Mall of America

Well, we have had some nice weather over the weekend and while I got a nice 9 miler in on Saturday (averaged a 9:30 pace, not bad, but not where I’d like to be, but I guess it’s a start), Sunday, which ended up being the nicer of the two days was a bit of a wash. Didn’t get out for it early and then had a friend call and in a moment of weakness I agreed to go to the Mall of America (affectionately called the Monstrosity of America by me) to do a couple of errands. Even though it was Sunday, and even though it was middle of the afternoon. It wasn’t terrible, although there was a cheerleading competition going on in the rotunda and that had a big crowd and happened to be right by one of the places we needed to be, but it was kind of cool cause the Gopher cheerleaders were there and they are competing at nationals on ESPN in a couple of weeks. Was kind of cool to see live. After the mall we made a stop at IKEA, which is always fun. They build the largest IKEA in the US right by the MOA so it makes for easy stops at the two. Ended up finding fun stuff there, nothing that I HAD to have (except the plain tealight candles) but stuff I felt I needed at the time…and all useful!! So anyway, while it was warm and sunny out, I was in the mall, but that’s OK. Had fun shopping time with my friend and that’s important too right? I did manage to get 19 miles in in the 3 days that I did run though, along with 54 miles biking and 3 days of strength training so not a bad week…if only I hadn’t drank too many beers on Saturday and blown my calories for the week. I do need to get back on track with my diet, that’s for sure!!

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and while it was to be close to 40 today, the temps are coming down…sigh…hopefully I can get a run in tonight and enjoy the day before we lose it…then HAVE to get some cleaning done. I need to get things in order so I can get my house back on the market and hopefully sold this time!!

Anyway, not much of an update, but I wanted to write something…maybe some other exciting things will happen in the next couple of days and I can write something more exciting then.

Running and MOA

Instead of a run at lunch yesterday, when it was only 2 and below freezing with windchill, I opted for the elliptical trainer for 45 minutes during my lunch and decided to run after work. MNFirefly and I were going to meet up, but opted to do that at 7 and I got home, changed clothes, finished up making the Mexican Chicken I was cooking (yummy and recipe to follow), changed and went out the door, figuring I should be able to get 6 miles in and still get back to change and meet up on time...umm...no, ended up with only 5, which is fine, it's still a real struggle out there, my pace was over 9:30 per mile, roads are dry in a few spots but mostly packed snow and some soft stuff that would stick to my shoes and make it even harder to run, those hills are even more difficult when you don't have perfect footing!! It was also quite cold and even at the end when I'm usually fine, my hands were starting to get cold...I don't think I was running fast enough. I think temps were around 8-10...yeah, not much warmer, but a little bit better!!

Anyway, got home and it was 6, just enough time to jump in the shower, stretch a tiny bit, make up my taco salad, eat, dry my hair and head out the door to get to the Mall of America by 7...met MNFirefly and we headed down to find a place to sit, have a drink and chat...we ended up at Kokomo's and had a couple of tropical girly drinks that were yummy, then wandered around the mall. Main reason for meeting there was so she could keep moving and stretch the legs...not normally the place I ever want to go, but I'd say on a Tuesday night in January, it isn't too terrible, I guess I could be conned into going again. We chatted, she got some tea at a tea place, I almost had cookies and/or ice cream, yogurt or a smoothie, but said not to all...We went to Basin and smelled bath things and then the motherload...we ended up by Brookstone...it was quiet, so we had easy access, and I fell in love...I so NEED this!! OK, this isn't the one that either of us actually sat in, mine was a slightly lower model but had a CD option in the chair and it would massage to music, MNFirefly sat in the lower end model of this one (the difference is the new one has a foot massage thing too), this chair is only $4500....it's so worth it isn't it?? They have payment plans...I don't know if I would ever leave my house though if I actually had one. I could fall asleep in the thing. I was already about sold on the older $800 ones they had, these models we sat in actually do a body scan and find accupressure points and focus the massage on them. If you haven't been to Brookstone (or Sharper Image) in a while, go check them out!! So worth it and a great thing to loosen up muscles after a tiring run!!

So I think today I'm finally going to take a running day off. I'm strength training today and some elliptical, unless I opt for the treadmill, but doubt that will happen. That's 3 days of crosstraining already this week...now, granted, two of those crosstraining days also included a run, but unless i decide to run at 10:30 tonight, I won't get getting one in, unless it's on the treadmill.

Mexican Chicken

1 pound of chicken

1 tbsp chili powder

3 tbsp lime juice

1 cup salsa

Corn and/or black beans as desired

Put the chicken in the crockpot. Mix the chili powder and lime juice together and put over the top of the chicken. Cook the chicken in the crockpot till it's done (3-4 hours on high all day on low worked as well), then shred the chicken with forks, put back in the crockpot with the salsa black beans and/or corn and cook another 30-60 minutes (works great to cook it all day, come home, shred it, put in the salsa and head out for a run!!). I like it over chips with fixings for a taco salad, also works well for nachos, chicken tacos, quesadillas and whatever else you might find good.