Dead Lifting....

Why do they call them dead lifts.... cause you feel kinda dead after doing them?
This mornings kettlebell class was a simple one, those are usually the worst ones though.....
After a nice warm up we moved on to

• 5 heavy dead lifts
• 10 push ups
• 15 knees to chest crunches

As many rounds as you can in 20 minutes. Killer.

Colin, our fearless instructor knows when to push me and challenge the weight I use..... so I did the dead lifts with double bells of about 54lbs each, so over a 100lbs total! Holy cow, that's some heavy stuff. I think I made it about 4 rounds with the regular pushups before I had to modify and go to my knees. I hate doing them that way, but my form would have been awful otherwise. Still I am able to do more than I used to before starting at the kettlebell gym and in time I'm sure I'll be able to improve and do even more!

I think I did about 12 or 13 rounds of all 3 exercises. Its too hard to keep count at 6am in the morning. ;)

After class I headed home for breakfast on the deck, however I'm out of greek yogurt and no milk. So I looked in the pantry and tried to figure out what might be good....

Hodgson Mills Multi Grain Hot Cereal
1/3 cup of the cereal
1 cup water
most of a small banana
cooked it up
then added blueberries, strawberries & a spoon of almond butter

Yum. Then it was time to water my lovely plants on the deck.... hit the shower and then get my butt to work!

Have a wonderful Friday!!!!

Britt

TGIF.... tomorrow

I'm very happy tomorrow is Friday!!

Sometimes I wished I didn't look forward to the weekends so much, I feel like by wishing the week away I'm wishing away life... kinda sorta.... Its the trade off I guess, but it is nice to have the comforts of an ok salary. ;)

Today started off so well with a nice rainy run, some weeding and then my normal delicious breakfast of Kashi Heart to Heart, greek yogurt, berries, flax & almond butter...... yes there are berries & yogurt in there I swear.....

See.....

Mid morning I had a great snack of cut up nectarine, much easier to eat this way as it was super ripe and oh so yummy!

Lunch continued the trend of good eating.....

Flat Out, turkey burger, lettuce, turnips, baby bell light cheese and a little TJ's balsamic dressing.

Of course once again the perfect side were more fresh string beans. So good!

And that's about where all the good for me eating ended. I brought a Larabar with me for an afternoon snack, but I had forgotten they were getting us pizza at work. I had one small piece of pesto w/ lots of veggies.... so not too bad. I was trying to eat on the lighter side today as I was meeting a couple of friends out for dinner.

After work I walked the dog and took care of a couple of things around the house, then I walked into town for dinner. It was an absolutely gorgeous night! We enjoyed ourselves on the deck of the restaurant, sharing appetizers and having a few drinks. I started out with a glass of pinot grigio....it hit the spot on a warm night, so much so that I had a second one. We split some nachos with chicken and a white pizza, as well as a garden salad. I tried to take it easy on the nachos but melted cheese is hard to resist. I didn't stuff myself but I left satisfied..... however my friends ordered margaritas and I could not pass one up... it was the perfect night for one, plus we had more gabbing to do. I know the calories in them are rather high, but it was a splurge night. After the margarita I moved on to a nice big glass of water, hydrating for tomorrow mornings kettlebell class.

How do you handle temptations when you dine out, especially when out with friends?

Have a great night!

Britt

Running In the Rain.....

It decided to rain this morning..... only while I was running. How nice of the weather to do that. Actually though, it probably was a good thing as it kept me relatively cool despite the warm muggy weather, even at 6am this morning.

It was not your typical run as I did intervals of running and weeding. Yep weeding. I ran most of my run about 3.5 miles then decided to swing by a planter downtown that I volunteer my time to take care of..... um it needed some caring in a major way. So I stopped for about 10 minutes to do some speed weeding. Got a bit dirty, but I finshed up my run... not sure if I got all 5 miles in but pretty close. I also incorporated part of the 5K route for the race I'm planning, just wanted to get a better feel for the hills along the way.... its not too bad and there is a good long downhill the last mile with a little uphill near the end.

By the time I got home the rain had ended and the warm muggies really kicked in, a cool shower felt heavenly.

Then I did my quick usual breakfast and was out the door. (picture to come later)

Do you do any volunteer work? If you do, what do you do?



