Hello, hello! Even though the weather randomly feels a bit more like summer than fall this week, we’re still enjoying some soup. Anyone else?
Matt made a variation of my Veggie-tastic Minestrone Soup (<—recipe) for us last week – so good. It was even more delicious because we used homemade broth! Matt made the broth from the bones of a rotisserie chicken we had leftover and added a bunch of veggies (carrots, onions, celery) to the mix too. It was so rich and flavorful!
In other news, I was back at the track on Tuesday morning! I got back from Boston on Monday around dinnertime and I was so exhausted from the conference weekend that I was in bed by 8:30 and, after a little reading, asleep by 9. Despite the fact that I got 9 hours of sleep, I was still feeling really worn out on Tuesday morning. Not my best track workout but I was glad I made it out anyway.
Our coach had us do a ladder workout of sorts:
- Warm up jog
- One mile at a mid threshold pace (aka half marathon pace)
- Rest 1 to 2 minutes
- One mile at mid threshold
- Rest 1 to 2 minutes
- 800m (2 laps) at higher threshold pace
- Rest 1 to 2 minutes
- 800m at higher threshold
- Rest 1 to 2 minutes
- A series of 400’s (one lap) closer to 5k pace – everyone did different amounts depending on their upcoming races. Coach had me do 2, with a couple minutes rest in between.
- Cool down jog
Like I said, it wasn’t my fastest day out there – I was noticeably slower and felt pretty sluggish. Being on my feet all weekend long and not getting much sleep clearly caught up with me! Oh well. It was also weird being back to shorts and a tank after a week or so of colder running temps! I rocked a pair of my favorite Brooks Chaser 5” Running shorts (affiliate link) in a new fall reflective gray color – they gifted them to me a couple weeks ago. I own these shorts in black and navy blue already and love them – wore them all summer for marathon training. The new reflective gray is perfect for warmer but dark fall mornings like these!
As for this morning, I went to a yoga class with my friend Chelsea via ClassPass (affiliate link for $30 off)! Since I’ve been traveling so much lately and also marathon training, I haven’t been doing as many classes, so I switched my ClassPass membership from 10 classes a month to 5 classes a month back in September. Perfect! I’ll probably switch back to 10 when the marathon is over and I’m back in town more consistently. 🙂
Chelsea and I hit up Gold’s Gym in Ballston for a 6:15 a.m. yoga class. I used to belong to this gym back in my early 20’s so it’s always a weird blast from the past to be back in there – and the yoga instructor today, Mark, was actually a guy I used to take sports conditioning classes from back in 2004/5/6! We both enjoyed the class – no frills and more sport-ish. It would be a good class for people that want to try yoga but are weirded out by the zen stuff, since there wasn’t any of that. Gym yoga classes like these are what first got me into yoga back in the day, because I used to be totally against the whole zen thing (now I love it, though! see also: Why I Love Yoga). I actually first started going to yoga when I was living in Prague because the yoga class at my big gym was the only one taught in English! 🙂
Going to a class at Gold’s worked out well this morning because I have an AnneTheRD client meeting at a coffee shop right near Gold’s at 8:30, so I just brought all my clothes to change and head straight to the coffee shop (where I am now writing this post) after the yoga class. I was planning to just have a snack bar and a latte and make a real breakfast back at home mid-morning, but I was really hungry when I arrived so I rolled with it and got an egg sandwich plus an enormous latte. When your latte is the same size as your breakfast sandwich you know it’s going to be a good day. 😉
I will leave you with this very sad photo evidence of what has become of one of our pumpkins! Ahhhh! We have a ton of rabbits that live in our neighborhood – clearly they thought our pumpkin was their personal buffet. Weirdly they only snack on this one, not the others around it, so I’m hoping we can salvage the rest. Any tips for keeping bunnies away from pumpkins?! #fail
