The End of a Long Weekend

Happy President's Day! Because of snow I haven't had work since Wednesday which means today is the last day of my 5 day weekend. To be honest, I'm not ready to go back to work yet (I have too much work waiting for me when I get there...) but I don't really have a choice. So at least I made the most out of my day today! 

I woke up early (after going to bed late) all because I'm finally reading Divergent. I know I'm about a year behind on the trend, but this book is so good! If you like The Hunger Games I am 99.9% certain you will like Divergent.

I have all 3 books downloaded together which is why it looks like the book has 952 pages. I started reading this book last night and I'm already 251 pages in. That's how good it is!

Nick and I went to Target this morning to pick up some things for around the house but we also ended up doing our grocery shopping there too.

Why hello cashew cranberry almond mix.

Next I was off to Lithe to take a 12:15 class- A-List Abs. My abs were burning. After 1 hour of pure ab-enhancing torture, I went to PAWS (Philadelphia's animal shelter) and took a dog out for a run.

This is Sage! She was really sweet and didn't pull too much on the leash! She also ran at a pace similar to mine (about a 9:00min mile) so we got along really well!

If you're interested in learning more about Sage, you can go to http://phillypaws.org/locations/adoption-center/

Once I got home I made a salad with my new fixings and drank some Miso Ginger Broth from Trader Joe's. That stuff is surprisingly good. I think it will be a new pantry regular!

One piece of bad news: both my boyfriend and I put our names in the lottery for the Broad Street 10 Miler and neither of us got in, so that kinda bummed us both out some. 

Anyway, I'm off to take a shower and then read more Divergent.

Did anyone else get a nice long weekend because of the snow? Did anyone get into the Broad Street Run?

Love, Love, Love

I think that it's pretty fitting that my first official day back together with running was Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day also happens to be my boyfriend's birthday, so today was a lot more about him than about me (which is how it should be!)

We had both gotten new running shoes and were chomping at the bit to try them out, so we decided to brave the snow and drive to the Schuylkill river trail for a run.

Bits of the trail were really icy!

In the distance you can see boathouse row!

Nick is way faster than me (plus I'm just coming back to running) so we made a plan to meet back at our car in 30-40 minutes. Because I haven't run in a while especially with my new shoes, and with it being so icy, I knew I needed to take it slow. I probably only ran about 2 miles. But those 2 miles felt good! And they were fun! First time back running = Success!

I loved my Brooks Ravenna 5 on their first run

We stretched a little while we were outside, but once we were back home I made sure to stretch everything out really well since my legs have been really tight and going back to running is all about injury prevention for me this time around.

I'm taking no shortcuts this time!

After our run we showered and then cleaned our apartment. I tried to look nice for my man (I even washed my hair for the first time in days!)

Freshly showered

Then we headed to Whole Foods and picked up lots of cheeses and crackers for a cheese plate and some mussels and baguette! 

My family has taught me well in the art of the cheese platter ;)

Oh and of course we got a piece of tres leche cake and some mini heart shaped raspberry cheesecakes. Sorry no pictures of those ;)

All in all it was a wonderful day filled with love and happiness. Did you do anything special for Valentine's Day?

Five Favorites: Runspiration

This week is all about what's inspiring me to get running again!

Brooks Ravenna 5 Running Shoes

I'm super pumped to try these out! Nothing like a new pair of running
shoes to get you out the door!

Superfeet Carbon Inserts

Finally trying out orthotics to see what all the hype is about.

Adidas and Nike Livestrong Running Shorts

Of course I needed to get some new brightly colored running shorts!

Charity Miles App

I'm excited to test out this app during a run to see how it works.
I'll review it later!

Self Magazine: The Fat Burn Sweet Spot Article

Running in the cold might burn up to 15% more calories. Okay!

What's inspiring you to run this week?

Coming Back to Running

I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I used to be a runner. Starting the summer of my 10th grade year of high school, 2005, I joined cross country. My friends had convinced me that it would be fun, so I joined.

Old running bibs from some of my favorite races.

I'm not a very good runner: I'm not very fast, I don't have a ton of endurance, I have really bad knees, and I rarely get that "runner's high" that so many people seem to live for. Needless to say, cross country wasn't too fun, but I stayed with it for the rest of high school (I also did winter and spring track) because I liked the people and the team and that's what kept me so dedicated to it even though I HATED competing.