Friday Five: things I was doing ten years ago

Happy Friday! Once again I am linking up with Mar on the Run, You Signed Up for What?, and Eat Pray Run DC for the Friday Five link up.  If you haven't checked it out already you should...it's a great way to discover new blogs about running and fitness :) 

Today the topic is things we were doing ten years ago. I don't know about you, but it feels like forever and yesterday all at the same time! So here goes:

1) I was 16 and had just gotten my drivers license.  I drove a white Jeep Grand Cherokee and loved it even if we couldn't make sharp turns.

2) I was using MySpace on dial-up internet. (sometimes I want to go back and look at it...then I remember all the viruses it caused my computer the last time)

3) I was horse showing constantly on the best horse a girl could ask for.

4) I was on the Royalty court for the local 4H/FFA fair.

  

5)  I had no idea how far I would travel....but I took the time to appreciate that my backyard was a pretty great place!

All in all it was a pretty great life! I was in such a hurry to grow up but now I am glad for the memories.

For the record, I absolutely hated running ten years ago ;)

I hope you will join the link up and share what you were up to in 2005!

Monday Fun Day

Confession: I just woke up from the best nap ever. I also woke up to find out that our wifi was working again, so that was an even bigger plus! I finally get to blog/tweet from home...and catch up on Netflix haha. That said, I still have nap brain so I might ramble on a bit. 

On Monday I like to share my running mileage with everybody but this week I am not so thrilled to share that I only ran about 3 miles again. I need to start getting up in the morning to run because there seems to be a storm of epic proportions every afternoon that keeps me inside. Plans to buy a house have been put on hold for the time being, so hopefully the rental we find will have a fitness center! I just hate mornings so much and getting in a routine has been difficult. 

While I wish we were buying a house, the other silver lining to renting instead is that we can move in sooner and there isn't a huge closing period. I am ready to have a kitchen to cook in and for my dog to live with me again. I am so incredibly lucky to have friends that will keep my dog indefinitely for me when I have no idea when I will be able to pick him up, but I miss his furry little self. I want my running buddy back! The apartment I am touring tomorrow has a bark park, so hopefully he will appreciate the new digs too! 

Maybe a move will help me with running as well. I currently have over an hour drive each way to and from work. The places we are looking at are only a 15 minute drive which is infinitely less exhausting!

Last but not least on this rambling adventure: I started a free trial of Oyster and have been reading like crazy for the last couple days. If you have it, let me know what books on unlimited I need to add to my list! I might actually pay to keep my subscription if I keep using it. I need to work on my Goodreads account as well!

Hope you had a marvelous Monday!

Try it Tuesday: Running for Brews

Confession: I actually tried this two weeks ago but held off writing this because I wanted to take pictures. My phone battery had died the first week, then when I went back last week it was raining. So apparently pictures just aren’t meant to happen! That said, I am really excited about this one!

On National Running Day I was going to go run by myself because I don’t have a local running buddy yet. Luckily I took to Twitter, Facebook, and google and managed to find an awesome group to go run with. Running for Brews started in the Tampa area and the Orlando chapter is actually celebrating their birthday this week! Every Wednesday night they meet up at Graffiti Junction (a bar), go for a 5k run that includes a partial loop around Lake Ella (aka one of my most favorite places) then meet back up for drinks, raffles, and general good fun.

I was a little nervous to try it because I am not usually a fan of being the new person in an established group. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were a lot of fellow new people, and the people that had been coming for a whole were awesome and super welcoming! Speed wasn’t really an issue and there are all sorts of paces to run with which is also great. Plus any group of runners that will sit and chat with you over beer for hours on end is a major bonus.

There are several running groups in Orlando that I am hoping to try out, but this will be my Wednesday night go to.

If you are in the Orlando area hopefully I will see you there…. it’s really pretty great J

Mobot Review

Disclaimer: I received a Mobot to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRavePro Ambassador, and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

I am so excited to share this product review with you! As soon as I heard about it I wished I had owned one ages ago!

Mobot combines a water bottle with a foam roller and manages to be very functional in both areas. This is a great product if you travel a lot while running or if you just need something to carry with you throughout the day to help with injuries or tight muscles.

Since the Mobot combines two different uses, I am reviewing each use separately before giving you my overall opinion.

As a water bottle

To start with, the Mobot I received holds 40 oz. of water. This is amazing! Orlando tap water does not taste delicious, so filling up my water bottle repeatedly throughout the day can be pretty challenging. I love that I can fill this up less often without feeling dehydrated. The only downside of this size is that it is not the type of water bottle you want to put in your purse and carry around all day. It is, however, great for in the car and I am looking forward to taking it with me for my next flight.

