August Recap!

At the end of every month on my blog, I write up a monthly recap of how I'm doing with my 25 Before 25 list. This helps me keep track of how I'm doing and gives me the opportunity to see what I want to tackle for next month! I've done a lot this August and it's a particularly important month because it marked my half birthday! Now, I'm not one of those to celebrate my half birthday, but in this instance I definitely took note of it because it marks the quarter mark of my timeline! So to recap the month of August, I:

• Built up a strong base of 20 miles per week and have started my full training cycle for the Philadelphia Marathon
• Have continued to maintain my blog and have reached over 200 followers!
• Visited 3 new ballparks: Wrigley Field, US Cellular Field and Miller Park
• Watched 5 films off the IMDB Top 100 list
• Cooked 6 recipes out of one of my cookbooks and 1 out of another
• Mounted a map of the world to cork and am half way to having made a travel map of all the places I've been!

It's been a great month and while I have a lot of major changes coming up in September (some good, some bad), I think that September is going to bring about some pretty big things for my list!

Marathon Monday

Hey everyone, happy Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend.

Today's Marathon Monday is all about diet and nutrition!

Since I've started running, I've been pretty attentive to what I eat.

A lot of runners make the mistake of carb loading, and only carb loading, but I've found since I started running that I need a lot more than carbs to keep me going. Living on my own and cooking for myself has really given me the opportunity to focus on what I eat. For the most part, I've planned my diet around some things I've learned in Self Magazine. The past few issues, they've done quite a few healthy eating plans with meals that are both nutritious and delicious! (Check out this month's issue of Self for examples!)

I typically eat 3 meals a day with 2 snacks. I make sure to balance my meals with a lot of high protein, high fiber and high energy foods. I try and eat as closely to the recommended food servings per day and I find that it helps a lot with keeping up my energy throughout the day.

Some examples of what I eat throughout the day are:

Breakfast
Southwest-style omelette with black beans cheddar cheese and diced tomatoes
Two multi-grain waffles sandwiched with almond butter and sliced apples or bananas

Lunch
Quinoa sald with white beans, red onion, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers
Tuna salad with dried cranberries, celery and slivered almonds


Snack
Red pepper strips with guacamole and multi-gran tortilla chips
Non-fat vanilla yogurt with raspberries, slivered almonds and honey

Dinner
Whole-grain penne pasta with pesto sauce, zucchini, yellow squash and shredded parmesan cheese
Spiced salmon with brown rice and black bean almond pesto sauce

Snacks
100-calorie chocolate pudding with fresh blueberries and strawberries for dipping
Glass of wine!

I hope you guys will take some of these suggestions into consideration the next time you're grocery shopping!

And now this week is Week 2 of my Training Cycle! On deck:
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 4 mile run
Wednesday: X-Training (Hill Workout)
Thursday: 4 mile run
Friday: Rest Day
Saturday: 4 mile run
Sunday: 13 mile run

Happy running!

three things thursday

1. Pan's Labrynth (El laberinto del fauno) - I watched this movie last week and in one word, it was  weird. The film was in Spanish which was great but it had two storylines that just never seemed to coincide. I took this synopsis straight from the IMDB page: "In 1944 fascist Spain, Ofelia, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the center of the labyrinth. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the the true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again." 

The issue I had with the film was that it focused a lot on the war that and the war didn't really coincide with the fantasy aspect of the film and Ofelia's journey to survive these tasks. The film was also extremely gruesome and, without giving too much detail, bothered me a bit since it involved children. I'm pretty surprised it made this list, but since IMDB is mainly fan voted, I guess that's why. Have any of you seen Pan's Labrynth? What did you think?

