And then I walked home.

by | Sep 20, 2013 | Blogging, Fitness

This is how I started my day – with a walk along the waterfront, ambling my way towards the office and a long workday ahead of me. It’s always a peaceful stroll from where we park – about a half hour away from the office – and I make an effort to head out on the Harborwalk (the longer way) when I can. I had a breakfast date with Devon at Sportello, and although he could have driven me after that, I decided to walk the normal way to start things off right. That’s my happiness tip right there: start the morning off with a walk, and no matter how the day goes, you’ll already have accomplished something. Okay, so the same goes for making your bed. Do both, and you’ll be golden.

Our office was buzzing today – the exciting type of morning in startups: our app was a) somehow above Pinterest yesterday afternoon in the app store rankings. Yes, Pinterest. And then we made Time 50 best apps of 2013. And then someone realized that Jay Leno had actually mentioned RunKeeper on the show, and the video started circulating the office. I got to run our weekly Twitter chat – and I do *love* Twitter. And the afternoon highlight was a team-effort bug bash complete with a gavel spray painted gold with plastic bugs glued to it. For such a hard working group, it’s delightful how silly folks can be. And then my longest meeting was a walking meeting, accompanied by my coworker Rebecca, and her dog Connor. Here he is in the throws of ecstasy. Gotta love that pup!

After work I decided that I’d walk home (Newton home, not New Hampshire, although that’d be a new type of adventure). My plan was to take the “short” way, along the Charles, from Boston, to Allston, to Brighton, and over to Newton. The long way would be on the river itself, but that’s about 9 or 10 miles including all of the curves of the river.

I wasn’t actually sure I’d make it, and I left a little too late to ensure a light passage the whole way, but why not try? Sometimes I amuse myself with these “ambitious” ideas. And by ambitious, I mean, slightly off-balance. I should mention here that I am still sore from working out at the gym on Wednesday. So much so that I was getting up and down like a geriatric (but not my grandmother – she does Tai Chi and Zumba), with stiff limbs all day, and doing a lot of that achy waddling that you hope nobody notices. A run tonight seemed unimaginable, but the one thing I can do, even when sore is walk, so I just left the office with my bag, and started off. Here’s what I came across.

7.77 miles and nearly three hours later, I made it home. And now, I’m expired on the couch. And all of my favorite takeout options have already closed, and I haven’t had dinner yet. And if you’ve made it this far, you might have one last laugh with me: last night, after my second attempt at watching my recorded episode of Broadchurch, Devon fell asleep 8 minutes in, and I paused it. Tonight, I have yet to have eaten, and I’m pretty sure that attempt three is going to be a bust. C’est la vie!

After the rain.

by | Sep 30, 2012 | Challenge

This morning after CrossFit, I made myself a big breakfast of banana and nut butter, eggs with zucchini and pancetta, and a steaming mug of gingerbread coffee. And I sat down to read my gorgeous copy of Nigel Slater’s new Kitchen Diaries II. I’m in love!

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about morning workouts.

After blowing off yesterday’s workout because of the weather, this morning my mission was to head out to CrossFit whether I wanted to or not. And when I woke up to yet another wet dreary day, I sure didn’t want to. But I went anyway. 

Today’s workout was “Kelly” – 5 rounds for time: 400 meter run, 30 Box Jumps (literally just jumping on a box), and 30 Wall Balls (squatting and then throwing a weighted ball many feet above you into the air to hit a line on the wall). The prescribed workout for women was using a 20 inch box for box jumps, and a 14 pound ball for wall balls. I came to class today exhausted, so I decided to scale things. I did step-ups on an 18 inch box, and used a 10 pound wall ball. There was a 35 minute time cap, it was raining, and people were miserable.  I made it through three rounds, a run and step ups.

My favorite moment of the workout was when I passed a fellow gym-mate in the rain as I was dying, and he yelled out, “This is terrible! Great job!!” Nothing like a little bit of commiseration to get through a hard workout. Although I didn’t get to five rounds, at the end, I managed to finish up my final set of wall balls after the clock finished, making it 4 rounds, done.

In the late afternoon, I had a snack of roasted carrots and parsnips, and headed out for a walk.

I’ve been taking many different routes in the past few months trying to explore new places. Today’s walk took me down to the Charles, walking through puddles in the street waiting for the sun to peek out at me. It was beautiful. Here are some of my favorite shots of the afternoon.

Puddle jumping.

New paint jobs.

Preparing for winter.

And this gorgeous pathway.

When I came home, I put together a quick dinner: pork stir fry with pineapple and cashews. I seasoned the pork with salt and pepper, added some chopped ginger, a stir fry sauce of five spice powder, chile flakes, coconut aminos, fish sauce, and some vinegar. Then I added a few cups of pineapple until they were warm, and tossed in some raw cashews. Simple and sweet!

I had mine over a big bowl of cauliflower. No dessert tonight, but we’ve been watching backlogged episodes of Doctor Who because I apparently missed the fact that the *new season* has been airing. Thank goodness for BBC America and On Demand.