Training for the Capital 10K

In the last several months I have been running more and more, some for stress relief, some so that I can loose weight, and mainly because I signed up to run a 10K (6.2 miles for the non-runners). Prior to signing up for this race I mainly ran about 1.5-2 miles and 2 was really rare so I knew that I needed to step up my running but I wasn’t quite sure the best way to do that. Here are a couple of the things that I did to get ready:

1- Build time into my schedule for longer runs. I read, in Glamour or Self, that we all have the same number of hours in the day so not having enough time isn’t actually a good excuse for not running. So I started scheduling my runs, as in, I put in on the calendar like a meeting so I couldn’t skip it. I also made a point to not cancel my runs, I don’t cancel on my friends so I am trying to stop canceling on myself.

Running gear

2- Get better gear. It turns on that when you run a long time (over 45 minutes) you start to get chafing and other terrible things. I have begun investing in running gear: better shoes, better pants, seamless tops, and socks. Most of this gear is crazy expensive but I find that if I feel cute I am more willing to hit the pavement.

3- Make baller playlists. This seems kinda silly but I will tell you that running to songs that pump me up make it easier to keep on running when I am getting tired. I am loving pop songs, early 90s rap music, and classic 80s songs. Again this is an investment but totally worth it.

4- Keep running. I opted to bring up my miles pretty quick, I added about a mile a week for 3 weeks. The routes around my house are about 2-3 miles and that involves lapping the same area twice, which gets boring. I found a 2.5 mile track (total of 5 when you run out and back) and started driving out there to run, this forced me to run since the car was pretty far away.

I loved the race, it was both fun and miserable. I am currently looking for more races to run and a good method to keep my running up.

Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes: not a winner

I love cake, pretty much all of the types. So for my birthday I considered making a strawberry cake or a funfetti cake from a box mix but at the end I opted to make some funfetti cupcakes from scratch. I had most of the ingredients, I just had to pick up some sprinkles, plain yogurt, and icing (I may be a betty crocker but I know that I can't make icing).

I followed this recipe for cupcakes. It was simple and for the most part easy to execute. However, when she mentioned that the batter was stiff and mine wasn't I was just a hair concerned but then again it was stiffer than a boxed cake mix. Who knows.

I was not impressed with these, they were crazy dense. I don't know if I didn't add enough flour or too much flour. At the end of the day I probably won't be making these again unless I need to take something to someone's house that I don't like. The top of the cupcake with the icing on it wasn't bad but tossing most of the cupcake seemed wasteful. There are a few other cake recipes that I might try, I think to bake a light cake and one that tastes good the more advanced recipes are probably needed. Who knows, I will keep you updated on that struggle.

Hello 31!

A few days... wait over 2 weeks ago, I turned 31. I will admit that I am getting ambivalent about birthdays, don't get me wrong I want to be celebrated but sometimes I don't like having to throw my own party. So the day was a good one and the next few days after were great I got to spend time with friends and family. As I have gotten older the idea of spending a whole day doing nothing sounds idea but let's get real the chores and life still has to be done. So I kinda spent the day doing the things I enjoy but making sure that I still was able to get my things done. Here are a few highlights of the day (and a few days after):

Waffles... 

A family dinner with just about everyone that could drive to dinner

Out for Sushi with some of my girls... they brought it out on a boat!!

We had this cake at work

I made these funfetti cupcakes from scratch

All in all it is great to be 31, I am so blessed to be able to be celebrated by friends and family on my day of birth. I have high hopes that I will come to enjoy my birthday more as the years pass, sometimes I find myself wondering about how I have failed life but this year I am determined for 31 to be the year of my own benchmarks, I am not a failure because I didn't meet some deadline I didn't make or choose to meet.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped this new year get off to a new start. I am just so excited about being 31!

Stepping Up My Instagram Game

So lately I have been trying to take better pictures for Instagram. I have found that trying to make sure that I am taking pretty pictures is kinda hard, I often forget to look in the background and move things out of the way. I am also trying to get better about filtering things and trying to make them look a little bit more professional. 

