Race Season Wrap Up

Wow I need to update my blog more but I just don't have time. Work, family and races fill my days with just enough time to shower, eat, study for my PMP exam, and maybe a little bit of relaxing on top of race training workouts. But when I do have time, writing my blog gets pushed to the bottom, below the cleaning and chores, and shopping for a new couch.

 So lots of things have happened since my last post. I wrapped up this year's triathlon season with the Naylor's Beach sprint triathlon down in Warsaw. It was a lot of fun - I got to wear my first wetsuit! These two lovely ladies helped me get in my suit and swim around before the race. The water was about 72 degrees, and the wetsuit kept the cold away. It also makes you very buoyant so you swim right on top of the water. What I didn't anticipate was that it made me claustrophobic. When our wave took off, I had a hard time getting my breathing under control. I basically took a break every other stroke to keep myself from panicking. It worked. I survived. Made it through the bike too - it was a very flat 15 mile course. Same with the run. Definitely looking forward to next year's tri season!



This past weekend I had yet another race. John and I competed in the Warrior Dash. A 3.5 mile obstacle course race with lots and lots of mud. The 12-foot wall-scaling was honestly the scariest thing I've ever done. I don't do well with heights, or maybe it's heights when I'm not secured and holding on to a rope with my feet on a very small ledge. We had a great time and finished in about 45 minutes. Pretty pleased. Got to eat an enormous turkey leg after the race, just like a Viking!

Let's see, what else... The weather is changing and fall is here. I love this season because of I get to wear boots and of course bake pumpkin-everything. I've already made pumpkin bread and huge pots of chili in the crockpot. Soon I'll make the pumpkin muffins like I do every year for my HR team at work.

So that's all for now, I'll update more when I can... Up next.... TOUGH MUDDER. Gulp.

End of summer recap

It's Labor Day weekend and summer is coming to an end. This weekend means that school is starting back up, pumpkin will start filling up the grocery store shelves, I can start making crockpot chili again, and it's getting close to boot season (hurray!)...  It also means my birthday, which was September 2nd. I'm 28 years old. Wow, I'm getting old... I have to say my 27th year was one of my favorites. I fell in love and achieved goals I never thought possible (my first triathlon for example). I'm definitely excited for this year too, as I hope to reach other huge goals in my life. Work-wise, I'm studying to become a Project Manager and receive my PMP credential. It took months just to document 4500 hours of project work over the course of my career, but now that my application is submitted, I'm even more determined to pass my PMP exam and develop my career. This probably explains my lack of blogging since I have been documenting projects and studying for my exam every night.

I've got some big races coming up at the end of race season that are pretty lofty goals too - Naylor's Beach Triathlon and the Tough Mudder. Holy cow that means I need to get focused on training for both! The triathlon is just 3 weeks away! Labor Day was when I started my 10-week training program for the Richmond Half Marathon last year. I haven't decided if I'm running the half again, since I'm not in running shape, but I should. It would be nice to keep up that tradition for a 3rd year in a row. We'll have to see how I fair when I get back into running. Today marked my first day back on the trail. John and I, plus my best friend Brian hit Buttermilk for a morning run. It was absolutely gorgeous. And then I fell. What is with me and trail runs? Do I not lift my feet high enough? Am I just plain clumsy? I preach to everyone else who are just starting out trail running to always watch for roots and rocks, but I never list to my own advice. Oh well... Just a gash on my knee, looks just like the one John got a year ago during our first training run.

