Disney World Awesomeness and 1/2 Marathon Take 2

So, even though we were just in the states in June and have been crazy busy since then, we went back. Long story short, the hubby had a work training seminar they wanted him to go to and last minute we planned a trip back.  Because of the ridiculously long travel time, I normally would not have wanted to go myself. Really, there was only one thing that would get me to do the trip... yes that's right, a trip to Disney World (oh and also Harry Potter land at Universal).

Indeed I am like a child that has never grown up.  I still love all things Disney... I am especially partial to Disney World.  Because of this obsession, we packed up yet again and did the close to 20 hours flying to get to Orlando. It was ridiculously hot and humid while we were there (an almost welcome break from the cooler weather here... although it is warming up now).   Typical Florida weather... although not very conducive to my 1/2 marathon training.  It resulted in some pretty early morning runs... even then at 6am it was still close to 80 degrees and felt like I was swimming after about 30 seconds outside due to the humidity.  Really Florida, you are killing me.  Although, being up early has its benefits... that peacefulness when there is really no one else out and about, less cars on the road to worry about and best of all no lines when I go to get pumpkin lattes or ice coffee at DD or Starbucks post run! Side note, I got my full fill of all things pumpkin including my favorite coffee drinks, pumpkin scones and bagels with pumpkin cream cheese (I don't even remember Dunkin' Donuts having this before, but it was amazing).  Sorry for the pumpkin tangent.  I also wouldn't have seen this if I didn't get up early... so it's all good.

Overall, it was a great stress free trip.  The hubby had a few training days, but we arrived early to do some days at the parks, meet up with friends and enjoy a bit of a mini-vacation.

Here are some photo highlights from the trip.  I will warn you now, brace yourselves for the amazing t-shirt display throughout the trip.  Yeah, I am that awesome.

We started out spending the weekend at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  It has been a while since we have been to either park, and the whole Harry Potter area was new for us.

Umm... the hubby just likes this place.  We didn't actually eat here or anything... just a picture out front.

First look at the Harry Potter area... exciting!

More Hogsmead stuff...

And Hogwarts...

We decided we liked these little guys from Despicable Me.  They were all over the place... apparently we are late jumping on that bandwagon. 

A random Popeye statue.  

Next up we had all the Disney parks... here are a few fun pictures from that part of the trip...

And here my obsession with pumpkins continues!  I had never been to the parks this time of year so I was a bit excited...

It was also an excuse to practice with all the different camera settings...

Okay last one...

Woo group photo with Donald at the Mexican pavilion at EPCOT.

Yeah, we are that awesome.

Oh yeah, even better.

The hubby snapped this picture.  I thought it came out good... even though I hate this ride with a passion.

Last night... belated anniversary dinner and drinks at Jiko.  Good times.

That brings me up to speed to this past weekend.  Woo!  The blog is finally up to date again.  So, this past weekend I ran my second 1/2 marathon.  Who knew I would become such an avid runner here down under!  Anyways, it went really well.  I knew what to expect this time, so I had an idea of how hard to push myself and still make it through.  I cut off more than 6 minutes from my first half... not bad if I do say so myself.  It was a great run overall as well... fantastic sunny 60 degree morning, the run pretty much started going over the harbour bridge and finishes up at the opera house.  Pretty cool experience.  Highlights: Bruce happened to start playing on my playlist while running the bridge and the finish line at the opera house.  Legs are super sore today, but well worth it!

Okay... everyone is up to date on our lives now.  This is good because there is a ton of stuff coming up in the next few months with travels and visitors!  Per usual, I will try to be better about keeping this more current :)

Gelato, Star Wars and Half Marathons Oh My!

Gelato, Star Wars and Half Marathons Oh My! (A weekend recap a week late- a second )

I insisted on a low-key start to the weekend to be as mentally and physically prepared as I could be for the half-marathon on Sunday (a VERY patient and understanding hubby went along with my demands).  We cooked dinner in Friday and Saturday night and had a pretty relaxing day on Saturday spent running some errands (fun times as always) and at the Maritime Museum here in Sydney.  The museum was surprisingly good with lots of different exhibits.  We have been on a bit of a museum kick so to speak lately and have a new obsession with free tours that they all seem to have (who knew).  The few free tours we have done have been great- usually volunteers who take you around the exhibits explaining and telling stories.  Much more entertaining having someone explain everything to you!  

