A Happy Place

I don’t want to jump the gun here and prematurely state my happiness with running lately – nor do I want to jinx myself, but really…. All of my runs over the past few weeks have been truly phenomenal. I feel like I’ve found a perfect rhythm and beat to my pace. I feel like my legs are happy with me and mind is happy with me. My fifteen mile run this past weekend was successful and I’m not feeling any sort of negative repercussions. That’s new and I’d like to keep it that way!

It’s nice that everything feels this way – my last marathon training it was much tougher for me to get through 10 miles than it is nowadays. I guess that’s the beauty of practice and cross training – something I didn’t really take seriously last time.

Running takes me to my happy place, and the weather has played a huge role in that lately. Thank you, Mother Nature. 🙂

I couldn’t have felt more exuberant and free on this run and I am so grateful to have running as my outlet in life. I could do without the pitch black night time finish, but I’ll take what I can get.

 

When I got home, my lovely roommate, you guys might know her, Rebekah, had baked ANOTHER batch of the muffins from her last post. They were THAT good. They received my seal of approval AND THEN SOME because they were amazing. That NEVER happens!

(Source.) 

If I don’t stuff my face with all of them before tonight, they are to be served at a girl’s night we are hosting tonight! Here’s hoping I keep my mouth closed long enough for others to enjoy these! 🙂 (Mollie, Jax, Catherine, Drew, Ash, please send me encouraging texts all day to STAY AWAY til you guys come over!)

And this morning, because we are doing a cute little girl’s night tonight, Rebekah and I got out miserable morning selves to the gym for some fun. I chose the pool for some cross training while my bestie roomie girl focused on other forms of cardio that didn’t involve the pool.

It’s COLD when it’s this early! 🙂

 

CHEERS TO THE WEEKEND! TGIF!

If you guys lived here with us, you’d all be invited to ladies night tonight! Well, unless you’re of the male gender reading this – in which case, LADIES ONLY (yes I am still 12 and like girl night!).

What are you doing lately that makes you happy?

What’s your favorite baked good right now?

What are you doing this weekend?

-Meghan

Eat and Run!

Well that about sums up my weekend – so no need to elaborate!

All I did was eat like crazy and run like crazy! But for you guys, I think I just might elaborate. 🙂

Friday began with a HOT, HOT, HOT run. Like, ouch. It was definitely not one of my favorite runs but I was happy to knock it out nonetheless.

Even the pup had some choice feelings for that run…

Ain’t nobody got time for that is the attitude I received from him.

Later that night, we celebrated a friend’s birthday over some amazing Chinese food. No one was shy about ordering – there were leftovers for days!

 

Saturday began with a 5K with the boyfriend and his family. When I sign up for 5K’s, I acknowledge that they are going toward a cause, but this 5K in particular was a cause that I was happy to contribute to. 🙂 It’s definitely a 5K that means the most to my boyfriend. The course was super hilly but it was a great way to start the day (before the monsoons came through Atlanta – what the heck?!).

 

I was planning on doing my long run afterward, but it was just too rainy. I can handle some light rain, but starting my run in a storm is definitely not something I’ll ever do. Instead, surprise, I ATE! 🙂

I made some yummy Paleo pancakes and I didn’t follow a recipe but I used very ripe bananas, coconut flour, eggs and cinnamon. They turned out tasting like banana bread and I will certainly make them again in the future!

Oh yes, PS, they aren’t very pretty. Next time I’ll work on that. Nope, wait, no, I won’t. It’s a miracle the house is still intact after I cooked so we’ll leave it at that.

And yesterday I set out to knock out my long run per my loose training plan. It was a gorgeous day and I’m so glad I didn’t try to do it in the nasty rain. Yesterday’s weather was running perfection.

I don’t normally take my talents into Mother Nature, but I thought with the weather as beautiful as it was – it’d be a shame otherwise. 🙂

 

Though my Garmin was being feisty at first, everything ended up just fine and we made it a full 15 miles together. I stupidly chose a hilly route for 6 of the 15 miles and paid severely for that choice at the end of my run but otherwise, I felt great! I’m looking forward to this mileage thing increasing as training picks up. I was surprised at my pace because of said hills and was super proud of what I finished with!

I followed that run with a trip to Sweet Tomatoes, a buffet restaurant (which was not wise) and ate my weight in salad and bread! It was amazing in the worst way possible! 🙂 #YOLOOOOO!!!

What a great weekend! 🙂

What’d you do this weekend?

