Andrew: Let’s just talk about good stuff.
Sam: Good stuff?
Andrew: Yeah. Glass half full shit. What do you got?
Sam: I got a little buzz. I got that.
[laughs]
Sam: What you got?
Andrew: I got a little buzz going… and I like you.
[Sam, embarassed, giggles]
Andrew: So there’s that. I guess I have that.
Sam: I can tap-dance. You wanna see me tap-dance?
Andrew: I would love to see you tap-dance.
One of my very favorite movies… and a reminder that, no matter what, we can always dance.
Marathon training goes on. Four miles tonight.
It was sunny and clear all day. It felt all wrong that the weather was so bright when the news I followed today was so dark.
Mile one, clouds rolled in and it started to sprinkle.
Mile two, the sprinkle turned into a pour, and then into hail. It felt good.
Mile three, the rain and hail cleared. I saw a woman wearing an I ❤ BOSTON shirt. I caught her eye and nodded as we ran by each other. She gave me a sad smile.
Mile four, I rounded a corner of the Green Lake path and saw the start of a rainbow in the distance.
For Boston.
Put one foot in front of the other. Keep moving forward.
Someone that I follow on Twitter said:
“As a runner, I feel like someone just attacked my friends. As I person, I am just horrified.”
After Columbine, I was terrified to go to school. After the Oregon mall shooting this past December, I was terrified to shop for Christmas gifts. After Sandy Hook, I became terrified for my future children.
And now, some evil people want to make me and others terrified of one of life’s most satisfying achievements — finishing a marathon.
I am horrified by what happened in Boston, and I am devastated for the victims and their families, but I refuse to be afraid.
Whoever is behind these bombs: BIG MISTAKE. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MESS WITH RUNNERS.
What a beautiful day for another muddy mountain bike race. Blue sky and blue podium, baby!!!
This race was full of hills and looked absolutely brutal. You can see in the fourth photo that Aaron let out some sort of primal grunt/shout as he hammered by me; it actually freaked me out. But he was fine, and he WON!
If you’ve lost track, he has now podiumed in every single race (winning most of them), and is now in the lead for the whole series by 20 points. Yeahhhhhhh buddy.
I think I’m getting fairly decent with the race photos, too. Although, to be fair, Aaron is the one who makes that mud look gooooood.
Warmup lap complete, race starts in 20! Another muddy one.
I still feel a bit nervous before every long run, but I’m always good once I get going — and I finished this one strong!
It was super-cold and windy for the first few miles, but I warmed up in no time. Later in the day, it rained and HAILED like crazy, so I was glad I got my run done early!
Then, to help replace the 1,600+ calories I burned, I made cookie dough Laraballs!
I used this recipe that’s supposed to taste like homemade cookie dough Larabars, but made the dough into balls rather than bars… so, Laraballs!
Instead of mixing chocolate chips into the dough, I melted dark chocolate chips and drizzled the chocolate over the balls. I also omitted the sea salt in the dough and instead sprinkled a little Peruvian pink sea salt on top, which made these babies taste more like truffles than energy bites! Yum yum yum.
Aaron says these are even better than the peanut butter bites, which is saying a lot because he looooves peanut butter.
Can’t wait to bring some to snack on during Aaron’s race tomorrow! Fingers crossed for no more rain or hail…
Aaron turned 27 yesterday! What can I say about him other than that I can’t wait to marry his face off?
And he has many faces.
Muddy face.
Hipster face.
Cinnamon roll race.
Champagne face.
Horse face.
Race face.
Winning face.
Angsty face.
Baby face.
I hope our future child comes out looking exactly like him, because dang, that is one cute baby!
I have pictured many times what his face will look like as I walk down the aisle toward him on our wedding day, and it always makes me cry. I imagine it will look something like his winning face; hopefully not so much the horse face.
I’m the real winner, though, because I get to wife the sweetest, funniest, foxiest guy in the world.
Happy birthday, my love.
Just some light Costco shopping for two.
We took advantage of Seattle Restaurant Week for Aaron’s birthday dinner tonight. A three-course dinner at (pricy) Palisade for $28 each? Yes, please!
