Tag Archives: running

Hour by Hour

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So… today. I’m owning the crap out of it. I never really know what to do with myself on Mondays. I don’t teach, so basically I feel like an utterly useless member of society.

I did a few loads of laundry, caught up with a high school friend over lunch, ran 7.5 miles with Lauren in the AM, watched more episodes of Pretty Little Liars than I care to admit on Netflix (the acting is borderline painful but the storyline is so damn addicting I can’t stop watching – seriously WHO IS A?!), had a DOH-mestic fail (Colleen I feel you) at twice-baked sweet potatoes that turned into mashed potatoes once I demolished/shredded the “shells” (not my fault they’re so “fragile”), and passed out on the couch at approximately 10:17pm last night.

Today I was determined to be more productive. (ie: Less Pretty Little Liars, more get off the couch and out from under the fluffy blanket and contribute to society.)

6am – Boyfriend has a conference call. Takes it from home. I sleep through it.

7:48am – Begrudgingly get out of bed. Prep French Press for coffee. Try out Newman’s Own Organic Almond Biscotti coffee with my morning yogurt bowl (0% Chobani – cheaper than Fage yesterday, raspberries, Cinnamon Roll Granola (replaced the oil with applesauce), 1T almond butter).

Look at all that delicious, crunchy, Peanut Buttery goodness!

(Far too hungry this morning to take a photo. Just replace the blueberries with raspberries and we’re in business.)

I’m not usually a huge fan of flavored coffees, but this one knocked it out of the park. (Although I may mix French Roast with the Almond Biscotti to get a milder flavor as an everyday thing.)

8:48am - Drop boyfriend at work. Spare him the perils and horrors of the MUNI system.

9:07am – Arrive at gym. Plan to run 7 miles. Get really, really into the latest Runner’s World and By Invitation Only. Run 10 miles. At an 8:25 average pace.

11am - Hit Safeway for baking supplies

12-2:30pm - Catch up on e-mails, make a massive green smoothie for post-run fuel (original almond milk, frozen mangos, lots of spinach, 1T chia seeds, 1T almond butter). Top with far too much Cinnamon Chex to admit on this blog (they taste eerily exactly like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and are GF!). Gag at the thought of store-bought almond butter. Not even close to the good stuff.

Bake the ish out of the afternoon. Brown Butter White Chocolate Pretzel Blondies (Cassie these were such a hit last time they were requested for this weekend’s travels!), Banana White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, (I’ve now made these somewhere around 87 times), and Toasted Cinnamon Agave Almond Butter.

Sample about 11 of each of the above. Lunch has never tasted so good. Balanced it out with a veggie burger and some leftover quinoa mixed with mushrooms, scallions and a soy sauce/olive oil/toasted sesame oil “dressing”.

Bathe. (You’re welcome.)

3:30pm - Head out to teach. 4 classes in 4 hours. Grande iced coffee becomes a necessary survival tactic.

4:15-8:15pm - Teach Pilates. Make them sweaty. Really sweaty. Sweat marks on the shirts sweaty.

8:48pm - Quick dinner of rotisserie chicken quinoa bowls (cooked it in chicken broth, added in fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes, shallot, salt/pepper, goat cheese, balsamic/olive oil). It’s occurred to me I ate too much quinoa today.

Oh. Does that sound too healthy?

Ben and Jerry’s Greek Fro Yo for dessert. Balance right?

10:39pm - Crash into bed before waking up far, far too early for teaching at 6 and 7 am tomorrow morning. (This hasn’t exactly happened yet, but being that it’s 9:44pm already, I really don’t foresee myself lasting more than another hour.)

Last great thing you baked/cooked/ate? Tell me tell me tell me. (I’m clearly still hungry.)

Hope your Tuesday went well! Enjoy your evening! :)

The Weekend, Briefly

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Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend.

When I last left off, we were leaving for a long weekend in Tahoe. We had an absolute blast – BBQing, hiking, beaching, hanging on the pier at Chambers with great friends and good drinks, making s’mores (probably illegally) with an impromptu firepit, and last but certainly not least white water rafting!

