Man oh man….. I have fallen off the blog bandwagon.
Now that I have a little time on my hands I plan to get back at it……. starting tomorrow. 
See if I even have any readers left out there. If so….. I am so sorry. I hope all is well. As I also fell off the blog reading bandwagon too. The horrors!
See you tomorrow!
Britt
Hi there!
Hope you all had a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend! We had gorgeous weather here so took full advantage of it and spent loads of time outdoors. Although I did take some time to venture inside to go see Sex and the City II! Not Oscar worthy but funny as hell. My crew of ladies had an awesome time!
I’m taking another week off of serious swimming & biking, but hope to be back at it next week. I have PT today to work on my neck/shoulders/upper back issues….. as its apparently just one big ball of tightness. In the meantime I have been hitting up kettlebell about 3 times per week and running a bit more….. few 6 milers, 7 miler and a few shorter runs too.
So some big events this week & last week….. aside from Memorial Day……
My step-dad Walter’s birthday was yesterday! Happy Birthday Wally! We celebrated with a run at the beach. Unfortunately there was not a cool seabreeze…. instead it was rather stagnant which is not the norm, especially along the New England coast.
I got a promotion at work!! My day to day work will still be similar, just a little bit more responsibility. Very happy to be recognized for my achievements though!
On Friday the hubby and I will celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary!!! Holy cow where does the time go! It feels like it was just yesterday we were planning the wedding! Although that was also 12 marathons ago too.
I did my first marathon in April of 2004, just before our June wedding. Unfortunately that was also when I ended up at my all time highest weight! This did not make me any less happy of a bride though!!!
Not exactly what I wanted for my wedding day, but it was part of the marathon/nutrition learning process & journey for me……which I guess I just had really bad timing on. I think part of it was also stress, I eat when I’m stressed. I had a lot of stress at work, I had the stress of planning the wedding and while the running helped, I think it made me think it was okay to eat a bit more. I also sat next to the evil “chocolate drawer” at work and ate WAY WAY WAY too much chocolate on a daily basis.
Word to the wise, never sit near a chocolate drawer when you are stressed.
Meanwhile the hubby was a skinny minnie for our wedding day, that is what lots of biking gets you and not sitting near the chocolate drawer I guess.
But regardless of size…. we had an amazing wedding day!
So to celebrate 6 years of fabulous marriage, plus close to 16 years together (we went on our first date when I was 15!)….. we are headed to Nantucket to celebrate! I cannot wait!!!
We have been to Martha’s Vineyard many times, even got engaged there, but never have been to Nantucket! So cross fingers for us that we have good weather!
I’m looking forward to some biking and running on the island. We will have our “townie” bikes with us as the roads aren’t all that great for road bikes from what I have heard, plus I love riding my townie bike!
So that is what my deal is this week and some of last week! I’ll try to do another post before we take off again! 
Have a great day!!!
Britt
Man once you get out of the habit of blogging every day it all goes downhill. Must get back to it. I miss y’all.
As usual, I have been busy.
I left the country for a long weekend. The benefits of living in NH, the border with Canada isn’t that far away!
We headed to Montreal for a couple of days with some friends, it was a great time. Lots of great food, fun times and a few beverages.
We headed out Friday around noon time and took our time venturing north. We arrived in plenty of time though to clean up and venture out for happy hour before dinner. Of course lazy me didn’t take out the camera as we sat enjoying the sights and sounds of Oldtown Montreal.
I did get some shots of my yummy dinner though…..We didn’t plan ahead for dinner and just wandered around. We ended up at the Les Pyrenees restaurant on a whim. It was a great whim! The service was awesome (friends have a great picture of our waiter I need to get my hands on) and the food was delish!
Escargot
Hubby’s first course, a cod cake sort of thing. Very good and HUGE.
My entree was some fabulous mussels that just didn’t photograph that well. Then we split a yummy piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Everyone’s food was so good!!! I highly recommend this restaurant if you are in Montreal.
Saturday we checked out the amazing underground shopping the city has. So smart to have so much indoors and linked together for those awful winters. It was raining a bit on us, so it was nice to get some walking in but not get wet. Finally the weather cleared up and we did some exploring above ground and grabbed some lunch. Lunch was a great time to people watch and just soak it all in. Its amazing how different the world is when you just drive a few hundred miles and cross a border.
After lunch we headed back to our hotel in the Latin Quarter area to do some more exploring and grab some cocktails. We found a fun brewery with a great deck on St. Denis, Les 3 Brasseurs. Amazing how a city that gets so much snow and awful weather, but yet they have so many great outdoor dining areas.
