Of course, as soon as they arrived and when I got off work, we headed to Tailgate!

This time, we tried their cauliflower crust pizza! It was good, but honestly a little too cheesy for me; I prefer their regular GF crust!

We lucked out with the weather for Tuesday. It was on the cooler side (low 90s), so we did all the outdoor Nashville things.

We went downtown and walked the pedestrian bridge, visited Goo Goo candy, then drove by the parthenon.

Before too much sweating, we broke for lunch at Edley’s BBQ, my favorite of the BBQ I’ve tried thus far. I got a salad with smoked turkey on top. It also had smoked gouda, and it was delicious! A great way to get my BBQ fix while getting some greens in.

While in 12 South, we took the iconic picture and visited Jeni’s ice cream. I’m obsessed with the gooey butter cake flavor.

Next, we headed to the Belle Meade Plantation for a historical tour of the mansion and wine tasting.

I really enjoyed learning the history of the family that lived their. They had a huge horse business (it wasn’t actually a plantation) and basically owned the entire area. I love seeing a taste of what life was life in a different time and place.

We all enjoyed the wine tasting as well. I was able to try all whites. Tennessee wine is a lot different than CA wine. Very similar to Missouri wine. Fruitier, but refreshing.

After the tour, we spent a little time at home with the kitties before driving down south. This happened.

Yes, my mom and I both went home with our first pair of cowboy boots! Apparently this is what a month in Nashville does to me.

We went down to Franklin (30 minutes south of Nashville) for dinner. This was the meal I was most excited for. We visited the Honey Tupelo Cafe in Knoxville when I lived there, and I remember it being SUPER good (Southern Food). I also remember the amazing looking table biscuits. I was super strictly GF at that point and couldn’t try them, so now that I’m healthier, I was especially looking forward to those. They did not disappoint.

We also got some smokey veggies to share (including okra).

For my meal, I got a salad with goat cheese, blueberries, grilled chicken, and sweet potato puree.

After dinner, we planned on going to see some fireworks at Tailgate, but we severely underestimated how big of a deal it was, and when we saw the line of cars attempting to park blocks away, we gave up!

On 4th of July, I slept in and then took a spin class at KrankFit. It was America themed, and a fun way to start the holiday! My parents and I met up for an early lunch at Frothy Monkey. I got a salad with grilled salmon and goat cheese.

Then, we walked across the street to Five Daughters Bakery so my mom could try the 100 layer donut. We split a maple donut.

As temperatures were climbing into the mid-90s, we decided to cool off and see a movie that afternoon, which was definitely a good choice!

Before heading out for the night, I had to put Jackson’s festive bandana on and take some pictures. He’s the cutest.

For my mom’s birthday, I promised her a brewery tour in Nashville. I didn’t account for how many breweries would be closed, or would close early, for 4th of July! We had to change our plans a little bit, but Nashville (especially the Gulch) has no shortage of breweries to choose from. I think our favorite of the day was one that wasn’t even on our radar before!

First up: Southern Grist. These beers were super interesting. They had a lot of interesting fruity beers.

We then stopped for dinner at ML Rose, a burger joint. My mom and I split a chicken burger with cheese that tasted remarkably like an actual cheeseburger (in a good way!). Then, it was back onto the tour! We raced over to Yazoo (one of the main Nashville breweries) to split a beer before they closed for the night. We got the Dos Perros, and it was one of my favorites of the evening!

After Yazoo, we drove half a mile away to New Heights, a brewery we found just based on proximity (although it turns out I had tried one of their beers before). My mom and I got a flight with all kinds of interesting things, including an Aztec chocolate, a non-dark coffee beer, and a raspberry s’wheat tea.

We ended up getting a glass of the Swheat Tea to share.

Our last brewery was Tennessee Brew Works, which I had actually been to with my sister.

Finally, it was time to head downtown!

It was definitely crowded for 4th of July, and all of Broadway was closed off for a giant (free) concert. All of the rooftops were packed! I took my parents to some of my favorite spots. We were at a bar and suddenly everyone left, so naturally we followed them out to see why. The fireworks started! The fireworks show was awesome. It was set to music, it was so close, and it went on forever! At least 45 minutes! We were all very impressed!

We spent the rest of the night enjoying all that Nashville has to offer!

They left the following evening, so we spent the day not doing anything too crazy. We went to a coffeeshop for lavender vanilla lattes and a GF pineapple carrot muffin for me.

