It's the Little Things...

It seems like it's the little things that you remember & what make a relationship so special. Todd was in LA all last week for work and when I saw him on Friday night, he handed me a present he got me. While he was out there, he had sushi one night with a coworker, who happens to be from Japan. They had a little store at the restaurant and since Todd knows I have a sweet tooth, he asked his coworker to recommend some Japaneses sweets to get for me.

Japanese dessert

I've only tried one so far and it was a "Bean Cake" with a cake-like outside and the bean mixture on the inside. It didn't have a lot of flavor but reminded me of a fig newton. Not really my kind of dessert since there was no chocolate involved but still fun to try.

The inside of the Bean Cake

On Sunday, Todd stopped at Trader Joe's on his way over to my apartment so we could make lunch together. He also walked in the door with some beautiful flowers.

Pretty & pink

Like I said, it's the little things that count.

Dime-A-Dog Night

On Monday night, Todd & I headed downtown to Huntington Park to watch the Columbus Clippers, our local minor league baseball team, play the Pawtucket Red Sox. It also happened to be Dime-A-Dog Night at the ballpark. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Since our tickets were just general admission (standing only), we didn't have to rush to our seats so instead we rushed to the concession stand to get our fair share of 10 cent hot dogs. You were allowed to get 5 at a time for a whopping 50 cents and even though I knew I would never eat 5, Todd told me to get them all anyways. We ended up throwing a few of them away.

10 hot dogs between Todd & I

Our "seats"
My obligatory ballpark ice cream sundae
Great night for a baseball game
Cheesy photo opportunity

It was a great night as the Clippers won 11-7 and we saw 3 home runs! We might have also bought a couple t-shirts on the way out of the park too, something like this and this. I love these shirts, super soft & comfy!

Jazz & Rib Fest

After I recovered from my terrible ten miler by napping & hanging out at Todd's apartment pool, we went to one of my favorite festivals in Columbus, the Jazz & Rib Fest. We walked around the whole festival first to see our options in terms of who looked they had the best ribs.

We spotted this booth giving away the chance to win an entire pig

We also found deep fried buckeyes! I'm always intrigued by anything deep fried, not because it will probably taste delicious and clog my arteries, but because I don't really get how literally anything can be deep fried. My love of buckeyes (if you're not from Ohio, it's basically a peanut butter ball dipped in chocolate) won over and Todd & I started with an order of them.

Deep fried buckeyes as an appetizer....yes please!
The inside was delicious mess of melted chocolate & peanut butter

The view of downtown Columbus in the background

We figured after starting with dessert, we should probably actually get some real food in our stomachs, specifically ribs! I'm a huge fan of corn bread so we went to a couple booths that had rib samplers as well as corn bread. Since we wanted to try a couple different places, we just go the sampler that only had 3 ribs.

Our first stop was "Big Boned" As you can see, the BBQ was from all over the country (this place was from Tennessee) and they liked to bring trophies to show off their talent for making ribs

Nothing like washing down some ribs & corn bread with orange pop

Our second stop was "Porky & Beans" and was similar to the first place but their BBQ sauce had a hint of cinnamon in it.

It was lip smackin' good What? Is there something on our faces?

On our way back to the car, we even stopped and listened to some of the jazz being played. Lots of people had the good idea of bringing chairs, tents, and umbrellas to set up to enjoy the music.

The main stage for the jazz at the festival

I had been talking about how we hadn't ridden Todd's motorcycle in quite awhile so when we got back to his place, we got out the bike and rode about 10-15 minutes to get ice cream. Obviously the deep fried buckeyes didn't satisfy my sweet tooth.

Enjoying ice cream cones at Handel's
Todd and his bike with all of our gear

We were both pretty wiped out after such a long, hot day so the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing in the air conditioning....and we might have also gone shopping too.

Weekly Recap: July 19-25

I would have liked to have run a little bit more this week but as you can see, I was teaching a lot of spinning and even did the boot camp workout I taught on Wednesday (normally I don't do the workout because I'm focused on making sure the participants aren't slacking & have good form). My legs were pretty tired by the end of the week! I was happy I got in a 10 miler on Saturday morning and my pace wasn't bad but with the heat & humidity, it was one of my worse runs in quite awhile. I have another 5K coming up on Saturday morning and I'm excited to see if I've improved since the 5K I ran last month.

