just gathering

just made: energizing raw cacao balls

May 5, 2013 by justgathering
I have a thing for dark chocolate. I’ve been pretty vocal lately about the fact that I’m trying to change this after-dinner habit. It’s not that it’s a bad habit, per se. It’s just that one tiny piece of dark chocolate before bed can easily turn into two or three… or four… generously portioned pieces of dark chocolate, especially when one is caught up in a Downton Abbey marathon.

And anyway, I’m focusing on alkalizing greens and nutrient-dense plant proteins right now.

Still, old habits don’t die. They lie dormant until you’re feeling tired or have depleted all your willpower reserves for the day, and then they reappear in the form of intense nighttime chocolate cravings.

Some nights I have the most delicious chocolate tea, sent to me by my friend Jason to help in my habit transformation. Side note: surprising someone with a high quality tea is one of the nicest things you can do, especially if it’s someone who wouldn’t purchase nice tea for herself. If you are my friend, I will probably send you tea at some point, because it made me so happy when Jason sent tea to me. End side note.

Other nights, though, I just really want chocolate. Sometimes, nothing else will do. So I’ve started making cacao balls.

I’ve made a few different versions of these now, but the concoction I came up with today is my favorite because I was able to pack in some serious nutrients without losing the dessert-like quality. That said, these balls are full of energizing maca, making them a good midday snack too. Or pre-workout fuel. Or post-workout snack. Or breakfast, I suppose. I will eat chocolate anytime, obviously.

I’ve incorporated my ball-making into my new Sunday nut butter-making routine. Once the nut butter’s made, I leave a bit in the food processor, and it forms the base of the balls. From there, assembly is almost too easy.

If you want to go for simple and decadent, stick with dates, nuts, and cacao. But if you want to up the health factor of your chocolatey treat, get crazy. In addition to maca, I added a whole lot of hemp hearts to this batch.

Just blend and form into truffle-size balls. That’s it.

Energizing Raw Cacao Balls

Makes 46 balls
- 8 medjool dates, pitted
- 2 tablespoons almond butter
- 1 cup raw walnuts
- 3/4 cup raw cashews
- 1/4 cup hemp hearts
- 2 tablespoons cacao powder
- 2 tablespoons maca powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Combine ingredients in a food processor and process until they form a somewhat sticky dough. If it still seems a little crumbly, that’s okay. Using a teaspoon, scoop out spoonfuls of the dough and shape them into balls with your hands. Set the balls on the plate and let them sit in the fridge or freezer for an hour or two. Transfer to a glass container and store in the fridge for up to 10 days.
Category eat., make. | Tags: , almonds, balls, cacao, cashews, chocolate, dessert, hemp, maca, raw, snacks, walnuts | 2 Comments
just ran: 5 miles full of gratitude

April 28, 2013 by justgathering

This morning, I ran 5 miles, which is 5 miles more than I could run in January.

6:30am and it was already 73 degrees. Hello, summer in PHX!

For the last four months, I have been on a serious mission to rid my life—for good—of IT Band Syndrome.

I have tried pretty much everything, and as a result, I have no idea which things (or combination of things) is actually doing the trick, but I have a hunch. The big ones:

1. Changing my foot strike. And good news: the mid-foot strike gets easier with every run.

2. A visit to the chiropractor. I have no idea if the adjustment had any effect, but my chiropractor did point out that I hyperextend my knees when I stand. Since I have a standing desk at work, that’s a lot of hours spent putting unnecessary pressure on my knees. Since this visit, I have been focusing on standing with a slight bend in my knees and I can definitely feel a difference.

3. An anti-inflammatory diet.

This last part is the part for which I have the least conclusive evidence of a direct causal relationship. The only thing I can say is that I feel better and I feel like it’s helping my injury. It makes sense, though, that if many people feel temporary ITBS relief from taking NSAIDS, then maybe eating in a way that alleviates chronic inflammation could actually help get at the root of the problem.

