Food for the Week

Since we're at home, I'm definitely cooking more.  So I though I'd share some of the things we've eaten this week :)  And I'm taking the opportunity to join up with Fairytales and Fitness for their Friday link up.

 

Breakfasts have been steel cut oats with strawberries and almond milk.  Lunches have mostly been hummus sandwiches with veggies or leftovers.  And dinners have been a variety.

We ordered from a local Chinese Restaurant one day, and that not only provided a delicious dinner but leftovers for lunch too.

   

Rice, General Tso's Tofu, Schezuan Green Beans and Stir Fried veggies

We have a Thai red curry with tofu and broccoli over noodles.  Sadly I forgot to take a photo of this one.

Next was a chickpea, potato and kale curry served over rice.  I started with a recipe from Vegan Richa but modified it pretty heavily.   

Yesterday we had burrito bowls made in the Instant Pot.  This was really easy and surprisingly delicious.  I used this recipe and the only change I made was to increase the liquid since people in the comments had talked about burning.  And lets be honest, burrito bowls are all about toppings :)  I had tomatoes, shredded veggies, pickled jalapenos and avocado on mine.

So many toppings it's hard to see the actual burrito bowl underneath

Mike also made an amazing vegan cake since this was the official anniversary of the date we had met.  It was so delicious that I forgot a photo!

So that's been some of the food we've been eating while social distancing.  I'd love to hear what you all have been eating during this time :)

Friday Five - 2018 Goals Update

I'm back from Florida!  We had a great trip and got home around midnight on Wednesday night.  For those of you not following me on Instagram, I was able to finish the Disney World marathon while I was down there.  It was an amazing trip and a great race, and I hope to have my recap up next week.  In the meantime, I realized that it's already mid January and I haven't looked at my 2018 goals yet.  So here's a recap of how my goals for last year went.  I'm joining in with Fairytales and Fitness for the Friday link up.

1. Sub 3 hour half marathon - This did not come anywhere close to happening.  My Spring half marathon ended up being a DNS due to tendinitis.  I was hoping to do the Nationwide Columbus half marathon in the Fall since its flat but my travel schedule didn't work out and I did the Baltimore Running Festival instead.  The hills killed me on that one.  I also did Race 13.1 Baltimore, which was nice and flat, but I was deliberately keeping it at an easy pace for most of that one and finished in 3:11: 15.

Baltimore Running Festival

2. Get back to body pump - This went really well!  I was able to keep up with going to Body Pump at least once a week for the most part and made it twice a week some times. 

3.  700 miles - I didn't quite make this one but I'm happy with where I ended up for the year given that there were 5 weeks I was in an ankle brace and couldn't run at all.  I ended up with 691 miles for the year.

4.  Read more non-fiction (6 books) -  Another one that I got close on.  I finished 5 non-fiction books in 2018.  I read a Mindy Kaling biography, a book about cat evolution, and a book about the future of humanity in the first half of the year.  In the second half of the year I read Trevor Noah's Born a Crime and Wild by Cheryl Strayed.  I didn't quite get in 6 as I kept getting distracted by fiction from the library.

5.  Cook more at home -  I was better about this for most of the year.  Getting the Hungry Harvest box was really helping for most of the year.  Though as marathon training ramped up, we went back to cooking tried and true simple recipes at home.  The Instant Pot also helped with quick and easy weeknight recipes we could make at home.

Lentil Tortilla Soup

So that's how last year went.  I'm pretty happy with how most of the goals went, given that there was a point in Spring where I couldn't run at all.  I'm not sure what my plans for this year will be yet.

Friday five - random things

I hope everyone is doing well and had a good week!  We've got another rainy Friday here but I'm hoping it will clear up in time for a run in the afternoon.  When it's again supposed to be in the 60s!  I'm not going to complain about warm weather though :)  In the meantime, I realized it's been a while since I've linked up with the Friday link up from Fairytales and Fitness and I figured I have to join up with the last one of the year! So here are some random things that have been on my mind.

Library books - I finally fixed the issue with my library card earlier this year and I'm able to borrow ebooks and audio books from the library again.  I've definitely been enjoying that. I got super excited last week because I thought library books came with the function that you could read them or listen to them as audio books.  But nope, that only works if you get both the ebook and audio book. And they may not both be available at the same time.  But still, it's a nice option for when it works out.  Last week, I was really into a book, but had to go for a run.  Then I realized I could listed to the audio book when I ran and that made it much better!