Me enjoying my beer……..sideways.
Hubby (looking odd) & our friend Aviva
Then we ventured to a cute little scotch bar. It was on the corner of Joly St…… see (although hubby is not looking too Jolly)
Eventually it was time for more food. This time we made reservations at Narcisse Bistro. Another great find! Little more upscale than our previous dinner. They had a live jazz band that played during dinner and at the perfect volume, loud enough to enjoy and notice but quiet enough that we could easily talk without shouting.
I started off dinner with a shrimp cocktail with an avocado sauce, yum. Shrimp & avocado are an excellent combo. My dinner was shy except for my entree.
Duck with a port & fig sauce.
Yum! Definitely a splurge. The fig sauce rocked! Also, everyone at the table remarked at the variety and quality of the veggies that came with our dinner. We had baby bok choi, asparagus, grilled peppers, pat-a-pan squash and roasted potatoes. Don’t worry I ate all my veggies.
Sunday we did more exploring before heading home. We checked out the Olympic stadium and grounds, including venturing up the tower! Eeks!
This thing….
It has an elevator/funicular thing that goes up on the top part.
Me & Aviva on the observation deck….. me trying not to look freaked out. The tower leans at a 45 degree angle thus why I was a tad freaked out.
But it had some great views of the city and surrounding areas, as well as the Olympic complex.
Once back on solid ground, we checked out the aquatic area….
Very cool. Then we ventured to the Biodome, where the indoor bike racing took place. They have 4 different ecosystems housed there. My favorite…. tropics.
Oh and the fish…. I love fish.
Once again it was time for food, so we ventured to an amazing market, Atwater Market. First all I could see were flowers……
but then there was amazing produce, cheeses, meats, breads, etc. Amazing wonderful stuff!!
Yum! We pieced together a fabulous lunch of veggies, fruits, meat, cheese and some bread. After filling our bellies we hit the road back to the USA. I couldn’t skip out on reporting to jury duty Monday morning! Yep, last day of reporting in was Monday……. and I got picked for jury later this week…..fun times.
So that is what I have been up to. I took the weekend off of workouts as my neck has still been bothering me. I finally did get to the physical therapist though to get it checked out and I definitely have some issues….. need to work on better posture when sitting/working and when I workout. I need to lay off swimming and biking for a little while, plus get some PT to loosen up some extremely tight muscles in my upper back/neck area.
Sorry for the long post! Hopefully you enjoyed my highlights of our Montreal trip!
Happy Tuesday!!!
Britt
Hey y’all! Thanks for the words of support and common sense.
My neck is still a wee bit stiff, BUT its definitely better. Same can be said for my ankle.
I woke up at 5:30 this morning and assessed the situation…. things felt ok, so I ventured to the pool after walking the pooch.
WORKOUT- easy 1000m, alternated with breast stroke & crawl
Unfortunately my neck strain or whatever it is, is on my right, the side I’m used to breathing on. This presented a bit of a challenge, but it is also something I need to work on. My ultimate goal is to breathe every 3 strokes and therefore alternating the side I breathe on. It wasn’t easy but it did get easier after a little while.
Work was work.
After work I swung by the hubby’s office to print out a few things and to get things in motion for the 5K race I direct in October. I just looked at our calendar from last year and realized I’m a bit behind in getting things going, although we do have our major sponsor already lined up! Unfortunately I need to figure out a new route due to some logistic issues and changes with the festival it is part of. Mapping out a route is no easy task, I need the festival’s approval and then the biggie is the police department. Once the route gets the police approval then I need to get it certified. Oh how great it would be to just use last year’s route.
I also got some study material together for a new adventure….. I recently got my real estate license! I’m going to attempt to do it on the side of my other job for now and hopefully see where some hard work can take me! Know anyone buying or selling in NH….. let me know. I am really excited, as I love helping people and want to feel like I’m doing something positive with my work.
So exciting stuff going on here….. yes I have added a few things to my plate, but I like to be busy! Plus you enjoy and appreciate your down time that much more!
Oh and back in January I was blabbing about doing a vision board. Still not done. I think I need one ASAP. So my homework is to have one at least started by next Tuesday. I need y’all to call me out on it too if I don’t have something started….. okay!
Hope your Tuesday was fabulous!
Britt
Hi There!
Yep, still alive…..just in a bit of pain.
I guess on the bright side…… I do not lack motivation to workout.
However….. I may try to do a bit too much too soon.
