The Fall Marathon

On Tuesday I introduced you guys to my new best friend AKA a jar of peanut butter. But TODAY I want to introduce you to some of my newest human friends:

Aren’t they adorbs? These are a few of my Girls on the Run munchkins, and I love them. Even when they chose to take of their shoes and wrestle and not listen to a word that I say. I still love them.

Somehow, by the grace of God, I woke up at 5 am and drove my sorry butt to Baltimore to hit some hot yoga before work. I’ve found that the better that I prepare the night before for my morning workouts, the more likely that it is to actually happen.

Exhibit A:

Overnight oats are always my go-to breakfast when I’m running out the door to the gym, as well as a smoothie in my L.L. Bean thermos for later on in the day.

Jumping subjects, I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT.

I am running the 38^th Marine Corps Marathon in October!!

I haven’t run a marathon since Boston last April. I realize my foot is still healing, I realize that October 27^th is seven months away from yesterday.

I am SO excited to run this marathon. So excited.

I’m also pretty serious when I say that training starts tomorrow. With one mile on the treadmill. It’s only up from here people.

Also, I'm feeling super lucky to have gotten in. I realize that thousands of people tried to log on yesterday at 12 PM EST just like I did, and never got through. It was the luck of the click I guess. And I’m honored to have the opportunity to run through DC with 30,000 other runners in the race so properly nicknamed 'The People’s Marathon.'

super high-quality pic here, I know.

This 26.2 will be one of a kind for me as I am literally starting from square one. Mile one, right at the starting line. I can monitor everything I’m doing from the get-go, hopefully take care of my body well and continue to be diverse in my workouts as I increase mileage.

Did I mention I’m excited?

In other news, Andrew’s two brothers and their ladies get into town tonight for a fun-filled Easter weekend. Baltimore, D.C., Annapolis, we’re covering it all by Monday night. I’m super excited pumped to spend some good quality time with awesome people. Fitting for a holiday like Easter, don't you think?

Use the word excited one more time Kait.

Tell me, have any of you signed up/picked any fall races yet? Any former MCM runners? How ‘bout Easter plans?

Enjoy your weekends, not sure when I’ll be checking in next. Don’t miss me too much.

Cheers!

A new friend

I have a new friend I want to introduce to you all:

It’s made by my favorite brand of Peanut Butter – Peanut Butter & Co. – who I believe I introduced you to this past summer. Anyways, a big scoop of that gooey goodness went into my oatmeal this morning, along with a handful of raspberries.

Are you jealous?

It snowed yesterday… a pretty good amount actually. But it was wet and didn’t really stick to the roads, and life went on as normal. It’s too late in the winter to acknowledge snow in my opinion. It was pretty and made me happy, but the sun made me even happier when it decided to come back out this morning.

 Sometimes I pretend to be a professional photographer.

Speaking of life proceeding normally, I’ve found that my little foot injury that I’m slowly beginning to come back from is playing games with my heart head. Yesterday after work I jumped on this guy:

Not the literal guy, but that empty treadmill...

I started off with some inclined power walking, and switched to running about 20 minutes in… for eight minutes. It’s hard to not focus on that tiny spot on my foot where that itty bitty stress fracture is/was, and freak out over any twinge or sensation that I felt.

I know that I really need to NOT do that, so the next round of jogging may have to be in front of the newest episode of Nashville to distract myself. Walking/running is going to be spent on the treadmill for about another week, as that surface has a lot more give than almost any surface outdoors.

It's way too late. I don't even know why I'm still up. I have an early morning date with the pool, and absolutely no witty way to end this post. 

Cheers!

stalking

I've been stalking two websites all weekend. The first is ESPN, like millions of others in this country, to check scores as well as my brackets which are all doing horribly. No hard feelings here; I would rather see some awesome upsets and my brackets crash and burn than games go the way they are suppose to.

My mom just sent me this as I sitting here writing. We all know who Jane is routing for tonight...

The second site is the weather channel. When I saw the forecast for 2-4 inches of snow tomorrow I immediately laughed at the funny joke and dismissed the idea. However, I've checked back several times since then... and the forecast hasn't changed. So there's that.