Since I don't have any other updates on my fitness, I figured I'd share some food photos instead. I've been busy cooking and dining out all summer long. For starters, grilling has been a favorite past time of mine. I love to grill large portabella mushroom caps with different types of toppings. This time around I made marinara and parmesan caps and then crumbled goat cheese caps. Soooo good! I also have a great recipe for grilled shrimp a friend of mine gave me:

3 garlic cloves minced

1 medium yellow onion

1/4 c. fresh parsley minced     

1/4 c. fresh basil minced

2 tsp. Dijon mustard        

1 tsp. dry mustard

2 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 c. olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

• 2 # jumbo shrimp peeled and deveined ( you can keep the tails on if you want)
• Combine the garlic,onion, parsley, basil, mustards, salt, pepper, olive oil, and lemon juice. Add the shrimp and allow them to marinate for 1 hour @ room temp or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. 
• Brush the grill w/olive oil. Skewer the shrimp. Grill for 1 1/2 minutes on each side. Grill should be med to hi heat!

And finally, for my birthday, instead of going out to dinner, I decided to cook. Sometimes I really enjoy a home-cooked meal, especially since I had been eating out every day riding up to my birthday due to Hurricane Irene. We lost power Saturday and didn't get it back until the night before my birthday. At that point I was done with eating out and was happy to be back home!!! While the photo doesn't do it justice, I made carne asada fajitas with black beans and avocado. The peppers were cooked down with a tough of cumin and salt/pepper/garlic. The marinaded beef and peppers came from Trader Joes, my favorite place to grocery shop, ever.

Later on tonight, Brett and I will be baking Sunflower seed cookies for my mom's 60th birthday, compliments of my favorite blogger, Jenna, who writes a blog called Eat, Live, Run. If you haven't read her blog or cooked her recipes, you are missing out my friend.

That's all for now. Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!

Hi, I'm a Mac.

I'm so excited about my birthday present this year that I have to share the news on my blog too, even if it's not food or fitness related (and 2 weeks until my actual birthday).

This year, I asked for a really big gift, but I've stuck by my decision ALL YEAR. I have never been happier about my choice - a Macbook Air. I went for the 13 inch instead of 11 since I think I'm over the whole "small laptop" trend, but definitely still into the "light as a feather" idea. I now have a 2 lb laptop that's so thin- like a legal pad, and weighs about that much too. I've already set up preferences and settings but I have so much to learn. Thank god for John and his computer savvy skills. My favorite feature about a Mac is by far the ability to scroll without ever leaving the touch pad. What a great idea!

So... I'll stop rambling on, but just had to share my exciting news. I'm thrilled to be a Mac user once and for all.

Food and Fit Updates

Since the Tavern triathlon, I've continued to cross-train and enjoy my time off. This past weekend, John and I had an activity-filled weekend. To start, we hit up SEAL team practice on Saturday morning. I have done SEAL team and X team training in the past, so I was excited when they offered a deal on Living Social that's more affordable then joining the full program. I wish I could afford it because I had a blast. Afterwards, we biked to the South of the James farmer's market and back. All of this before brunch. It felt great to be so productive and active first thing in the morning. And the bloody mary that followed was a great reward too. On Sunday, we started the morning off with the same energy, except this time we hit the road on our bikes for about 10 miles or so, then ran a mile downto the James River by Huguenot Flats. We decided to swim across the river and back. I'd say it was about 300-400 meters across, but Icould be off. We ran back afterwards, finishing our morning workout. I enjoyed this type of workout very much. Lots of variety and interesting things to see and do. Sunday brunch was even more tastier as a result. I took John to Kuba Kuba down in the fan. He had never been before and we both were craving California huevos rancheros, the best thing ontheir menu besides the tres leches cake. I even tried to re-create it this morning, which was pretty good but definitely not the same.

