One foot in front of the other.
Eating Healthy in 2009. Copyright 2007 Ellie Krieger, All rights reserved.
Prep Time: 12 min.
Cook Time: 16 min.
Serves: 4
Heat the oil in a large skillet over a medium heat. Add the onions and mushrooms and cook until the mushroom water is evaporated and they begin to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add chicken, cumin, chili powder and oregano and stir until all spices are incorporated. Add spinach, salt and pepper and cook until spinach is wilted, about 2 minutes.
Lay 1 tortilla on a flat work surface and sprinkle with 1/4 cup shredded cheese. Spoon 1/2 chicken and vegetable mixture on top of cheese, then top with an additional 1/4 cup cheese. Top with another flour tortilla. Heat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray over medium heat. Carefully place 1 quesadilla in pan and cook 3 minutes. Using a large spatula, gently flip quesadilla and cook an additional 3 minutes until lightly browned and cheese is melted. Repeat with second quesadilla. Slice each quesadilla into quarters. Place 2 quarters on a plate with 1 tablespoon sour cream and 2 tablespoons salsa.
Brandon’s Marathon Gear Page!!!
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I know I shouldn’t be back to racing with my knee in the state it is in this early, but I have been off of it for this whole week. I have been icing, stretching and soaking it in copious amounts of Windex (get it?). It is feeling fine, good even!
Along with all that I realized a while ago, that out of all the races I have done since I began my journey (or ever), I have never done a 10k! So, Danielle and I will be running in the NYRR Homecoming Scotland Run 10k on April 11. It’s in Central Park which is NOT the easiest course in the world, but hey, the date is convenient! You can find the course map below, just click on it for a larger view.
Homecoming Scotland Run 10K
In the midst of all my IT band problems, I have been itching to test out my leg while at the same time, nervous about taking my first running strides. All that said, I just got in from going for a four mile test run, and guess what…….
IT FELT GREAT!!!
There was a bit of soreness in my ITB, but I just kept a close eye on my stride, being sure to not make any extraneous movements. I also did this run wearing an IT Band Compression Wrap (sometimes know as a cho-pat)
As soon as I returned from the run, I did a nice 15 minute stretch session, which included a foam roller. And the biggest shock…it STILL feels good. Ususally, my ITB acts up the most AFTER my runs, but as I sit here writing to you, it feels absolutely fine!
Anyway, all that is extremely encouraging, and I plan to do another 4 miler this Thursday, just to give the leg another stretch.
You Bars! (use discount code: Bmarathon)
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You Bar (enter the code: Bmarathon at checkout)
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Josh Cox breaks American 50K record
Brandon’s Marathon Youtube Page
Brandon’s Marathon on Facebook
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With winter in full swing here in the northeast, I thought I’d like to share some tips to help recover from a cold weather run. I don’t know if there is any scientific basis for these but they all seem to help me.
1) Get out of the clothes you ran in. If you’re running in your neighborhood, change everything as soon as you get home. If you traveled to your run bring a dry top or two with you. It’s important to get the sweaty tops off of your chest as soon as you can.
2) as tempting as a hot shower might be immediately after your run, do not shower right away. I usually give myself 30 – 40 minutes in dry warm clothes before I take a shower. One of the reasons space blankets are given out at the end of a marathon is to regulate your body temperature. By waiting before you shower, you’re allowing yourself time for your body to adjust from being out in the cold to more normal temperatures.
3) Hyrdrate – just because it’s cold out doesn’t mean your body does not need fluids. Do not drink very cold or something very hot. Try something lukewarm.
4) Take vitamin C. I’m not going to attempt to explain the science behind this, but I’ve heard that Vitmin C is an excellent way to keep your immune system healthy. I usually take an Airborne when I get home. It disolves in about 8 oz. of water and has 1000 mg of Vitimin C.
These are things that work for me. If you have other tips to share please leave a comment.
Ari
runanskyrun.blogspot.com
Both times I went for my run on the Westside Greenway last week, the path led me by the Westside impound garage used by the NYPD. This is a MASSIVE structure which holds thousands of vehicles. Both times I ran by I saw sitting out front on a tow truck getting ready to be taken inside, a UPS truck. Boo, NYPD traffic, BOO.
If you are reading this and your package was late, maybe this is why. feel free to send a bill to the City of New York and their rolling tax-collectors (NYPD Traffic).
Ok, ok, so it wasn’t exactly a blizzard. I just went for a run on the West Side Greenway (See my MotionBased runs on the right for the map) and as the weather said, it is beginning to snow.
It’s about 33 here in the Big Apple and there’s not too much of a breeze. On the last part of my run, the flakes started to sprinkle down, and it was pretty cool! There is something really serene about it, AND it helps that I forgot my headphones, so listening to my Ipod was out of the question.