The service was excellent from start to finish, and the atmosphere was beyond beautiful and romantic. We had a primo spot overlooking the marina, and our waitress even showered the table with real rose petals and a “happy birthday” card for Aaron.
I started with the lobster & crab bisque, while Aaron went for the apple & candied hazelnut salad. We both had the prime rib with bacon-onion green beans, Yukon Gold potatoes, and roasted bone jus (YUM) as an entree, and the apple crisp with caramel ice cream for dessert. Aaron had a candle in his, of course!
His actual birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but we enjoyed getting a head start on celebrating with one of the best meals we’ve had together! : )
Aaron and I had lunch with Aaron’s good friend yesterday, and we got to talking about how he had reached a plateau with working out. He runs three times a week and lifts twice a week, but his weight won’t budge.
“Have you thought about changing your eating?” I asked.
“I probably should,” he replied. “And I should start eating breakfast.”
Aaron and I were both like, “WHAT?? You don’t eat breakfast?”
So that’s my segue into explaining why and how I always make time to eat a good breakfast (and I still get to work half an hour early most days).
I work out at night and dinner is usually my lightest meal of the day, calorie-wise. I eat a solid breakfast and lunch, plus snacks throughout the day to give me energy for my workout, so I’m never super-hungry come dinner time.
As a result, I am HUNGRY when I wake up.
It takes me 15 minutes to make a full breakfast while simultaneously packing my lunch and snacks for the day. This 15 minutes happens after I shower and put on makeup, and before I dry and straighten my hair (during which time I eat my delicious breakfast).
My go-to breakfast used to be two eggs scrambled or fried, but that’s not nearly enough now that I’m training for a marathon.
My new go-to is two pieces of bacon (I ate 1.5 before taking the above photo), one fried egg, and some sort of sautéed green vegetable (usually asparagus or a bunch of kale).
While everything’s frying/sauteeing on the stove, I pack food. Today: leftover meatballs & marinara from Monday night’s dinner, a serving of sunflower seed butter (to be eaten with baby carrots provided at work), a container packed full of spring mix, a bag of sweet peppers, and a grapefruit (of which I’ll eat half today and half tomorrow). I also threw a Larabar in my bag.
The funny thing is that people at work see me eating half a grapefruit every morning and probably think that’s my entire breakfast. HA!
I don’t always eat everything I bring to work because there is a lot of free food available — my company competes with nearby Amazon, Google, and Microsoft for engineers, and this is one of the perks we all get to enjoy. We get catered lunches three times a week, plus big Costco and Amazon Fresh deliveries of everything from salad, veggies & fruit to chips, candy & soda (it’s just as easy to make bad choices at work as it is to make good ones!).
I used to just eat whatever we were served for lunch, but now I’m picky and will usually only grab whatever protein there is (like a burger patty or piece of baked salmon), then supplement it with a big salad and veggies — either from the work fridge or from home. Sometimes we’re out of the healthy stuff at work, so I make my own luck and always have backup food on hand.
Anyway, back to breakfast. The usual excuse for not eating breakfast is, “I don’t have time!” I’ve experienced both a negative feedback loop and a positive feedback involving having time to eat breakfast:
Negative Feedback Loop
Eat crappy food –> Always feel tired –> Feel too sluggish to exercise –> Can’t drag myself out of bed –> Have no time to eat breakfast or plan ahead to make healthy choices –> Eat crappy food.
Positive Feedback Loop
Eat nutritious food –> Have a ton of energy –> Exercise –> Bounce out of bed on time or early –> Have extra time to eat breakfast and plan ahead to make healthy choices –> Eat nutritious food.
Obviously there’s nothing super-scientific about those, and I can’t say they’re true for everyone; they’re just my own experiences.
It really sucks to be in the negative loop, but once you make the leap to the positive, it feels like night and day — and it’s awesome.
The trick of switching from the negative loop to the positive one is to CHANGE SOMETHING. For me, it was changing my eating, and every other positive thing followed.
It starts with getting your food right. And food… starts with breakfast.
(See how I tried to tie that all back together to the original topic? OK, I’m done.)
Dev on Running 