Braving the Cold: Texas Style

We woke up yesterday morning and it was 28 degrees in Dallas. Brrrr!! Just a week and a half ago we were both getting in a run separately in what seemed like spring time weather – 70ish degrees.  Texas you are so fickle with your weather! Then last night there were snow flurries in different parts of the metroplex – snow flurries!

Ever since we spent four plus hours out in the cold and rain running our first ever marathon neither one of us has been super excited about going out and running in the cold.  Have you noticed a lot of treadmill runs out of us lately?  Of course we did go run the New Year’s Double races in colder temperatures, but it was racing that got us out of bed for that one.  Getting out of bed and running by ourselves in the cold – no way, Jose!

Back to yesterday morning – We were lucky to be able to have breakfast with our friend Rebekah who tagged along with her husband on his work weekend. So we got to spend time with Rebekah and baby Eliza again!

At breakfast we both said “I am NOT running outside today. TOO COLD.” And then basically discussed how we would work our time in on the dreadmill. Yuck! We left there intending to do treadmill runs. I am pretty sure we both got home and said – “Seriously?? Buck up!” Apparently we both decided to brave the cold at the same time and both reached for our phones to text the other –

B: I think I might brave the cold for hills and then run later tonight at the gym.

T: Haha, I literally picked up the phone to tell you the same!  I’m going to try and get 8? Hope I don’t freeze

Teal headed out for her 8 mile run dressed for snow!

She continues to have serious issues with being cold. For Christmas her mom had bought her Under Armour water proof gloves which very much remind her of the infamous OJ Simpson gloves, but who cares? They are super thick! Slapped those on, found her ear covers and had two shirt layers on as well as a jacket. Mind you it’s now about 40 degrees outside but whatever!

Thank god we don’t live anywhere further north. Teal’s 8 miles went very well. Ran a pretty hilly course at a fairly slow pace and felt great. Her foot, in case you were curious is doing much better!  It still reminds her that it is hurt in runs but is making great progress. Along with the foot Teal thinks that her post-marathon cold trauma is fading!  Well maybe…

Here is a picture of the course Teal ran –

Beth had not done her hill workout for the week or her long run so she decided Sunday would be a double run day.  Seeing as it was in the low 40’s that meant she should dress like it was in the low 60’s, so she figured it would be a good time to take her new lululemon shorts for a spin to test them out for the Princess Half.  And for good measure threw on a hat to keep warm!

As of late when Beth does hills she tries to get a little mileage in, the hills, and then some additional mileage and that’s exactly how today went.  A little over a mile out, ran the hill 10 times, and not quite 2.5 miles to finish it up for a 5.17 mile run.

We did it! We ran outside again and might not be so terrified of the low temperatures anymore!  Call us wimps all you like….but we live in Texas and have for pretty much forever!  We don’t know truly cold weather.

6.2 Things Friday

1. Two weeks from today we leave for Florida for the Princess Half.  Tired of this countdown yet? 🙂

2. Beth did her first ever tempo run on the treadmill Wednesday night. Check it out:

3.  Unfortunately Teal isn’t going to be able to do the Hot Chocolate Run on Saturday. 🙁

4. Because she’ll be busy taking her certification test for counseling!  Yah, another big thing with grad school that will be out of the way!

5.  Disneyland Half – we are officially REGISTERED!  Coast to Coast medal we are coming for you!

(source)

6.1 Last night Teal participated in her first ever social run at Luke’s Locker!  Got in 4 miles with the group and can’t wait to go again!

6.2 Last but NOT least! Beth finalized all of her Bridesmaids by asking her longest friend in life this past weekend over dinner!  They’ve known each other since they were 6 years old.

What was a highlight to your week – running or non-running related?

Tagged: Beth Edition

1. Which of your race medals is your favorite? Why?

It’s hard to say a medal other than the New Year’s Double medal.  I mean seriously, the weight of it! The way it’s put together and how we got it! It’s just awesome plus it does represent the first time ever doing back to back half marathons, BUT I will say that the White Rock Marathon medal comes in verry close to the NYD medal!

