L1

I'm the worst at self-development.  Literally.  It stems from being lazy about reading, and if there are too many big words or large paragraphs or the topic doesn't fully hold my attention, I ditch it.  So when I sat down at the beginning of this year, I tried to be reasonable about goals.

One goal that has been creeping around my mind for the past few months has been ways to develop my fitness background, professionally.  Then, through a series of cool events, that goal got fast-tracked - and this past weekend in Athens (which was a crazy story in itself) I went through the Crossfit Level 1 Training Course.

Yep, I was in a gym for most of my weekend in Greece.

A massive, beautiful gym for the record.

Crossfit North Zone

I learned way more than I anticipated - covering aspects of nutrition, how to calculate work and power, details around movements, etc. I could go on all day.

But what I really loved, is that I was the only American there (besides the instructors). I got to spend the weekend next to 7 Greeks, 2 Turks, 2 Egyptians, and 1 Cypriot, learning about constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movements.

While the course was in English - it was a second language for everyone but me.  Which wildly impressed me (there was a translator on hand who helped with some of the technical concepts - I really can't imagine learning about 'food blocks' in another language).

Stories were shared - crazy cool stories.  I sat next to a guy who had been doing Crossfit for three months, and loved it so much he decided to MOVE across Cyprus to live closer to an actual gym.  Then two months after that decided to take the L1 course.

Something else that really resonated with me is that we only had 4 females out of 13.  Compare that to the numbers I found for the 2016 Crossfit Open  - 42% female participation - to 31% females in my course.

I don't have numbers to back it up, but I'm pretty confident in suggesting that the female participation rate in Crossfit at an international level drops off big time if compared to just the US. It's more normal than not to find myself as the only female during classes in Tel Aviv.

Yet that doesn't really  discourage me.  It encourages me, because that shows potential for growth.

It also - for some reason - puts a chip on my shoulder to go harder.  Because it's not just that I'm a female in Crossfit - I'm also 5'11'', and I love running - two things that existentially go against Crossfit stereotypes.  I can't even tell you how many times I had to be corrected over the course of the training because I have these long ass femurs that refuse to track over my toes - my body is nowhere near compact - therefore I have a larger margin of error to f*ck up a movement.

Excuse my french.

It's my grind though. I might not "look" like I should be doing Crossfit but man do I love it, and how it's changed my outlook on both fitness and life.  Mentally it's made me stronger than being a Division 1 athlete did.  And I'm convinced I can be good at it, get down all the movements, and eventually coach it.  As a tall, gangly female.

But why?  Why Crossfit - why don't you just stick with running Kait?

Because Crossfit is running.  And rowing, and swimming.  And slamming balls around and swinging around on bars, walking upside - it's everything.  It's being able to move the bookshelf across the room without having to wait for your husband to get home to help, and it's being able to throw your 6 year old over your shoulder when they're having a temper tantrum in public.

It's cliche but it truly is training for life, and

I dig that.

But I think even more - I dig the camaraderie.  When you're grinding through crapiness together day in and day out, you realize that you actually have a team to help you get through.

And at the end of  Day 1 last Saturday, when the instructors (who were rockstars) threw a golden workout of thrusters and burpees at us, we had one classmate teammate struggling through the last set.  So you know what we did?

The rest of us - the 12 who had already finished - started hitting the floor with him.  The words 'I can't' left his mouth and we were like oh hell no, and we were up and down with him, grueling through, until he finished those freaking burpees.

And that's why I wanted a Level 1.

I've seen it change people's lives, I've seen people lose massive amounts of weight, kick habits, take on new hobbies because of it. But it's the knowing that you have people who believe in you - really truly - that's why it works.

Anyways, if you're reading this and rolling your eyes and thinking I'm brainwashed, I promise I'm not.  Or maybe I am, but I also know the facts. I've loved health and fitness for pretty much as long as it's been on my radar.  I jumped from globo gyms to niche gyms, consistently ran my face off through stress fractures and broken toes.  I've bought passes to hot yoga and cycling studios, and it's all great, I've enjoyed it all and still do.  But I've never seen or felt changes like Crossfit - and I've never seen fitness transfer into my other passions like this has.

Anyways, thanks for reading if you got through this whole thing.  I'm excited about what's to come, if you can't already tell.  And huge thanks to my husband & my "boss" -  who both enthusiastically got behind me to pay for the training - that sh*t ain't cheap - and it was one heck of a bday gift/work perk.