Blogger card exchange - I participated in Fairytales and Fitness' blogger holiday card exchange and got my card last week.  It was so cool, and I love that it included a shoe charm.  I've already put it on my running shoes!  Thanks to Meg Go Run for the really cool card :)

Cat tree - My cousin got us a cat tree for the cats and they've been loving exploring it!

So that's it for me this Friday :)  I hope that everyone has a great Friday and a great weekend!

AfterShokz Trekz Air

I hope you all had a great week!  We had a bit of snowy weather here but thankfully I was able to work from home and stay warm.  I thought I'd take this opportunity to get back on track with blogging and talk about the Aftershokz Trekz Air headphones that I've been wanting to review for a while.  I figure this is also a good time to link up with Fairytales and Fitness for their Friday link up.

 

I had been using wireless earbuds from Amazon but they were pretty cheap.  And I had bought the same ear buds like three different times because they eventually stopped working at some point.  The most recent pair I had stopped charging so I decided to stop buying cheap earbuds and try to invest in something that will hopefully last longer.

I had been reading great reviews of Aftershokz so I decided to give them a try.  And I love them!  The unique thing about Aftershokz is the headphones don't actually go in your ears.  They use bone conduction so that you can still hear things going on around you.  Which is great for running. 

Sweaty post run photo - you can see that my ears are completely uncovered

 Here are some things I've noticed so far.

1.  Comfortable and light weight!

2.  Can definitely hear better and I can hear everything going on around me while running.

3.  They're a little weird if the volume is too high though because you can feel them vibrate.

4.  Another downside is that sometimes, you do want to tune out the world.  For example, at the gym or on an airplane.  They come with ear plugs to help with that, but I prefer just using some old wired ear buds I have for those types of situations.

5.  I'm still trying to figure out battery life.  So far, so good.  I even forgot to turn them off after my last two hour run and they had plenty of battery when I finally notices several hours later.  So it seems like the battery life is pretty long lasting.  The website specifies 6 hours of battery life.

Health update

August is almost over and I haven't participated in the Friday Five since July!  This is a great link up hosted by Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness and I'm excited to be joining up again.  I talked earlier in the year about how I had various health things going on so I thought I'd take the time to provide a quick update.  It helps that the news is pretty much all positive!
 

1. Thyroid - One of the things I had found out earlier in the year that the dosage of the thyroid medication I had been taking for years was all of a sudden too high.  So my doctor lowered the dosage pretty drastically and now the dosage is too low.  So we've moved to a middle dosage and I'm feeling pretty good so I'm optimistic that this is the right dose.  But at least I know to keep checking more frequently for now so we can keep monitoring the dose until we get it right.

 

Vegan ramen noodles for lunch earlier this week

2. Cholesterol - Yay!  My cholesterol numbers were significantly down.  They're still high but much less concerning then they were last time.  I'm not sure what I did that got this result.  I have started taking a high dose of vitamin D since those levels were down too but that can have a side effect of lowering cholesterol levels.  I've also been trying to transition to a more plant based diet.  I'm not always successful but I think heading in this direction has been helpful too.

3. Foot - I'm back to running 4 times per week and my foot has been feeling pretty good!  I've been noticing some pain in my arch after speed work so I've been trying to be good about icing afterwards.  Fingers crossed on this one but the tendinitis seems to be staying away for now.

4. Knee - I have one more PT appointment I need to schedule but this seems to be behaving as well.  It was my calf and hips that had led to the knee problem and I've been good about calf stretches though I probably need to work more on hip strengthening.

Back to body pump this week!

5. Neck - The neck thing had only started a couple weeks ago.  I think it was a muscle strain in my upper back or neck but I had a massage earlier this week and it was like magic!  I can turn my head again and I finally made it back to body pump yesterday.

So that's how things are going for me.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with how things have been progressing over the Summer and fingers crossed that the forward progress continues :)

Friday Five - Goals Update

I hope everyone had a great week!  I've realized it's been months since I joined the Friday Five so I'm excited to be joining up again.  It's a wonderful link up hosted by Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness.  We're more than half way through the year so I'm going to check up on my goals again and see how things are progressing.
 

