Snow Day Ramblings

Well if you don't live in the eastern part of the country, there was a big snowstorm that rolled through here last night, and luckily winter has gifted me a snow day! I have some random ramblings for you about what's been going on this week.

What does a snow day mean? Sleeping in followed by pancakes for brunch of course :)

banana protein pancakes topped with peanut butter, syrup and blackberries!

Wednesday I got my booty out of bed to go meet up with the Baltimore November Project at 6:30 AM. I had been planning to go but after talking to Sarah about it, I was more motivated.  It was a chilly 19 degrees outside but a big group hug to start of the workout made it a little better. We did an Olympics-inspired workout with different color teams based on what color of the Olympic rings you were wearing. I was in black because honestly all my warmest clothes are black. We did a ladder workout which included a set of stairs up and down, running the loops around Federal Hill, 10 push ups and then 2 sets of stairs and so on, adding another set of stairs each time.

Me on the left in all black-photo taken from the November Project site

Besides the gorgeous sunrise and view of the city from the hill, I loved the energy everyone had so early in the morning. Even more importantly, I loved all the support and enthusiasm-I'll definitely be back.  At the end the newbies even got a sweet medal, haha.

Two nights ago I made this brussels sprouts caesar salad with my own spin on it. I only added about a quarter of the olive oil and double the greek yogurt the dressing recipe called for. I also didn't make the croutons due to lack of ciabatta bread. Instead I pan-roasted some little chicken thighs to put on top and also added some spinach in with the brussels sprouts. It was amazing, and I've been eating the leftover dressing on salads.  

Although my go-to at a coffee shop is americano, yesterday I sprung for the almond milk latte and it hit the spot. Also, I really love latte art. 

Guys, I have big news. I'm officially a real crazy runner lady. This afternoon I braved the snowy, slush roads of Baltimore to meet up with friends for a little snow day run. It was more slush than snow and was drizzly the whole time.  While cold and rain is unpleasant, I was having a great time, except for my wet feet. I never thought I'd be one of those people choosing a wet, wintry run over a treadmill, but now I am!

Not very attractive-looking, but very warm!

Have you been experiencing winter weather? What is your favorite thing to do on days off?

MIMM 2/10/2014: Note to Self

Well I'm pretty much the worst blogger ever. I had a pretty marvelous weekend but totally did not take any photos! So this is a little note to myself about this weekend. I'm going to keep it short and sweet since Mondays are my busiest days of the week from now until May. 

Note to Self:

Don't regret lazy Sundays ever, they are the best.
Do not feel guilty for staying in your pajamas half the day, sleeping in,cuddling, and having brunch.  I watched a movie in my pajamas and then later some Walking Dead and Girls, which I love.  A lazy Sunday with nothing to do is becoming more rare-these are the days I love! 

Froyo dates are awesome.
I got some froyo with Sarah on Friday in honor of National Frozen Yogurt day, and it had been way too long since I had gotten frozen yogurt. I still love ice cream and cold treats even in the winter! It was great to catch up with Sarah and inevitably talk about running and our quickly approaching spring races too.

Don't drink two big cups of coffee before heading out for a run. It will feel awful.
I had to go out on a solo long run this weekend to stick to my training plan (which forces me to do something and not hibernate all winter) and had a couple cups of coffee with coconut oil and some food beforehand. Well the temperature wasn't too bad but after about 2.5 miles my stomach was not feeling well. I had to stop a couple of times and even popped into a Starbucks to use the restroom. I made it through 6 miles outside and then finished the run with 2 more on the treadmill. I had tummy troubles all through the afternoon- so yeah, won't be doing that again. 

Meal prep is worth it. 
Spending 3 hours meal prepping and making dinner on Sunday afternoons is worth it. I'll be thanking myself later this week when I have so many grab and go snacks and meals and some for my boyfriend too. I am having Sunshine Burgers (review to follow!) with butternut squash mash and coconut oil roasted green beans for lunches. I also prepped some overnight oats, quinoa breakfast bars, hard boiled eggs, and protein cookies for the week.  This week is looking especially busy so it's one less thing I need to worry about!