Signing off, just in time for the Crossfit Open to kick off.  Oh, and to drag my butt 13.1 miles (21.1 km) tomorrow morning.

Cheers - 

Kait

Kilometers

Oh hey.  Happy Friday!

Let's talk running, shall we? It's been years since I've written a race recap but this one will be different than any I've ever written, so stay with me.

This past Wednesday was two firsts for me: my first race outside of the U.S., and first night race.  The Tel Aviv 10k.  They say over 25,000 runner showed up, and man what an experience it was on many levels.

The race experience itself = awesome.  Very well set up - tons of festivities at the finish, the course lit up with lights and DJ's, typical finishers medal, all that jazz.

It was also pretty cool because we (Andrew and I)  ran the race with two of our friends from our crossfit gym - both who had never ran in a race before.  So in my opinion, they picked a pretty fun race to make their first (and they both did fantastic).  Plus it was through the enchanting city of Tel Aviv, which is more alive during night hours than any other time.

But let's talk specifics here, because this is where things get interesting.  For example, we actually had no idea how to get to the start of our correct heat... as everything was in Hebrew.  Thank goodness for bilingual friends.

So we manage to get to the start, the gun goes off and like most races the starting area itself is very congested and slow moving.  However the congestion didn't clear for quite awhile.... and by that I mean, I felt I was weaving and trying to find space through almost the entire course.  Which for the first few kilometers is fun right? I had the race adrenaline going, was dodging and cutting people off and plowing over little kids and simply put, racing bliss had me running too fast.

So first rookie mistake if I was a rookie but I'm really not anymore, so to be blunt, first stupid mistake was starting way to fast and scurrying around like a caged hamster just set free.

However.  adrenaline slowed and hills starting creeping up and I became more aware that I didn't feel fantastic anymore... and we were about halfway through a 6.1 mile race.

Realizing that I was slowing down, that my legs hurt, and that I was getting passed, I came to three conclusions in my head as to why this race was different than any other I had recently run.

1.  Heats were in no way followed, people started whenever the heck they wanted to (including myself) and therefore runners weren't as spread out throughout the course as I was used to.
2.  I am not as fast as I was a year ago.  This is true - miles simply have not been put in, and the phrase 'we hardly trained for this' was thrown around a few times leading up to the race.
3. Israel's population is overall faster relative to the U.S.

^^ Now that may be a bold statement, and I don't have hard facts to back it up outside of what I've observed these past three months. Israel is the fittest country I've witnessed to date - extremely low obesity rates - and therefore, I would honestly bet that race paces in this 25,000 person 10k race compared to a similar-sized race in the U.S. are overall faster.  Just a hypothesis.

Anyways - the combination of the three above observations made this race one that will sting for awhile - in a good way.  Then add in the fact that all course signs were in Hebrew - and I blew by the first water station being on the complete opposite side of the road and not paying an ounce of attention - and that was just the icing on the cake.

Finishing time is up for grabs - my watch malfunctioned at the start and started too early, and times haven't been posted online yet, but I'm thinking I sat between 47 and 48 minutes, which put my pace in the high 7's.  But that might be generous to be honest.

I took a minute afterwards to vent to Andrew about how crappy the last few kilometers felt, I didn't have my racing legs, blah blah blah cry some more Kait.  There aren't excuses, just facts, I'm not the runner I was a year ago.

But the beautiful part that I love about running? The more you work on it, the more progress you're bound to see.  And it just so happens that half marathon we signed up for is 98 days away, as of today.  So let's see what I can pull together in three months, eh?

cheers to the freakin' weekend - 

Kait

Sweat (part I)

I won't lie, I've been putting off this fitness post for... roughly two months now?  Funny too, since this blog originally started out as a running/health blog back in the day.

I've been putting it off because my general emotions towards fitness - running, crossfit, swimming, sometimes yoga, etc - have been super bumpy as of late.  And I think that's somewhat normal right? We all get really into certain things at certain times of life, get turned off by certain things, decide to try new things etc.  We get hurt, we get burnt out, whatever it is; relationships with fitness can fluctuate a ton (as all relationships can).

I love taking care of my body, and challenging it - this has always remained a constant.  But the months throughout this past summer had me in a weird spot.  A slump, if you will. A conversation I had right before the move actually had me saying, "Actually to be honest, I'm in the worst shape I've been in a LONG time right now."

