weekend casual | that time of year again

The hubs braved the cold, windy and wet conditions to run a 7:30 half-marathon pace. We made it out just in time to see him past by and this, unfortunately, was the best shot I took.


jacket: Gap / jeans: AG / boots: Nordstrom Rack / scarf: India / bag: MarcJacobs
Only in Houston will you find muggy 70+ degree weather one day and cold 40s the next. Finally had a reason to bust out my bright cords today!

on the mat | early morning

Over the past two and a half years, I have slowly adjusted my practice from mostly evenings to the early morning. Being limber before the sun is out can be a bit difficult, especially in cooler winter months, and getting up at least an hour before practicing helps. Our only evening practice is Friday after work, which is a fantastic way to end the week.

No moon days this week so I managed 6 days of practice, Sun-Fri and have felt pretty good, with the exception of my left wrist. Doing upward facing dogs hurts if I have my wrist at a certain angle and with all the vinyasas we have in practice, this has put a lot of strain on it. I am hoping today's rest day will help, as well as some Aleeve and ice!

I ran twice at the park this week as well, this morning as well as yesterday morning. Again, with running, starting early for me is key because then the work out is out of the way and, especially in summer heat and humidity, the temperatures are more bearable. The cool 60s this morning was a nice change from the 80+ humidity we have had this week.

I have a 3 day weekend and am going to do my best to savor every last second. 

a little run

I have finally gotten off my a$$ and started running, albeit very slow, again. I am an early morning exerciser, whether it be yoga, running, lifting weights, boot camp, whatever. So when I get serious about one thing (yoga, these days), my interest in other forms of exercise wanes.



 
For some odd reason, stopping the running, practicing yoga 5-6 days/week, cutting out about 85% of gluten from my diet and not eating meat has actually helped me to lose weight without even trying. But I feel like I need a bit more cardio in my life, so my goal for March will be to run 1-3 morning/week (basically on the days I don't practice). This should be a completely doable goal and writing in on the old blog will make me more accountable.
 
Have a great weekend!

My new favorite travel outfit

top: H&M
tank: Lululemon
skirt: Old Navy
shoes: B. Makowsky, remix'd
hat: Target
necklace: Francesca's, remix'd

I wore this outfit on Friday evening on our way to Miami, as well as a version of it on our way home this morning (back in Texas today - boo!). I finally got a maxi skirt and I have to say, I am a major fan. Comfy, flattering and stylish...what's not to love.

We have returned to triple-digit temperatures here in H-town. Joe and I made the mistake of running right before lunch. Not the best idea in the world, but at least I sweat any remaining mojito out of my system. Happy Monday to you!

A whole lotta nothing

Joe and I ran a 5K in the Heights on Saturday morning. And while I still don't run very fast I hit a PR (as did Joe - just over 19 minutes!).

Don't know if you can tell, but it's feeling like a sauna outside these days and we are much sweatier in the after shot!

I also had a photoshoot with the most adorable family in the world.

He is just so cute! He really has the sweetest disposition.

And I love his expression in this photo...like, "are we done already?!?"

While shooting this pose, he was propping himself up on his arms and trying his best to move around! Didn't quite succeed, but he is going to be mobile before we know it!

Today walking outside felt even more like a sauna. On days like this getting motivated to dress cutely yet weather appropriate can be difficult. That's why I have declared this to be the summer of the sundress Sunday. What could be easier than throwing on a dress and a pair of sandals? Add some cool shades and I'm all set!dress: Loft, remix'd
sandals: J. Crew, remix'd
shades: Tom Ford, remix'd

And this is what we did this afternoon. I really wish we had a pool in our own backyard!

Slow and steady

Half-marathon time again! This season I have not been running as much as I should, and it showed in my time (just under 2:15, I think). I was really suffering the last 1.5 miles - mentally I felt I could run faster but physically my body said no. My calves were tightening up and I had to stop and stretch them multiple times. At one point I got a charlie horse in my calf and nearly fell over! I really finished through sheer force of will. So I guess this means I need to redeem myself next year? Maybe, we'll see about that!

Tonight is the start of awards season - the Golden Globes. One of my boys is having a party so that's what will be doing later...

Halfway

I can't believe January is already half over - eep! I have been trying to get organized, but don't seem to be very successful. Today was the 1st Saturday in 3 weeks that I had to work - wasn't fun but wasn't too painful either.

We are running the half-marathon tomorrow so am having an early night, although we did meet some friends for some pre-dinner cocktails.

I have really been addicted to cardis this season...


The boy in the middle, Z, is celebrating his birthday tonight (although it was technically 2 nights ago). Unfortunately we couldn't join everyone for dinner because of aforementioned race. And off to bed I go!

For the love of the run

This morning I just couldn't bring myself to drive to Memorial and run another loop. So I decided to wait until the sun was almost up and run from home. And I'm glad I did. I just ran until I didn't feel like running anymore, at whatever pace I was feeling, and actually enjoyed it, humidity and all. I guess the concern of keeping a certain time or distance can take the fun out of running. I forgot I like to run after all!And it's kind of cool to see the city in the early morning light.

Baby's it's miserable outside

I think I may just give up on running this summer. The thermometer read 82degrees this morning at 5 AM!! 5 AM! By the time I had finished 1 loop around Memorial I was sweating like no tomorrow - and the sun was not even out! This is ridiculous!

