Weekend Eats

It is finally summer in Maine, which means there are lots of fun festivals going on. As is my habit, I gravitated the food centric ones.

Strawberry Festival

Strawberry shortcake or strawberry sundae? My life is full of hard decisions.
I went with the shortcake and then still proceeded to eat at least as many strawberries as I picked. Good thing they don't weigh you on the way out!

The Greek Festival

This where I pretend I am part of a huge Greek family and feast on delicious Greek food made by adorable Greek Grandma's. I love me some spanikopita.

Even more, I love me some dessert. They have these amazing little fried donut things topped with honey nut butter.

We may have gotten a second order.....

And also gotten a box of assorted pastries to take home.........

So Sunday started with nice brick workout- bike 6 miles, run 4, and bike 9. 

Hey, life is all about balance. 

What delicious things did you eat this weekend??

Yoga by the Sea

Last week I taught my first class a certified yoga teacher! I recently got my 200 hour yoga teacher certification and decided to offer a series of free classes outside this summer. It's a win-win for everyone: I get some extra practice teaching, my students get a free class, the Maine Cancer Foundation gets donations, and we all get to enjoy the beautiful Maine summer!

We practiced at Fort Williams, home of Portland Head Light. How lucky am I to have this gorgeous spot 5 minutes from my house?

I was worried that I might not like teaching yoga as much as I like doing yoga, but that is not the case at all. I love teaching! It's a fun challenge to put a class together and make a playlist. I love watching my students release everything that is bothering them over the course of the class. I love watching them challenge themselves. I love moments when I help them make an adjustment to a pose and suddenly something clicks for them. 

I also just love practicing outside. There is something about the sound of the sea, the feeling of the sun and breeze, and the stunning view that just makes my heart so happy. I have such an easier time letting go and being in the moment. 

If you are in the area, join us Thursdays at 5:30 by the flag pole at Fort Williams!

Bachelorette and Birthday Weekend

This weekend I celebrated both my upcoming wedding and my birthday. My wonderful, wonderful friends

planed an amazing weekend full of things I totally loved. 

Saturday I got in a car knowing only that we were heading to Boston. I was pretty curious, since I'd been told to wear yoga clothes for our first activity, which is not typical bachelorette attire. We stopped briefly to check into our hotel and for my friends to deck me out.

I soon learned why I was in comfy clothes- we were taking a private belly dancing class. It was a blast and we did a lot of laughing at ourselves, but I was also surprised at how much work it was. My obliques and my arms were burning!

Post belly dancing we headed back to the hotel to get prettied up, and have a few drinks too of course.

Dinner was at Lolita. At this point I had totally embraced the idea of letting other people make all the plans, and just ate and drank whatever people put in front of me. It was a good strategy- strawberry sangria, shrimp queso, and a trio of different guacs, it was all great. We ended the meal with shots and a pop-rock cotton candy!

My friends know me well enough to know that a little cotton candy isn't enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, so the next stop was Max Brenner. That place is basically my heaven on earth. It seems like chocolate wonderfulness as soon as you walk in the door. I was so busy shoving delicious chocolate things into my mouth and didn't take a single picture. 

Riding our sugar high, we headed to Liquor Store, which is a club. I was definitely feeling my age inside, because I felt like everyone else in there was 21! But, I had a blast dancing with my friends and we even gave the mechanical bull a ride. It's nice to know I still have a good party night in me, even at 30 and almost married!

We had an after party in our hotel before we finally passed out, way past my normal bed time. It was great to catch up with my friends and I felt so celebrated and special. Thanks Friends!

And tomorrow I will be back to exercise and eating foods that are not chocolate or fried. 

What do you wear under there?

I've been running for more than 10 years and I still haven't figured out the underwear question. Namely, should I wear it or not?

I've gone back and forth. I'll wear it for awhile and then not wear it for a bit. Honestly neither one is ideal.
With it, I am constantly tugging it back into place, worried about panty lines, and chafing on long runs. Without it, my shorts/tights seem to develop a perma-stink, I worry about accidental over-exposure, and I still chafe.

I was hoping that maybe I'd finally found the perfect solution with some running specific underwear. I'd never gotten a pair before because I just couldn't bring myself to pay $15 for a single pair. But, Olympia Sports sent me a $10 certificate for my birthday so I splurged on a pair of Under Armour Pure Stretch Cheeky briefs.