1.  1. Sub 3 hour half marathon - Well, my running related goals have hit an obstacle due to the tendinitis I was dealing with earlier this year.  My Spring half marathon ended up being a DNS.  But I still have a half coming up in October.  And the Nationwide Columbus half marathon is nice and flat.  I'm just going to be diligent about training and see what happens, but I don't want to push too hard and risk injury again.

All smiles after my PR half from December 2016 

2. Get back to body pump - This has been going well!  Again, a little bit of a set back because the doctor had said no body pump when I had the tendinitis but I've been going again and really enjoying it. 

3.  700 miles - I'm behind on this but still hope that I can make up the difference on the back half of the year, fingers crossed.  I'm only at 250 miles so far and I should be at more than 350 by now.  So we'll see what happens with this one.

4.  Read more non-fiction (6 books) -  I've read 2 and am working on a third, so I think I'm on track for this one.  I read a Mindy Kaling biography and a book about cat evolution.  I'm currently reading a book that's speculating about the future of humans but this one is taking me a while.  Part of it is because I keep getting distracted by fiction but part of it is that this one just isn't interesting me as much as I thought it would.

5.  Cook more at home -  I've been better about this as well.  Getting the Hungry Harvest box is really helping.  It kind of forces us to cook since we have fresh produce being delivered to the house every two weeks.

Roasted vegetables from a dinner party earlier this year

So that's the progress on my goals.  Several of them were impacted by tendinitis but we'll see what happens the rest of the year!

Friday Five - Physical Therapy

It's Friday!  I had some heel pain throughout the week but I was able to sue the elliptical without pain yesterday so fingers crossed it's gone.  Just in time for tomorrow's 5k.  But first, it's time for the Friday Five link up hosted by Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness. I'm going to take the opportunity to talk about my physical therapy appointment last week.









1. So far I've had two appointments with the Physical Therapist and one with her assistant.  They seem to be really helping.


2.  The PT said last week that my calf and knee seem much better.  And I agree, they do both feel a lot better.  She said there was still a trigger point in my calf but it's still an improvement.

3.  However, my achilles is still super tight.  I think part of that is because I couldn't do the achilles manipulation she had recommended while I was in the ankle brace.  And to be honest, the achilles manipulation really hurts and I'm even concerned it may have been partially what led to the peroneal tendinitis. 

 

Infographic from www.handandortho.com/

4.  The PT recommended Dry Needling if the achilles and trigger point in the calf aren't better by next time.  I know a lot of people have commented that dry needling has helped them out so I was happy to hear her say that.

5.  She did do some achilles manipulation while I was there and it hurt while she was doing it, but really increased the range of motion in my ankle.  I had gotten so used to it that I had no idea how much my range of motion had decreased in that ankle!

So that's the summary of my physical therapy so far.  It's been helping and I'm hopeful that it will help things continue to get better.

Friday Five - shoes

This has been a busy week, with 2 evenings taken up with meetings.  And I’ve got family visiting this weekend so it looks like it will be busy too.  But first, it's time for the Friday Five link up hosted by  Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness.  Here are 5 things that I've been thinking about when it comes to shoes.

1.  Rotate shoes?  I love my Saucony Guides!  And I’m pretty good about getting new shoes and switching them out every 6 months.  But I can’t decide, should I try a different type of shoe and rotate between the two?  I’ve heard that’s better for your feet?  Do you guys run in different type of shoes?

2.  Strength training?  I also read something recently about running shoes not being right for strength training... has anyone else heard that?  I have to admit I wear my running shoes for all types of activity and cross training. 

3.  The shoe tag from momentum jewelry makes me so happy every time I look down and see it!  It’s such a little thing but I love it.

4. Work shoes - I love my Sketchers sandals for Summer work shoes.  They are really comfortable and supportive. 

5. Winter work shoes - but I still haven’t found good closed toed work shoes for Winter.  I don’t love the pair I’ve been using for a couple years and they seem to cause a lot of problems when they wear down.  Anyone have a good brand of professional, cute and supportive shoes that they like for Winter?