Have a wonderful day!!

Britt

Its Getting Hot In Here.....

Eeks its warm in our house! Thank goodness for the a/c in the bedroom and tv room.

Despite the heat, it was a good day. I was up and out early at 6am for kettlebell.

Today's session was pretty intense, more cardio than Monday's heavy lifting day. It also focused a lot on your abs.

We did each station for 1 minute, 15 second break between stations and did the whole circuit 4 times.

-mountain climbers (w/ feet in rings)

-overhead squats (held kettlebell overhead w/ one arm, squating touching the opposite hand to the ground)

-weighted ball squat/ slams (12lbs)

-planks to an inchworm

-boxjumps

-bottoms up cleans

-one arm ring rows

Class ran a bit longer than usual so when I got home I had little time to get ready. I packed my breakfast, figured I'd just eat at my desk. I didn't compromise though, I had to have my usual to keep me going... (kashi heart to heart, berries, greek yogurt, flax and lil almond butter)

Since breakfast was a bit later than usual, no mid morning snack.... well except for a camera shy iced coffee that is. :)

I headed home again at lunch time today to walk the dog, Reggie, and grab some lunch. I love having leftovers that work well for lunch! I made good use of last night's turkey burger leftovers in a wonderful wrap.... also used some left over turnip greens as well.

-flat out, turkey burger, turnip greens, tomato and baby bell light cheese

-side of raw green beans

a yummy lunch!

I packed an afternoon snack for later on, some cantaloup & greek yogurt, as well as a camera shy banana.

After work I had a meeting for a local 5K road race I'm helping to plan, I'm essentially one of the race directors you could say. I'm excited and nervous about it, I really hope to pull it off and make it a yearly event. Just need to get more sponsors rolling in!

Once the meeting wrapped up I headed home to walk Reggie again. Just as we were finishing up the hubby rolled in and we were off to go test drive some possible new cars for me. My current car has gotten to the point where something is going almost every month.... so we thought we'd see what is out there. We are also trying to plan for a vehicle we can have long term..... one that will be around when we get to that whole having kids thing, ack!

I think I may have found the car but we need to crunch numbers first and possibly try to sell my car through a private sale for a little extra $$.

After all that car excitement I was starving! So while I cooked up some chicken & heated tortillas I enjoyed a little cheese and a lovely glass of Malbec Rose.

Once the chicken was ready and seasoned with some mexican spices it was time to make a delicious fajita/taco/whatever you wanna call it. However, I was a bit disappointed to realize we were out of not only salsa but tomatoes as well. :(

So my poor chicken only had some cheese, plain greek yogurt and lettuce..... so sad.
It wasn't that bad though...... I had two. :)

After cleaning up and starting some laundry it was time to catch up on some SYTYCD..... aka So You Think You Can Dance.... love that show. I remembered how wonderful last night's TJ's Tropcal Fruit Flow was..... so I had one while I watched.

Once again, its far past my bedtime. I never seem to get to bed early lately...... LOL "early lately"

How do you get yourself to go to bed on time?? And not instead get caught up in all the crap that needs to get done. (hhmm... maybe you don't watch SYTYCD? nah....)

Goodnight,

Britt

Feel the Heat.....

No no... I'm not complaining.... just feelin' it and appreciating it as winter will soon be here.

So yesterday was a balmy one. A smart person would have gotten up early for the day's run, before it got too hot.... but instead I opted to sleep in till 6:30. :)

But then genius struck as I realized I had to drop my car off for some work in a town on the coast..... the perfect place to be on a hot day.... by the ocean! Before that though, I had to get through the work day and that called for a yummy breakfast of my favorites.

-Kashi Heart to Heart Oats, greek yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, ground flax and a little almond butter. Yes I am addicted!


Then it was off to work for the day. By mid-morning I needed a little snack and I had brought this enormous but delicious nectarine. I prefer nectarines over peaches..... no fuzz. I think in 6th grade I even wrote a poem about nectarines & summer.

At lunch time I headed home to eat as I didn't get a chance to pack my lunch, plus I just love having that luxury.... being able to go home for a bit. However, my lunch was not all that spectacular. I was feeling the need for something other than turkey so I pulled out these frozen salmon burgers. Blech. I ate it, but the salmon burger was just not right....... the flavor was a bit off or something.