COME ON SPRING, YOU CAN DO IT!

How was everyone's weekends? Nothing too crazy to report over here. I would say the most important development is that I am starting to like hot yoga. No, I'm not drunk nor did I hit my head this past weekend.

After class on Friday in Baltimore I wondered down by the inner harbor. It was pushing 50 degrees, and I even found a few cherry blossoms blooming!

Following my B-more adventures was a trip to Trader Joes...

They are kind of buried in this pic, but I swear those shaved brussel sprouts have changed my life. Tina over at Carrots 'n Cake posted a bomb recipe using them last week, and I've eaten it three times since then. I'm continuing to evolve the recipe to my own liking, and may even eventually share it some day if i'm feeling generous.

I then wandered over to the liquor store next to TJ's and found this:

New Belgium's new IPA that they released this spring. I'm a big IPA fan and an even bigger New Belgium fan. Unfortunately I can't sit here and rave about this beer; I did enjoy it, it just didn't blow my mind.

Do you guys like my new shirt that I picked up at the Under Armour Brand House?

I figured with my impending move to Baltimore coming in hot, I needed to get some more gear to support the O's and the Ravens. Also I found out on Saturday that the shirt is good luck because I scored a new #plankaday record while working out in it:

Boom.

Ok, I'm headed off for some more madness before an early bedtime. I have a busy week coming up, which is exactly how I like my weeks to be. Not to mention Easter is right around the corner, along with epic amounts of chocolate peanut butter eggs that make me happy and sad at the same time.

Any other brussel sprout/IPA/Under Armour lovers out there? Not all at once.

Cheers!

The Return

Noooo this isn't a post on DRose's upcoming return to the court for the Chicago Bulls... although I would have no issue writing a post about that because I love him.

What a beautiful Friday morning, don’t you agree?

It may still be chilly, but waking up to the news of a Colorado State win in the NCAA Tourney warmed me to the bones. Alright that last sentence was cheesy let’s pretend I never wrote that. But seriously, it got me pumped and I threw on the first CSU shirt I could find for spin class this morning.

Ramstrong B*tches

My spin instructor took us through his first marathon experience this past weekend and literally told the story mile by mile, split by split. I sat on my bike drooling and crying and simultaneously feeling hopeful. It got me so jacked up that when he asked if there had been any upsets last night in the NCAA tournament, I screamed out that Harvard beat New Mexico… which is extremely odd because I never say a peep during spin.

Serious question. Do you guys ever feel like this when reading my blog?

 If so, I’m sorry. But not really. Especially since running looks like it’s about to start working it’s way back into my life again YAY!!!!

I’ve been in the process to talking to several runners & medical professionals, all who I trust, about the best way to come back from a stress fracture. As I mentioned earlier this week, this past Wednesday was the 6 week mark for resting my foot and having ZERO amounts of running in my life. 

Per recommendation of the people mentioned above, this week is actually just getting back into walking for extended periods of time. So last night I hit the treadmill for a half hour. Aaaaand if we are being honest with each other, I may have lightly jogged for 5 of those minutes. Next week I may start working in some more running on the treadmill, for really short distances, depending on how I feel. What I’ve been told is that the key is making sure there are days in between for my foot to rest. The stress fracture is mostly healed at 6 weeks – but not completely – and therefore still needs days to continue to rebuild.

The things I have learned about my body in the past 6 months, between my IT Band and my foot, have been pretty amazing.

LOVE THIS

There’s no point in rushing back to quickly, or amping up mileage like a crazy person, as I still have a few months to get back to neutral before crazy ass-kicking marathon training starts mid-summer.

What fall marathon are you running Kait? Let’s chat about that next week, mark it in your calendars and put a countdown in your phone.

Enough babble about running, it’s getting me way too amped up. Oh, I wanted to show you all this:

Look at how my coworkers treat my giraffes when I’m not in the office! Offensive.

Hot yoga’s on the docket for me this evening, followed by way too many hours of watching basketball.

Whose your March Madness Team? Anyone else have tips for coming back from a stress fracture? The more the merrier!