Monday: taught 45 min spinning

Tuesday: 5 mi tempo (7:31 pace); lifted total body

Wednesday: 45 min elliptical; core & stairs
taught & did 1 hr boot camp after work

Thursday: 5 mi easy (8:16 pace)
taught 50 min spinning after work

Friday: taught 1 hr spinning

Saturday: 10 mi (8:26 pace; ran 6 mi by myself in 8:08 pace then last 4 mi w/ Todd in 8:53 pace)

Sunday: taught 20 min core & taught 50 min spinning


TOTAL: 20 mi

Terrible Ten Miler

Yesterday morning I got up early so I could head out for 10 mi before it got too hot & humid; unfortunately, it never got below 80 degrees during the night so it was hot regardless of what time I was going to run. The plan was to head out and run 6 mi by myself and then swing back around to Todd's apartment and pick him up for the last 4 mi. As soon I left for the run, the humidity hit me in the face and the air was thick & heavy, definitely not ideal running conditions. I hit the first mile in 7:57 and wanted to quit, not because I was tired, but because I already had goosebumps. I was less than 10 minutes into my run and knew I was dehydrated but I pushed through. I passed a bank that said it was 86 degrees & I had a feeling it was 1000% humidity too. Just a hunch though. I went through the next few miles in 7:56, 7:55, and 8:05. I only had a couple more miles before I would be back at Todd's and would be able to have some water.

Those last 2 mi were a struggle though. I seriously debated stopping & walking the rest of the way back but I knew Todd would be worried about where I was when I didn't show up when I said I would. I honestly don't know how I ran those last 2 mi and the sad thing is, this wasn't even a really long run! I could understand if I was on my last mi of a 20 miler but I was only 4 mi into a 10 miler! I hit the last 2 mi in 8:26 & 8:27 before seeing Todd & telling him I didn't think I could run 4 more mi with him but I was also disappointed because I didn't want to only run 6 mi.

I stopped running & walked around for a few minutes. I went up to Todd's apartment to drink some gatorade too because I didn't think the water would be enough. I changed shirts because mine was soaked with sweat. I felt a little bit better & told Todd I thought I could run another 4 mi with him and we decided to just do 1 mi loops so I could easily get back to his apartment if need be. I felt surprisingly refreshed after my 10 min break and felt good the first few mi. Todd began to feel the heat shortly into the run though but we both finished somewhat strong. We averaged 8:53 pace for the 4 mi we ran together so I averaged 8:26 pace for my 10 mi. Not bad for feeling worse than I have in years on a run.

After a cooling down & finally not sweating, I took a nice shower, put on my compression socks, and took a short nap.

Todd snuck a picture of me sleeping with my compression socks....these things are amazing!

I also want to give a huge congrats to one of my high school friends, Gina, from Walk to the Mailbox. She's trying to join the 50 states marathon club, yes, she's trying to run a marathon in every state & D.C.! She's well on her way there as she's in the double digits for states completed, but she finally qualified for Boston yesterday at the Deseret Morning News Marathon in Salt Lake City. This girl is a rock star & I'm super pumped to join her in Boston next April!

Circuit Training

Instead of going to the gym and throwing around some heavy weights 12 lb dumbbells, I've really been into doing circuits the past couple months. Circuit training is a combination of high-intensity bursts of cardio with resistance training and is a great way to burn fat and tone up muscle. I also tend to get bored after about 15 min of just lifting so I like the fast pace effort of circuits along with keeping my heart rate up from the bursts of cardio. As I've mentioned before, I group train a local fire department and circuits are perfect for them. I have everyone start on a different station and can modify each exercise as I see fit. After 30 seconds at each station, they move on to the next.

Here's one of the circuits I did last week after a workout on the elliptical. Start with Circuit 1 and go through each exercise for 30 sec with no rest in between exercises. After you're finished with the first set, take 30 sec to rest and repeat. Once you've gone through Circuit 1 three times, take 1-2 min of rest and move onto Circuit 2.

