Streak Week

Just before my beloved students took their midterm this week, one of them drew a massive chart on the board of all the forms we've studied so far this semester. She was flattered that I wanted to take a picture. If you zoom in, you can see a very concise illustration of binary, ternary, compound ternary, and rondo forms, among other things. After I took a picture, other students whipped out their phones to take pictures, and she signed her work. 

And then, because I have to be the kill joy, I erased it and handed out their tests. Life is tough.

Here are some more foods we've made from Appetite for Reduction in the past couple weeks: 

Masala Baked Tofu.

This recipe involves a simple marinade of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and spices. Then you simply roast the tofu for a half hour, and it's done. We also ate some basmati rice with a little leftover coconut milk, roasted broccoli, and a tahini salad dressing that John suggested for salads earlier in the week (spoiler: it's good on everything).

Chipotle Lentil Burgers.

We made these the week before Reading Week, but I never got a chance to post the picture. These burgers are extremely easy to make, and very flavorful. They are similar to other veggie burger recipes we've made in the past, but I have to say, the easiness - to - flavor proportion with these burgers is the best I've seen. We ate them with chips and some mashed avocado, and with the chipotle ketchup that the book suggests. 

And finally, this isn't from Appetite for Reduction, but the tahini dressing is worth posting because, seriously, it goes with everything. John made 2 cups and we dipped things in it throughout the week. In fact, it would make a great dip for a veggie tray. You can find the recipe here.

Shifting gears...it's been cold. But we've been running our little hearts out anyway. 

John really pulls off this Hoosiers hat and his Blue Man Group shirt. 

I decided to try a running streak. My motivations were basically twofold. First, it helped get my mileage up while keeping my three main runs for the week relatively low. My three main runs were 3.5, 4.5, and 6.2 miles each, but I ran a total of 18.38 miles for the week because of the streak miles on what are normally non-running days. It's also really easy to do a mile on the treadmill as a warm up for days when I lift weights. The other reason I wanted to streak was my on-going effort to adjust my running form and help my foot. It's hard to engage mentally for long periods of running, and so form adjustments progress slowly. But it's easier to focus and maintain good form for one mile at a time, and so I hope to give myself more chances to ingrain those correct movements. 

I started the streak last Monday and ran at least one mile every day. A week-long streak is modest compared to some Streakers I know, but I feel like I got a glimpse of some of the things Kira has blogged about. As she said, motivation is overrated. Running every day meant I didn't think about switching up the days I would run. It meant eating in such a way that I didn't heart burn on the run. Every day was a running day, and I think I made good decisions in terms of food and sleep because of that. And also as Kira has said, the laundry. Holy crap. I used every pair of athletic socks I have, even the ones I usually avoid. I also ran in weather I would normally avoid, like 23 degrees F., cloudy, and windy. 

While the mini-streak was worth trying, I think I'm going to let it go for now. I don't need to have high mileage at this point, and I don't want to do too much, too soon with my foot. After several weeks of very painful and not at all relaxing massage therapy, my neck and back are starting to relax. That means I can finally do my physio exercises without becoming motion sick (YAY!), and I want to focus on strengthening and healing my foot before packing on miles. I think I'll do another real streak after the semester ends and I do need the miles. And I intend to keep running one-mile warm ups for strength training, especially since it's very convenient at the gym. 

What about you, running friends? Anyone out there have experience with streaking, running or otherwise?

What with all the cold weather, I'm going to officially say that March came in like a lion, and thus predict that it will go out like a warm, happy lamb.