Monday, July 12, 2010

Wish You Were Here

On July 1st I moved to a group house in Northern VA with a pool and hot tub (Photos to follow). The reason I could afford to move was because I've started a new job doing....

[drumroll please]....

Gym Membership Sales.

To the average Joe this probably doesn't sound like all that exciting of a career. But I think I really may have found a way to combine my need to support myself and love for fitness! Already, I'm a million times happier than I was IT Consulting. The free membership and ability to watch TV at work are definite perks. Oh and goofing around is typicallll :) Remind me again why I sat in a cube for hours on end?

Partially because of all the transition and partially because of the July 4th holiday... I've been absent in blog world for the past couple weeks. I don't think I'll be going on a true vacation this summer...so I took a stay-cation in DC. I had 7 friends come in from out-of-town, including 3 of my besties. Here I am on the Fourth with my friend since middle school, Melissa. We used to pass notes and giggle at silly boys together...substitute texting for the notes and not much has changed.


On my staycation, I did a bunch of things I never had before...
  • Went to a Nats game. Believe it or not this was my first one. Strasberg wasn't pitching and the Mets beat us. This definitely won't be my last this season!
  • Hosted a cook out/pool party. Clearly my mom's idea of an All American Fourth has worn off on me :) I made a funfetti cake with homemade cream cheese icing.
  • Took the Alexandria Water Taxi to National Harbor
  • Watched the Fireworks from National Harbor Sculpture Garden

If you're ever in DC I'd recommend doing ALL of these things!
I also caught up on The Bachelorette. Dear God Kasey must have been an actor. Or mentally insaneeeeeee. I did 18 miles last week. My longest run the week of the Fourth was 5 miles. (A lot of 3 milers happened).

Today I ran 5 miles in 46:56.... that's an average pace of 9:23 min/mi. This was on the treadmill and I think my "comfortable pace" is now around 9:30...I started at that pace and picked it up at the end.

If I'm being honest I need to get serious about the long runs. I need to do an 8 miler REAL SOON. I'm actually scared about how HOTT this Rock n' Roll half might be. I wish I had someone who wanted to go at about a 10 min/mi pace to run with..............

For those of you constantly looking for additions to your running playlist like me:

Got Your Back-- T.I. ft. Keri Hilson
Somehow I forgot this one in my last music post.

Dynamite-- Taio Cruz
MY FAVORITE SONG RIGHT NOW! This is also the perfect song to dance to with sparklers. I got to do that on Saturday :)

Beamer, Benz, or Bentley--Lloyd Banks
Yeah, I'm a couple months late on how good this is. I can't get enough.

Top Back-- T.I.
All I Do is Win---DJ Khaled (ft. Luda, Snoop, Rick Ross, and T-Pain)
Dead and Gone-- T.I. ft. JT
Guess I'm on a Hip Hop/T.I. Kick...I keep running to all these songs.

Ocean Avenue-- Yellowcard
And in case hip-hop isn't your thing. This randomly shuffled onto my iPod today. GREAT summer song.

I'm Back-- T.I.
How fitting. I'll do my best to catch up on everyone's blogs!!!

Finally, a few shout outs:
  • I can't believe it, but I won a $20 Amazon gift card from Run Potato Run! Just for being a follower! She recently started blogging/training and sadly is dealing with a knee injury. I know she could use some of the advice/encouragement I was lucky enough to receive with my IT band injury. So *cough* go to her blog *cough*!
  • Get Well Soon Julie! I really cannot stop thinking about what you are going through.
And on happier notes,
  • Congrats Barbie!!! Very cute engagement story!
  • Pam is hosting a Sweaty Band giveaway.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The cake looks yummy and holiday appropriate.

Ray's Hell Burger - officially on my list the next time I am in the area.

Julie said...

Oh, you are so sweet! Thanks for the care and concern:)

It looks like you had an awesome weekend packed full of fun stuff! What was Ashton's place like? I didn't even know that he owned a restaurant.

Nice job on the cake...it is so pretty and I love cream cheese frosting:)

Anonymous said...

love the playlist mods...All I do is Win goes SOOOO HARD!

And homemade cream cheese frosting is crackishly good!!

Glad to see you've found that comfy pace..feels good yeah??

inspiREDtorun13 said...

@Julie--Not sure why the restaurant doesn't have a better website. 5 different kinds of Ketchup. Multiple kinds of fries. Funny names for most of the entrees. The restaurant glorifies ketchup in a posh atmosphere. I'd say it's probably more about the experience than unforgettable food. I LOVE KETCHUP. So I'll be going back ;)

@Jon-- "All I do is win win win no matter what
Got money on mind I can never get enough
And everytime I step up in the building
Everybody hands go up
And they stay there
And they say there yeah "

SO GOOD!

The un-Zen Runner said...

I can't get over that cheesecake. Looks awesome.

The Boring Runner said...

MAN - Lots of updates in this one! :)

Pumped to see pictures of the new place. I forgot that it had a hottub. SWEEEEET. I'm too much of a tight ass to turn ours on very often
That cheesecake is pretty much the most awesome thing ever

Seriously, how many F'ing Ketchup restruants does Kuthcer have? There is one in LA too

NewbieRunner said...

Looks like you had fun in DC! I was able to visit DC one day on my 23rd birthday 5 years ago. I loved it and would love to go back and visit someday. I think I celebrated my birthdy at McFadden's?? It was fun although I ended up having to ride the "metro" or whatever it's called in DC on easter Sunday hung over on my way back to Baltimore where I was staying with a friend. It makes for a great story and memory. haha.

I would love to run the half with you. Why can't VA be a little closer to MO? ha!

Jford said...

Lots in this post! Whew!!! Great pictures!