Chattanooga

Saturday

They said it would be a cold morning up on Lookout Mountain…they weren’t lying!  It was super windy, sleeting, and I LOVED it!!!

We started the day with breakfast at the Bluegrass Grill while we waited on the sun to rise.

Then we headed up the mountain to run!  Trail running makes me feel like a little kid.  We ran the Big Daddy Loop that goes down the mountain and back up.  I think we connected 10 or more trails to make the loop and we only made 2 wrong turns!  Even though it was sleeting on top of the mountain, the leaves were gorgeous and I LOVED the trails!

We made it back to the top of the mountain with a view of the city.

I’m pretty sure it was a little more running than my husband anticipated, so we went to Urban Stack for veggie burgers and beer afterwards.  He forgave me:)

Sweet potato fries might be one of my favorite foods in the whole world.

We went to our favorite coffee shop…Rembrandt’s

With our coffee in tow, we went back to the room for a siesta…where I may or may not have had a cream cheese brownie in bed.

Before dinner, we did some shopping.  This little store must have known I was visiting.

For dinner we headed to Public House.

Public House has the BEST veggie plates!

Sunday

Breakfast at Milk & Honey.  It was super cute.  Next time we’re in town, I want to go back for gelato.  The flavors sounded awesome! (Side note: I don’t think the server was picking their nose…I just caught them in a bad pose.)

Their oatmeal and housemade granola were so good!

After breakfast we went for a run around town and made sure to stop and watch the regatta.

Blue sky and fall leaves…perfection!

Before I knew it, it was time to pack up and head home.

I took advantage of the car time to finish up the recipe for Baked Caprese Quinoa!  Gotta love MiFi.

The good news: I got to see my puppies and this month’s Picky Club order arrived….love the new packaging!!

The bad news: My husband is a thermostat nazi and we came home to a freezing cold house.

Are you a thermostat nazi, too?  If I move the temp, he’ll follow behind me to adjust it.  Married life for the win!

Are you having cold weather too?  Fall leaves?

Did you race or long run this weekend?  Share!!!

#choosejoy

October Miles

This was my toughest month of the year. I had to taper for Chicago and then I’ve had to take some recovery weeks. Silly races get in the way of my running.
October Miles: 338
YTD: 3,129

We decided to drive down to Chattanooga for a little weekend getaway.
It’s rainy and cold tonight which called for pizza,

and wine in front of the fireplace:)

Luckily the rain is moving out for tomorrow’s trail run!

How was your Halloween?

How was your running in October?

What are your favorite pizza toppings? Veggies for me…especially, mushrooms!

#choosejoy

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig

Does anyone remember that nursery rhyme? I had to google how to spell jiggety. Apparently, there’s an urban dictionary version of the word.  Definitely not what I was looking for!  I digress.

I woke up this morning with a post race swagger. Aka, I can’t walk like a normal person.  My tweet sums it up…

I wanted to loosen up, so we did a shakeout walk to WildBerry for breakfast…

and a walk through Grant Park.

We went back to the room, packed, and flew home to Nashville.

When we picked up our puppies, they came home with Halloween bows and scarves 🙂 My husband couldn’t wait to take them off 😦

My new Saucony Kinvara 5 Kona’s were waiting on me!!!

I was so excited to wear one of my new Chicago Marathon shirts today!

We ran a few errands and ended the day with some celebratory froyo!

We’re having crazy storms in TN this evening!!  After a very full weekend, this rain is going to help me sleep like a champ tonight.

How long do you wait to run after a race?

Do you wait to wear your race shirts until after the race? I’m kind of supersticious about it.

What’s your favorite froyo flavor and toppings? I got cupcake batter with choc. chip cookie dough on top!!!

#choosejoy

Chicago Day 2: Deena, Bart, and Carbs

We woke up to this sunrise view of Lake Michigan and the race finish line!

We headed to the Runners World shake out run where we got to meet up with our friend and fellow Nashvillian, Al.  The run met on The Great Lawn at Soldier Field.  We were told to do manly, tough pose.  This happened!

Al raised a huge amount of money for Multiple Sclerosis through the Chicago Marathon.  It made me SOOOO happy to run a little!!! The weather couldn’t have been nicer…40 degrees and sunny!

Jason and I had to stop for a pic along the Lakeshore path…beautiful!

The run was hosted by Deena Kastor and Bart Yasso.  I completely geeked out when I got to meet them!

Jason and I decided to jog back to our hotel and visit the finish line along the way.  I can’t wait to cross it tomorrow!

My favorite pre-race lunch is oatmeal…big surprise 😉  We (along with the rest of Chicago) went to Yolk for lunch.  It was packed.  I had my oatmeal plus a side of french toast. I’ve never tapered this much or eaten this many carbs.  I’m curious to see if it helps.