2. RedWhiteBluePrint - I recently started writing for a website called RedWhiteBluePrint.com, a forum for young people to voice their ideas and concerns. It's been a wonderful experience writing for them over the course of the last month and the staff is great! We've had two meet-ups in the city and I'm being tasked with hosting the site's Launch Party which is really exciting! Right now, I'm writing weekly pieces for them that fall under the Lifestyles category and mostly reflect the types of things I post about here, but once school starts, I'll be writing more current event style pieces about international relations and peacebuilding, which is awesome!

3. Treadmill Running - I've been running on the treadmill all week to try and get back into the groove of running...not that I've stopped, but running in the city is no easy task and it has kind of, sort of made me hate running a little bit. So far, it's working but I'm definitely ready to take my 10-miler out to Central Park this weekend since it's going to be beautiful!

Happy Thursday!

whip it up wednesday

Hey everyone! I think I'm going to try out a new weekly post where I feature everything I've been whipping up in my kitchen over the course of the week!

For those of you newbies here, one of the things on my 25 Before 25 list is to cook all of the recipes in at least one of my cookbooks. You can read more about that challenger here but so far, I've chosen two cookbooks to work through and I've been cooking up a storm out of one of them!

Since my Three Things Thursday: Recipe Edition post last week, I've been whipping up quite a few more recipes out of Real Girls Eat this week! Let's take a look!

Mariana's Omelette

I'm not the biggest fan of parsley and this omelette was mixed with parsley, garlic and shredded cheddar cheese, so I wasn't a huge fan, but it was still tasty. The recipe calls for bacon to be added, but I left it out since I'm a veggie =)

Skye's Pesto Pasta

This was a delicious pesto! The recipe called for some mint and chili powder to be added so it gave it a little bit of a kick! I also mixed in some yellow squash and zucchini and it was fantastic!

Vegetable Crisp

I've made this a few times before and it is by far, my favorite recipe in this cook book! So, naturally I'm going to share it with all of you!

[Ingredients]

4 zucchinis

4 yellow squash

1 large eggplant

1 red onion

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh Italian parsley, oregano, basil, lemon thyme

Sea Salt & Pepper

1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed with a knife

1 can crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup olive oil

[Directions]

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice the zucchini and squash into rounds and cut the onions into quarters. 

Mix together the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, herbs and season with salt & pepper. 

Wipe out the roasting dish with olive oil and run the smashed garlic clove around the inside to give it extra flavor (a casserole dish works best).

TOss the crushed tomatoes with 1/4 cup olive oil, salt, pepper and half the chopped herbs, and toss the sliced vegetables through to coat. 

Lay out the vegetables in alternating layers overlapping. 

Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the top. 

Spred the breadcrumb mix over the top, and let sit for 1 hour in a cool place while the flavors blend together. 

Bake covered for 45 minutes, then put under the broiler for about 3 minutes to make nice and crispy.

Serve & enjoy!

marathon monday!

Good Morning everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend! I definitely did! The Pilot came to visit and we had a great weekend together! It had been a few weeks since we'd seen each other so it was nice to just relax and have fun together!

I had a pretty good training week last week, although I decided to downgrade last week from my first full week of training to my last week of Base Training. Since I had yet to reach 20 miles in my base training, I wanted to wait until I got a 20 mile week in before I started my full training cycle, so today officially marks Week 1 of Full Marathon Training! With exactly 3 months to go until the marathon, I still have a long way to go, but I'm feeling pretty good about things!

I skipped my 3 mile run this weekend and opted for a 6 mile walk around the city instead, so I think that equates! I also missed my first cross-training session last week (=/) but got in a Power Vinyasa yoga class on Friday, so I think everything balanced out pretty well.

So the plan for this week:
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 4 mile run
Wednesday: Cross-Training (6 mile hill repeats on the elliptical)
Thursday: 4 mile run
Friday: Rest Day
Saturday: 4 miles
Sunday: 10 miles

And since today is a Rest Day, I thought I'd talk about just how I go about resting. We've all heard about  the R.I.C.E. (Rest. Ice. Compression. Elevation.) and this is something I pretty firmly believe in. Typically when I get home from a long run, after I've stretched and showered, I slip on my compression socks.  I have these: the CEP Running O2 Compression Socks and they definitely work. (No, CEP didn't send me a pair and ask me to talk about them...although I wish they would!) As soon as I put them on, I immediately feel better! The compression definitely helps aid recovery!

