Gourmet Runner

I thought about writing this post and then asked Tim if he thought it was a little, um, "taboo." He asked me if I would want my little brother or my in-laws reading it. I said no. I wrote it anyway. So far I have avoided a lot of controversial topics (having sex before races and long runs, anyone?) because well, the Internet doesn't forget. Luckily, I think I handle the repercussions of this topic. Deep breath. Here we go. Yesterday Kyria posted about finding the right pair of undies for a long run. I laughed at that, because for me - it was a futile mission. I tried them all folks. The tighy-whities. The granny panties. The barely-there thongs. It took a long run on laundry day to finally figure out what worked best of all - nothing. That's right. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Commando. Free balling. Got it? I know how gross that sounds, I really do. I used to think runners who did that were absolutely disgusting. But when you run out of underwear....well, you get desp

Do you ever find yourself learning (and relearning, and relearning...) the same things over and over again? My personal favorite is "several glasses of cheap white wine will NOT make you feel fresh in the morning". You would think I would know this by now, but no. I have to relearn it every month or so. Other gems I relearned the past few days: -Trail running does not do good things for my hair. Enough said. -Frozen yogurt makes everything better. Case in point: last Thursday night I went to a social run with the local running club. It was 98 degrees, but there was frozen yogurt at the end. Result? 3.75 miles in just over 32 minutes (8:37 pace).  I'm not kidding when I say I wanted to die, but I didn't really know where I was, so (once again) I was forced to keep running in order to get back to the start. 3 minutes into the frozen yogurt, I forgot all about the pain. It is SO good. -My cat likes the Olympics more than I do. I have been watching more tha

I did a big ol' vacation recap a few days ago that a few people were kind enough to read so that I felt important, but I failed to mention anything to do with healthy eating or working out. You know, the alleged basis for my blog. I didn't have any grand plans for fitness over the two weeks in Europe, but I was pretty lucky in that I had some amazing opportunities for scenic running. The first thing that made running incredible was the weather. Holy crap it was dream running weather - around 60 most of the time with some sun in Germany and some rain in England. Yes, I had to wear a jacket, and no, I did not mind one bit. Since I'm dealing with temperatures of roughly eight gazillion degrees now that I'm home in Georgia, I look back at that cool rain fondly. So even though I managed to get in a few solo runs throughout the trip, the best runs were with other people. I ran a 5k with my mom, my little brother and Tim one day that consisted of jogging, sprinting and

Yeah, I know that Anne Hathaway pulled off the whole black leather outfit thing better than I could have. But let's get real here - I am obviously the true catwoman. A few of you might remember a couple of months ago when Tim and I got our THIRD cat. For the record, two cats in a home means you are a kind couple who loves animals. Three cats in a home makes you freaks who can't handle human interaction. It's a fine line and unfortunately, we've crossed over to the other side. Anyway, a lot of people have asked me about the newest addition. And by "asked," I mean "begged for more cute pictures." But there's this tiny little problem - our little baby kitten is massive. To refresh your memory, here's what our cat (Pumpkin) looked like when we brought him home from the shelter in May: Even two weeks AFTER we brought him home, the little guy was under 2 pounds. He ate a ridiculous amount of food and definitely got bigger, but I guess

 I know, the title of this post intrigued all of you into reading. I just have a way with words, you know? I didn't mean to avoid writing and reading blogs for the past two weeks, but it kind of felt awesome. No offense. I really enjoyed my vacation, and the second half of it had no internet access. Yes, I scrambled to find a Starbucks wifi connection to check work emails, but I had zero desire to do anything blog-related. So I guess I don't really have an excuse for not blogging....I just didn't want to. Good thing I don't get paid for this gig, huh? Phew. Anyway....onto the places and the stuff. I think the last post I wrote was when I was in Germany and dealing with all the nudists who didn't mind the cold ....good times, good times. From Germany Tim and I headed back to the UK and stayed with some family in London overnight. I got to meet a ton of Tim's extended family that I had never met before, which was great. Since some of them are freakishly ad

As a half-prude half-American, I’m still not totally used to the whole “clothing optional” thing. Naked in bed? Cool. Naked in the shower? Also acceptable. Naked for 3.7 seconds when changing into new clothes? Fine. Naked when flying a kite on a public beach? You lose me there. For the past week I’ve been in Germany, where there is obviously a more lax approach to the whole “staying dressed in public” thing. The place we were staying is just a short drive or hour long walk from a beach that embraces the FKK policy - Frei Korper Kultur - AKA clothes are lame, let’s all get naked. I can deal with the nudity, really. So people aren’t into clothes - no big deal. I just found it hysterical what people would DO while naked. Have you ever seen a man flying a kite wearing a shirt - but no pants? How about a father and son holding hands and frolicking through the waves - totally nude? I feel it is also important to mention the temperature. We were not in the Mediterranean, he

When Tim and I planned to visit our families in Germany and England this summer, I wanted to add just one thing to the itinerary: a trip to Highclere Castle.  Mostly because I'm really interested in the architecture of the period, and....totally kidding. It's because Downton Abbey was filmed there and I freaking love that show. We're in Germany now and heading to England next week, but I don't think we will have time for the castle trip after all. Luckily, I don't mind too much because I was pleasantly surprised by the German part of the trip. My stepdad is German, and he and my mom recently purchased an old home in former East Germany called Schloss Pütnitz in Ribnitz-Damgarten. It was in complete disrepair when they bought it, but they are completely renovating it to rent out as private holiday apartments in the future.  Front of the house View of the back of the house I didn't really have any idea what it looked like, to be honest. Once we got

Confession: My 10k was a PR only because it was, technically, the first 10k I've ever raced. Now that we've got that out of the way, here's the recap! Once I started getting my iron levels back up, the parasites in my belly were heading out and I started picking my running pace back up, I decided to sign up for a shorter road race to test my speed a little. I signed up for the "Affordable Botox Stars, Stripes and Wishes Race" that takes place at Enterprise Park in Chattanooga. It was the first year of the race, I drove there alone and I didn't know anyone running, but I just wanted to get a race in before heading to Europe (tomorrow!) So here's the good and bad for this race: Kicking it at the finish Good -Considering it was the first running of this race, things went pretty smoothly. I got there with time to spare, there was plenty of parking and packet pick-up was convenient. -The course was clearly marked, perfect for a park that has lot