Some people actually read this blog you post on the world wide interwebs.
This weekend I had a few people surprise me by saying they read my blog and/or support it.  Most of the time I post all these random things and don't expect many people to read it. It is nice to hear that people peruse it every now and then and sometimes even come here for running advice! 

Catching up with friends is great-do it more often. 
I spent most of Saturday afternoon hanging out with my friend who was selling her geeky themed crafts such as etched mugs and coasters (check out her Etsy store) at a coffeeshop/art space up the street from me. It was nice to catch up and talk not in the midst of an event or with lots of other people around.  Life gets really busy now and sometimes people miss out on just talking and catching up with each other, especially when it's easy to see updates and photos on social media. 

Grocery shopping Sunday afternoons is a bad idea. 
The only negative consequence to my lazy Sunday was being forced to hit the grocery store around 4 PM on a Sunday. I like to take my time grocery shopping, and it stresses me out when the store is crowded.  There were lots of people with carts and lots of things were slim pickings, like the bunches of broccoli on sale. Also the Justin's nut butter shelf was pretty wiped out, sadface.  I either need to go past 10 PM when it's dead, or try to get my butt out the door in the morning so that it's a more enjoyable experience. 

Did you have a great weekend? How do you get yourself ready for the week on Sundays?

Brooks Transcend Demo Party

If you haven't heard, Brooks Running launched a new shoe called the Transcend, and they think it's a big deal. They have been running a space-inspired ad campaign that included the first video magazine advertisement in Runner's World and an awesome page about it set up on their website here. They were also hosting a bunch of midnight launch parties across the country, and I was lucky enough to attend the one in Baltimore last Friday at the local downtown running store, Charm City Run . It was a demo run at 11 PM followed by a party and the officially launch of the shoes at midnight when they would officially be available for purchase  I only have run in Brooks shoes, partially because I love them and partially because I've won a handful of pairs through various contests and giveaways so I was super excited to demo their new shoe. I used the Brooks Ravennas for marathon training, but have since switched back to their Pure Project minimalist line, which I prefer for shorter distances.

I showed up at right before 11 PM on Friday night, and the store was decorated with streamers and some Brooks inflatable furniture.  I immediately went to get a pair of shoes to demo and got a women's pair in hot pink (see the colors here), which I LOVE, especially since I feel that Brooks shoes don't always come in the flashiest colors.

Photo from brooksrunning.com

The Brooks regional sales rep described the shoes as having unique pressure zones, lots of cushion, and guiderails in the shoes that act like bowling bumpers.  Pretty much if you need stability you can activate it, and if you are neutral you won't tap into the guiderails-pretty awesome, in my opinion. Just walking around the store in the shoes, I loved how comfortable they were. They felt lighter than the Ravennas and had a nice soft, bouncy cushion.

blurry shoe shot-see how bright they are?

After the Brooks reps talked the group went on a chilly 3.82 mile run along the Inner Harbor where you wrote down your predicted time beforehand and ran the route without a watch or anything. Whoever was closest to their predicted time won a pair of  new Transcends. Sadly it wasn't me-someone was within 10 seconds of their time, which is crazy close. I was about 3 minutes faster than I predicted because I tried to run a slower pace.

After the run there was yummy beer, sandwiches, and snacks all provided by Brooks along with lots of Brooks goodies to grab including freeze-dried ice cream (Neapolitan flavor!) to market the Transcends.  I even had a little coozie for my post-race beer :)

 At midnight when it was officially February 1st a guy bought the first pair of Transcends sold, at least in Maryland, but possibly the nation (depending on timing of course)!

my Brooks swag

Anyways I'm not sponsored by Brooks or anything ( I wish!) but just wanted to review this really fun and unique event for this shoe.  I only ran once in the shoes, which felt different from what I have been in running in so I can't judge too much, but I did really love the shoe's cushioning and way my foot felt when it hit the ground. I can't justify buying a new pair of shoes right now, but I'm definitely going to keep this in mind for when I need to pick up some new shoes for marathon training in the summer!

Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by Brooks, but is merely my observations about the running shoes and the event. As always, all opinions are my own.  

Have you ever been to a running shoe demo event? What is your favorite color running shoe?

WIAW-Great Eats Lately

One of my resolutions was to try one new recipe a month, and I've actually been surpassing that! I've saved up some photos of great meals I've made and have a little photo dump for you on this "What I Ate Wednesday". It's my first time participating in the link-up, but is a great way for me to share some snapshots of my yummy eats and get some of these photos off of my cell phone! 

Sauteed kale salad with dried cherries and goat cheese and topped with an egg and sliced steak prepared by my boyfriend. I love cooking, but I'm lucky that he can help out too :)

The first time I used my spiralizer I made zucchini noodles as a side to this crusted tilapia and avocado cream dish. I followed this recipe except I changed up the tilapia part a little bit, using almond meal instead of corn meal and adding garlic to the crust. 

A couple weeks ago I had some bites of takeout beef bulgogi and remembered how much I loved the delicious Korean dish.  I found this recipe from A Spicy Perspective which uses a wok for easier cooking and ingredients I happened to all have on hand. It was simple and satisfying so I definitely see it something to keep in my dinner rotation!

 PaleOMG's Almost 5 Ingredient Spaghetti Squash Pie was on the menu last week. I added some cheese to make it even more like pizza. Clearly I took a photo after I had dug into it and the leftovers did not make it through the next day. It's even boyfriend-approved-he said it was one of the best things I've made in a while!

My boyfriend whipped me up this super yummy dinner late one night last week, and it was heaven. It's basically sauteed kale and vegetables with a honey balsamic vinaigrette topped with a drippy egg. Perfection! 

Pizza is one of my favorite foods. I made this awesome pizza this weekend using a FlatOut wrap, organic tomato pasta sauce, spinach, and mozzarella slices. It hit the spot!

Chocolate avocado mousse topped with mini chocolate chips and a big dollop of peanut butter. I posted my recipe a while back here except I have been using a whole avocado and omitting the banana.  

I had a bunch of frozen corn to use up from my Friends and Farms CSA basket so I found this recipe in their newsletter for a corn and sweet potato chowder . I made some changes by halving the recipe and only pureeing half of the soup to leave some whole corn kernels and sweet potato chunks in it. I did not get as beautiful a color as the photos from the original recipe, but it tasted delicious!

What are some of your favorite meals lately? Any recipes you recommend?

In a funk...time to reset.

I'm not really sure where this post is going to go so hang in there with me. It was also hard to publish this because it's personal but something about writing it out helps.  I'm having one of those days where I dreaded getting out of bed. And I want to cry a little and have a pity party for myself. No, it's not that time of the month, ladies.  I have this personality where I am slightly self-destructive and focus on the unreasonable and ignore the reasonable logic for things.

I had a weekend that started off pretty well with a midnight Brooks launch party of their new shoe (more on that later) and a nice little run followed by a few beers. Then I woke up early for an unusually warm run with my friends. We did 10 miles but the second half of the run I was feeling discouraged. We were settling into a faster pace which we would usually run during our summer marathon training long runs, but I felt like I couldn't do it  that day and my legs were tight.  
Unreasonable thoughts: Why do you suck? You aren't going that fast, this should be fine for you. How are you going to run four half marathons in the spring? You should be running more and stop using the cold weather as an excuse. 
Reasonable logic: Maybe you feel like crap because you ran last night and didn't stretch well, then had a few beers and got 5 hours of sleep. If you start running more regularly your speed will come back.  

See what I mean? Then I had a nice Saturday afternoon running errands and stocking up on some food followed by a nap and friend's birthday get together.  I had been feeling good about my food choices and was going to limit my drinking because I knew I wanted to get up early and make a spin class and had to make some food for a Superbowl party.  It ended up being a strange night where I drank way too much, got home late, had a fuzzy morning, and slept through my spin class. On top of that I felt like I was getting hit with a cold and ended up missing the party because I was a sniffly, achy mess.  
Unreasonable thoughts: Why would you act that way and get a little out of control?  What kind of person are you? You know you really wanted to go to that spin class and have a productive Sunday.  You are a ginormous mess. 
Reasonable logic:  You didn't eat enough for dinner so drinking on top of that hit you harder.  Everybody makes mistakes, it's okay.  It's good you stayed in when you felt sick because you have another long week ahead of you.  

