Monthly Archives: August 2012

Running

Caturday workouts

Yesterday’s workout:

Back squats 4×10
Dumbbell front squats 5×6
Weighted step ups, 30 each leg
Walking lunges with over head weight, 40 total
Recumbent leg press 5×8

I’m not used to doing these workouts on my own, so it’s interesting having to figure out what weight to use.  (Yeah, I know I should pay attention, but I just don’t.)  I was pretty excited that I used 105 pounds for the back squats, and then for the step ups I started with 25 and then almost passed out.  Oddly 20 (in each hand that is) worked really well.  The walking lunges I busted out pretty easily—I don’t know if I should have had more weight or if my knee should have been lower to the ground.  (I need my trainer back to tell me what I am doing wrong, because I always assume I am doing stuff wrong.)  The squats though, I know I was good on those.  I kept hearing Mike’s voice saying "lower!" and kept trying to do that.

premierprotein

Premier Protein sent me a box of shakes and bars, so after the workout I had one.  It was tasty, though probably higher in calories than I really wanted. 

So after that, in the middle of the night I realized that my legs were really sore.  When I woke up I decided that it needed to be a rest day.  Except then Jen texted and said she was leaving her bootcamp class and heading for a quick run in Tower Grove Park.  I cried "let me just get my socks on!" and headed over to her house.

getmyrunon

I figured that if I didn’t tweet about my run beforehand it wouldn’t count 😉

I’m wearing my skull and crossbones headband too.  I realized that since I own about 8 different headbands I should really wear them all rather than simply wearing the same one over and over.  Anyway, my legs were super tired, but we managed to get all the way around the park. 

I’m pretty proud of how tired my legs are right now.  I’m thinking a shower and then a long session of foam rolling is in order.  Definitely the shower.  I probably smell pretty bad but luckily Chris isn’t around right now so it doesn’t matter.

Oh, and you should know:  for every awesome picture like the one right there, there is a series of not great photos.

fierce

I was trying for fierce but failed.  Plus my head is oddly small and I’m pushing my stomach out for no apparent reason. Unless I was trying to make my stomach big and my head smaller, in which case I absolutely succeeded.

laughing

Here my body looks great, but I’m laughing hysterically and look (perhaps…) a wee bit insane.  Oops. So you see, not every picture of me is equally amazing 😉

And since it’s now officially Caturday:

pensievecat

Did you work out yet today? 

Cat

I know it’s not Caturday but…

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Tonight my cat was lying on the couch looking EXTRA cute so I started taking pictures of her, and then texting them to friends and family.  Oh yeah. 

fatcat

This was actually from earlier.  What you should know, and why this KILLS me, is that the bottom of her stomach is quite possibly the softest, most furriest thing I have ever touched.  I almost start crying just looking at this. 

fatness 

Yeah, it’s some kind of fancy elegant pillow.

Okay, yeah, I’m fully aware of my ridiculousness.  Don’t judge.

In other news, I finally broke down and bought a pair of Toms.  They are awesome and super comfortable.  Hmm.

toms

Evidently my ankles were swollen that day. 

Last but not least:  my mother in law sent me these:

paris

As excited as I am about getting ready for Leslie’s wedding…I do have a small trip to Paris first.  (And Boston too!)

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Running

Workout Wednesday

My trainer is out of town (on vacation, heaven forbid) this week.  I TOLD him that he needed to be in town when I was and only be gone during those time periods that I am also out of town, but he seemingly didn’t want to make his schedule only based on mine.  Weird.

That said, he sent me and some other clients a list of 4 different workouts for the week, of which we should do at least 2.  I convinced Chris to go with me today, because I am a baby and can’t possibly workout on my own at the gym.  And oddly after several years I still wasn’t entirely sure what all the workouts meant.  We decided to do the following workout from Mike’s list:

Assisted pull ups, 3×10
Deadlift 5×5
Seated wide grip rows, 3×12
Seated lat pull down, 3×12
Single arm cable rows, 3×20 each arm
Back extensions 4×10

This is the not the actual order we used, and Chris thought there were too many back exercises so he modified a bit for himself.  And then the “machine” for the back extensions was actually broken, and at that point I decided I was done with back exercises and did a couple of planks instead to finish it off.  So I did everything except that last one.

