Gourmet Runner

I'm torn between being excited for Easter and being a little sad. Easter is a really big deal for my family. When I was younger, sunrise service was something we did most years. I can remember one parent taking us kids to the park afterwards to read the Easter story while one parent "napped". When we got home the eggs were hidden all over the yard and we got to have a HUGE easter egg hunt. Last year, hubs and I hiked up a mountain to hide eggs for my youngest brother. The rest of the family followed an hour behind us and surprise! I may be a married adult, but that doesn't mean I didn't sleep on my parents couch last year (hubs too, of course!) so we could wake up and dig into our Easter baskets! Last year's bounty: Bit fuzzy with the camera phone! I wanted to share a recipe with you for chocolate Easter nests (seen in above photo) because these guys are GOOD. It's a recipe Mr. Gourmet Runner made growing up. Plus it's so easy to do, even for child...

Well Boston was pretty interesting, wouldn't you say? Such a fast marathon, for both the men and the women! I was streaming it and genuinely started crying when it didn't work at first. (Please don't judge me) It took me about 30 seconds to think straight, sort it out, and start watching. Somehow, I survived. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a ton of screen time for Kara Goucher, but she was 5th for women and her fastest marathon time ever! The wheelchair racers were incredibly inspiring as well. Both the men's and women's winners were from Japan, which was emotional for them given the recent events in their country. I was supposed to do upper-body strength training today. Well, I did. And then some. Hubby and I took turns with a shovel on the land shoveling mud out of trenches. It's ok to be jealous of my life. This stuff was crazy tough. Here is hubs digging away: At one point my legs started feeling really heavy. I thought I was just tir...

Last night I did a very brave thing. I may or may not regret it later today when I watch the Boston Marathon. The sweat, the tears, the pain...and then I'll know it was the right decision when I see some very happy men and women cross the finish line.  I signed up for my first marathon! I may be just a little excited. When this popped up on the computer screen I went crazy: Obviously, I'm running the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon. I first heard about it through  Beepieruns  (who is having a baby in a week and still blogging, awesome woman!) and once I read about it I had to do it. The marathon is capped at 700 runners, which is perfect for me since I don't love the idea of running in crowds. It's also a double loop through the battlefield's national military park, which is such a cool idea to me. Literally running through history. EXTRA BONUS, it's an hour from my house, with race-morning packet pick-up. So I can wake up in my own bed the morning of and sav...

Another week down! Today we had a different kind of Sunday morning activity. We have had tons of rain lately, which filled up the trenches for the foundation of our future home. I don't know much about house building, but even I knew this was bad. So we bought some buckets, drove to the site, and started bailing. An unusual workout, but not an easy one. I reflected on something while squatting, lifting, and throwing---THIS IS WHAT OUR BODIES WERE MADE FOR!  For me at least, I get into a cycle of wanting to improve my body with workouts. So that I can be stronger for more workouts. So that I can run further, or faster. Which is great, and of course comes with health benefits. But at a certain point, I forgot that it feels good to keep your body strong so that you can use it for productive things. Like carrying babies, or moving furniture. Or even bailing trenches! The past week's workout looked like this: Monday: 6.5 Miles (9:55 pace) Tuesday: 14 Miles (9:38 pace) Wednesd...

I'm officially a happy camper. Today was basically "do all of Vanessa's favorite things day". How can that be bad? We drove to Chattanooga to hit up Barnes and Nobles. I introduced hubby to the somewhat rebellious world of reading magazines at the Starbucks in the store for an hour and then discreetly re-shelving them once you're done. I had a warm tea, biscotti, and a new copy of Kara Goucher's new book. Hello, heaven. Nice to see what you're like. I have a Runner's World subscription, so I resisted the urge to read it there but I did read Women's Running. I've never read it before but by far the best part was seeing an ad in there for  miss zippy!  She is an RRCA certified running coach and also has a pretty amazing blog. Check it out, I promise you'll learn something! I also managed to squeeze in the teensiest bit of shopping but most of it  wasn't for me! My younger sister is turning 22 soon so I had to pick her up some goodies...

It's Saturday morning and when I woke up 20 minutes ago, my husband was kind enough to point out a group of runners being awesome and running right outside our window. Today is supposed to be rest day (and we have some awesome plans) but now I'm re-thinking. They really looked like they were having fun and maybe I'll run outside later on their next loop and say hi! Or maybe I'll just relax and do nothing and say nice recovering things to my legs instead. I vote the second one!   :) I had a coupon for some Arby's curly fries only valid for yesterday: Clearly, I could not turn down free curly fries. Plus, free = no calories. Everybody knows that. So off we went to redeem it. Those guys at Arby's are tricky. We went in for free fries but ending up spending $10 on food. Whoops. I decided to add a side salad to my curlies and call it a meal: Somehow hubs managed to upgrade to a ginormo meal without knowing so we had a gallon of diet coke and another pound of c...

When hubs and I first moved to Georgia 2 1/2 months ago, all I wanted to do was explore the area and go hiking. And we did! Every weekend we packed our bags (lots of snacks, of course) and took off in search of somewhere beautiful to hike and enjoy. Sadly, Mr. Gourmet Runner hurt his calf a while ago and those adventures are off the table for a bit. We think it's a strained calf muscle and the best thing is to keep off of it whenever possible. Send him get-well-soon vibes please! Since I'm missing the great outdoors I thought I would share with you some pictures of the hikes we have taken the last few months. Some are a little silly but that's ok, right? *Disclaimer : any/all of the good photos below will have been taken by hubby. Unless it's on a plate or covered in chocolate I'm basically not interested in taking the picture. Southern approach to Appalachian Trail Amicalola Falls--Beautiful! Yours Truly Us at Fort Mountain State Park In the snow ...