Tuesday Off-Topic
Hello! Welcome to Tuesday Topics, which I host with Jenn from Runs With Pugs. Today’s topic is What helps you stay motivated through the winter’s blah months? Well… I’m not really a good person to speak on this topic. January and February are our most beautiful months in South Florida. We have some “cold” snaps, where we can get down to the 50s (or even 4os, gasp!) overnight, but our daytime temperatures usually top out in the upper 60s or 70s. I mean… if I can’t be motivated to get out there and run now, there’s something wrong with me! It’s harder to stay motivated in the heat of the summer. Plus, as I’ve mentioned, I have a big race coming up in March, so I have all the reason in the world to keep up with my training. I will be interested to see if any of you hardy northerners write on this topic though! I would definitely need extra motivation to train in the cold and snow. When we were in Tampa, it got COLD. One morning it was 34 degrees! This was a running day for me, and I forgot to bring hat and gloves (I got them out, but forgot to pack them). Luckily the hotel gym had a treadmill, so I ran inside instead. I know… people up north are laughing at me. Let’s talk about the Bears. SOB!!! Wow, that game was a heartbreaker. But what about the Famous Touchdown Pass at the end of the 4th quarter??? That will give us something to think about for a while. For this game, I made Chicago-style deep dish pizzas! I used this recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction, and just subbed vegan ingredients (vegan butter, vegan cheese, and tempeh bacon). I had originally said I would make this if the Bears got to the Super Bowl. Good thing I decided to make it for this game instead (sigh…) Moving on. I’m usually pretty bummed when our annual trip to Tampa is over, but luckily this week I have another mini-adventure. My daughter is playing in an honor band festival at University of Miami (I know- does she ever go to actual school? Third quarter is tough, there’s a lot of extra things going on!) In the past, I’ve driven her down there (it’s a horrible drive with tons of traffic no matter what time you’re going), driven back up to work, and then driven back down after work to pick her up and IT’S A TERRIBLE DAY! This year, I finally came to my senses. I took Friday off of work, and will drive her down and stay in Miami all day. I usually avoid Miami (because of the aforementioned drive) but there really are some cool things to see and do. Not sure what I’ll be doing yet- but I’ll figure it out. Instead of dreading the day as I usually do, now I’m looking forward to it. Link Up With Tuesday Topics Welcome back to Tuesday Topics, as Jenny, from Runners Fly joins Jenn at Runs With Pugs to co-host this link-up! Please join us every week for a new topic! Write on our weekly prompt or choose your own topic! Make sure to add your post to the link up, link back to your hosts, and comment on the other shared posts! Next week- free topic! You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter
Tampa Fun
We had a successful trip to Tampa! It’s fun every year, but last year was, er, a little less fun due to a couple factors which we don’t really need to go into (there were some cranky people). This year, everything went smoothly! Our hotel gave us QUEEN BEDS (as opposed to full-size beds last year, shudder), my daughter’s rehearsal venue was within walking distance of our hotel, and, last but definitely not least, there was a Starbucks connected to our hotel. Yep, my daughter was living her best life. Instead of being at school, she was eating from the breakfast buffet while I got her morning Starbucks order. Happy kid=happy mom! Then she was off to her all-day rehearsals while I did my own thing. I had leisurely workouts, time to read my book and sit with my planner in the Starbucks, and on Friday I had my annual blogger meetup with Stephany!! Stephany named this adventure “Beers, Books, and Bloggers.” We started at the St. Pete Brewing Company. Now to be clear, I don’t usually have beer with my lunch. But this was a special occasion, and I couldn’t pass up the “Hazy Tampa Bay-ker”: Then it was on to the bookstores! We started at The Book Lounge. This was such a cute store. I wish I had taken a photo inside, but there were quite a few people there and I didn’t feel comfortable taking photos of strangers. We spent some time browsing and buying, and then walked over to Book and Bottle. At this store, we spotted this, which Elisabeth recently mentioned: After more browsing and buying, we went to Tombolo Books. I loved every store, but this was probably my favorite because they had the biggest selection. More browsing and buying. I LOVE buying books, but I don’t usually do it because, um, well the library is free. But if I go to a bookstore I always want to buy something, to support them. Here’s what I ended up with from the afternoon: This was fun! I got to see Stephany (we both bought one of the same books- can you guess which one?) and have a little tour of St. Pete. On Saturday my daughter had her concert. It was a situation where it was a huge venue, and I had the best view from the large screens at the sides of the stage. I got some good photos of her! She really enjoyed all state this year because she played piccolo, which she likes more than flute. And then on Saturday night we drove back home! I’m sad the trip is over, but VERY happy to see the cats. Of course. Do you buy books? Would you buy a book if you were at an indie bookstore?