Now let's pause and define: "Being in shape" means something different for every single person. Everyone has different expectations and visions for the words "I'm in shape" - and for me, it's not just about being able to fit into my pants.  I'm kind of strict with the standards I hold myself to (sometimes it's too much, I'll admit) and so what I mean by saying this is, my running mileage was VERY low, and super slow.  Normal activities were just a *little* harder than they should have been, and when we found ourselves running the stairs outside our new gym week two of arriving out here, it was WAY harder than how I ever remember running stairs in the past.

How equally convenient and awful that these stairs are next to our gym

I love fitness, I believe I always will.  I so enjoy pushing my lungs and my muscles and my mental willpower to its limits; I love the challenge of hard things. One of my favorite motivational quotes has always been, "Anything in life worth doing is worth overdoing" and therefore, I hate the fact that this summer I found myself half-assing it through workouts and runs.

There are plenty of excuses I could rattle off - sure.  Injuries, dealing with a new puppy, preparing for an international move.  But the fact of the matter is, people do incredible things, every day, with much bigger things on their plates.

So there's no excuse.

Anyways - the point of this post - there should always be a point, right?  The point is, I'm finally re-grasping once again what's important to me in the health & fitness realm, and slowly crafting some goals.

Last year on Halloween, I was able to run a 10 mile race at a 7 min. pace. This year, current state, I'm really not sure I could hold that for 5 miles.  However, we have a 10k night run coming up here in a few weeks, so I guess that will be a good chance to see where I stand.  And then base running training off of that - as the Mr. and I both recently signed up for the Tel Aviv Half Marathon in February.

except we are doing 13.1

Eek.

Time to start upping that mileage.

Yet I would be remiss if I didn't talk crossfit; it's what allows me to run the distances I want to. If I've learned nothing the past two years when it comes to working out and my body, it's that healthy running doesn't happen with this 5'11'' frame unless I've got the muscles to keep it going strong. And man, am I believer in the importance of strength training (specifically crossfit style) - and how well it pairs with endurance races.

So of course, we became members of Crossfit Tel Aviv day 2 out here, and as motivation and comfort-levels increase (and I go more consistently) I am slowly seeing progress. Even if a workout of snatches and burpees over the bar knocked me on my butt last night - quite literally.

Wrapping up; back to those goals.  They're not quite 'Hang on the fridge' worthy yet, but they're in the making, and I'm excited about it.  I identify as a lot of things, but as far back as I can remember an athlete has always been one of them.  I lost that a little bit recently, but am pumped to feel it starting to come back.

So there you have it, way too long of a post babbling about things you might not necessarily care about.  But if you do, keep your eyes open, I'm hoping to starting talking sweat a little more consistently on here.  I'm huge on tackling new things, setting lofty goals, and talking about stuff that inspires us all to be a little bit more badass.

Cheers -

Kait

Backwards

Fun fact: Our pup Kai turned 11 months this past week, meaning she is officially in her last month of 'puppy-hood'

Kai @ 4 mos - the first day we got her

Speaking of Kai, have I mentioned that she's a huge spaz?  I wouldn't call her uncoordinated, but she does gets distracted super easily.  Her biggest spaz-moments usually happen on walks and runs - something will catch her eye, usually above or behind her.  She stops looking forward, but keeps walking forward, and then runs straight into something.

Scenario from our run this morning:

- Run past another puppy on the beach.  We say hello to puppy, keep jogging.
- Kai decides to look back at the puppy, seeing if perhaps puppy is following us home.  We keep running forward.
- Kai runs into large wooden pole, very startled and momentarily confused.

It's always hard not to laugh at her in those moments; the things she has run into are absurd (sometimes it's me) and there are usually people around who witness it and then look at me like 'what is wrong with your dog?'

good question

The simple answer is, she's looking backwards too often.  

Why am I telling a story about how my dog is a ditz? Because I got to thinking after watching her plow head first into the pole, and realized that there's really not a lot to gain from looking backwards.

Yes, now I'm getting a little bit deep.  Looking backwards is distracting, and usually results in either 1. getting thrown off track and/or 2. Not trusting what is forward.

"Fall" here now has me day dreaming and reminiscing hard.  We've hit a beautiful point in TLV (correction - it's always beautiful) where mornings are dropping into the 50's and it feels fall-ish. The cooler air has me flashing me back to autumns that I've had in Illinois, Colorado, and Baltimore.

Yet looking back like this typically gets me emotional and occasionally sends me yearning to be back in that past situation; back in consistency, and comfort zones.  But the reminiscing game simply isn't very healthy, as I think it takes away from the beauty of current situations. These crazy journeys we are all on has us walking forward for a reason. No matter where you are in life, there is simply more to be gained by embracing the present, and trusting the process.

