Earth Day 5K

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Jessica

I had an absolutely wonderful weekend! It started at a mexican restaurant in Bethesda with Becca. I got the “Crazy” Margarita, which was indeed crazy. Its a Corona in a frozen margarita. I think I’ve seen it before. On Jersey Shore. Aah!

Next I went to College Park to hang out with my sister and her friends! I don’t go out there a lot but once in a while its nice to be out on the town where I spent my glory days :)

Saturday included my friend Shristi’s bridal shower, and then Whole Foods hot bar for dinner with Chels. We went to bed early because we had to be up at the crack of dawn for the Silver Spring Earth Day 5k!

I was so happy when Chels agreed to do the race with me, despite having no time to train or practice. She did awesome!! Afterward we had a yummy brunch at Eggspectation.  The rest of my day was extra relaxing with a massive nap, manicure, and grilling dinner with a friend.

Baltimore Ten Miler

One thing I have forgotten to mention is Becca and I are training for the Baltimore Ten Miler in June!  My training has definitely been lacking. I’ve been pretty good at sticking with my long runs, but I’ve barely been running during the week, or working out in general. I’m glad I’ve been keeping my workout log because it keeps me accountable! Just seeing all the “none” days the past couple weeks is motivating me to get back at it.  I have ran or worked out every day this week so far so I’m going to do my best to get at least 5 workouts down. I think my long run this week will be 5 or 6 miles depending on how I’m feeling. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to a place where I’m confident going into the race!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Still Here!

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Jessica

I’m still here! I’ve been busy and more stressed than usually and thinking a lot about blogging and not actually doing it. I don’t want to make this terribly long as I usually do when its been a while so I’ll try to keep it short and sweet!

Tonight after work I went to the gym. I did a quick 15ish minute run to warm up and then decided to jump into a Tabata class.  I was a bit weary of the class because I had become frustrated with it before, but I had heard good things about the PT teaching it so I gave it a try.  He made us take out a bunch of equipment which I always love because it means we will be doing a ton of different things! So much more interesting than doing just 3 moves for a 30 minute class.  We did 8 sets of 20 seconds all out intensity for each move, including lateral raises, bosu ball mountain climbers, bicep curls, squats with a barbell, skull crushers, and pushups. My arms are KILLING me. Holy crap. Even after I got home they feel shaky and weak and it was a challenge just to eat my dinner. Considering I haven’t really done any weights for my arms in weeks this isn’t very surprising. I will definitely be trying out this class again! The instructor was awesome and I also loved the music he chose-it was a mix of classic rock you don’t hear often and alternative songs I had never even heard before.

Easter in Fenwick

This past weekend I celebrated Easter with my family at our house in Fenwick. Chels and I road-tripped over together and it was great to have a chance to catch up!

Here is the view from the balcony! Just ignore the lovely telephone cables :)

We spent the weekend shopping, eating, running and biking, and soaking in the sun. Of course I also spent a lot of time hanging with my best buddy.

After Easter mass we had brunch at a golf course with awesome views of the water. Mom and Dad deemed post-brunch pics a must…

It was so hard to leave Fenwick. I can’t wait to go back end of May!

I’m going to end it here! Night everyone!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Memphis

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Jessica

Today was my first day back at work after the conference. I returned to 286 emails and 38 voicemails. 38. I think the most I’ve had before today was 12. It took forever to get through everything and its definitely going to take me a while to get caught up.

My days in Memphis were mostly filled with meetings and seminars. It was certainly stressful at times, but for the most part it was just really great to be with everyone. On Friday we all hopped on a bus and got to experience downtown Memphis. First we walked to Beale Street, the main avenue, and I was so happy with what I saw. A long strip of bars, many with live music, and tons of people walking around, enjoying the beautiful night.

Next we made our way over to Rendezvous, known nationwide for it’s famous ribs. We had one floor of the restaurant to ourselves and they prepared a special dinner for us of kielbasa, ribs, pork barbeque and sides. The ribs were made in the “dry” style, with spices rubbed onto them instead of barbeque sauce. I don’t eat ribs often, but I think I decided after trying them I am more of a “wet” ribs person. They were good, just dryer than I prefer.

