New Year: Resolutions and Looking Back

Hello friends!

I know not everyone is on the "new year resolution" train, but I like setting goals for myself and working towards them. In addition to the resolution to blog more regularly again, I have a few things I am hoping to accomplish:

- Run a race every month
- Get a PR in my April Half Marathon
- Graduate my Master's Program
- Finally move to NC
- Eat more veggies

What are your goals for the new year? Resolutions - yay or nay???

After being occupied with some personal matters since I last wrote, I wanted to reflect on some of the positive things that have happened since then:

I celebrated another birthday with the love of my life

 

I cheered on my favorite team...

 

I got spoiled with mint goodies from everyone for my birthday and Christmas!

 

I spent quality time at home in Minneapolis playing aunt....

 I met and loved my parents' new puppy

We also threw our annual holiday party and I traveled to Chicago per tradition for Christmas... more on those fronts in other posts.

Happy New Year! Thank you for stopping by!

Weekend Things: Flowers, Vino, Red Cups

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Today's Workout: 5 miles walking, 45 min elliptical

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This was a bittersweet weekend. I leave for Italy in 12 days, I haven't packed a thing, and the boyfriend came up this weekend to pick up the pup for the summer. It was lonely waking up this morning without my furry buddy. People that have dogs can relate, those who don't think I'm a freak... I'm ok with that.

Some bright spots of the weekend were new blooms for the living room...

Breaking in the new patio for a little vino night with some girls....

A yard party with some of my favorite people. Red cups felt like a serious throwback...

An awkward pose with my uber-photogenic pup...

And some crab cake bites at Martin's (we love crab cakes) before heading to the waterfront to meet some friends for drinks...

Hope you all had  agood weekend!

On Mondays, We Wear Pink

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Today's workout: 40 min cross train

Monthly Health Goal - No Eating After 8:00 pm:

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So I arrived to the office on Monday ready to take on the day dragging my feet, only to find out that my co-worker and good friend and I had dressed identically for the day.

The lighting in our lobby is perfect for taking photos.
It was also Earth Day so our building management offered us some yummy lemonade, short bread cookies, chocolate covered rice krispee treats, and cheesecake pops.

Sugar comas are great right before class.

Speaking of class, I got Tubby's report card for daycare. Somehow I don't think my report card will be this good.



Last time he went his report card said he was playful and exuberant...which I am pretty sure is the same as when teachers said you were talkative in class...aka pain in the ass.

As if I didn't have my fill of sweets, as a thank you for the preparation I did for a company conference in Argentina, one of the advisers brought me back a treat.

Hope your days are just a sweet and love-filled!

Spring Things and a Couples Circuit Workout

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Today's Workout: 40 min cross train

Monthly Health Goals - No Eating After 8:00 pm:

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I wonder if other former Track and Field athletes have a similar feeling when they walk outside in the spring and have flash backs to old track seasons. The smell of lilacs and freshly cut grass, the itch of allergies, all remind me of spring nights after school running around with my high school besties.

Spring is especially pretty in D.C., that is, once the Cherry Blossoms come out to play.

I was soaking up the gorgeous spring weather in Chapel Hill this weekend. Lots of grilling out, long walks and runs, and a little picnic too.

I made time for a little shopping, maybe its just me but I love shopping for the boy almost as much as I like shopping for myself. We got him some goodies for the spring, and I came across this robe that reminded me of last week's Wish List Wednesday...carolina blue love. 

We also put together a workout for us to do side-by-side (sorta). A couple that does circuit training together, stays together.... or something like this. We used UNC's Belk Track for this workout:

I got back to D.C. in time for a classic run around the monuments before sunset.



After a long weekend I slept like a baby dreaming about the future travels on the agenda. Tubbs just dreams about more fetch.



Circuit Training on the Track/Treadmill

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Today's Workout: 6 hill repeats, 4 miles biking

Monthly Health Goal - No Eating After 8:00 pm:

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I came up with a less archaic way to track my monthly health goal process, just in time to highlight my slip-up last night. I was attending a birthday dinner for a friend and I definitely wasn't going to miss out just because the reservation was for after 8:00 pm. I choose to follow this lady's perspective, that you should live by the 80/20 rule when it comes to dieting. 80% of the time, follow the rules and eat what is good for you. Allow yourself some wiggle room so your diet doesn't start to control your life or become unmanageable.