I’d love to hear your shoe thoughts :)

Friday Five - Entertainment

 It's Friday!  For some reason this week has seemed very long and it seemed like the days were crawling by.  But it's almost time for the weekend.  And that means it's also time for the Friday Five link up hosted by Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness.  I realize that the last Friday Five I linked up I also talked about entertainment but I'm going to do it again :)  Here are 5 things that I'm really enjoying or looking forward to at the moment.



1. Janelle Monae - I love the article with her that came out in Rolling Stone earlier this week.  She's coming out with a new album that I'm looking forward to and she just released tour dates and she's coming to DC in July!  We're going to try to get tickets so fingers crossed they don't sell out too quickly.

2. New song "Don't Stop" by Hael - I was watching tv and there was a great song on a DSW commercial.  I had never heard the song before but I loved the snippet on the commercial so I had to look it up.  It's great and I'm looking forward to checking out more songs by this artist.



3.  Prince concert - I have always loved Prince and his music.  It really hit me hard when he passed away.  But a friend and I saw that one of the outdoor concert venues around here is doing a Prince tribute.  It's curated by Quest Love, billed as a "symphonic celebration" of Prince, and should be amazing!  It's not until September but that's something else I'm really looking forward to.  It's a beautiful venue, and fingers crossed it will be a nice day for an outdoor concert. 

 

Our last concert at Wolf Trap was Weird Al

4. Avenger's Infinity War - We have tickets for tonight!  I'm really looking forward to it and I just have to make sure to stay spoiler free for the rest of the day.

5. Reading - I've been making progress on my goal of continuing to read non-fiction books this year.  I just finished "The Lion in the Living Room" and it was really interesting.  The subtitle is "How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World."  And that's pretty much what it talked about.  I love cats but I didn't quite realize how murderous they are!  Apparently they're responsible for the extinction of several other species. Thankfully Perry and Shelby stay inside so I know they're not out there indulging in a lot of killing.

So those are some of the things I've been looking forward to lately. I'd love to hear of any new music you've been enjoying or recommendations for books to read.  And of course, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Friday Five - Entertainment

Well, it's Friday!  We're experiencing some high winds today (gusts up to 80 miles per hour!) and I already see some branches down in our yard.  But they're small ones and hopefully that continues to remain true.  I'm thankful that I was scheduled to work from home today anyway.  The government actually ended up closing today so Mike's at home too.  We're both warm and cozy.  Which means it's perfect timing for the Friday Five.  I thought I'd talk about 5 pieces of entertainment I've really been enjoying lately.


1.  Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - This show was one I used to watch years ago when it was on.  But it was just rebooted on Netflix and I binged the whole season in like two days.  It was so good!  And they're getting much deeper than they used to in the old show.  I came close to tears on almost every episode.

2.  The Crown - This was another Netflix Original that I loved.  It's a show about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.  The costumes and the acting are phenomenal.  I was sad when I got to the end of season 2 and learned that season 3 wasn't going to come out for a while.  It's interesting because the rumor is that there will be a time jump for season 3 and they'll be casting all new actors to portray the royals as they're older.

3. A Wrinkle in Time - I'm so excited about this movie!  It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid.  We're trying a free audible trial that included a couple free audio books.  So I decided to try this out as one of my free books and it's great!  I wasn't sure if I would like it as an audio book but the narration is really well done.

4. Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling - This is Mindy Kaling's second book and was my second free audio book from the audible trial.  I love it when authors narrate the book themselves, especially for memoirs.  It started out a bit slow but I really got into it after a couple chapters.  It was pretty funny and I enjoyed this insight into Mindy's life.

5.  Hamilton - I've talked about my love of the musical, Hamilton many times.  It's come back to mind since tickets for Kennedy Center members went on sale earlier this week and there was quite a line to buy tickets.  I wanted to get my parents to see Hamilton so I had initially planned to try to get those tickets as well.  But we got lucky a couple months ago and managed to get a set of tickets for the show in New York.  So we'll take my parents to see the show in New York in June and don't have to worry about scrambling to try to get DC tickets :)

The last time we were in New York was snowy and cold so June will be a nice change

So that's some of the stuff I've been enjoying watching and listening to recently!  I'd love to hear what you've been entertained by too :)

Friday Five - Physical Therapy

This was another week that seemed to drag by.  I'm not sure why when it was also super busy.  I would have thought that it would have made it seem to go by faster.  But it may be because we've got a lot of fun plans for the weekend.  But before that, it's time for the Friday Five link up hosted by Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness.



