Showing posts with label Blog Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog Friends. Show all posts

May 4, 2015

Monday Morning Coffee

Good Morning!

I hope you're all well rested from wonderful weekends and excited to tackle the week ahead!

If we were having coffee... I would tell you that I had an incredible weekend. It was absolutely gorgeous out and I spent a lot of time with some wonderful people.

Friday night kicked off with Happy Hour with Jenn and her Mister. The Pilot and I met up with them at a bar in Clarendon for some happy hour specials, snacks and lots of laughs. Afterward, one of my old coworkers invited us to a barbecue in our neighborhood so we headed over there for some drinks and met some really awesome people! It was so nice afterward to just walk two blocks home, instead of having to worry about the metro.


If we were having coffee... I would tell you just how much I love that about my new neighborhood...that we have friends that are walking distance and that we bump into them when we're out and about.

I would tell you that Saturday, The Pilot and I took a day trip to Annapolis. I had never been there before and we spent the early part of the day wandering around the Naval Academy before Ally and her new fiance (as of that morning!) met us for lunch! It was so exciting to celebrate with them and spend the day on the water, watching all of the boats cruising by.


I would tell you that on Sunday morning, I finally went for my first post-Cherry Blossom run. The Pilot and I took Peyton on an easy 3 mile run on a new trail we discovered. It was my first shorts and t-shirt run of the season and it was hot and absolutely glorious. The temperature hit almost 80 yesterday and I loved it. I am definitely a warm weather girl and am so excited about summer.

If we were having coffee... I would tell you that I"m really excited about a few different things. First, The Pilot and I are embarking on 30 days of no processed foods and I'm really excited for it. It requires a lot of cooking (which I did a lot of yesterday) but I think it's going to be great and I'm hoping we can use this to try to transition into an almost completely un-processed household.

I would also tell you that my big sister launched a new project about which I'm so excited about! I'm writing a post about it soon so I won't keep you all in the dark for too long!

I would tell you that I'm really excited to start marathon training again. I haven't trained for a marathon since before I moved to DC and I'm excited to tackle some serious mileage in this city. My biggest focus right now is making it to the starting line, but that prospect alone is really exciting!  It's been 2 1/2 years since my last 26.2 and I miss the distance and can't wait for this one!

If we were having coffee... for the first time since September, I left my house without a jacket today and that it is finally spring and that, in itself, is enough for a great week!

Happy Monday!
Hope your weekend was awesome!
{Linking up with Running 'n' Reading!}
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March 21, 2015

The Libester Award {Discover New Blogs!}

Last week, my friend Carolann tagged me in a blog post after being awarded The Liebster Award. It's a way to raise the profile of other bloggers and, since I've been finding and exploring so many new blogs lately, I was excited to participate!

Here's how it works:
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their site
2. Write a post answering the questions you were given
3. Nominate 5 – 11 other bloggers for the award (let them know you have done so!) and come up with a set of 10 – 11 questions for them to answer
4. Enjoy!

So, here are Carolann's questions for me: 

1. What are you reading right now? Atlantis Never Lost - The Story of Santorini...a book I picked up on our honeymoon at this adorable little book shop on Santorini.
2. What advice do you have for new bloggers? Focus on what makes your blog YOUR blog. Don't worry about what other bloggers are doing, always remember why you started blogging in the first place and work to maintain your unique voice. I've been blogging for five years and the blogging world has changed so much since then...some if for the better, some of it not as much.
3. How do you stay creative with your blog? In other words, where do you get your inspiration, and how do you come up with ideas for new posts? This is definitely something that can be a challenge. This year, I've started trying to plan out my posts for the month and I've definitely started using the Drafts tool. Sometimes, I'll write just three sentences into a draft post on something that I want to write about later...whether it's my thoughts on a particular subject, a flashback to somewhere I've been before or anything else! 
A little oasis in the middle of DC (Rock Creek Park)
4. What is your favorite thing about where you live? Washington, DC is an incredible place to live. I love that I'm walking distance from everything: museums, restaurants, national parks, etc. I don't own a car and I hate driving so being able to just walk out my door and be surrounded my history is what makes me fall in love with this city a little bit more every single day.
5. Share a link to your favorite go-to weeknight dinner recipe! This edamame pasta is so easy and so delicious! Recipe in the comments section!