I was a little worried because they come in a single size. The box claimed that the seamless was stretchy enough to adapt to all "athletic" sizes. 

It did......kind of. They seemed slightly too wide in the front and not quite wide enough in the back. They also rode a little too low in the back my my liking. I don't so much go for the plumber look if you know what I mean. 

I tested them on a 9 miler under a pair of compression shorts. I can't say that they really performed any better than my non running underwear does. They still rode up occasionally so I had to do the stop-light wedgie pick and they still chafed slightly. 

So now I'm back at square one. To wear or not to wear, that is the question?

Do you wear underwear running or to workout? Have you found the perfect brand (if so please share)

Friday 5

There are just so many great things happening in my life today that it totally makes up for the fact that it is pouring rain! I am so exited about them all that I don't even know where to start. 

1. I got my birthday present a couple days early- a Garmin 220. I've been playing with it for the last half hour and love it already! It is so much more comfortable than my old 405 and the controls work so much better. I got the heart rate monitor too, so I've been wearing it around the house just for fun. I can't wait to take this baby out for a run!

2. I'm a certified yoga teacher! I got the message last night- I got a 97% percent on my practical, a 100% on my written, and a 100% on my essay! To celebrate, I'll be offering a free (donations to Maine Cancer Foundation accepted gladly) series of classes on Thursday night, outside by the flag pole at Fort Williams. Please come! Or if you aren't local, and still want to donate click here

3. I volunteered at the Twilight 5k last night. It's been awhile since I volunteered at a race and I had more fun than if I'd run it. I was a course marshal and it was neat to get to see every single runner. I could see people visibly respond as I cheered for them. And I even shocked myself by shouting my least favorite thing to hear as a runner- "you're almost there!" (They still had half a mile).



4. My birthday is this weekend. The big 30. We are heading up to my Mom's to celebrate. Hopefully we can get the boat in the water by the end of the weekend. Then it will really feel like summer.

5. My new puppy is a hoarder. She keeps dragging her bed and all her toys into a big pile in the middle of the floor.

How's your Friday going? What are your plans for the weekend?

#TBT 20

I am turning 30 this weekend and this morning on my run I started thinking back to what my life was like when I turned 20.

I had just finished my sophmore year at Wheaton and was home working on Cabbage Island for the summer before I headed off to Italy for my junior year abroad. It was about that time I finally considered myself a runner.

I started running near the end of high school for the wrong reason; I had an eating disorder and I was trying to lose more weight. Running was a punishment for eating. I hated it and it was so hard (mostly because I was starving). But over my first two years of college that changed. I found a wonderful group of friends in the Wheaton Running Club. They showed me that running could be social and fun, but in order to run well and long you had to fuel your body.

80's garb for a Halloween Race in 2003

My eating issues didn't magically disappear, but I did start to get better. Running gave me this incredible sense of pride and accomplishment that allowed me to see my body for what it could do, not just for what it looked like. In the year that I was 19 I ran my first half-marathon in Hyannis. It was something that I never thought I'd be able to do. Now 10 years later I've run more than 10 halves and 6 marathons on 5 continents. Running has become this integral part of who I am. 

Where will running bring me in the next decade?

 What were you doing 10 years ago?

Karma

So last week I wrote a post about how much it annoys me when male bikers fly by me without saying a word. They get way too close to me and then act as if I don't exist! Well, this weekend I saw karma in action. There is this one particular group of guys that rides around me that is the worst. They ride in this huge pack and take up the whole road. Drivers and other cyclists alike hate them.

*not the actual group of guys, just a random internet pic*

On Saturday they swarmed around me just as I was getting ready to take a left. Not only could I not take my left, but they ran me right into this giant hole full of rocks! I didn't get a single sorry. I just got off my bike and waited for them to pass. Later in my ride I saw an ambulance pass, then a few minutes later another one passed, and then another one. As I neared the tip of Black Point, there was a road block and I was told there was a big bike pile up. Yep- the poor riding etiquette caught up to them and they crashed.

I hoped no one was seriously hurt of course, but I also couldn't help but feel a little vindicated.

On my way home, a group of women passed me. Every single one of them said something nice to me as they went by.

Do you notice a different between men and women when it comes to sportsmanship? Do you think women are more encouraging? What lapse of etiquette bothers you the most?