That's not to say looking back on memories isn't a wonderful thing.  I just think there's perhaps a difference between clinging and longing for the past versus valuing the past, and putting trust in the future. Because if you find yourself looking backwards for too long, you may miss a stair and end up face planting on the marble floor - just ask Kai, who was set on watching the pigeons take a bath this past weekend.

And in the meantime, I'll work on getting Kai to stop with the glancing backwards so often on walks. Although I'm pretty sure that this metaphor doesn't necessarily apply to her - she's always happy, no matter where she is or what she's doing.

The things dogs can teach us.

Cheers friends - 

Kait

May Flowers?

I’m back! After almost 4 straight hours of crazy turbulence on our Denver – Baltimore flight late Sunday night, I wasn’t sure if I would live to blog another day. I’m talking heart pounding, clasping my arm rests type of flight. Good stuff.  What actually was good was the flight into Denver on Friday instead - I was loving the views, per usual.

And of course, the view once we got there  :)

However, it's back to reality now. In the midst of an extremely rainy week here in Baltimore; I suppose I should just remind myself that April showers bring May flowers right? So come Thursday, enough is enough rain.

I squeezed in a couple miles after work last night before the rain rolled in, and then sat down to map out some May goals and thoughts. May is one of my favorite months, for absolutely no reason outside of it kind of being the intro month to summer.  I’ll write a more goal specific post later this week to give you a peep inside my crazy head. 

ya I know.

Something else cool: if you’re into workouts, or link-ups, or both, a more exciting announcement is this: I’m cohosting a Tuesday Blog Link-up for the month of May!

WOOOOOOOO LINK-UPS

Before you pee your pants, here are the deets:

The hosts are Rebecca from Getting to the Show and Chelsea from Delipsch, and they both rock.

Check out Rebecca

Check out Chelsea

May Challenge Guidelines:

Every Tuesday in May Link up with your favorite type of workout. Keep in mind that this link up does not have to be the only thing that you post about; feel free to post about whatever the heck else you want and then throw in your favorite workout/move/circuit at the end, etc., so we can all walk away ready to sweat.

May Link Up Schedule

6th- Favorite Core workout

13th- Favorite Arm workout

20th- Favorite Leg workout

27th- Favorite workout from another blog

It’s a super simple yet useful link up to participate in, especially for the month of May… the appetizer month to the main course summer months…. Ya dig? Come play.

That’s all I’ve got. I’ll be back for some hump day confessions tomorrow. Hold onto your pants.

Cheers -

A Rough One

Today was a rough one.

To start, I woke up feeling as if I had been run over by a train in my sleep. If we are being honest, I was already somewhat sore for the abundance of handstands and roundoffs, paired with some sprinting around in the park on Saturday. But the kind of hurt this morning was the sick kind of hurt.

My savior 

It feels like my body is fighting off the flu or something – I haven’t had much of an appetite, my body hurts and I was super cold last night.

On to more awesome things. Boston was today. Two years ago I was there, but this year I was sitting at my desk pouting because I can hardly run right now. In the midst of the craziness and the media coverage, this picture gave me chills –

A big congrats to Meb Keflezighi for becoming the first American man since 1983 to break that tape first. In the midst of last year’s tragedy, it seems pretty appropriate to me, don’t ya think?

As I sat at my desk and whined like a little girl, one coworker suggested that I start taping my big toe (the bothersome one) to my other toe in order to perhaps promote healing, and give it a little more stability.

Monday, 12:30 PM EST:

don't mind my shitty toenail polish

I’m desperate. So desperate, I may have broken my vow not to run in April. So desperate, I may have signed up for a 5k in early May….

In other news, this past Easter weekend consisted of a lot of glorious deck time:

My roommate recently purchased some new deck furniture, so Andrew and I decided to have our little Easter feast up there while soaking up some sun.

That’s all I’ve got for now. It’s blowing my mind that this is the last full week of April – it FLEW by. Anyone out there ever had a troublesome toe? I should probably be icing before bed too…. suggestions welcome, please and thank you!

Cheers to taping toes - 

K8

Train the Brain

I wrote this lame half-assed post on the flight back from Dallas on Sunday, and then realized it was boring as crap and deleted it. You’re welcome.

Bye Dallas!

Instead, let’s talk about how it’s April.

You know how my crazy little mind works at this point, so you’re probably waiting for me to rattle off a series of things I’m going to strive for in this new month. Well let’s get to it – there are 3 (three).

