A New Toy and HONEYMOON!

Posted in healthy living, wedding by Chocolate Covered Race Medals

Update: Apologies for this half posting earlier today. I’m still learning this this whole blogging thing and really appreciate your patience! Any pointers are always welcome 🙂

With our wedding 3 weeks away (ahh dear lord!), we’ve been consistently receiving gifts in the mail.

Well this week, Zach got his new favorite.

And my produce budget just skyrocketed…

A shiney new juicer!

Zach was introduced to “juicing” in New York last summer on a trip with friends, and has SERIOUSLY wanted one ever since.

Well — thanks to his old friends from back home, we now have one!

This afternoon, Zach made his first shopping trip for juicing materials. Hello produce…well everything except the steak and corn are for juicing. Those probably aren’t ideal for the juicer.

Zach is VERY excited and already talking about CostCo’ing our produce from now own.

We’re going to need more fridge space.

Juicers: Does anyone have any good recipes, juices, or ideas for good juices? Please send them my way!

Today

It was a busy morning/afternoon in our household.

First, my long run

Then, brunch at Sassafras American Eatery

By the time we got home it was well past 1 PM.

I spent some time in the kitchen baking for a recipe that I cannot WAIT to share with you guys tomorrow. I wanted to make something different + great for our hike, and I think I got a winner. Come back early AM tomorrow. I’ll be sure to post it before Gusman’s birthday hike!

While I spent the afternoon in the kitchen, Zach was working on something much more exciting:

Our HONEYMOON!

Now this is a part of wedding planning I can get VERY excited about :).

Zach is extremely talented. One of those many talents, and really possibly a missed calling in life for him, is the ability to play travel agent.

He planned our entire European trip to Zurich, Switzerland in 2010 from the States without ever having been there and it was perfect.

Since then, I have been skeptical that we’d ever be able to top that trip, but after today, I’m pretty sure we’ve knocked it right out of the park.

In Feburary of next year, Zach and I will be heading to St. Anton, Austria!

Hello beautiful!

St Anton, or Sankt Anton Am Arlberg, is a village and ski resort in Austria.

It’s consistently listed as one of the world’s best ski resorts and actually boasts that it helped to popularize skiing.

Zach and I were looking for a local that would allow us to ski most mornings and afternoons to our hearts content, but still have plenty of night life when we’re done with the slopes.

Well, St. Anton fits those requirements to a tee as it is known just as much for it’s “apres ski” as it’s slopes!

We sent out a few messages to apartment owners this afternoon and are hoping to book by within the next couple of weeks. Exciting!

Dinner

The rest of the evening wasn’t as exciting, but it was healthy, delicious, and full of relaxing.

Dinner tonight was salmon, salad, and toast!

The salmon was seasoned with fajita seasoning and salt

The salad was fresh lettuce from the market with roasted veggies

Of course, the star of the meal, the California bread. Yum.

And I’m not forgetting dessert, but we snacked on my baked yummy from this afternoon for dessert tonight, so I am going to leave you in suspense until tomorrow early AM! Trust me, it’s worth the wait 🙂

A Hint

The Challenge:

I took it a little easy today for the challenge after my long run, but I did squeeze in:

140 second plank + 10 hip dips
50 oblique crunches L & R
50 bridges
30 push ups
50 calf raises (2 sets of 25)

Today is day 4 of the challenge and I will admit I’ve been surprised by my own strength more than anything else. I never thought I could do 30 uninterrupted REAL push ups, or hold over 2 minutes in plank, but I keep building everyday. I think I am stronger than I have given myself credit for. How cool is that?

Ok – time to relax with the family. Have a great night all!

17Aug2013

Sassafras American Eatery

Posted in restaurant review by Chocolate Covered Race Medals

There really is nothing better than a good brunch after a long run.

Today, we went to Sassafras American Eatery

Zach had seen this sign for it on the way home from his ride this week and decided we needed to stop there this weekend. I am so glad he did.

Sassafras is an old home made into a very, homestyle Lousiana style restaurant.

Now, I’m going to be honest. We’re talking about southern food here…I wouldn’t stop at this place to be low fat. But let me tell you, the ingredients were incredibly fresh. You could tell they are proud to use locally grown, organic ingredients. I like that.

Another thing that showed me it was going to be good: an hour and 15 minute estimated wait time when we walked in.

Honestly, when we heard that, we almost walked out. Let’s just say I’m so glad we didn’t.

We grabbed some complimentary coffee and chatted. My guess is about 30-45 minutes later, we were seated. I like when they guess on the high end…you’re surprised when they get you in quicker that way.

Our coffee was strong and hit the spot. My exhausted body needed the caffeine pick-me-up after my long run, and this hit the spot.

They had homemade ketchup, hot sauce, jam and salsa at every table, adorned by the adorable little salt and pepper shakers ;).

The menu and table settings were adorable, and had a good amount of breakfast and lunch options.

For my meal, I went with the breakfast sliders and a fruit cup.

Honest to god, they must have put crack in these. AMAZING . Simple eggs, cheese, sausage (and one bacon for Zach) on homemade biscuits. Seriously out of this world good.

They had AMAZING looking shakes on the menu board that stared at us our entire meal, so we decided we had to get one to go.

Salted Chocolate Pretzel Shake.

We got it to go for our long walk home…but Zach couldn’t wait. Trust me, it was the perfect way to end the meal.

Sassafras is about a 30 minute (not pretty) walk from our apartment, and we did have a pretty lengthy wait estimate, but Zach and I WILL BE BACK. The staff took southern hospitality to heart, were very sweet, and had a good balance of attentive versus laid back. The food was absolutely amazing and the entire ambiance and feel of Sassafras just makes you smile.

Sassafras gets 4 thumbs up from this family!

PS: Recipe to come for a surprise baked good later this afternoon. I’m working on it now! Here’s a hint:

I have high hopes for this one!

17Aug2013

Runner’s High

Posted in running by Chocolate Covered Race Medals

Today’s long run could have gone really bad.

I did most everything right yesterday.

I compressed my legs (even slept in my sleeves)

Made sure to hydrate!

And of course, carbo loaded!

Then there were these…

Ok…so those last two may not have been a good idea…but I think they may have been the reason my tummy was not happy this morning…

I woke up and was NOT feeling a run.

To make matters worse…this morning, when I got up for TWO seconds, Gusman ATE MY PRE RUN LARABAR!

Now that may seem like nothing to most people(and obvoiusly it isn’t…but I’m dramatic sometimes haha), but I like rituals. Before every long run, I wake up, drink a cup of coffee, eat a Larabar, and let my belly digest (I even tried a different bar earlier in the summer, and threw up during my run..not good).

Then Gus gave me that face and I decided I couldn’t be mad at him…I knew I needed to suck it up, eat something else, and get out there.

Well lucky for me, we still had that delicious California bread from Whole Foods.

So I ate a hunk of that and hit the road.

This morning I decided to hit Cherry Creak trail for awhile and it was a good choice. Busy, but beautiful. I took my first 5 miles slow (about 10 minute pace), because I knew I wanted to leave some in the tank. I actually PUMPED Fall Out Boy for the first half of my run and before I knew it I was eating my chomps around midway.

To be honest, once I got over my bad self and hit the road, this ended up being one of the best long runs I’ve had this season. Beautiful weather, beautiful trails…how can I complain?

I ended up feeling so good that I actually extended my long run to 10 miles…which I NEVER do.