Anywho, I hope you’re enjoying Episode 26 of the podcast and I’ll talk to you soon!
Brandon’s Marathon on YouTube!
Sentara New Year’s Day 5K Results
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Tomorrow I will be doing the NYRR Ted Corbitt 15 K! I am very excited for this and am going to try my best to get some video before, during and after the race. Some forecasters are actually calling for a possible 4 inches of snow tomorrow so that will add a whole new element of difficulty!
Richmond Sprint Tiathlon (Link to stats is on the page)
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Sorry to all the faithful out there for my lack of posting. I will be recording a new podcast episode very soon. A little food for thought though is my heel that I bruised BADLY on Monday, October 20th.
I had always heard about athletes having a bruised heel and thought that it sounded like such a cop out injury…until I bruised MY heel. I was in the pool on a training swim. The pool had just had the bottom redone and in the process the wall, which is topped by a steel gutter, had been made about 2 inches longer, and thus not flush with the gutter. I went to do a flip turn and the fatty part of my heel, the part where your foot lands when walking, struck the corner of the gutter, full force.
After my workout, I limped back to the locker room, got changed and immediately went home to ice and epsom salt my foot. Luckily, because I have become and advocate of forefoot running of late, my running the next day was not terribly effected. However, because I was having to walk around New York City, putting ALL my weight on my forefoot ALL the time, my foot rapidly became sore and almost too much to bear.
After taking it easy for a few days, and doing about seven miles on Friday, my foot is now getting much better, and I am aiming for a solid ten mile in Central Park this evening. I will, of course be talking about this and much more on the next BMP, so check back soon!!
The boys over at the Running with the Pack podcast recently ran the Tussey Mountainback 50-mile Relay and kicked some serious ass. Here is Allan’s email about the event as well as a video he shot.
Gebrselassie’s World Record Marathon
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So, my buddy Jason gave me this really cool page that shows a visual elevation comparison of several major Ironman events, including my race, Ironman Wisconsin. I have tried my darndest to insert the working chart into this post but I cannot for the life of me get it to work. So click the link below to check it out!!
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Running in the Center of the Universe
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My Run for Central Park Results
Full Run for Central Park Results
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Run for Central Park
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Strong Island Rookie Triathlon
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San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Marathon
Redondo Beach Triathlon results
Bobby crosses the finish line at clock time 5:18:27 (click here for the video!)
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Here are the details:
First; about 3 days before the race I was riding a bike to the store. The bike has SPD pedals, but I was wearing flip flops because it was just to the store and back. Somewhere along the way the pedal rolled and I cut my the high part of my heel (almost near the bottom of my achilles). No real damage, but there went any hope of not wearing socks.
Days before:
I kept up regular, but lesser workouts up until the Friday before the race (race was on sunday). During the day on Saturday, I went to the check in/clinic they had for the event. Got to take a look at the course and so on. On Saturday night I had a big plate of penne with pears in a gorgonzola cream sauce. Went to bed at 10 pm.
Race day:
I woke up at 5 am, had two eggs with cheese and a banana. I wanted to be checked in and in the transition area by 6:15, but made it at about 6:20. I had plenty of time to set up my transition area just right. I was wearing a one piece tri suit by TYR, and a Zoot Fuzion, full wetsuit (which I will never do again, I’ll explain later). I had two bottles of water set to hose the sand off my feet and everything ended up working out just right.
The start:
The day was overcast, so not so hot and the water was about 62 (f-ing cold). I was in the 3rd wave, which I think was the biggest (34-14 y/o). I got near the front of the group.
The swim:
Had a clean start and got into the mix right away catching multiple feet hands and elbows to my face and other parts. I am sure I also returned the favor. It took me about 5 minutes to pull out in front of the big pack. There was one guy that just took off and ended up out of the water about 30 seconds ahead of me. I pulled way out and I think I was third out of the water for my wave. The reason I will never wear a full sleeve wetsuit again is that it created resistance to my stroke. I had to work harder to get my arms out of the water and this ended up killing my breath. And let me tell you, I am feeling it today.
Coming into the breakers was fine. I caught a couple nice wave that gave me a great push, but I also caught one that broke under my legs and almost flipped me. Once i was standing, I had about 20 yards of water to run out of, which was SOO hard. Once out of that, I had about 75 yards to go to the transition. The real problem was that the entire run up the beach really was UP the beach. By the time I hit the boardwalk into T1 I was in so much pain. I got to my area ok, took a drink of FRS and got my socks and shoes and helmet, etc. on. I then tried to get on my bike before they reminded me that I had to run out of the transition. All in all, I think I was in the transition for about 45 seconds to a minute.
