Weekend Fun

Saturday night plans involved a fun evening with some of my favorite runner friends. Courteney, Heather and myself are getting pretty good at having weekend hangouts. Sometimes it's a Starbucks visit or we take turns visiting at each other's houses. 

Courteney brought over her new 1.5 pound hula hoop to show us. That thing is way cooler than any hoola hoop I've ever owned! 

P.S. This may be slightly off topic, but see that beautiful horrendous light fixture in the background? Well, I ordered a new light on Saturday to replace it. It's a vintage-industrial style pendant. I'll post a photo when it's here and up! I'm super excited for it:) 

P.P.S See that jar beside Courteney? Well, that's my beloved sunflower seed butter that the girls tried. I don't know that they're 110% sold on it, but I'll slowly convert them over;)

See how we all have the same shirts? Courteney came bearing gifts and matching t-shirts was part of the gift. Cute, eh? They say run, sleep, breath, and eat. It's a long shirt- do you have any idea of how much I love long shirts?! 

Think Happy and Be Happy. Good words to live by!

 A new magazine with gummy bears and nail polish. Don't you worry- I lectured them on their dental health with the gummy bears. Also, don't worry...I'll be eating the gummies:)

 Our food for the night included kale chips, meat/cheese, delicious mango salsa, lots of veggies, strawberries and coffee.

Sunday after Church some friends went out for a picnic in a park nearby. Unpictured are Stef and Chrissy. 

What'd you do this weekend?

Friday Five

Bing. 5:15 am on my day off and I'm up. Maggie gets the blame, but secretly I am happy I have the whole day ahead of me. My Fridays usually fill up pretty quickly with my to-do list, isn't there something so rewarding with crossing items off your list?

1. My list today includes: run, 8-minute abs,  finish painting the front step, groceries, Costco, and clean the house. 8-minute abs, you ask? I am loving this super-duper 80's ab video...

2. Bob-cut. I got one! It was a huge step for me, I always opt for my safe-zone length. My only request was to leave enough for a pony-tail for work and running. 

3. Runner's Talk. Heather, Courteney and myself have a date tomorrow night:) 

4. I was running in a park downtown yesterday before my haircut and I saw our city's fastest runner. I thought it was funny because in races he is always at the very start and is out of sight right away. It wasn't too long before he was speeding uphills ahead of me lol!  I noticed he runs with perfect form! My posture was great for the rest of my run;) 

5. It's May, which means Spring, which means more of this is on the way:

What do you have planned for the weekend? 

Early Morning Workouts

I always have early mornings. I especially love it when I am already showered, get up, make coffee, and relax before heading to work. I'd say 90% of the time I have my lunch made the night before, it just makes everything that much easier.

I really love it when my workouts are done for the day at 7am. With this, I don't get to relax quite as much and enjoy a coffee before work, but I'm as happy as a lark because my workout is done! I can just go home and relax for the evening, or party, whichever one is on the agenda ;)

Getting up at 5:15 and heading to the gym requires some prep work (at least for me!) This involves a few minutes the night before to get my stuff ready. Perhaps it's my type-A personality that makes me want to have everything organized the night before? I'm not afraid to admit that I'm pretty OCD lol!

Here's what I have done the night before so it's all ready before the sun rises the next morning;)

• Scrubs for work with socks and undies
• workout clothes
• a workout planned (either via pinterest or a made up combination)
• towel
• cosmetic bag (mascara, moisturizer, brush, etc.)
• deodorant 
• my lunch! (duh, the most important part) 
• a packed breakfast (something quick from home)
• coffee money ;) 

Lately my favorite breakfast has been the pancakes I had a picture of yesterday. Easiest things to make ever! I make them the night before and take them to work and eat them there.

a repeat photo from yesterday ;) 

I don't do early morning gym trips every single morning, because sometimes it's a rest day and sometimes it's nice to go home and have an evening jog!

What do you do to make your mornings a little more productive?

