A surprise day date

I woke up for my usual recovery run on Sunday and joined my friend K again (14 miles together this weekend!)

Sunday's workout: 4 mi recovery run

We seemed to be trucking along at a pretty speedy pace for a 'recovery run', but felt good so stayed with it. We were totally drenched by the end but we did it!

Meanwhile, I knew Gar bear was up to something. I even told K on our run I could tell he was being a little aloof about some "Sunday day date" plans up his sleeve. When I got back from my run he let me nap a bit (I've gotten NO sleep this week at all) and then I woke up to Dunkin Donuts breakfast (heck yes!) in bed! He ran back downstairs to 'get the rest of our stuff together' and I did the doggie head tilt. Que?! What the heck was he up to?

When I made it downstairs I saw that he had our bikes on the rack and a cooler packed. Oh boy!

I said "What should I wear?" He said, "Your cycling gear!" Yay! Another biking adventure!

We were well on our way. After we went over a couple of interstates and headed onto the Veterans, I thought we were going to the Suncoast trail, which I haven't been on. Nope, not that one, but another new one! The Upper Tampa Bay trail off of Wilsky!

Ta da! A new biking adventure awaits!

I was pretty proud of the job hubs did packing up our cooler with sammiches and salads and snacks...including the dreaded Monsters he enjoys in ninja-mode (you know mama ain't havin' that!)

I forgot Dwayne, my Garmin, so I opted for the Sporty Pal app on my phone. (Men and directions, I figured I was better safe than sorry.) We went out onto the Citrus Park end so that I could see how the trail looked over that part of town. The hill over the road was pretty tough!

Hi, I just survived a pretty mean hill, post-4 mile run :)

Then, we came back and went out on the Linebaugh trail and made a stop at the other end for water. There were the prettiest butterflies everywhere! I even caught a pretty awesome pic of one who was a friendly lil thing.

Herro, take my picture, I'm a pretty butterfly

Gar felt this was the optimum time to catch some sun. Sorry babe, you'll never get the brown glow that your wifey has, NEVER!

After about 10 miles in, we went under another overpass and our car key flew out of Gar's pocket and almost went into the water! I almost freaked! I jumped off of Sheila to grab the key, zipping it securly in my pants when I heard Ga yell some explitives and jump off of his bike. His brakes didn't work...lovely. We decided to head back to basecamp. A mile out, something fell from his bike (aka Bruce.) The bolt that holds the seat adjuster on, came off....once again, lovely. "What the heck honey, is your bike falling apart?" Hubs wanted to go out "another 2 or 3 miles" but I made the executive decision for us to head back-back and hope that his bike didn't just fall apart from under him. "He just needs a tuneup"

Gar's shirt that he tied around the seat so it didn't just fall out from under him, classy!

Back at the car, we grabbed our cooler of goodies and had a lil pic-a-nic on the park bench there. Clouds were looming in the distance so we had a quick lunch just in time.

Spinach, vinaigrette, and strawberry salad...husband = knows me better than anyone!

He even knows how much I hate crust & cut it off of my sammich :)

The rest of Sunday's Workout: 15 mile bike ride

Thanks hubs for planning such a fun, active Sunday! From Glow Yoga to Biking...to supporting me out at races...I'm one lucky gal ;)

This week, my legs are already on fire. Aside from running and biking Sunday, yesterday I did another WOD-type circuit:

Monday's workout: 5 rounds of: 400m spring, then 20 each: air squats, bosy shoulder presses, scissor ab modification

and then today's usual

Tueday's workout: 5 mi run with P Funk

I was pretty impressed how each week we've gotten faster 30-45 seconds consistently, yay for baby steps!

* don't forget my Giveaway that ends Friday!

Tell me about yo' weekend?!

Adventures in eating

I never pass up the chance to try a new restaurant...much less with a bunch of friends who like to mow down with me!