Yes, I’m partially attributing my slow comeback to a whole lot of green smoothies.

I’m in the middle of Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse, which I’ve done before. I adore this cleanse (and way of eating in general) for the way it makes me feel. I don’t have a whole lot of food vices, but I do have a coffee habit and a sugar habit, neither of which were helping with my injury. This little reset is helping me kick them, and I’m going to try to keep it up after the initial 21 days.

Another added bonus: it’s reinvigorated my kitchen experimentation impulse. I might even get wacky enough to post some recipes again.

And til then, my blissful, pain-free 5 mile run in the Arizona heat is enough to make giving up coffee—for a while, at least—totally worth it.

Category eat., run. | Tags: , cleanse, Crazy Sexy Diet, green smoothies, injury, IT band, running | 2 Comments
spring running: back at it, finally.

March 17, 2013 by justgathering

Running-wise, this spring has been a tough season for me. No sooner had I declared that running is the thing that makes a new place feel like home than I was struck with the ITBS plague, which made even super-short runs agonizingly painful for over a month. All racing plans on hold, I spent all of January and February doing anything and everything to fix the problem: sports massage, knee wraps, new shoes, more yoga, hip-strengthening exercises, and as much foam rolling as I could possibly tolerate.

It all helped. By mid-February, I could manage two to three [extremely slow] miles at a time.

I didn’t even care about the pace. I was so happy to have made it three miles without having to stop and hobble home in defeat. But the pain was very much still there, and some days I still couldn’t make it more than a mile.

I was in New York a few weeks ago, and I had one great run around Prospect Park. It was pouring and nasty and cold, and I normally hate the rain, but I was thrilled to be running on my home turf.

I thought to myself that maybe it was something about the canal I run along in Arizona that was aggravating my IT band, because this run was perfect.

But I was wrong. I set out again the next day and made it less than a mile before I was forced to retreat home in pain.

I tried not to get frustrated and instead returned to Arizona with a mission to address the cause of this ITBS rather than just treat the symptoms. After much research, I set off for a few early morning runs along the canal intent on one thing: changing my foot strike.

Changing your foot strike from a heel strike to a mid-foot strike is harder than it sounds. It takes a lot of concentration, especially for someone like me who is not kinesthetically gifted. Every step challenges my coordination, and I mess up a lot. There are a ton of resources out there that tell you why you should run with a mid-foot strike but there aren’t a ton that explain how to make the change in a way that makes sense to me. This video has helped me a lot in the way I think about my movement when running. I’m thinking of picking up a copy of Chi Running, too, as most people who blog about this sort of thing point to it as the most helpful guide.

Is it working? I think so. I’ve had a few completely pain-free runs now (although I’m still not pushing my luck beyond 3 miles), and I’m getting better at this new-to-me style of running. Plus, my pace is slowly coming back down.

Not quite there yet, but as my Garmin pointed out to me this morning, I’ve hit another milestone. I got this watch for Christmas, which was when the pain started. Today, after three months of working through the injury, I ran my fastest mile of 2013.

Might not seem like a big deal, but it’s definitely encouraging.

Have any advice on making the switch to a mid-foot strike? Any resources out there I’m missing? Send them my way!

Category run. | Tags: , injury, IT band, mid-foot strike, running | No Comments
just made: pumpkin and flax seed puppy cookies

February 3, 2013 by justgathering
I don’t give Barbara a ton of treats. This is partly because I don’t want to spoil her [anymore than she already has been] and partly because most of the treats I see at the store are super processed and full of crap. They’re also kind of expensive, especially when you think about how cheaply they can be made.

Look at this face, though. Doesn’t this face deserve all the treats in the world?

I know. This face is the reason I decided to bake something other than banana bread this weekend. And it turns out there are so many healthy dog treat recipes out there! I chose to use the White on Rice Couple’s pumpkin and flax seed treats as a starting point and made just a few tweaks.

