My Running Bucket List

Some posts are hard to write, but for this one the hardest part was picking my top five! Here are my picks for my running bucket list.

Five Places

  1. Paris. I love Paris. J’aime Paris. Almost enough to wish I were running the Paris Marathon with Sue. But I’d be happy to run a 5K–or just run!–in Paris.
  2. The Grand Canyon.  A trip to the Grand Canyon is at the top of our family vacation list. Did you know there is a Grand Canyon Half Marathon? We just missed the 2014 race, but that probably means it’s the perfect time to start planning for next year.
  3. Madison. I’ve been to Madison once, but only for one day in November, so I had to do my workout on the hotel treadmill. While Steena was nice enough to meet me for coffee, I want to go back and join her for one of her scenic runs–but maybe not in winter!
  4. Long Beach. I always love the pictures Carrie shares of her beach front runs. I did get to run at the beach near San Diego two years ago, but either the weather or the view (or both) didn’t seem as breathtaking.
  5. Vancouver. I feel like I am sort of cheating by putting this city on my list, but I am trying to line up a business trip to Vancouver later this year. I really hope I get to go, and I really hope that I get to run while I’m there. If I do, I might have to make it my mission to find the Harry Jerome statue in Stanley Park.

Find out where other bloggers would like to run (or walk or hike or bike) via the Friday Five link up sponsored by Eat Pray Run DCMar on the Run and You Signed Up for What.

[Tweet “Five Places I’d love to run! #runchat”]

Do you have a running bucket list?

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Joining The May Pin It Party

Today I’m joining the Pin It Party hosted by Lindsay on The Lean Green Bean.

Pin It Party!
Since we are supposed to share five pinnable posts and this is the fifth month of the year, I decided to round up one of my favorite posts from each of January through May for you to (re-)read, pin and share.  Continue reading

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Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I often link-up my recipe posts on Jenn’s What I Ate Wednesday link-up on Peas & Caryons, but so many people participate, it can be overwhelming to use it for recipe ideas. I’m much more likely to find something I want to try on Kierston’s Recipe Friday link-up on *CaNdY FiT*, and last week I found a recipe from Arman on The Big Man’s World that I couldn’t wait to try, for salted peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.


Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
He called the recipe “3 Ingredient [Sweet and Salty] Grain Free Cookies,” but I counted five ingredients. (That’s OK, I miscounted the number of ingredients in one of my three ingredient recipes too!)

Ingredients

  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup dark chocolate morsels**
  • sea salt

**Check out Arman’s blog for other great mix-in ideas. 

For recipes like this that use more than a tablespoon of peanut butter or other goopy ingredient like yogurt or sour cream, I really love my Pampered Chef® Measure-All® cup. You adjust the inner cup to line up with the amount you need, fill with your goopy ingredient and then push up the inner cup to dump all of the ingredient in your mixing bowl. The only scraping you might need to do is to scrape off the top of the inner cup, like I did here with the peanut butter. Nothing wasted!

Back to the recipe ….

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • Crack egg into mixing bowl and beat with a fork until frothy.
  • Stir in sugar until thoroughly blended.
  • Fold in peanut butter until thoroughly blended.
  • Fold in dark chocolate morsels.

I tried to use only 3/4 cup sugar, but the dough was too goopy,
so I ended up adding the full amount. 

  • Form dough into small balls (I used the small scoop from Pampered Chef®) and place on prepared baking sheet.
  • Use a fork to make the classic peanut butter cookie imprints.
  • Sprinkle a few grains of sea salt on each cookie.

The dough formed into balls nicely, but I had a bit of trouble making the fork imprints, since the dough stuck to the fork. I sprayed the fork with cooking spray, and that seemed to do the trick.

 

  • Bake for 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden brown.
  • Carefully transfer cookies to baking rack to cool.

Based on the ingredients in this recipe, do you really want to know the calorie information? I got 35 cookies out of this recipe, which works out to about 85 calories per cookie. 😉

They came out perfectly, with the bit of salt sprinkled on top balancing the sugar that makes up most of the cookie. I might try to make a more traditional recipe by adding oatmeal, but then it would be a six ingredient recipe!

[Tweet “Easy Salted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies #Recipe”]

Do you like the salty-sweet flavor combination?

Can you tell me why we put fork imprints in peanut butter cookies?

Posted in Food | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Training For Injury Free Running

With my big spring races behind me and my big fall races a few months away, I want to spend my summer training for injury free running. I stayed injury-free last year, but I can tell that my back-to-back PRs took a toll. My ITB is making its presence known again, my piriformis is threatening to join in on the fun, and my legs feel tired.

Injury Free Running
When I heard that the Endurance Athlete Center was holding a clinic on “Optimal Running Form & Injury Prevention,” I signed up an marked my calendar, even though it meant rearranging my usual weekend schedule and missing church (which I really hate to do). Continue reading

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Five Reasons To Exercise In The Morning

I only have one tip for fitting my race training into my schedule, and that is to get up at dark o’clock and get it done! You may find better advice from Erika, Patty, and April, and others joining the Tuesdays on The Run Link-Up.  

I wasn’t always a morning person. Before I had kids I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning and sleep until noon on weekends. But then I had kids who woke up at 6:00 or 7:00 no matter how late I stayed up, so I started going to bed earlier so I could get up when they did. When I started exercising (I didn’t always do that either!), I got up a little bit earlier so I could do an exercise video before I had to help them get ready for school. Now they are in college, but I still get up early to exercise in the morning. Why?

Exercise In The Morning
Today’s Friday Five topic is “Five Reasons to …” and I thought I would share five of my reasons to exercise in the morning. Continue reading

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