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Throwback (Run) Thursday

Hey guys! Check out my guest post on Mangoes and Miles! I wrote about a topic near and near to me-avocados.

Yesterday was my first day of summer, and I must say, it was a really awesome day! I slept in until…5:10…but hey-it was well worth it to attend my favorite spin class! Plus, my kitty came into my room about 10 minutes before my alarm demanding to be petted. And waking up to a purring cat is way better than waking up to an alarm!

After spin, I had a 4 mile run to do. I decided to do a throwback run-last summer I clearly remember one of my first training runs. I went to early spin and then drove to a neighborhood fairly close by, which is flatter and prettier than where I live. I completely forgot to bring my Garmin, so I decided to run for time instead. I planned on 40 minutes, but I lengthened it to 45 because I kept stopping for pictures, plus a had a minor goose incident. More on that in a minute. I made a playlist on my phone of all the songs I listened to last summer to really throw it back. Confession: for some reason whenever people do throwback Thursday on facebook with their pictures, it drives me crazy. I have no idea why…ImageImageImageImage

I enjoyed the wildlife of suburbia- geese!ImageImage

Ignore the slant-this was my first attempt at a picture while running (without stopping). What’s funny is this lagoon is actually where we rowed some of the time. It’s also a 2k racecourse, so I would have raced here quite a bit if I had continued with crew. That’s so weird to me because I never knew people rowed here. I mean, I basically grew up in this area; half of my friends live here, and I went to violin lessons right around here, and then, I later rowed here. Image

There are geese everywhere around the lagoon. If you were to see the geese as they were in this photo, you wouldn’t think anything of it, right? You’d just run through and expect them to move. So I started to run towards them. But…they didn’t move! SO I decided to just run through them and run around them. As I got closer, they started hissing at me! They were hissing and screaming and running closer to me!

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So naturally I stopped to take a picture. What you can’t see is that there was a goose right next to me on my left hissing. At that point, I was kind of stuck. I was in the middle of the pack, and I didn’t know which direction to go in!

Luckily, I did get out in one piece, unscathed. But it was terrifying. I guess the bird around this lagoon are kind of aggressive. One of my teammates had a scary experience with an aggressive swan chasing her!Image

Being done with spin and a run by 7:45 am is such an awesome feeling. Breakfast was cottage cheese mixed with chia seeds and thawed blueberries.

An even more awesome feeling than that? Taking a midmorning nap with your cat. He’s such a sweetie! Sadly, I have no pictures, as I was unconscious.

Lunch was a leftover turkey burger and freeze dried sesame edamame. Image

I also had one of these guys-it was good, but similar to the coconut creations I’ve made in the microwave, so in the future I’d probably just do that.

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A little later in the afternoon, I met up with Kaitlin for coffee. She’s about to graduate, so I was lucky to catch her before she leaves! We went to Philz Coffee, which was a cute little place where they hand make everything. Image

We were both a little overwhelmed by all the different types of coffee! Since I know very little about coffee, and I didn’t want to have much caffeine that late in the day, I went with iced chai tea.Image

I got mine with milk and honey. They add mint leaves to it as well. I really, really enjoyed this. It was super refreshing on a hot day, and while the chai flavor was subtle, I really liked the flavor the mint added.

I also enjoyed an oat bar, which had various types of dried fruit. Image

I had a really great time talking with Kaitlin– I’ve never met up with a blogger before! She’s totally awesome and you all should check her blog out.

ImageThanks Kaitlin!

We met up more near school than home for me, but that worked out really well because I kind of forgot to turn my room key in, and school was on the way back. I had to say goodbye to people again! I also had to help my sister move out which was…a process. For the record, I was out in an our (besides the packing). I was there for 3 hours, my parents were there for longer, and she’s not even completely moving out! She’s living there (kind of-it’s complicated) this summer! But I did score a homemade cupcake from her fancy cupcake holder which she made for a class project. ImageImage

In addition, she and her boyfriend made cinnamon rolls from scratch that were ready right before we were done!ImageImage

They were sooo good, but I could only have a few bites before my heart started racing!

