Hi friends! I hope you had great weekends. Here’s what we were up to!
On Friday, I was up early and working from home; I decided to knock out some work first thing, then take a break late morning for a run. This ended up being a great idea – it was so gorgeous out!
I ended up running about 4 miles solo while listening to a podcast. I’ve been really into podcasts again lately – love them while doing yard work, taking walks, commuting, and on the rare occasion I run solo! I recently finished “S Town” (fascinating); now I’m working my way through “Missing Richard Simmons”, which is also really good.
As for the rest of the day, I finished up work, ran some errands with my mom, and then Matt and I had a kombucha tasting with a couple friends – he’s been crushing it with his home brewed kombucha – check out all these fun flavors! From left: ginger (whole pieces of ginger), mint lime (he made a mint syrup by boiling fresh mint and sugar in water), triple ginger (lots of ginger juice, pressed in our juicer), and apple (with whole apple slices). So creative! I think the triple ginger and the mint lime were the group faves, although they are all good!
We had dinner at home after the kombucha fun, and then Matt went out and about later in the evening with some of the guys and I stayed home and relaxed. Fine with me – I like being out and about and social all day, but then I prefer cozy, quiet evenings. 🙂
On Saturday, I treated myself to a morning yoga class via ClassPass (<- affiliate link for $30 off) – I decided to hit up Blue Nectar Yoga in Falls Church, just to mix it up. They had an 8:45 a.m. vinyasa power flow class that sounded perfect, and it was! Felt great to build some heat and stretch out, too. I love that studio, though I don’t go super often just because traffic to get there from Arlington can be a pain. Going on the weekend and earlier in the morning was perfect – I got there in a flash! Next time I’ll have to hit up the Saturday morning Falls Church farmer’s market afterwards – I’ve heard it’s a good one!
Post-yoga, I headed back to Arlington and then Matt and I hit up our old fave Cassatt’s Kiwi Café for brunch! I had a flat white (basically a whole milk latte) and their mushroom, scrambled egg, and cheese quesadilla, which comes with a side salad of greens, tomato, and avocado. Soooo good!
After coming back home and cleaning up, Matt and I hopped in the car to drive out to Leesburg, VA, for a fun BBQ with friends! My friend Beth and her husband Chris live in Leesburg, and they invited me and Matt and our friend Sarah and her husband Jochem out for the day. Beth and I used to be roommates in Arlington back in our early 20’s – we had fun reminiscing about all our crazy adventures!
We noshed on appetizers and sipped on some beverages while catching up. Everything was delicious!
On the menu for dinner was brisket, which Chris had smoked himself! He said he put it in the smoker around 7 a.m. so it would be ready by the time we ate around 5. Wow – we were impressed! It was sooooooo good – super flavorful and tender! It didn’t even need any sauce.
Plus sweet potato fries and corn on the cob! This was my first corn on the cob of the season – delicious. 🙂
Such a fun day with good friends – thank you again for having us, Beth and Chris! We had a blast. 🙂
On Sunday morning, I had another fun outing on the agenda – a run date with friends Mary and Sokphal! Mary and I used to run together all the time, but she moved from DC to Nashville back in spring 2014. Well, I’m thrilled that she and her husband have moved back to Virginia as of a couple weeks ago! Welcome back, Mary! We missed you!
Mary is out in Reston and has a 9 week old baby, so it made sense for me and Sokphal to meet her out there. Luckily she’s right by the W&OD trail, so we were able to hop on that for a casual 4 miles while we chatted away.
ALSO – I have some super exciting news for my fellow Brooks PureConnect (RIP) fans – Brooks sent me a pair of the new PureFlow 6 (affiliate link) to review, and I wore them on the run yesterday and am now thrilled to share that they are AMAZING and feel just like my beloved old PureConnects!! So lightweight, flexible, and comfortable!
Apparently the PureFlow 5 was a bit of a flop, so they did some major revamps for this model, including a really flexible seamless knit upper (which, in addition to being comfy, also looks cool – you could definitely wear these as everyday/fashion shoes, too). The tongue is also flexible and comfortable. I love the rounded bottom, too – really reminds me of the PureConnect. I’m so thrilled to have finally found a worthy substitute for those! These are going to be my new short distance and track/speed shoes. Hooray!
In other Brooks news, I’m sad to say that they are going to discontinue their Heritage line of shoes (which are made for fashion, not running). I love the Heritage shoes and wear them all the time, so I’m bummed, but on the bright side this means they are all on sale, so if you have been eyeing a pair, now is the time to go for it. My absolute favorite are the gold Women’s Vanguards (affiliate link) – I get tons of compliments on these every time I wear them, and they match everything! You can see them in action in this Instagram post or they are pictured solo below. 🙂
As for the rest of yesterday, we had Easter brunch at my grandmother’s place with some family, then spent the rest of the day catching up on stuff around the house. 🙂
Back to work – have a great day, everyone!
What are your recent favorite podcasts?