2. It’s a leap year! What are you going to do with your extra day on February 29th?

Probably just be thankful because it being a leap year enables Brent & I to get married on the day that he proposed to me – October 27th!

3. What food can you not live without?

I definitely go in stages of the food I LOVE! Goldfish for a long time have been the food I love but I rarely buy them because I’ll eat the whole bag. Ha, but for awhile now it’s been egg rolls. Ha I looooove egg rolls! I eat a lot of Lean Cuisine’s version of them to not be eating high calorie egg rolls.

4. What race is your dream race? Why?

I would say that my dream race is The Kauai Marathon!  Absolutely love Hawaii and then Kauai is just beautiful! I’d love a chance to go back there and run!  Plus the view on that course? Has to be amazing!  Because of the time difference, travel time and money I’d need to save up for that race it seems like a dream!

5. What cartoon character are you most like? Why?

Uhhh, well cartoon character automatically makes me think about Disney and if I had to pick a Disney Princess I think I’m most like I’d say Belle and conveniently that’s who I am dressing up as for the Princess Half at the end of the month!

(source)

6. Does each pair of sock have a “left” sock and a “right” sock?

Uhh, they are socks. Ha, if I manage to have two that are the same or even have two at times it’s a miracle! 🙂

7. What is your favorite way to cross train?

SPIN!!  I’ve been regularly going to spin class for about 5 years now! I own a pair of spin shoes because I love it so much!  You know how runners (myself included) get a runner’s high? I also get a spinning high!

8. What is your favorite race shirt?

Ummm, I don’t totally have one. Just love races that give me long sleeve regular shirts! The design of the Dallas Turkey Trot shirts are always great!

9. Do you have a bucket list?

Nope!  My friend Rebekah and I once had a list of things we wanted to do locally, domestically and internationally but I think I lost it.  Bucket lists are great and I’m interested in what I’d come up with to put on it….

10. Do you have a certain song that you always put at the beginning of your playlists?

Not really, but I kind of get addicted to certain songs.  For example – Sean Kingston’s Fire Burnin’ LOVE singing that song. Ha, I memorized all the words to it. 🙂

That body is a masterpiece the order is one in every hundred years but ain’t no doubt I’m takin’ it home, home

Little mama game about to change, She’ll be on covers all over the world 🙂

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkyhvCdJ_vM&ob=av2n]

11. Do you think I am crazy for signing up for the Tough Mudder?

Yes, haha, but a good kind of crazy!  Betsy you are awesome and will do GREAT! I feel like I’d hurt myself in that type of a race!

11 Random Things:

1.  I am a fourth Swedish

2.  I went to the same private school here in Dallas as Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl…know who I’m talking about? He was two grades below me and I remember seeing him when I was in 10th grade when I’d go over and take pictures of the middle schoolers for yearbook. Kind of gave you two things there – yes, I worked on the yearbook at my school.  Also, if you’re a dude and don’t know who I am talking about – his sister married Tony Romo.

(source)

3. I hate talking on the phone. Ha.  When I was little I was SOOO shy that my mom would make me call the pizza guy and anyone else like that so that I could get over my dislike for talking on the phone and especially to people I didn’t know.

4.  As a little kid I just didn’t talk much and was reeeeeeally shy up until I was in high school.  My poor youth pastor & his wife took me to lunch when I was 12 years old and I maaybe said 20 words the whole time. Haha, oh how times have changed!

5.  It really isn’t represented enough in our blog, but I’m an Aggie!  WHOOP!! =)

6.  I’ve been to the ER twice in my life and both trips were within 48 hours of each other. *knocks on wood*

7. I LOVE movies!  I have been going to the movie every week with one of my friends for a little over 3 years now.

8.  With that last one said my all time favorite movie is Empire Records!

AJ: What’s with you today?

Lucas: What’s with today, today?  

So many great quotes and songs in that movie!