I’m estatic to be back in Baltimore. The weekend in Dallas was awesome, but most certainly not restful. I’m ready for my routine again this week.

the Friday night performance

One awesome takeaway from this weekend was a speaker we had – John Foley. He touched upon a lot of motivational/teamwork/leadership type of topics, but also mentioned the power of positivity, basically on training your brain to be positive. This may not be exactly how he phrased it, but he described that if you wake up every morning and think of something you are grateful about, that after 24 – 27 days you will automatically start waking up with a positive mindset.

Yes, I love that.

First April goal = work on that positive brain.

Second and third goal kind of go hand-in-hand...

Goal #2 = no running in April.

I actually haven’t run in over a week now. It is just time. Little nagging injuries (including a big toe that’s been bothering me since September) just ain't getting better. And while I CAN run with them, I just don’t think they are gonna go away until I drop down to zero for a while.

                                            

me as I write this.

Between a road trip to Indiana, a visit from my sister and her boy, Easter, and a weekend trip to Colorado to see Andrew's new nephew (YAYY), I predict the month will fly by, and I will survive. Plus I already have a tentative pool date booked for Friday. Never said pool running was out of the picture.

After a month or so I will reevaluate with caution. It's the reason I've yet to schedule a race this year - I'm tired of losing money due to getting hurt. I would love to say by mid-summer/fall I'll have something on the agenda, but that's all speculation. And I'm ok with that. In the meantime, it's strength training, swimming, spinning, the usual. My Crossfit living social deal ends this week which I'm bummed about, but a monthly membership just isn't in the budget right now.

Sigh.

Anyways, goal #3 is to stick to other sweaty options since running is ixnayed. Last night I started the Jillian Michael’s 6-week six pack – it’s a 35 min video on Youtube (part I) – thanks to a recommendation from Kat. I actually really enjoyed it (I don’t normally love the fitness video thing) and am going to commit to doing that, or any other fitness video I stumble upon over the next month or so, 2-3 times per week. Probably in the mornings, because nothing puts me in a thankful mood quicker than starting my day with a little sweat (See what I did there?).

Well this has been fun. Tell me your April goals? Share your fav fitness videos? And have an amazing freaking day.

Cheers –

Kait

Punting

You guys, I have some great news – it’s officially spring!

Baltimore weather cleaned itself up a bit yesterday and today, we pushed 60 degrees and are supposedly doing the same today. I enjoyed a solid 7 miles around the park after work, soaking up all the sun I could get.

I don’t talk about my boyfriend/best friend/better half too much on here, as he is boring prefers to stay out of the spotlight like the coy fox that he is. But I realized a fascinating trend this week, and just had to share.

I like to eat, a lot. We know this. I snack pretty consistently throughout the day at work – probably eating about every 90ish mins or so. I’m not talking like meal sizes, but snacks such as this –

dried cranberries, plantain chips, almonds

I feel pretty confident that I eat more than Andrew – he’s told me his ‘feeding schedule’ before, and he basically eats 3 simple meals, nothing in between.  He’s even told me before that when he’s busy he sometimes forgets to eat lunch, which will forever be a confusing statement to me…

After returning from Chicago last week, I vowed to clean it up a bit. Eating habits in regards to sugar/pizza/alcohol had basically been lax since the holidays, and my work pants were beginning to get angry with me. If we’re being honest, I can’t afford to buy bigger sizes in all colors of my pants, so I opted for the ‘stop eating like a truck driver’ option.

I was serious. I even pulled Andrew aside one night and told him not to tempt me with crap during the week. I EVEN TURNED DOWN HALF PRICE WINE ON DATE NIGHT LAST WEEK.

Food prep is and always will be key for me. The boy is slowly getting on board with that as well.

red pepper with egg/spinach baked into it, paleo pumpkin muffins. breakfast yesterday.

We often call each other Pete. He hates it but can't stop.
 He is also going to hate that I showed this to the world.

Anyways, rewind a few days to this past Tuesday. Weather was cold and crappy, work had been a handful, and the only rower at the gym was broken. On top of it all, traffic was a real gem driving home, and so in the midst of my fury I basically snapped and text Andrew –

‘Pizza tonight?’

He called shortly after, suggesting pizza on Wednesday instead, as Wednesday is typically our date night.

‘No, I want it today, today is officially a cheat day, I just decided.’

Needless to say, he caved without much further argument.

 

buffalo chicken pizza from Saute. so. good. so. bad.
the sauce honestly may or may not be butter?
ignorance is bliss.