Cheers to the Madness!

Happy Spring?

Happy First Day of Spring!
Although, from what I understand, most places including B-more do not feel like spring...

Quick random thoughts of the day:

Whoever decided to make the cheap vanilla cream coffee at work this morning needs to be slapped. Not really, but seriously out of Starbucks and Caribou, you chose to make an off-brand pot of crap? That’s a potential day-ruiner right there.

A benefit to driving into work early aside from beating the crazy traffic includes watching the 7 AM flights out of BWI take off into the sunrise. It’s oddly romantic.

Dove Dry Shampoo saves my life on a bi-daily weekly basis.

Today marks 6 weeks since I haven’t run. I don’t want to talk about it right now... maybe tomorrow we can work through this together.

I woke up at 5:30 to go swim this morning, turned on my light, stood and stared at my swimsuit laid out on the floor… turned my light out, and went back to sleep for another hour. It just wasn’t happening today. And that’s ok.

Happy Wednesday, Happy Spring… tell me something you’re happy about.
Here's my post about Spring that I wrote for the Examiner.

Cheers!

Girls on the Run

I have some good news, and some bad news. Which do you want first?

Bad?

The bad news is, I still haven’t been able to get my hands on some of that deer antler spray to heal my foot. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, this link may help:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1513154-super-bowl-revisiting-deer-antler-spray-and-ray-lewis

The good news now... which should be considered awesome news since the bad news wasn’t even serious.

I’m officially an assistant coach for the organization Girls on the Run! Every Monday and Wednesday I head to a local elementary school and join eight precious girls grades 3^rd-5^th who have an interest in running. In reality we don’t run that much – typically some laps around the gym until it gets warmer outside – but we incorporate games, and try to teach positive values and mindsets. 

At the end of this spring each girl will be participating in a 5k to ‘complete the season’ and leave them with confidence in themselves that they can do anything they set their mind to!

A lesson all of us need to occasionally revisit, wouldn’t you agree?

 It’s been a good way to branch out in to the community a little more as well as stay involved with running in a way other than actually running while this stress fracture continues to ruin my life nag me.

In other news, today brought about a few crucial developments that I feel strongly need to be shared with the world:

I made seven brackets and I’m incredibly over-excited for the madness to start on Thursday. More on that later this week.

Sunday involved green pancakes and green beer. A few of you a-holes made fun of me via instagram after I posted the pic of my pancakes and said they looked disgusting. 1. They weren’t disgusting but 2. If I’m being honest, I ended up getting a text from Andrew shortly after taking that picture… and I met him at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast instead. Green donuts > green pancakes.

I found this at Wal-Mart today. They are ‘single serving bags’ whatever that means, and I actually really love the hint of lime. Fabulous addition to my snack drawer at work.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Tomorrow’s the first day of spring so that’s EXCITING. Now, if only the temperatures started reflecting that…

Cheers to wishing for warmer weather!

Take a stroll

I have some fitness updates for you, as well as a recipe. And some other things too I think. Depending on where my crazy typing fingers take me. Let's take a little stroll, shall we?

Friday morning, 6 AM: My spin class instructor announced that he's running his first ever marathon tomorrow. He proceeded to have everyone who has ever run a marathon in the class raise their hand. I felt like a cool runner again for 5 seconds until I put my hand back down and remembered that I'm injured and have no purpose in life. JUST KIDDING. But seriously, that happened.

Friday afternoon, 12 PM: I decided that after a long hard week my body deserved something awesome. I settled for a Veggie Burrito Bowl from Chipotle, my favorite on-the-go restaurant in the entire world.

Food Porn.

Friday evening, 5 PM: Attempted to complete the Crossfit Open workout of the week, the 13.2 WOD. I realized my health club didn't really have an adequate space to do so, but still kind of half assedly did it. The dead lifts left my hammies burning, there's no doubt about that.

Friday evening, 6:30 PMish: I got bored and wanted to play in the kitchen. I remembered that I had a bag of Almond Flour that I had compulsively purchased from Trader Joes a couple weeks ago... and decided to bake. I did some chopping:

 Some mixing:

And some baking, and came up with...