And then spent some time with kitties.

Finally, we went to an early dinner at Hattie B’s, Since it was still early and we weren’t super hungry, I ended up with lots of delicious leftovers!

It was so nice having them here to see my new city!

Thursday before spring break, my parents came to school to take Chloe to a behavior appointment (she has anxiety) so we went out for pizza afterwards. My mom and I shared a salad and a GF pizza with garlic and ricotta.

Here’s a meal from Friday: salad with balsamic, turkey, goat cheese, and butternut squash seasoned with garlic, salt, and pepper.

Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day.

That morning, I did 18.4 and then drove home for break!

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with food. See’s has mint scotchmallows (mint marshmallow+ caramel) and they are amazing.

We had an Irish meal. I skipped the corned beef and focused on sides!

Cabbage, glazed carrots, potatoes with truffle salt, and a GF biscuit with dried cranberries (AKA a better version of Irish soda bread).

…silly.

I have to share some animal pictures.

Now food!

We tried a Chicken and Dill spring soup that was really good. Side of Brazilian cheese bites.

I also picked up a GF berry and peach pie from Whole Foods, since I missed pi day!

Breakfast basically every day has been GF bread with sunbutter and a mango.

On Monday, I decided this week should be like a “stay-cation,” so we had happy hour with Longboard Lager (my favorite Hawaiian beer). For dinner, we stayed with the theme and had a salad with grilled teriyaki chicken, papaya, parmesan, and poppyseed dressing. I also had a passion-guava juice drink mixed with sparking water.

A Sweetgreen, my favorite DC place, just opened up super close to here so one night after spin (it’s right across the street from the spin studio I like), we went to dinner. I had the winter squash salad, but I added chicken and chose goat cheese instead of bleu cheese, so my salad has roasted winter squash, apples, raisins, chicken, goat cheese, and a balsamic vinaigrette. YUM.

Wednesday, we had our big outing of the week. One of my best friends from back home works at a high quality chocolate company, so we went on a tour and visited her! The tour was great, and I learned a lot about both the chocolate making process, and tasting chocolate!

SO MUCH good chocolate!

Afterwards, we went to Gilman brewing, which turned out to be a really awesome brewery.

They had like 15 beers on tap, and they were much more aligned with the style I like. I love saisons, and they had 4 types of saison, including a nectarine saison and a dark saison! Everything was fantastic!

Thursday night, we celebrated my sister’s birthday…1 month late…with pineapple upside down cake. I made a little mini GF oat flour based one, and it was actually really delicious! Not quite good enough to share the recipe though. It was oat flour and applesauce based, and then I used vanilla pudding mix to flavor it.

For lunch on Friday, I made a wrap with garlic and herb laughing cow, turkey, lettuce, and avocado sprinkled with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. On the side, I had a sale with aged blackberry balsamic and goat cheese.

That evening was the final workout of the Crossfit Open, 18.5, for me! It was really fun to be able to do it at my home Crossfit.

18.5:

Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes of:
3 thrusters
3 chest-to-bar pull-ups
6 thrusters
6 chest-to-bar pull-ups
9 thrusters
9 chest-to-bar pull-ups
12 thrusters
12 chest-to-bar pull-ups
15 thrusters
15 chest-to-bar pull-ups
18 thrusters
18 chest-to-bar pull-ups

This is a timed workout. If you complete the round of 18, go on to 21. If you complete 21, go on to 24, etc.

Women use 65 lb.

So this in theory would be super cardio heavy, however, I had never been able to do a chest to bar pull up. I spent like 15 minutes before the workout trying everything to get a chest to bar, and nothing was working. I got advice from all the coaches but i couldn’t get it. Despite that, I got talked into Rxing the workout, and just planning on spending 6:45 attempting to do chest to bar. Well, I tried literally everything. Over 5 minutes in, I FINALLY GOT ONE! It wasn’t the prettiest. I knew I was getting high enough, but wasn’t able to touch my chest to the bar. My chest to bar ends dup being a reverse grip (like a chin up) and involved me pulling all the way up and pausing, confused, at the top, and then pulling into the bar. Once I had that technique figured out, I got another. And then another. And then I sprinted over and did 6 thrusters, and back for one more pull up. So I got a whopping 13, but I GOT CHEST TO BAR PULL UPS FINALLY! I think I could have redone this and gotten a lot more reps now that I figured that out!