Circuit 1: 3 x 30 sec

• Walking lunges with bicep curl
• Chest press on stability ball
• Reverse flys
• Jump rope

Circuit 2: 3 x 30 sec

• Squat with row (on cable crossover machine)
• Overhead press
• Triceps push ups (these are killer!)
• Mountain climbers

Circuit 3: 3 x 30 sec

• Squat swing with kettlebell
• Hamstring curl with stability ball
• Plank
• Squat jumps

Try it & let me know what you think!

Snail Mail Surprise

I love coming home from work everyday and checking my mailbox....that is, unless it's just full of bills and junk mail. Yesterday, I was surprised to find an envelope from a local running store in my mailbox. Remember how I ran the Circle of Friends 5K last month? Well, I was 2nd in my age group and apparently they were sending me my award. I ripped it open and found a $10 gift certificate to the running store. How great is that for a surprise? I'm sure I'll be able to find plenty of things to buy there, but the real dilemma will be to go in and not spend a fortune.

My hard earned $10 gift certificate

Working in Indy

Like I mentioned on Friday, my coworker & I drove to Indianapolis late Thursday night for a training course on the Functional Movement Screen. We checked into the hotel, the Crowne Plaza at Historic Union Station, around 11:00 PM and I crashed right away. Not only had I been up since 3:00 AM (remember, I worked at 4:00 AM that morning?) but we also had to be up early on Friday morning to grab breakfast before the training started.

Friday morning came a little bit too early and after a quick (and expensive) breakfast at the hotel restaurant, my coworker & I headed up to the ballroom where the training was to be held. The first part of the day was a lot of lecture and explanation & philosophy behind the functional movement screen. It was interesting but after only 10 hours of sleep in the past 2 nights, I was struggling to stay awake. My coworker & I kept saying we felt like we were in college again trying to stay awake in class. After our lunch break, we were able to do hands-on training and actually put the knowledge we learned before lunch into use.

Our training ended around 5:00 PM for the day. While waiting for my coworker to finish working out and get ready so we could go to dinner, I was hoping to take a short nap but unfortunately my plan failed when there were a bunch of kids swimming in the indoor pool. Normally this wouldn't matter since the pool is usually tucked away somewhere or in its own room but not at this hotel. In fact, the pool was literally right outside my room so I had the pleasure of hearing kids screaming while I tried to take a nap.

This was the view from my hotel window and that is the pool right there

Since I had a couple hours to kill and I couldn't nap, I wandered around the hotel for a bit. The hotel is actually on the National Register of Historic Places because it is housed in America's first "union station." Because the hotel is in an old train station, the set up was a bit different than your typical hotel, which is part of the reason why the pool was out in the open right across from hotel rooms. One neat feature of the hotel though was that they had authentic trains on the second floor with hotel rooms actually on the train.

The hotel rooms on the train....you can see the steps to get into the rooms on the very left hand side

My coworker & I finally headed out around 7:30 PM. We ended up walking a couple blocks to Ram Restaurant & Brewery for dinner. Since we were expensing all of our meals, we really weren't concerned with the price of our meals. I ended up getting fish tacos and my coworker got a steak. Of course, I couldn't resist getting dessert too....and it was HUGE! It was funnel cake layered with scoops of ice cream, in fact, 6 big scoops of ice cream in total. I probably only actually ate 1/4 of it. Afterwards, we headed to the oldest bar in Indiana, Slippery Noodle, which is known for playing live blues.

The Slippery Noodle was established in 1850

They had a lot of Blues Brothers stuff throughout the restaurant and bar area

We got there right before the band was coming on and had great seats. After listening to the band for about an hour or so, we were both getting pretty tired so we headed back to the hotel for the night.

I woke up at 5:15 AM on Saturday morning and headed to the hotel fitness center for 6 mi on the treadmill. Despite the lack of sleep, I felt really good and was glad I actually got up early to run. My coworker & I headed to Einstein Bagels for breakfast before sitting through another long morning of lecture. Thankfully, I was anticipating hitting a wall & getting tired, so I actually had my very first iced coffee to drink during the lecture. It was delicious!