Saturday night we had plans to head to The Bungalow in South Tampa with some friends for a get together. We hadn't seen a few of these guys since our reception! (Life, it gets crazy you know?)

Since I'd planned on grubbing that night....and most of the day, now that I think about it, I made sure to get in a hefty run in the morning.

Saturday's workout: 10 mi Long run w/K

Boy was it a humid beast of a day! We tweaked our usual route to include a 3rd water stop (BK all the way!) and made it! I ended up feeling a bit of a wall by miles 4 & 5 (the norm for me), but after that it was mostly smoother sailing. Thinking back, I could have gone farther than 10 but wanted to keep my plan as planned. It takes me SO long to get warmed up! (I mean, not with the weather, but with my legs..you feel me?)

Mission: Accomplished. Let's eat! In the morning I had a protein shake along with some fresh cherries I'd just gotten on sale. I tried my best to take a nap, to no avail. So, I had a day of running errands with hubs. We stopped at Qdoba for a quick bite later in the afternoon.

I'd never been to The Bungalow but had driven by it many times. I'd heard they had a great brunch but also good regular eats at lunch and dinner time. It did not disappoint!

R's curry shrimp appetizer

My yucca fries

The Buffalo chicken dip I shared with Gar

Boy were the portions big! I was going to get a salad but we opted for appetizers instead, and good thing!

My favorite thing we had was the buffalo chicken dip. I've had it before, mostly at work on those bad, bad food days (I guess there's recipes for it made in a crock pot). The appetizer at The Bungalow was huge and had big chunks of chicken, yay for protein!

We clean up well ;)

The whole gang, post grub-sesh

Afterwards, we were all turning into our 'it's 930pm and it's time for a nap' selves when R suggested we pop by Pinkberry...um yes please!

It's almost like DisneyWorld :)

The Olympics were calling my name by the time we got home. We made it back in time to catch some of the Men's gymnastics events.

Backstory: I haven't had cable in years..over 3 to be exact. When Gar and I met and moved in together we still didn't get it due to budgeting and life being to crazy for regular DVR show catch-up sessions. Yesterday after I got back from my run I was bummed because I couldn't watch most of the events online. Hubs got a text from me that said "between 12-2 the cable guy is coming :)".. I got back "really? You're crazy, love you." We now have a pact to not be too engulfed in TV ... and I have agreed to let him watch all the football he wants in a couple of months ;)

Are you glued to the TV when the Olympics come on like I am?

*p.s. don't forget to enter my Giveaway that ends this Friday!

Yoga ... Glow Yoga

Friday night I'd heard about a local yoga event being put on at Curtis Hixon Park by Lululemon Hyde Park and was debating on going...mostly because on Friday nights I'm usually an old grandma and want to get to bed early.

Pic/flyer courtesty of Lululemon Hyde Park

Hubs wanted to come ... and I immediately asked "you? yoga? in public? So that night we headed out to do the dang thing!

Let's do this!

Just a girl gettin' ready to do some yoga in the city

There was a ton of people already there by 830! (The class started at 9pm.) We were greeted with Glow bracelets and necklaces which were a double plus!

Me with LSSR pre-yoga sesh

There was even a DJ!

Rachel & Gar having a warrior moment

I have to say that I was very surprised that Gar was as into this as he was! I was so proud of him for listening to the instructors, Erin & Erin, to be sure to use proper form being that this was his first official 'class.' We've done DVDs at home but that's about it.

Look at that concentration!

Hold me closer, Tony Danzaaaaaaa...or tiny dancer, whatevs

When this happened we had to have a pep talk about injury prevention

Some of my local Tampa Bay Lady Blogger chicks came out to get bendy with us too.

Me with CRC and Rachel

After the actual yoga session, the class broke out into a yoga dance party! At first, we stayed close to our mats...cell phones? cameras? wallets? But jumping into the free spirit of things, we partied like rockstars.

