Hello, my friends, and happy day 1 of the Winter Shape Up! I hope you guys enjoyed the Perfect Microwave Banana Oatmeal this morning! 🙂
Matt and I spent the weekend down in North Carolina, as I mentioned. Our visit had two parts, and part 1 was Chapel Hill! Longer term readers will remember that Matt and I lived there for nearly 2 years while I was in grad school at UNC; we both miss it and it’s always fun to be back. We arrived on Friday night and went out to dinner at one of our old favorites (Pazzo in Southern Village) with friends Sarah, Matt, Lindsey, and Tim. I completely failed at getting a photo of us all but it was awesome to see them! We stayed over with Sarah and Matt (and had fun playing with their son Holden, who is 1.5 years old now and SO cute), and on Saturday morning I hit up my old favorite yoga studio – Franklin Street Yoga!
I’ve found some studios I really love in DC, as you guys know, but I still miss Franklin Street – it was awesome to be back. I took Lori (my favorite)’s 9 a.m. hour and a half vinyasa flow class and it was as good as I remembered. All that was missing was my grad school yoga buddies. 🙂
After yoga, we hit up Jessee’s Coffee Bar, home to my most favorite breakfast ever – the open faced biscuit sandwich. Soooo good.
Drool, right?! It’s scrambled eggs, turkey, tomato, and white cheddar on top of an herbed biscuit. I seriously dream of this brunch. Nothing I’ve found in DC yet compares!
After brunch, Matt and I hit the road for part 2 of our trip – Winston Salem to meet our new nephew, little Nate!
Isn’t he a cutie? He’s 3 months old now and belongs to Matt’s older brother Chris and his wife Jess.
In addition to some cute clothes, we also brought him this amazing mustache pacifier, because, well, obviously. Lol.
We spent Saturday afternoon kickin’ it with the baby and catching up with Chris and Jess, and that evening we had a delicious chicken curry dish that Jess made in the slow cooker. I’m going to recreate this at home and share the recipe with you guys because it rocked – stay tuned!
On Sunday morning, we had another tasty meal – oatmeal pancakes!
Jess and I whipped them up for the group following a recipe she’s had for awhile. They were really good! This is another thing I’m going to recreate at home and share the recipe for. 🙂 We enjoyed them topped with banana slices, pecans, and a little maple syrup, plus some sausage.
After our feast and a little digesting, Matt and I headed out for a run! It was a lovely day in North Carolina yesterday – in the 40’s but really sunny, and considering how miserably cold it’s been in DC lately, this felt positively balmy.
We headed to the nearby Salem Lake Trail, with the plan that Chris and Jess would come join us a bit later with the baby for a walk. This trail was so lovely – I wish it were near us in DC!
I’ve missed this Carolina blue sky!
As you guys know, I’m currently training for the LA Marathon, but I had decided to dial it back this weekend and not do a super long run since I knew we’d be traveling and I didn’t want to disappear for hours while visiting people. I started my training plan this month a week earlier than I needed to, and it seems that every time I train for a race I skip one of the long runs, so I’m feeling good about this decision. 🙂
It was a step down week for training anyway so I was “only” supposed to do 12 miles, so I didn’t feel like missing it would be a big deal. (Yes, I realize saying things like “only 12 miles” is totally insane. Who am I?)
Instead, Matt and I decided to do a nice 7 miles, which was exactly the distance of the trail around the lake. Sweet!
Between the sunshine, the slightly warmer temps, the lack of snow/ice, and views like this, we had an awesome run.
The good company helped, too. 🙂
I totally forgot to bring my GPS watch with me, so Matt carried his phone and used the Runkeeper app to track our distance/pace. Since he had his phone with him anyway, he also loaded the Pandora app to play music for us during the run! Fun. 🙂 Here’s a nerdy action shot:
The run flew by. Here are our splits according to the app!
And our total time/pace. Love that it shows you a map of your route!
The timing worked out perfectly and just as we finished, Chris and Jess arrived, ready to walk with little Nate in tow.
We all walked together for a half hour or so, enjoying the fresh air. Here’s Nate, all bundled up. 🙂
Matt and I made the drive back to DC last night, sad that our weekend went by so quickly! We’ve decided weekends should be 3 days instead of 2, don’t you think?
And now – time to get back to this Monday morning! Between a pile of emails, new AnneTheRD clients, and prepping to teach at GW tomorrow, I have a lot to catch up on, as usual. But busy is better than bored, right? 🙂 I hope you all have a wonderful day, and that those of you participating in the Winter Shape Up enjoy day 1 of the meal plan! Let me know how it’s going!
Until tomorrow, my friends!
p.s. Local DC area peeps – my Endurance Athlete Center colleagues and I will be hosting a “runner’s clinic” tonight at Pacers running store in Clarendon at 6:30 p.m. Come check it out, if you’re interested! The EAC’s sports podiatrist, physical therapists, trainers, and I will be talking all things running, including injury prevention, foam rolling, obstacles with training, correct footwear, running efficiency, and of course some sports nutrition tips from yours truly. Would love to see some of ya’ll there – it’s free and all are welcome!