The bike:
I was riding a Cannondale R5 with Look Keo Sprint pedals. It is a road bike and not a tri-bike per se, but it did a great job, and since I train on my own road bike anyway, it is what I am used to. I did rather well on the bike and I believe I only lost about 4 places to guys that were definitely seasoned triathletes and riding $5,000+ tri-bikes. I took advantage of drafting and using it even passed one of the guys that had passed me. I made it into the transition very well and got my cycling shoes off and my running shoes/hat/glasses on in about 30 seconds.
The run:
I was using Yankz for my shoe laces so I saved a lot of time with that and the fact that I had socks on made my shoes go on even faster. The run was a 2 mile course, that was on a lot of boardwalk, which was nice and easy on the legs. However, running is by FAR my weak point and I lost probably about ten or so places to guys that were crazy fast. At mile one there was a set of about 5 stairs that burned like hell. Just beyond that was a water station. It was at that water station that I discovered the bad side of drinking water from a cup while running (I choked). I also dumped the remainder of my water on my head, forgetting the fact that I had a Nike Dri-fit hat on and it would push away any water that hit it! Oh well. The final 30 yards included a hill (up) which sucked and then a nice sidewalk.
My official time was 52:48 and I finished 6th in my age group. I am not sure about my overall place, but I will let you know once they post that info (if they post that info). Overall, I was extremely pleased with my performance. I need to work on my running, no doubt, but I hung in there and it felt awesome to finish.
As I write, at 7:27 am PST, Bobby is running his Marathon!!!
So, as I spoke about on my last podcast episode, I’m back! So is nipple chaffing!
The problem I run into is that I get going, only intending on going for a short-ish run and that turns into me going for close to an hour…hence the nipple chaffing. I am now keeping a stick of Body Glide in my gym bag constantly to hopefully alleviate this problem.
Anyway, in less than 48 hours I will be driving across the US from NYC to Logan, Utah with my wife and my dog in three days. The problem is that I have to get in my workouts!! My goal is to run every day once we arrive at our destination (1 night Moline, IL; 2nd night, somewhere in Wyoming) given that it’s not too cold and that I can motivate myself to even THINK about running after having driven for 15 hours+.
On top of that, it will be three days that I am out of the pool and not able to swim. This is important because, as I said, I have the Redondo Beach Triathlon on June 8th. ANOTHER problem is that, the morning after we arrive in Utah, I fly to San Diego to lend my moral (and if needs be, physical) support to Bobby as he runs in the San Diego Marathon. As soon as my plane lands, I am heading to the hotel and then to the race course to run, with Bobby, however much of the race he has left.
SOOOOO…..focus. I have to be focused and intent on my goals. Off we go!
Hey there everyone! This is the first episode of my podcast tracking my progress. Either listen to it here, or check it out in Itunes!!
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So, I know I haven’t written in a few days, sorry! I am now in Virginia to do Lucia di Lammermoor with Virginia Opera in Norfolk, Virginia. That being said, we have been in rehearsals a LOT since I got here. I have, however, been running rather consistently.
Unfortunately, my Ipod Nano was messing up and I had to restore it, which basically means I lost all the info stored on it, which included my Nike+ calibration. So, the mileage of my runs has been even more questionable thn usual. I also went and got a pedometer, which I have not yet calibrated yet. That said, the run I did yesterday was an outdoor run.
I ran for 54 minutes wearing both my Nike+ and my pedometer (which I kind of guessed at the calibration). At the end of the run my Ipod said I had run 5.97 miles and my pedometer said I had run 7.5 miles! That is quite a difference!! I will recalibrate them both over the next couple of days.
Anyway, I will put the graphs for all my missed runs on the “Run Graphs” page. 
Thanks so much for visiting my site! My name is Brandon Wood and I am the social media manager and a customer service rep for Newton Running. This site and podcast follow my adventures on the way to competing in and training for all kinds of endurance events, especially triathlon and running. Click the "About Me" tab for more info!
Who: This contest is open to anyone and everyone in the U.S. and Canada (also APO)! Tell your friends!
What: Stuffitts! I have spoken about these simple yet awesome shoe savers in the past. Click here to read more about them. I cannot say enough how great they are!
When: Starting NOW! This is an ongoing contest that will be every month, or until every person on the planet has nice, fresh smelling shoes!
Why: Because Stuffitts are awesome! The folks at Stuffitts are being SUPER generous and I also want to give you guys something that I think is a great addition to any athletes arsenal!
How: On the last podcast episode post of each month (example: Episode 99 on June 28 HERE) entrants should leave a comment (however long you'd like). On the following week's show (the first show of each month) I will draw, by random number generator, one winner! That's it!
Good luck!
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