So when I last blogged, I had swam & biked on Tuesday. (oopsie has been a little while) All went well though despite the hubby getting a flat.
Wednesday I hit up Kettlebell, nothing out of the ordinary.
Thursday was beautiful out! I swam 1600m in the morning, ran 6 miles at lunch time and then headed out for a 17 mile ride with the hubby after work.
Friday morning I woke up IN PAIN. I could not turn my head to the right….. and now 4 DAYS LATER….. I still cannot turn my head to the right.
Back to Friday, I got up at 5:30 and started getting ready to go to Kettlebell. But my neck just hurt too much, so I went back to bed. I figured I must have just slept funny and that was why my neck was hurting. I popped a couple Advil and moved on with my day. Problem is the pain never went away. After work we worked on our Adopt-A-Spot, even weeding caused some pain….. NOT GOOD. 
I figured things would improve in the morning…… nope, still in need of Advil. I managed to do some cleaning around the house, but decided I would take another rest day as I was racing Sunday.
Sunday arrived…. STILL a sore neck. But I had a group mud/obstacle run to do, so I went. More Advil and I was off.
Some of my Reach the Beach team, plus a couple others, decided to do a new mud/obstacle run near us.
The team pre-race, all nice and clean.
None of us quite knew what to expect. The race could be completed solo or you could run it as a team. The teams just had to finish together. We obviously ran as a team which was fun as we were able to experience the craziness together. Fortunately we were in the 1st wave, so the course wasn’t too crowded.
The race started off with about 2.5 miles of paved course, then we ventured off into fields where we encountered our first obstacles, the tires and then a small stream crossing. From there we tackled a steep hill climb & decent, hurdles, a 5ft wall, and then crossed over into another field area with more obstacles that involved jumping, crawling under things, etc. The course covered a 10K distance with the various obstacles thrown in along the way. The last mile or so involved more steep hill climbs and then a decent back onto paved road, a final 5ft wall and then the grand finale……. the MUD PIT.
This is actually my team going through…. I’m at the pack of the pack in the mud. Everyone just dove in and I kinda had to get my courage up to go I guess. LOL The muddy dude at the end turned around was on my team.
As you can see they had wire across the mud so that you had to crawl through it. Certain areas weren’t too wet and soupy, but I did hit a couple of suck areas…… super soupy and they just kind of sucked you in. Ugh. I got worried about my wedding rings getting sucked off….. stupid me, I should have taken them off. So attempting to hold them in place slowed me down a bit.
But I made it through…. me and the guys running towards the finish.
And a final muddy group shot.
Another fortunate thing about wave 1, we were able to hit up a pump truck with water to clean off. They had to call in backup as the pump truck quickly ran out of water! So most folks that finished after us had to stay muddy for quite awhile. After seeing how banged up my legs got from the mud I was very happy not to have to wait.
I have fairly sensitive skin and the small rocks & other stuff in the mud scratched up my legs big time. They were all red and puffy for awhile. They are not going to look pretty for awhile……
How they look today.
Back to the race…… After we finished, we cleaned up a bit, grabbed some food & beer and watched the rest of the crazies.
It was definitely different than your average race! We weren’t really concerned with our time (10K in 1 hour and 16 seconds), one of the girls on the team was a bit slower so we actually waited for her and one of the guys just before the mud pit. It was rather amusing to watch folks hop in the mud before us…. it kind of helped me building my courage…. maybe.
Oh and of course we are already talking about next year!
So I was hoping that maybe running might loosen my neck up a bit…… NOPE.
This morning I woke up with not only a sore neck, but my peroneal tendons are really sore too again! I think the trail running and uneven surfaces killed my ankle. So now I have a sore neck and a sore ankle. Did that stop me from kettlebell this morning? No. Cause I’m crazy like that.
Abs- hanging knees to elbows, max reps x 4 (mine was more like knees to waist, 12 reps x 4)
Workout- 8 thrusters & 8 snatches per side then a 400m run. Every 4 minutes for 20 minutes (so 5 times). It usually took me just about 3 minutes so I got close to a minute to rest.
I did try to take it easy this morning though, I figured the running might help loosen my ankle up some. It actually felt ok while I was running. But once I got to work and sat for awhile, it did NOT feel good when I stood up.
So here I am… sore ankle and neck. To be honest the hardest part about the neck thing is driving, it really hurts to look right for traffic or to see behind me when I’m backing out of a parking spot. I have to turn my whole upper body to do anything.