This is how you celebrate. Apparently that’s what I thought last year, check out what came up on my time hop:

I hung around watching and judging the next heat, and then for a bit for the post-Open party. Then, I went home for Sweetgreen again, and got the same salad because it was so good.

I also made flour less brownies again.

I was up early on Saturday for a dog walk with friends, followed by a spin class. Check out this view!

Also:

I spent the rest of Saturday working on engineering a cat toy for a vet school contest. An engineer I am not, but it turned out really well!

Sunday morning, I did a 5k that I’ve done the past 4ish years. I am still coming back from my ankle injury and have hardly run in the past 6 months, but the good news is that my ankle felt really good! It’s a little sore today, but it was fine during the race! Thanks to the small race, I managed to snag first in my age group.

Sunday afternoon, I went to tea with my high school friends. It was so nice to see everyone! Also, their GF scones <3

And now it’s back to reality!

I’m not sure why I thought blogging would be any easier?

Vet school apps have me doing a lot of reflecting. I’ve changed so much in the past 4 years, and it’s really hard for me to remember who I was back then and what I was like. Having my blog is invaluable. I’m so glad I started it during my freshman year. It’s taken me all the way through college, through so many changes. It’s just incredible to have all that documented. Plus, having my original thoughts on why I wanted to go into veterinary medicine, in real time, is super helpful as I write my essay. With new experiences, things change, and it’s really nice to be able to go back to my roots. I also feel like when I’m blogging, my posts are more raw and authentic than when I’m actually writing. My essay was feeling really stiff, so I sat down, in wordpress, and typed up a blog post reflected on my vet experiences. I can’t post it for privacy reasons, but it was a great exercise.

In a similar vein, I discovered a whole bunch of pictures from high school and middle school that I’ve never seen before. I thought my most awkward years were undocumented. That is not the case. Why did I think bright yellow sweatpants were a thing??

Actually, going through the old pictures was super interesting, and I think there needs to be a post about all that at some point. And don’t worry, some embarrassing pictures will be included.

I found one picture from 2011 that I feel like perfectly sums up who I was then.

Softball glove. Cat. That’s all ya need.

Last night, we made my fig and goat cheese salad, with the fig bounty from the farmer’s market.

This morning I went to Crossfit. It was hard. I took one look at the workout and knew it would be a rough one. For the strength, we worked on cleans. I worked up to 110#, which is not close to my 1 rep max, but the heaviest I’ve gone since my foot injury, and all felt good!

The WOD:

30-20-10

thrusters (55#)

pull ups

Here’s the thing. In the past month, I’ve stopped using a band for pull ups, and have been kipping. But everything has been in smaller sets. I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do a set of 30. (This is of course with breaks in between some of the reps, but it’s not the same as a full recovery). I didn’t even get a band out because I figured I would dive in and not give myself a way out. And here’s the thing. Thrusters make anything after thrusters feel way harder. I broke my first set of thrusters into 15 and 15 to avoid burning out right away, and then attacked the pull ups in 5s, so doing 5 and then coming off the bar, and coating myself with chalk. Honestly, I think grip strength was a major factor here too. But I got through the set of 30. Then 20. Then 10. I finished as a chalk monster with jelly arms, but accomplished! Seriously, chalk on my forehead, chalk in my hair, chalk on my shins. I though it was going to take me forever, but somehow it was only 13ish minutes? I don’t think I’ve ever done that many non-banded pull ups! While having a stress fracture stunk, there is always a silver lining. I could not have done this a few months ago. Even when things get rough, you have to look for the positives, and hold on to what you do have!

Post workout breakfast was my current go-to. Plain Greek yogurt with sunbutter, cinnamon KIND granola, and a peach.

I spent the rest of the morning working on my app, and then made the same fig and goat cheese salad for lunch. Real talk: 2/3 of the figs didn’t make it into the bowl. I love figs.

Also-Something kind of fun. We tried grilling watermelon last night! I still don’t know what I think. We have a charcoal grill, so it was a really smoky flavor. I made a mint/honey glaze for it. The watermelon felt like it should be savory. I think I liked it best with a little salt, a tiny bit of glaze, and goat cheese.

Have you ever grilled watermelon?

3 new recipes

2 workouts

1 family

When I saw last year’s post for this day, I was stuck. Uhh you can only mash bananas so many ways! Instead, I decided to alter the the idea to variations on a theme. Much easier to work with! But what could I make 4 ways?