Caramel Macchiato Iced Coffee

Our training ended around 3:00 PM and we quickly loaded up the car and drove back to Columbus. My coworker dropped me off at Todd's around 6:00 PM and I was glad to be back. I'm really happy we were given the chance to go to this training because now we will be certified to do this specific testing with some of the fire departments we already train and do fitness testing with.

Weekly Recap: July 12-18

I had to run a couple times on the treadmill this week due to weather and being out of town but the few days I ran outside I felt really good and was happy with my pace. I'll be teaching spinning 5 times in the next 8 days so my running might decrease a bit but my goal for this week is to do my first double digit run (10 mi!) since March.

Monday: 6 mi speedwork (7:31 pace; 3 x 1 mi @ 7:17, 7:11, 6:58 w/ 1 mi easy in b/w)
*did it on treadmill b/c it was storming outside

Tuesday: 45 min elliptical; total body circuit

Wednesday: 6 mi (7:52 pace); 20 min core (Jackie Warner abs from Exercise on Demand)

Thursday: 3 mi (8:22 pace), 30 min elliptical; lifted total body w/ 6 x 30 sec jump rope
taught 50 min spinning after work

Friday: REST (Indianapolis for seminar/training)

Saturday: 6 mi (7:53 pace; treadmill in hotel)

Sunday: taught 20 min core & taught 50 min spinning

TOTAL: 21 mi

Out of Town...Again

After working at 4:00 AM yesterday morning & teaching spinning in the evening, I drove to Indianapolis with a coworker for a seminar about the Functional Movement Screen. It's a two day training starting this morning and ending tomorrow afternoon. The Functional Movement Screen is a system, or series of tests, used to assess and evaluate functional movement patterns. Each test is graded, limitations and imbalances are identified, and corrective exercises are used to improve movement patterns. We're hoping this will be beneficial with some of our fire departments to assess injury risk and prevent injuries which will in turn save fire departments money in terms of less people being injured and less people working overtime.

I'm pretty excited and hope to learn a lot that I can take back to the rest of my coworkers. Enjoy your weekend!

Grape Salad

Over the past weekend, Todd & I went to a cookout so I made two side dishes to bring, taco dip and grape salad. The grape salad recipe is from Todd's family and he has made it once before for us. Like most of my recipes, it's simple and easy to make and the perfect side dish in the summer.

Grape salad right after I made it

After refrigerating it overnight...some of the brown sugar has soaked in

You can see the brown sugar soaking through the rest of the dish

Grape Salad

Ingredients

1 lb. green seedless grapes
1 lb. red seedless grapes
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
8 0z. sour cream
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans


Directions

1. Wash all grapes and spread out onto paper towel to dry.
2. Mix cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla well. Mix this over grapes and pack into glass bowl.
3. Mix brown sugar and chopped pecans and place over top of grape mixture. Refrigerate overnight.

2 Years

On Monday, Todd & I celebrated 2 years of dating. If you remember on Valentine's Day this year, I told the story of how we met. It's hard to believe we've been together for 2 years but I guess time flies when you're having fun, right?

To celebrate, we went to dinner at Basi Italia. Todd had been here once years ago but I'd never been and had heard only good things about it. And I've pretty much been wanting to go here since Todd & I started dating, just ask him. Despite the torrential downpour in the late afternoon, the weather let up and we were able to sit outside for dinner. If I haven't mentioned it before, I love eating outside on a patio when going to a restaurant so I was really excited when the weather turned around. The food at Basi was amazing! It was seriously some of the best Italian food I've ever had.

Entrance to Basi

The patio, along with the inside of the restaurant, was small but intimate
Part of the menu was written on a chalkboard....so fun!

Our Appetizer: Zucchini Pronto with Toasted Almonds & Pecorino

Todd's Meal: Porcini Mushroom Ravioli with Sherry Wine Aioli, Sage Pesto, and Spiced Pepitas

My Meal: Eggplant Parmesan with Basil Pesto, Tomato Sauce, and Fresh Mozzarella
I'm lucky I met this guy 2 years ago
Todd trying pick up some girl on the way out...I'm not too worried

After dinner, we went for a short walk around Goodale Park. I wanted some dessert so we started to walk around the Short North to find a restaurant to stop at but I decided we could just drive to Graeter's for an ice cream sundae instead. So, before going to Graeter's, we made a quick detour for a walk around the park. We actually walked around the same park on our first date so it was nice to reminisce a little bit.