OoOoOh it OOoOoh it!

The couple who balances together...

Us girls mimicking Gary's Captain Morgan pose

All in all, this was an awesome time! I would definitely be down to do another nighttime yoga party out at the park. It was awesome being able to be with so many friendly people who just wanted to get together to stretch out! If you combine the glow element with the DJ, the instructors, the vibe, it was the perfect Friday night. Thanks to Lululemon Hyde Park and all who put this event together!



OLYMPIC Friday!

Yesterday's workout: 4 mile (uber humid) run in a.m. followed by yoga class

I went to see the LMT again because my left hip was bugging me again. He said it's nothing bad and actually wasn't my hip, just some tightness mostly in my left hamstring/glute area, so I've been working on stretches to help get that sucker right again. So, yoga it is!

Tonight we're headed to Curtis Hixon Park for Lululemon Hyde Park's Glow Yoga!

I mean, does this that sound like a good time or what? And it's free!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S BEEN 4 YEARS ALREADY!

I'm so excited to start watching the Olympic games tonight! I remember watching the games when I was a kid and just being in awe of the athletes' determination and strength...and that hasn't changed! I am, however, pumped to see the fashion that the Olympics can only bring! I mean, look at some of the clips from years and year ago...those guys didn't have the plethora of running shoes to choose from like they do now...or any sort of compression gear. Man, aren't we spoiled? I just know that these guys give us all that feeling of inspiration and teach us that with hard work and effort you can achieve just about anything in life!

That was my After-school moment for the week, here's a video I found of great Gold Medal moments

Happy Friday errone!

Don't forget to click here to enter into my Giveaway :)

How I gets my veggies - My first GIVEAWAY!

I am pretty excited to post a follow up to my July Goals post! I've been good about shopping, finished a LOT of pending to-dos....including these cute lil things that went out last week and this week AND we have leftovers (not sure what to do with them yet but seems like a positive thing?)

Our thank you cards via Vistaprint

the back

Just a few days and we're into August!

Lately I've been getting tons of questions from peeps about what vitamins to take. I can't advise them, of course, I can only say what works for me (we ALL know we're super different.) I'm one of those people who believes that vitamins are good for you. I mean, it's great to get all of the supplements and vitamins you need from the food you eat, but most of the time that's almost not possible with our busy lives, just my opinion. I've been taking a One-a-day multi and a few other supplements, and when I started running I knew I needed to also focus on not only getting fruits/veggies but also focus more on my joint health. Joint supplements can be pretty darn expensive ($20+ a bottle.) Also, I can usually get in about 2-4 servings of fruits and veggies a day but there's always room for more!

Enter: Nutrilite

I discovered Nutrilite when I was at a local 5k fun run with some of the peeps from my local running club. At our water stop, there were these magical little tubes filled with concentrated juice for you to put in to a 16.9 oz bottle of water. Of course my charming self asked "Are these vials of True Blood?"...."No" said everyone looking at me like I had 2 horns, "Kat, they're vitamins!" Holy crikey,  you've got to be kidding me! At first I tried the fruits & vegetables 2GO tube which was orange...so naturally I thought it'd taste like carrots and didn't bother to read what the flavor was....it's MANGO orange flavored! The joint-health twist tubes then sparked my interest and I tried one of those: RASPBERRY flavored! I'd hit the healthy vitamin jackpot!

"hello, I pack a powerful punch!"

What can the Fruits & Vegetables 2GO tubes do for you?

Healthy immune system. Contains the natural vitamin C equivalent of one serving of cantaloupe to help boost and protect your immune system.

Eye and skin health. Provides the natural beta carotene of one serving of carrots, beneficial for eye and skin health.

Convenient, refreshing, on-the-go nutrition. Slip a tube in your purse or bag and look forward to a delicious Mango-Citrus treat that will help you reach your healthy eating goals.

What about the Joint Health tubes?