I don’t have two giant dogs, so I wanted to cut the recipe in half. It didn’t halve well, though, so I had to play with the oil and egg ratios a bit. The dough was too dry at first, but I eventually found the perfect balance.

It shouldn’t be super moist anyway, since you want the treats to be crunchy and good for your puppy’s teeth.

Not only does the pumpkin add a ton of vitamins to these treats, it turns the dough a really pretty shade of orange.

I used an upside-down empty spice jar to make perfect little circles.

This lasted until I dropped the spice jar on our concrete floor and it became glass dust. (I swear, I shatter a glass a week in this kitchen, but the beautiful floors are so worth it.)

After that, I just rolled out the dough and cut it into squares.

Barbara loves them. I tried one too, and they’re not too bad. Floury and crunchy and just fine for a puppy cookie. Here’s the recipe I ended up with.

Pumpkin Flax Seed Puppy Cookies

adapted from the White on Rice Couple’s lovely recipe
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 2 T brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 eggs
- 3 T grapeseed oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup flax seeds
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the pumpkin, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Add in the eggs, oil, and water. Mix in the flax, then begin to add in the flour 1/2 cup at a time. This is when I had to start kneading the dough by hand. Roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter or a pizza cutter to create the shapes of your choice. Lay out on an oiled cookie sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes.
Category eat., make. | Tags: , Barbara Walters, dog treats, flax seeds, pumpkin | 2 Comments
just explored: the view from the top

January 27, 2013 by justgathering

I don’t remember much from senior year high school English. My teacher spent half our class periods reading aloud from some Joel Osteen book about living your most prosperous life (Christian school) and the other half drilling us with SAT-style analogies, which did nothing to prepare me for being an English major at NYU. I spent my free class periods curled up in a sunny window with Sylvia Plath’s unabridged journals or some poetry anthology or another. I was moodier then than I am now.

It was in that English class, though, that I first encountered Robert Frost’s Two Tramps in Mud Time. I think of these lines, and those moments, all the time.

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.

I love what I do. Something like luck has played a part in that, but I have also made it a point all my life to find what I love and make it my work. When you’re passionate about your work, it’s easy to throw yourself into the striving and just get lost in it. Twelve- or fourteen-hour days fly by. Maybe you know what I mean.

If there’s a downside to this, it’s that it can be difficult to pull the camera back and get a wider angle on life. I am the first to admit that sometimes I lose sight of the important things (and people) that exist outside of work.

This is all to say, I had visitors last weekend, and it was pretty much perfect. Daniel was here, along with my mom and her manfriend. I spent some much-needed days with my family, just being and reveling in beautiful weather and good food and all the wonderful things about Arizona.

Yes, that’s a person-sized cowboy boot at the Old Town Farmers Market. The thing behind it is, I think, a boxing glove. Daniel is going to hate that I’m posting this picture, but how funny is it?

We rented beach cruisers. My mom is adorable.

Will bike for beer.

I love a sample size. It’s so perfectly suited to me and my low tolerance and love of intense, dark beers.

On Sunday, Daniel and I hiked Camelback—the same hike I did back in December with friends.

What a thoughtful mountain.

This hike is no joke. I was using feet, hands, knees, elbows, and sometimes my butt to scrabble up and down the rocks. And yet, without fail, every half hour or so some 70-year-old ultramarathoner would sprint past me like it was no big deal. There was actually a guy running up the mountain with a toddler on his shoulders. Seriously?

I’m a much more careful (read: semi-terrified) climber. Whatever. I am not falling down a mountain.

It took us well over an hour to climb 1.25 miles or so, but we made it.

The story of my life right now is that the pictures don’t do it justice.

That’s Phoenix.

In January.

On Monday, Daniel and I set off for a quick road trip to Flagstaff. The changing scenery as you drive north is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

We started off in the desert.

Then we hit the most stunning red rock.