The Mobot has a straw, but it does not have one of those mouthpieces that you have to bite which I appreciated.  I have had several water bottles like that and the mouthpiece inevitably got funky. You could clean it all you wanted but it was never really clean. The Mobot mouthpiece is hard plastic and it is still clear after repeated use. The best news is that it actually came with another lid and mouthpiece in the box.

Perhaps the most important fact about the Mobot is that it doesn’t leak when you are using it as a foam roller. This also means that it doesn’t leak in your car when you slam on your brakes too hard, or on your floor when the cat knocks it off the table to see how loud a noise it will make.

As a foam roller

I am currently living in a really small space, so the Mobot is an ideal foam roller for me. It does not take up much space when you aren’t using it, and it does not require a large area of open floor when you roll on it. When every inch of space counts, this is a major factor. It is another reason that I wish I had owned a Mobot when I traveled regularly for work. It is less cumbersome than carrying around a full sized foam roller but still packs the same punch.

When I started to test out the Mobot as a foam roller I was scared that I wasn’t going to like it because I wasn’t feeling the familiar foam rolling sensation in the calf I was working on. Then I switched calves. It had been a while since I had last foam rolled and I will confess that I said a few bad words and yelped more than once. AKA, as a foam roller it works very very well.  If you use your foam roller for anything that requires a really wide surface this might not work, but for my usual work on my legs and back it was absolutely perfect!

Overall

I highly recommend the Mobot! It is especially good if you are looking for a large bottle, a compact foam roller, or a way to take both a foam roller and water bottle with you without carrying two things! I loved that it wasn’t something that I used for 10-20 minutes a day then left sitting around.  As far as functionality, it can’t be beat!

Have a question for me about the Mobot? Let me know!

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Friday Five: Favorite Summer Activities

Happy Friday! This week flew by so fast...but that might be because I work the weekend and had Tuesday and Thursday off!
Today I am hopping back on  the Friday Five linkup hosted by Mar on the Run, You Signed Up for What?, and Eat Pray Run DC.  If you haven't checked it out already you should...it's a great way to discover new blogs about running and fitness. This week's topic is favorite summer activities (in case the title didn't give that away haha) and I am so excited to share!

1) Running in the evening. I am not a morning person and the days last way longer in the summer so I can actually enjoy my runs so much more.

2) Going to the beach! It's such a great feeling to sink my toes in the sand and just bum around on a beach towel. I am very excited to have moved so close to great beaches!

3) Hiking. This was a go to for me when I was living in North Carolina. I am not sure how many hiking outings I will actually get in central Florida, but I am crossing my fingers because I love just going out for the day and trekking through the woods.

4) Going to festivals/markets/concerts/cookouts. So many great events happen in the summer and I love going to new events and discovering new things to love. Summer just feels like a good time for adventures! And I love that having a party over the summer can be as easy as just firing up the grill.

5) Drinking abnormal amounts of iced coffee. Dunkin Donuts and I do some serious bonding over the summer months.

There are probably a million more things about summer that I love and could have added to the list, but those are my top five (as of right this second...if you ask me in an hour I might change my mind!)

What do you love about summer?

Wedding Wednesday: Engagement Pictures!

I am so far beyond excited that we decided to get professional engagement pictures taken! They turned out amazing and I am very thankful that we got a chance to work with our photographer, Deanna Meredith, before the big day.  She was wonderful and super helpful when it came to getting us posed just right!  I was a little bit terrified that I would be making absurd faces in pretty much all of the pictures and that I would see something about myself that I didn't like in every single picture.  When we got the gallery I just kept clicking through and falling in love with all the pictures! Picking out a few to share and narrowing down the one to use for our Save the Dates was not as easy as I thought it would be.

Having just moved down here we were totally unfamiliar with the area. Deanna picked the most amazing location with everything I could have hoped for. I mean really I wanted water and spanish moss which is, I suppose, fairly easy to do in central Florida...but check out the col white statue thing! It was so cool. And massive.

Moral of the story - I am so glad we did engagement pictures with our wedding photographer! If you are planning a wedding and wondering if it is worth it, the answer is that it absolutely is!

Try It Tuesday: Tijuana Flats

It seems that anyone in Central Florida will tell you that they love Tijuana Flats.  I had my first experience there last week and took Charlie back there today.