An easy and convenient way to create a flavorful, joint health-boosting drink from plain water.

Formulated with 1,500 mg of glucosamine to promote joint health.

No artificial colors or flavors.

Low sugar.

Added bonus, I'd also learned that Olympic runner Kara Goucher is a spokesperson for Nutrilite herself, and knew that she would only fuel up on the best so she could do her best! I can't guarantee that I'll be at Olympic speed, but I'll sure be full of beta-carotene!

My pal Ben, aka Lazy Runner, is my dealer distributor when it comes to Nutrilite products & suggested I do a giveaway, heck yes!

Check out the Vitamin A in these bad boys

Want to win some Nutrilite for yourself to try?

I'm giving away a pack of the Fruits & Vegetables 2GO tubes and here's how you can enter:

1) Post a comment below to answer "What vitamins are important to you and your fitness journey"

** IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE POSTING A COMMENT, JUST EMAIL ME AT THE LINK ABOVE, TWEET ME WITH MY TWITTER LINK BELOW, OR LEAVE ME A COMMENT ON THE FB PAGE!

For additional chances to win:

2) Follow me via Email or Blogger subscription (links to the right)

3) Follow me on Twitter: KatSnF & Tweet: "I just entered to win veggie tubes on @KatSnF's blog-click here to enter!"

4) "Like" my blog's Facebook page

Enter to win by 12:01am Friday August 3rd, 2012!

(redtape:  The above post is an unbiased review of the Nutrilite products from my own perspective and was not influenced by free product from the company nor do I sell product for them. Eligibility. Giveaways are open to readers with US shipping addresses only, unless otherwise stated.. Winner Selection. A prize number will be assigned to your entry upon receipt of your entry. A winning number will be generated using Random.org on or shortly after the Entry Deadline Date. Winner Notification. You will be notified within three (3) days after the Entry Deadline Date if you win the prize. Claiming Your Prize. Winner must respond within 48 hours of notification via email at my contact link above or forfeit the prize, in which case an alternate winner will be selected. I will ship the prize at my expense, but am not responsible for the prize once it is mailed via USPS)

That magical moment

I've been working on a piece for a wonderful friend of mine, Billy Jolie, who wrote a book called The Lust Garden. (I am so proud of him because he not only wrote the book, but had it published! It's even sold online at Barnes & Noble as well as Amazon.com!) He asked me to do a commissioned piece based on the book. I enjoyed reading Billy's book because I am a huge fan of celebrity gossip and all of that mindless stuff involving Hollywood (it's a guilty pleasure of mine, what can I say?) After thinking about for a little bit, we decided to focus on the last chapter of his book (when things get all cray cray) and I immediately accepted his challenge to create a piece using my style!

Little did I know how stressed it'd make me! Many of you know I've been working on this piece literally since before we went away to Antigua for our wedding. I mean, I've done pieces for friends and family before and felt the stress of wanting to make them super happy with the outcome of a piece. I haven't, however, felt the stress of impressing a friend who is ALSO another artist and writer! Ok, call me paranoid (I know no one would ever say they hated something I've done to the point of it being a huge deal) but making those close to me happy means more to me than making an impression at an art show in general. [Insert soft sob; wipe tear]

Billy's birthday was yesterday and I was pretty bummed hubs and I work too late to make it out to his birthday dinner. Billy'd just gotten back from celebrating his birthday in Atlanta, so I asked about meeting up for lunch which worked with his schedule! We met up at Mellow Mushroom to savor a deliciously awesome pizza together. What did we get? No, the meat lovers deluxe extra large. BUT we did try the Gourmet White pizza with chicken, sun dried tomatoes, mozzarella, and tomato. (I also snuck in a salad when I first got there while waiting for him.)

Billy tearin' it up, such a cute birthday boy!