I went to see a physical therapist on Monday so I figure I'd take the Friday Five to talk about that experience.

1.  So the paperwork says I have "Somatic Dysfunction."  But according to the internet, that's not really something specific and seems to just mean that things aren't working well together.  The main thing the PT commented on was how tight everything was on my right leg.  Much tighter then my left leg.  She touched my achilles on the right side and exclaimed about the tightness right away.  And it was the same problem the whole way up the knee with the calf and the hips.  The good news is that the meniscus and knee itself are fine.  She definitely said I have to warm up before running and isn't surprised that cold races without warming up resulted in everything just continuing to tighten until I couldn't bend my knee well.  She gave me some exercises to work on and I'm scheduled to go back in March.

2.  The first one deals with the achilles.  This one hurts!  I've done it every evening since Tuesday and it's still resulting in pain.  The PT did warn me about that and said it's part of the process.

3.  Then calf stretches.  I've done calf stretches after running but they're always kind of perfunctory.  And I foam roll but apparently that's not enough.  I was surprised at how long I'm supposed to hold these stretches for!

4.  Hip rotator stretch.And this is the last one I'm supposed to work on for now.  I'm surprised at how tough this one is too since it doesn't actually look like I'm doing anything.  But it's an isometric and I'm always breathing heavy by the time I'm done with this one.  I set a timer so I do it for the full amount of time and it seems like forever.

You can see that left foot is turned out but it's always been like that as far as I can remember.

5.  Weirdly, before she actually started the examination and when she had just looked at my legs, she thought it would have been the left side giving me problems.  But no, that side is fine.  That foot and leg have always turned out, I'm not sure why.  It just feels natural but she said the knee doesn't track properly over the foot, it goes toward the inside and that we'll probably have to work on that later too or it could cause me problems in the future.

So that was my experience with the PT.  Overall it was a good experience and hopefully the exercises help.  She said they'll probably get me on the treadmill at the next appointment so we'll see how that goes.

Friday Five - random things

This week seemed to drag by.  I'm not sure why but I'm glad that it's finally Friday.  I'm looking forward to the weekend and some time to recover and rest up from the week.  But before that, it's also time for the Friday Five link up hosted by Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness.



 I'm going to take this Friday 5 to talk about random things that are going on in my life this week :)

1.  Knee update - I'm back in training this week and my knee definitely made itself known after Wednesday's speed work.  Thankfully, I finally got a referral from my doctor to see a physical therapist and I have an appointment for Monday morning!  I'm hopeful that will help me get a grasp on this knee problem and some guidance on how to deal with it.

2.  More medical stuff - Sadly it wasn't all good news from the doctor this week.  I have really high cholesterol.  That's generally been the case and my "good cholesterol" is also really high.  But it's gotten to the point the doctor is pretty concerned and want's me to start statins.  But that's a class of medicine with a lot of side effects (including muscle pain) and I'm really hoping to avoid it.  I'm going to look into alternatives but I'm not sure what else it out there.  I'm already a vegetarian but I'm planning to cut down my cheese intake.

3.  Food - I have been really good this week about taking my breakfast and lunches to work.  I made a chickpea salad to put on an english muffin for lunch and it's so good!  I made it on Sunday and pre-packaged it into separate tupperware containers so it was easy to grab and go in the morning before work.  I think that's what made it so much easier to take lunch.  I'm going to have to keep up that model.  The chickpea salad was pretty easy, just mashed up chickpeas, diced peppers and shredded veggies with non-fat plan yogurt, dill, salt, and a bit of mustard.

4.  Free lunch - The one day I didn't take lunch to week this week was because we had a team lunch.  In fact, I think I've had lunch provided by work every Wednesday so far in 2018!  I'm sure that will stop soon but I've been enjoying it while it lasts.  I thought this week would be the last one but my boss just let us know that she's planning on ordering pizza in for our team meeting next week.  So at least one more week of free lunch :)

5.  Winter Olympics - We're planning to stay in tonight, make dinner, and watch the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics.  I'm pretty excited for the Olympics.  I love watching the ice skating events and the skiing events.  I'm not a huge follower of hockey any more though.

