I consider myself an pretty inexperienced runner.  I don’t have a lot of experience with fancy training methods, and I haven’t spent countless hours calculating my lactate threshhold.  Frankly folks, I just don’t care.  I think enough at work.  Please don’t also make me think too hard about running, or I’ll quickly hate it.  So, not only am I inexperienced, I’m also lazy.  Keeping these things in mind, I found the perfect training tool online when I started my 15K training plan.

The McMillan Running Calculator is a beautiful tool that requires very little thought.  You tell the calculator your time for a recent run, submit the info, and the calculator will tell you your projected finish times for every race distance known to man.  It will also tell you your optimum training paces for every type of run (recovery, long, easy, tempos, intervals).

If you’re me, it will tell you that based upon your recent time at The Boilermaker, you will finish your marathon 20 minutes PAST your pie-in-the-sky goal time.  This is bad news.

Wow.  I just had a serious reality check.  We’ll talk about that later though.

Have you tried yoga yet?  I have, and I’m not very good at it.  But I want to get better.  But I’m cheap.  But I know it’s good for me.  But it’s boring.  But it’s great for runners.  But I’m not very flexible yet.

Enter an affordable, versitile, affordable, fun (did I mention affordable?) way to do yoga in the comfort of your own home–just you and your computer.  Yogadownload.com has also just started offering 20 minute classes for free, and I love me some free.  They also have pose guides for your viewing pleasure, and you can even download yoga vids onto your iPod so you can do yoga anywhere!  I think I’ll try yoga in the tofu aisle at my international market.  We’ll see if that’ll get me kicked out again.

If you do a little searching, you might also be able to find a coupon.  There were a few kicking around last month, but I haven’t checked yet this month.

How about a one-stop shop for all of your fitness needs?  I love one-stop-shops.  From what I can tell, Fitness Depot is exactly that.  One of the things that caught my eye on the Fitness Depot website is the Classic Sit Disc.  Has anyone tried one of these?  I’m really curious, but I’m cheap (see above), so I don’t really want to shell out the money if they don’t work!

Onto FOOD!

Have you guys tried Clif Kid Twisted Fruit yet?  If not, you must immediately go to the store and buy some.  I am not really a fan of processed foods in general, and I don’t eat many things from packages these days, but these have proven to be a convenient “emergency” snack for my desk drawer.  I had a difficult time finding the little guys, but they were so worth the search and rescue mission (I had to go to 3 different stores to find them).

These are like Fruit Roll-Ups, but better by like 500%.  They are organic, contain very few ingredients, and they taste so good!

If you buy them from Drugstore.com right now, you can get the variety pack for a total of $22.48 (including shipping).  That is only $0.94 for each one, and that is a bargain (I paid $1.49 each for mine).  Drugstore.com is also running a special right now where if you buy one of their items that automatically has free shipping (see selection here), then they’ll ship your whole order for free!  So, maybe in addition to the Clif Twisted Fruit, you also need some De-Luxe Shea Butter (the cheapest item on the list at $9.99)–you’ll get both items for $26.48…it’s like getting the Shea Butter for $4.

Keeping in the realm of healthy versions of packaged foods (since my week has been a little crazy), I am in love with Garden of Eatin’ Multi-Grain Tortilla Chips with Everything.

I can’t even convey in words the deliciousness of these chips.

I can, however, tell you that a mere 10 minutes ago, a coworker caught me with the bag tipped upside down, greedily pouring the last of my remaining tortilla chip crumbs into my piehole.  And I didn’t even care that I got caught.  I was like, “whatevs…these chips are the shizzle.”

Or something along those lines.

Sadly, I couldn’t find any online stores to purchase these chips.  They should be fairly easy to find though, since I picked them up on sale at my “regular” grocery store.

I love me some ice cream.  When I first found this ice cream in the regular grocery store, I did a happy dance in the freezer aisle.  Not only because it was on sale, but because I always get excited to see manufacturers moving towards creating packaged foods that are closer to “whole”.

So the deal is that this ice cream is creamy, delicious, and void of any fillers or yuckiness.  I really did enjoy it, but I won’t be buying it on the regular because a) it’s very expensive unless it’s on sale, b) ice cream tastes better to me when I eat it in moderation, and c) I recently experienced Gena’s “life-changing banana softserve”, and it lived up to its’ name.  More on that life-changing event in a future post!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their Friday!

* Have you joined my Facebook Group yet?

* See how my training is going over here!

* Wonder what I’m eating?

* Everyone loves a giveaway!

Maybe it’s because I’ve had brownies, cakes, and cookies on the brain since last week’s Fun Food Friday, or it could have been the (nearly) whole package of salty Ore-Ida Fast Food Fries that I ate last night for dinner (those things taste way better than they really should); but all I really want to talk about today is chocolate and cookies.

However, just because I know I should eat my vegetables before I have dessert, we’ll start with some veggie speak first.

Have you ever wondered where you can find the best organic produce in your area?  If so, check out Local Harvest, which is a website that lets you search your ‘hood for farmers markets, co-ops, restaurants, farms, and CSA’s that specialize in organic, wholesome food.

I just became completely elated when I found out that there is a CSA farm less than 2 miles from my home.  I always wondered what that huge spance of open land was as I drove by.  The excited text message that I just sent to My Gazelle in this regard included the words “Honey!”, “crop-sharing farm!!!!!!”, “fresh veggies all summer!!!!!!”, and “ridiculously excited”.

I think you see where this is headed…

Woe is me…2009 CSA’s are full…boo hoooo!!!  I just emailed to be put on the waiting list for next season.

But, I did find another farmer’s market that I’m going to check out tomorrow.

I just found something delicious.  Bella’s Cookies (Delaware’s 1st All Natural and Organic Cookie Company).  Has anyone tried Bella’s?  Oh, the cookies.  Oh, the cakes.  Can someone please send me some, because I want to try them, but I’m going to the Farmer’s Market tomorrow, and I plan to spend all of my money on organic spinach and radishes.

As if Bella’s Cookies didn’t look delicious enough, how about some Allison’s Gourmet?  Um…’scuse me?  A brownie of the month club??!!  Loved ones: please do buy this for me at Christmas.  I promise to share.  A little.  Maybe.

Since I’m on a cookie kick, and I like their name, how about some Crummy Brother’s Cookies?  Orange blossom chocolate chip cookies??!!  Pitter, patter.

Lastly, these cookies just look cute.  Liz Lovely bakes their gourmet cookies with organic & fair trade ingredients in a 100% vegan cookie bakery in the Green Mountains of Vermont (according to their website…I’ve never been there myself).  Apparently, they bake and ship everything personally…no fanning out to huge manufacturing facilities.  Almost as good as baking them yourself.

I’m hungry.