-flat out, salmon burger, spinach, tomato, baby bell light cheese and a little mayo

- side of fresh from the famer's market green beans, raw .... these saved the meal! so crunch and delicious!!!

Then it was back to work, I plugged on through the day, snacked on banana and later a Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar. Lots of water too as I had to get ready for my post work run!

Before leaving work my mom called, being the Facebook stalker that she is.... she noted my update about doing a run by the ocean after work, she was up for a run too so she joined me. Worked out well too as I was able to drop off my car at the repair shop and then have a ride to go run and to get home. :)

We had an absolutely BEAUTIFUL 6 mile run! . I really need to do the loop we did more often, it does seem silly to drive to go run, but when you have a route this gorgeous that is all the reason you need! There was also a fabulous breeze coming off the ocean as well. Oh and I should add part of our run went through the park where my husband and I were married, so its always nice to pay a visit there. Its a fabulous park overlooking the ocean and the river, you can see several lighthouses from the park.

The only distressing thing about the run was my stupid running shorts. I'm a bit behind on laundry so I didn't have much to choose from, so I snagged a pair of side-split running shorts I had been given..... NOT GOOD.... especially when its windy out! First problem is the shorts are a bit big.... so the underwear part of them rides up, but then the shorts part almost has too much fabric to ride up. The wind was opening up the side split quite a bit and then I had the underwear part riding up.... all which led to me at least feeling like I was mooning everyone that drove by! Oh well.... note to self, get rid of those shorts!!!!

Once I was home and showered it was time for dinner. I was ravenous!!! I really should have brought a snack with me for right after the run. So while I cooked dinner I ate a little Baby Bell Light cheese round.

I had lots of fabulous veggies to choose from since I just picked up our crop share last night, I opted for one my favorites baby turnips! These little suckers are so amazing on the grill, just a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. They come out so juicy and delicious. The other great thing is you can sautee up the greens, which I did with some olive oil and garlic. So two sides from one amazing little veggie!!

So my turnips and turnip greens were joined by a turkey burger with some sauteed onions (crop share), tomato and a little plain greek yogurt on a whole wheat bun. Not too shabby. I added a little Montreal Chicken seasoning to the ground turkey, I think its made by McCormick or something like that.

The burger I had was a bit small, so I grabbed a bit of another one too minus the bun & fixings. Felt like I needed a bit more protein.

I was getting caught up on shows I Tivo'd over vacation last night, so I stayed up a bit later than I probably should have.... and of course I eventually felt the need for a little dessert. I wanted to keep it somewhat light so I went for a frozen fruit bar. It was a Caribbean Fruit Flow from Trader Joe's. Lots of yummy frozen fruit, it was a perfect way to end a hot day!

So what do you do to beat the heat??

14 Weeks till the NYC Marathon!!!!

I better start hunkering down and get my training on, huh?

I've been trying to keep my milegage up since Boston and the Sugarloaf Marathon earlier this year, but its so hard in the summer months! There are so many distractions and of course the heat & humidity.

So many people are amazed by how much I am out running during the winter and early spring, but I actually perfer training in that weather. If its freezing or even below zero, just add more layers. If its snowing or sleeting, just wear a shell and the layers underneath.

Summer, you can only shed so much and I have to carry that much more water with me. I have definitely had some not so fun moments on long runs where I did not plan well and ran out of water.... I went searching for any place to fill up my fuel belt.... a school, a nursing home, anything that might have water available. I think that is why one of my favorite places to run is along the ocean.... temperatures are a bit more moderate and there are several bath houses along the way with water fountains......Plus I love the scenery!

So this weeks training schedule....
Monday- kettlebell
Tuesday- 6 miles, easy pace
Wednesday- kettlebell
Thursday- 5 miles, including a 3 mile tempo run around 7:30 pace
Friday- 5 miles and kettlebell
Saturday-off
Sunday- 10 miles, easy pace

I'll food blog later. :)

Back into the swing....

Now that the craziness of vacation is over and the visit from my dad.... back to blogging.

Today was a busy one as usual. I got the weekly email from our CSA (crop share association) mentioning that we should try to get to the farmer's market early, as they would pack up if an afternoon thunderstorm sprung up. So smart me decided to swing by at lunch time, only problem is the market doesn't open till 2pm. Then I hit traffic due to road work..... so I had very little time for lunch so I threw this together......