Here are a few of my early ones:

Not terrible but could have been better

Lily wasn't looking... she was totally over the pics

too many shadows and the like

These are some of the more recent ones:

Even the shadows look good, although the angle isn't perfect (it's hard to get an outfit pic alone)

I love Lily's face in this one, although I should have cleaned the table.

I love this one very much

If you want to see more of these you can follow me here (on the off chance that doesn't actually work my IG name is @hrmalcolm). I am trying to just be mindful of what the picture really looks like and remember that it is more than just a snapshot although I will still take some of those. 

5 things that make me happy

Recently I have been working on figuring out exactly what makes me happy and spending time doing that and letting other things go. Here are a handful of things that make me crazy happy. 

1- A nice glass of wine sitting on my patio or at Mutts. It is nice to be outside and relaxing with nothing else to do. 

2- Trying out new recipes in the kitchen, even if they aren't amazing it was fun to try something different. 

3- A nice two mile run, I never thought that this would be me but I find that 2 miles is just enough to take all of the stress of the day away and not so long that I am exhausted. I am loving my evening runs. 

4- Phone calls with my girls. So many of my friends live far away so I love getting to spend time with them and hear about their adventures and lives. It is so much better than emails, I can hear their best moments and the ones that are hard too. 

5- this one is pretty cheesy but I love that my dog sleeps next to me in the bed. I love that we snuggle for a few minutes before we sleep and sometimes in the morning. She makes me happy, all the time. 

I have been taking the time to think about and relish in what makes me happy. Sometimes it is hard to articulate the things that bring the most joy but I am finding that remembering the things that bring some joy are equally important. I don't need to meet anyone else's definition of happy, I just need to know what makes me happy in this moment. 

Most days a few minutes with the pup make everything better. She is the best thjng I ever bought. 

Volunteering with Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity

Over the past year I have volunteered with Habitat for Humanity through the Junior League of Dallas. I will admit that I was so skeptical about hammering things for a home that someone would live in, but I was wrong I loved every single second of it. I learned how to drive nails, use saws, make sure things are level, measuring before cutting, and how to have fun. When it was time to sign up for a new placement, I signed up again. Now I do know that I am moving but hopefully I will get to spend a Saturday or two out hammering. It was so wonderful to be able to see a difference from the mooring to the afternoon. I loved meeting the homeowners and hearing how this home was going to change their life.

A toolbelt selfie... Also this was during the winter so I have on so many clothes and was so cold

It's a day for roofing

Before all of the workers get there

I don't think at the beginning that I would feel so honored to give of my time, which I value highly, to  help build a home that someone needs. This was probably one of the best things that I could have done when I was applying for jobs, because for those few hours I couldn't think about myself. I loved this so much I intend to volunteer with them in Jacksonville, which has a Habitat for Humanity I checked. Volunteering is an interesting adventure since it isn't about you it is about giving back to the community and realizing that the things that we hold closest to us aren't actually that important.

Cleaning out the closets: Keep, Sell, or Donate

There aren't a whole lot of benefits to having to pack your entire house into boxes and move it across the country, but one big one is that you get a chance to sort through everything. Truthfully, you will get to do this at least twice in any good move: the before packing sort, into the box sort, and who moved this across the world sort. I remember opening a box in my apartment when I moved in and being like who's stuff is this??? Much of that went to the donation pile and occasionally I found something awesome that I totally forgot I had.

I have been working my way through my clothes closet as well as my other closets to see what needed to be kept and what should go away. A big help in the sorting has been to have designated areas for donate, sell, trash, and swap-party.

To be sorted

Things that go into the donate pile are things that don't have much life left in them but I know that goodwill does great things with use clothing such as some type of recycling. I have also put things that I no longer have all of the parts for or old cords for computers I no longer have.

For Goodwill

I have some things that are in good enough condition that I might be able to make a few dollars off of them. I don't intend to put a whole lot of effort into this but I will send out a list at work and see if there are any takers otherwise this entire lot will get donated.

There are some things that there is no hope for, they go into the trash. I also found that I tend to tuck paper into every little nook and cranny so I like having a designated place for stuff that was sentimental but is now just random junk. I also have a tendency to hold onto things for the future and then wonder why is this here? Trash.