Weekly Rundown- Not the Usual Week!
Hello!!! This was a fun week, as it was our annual trip to Tampa, where my daughter played in the All State band. I also had an unusual “long cardio” sessio at the gymn. When we left off last week I was worried about some pain in my calf, so I babied it a little this week (as far as running went). Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Here’s how it all played out… Monday I was still being cautious of my calf, so I did a short lower body strength workout and 30 minutes on the elliptical. Tuesday I did my favorite Caroline Girvan deadbug workout, and an upper body strength workout. Wednesday This would have been a long trail run, but I was afraid to stress my calf that much. Instead, I did a FOUR HOUR cardio session in the gym. It broke down like this: one hour on the bike, one hour on the elliptical, 45 minutes running on the treadmill, 30 minutes back on the bike, and the last 45 minutes running on the treadmill. NO CALF PAIN! As you can see, I’m using KT tape as a precaution. I don’t really know if it does anything, but it can’t hurt. In the afternoon, we drove to Tampa and checked into our hotel. Thursday So much walking! My daughter was rehearsing in the convention center, which was about a mile from our hotel. I walked over five miles back and forth- and my calf was still fine. Friday I had a GREAT strength session in the hotel gym. A really thorough upper body workout, all my hip stability exercises, and planks. I realized- the reason I enjoyed this so much was that I had the gym to myself until the very end, when one other woman came in. So much better than working out at EOS, which is always crowded. Saturday Running! 4 miles with no pain. This run was on the treadmill in the hotel gym because of the weather (COLD) and also our location, which was right downtown. Not ideal for running. I followed this run with squats- as heavy as I could do with dumbbells- and planks. My daughter’s concert was in the afternoon, and my husband had to stay to see a student perform in a concert at night. THEN, driving home- ouch. It’s a long drive late at night. Sunday Sleeping in, obviously! Laundry… shopping… and getting ready for the Bears game! Coming up soon… further adventures in Tampa. How was your week? Are you watching football this weekend?
Greeting from Blustery Tampa!!!
Boy is it cold here! I mean… not for you northerners, but for us Floridians… brr. Let’s backtrack to Wednesday. You might remember that I had a LONG cardio session planned at the gym. Normally I would have done a long trail run, but my calf has been bothering me so instead I cobbled together 4 hours of cardio, split between the bike, elliptical, and running on the treadmill. DONE! Within that four hours, I did 90 minutes of running on the treadmill, and my calf did just fine. Then… we blasted off to Tampa! We got in on Wednesday night (it’s a four hour drive from where we live) and Thursday morning I went with my daughter to register. I got my chaperone badge… … and she got her badge. Lately I’ve had some frustrations with her (just normal teenage stuff, but it can be a lot) and when I looked at her badge, which says “All State Student” I realized I’m proud of her. She’s an all state player! Sometimes I forget to appreciate the good things. Now I’m hanging out, seeing friends, and reading! I brought along a book I knew I would love: Coming up tomorrow- a bookish blogger adventure! Have you ever been to Tampa? What would you do with a few days off in a different city?