Aaron just finished the muddiest mountain bike race EVER! Badass! We think he got third, but it was way too cold and rainy to stick around for the official results.
A family who lived near the course had a nice washing station set up in their backyard for the riders: it cost $2 to get your bike washed off with a cold hose and to wash yourself off with a warm hose. Genius!
Now, we eat.
Feel free to make fun of me for this video; it’s fairly dorky!
For the past few years, Nuun has put together teams of female running bloggers (sorry, guys) to run the Hood to Coast relay. I’ve followed along with the Nuun adventures through various bloggers (namely Jocelyn of Enthusiastic Runner) and always thought it looked like so much fun!
Last year, I was traveling in Southeast Asia when it was time to apply, and I was a little too busy (eating) to put together a video application. Besides, Nuun seemed to be choosing mostly big-name, super-popular running bloggers that they had also chosen the first year, so I figured I didn’t have a chance.
This year, Jocelyn posted that Nuun is looking for brand-new faces, so I decided to throw my (sweaty, pink) hat into the ring! The deadline to submit a video was Friday night, so I scrambled to film a few parts and edit it all together that night.
Only now am I seeing the Nuun has extended the deadline to TONIGHT (Sunday, 4/7) at midnight PST, so throw together a video and send it in if you want to apply!
Big thanks to Aaron for helping me film my video (and making fun of my dance moves, but he does that anyway). GOOD LUCK to anyone else who has applied or is going to!!!
The weather was NOT cooperating for my long run this morning.
We’re used to rain in Seattle, but not torrential, horizontal, end-of-days style rain! It was crazy. I waited it out until just before 2 p.m., when I saw blue sky emerging.
I ran a little faster than usual because I wasn’t sure how long the good weather would hold. Six miles in = still good!
10.75 miles in = still good weather, but not-so-good palm scrapes.
For the very first time, I totally ate it while running. I was slurping on my second chocolate Clif shot and not really paying attention to the sidewalk when my foot caught an uneven spot and launched me forward. Luckily, I only suffered minor scrapes on both palms — plus major loss of dignity, as I was running along a fairly busy street.
I think the rule is that if you can Instagram your injury, you’re OK. I would hope nobody has ever tried to choose the perfect filter while, like, bleeding out or something. Hashtag #bleedingout.
Anyway, the wind picked up and dark clouds started rolling back in at that point, so I hightailed it toward home to round out 14 miles.
Whoops. A little fast. Must work on my “long, slow distance” technique before I burn out.
Now, a Seinfeld marathon (Aaron is watching the whole series from the beginning; I grew up with it and love re-watching) and eating allllllll the food! I roasted a bunch of veggies and Aaron just grilled some flank steak — YUM.
Also, he made more peanut butter bites, and they’re somehow even better this time around.
I would love to make them sometime with chocolate almond butter and just die of happiness from all the chocolatey goodness. Ooooh, just try and stop me!
Thursday night I ran seven miles after work — my longest weeknight run to date for this marathon training cycle.
(Is it weird that while I was training for my first marathon, I pretty much freaked out about it for 18 weeks, but this time I kinda forget I’m training for a marathon?)
My sub-4:00 plan calls for me to do one run every other week at marathon pace, which I had determined several weeks ago would be 9:05 min/mi — that’s for a 3:57:59 marathon.
But I keep running… uhh… faster.
I always think during these “pace” runs that I should slow down, but then I feel like I’m not actually getting a workout, so I settle into a consistent, comfortable-but-fast-ish (for me) pace.
Am I sabotaging myself here? Should I be slowing down? Or should I set a bigger goal for my marathon time?
I’m doing my long runs pretty consistently at 9:15 average pace, so if my faster runs are about 8:45 average pace, maybe I can make those meet in the middle for a 9:00 min/mi marathon (that’s a finish time of 3:55:48, ooh-la-la).
I can’t overthink it! All I know is that I’m feeling super-strong and confident about Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle.
Oh, just kidding, here’s the elevation chart:
Nope, nope, confidence. Gotta have confidence.
That’s better!
Aaron and I got up to some hijinks at a local park tonight (to be explained soon) and I pulled this majestic pose as a joke, but I actually quite like the photo. Heh!
I’ve got 14 miles to run in the morning. Time for bed!
Aaron wins again.
Note that the original recipe does not include chocolate. That’s a mistake.
Let’s talk about Herban Feast catering, shall we?
First of all, they know how to put on a beautiful event. Their home venue, Sodo Park, is in a gritty, industrial area of south Seattle, but the interior is gorgeously airy and rustic. This is like the hot place to get married right now… but I like our venue better, obviously.
