Before and after a run

Before
I masta hava pasta! If I go out for dinner, I have to go to the Cactus Club and I must have the Rob Feenie signature Prawn & Scallop Spaghettini. Yah, I know! I'm too young to be stuck in my ways! Maybe, I'm just on the cusp of being old enough...

If I eat at home then I make brown rice pasta with truffle olive tapenade (Mmmm! Truffle!! Mmm! Olive tapenade, can you believe I used to make this by hand, with NO food processor?!? Crazy, I know!) or with a simple tomato sauce with whatever's in my fridge. That's all I do for a carbo-loading meal. I also like to have an early dinner, like at 3 or 4pm, I wake up extra early on race days or long run days.

I remember when I was a kid, my parents would feed my brothers and me lots of pasta or rice. They wanted to make sure my brothers ate well before their big hockey games. They also told us that we would grow taller if we ate all the rice in our bowls. Or they would tell us that our future boyfriends or girlfriends would look as pock-marked and ugly as our dirty dishes. Or the other story was that we were privilege we had rice to eat, because when my mom was a child all they had were sticks, stones and roots to boil. OOOOR when my dad was a kid, if he didn't sell shaved-ice treats from his bicycle before his ice block melted he wouldn't have money to help buy food for the family. Whatever story it was, we were good kids and cleaned our bowls! I'm not as tall as I'd like to be and my boyfriend isn't shiny like my cleaned bowl but he isn't covered in pock-marks or pimples either. But I've learned a bad habit, I clean my plate or bowl still and often do so way after being full up to my eyeballs. Still trying to unlearn this habit.

Next, water. I hydrate. I drink lots of water. I bet wait-staff are disappointed with my drink orders, "lots of water with lemon, please!" and a big smile.

I literally chug water, I really like just plain, filtered tap water. I know there are some people who don't like plain water, claiming that water doesn't have any flavour. Have they tasted water in other parts of the world? Vancouver water tastes awesome! It's sweet! It's not a candy, sugary sweet but it's a nice clean sweet. I'm not sure if anyone would understand. I'm not sure how else to describe it but I've tasted water in different parts of the world and I have to say, we Vancouverites have the BEST drinking water in the world.

Sleep. A good night's sleep. Most nights I don't sleep well. I have a great bed. I lie there, stretch, breath and hope to drift off to sleep.

After
I drink lots of water and I crave oranges and chips. OK, not just chips, I crave baked Cheetos! Yes, that's right. That gnarly, florescent orange crunchy stuff. I wonder if my gut turns orange...

I also crave Korean spicy hot instant ramen! Yes, Korean-make-me-sweat-and-sniffle-spicy-ramen! Mmmmm ramen. What I really crave is salt. So, I'm trying out nuun portable electolyte hydration (lemon-lime flavour) to avoid the extra calories. I like that it doesn't have any sugar and it's a little bit fizzy if you drink it right after it's done dissolving.
I also like to drink San Pellegrino and POM - a fizzy drink treat! Oh POM, just like your tagline, you are so wonderful. I'm so glad there is juice drink like you.

Roll, roll, roll my IT band with a foam roller. And look!! The foam roller comes in PINK!!! Mine's blue. :-/ Aaannyway, the colour doesn't really matter. I roll almost daily combining the foam roller and a wooden rolling pin. Yep, a wooden rolling pin. I sit on my yoga mat with my feet out in front of me and roll out my quads. Rolling hurts but it's a good kind of hurt. I sit there, "ooooh! grunt! grunt! ow ow ow!" and roll.

Yoga! Power yoga! I really think that power yoga has helped me become a stronger runner as well as stretches me out. Yah stretching! It's good. :-)

Most recently I've purchased the hot pink CEP compression socks I've been coveting. I know, what a weirdo! I should be coveting shoes and bags! Like those gals on SATC, right? Hey, I'm a running girl!

My boyfriend bought them for me on Saturday. Yah, he buys me compression socks like other guys would buy a girl flowers! LOL. I was so happy I kept them in my purse with me after we left the store. And I had them with me when we went out for dinner and then I tried them on in the car. Then I pranced around the house on Sunday after my long run. I guess they worked because I don't usually prance around the house after a long, long run. I'm such a dork.