Weekly Review

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  Ours ended up pretty busy but fun overall.  And the week went well from a work out perspective too.  I had to shift things around and change up some things but I ended up getting all my planned workouts in by combining some things.  Here are the details.

Monday - Rest day.  We had a dinner meeting thing from work.  It was 70s themed so here's my attempt at dressing for the theme :)

Tuesday - Rest day

Wednesday - 40 minute run

Thursday - Barre Video

Friday - 3 mile run

We also went out to an interactive art exhibit in the evening.  It was called 29 rooms and it had a bunch of different exhibits.  Some were basically just photo ops for instagram but some were really interactive.  There was one where you were encouraged to create your own art piece in various ways.  For example, you had to draw a portrait of the person sitting across from you but couldn't look down at your paper.  Or you had to make an image of a still life using only colored tape.  There was a separate room where the artist had started a collage and you were encouraged to cut out pieces of patterned paper and add to the collage yourself.  Overall, we both really enjoyed the exhibit.

 

This was an exhibit with dreamscapes

Our still lifes in tape

Saturday - Rest day.  We had errands in the morning and went to Costco to pick up our new glasses.  We also went to a Halloween party in the evening.  I did an Ursula (from the Little Mermaid) cosplay but forgot to take a photo.

New glasses

Sunday - Combined a couple things today.  I did a yoga for strength workout in the morning.  And then we went out to brunch with friends.  We hadn't seen the friends in a while so this ended up being a late brunch (with lots of food and drink) so I was dragging a bit in the afternoon.  I did end up getting out before the sun set but decided to just do a walk instead of a run.  For some reason, my heart rate was really high for just walking so I'm glad I made that decision.

So that was it for the week.  I got in 2 strength training sessions, 2 runs, a long walk, and some yoga.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with that. I had a bit of swelling in my foot this morning but hopefully a couple rest days will help take care of that.  Here's the plan for this week.

Monday - Rest day
Tuesday - Strength training at home
Wednesday - 45 minute run
Thursday - Strength training
Friday - 45 minute run
Saturday - Yoga
Sunday - 60 minute run

 

 I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown!

 

Doing Things I'm Not Good At

I came across a post on Facebook lately about engaging in creative endeavors just for fun, even if you're not good at them.  It really struck a note with me so I wanted to explore the idea a little more here.  I figured I'd join Fairytales and Fitness for their Friday link up and talk a bit about my thoughts on this.

 

The post was essentially about how it's fine to do things we enjoy, just for the pure enjoyment of it.  We don't have to worry about whether we're good at it or turn it into work so that we get better at it.  Sometimes, we can do things just for fun and because it's good for us.  This reminds me about how I feel about running too.

I'm a really slow runner.  I'm not naturally athletic.  Growing up, I always kind of felt like athletic endeavors were for other people, not for me.  I was just not "naturally suited" for them.  That was kind of the message I got from my family as well.  And I'm a recovering type A personality.  Back then, I would never do things if I wasn't sure I would be good at them.

   

Of course I started with sketching my kitties

 But then I discovered that I enjoy running.  And it's good for me.  So why shouldn't I do it just because I'm not that good at it?  And I'm starting to feel the same about creative endeavors and applying this lesson to other areas of my life. 

   

 

Random paisley patterns

I enjoy dancing and I've started sketching.  I'm not good at it, at all.  And I'm not trying to be.  I'm just doodling around in the evenings but having a lot of fun at it.  I think I might try my hand at some writing/journaling as well.

   

 

It was kind of meditative to work on this mandala

 

It's hard not to be critical when I look at the stuff I've drawn, but then I keep reminding myself that the purpose is just to have a creative outlet and have fun.  If that happened, it's a success regardless of the end product.  After all, I'm not planning to make a living as an artist!

Because at the end of the day, it's fun.  And it's good for me to have some sort of creative outlet for my brain.  So I've added it to my habit tracker and am trying to get in a bit at least a couple times per week.  

How about you guys?  Anyone else struggle with doing things that they're not naturally good at?  Or feel like you can't start a new activity if you don't have the time to devote to becoming really good at it?  It's really been a freeing thought that I can just do these things for myself and for fun and it can just be a fun hobby instead of something that I have to work at.