My last pile is for the swap-party. One of my good friends holds a swap-party every season where you bring jewelry, clothes, and whatever else you don't want and see if someone else thinks they want it. I have put clothes into this pile that are still in good condition but no longer fit. I kept clothes that are close to fitting but anything that doesn't go over my hips went directly into the pile. I am not keeping clothes that I might someday fit into for two reasons: 1- that might take several years and 2- I am pretty sure by then it will be out of style and I will be annoyed.

I am trying to go through everything way before the packing starts so that when/if friends come for a packing party I don't have to supervise what goes in each box. I know that I won't get rid of everything that is trash but getting rid of lots of things is a great start.

Bacon Green Beans

I have to admit that these are so amazing that I don't know that I want to share my secret with you. I love eating fresh green beans, particularly when they are sauteed with fresh mushrooms. One of the ways that I have started to get really healthy (and much more fit) is to fit in more veggies at my main meals of the day (not breakfast that isn't the right place for them). I was at Kroger the other day looking for carrots or something and realized that the fresh green beans looked amazing so I snagged a couple and then grabbed a few fresh mushrooms. Sidenote: I buy the bulk mushrooms which are slightly more than the carton of them but there isn't any waste because I just buy what I need.

When I got home and was preparing the green beans by snapping the ends off, I realized that bacon would be a great add on for these beans. I was too lazy to actually cook the bacon so I used the bacon grease that I save. When I make bacon for breakfast, or whenever, I pour the grease into a jar and keep it in the fridge to use for frying things later. These were so good. I am drooling just a little as I think about making them.


Bacon Green Beans with Mushrooms

Green beans
Mushrooms
Bacon grease
Cajun Seasoning

1- snap the ends off of the green beans and slice the mushrooms
2- melt the grease in a skillet
3- toss in the green beans and toss them in the grease, sprinkle a healthy amount of seasonings.
4- when the beans get just shy of al dente (with a little bit, or when they start to glisten as they change color) about 3-5 minutes,  toss in the mushrooms
5- when the mushrooms start to wilt or look just a little done it is time to eat.

Note: I happen to like my green beans with a pretty good bite to them but if you like them softer go ahead and saute them longer.
Note 2: I have acutally put in bacon bits if I am feeling festive and not too lazy

April Goals

As my time in Dallas is getting closer to the end I find that have a million and five things that need to get done. I also want to make sure that I am not checking out of Dallas before I move. So I thought that it might be time to bring back a listing of my monthly goals:

1- Run the capital 10K, make an awesome run mix: On April 12 I am running the Capital 10K in Austin. I want to enjoy the run and not fret about not being fast enough or skinny enough.

2- Take all of the donate stuff to goodwill. I know this seems simple but I keep thinking that I will add more to the pile so it is better to just make one trip. Seriously, I will probably make 4-6 trips before I move. I also want it out of the office so that I get that room back.

3- Spend more quality time with Lily, specifically 1-2 trips to Mutt's a week. I have been working like crazy these days and I want to make sure that I am spending enough quality time with my girl. It may seem crazy but this move is stressing her out too.

4- Fitness: I want to run 30 miles this month (I hit 37 in March!). I also want to keep up with my strength training (5-6 days a week), I work a muscle group each morning for about 10 minutes while the coffee perks and I am seeing a difference. #hellobeachlife.

5- Read 5 fiction books and 1 non-fiction: I love to read and I am finding that I don't spend enough time doing that. I am not reading anything specific but just fiction at the moment. 

6- Submit 1 manuscript and be close to finishing the second: I am almost finished with a manuscript (nerd paper) on my research, so I hope to submit that late next week. Additionally, I am writing a review on mechanosensitive gating and I hope to be very close to submitting by the end of the month.

7- Hire an apartment locator in Jacksonville and select 10-15 apartments that I want to view when I go look at apartments in May. I also need to make a sort-able excel sheet so that I can easily figure out what to look at and their rent, pet policies, etc. 

Now that I have written down some big goals for the month I feel like I can really get somewhere this month. I love April and not just because it is my birthday-month but I love spring and here in Texas this is the best month for that. I saw a few bluebonnets the other day!