There's an Imelda in Everybody

Imelda is the widow of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. She is the best known shoe collector in the world owning over 3,000 pairs! Can you imagine if she was a runner?! Her shoe closet would definitely be the envy of us all, right? I don't have the money to buy even a hundred pairs of shoes but this weekend, I managed to start with a tiny 0.1% start to building my personal Imelda Running Shoe Collection.

{Brand Testing: Asics, Mizuno, Adidas}

Each pair fit me really well. I gave them a test run at the shop and they feel exactly the way my favorite and well worn running shoes do. My plan is to test out these three different brands and then decided which one I feel best with. Then I'll probably stick with that brand after. We'll see. Another shopping score this weekend were these organic goya (bitter gourd) and cucumbers! I was hesitant on picking up the goya since the ones I had before very too bitter for my taste. Thankfully, these ones had just the right bitterness level and added a different flavor to my bento today. :D

{ODed on Veggies and Shoes}

After my first ever 12 miler, I didn't run on the weekend and cross trained with power yoga and biking instead. I did register for the November half marathon and only need to pay by September to make it official. Jo (Aki's husband) wanted to join to but he's expecting family from the States by then so it's a no go for him. Hopefully Rea will want to run at least the 10K. She's vacationing back in the Philippines so I'll ask her when she gets back. :D

After looking over some half marathon training guides, Hal Higdon's seems to be the best fit for me. With just two months' running experience, I think the Novice program's ideal. After all it would be my first race and I wouldn't want to overtrain and get injured. However, having done well with distance and wanting to work on my speed, I'm tempted to follow the Intermediate plan which includes speedwork. What do you think?

I had plans to ride a train to Nagoya to watch the World Cosplay Summit but the rain kept me from going. :S Maybe that explains why I ODed on shoes instead. :P With the rain turning everything gray outside, I had soulful food to warm my tummy.

{Udon}

Also, I had the last slices of the banana bread on a weirdly cool Sunday morning. This loaf lasted a week which was a miracle for me, a banana bread monster. A slice (plus some other food) before or after my runs was my "secret" running fuel the past week. As a matter of fact, I baked another loaf for this week's runs. Hope that one lasts at least until Friday. :D

{BB with Honey Roasted Peanuts and Coconut Flakes}

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Here's to a fantastic start to a brand new month!

Local, Organic, and Affordable Finds

It's a cloudy but hot and humid Saturday afternoon over here and I just came back from the grocery. Again, I have overstocked on fruits and veggies. Haha! Bananas, avocados, papaya, and peach. Plus, the fridge is now filled with over a dozen different veggies; I am so excited. I'm so pathetic to be excited over fruits and veggies but you understand, right? :P Best purchase of the day were these okra, eggplant, and cucumbers. I bought them at a roadside stand. These stands are unmanned and follow the honesty system. The buyer pays by simply dropping the coins in a marked box. Do you have any of these stands where you live?

{5 cucumbers, 6 eggplant, 18(!) okra}

Would you believe all of those fresh, local, and organic beauties above cost 200 Yen (less than $2)?! Insane, right? A couple weeks ago, I got the freshest beans from the same stand. They were so young I ate some of them raw. If any of you have okra recipes, please share them with me. Thanks!

Aside from veggies, my 8 mile run last night was also something to be excited about. It's the longest distance so far for me and I took it slow and easy, enjoying a light drizzle. It was my most relaxing run ever. Today's a rest day and later I'll be biking over to Rea's. I'll be sleeping over at her place so we can have an early Sunday morning run around the lake. Who is this person I've become? Getting excited over fresh produce and arranging sleep overs to fit in a morning run! It is amazing how being healthy can both be a priority and a source of enjoyment at the same time. It is not a chore but a choice.

What fun and healthy things did you do this week? I was glad to have joined Angharad's Optimum Sleep Challenge and slept well this week. Thank you. Have a great weekend!

Biking Around and Free Vegetables

Before going out for another bike ride and have some Sunday shopping with friends, I'll leave a quick post. Yesterday, I biked 8 miles to meet with a couple friends just so we could run around the lake. I am so jealous they live so near. Rea and Del also climbed Mt. Fuji with me last year. They are going again this month! While Rea has been regularly running for a year already, Del does not run at all so he just biked along. Rea got busy around April and stopped running to focus on work (like me, they are also IT Engineers). Yesterday was her first run since April and she got really tired 30 minutes into the run so we had to walk the rest of the course. Goes to show how running should be a regular thing if one wants to maintain endurance. She promised we'll run the entire lake perimeter next time so I'm hoping this will be a regular weekend workout. We'll see.

{Lake: Pic From Google}

As if my veggie supply is not enough, I've been getting free veggies from workmates. Some of the people I work with have farms and they sometimes share their harvests with us. I have received the biggest reddest tomatoes, potatoes, and melons in the past. This week, I received another big bag of potatoes. It was just too much I had to share the rest with friends. Hahaha!

{Unfamiliar (for me) Melons}

The melons I received before where not the usual melons that I know of. It was my first time to try these and I didn't know how to cook them. They told me these were pickled. Having no pickling skills at all, I just randomly added them to soups, sliced and ate them just like cucumbers, and added them in sandwiches for the crunch. I'm still alive so I guess that was okay. :P Have you tried pickling? What fruit/veggie have you tried for the first time recently?