Two Days, Four Miles, and a Whole Lotta Jam

I had a BUSY weekend!  Every year in June, I set aside one weekend to do one of my favorite things—make strawberry jam.  And when I say “make strawberry jam,” I don’t mean, “make a couple of jars of jam and call it a day.”  Nope. 

My jams are my standard go-to Christmas gift for pretty much everyone who might get a small something from me. (Think: kids’ teachers, hockey coaches, coworkers, Sunday school teachers, etc. etc., plus my family and friends, of course.)  Needless to say, I make a lot of jam!  It’s a full-weekend process that requires a lot of effort on my part, but I love to do it because it’s fun and allows me to give a unique, well-received gift at Christmas.

I’m rather proud of my jam-canning abilities…I have won first place at both the Michigan State Fair (back before they cancelled it due to budget cuts 🙁 ) and my local county fair (just last year!).  I know it’s kind of a crazy thing to do, and I’ve always wanted to do kind of a “pictorial instruction” of the process, so if you’re interested in learning how it all works, you can follow this link to see my jam-canning weekend in pictures. 🙂

BUT, my blog is not about canning strawberries, so let’s get back to the topic at hand…my weekend of food and exercise!  I got up at 5:30am on Saturday, not to run, surprisingly, but to be the first in line at the local farm market for strawberries.  If you have a local farm market and haven’t tried it yet—go!  They have the best stuff, and while it may be a bit more expensive than what you buy in the stores, it is MORE than worth it.  I have been buying strawberries for over 8 years, but I’ve been going to the farm market for the last 3 years, because those are the best strawberries I’ve ever had!

Okay, okay, enough of the farm market commercial. 😉  I got my strawberries at 6am, when the farm market opened.

 

 

I was actually quite proud of myself for getting up so early…every year for the last three years, I’ve vowed to be there when they opened, but every year for the last three years, I haven’t been able to get myself out of bed when the alarm went off.  Not this year, though!  That’s one of the great things running has done for me—it’s taught me that I can get up early, and the world doesn’t end, lol!  And I’m always much happier for doing so.

Once I loaded the strawberries in my car…

 

 

…I sat down with my computer and Garmin and tried to decide where to run.  I was scheduled to do another 4-miler, and I figured I might as well get it done since I was up.  It was going to be a hot day, so the earlier the better. Plus, I love discovering new places when I run!

I found what looked to be a bike/hike trail about a mile away when I went to set up a course in Garmin Connect. (I love Garmin Connect!)  I was a little concerned as to whether or not it was a real path, but I checked Google maps and it was there, so I started right there at the farm market.

For some strange reason, I’d worn my “warm weather” Under Armour gear, which is a long sleeve compression shirt and compression capri pants.  With the sun beating down on me and the rising temps, I got hot pretty quick.  Duh!  Still, it was a nice run through town: I ran past my church, and a hockey friend’s house, and then, sure enough, a bike trail started on the other side of the tracks.  It was great! Nice and smooth, and I saw so many runners!  Probably a dozen by the time I was done.  Of course, they were all in shorts and tank tops, and I suspect they took one look at me and thought, “Oh, there’s a newbie!” 😉

At one point, I saw some sidewalk art.  It was cute, with lots of hearts and flowers, and two things that absolutely made me laugh out loud:

 

 

Yes, that’s what it said! I couldn’t make that up!! 😉  In addition, in with all the hearts and flowers, was this:

 

 

Ha ha ha!  What a great thing to find!

About 1 mile after I started, the trail turned into the “official” Heritage Trail, complete with a welcome sign.

 

 

Oops.  Oh, well, no one seemed to be patrolling, lol!

I went through a nature area, and saw lots of neat birds, plus a rat—ew!!! (My husband later told me it was probably a baby muskrat—I say that’s still a rat!)  The path then ran under the freeway…the second freeway underpass of my short running career! (I have no idea why this is so exciting to me.) Then, it took a left turn and went around what I have heard people refer to as “the swamp.”  It was pretty swamp-looking, but at 7am, it was still neat to look at.