Custard! Last summer, I tried my hand at healthy banana custard and it came out really well. In the fall, I tried pumpkin custard. But then I realized I never posted the original recipe! And here’s a bonus-one version is a microwave version of the original as well. Although fair warning, it is  bit hard to not get it to overflow in the microwave. That happened when I made it in DC at the house I was staying at. Let’s just say that microwave needed the cleaning. *Shudder* So let’s get to it!

First, we’ll go through general custard making, and then I’ll do adjustments for each variation. Note that I use egg whites and skim milk for it. If you want to make it richer, feel free to use full fall milk or egg yolks.

Custard Making

1. Heat milk up in medium/large pot until it simmers.

2. Meanwhile, whisk egg whites and corn starch together (and banana is recipe calls for it) in a medium/large bowl.

3. Remove milk from heat and pour onto the side of the bowl with the egg mixture, while wisking the mixed mixture.

4. Immediately pour everything back into the pot and cook on medium high until everything thickens.

5. Stir in butter and vanilla

Ok! Now for the fun part.

Banana custard

3 bananas, well mashed (can microwave to soften them but cool before adding to egg mixture)

1 T butter

1 t vanilla

2 c milk

1 c egg whites

1/4c cornstarch

Bananas Foster Custard

3 bananas, sliced

2 T butter

1 t vanilla

2 c milk

1 c egg whites

1/4c cornstarch

2 T brown sugar

1 t cinnamon

Sautee 1 T butter, the cinnamon, the brown sugar, and the bananas.

Sautee until soft and tender, and then lightly mash.

Let the bananas cool before adding them to the egg and corn starch mixtures, and follow the directions above for custard making.

Eggnog Custard

2 cups light eggnog or soynog/coconut milk nog/almond milk nog (go with regular eggnog if you want it super rich-I used Silk Soynog)

1 cup egg whites

1/4 c corn starch

1 T butter

1 t vanilla

Follow above instruction for custard with eggnog in place of milk.

When this came off the stove, I was sort of blown away and decided it needed to be inside a cake. I used it as a filling for pumpkin cake and it was fantastic!

Microwave Banana Custard

I made this for breakfast in DC when I wanted something lighter and fast with a good protein kick!

1 very ripe banana

(optional 1 T corn starch)

2/3 c milk

1/3 c egg whites

dash of vanilla

1 t butter (optional)

1. Mash up banana in microwave safe bowl and heat about 30 seconds or until soft. Mash again.

2. Add milk, egg, and corn starch to bowl and mix well.

3. Heat on high until mixture thickens, stirring every 30 seconds. Make sure it doesn’t overflow!

4. Stir in butter and vanilla.

And because I’m still home, here is your holiday cat quota of the day:

So, Saturday morning I ate breakfast and drove up there.

It was so great to see so many people out there to support a great cause!

I was in the first heat, which I was really happy about. I was a little nervous, and I didn’t want to have to wait around to go!

Of course, it wouldn’t be an event if my mom didn’t take an awkward picture of me stretching…

The workout was 3 five minute chunks, with a minute in between each. Each round consisted of:

1 minute power cleans (65#)

1 minute shoulder to overhead (65#)

1 minute double unders

1 minute kb swings (16kg)

1 minute burpees

(The pictures of me warming up are less blurry.)

Here’s the breakdown for me-the power cleans were super light. The shoulder to over head would be a bit heavier especially after cleans. I had no idea how double unders would go because they are super hit or miss for me. KB swings would sort of be a rest because 16 has felt pretty light lately and they were just Russian swings (not overhead). Burpees would be….burpees. Blech.

Here’s how it went:

I ended up muscle cleaning the power cleans because it was light, which means I didn’t really jump it up. The first round, I started WAYYY too fast-I think I got 20 reps in the first 30 seconds and then realized I needed to slow the heck down because it was starting to gas me. I did push press for shoulder to overhead, and it definitely wasn’t light after the cleans.

Then it was on to jumprope, which I was grateful for because my shoulders were shot. To my surprise, the jump roping went really well. My double udders were cooperating and it turned out to be a non issue. Note-jump roping with rubber arms is a weird experience.

The kettle bell swings were pretty uneventful.