9. The Laughing Toilet – that’s what my older bro, older sister and two older boy cousins started calling me for a brief period of time when I was little.  Apparently at the time I was sick and if I started laughing I’d start coughing and it was a deep cough so you know that sounds like a laughing toilet?  Toilets laugh? Older siblings & relatives can be so mean! 😉

(source)

10. As a child I LOVED Barbies! I played with them until I was like 10 years old….uh, all my friends had stopped at that point. But not all of my friends had cool Barbie clothes their Grandmom sewed for them like I did!

11.  I got the chicken pox when I was 5 & 6…I say 5 & 6 because I had them on my birthday. 🙂  Neither one of my granddads had ever had the chicken pox so I remember sitting in the front entry way of our house with the door open waving at them and them standing by their cars telling me happy Birthday from there because they weren’t going to get any closer to me.

As an added bonus for the few Colorado peeps that read our blog and because 12 is my favorite number –

12. If I had to tell you one thing my family repeats about something I did as a kid it would be when we were on a family trip to Colorado and I said “Hey, dad, does Ouray have a telephone?”

Tagged: Teal Edition

Ok, so Betsy over at The EverydayWarrior tagged us in this 11 Random Things about yourself and answer 11 questions she came up with.  We are going to be rebellious and only answer and then nothing past that…AND to keep you from reading forever we are breaking it up into two posts! Look for Beth’s post next week.

1. Which of your race medals is your favorite? Why?

New Year’s Double Medal because it is amazing. It is the largest medal I have, it’s in TEAL, and the race was the most fun I think you can have running back to back half marathons over New Year’s Eve and Day when most are drinking and partying, just a good way to end and start and a badass medal to go along. 

2. It’s a leap year! What are you going to do with your extra day on February 29th?

I wish I could say sleep but that won’t happen and since it’s a Wednesday I’ll be working both of my jobs that day… BOOOO!

3. What food can you not live without?

Really I can live without anything… I love goldfish and french-fries but I usually avoid both. No real “addictions” or “must haves”

4. What race is your dream race? Why?

Haha um really it would be Boston but I would NEVER qualify. I really want to run and overseas race but I don’t know which one- Italy, Greece??

5. What cartoon character are you most like? Why?

don’t know so I took a test and it said Jasmine, but I always wanted to be Ariel! Does that help??

6. Does each pair of sock have a “left” sock and a “right” sock?

NOPE! I hate socks and shoes for that matter, most of the time my socks don’t even match and I totally don’t care what foot they end up on.

7. What is your favorite way to cross train?

Spin but I am learning to swim and I think once I actually get the hang of it I will seriously enjoy it.

8. What is your favorite race shirt?

White Rock Marathon Finisher Shirt- not the best “looking” but my fav for the obvious reason!

9. Do you have a bucket list?

No but I really need to write one! I’ve actually thought about that for a while and kind of sealed the deal when the lady this weekend said she was crossing the finish line at 3M to fulfill a part of her bucket list at 62. I want one!

10. Do you have a certain song that you always put at the beginning of your playlists?

I have always, at least since the start of running long distance, have had “Right Now” by Van Halen- its on every playlist so I guess I’ll go with that!

11. Do you think I am crazy for signing up for the Tough Mudder?

Yep!! Certifiable in fact!  I once ran the Mud Run which was the worst thing ever! I hated every minute and then was hosed off in the freezing cold by a fire hose, had mud in my ears and things for a week, and even got a blister that had mud in it. You have fun with that one crazy lady.