Yes.  This was a highlight of the tour.  A boat made entirely of beer cans.  And yes, it is mostly VB.

We capped Saturday night off watching Star Wars Episode 1, as we have decided to re-watch them all in order (yeah, we really are that awesome). The hubby kept falling asleep... so I guess it was actually just me watching Star Wars :)

Moving onto Sunday.  I did not sleep well at all… due mostly to the stress and anticipation of the run I imagine, and was up bright and early at 4:55am.  Made our way down to the CBD for a 6:45am start time.  It was crazy how many people were there… even waiting for the train to get to Town Hall was very crowded.  Something like over 13,000 were registered, which was a new record number for this half marathon.  Crazy pants indeed.

 Here is where I was before the start of the race.  The yellow group was the last to go, so there is a good view of the masses of people in front of us.

To be honest the whole morning went by in a blur.  Not sure if it was just being in “the zone”, being very tired or a combination.  I was nervous about not pacing myself well so I started off pretty slow, which worked out well as I didn’t really get tired the whole time.  It was a really nice run through the city starting and ending at Hyde Park.  Pretty much you run down towards the Opera House, under the Harbour Bridge, through Pyrmont and loop back.  It was a cool start to the morning (good for me!) and the rain held off until after the run.  My only complaint was because there were so many runners, it was hard at times to get around people.  There seemed to really be no rhyme or reason to where people were running in the streets (ie slow runners were not to one side, there was no side really to pass on either).  This of course is a minor complaint.  The hubby surprised me about 1/2 way through the race.  It was fun/exciting to see him at that point and gave me a boost of energy for the rest of the run!

It was a crazy feeling to actually finish the run.  Partly due to it being the first long race I have done, partly because it seemed like such a crazy goal.  If you had told me a year ago I was going to be living in Australia and running a half marathon I would have thought you were crazy! 

The day continued with Brekkie with some good friends, wine tastings in the rain, and gelato (at the casino, much to the delight of the hubby).  It worked out quite well where the boys went to play craps and the girls got to avoid this by going for Gelato Messina (the best gelato in Sydney as they always have peanut butter based options!).

We capped the weekend off with Thai food and Star Wars Episode II.  This is by far the worst of all 6 movies and I am glad to be done with it!  Now that the run is complete, I actually have time to think/plan for our US trip in less than 2 weeks!  I’m sure it will be a busy week with minimal if any posts… until next weekend anyways :)

Oh and in case anyone was curious about my time:

Net time (actual running time start-finish) 1 hr 48 minutes 26 seconds (not too shabby for my first one if I do say so myself)

   

Running and energy bars

Happy Monday everyone!  Hope everyone had a nice weekend!  Mine was great… relaxing night on Friday, dinner with friends on Saturday and a bush-walk (otherwise known as a hike) on Sunday.  Good times.  It was a beautiful day to be out and about yesterday… here are a couple pics from the walk.

A little walk through the gum trees... we had a random guy walking past us give us a tutorial on all the different trees.  Good times.

Just a nice view.  It is actually a crazy location for a bush-walk.  We took the train out to the suburbs, walked through a bunch of residential neighborhoods and then ended up in this park area.  A bit of a natural paradise in suburbia!  The view from these rocks here was almost spoiled by crazy kids running around pretending to shoot at everyone with sticks.  I was forced to practice my deep breathing.

The hubby was less than happy with the uphill climb to end the trek.  

Overall a good day of outdoor fun!

For those who don’t know, I am running a half-marathon in Sydney.  Now that I am thinking about it, most probably did not know about this I have been keeping it on the down low… due mostly to my own fears of backing out!  No longer an option…it is in less than a week- yikes! 

Running has become a huge part of my routine. Particularly since moving overseas it has been one of the best things for me to stay centered.  I truly love it.  Running gives me time to clear my head.  It really helped a lot when I was adjusting to living in Sydney in terms of stress relief and having some sort of schedule/structure to my day. 

