Thank you so much for all of the congrats on my half marathon PR. I am still on a running high from this fall’s wonderful race experiences – Marine Corps Marathon, Charlotte 8K Turkey Trot and Thunder Road Half Marathon. I’ve been asked what’s next with my running and the honest answer is nothing. Although I am feeling so in love with running right now, I’m taking a break from training. Don’t worry, there will be lots of other fun, new happenings this winter with my fitness journey and I will be back to racing late next spring. Promise.

Highlights from the last couple days on the food and exercise front since I took Sunday off of blogging.

Breakfast Sunday morning was a big bowl of apple cinnamon oats. The exciting news here is that Brandon actually requested that I make him some too! Although he loves overnight oats, he very rarely wants hot oats.

I topped my oatmeal with Trader Joe’s crunchy peanut butter and Crofter’s. Brandon topped his with milk…I think it sounds gross but he keeps trying to convince me to try it. I just don’t know???

I had to teach a Total Strength class on Sunday afternoon and I am not going to lie to you…it was brutal. I was feeling pretty sore from the half marathon and really not in the mood for strength training. Regardless, I put together a tough class plan and went in with a positive attitude. I am always so motivated and encouraged when I get there and see all the people who came for a good workout.

I structured the class so that we had a cardio-intensive warm-up that I took them through twice followed by a superset that I took them through twice. The second time through they had the opportunity to take more advanced options. They performed every exercise for 45 seconds with a 15 second recovery before moving to the next.

We finished with abs and stretching.

Everyone seemed pleased with the workout I put together. I received positive feedback after class and I always take that as a sign of a job well done! 🙂

I was so very sore when I got home so I had a snack of carrots, peppers and hummus with hot tea…

And then rolled out my yoga mat and spent 45 minutes doing some restorative yoga poses and foam rolling. It was exactly what my tired body needed.

Sunday was my brother in law’s birthday so we had a family dinner at my in law’s house. Of course, Brandon and spent tons of time playing with our nieces…and posing for a family photo with a baby that is NOT ours! 😉

Until we are ready for a family of our own it is an ideal situation to have two sweet nieces under the age of three here in Charlotte!

Dinner was the birthday boy’s request – lasagna.

And chocolate cake!

With a tiny taste of peppermint ice cream. Yum!

After dessert I crashed. I came home and promptly passed out. Brandon told me he watched football until almost midnight and I slept through everything. I was so exhausted. I had to be up at 5 a.m. this morning to teach BodyPump. It was not exactly what I wanted to be doing but at this point my body is pretty much on auto-pilot on Monday mornings since I’ve been teaching that time slot for a year.

Breakfast was overnight oats (with Silk Nog!) at my desk. I came home for lunch…

…and had lentil vegetable soup with cheese toast and a few slices of pear.

I was hoping to make it to a yoga class after work but I was so busy that I ended up staying until 6:30. 🙁 I stopped at the store on the way home to pick up groceries for the week. Dinner tonight was delicious!

Baked tofu with bourbon sauce (sauteed pork chop with bourbon sauce for Brandon), kale, roasted acorn squash and roasted mushrooms with bourbon sauce. We loved this dinner! The bourbon sauce was super simple to put together – 1/2 cup bourbon, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. Bring to a boil and reduce to 1/2 cup. (Adapted from Cooking Light.)

And it’s bedtime! Ashtanga tomorrow morning.