After dinner, a few of my coworkers and I returned to Beale Street and popped into the Rum Boogie Cafe, where a blues band was performing.  We also hung out for a while at a piano bar. I definitely want to visit Memphis again with friends or family!

Saturday we had a luncheon with guest speaker Chris McDougall, author of Born to Run.  The book is about his experiences tracking down the Tarahumara, a tribe in the jungles of Mexico with a natural ability to run fast and far, and trying to learn from them. He was funny and interesting, and made me feel extremely unadventurous as he talked about his treks through Mexico reporting for New York Times and various running publications. I had only read a small portion of it before his speech, but I devoured most of it on the plane ride home and now I’m almost done. If you love running I highly recommend it-it’s definitely a page-turner!

On Sunday we all headed over to run in the championship event being held in conjunction with the convention. I opted out of doing the half marathon and ran the 5k. On the bus ride over to the race I met a girl from California who also had barely been running lately, and we decided to run it together. I had a great time chatting with her and taking in the course which wound through a picturesque neighborhood. It was probably my slowest 5k to date but it was kind of nice to go into an event just for fun, without a time goal.

After the race I packed up and spent most of the day traveling back to Maryland.  I was so thankful to have Monday off to relax and catch up on errands. Now I’m back to the madness. Time to rest up for tomorrow!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Greetings from…

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Jessica

MEMPHIS!  I arrived in Memphis last night for my organization’s annual convention. I am really excited to be here as I’ve never really been to the SOUTH South-I’ve vacationed at SC and Florida beaches and visited friends in North Carolina but thats about it. My hotel room is really nice and it overlooks a moat that surrounds the hotel.

The ducks outside my window are cute for sure but I don’t know about that abnormally vibrant blue water they’re floating in.

Today is a very relaxed day because most of the attendees won’t arrive until tomorrow or the next day.  Unfortunately we are in an office park and kind of far from the downtown area, but I was able to walk over to a Panera for breakfast and stopped by Target to pick up some fruit, water, and snacks for my room.  I’m going to get some work done in my room and maybe squeeze in some time to take advantage of this awesome weather and lounge by the pool!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Leap Day!

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Jessica

Happy Leap Day! Did anyone else see 30 Rock last week? I don’t watch it religiously but I caught the last episode and I thought it was hilarious how all the characters were so into it and they made up all these Leap Day traditions.

Cyaaa!

Yesterday I did something I am not exactly proud of.  For the first time ever I walked out an exercise class. When I went to the gym I was planning on doing my own thing because I thought Tabata wasn’t being held for the next couple weeks, but when I got there I saw a bunch of people waiting for it to start so I hopped into the class. The instructor was 10 minutes late, and the class is only 30 minutes, so he skipped a warm-up and got right into it. About halfway through I thought to myself, I’m not having fun. The class was very repetitious-the same three moves the entire class. I kind of just finished up what I was doing and quietly walked out of the class. There have been many instances when I’ve wanted to leave a class-either because its realllly challenging and I feel nauseous or tired or just because I’m bored with the routine or not a big fan of the instructor-but I’ve always stuck it out because I really feel for the instructor when I see someone else leave. With that in mind though, I think its important to enjoy your workout. I love working out. And while one reason I’m there is to stay fit and healthy, another big reason is to have fun and do something that I enjoy and makes me happy. I left the class and hopped on the elliptical for 20 minutes and then created a legs and butt workout and felt great. I guess what I take away from this is while walking out of a class is not the best thing to do (and if you do it you should always be as quiet and respectful of the instructor as possible), you deserve a workout that you truly enjoy.

Pancake Day!

Yesterday was also National Pancake Day! I made scrumptious whole wheat chocolate chip banana pancakes from Skinny Taste for dinner (sans the heart shape) with a side of turkey bacon and grapefruit. Who doesn’t love a little breakfast for dinner?! I recommend making the pancakes-they weren’t very sweet but I thought they were perfect with syrup.

I had a really fun weekend that included my very first Bikram class! I’ll post more on that soon. Have a great Leap Day!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment