Karma to thief!

Yesterday was a pretty upsetting day, my road bike was stolen! I've had this bike for almost 3 years and I have used it about 3 times. It had less than 60 miles on it and this was just cruel and ironic. 

I am freaked out by the bikers on the lake front as I am not very coordinated yet when on a road bike. The moment I hear "ON YOUR LEFT" my handles start shaking and I just feel I lose control over my bike. But since this week I decided to start training with Coach Jeff and in the training schedule he included a 1:15 hr ride I decided to go pick up my bike from my friend Shannon's where I had been keeping it for over a year now. After talking to her that morning, we agreed we would go on a ride last night so I could try my bike again after a long period of abandonment and get used to riding on the lakefront. I packed my gym bag with what I needed and planned on going to her place right after work.

Well, right around around mid-morning I got a call from Shannon, and it wasn't good news. Someone had stolen my bike from her building's bike room! Now let me bring to your attention that this is a full amenity high rise building in downtown with a doorman, pool, gym, etc. Someone "with access to the bike room" (which you need a FOB to enter) had cut the lock and taken my Specialized Allez Sport bike. To make matters worse, the building IS NOT RESPONSIBLE for property stolen from the bike room even though they do not allow you to keep bikes in your apartment. 

To make this story even more interesting and this building more pathetic, when we asked to look at the security camera tape so we could find out when and at what time this had happened and and maybe see if it was someone they recognized, or someone who lived in the building... their answer? Oh, the security camera was not connected! 

How can these property management companies get away with this non-sense. They can care less about the services they should be providing to their tenant's, let alone about being accountable for their actions and their consequences.

I wish there was something that could be done to AT LEAST hold the property management company and their incompetence responsible of what happened, but the reality is that the system is pretty screwed up and that in situations like this "the big guys" are the ones protected.

During this process I discovered a good resource that might be of help if this happens to you. The Chicago Stolen Bike Registry, if you click on the link you will be able to see my bike's pic with my contact info in case you see my bike out there. How does it work? You can file a theft report through their website and your bike's pic and info will be posted on their home page for the bike community to check, they also have a Twitter feed that has no tweets but who knows, maybe people will start using it.

Anyway, here is a picture of my bike, maybe I get lucky and someone will see it out there!

Choices for a healthy body and healthy planet

Over and over again I find myself asking the same question... how can I make more ethical food choices? Even though I do not wish to become a vegetarian nor I would like to stop eating red meats, I do think that reducing the amount of meat we intake can help the planet in many ways. This is why a couple of times a week I will be posting savory vegetarian recipes that we will all love and will embrace meatless meals that will help reduce our carbon foot print.

Today I tried this hearty vegetarian meal an it quickly became a favorite. With simple ingredients and in just a few minutes this warm meal was in my table and ready to be devoured. I hope you like this delicious recipe taken from 100 great recipes - Meals in Minutes.

Tomato Rice With Red Kidney Beans

Ingredients for 2

1 tbsp olive oil
1 Small onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 small green pepper chopped
2 tbsp paprika (replaced with red thai curry)
1 cup of brown rice
7 oz can of diced tomato
7 oz can of red kidney bean
1 tsp of turmeric
1/2 Jalapeno finely chopped
1 tbsp of fresh cilantro chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large, deep heavy-based pan (i used a wok and it worked great) for about 30 seconds. Add onion, garlic, green bell peppers and jalapeno and cook for about 3 minutes over medium heat. Add the paprika/thai curry stirring frequently for a few minutes with a wooden spoon. Then add rice and cook for a minute or 2 to coat the grains of rice.

Once everything looks evenly mixed pour the tomatoes into a measuring cup and add watter leveling up to 3 cups. Add to the rice in the pan and season with a little salt and pepper. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and keep in heat for about 35 min.

Drain and rinse the beans and add to pan, cover and cook for another 5 minutes or until the rice is tender and all liquid has been absorbed. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve!

Enjoy =)

Healthy lifestyle is not just running

Being on week 4 of marathon training feels as a major accomplishment as being consistent is one of my biggest challenges. I grew up in a house with no routines and where the TV was my daily entertainment, no exercise routine was followed so to keep this training going I have to change many of my bad habits. I think that so far I have the running down even though it still takes a lot of effort to get off the couch and into my running clothes to get out of the house and do it.

