Snowy Thursday

This morning while driving into work I was convinced that I was going to write an explosive, ranty post in regards to how horrific Maryland is at clearing their highways of snow.

Lucky for you guys, I’m already over it.

Today did mark my first Maryland snowfall since moving here, and even though everyone freaked out and refused to drive normally, it still made me pretty happy.

Supposedly it’s National Peanut Butter Day? And National Canned Beer Day? And Compliment Day?  I don’t make this stuff up. Have I mentioned you guys are the best readers ever?

I went on a super cold 7 miles after work yesterday, and I’m pretty sure I gave myself permanent skin damage. That may be an exaggeration, I’m not sure yet. Regardless, my face felt raw afterwards and I couldn't feel my fingers. I've had my fair share of single digit temperature runs when I lived in Colorado, but I’m pretty convinced that this ‘humid’ Maryland type of cold is similar to a heat seeking missile… it gets in your bones.

I tucked my Under Armour cold gear top into my compression pants and it looked like I was running in a body suit which I’m sure was a sight to see. Sorry I'm not sorry that I didn't take a picture of it.

Two more reasons for you think I’m weird:

1. I wore my compression socks to work today.

2. My ideal start to dinner when its 20 degrees outside is a smoothie. I don’t have an explanation for it really.

Nonetheless, I promised my banana-hater coworker that I would make her a banana-less smoothie. Here’s what I came up with.

Cherry Almond Smoothie

-1 cup (frozen or raw) pitted cherries

-1 heaping scoop of almond butter

-1 TB of vanilla extract

-Ice

-1 cup of milk (I used vanilla soy)

*I also added a dash of ginger for a little spice

  

These guys are from Target I believe?

This smoothie was light and delicious, it really surprised me. It also gave me a brain freeze.

That's all for today folks. I plan to throw some weights around after work, and hopefully dance practice with Andrew. You should see the looks we get from his roommates when we clear out his living room and yell at each other practice our most recent moves.  :)

Cheers my friends!

Bad Samples, Good Weekend

I had every intention of writing a new post yesterday. And then laziness set in... and I sat. And watched football. And ate. And stretched. And watched more football.

I wore this ensemble all day long, including errand-running. 

 Overall, solid weekend. Uneventful, not exceptionally productive but solid.

I made a trip to a local apple orchard with my roommate, where I managed to get a variety of things that made me unreasonably excited. For example:

Which I slathered onto a slice of pumpkin bread this morning. DOUBLE PUMPKIN GREATNESS.

I also got three mini pumpkins, one which I gave to Andrew, and two which now sit in my room.

Let’s see, what else…

I knocked out 20 miles on Sunday, which actually went pretty well. It was a cool morning, and an old man complimented me on my ‘cool green socks’. Believe me, at mile 16 I’ll take any compliment I can get. 

post-run

Since the Philly Half my coach Amanda has lowered my long-run pace to the 8:20-8:30 range, so like an obedient student I managed to hold a steady 8:24 pace… in contrast to my 8:40’s the past couple few weeks. By the time I got home from the run it was already 11:30, and time to go to Costco.

Yes.

Cliff note: typically I’m able to literally feed myself lunch from Costco samples alone. Sadly, yesterday the sample people really let me down, and Andrew and I left having to immediately tear into the massive bag of veggie straws that he bought. Bad samples literally have the ability to ruin my day. Thank goodness for veggie straws.

I also bought this:

That, my friends, is 10 lbs of oatmeal. Which will hopefully get me through the winter. Maybe?

And here we are, Monday afternoon.  My left hip is strangely sore, which of course calls for some foam rolling tonight... maybe even the hot tub?

With New York only 6 weeks out, I plan to be overly proactive with injury prevention. This means foam rolling, foot stretching, heating/icing, etc. Yet Just to be clear, it DOES NOT mean omitting froyo from my diet. Not possible.

Last but certainly not least, congrats to a dear friend of mine, Miss Hode, for a massive marathon PR this weekend out in Omaha- You rock!

I'll leave you with this my friends. And don't forget it.

Cheers!!