Almond Flour Peanut Butter Chocolate Balls:

- 1 cup Almond Flour
-1/4 cup of oats
-1/4 cup coconut
-1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
-pinch of baking powder
-1/4 cup honey
-1 egg
-3 Tbsp. coconut oil
-2 Tbsp. peanut butter
-1/2 Tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all of the dry ingredients into one bowl. Beat the egg in a separate bowl, add the melted coconut oil and honey, and then beat in the peanut butter and vanilla. Combine all ingredients. Form into little balls, put on greased baking tray, bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Voila. Healthy little almond balls. You're welcome.

Saturday morning, 8 AM: Successfully attended my second hot yoga class. Did not throw up, and actually felt fairly good for most of the class. Well, as good as one can feel in 100+ degree heat. I may even go again this week.

Saturday late morning, 11AM: Spent a little too much on new jeans. I love them and they make me happy. I haven't bought a nice new pair of jeans for over three years, so I figured I deserved them. Right?

Saturday afternoon, 1 PM: Failed to get a passport after learning the line was 2.5 hours long. I'll try again later this week. Proceeded to head to the gym and swam for about 30 minutes.

Here we are, Saturday evening. Laying here in all green writing to my favorite readers. 

And tomorrow? Hopefully some green pancakes, if I play my cards right. Happy St. Patrick's Day, hope you are all having a fabulous weekend!

Cheers! (with a green beer)

A mouth full of porcelain

Once upon a time, about 5.5 years ago now, I smashed my face on the volleyball court and knocked out my front tooth. We’ve been over this before, I know. Today, a few dentist appointments, some whitening and a couple tears later, I finally have a beautiful permanent porcelain tooth to call my own:

I know you are all just as ecstatic as I am. It really brightened my week.

Another thing that brightened my week… before my dentist appointment this morning I hit the pool for some laps. The lifeguard was BLARING some awesome country jams and it made me so happy. When I did my 15 minutes of pool running at the end of the workout, I sang along and am confident that he was loving it. I mean, who doesn’t love a girl screeching along to country music in a hot pink swim cap at 6 AM?

Hmm what else… I think my foot’s getting better? I continue to not feel almost any pain, I’ve been icing it like crazy and limiting the pounding. I even hop down stairs on only my right foot. I plan to email my doctor tomorrow see what she says. Cross your fingers. 

Until then, I continue to stick to the elliptical, bike and pool. I found out earlier this week that Jane hates the elliptical (who doesn’t) and barks at it while trying to climb on it with me…

Next on the agenda. It’s been called to my attention that the random poetic post about summer earlier thisweek may have been extremely premature seeing that it isn’t even spring yet….

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love you guys. But I write for me, I write about what I love and am feeling… that’s why I love doing it. Speaking of my mom, I think I may need to hand over my title of smoothie queen to her. She has become a pro smoothie maker over the past couple months, and our freezer at home is STOCKED with frozen fruits and veggies. I woke up Monday morning to this note:

I threw a little something together following her guidance and came up with a delicious tangy smoothie. Mar, the smoothie queen.

Saw this, love it, set it as the background of my computer:

Andrew’s off getting rich in Vegas this weekend so that he can come back and buy me cool things, so I don’t have too many crazy plans. I have committed to returning to the inferno at which they host Hot Yoga on Saturday morning, and am determined to not let it ruin my weekend. Yoga is good, yoga is good, yoga is good.

If I keep saying it maybe it will grow on me.

Happy Friday Eve. Make it awesome. Tell me something awesome. Ready Go.

Cheers!

Daydreamin'

I’ve been dreaming of summer lately.

Of sandy toes, and string bikinis. Sunburnt cheeks without a trace of makeup. Wavy salty hair, and a case of coronas. Maybe a lime, if we were thinking ahead.

We probably weren’t.

It's summertime, after all.

Flip flops, and a bright blue towel… the same color of the ocean. And the waves. The sound of the waves, the glare of the sun, the coolness of a faint breeze tickling the backs of our necks.