11 Random Things:

  1. I am 100% in love with Jimmy Fallon – he is my number 1 on my “celebrities I would marry list.” Hot and funny
  2. I  don’t like watching movies
  3. I don’t like shoes or socks and only wear them because the world basically makes you
  4. I still have to use my hands to determine my right from my left- I always get it wrong. Something must be missing between my brain and my hands
  5. I can name all the members of the WuTang clan
  6. In the 3rd grade I memorized the Gettysburg Address- The entire freaking thing and was able to recite it to my class. I can still recite parts of it (mostly the 1st section)
  7. I am a rule follower – makes me very anxious to not follow the rules and many times this annoys me
  8. Pumping gas is one of my least favorite things to do and I typically test the limits of my car’s ability to run on empty all the time.
  9. I have never broken a single bone in my body and hope to keep it that way
  10. I’m learning to swim- right now I look like a dying fish but that’s ok!
  11. I’m actually very, very shy.

 

*Jimmy Fallon picture from Glamour

January Report Card & February Goals

It’s that time to give you the good & bad of our January goals!

Teal:

1.  Attend a minimum of 10 yoga classes at Sunstone.  This is big time for me! I only had 25 classes last year. I took a huge break!  : A+ Crushed this! As of 1/31 I have attended 16 classes!


2.  Complete one extra day of weight training on my own.  I train with Will two days a week, but that is all the weight training I do.  I am scared of that side of the gym when I am alone, so I am going to buck up and start a progression of doing weights on my own.  Not that I am getting rid of Will, I just need to stop being a baby. C+: I only did my “extra” weight work out twice in 4.5 weeks but definitely feel more comfortable going to that side of the gym on my own.


3.  Lose 4 pounds. I am stuck! I hate it and want to be unstuck! F: besides losing my cleanse weight to get me back to my “normal weight” I technically have only lost .5lbs according to the scale I use with my trainer- oh how I love being stuck…

4.  Read a book for pleasure!  Graduate school has killed any fun reading that I once did.  I have chosen to read Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s by John Elder Robison. A-: Well, I finished literally today (or shall is say night) and the only reason I finished was because it was “due” today for the goal- I did however read another book in between this about food and wellness, so bonus points for that! And PS- I really did not like this book 😉

Beth:

1.  Complete 200 yoga classes.  The very end of January 2011 was when I started yoga and my goal all along was to complete 200 in one year.  I broke that goal into 50 classes every 3 months.  As of this morning I have 29 more classes to go!  A+:  Might have had to do 3 classes in one day to obtain this goal, but I DID IT!!! 200 yoga classes in 1 year!  The best part was I took my 200th class with my friend that got me started in yoga and went to that very first class with me, so she also got to go to my 200th class with me!  Shout out to the awesome @HeadPantsNow!

200 wristband bling from Sunstone Yoga

2.  Do a hill workout every week.  If I blew off a day in my training schedule it was always hills, and I know I will benefit from doing them SO much. C:  I only did two hill workouts…..

3.  Organize my room! I love organization, but for the past year I feel like I’m running from one thing to the next.  All the organizing I once did has gone out the window, and it really makes me sad that I now resemble a messy person. :( A+:  There was one weekend in our 10 day cleanse and that Saturday to distract myself I CLEANED!  Then it got messy again and I finally got the last bits organized.  I took before and after pictures, but y’all I REALLY do like cleanliness so I’m totally embarrassed to show these….

Before

Got rid of clothes, old magazines, bagged old running shoes to take to local running store & threw away a lot!

Final product...and you can see I still have one itty bitty pile on the floor :-/

4.  Find a caterer for my wedding!  This is the next big item I want to get crossed of my wedding to do list! B+:  My goal was to either have it completed or be well on the way towards having a caterer.  My venue has a preferred vendor list and the person I want to use is not on that list, so they had to get approval to be my caterer.  My venue has approved the caterer, I’ve had a lengthy phone call with the caterer, reviewed menus of their’s and given what we want and don’t want.  As of now I am waiting to get a potential menu or two then schedule a tasting!

We each have one last goal that we are both doing –

5. Complete a 10 day Advocare cleanse.  A+:  You all know that though because we did a recap a couple weeks ago!

We are both pretty proud of ourselves, obviously there are areas to work on and we will keep on working!  With that said here is what’s on tap for February for us:

Teal:

1.  Let’s try this damn weight/fat loss thing again- I’ll keep it at 4lbs. Wish me luck, perseverance, and calmness through the frustration. I know this will fix itself eventually!