About a year ago (seriously) 6 of us bought a Groupon for white water rafting on the American River. The catch was that it was only good for May-Sept, Sunday-Thursday (of course). It took us a solid year of planning but we were finally able to settle on a Sunday, and figured why not just make a weekend in Tahoe out of it. Done.

Some photographs…

We did the Eagle Rock hike and the Rubicon Trail (ridiculous views on each) if you’re interested. Not too challenging but definitely felt nice to get out and move, get some fresh air, and a little exercise.

We also ate. Like kings.

Grilled Salmon, oysters, sweet potatoes and asparagus are my new favorite things in life. We need a BBQ. And a patio. Or a backyard. Stat.

We rafted through Beyond Limits and did the Chili Bar (South Fork of the American River) 1/2 day trip. Our guide, Christine, was amazing, and it was the perfect ending to a fantastic weekend. Next time…. class 4 rapids!

So. Much. Fun.

Running

I capped last week off with 30 miles, and took Friday, Saturday and Sunday off of running. I won’t lie, I was itching to run… but certainly not in that altitude with air that thin. I like to enjoy my runs… not feel like I’m going to die the entire time.

Besides I had great company, a gorgeous lake, delicious food, and “hydration” to attend to. ;-)

Taking 3 days off just meant my legs were ready to run this morning. Marathon training officially kicks off at the end of the month, so I decided to up my mileage to 50 miles/week in July to prepare my body for the beating it will inevitably take once training really begins.

To start, I ran 11 miles on the treadmill this morning (Us Weekly and Runner’s World were just dying to be read). At an average pace of…. wait for it… 8:02. 

Are you freaking kidding me?!

The moral of this story is REST, it does a body good. As does Apple Pie from Ikeda’s – great long-run fuel my friends.

Off to tackle today’s to-do list – I don’t teach Mondays so I like to take the day to tackle cleaning the apartment, laundry, grocery shopping, my long run, and any errands that need running… before the week really begins!

Have a great day!

Have you ever rafted? Thoughts? What’s your favorite grilling food?

 

Pilates, Run, Eat, Bake

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Happy Thursday! Or in my case – FRIDAY! :)

Sorry I’ll stop rubbing it in now.

Boyfriend and I are heading up to Tahoe with a few friends for a weekend of sun, Chambers punch, hiking, lake-ing, and relaxation. Can’t even wait.

This morning started out, once again, in the 5am hour.

After another vicious mosquito attack (boyfriend was the victim this time) around 3am (seriously how are they getting into our apartment?! And where is it hiding exactly?), the 5:15 alarm came way, way too quickly.

I hustled to get to the studio, taught the 6:20 and 7:10am class, and then hustled right home to inhale my breakfast. Breakfast was a standard yogurt bowl (yogurt, berries, almond butter, granola)… with a twist.

Homemade Cinnamon Roll Granola.

Cassie you are a genius.

I followed the recipe almost exactly – the only change I made was subbing the 3T of oil for 3T of unsweetened applesauce. Honestly I couldn’t tell a difference. Oh also, I didn’t make the glaze, but chalk that up to pure laziness.

I immediately inhaled about 3 handfuls upon taking it out of the oven and I was more than a little generous in dishing it out into my yogurt bowl this morning.

Joking. But I definitely got heavy handed.

After breakfast, and dropping boyfriend at work (I try to spare him the horrors of public transportation whenever possible), I headed to the gym with the intention of running give or take 5 miles. I finished Gone Girl (excellent book, not a fan of the ending), around mile 4, and started By Invitation Only, about the founders of Gilt Groupe. SO GOOD SO FAR. Did you know they both went to Harvard undergrad and Harvard Business School? And that one of them had a hand in launching/starting eBay Canada and eBay Motors? I most definitely did not.

The book is so good that I stayed on the treadmill for 6 more miles. Ending just shy of the 90 minute mark with 10 miles under my belt. 30 miles thus far for the week. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get any miles in while in Tahoe so I wanted to get to at least 30 miles before we head up. I figure I can maybe squeeze in an hour run when we get home on Sunday, but if not… we’ll just consider this a step-back week. ;-)

I met boyfriend and the Whole Foods hot bar for lunch, and then ran some errands before coming home and making Brown Butter White Chocolate Pretzel Blondies (again Cassie you are brilliant) to bring up to Tahoe with us.