And the burpees were surprisingly good. Because the kettle bell swings were fairly light and I muscle cleaned in the first minute, my legs were actually pretty fresh so these actually felt good. Weird…

Round 2 was definitely the hardest round for me. I slowed it back quite a bit in an effort to not die. Rounds 2 and 3 were when I started having the problem that my grip was failing on the barbell movements and kettle bell swings.

And as I write this, I’m realizing how sore my forearms are now….lots and lots of cleans will do that! Plus kettle bell swings-those can be hard on grip too!

I think the last round felt better than the second, maybe because I was almost done! Grip was definitely worse though! It was awesome to have so many people cheering me on through the last round.

But man, I was happy to be done!

^Pure relief.

That was HARD. Definitely the hardest workout I’ve done in a LONG time. Competition push and normal push in workouts are 2 different things! WHEW. I finished with 336 reps!

After watching another wave compete, I headed home for lunch, homework help, and kitties.

Lunch was pretty basic-taco salad with ground turkey and cheese.

Plus some fancy cheese and crackers on the side.

Then, I spent the entire afternoon working on CS homework. On the plus side, I’m really close I think!

I also did a little experimental baking-recipe to come soon!

I stayed for dinner before heading back to school-we ordered takeout from a fancy burger place. I got a wild salmon burger with sweet potato fries.

And I’ll leave you with some last cat pictures:

^He makes sure all my clothes come back to school furry.

And here I am! I stayed out too late coding (until I realized I couldn’t think straight and it was time for bed). I was planning on running this morning but brunch is about to open so that can wait!

What did you do this weekend?

Everyone has been complaining about how “hot” it is. It’s 82 and dry. That’s cute. I ran in long sleeves yesterday morning!

In terms of travel, everything went pretty smoothly. I enjoyed one last Sweetgreens salad.

And one last Georgetown cupcake. These are salted caramel and chocolate birthday cake.

The cupcake competition in DC may require its own post.

After packing my bags, I lugged 125 lbs of luggage through the cobbled streets of DC. That, my friends, is why I do Crossfit. Needless to say I had to pay quite a bit in overweight baggage fees…

Immediately upon arriving home, I became a furry mess, as I will continue to be for the next 3 weeks.

Besides cuddling my kitty, I’m going to be putting some work into this blog in the next few weeks. I haven’t had much time to do much with it lately other than throw up posts-my race page is sorely outdated. So be on the lookout for a fun recipe tonight!

In terms of the last few days, yesterday morning I tried out my current pre-run breakfast. Yogurt with cocoa banana and sunflower seed butter.

Then, I headed out for my run. I went out to the bay and my mom walked while I ran. I guess I got a bit faster this summer-it’s really nice to run when a) it’s 20 degrees cooler and b) not 5am and I’m just rolling out of bed to the street.

Lunch out with my family afterwards was a cobb salad with chicken and avocado.

For snack, I had some pumpkin yogurt. Yes, I know it’s too soon. It was good though.

In the evening, I went to my home Crossfit! I’m so happy to be back there! We worked on pull ups, and then the WOD included lots of tire flips. My arms hurt.

For dinner, I made a copycat Sweetgreens seasonal salad.

I also utilized my new knife skills I learned at a culinary bootcamp in DC that I went to for work to cut the watermelon.

The salad included arugula, baby kale, fresh mint, feta, watermelon, cucumber, heirloom tomatoes, spicy sunflower seeds, chicken, and champagne vinaigrette.

It came out really well!

And because we need to end on a cat picture clearly:

Yesterday I went home to go see an Allergist. After breaking out like crazy after a small amount of peanut butter, I decided it was time! They did an extensive allergy test to a million different foods, and sure enough, I had some reaction to nuts. The reaction was really minor so my throat isn’t going to swell up or anything like that, but he wants me to aggressively cut out all traces of nuts for at least a year, in the hopes that I’ll grow out of it. So no more almond milk for me! And a lot more label reading! I also tested a minor allergy to blueberries and carrots…AKA 2/4 of my top favorite foods (mangoes, avocado, blueberries, roasted carrots). Apparently the DNA of blueberry and carrots looks very similar to that of pollen, so my body is likely recognizing it as pollen. I’ve never noticed any issues though, and he said cooking carrots should make them fine. So I GUESS if I HAVE to roast carrots, I’ll do it.