After lunch this happened!!!!  I geeked out…again.

In an effort to rest, we rented Lucy in our hotel room.

I was going stir crazy so we left a little early for dinner to stroll down Michigan Avenue

and of course I managed to do a little shopping…loving the Oiselle Portman Pants!

Dinner was at Rosebud on Rush

Where I had this gigantic bowl of pappardelle with tomato basil sauce.

Sufficiently carbed-up, I went back to the hotel to layout my race gear and sleep!   Tomorrow we run!!!

How do you carb-up before a race?

Do you run the day before your race?

Do you have any pre-race superstitions?

#choosejoy

A Birthday & Chicago Day 1

It’s been a full two days. Jason’s 40th was a blast and we’re now in Chicago for the Marathon. This post has few words and a bunch of pics!

 

Thursday:

Breakfast club. Best friends. 6 miles. Coffee and Alex’s homemade cinnamon rolls!!!

Big birthday hair.

Birthday dinner at Saint Anejo.

Skulls seemed appropriate for 40.

Lots of skulls…

Even on the cake! (Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and fudge filling.  These details matter!)

Beyond thankful for our friends!!!!

Big belly laughs from Drew’s stand-up!  HI-larious!

Late night (over)packing.  4 pairs of shoes.  1 race.

Friday:

My pups stay at Miss Kitty’s Bed and Bath…so cute, and they have an app that lets me watch their doggie cam!!!

Airplane reading.

Race expo.

I love pre-race runner energy!!!

Coolest course map.

Our hotel view of the lake AND the start/finish area.

Windy City selfie.

Taper and lots of carbs…ready to run!!!

 

Are you racing tomorrow?  

Long run?

What’s your favorite type of birthday cake?  Mine…red velvet with cream cheese frosting!!

#choosejoy

Eastern Kentucky Family Weekend!

I spent the weekend visiting with family in Prestonsburg, Ky at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

I wanted to get this run done early, so I would have as much time as possible with my family…and breakfast!  I did my long run before leaving town, so I only needed 9 recovery miles.  With the fog, the sunrise looked like a fire.

Sunrise isn’t until 7am. I don’t know how you eastern time zone folks do it!

Luckily I packed my reflector vest and I wore all of my bright clothes in the hopes of not being run over by a coal truck.

Also, I sweated buckets!  The cold front didn’t arrive until Sunday.

Here are a few pics from my run…

My Nana lives downtown, so we just rolled her down to breakfast.  Seeing my my husband with her just warms my heart like you wouldn’t believe.

Even found some oatmeal for breakfast

After breakfast we took a drive around the lake.  It’s such beautiful country!

For an afternoon snack and coffee, we stopped by Lizzy B’s…my favorite find!

Smoothies, coffees, desserts and lots of vegetarian options which is a rarity in an area known for it’s country cookin’.  They even have a veg sandwich called the Happy Hippie:)

And spent the afternoon watching the University of Kentucky Wildcats…when in rome…

Another yummy meal for dinner at the new McGuire’s Brickhouse.

This was a portobello mushroom sandwich on a crossoint bun with crinkled sweet potato fries…SO GOOD!

Followed by a DQ dip!!!  What is it about being in a small town that makes me crave Dairy Queen?

I found this pic in my Nana’s house.  Obviously I wasn’t thrilled at the time, but now…my heart is happy.

 

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL weekend!!

#choosejoy

Road Trippin’

Even though my race was cancelled, we still wanted to travel to Eastern Kentucky to visit with my family.

I am the worst over-packer.  This is for two people for a 3 day weekend.  It’s embarrassing.

We listened to my iHeartRadio.  I love The Bobby Bones Show!

Being a vegetarian on the road in small town Kentucky isn’t easy.

We made the regrettable mistake of stopping at Taco Bell.  “Run From The Border”

Then we listened to Kathy Griffin’s new comedy album…HIIILARIOUS!

There is barely any cell service, let alone wi-fi, so I brought my recent giant stack of catalogs for shopping entertainment.

And, most importantly…we stopped at the last chance Starbucks in London, KY. Goodbye civilization. Now entering Appalachia.

Just because…

Did you race this weekend? Long run? Tell me about it!!

Do you pack your own food when you travel OR do you go for the ease of fast food?

#choosejoy

Homeward Bound

We booked an afternoon flight so we could enjoy just a little more time in the city.

Breakfast of champions! Have you detected a trend? I’m nothing if not predictable.

We opted for biking this morning and got to witness this beautiful sunrise on the bridge to Arlington!

Arlington National Cemetery.  I was humbled by the sea of headstones.  I didn’t want to take pictures out of respect, but in a strange way…it was a beautiful and peaceful place.

We continued our ride along the river to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Park and onto the Crescent Trail.  It was full of legit cyclists…then there were these two goofballs!

Bike selfie. Didn’t crash!