Deliciousness

it's so nice to catch up with friends, over carbs especially

After we ate, I knew Mr. Jolie was anxious to see the piece. Shoot, I was anxious to show it to him! I've been working on the piece, in total, for about 4 months. To me, that's a long time. I really took my time with this piece, I have to say. I've done two paintings at once for a show before and I couldn't with this one. I wanted to take my time so that I only worked on it when I felt I was really 'in the groove' and could give it my all; if I was tired at all or not in a cheery mood, there was no painting to be done.

We went to my car, and I gave Billy his Lust Garden Piece. I didn't really name it, now that I think about it. If I were to name it, it'd probably be "Gianna's Exit" (you have to read the book to see why!)

I was SO happy that Billy was happy with the finished piece. That magical moment when someone sees a painting you've been working on for them for some time isn't able to be described by a whole lot in text. The expression on a face tells is all. Immediately, when he looked at the painting, I felt at ease and such gratification! He said I captured the main character, Gianna, in the last chapter just as he'd pictured it. I even added glitter to the piece, per his request ;) After glossing it, I was sure there'd be no glittery mess left anywhere. For those who can appreciate an artist's method, I did change things up a bit here versus my other paintings - the use of multi media was one thing. I also haven't done a piece 36 x 36 before, so that was fun! I mixed different color combos to create better shading and was pretty proud of the outcome.

The painting fits in nicely with Billy's new house and decor too ;)

It was a great day and such an awesome feeling to love on someone else with my art :)

(Sidenote: I've also decided to make more of an effort to use my actual Sony camera - as you can see the pictures came out WAY better than with my camera phone...while I love it so, it doesn't make photos as crisp that's for darn sure)

What are these straps for? It's TRX time!

When I did personal training about a couple of years ago (getting back into the fitness bizz I had to recruit help, I was a stubborn lil thing,) I remember my PT having me use suspension handles to do lat pull ups, etc. I didn't understand the concept at first...straps...handles...what the heck?! But in the end, I really did enjoy using my own weight versus dumbells for a change of pace and it was an awesome strength workout. (Click here to read more on the TRX Training Philosophy). I'd then heard of TRX Suspension training for some time now as it was at other local gyms. I'd been waiting for it to come to my gym so that I could try an actual class (and not have to pay booku amounts of $ at another joint,) and that news came this week!

what are these straps for?

Demo classes were offered since the signup for actual classes starts in a month or so, and of course I signed right up! (Sidenote: it was all girls in the class, some boys were in the gym but didn't want to come check out the class...another reason why girls rule and boys drool! ;)

This is the circuit we did twice (30 seconds of rest in between):

1 minute of squats

1 minute lat rows

1 minute of pushups

1 minute of lunges x each leg

30 seconds of mountain runner kicks

30 second plank hold

On the second set, there were variations I tried out: jumping from the squat, lower lat rows, pushups with one leg on top of the other, lunches with straight arms and touching the floor, mountain kicks into immediate plank hold on hands (not forearm.)

pushups

kat, I mean lat, rows

mountain kicks

I really enjoyed this workout! My pal to the right, R, is also a runner working on her overall and core strength. We were both talking about how slow we were going with the higher intensity variations. She also reads my blog and gave a good pointer that I should share: don't worry about the pace, worry about the form! We were taking our dear sweet time through the harder movements so that we didn't fall over and a) hurt ourselves or b) look like complete goofballs. Many people feel they need to keep up with the rest of the class or go super fast through movements; the key is proper form to work the right muscles and avoid hurting yourself from going too fast.

Monday's workout: 45 minutes of crosstraining/strength

That night, I was continuing my "I really don't feel like cooking" spree; I know, awesome wifey! I was cooking, but we were both starting to work a funky later shift and that left me not a lot of time to go to the store for fresh stuffs. Mission this weekend: go to the store and load up for 2 weeks, lazy Kat! We did buy 2 great deals from Creative Loafing on their cldeals.com site; they have crazy good deals for 1/2 off at local restaurants and businesses. One was for Channelside Theatres ($15 for 2 movie tickets AND 2 meals) and the other was for The Rack ($15 for $30 worth of food!)