Here’s the plan for tomorrow: (and this is just me, not Chris. Probably he thinks it is too many leg exercises 🙂 )

Back squats 4×10
Dumbbell front squats 5×6
Weighted step ups, 30 each leg
Walking lunges with over head weight, 40 total
Recumbent leg press 5×8

I was going to do that yesterday but instead I went for an easy 5 mile run.  Did I tell you guys how awesome my running has been lately?  I’m attributing it to a variety of factors, especially the weather.  Saturday I ran 3.5 miles, Sunday was SEVEN and that only included TWO stops, one to fix my pony tail and another because I thought I was going to throw up.  Otherwise I ran the whole time, albeit slowly.  Yesterday was even slower, but felt faster, because I think my legs were still tired.

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I got new compression “sleeves” to wear also, but don’t have a picture at this time.  They are pink, and only go around my calves (i.e. not socks).  I told Chris he should probably get used to seeing me wearing compression socks.  (Wearing only compression socks.)

Anyway, this new ability to run for several miles without dying and having to keel over or walk is a wonderful thing for me.  It makes me feel like my running plans for the year are within reach and that I have actually made some progress in running over the past two years and perhaps that I am not actually a complete loser.

Then again, I did deadlifts today.  So…

Food

I’m hip, I’m with it

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Tuesday is my Monday.  Though I teach a few students on Monday, it doesn’t really feel like the start of the work week until I drive to the school on Tuesday and teach for approximately 5 to 6 hours straight.  But I’ve still got a few hours.  After I finish this I’m out for a run (my running mojo has returned with a vengeance and I am taking full advantage of it) and then I have to prep dinner before heading to teach.

The past two days have been great.  Russell and Vanessa came to visit on Sunday night.  Russell is new and will have to get used to the blog…he refused to allow me to photograph him.  Vanessa was game, however, because she needed to show off her shiny new engagement ring.

Vanessa

We made burgers for them (Chris is hard at work perfecting his burger recipe for our upcoming housewarming party) and then afterwards Vanessa insisted on taking us to Ted Drewes.  If you are from St Louis, apparently Ted Drewes is one of those places that you rave about.  I think it’s like Pizza Inn in Clinton—if you had it as a child you love it nostalgically.  Or I’m just overly critical ;)  Anyway, it was totally fine, I just guess I prefer a creamier texture to start with.  I’m not a "fro-yo" fan either.  Give me a super rich dessert or I’ll just pass.  But it was nice of them to treat, of course!

teddrewes

I instagrammed it before I realized I didn’t love it.  Don’t worry.  I ate it all anyway. 

Monday afternoon Chris mentioned that I looked like I had lost weight.  I decided to throw that all away by going out to dinner with Melissa.  Just kidding.  Well…sort of.  She had heard there was going to be a "pop-up restaurant" in Clayton with fried chicken and pie (and other stuff) and we thought it would be very hip and "with it" (and NEW YORK, she said) to go check it out.  We thought we’d get there shortly after five, which was when it opened. 

Well, by the time we got there, it was an approximate 2 hour wait.  We consulted for a bit, and decided that we just didn’t care enough to wait that long for food.  So we decided to go to a nearby restaurant, called Oceano Bistro, that neither of us had been to.  The menu was basically ALL seafood, which was great.

I decided on the seafood chowder and the coconut shrimp salad. 

whowantschowder shrimpsalad

They were both good—I wish there had been a few more coconut shrimps on the salad (ha!) but I suppose that could have been overkill.  It also had avocadoes and heart of palm on it, two of my favorite salad vegetables.  The chowder was great too, very full of seafood and creamy. (This is a story, not a restaurant review, and evidently I learned nothing at the Food Media Forum about writing about food).

We were still feeling guilty about having given up so easily on the pop-up restaurant, and Melissa hadn’t gotten her pie, so we figured we should split the bread pudding.  (It was a line of logic at the time, trust me, and we weren’t even drinking.)

breadpudding

Melissa, unlike Russell, really enjoys being on the blog, so she posed for this picture.  I think her expression turned out really well, and not creepy at all. 

