Wednesday, August 31, 2011

i love lucy PHOTOS

The last time anyone took pictures of me biking was a few weeks ago during a rainy Saturday ride from Ingrid's apartment to mine which I, regrettably, never shared with you.

Ingrid's butt.
Carrie's face.
Ingrid's butt.
Bag lady.
And the last time anyone took pictures of me running was, well, you saw those...



This is my roundabout way of telling you that Josh and I have yet to do an official i love lucy photoshoot. And, therefore, I have yet to complete a special new header for my blog. No, I didn't meet my "end of August" goal but I would rather wait and have it be perfect than rush things. Josh and I have a kind of "bi-athalon" day planned this long weekend so I'm going to plan ahead and get stuff done. Hopefully it will be ready in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I'll continue on with my crappy iphone pics!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Fall is in the air! (and some healthy indulging)

This morning I woke up At 6 am to run. I haven't done that in a while. And it was more apparent than ever that the seasons are changing. It was still dark when I left. Here is the blurry dawn ten minutes into my run.



It was also a cooler temperature than I've felt in a while.



So much so that Ingrid, my morning running mate, was wearing long sleeves when I met her in Dupont. She took them off about four minutes later, but still. Fall is in the air. And so is love. To embrace it, Josh and I went out to dinner and ate this fried green tomato pizza with fennel, tomatoes, ricotta, and summer squash. And OH EMMMMM GEEEEEEE is how I felt about that. SO GOOD!


Then we shared a zuchinni whoopie pie and cookie monster cupcake from a bakery across the street. One very amazing perk of running four and a half miles at 6am is that I feel no guilt at all for the rest of the day about the calories I consume.



Then we went to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers nationwide showing of today's concert in Germany, in honor of their newly released album. It was pretty sweet, but I still need to see them live. Obvi.

3D glasses = coolest kids around
Though I do like how I feel all day after an early morning run, I have been preferring to "sleep in" until 7 recently, and do my exercising in the evenings. And with fall around the corner, running after work will just get more and more pleasant. I can't wait!


Do you tend to indulge after a good workout or do you still feel guilty for eating empty calories like in my cakes above? Are you excited for fall too???

Fit Folks: Hurricane Irene

Ok, so this is kind of a cop-out. But I missed Fit Folks last Friday. I will just blame all of the natural disasters that hit the east coast over the past seven days. The most devastating of which was Hurricane Irene. I don't know if you heard, but that bitch is fit. She tore a bunch of stuff up in our city and wreaked even more havoc elsewhere. She also forced me inside for over twenty-four hours, as I recovered from my long run. I was not as intense as some of the people tweeting at Christine about working out in the rain. But I'm ok with that. Here's how fit (and destructive) Irene proved to be as she ran through D.C. on Saturday night, as seen through the lens of Josh's camera.

Saturday afternoon on Macomb Street.


Sunday morning on Macomb Street.
Sunday morning on Porter Street.
Sunday morning on South Chelsea Lane.
Sunday afternoon on Yuma Street.

Sunday afternoon on Idaho Avenue.







Sunday evening on Connecticut Ave and Newark Street.
I hope that everyone is safe and that you suffered no damage. I am thinking, especially, of Nikki's parents and my aunt and uncle Joan and Tony who are up in a flash flooded Vermont. Though, as it turns out, Tony may be even more fit than Irene, as he canoed through her harshness on Sunday afternoon.
Note: This wasn't yesterday but still, fitter than Irene.
So long Irene! We're glad your fitness faded fast!


How is your area in wake of the hurricane? Did you prove to be more fit than Irene by going out and exercising in the storm? Or did you rearrange your schedule to avoid her like I did?

Saturday, August 27, 2011

9.7 miles of running, photographing, and blogging

All this talk about content and inspiration got me thinking about how much blogging inspires me. Not  is it my only inspiration, by any means, but on days when a long run or a hilly bike ride seems scary, daunting, or even impossible, the idea that finishing it will provide me with some solid content for a blog post helps nudge me along. Feeling that way yesterday morning, as I mentally prepared for my first ten mile training run, I decided to make the route, and the post about it, extra interesting. I mapped a course through a touristy DC, planning to take pictures of myself along the way, using each iconic landmark as a small bit of inspiration to get me through the next mile or two.