We stopped in Sedona to stand on the vortices and feel the spiritual energy.

I didn’t feel anything. (I also didn’t give any money to the magic crystal mongers, so I guess you get what you pay for.)

And, less than two hours away from sunny Phoenix, we found ourselves in the snowy mountains at dusk.

With an elevation spike of about 7,000 feet and a temperature drop of around 50 degrees, Flagstaff was a whole other world for a night. We stayed in the most lovely B&B called the Inn at 410, where we sat by the fire sipping apple cider with bourbon.

And we might have ventured out in the cold for more mini beers. And pizza.

In the morning, we wandered around Flagstaff’s historic district and ducked into a sunny little coffee shop to split a French press.

I did my best all weekend to stay present. Thankfully, Daniel realizes what effort it takes me to keep my mind off work—after all, he’s ridiculously ambitious himself. And he’s good at pulling me out of my thoughts and back into the moment. This whole trip was a fantastically executed exercise in finding the bigger picture.

Now I am back in Phoenix and thinking of the next things—running goals (still healing the IT band), trips (LA? The Grand Canyon?), and meals (scallops and acorn squash). And I’m back to work, telling myself every day how lucky I am to love it so much.

Category explore., learn. | Tags: , Arizona, Camelback Mountain, Flagstaff, hiking, trips | 3 Comments
just made: dessert for breakfast

January 13, 2013 by justgathering

I made banana bread. Again.

But this time I used a Smitten Kitchen recipe, and I added a boatload of dark chocolate chips instead of millet.

Yeah, it was good.

I also got a little more technical and whipped up some scones for Sunday brunch.

An amalgamation of recipes from around the web, I’m calling these cinnamon streusel scones. They were wonderful, and I guess my friends are lucky.

I have been consoling myself with baking because the Phoenix Half is totally off for me. After what I thought was a very conservative nine days of rest, I suited up for a run this morning — it was unseasonably chilly for Phoenix and I had to put socks on my hands because my gloves are packed away under my bed in Brooklyn — but I made it less than half a mile before my IT band called it quits.

Yes, that’s frost on the ground behind my hopeful-looking Garmin. I would run through five feet of snow if it meant I could run right now. Sigh.

My foam roller is in the mail, so until it arrives I’m focusing on other ways to keep moving. (Spin! Yoga! Kickboxing! Crossfit…?!) And, you know, baking for people. It calms me.

I’m not watching the Golden Globes, and I still haven’t seen an episode of Girls. I feel behind the world, or at least outside of it. And that’s perfectly fine. I’m going to go curl up with Daniel Boulud’s Letters to a Young Chef and plan the next brunch.

Category eat. | Tags: , banana bread, brunch, chocolate chips, running, scones, training | 4 Comments
just gathered: herringbone everything

January 8, 2013 by justgathering

Sometimes I just want everything in my life to be herringbone.

Herringbone cards from wit & whistle to inspire such sweet notes.

The herringbone cover for the Yakkay helmet would make for some stylish cycling.

Grey herringbone TOMS. These are kind of my dream shoes.

How comfy would this be draped over a herringbone couch? Wool throw by Greengrove Weavers of Scotland.

A welcoming handwoven rug from Idaho-based Blue Flag.

I would eat every single meal off this herringbone plate by Elizabeth Benotti.

Classic herringbone and charcoal wool tote from Etsy seller infusion.

I own this tea towel. I love this tea towel. Herringbone heart tea towel from PA-based Etsy seller sveika.

That is all. Off to dream in herringbone.

Category nest. | Tags: , ceramics, etsy, helmet, herringbone, note cards, rug, tea towel, throw, toms, tote | No Comments
2013 theme: explore

January 6, 2013 by justgathering

The theme of my 2012 was make, and I made a whole lot of things. I still want to make more, so much so that I was tempted to carry on the theme for another year. But another word is more fitting for my entry into 2013: explore.

