Where's the Beach?

We'll just say that this sweet boy helped me write this post. Today we will be spending the majority of our day waiting around for Heath (planning to spend the time at Mount Nebo to do some hiking with Maddie - will let you know how that one goes over). Heath is having eye surgery to hopefully correct his cataracts, which have gotten significantly worse over the past 6 months. I know I don't talk about my crazy furbabies often enough. So, I thought today I'd share a bit about them for my Fun Facts Friday . I've had 4 Cocker Spaniels. My 1st Cocker Spaniel was Abagail or Abby or Abby Loo Loo. She was given to me by an ex at the age of 14.  She actually also had cataracts that she started developing at the young age of 2.  We had them fixed, but one eye had to be removed. They did replace it with a prosthetic and you could not tell the difference.  I had her for 14 years and I still dream about her. She went through thick and thin with me. My 2nd Cocker Sp...

Happy Running Today Jason and I set out for another 3.5 mile run at lunch. The sun was out and so was the wind. Thankfully it helped keep it cooler, but it made running one particular direction a pain in the butt (literally for me LOL). Luckily, the traffic gods were on our side today, so not a lot of stopping and waiting around. This meant we were able to keep a much steadier pace. The first mile we clocked at 8:48 and then steadily increased for negative splits of 8:34 and 8:17. I forgot to lap the last half mile though, but the total average pace was 8:33. Not too shabby. In fact, I'm really proud of that. And you know what, it wasn't that painful. I mean, it wasn't easy breezy; I wasn't chit chatting that's for sure. I definitely worked for the speed and had to really concentrate on not giving in. But it felt much better, much more my natural pace again. So that made me one happy runner girl today. Of course, I could attempt the same thing Saturday and be ...

I thought I might do something fun today and show you my Street to Sweat clothes. And as you can tell, I take terrible self portraits. Dress - Banana Republic Cardigan - Ann Taylor Loft Shoes - Madden Girl via DSW Cap - Nike Top - C9 Champion from Target Shorts - C9 Champion from Target Shoes - Brooks Ghost 3 (dead running shoes) As you can see, I hit the gym for my workout today. I started with 20 minutes on the elliptical then got in back and shoulders and a very short tabata workout. I went with 3 sets of 8 reps unless noted. SS#1 Underhand barbell row Standing shoulder press SS#2 Pullovers Lateral raise SS#3 Double-arm rows Front raises SS#4 Low back extensions - 10 reps Incline rear delt flyes For the tabata, I just chose 4 exercises that I repeated as a circuit twice through to give me 1 round. I repeated twice for a total of 10 minutes. You do each exercise 20 seconds followed by 10 second rest then move direction to the next exercise. Ket...

More Running Today's forecast called for a front moving in bringing with it chances of rain and storms. Jason and I had decided that if the weather was clear enough, we would go for a 3-mile run. Luckily, the front also brought in clouds and cooler temps. So it was only 70 degrees rather than 80 when we set out for our run at 11:30. In fact, it almost felt cold compared to the temps we've been having. We actually rocked along at a pretty good pace. The goal was not speed, but just to find a comfortable pace and go with it. The only downfall of the neighborhood runs (and sometimes it's actually a positive) is all the stopping you have to do at intersections. Even if cars aren't coming down the street, you still have to slow and check. And today, for whatever reason, there seemed to be high traffic, so lots of waiting. But, when we were actually moving...it was good. Definitely getting my running grove back. It's becoming more comfortable again. A lot less over...

Lunch Date Trumps Gym Today I did something totally different - I went off my normal schedule. Something I should do more often. Rather than getting in my workout at lunch, I met a friend for lunch. We hadn't seen each other in a while, so it was long over due. We met at a nice place just down the street from our respective offices called Lulav . It's definitely one of those places you think of when you want a fancy dinner. But, their lunches are actually very reasonably priced - and good. So, we had a nice visit over our meal. It was great catching up, and just taking time to enjoy some time during the day. I think it's easy to get caught up in disliking Mondays that it's easy to overlook opportunities to make it enjoyable. The only downfall was that it was so nice out it made it that much harder to get back to the office. Gym Time I guess the other downfall of missing the noon workout would be my general workout motivation - or lack thereof. When I workout a...

Six-Mile Saturday I must say, I have really been enjoying disconnecting on Saturdays and focusing on enjoying the day at hand and not blogging. I hope you don't mind longer Sunday recap posts. I think most people tend to be busy and aren't really reading blogs on the weekend as much anyway - which I think is a great thing actually. It seems like we've been pretty busy most weekends, or at least on Saturdays. No complaints though. Yesterday started off with a 6-mile run with Jason. We did get started later than we should have so it was already pretty hot and steamy. The sun was definitely out in full force. I actually prayed for a cloud to just momentarily block the sun, or perhaps a breeze would have been nice. The route we took put us in full sun with very little shade. But man when we saw a shady spot, we definitely slowed down to enjoy. The run was really good for me mentally. I didn't overthink, I just ran and enjoyed every minute. Definitely the best run I h...

Grilling Let me just say that I have discovered a new favorite grilled vegetable - kale. Yep, grilled kale is amazing. Just de-stem, rough chop, toss with small amount of olive oil, salt and pepper and grill in a veggie grilling basket. You will get some pieces that are nice and crisp like kale chips, and others that are soft and so full of flavor. Such a fantastic combination of textures and flavors. So this brings me to last night's dinner - Grilled Kale and Veggie Pasta Salad . Jason actually did the grilling last night, which was a nice treat. He grilled the kale, squash, zucchini, red onion, red and green bell peppers. In the meantime, I cooked some whole-wheat rotini. After the veggies were done, he chopped them up and everything was tossed into a large bowl along with some cherry tomatoes. Jason made a simple Dijon balsamic dressing and poured that over the veggies and pasta, mixed well and served. This was a fantastic spring dish. There are so many options for veg...