2.  Paint my bedroom and hang the pictures – I have had the paint and the frames for our prints since the end of December and they have tortured me ever since.

3.  Read about and become more knowledgeable about Clean Eating, general good nutrition and Gluten. I have purchased Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis and Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. The goal is to read both this month.

4.   Make the foam roller my best friend and roll at least once a day, and complete ALL given Physical Therapy for my foot which includes stretching/tennis ball rolling at breakfast, lunch, and before bed and ice 1-2 times per day.

Beth:

1. HILLS! Do them once a week – for real this time!

2. Wedding Schtuff – Part A: Get outfits settled on (for both of us) & take engagement pictures!  Part B: Finish two of my three registries! <—Just want those things done and over with! Ha, is that a bad way to phrase it?

3.  Lose 5 pounds!  I’m taking engagement pictures this month, so a  few pounds off and working towards a smaller weight for upcoming races needs to happen!

4.  Clean the craft/guest/whatever room!  My sister and I have a guest room at our house and we each kind of have half of it to ourselves and then a teeny tiny twin bed sits in the middle of it. Ha, we are both former, big-time scrapbookers so we have got crafts galore in there!  This will be my next room I conquer!

We are once again doing a joint goal this month!  We have decided to….

5.  Both participate in #FabAbFeb:

Overall, Teal feels like if she took these grades home she’d be grounded.  What do you think?  And Beth is pretty happy with her grades but is ready to hit the mark in hills class. What do you think?

Austin, 3M Volunteering & Weekend of Good People!

Ok, so we left you with our “Seven Things Friday” and we figured to recap our weekend we’d let you see how we did on those seven things, so here goes.

1. We are going to AUSTIN today after work!! Wheee!

Well we did and we made it back safe & sound!  Though we are still trying to work on the whole teleportation thing so we don’t have to endure the hours in the car!

2.  So that we can volunteer at the 3M Half Marathon!

We had two volunteer shifts over the weekend and our first was Saturday working packet pickup.  We walked in and were immediately put behind computers next to each other to help check people in.  Those 4 hours fa-lew by!  So many happy runners coming to pickup their bib, chip and awesome swag bag!

It was so sad hearing stories of people who thought they were registered for the race, but their registration really did not go through or they thought they’d still be able to get a spot, but it was sold out.  Definitely a lesson in registering ASAP and double checking your confirmation!

Then we were up bright & early race day morning to help pass out medals.  Along with other volunteers, we unwrapped 6,000 medals for the half & half relay which took about an hour and a half or so.

We had good timing because the first person to finish came in completing his half right around 1:07.  The 1:40 to 2:15 finish time frame was the when the BIG rush came in.  It was awesome!  Seeing the finishers’ faces and being able to congratulate them!  Some people were so excited that they even asked Teal if it was time for a smooch.  Then there were tamer moments like when Beth put a medal around a man’s neck and he wrapped his arms (stinky, sweaty and all) around her for a hug.

The whole time we were looking for our friends who were out there running to finish.  Our first familiar face was from C-Stand [we can’t stop calling you that :)]!!

Pretty positive it was those crazy pants that gave her a kick ass (sorry mom, we used the a word) PR!! Way to go lady! 😉  But really, Courtney, you killed it out there WAY TO GO for real!

Just a few minutes later in came Courtney a.k.a. @cisforcourtney who was easily spotted by us in her purple tank, Teal  yelled out to her and she came running over to us!  It was so cool to put that shiny medal around her neck!  You’ll have to check out her bloggy blog to see how awesome her PR was!

We also got to see and medal Lesley (@RacingItOff) and Tricia (@TriciaRunning) after their beer race 🙂  You ladies awesome! We have managed to see Lesley at a handful of races in Dallas, but it’s never for thaaat long. We have got to fix that!