Since I've just come back to running from a knee injury, I also put on a Peas Therapy knee brace that I got from CVS for $10! This thing is amazing! It's a knee brace that uses the idea of peas (you know, throw a bag of frozen peas on it) to target every area. So, it molds to the shape of your knee while it's on. I love it!

So, right now I've got my compression socks on and I just finished a delicious high-protein breakfast and I'm going to take the rest of my [rainy] rest day to relax, take it easy! I've got some things to take care of that I'm hoping I can post about soon, but other than that, it's going to be a nice, easy day =)

Happy Monday!

My Apartment!

Happy Friday everyone!

I've had such a busy week running around trying to fix things up in my new apartment so that it finally feels like home and it does now!

It's been a bit of an adjustment going from living by myself to having 3 other roommates, but it's been good so far! And I just love living in the city! I spent so much of my life throughout high school and college taking the train into the city and making a big production of it, that now it's a little weird to be walking out of the apartment in my pajamas to do things like go to CVS!

So, for those of you who have always wondered what a New York apartment looks like! Here goes! And these pictures will prove that a) they're not all closets! and b) you can do a lot with small space!

The living room: the couch and picture are mine =)

Another shot of the living room/kitchen - the doors lead to my roommates' rooms.

The kitchen - hey, it's bigger than what I had in Boston!

My room!

Yes, that's my in-progress Where I've Been map!

This is where the blogging happens...

There it is!!! Happy Weekend everyone!

Three Things Thursday - Recipe Edition

Now that I have my own place again, I've been cooking a lot in my new apartment! It's a little different living with roommates again rather than on my own, but my roommates are great! So, I've made 3 more recipes out of Real Girls Eat! 

1. Joni's Vegetarian Pizza - I basically took Trader Joe's whole-wheat pizza crust and put my favorite veggies on this! It was amazing!

2. Grilled Vegetable Quesadillas - These quesadillas were fantastic! The mix of goat and cheddar cheeses along with the juice from the fresh vegetables made it one of the best quesadillas I've ever had!

Ingredients 

Olive Oil

1 small eggplant

1 yellow squash

1 green zucchini

1/2 red onion

2 bell peppers (1 red, 1 yellow)

1/2 tsp chili flakes

1 tsp cumin 

Salt & Pepper (to taste)

1 bunch fresh cilantro

Goat Cheese

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

4 whole-wheat tortilla shells 

Directions

Heat a non-stick pan brushed with olive oil on medium heat 

Cut all vegetables into small pieces

Toss with olive oil, chili flakes, cumin, salt & pepper and cilantro sprigs into a bowl

Toss in the frying pan in batches to sear and soften

Place in a mixing bowl and crumble goat's cheese over mixture when cool

Scoop out mixture into tortilla shell and spread cheddar cheese on top

Fold in half and brush with olive oil

Place quesadilla into frying pan and cook until crispy, turn over and cook until cheese is melted

Serve and enjoy!

3. Lychee Slushy - If you've never tried lychees, you need to. I first tried them in alcoholic beverages  when I was living overseas and have since grown to love the tasty fruit-like berry things that they are!

Ingredients

1  can of lychees in syrup

Directions

Remove lychees from can and put in plastic container or re-sealable bag

Freeze overnight

Thaw them out for approximately 10 minutes before serving

Throw the lychees in the blender and blend until slushy

Garnish with a sprig of mint and serve!

Marathon Monday

Happy Monday everyone! For some reason, today just does not feel like a Monday for me, I'm not really sure why!

