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? 

A Week of Workouts

Here's what happened in my little world of work-outs last week. 

Monday: 1 hour cross training (15 minutes stair stepper and 45 minute kickboxing class). 20 minutes upper-body strength. 

Tuesday: 1 hour run for 6.5 miles. It was 70 and sunny and I am not acclimated to the heat yet, so I was struggling. 

Wednesday: 15 minutes of speed work on treadmill for 1.75 miles, 20 minutes of intervals on spin bike for 6.5 miles, and 20 minutes on stair-stepper. It was pouring rain, so I scrapped my bike ride and improvised at the gym. I also went to a yoga class at night. 

Thursday: 1 hour of personal training and 30 minutes on the elliptical. My trainer is going away for 2 weeks so she decided to kill me before she goes. I was so so tired and sore immediately after this work-out, that I couldn't even manage an easy run so I hopped on the elliptical instead. 

Friday: 1 hour and 33 minute run for 9.4 miles. Not sure why I picked the hilliest route for a humid day when I was incredibly sore, but I chugged through. 

Saturday: 1 hour and 23 minutes bike for 20.3 miles. Such a beautiful morning I decided to skip metabolic conditioning at the gym and head out on the bike instead. 

Sunday: 30 minutes run for 3.2 miles and 45 minutes metabolic conditioning. Cranked out a track session (4 x 400 and 4 x 200) before heading to the gym. A week of heavy workouts had caught up with me and my legs felt heavy!

Plus, many hours of puppy chasing and walking. This little dog is keeping me on my toes!

What was your favorite workout last week?

First World Problems Friday

I went for a long run this morning and started feeling pretty sorry for myself because it felt so darn hard! Why does it take so long to get into marathon shape and then what feels like just days to lose that fitness? But after a mile or so, I told myself to snap out of it. I didn't want to spend an hour and half with the Negative Nellie version of myself. So instead, I decided to mock myself to point out just how awesome my life really is.

First World Problems of the Week:

I am so sore from personal training yesterday that I can't bend down to pet my puppy #firstworldproblem

I have 2 pairs of my beloved Asics Gel Cumulus 15's that I got on clearance sitting in my closet taunting me. But I can't wear them until I wear out the New Balance 760's I am currently running in (which I don't like). #firstworldproblem

I can't decide what I want to buy myself for my 30th Birthday in a couple weeks: a new Garmin because mine is dying, or a Fitbit Flex. #firstworldproblem 

For so many months during the freezing winter I just wanted it to be summer. Now it is and I remember how much I hate the humidity and want it to be fall already. #firstworldproblem

I got into the Tri for a Cure for the 4th year in a row (everyone wants to do it so they have a lottery system), and now I am complaining about having to fund-raise $350 for the Maine Cancer Foundation by the end of July. (If you'd like to help me in supporting this amazing cause, you can pledge me here. #firstworldproblem

What are your #firstworldproblems this week?

Sushi

Today is National Running Day which means that everyone else is blogging about running today. I am not. This blog is "mainely" running, which means that really I can post about anything I want. And my mind is just not on running today.

I am too busy with this little pup.

Meet Sushi, our new puppy. What, you didn't know we were looking for a puppy? Well, neither did we! As an avid dog lover, the fiance looks at a bunch of dog rescue sites every day just because he likes looking at cute dogs. He saw this little cutie and sent in an application in on an whim. We got a call yesterday that she was all set for us to come look at. Once we met her, we couldn't say no. I mean look at that adorable under-bite. Plus, she is sweet, fairly calm, and interacted well with our dog Dixie. 

What did we do?! As we are learning, a puppy is a lot of work!! Good thing she's so cute. 

Because of her build (she is some sort of basset hound, terrier, and maybe golden retriever), I don't think she'll ever be my running buddy. However, I've already discovered that she loves licking the sweat off my face when I get home. So maybe I'll save money on face wipes? 

Have you ever gotten a pet on a whim? Do you have any good puppy training tips to share??

Acknowledge Me!

Saturday morning I was out biking. It was cold and windy and I wasn't feeling great. So when 4 different speedy, male bikers came up behind me at various points in my ride and passed me, giving me about 2 inches of space, all without saying a word, I started to get annoyed. Come on dudes. You may be faster than me, but we are both cyclists. We are both out here dealing with crazy drivers, a million potholes, and a wicked wind.

I was not so much loving my bike on Saturday

Is it really that hard to say "hey"? Or just to lift up a hand in greeting? Or at a very, bare minimum say "on your left" as you come up so you don't scare the crap out of me?

When I am running or biking I always try to acknowledge people when I see them, even if it's just a smile or a nod. It feels rude not to.

Do you acknowledge other runners/bikers/walkers when you see them?