Where's the Beach?

It's Tuesday, and I meant to post this yesterday. But Monday was a Monday all the way around down to having to walk back to work from home because my car battery died (again). At least it was sunny and warm and I didn't have to trudge the 9 blocks in "the boot." Upside right? Since I was officially out of the boot , I took full advantage of the spring-like temperatures we had over the weekend. Saturday started off with a girls only lunch with my sister, mom and niece. It was to celebrate our mom's birthday in January. We of course did a little bit of shopping after eating, and then when they left town, I decided to go for a much-needed walk. It was only 2 miles, and not anything close to running, but it did my mind and body good. Saturday night, Jason and I decided to have fun in the kitchen and made some veggie pot stickers and crispy tofu. Of course we dug in using chopsticks. That's a must right? Other than the giant mess we made in the kitchen, i...

I feel like I've been neglecting my blog lately. It wasn't intentional. It just happened. I didn't feel like I had anything important to say or share other than my marathon journey. I've wanted to write more about my feelings after my first marathon , more than just the race day recap. Honestly, it still seems completely surreal. I have that, "did that just happen" feeling. It's been hard for me to even respond to all of your incredibly kind comments (I will though; I promise). Everyone seems to want to know how my recovery went, when I'm signing up for another, IF I'm signing up for another, what's up next, and so on. I want to talk about all of that, but I also want to talk about the amazing 11 days off I had from work that started Christmas Day. What I learned most about the time off was how much I tend to miss when I let myself get into a rut. I tend to crave normalcy, schedules, timelines, but then when I don't have that, I reali...

Picking up where I left off with the  Boston Part 1 - The Food post, now I'll talk a little more about the Enjoying that we did, and that includes some sight-seeing as well. Thursday, Jason and I pretty much hit the ground running after checking into our hotel. After a relaxing lunch, we hoofed it to Fenway Park to do their facilities tour. I'll be honest, I wasn't super keen on this but am really glad that we did the tour. It was very informative and behind-the-scenes. While watching a game would have been fun, you would miss out on some of the features of the park itself including the history. Friday morning we woke up and ran (which I'll talk more about in my Running recap post), then it was time to clean up and check out of the hotel. Thankfully, they were very accommodating and held our luggage for us as our friend, Scott, was going to pick us up later in the day. After stopping by the Farmers' Market and picking up some food to enjoy, we walked ov...

Happy Friday! Dare I ask who's ready for the weekend? This week has felt longer than usual and I know that is in a large part due to some rogue dogs causing mayhem at night. But, it's Friday so let's have some fun! Here are my Move.Eat.Live. moments from the week. Move I had some pretty good training runs this week. Tuesday I got in 6 400s then knocked out my leg workout at lunch. Hello tired legs. I got in my upper body splits on Monday and Thursday but will admit that I am being negligent of chest workouts. Wednesday I took it slower and easier as recovery and also because I knew Thursday would entail a speedier run with my crazy running buddy. We enjoyed 8-miles meandering through the 'hood s witching up from our usual route. Eat Because we enjoyed the Tempeh "Fish" Tacos from last week so much, I made them again this week. I have a feeling they'll appear on the menu quite frequently. I didn't have any cherries to make the Cherry S...

First off, how is it already August? Why does it seem like the summers just fly right on by? Knowing how short they always seem, I have been trying to take full advantage of summer. Over the weekend our typical summer weather returned - hello heat index of 109, nice to see you. The upside was that the pool warmed back up quite nicely making for some fantastic floating and lounging time. The downside, well, 109 degrees is ever so slightly oppressive. However, to go along with our nutty weather this year, the temps have dropped again. Yesterday was 74 degrees - the high, in July? Of course, the Runner Heather is not complaining. The lower humidity and temps definitely made for some fantastic Move.Eat.Live. times this week. Move After some very tough, very hot runs over the weekend, my body was happy for mid-60s and low humidity on Tuesday's run. I got in 8 speedy miles and threw in lots of hills, including running up to the top of the bridge so I could get a good sunrise (aka ...

Do you ever have those days when it just all hits you - you're tired. Completely done in. You've been logging miles upon miles, increasing your weights during lifting workouts, cross-training, stretching, rolling out those muscle not to mention going to work, cooking, cleaning, etc. Um, that's a lot of hours being busy and active. After yesterday's tough morning run - it was a good run, but a hard one. It was definitely not a long slow day. The speed plus the humidity wiped me out. I knew right after that run that a rest day was in order. I mean not even a single thought of working out has crept into my mind. I don't even want to look at my yoga mat for stretching. Sometimes I forget to embrace my rest days. I forget to look forward to them and enjoy them. Then my body will quickly remind me to take time and relax, enjoy, rest and reap the benefits. So today, I'm enjoying and looking forward to fun, looking forward to rest, enjoying extra sleep. It'...

It's Friday and my brain is fried. I couldn't come up with any fun, cohesive ideas for a Fun for Friday post. I decided to go with the tried and true 5 for Friday. I hope you won't judge my lack of creativity! Here are some random 5 things that I'm enjoying or looking forward to enjoying. 1. Looking forward to spending some time with my sister tomorrow. If it will stop raining, then we plan on lounging on the patio in my new lounge chairs (which I've yet to be able to use). 2. Seeing the bottom of the pool finally! Jason has spent weeks trying to get the pool cleared up and ready for use. Of course, we need the rain to go away so we can actually enjoy it now. This also means that I can jump in and cool off after my sweatastic morning runs. 3. Embracing a non-running day this morning made me a happy camper. I still woke up early, but enjoyed an easy spin on the bike watching Friday Night Lights. Still trying to get into it, but I'm on episode 7 no...