Shrugging my 'bad wifey' mojo off, we decided to use the certificate to The Rack since it was a special night....a night that Gar bear was pretty excited for

2 lbs of crab for $14.95 night = a super stoked hubs

So, for 2 dinners we just paid the tip! (yes, we were nice customers and tipped on the actual amount not the certificate amount ;)

Out on a Monday night usually means drinks and happy hour for most. For us, it meant time for a little friendly competition

sometimes us dorky married folk thumb wrestle while waiting on dinner...or maybe it's just us?

This morning, full of crab meat and corn (inner: yum) I went out to meet P and B at the Y for our Tuesday run

Tuesday's workout: 5 mile run

I'm heading out for work, SUPER excited to meet up my pal Billy to present him with his painting, on his BIRTHDAY! Post to come soon with the unveil ;)

Have you tried TRX before? or 2 lbs of Crab legs?

Can't stop, won't stop

Man, I know I'm always quite the busy bee, but this weekend was a tad different: I was outside most of the time AND this brown girl didn't hide under the umbrella..I know! Shocker! 

Saturday I met the group out for our usual long run but stopped short at 6 miles so I could meet up with my girl S for a day of kayaking.

S and I bought a Living Social deal for a 4-hour kayak rental back in January and just remembered to meet up and use those bad boys!

Cuteness, ready to kayak

floatation vests, check!

paddling for our lives

We enjoyed a 2 hour kayak around the bayou we were at in Clearwater...watching mullet flip around and trying not to get stuck in the mangroves. After cutting our 4 hour rental short since it was ridiculously scorching hot, we stopped at a Sweet Tomatoes Express to mow on some lunch and then headed to get fro yo at Yogurt Mountain afterwards, appropriately so.

I liked this concept for Sweet Tomatoes: no buffet but big salads on the cheap!

I don't discriminate with my fro yo options

After I returned home, a dark mocha tan, hubs and I decided to venture out for dinner at Mimi's Cafe since we had BOGO coups. They had an awesome deal on $5 wine flights (we chose the white wines) and a 3 course meal for $9.99...no coupons needed! 

come to mama

now, that's a steal!

Sunday we ventured out to a local trail in Tampa called Flatwoods to let Bruce (his bike) and Sheila (my new bike) get better acquainted.

Bruce and Sheila were psyched to get out and move

It was hot...

really hot...

but we soldiered through 15.5 miles and 1,000 mutant mosquitoes

you feel so much more breeze riding vs running!

I had the bright idea of running my remaining 4 miles from Saturday post-bike ride. It was 10am, it was hotter than when we were biking, but my OCD to complete my long run made me do it.

Cheese! I'm cray cray!

thank goodness for a plethora of cold water stations (the Nuun on hubs' bike was helpful, but warm)

The Rundown:

Saturday's workout: 6 mi run / 2 hours kayaking

Sunday's workout: 15.5 mi biking / 4.5 mi running in am, then 3 in pm

I did enjoy actually being outside, soaking up real vitamin D and spending time with good friends and my PIC (patna in crime.) I admit I'm pooped now, but I'm ready to tackle it all again next weekend! (sans kayaking) I really think that my body needed some variety with the WODs (workouts of the day - aka crossfit 'lite' for me) and time with Sheila. When you're active you have to be sure to always change things up or it becomes mundane...and we can't be havin' anything 'mundane'!

I'd hoped to get together with some girls tonight to run a nice recovery run that was to include girl talk and chatter time, but Florida summer storms did their thing and prevented that. I sat around the house for a hit but once again, OCD struck and I caught a break in the storms to squeeze in my recovery run to my recovery run...yes I know, "Sit the heck down, Kat!"

What'd you do different this weekend? (even if it was try out a new fabric softener ;)