Anyway, it's Marathon Monday! This week is marks week 1 of my Training Cycle! I've been Base Training now for 5 weeks and I'm definitely ready to start increasing my weekly mileage. Being on a Training Cycle means 20+ miles per week, hill repeats, speed work and longer, tougher cross-training session. This is also when injury prevention becomes absolutely essential so I'll be taking my Rest Days to the extreme by icing and using my compression socks! I'll be incorporating some strength training into my non-running day workouts and from here on out, my motto will be, "You can throw in the towel, or use it to wipe the sweat off your face." It's not going to be easy and it's not going to be fun but it's definitely going to push me to the extreme and turn me into the best athlete I can be and I could not be more excited about it.

via

Last week's training was pretty rough. It was definitely one of those horrible running week, but you know what? I still managed to get my 17.5 miles in for the week and that's what makes me feel great about looking back on the week. It was my first time running in the new 'hood and it was an adjustment, I'm also trying to determine if I need new shoes or if something else is going on with my legs and feet. After a great Saturday 3-miler, I went out on the town with three of my best friends from college. The three of us haven't been together in over a year and we stayed out until 5am. Without curtains on my new windows, I was up at 8am with the sun. That meant I was exhausted, drained and slightly hung over. It was also pouring, so did I run yesterday, no? But did I run today? You better believe it. 6 and half miles. And you know what? I'm still counting it towards last week because I still managed to get all of that mileage in in a period of 7 days. Tomorrow, I'll be back at my typical Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday/Sunday running days schedule and this week is going to look a little something like this:

Monday: Rest Day (Actual: 6.5 miles toward last week's run)
Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: Cross-Training
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: Cross-Training
Saturday: 3 miles
Sunday: 8 miles
Total Planned Miles: 20
*I'm not counting my 6.5 in the planned miles for this week because they go toward last week.

Next week's Marathon Monday, I'll be offering some reviews of my running gear and may, possibly throw in a giveaway somewhere.

Have a great week everyone!

three things thursday

1. Amadeus - On my bus ride back up from DC this week, I watched #82 on The Movie List: Amadeus. Honestly, I'm pretty surprised that Amadeus made it to the Top 100. I didn't think it was a very good film and I thought the acting was terrible! The film is told through musical composer Antonio Salieri's flashbacks of his relationship with Mozart throughout their careers. Salieri was always extremely jealous of Mozart and his talent but was simultaneously intrigued and inspired by the young composer. I suppose it could be a good opera or play (as it was originally written to be), but I think it made an awful movie. One of my biggest pet peeves in movies is when they're supposed to take place somewhere and everyone speaks with American accents. So, this film was supposed to take place in Vienna and there's even a scene where they're arguing about the virtue of the German language, yet everyone is speaking like they're walking around New York in the present day. It even used modern-day slang which was pretty annoying. So, unfortunately, I can't give this film a good review. Have any of you seen it? What did you think?

2. Yoga - I realized yesterday that my NYU gym membership doesn't actually start until September 1. So I was left without a place to go for a cross-training workout. One of my roommates told me about a yoga studio that offers free yoga classes. Free yoga? In Manhattan? Yea, right. But I immediately investigated. I looked up the studio and read reviews on Yelp and decided to go for a class! It was great! Aside from the fact that it was so insanely hot, I felt like I was doing bikram, it was a great class! I had never done any kind of yoga other than bikram so I was a little surprised by the amount of Downward Dogs we did in this Power Vinyasa Flow class, but it was good and it was free so I'll definitely be back! And for those of you in the NYC area, check out yogatothepeople.com for class schedules!

via

3. Off - I've been a bit off lately. Tuesday night, I actually fainted at Trader Joe's. Thank God my new roommate came along with me. This is the 3rd time I've fainted this summer and it's starting to worry me a bit. My dad says it could be an iron deficiency, so I picked up some iron pills yesterday. The Pilot thinks it might have something to do with not replacing enough electrolytes following a run, since I never drink gatorade and only drink water. I'm not too sure what it is but I need to figure it out soon because ever since Tuesday's spell (I fainted and came to three times before I finally made it home), I just haven't been feeling right and it's not good. Have any of you experienced anything like this? Whether with an iron deficiency or after a tough workout?

via

Summer Road Trip + Ballparks 9, 10 & 11!

