So, without further adieu, here is the list of things on my brain. Warning – it is quite random. I plan to elaborate on several of these items and actually dedicate posts to them soon, but here is a snippet:
Persimmon ~ My mother in law is an amazing gardner, cook and foodie extraordinaire. She buys as much as she can from local farms and markets – not just foods but other products as well. And then she knows how to cook it in the most delicious way possible. Last week when we were visiting them for Thanksgiving, I noticed a new fruit sitting on her counter. At first glance I thought it was some kind of tomato, but it was a persimmon. This is a fruit I had never tried before. It was grown right in Virginia and tasted like a tropical fruit! I think people in California get this all the time locally, but this is not something I ever knew grew in my home state of Virginia! It was beautiful and absolutely DELICIOUS. If you have never had persimmon before, go buy some. And if you can get it locally, even better.
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| Virginia Persimmons |
Racing Day is Tomorrow!! ~ Tomorrow I am running a new-for-me race – the DC Will Run for Chocolate 15k. I’ve never raced this distance before. Gotta love that – an automatic PR! I have not been preparing for this race in any special way, as my marathon training officially begins tomorrow. I’m still toying with my race strategy. It is going to be a very crowded race and a cold, frosty morning. I may decide to run it for fun and just stay with my running buddies, or I may decide I want to push myself and run it as fast as I can. Not sure yet – but no matter what I plan to have a great experience and will look forward to all the hot chocolate at the finish line! Also, I just have to say that I really love the below logo. The shoes as marshmallows make me smile…
Photo Shoot ~ Part of being an ambassador for lululemon involves an outdoor photo shoot with a professional photographer. The pictures will be on display in the store and are GIGANTIC, larger than life photographs. I cannot believe there will be a big ME running in the Tysons Corner store! I am so excited! My photo shoot is scheduled for next week, so yesterday I went to the store and did a little shopping. I want to wear something new for my pictures, something I feel awesome in. It was hard to make choices because I mean it when I say I love everything in that store. And yesterday there was a LOT of new stuff in the running line. Ohmygoodness, I wanted it all. I bought a few things to potentially wear in the photo shoot and I also bought some more Cool Racer Back tanks because there were just so many amazing colors and I wear them all.the.time, all year round ….
I haven’t decided yet what I’ll go with for the photo shoot yet – depends on the weather, etc – but I do know it will involve something PINK. The new hot pink color in that store is making me soooooo happy. More on this later!
New Shoes ~ It is time for this runner to get some new running shoes. During my last training cycle I started to feel not so great in my Asics Nimbus. I have been wearing these shoes for a loooong time, like 10 years long. I just figured “if it aint broke, don’t fix it” so every time I needed a new pair I just bought the same ones over and over again. I think me and my Asics are through though. They are heavier than I need them to be, they have more cushion than I need them to. So earlier this week I visited with Meghan Ridgley at the =PR= store in Reston. I tried on tons of shoes. She watched me run on the treadmill. I do not overpronate and can wear a neutral shoe and can also start wearing a shoe that is more minimal for some of my workouts and shorter distance races. My plan is to get 2 new pairs of shoes – one that is a neutral shoe with less cushioning than the Nimbus and one that is a more minimal shoe. She ordered a bunch of shoes for me to try and some of them are in today! The ones I’m considering for neutral/less cushion are the Brooks Ghost and the Asics Gel Cumulus. The minimal shoes I’m considering are the Brooks Pure Cadence, the New Balance 1400 and the Saucony Kinvara. I’m giddy with excitement!!