Exploration means curiosity and openness, travel and maybe a bit of unstructured wandering. It means digging with the intent of discovering. And sometimes it means letting go and allowing a diversion to become its own path.

Speaking of diversions, I’m a little nervous about the Phoenix Half, which is exactly two weeks away. I’ve been plagued by IT band woes for the last fifteen days and have been out of commission for the last two days with some sort of cold/flu/sinus headache situation. I missed every single run this week, including the longest run in my training schedule, which means I’m going into this half less prepared than I’d like to be. At this point, I’m on the fence about whether or not I should still go through with it at all. Keeping an open mind until next week…

And drinking plenty of greens to get well. Hoping for health!

Category eat., explore., run. | Tags: , 2013, explore, half training, theme word | No Comments
just gathered: twenty-twelve.

December 31, 2012 by justgathering

I took a long hiatus from blogging this year. I could say that life just got too busy, but it wasn’t that. I just couldn’t think of a good reason to do it anymore. Sometimes you just want to live your life instead of pausing to photograph it. Sometimes shocking things happen in this world, and writing about the latest loaf of bread you baked feels painfully small.

Obviously, though, I’m at it again. I missed blogging, and I realized that I do it because it makes me happy. I like reflecting on the meals I’ve made and the things I’ve done and documenting life as it happens. I like finding out that other people out there experience the same questioning and fear and excitement that I do.

Plus, I have a really bad memory (yet more evidence that I am someone’s Nana reincarnated). If I don’t write something down, it’s like it never happened. This is a curse when it causes me to fail someone I love, but it’s also what makes me so fascinated by language and texts and what makes me good at getting things done. (When your instinct is to decide what’s necessary to know and let everything else go, it’s easy to do instead of dwell.)

But before 2012′s chances are up, I want to dwell a little. These things really happened.

january

egg launched, and the very first poem found its way to the computers and phones of the earliest subscribers.

Meanwhile, Daniel and I started making preparations for our move from the Upper West to Brooklyn. (Was that really less than a year ago?) I ran in Central Park nearly every morning, enjoying every crunchy step of the frozen reservoir.

And I stockpiled bottles of kombucha. Yes, the SCOBYs made the move to BK, too.

february

We moved! We spent our first few weekends painting the walls American white and charcoal gray.

And hunting for deals on typewriter tables and filing cabinets at the Brooklyn Flea and Build It Green.

Daniel fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams when he rented and drove what he insisted on calling a “pick-em-up truck.”

Midway through the month, I ventured out for my first long run (back) in Prospect Park.I lived near the park for much of 2010 and ran the loop most days, so this felt like a homecoming run.

march

Nesting came next. March was cold, and we both dug into making our new place comfy and toasty. We made a lot of things: bread, bowls, bloody mary grilled cheese.

Daniel set to building, as he does.

(Although—it has to be said publicly—this pile of books is still waiting for bookshelves.)

Our place will never be finished, and I think we both like it that way. Lately we’ve been talking about [renters' versions of] bathroom renovations and kitchen cabinet makeovers.

A home is a living thing, able to accommodate growth and change and a whole lot of Pancake Sundays.

april

Spring’s transitions for us started early and kept coming. At the very end of March, I started a new job, which meant longer work days but a big boost in happiness. I became more intentional about my weekends, bent on exploring every street in Brooklyn and experiencing every restaurant in our new hood. Daniel gave me my birthday present early: a new bike to facilitate our adventures.

We left Brooklyn on occasional weekends, too, going upstate for a Saturday hike in the Appalachians…

… and learning about and sampling some quality coffees at Craft Coffee.

April was also when we planted our roof garden and, thrillingly, saw tiny sprouts practically overnight.

may

May in Brooklyn was amazing. We celebrated my birthday with beers and lots of friends at Washington Commons.

Followed by Ample Hills, of course. We live dangerously close to this place.

The garden exploded.