The bread pudding was warm and moist, and the ice cream was rich and creamy the way ice cream should be.  The caramel sauce was the perfect complement to the pudding and we debated asking our waiter for a straw to polish it off, but decided since we were in Clayton we should behave in a more civilized manner.

After that Chris and I went to see "The Bourne Legacy."  It was entertaining, and a nice continuation of the series, but wasn’t ground breaking or really up to par with the other movies.  If you really enjoy the other Bourne movies, you’ll like this one though. 

Have you been to a pop-up restaurant before?  Are you more hip and "with it" than I am?

Random thoughts

Back to School

Last week was my first week back to school.  People get confused sometimes when I say I teach at a school.  To clarify:  it’s a music school, not a full day school.  We offer private lessons, group and studio classes, theory classes, and have lots of recitals and performance opportunities.  It’s a great place to teach, and we started back last week.

People always ask how many students I have.  Honestly, I never really know.  It’s probably about 25 to 30, but I’d have to really sit down and count.  And then by the time I finished counting I probably would have either gotten a new student or one would have dropped, and then I’d probably mess up and have to start all over.  I teach five days a week, though I’m thinking about cutting back to four days to give myself more time to gig…but I’m not turning much down.  We’ll see how this year goes. 

I had two weddings yesterday.  As I was driving to the first church, I realized I had played there before.  I guess that means I’ve been living here for awhile—I’m getting to the point where I know the various venues and really starting to know my way around town.  Here’s a picture from inside the first church:

church

The second gig was at the Randall Art Gallery, which is a pretty cool venue.  I briefly looked into it for our wedding, actually.  We were playing right near the cakes, so I made this fancy instagram collage.

cake

The white ended up being a bit washed out, but I had to take these pictures, collage them, and instagram them, all during the ceremony—I did it after we finished the processional and before the recessional.  (Yes, we were in the back!)

Last night we went with Melissa and Steve to the Shaved Duck.  They hadn’t been so we had been trying to come up with a good time to go for awhile.  We had to wait awhile for our table, but it was pleasant outside and well worth the wait.  We also ran into an adult student of mine and his wife (St Louis is a great example of the song "It’s a Small World After All").  We had the nerdiest conversation I’d been part of in awhile.  Topics included:  World of Warcraft, Hitchhiker’s Guide, Rule 43 and Godwin’s Rule, various youtube videos, and then a long time spent talking about our cats and their strange behaviors.  I love hanging out with those guys!

I’m about to go for a run, and then later today my friend Vanessa and her fiancé Russell are coming to town and staying with us tonight.  I haven’t seen her since early July, so I’m really looking forward to it!  I’m sure since they are engaged now they’ll be acting more smug and whatnot like most people do 🙂

Giveaways

TGIF and Giveaway winner

People who work in "regular" jobs are always excited about Fridays.  I enjoy them too, because occasionally I’ll have a weekend free.  I like Mondays too though, because that’s a really light work day.  But I do work tomorrow, as well as later today, so it’s a little less exciting. 

First off:  the winner of a free copy of Running of the Bride from my giveaway: 

random

Comment #7 was Mandy!  Mandy, please email me your address (hannahviolin at gmail.com) as you didn’t leave an email with your comment.  Everybody else, thanks for entering.  I would recommend reading the book anyway :)  And there will be more free books and other stuff in the future!

I’m hungry and sweaty right now.  I ran about 4 miles this morning and it was amazing!  The weather was perfect, somehow, just around 70 degrees.  I don’t know if we are in a time warp and it’s actually November, but I’m happy with it.  If only the weather would stay this way…anyway, after my run I had to do some errands and now I’m blogging, and I realized that I smell and should really take a shower.  I’ll get right on that.

My mom posted this picture on facebook:  Chris and I on moving day. 

movingday

She is the master of taking pictures at the greatest, most attractive times!  Then again, I’m posting it here, aren’t I.  Maybe I should reexamine my life?

Last but not least.  Did you guys see this?  It’s been floating around facebook.

What are your plans for the weekend?  I’m looking forward to dinner at the Shaved Duck and a nice long run.  You?