Bears & Bites

First and by far most importantly, thoughts and prayers to our beloved Central Illinois who got slammed by horrible tornadoes and storms this past weekend. The region in particular is near and dear to my heart as my undergraduate school, Bradley University, is located in Peoria, IL which is nearby all of the current devastation.

source

There of course are already several sites and ways to donate/help - I found a few different resources listed on Bradley's website... if you're interested, click here.

In other news, received a pretty awesome surprise in the mail this past weekend for Andrew's mom. She knows me too well.

giraffe pants. obsessed.

No joke, I put them on late Saturday afternoon and did not take them off again until Sunday morning before heading to an early spin class, after a thorough internal debate as to why I could not wear them to spin class. It was a foggy gloomy morning, and I really didn't want to get out of bed.

the walk to the gym...

But my roommates and I hosted a Bears/Ravens/Friendsgiving yesterday and I had to be back early to help set up/cook, so early spin class it was. The day was a raving success... even more so for me after Chicago pulled out an OT victory over Baltimore.

The were such gracious losers.

Unfortunately I was too busy shoveling in my food post-game to take any pictures of our impressive assortment.  However, I wasn't too busy shoveling in my odd breakfast of acorn squash and eggs this morning...

It was actually delicious. Veggies for breakfast. #winning

It was in the mid-60's here in Baltimore today, can you believe it? I allowed myself a few miles after work along the harbor....

Followed by the below kettlebell workout:

10 mins, AMRAP

60 single-under jump rope

15 double arm KB swings (15 lbs)

10 KB upward rows (15 lbs)

15 single-leg bulgarian split squat (15 lbs, both legs)

All you need are these two things and a little bit of space:

artistic, I know.

A full week of work ahead of me, and for some reason it's very daunting. While the warm weather was nice today, I'm ready for the temperatures to drop and winter to start rolling in. I know, I know, I'm crazy.

One down, four to go. Make the week great my friends. Be thankful for the roof over your head, it can disappear more quickly than you would ever think.

Cheers -

K

Zoo Zoom 8k

I have to admit that I’m a bit extremely excited this week. The fact that today is essentially a Wednesday for me is enough to put a big grin on my face.

Andrew and I are Chicago-bound on for Turkey Day, but I won’t jump the gun quite yet and start gushing about that.

This past weekend was actually full of two of my favorite things; running and food.

Sunday morning Andrew, some of my coworkers and I ran an 8k through the Maryland Zoo. I didn’t have high expectations; in fact I tried to go in having zero expectations. The little voice in my head kept whispering ‘You should just run it as fast as you can and try to win it.”

Ha.

Running as fast as I can now looks incredibly different than it did two months ago. Sad, but expected at this point.

In case you were wondering, an 8k is equivalent to just under 5 miles. I will deem Sunday as an accomplishment solely based off the fact that I haven’t run that far since mid-September. Pain was minimal… it was cold so my left leg as a whole was tight and generally unhappy, but pain itself was pretty absent. Andrew humored me like a good boyfriend should, and stayed with me for the entire race, even as I huffed and puffed up a small mountain hill towards the middle of the course and proceeded to hyperventilate at the top.

Out. Of. Shape.

Our finishing time was 41:56 which is most certainly respectable, an 8:27 pace. I will refuse to become upset about my current running shape, all things considered, and continue to gloat solely on the fact that I can now run further than two miles without my entire left leg shutting down.

My favorite part was undoubtedly the giraffes and lions that we saw towards the end. Andrew had a 5-year old moment and shouted into the giraffe pen until the long-neck creature made direct eye-contact with him.

Second favorite part had to be the birds that were hanging around the recovery area at the end. And the amazingly delicious pumpkin muffins that I may have had three of.

A kookaburra!!! (feel free to start singing the song) 

It took all that I had not to steal him and make him my new best friend. 

The rest of the day consisted of preparing for ‘friendsgiving’ that Andrew’s roommate was hosting. He made and AMAZING turkey, the spread was incredible, and I was one happy girl when we sat down to eat.

Did anyone else race this weekend? What are your Thanksgiving plans?

Cheers to a short week!