Snowy Green Seagulls

In case anyone was confused, today is the real, official St. Patrick's Day. I know I was confused for awhile as Baltimore literally celebrates the holiday for 2.5 weeks straight (which I love)... and even this past weekend there were a couple more green beverages to be had. But alas, today is the actual day.

green champagne :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Currently, there are some very confused seagulls flying around outside the house, in the snow, wondering what this white stuff is in the middle of March.

I've been wondering that too seagulls.

Another Monday, another day of snow. My office has a delayed start, so I'll be heading in soon, crossing my fingers that most Maryland drivers are choosing to stay off the road.

We first were notified of a possible impending snow storm on Saturday, when the two below alerts popped up in my weather app.

A winter storm watch with a fire warning. Now that's new. 

Friday after work I arrived at crossfit and quickly learned that we (the beginners class) were going to participate in the crossfit open, but could scale down the weight if we wanted to.

Coach - 'Kait, I really think you could use the Rx weight'

Sigh...

Below is the workout, I made it through 20 deadlifts at 155 lbs, 90 reps, tiebreaker of 7:38.

source

Needless to say, it was a challenging workout, and I'm still sore today. So sore in fact, that Saturday AND Sunday consisted of hot Bikram yoga. Saturday I even dragged this guy with me -

whole foods coffee after.

He killed his first ever class; handled it much better than I did the first time I tried it about a year ago. Remember that?

Current snow aside, we had a beautiful Saturday here, and following yoga Andrew and I headed north to explore Rocks State Park. There were some pretty stellar views.

Later that evening, we enjoyed futher stellar view from my deck, which I can't wait to be back up on every day once it's consistently warm...

Cough Cough, scram winter.

I hope you enjoy your Monday. I hope it isn't snowing there. If you're feeling particularily blue, fill out a March Madness bracket and challenge a friend. Loser buys dinner.

Andrew and I love going head to head in March Madness. Anyone else enjoy bracketology as much as I do?

Cheers my friends -

Kait

Gold Stars

Something earth-shattering happened this morning. My yoga instructor complimented me on a posture.

Or, complimented me on trying to do a posture I guess. I’m still by far one of the worst in the world class, but I sure do try my hardest. Gold star for me.

I didn’t think I was going to get up at 5AM this morning for class. I literally ran through every possibility in my head last night as to how why I should not go to 6 am hot yoga. I’m very, very good at coming up with excuses.

1. You should sleep more.
2. You will save gas
3. You will have more time to pack a better lunch
4. You should sleep more  

 I won’t bore you with the list in it’s entirety, just know that if you ever need some good solid excuses, I am full of them.

While we are on the topic of my weird tendencies, have I ever mentioned how I hate odd numbers?

Even numbers are where it's at.

Outside of 0 and 5 which are good rounded numbers in my mind, I try to never associate with odd numbers. Ever. The volume of my music always needs to be even numbers. And if I’m in spin class and the instructor tells us to add another level of resistance… well I add two, because I’m a badass I hate odd numbers.

Foot update:

Last Friday I did a one mile jaunt on the treadmill and it felt fine. However, after walking all over the city of DC on Saturday, it didn’t feel so fine. Needless to say, that crack's not healed yet. I’m not sure if I should be discouraged or not. I read somewhere that 5^th metatarsal stress fractures can take longer to heal since that area doesn’t get as much blood circulation. So in the meantime, I’ll sit at my desk rubbing my foot frantically, attempting to increase blood flow.

 

I have suspicions that I have a Jones stress fracture.   

Andrew and I had a talk last night about how I need to be proactive (word of the year) and take care of this stress fracture thing sooner rather than later.. basically so that I’m not frantically scrambling to get better come mid-summer, when I will want to start training for MCM. He made me promise to keep it under 2 miles until I know my foot is healed. I sat in the car and sulked  and crossed my arms and threw a fit like a 6 year old and then reluctantly agreed.

I still love him though. Have you showed you guys this pic from this past weekend? I like it.

I may try another mile on the treadmill on Saturday and see how she feels. As mentioned, Saturday night I leave on my 10 day trip, on which running and excessive exercise will most likely be kept to a minimum.

Want to know what won’t be kept to a minimum on the trip? Awesomeness.

Cheers to that my friends!

PS- I updated my #jamsohard section if you’re looking for some new tunes!

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!

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!

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)

Brooks Brat

This past week I received a little surprise in the mail from Brooks Running...

Awhile ago I shot them an email to let them know how much I love their shoes, and that I would love to do a product review if they happened to have any extra apparel lying around.

Turns out they did.

I've been pretty vocal that I'm a big fan of Brooks. Therefore I was obviously stoked to try out the Glycerin Jacket II. I almost immediately tore open the package like a savage and took that bad boy out for a couple miles.

First impression? It's versatile. It has the option to be worn on a 30 degree day in the snow zipped all the way up, or on a 50 degree day zipped halfway down.

My favorite feature was the little pocket on the inside for an iPod/mp3, since ya'll know that my music goes everywhere with me. And the pocket is even waterproof, which is crucial since I've been known to get caught in some downpours while out on the trail.

And, like any girl, the thumb holes had me at hello. Love my thumb holes.

"I could honestly wear this jacket anywhere!"  I gushed to Andrew. "Even out to the club?" he retorted.

OK, maybe not the club... although I'm unsure the last time I went to a club, so that's besides the point really.

It's stylish and light, and cute. I love the darker shade of grey. I sported it to my first ever Hot Yoga class this morning and it gave me a little confidence boost when I walked through the door. Even if I had to take it off immediately afterwards so that I wouldn't sweat in it.

But that experience is a whole different story. The picture below is exactly how I felt afterwards.

did i just sweat out every ounce of water in my body? it's quite possible. 

February and March are those weird in between months when you never know what the weather's going to do. I gotta say, I'm pumped to now have the Glycerin II to brave the rain, snow and everything in between.

Check out Brooksrunning.com to browse all of their running gear - here's the direct link to the jacket if you're interested.

And a big thanks to Brooks Running for hooking me up, you guys rock!

Cheers to thumb holes!