I've been trying to lose some weight I put on during the summer when I was marathon training. I hate trying to follow food plans or exercise plans and just want to live and not have those things become stressors instead of stress-relievers in my life.  I was looking at some photos last night from a friend's wedding right after the marathon and was surprised at how I felt. 
Unreasonable thoughts: Look how fat your arm looks, you need to lose some weight. Your face looks so bloated. 
Reasonable thoughts: I just ran a marathon a week before these photos were taken-I rock. My arms are bigger but there's some muscle under there too.  What about my smile and how happy I look? 

I have been wanting to try to get to the gym in the morning because of my evening class and I like having time to cook and relax after work so I can go to bed earlier. I find myself staring down midnight each night and aimlessly clicking on my computer or scrolling through Instagram on my phone in bed. 
Unreasonable: Why can't you just go to bed early and get up early like every one else? You must not be committed to your plans. No wonder why you are always tired and bloated. 
Reasonable: Stick to the plans you have and slowly get to bed earlier.  Focus on unplugging and having dinner prepared ahead of time.  It's okay. 

Overall I had higher hopes for last week, but I can't beat myself when I slip up. I need to love myself-nobody's perfect. I think that having a little breakdown can be okay. I can accomplish anything I want to do. I am in control.  I need to take a deep breathe and reset. 

So here's some small things I'm going to try to do this week: 

1. Go to bed a little bit earlier each night and unplug after dinner.  

2. Create a flexible training plan for my half marathons and print it out!

3. Try to get in AM workouts at least 3x this week.

4. Say one thing I like about myself in the mirror each day. 

5.Continue with some reflection and focusing on my goals each night before bed.  

6. Listen to this song more: 

Do you find yourself focusing on unreasonable thoughts? What do you do when you need to take a step back and reset?

Runner Spotlight #73

Hello all, I hope you had a great day and enjoyed the Super Bowl (unless you are a Broncos fan..). Just wanted to let you know that I was featured as the Runner Spotlight #73 on Mindy's blog Road Runner Girl today. I love her blog and all of the inspiring runner spotlights she posts so I am excited to be a part of it now! Go check out the post here. You can read about my race day routine, favorite race, and more!

 

Five Friday Favorites 1/31/2014

Okay, slow down 2014, we are already a month into the new year! If you missed it, check out my post from yesterday about recent deliveries and packages! I need to really focus on my goals for 2014, although I have been better at trying new recipes and have used far more than one this month. I plan on sharing some of my favorites here next week! Also this weekend is Super Bowl Sunday, which is less exciting that it was last year when I celebrated the Baltimore Ravens victory in streets of Charm City.  I'm feeling pretty nonchalant about the whole thing, but at least there will be some good food with good friends. Here were are again for another five of my favorite things!

Five Friday Favorites

1. Favorite quote: SOTU speech: "I believe that when women succeed, America succeeds"-Barack Obama

Whatever your politics are, it's important to still hear about what is going on and what our nation's leaders think. I happened to like the State of the Union speech a lot this year and especially the focus on girl power. With lots of problems in the world, people seem to forget the inequalities that still exist between women and men.  Also Joe Biden is hilarious. 

From People.com

2. Favorite workout: Core Workout for Runners from Crazy Running Girl

This workout looks awesome because it has some core moves specific for runners that does not involve just a million crunches.  These reverse plank leg lifts below look especially difficult! 

3. Favorite recipe on my must-make list: Fudge 'Ems from Barr and Table

I have seen and pinned multiple recipes for black bean brownies but have never tried them. This recipe for more a black bean fudge looks super easy and delicious-good thing I have a couple cans of beans lying around! 

