Rants, Recipes, and Running

As I recapped in my " Thank you, 2015 " post, that was a pretty amazing year. My biggest goal was to make 2016 more exciting and happy than 2015. I think we are off to a good start. We kicked off New Years weekend with a bang. I started NYD with a 20 mile run with my girlfriends, and then Ryan and I headed to Star Pass Resort for a weekend of relaxation, hiking, good food, and rejuvenation! But this post is to focus on literal this 10 day span, because I cannot believe how much as happened. Let me set the scene: Ryan is working night shift on random days (sometimes he is Monday - Friday, sometimes he is Wednesday - Sunday, sometimes he is Monday-Tuesday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday). You get the jist. It's all over the place and we are ships passing in the night. In fact, I met a friend for brunch today and I was a few minutes late. And my reason was "I met Ryan on the street and hadn't actually talked to him since Thursday - so we stopped in the street to hu...

I'm going to continue with my "writing project", and today the theme is "landmark events". This is fitting theme for the week. I'm not ready to share the big news, but let me just say my head is spinning from a VERY BIG week!  Write about your first crush.  My 1st crush was a boy at the lakes. Name: Alex. He was "good looking" (for a 12 year old), funny, rebellious, and he had no curfew. Thank you, Mom & Dad, for being so strict and giving me a curfew!! Sometimes I play a little game with myself, and think about what life would be like if these crazy "crushes" from my youth would have persisted. How different my life would be .  That is all I'm going to say! (LOL!) Write about your first week in college. Exciting!  I could not wait to get out of Wyndmere, ND!! I was making new friends every day, my classes were so exciting and interesting. Coming from a high school class of 24 to class sizes of >300 was invigorating...

While out and about last weekend, I stumbled upon a book with "things to write about" - which inspired this series I will be posting about sporadically. I say sporadically, because I am not a very consistent blogger ;) I thought a childhood theme would be a fun place to start! Feel free to join in! 1.   What was your favorite toy?  I definitely have fond memories of this baby doll that you filled with water, so it felt life-like. This is funny to me -- because I'm not a "baby person" in my adult life. But that is the toy that comes to mind 1st for me 2.  Did you ever get lost? Several times. The one that sticks out most vividly was when my family went to Paridisio (a Mexican restaurant) and I went to Pizza Hut (which was next door). I was probably 3 or 4? I remember sitting in a booth, and finally realizing my Mom, Dad, and 4 siblings were not there. I ended up finding someone to help me get to the restaurant next door! I believe my parents ended up call...

I've made a significant change in my fitness over the past few months, and have been waiting to blog about it until I knew for sure it stuck. ;) My prioritization for exercise for the past few years: 1) Running 2) Weight training (heavy weights - fast-paced circuits) 3) Biking/swimming (but this is only a priority when I have a triathlon on my plate) I decided it was time for a change, when a few months back I felt like a rest day was never enough. To be honest, I was in pain. Sometimes sitting at my desk at work, I'd almost be in tears because my back and legs hurt so bad. It wasn't that I was injured, my muscles just ached . I was doing a lot of weight lifting in addition to triathlon training. And my weight training was more along the lines of "crossfit/power-lifting". I felt heavy, bulky, and just blah! Step 1 -- reinvent the wheel. I decided to stop my gym membership. That's a creative way to "get the body you want", huh?! ;) Here i...