6. How would you spend an extra $100? Right now, I'm focusing on saving, rather than spending but if I had an extra $100, I'd probably spend it on a weekend getaway! There are a lot of super cute towns near DC that I haven't been to yet!
7. What’s the best place you have ever traveled to? Sarajevo, I fell in love with that city in a way I didn't think I ever could. 
8.  What is a skill you would like to learn? I'd love to learn to speak French!
9. What is your favorite TV show? I really like Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. I hate that Season 4 isn't coming out until next year! 
10. Which blog post are you most proud of? Share a link! "Finding my Strong" I posted it just before I headed to Madrid for the 2012 Madrid Marathon. It was my 2nd attempt at a sub-4 race and up until that point, I really didn't think I could do it. Unfortunately, I didn't, but it's still my favorite post.

For this award, I'm tagging Erin (Erin Runs Happy), Megan (Semi-Charmed Kind of Life), Tara (Running 'n' Reading), Dawn (Sneaker Therapy), and Erin (Love, Fun and Football). Here are the questions I have!

1. What is one thing that has changed for you as a result of blogging?
2. If there were no obstacles and you could pack your bags and leave tomorrow, where would you go?
3. If you came to visit me in DC, what would be the first stop on your itinerary?
4. Are you a baseball fan? Who's your team? If you're not, go here and pick one and tell us why you picked them!
5. What's your favorite season? What's your favorite thing to do during that season?
6. What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night?
7. If you could live in any place other than where you live now, where would it be?
8. What is your favorite blog post you've written?
9. What's the number 1 thing on your Amazon Wish List?
10. Do you still subscribe to magazines? What are your favorites?

If anyone else wants to take on these questions, I'd love to read your answers! Leave a link to the post in the comments! Have a great weekend!

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March 5, 2015

Happy 5th Birthday Planes, Trains & Running Shoes!

Five years ago I opened up this little corner of the internet.


I was 23, fresh out of college and living in Boston. The Pilot was my boyfriend of 4 months. I had never run a race before.

I posted a list of 25 things I wanted to do before I turned 25. I didn't do 10 of them. Some of them (like horseback riding and learning French) are still on my list. Others (like swimming with dolphins and doing a triathlon) aren't anymore.


Through this blog, I found my passion for running. When I started this blog, I started training for my first half-marathon. I was immediately connected with the amazing running community in the blogging world. To this day, my closest running friends are all bloggers. With the exception of one person, everyone I know who runs is someone I've met through my blog, either directly or indirectly.


Those people are some of my closest friends. Some of them were at my wedding. I see them regularly. We talk, we text, we snail mail. We've met each others families and have seen each other's houses. The idea that we met them through our blogs is so foreign now. Some of them still blog, some of them don't. We're still friends. They're people who are incredibly important to me and I never would have met them if I hadn't started this blog.

Emily, Andrea & Holly
Writing this blog has also taught me to apply a filter a little bit more closely. There are some things that we just don't blog about. Learning, and remembering, to apply that filter to my blog has helped me apply it in my personal life as well as my professional life.

I love writing. It doesn't matter what I'm writing about, I adore it. It's obviously easy to write about yourself, but my new job that I started two months ago? Writer. Five years ago, when I started this blog, I don't think I ever would have started a career as a writer, but here I am...and I love it.

This blog has also taught me about balance. In reading other blogs and getting motivated to work out and train and eat right, I've learned how other people balance work and family life and marathon training and healthy eating...and I've applied it to my own life. The idea of having kids one day and trying to figure out how to "do it all" isn't scary to me anymore because so many other women do it.

I never thought I would blog for this long. I started this blog out of boredom. I never really knew what it would turn into, yet, here I am...five years later and I couldn't be happier.

To all of you who follow my little adventures, I appreciate you more than I can say. Thank you for reading, for commenting, and for supporting me. So, here's to five years of blogging, and to whatever future might be in store!

Thanks for sticking around!
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