These are in no way healthy, nor are they in any way gluten-free. But they smell so darn good, I’ll be sacrificing a wee bit of gluten to enjoy one (or four) of these babies over the weekend.

Whole Foods Finds

It’s baaaaack! If you haven’t checked out the previous finds you can do so here and here.

While at Whole Foods today… a few new discoveries happened.

Agave Sticks

Remember honey sticks when you were younger? Think those… only filled with agave. For under $2. Yes please.

(And yes, they do also carry honey sticks, and yes they taste just like they did when you were 11 years old.)

Annie’s Fruit Snacks

I’ll be real – this is the third box/flavor we’ve gone through. These things are so freaking good. It all started when I started taking gummy vitamins (do not judge me), and I started sneaking ~3 a day instead of the recommended 2. (And going against the recommendation of “do not take more than advised”. Woops.)

Boyfriend brought home the all-natural, organic, sweetened with fruit juice fruit snacks.

And we’ve never looked back.

With that, I’m off to teach one last class of the day then head up to Tahoe!

Have a lovely weekend everyone :)

Hour-By-Hour

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HAPPY THURSDAY! :) I’m not sure why I felt that necessitated all caps, but we’re one day away from the weekend, SF is still experiencing this freak heat wave that I wish would stay forever, Matt Cain pitched a PERFECT GAME for the Giants last night, and I’m riding quite the endorphin high right now so let’s just go with it.

Today started out early. And just kept on going. Allow me to explain.

5:15 am - Alarm #1 goes off. Luckily I’ve been up since about 4:27am having nightmares about opening up the Pilates studio by myself. (They ranged from – I forgot where I parked my car, the studio getting raided by police, me teaching the class outdoors because I forgot my keys, and so on and so forth.) Snooze gets hit.

5:18 am - Boyfriend: Didn’t your alarm just go off? Me: Mmmm Hmmm, I’ll get up in a minute. Boyfriend: You don’t want to be late… (AKA the nicest way possible to say “I got into bed around midnight, it’s now 5 hours later, let me sleep woman.”)

5:21 am - Second alarm goes off. OK I get it, I’m up. Stumble blindly into kitchen, heat up water for coffee.

5:27 am - Pour scalding hot water into French Press. Refuse to think about anything aside from getting coffee into my system as quickly as possible. Proceed to burn the ish out of my tongue.

5:43 am - Dressed, teeth brushed, face washed, coffee in to-go tumbler. Quadruple check for keys.

5:57 am - Get in car. Take note that it’s deceptively light outside these days. Praise the gods of summertime.

6:10 am - Arrive at Pilates Studio. Find parking right out front (duh it’s 6am). March empty coffee tumbler across the street to Peets. Demand refill. (Nicely). Pay for refill.

6:14 am - Sigh with great relief when keys work and actually open the doors. Stomp foot on ground when you realize the iPad is dead. Plug in iPad and give a self-five for remembering to make an awesome playlist for occasions like this.

6:20 am - Teach first Pilates class of day. Make them sweat.

7:06 am - Inhale banana (that I paid $1.25 for at Peets – really?) and Two Degrees bar for breakfast.

7:10 am - Teach second Pilates class of day. Make them sweatier.

8:36 am - Head to gym. Start new Kindle book. Tell myself I’ll run until I feel tired. 3 miles turns into 7, which turns into 11 beautiful, sweaty miles. At an 8:34 pace the entire time. Self-five x2.

10:36am - Leave gym. Receive text asking for a sub for 6pm class tonight. Um, duh.

11:07 am - Head home. Get cut off by three Muni buses. Rage inside my car. Running endorphins take over. Happy happy happy Kristine.

12 pm - Take Pilates Community Class. Get ideas for tonight’s class.

1:45 – 5:23 pm - Inhale Green Smoothie and TJ’s Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas. (Surprisingly delicious together, but also I was too hungry to really notice anything.) Shower. Clean apartment. Sit on couch zoning out to television for an hour. Eat again. Choreograph tonight’s class. Goal – make them cry. (Kidding. Just their muscles.)