And friends. Because the beach isn’t the beach without friends. And a solid country song playing in the background while we joke, reminisce, and dream of the years to come.

Is it summer yet?

A different kind of 13.1

I woke up this morning and felt like I had been assaulted with a baseball bat, specifically in my shoulder area.

Why? From the 13.1 WOD (workout of the day) that my friend Greg dragged me to yesterday.

Right now, if you are a crossfitter you already know, it's currently the CrossFit Open.

The first Open workout, the 13.1, was the following:

17 minutes, AMRAP (as many reps as possible)

40 burpees
30 snatch 75/45/15 lbs
30 burpees
30 snatch 135/75/35 lbs
20 burpees
30 snatch 165/100/45 lbs
10 burpees
Max rep snatch 210/120 lbs

The first weight listed for snatch is what was prescribed for men, second women, third... me. Because I'm weak and not too well-versed when it comes to olympic-style lifts. And because I'm not participating in the Open, I just wanted a good workout.

And that I got.

photo credits to Lance Steagall

My final score? 151 reps, ending with 1 snatch at 45 lbs. I was tired. My lungs were burning. I kind of wanted to throw up. I also really loved it.

photo credits to Lance Steagall

Greg killed it with 156 total reps.

photo credits to me.

Am I joining a crossfit gym? Not right now. Mainly because I can’t afford it, and I still will take long periods of cardio any day over a WOD. Did yesterday open my eyes to why people LOVE crossfit?

photo credits to Lance Steagall

Yes, it totally did. I loved the atmosphere, the workout was quick and super efficient. I’m not sure if joining a crossfit box/gym is in my future, but I do know that this style of workout is one that I really, REALLY need to start implementing more often.

ESPECIALLY when it comes to getting stronger in my running game. Not to mention, beach season is right around the corner.

That's right folks, next Wednesday, March 20th is officially the first day of spring. I don't know about you, but that's super encouraging to me! Also a little intimidating, because my beach body is still very much under construction.

That's why, with running still on the DL, I'm in the process of throwing together a new 'spring workout plan', sans running. Obviously as the foot heals, the mileage will SLOWLY start increasing, but until then, I see a lot more swimming, spinning, yoga-ing, and lifting/cross fitting in my future.

And I'm kind of excited about it.

I head back to the Land of Mary early tomorrow morning, so the rest of today will most likely involve something like this.

Gosh I'll miss her. And all of my IL peeps, of course.

Enjoy the rest of your Monday - set yourself up for success for the week and do something awesome.

Cheers!

Home Home Home

Where do I even start?

I'm home, for one. Hence my lack of posts this weekend. That's o.k though.  It's been a whole lot of this:

wonderful time at home (and coffee)

my favorite pup

And of course, family. My mom and I went and got manicures on Friday, which was wonderful. She threatened my life afterwards and told me that if I chew off my manicure that she's disowning me as her child...

I actually love the french manicure, and it seems to have done the trick in chewing prevention. My awesome Aunt also hooked me up with this:

It's specifically for my cuticles and I love it. It smells great and I've been using it every morning and evening so far. Stay turned for my soon-to-be beautiful nails.

Technically I don't really have a gym membership while I'm home. Luckily, I have some pretty badass friends. My wonderful long-time friend since middle school, Greg, coaches/participates in Crossfit at a local box (crossfit gym) he's been a part of now for two years.

I knew he would offer to bring me along, and I knew part of me most of me didn't really want to, mostly due to intimidation. Yet Greg knows me pretty well and did a good job of encouraging me to come along to workout with him this morning.

Currently, I may not be able to lift my arms due to one heck of a workout. I also may have loved it. More on that tomorrow.

The rest of today consisted of rainy walks along Lake Michigan, me staring longingly at the many runners who passed by, and a warm treat when we got back home.

Bri, Jane, Mom

Hot chocolate with a scoop of ice cream? Yes please! 

And one very tired pup who just fell asleep with the ball in her mouth.

Short and sweet. Can't wait to share some more thoughts tomorrow. But for now, the last piece of deep dish Chicago-style pizza is calling my name from the fridge.  :)

AKA, the best pizza in the world.

Cheers!