I started my run and .25 miles later, was at the National Zoo.



I ran through the zoo and was reminded of many runs there with Nikki and Hadley last winter.



Ran down 18th Street in Adam's Morgan,



And a block from Dupont Circle.



I passed the White House,



and the Treasury Building.



Got back to nature as I ran through grass for .2 miles,



and ran by the Washington Monument with it's 4 foot earthquake scar.



Then by the World War II Memorial,



and Lincoln.



Away from Lincoln,



by the Kennedy Center,



and the Watergate Hotel.



Up a steep, short hill to Georgetown Cupcake.



Then up a very long, equally steep one to the National Cathedral.



And after 9.7 miles (oops), I was home. Very ready for a good sandwich and smoothie.



I read all these running blogs where girls take pictures of themselves on or after their run and I wonder how they do it. Because... how can you focus on running if you're worried about photographing yourself and your surroundings throughout. And, as it turns out, I was right to be concerned. This run, which was supposed to be made easier with the landmarks and the photos, was actually much more challenging. For one, I held my phone in my left hand, instead of wearing it on my arm, so I could snap some many quick shots. I also, even though most of these photos were taken while running, stopped way more often than I normally do, failing to get in the groove that gets me through most of my longer runs- the groove, after about five miles, where my legs start to work like a machine.

So the lesson I've learned is to to take these things seriously. If a run or a ride is scary or daunting, it is so for a reason. And, though this blog is important to me, the blog needs to remain about the run or the bike ride, and not the other way around. As I train for the Baltimore Half Marathon, I will continue to tell you about my training runs but I don't think I'll show them to you. I am scheduled to run 11.0 next Saturday and I plan to do at least that. I'm sure I will be scared of it but I will take it seriously. And I will let i love lucy inspire, but not distract, me. I would love requests on exciting routes to run in DC!


In other news, I hope everyone (on the east coast) is surviving the hurricane. I got very little exercise today but I did a lot of cooking, cleaning, lounging, and laughing. I also ate a lot of junk. If anyone wants to come eat cake tomorrow, please do!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Happy Running... Messy Baking

Yesterday, I got to run with Nikki for the first time in a while and it was fun. I miss that! I only ran four miles but, when I got home, I felt like this:

I made a lazy dinner with randomness in my cabinet and fridge. And covered it all in cheese. DELISH!



To make up for such a lazy dinner, I went all out with dessert. It may not look like it, but this stupid thing took me like four hours to pull together.


I made the cake from scratch (first time attempting that) and apparently my style of cooking isn't the best for cakes from scratch. Because my style of cooking is: throw stuff together, measure approximately, preheat or don't preheat- whatever, and make the biggest mess you can imagine (EVERY TIME). Here is a breakdown of the hot mess that was me between 8 pm and midnight yesterday.

Ok. This should be easy!
It wasn't. So I dug in!
Still feeling happy.
But in need of some assistance from man muscles.
And drinking wine to keep me sane.
Mentally prepared to begin the frosting.
Turned it yellow and threw it in a bag.
Wasted a lot of it experimenting.
Then I tackled the cake.
With my leftovers, I was too tired to try any more pretty frosting.
And I was left with this.
And this. Josh was thrilled.
Did I mention that the only reason I did this was to try out my birthday present cake decor set from Ingrid?! This was supposed to be about the icing. And somehow, it became a four hour process dedicated to baking a cake with frozen ingredients that chilled the butter so much it had to be mixed by hand (literally) and nearly induced frostbite. But it was certainly nice to come home from work tonight to this:


I cook like I exercise. Spontaneously, spastically, agressively, and lovingly. But I learned last night that it's a good thing I don't write a cooking blog. Preparing content for one post about baking was exhausting enough. And I'd rather exhaust myself doing what I truly love to find content. You all know I love lucy but I also love running ten miles. I'll be doing that tomorrow morning and can't wait to write about it.

Any suggestions on where to run to in this exciting city?
DC