It's no secret I love (love/hate) me some circuit training, and I wrote up this little workout so I could do it at the track and let the 4-legged monster get some quality outdoor time in as well. You could easily adapt this to do with a treadmill if that is more your thing - although the gym probably isn't dog friendly - so no help on that front :)

Have a great weekend!

Sleep Deprived

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Today's Workout: 4 miles biking, Sculpt Class at CorePower Yoga
Monthly Health Goal: No eating after 8:00 pm:

Monday April 1 - success

Tuesday April 2 - success

Wednesday April 3 - success

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Grad school is running my life right now and I haven't sleep much in too many nights.

Me this morning...

Somehow Tubby pulled off this look cuter than me...

I have to rally because tonight I will FINALLY get to visit my beloved CorePower Yoga studio that just opened this past weekend in Georgetown. I have been blowing this place up because their sculpt class is just that good. Former teammates and I would go here religously to get worked in the off-season. I have a group of gals joining me and am dying to see their reactions.

I'm hoping I don't get too destroyed because this weekend calls for 2 events that require heels and my last long run before the Nike Women's HAlf at the end of the month....

Happy Thursday all!

Sweet Weekend with Sweet Potato Fries

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Today's Workout: 60 min cross train

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This past weekend was my first in over a month spent in D.C. My other half came to visit me from Chapel Hill and brought back the other love of my life.

This was the first time I have been away from the pup for more than a week since we got him. I will be going away for an international internship this summer and he will be staying with the boyfriend (stupid joint custody). We thought it would be good to give them both some practice so its less of an adjustment when I peace out for a few months.  To help cope with my withdrawals, I requested he text me a picture of the pooch every day. Here were some of my favs:

We spent a lot of the weekend spending time with friends watching basketball. We ventured out to The Daily Grill for some of the games, and snacked on some crab cake sliders.

We also tallied our brackets from the comfort of our own couch and made some homemade treats.

I love sweet potatoes and am a BIG fan of the sweet potato fries served at Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill. We decided to give it a go on our own:

The Top of the Hill version comes with cheese on top, so we usually ask for cheese to only be put on half - he loves cheese and I try to avoid it. We went with the same method in our recreation.

So delicious. I also whipped up my favorite Almond Flour Pancakes for breakfast - also seen here.



Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

Bruschetta and Basketball

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Today's Workout:  4 miles easy

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Another wonderful weekend in Chapel Hill gone by too fast. I arrived later than usual due to Friday's black tie dinner, but we made the most of the time we had together.

The weather was beautiful and called for a run around campus with the pup, checking in on the Dean Dome before the big game of course.

We thought the Carolina Blue skies were a good omen, too bad the night didn't turn out in our favor.

We did some shopping, some movie watching, so chatting with friends, some vino consumption, oh and some eatting.

We had a craving for bruschetta and set off to the local Harris Tetter for the ingredients.  They were all out of fresh basil leaves so we had to go with the bottle option, not ideal, but the end result was still yummy.

Here's the recipe:

Some pics of the process:

We paired the bruschetta with some Chicken Cesear Salad. We cut the original bruschetta recipe in half and made some pretty small pieces, but still had plenty to share with the other roomies. It was a great and semi-healthy dinner for a grad school budget.

His plate (mine looked small, sad, and pathetic):

I took the MegaBus back, per usual (review to come), and the pup stayed there. I'm going through serious puppy withdrawal.

I have serious to-do's to cross off my list before girls come over tonight for a little make-up party and before I leave bright and early for Florida to spend time with my family!

These are a few of my favorite things

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Today's Workout:  3 miles with Tubbs before work
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I am off to NYC this weekend to celebrate the birth of one of my favorite people and to catch up with some family. NYC is one of my favorite places, and in honor of it, I'm just going to dedicate this post to some of my other favorite things that have been making appearances in my life as of late...

Night runs around the monuments



Georgetown Cupcakes

Pyramid Interval Workouts



Riding in cars with boys this boy

Random statement jewelry stand on campus the other day

Take a look around and see how you've been surrounded by your favorite things! Have a great weekend everyone!