Happy weekend! I’m enjoying our last weekend at home before we embark on four weekends straight of traveling in August. Eek! Luckily, they’re all fun travel plans (including two beach trips – score!).
Sometimes workouts are more fun with friends and I’ve been lucky to have some pretty awesome workout buddies this week. First, I taught BodyPump TWICE on Thursday. I usually just teach Thursday evenings but I had agreed to sub for the morning instructor weeks ago not realizing that it would mean teaching twice in one day (I just switched back to teaching Thursdays instead of Tuesdays). I would not have made it through the second class if it wasn’t for our awesome members and my fellow instructor Kathryn.
Kathryn and I never get to teach together (she reads the blog!) so it was so fun to have her company. She totally rocked the first half of class and motivated me to step it up for the second half! Although I survived round two, I’m pretty sure that I never want to teach the brutal 6 minute BodyPump 74 lunge track twice in one day again. Ouch, ouch, ouch!
I was so excited about Thursday night’s dinner. An old favorite – Penne a la Betsy (originally from the Pioneer Woman – who doesn’t love her!?).
Pasta was a definite must after my tough strength training day! 🙂 One of my secrets for keeping pasta night under control is making my salad on my dinner plate. That way I can’t pile as much pasta on my plate. Really helps portion control. (Because come on, it is waaayyy to easy to overeat with pasta – yum.)
Friday morning I found myself up at 5:30 and getting ready for my favorite Friday tradition – hot vinyasa at Y2. I honestly should have slept in and rested my body – I was really sore from the week’s workouts – but it’s like a magnetic force pulls me to the yoga studio. 😉 There’s a gaping hole in my weekend if I don’t start my Friday with yoga!
I had fun lunch plans with co-worker’s Friday. We went to Nolen Kitchen for a send off for one of our interns.
I was a little disappointed to discover that Nolen Kitchen didn’t have any vegetarian sandwich options. I decided on the Nolen Salad which was field greens, spiced pecans, goat cheese and apples. I asked for the cherry vinaigrette on the side. Overall this was a tasty salad but I wish that they would have thrown a few more apples on there.
Yoforia is right next to the restaurant so a frozen yogurt stop was planned before we even walked in for lunch. I inhaled mine so fast that I didn’t stop for a picture but it was 100% fabulous.
Brandon and I decided to use our Groupon for Sunset Grille for dinner.
After quizzing our waitress on the legitimacy of the black bean burger (making sure it was not a frozen patty) I was sold. This burger did not disappoint! You could totally tell it was homemade – flavor and texture were great. The only thing that was a little strange was that they served it “caprese style” with fresh mozz, tomatoes and basil. I thought that was an odd flavor combination but it somehow worked. I had grilled zucchini and a Bell’s Two Hearted Ale on the side. (My most favorite beer at the moment!)
I came home and crashed at 10 p.m. because I had plans to meet Kelly for an early long run today. I woke up at 5:30 this morning (before my alarm, who am I!?) and had peanut butter and honey on an English muffin.
I met Kelly at 7 a.m. and we knocked out 10 miles. I couldn’t get over how pleasant it felt outside. It was in the low 70s, mostly overcast and breezy. Heaven. It was so nice to have company on my long run and I had fun hearing about Kelly’s upcoming weeks. She’s getting married next weekend and going to Italy for two weeks on her honeymoon! Jealous!
After our run I stopped by the farmer’s market to pick up some fruits and veggies for the week and then Great Harvest for bread. Came home and got straight in a loooonnnngggg hot shower (my favorite post-long run activity) and then had a green monster.
In a mason jar, of course. Spinach, half of a frozen banana, ice, one scoop of vanilla protein powder and skim milk.
Plans for the rest of the day include rest and relaxation. And that’s about it. I think a nap is definitely in order for me and at least nine hours of sleep tonight. I’m exhausted…but in a good way!
Do you have workout buddies? Do you find that it helps with motivation and making your workouts more fun?
Jen-
I LOVE reading your blog! I only wish I had your energy, motivation and talent in the kitchen. I hope you and Brandon are doing well! I’m already looking forward to your next post.
Brooke
Brooke – THANK YOU so much for your comment! It’s SO good to hear from you and to hear that you are enjoying the blog. Hope things are going well for you. I’ll be sure to be in touch come September 11! 🙂 (Go Dawgs!)
I could not believe this weather this morning! I was in heaven on my morning run. I started at 6:30am and breezed through 11.2 miles. I hope these cool temperature stick around – what a treat.
I love running with buddies…my favorite is my mom. She lives far away, though, so our jogs are infrequent. Although she does run at a slower pace than I do, sacrificing speed for running with my mom is worth it.
I had a long time running buddy that trained for the Nashville Marathon with me and for her, having me as a partner was essential. I can tough it through the mental obstacles of double digit miles alone, but she could not, and I was so happy to provide her with the ability to get those long runs in.
Brady – sorry for the super late response to this comment but I just wanted to say how cool it is that you run with your mom. I totally agree that sacrificing speed is worth a run with your mom! I wish my mom ran – I have dragged her to a few BodyPump and yoga classes and I’m pretty sure she hates me for it. She’s a swimmer!!!
That is so cool that you were able to motivate and pull your MCM training partner through those tough double-digit runs. I think that they are just as much of a mental challenge as a physical one!
Hey Jen! I had so much fun this morning running with you. I much prefer running buddies but every once in a while it’s really nice to go at it alone when I need to clear my head or have been around people all day.
Btw – is your dinner plate from Vietri? It looks very familiar.
Hey Kelly – so sorry just now RE: to your comment. I do the majority of my runs solo and really enjoy that but love company sometimes – especially on the long ones!!!
Yes, our dishes are Vietri. We registered for them when we got married as our casual china. I saw that you did too – just be SUPER careful with them. They are beautiful but they chip easily!
Hi – I really enjoy reading your blog. The weekly menus have inspired me to try to plan our dinners in advance and I’m noticing that we’re eating a lot more balanced, healthy meals. For your smoothies, can you tell us what kind of protein powder you use. I’ve seen protein powder made from whey, rice, etc., plus it seems like the percentage of protein per scoop can vary significantly. If you’ve tried different kinds, I’m wondering if you’ve noticed a significant difference in taste. Thanks! Carolyn