And we did the Googa Mooga thing. Googa Mooga, in case you weren’t around for it, was a food and musical festival that got a lot of hype and a whole lot of backlash when the first day featured long lines and sold-out vendors. We had tickets for the second day and almost didn’t go because the tweets about it were so negative, but Sunday at Googa Mooga was absolutely fantastic.

I guess a lot of people were scared into staying home, because the crowd was totally under control. We tried a ton of delicious beers and food from Brooklyn and Manhattan and parked ourselves on a picnic blanket with friends to enjoy the sun. Many thumbs up.

june

I don’t get to go home to Illinois very often, but I made a quick trip home for Father’s Day.

Sisters. I love my baby girl.

Back in BK, we hit up the Flea every other weekend. Daniel is like a metal detector that’s been finely tuned to find old pieces of machinery, cogs and gears.

I egg him on. Our apartment is full of so many thingamajigs that will one day be beautiful furniture.

Also, why are there no pictures of Barbara in this post yet?

Remedied.

july

Fionnuala, one of my oldest and furthest-away friends, spent part of her summer in the states, and part of that part with us. We wanted to show her the quintessential Independence Day in Brooklyn Bridge Park, complete with potluck picnic.

What we didn’t know beforehand: the bridge blocks the fireworks. But the sunset was lovely and we practically had the park to ourselves. Fine by me.

Daniel got into grilling on what is possibly the most un-manly grill in existence.

Fionnuala ate her first real hot dog and had her first s’mores experience with us, and we introduced her to the phenomenon that is the tiki bar. We are officially good friends and good Americans.

After Fionnuala hopped back across the pond, I embarked on a ladies’ weekend getaway to a much smaller pond: Long Pond, my friend Anna’s home in Massachusetts.

Let me pause right now and say I am ridiculously thankful for my friends. These women are smart and funny and kind and tough, and they’ve seen me through a lot. I feel lucky to know them and thankful that, of all things, our blogs brought us together.

And on a Tuesday morning at July’s close, Daniel and I became official domestic partners. Yes, this is done side-by-side with civil ceremonies at City Hall. No, we are not married, despite what most of my Foursquare followers believe.

But we do have these nifty rings, made by (who else?) my official DP. (His favorite of all my nicknames for him.)

august

The third annual Ice Cream Sunday was in August. This was one of my favorite events of summer 2011, and it didn’t disappoint this year either. Crazy and creative ice cream flavors on mini cones, including this one, with ice creams made from three different kinds of eggs—duck, quail, and (if my rusty memory serves me for once) ostrich.

We spent one August weekend with friends in New Paltz, where I joined our hostess and her regular running buddies for a 7-mile trail run up a mountain.

The next weekend, we camped out at Windflower Farm, the amazing farm upstate where our regular CSA produce box originates. We met Farmer Ted and hung out with other city-dwellers who belong to the CSA. We toured the farm, learned how to make jam, endured a rare (for 2012) summer thunderstorm, and partook in the most epic potluck I’ve ever witnessed.

september

September was a month of travel. We spent weekends in each of our hometowns, celebrating friends’ weddings. And it was in September that I encountered Arizona. The opportunity to go to Phoenix for work took me by complete surprise and I practically lunged at the opportunity, but I wasn’t sure how much I would like the desert.

I travelled there for a few days in mid-September and started to get a feel for the place. It was completely unlike anywhere I’d ever been before—the insanity of the flora and fauna! The HEAT. I liked it, though. Arizona appeals to the adventurous side of me (which still requires a semblance of routine and quiet order). When I look at the desert, I see at once the human potential for open-mindedness and adaptation and our almost compulsive need to transform the space around us.

So I committed myself and made the leap. Daniel and I considered the prospect of a time apart, and his unflagging support throughout all of it makes me love him even more (if that was possible). We’ve undergone many a seasonal shift, but now I know we can take the truly unpredictable.

october

My team and I landed in Phoenix on October 1. Barbara and I spent the month transitioning: finding a home, working from temporary spaces, and (occasionally) relaxing poolside.