Admits all the intense workouts over the weekend, Monday morning did not bring good things. I had slightly rolled my ankle on the run the day before, so when we went on our usual 4 mile loop to Pony Pasture and back Monday morning, it started to act up. On top of that, my back has been off for a couple of months now. It keeps flaring up here and there and I'm unable to move my lower back for 2-3 days. I know I should listen to my Dad when he says I honestly have to rest longer in order for my back muscles to completely heal, but I don't want to listen. I've got the Merrell Down and Dirty 10k coming up in 3 weeks, and rest is not an option. But I guess should take my injury more seriously if I don't want to screw anything up permanently. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

So back to the food it is... This past

Thursday, a few of my UVA girlfriends went out for dinner and drinks at Blue Goat, a new restaurant on Grove Avenue, owned by the same guys who run Osaka, Sushi O, and Wild Ginger. I had heard mixed reviews so far, and I was dying to try it out myself. The atmosphere and location are excellent. The food was quite good too. I am not sure I would go back for a full-meal, but definitely a great bar scene to enjoy appetizers and cocktails. The ravioli was my favorite, followed by the fries with pork dust. I wasn't a fan of the pork cheeks, and the pig tail gorgonzola polenta had a weird gravy that overwhelmed the rest of the flavors I was looking for. Otherwise, I had a blast and I can foresee Blue Goat being the next big bar scene in the near west end.

Friday night I took my best friend to Lady Nawlins (thank you Living Social once again) for dinner and drinks. I love raw oysters so that was a great start to the meal. We split the sampler platter of jumbalaya, gumbo, and red beans and rice with shrimp. It was the perfect amount of food to split with someone and tasted great. Exactly what I wanted. We hung out at the bar after dinner and enjoyed a few drinks courtesy of Jack Laughterback. It was a nice evening out in the fan - haven't done that in a while.

So - what has the rest of the weekend brought? Other than work and back pain, I enjoyed a wonderful day at the beach with Brett, John and Nanny. We headed down to VA beach Saturday morning with no traffic. We had the best time playing on the beach near 31st street next to the Hilton. My favorite lunch spot during high school beach week was a sandwich deli shop called Taste Unlimited. John and I walked to 36th where we picked up a few "Northenders" and enjoyed our lunch on the beach. I of course had to buy the house dressing to take home. It's delicious. Our ride home had no traffic either. The other side of 64 was at a standstill. How lucky are we?

Tonight I made steak fajitas and I'm currently enjoying a glass of wine on the back deck while Brett and John play golf in the yard. Life's pretty good.

I Love the Tavern Triathlon

I've got to work on updating my blog more often but so many other things come up that take priority. For starters, work has been super busy. I'm studying to become a PMP this year and OPEX Blue Belt certified. It's hard work but I absolutely love it. I just hope I do well and learn a lot.

On a personal note, I'm all moved in, and just got back from a wonderful family vacation down in Ft. Myers, Florida. John and I flew down last Wednesday thru Tuesday to celebrate the long holiday weekend. We read a lot, went on morning runs, played tennis at the club, went on the boat, went to the club pool, and enjoyed many tropical drinks and incredible seafood. It was a blast and very relaxing. I didn't bring my work laptop and for the first time, I was somewhat disconnected from work-hurray!

On the fitness front... I successfully completed my first open water triathlon 2 weeks ago! I was great. I loved the open water swim in the James River. The water temp was 83 degrees and outside it was only 66 by the time the race started at 7am. You could see the steam on the surface of the river just before the race. This year they reduced the swim distance to 400 meters but extended the bike to 18.5 miles. Fine by me since my swimming isn't all that great. In fact, I'm pretty bad. The bike ride was beautiful... Mostly country road with farms and animals; plenty of hills and one gigantic hill at the turn-around point that honestly took my breath away. I thought I was going to have to walk my bike up the hill because I was pedaling so slow - but I made it!

The run was a trail run thank god. I love trail running so as soon as I hit the 5k, I was in heaven. And by heaven I mean I couldn't feel my legs at all, but I somehow managed to grit through it. When I came out of the woods and saw the finish line, I was happy as a lark. Or insane from exhaustion as you can see I'm smiling like crazy in my running photo. All in all, it was a great race and I can't wait to do it again next year. The atmosphere is friendly and casual, with lots of athletes from all levels. I felt very comfortable and welcomed. I highly recommend this race to anyone!