Do you ever feel like you can be too strict with yourself, your routine, your "healthy" habits? I think that sometimes, in all our efforts to be the healthiest selves we can be, we forget to relax. (And I will admit, ahead of time, that I wrote this post and almost deleted it.) Last week, while in Perdido Key, FL , I let myself relax. Not only relax all day sitting on the beach, but also letting myself not get caught up in being super strict with my eating habits, not stressing out about missing my strength training or even core work for that matter. Let me first say that I try to eat clean, whole foods because it makes me feel better. Plain and simple. I don't log my food, I don't count macros, I just try to avoid processed junk (not to say I don't indulge in pizza or nachos), and eat clean 80% of the time. Ok, moving onward ...  On vacation, I relaxed (as already stated). I ate more Almond M&M's than one person should be allowed to eat, I dug into p...

It's amazing how quickly a vacation flies by isn't it? Last Friday we hit the road and drove halfway to our destination, Perdido Key, FL. Perdido Key is to the east of Gulf Shores. We love the area because it's far quieter than the hustle and touristy bustle of Gulf Shores or Orange Beach. We finished our drive Saturday morning arriving with plenty of time to enjoy the beach and ocean views and our first dinner of the week on the balcony watching the sun set. Sunday morning I woke up around 6:45 ready to run. The only complaint about the area is in regards to running. The sun starts to rise around 5:30, so by 7 it's already fairly high in the sky. It's humid, I mean, it's near the beach after all. The temperatures were hovering around 68, which wouldn't be too bad if there was any shade to be found. There is none. It's just over a mile on the main, very busy road to get to a neighborhood. The most dreaded parts of my run are on that main thoroug...

Have you ever had one of those workouts where there seemed to be a million little annoyances plaguing you? That's pretty much how my morning run was today. I had checked the weather before bed and the forecast was 49 degrees and 80% humidity. I was kind of looking forward to it being cooler. Tuesday's run was in the 60's, 90% humidity and just warm and muggy. Of course, I should know better than to trust a forecast. I had pulled out running tights - my Brooks Nightlife for visibility - and a short sleeved top. I got downstairs and it was 54 degrees. Now, 54 degrees with low humidity is very different than 54 degrees with high humidity. In other words, I was very much over dressed. However, I didn't want to go back upstairs and wake Jason up rummaging around trying to find new attire. I was fairly groggy as Maddie decided to wake us up twice during the night barking her crazy little head off. She's been doing that the past few nights. Good times. The sky was...

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine started off nicely as I was off work on Friday. It turned out to be a weekend of eating, shopping, running and a lot of enjoying. Friday morning I got in a run then got my hair done before heading to my hometown. I met my dad for lunch at a tasty place called Taco Mama's . The owners also have another restaurant that I really enjoy called Cafe 1217. I've been hearing great things about Taco Mama's, but have yet to try it out. I'm glad I did. I ordered their salad bowl with vegetarian filling. I'm usually leery of "vegetarian" fillings. But I was pleasantly surprised. The salad was not iceberg lettuce, a big bonus. It was filled with leafy greens, beans, rice, and a wonderful mix of zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes. Dad and I spent about 2 hours eating and visiting before I left to meet up with my mom. Mom and I went and did a little bit of shopping at Home Goods and TJ Maxx before I had to head back home. We met...

This weekend turned out to be rather relaxing, and the weather turned out far better than originally forecast so that's a double bonus. Right now we're dog sitting for my sister and my dogs are loving Lily's bed. Maddie and Heath keep alternating control. But it wasn't all lounging around. I got in a pretty good 11-mile run Saturday. The temps were in the low 60's and the sun was out for the majority of the run. I just tried to enjoy the colors that are starting to emerge in the trees and flowers. Not a bad way to start the day. We ended up going out for pizza for lunch. Recovery right? Then we decided to get creative in the kitchen for dinner. I had bought wonton wrappers for pot stickers a while back. We finally decided to give it a shot. Neither of us had made pot stickers before. They're a little time-consuming to put together, but well worth it. And if you're in the kitchen with someone, it makes it way more fun. I had plenty of the ...

Once again, Monday rolled around way too quickly for my liking. The time change certainly didn't help with that. While I love the extra daylight in the evenings, I'm really not thrilled that it's still dark at 7 am again. Saturday morning started out with a great 10-mile run with Amy. The weather was just about perfect. Not too hot, not too windy, with gorgeous blue skies. We meandered over to the North Little Rock side of the river trail enjoying the water views of the river. We laughed and joked our way through the 10 miles so the run went by quickly. After spending a little time on my Triggerpoint Therapy kit and stretching, I decided I wanted to do a bit of yard work. I started off weeding in the back yard and pulling out all the dead plants from the garden. Then I got a little over zealous and decided I needed to rake the front yard. It's not a large front yard by any means. We only have one very large, very old tree. However, it's a Pin Oak. The leave...