I’ve read a few different articles basically stating that being in a relationship can cause weight gain. I mean, it's nothing earth shattering. You form new habits, you feed off of what the other wants to do, you get comfortable, easily cave in, etc. Yet the concept definitely became clearer than ever to me on Tuesday night.

“I hate you for making me eat that, I’m pretty sure I just gained 5 lbs.”

“Andrew, you can’t gain 5 lbs from one meal. It’s fine, it was a cheat day, just eat healthy the week.”

Angry glare.

I rarely drag him down with me. It’s normally the opposite to be honest (love you babe). Yet for one of the first times in a long time, I had shoved mid-week pizza down our throats, and actually felt kind of bad about it.

There is no moral of the story, just me thinking/confessing out loud I suppose. Does anyone else notice the correlation between their eating habits and their relationships – I suppose it could even go as far as friendships as well? It’s interesting stuff; I feel it’s hard for one to stay on track if the other decides to completely punt.

In other news, this weekend we are doing a day trip up to the Big Apple on Saturday to do some sightseeing (I’ve never been to NYC, I know, I know) and to see my friend Les who is up there for work.  It’s a three hour bus trip both ways; I see a lot of reading and Pinterest in my future. The next three weekends I have a lot of travel - New York, Dallas, then Indiana for a wedding.

Speaking of Pinterest, I shall leave you with these two gems -

yes.

Not a fan of pants.

.

Aaaand some #Backthatazzup Friday - a new fav of mine - 

Hope your weekend goes swimmingly, and Spring pops in to hello. Or even better, permanently moves in -

Cheers!

Kait

Doggy Approval

I Facetimed with my dog, Jane, the other night. I would say that’s a pretty good indicator that this weekend was the perfect weekend to pick to go home, seeing that I haven’t been back yet this year, and I can’t have her forgetting who I am.

 

Jane the Pain.

Luckily, Jane loved my new Warby Parker glasses (thanks to all of your for the feedback in deciding) so I’ll keep them around.

\

This week feels short, and busy. Maybe because it is? Monday was a ‘Work from Home’ Snow Day… and while I will complain about the snow, I won’t complain about my lunch break–

I’ve been trying to drink more water in the mornings, because I normally get to work and pound coffee like a mad woman and probably dehydrate myself. New rule – drink a glass of water before my coffee, and after.

Last night I did a spinning workout on my bike, paired with some intermediate jumping around and abs. I’m loosely following this challenge for March, I like the variety that it offers.

sorry for the weird graphic in the background

What I don’t like are taxes; I filed mine on Tuesday and for some reason I owe the state of Maryland money. I happily wrote them a check because hey they deserve it.

If we are being honest, I got pissed after H&R Block told me this, and immediately went upstairs and housed half of the paleo chocolate that I had just made. Don’t worry, the other half disappeared last night.

That’s about all I’ve got for this week. I would be surprised if I write while I’m in Chicago, don’t hold it against me. Andrew and I catch a flight back this evening, for a long weekend at home with my family and friends. I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ll leave you with this cool website that Mizuno sent me in an email the other day – What if everybody ran? Check it out.

Cheers to Friday Eve –

K

snOMG

Another day another dollar. And another winter storm.

At this point I'm pretty sure that celebrating snow in March is sacrilegious, and instead I've switched to shnning it in an effort to lure Spring out from wherever she is hiding... (Spring is obviously a girl, right?)

The weekend was actually a lot of celebrating St. Patrick's day. I realize the holiday itself is still a good two weeks away,  but

1. I'm Irish 

and 

2. Baltimore literally celebrates St. Patrick's day all of March. I full support this.

Friday night a few of us made some St. Paddy's crafts...

instructions how to make the shamrocks can be found here.

 then of course, this happened...

My mom approved of the shamrocks, but not the rainbow. Fair enough.

Saturday there was a Canton Irish Bar Crawl, so of course there were a few car bombs to be had with our pals.

In other news, I ran 8 miles on Sunday, and the hamstring felt a lot better than it has so far this year. I literally just knocked on wood after I typed that. The last thing I need is to jinx the healing.

Sometimes when I'm bored I peruse the PaleOMG site because she's awesome and always full of killer recipes. I tried out a version of her blueberry pumpkin muffin bars yesterday, and instantly fell in love.

This week will be a short one - Andrew and I are Chicago-bound on Thursday for a long weekend with family and friends. To say I'm excited is an understatement.

Hopefully your week is looking solid, and snow free. Any fun plans?

Cheers -

Kait