Unfortunately, due to phone problems of epic proportions, I have zero pictures.  Even if my phone was functioning properly I am not sure I would have remembered to take pictures before I had eaten it all. It was that good. Both times.

There are several perks to Tijuana Flats and the way it fits in my life.  The original happens to be in the same parking lot as my work.  Hello fate :)  I am a big fan of local business and appreciate being able to support such a great one in my own little way.  They also have great deals a couple times a week where you can pay about what you would pay for a meal at Taco Bell and get way better food that is also better for you.  Next time I go in I will be reading the menu more closely because what I really want is a big bowl of their refried beans which they make (not from a can).  They also have their own line of salsas and the purchase of many f those salsas gives some money back to charity. Also awesome!  If I read right, all of their meat is hormone free and all that good stuff. And wheat tortillas which are my all time favorite!

They are not too flashy from the outside and a little crazy inside, but if you happen across one I very highly recommend checking one out!

That's it for me today...hopefully I can report back with another fun adventure next week!
 Have a great Tuesday!

P.S. if you have Orlando area recommendations let me know! I have a growing list of things to try :)

Weekly Miles: 6/8

Last week I finally sucked it up and went running multiple times in the lovely (sarcasm) central Florida weather! Severe lightning caused some interference with my plans, but I did manage to get a couple runs in.
Wednesday I ran about 3 miles with some wonderful people at Running for Brews Orlando.
Sunday I ran another 3 miles by my lonesome. I think I might need to start a weekly update of things said to me while running if that run was any indication.  A man slurred at me that I "didn't really need to be jogging" while gesturing at my body.  This simultaneously made me mad about being called a "jogger" (ugh people, not cool!) and super impatient to have my dog with me because people tend to not say creepy things when I have him with me.
That story aside, I am definitely hoping to increase my overall mileage this week. Adjusting to running in the heat is always an adventure and this time around won't be any different.

How was your running last week? And has anyone ever said anything weird/rude to you while running?

June Coffee Date

I can't believe that June has already started...I feel like it was just April yesterday.  There is so much that I would want to catch up on with you all if we were having coffee, so grab a cup and join me for the Ultimate Coffee Date!

If we were having coffee...I would tell you that this last month has been crazy with moving and starting a new job.  This month we will be able to start shopping for a house of our own and I am so excited!

If we were having coffee... I would let you know that I found the cutest coffee place that roasts their own beans and makes the best espresso of all time!

If we were having coffee..I would probably vent to you that I have been dealing with LG trying to make my phone work again for over a month now.  They updated my operating system and now nothing works right.  Hopefully by the next Coffee Date I will have a new one that can actually do things!

If we were having coffee...I would tell you that I am currently trying to figure out my race schedule for the rest of the year. Moving to Orlando has made so many more racing opportunities available to me!  I love the idea of being able to go to a great race without driving for many many hours to get there.

If we were having coffee... I would tell you that I wish every week had awesome national "holidays" like National Running Day and National Donut Day (with Hug Your Cat Day in between the two in case you missed it!).  I had a blast cleebrating and it just made the whole week feel festive and exciting!

What have you been up to?! Fill me in so I have a reason to grab another cup of coffee and catch up :)
Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Five: National Running Day

I hope your National Running Day was fabulous! I know I can't be the only one that wishes there was that much hype and chat about running every day...although I imagine it would get exhausting :)
Today I am jumping onto the Friday Five linkup hosted by Mar on the Run, You Signed Up for What?, and Eat Pray Run DC.  If you haven't checked it out already you should...it's a great way to discover new blogs about running and fitness!

In honor of National Running Day, I wanted to share my
5 favorite running moments!

1)The first time I really felt like a runner: It was a 14 mile run on a super muddy trail, in the rain, and I ran out of water.  But when it was over I realized I didn't feel weird calling myself a runner anymore!

 

2) When I get to run with my dog.  He loves it and it makes me so happy to be able to spend that time with him.   Plus he makes me feel much safer running trails alone!

3)When I ran my very first marathon and it hurt but I felt like I could take over the world...after a nap and a beer.

4) When I did the Color Run with my friends. It was a blast and such a fun thing to experience together.  I run alone a lot so it was nice to have it be a group thing!

5) And last but not least, when I braved the cold and rain to run a half marathon that turned into a much longer run because the course wasn't marked.  I realized I am so much stronger than I realize and can do anything I put my mind to...with proper training ;)

What are your favorite running moments?! Be sure to check out the link-up and share your own running story!

Have a great Friday :)