Vegetarian Experiment

JD and I are experimenting with going vegetarian for a week.  We don't eat a ton of meat as it is since we are big fish eaters.  We sometimes have chicken or turkey products and rarely ever red meat.  We thought we would give it a try to see how it goes.

The challenge for me this week is to cook vegetarian dinners without going overboard on fats and carbs to make up for the missing meat.  Breakfasts and lunches are easy because we can do fruits and cereals for breakfast or eggs, lunches are also pretty easy to do with salads or veggie wrap type things.  The kids are part of the experiment.  They are getting their turkey sandwiches for lunch, but otherwise they are unknowingly going veg this week too.

Monday night dinner:  I went for cheese quesadillas on the grill.  I used flour tortillas and 2% Mexican cheese blend for the quesadillas.  For a side I made brown fiesta rice which was basically brown rice with grilled red and green peppers, grilled onions, fresh corn, some salsa, and a little lime.  Dessert was peaches, blackberries, and watermelon.  I got two thumbs up from the kids, and JD and I both enjoyed the meal.

Tuesday night dinner:  Eggplant lasagna with fat free ricotta, skim mozzarella, and marinara sauce; focacia bread; cheese tortellini for the kids because I don't think they are going to go for the eggplant; and a tomato and cucumber salad with balsamic vinegar.  I loved the eggplant lasagna, but I'm a big eggplant fan.  It was not so much of a hit with the rest of the gang.  Dessert was watermelon and strawberries.

Wednesday night dinner:  Pasta primavera with low fat alfredo sauce and salad.  Used julienned green and yellow squash, onions, carrots, red peppers, and asparagus as the veggies in the pasta.  Watermelon for dessert again.  Everyone loved this one.

Thursday night dinner:  Veggie burgers for the boys and portabello mushroom burgers for me with roasted fingerling potatoes and salad.

I'm thinking about trying Tim Olson's diet next week which is sort of paleo but not totally.  I'm enjoying experimenting with different meal planning.

24 hours to my first vertical climb - Vail, CO

Sitting in the airport at Dulles International waiting for our flight to Denver.  Really looking forward to the beginning of our vacation.  But before the vacation, I thought about signing up for a La Sportiva Hill climb which is 7.5 miles and starts at 8500 feet in elevation and ends at 10,300.  Yea, for a guy who runs races at 1,000 feet elevation, this should be a hoot.  I can only imagine what I will be feeling like by mile 5..I bet the lungs will be burning....well, boarding in about 20 minutes so will check back in later this week...I'm out.

Firecracker 5K for the Troops

For the 4th of July we decided to do what we do for pretty much every holiday now, and run a 5K.  We ran the PR Firecracker 5K Run for the Troops.  Today's race benefitted the USO.  We got there about an hour before the 8 am start.  The porta potties were plentiful so that got two thumbs up from JD.  It was overcast, but it was extremely humid.

Pre-race

Pre-race with Dad

We have all run this course before last year and also for Run with Santa so we are pretty familiar with it.  It was the boys 3rd time on this course, and my 4th time.  JD was pacing Zach, and I was pacing Nic.  Nic and I were hoping to get under 33 minutes.  Zach was hoping to get sub-30.


 The humidity was just killer.  Zach had a rough go of it and got a stitch early on.  JD reports that he gave it all that he had, but let up a little just before the finish line.  He was a bit frustrated to hit 30 minutes even so not goal, not PR, but it was a personal best on the course since he ran a 31:19 on the same course in December.

Wiped out!

Nic was battling it out with another 6 year old the whole way.  I was feeling competitive, and I didn't like his mom's snotty attitude at the starting line so I was hoping Nic could pull it out and run a better race.  Nic really pushed it up the last hill and gave me a good sprint putting down an 8 minute pace in the last 0.2 miles of the race to finish in 33:22.  Again, it wasn't quite what we were hoping for, but he was the best 6 year old on the course today and improved his time 5 minutes from the race there in December. 

I think the boys did a great job given the humidity today and also the fact that they had run the 8K on Saturday and then a pretty hard track meet on Tuesday.  That's a lot of racing for little legs.  We are off to hike and run out West.  Next race report should detail JD's suffering at the Vail Hill Climb.  The boys and I will probably be racing again at the 4th Annual Three Fox Vineyards 5K.

Showing off the USO dog tags after recovering at Starbucks

Happy 4th of July!  Run Free!