Happy birthday Tingaling! {eta photos}

I love you more than you know! (p.s. photos to come...I am on our laptop and not the desktop at this moment).

In other, less celebratory news, today is also National Running Day. M-park was like Grand Central Station! And we were sweating up a storm. (again photos laters)Have a great day!

early morning run

Summer is about here. We were hot and humid running at Memorial this morning - and it wasn't even 6 am!! Now I have to get re-aquainted with running in the humidity for the next 5 months...

Now I am a bit sore

...from all the running. Yesterday we had a fun afternoon at Berry Hill, where my friend JB asked why we liked to run. I couldn't give him a really good answer except that although I don't like the pain during the process I like how I feel afterwards. And yes, I guess I do get a bit of a runner's high early on, but usually towards the end of a race I ask myself "Why?" Because I am a runner, that's why!

PR!

I ran the houston half-marathon this morning in 1:59:59. I wanted to run it in under 2 hours, so made it by the hair on my chinney-chin-chin! I think this calls for a celebratory margarita...care to join?

Sigh

Just getting ready for my first Monday back at work in a very long time. Hopefully it won't be too busy.

The weather turned cold cold cold last night, so of course I stayed in my warm bed (with my warm hubby) instead of getting up and running. I can't believe the half-marathon is less than 2 weeks away now...not sure if I will be running it under 2 hours!

Lazy day

I have not run since Christmas morning! Just hard to get back in the swing of things, I guess. I've been more inspired to organize and photoshop photos, do a little scrappin' and surfin' on the computer than drag my butt out into the cold to run. I must get at least 1 run in tomorrow before the new year!

It's a mental sport

Running not only requires physical fitness but mental fitness as well. Some days you are raring to go, others not so much. Today was one of those other days for me. My plan was to run 6 miles, but I just wasn't feeling it today. So I stopped after 3 and barely felt guilty about it! I wasn't really that tired, but I just couldn't make myself run anymore. Maybe it was the cold - the temperature fell from 76 to 46 degrees last night. Only here in H-town!

Other news - the hubs has been feeling sick lately. He went to the doctor yesterday but all she gave him was allergy medication. And he isn't feeling much better. So I didn't get a good photo this morning.

I have been good keeping up with my Christmas journal. Keeping it simple has helped. I plan on adding my December photos to the back of the layout.

Our computer has been acting up - I got some spam on Facebook and I think it's infecting our hardware - boo. So right now having difficutly adding photos on blogger. Will post photos later...

Brrr...

It was chilly and windy this morning during our run. Which I don't mind because that means the day will probably be nice, but it makes it hard to get motivated to get out of our nice warm bed!

We are short-staffed at work this week (one tech out because she just had a baby and one out because of a staph infection!) so it's been rather stressful. I just want to make it through today and relax all weekend long! Our good friend Cindy is in town to visit and celebrate her birthday and then craft Sunday with Tingaling...haven't seen her in what feels like forever!

Good weekend

I am happy we were in town this weekend and I didn't have to work all weekend either! We still managed to be pretty busy but I was also happy that we got to spend time with peeps we haven't seen in forever!

I spent the better part of Saturday shopping with Tinger. She wanted to find a dress to wear to her friend's wedding next weekend. We didn't have much success to buying a new dress, but she did get a super cute jacket at Lot 8 {note to self: take photos of purchases once bought!}. We decided to check out the sale at Nordrom's and hit the Galleria for lunch. We didn't buy anything but we did see Dr. Rey live, hawking some skin care products!(Oops, we actually did buy some Clinique products to get a free Trina Turk makeup bag!)That evening we met up at Marc's co-worker's downtown loft for some drinks before seeing Kathy Griffin. She was hilarious!

On Sunday Joe and Greg ran a 25K race, part of the warm up series for the Houston marathon. They both ran fast (Joe finished in 1:50 and Greg in 2:05) and I enjoyed watching instead of participating! I went to yoga as well before having lunch with Joe, Greg and Marc. The rest of the day was spent relaxing with the nice sunny weather.

I am a bit sore this morning but am planning to go to yoga again. Now that marathon training is over I want to get my yoga groove back on!

Marathon weekend

...in more ways than one! We were in NYC for Halloween as well as the marathon so got to experience different sides of the city. For our Halloween costumes were dressed as the nativity scene: I was Mary, Joe was Joseph, Bill was Baby Jesus, Juan was a shephard, Marvin was a sheep and Mark and Jason were 2 wisemenBill was probably the funniest baby Jesus ever!We walked in the Village parade for a little while, but it was just madness. Other things we did on Friday: marathon expo...where we saw Peter Reid, a 3-time Hawaii Ironman winner (I think we were the only peeps at the Expo who knew who he was!)shopped in SohoOn Saturday we took it easy and hung out in the East VillageAnd Sunday was the marathon!
I finished in 4:36, which I was pleased with, especially since I was cramping up pretty badly the last 8 miles.
Now it's back to the real world...boo!

51 miles

I cannot believe I ran 51 miles this week! It's definitely a record for me. Joe has been coaching me for the NYC marathon and I am in the best running shape I have been in a long time. Today was my last long run (woo hoo!) - 22 miles. I completed it in under 2 hours and 40 minutes, with the last 2 miles being about 9 minute miles, which I hardly ever do. My legs are tired and my feet hurt but I survived!

Here we are at the top of the 2nd set of garage hills.And a tired E at the end of the 22 miles.NYC, here I come!