4. Favorite meal of the week: Grilled Bronzini from The Food Market

Last night I had an amazing dinner at The Food Market in Baltimore. It's a super hot and trendy restaurant that has been open for less than two years. I had a really nice brunch there about a year ago so I was excited to try their dinner menu. We started off with the hot nuts, street tacos, pan roasted popcorn (with grated basil parmesan and truffle oil!), and lobster fingers to share for the table. Lobster fingers are like chicken fingers, except made with lobster. They were amazing. Anyways, for my entree I ordered the grilled bronzini which was a massive piece of fish, perfectly cooked and paired with asparagus and a caper-raisin butter sauce. I also got some soy roasted brussel sprouts instead of potatoes because I love brussel sprouts.  I'm so glad I was not disappointed!

5. Favorite feature: Featured blogger on Miles to Blog

Sorry for the self-promotion, but I am super excited that I was picked as the featured blogger on the Miles to Blog directory this week! Miles to Blog is a newer running blog directory that organizes running bloggers by location and allows runners to connect with each other by sharing blog posts and race recaps. 

Any big plans for the weekend?

Sorry We Missed You #1

Today I'm introducing a fun little feature I'm going to post on the blog every so often I'm calling Sorry We Missed You which will be showcasing some of the recent packages I've had delivered to me. I am shipped packages from giveaways I enter and happen to win (I enter lots!), products from brands I'm working with, and all the things I buy when I have spurts of being an online shopping addict. Whoops. 

You may be confused about the title of the post unless you know firsthand the turmoil of living in an apartment building and trying to receive packages. I'm not talking about one of those big apartment buildings which conveniently have lobbies or front desks. It's pretty much a guarantee that I miss a package at least once from the Postal Service, Fed Ex, or USPS before I get it. I love getting mail, but it can be so inconvenient sometimes. 

 If no one is home, a package can't just be left on my stoop in the middle of a city street so I'm always receiving those "Sorry We Missed You" or redeliver slips. Pretty much the biggest pain because guess what, I work during normal business hours, like most people and am never home to receive packages!  I take photos of most things I receive and never get around to uploading them (worst blogger ever) so think of this as a bunch of snapshots of the more exciting mail I receive!

I was super pumped this week to receive the first order I purchased as a Nuun Ambassador! I picked up a visor to wear to rep Nuun at some spring races and also the multi-pack of their All Day Nuun to try all out all the flavors! I'll let you know what I think soon, of course. 

A month back I got some samples of Larabars to try. I like these bars when before workouts or to keep around as snacks for when hunger strikes. I've had the Snickerdoodle flavor before and LOVE the nice cinnamon flavor it has. I was lucky enough to get to sample the seasonal flavors-Pumpkin Pie and Cappuccino, yum!

My Delta Labs Green Tea + supplement delivery. I love the girly touch of the pink tissue paper it comes wrapped in! Remember use code "BREATHEBLOG" for $5 off any order, anytime.



I won a Twitter Giveaway from Kodiak Cakes to try their new Minute Muffins which remind me of microwavable instant oatmeal based on the packaging. I love their pancake/waffle mix so I'm super pumped to try these out. I got the package yesterday and am already drooling over the flavors which are lemon chia,apple cinnamon oat, double dark chocolate, and mountain blueberry!

Lastly I have some clothes I purchased because I'm clearly dreaming of warmer weather. On the left is a black sequin J.Crew skirt I bought on Poshmark app. Also on the left are a pair of hot pink J.Crew shorts that I had been lusting over since I saw them last spring/summer. I finally picked up a pair on J.Crew.com's most recent sale with an extra 40% discount making them around 1/4 of the original price. Win. On the right  is a Lululemon purple marathon skirt also from the Poshmark app. I'm excited for my secondhand Lululemon with all the comfort and style at a fraction of the price!

DISCLAIMER: I was sent Larabars and Delta Labs Green Tea + for no charge to review but received no other compensation. I receive a discount on Nuun products as a Nuun Ambassador. Any other products pictured have been specified as a giveaway prize or personal purchase. As always all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Did you receive any packages this week? Do you do a lot of online shopping?