So basically what I got out of the appointment is I shouldn’t go super crazy on blueberries, and I should roast my carrots-but more importantly I need to avoid ALL traces of nuts for 12-18 months. In terms of food, here is yesterday’s breakfast:

An English muffin sandwich with cream cheese and hard boiled egg, plus pineapple. And since I was home for my allergy appointment anyways, I got to enjoy a home cooked meal! On the menu was cheese soufflés, thyme mushrooms, and an herb salad with fancy lemon scented olive oil and aged white balsamic.

Dessert tasted much better than it looked-I melted some Easter candy (which I left all of at home) over some vanilla frozen yogurt. Delicious!

On the fitness front, I’m STILL sore from doing 10 sprints on Wednesday. Clearly, I need to do more of that! I think that’s one big way I can increase my speed! This morning, I had the intention of doing a hilly 5 mile run but I spent too much time eating carrots pre-run, so I cut it to a flat 4 miles. Yes, carrots make great pre-run food. Plus I’m out of granola bars. And bananas. And anything else that wouldn’t require me to make it at 7am. My legs felt kind of heavy. I’m not sure if it’s the soreness or I’m just out of shape because I haven’t run a ton lately. On the plus side, I had a 5 pound PR on my press at Crossfit tonight! On the life front, I’m playing Assassins with my dorm. For those that aren’t familiar with the game, everyone is assigned a “target” and has to “eliminate” the target with their water gun in a certain amount of time, while avoiding getting “killed.” I have until tonight to do it, but I never see my target! So we shall see. Meanwhile, I’ll be watching my back.

Also on the life front, I’m entering my 20s tomorrow! I feel like a new decade is the time for a fresh start. Or something. Time to make big life changes. My roommate had a great point-next year, maybe I can celebrate my 21st by eating peanuts! Haha. I think my goal for the next year of my life is to break my sugar addiction, once and for all. That doesn’t mean never eating it, or not eating it for a whole year. It means getting rid of my dependence and finding a healthier middle ground. So there’s that. Have a great weekend everyone! What are your weekend plans? Any advice for my 20s?

Today, I’m linking up with Katie for Marvelous in My Monday!

Over the weekend, I went to Lake Tahoe with my dorm for our ski trip. I use the term “ski trip” a bit liberally-not many people skied-there’s hardly any snow right now! We are officially in a drought. It meant the weather was nice though!

Friday before we left, I got in a great workout-I did my treadmill workout, followed by some weights-back lunges, single leg RDLs, and abs. Basically all my favorites! My knee is still not fabulous, so it limits what I can do a little bit. On the plus side, this means I’ve been running more, which I really should do anyway since I claim I’m trying to PR a 5k soon. 

We left school in the afternoon, and hit horrible traffic. We stopped for dinner-and there was a Safeway nearby! Not just fast-food!

Whole wheat pita, chicken, veggies, and hummus.

Kombucha.

I also got some 86% chocolate for the bus ride. 

I have to warn you guys-not a lot of food pictures from this trip. Or a lot of good food. The food they provided us was basically carbs and sugar. And lots and lots of potato chips. Mmmm and blueberry muffins-definitely a weakness of mine!

The most Marvelous part of my weekend was probably Saturday’s run. Not skiing meant I basically had all day to hang out and do whatever. I was excited to run in a new and beautiful place! I bundled up (sort of) and got going on my first snow run!

It was definitely not as cold as I was expecting, especially given there was some snow on the ground. I’ve had much colder runs at home!

I ran through the little ski village, taking a comfortable pace. I wore my Garmin just so I would have some idea of how far I had gone (so I wouldn’t get too lost) ad just listened to the sound of my breathing and my footsteps. I didn’t really have any destination in mind. I ended up in another state, which was cool.

I somehow ended up finding a trail that took me through a forest/wildlife preserve area. I stopped a bunch for pictures, and to read some of the signs-there were a bunch that talked about casinos that were supposed to be built there (definitely not in CA anymore), but how the space was preserved instead.

One of the best moments of my run was finding a pond that was completely frozen over.

I have a strange obsession with finding frozen puddles (maybe because I never see them) so this was pretty exciting!

I was tentatively planning on running 4-5 miles. I wanted to get a glimpse of the lake, so around the halfway point, I decided to go a little bit further to try and get a picture. That was a good decision-I turned a corner and BOOM. I was on the beach!

That was one of my favorite runs in a long time! I didn’t really feel the high altitude either!

I spent the rest of the day walking around and exploring the little village.