I did call PT today, but the earliest they can get me in is next Monday. In the meantime I’ll try to lay off the workouts a bit….although I may try swimming tomorrow, I think I can turn my head & body enough to breathe. Ugh, am I pathetic or what?! I’m also tempted to try getting a massage too, maybe there is a major knot somewhere?
I think my neck issue might be due to biking though. I should probably bring my bike in to double check the fit. I know my bike is a bit small for me, so we modified the neck a couple years ago based on a fitting….. but I’m wondering if I really just need to get a new one. I have biked some decent mileage on it in the past…. like 30-40 mile rides. I do get tight in my shoulders but NOTHING like this. So frustrating but I guess it is best to deal with this now, rather than near the middle or end of my half iron training….. right?
So riders/triathletes thoughts? Do you deal with any shoulder/neck issues from riding? Its not like I have even done any real long rides yet…. mainly just an hour or so.
Hope your week is off to a good start and that you are a little less sore than me!
Oh and a HUGE CONGRATS to Lindsey who BQ’d over the weekend at the Pocono Marathon!!!! Woo hoo!!
Britt
Hi there!
Hope your week is going well.
It was FREEZING here this morning. But I was up walking the pooch at 5:30 am and then off to the pool for a swim.
WORKOUT: 1500m swim, about 30 minutes
I definitely feel like I’m getting more comfortable in the pool and able to work on being faster and more efficient. I think I need to loosen up my goggle strap though, I am getting nasty goggle circles around my eyes that take awhile to go away. I feel like a freak leaving the pool with my bug eyes.
Work was work…. nothing too exciting there.
After work I hit the greenhouse to prep for the United Way Day of Caring tomorrow. I get the day OFF from work tomorrow to volunteer. Lucky me the organization I volunteer with already was able to submit projects, so I get to work on a project I had to get done anyways….. but on company time…… SA-WEET! So I’ll be planting LOTS o’ plants tomorrow. Unfortunately we may get a bit wet though…. it is suppose to rain…. Blah. Oh well.
After the greenhouse I walked the pooch and then got ready for a bike ride. I joined my hubby and a friend of his for a ride. About 8 miles into our ride, the hubby got a flat. So we had a little Flat Tire Fixing 101, as I have no clue how to fix one. Fortunately we were on a bridge closed to vehicles, so we had plenty of room to spread out. I just really hope I never get a flat during a race….. I think it would take me about a half hour or so to fix it. Ugh.
Do you know how to fix a flat tire on a bike? I think I need to learn more about bike maintenance. Running is so much easier….. you just need good shoes and your body to work, no mechanical crap.
WORKOUT: biked about 16 miles, with a nice break about half way through.
Oh and it got cold on our ride. My toes were a tad numb by the time we got back!
Um… me biking on a slightly warmer day…..
Oh summer, I cannot wait till you are here. This is on the Cape Cod Rail Trail….. AWESOME place to ride! I wish we had more trails around here, I get nervous with lots of cars around me. When I was in college I loved to ride along the levy in New Orleans….. granted it was REALLY flat, but I loved being near the water……even if it was the Mississippi River.
If you ride, where is your favorite place to bike?
Cross fingers for me that it doesn’t rain too much tomorrow! I might be a wet dirty mess if its too bad, but I need to get those plants planted!
Have a great night!
Britt
Rest. Ahh….. rest.
(don’t worry I didn’t scale a mountain to rest this time)
Yep, I finally took and entire weekend OFF!!!
I think this was the first weekend since maybe my surgery back in January that I totally took a weekend off from working out. Did I feel a wee bit guilty? maybe. Did I deserve it? Yes. Did I need it? I think so.
There were two races I was thinking of doing, both 5K’s….. rather than doing one or both, I did neither. I actually went and watched one as part of the course was less than a mile from our house, plus my mom was running it and my SIL & MIL were walking it. We waved and cheered them on. I had a couple runners who knew me go by and ask why I wasn’t running….. I just smiled and said I’m resting.
Granted…. I didn’t sit around and eat bonbons….. I did laundry, cleaned, worked in the garden, cooked, etc.
Last week was no record breakers in mileage or workouts, BUT it was more diverse then I have been in awhile.
Monday- kettlebell & running (5 miles)
Tuesday-swimming (1200m) & running (4 miles)
Wednesday- kettlebell
Thursday-swimming (1200m) & biking (20 miles)
Friday- kettlebell
It was nice to ease back on the mileage a bit and mix it up. Yeah I probably should have gotten another run & another bike ride in, but oh well. Not the end of the world.