Walking around the pond in Goodale Park

We had a wonderful evening celebrating 2 years together and I'm hoping for many, many more!

Friends, Food, and Wine

My weekend consisted of 3 things: friends, food, and wine. After making lots of food on Friday night for dinner and the cookout Todd & I had on Saturday, I woke up early the next morning to head to the Olentangy Bike Path to meet Sara & Tracy for an 8 mi run. Besides the great conversation & it being my longest run in several months, there wasn't anything spectacular about it. Early Saturday afternoon, I met up with some of the sexy 7 (my friends from grade school & high school) for lunch at La Chatelaine, a french bakery and cafe. Courtney was in town from NYC and I hadn't seen her in quite a few months so again, like the run I had in the morning, it was great to catch up and hang out with some of my favorite girls.

Megs, Court, me, Lynn

Late Saturday afternoon, Todd & I, along with Sara, headed over to one of Todd's coworker's house for a cookout. The weather was perfect for a cookout and it was fun to relax and munch on some good food.

Todd & I at Kevin & Brie's house

Sara & I with Brie, the hostess, in the middle

I hadn't taught my core or spinning class in 3 weeks since I'd been out of town the past two weekends so after a killer ab workout and awesome spinning class, Todd & I lounged around my apartment pool soaking up the sun for a couple hours. In the late afternoon, we headed downtown for the Food & Ohio Wine Festival to sample some wine. It was very hot outside so I stuck to trying mostly chilled white wines, which I also prefer over reds.

Tasting tickets were 50 cents each with most samples being 2 or 4 tickets

Todd with our tasting glasses in hand

Enjoying a refreshing glass of Riesling

The day wouldn't have been complete without buying a few bottles of wine & a couple bottles of mead for Todd

This was one of the first weekends in awhile where the weekend didn't actually seem to fly right by. I think part of it was because we weren't traveling and part of it was because even though we had lots planned, we still had some time to just relax and hang out.

Weekly Recap: July 5-11

I did my longest run to since late March/early April on Saturday with 8 mi. I ran with Sara & Tracy, two of the girls I ran Boston with in 2008. Tracy is 4.5 months pregnant so she only ran the first 4 mi with us and we kept it at a slower pace, around 9:50 min/mi. The second 4 mi Sara & I picked up the pace and finished our last mile in 8:22 min/mi. I really miss running with these girls and just having somebody to run with in general. I'm hoping to do some speedwork this week since I'm running a 5K in a few weeks. I'm also going to Indianapolis for work on Thursday evening so we'll see how my runs & workouts pan out for Friday & Saturday.

Monday: REST (drove home from Laporte, PA)

Tuesday: 5 mi tempo (7:38 pace); lifted total body

Wednesday: 30 min elliptical; stairs & core

Thursday: 7 mi (7:56 pace); lifted total body

Friday: 45 min spinning

Saturday: 8 mi w/ Sara & Tracy @ Olentangy Bike Path (9:12 pace; last 2 mi were ~8:25 pace)

Sunday: taught 20 min core & taught 50 min spinning




TOTAL: 20 mi

Cheesy Baked Pasta with Spinach & Artichokes

I got this recipe several months ago from Real Simple and have been dying to make it. Typically when Todd & I have been making dinner together the past few months, we've been grilling out, but since we were hanging out at my apartment last night and I don't have a grill, I decided to whip up something new. Todd loves cheese, artichokes, and pasta so this was perfect for him and we both loved it! It was super easy to make and only took about 20-25 minutes from start to finish.

Cheesy Baked Pasta with Spinach & Artichokes

Cheesy Baked Pasta with Spinach & Artichokes

Ingredients:

8 oz. rigatoni or some other short pasta (1/2 box)
1 14-oz. can artichoke hearts, rinsed and quartered
1 9-oz. package frozen creamed spinach, thawed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (1 oz.)
2 cups grated mozzarella (8 oz.)
Black pepper


Directions:

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions, drain, and return it to the pot. Heat broiler.
2. Add the artichoke hearts, spinach, Parmesan, half the mozzarella, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to the pasta and toss to combine.
3. Transfer the mixture to a shallow 2 quart (or 8-inch square) broiler proof baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella. Broil until the cheese is browned in sports, 2 to 3 minutes.