Like I said, food was not the best quality on this trip, and I definitely ate so much junk! This was actually one of my healthier things (and I felt the need to document it!)

Graham crackers with melty banana and 86% chocolate. 

For dinner, we had frozen pizzas to cook up (we were staying in suites with a small kitchen)-this was an interesting task, as the pizzas had thawed a bit and were floppy, and there were no trays or anything. One of the pizzas ended up as a calzone because there was no other way to get it into the oven!

Sunday morning we were up fairly early to head home-we left early enough to get back in time for the 49ers game!

Lunch stop along the way-Starbucks salad. (Bonus-it had kale!)

Upon arriving at school, I packed my things up super fast to head home in time for the game. It was disappointing, to say the least. And I’m kind of embarrassed I go to the same school as Sherman did…

Dinner was Greek salads with grilled chicken-we grilled up a ton extra for food this week-enough that some will have to go in the freezer!

And of course being reunited with this guy was kind of Marvelous too. 

And now, I’m finishing up meal prep. I’ll do a post on this as well as other “project” food later tonight! Before I head back to school, I’m going to get a Crossfit style track workout in-I can’t do the Crossfit workout today thanks to my knee-squats are still a no go!

What did you do this weekend? Do you have today off!

Here’s some random food from yesterday. Since this is a food blog and all.

Pumpkin+honey+tons of spices, with sunflower seed butter and cottage cheese.

Dinner-teriyaki tilapia, grain mix, thai chicken, salad.

I had every intention of studying bio last night, but I got hijacked by/crashed a quidditch party. My sister is the captain of the team, and her boyfriend is Jewish and makes latkes. Which were delicious. Plus, they made homemade applesauce-AMAZING! My sister also made butterbeer, which is WAY too sweet for me, so I went for the less sweet ice cream with caramel sauce. WHich should give you an idea for the sweetness of the drink. And then-genius: applesauce, ice cream, caramel sauce. You all should go out and make applesauce and then try this. Needless to say I ate way to many latkes and ice cream, and my stomach has been hating me lately. I was worried it would be an issue on my run, but it was fine!

Guys. This is where I run. This is seriously the prettiest and most scenic place I can think of around here.

I wasn’t pushing the pace, but I felt really good.

So what do I do when my ultimate goal, pushing hard race pace turns into a comfortable run? I have no idea how fast I should go out next week now! This felt really good! The run featured rolling hills, with a decent sized hill around mile 4. I’ve done this run 3x: the first while training for my first half, and then early in my training for this half. The first time: I took the big hill at a 12/13:00 pace. Last time, I was proud to be around 11:00. Today, I did it sub-10. To be honest, I didn’t really feel the hills that much. I guess I was a little more out of breath. It’s amazing what hillwork/speedwork will do for you!

Also, I’m fairly certain of one thing. I’m going to be sobbing the first 3 miles. I get choked up just thinking about the race-I can’t explain it, it just makes me so happy. I’m unbelievably excited! My last race, I felt so lucky to even be physically able of running, so I’m not really sure what my excuse is this time!

I’ll probably be sobbing the last 3 miles as well…my feet starting killing around mile 4 of today’s run. That means what, only 9.1 miles of intense pain? Funnnn. 

After my run, I went to get gas, which happened to be next to the grocery store, so I grabbed a quick lunch there: mango kombucha and a turkey sandwich.

Aaaand the aftermath. I’m a bread picker for sure.

And since I was right next to my favorite froyo place…I mean I couldn’t not get some!

They had toasted coconut, which is a new flavor! I got some of that alongside chocolate and my all time favorite, salted caramel pretzel.

I then went to the Stanford Nike store to pick up my race day packet…only to be greeted by an hour long line. I simply didn’t have the time today-3 midterms next week have to take priority. It means I have to fight the crowds at the expo, but that’s ok since I wanted to go to the expo anyway. I also learned that right next to the Nike store, a Soul Cycle is coming! I’ve been wanting to try that for forever, and here it is, an easy bike ride from my dorm. As an avid spinner, that makes me pretty freaking happy.

On the way out of the mall, I picked up some oatmeal cookie type things, which were delicious.

And after a night of homework, I had a random snacky dinner, which included a granola bar, figs, chicken, and this plate.

I swear, my stomach hates me. If I eat the wrong food, I get a stomachache. If I eat too much of the right food, I get a stomachache. If I eat the right food at the wrong time, it rebels. And given I did all three this past weekend…I think a week of clean eating is in order! I can’t afford to have stomach issues on race day!