My 6 Year Old ~ A few weeks after the start of First Grade, my little girl Abby confided in me that she is in love with a boy in her class who we will call David. It was perhaps the sweetest conversation I have ever had with my daughter. She was precious. She told me all about him, how handsome he is, how funny he is. She couldn’t take the smile off her face as she spoke of him. It was so adorable. The other day Abby’s teacher walked Abby out of school at the end of the day. Abby was hanging her head, something was wrong. Her teacher explained to me (while trying not to smile) that Abby kissed two boys in school that day. It wasn’t a big deal – she wasn’t in trouble – but it is not appropriate to kiss people in school. A few minutes later when Abby and I were alone walking together, she burst into tears. She told me she that didn’t know it was wrong – when you love someone, you kiss them! And she also clarified that she did NOT kiss two boys. She kissed one – David – two times. She asked me if we could invite David over for a play date some time. So, I emailed his mom and told her about the “crush” and said that if David likes the idea, we would love to have him over one day after school. She thought it was sweet and is going to check with him. I really hope David likes the idea — fingers crossed.
Another thing about Abby is that this past week she lost her second top tooth. She will be singing “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” this year! I love it. It is amazing to me how different she looks without those teeth. She is growing up so quickly before my eyes. It is a beautiful thing to watch, and it scares me at the same time. My little girl, oh how I love you…
Running Form ~ Before Thanksgiving vacation I went to a clinic hosted by =PR= all about proper running form. It was excellent. I took notes and pictures and plan to post about it here to share everything I learned. I’m also going to a Chi Running workshop next weekend. I have read the book and really believe that running tall and relaxed and with good posture is so important. My hope is that I will learn more about how to apply this to my own running as well as to help others who I am coaching and teaching in the studio.
Run Club! ~ On that note, the very first Run Club is this Sunday at 8:30AM! I am so excited I can’t stand it. We are meeting at the Reston Pilates studio and I will begin the session by teaching a modified beginner mat Pilates class. Then we will hit the W&OD trail for a 40 minute out-and-back run. All paces and experience levels are welcome and encouraged to bring friends! If you are local, I would love to see you there!! We will meet every Sunday so if this weekend doesn’t work for you, come again another week. I am planning to run an easy pace and treat it as a recovery run this winter/spring as I will be doing my marathon training long runs on Saturdays this season.
PICKY BARS are AMAZING ~ Ok, there will for sure be a separate post dedicated to this topic. Very soon. For now, I have to tell you though – I love Picky Bars because I think they taste amazing and also because they are made from the best ingredients. I also love them because I am a picky eater and gluten and dairy upset my stomach. Also my son has severe food allergies. Among his most dangerous allergies are milk, peanuts and tree nuts. Picky Bars makes a flavor called “Nutless Wonder” – it is free of all the things my son is allergic to. A few weeks ago I sent an email to the company asking them about cross contamination. Lauren Fleshman herself actually sent me a personal email with the most thoughtful, honest and thorough response. I was floored. Then, I placed another order of the bars and PayPal messed up my order – I never got it. Lauren Fleshman emailed me again and gave me her cell phone number and asked me if I could call her. Ummmm …. ok!?! Before dialing her number I looked at my husband and grinned – oh my gosh I am about to call Lauren Fleshman. Yes, I know Picky Bars is a small company and she happens to be one of the two people who run it, but she is also an athlete and person who I truly admire in soooo many ways. The fact that I was calling her – and then spoke with her on the phone for several minutes – was one of the most incredible things for me EVER. Just thinking about it now makes me smile all geeky-like. Can’t help it!
A new blog feature ~ I’ve been thinking about adding a new feature on my site. The idea will be to show you guys different Pilates exercises and tell you how to do them and which muscles they strengthen and stretch. I’m working on getting this together and have taken several photos of me and my sister and another teacher at our studio. I’m wondering if videos might be more helpful though … what do you think?
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| me doing a half roll down |
Okay … so for now that is it for the thoughts swirling around in my brain. I will just leave you with a photo of where Oscar is hiding today. It took Abby and Will a little longer to find him today. They weren’t expecting him to be in the kitchen! Here he is hanging on a spice rack…
Abby and Will came downstairs before I did and when I arrived they wanted me to try to find him. We played “hot and cold” as I looked around for him, pretending I had no idea where he was. They giggled uncontrollably as I looked in all the wrong places. It was serious fun!
If you made it through this entire post – thanks for reading my randomness. How are you this frosty Friday morning? Any random thoughts swashling around in your brain? I would love to hear about it! Have a great weekend!!