Perry is wondering why I stopped petting him to type- clearly he questions my priorities!

So that's it for me for now.  What's going on with you?

Friday 5 - Dealing with my knee

This week went by pretty fast and it's already Friday!  I'm looking forward to the weekend as I've scheduled in plenty of time to relax :)  But before that, it's also time for the Friday Five link up hosted by Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness.
 

I've been thinking a lot about what's going on with my knee and what I should do about it.  It led to a DNF in March of 2017 at the Rock and Roll DC Half. And then it also led to me getting swept from the Disney World Marathon earlier this month.  So, clearly ignoring it wasn't the right answer.  I'm not going to say I ignored it completely but I rested it a bit after RnR DC as well as started icing it after long runs and didn't have any problems with it during the Star Wars Half, the Columbus Half, or the Avenger's Half.  So I guess I thought it was fine and that RnR DC was just a fluke due to the sub-freezing temperature.

However, looking back at my recaps from last year, I did start having problems with it during the 20 miler for marathon training.  I also cut short my first weekend run during the taper because I started feeling knee pain around mile 9 or so.  I guess there probably wasn't much I could do about it at that point anyways but there were things I probably should have been doing the whole time during training.  So here are some things I'm going to work on this year.

1.  Medical advice - I'm going to see someone about my knee.  I've emailed my doctor and am planning to go to a physical therapist so they can hopefully give me some guidance.

2.  Body Pump - With marathon training and the increased time spent running, I stopped going to body pump and just did strength training at home, mostly with body weight exercises.  I think body pump really did make me a stronger runner so I'm going to make that a priority this year and keep going to class even once I start training for races again too.

3.  Foam rolling - I know part of the problem was that my quad and IT band on that side were really tight.  I could feel it, and when I went for a massage after my 18 miler, the massage therapist actually commented on how tight those muscles were.  When we were at the marathon expo, we tried out this electric foam roller called a BFF.  It was amazing and really did seem to get deeper into the muscles than a traditional foam roller.  It was super expensive but I'm researching less expensive options for something similar.

4.  Anti-inflammatory supplements - I started taking turmeric before the race.  I've seen a lot of research about how it is useful for joint health and anti-inflammatory purposes.  It's an easy thing to add to my vitamins so I'm going to keep doing that.

5.  Explore options for during the race - And lastly, I'm going to start researching what I can do if this does happen during a race again.  So far, it does seem to be aggravated in the cold.  I don't know if there's something I can do to keep my upper legs warmer if it's supposed to be a really cold race.  My 20 miler training run also started in temperatures in the 20s.  I also want to look into biofreeze.  I saw a lot of people stopping at the medical tents to use biofreeze during the marathon.  Maybe that would have helped me to keep going?  I didn't want to use it during the race since I had never tried it before but in retrospect, I should have given it a try.  Also, maybe I should have stopped at medical for a tylenol?  I'm not sure if those things would have helped but in retrospect, they probably wouldn't have hurt.

So that's my plan for now.  Hopefully it helps!  If anyone has any other recommendations, I'd love to hear them :)

Friday Five - holiday gifts

It's Friday and this week has just flown by!  Of course, it helped that there were only three work days for me this week.  It's also time for the Friday Five link up hosted by Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness.  Since it's the week after Christmas, I thought I'd share some of the holiday gifts that I loved.

 
 

1. Cards - I love all the holiday cards people send out!  I especially like the ones with family photos so I can see everyone and their kids.  For people that don't live nearby, it can be the only way I have to catch up other than Facebook.  And I was able to participate in the blogger card exchange hosted by Fairytales & Fitness this year.  It was so much fun and I loved the card I got from Meranda, along with a much appreciated Starbucks gift card.

2.  Pops! - Mike likes to collect the vinyl figures and this year, his brother and sister-in-law made us little figures that were decorated to look like us.  They're so cute!  And I love that it's my running outfit from the Thor 10k.  Mike's Pop is decorated like a cosplay he's done a couple times.

3.  Gloves - I definitely needed a good pair of running gloves and I'm happy to report that I've gotten them.  These are so practical and I have a feeling I'm going to get a lot of use out of them this Winter.

4.  Gift cards - These are always useful.  I know they don't feel as sentimental to some people but I love how practical they are.  And I love that you can get gift cards for so many different things these days.  I even got one for massages, which I'm definitely making good use of.