Tri-ready in 6 days

So I thought I'd quickly share the fact that I have my first open water Triathlon coming up this Sunday (June 26th) and I haven't really trained for it at all. I have been so busy with work and life that I haven't been tri-focused during any of my workouts. Yeah, I run, bike, swim and lift on a regular basis, but I have not been mentally preparing myself for what's to come, until today, 6 days before the race.

But let's back up a bit. The past few weeks have been quite busy. For one, I was recently pulled into a project team at work where my role is to provide feedback, research and present the best options on how to design our new fitness center at work. we are moving to a new building next year and I am on our health and wellness team to support the move. What a cool project, right? It certainly has been fun to research and find best practices related to corporate fitness centers, but also very time consuming with the tight deadlines. I never imagined I'd get to help design a fitness center at my company as part of my ad hoc projects for the year, but here I am! It's been a great experience so far.

On top of work, I'm also moving. I'm finally out of the fan and into the suburbs, and moving has been quite the time vacuum. Between packing, cleaning, unpacking and cleaning some more, plus coordinating utility deactivation's and the like at my old place, then errands and furniture planning... It seems my life (and work) has been nothing but residential and commercial interior design these days - at least it's something I enjoy!

So... between work and life, training for this triathlon has been put on the back burner just a bit. I still work out almost every day, but these past few weeks they are not as intense, and I skip a day here and there. This weekend I didn't even consider working out during the move, and I only squeezed in a 5k on Friday afternoon on a treadmill. Ah well.

So what better to the week than to do a mini triathlon... er... not really. I went to spin during my lunch break, then followed up with a 400-500 meter swim after work in the James River at Robious Landing Park (where my triathlon will be on Sunday), then a short 2 mile fast run. It felt great today. Even though it wasn't a full triathlon and quite spread out, it felt great to get out there and hang out with other amazing athletes. It definitely brought me back to the place I want to be - excited about working out, and not finding excuses to skip. I look forward to the opportunity to get my heart rate up and sweat a little. What a feeling.

The trail run was short but sweet and fast. My co-worker Kali and I hustled the 2 miles - a nice burst of energy to pump blood out of my legs after the swim. Can't wait to do it again soon. Let's hope this is all I needed to get the confidence to finish the I Love the Tavern Triathlon this Sunday. Wish me luck!

Weekend of reunions, food and friends

Lately my weekends are either over stuffed with events or nothing

but packing and catching up on the day-to-day. This weekend was definitely packed. My 5 year reunion from the University of Virginia was this past weekend, plus John had birthday/graduation party up in DC. We managed to pull off both despite our exhaustion. We headed to Charlottesville after work on Friday, and met up with my good friends Bane and Jen. Our standard hot spot in college was the Virginian on the Corner, which of course brought back great memories. We also enjoyed some of our favorite food joints like the Tavern and Take It Away. It was absolutely wonderful!

Back in Richmond, it was also a big foodie weekend, and somehow I managed to fit that in as well. Thursday before my reunion, my friends and I headed to the Greek Festival. It's one of the largest food festivals in RVA and it just gets bigger every year. Gotta love a cheap bottle of chilled red wine on a hot summer day with a side of dolmades!

Sunday was yet another food festival called Broad Appetite. My sister and I approach this festival very strategically... A co-worker friend of mine came along to tag-team each of the food vendors so that we could split them to save money and room for all the food we were eating. It was awesome... Below are a few food shots from today:

Marinaded skirt steak tacos with cilantro, red onion and parmesan cheese. YUM.

Shrimp and Pork meatballs with papaya salad plus hoisin and sriracha sauce dollops.

Smoked salmon toast with baby spinach leaves and jalapeños... Spicy!

Crab stuffed ravioli in a lobster cream sauce. OMG.

So that's the quick update. Definitely hopping back on the routine tomorrow. I can't wait to get my ass kicked in boot camp after work and eating healthy meals this week. Bring it on!