The tasting was cruise-themed, with appropriate nautical decor and catering coordinators dressed in navy and white stripes. The food was set up in stations:
And we tasted ev-er-y-thing (minus the martini).
Our favorite appetizers were the spicy chicken endive leaf spoons (center) and sweet potato crab cakes (second from right).
The farmer’s market summer salad was good, but had nothing on the heavenly grapefruit-goat cheese salad from our first tasting.
As for entrees, the tender beef loin was, well, incredibly tender. The salmon and gnocchi were a bit dry, and the chicken breast was just OK, but the accompanying roasted lemon & caper sauce was the bomb.
Now let’s talk about the s’more parfait.
Holy shit, you guys. This was A-MAZ-ING. From top to bottom, it was a layer of toasted, molten marshmallow, a layer of chocolate mousse, a layer of gooey caramel, and a swirl of crumbled graham crackers spanning the bottom layers. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!
I’m actually getting kind of upset typing this because I don’t know when, if ever, I can have this s’more parfait in my life again.
That’s right — we’re not hiring Herban Feast. Not because the food isn’t good (it’s great), but because it just didn’t grab us the way the first caterer did (that salad!) and we already have a fantastic potential menu planned with them.
And that concludes our brief but wonderful catering tasting journey… until we do our cupcake tasting in early 2014, that is. I’ll be counting down the days!
GPOYW: Obnoxious, fluorescent, highlighter-pink edition.
Is burning retinas a trend for spring? I hope so, because I am ON IT.
Time to rewind!
SATURDAY
I decided it’d be fun to run my 9-miler as an out-and-back with an exciting destination in the middle, and what better destination in early spring than the quad at my alma mater, the University of Washington? There be cherry blossoms for daaaaays!
It was an incredible weather day, so the quad was packed with people who were trying to get that perfect photo of their husband/wife/toddler/wedding party posing in the cherry blossom wonderland without getting anyone else in the shot. Craziness.
I was happy to spend a few minutes there, then head back toward home via Green Lake.
It was a hillier long run than I’m used to (on purpose), but still great!
Aaron was out mountain biking all morning, then doing a maternity shoot for his friends who are new parents-to-be, so I took further advantage of the beautiful day and walked ~1.5 miles to Road Runner Sports to stock up on essentials: chocolate Clif Shots, Clif bars, a few cute running tanks, and a Stick. Then I moseyed to a grassy expanse at Green Lake to bask in the heavenly late afternoon sunlight.
I call this photo “doing it right.”
SUNDAY
Speaking of doing it right…
YOU’RE NEVER TOO OLD. I was genuinely thrilled to hang out with the Easter bunny. Aaron? Not so much.
We hit multiple Easter celebrations between our two families on Sunday, but the most-photographed event was a buffet brunch with my dad and brother at Echo Lake Golf Club (we don’t play golf, we just eat). It was delicious, and the weather was gorgeous once again.
You’ll notice that my dad is in the midst of growing an epic beard. He is constantly compared, by both friends and strangers, to The Most Interesting Man in the World.
This dress fit me perfectly last summer, but I spent all Sunday pulling it up so it wouldn’t fall down and reveal my bra. Sometimes you shrink in less-than-ideal places when you lose weight — wah-wah! (Also: my engagement ring is getting dangerously loose. Never saw that one coming.)
Aaron and I wound up doing our best to combat weight loss that day, though. When faced with the delectable dessert table of the buffet, we stared at the cakes and cookies and tarts, stared at each other, and then decided to just call it a day and eat whatever the heck we wanted. Miiiiight have almost broken My Fitness Pal when I entered everything I enjoyed!
MONDAY
After work, Aaron and I had a private tasting with another wedding caterer from our venue’s preferred caterers list. It was the “budget” option, so I had kind of low expectations… and I was proven both right and wrong.
So, this catering company is out of the running, but we are going to try to recreate the sliders as a passed appetizer at our wedding. They. Were. SO. GOOD.
Tomorrow night: Another tasting with another caterer! This one will be on the fancier end of the spectrum. Gosh, life is hard.
TUESDAY
I worked from home today, since we had some dudes in our condo repairing water damage caused by a leaky roof. Before:
After:
Like new! And paid for by the homeowner’s association. Yay!
I got out for a fast run this evening:
Two days of no exercise = fresh, speedy legs.
I felt great during the run, but am now feeling sorta off. Maybe I ran too fast, or waited too long to eat after my run (I also lifted weights), or ate something funny (like an exorbitant amount of spaghetti squash), or the paint fumes have gone to my head (most likely, now that I think about it).
Whatever the case, it’s time to call it a night. I need to feel fresh for more catering delights tomorrow!
Dev on Running 