Vacation in Colorado

Things I love about Colorado: Mountains, Coors light, Laid-back and wonderful people, and many more things. I went on vacation for President's weekend with 9 other girls to go skiing. My amazing friend Lauren and her family let us stay in their ski house, so we are basically forever in debt to them.

Landing in Denver was like something out of a movie - that's the farthest west I've been! I got really excited to go for a sunrise-run the next morning, but also a little nervous because everyone had been warning me of altitute sickness. For the 4 days before the trip I popped an aspirin every day and drank an un-godly amount of water to try to ward off the illness. I managed to not get sick or have a headache, but I will say that I woke up with a bloody nose (ewww!) Man, that altitude stuff is nothin' to mess with. Anyways, I set out for my run and found myself truly enjoying the crisp, cool, fresh air. At one point I was headed up a huge hill with the mountains behind me and every 2 minutes I turned around to see the sun a little higher in the sky and the mountains a little more stunning.


View of the Mountains from Denver

 
Vacay was absoultely wonderful. We spent our first day at Beaver Creek and second day atVail. I ate wayyy too many of what I can only describe as heavenly brownies and really enjoyed some relaxing and fun girl time. Snowboarding was definitely a tough work-out (my ENTIRE body was sore!), but there's no way it burned enough calories to un-do my atrocious eating/drinking habits of the weekend. 




Denver Sunrise

While I did have a great vacation (minus my friend's foot being run-over by a car, but that's a story for another day), I unfortunately missed a couple scheduled runs and my lack of motivation spilled over into the next week when I got home. I was tired, cranky, and lazy all week long. I have no idea what was going on, but I decided I need to do something drastic before I get too far behind in my training schedule. This marathon means more to me than a hershey bar or miller light so I'm thinking about challenging myself to give up either chocolate or beer, or both, until race day (April 30th). The only reason I propose cutting both out is because I'm actually afraid that If I only cut one out it will just enhance my attraction to the other. What do you think...what should I cut out?? 

Could I give up beer?





Headed up the lift at Beaver Creek.

 

Recruiting

It wasn't too long ago that people had to drag me out to run...but the tables have turned and this weekend I managed to get friends out to run with me on two different occasions. It is so nice to be able to run with friends...I mean don't get me wrong, I love going on long solo runs once in a while to clear my head, but there's just something about the bond of hitting the payment with someone beside ya.


Last week my friend Amy and I went to a Wizards game. During the 4th quarter of the game a Milwaukee Bucks player missed both his free-throws which somehow magically transformed our ticket stubs into coupons for free chicken sandwiches at Chick-Fil-A. The closest restaurant to redeem our coupons was about 5 miles away in Virginia. For some people it might seem ridiculous to go 5 miles to get a chicken sandwich when we have plenty of good restaurants in the city, but if you've ever had the buttery goodness of a Chick-Fil-A sandwich you know exactly why we had to go. We figured we could justify it a little more if we ran there, so we headed out and immediately felt the wrath of some of the strongest gusts of wind I've encountered in a long time. Check out this pic of the wind trying to blow Amy off the Key Bridge in Georgetown!


The wind was out of control!

 Finally we made it to the finish line (Ballston Mall food court) and reveled in the fact that we had just had a great workout and were scoring a free chicken sandwich. We chose to ignore the fact that the metro fare to get back home was probably more than that chicken sandwich would have cost. Eh, whatever. It was a good Saturday with a great friend.


Our Holy Grail.

On Sunday my friend Laura joined me for about the first 3 miles of my 9 mile run. Although she says she doesn't run, I think she is a great runner in disguise. I'm convinced I'll have her running races with me in no time. It was a really nice day weather-wise, quite the change from the freezing temps we've had lately. We struggled a bit to find a pedestrian entrance to Rock Creek Park, so we wandered through beautiful Georgetown instead. I eventually found the entrance to the park, which is essentially a runner's paradise. There were tons of other people on the park paths...even saw a guy wearing the same Philly 1/2 marathon shirt that I was wearing and he gave me a lil smirk/wave :) It's a little family, kind of like when people who own Jeeps wave to eachother on the road.


Yesterday was Valentines Day and my current love happens to be the weather...it seriously felt like spring outside; I hope it's not a tease. Even though yesterday was supposed to be a rest day I couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I went out for a quick 3 mile run, then stopped at the local library to pick up something to read on my flight out to Colorado this weekend (I'm going snowboarding in Vail...super excited!!) I firmly believe that being single on Valentines Day doesn't require you to be depressed. It also doesn't require that you sit around and watch everyone else get gifts while you wallow...just go get your own dang presents! For me, flying solo on V-Day means treating myself to the Whole Foods hot bar for dinner...expensive but definitely worth it...yumm.

Apparently I wasn't the ony one at Whole Foods on Valentines Day.

Hope everyone enjoyed the warm weather and had a wonderful Valentines Day! And for all you ladies in the DC area wondering why you're single, listen to this fact I learned on the news last night: we outnumber men in this city 4 to 1! DC was also voted most intelligent city. Coincidence? I think not.

My New Place: Before and After

I promise not to do this too often, but this post has absolutely nothing to do with running (other than to provide a reason as to why I haven't been on a run in the past week). I absolutely hate getting off track with my running schedule and ordering take-out, but I skipped a few runs and ditched my healthy cooking in order to accomodate Moving Day! (which when you do mostly by yourself turns into Moving Week).



Yumm. Thanks, Grace!

Feb. 1st was my switch from a Capitol Hill rowhouse with 2 roommates to a Logan Circle Basement apartment. My roommate Grace made me an awesome "goodbye cake" which I promptly ate for breakfast on moving day.

I moved into literally the smallest efficiency apartment you've ever seen. I dare you to find a smaller one...seriously. From my estimates I think it's about 130 square feet, and that's being generous.

The first task on move-in day was cleaning and painting. I would like to take this moment to say that I absolutely DESPISE flat paint. Thank God for my friend Amy or I would have been there for days painting coat after coat after coat...it was literally disappearing into the walls. We painted the white walls a khaki color. In the kitchen we used Behr's paint and primer in one (shade: urban mist) to cover up the terrible color we dubbed "Kraft Mac N Cheese" orange.



Painting and Booze...only way to go.
I look absoltely terrible. HaHa! 



I spent hours cleaning before and after move-in because I am in fact, a germ-a-phob.

Major Thanks/Shout Outs To:

Amy - Beer, tension rod, painting, and teaching me how to navigate Ikea

Grandma - Driving me to Home Depot and the grocery store

Boss/New Neighbor - Lending me painting supplies

Uncle Butch - Helping me move my furniture and wall-mounting my tv.

Here are the before pictures:



Kitchen - Before



True Life Contents of my Fridge: Gatorade, Beer, and Paint Rollers



Bathroom and Closet - Before



Bedroom/Living Area - Before



Here are the after pictures:



The entire 130 square feet I call home :)



Bye-Bye ugly/broken pastic shade. Hello cheap/cute target curtain.



View from the corner of my bed. Thank goodness Ikea makes foldable chairs and tables.



Yeah I know, my OCD for organization is an illness, but isn't it cute?!? 






Simple and Chic. Channeling my inner Martha Stewart (the designer side, not the insider trading side).



Gotta love Target.



NO space is unused in this apartment.

What a difference some paint can make...looks like a whole new kitchen!



 It might be a box, but it's my box. I really love having my own place, being closer to shops and restaurants, and walking 15 minutes to work instead of riding 40 minutes on a bus.