Before the airport, we stopped for lunch at Zaytinya.  It’s a Mediterranean tapas restaurant.  The weather was gorgeous, so we dined on the patio that had these great parachute-like umbrellas.  This ended up being one of my favorite meals…so glad we were able to squeeze it in!

Kolokithokeftedes (Zucchini and Cheese Patties), Mushroom Couscous, and Crispy Brussels Afelia

**Over-packer Travel Tip:  My suitcase is always over-weight…especially on the way home after vacation shopping.  So, I check my bag at the curbside check-in.  The employees are allowed to accept tips.  Tip $5 (to avoid having to pay the $75 fee) and they almost always look the other way.  Today, he even tagged my bag, but didn’t charge me.

Once we got home, we stopped for dinner at Chuy’s for a guacamole taco salad…avocado goodness!  It’s not on the menu, but they happily sub guac for the meat.  Yea for restaurants that accommodate vegetarians!

We went to Fleet Feet to pickup singlets for this weekend’s Cumberland Plateau Stage Race.  I couldn’t resist a new pair of Kigers!  They’re my favorite trail shoe and I “needed” a new pair.

I ended the day with the perfect bedtime snack/ souvenir: Hippie Crack Granola from my favorite DC bakery, Baked and Wired!

#choosejoy

DC Day 3 and the Cupcake Showdown

I don’t really like to repeat restaurants when I’m on vacation, but my husband asked if we could go back to the Founding Farmers.  Our compromise was to have breakfast there this morning since we had already tried their dinner menu.  He didn’t have any early meetings, so we ran there together.

Check out this giant bowl of oats…literally the size of my head (and I have a big melon)!

He headed back to the hotel to get ready for the day and I set out for the zoo.

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo opens at 6am and is free.  It was basically a ghost town during the early morning, so it was easy to cover some ground.

**Side note: I typically have a good sense of direction, but I keep getting turned around in DC.  Thank goodness for google maps when I’m out running.  With a few wrong turns, I ended up with 10 miles roundtrip.

I went back to the hotel gym to lift, clean up and set out for lunch.

I had the best of intentions to get a salad at Sweet Green but couldn’t resist the patio at Circa. The weather was beautiful and the patio made for great people watching by GW.

I still had a salad…it just happened to include prosecco and sweet potato fries. It’s all about balance.

I earned those fries by walking back to the hotel instead of calling a car, right? Speaking of walking, DC calls for sensible flats. I have walked my tuchas off!

 

For dinner, we had tapas at Bodega in Georgetown.

I love tapas, because I get to sample a bunch of dishes.  We shared the Field Green Salad with Pears, Spanish Tortilla, Creamy Mushroom Rice, and Green Beans with Almonds.

I did my best to eat lightly, because we decided to have our own (extremely scientific) cupcake battle between Georgetown Cupcakes and Baked & Wired.  Both came highly recommended, so we just had to visit both shops.  Let’s remember that there are no real losers in a cupcake showdown.

Top (L to R): Vanilla Birthday and Chocolate Ganache from GC Bottom (L to R): The Strawberry and Red Velvet

Hands down Baked & Wired was our favorite!  I’m a frosting lover and the hubs loves the cake.  We both preferred Baked and Wired.

After all of those sweets, we rode some bikes along the river back to our hotel.

Check out the gorgeous sunset!

Our last stop was the Lincoln Memorial.  My pictures don’t do it justice.

Lastly and most importantly, my Grandparents are celebrating their 64th Wedding Anniversary today…absolutely incredible!

Are you a sweet or salty lover?  I am sweets all the way!!!

#choosejoy

 

DC Day 2

My favorite running is vacation running.  I feel like runners get to see the city in a way that most miss.  I woke up early, excited to head out to breakfast.  The sunrise was beautiful!

I headed out to Georgetown to hit up Baked and Wired.  Thanks to everyone that recommended it!

I went with a soy Intelligentsia cappuccino and a slice of pumpkin ginger bread. That cream cheese frosting was SO good!  I always save my favorite part for last, so the final bites will be the best.

I ran back to the hotel and stopped by my gym for some lifting. Isn’t this a wonderful hotel gym?!

Grabbed another coffee (don’t judge) and worked on my blog in a pretty little courtyard.

For the afternoon, I went to Georgetown to support the local economy.

 

I was  excited to see a Dean and Deluca. I picked up a brown rice avocado roll and enjoyed it on their patio.

 

 

Once my husband finished his last meeting, we headed out for dinner on the Cava Mezze patio. Greek tapas. Loved it!!

Check out their roasted cauliflower and brussels sprouts. Happy vegetarians:)

 

DC has a great Capital Bikeshare program, so we decided to take the long way back to our hotel on bicycles.

Do you like to run when you’re on vacation or do you use it to rest?

#choosejoy