It is pretty funny to talk about how much I enjoy running now.  I used to HATE it.  Every time I tried to start it up, it would last a max of 2 weeks before I was over it.  Not that I have ever minded exercise, I just always preferred going on walks, the elliptical or taking a spin class to running.  I did a 5 mile run in Boston last spring and for whatever reason stuck with it.  I’m not sure what was different this time around except maybe an increase in stress due to the move?  I think that I somehow finally got past that old point of cursing every minute I spent running and started to just enjoy.  There just seems to be that point you get to when running that causes that shift in thinking and I just never pushed myself long enough to get there before.  Maybe the combination of being in an amazing locale for running and the fact that it is free and I can do it whenever helps here. Who knows if this is something that will last when we move back home, but I really enjoy it now.

With all the extra free time I have- relatively speaking without working full time- I decided to run the ½ marathon.  Not sure what brought it on… maybe just setting a goal for myself, a new challenge… but here we are less than a week away.  A bunch of people have asked me my goal time… umm to finish?  To enjoy myself?  Yup I'm pretty sure those are my only goals at this point.  

I have no idea really what to expect despite trying to prepare well. I have been pretty good about sticking to a “beginners training schedule” recommended by the group that puts the ½ marathon together.  Let me tell you, this is a lot of work and takes up a ton of time!  Hats off to people who are disciplined enough to train with full time jobs/children etc.  I don’t think if I was working full time right now I would have been able to prepare for my first longer run… maybe after you get more experience things are a bit different.

With all the running I do here and especially with the increased miles due to training, I am constantly eating.  Seriously, I am always hungry.  There is the usual healthy pre and post-run snacks of bananas with nut butters, toast, oatmeal, yogurt etc.  But what I really like to have on hand are energy bars.  Yes I know they are glorified candy bars, but they are so convenient when in a rush!  I used to buy all sorts back in the states (as long as they were on sale or Trader Joes prices).  My favorites were Luna Bars, Larabars and Zone Bars.  I can’t buy either here in Australia and the energy/protein bars they sell are usually around $4 each!  No thanks… that doesn’t really work with my frugal mentality. So what is a girl to do?  Right then, just make my own.

You can find a fair amount of recipes for protein and energy bars online.  Some are pretty terrible and it took quite a bit of trial and error find some that were easy, tasty and actually healthy.  The easiest by far are imitation Larabars… the reason?  Only a few key ingredients, dried fruits, nuts, flavoring and in some cases some oats.  The binding ingredient in the recipe is dates (you could also use raisins).  You just need some sort of food processor/blender to mix and there is no need to bake them.  It is super easy and way cheaper to make your own. 

Homemade Larabars

Almond Chocolate (not actually a Larabar variety as far as I know... but very tasty anyways!)

As I mentioned, I did a lot of trials based off many different recipes online.  The closest that I based mine off of was from http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com

This is a super cute blog with lots of different healthy versions of baked treats... definitely worth looking through her site if you have the time!)

½ cup dates

¼ cup almonds

2 Tbs almond butter

½ cup rolled oats

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbs mini-chocolate chips

~ Combine the dates, almonds and almond butter into food processor and process until smooth.  This process will take several minutes.

~ Add rolled oats and vanilla and process another 1-2 minutes.

~ Add chocolate chips and pulse several times.

~ Shape the dough into bars.  I get 5 bars out of this recipe.  Wrap each well and store in fridge until ready to eat. 

Easiest recipe there is.  Blend it all together in food processor....

Shape into yummy bars and eat.  Done.

The great thing about these bars, is there are so many different flavor options.  Your base of ingredients always remains the same (the dates and nuts) but you can change the type of nuts, and nut butter you use, omit the oats, add different dried fruits to the mix and take the chocolate chips out.  Here are some other examples of tasty varieties...

Oatmeal Raisin

½ cup raisins

¼ cup walnuts

2 Tbs peanut butter

½ cup rolled oats

1 tsp vanilla extract

Key Lime Pie

½ cup dates

¼ cup almonds

¼ cup cashews

3 tablespoons shredded coconut

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lime zest

1 tablespoon lime juice

Peanut Butter and Jelly

½ cup dates

¼ cup peanuts

2 Tbs peanut butter

1/4 cup dried cherries

1 tsp vanilla extract

I am still working on the other more "protein bar" recipes that would be similar to a Luna Bar or even a Clif Bar.  All the ones that I have tried are just not coming out properly... mostly a texture issue.  I will keep you all posted and hopefully will have a good version soon!

Now that I have spent the whole morning writing, snacking on all things almond butter and making a batch of Larabars I need to head out for one of my last runs before the 1/2 marathon... woohoo!  

Hope everyone has a good start to the week :)