5:30 pm - Arrive to Pilates obnoxiously early. Over-analyze the class I spent an hour creating. Internal dialogue – “was it 1 red spring or 1 blue?” THE HORROR.

6pm – 7pm - Teach the most fun class I’ve taught yet. Make them sweat. A lot. Play “Call Me Maybe.” Make them smile. A lot. Catch myself humming under my breath. Stop this behavior before anyone notices.

8pm – bedtime – Pick boyfriend up from gym. Eat dinner (prosciutto, sliced Dubliner chedder, berries, apples, hummus, chips, steamed edamame). Watch TV and relax. For once do the dishes before my “nap” on the couch. Sleep is coming next.

Quite the busy day but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I’m so darn happy teaching and being around all of these awesome people all day long, I probably have this giddy and obnoxious smile on my face 24/7… and I’m probably starting to creep some people out. (Sorry, I’m not sorry.)

With that – it’s time for bed. My legs are snug in their compression sleeves, and it’s time for me to catch some Z’s.

Hope you have a wonderful night! When we wake up (which for me, will not be in the 5am hour)- it’s FRIDAY! :)

Weekend Recap – Giants, Escape from Alcatraz, Jameson

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Good morning! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Do anything fun?

Boyfriend and I had a jam-packed weekend full of sun, Giants baseball, fun, running, and cheering on friends at the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, and by 9:36pm last night I was curled up in a blanket on the couch, snoozing (shocking) through Untamed America on Nat Geo. (I’ll catch up today – this is the best thing to happen to television since Planet Earth.)

Saturday morning we slept in before getting dressed in our orange and black for the Giants vs Rangers game. I had bought boyfriend the tickets for his birthday – the last time we saw the Rangers play the Giants was in Game 2 of the 2010 World Series (and we all know who won that year!) so I thought it would be a fun game to go to again. In an effort to avoid traffic, paying $30 for parking, and the general extreme annoyance of driving a vehicle in San Francisco, we decided to bike to the game.

5 miles later, the bikes were locked up, and we were sitting pretty (and directly in the 80 degree heat) in our seats ready to watch the Giants beat the Rangers. After the victory we headed to meet up with friends for Game 7 of the Celtics vs Heat, then out for some dinner and drinks. A fantastic Saturday indeed.

Yesterday morning we were up bright and early to head over to Jaime’s roof-deck to watch the swimmers jump from the boat for the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon! Jaime’s fiance and boyfriend’s good friend Matt were competing, and it was a perfect morning for both spectating and racing. The boat drops the swimmers in the middle of the Bay and they swim into the Crissy Field beach before running (BAREFOOT) to their transition area. I think I’ll stick to marathons. I need shoes.

I’ve never actually watched a triathlon, and it is INTENSE, and so much fun. There’s such great energy! We watched the swimmers run in to their first transition and then take off on their bikes, and it was really fun to watch. We missed the second transition, but made it just in time to see Jaime’s fiance and Matt cross the finish!

After the race, Jaime and Tim hosted everyone for her legendary pulled-pork, mai-tai’s, New York Times chocolate chip cookies, and PB&J bars – everything was amazing as usual, and it was a great afternoon with great friends. Tim beat his sub-3:00 goal, and Matt crushed his sub-3:30 goal… Congrats guys!

Oh, there was also this little guy (JAMESON!) at the party.

Workout

After a full day of celebrating boyfriend and I were feeling motivated to get a workout in. It’s hard not to feel inspired, and ready to race after watching a triathlon! 7 miles (5 at 8:39 and 2 at 8:13) later and it was mission accomplished.

This week’s base-building ended strong (40 miles!), and I felt surprisingly solid and fast during my run. I’ve been consistently running 8:30′s-8:40′s and then cranking it up to 8:13-8:20′s for the last couple of miles on my runs, and I’m feeling really confident going into my second month of building up my base mileage before CIM training officially starts in July.

Total – 40.5 miles 

I just walked in the door from this morning’s  7 mile treadmill run at an 8:39 pace (I’m in the middle of a really good Kindle book and I swear it makes the miles fly by!), and it’s time to inhale my green protein smoothie and start knocking out today’s to-do list.

Hope you have a great Monday!