5. Charitable Donations - I love that I've started a new tradition with my older niece and nephew.  They both gave me the name of charities they're interested in supporting and I made donations in their name.  And they did the same for us.

I hope that all of you had a great 2017 and a great holiday!  Here's to 2018 being amazing as well :)

Friday Five - 2017 Goals

2017 has flown by and it's almost the end of the year!  I can't believe how fast it happened and it seems like January was just a couple weeks ago.  It's also time for the Friday Five 2.0 link up with Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness. I figured this was a good time to do an update on my 2017 goals.

1. Train for a marathon - Yes!  This one was my main goal for the year and it's pretty much done.  I had my 20 mile training run last weekend and I'm tapering now.  The race is the first weekend in January and I hope it goes well but it's really the training that feels like the main accomplishment.

Picture from my 20 miler and a partially frozen stream we crossed a bridge over

2. Two new types of workouts - Done. There was a deal on Class Pass earlier in the year and that allowed me to try out some new things.  I tried out a class at Zengo Cycle, which I really enjoyed.  I tried out yoga and barre at a new studio.  I had done yoga and barre before at other studios though.  And I started doing pilates with free you tube videos. 

3.  Try a challenge race - Done!  I had a lot of fun at the Infinity Gauntlet Challenge in Disneyland.  And doing a half the day after a 10k really didn't feel too much harder than just doing a half, so that was good news :)

4.  Read more non-fiction (6 books):  Almost done.  By the half way point in the year I had read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell (an interesting look at Hawaiian history), and Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly.  Since then, I read (actually listened to) A Giant of the Senate by Al Franken and I'm working on Dark Money by Jane Mayer.  I have Super Freakonomics on tap next but not sure I'll get to it by the end of the year. 

5.  Be more fiscally responsible:  Kind of?  This one is hard to quantify.  We had definitely been doing better at the beginning of the year but November and December were a bit off plan with vacation and the holidays, plus the January Disney trip coming up.  But I feel like there was some good progress here as well. 

So those were my goals for the year and I'm pretty happy with how they went!  I'm not sure yet what my goals for next year will be.  It's kind of hard to look past the marathon at the moment but hopefully I'll have a better idea after the race.Hope everyone else has had a good year too and a great year to look forward to in 2018 :)

Friday Five - vacation fitness

Happy Friday!  I hope everyone had a good week.  It's Friday and that means it's time for the Friday Five link up hosted by Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness.  It's also a week until I leave for vacation!  So I figured I'd talk about 5 ways to stay fit on vacation.

1.  Races!  I don't combine all my vacations with races but it's nice when that works out :)  My plan for this particular vacation includes a stop in Disneyland to run the 10k and the half marathon for the Superheroes race weekend.

 

From my last Disney vacation race

2. Take advantage of the location you're in.  All vacation spots have something special about them.  It makes sense to combine the sights with activity whenever possible.  I know a lot of cities have running tours or cycling tours of the cities possible.  I'm going to be in Hawaii which is all about the ocean so I'm going to be sure to include some snorkeling and paddle boarding while I'm there.

The last time I went paddle boarding was on vacation in New Jersey

3.   And of course, a lot of vacation spots have natural beauty that can be explored on hikes . I've got several hikes bookmarked for while we're in Hawaii.  But whenever possible, using your own feet to see the area is a great way to combine sight seeing with fitness.

 

Glacier hiking in Iceland was definitely a workout!

4.  Take advantage of your hotel.  Most hotels these days have fitness centers available.  And many have pools.  I'll definitely be taking advantage of those.  But it's worth digging a bit deeper to see if they have other offerings too.  It turns out that the hotel we're staying at has complimentary fitness classes and I'm looking forward to some beach side yoga.

 

The view from poolside yoga I found at a Vegas hotel

5.  Relax!  Or course, vacation should include some relaxation too :)  And let's face it, fitness should include fitness for the soul as well as the body.  I'm planning on plenty of time to just relax by the water and re-center myself after a busy year.

So those are my plans for incorporating fitness into my vacation.  I find it always helps to incorporate it into the plans for the vacation from the beginning and to make it fun, and to include things you can't easily do at home!  It is a vacation after all :)