(13) comments
Add Your Reply
Menu
Earlier this month I went to this awesome event with my friends at Drexel’s fitness center. This was an amazing wellness event geared for all women. I invited 3 of my friends to join me and we had a great time, all for $25!. Here’s a recap of the events I attended:
It was a busy day and I wish I could have done more. The energy was electric with tons of vendors, Zumba and Boot Camp classes, plus small studio classes like barre and Bodypump. I’m definitely going next year!
Bret and I signed up for this unconventional 5K for fun. The race started at the Dock Street Brewery and we had 3 locations we had to meet, in whichever order we wanted, running through West Philly and the University of Penn campus. It was great to be in my old neighborhood again; it really is beautiful and has its own special charm.
After the race there was a big party at Dock Street. We had pizza, beers, and listened to live music. While this race was much too laid back for my tastes, I’m glad we did something different.
A couple of weekends ago, Bret ran this event as his first trail race. It took place in Pennypack Park, up in Northeast Philly. It was a beautiful day for a run but a little muddy due to all the rain we had that week. I guess it made for a nice, sloppy trail run!
I didn’t see Bret beyond the start of the course, so I went for a walk on a nearby trail. It was absolutely GORGEOUS. I love being among the trees and walking along creeks; I can clear my mind and take in the beauty around me.
Beautiful Pennypack Park!
I got back just in time to see Bret finish the race in 1:47, a fantastic job! After some yummy snacks at the finish, we went to the big afterpary which included Uberhans the accordion player and a traditional dancing performance. Oh yeah, and beer, bratwurst and sauerkraut!
I was also due to meet with Danielle, my dietitian. I had to admit that since the holidays I had fallen a bit off the wagon and needed a rest. We talked about tracking food again…I still haven’t been doing that but I’m doing a better job of balancing my meals.
We also talked about having healthy bars available in the event that I have to miss a meal or snack. I couldn’t find Quest bars at Wegmans, so I’m still trying out the Clif bars.
With Danielle’s inspiration, I’ve gone back to making smoothies! I was getting lazy for awhile but now I’m make 4 servings at a time so that I can have them with breakfast every day. I really prefer spinach in my green smoothies but I’m going to try it out again with kale. I started adding lemon, ground flaxseed for extra nutrients, and even carrots to make things more interesting! I’m loving it!
Healthy cooking and eating is still going on! As I mentioned, we’ve been getting a Farm share every two weeks and it’s been great! Bret is really good at cooking the veggies–last night we had tilapia with carrots, beets, turnips, onions, peppers, and a great salad. I’ve also started making hard boiled eggs to add to my lunch. We’ve done a great job of wasting as little food as possible.
I was inspired to use a bunch of veggies, including special guests zucchini and summer squash, to make a vegetable lasagna. I decided to go with this recipe, which took a LOT of work! The only major substitution was to use kale instead of spinach, and I’m glad that I did…it really added a unique flavor to the lasagna. I was able to eat it with lunch for a couple of weeks, it’s definitely a keeper!
My latest creation used the beets I got with the Farm Share. I don’t know a thing about beets, so I found a recipe for a brown sugar glaze. Let me tell you, beets are messy to prepare! I need to get a special slicer to protect my fingers! They are really delicious though, I had no idea! In addition to that, I made some red quinoa that I got from Wegmans awhile back and made boneless pork chops with mint, rosemary, and a quick glaze of strawberry preserves, balsamic vinaigrette, and brown mustard.
A few months ago Bret, our friend Jashan, and I signed up for Kickball as a fun way to get to know new people. Week to week I’ve been chronicling our successes and failures. Our Spring league was a lot of fun, despite some tough losses. We made it to the playoffs but lost…
Now we’re playing in the summer league! Bret and I have sort of become the de facto team captains. While we’ve had 2 awful losses so far, we are starting to come together and most of all, having fun! This past game, we went to a bar after the game and sang karaoke for hours! This is what life should be about!
This is the most exciting thing that I’ve got going on! This week, I finally contacted Kristy about training for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. I went to her website and filled out a questionnaire for Virtual Coaching. With that I was able to describe my goals, what I’ve been doing, my injury status (pain-free!), my time limitations, and my recent race performance.
We had a phone call on Friday and talked more details. As I mentioned to you all, I set my goal for the half to be 2:20. Very conservative since I haven’t done this in awhile. But she believes that based on my last 5K time of 27:11, I should be able to finish the half between 2:05 and 2:10. This would be a PR for me! Now, this is an exciting prospect, but scary too! But I have to trust my coach.
I was also warned that I’d be running a lot slower than I have been lately. I’ve been really exciting now that I’m back at a 10 minute, and sometimes a sub-10 pace…but we all know that you gotta run slow to run fast and build resistance! This is going to be tough because I know my running buddies will not appreciate my training pace. I also have to adjust to actively watching my pace…hopefully it doesn’t stress me out too much!
So my month of June has been crazy! I promise to write more frequently in July…especially when it comes to my training, which starts July 7! How has your June been going? And what are you looking forward to in July?