So I'm back in New York after my amazing summer road trip and it's so good to finally be starting to do things around the apartment to make it feel like *home.* But since I won't be sharing any pictures of the new place just yet, I'll share pictures from my trip!

Wednesday afternoon, I took the bus down to DC to meet up with my friends. We had a barbeque and then went to bed nice and early so we could be on the road by 5 the next day! It took 12 hours of awesome music and great laughs and we made it to Chicago! After a few gin buckets at my friends' apartment, we went out for some Chicago-style deep dish pizza!

Friday morning, we woke up bright and early to go to Ballpark #9: Wrigley Field! Home of the Chicago Cubs!

After the Cubs game, we basically spent the entire day at a bar called Sluggers which had batting cages, ski ball and DUELING PIANOS! I don't know if any of you have ever been to a Dueling Pianos bar (I hadn't) but it was amazing! I just found one in New York and I can't wait to try it out! I also got to meet Meghan from The Perfect Compilation Tape who is awesome and I wish she lived in New York so I could hang out with her all the time!!!

Blog Love!!!

Then, on Saturday, we woke up bright and early again to go to US Cellular Field to take a tour of the White Sox stadium. Well, it turns out that they weren't giving tours that day and I was so bummed! How am I supposed to visit all 30 ball parks if I can't see this one! I'm not going to come back to Chicago! Well, I explained all of this to the Park Operations Manager who told my friends and me to come back at midnight the next day for a PRIVATE tour of the stadium! WHAT?!!?

So we left and spent the rest of the day sightseeing around Chicago!

The giant shiny bean thing!

Water taxi ride!

Sunday morning, it was time to head up to Milwaukee for Ballpark #10: Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers!

After our trip back to Chicago, and a quick run, we left for Ballpark #11: US Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox for our private midnight tour!

That's me wearing the White Sox 2005 World Series ring!

And that's me holding the 2005 World Series trophy!

How's that for a private tour?!

We got back to my friends' place at 2am after the tour and I woke up at 4:30 to hit the road for the looooong drive back to DC! I spent Monday night in DC and came back to New York yesterday afternoon and so far, I've gotten in 1 planned run for the week and a yoga class as a cross-training workout! I've spent some quality time (grocery shopping) with my roommate and getting things done around my apartment! I'm starting to feel like a city girl again and it feels good!

And now that I'm back, I'll be back to my regular posting and I won't take such long absences away from posting and leaving comments =)

Hope everyone is doing well!

Marathon Monday

Happy Monday!

I am writing this post from my Blackberry and am just east of South Bend, Indiana headed back to Washington, D.C. from what has been a fantastic roadtrip! I hope you've all had a great weekend!

I'm so ready to not travel for the next few weeks. I was away the entire month of July, just about; and on top of moving, it's just been crazy busy! I've only spent one night in my new apartment! So I'm excited to get back to New York tomorrow and start making the place feel like home and test out some running routes nearby!

So that brings me to Marathon Monday talk! I had planned for 13.5 miles this week and only got in 12, so I ended up matching my mileage for last week. Part of me is disappointed, but at the same time, I'm ok with the fact that I didn't run LESS than I ran last week so I'm not really too far off from my training. While in Chicago, I did manage to get 3 training runs in: 3 miles immediately after the 12 hour drive there, 2.5 miles early Saturday morning, and 3 miles late Sunday night. I couldn't have run my planned 5 miles yesterday if I wanted to. We got up super early and headed to Milwaukee for the Brewers game and got back at 9:30pm and left again at 10:30 to go back into Chicago for a tour of US Cellular Field (more on that later!) So I only had an hour to run, shower and be out the door. There was no way to fit 5 miles into that timespan.