But running is not the one and only step to a healthy lifestyle, there is another major piece to this crazy puzzle and that is healthy eating which I consider another extreme challenge. Eating is a big part of my life, growing up in South America and with a Spanish background (Spain), eating is how we celebrate life, food fests and a recipe for every occasion, going out and eating with friends and living life though our palate.

This has come to hunt me, specially when trying to keep healthy eating habits in the household where two little ones are learning by example. In the past year and a half I broke my routine and as running, healthy eating/cooking is a hard one to get going again. So in my quest for a healthy lifestyle, weight loss and being a good role model for my 5 y.o. I am starting something new this week.

Every Sunday night a menu will be set for the following week and I am going to do my best to stick to it! My goal is the have 3 meals every day, breakfast at home, lunch to take to work and finally my favorite, a light family dinner where we can all sit down in the table and share the craziness of our day.

The challenges you may ask? Fitting this in the daily routine of a full time mom, part time step-mom, marathon runner wannabe, career woman, wedding planner and lover. It will be easy to start as my little one is on her yearly "daddy vacation" and won't be back home until mid August, hopefully I can get used to it and keep it going after she gets back.

This week starts a little off the wagon as we were off on Monday for 4th of July holiday but here we go. I am trying to create a balanced diet with fruits and vegetables, fun combinations that are easy and fast to create and can look attractive to picky 5 y.o. junk food lovers. How to make this happen? With the help of books and  Internet everything is possible.

Today's featured recipe - Cannellini-Bean & Artichoke Salad

Ingredients for 2

14 oz can cannellini beans drained

3 green onions, finely sliced

5 oz jar charbroiled artichokes in oil

2 tbsp fresh basil

5 oz baby vine tomatoes

Olive Oil (to taste)

1/2 tbsp white-wine vinegar

Salt & Pepper

A few leaves of spinach

1 3/4 tbsp of pine nuts

Place the beans with the onions in a bowl. Lift the artichokes from the jar reserving the oil and cut into quarters. Chop the basil into fine shreds and half the tomatoes.  Add to the bowl. Mix the oil from the jar with olive oil enough to make about 3 tbsp, add vinegar and season with salt and pepper to make a light dressing.

Toss the salad ingredients together with the dressing. Line 2 serving plates with the spinach leaves and spoon the salad on top. Sprinkle with pine nuts to serve and add your choice of cheese if you like, my personal favorite for this recipe is Feta.

I hope you enjoy my new blog addition and try this savory and healthy recipes with me!

Cheers to healthy living!

Got new shoes! Now how do I track the millage on them?

Yesterday afternoon I went to Fleet Feet to get the foam roller and knee stabilizer that Athletico had recommended for my ITBS, when talking to the staff about my symptoms they immediately asked "How old are your running shoes?" being the unorganized person that I am my response was "not sure, last fall maybe?". I was quickly interrupted by my fiance reminding me that I have not bought running shoes since we started dating which means that my current shoes are over 18 months old! I know, I know... how can I possibly lose track of time like that? Well, I do.

I got fitted again by the staff and I went with a mid stability Saucouny shoe, a newer version of the ones I currently use. Now the question was how do I track the millage on these puppies? Running on worn-out shoes is one of the most common causes of running injuries as they lose shock absorption and stability over time. I am positive now that one of the main reasons of my calf strain and ITBS is the fact that my running shoes had not been replaced when needed.

So how do I know that is time for my running shoes to hit the bucket? Definitely not by trying to IN MY HEAD remember when I bought them as we know where that led me, nor by judging on the looks as that didn't work either. A very general rule of thumb is to replace your running shoes every 300 to 400 miles, of course that depending on body weight, millage, and surface you run on. So how would I know when I hit the millage that puts my running shoes to rest?

Well since now I'm into this social media madness I assumed that there would be a fun way to track my runs... I could mark on a calendar the day I bought my running shoes and figure the millage like that. Boy was I right! I discovered the Daily Mile, a training log for runners, cycling and triathlons were you can share your workouts with social media friends, save routes and track millage.

I was thrilled when I joined and automatically was notified of all my twitter and facebook friends who were using this site. Not only did I start clicking away to add friends but with the click of a button this training log posts my workouts onto the social media site of my choice! It even has a cute little widget to add to my blog.

I proceeded to map yesterday's run, saved it and logged my workout, to my surprise the Daily Mile has an option to track NEW GEAR! It is amazing all the commodities that technology offers, now my only job  is to be consistent and log all my runs while networking and having fun doing it.

I hope this was useful information to some of you out there who like me are somehow new to running.

Until the next time and happy running!