Which is a weird note to end on. Here’s a cat picture.

Enjoy your Monday!

Do you have any random pains when you run? How do you deal with them? Do you prefer races, or just running solo? How sick are you of me talking about running? I promise things will change up a little more in a week!

Yesterday morning (Friday) I donned by neon shirt and headed out for an early morning run. I checked the weather report-47 degrees was the low…and the low was at the time of my run. Awesome. The temperatures are really starting to cool down here. Want to know something bizarre? Next week we have lows of 47 and highs of 80. While it does tend to get cold at night here, that much temperature difference is insane!

3 miles were on the schedule for Friday morning. I ran half a mile there, and half a mile back, so my workout was 8x400m repeats. I really like these-and yesterday I felt like I was flying. I don’t wear my Garmin for these, but I’m sure I was well under my goal pace. Something I like even more? 200 repeats. I’ll get to do a lot of those while I train to PR my 5k. SO pumped. I just felt really great out there Friday-I felt like I was flying on my 9 mile run last weekend as well-I feel like I’ve suddenly gotten a lot faster-perfect timing though! T minus 8 days until RACE DAY.

I’m liking my new post early morning workout coffee ritual.

It’s always cold in the morning, plus if I go straight from my workout, I beat all the on the way to work/class crowd. Perfect. 

Walking back to my dorm, I saw this:

I wish I lived on the first floor. The cat is back! I called to it and it came running over to me.

Such a sweetie! He almost made me late to class, but so, so worth it.

And…um…he followed me in the door. Which was obviously a problem-it was a good thing my friend was there to kick him out because I definitely didn’t have the heart to do it!

I took zero food pictures from yesterday. But I did do things. And eat things. My dorm had a “homecoming” dance, so we all got dressed up and had fun. When I get the pictures back, I’ll show you guys! I also got ready and totally showered in 15 minutes flat. Because my friends wanted to leave and I was watching How I Met Your Mother….Priorities people! It was actually a lot of fun-everyone was expecting it to be super awkward, but it really wasn’t. It was great to connect with people from my dorm. 

This morning I decided to go to Crossfit. 2 weeks ago I PRed my clean and jerk, but today I just couldn’t get it up. You can’t PR everyday, and you don’t always have good lifting days. I wasn’t committing on the jerks, and I kept missing the cleans. I’m pretty sure in the last 2 weeks I’ve developed some bad habits-it felt awesome 2 weeks ago, but then the following week, I started banging up my legs doing cleans. 

Which is not right. I was having the same problem today, but no bruising. I could tell I just wasn’t getting in the right position. But it happens. I was frustrated, but looking forward to the WOD: 3 400m sprints with 2 minutes of rest, and then 1 minute of rest in between. I brought my running shoes for this. I was expecting to finish last because everyone else was guys, but it didn’t turn out that way at all. I beat everyone in my heat (we split into 2 heats, starting 10 seconds apart to avoid running into each other), and even passed a person or two from the heat before me. It. Felt. Awesome. I’m starting to really look forward to training for the 5k-I haven’t done much fast running lately, and I forgot how much I liked it! And passing people? Best thing ever. 

On a sidenote, I REALLY need to do a timed mile, but I’ve been putting it off. My last one was 8:00, but that was pretty soon after mono and before any half training started. I would think I’d be somewhere around 7:30. I would LOVE to get down to under 7:00 like back in the day, buttt we’ll see about that. 

After my workout, I made the world’s worst smoothie. I brought my little packet of chocolate protein powder and cocoa powder to the dining hall, and even waited in the super long blender line. I added blueberries, mango, and milk. And…..WAIT FOR IT-arugula. I wanted spinach but they only had an arugula spinach mix, so I figured, why not? WRONG. WRONGWRONGWRONG. Arugula is a lot more flavorful than spinach. So I had 2 giant glasses of chocolate arugula. It was awful.

I attempted to drink it alongside a biscuit and some chicken/guac. But then gave up and just got another biscuit. Shudder.

Hopefully you guys are having something at least a little more delicious! Tomorrow is my last “long” run before my race. I’m doing 6, even though my plan calls for 8. Last time I felt like my legs really benefitted from the extra rest. The body wants what the body wants! (Which, by the way, is NOT an arugula smoothie.)

Have a great Saturday!