So that brings me to this week. I'm still a bit unsure of what I'm going to do since I did come up short 1.5 miles from last week and don't want to increase my mileage too much and risk hurting my knee so I'm kind of in a bind as to what to do.I also skipped both of my cross-training sessions this week, but I didn't expect to be able to fit those in. So I think I'm just going to play it by ear this week and see how I feel as I go!

When I get back to DC, if I can get 1.5-2 miles in, than I'll tack it on to this past week's run and I'll still count it toward last week. If I can manage that, I'll aim for 17.5 miles this week. We'll see!

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures and a roadtrip recap! This weekend has by far been the best weekend of summer and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

one thing thursday

I'm skipping my Three Things Thursday post and leaving you with one thing and a weekly recap!


1. Memento - I watched this movie yesterday and it was SO good. I had never even heard of it and didn't recognize any of the actors in the film, so I was surprised that it ranked so highly on The Movie List (#27). It's about a guy who suffers from a type of short-term memory loss in which his brain can't form and process new memories. He develops the condition after the rape and murder of his wife. Using only hand-written notes and prison-style tattoos he draws on himself, he puts together the pieces he needs to try and investigate his wife's murder and seek revenge. The film is a psychological thriller and is told in anti-chronologic order from the flash backs and memories that come with his tattoos and notes. If you're into suspense, thrillers and movies that mess with your mind and really make you think, than I highly recommend this film because it was incredible! This was definitely one of those movies that make me so glad I put The Movie List on my 25 List.

in one word or phrase- just believe

I’m dreaming of you- Chicago ROADTRIP!

via

song on repeat – "(If you're wondering if I want you to) I want you to" - Weezer
gotta write it down- Just do it. 

via

lesson learned- Take more calcium!

picture to frame - This is an old picture of me the last time I was in London and I just love it. I had a lot going on in my life when it was taken and it's a reminder of how far I've come and where I am today. 

highlight of the week- Finally moving into my apartment!

weekend to do list- Drive to Chicago. See my friends. Go to the Cubs game. Explore Chicago. Run a few miles. Go to Milwaukee. Watch the Brewers game. Drive back to DC. 

New Blog + Giveaway!

Hey everyone! A couple of months ago, my blog-friend Chloe from Tryin' to Throw My Arms around the World e-mailed me about starting a blog together! At first, I was a bit hesitant, but the more thought I gave it, the more I realized that this was something I definitely should do and could definitely have fun doing! So, I'm pleased to announce the launch of Confessions on Conquering 26.2. Our blog will chronicle my journey toward finishing my first marathon and Chloe's toward finishing her second! And what better way to launch a blog then to host a GIVEAWAY! 

So in honor of the launch of Confessions on Conquering 26.2, Chloe and I are giving away our new favorite running finds! So what can you win?

Chloe's new fav? Bondi Bands!

And my new fav? The Nathan Handheld Quickdraw Plus!

Here's how to enter:

1) Become a follower of Confessions on Conquering 26.2 [mandatory]

2) Leave a comment telling us what your new favorite running item is!

3) Check out the Bondi Band website and tell us which one you would get if you won!

4) Check out Nathansports.com and tell us what Nathan Sports item you would want to start toting!

5) Spread the news!  Post on your blog, Twitter, and what-have-you and get the word out!

{Seperate comment for each, please!}

That's all! Winners will be drawn randomly and announced on 8/12!

Good luck!

Marathon Monday!