Weekly Review

I hope everyone had a good week!  My week was a little crazy but fun.  But I was very ready to come home on Friday and try to just relax for the weekend.  Here are the details of the week.

Monday - rest day and a flight to Boston in the evening.  My flight ended up delayed so I got there pretty late.  Thankfully my hotel was attached to the airport so that made it easier.  According to my fitbit, it ended up being a 26 minute walk to get to the hotel!

Tuesday - I had a presentation to give in the morning that went pretty well.  And I had some time to hit the hotel gym in the afternoon. It turned out they had a peleton bike so I decided to change up my plan to do that instead of use the treadmill.  I figure I don't always have access to one so it made sense :) And I used the hotel weights for strength training afterward.

Wednesday - rest day.  I had a full day at the conference and a business dinner so I didn't get back to the hotel until late.  The expo area at the conference had puppies so that was a plus!

Thursday - Yoga in my hotel room since I had time after the conference sessions but before a business dinner.

Friday - 2 hour walk after the conference was over to explore the Freedom Trail in Boston.  It was really cool to see so many historic sites so close to each other.  I had downloaded an audio guide on my phone so I was able to get some detailed information on the sites while walking too. And a flight back home in the evening, thankfully everything was on time for the return flight.

Saturday - Strength training at home.  I also had a visit with the eye doctor that I've been putting off for way too long.  I got some new glasses that I'm pretty excited about, they should be ready next week.

Sunday - Rest day.  I had planned to go for a run today but it ended up raining all day.  I thought about going to the gym but honestly, I really needed a lazy day at home to recover from traveling last week and before meetings this week.  I think work travel just feels exhausting because I have to be "on" all the time.  

 

And lots of time cuddling with the cats too

So I got in two strength training sessions, 1 peleton class, a long walk, and 1 yoga session.  I didn't get in any runs but I think that was for the best.  I began to feel some heel pain again during the long walk on Friday (I even wore sneakers!) so a couple extra days of rest will hopefully help.  Friday ended up being a lot of walking with the conference, the Freedom Trail and then the airport.  It ended up being 19,567 steps according to my fitbit.

I didn't really do any food prep for the week either.  But we did clean the house, do dishes, get groceries, plan out dinners for the week.  So hopefully that will go well even without the food prep.  And I have some oatmeal cups for breakfasts at work and hummus to make sandwiches for lunch.

Here's the plan for this week.

Monday - Rest day and evening meetings at work
Tuesday - Strength training at home
Wednesday - 30 minute run
Thursday - 45 minute run
Friday - Strength training
Saturday - Yoga
Sunday - 45 minute run

 I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown!

 

Weekly Review

This week was a mixed bag.  Work was crazy and I got informed at the end of the week of a last minute business trip I need to take.  I'm covering for my boss and need to give a presentation she was scheduled for on a topic I know nothing about.  Wish me luck!

I'm leaving today and will be gone for the week so also had to scramble and try to clear my calendar for this week.  I did get in my planned 3 runs but only one session of strength training instead of 2 and no yoga.  But my foot felt ok for the most part so that's good news.  And I got new running shoes so that helps too.  The Brooks just don't seem to last as long as the Sauconys for some reason.

Anyway, here are the details of the week.

Monday - Wednesday - rest days

Thursday - 30 minute run after work

Friday - 30 minute run around lunch time

Saturday - Barre video on You Tube - it was ok.  I got a good work out but it was really repetitive.

Sunday - 45 minute run in my new shoes

We also went to the kitten lounge Sunday which was a great way to unwind before my trip today :)

No food prep since I'll be eating conference food all week.  But we did try out some new restaurants over the weekend.  We went to an all veggie taco place and a new sushi place by our house.  They had vegan mochi!

