Jack Bauer Pool
Yahoo Billion Dollar Bracket
Yahoo Interwest Work Bracket
Jiffy Lube Challange

Interwest Tools

Everyone should like the Interwest Facebook page!!

Super Bowl XLVIII Matchup

With the matchup all set for New York/New Jersey, we can finally start the fortnight of hype, which I feel I should contribute to. Since both teams are #1 seeds, and were favorite from the beginning, it all makes for a very compelling storyline. Seattle enter the game with the NFL's #1 ranked Defense, while Peyton and the Broncos trot in with the #1 Offense. All I keep hearing are mountains of historical stats on the networks, all that matters is that it should make for a fun football game to watch as well as all the other stuff that will be going on during Super Bowl XLVIII.



Manning's legacy rides on the outcome of possibly getting his second title and matching his brother, Eli. He's a no brainer Hall of Famer, but with Brady in this era with 3, Manning needs to get at least one more. By winning with the Broncos, Peyton would be the first quarterback
to win Super Bowls with two different teams as a starting QB





 Just playing in the game gives the Russell Wilson Brand name and lot more creditbility. It just adds more stats to stuff into his already impressive, yet short resume as a QB. His ability to keep plays alive with his feet have been one of many reasons his team makes it to this point.




I won't bore you with more number and figures, but I will leave you with my favorite note that I have come across. This is the first Super Bowl to host two teams west of the Mississippi River, since the San Francisco 49ers beat down the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. SF 49, SD 26

A Look At Week #3 Running

When looking back at Week 3, all I can see are cold runs. Of the four runs I went on. I was snowed on three times. The temps ranged from 19-45 degrees, while my pace averaged out to around 8:17ppm for all my runs. Not great, but not bad after taking a few months off. I'm trying my best to keep up with the mileage while making sure I keep a close eye on any aches or pains that don't go away. I've started slowly lifting again, only in 3 exercise grouping each time I go. I don't want too many muscle area to be sore when I run.




My best run was on Wednesday, in which I set multiple PRs for 1K & 5K.







On Monday when it was 45, I decided to wear shorts and it felt great. The only problem was that the Commissioners Park was full of melted sloppy snow all over the trail.




On my last run on Saturday it was snowing, so I decided to get a short video of the conditions. Here it is:

Meanwhile, on the same run I took pictures of myself at each mile marker to see if there was any snow accumulation, and there was.


Mile 1:


















Mile 2:

















Mile 3:

















Mile 4:



















Here are the maps of the runs this week, with the temp.

A Look Back At Week 3



















A Look Ahead To Week 4

Nike+ Pics:

The Past Few Runs

Here's a look at the start of my 24 Week Marathon training through the Nike+ app. The training lines up with a Race date of the weekend of June 14-15. If you get the app add me as a friend and we can help motivate each other.

My Runs To Date:

My Earlier Runs in the Neighborhood

Running With High Schoolers - 1.9.14

When running on a weekday around

 2:30pm you are bound to find kids out on the roads.

 I think I ran past a couple different
 track teams getting ready for the indoor season. You can see the greenest part of my run on the back half after I past a group of 5 young men and I took off refusing to let any of them to come close to catching up to me. Once I realized I wasn't being followed anymore my pace quickly declined. Longest run of the year so far.

Saturday Night Run - 1.11.14

  Another fun night run down Heritage Meadows Drive, you can see the green sprint runs I had at the begining of the third mile and again near the 3.5 mile mark. The roads were very clear and the temp was just above freezing so what snow was left after the rains hadn't iced over yet.  And as you can see below this was my best 5K, 1mile, & 1K.

                   

Balmy Sunday Sunset Run - 1.12.14

With the conditions finally giving some relief with temps in the 40s I ventured out for my 5 mile run. I headed west and ran in neighborhoods that I haven't investigated. Since the roads were finally dry I decided on breaking in my Race Blue Asics. It was a welcome relief not having to deal with slush under my toes.

Weekly Stats:

My Instagram Pics:

Here's week 3 so far:

Championship Weekend Picks!

Now these past few days have been a fun football party. Seahawks and Patriots won in almost blowout fashion, each letting the teams making it interesting in the 4th quarter. The 49ers did the same in the early matchup on Sunday against the Panthers. While it looked to be same formula in the Bronco-Charger game, but Manning managed to hang on. Here are the match-ups for next weekend:

NFC Championship

San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks

AFC Championship

New England Patriots @ Denver Broncos

My picks are for the Seahawks & Broncos to meet in 

Super Bowl XLVIII

Running A Snowy Trail

Tonight's run was a tough one. Temps were bone chilling. Winds relentless. At least the slush wasn't frozen yet. Ran mostly on back neighborhood roads. My phone died halfway through, so the stats aren't accurate. The run ended up being a total of 4.92 miles in the cold. After coming off the trail full of snow, finally ran 2.28 miles in 22:26 on the road, which was cleared of snow. It was rough but it was worth it.

Here's a loud video of me running through the snow along the lakefront. There's a path somewhere below the snow

2014: New Year, New Goals

With the new year here, we all have plans, goals or resolutions. This year I'm not setting anything because I know I'll just let myself down. I am going to try to do my best to run a few races, set some PRs and maybe try to run a marathon.

I've started using the Nike+ app on my iPhone, which has a marathon training plan. I've been able to follow it for a few days and my body has been feeling it. So far over the last week I've just done 3+ miles. Thursday the mileage starts going up.

 I hope all of you out there focus on fitness this year, your body will thank you and your families will to, with the extra time they will get to spend with you in the future. Happy 2014 Everyone!!