A Very Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful and beautiful day.  Hubs and I drove (back) up to North Carolina yesterday and are spending the weekend in small town America.  Really.  I had to run 10 miles over the summer for marathon training and I ran the perimeter of the town 3 times to get it.  And I still had to run a mile extra after that.  I love it though.  I've always said if we had enough money, I'd love to live on a farm and  live the simple life.

Anyways, I woke up this morning and had a few hours to kill before meal number 1 so I decided to take Jakedog for a little run.  We did the perimeter and added in the cemetery which is right outside the town limits for a total of 4.5 miles.  It felt great and I ended up in a tank and my nike capris by the end.  Here's a picture I caught while we were in the cemetery.

No filter, cause I'm an awesome iPhone photog

Then we headed to the Warren County Volunteer Fire Department for their annual Thanksgiving breakfast fundraiser. This was pretty much the coolest thing ever.  Everyone knew everyone else and the men were excited about getting out and hunting before Thanksgiving dinner.  Here are a few pictures I took while I was there.

Great turnout!

Pancakes, Grits, Bacon and Biscuits

The happy bacon makers

Each of those boxes contained 10 pounds of bacon

The ladder truck, which is an anomaly since there is no building over 2 stories in Warrenton

After breakfast, we went home and got ready for Thanksgiving lunch at a friend's house. I realized I forgot my makeup at home so I'm looking really awesome this weekend and there will be tons of pictures no pictures of me to prove it.  Since we're in the NC woods, Thanksgiving dinner was a compilation of recent kills and veggies from the garden. I loved it. 

Greens, Green Beans, Wild Turkey, Venison, Butter Beans, etc.

My plate... upside down.

Hubby's plate

We had a great little lunch and talked about tasty poor Bambi who was alive two days ago.  It was short and sweet and we headed home to watch the Dog Show and take naps.  Then we woke up and decided to eat some more. 

My MIL is also teaching me how to sew for real.  Hubs bought me a sewing machine a couple years back and I've never really used it so we're taking this long weekend to figure it all out.  Here's what I've got so far.  My BFF is adopting soon and I'm making a cute little coat for her! 

I've got to add a few things, but it's so little and cute!

Now we're watching Glee and relaxing.  Tomorrow is another full day of eating and baking.  I get up early to run, not shop!  Good luck to everyone who is shopping, and I hope you've had as wonderful a day as we have!

Spinning Saturday with a little Tabata for funsies

Whew.  Just got back from a great personal spin sesh with Amy Lee over at the gym.  I was super into spin last year for like 5 months (it actually kick started my weight loss) and when I started training for the half mary last year, I just let it go by the wayside.

I went this morning because Hubs told me the nagging pain I've had in my foot since like September may actually be a stress fracture and to rest it on the running until Monday or Tuesday to see if it's just a strained tendon or ligament.  So I'm icing, and biking, and ellipticalling.  I had a few minutes before spin class started when I got there so I jumped on the elliptical and put the resistance on high and did a mile.

Just in case you thought I was lying. This was actually my machine too, I didn't creep up on someone else's.

Anyways, since I was the only one in Savannah that wanted to do spin on a Saturday morning, the instructor let me pick what I wanted to do.  I told her since I've been benched forever for a couple days, I needed to get some aggression out and I wouldn't mind long, fast, hard hills. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, ok! So we went on our little journey and I was pissed off at myself so being so enthusiastic about 25 minutes in and I still had 20 minutes to go.  Then she went all tabata on me and for the last 5 minutes we did 20 second sprints up hill with 10 second rests.

That was fun.

I got what I asked for, I guess.  I think I'm going to reincorporate spin into my workout regime.  And I'm gonna try yoga again... I'm gonna keep trying yoga until it sticks.  I just know how good it is for running and I'd really like to be freakishly bendy and instagram it.  I don't care if I can't relax enough to get to that point. It'll happen.

I have added the Blue Ridge Marathon (1/2) to my 2013 race list and it is really hilly. Savannah has no hills, so maybe some bridge running and hardcore spinning will help me out.

What cross training exercises do you like? 

North Carolina Quick Trip

Hi Friends!

Just got back from a very quick 36 hour trip to North Carolina to be with family for a medical procedure.  No worries, everything went swimmingly and hopefully everyone will be home by Thanksgiving! It was nice to catch up with my MIL and SIL (we stayed with them since they live in the area), and Jake got to hang out with his doggie cousins.

The dude behind Jake is not a doggie cousin

We also got to eat some Whole Foods hot bar on the way up there and I got to run at the Duke West Campus when we got the all clear from the awesome staff and surgeons at Duke! The Duke West Campus is beautiful.  It includes the Duke Memorial Gardens and the Duke Chapel, as well as the massive hospital and clinic.  

I'm exhausted so I'm just going to upload my pictures and let them speak for themselves.  :) 

Whole Foods Hot Bar!

Duke Chapel

Fall!

Bad panoramic photo because I was running at the same time!

Decompressing

Spoiled Brat

Blue Ridge Mountain Giveaway!

Hi there friends!

I've been super busy since we got back to Savannah last week... on top of that, I started getting some of the creeping crud on Saturday evening that has just not gone away.  Some Mucinex helped me out today because I was just miserable, now I'm just semi-miserable.

This past weekend I cheered on my friends at the Savannah Rock and Roll Marathon and I'll blog about that later, but just wanted to give everyone a head's up for a contest that is going on over at Marcia's Healthy Slice!!  The Blue Ridge Marathon is in Roanoke, VA... a few miles down the road from where Hubs and I went to school, so I'd love to go up there and run it! Marcia is giving away an entry to this crazy run (America's Toughest Road Race) and you should try and win!