 

Collard greens taco, mushroom taco and beet taco

 

Veggie sushi sampler

Here's the plan for the week

Monday - Rest day and traveling to Boston
Tuesday - 30 minute treadmill plus weights at hotel gym
Wednesday - Yoga in hotel room
Thursday - Weights at hotel gym
Friday - 45 minute run in Boston
Saturday - Strength train
Sunday - 45 minute run

I hope everyone else had a great week as well.  I loved waking up Saturday morning to the news that Kipchoge had broken the 2 hour barrier and ran 26.2 miles in less than 2 hours.  And the next day that the women's record for the marathon was broken at Chicago.  Also, congratulations to everyone that ran Chicago!

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown!

 

Weekly Review

Last week went pretty well!  I got up to 30 minutes of cardio 3 times per week and my foot seems ok for the most part.  I got in all my planned workouts which is also a win. Here are the details.

Monday - rest day.  I had planned on yoga in the evening but we had an unexpected visitor.  So I moved things around to do the yoga Tuesday and double up workouts on Wednesday.

Tuesday - Runner's World yoga

 

Wednesday - 30 minutes on the elliptical plus 45 minute body pump class

Thursday - 30 minute run after work (I was pretty sore from body pump the day before)

Friday - Barre video on You Tube

 

Saturday - 30 minute run and then spent the day with friends at the Renaissance Fair.

Sunday - I tried a spin class at the gym.  It was supposed to be a 45 minute class but ended up more like an hour.  I actually left at the hour mark and they hadn't started the cool down yet.  I enjoyed it but I definitely felt some twinges in my foot toward the end so an hour may have been a bit too much.

I did do some recovery yoga Sunday evening and used the foot massager and that helped my sore muscles.  I'm glad today's a rest day!

Sunday was also groceries and meal prep - tofu scramble for my lunches this week

 Here's the plan for the week

Monday - Rest day plus happy hour with some old friends
Tuesday - 30 minute run
Wednesday - Body Pump
Thursday - 30 minute run
Friday - Strength train
Saturday - 45 minute run
Sunday - Spin (supposedly one of the branches of my gym has a peleton bike so I might look for that) and recovery yoga

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown!

 

Royal Caribbean Mediterranean Cruise

This is the last post about for my trip review!  I have two posts about Rome, Part 1 and Part 2. So now I'm going to talk about our cruise on Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Sea.  It was supposed to be  3 days at sea and 4 stops in Greece, Katakalon, Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini.

The first day was a sea day.  It was super quick getting on the ship.  We had a shared shuttle from Rome, were picked up around 10am and were at the port a little after 11.  I think we were on the ship by 11:30.  It really was well organized and very quick.  The first thing we did was go to the Windjammer buffet for lunch.  It was easy to find a table when we got there but got pretty crowded by 12. We had work our swim suits under our clothes so we went to the Solarium adult pool after lunch.  This was the quietest I ever saw the pool so the first day is definitely a good option for some pool time.

First day of pool time

They made the announcement that rooms were ready a little after 1 pm.  Once we were done with the pool, we headed down to our rooms to put away our carry on bags.  Our suitcases arrived not too much later so we unpacked and put everything away.  We were in an outside room and while it was small, it was well laid out and had plenty of room for all our stuff to be put away.

 Sail away drinks

Then we had to go to the muster drill and wait around while that happened.  It was hot and crowded and a little unpleasant, but I know that it's good to do for our safety just in case there was an emergency.  The ship staff were all very efficient but other passengers showing up late kind of made the whole process longer.  After that, we went to the pool bar, got drinks, and enjoyed the sail away party.  After that, I'm sure we just explored the ship, checked out a couple bars, and went to dinner in the main dining room.  I think we ended up skipping the show that night because we were tired.

The next morning we sailed through the Strait of Messina, which was pretty cool.  We could see Sicily on one side and mainland Italy on the other. Sadly this was while I was trying to use the track and it was pretty crowded from everyone taking in the view.  This was the first full sea day so we spent time relaxing, hanging out by the pool, doing trivia, etc.  We also had dinner in the sushi restaurant instead of the main dining room and it was pretty good.