And FINALLY we were home for dinner. My family was having pesto pasta, but I felt like I could use protein more, so I microwaved egg whites and spinach and topped that with pesto instead.Image

And dessert:

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I had been out of sunflower seed butter in my dorm for quite a while, so this was AMAZING.

Have a great day everyone! Kitten nursery post to come, as well as my recount of Crossfit (my first class is tonight!).

Where is your favorite place to run? Have you ever met up with a blogger?

WIAW-SUMMER

Hey guys! Happy WIAW! Thanks a lot to Jenn for posting, as always!

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First, what’s up with this being a running blog now? Haha, I feel like that is all I have been posting about lately! More on that in a minute. Some of you may remember way back in the day when this was more of a rowing blog! I started this blog during rowing training camp, so for the whole 10 days, the posts are pretty much:”We ate. We rowed for 2 hours. We ate again. We rowed again. We ate. We ran 6 miles.” etc…So in that spirit, more on running in a bit! First some delicious food. 

After frying my brain in a 3 hour chem final, an amazing salad and frozen yogurt were necessary fuel to motivate me to study for my next exam.ImageImageI LOVE FROZEN YOGURT.

My last breakfast at the dining hall of the school year!ImageI’m cool and I eat french toast from a bowl. But that way the syrup stays separate and doesn’t drench it.Image

And then, FINALLY SUMMER! Yay!

After my final, it was packing time. It took me about an hour to move out, after I was pretty much already packed. Seeing an empty room was so weird!ImageYeah, I have a lot of stuff…ImageAnd last dining hall meal of the year! Plus, since I had to thaw out the freezer, helping my roommate eat her frozen baked good was kind of a necessity. 

And then….HOME! Home is where the heart is? Pshh. I disagree. Home is where the cats are. Image

And the first thing I do when I get home? I raid the pantry. This is what I found for a snack:ImageThese things are so good! I’ve gotten single serving packs from whole foods before in different flavors, but these are from Costco, so there’s no messing around with a wimpy single serving!

And then it was time to run. Last night I pumped myself up for a really good run today-on the treadmill. First, I want to thank all you guys so much for your advice and encouragement on running! I decided I would go at a good pace on the treadmill and just push through- after all, no matter how bad it was, it could not possibly be as bad as a 6k test (this is a test for rowers-it is 6k as fast as possible and it is basically torture. Like the worst thing ever. Seriously). 

So I went out there today and had a really, really great run. I seriously could not have done it without you guys! I was thinking about you all during the entire run (as well as counting down every .01, and calculating how much I had left-1/50 down, 1/25 down). I busted out 3 miles in 24:27. This went way beyond my hopes- I am sooo happy with this! I can’t remember the last time I ran 3 miles this fast! I guess that’s what a day off, plus ton of foam rolling will do for you! So thank you all SOSOSOSO much, your comments seriously motivated me!

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Post run happiness.

And after my run, it was straight to yoga! This was much needed. It’s been far too long since I’ve gone to yoga. I think it should help my tight legs as well. Image

And now for my first home cooked meal! Turkey burgers in a lettuce wrap, with homemade ketchup from this recipe, sweet potato fries, and brussels sprouts. 
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After dinner, we had some frozen cookie dough we were planning on getting rid of because no one was a huge fan, but I wanted to see if you could microwave frozen cookie dough and get a decent result. The answer? YES.Image

If I have learned anything from this past year of college, it is that you can make anything in the microwave. That and the many varieties of mold found on old food (oops). 

And to celebrate summer, I had a small slice of my frozen birthday cake!Image

Sooo sleeping in on my first morning of summer? I’m still trying to decide how insane I am, and whether or not I want to go to a 5:45 am spin class. 

In other news, my first Crossfit class is on Thursday! SO excited!ImageWhat is your favorite thing about summer?