- Flatout, turkey, provolone, tomato, spinach and a lil' mayo w/ a nice juicy piece of cantaloupe. Yum!

Then it was back to work. Had a little snack of Pirates Booty around 3:30 or so along with a big ol' glass of water.

After work I ran back to the farmer's market to get our crop share. Look at this amazing spread!

Lettuce, onions, carrots, baby turnips, cabbage, green beans, potatoes

I also could not resist the sunflowers and picked up a bunch.

I unfortunately did not have time for a bike ride as I had a 6:30 meeting. I decided not to chance it and have my dinner first. Kept it simple with another wrap, notice a trend here?

We had some left over steak tips from last night so I cut & heated a piece up, added in some fresh lettuce, tomato and some baby bell cheese. Unfortunately the meat was chewy not sure what happened so I only ate the other stuff, little meat. :( So sad.

My meeting didn't last nearly as long as I thought it would so I came home to do some chores and see the hubby. :) My disappointing dinner caught up to me and I had to have a little something else, some ice cream in the fridge was calling my name.... so it was a small dish of chocolate fudge ice cream. Yum. :) It was camera shy though.

So what has been keeping me so busy..... my wonderful dad visiting! His one request, other than wanting to spend quality time together, was to enjoy some lobster together...... so we did!

But before the lobsters we enjoyed some mussels.....

Of course I had to pose with my mussel and my muscles.....

But then I got full..... so we had to take a break before the lobsters.

As you will note in most of the pictures I have wine. I enjoyed myself quite a bit, unfortunately I had a 5K the next day at 8am about 30 minutes away. I survived, definitely not my best time ever (22:49), but I made it through some how. But definitely a lesson learned, take it easy the night before.... regardless of house guests.....either that or not schedule a race the next day. ;)

So prior to my dad's visit.... there was Cape Cod. Ah what a wonderful time! We had some much fun. A recap of some of the highlights.......

Serious Matches of Badminton

Chillin On the Deck....

Riding Bikes on the Rail Trail

Enjoying Beautiful Sunsets

Relaxing at the Beach

And Cooking Up Some Tasty Eats

Alright time to focus on serious matters.... like Jillian's drama on the Bachelorette!

The slacking continues....

I've been very bad with the start of my blogging career. But I hope to improve drastically in the comings weeks... now that vacation is over and my lastest distraction, my father's visit, is over.





Tonight I'll upload some pictures from this past weekend's food fest! My dad was down visiting from the northern Adirondacks and he had one request...... LOBSTER! So we cooked them up at home and enjoyed them on our deck, as we finally have some beautiful weather in NH!

I was up bright and early this morning though for Kettlebell. Today's class was a challenging one with some heavy lifting. I also impressed myself as it also invovled pull ups, I was a bit scared but we could use these big rubber band things to lighten the load a bit, I was able to do them with the smaller band!

Today's exercises....
Find 2 partners. Perform as many sets of 5 reps as possible in 6 minutes.
Round 1Barbell Press x 5
Round 2Pull Ups x 5
Round 3Front Weighted Squats x 5
Round 4Get Up Sit Up w/ weights x 5



All that lifting got me hungry but I didn't have a ton of time, so I did my favorite go to breakfast....

-Kashi toasted oats, greek yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, spoonful of almond butter and a sprinkle of ground flax. So yummy! Along with a huge glass of water.

Then I had to say goodbye to my Dad and head to work, he's driving back home today. I probably won't see him again till late September. In the meantime he is getting ready to head to northern Canada (cause the Adirondacks are wild enough for him) for a paddling trip. Its complete with float planes, leaving from Yellow Knife, to get him where they want to be!

Back to a full week at work.... last week was nice to only have 2 days after vacation, but now its the full week..... ugh. Hopefully it doesn't drag too much! To get me through this morning I got a 16oz ice coffee with skim milk and a little splenda.

My To Do's today.... aside from work....

-pick up our Crop Share, cannot wait to see what goodies we get this week

-school board meeting

-try to squeeze in a bike ride with the hubby

-oh and BLOG BLOG BLOG. ;)