Beer, sweat, cupcakes and spinach - oh my!

Slowly, the laziness is melting away.  Not completely, of course, but I've got momentum on my side for now.  Obviously not enough momentum as I thought I'd published this post several days ago; pretend you're reading this last Monday.

Saturday morning started off with more perfect fall weather and a fun outing to Williamsburg celebrating the 2nd anniversary of City Running Tours.   I met up with Tracy, Tara and John and enjoyed the easy miles around a neighborhood I don't find myself in all that often.  We got some great info from our running guide, who is also a kickball teammate, Karl.  He pointed out great historical info, sweet spots to grab eats & drinks and the general lay of the land.   

We finished the run back at Brooklyn Brewery where we sampled plenty of tasty brews, including:  Brooklyn Brown Ale, Winter Ale, Elevated Wheat and Radius (a Belgian Pale Ale).

Following that and a quick subway ride back into Manhattan and I was shoving more calories down my gullet.  Address that guy, Mr. Colossal.  Nevermind that the rest of the ladies I shared this with have all recently ran at least one marathon in the last week or so... yeah, I've got all my winter fat ready to go.

By Sunday I was drained and needing some nutrition.   Finally got around to making this super easy recipe using Field Roast; both Jen and I had been drooling over it and I think we ended up making it within a day of one another.  

Next time, MORE spinach!

Asleep at the wheel

It's not surprising that we shuffle, stumble and practically sleep-walk through many of our "living" hours.   The cycles of sleep, eat, work, maybe some play, maybe some other stuff are fairly defined and for the vast majority, don't change radically for large periods of time, read: years, decades, maybe longer.   Shit is on auto-pilot.

What never ceases to amaze me are those events, whether a simple feeling or emotion, an experience, an individual or even a fleeting thought, that seem to momentarily shake us from zombie-like mode.  To me, it's their simplicity that makes them most delicious.  Today's snap-outta-it moment came in the form of a weather condition, specifically a thick, juicy fog.  Man, I must be hungry ... using delicious and juicy in the last 2 sentences :)  Anyways, after meeting up with Elyssa and Bojana we headed into Central Park for some easy miles around the big loop.  To say the leaves were gorgeous would be a disservice, everything is golden and red and orange; it's what people have in mind when they profess their love of fall, and running through the scene felt like a privilege.  But what really took my breath away were fog-ridden pathways, concealed expanses of ground and the quietness that comes with such conditions.  Life was happening but it wasn't, we were moving but standing still at the same time.  And all of a sudden our city of millions felt like a quaint country town strewn with runners peaking in and out of the low-lying clouds.  

Because my words do no justice, behold ...

And that, my friends, is how life awakens us.  Thank god for morning running partners who also happen to be amazing photographers, Elyssa took these all and more... thanks for the wake-up!

You shall be my savior from myself

Like a small child, I've resorted to bribery.  While perusing the goods at the NYCM expo on Friday, I had no real intention to make any purchases.  I certainly didn't need any gear of the clothing variety but when strolling by the Brooks Running booth I was reminded that I'd intended to make a stop at Big River Running while in St. Louis to check out the new PureProject line; free time in STL expired quickly and soon enough I was flying back East.  Back to Friday night and I was slipping my sweaty & poorly polished toes into both the PureFlow and PureCadence models; I've never run in Brooks before but I know there are several models that closely resemble my stand-by Asics Nimbus.   And more importantly I needed a spark ... anything really to force myself back into some semblance of a running schedule.   I'm tired of posting about my laziness and lack of motivation and lack of commitment so with this post I hereby shut my pie hole.   Bought the PureFlows although I liked the colors of the PureCadence more and, if these work out well, may go for the dude's version of the Flow ...  because we all know how I feel about green.

P . O . W. E. R

eta:  I'm a big, fat liar.  I have worn Brooks, my trail shoes are Cascadias.  D'uh