Do you like Chinese food as much as my friends and I do? I love noodles and veggies (of any cuisine) so Chinese food is right up my alley. 🙂

Have you run a race because of what the cause was? This was my first time! It was definitely more than inspiring.

-Meghan

WLC and What I’m Eating

So, we’re almost at the end of week 2 of the Whole Life Challenge. So far, it’s going swimmingly. For the past 10 days, I’ve eaten strict Paleo, no sweeteners (except a little Stevia), and no artificial ingredients of any kind. I feel great and can already see my hard work paying off, which is great because it provides me with that much more motivation to keep at it.

As I’m sure you all can tell, I never take pictures of my workouts anymore. I’m at the gym every day – usually lifting weights – but the combination of trying to get my workout in without distractions and not trying to draw any attention to myself has me failing in the picture department. Sorry. Kinda. I mean, attempting to do a squat and holding it, while reaching down to grab my phone and snap a quick pic isn’t the easiest thing to do. Sounds like a good way to get hurt.

Reminds me of this:

Hahahahahaha, people are stupid.

Anyway, I’ll probably take progress photos at some point. That is, if I feel like I have progress to show.

Here’s some stuff I’ve been eating (I didn’t edit any of these, so I’m sorry for the shit quality – I promise it’s no reflection on how I feel about you).

I’ve been attempting to prep my food for the week.

Mmm…smoothies.

Random shit from my fridge.

My food is really simple and really boring lately. But it’s yummy and healthy. It’s like that guy who isn’t all that cute but you keep him around because he has a great personality.

PANCAKES!!! (I added strawberries. Solid call.)

Avocado egg cups. Too legit <—that word always cracks me up.

Organic Pink Lady apple (Meredith, I thought about you when I ate this – is that weird??) Eat your entire apple, children! You’ll grow up big and strong, and you won’t be a wasteful little brat either 🙂

Ok so now that the previous boring-ass photo dump is over, you can all get back to your much more exciting lives that exist outside of this blog post.

In other news, I’m boring and have no life. I do nothing but go to work, watch Law and Order: SVU marathons, cook, and sit at Caribou Coffee reading Practical Paleo while I wait for everyone to leave the gym so by the time I get there I won’t have elbow my way through a sea of roided out man tank tops just to wait in line for a bench. Thanks but no thanks.

Obviously I wasn’t going to let you get back to your exciting lives before I left you with a super awesome run-on sentence about mine. I’m not selfish; it just seems like it.

What are you doing this weekend? Is it fun? Can I come?

I can’t believe it’s almost time for cold weather clothes again! That’s not a question.

– Rebekah

Running Skirt!

I’m so excited I finally got a running skirt! Ask anyone, I’ve been whining about how I want one SO badly! I finally caved, and, best part – it was only $17. Win.

Of course, I had to text people to get approval, and I did! Much love to TJ Maxx and the Avia brand running skirt and moisture wicking tank.

Yesterday was full of lots of fun and shenanigans. Shopping ensued, and so did the infamous stop off at Jason’s Deli where, somehow, this wound up in my possession. I told my mom it was froyo (Mom, I thought it was!!) and she told me it was definitely not. Whoops, there I was thinking I wasn’t being that bad, but I was!

Perfect for a hot summer day.

Last night, I put off my run until about 8:15 – something I never do. I see now, why I do it as soon as I get home from work. Running that late, or some other unknown factor, caused me to really not enjoy my run. In fact, the whole time I kept thinking, “How much longer until I’m finished?” It’s annoying to have those kinds of runs, but like everyone has confirmed, it just makes the great ones all that better! I also sweat like crazy, which was odd, because I knew I was dehydrated yesterday. I neglected my beloved CamelBak. Sorry, friend.

To end the night, I cooked up some sweet potato hash browns and my boyfriend steamed some broccoli. Delish.

Ugh. I love side dishes so much, and those two foods really hit the spot. Sweet potatoes are so versatile and I eat them so much! I mean really, just stare at these for a little bit and you’ll never wonder why I am so in love.

They’re super easy to make, too, and for all my Paleo friends, they’re Paleo! 🙂

Do you have a running skirt?

Which do you prefer – chocolate or vanilla ice cream? Indecisive Meghan prefers both. 🙂

Would you rather eat sweet potatoes or broccoli? Or neither??! << Don’t hurt my feelings and tell me you hate broccoli. I love the stuff, always have, always will!

-Meghan