In other news. I didn’t get picked for jury duty today! Yay! A whole lot of time wasted to only pick jurors for one trial. One lowly trial? WTF? Apparently everyone is going for plea deals or something. I did enjoy the change of scenery leaving work for a couple hours…..although I did get a bit behind on emails for a bit, I seemed to be a popular person today.
Oh and Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all the moms, including my amazing mom and mother-in-law!!! We had a fabulous brunch with them and the families yesterday morning. I made a couple of easy & fairly quick frittatas, scones, toast/english muffins and fruit salad. Yum!
What did you do for Mother’s Day? When was the last time you took a good rest break?
Hope your week is off to a great start!
Britt
Arriba! Arriba!!
Did you have your margarita today? If not……. your lame.
YUM! So good I had two.
The past two days have been so BEAUTIFUL! Actually most of this week has been beautiful…… I hope this trend continues.
I’ve gotten some good workouts in……
Yesterday……..
Workout #1: swam 1200 m, did 1000m in about 20 minutes. That time includes a few breaks, but I’m trying to pick up the pace. Figured out my lap counting, breaking it down into 100m, so 2 full laps. I can definitely say I prefer the 6am swim over the noon swim, so much easier to come home and get ready for work (pool is like maybe 1/2 mile from our house). Plus it was quieter! Only issue, saw an old English teacher in the buff in the locker room…. eeks. The joys of moving back to the town you grew up in.
Workout #2: after work I was going to hit up a club track workout….. but the weather didn’t look too promising, gorgeous all day and then storm clouds moved in as soon as I left work. So I chanced it and just went for a 4 mile or so run…. stupid Garmin couldn’t catch a satellite signal for almost 2 miles……gggrrrrr…. Still feeling slower than molasses.
Today……
Workout: Kettlebell…. today was more of a crossfit day though. First, heavy deadlifts (5 reps, 4 times) and TRX standing roll out (15 reps x 4). Then Helen (lots of the Crossfit workouts have names).
Helen
400m run
21 x American Swings
12 x Pull Ups
Repeat 3 times. Took me about 10 minutes, would have been less but I had a little collision with another lady. We run outside and there is a blind turn near the end…. we totally slammed into each other. Not pretty. Oh and there is a stop light right there, so we provided some 6:30am entertainment for some folks. Good times.
So the only thing missing from my repertoire so far this week is biking! I’m hopefully going to join the hubby for a ride with his crew tomorrow night after work (see if I can keep up). I did have them pass me while running last night, does that count for something?
Any how, back to tonight. Had me a couple margaritas, the hubby and I split a shrimp quesadilla at the restaurant and then we came home and made some ground turkey tacos. Not too shabby of a Cinquo, eh?
Oh and now we are watching a City Council meeting, cause that is how we roll. So bad ass. Oh and for fun I’m doing laundry, its actually keeping me up as I need to wait for it to finish. You don’t have to iron if you fold it right out of the dryer, right?
Happy tacos & tequila day!!!!
What did you do to celebrate??
Britt
I’m not sure if she is screaming for help or if she is a wicked witch and worried about melting…….
due to the weather, not so much the fact that it was Monday.
It is feeling like SUMMER here, which makes me so happy. I love warm weather.
My dad started with 6am Kettlebell.
Workout
Racked Lunges 5 x 5 per leg
Every 2:00 for 20:00
10 x Jump Squats
5/5 x Snatches (12kg bell)
10 x Push Ups
10 x Swings (16kg bell)
Yep, that woke me up. It was really humid so I was an icky wet mess by the end. Good workout though!
I reported to my first day of jury duty today and immediately was sent back to work. Apparently one of the lawyers for the case set to go was in the hospital…… so no trial this week!
After work it was GORGEOUS out! I had to go for a run. I didn’t map out a route or wear a watch, I just wanted to go run and enjoy. There was a nice light breeze that carried the beautiful smell of all of the lilacs in bloom.
So pretty!! We have LOTS of lilacs around here, it is after all the state flower of NH!
I finished my run by swinging by my in-laws house to pick up the pooch. He had a rough day of lounging around. I guesstimate that I did about 5 miles on my little adventure, oh and I made myself run hills. Must force myself to do hills and speed work!
After dinner out happy little family went for a walk to enjoy the beautiful evening. Logged about another 2 miles or so. Man if only every night could be this beautiful!
The pooch is definitely tuckered out now after all that walking though…… actually I am too. Need to hit the hay early tonight, I’m going to attempt a 6am swim tomorrow! See if I can put your lap counting suggestions to work! (thank you by the way for those)
Hope your week is off to a fabulous start!
Britt