It's Monday! Back to the grind!

via

This weekend was a bit hectic, considering I found out I was moving into an apartment on Sunday on Thursday and had 3 days to get everything together...not that I had actually unpacked from Boston, but it was still a little bit crazy! So yes, I am all moved into my new apartment in New York City's East Village! I still have some organizing/decorating to do which I probably won't get to until next week, but that's ok because this week, I'm off to Chicago and Milwaukee!

via

How excited am I that of the 5 weeks I'll have spent Base Training, 3 of them will have been spent away from home and that I'm still keeping up with my training cycle!

Last week, I got all of my planned runs in and even got an extra half-mile in so that my actual weekly mileage was 12 (versus my planned 11.5) but I missed one of my cross-training workouts. I was feeling pretty under the weather on Wednesday and was in the city all day dealing with some things about my new apartment.

I set two goals for last week:
-Run in the early morning for one of my training runs. PASS
-Build up to 30 minutes during a cross-training session. FAIL


Since I only managed one cross-training session and I did it in the midst of a huge time crunch, I only got up to 25 minutes and I'll be honest, it's probably going to be pretty difficult to get in a 30-minute session this week since I'm not too sure if I'll be able to x-train on Friday. I usually x-train at the gym and since I'll be away, and staying with friends, I'm not too sure what I can do for a cross-training workout...any advice?


So this week's training plan is:
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 3 mile run
Wednesday: Cross-Training
Thursday: 3 mile run
Friday: Cross-Training
Saturday: 2.5 mile run
Sunday: 5 mile run


And since I got in an early 4 mile run, followed by a late night 2 mile run, and then spent my Sunday taking multiple trips up my 5-floor walk-up, I don't really plan to get out of bed today, meaning, I'm taking Rest Day to the extreme and it's going to be great!

via

It's going to be tough to get all my workouts in this week given the fact that I'll be in a car for 10+ hours on Thursday, but I'll do it! And I hope you all hold me to it!


PS: Don't forget to check out Meg's Mingle Monday! 

July Recap

Happy August everyone! While part of me wants to be one of those, "It's August?! Where did the summer go?!" type-people, I've actually felt like this month just dragged on slowly by, but in a good way! It's been a great month - busy, but fun! I was all over the place: Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York, DC, Atlanta...just about everywhere in the northeast, and it's been fun!

via

So for those of you who are new here, each month, I put up a recap of how I've done with the 25 Before 25 list! So, here goes July's recap! This month, I:

• Bounced back from my first running injury and have just completed Week 3 of Base Training for the Philadelphia Marathon! 2 more weeks to go and then I start my full training cycle! (#1)
• Have kept up with my blog (despite a one week, unintentional hiatus), won my first blog giveaway, have met some great people through Blogger, and am just shy of 200 followers! (#7)
• Started my Summer Reading requirements for my Masters program which I start next month! (#8)
• Visited 2 new ballparks: Nationals Park, home of the Washington Nationals and Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves! (#9)
• Read 1 more book off The Book List! (#14)
• Watched 2 more movies off The Movie List! (#15)
• Cooked 5 more recipes out of 1 of my cook books! (#17)
• Picked out the book I want to read in Spanish - haven't started it yet, but picking one was a challenge in itself! (#20)

All in all, I'd say it's been a pretty successful month! Although I'm really slacking on a few things off the list, such as #2) finishing my college scrapbook, #5) reading the Bible (I finally picked one out that I like though!) and #16), building a sandcastle. So those are 3 things I want to get on the board for next month's recap!

via

And I do have to say, thanks to all of you for supporting my journey! It's been a lot of fun working towards these 25 and I don't think I'd be nearly as motivated if it weren't for all of you! So thank you, thank you, thank you! This week, I'm heading to Chicago and Milwaukee for some more baseball games! And when I get back, look out for a giveaway I'll be posting!

Oh! And another thank you for all your prayers about my apartment search! I found an amazing apartment in Manhattan and I move in tomorrow! I'll post pictures when it's all decorated (probably in a few weeks), along with my crazy, weird, coincidental, freaky story about finding the place!

There's only 1 day left of the weekend and 1 month left of summer, make the most of it!