We should mention we saw a couple of familiar faces from New Years Double out there too! Each of us spoke to one of them briefly – other NYD runners would know him as the marathon winner of New Year’s Eve and her as the half marathon winner of both days!

It was neat to be there and see the entire spectrum of runners out there from an 11 year old boy running his first half to a 62 year old woman crossing off “run a half marathon” from her bucket list.  She was so proud of herself, as she should be, because she could tell her kids that run marathons she had completed a half marathon. LOVED that!  We were there to see the 30 year old first finisher cross the finish line to the 69 year old who was the person to run across that finish line and regardless of their time each of them had such a sense of accomplishment to them!  Just further proving running is really for anyone with a goal!  Such. A. Great. Experience!

3. We are SO excited to get to meet Courtney & Luke!

Obviously you know we saw Courtney at the end of her race, but we first got to FINALLY meet her and Luke during our packet pickup shift! Who doesn’t love meeting someone and being handed over de-licious goodness in the form of a s’mores cupcake??  We also got to hangout with them for a little bit Saturday night too at this cute bar – Dive Bar.  While it was fun to hang with them that night it was at a bar where it was hard to talk and all hear each other, so we were grateful for the opportunity to see them Sunday afternoon too at Austin Java!  Courtney & Luke, you two are awesome!  We loved getting to see you, spend time with you and we can’t wait for the next time!! 🙂

You two are wonderful and we WISH we lived in the same city as you guys!

4.  We are officially signed up for the ZOOMA Austin Half on March 31, 2012!!

Yep, we still are!! 🙂  THAT didn’t change over the weekend, so you should sign up if you STILL have not…AND we still have a coupon code good through TODAY!  You know you wanna!!

5.  Neither of us have actually run in Austin and you know what? We are going to change that this weekend!

OOPS!! Yah, we didn’t!! Wait, we saw a bunch of runners, does that count?? Guess we’ll change that when we run ZOOMA!

6.  We canNOT wait to get coffee at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf – have been dreaming about it since our last trip to Austin!

Yep, we went there! TWICE!  One trip there we might have gotten more than one drink! 🙂  It is safe to say that we are also a fan of their breakfast food there! We would have made a third trip there but we cheated and went to Austin Java.  Brigid to answer you question the other day – when we go there Teal gets either a sugar free caramel latte or vanilla latte and Beth tends to stick with Hazelnut.  If we are remembering correcting all of their drinks with milk are made with non fat milk.  And now we are dreaming about them again…..

7.  We really wanted to post 27 things…

Aren’t you glad we didn’t post 27 things this time either?? 🙂

We also would like to say thank you to Mary Alice for once again letting us crash with you!  And thanks to Mandy & her cute little munchkin, Meranda for meeting us for dinner Saturday night!

Seven Things Friday

1. We are going to AUSTIN today after work!! Wheee!

2.  So that we can volunteer at the 3M Half Marathon!

(source)

3. We are SO excited to get to meet these two:

 You know also known as @runthetrailsCO & @cisforcourtney

4.  We are officially signed up for the ZOOMA Austin Half on March 31, 2012!! We have a discount code good through the 31st for $5 off the 5k or $10 off the Half! Let us know if you want to join us and we’ll let ya have it! 🙂

5.  Neither of us have actually run in Austin and you know what? We are going to change that this weekend!

6.  We canNOT wait to get coffee at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf – have been dreaming about it since our last trip to Austin!

7.  We really wanted to post 27 things because, uh, duh – today is the 27th! BUT we thought that was excessive and that we wanted to keep our readers around! 😉  Thanks for hanging in there with us! 🙂

[Not Entirely] Marathon Running Weekend Part 2

Last year we both ran the Too Cold to Hold race together and just on whim decided to do it again. Beth mentioned wanting to run and Teal of course agreed. It’s not too hard to persuade each other to run something around here! You might recall Teal’s recap of her 5k on Saturday which started out at 36 degrees and in keeping with the craziness that is Texas weather, we were again not too surprised that our run started out Sunday morning at 52 degrees and ended up with a high of 78 for the day. Definitely NOT Too Cold too Hold!