 

 

My pictures don’t do it justice, but I struggle with full-on sun pictures, and I was too tired afterwards to go all the way around to the other side to get a picture with the sun at my back. 😛

I turned around and went back, and by that time I was pretty tired, but at least I knew where the end was. 🙂  I had planned for my ending point to be the Subway in town, so I could get a water, but…they weren’t open at 7am, lol!!  So, when I was done, I just went back to my car and walked it off for a bit. (Can’t believe I forgot to bring a water!)  I bought some more produce, including some organic spinach (more about that later), and then went back via my car to take pictures on the trail. I had a fun surprise when I got there—my friend Jessica was running the trail!  She was on a ten-mile run (wayyyy longer than my four-miler, LOL!), and we only chatted for a minute because I didn’t want to mess with her pace.  Then, just as we parted in opposite directions, she called me back to see…

 

 

How cool!  This deer walked near us for several minutes—he was almost tame, it seemed.  Here is Jessica running with the deer in front of her.

 

 

What a cool shot, and what a neat moment!  I’m so glad I had the chance to run this trail—I guess it’s been there for several years, and I had no idea!  It was also fun to see someone I knew. 🙂

All in all, it was a good run, despite the heat and one other issue (read: bladder). Here’s how the timing shook out:

 

 

 

This is the first time I’ve actually looked at my time, if you can believe it, ha ha! Nothing to write home about, but not horrible, I suppose.

Before I end, I do want to talk a bit about food.  Yes, I said I don’t like to talk about food on my blog (lol), but I had a really good food weekend.  First up was Friday night’s dinner, cooked by my husband:

 

 

These were just chicken fajitas, with Spanish rice and fat-free refried beans, but they were so good, and only 11 points for the whole meal (including sour cream and a half-glass of wine!).

On Saturday, my husband made a kind of soup/stew thing with sirloin, carrots, onions, noodles, and broth. (Crazy meal for a hot day, but it was something that could sit in the crockpot and be eaten as needed, which was a necessity since I was canning all day and they had other things going on.) I forgot to take a picture, but it was very good!

And finally, on Sunday, I had the Best. Meal. Ever!!  Okay, that’s probably one of my famous exaggerations, but it was damn good, if I do say so myself.  If you’ve read my “about me” post to describe my health/weight loss journey, you’ll know I went to Italy in 2000 (when I was at my heaviest).  On that trip, I discovered a love for three things: 1) cappuccino, 2) tiramisu, and 3) bruschetta Caprese.

I bought 3 basil plants at the farmer’s market on Saturday, and I couldn’t stop myself from making bruschetta Caprese. If you’ve never had it, let me explain: a plain Caprese salad is traditionally tomatoes mixed with chunks of fresh mozzarella (supposed to be Buffalo mozzarella, but good luck finding that this side of the Pond!), with chopped basil leaves and some garlic.  You can eat that out of a bowl, but to make it extra awesome, cut up a skinny loaf of bread, put just a touch of olive oil on it, then toast it and put the Caprese salad on top.  It is AWESOME!

 

 

I’ll have you know, this was just my portion; the boys got a separate plate, lol! Added to that was a chicken spinach salad: the fresh organic spinach from the farm market, topped with grilled chicken, a few croutons, some yellow bell peppers, onion, tomato, and a Tuscan Italian dressing we had on hand.

 

 

I actually thought the dressing was too oily, so I drizzled some balsamic vinegar on it and WOW! Instant 100% improvement! This salad, and especially the fresh spinach, was so good, both of my boys asked for seconds.  I was stunned!  I mean, it was spinach, after all. 😉

My whole evening meal was 17 points, but totally worth it, since I had eaten very little all day (a bad habit I have when canning), and it was just so good. I still had some room leftover for strawberries with whipped cream and granola!

 

 

(Can’t believe I still felt like eating strawberries after spending all weekend working on them!)

Thanks for reading my running/food blog post today!