I kept running. I’ve moved 7 times in the past four years, and this running habit has been pretty much my only constant, serving to remind me that I’m still the same. It helps a place feel like home so much more quickly.

The Madison Improvement Club also had a hand in making Phoenix feel welcoming. My coworkers and I discovered this spin and yoga studio on our second or third day in the city, which also happened to be its third or fourth day of existence. We’ve been regulars there ever since, and I can’t say enough about the refreshing mix of classes and the ridiculously welcoming, upbeat teachers and staff. Plus, the cafe has green smoothies. Feeding my addiction.

november

When I move to a new place, I like to seek out the small, unique things I love about that place and build my life around those. Happiness, after all, is made mostly of gratitude. The fall in Phoenix feels like the summers of my childhood, so I spent November weekends embracing the sunshine and biking around, Barbara in tow.

The Old Town farmers market is a favorite weekend stop.

I’m working on a compilation of my favorite Scottsdale sites, and, already, I feel like I could show an out-of-towner a fantastic weekend. It probably shouldn’t have surprised me, but Phoenix and Scottsdale have a really great food and drink culture.

Speaking of foodie paradises, Daniel and I skipped Thanksgiving and rendezvoused in Seattle for a week of drinking and eating and more drinking.

I’ll say it again: the beer was good. And I think I’ve had maybe two beers since then. Overdid it a bit…

december

This month—and this year—it still hasn’t sunk in how much we’ve done and how things have changed.

I’ve been settling in Arizona: cooking often, running what have become my regular routes, focusing on the work I love to do, the reason I’m here.

And ending the year perfectly: with Daniel and our friends and our family (in Philly, Chicago, and New York), reflecting on how crazy life is, and how unexpected.

From 2013 I anticipate more happiness, more challenges, and, above all, surprises, always more surprises.

photo credit: the lovely Anna Chapin (http://annachapin.tumblr.com/)

The end of this post is cheesy. Whatever. Sometimes I’m cheesy.

Happy New Year, friends. Cheers to the year that’s gone and the year to come!

Category eat., explore., grow., learn., make., nest., run., write. | Tags: , 2012, Barbara Walters, Brooklyn, Daniel, moving, Phoenix, tin gully, year in review | 8 Comments
half training through the holidays

December 30, 2012 by justgathering

This title is appropriate because I’m both training for a half and half training. The past two weeks have been filled with plane rides, car trips, company holiday parties, family dinners, and making it work. I’ve also been struggling with some IT band issues (not fun), so I canned a couple of runs.

Here’s what week four of training looked like:

Line 1 = planned training. Line 2 = actual training. I know. That’s a lot of rest days. But I was able to do Saturday’s run in Prospect Park, so I was a happy camper.

Week five was better:

3 miles turned into 2 miles because of the good old IT band. I detest giving up midway through a run, but it had to be done. Wednesday and Friday, I stuck to the treadmill, partly to give my knees a break but mostly because Illinois was covered in a thick sheet of black ice the whole time I was home.

Which brings me to today’s run, 10 miles with Megan. Thanks to sleet yesterday and overnight temps in the twenties, the city was pretty icy too.

We crossed into Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge, and the patches of ice made it, honestly, treacherous. Once we hit the West Side Highway, things got worse; the ice was so thick that we had to turn back. We came back over the Manhattan Bridge, thinking it might be a little safer, but it was still slick.

Our 10 miles were very slow and careful, clocking in around 1:36—definitely not my goal race pace. But the run flew by since we had a lot of catching up to do after three months apart. And it ended with a big group brunch at Hill Cafe, making it nothing short of a fantastic Brooklyn Sunday morning.

I got Hoppin’ John… let’s get this New Year’s party started!

Category run. | Tags: , Brooklyn, half marathon training, running | 3 Comments

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