Weekend Plans

After being out of town the past few weekends, Todd & I will actually be staying in Columbus for a change.....but we're still going to be busy! Tonight, Todd & I will be laying low and I'll hopefully be making a new recipe for dinner followed by watching a movie. Saturday morning I'm meeting a couple of my running buddies, Sara & Tracy for an 8 miler and then meeting some of the sexy 7 for lunch. Later that evening, Todd & I are going to a cookout at a friend's house. After teaching core & spinning on Sunday, Todd & I will be heading downtown to the Ohio Food & Wine Festival at the North Market. We went last year and had a blast! I'm especially excited because a few of the wineries we went to in November in Geneva-on-the-Lake will be there so we can stock up on a few bottles since we're running a little low.

I also had a couple great runs so far this week. Tuesday morning I did a 5 mi tempo run in 7:38 pace and yesterday morning I did a 7 mi run in 7:56 pace. I felt really good during these runs and am relieved that this heat wave is finally over! While I love hot weather, these temps in the high 90s the past few days have been a bit much and it's suppose to drop about 10 degrees today. My 8 miler I have planned tomorrow morning will be my longest run to date and I'm hoping it goes well.

Part 2: Long Weekend at the Cottage

After a long day in Eagles Mere & at the winery, the whole family (14 of us) headed down to a house three of my Uncles bought years ago that's just down the street from the cottage.

My Uncles' house in Laporte

I loved all the Fiesta ware on display

A very competitive game of croquet was played where Todd came in 3rd despite playing one-handed due to a beer being in his other hand at all times and then we grilled out for dinner. Since it was the last night all 14 of us would be in Laporte, we ended the evening with a great backyard fireworks display set off by two of my Uncles.

Croquet mallet in one hand, beer in the other (Notice the incline/hill in the background, this is the last portion of the almost 1/2 mi hill I ran up on Friday morning) Not bad for a backyard fireworks display

Once we got back to the cottage, my Dad, Todd and I decided to make some s’mores and got a fire started in the fireplace at the cottage. They were delicious! It was another late night but well spent with family.

Todd was in charge of roasting the marshmellows Yum!

Sunday was another hot day in Laporte, perfect temperature for a 4th of July parade & a relaxing day at the lake. Todd & I did a quick circuit workout up by the basketball court & playground in town and then drove to Eagles Mere with Jeff to meet my Grandma and Dad for brunch at the Sweet Shop. Afterwards, we walked right outside and met the rest of my family to watch the Eagles Mere 4th of July Parade. This was a true small town parade complete with tractors and a kazoo band.

Tractor in the 4th of July Parade

A dog dressed up as a hot dog

Todd & I watching the parade

Part of my family....a bunch of aunts & uncles along with my Grandma, brother, and Dad

After the parade, we drove back to Laporte to get ready to head to Lake Mokoma. It was a great way to spend the holiday and end our trip at the cottage. Todd & I went down and later met up with some more of my family. While we were there, we actually ran into more of our extended family that owns part of the cottage with my Grandma & Great Uncle. In fact, he's somewhat famous! Charlie Moore is my Grandma's cousin and he won a gold medal in the 1952 summer Olympics in the 400 hurdles as well as a silver medal in the 4x400 relay. He later went on to be named one of the "100 Golden Olympians" and was also inducted in the USATF Hall of Fame as well as being the Athletics Director from Cornell. I had always heard about him and finally had a chance to meet him.

Building at Lake Mokoma with snacks & video games
View of the lake with sailboats sailing by Todd catching some rays

We ended Sunday back at the cottage with a family dinner for the 10 of us that we still there. We ate, drank, and hung out on the front porch.....and even spotted some deer about 20 feet away from the porch!

Mama deer & her baby

We got up early Monday morning for the drive back to Columbus. By the time we left the cottage, the only people left for the remainder of the week were my Grandma & Uncle. Like all trips, this one went by entirely too fast but I was still happy to have the chance to go for just a few days. It's amazing to think that this cottage has been in the family for 100 years and I hope to continue to go for many many more years in the future.