 

Sicily in the background

Veggie sushi

The next day was Santorini.  Santorini is a small island and there were 5 cruise ships the day we were there.  That made things really crowded and it felt like the number of people kind of overwhelmed the island.  We had booked a cruise ship excursion that showed us around various villages on the island and included a stop at a distillery for an ouzo tasting.  It left us off in Fira, which is a town at the top of the cliff where the cruise ships dock.  We had an amazing dinner overlooking the sea with a view of the sunset from our table.  But then we had to wait an hour in line to take the cable car down to the port area.  There was a way to walk down but I had heard it can get slippery due to the donkey poo so we just waited in the line.  We thankfully got back to the ship in plenty of time.  And that night was the white party so we enjoyed some pool side dancing.

The next day was supposed to be Mykonos.  We had booked a day pass at a local hotel on our own and had planned to make this a beach day.  Sadly, the wind had really picked up and the tender boats weren't able to make it.  So the Captain decided it wasn't safe and we had to skip the island.  That meant this was another sea day.  Thankfully the hotel we had booked us with had let us know in advance that they wouldn't charge us if the ship wasn't able to anchor.  The staff hustled to get some activities set up for the day.  As soon as we heard that this would be a sea day, we booked it up to the pool and got some chairs so we could spend the morning pool side.  This worked out because it got super crowded by an hour later.  I also took advantage of the unexpected ship time with some working out in the gym.

 

Pool side sunrise and drinks

Sunset as we pulled into Piraeus (near Athens) - since we skipped Mykonos we were able to overnight in Athens and some people did get off to check out the night life

The next day was Athens.  We had booked a semi-private excursion with a local company (PK Travel) and this was much better than the giant cruise ship excursion.  There were only 10 people and we were in a comfortable van.  We really enjoyed this tour, the tour guide was great and it was so much more fun than it would have been in a giant group.  It was easier to navigate and see things.  We also had a chance to grab lunch at a small restaurant in Athens before heading back to the ship.

 The next day was Katakalon.  This port is mostly known for the proximity to the site where the ancient Olympics were held.  We had booked an excursion with the cruise ship and it was a giant group on a bus.  I kind of regretted this and wished we had gone with a local tour instead.  The group just moved at a really slow pace and it was kind of frustrating.  It was also pretty hot that day and I'm sure that played a part in my bad mood.  But it was cool to see the Olympics site and the museum that held alot of the artifacts that had been excavated from the area. I think that evening we watched a movie poolside after dinner.

The next day was the last sea day and our last day on the ship.  We got up early to grab some seats by the pool.  We were early enough that it was fairly empty and I was even able to swim some laps before it got crowded.  We had lunch booked at the steakhouse (the fancy restaurants are cheaper at lunch time) and they made my a yummy pasta dish.  They actually made me TWO pasta dishes because they weren't sure which one I would like the best?  It was obviously too much food but it was delicious.  We skipped dinner in the main dining room since we were still not too hungry at that point and just went to the buffet to grab some small snacks.  There was an interesting Beatles cover band that evening too.

And then the next morning we were back in Italy!  We got off the ship bright and early.  That was an easy process too.  We took our bags off ourselves since we didn't have too much luggage.  We waited outside for our shuttle and he showed up right on time at 8am.

So that's it for the cruise!  Overall review of the ship is that it was good but definitely on the smaller side.  The food was good but not great, except at the restaurants that had an extra charge.  That food was worth the money but we only did it twice during the 7 days.  The smaller ship definitely meant that the entertainment was a little lacking.  We went to a couple shows but they all seemed mediocre.  Adding in an extra sea day contributed to that feeling that there wasn't really enough to do on the ship.  It's great for an itinerary with a lot of time in port but I would definitely want more to do if there were a lot of sea days.  The service was great, the ship was really clean and well maintained, there was plenty of food.  We didn't have the drink package and didn't feel like we needed it.  We were allowed to take two bottles of wine on board and I used that for most of my alcohol needs.  Mike just bought cocktails or beer whenever he wanted and this still ended up being much cheaper than the drink package would have been.  The free coffee was pretty undrinkable and we did end up buying some of the Starbucks coffee, but even with that, it was still more cost effective for us to not have the package.

I'm so classy with my Yeti tumbler of wine

So that's my trip review of our time in Europe.  We had a great time overall and I'm happy to answer any questions :)