We really were not all that prepared again for this race and had to discuss directions again.  Whoops!  Hopefully this direction problem isn’t turning into a trend. 🙂 We got to the park and made a b-line to the port-o-potties as usual. We ran into one of Beth’s Fiancé’s friend’s Hanes who we didn’t know would be there!

We waited around and met/chatted with many of our twitter friends and even met some new people in real life! SO good to meet Lee a.k.a. @runneronabudget and his son, Angel out there! Bonus for sure and really chatting with them was the only really highlights of this day.

We started out the race together as we both basically decided to run this race as a training run and not a true race since we have been a little off in our training. Beth had run about 9.5 miles on Saturday and Teal around 7, plus both of us did yoga, so our legs were in no way shape or form rested.

The race was in a word “normal”- nothing new or different and no real problems besides this dude who kept swerving in and out from us. At one point he basically cut Beth off weaving, would run backwards, look back and weirdly smile and randomly cheer for people whilst running backwards.  We couldn’t decide if he was running tangents or dizzy or what…We have no clue what he was doing but kept us entertained for a while due to he weirdness. 🙂

Around 4.5 we got the BEST surprise! This race is kind of boring because there are literally no spectators besides finished runners at the end so we were both pumped to see Heidi and Brian cheering us on around the turn around. This pumped us up and made it a little easier to keep running.  We made it a point to wave and cheer on our fellow North Texas Runners in an effort to pass time and keep from being bored, and of course be supportive.

A post race pic of our cheerleaders! The Luebs are awesome!

Teal and Beth split at about the 6 mile mark which made the last 3 miles a drain. At around 9 Teal saw Heidi again and she ran her in right up to the finish line! Such a great cheering surprise for a relatively routine and regular race!

Afterwards we hung around to celebrate Michelle’s birthday and eat with our running friends at Fuzzy’s! We got to here all about Greg’s upcoming 100miler at Rocky Raccoon in Huntsville and hang out with their precious girls, an all over great ending to the day!

Frunners!

Shout out to Mama C the awesome picture taker…we stole two pictures from you and the term frunner! =)

Love this photo! Marci and her age group award...a lil Ninja!

Frunners at Fuzzy's!

It was also SO good to meet Michelle a.k.a. Drum at this race!  We finally after a long time of chatting it up on twitter we saw her for two seconds at White Rock Mary but actually got to meet this weekend!  Also, a shout out to Stacy it was SO good to meet you too and hope that we see you again soon..you know not just on twitter! 🙂

Wordless Wednesday No. 16

What do you think? Suggestions?

Slow Cooking Goodness

As we mentioned in our Cleanse Recap that Beth recruited her sister to do the cleanse with her, and after a couple days of eating pretty bland food Kate decided to research recipes that would work for the cleanse.  Ironically enough Kate found a recipe on Tosca Reno‘s website which Teal had introduced Beth to her books this past year!  If you don’t know who Tosca is, well, she is the author of the Eat-Clean Diet series as well as a model, spokesperson, media personality, motivational speaker/wellness consultant and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner.  Even if her recipes aren’t ALL for you there is a lot in her books/cookbooks to look over, draw inspiration from and just experiment with on your own personal preferences.

Beth conveniently bought a crockpot for Kate for Christmas which allowed us to try out Tosca Reno’s Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken recipe from her website!

Top is all the ingredients in the crockpot and the bottom is the meal on top of brown rice ready to eat!

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This meal is definitely a realistic clean eating alternative for you, your family or to have for multiple meals in one week!  We made the entire recipe two times throughout the cleanse.  The first time Kate was so gracious to share it with Beth & Brent and the second time it was made for two meals each for Kate & Beth.  If you would like to give this recipe a try here is a direct link to the recipe.  Let us know how you like it and if you experimented with it at all!

What is your favorite crockpot meal?  Have you found a lot of healthy eating crockpot meals?