I'm Not an Outdoor Runner...Yet

Sorry for the lack of blog posts yesterday, but I was pretty much out of the house, like, all day.

Let's back track, shall we?

I went out for another morning run with my dad, only this time it was much later in the morning. Like, in the actual sunlight. I was actually really psyched about running because I had such a success on the treadmill the day before.

Unfortunately, running outside was a total fail. I just couldn't get in a groove and I was having stomach issues. And I'm not exactly talking "stomach" issues, more like I had little pockets of air trapped in my abdomen and I couldn't burp it out. It was super uncomfortable and I'm pretty sure that I walked more than I ran. I think it's going to be treadmill running for me until I can work up to running outside.

Breakfast

When we got back home, I wanted to try a new recipe for breakfast. A couple of the blogs I read talk about having this thing called "cookie dough cereal" as their meal. Since I love cookie dough and I love cereal, I thought I would give it a try.

Mix 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 scoop of protein powder, cinnamon, pinch of salt, sweetener, and vanilla extract in a bowl.


Add 1 Tbsp of any nut butter (I used almond butter) by spreading it into clumps. Mix it with the oats mixture until it starts looking crumbly, like cookie dough.


Add a mix-in, like fruit, chocolate chips, whatevs. I added a very ripe banana.


Pour in the milk and eat! I'm not gonna lie, it didn't really taste that much like cookie dough. I don't think I mixed the almond butter well enough. It was still hearty and delicious though.


A little bit later, I went to my Wednesday Pilates class. I wanted to have a really successful class since my morning run was kind of womp-womp. Well, Pilates was another workout fail. Patti was working us hard and I was Struggling with a capital S. Even though I felt like I was dying, I still felt like I got a good workout in.

Lunch

For lunch I met my friend Ian at Cedars in the U-District. It's Indian/Mediterranean flair. I was pretty excited because I haven't had Indian food since I was in London and we had group dinners at Kwality Indian (yep...that's kwality with a "k-w-a-l").

Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the food, but I didn't want Ian to think I was a weirdo.

We ordered some garlic naan, basically a giant flatbread smothered in garlic. What's not to love? For my main dish I got the Shish Taouk (chicken marinaded in good Indian things and placed on rice and veggies. It was bomb DOT com. The chicken was super tender and the veggies were yummy. I had to get leftovers so I could have it lunch today. SOOOOO pumped!

After lunch, I had to head over to a running shoe store in Green Lake to, yep, look for another pair of running shoes. I love my Nikes, but they're really not helping me enjoy running more. I needed some professional help.

I parked in the Green Lake parking lot. The lake looked absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to start jogging on the loop (once the weather is warmer and I'm better at running).


Loves it!


I walked to the shoes store, Super Jock 'n Jill. The sales girl there was super helpful. She had me walk and jog around the store so she could see what kind of stride I had. Apparently I have a mostly neutral stride with a slight under-pronation (I push off the outside of my foot).


She found me a pair that went well with my neutral stride. I would wear a different pair on each foot, then ran around the block (trusting of them, I know) to try them out. After trying on about five different pairs, including the Nikes that I just bought for comparison purposes, I like the pair of Asics Gel-Cumulus 13s. They were super cushy and gave me better ankle support than the others.
While I was really frustrated that I had to shell out the big bucks for another pair of running shoes, I'm really glad that I got a quality pair that a running expert helped my pick out. The best part it, the girl told me that I can try running with the shoes and no matter how dirty they get, I can bring them back if they don't work out. We shall see about that.

I walked back to my car with new shoes in hand and drove over to my work. Whenever I go into Downtown, I usually park at my work parking lot and take the bus, because the parking is free. Why would I want to park in a $10/hour parking lot when I can park for free and then take the bus for free? Duh.

I didn't really have a lot of time to actually do something in the city before heading to the Sounders game later, so I decided to post up in a coffee shop by the train station. I went to Zeitgeist Coffee and got a chamomile tea (which still cost $2.50 WTF?) and read some of my Carrots 'N Cake book.


The coffee shop had a great atmosphere for chilling out. It was fairly big, but not crowded like a Starbucks or Tully's. Plus it really chill music on its in-store soundtrack like Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. So relaxing.

Dinner

After an hour texted my buddy Levi to see if he had any dinner plans before the Sounders game. We decided we would meet up at a kabob place for a quick dinner. On my way there, I came across the Sounders March to the Match that starts in Occidental Square. I did not partake.


The place we went to was called The Berliner Doner Kabob and they had a lot of tasty options.


I went with the Mango Curry Veggie, which included tofu, curry sauce (which was delightfully spicy), spinach, mango, radish (I think) and cilantro all in a German-style flatbread. Nom. Nom. I think Levi got the same thing, except his was with chicken.

The great thing about going to the kabob place was that I marked a restaurant off my Seattle Restaurant Challenge. Woohoo!

I could go into the Sounders game from last night, but it would literally double the length of this current post, so I won't. Bottom line: they played really well and there were times where I actually thought we could score the four goals we needed to advance to the Western Conference Finals. Unfortunately we only managed to score two goals and were a goal away from advancing. If we had played with half of the intensity we played with tonight back on Saturday, we probably would have done a lot better.

One thing I will mention about the game was that there was someone in our section that looked exactly like Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad. I wanted to yell out, "Hey Walter White! Cook me some meth!" but I didn't, obviously. He had a very distinct "Boo" yell. Almost like a fog horn. So odd.

Oh well, time to move on and just hope that someone can beat the LA Galaxy.

Thanks for the great season, Sounders! We'll get 'em next year.