Back Into A Routine

Now that it's been a little over a month since my first marathon, I've been getting back into my fitness routine of the gym and running. Yesterday I ran 10km in beautiful weather on the trail by our house. It was gorgeous out and felt amazing to be running outside in the warmth again!

It's been a bit of a slow road because I wanted to make sure I gave my body enough time to heal. It was good enough to me all winter and stayed injury-free for me (whoop, whoop!) so I wanted to let it rest up and heal. 42km is sort of a lot to ask of your body, right?

Mmmm, low carb-ish pancakes. Easy-peasy! mash 1/2 banana, 2 egg whites, 1/4 cup oats
Mix together and pan fry like regular pancakes. 

I may or may not have texted Rachel on the weekend with a bit of a disgruntled test... something along the lines of "I feel like I'm back at square one with running. I only did 6km today!" Sometimes I think it's just the fact you're not training for anything, and just running?

I am planning on running the 10km at the Bluenose Marathon next month. About that- I should register before the 30th so I don't have to pay the full cost. It's the Bluenose's 10th birthday this year! I was toying with the idea of doing the half marathon, but it is a hilly race and I am thinking more and more of doing the Johnny Miles half marathon in June instead. It's a flat course and is a loop course. I've been thinking of doing it for a few years now and have heard lots of good things about it!

Here are a couple of the professional photos taken from the Oakland Marathon:

Looking back to my marathon and the few hours after it, I remember as clear as day thinking "I will never, ever do this again. Never" ...annndddd by the next day or so I was thinking of my next one and how I will beat my time and it will be a flat course, etc. Needless to say, I kind of want to run another one. or two. or three.

I came up with a running bucketlist, check it out:

1. New York City Marathon. If you know me even a little bit, you probably know that this is most definitely way up there on my bucket list. period.

2. Disney Half Marathon. My sister, Ashley, and I talked about it a few years ago and I've wanted to stick with the idea ever since. When I have a kid (she already has one now) and our kids are older, do this half marathon together and let our kiddos enjoy Disney World! I'm in...

3. San Francisco Nike Womens Marathon. Yes, I know it's hilly, but it's not as bad as Oakland so I can handle 'er. Know what makes this race so great? a) Tiffany's necklace for finishing b) being handed your Tiffany's necklace by a firefighter. 'Nuff said.

4. Cabot Trail Relay Race. My cousin Rachel has kind of put this bug in my ear. I've heard lots about this race, but really only looked into it this year. Some of the legs are definitely not calling my name, but there are some decent ones. This race would be special because I'm from Cape Breton and the scenery would be to die for.

source

5. Boston Marathon. While my friend Heather was training for her first Boston marathon, I really started to think of how much fun it would be to run it. Not only fun, but it's such a prestigious race. Now it has a whole new meaning. If I ever am able to qualify, that would be amazing!

Through My iPhone Eyes

Happy Friday! I definitely don't expect any awards for being the most consistent blogger in history or anything... lately I seem to go through spurts and just blog as I feel like it. Hope you're ok with that:)

Today felt like a good day to post some pictures that are on my iphone, it's my main sidekick so it sees most of my life. I have to admit, most of the pictures on my phone are screen shots of my nephew Breton and exercises for the gym! I love it when I finish with a patient and see a new photo of Breton waiting for me:)

My parents were home a couple of weeks ago and came to visit us for a couple of days.
Here we are out for some dessert!

a very old picture of Maggie using a pillow as a pillow...

Out for supper before a hockey game. This is the same place where we had Kenny's 30th last year!

At the hockey game. *I don't have a goatee, it's a shadow of something*

Bella, Julie's dog. We went for a long walk last Friday with her, she's so cute.
(This lake is close to our house)

A coffeehouse for Church to raise money for Haiti. The grand total was over $1000! 

:) My oldest nephew and my youngest! 

A sidenote: I like these lines from OneRepublic's new song I lived. "I hope you spend your days, but they all add up..." and "when that sun goes down, I hope you raise your cup..." 

My weekend is off to a good start- a dental cleaning, a massage and we almost have our taxes done! Do you like our procrastination skills with our taxes? ;) What are you up to this weekend?