Discovery World.

This past weekend I got to check out Discovery World in Milwaukee with Big Brother Big Sisters. It was the first BBBS activity that my Little Brother and I were able to participate in and I think it’s safe to say we both had a really good time!

shiny

making a guitar

totally normal to put a boat in a building, right?

so creepy…

so many fish!

have you ever held a shark egg? didn’t think so!

I’m already excited for future opportunities to visit places I have missed out on visiting in Milwaukee due to my advanced age – lol! And an added bonus is we got a one-year membership so we can come back and check it out again! I am already excited.

Day 5: Hollywood Studios (day 1)

We had to switch from our Disney hotel to a condo today so we lost our entire morning again but decided to do a bonus day at Hollywood Studios today and then spend a full day when we go back on Thursday.  I can never ride Tower of Terror too much even though that stupid lead in video gets old really quickly…

Having to pack up everything to move to another place was a little annoying but since our condo has two bedrooms and is really nice, I’d say it was totally worth it!  Plus, the Disney “value” resorts don’t have hot tubs and our tired legs NEEDED hot tubs so everyone was glad we’d planned this move off Disney property.  We will have to pay to park now but I think that’s worth it.  It’s a must to stay on Disney property for a race though if you don’t want to spend an hour+ waiting parked on a highway to drop off your runners… hence our choice to stay on property again this year!

By the time we finally got to Hollywood Studios, we went straight for Tower of Terror!!!  No wait at that point of the day, yes!  And then we wandered over to pick up a Fast Pass for Rock ‘n Roller Coaster.  Since it was only about 1pm, we decided to walk back to the Lights, Motor, Action Stunt show to watch that today since it always takes up a big chunk of time.

I was glad to see it was slightly different than in past years but still gets a little redundant after 20 minutes.  Sister and I left early so we didn’t miss our fast pass return time.  R’nR was as fun as ever though!  I wish the wait was not always SO long on this one for stand by…

We had a 2:55 Linner reservation at Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano that was part of the Fantasmic VIP seating package and also served as our post Marathon celebration lunch/dinner.

We started out with a Bellini

gluten free bread + oil for dipping

and then caprese salad

and then I had the most delicious Fish Piccata

topped off with this flourless chocolate cake!

And the best part is how awesome Disney can be about allergies when done correctly.  Everything was gluten free and everything was delicious!  Gold star, Disney, gold star!

To say we left full would be an understatement

We walked around for awhile and then decided to check out the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show.  After the show sister decided she needed her sweater (it was 76+ degrees) so we headed back for the car and then back in the park to wait for Fantasmic!.

Having the VIP seating is AWESOME!!!  We had a whole section roped off until 15 minutes before the start and didn’t have to wait in any line to get into the show.  They also say you are supposed to get in the general seating line 60-90 minutes before vs our 30!

The show was really cool and really crazy if you think about all Disney goes through every single night of the year just to entertain people for 30 minutes!

We eventually got out of the park and made another stop at Babycakes… (I mean how often can we get gluten free, vegan baked goods that taste amazing??)

 

and then headed back to the condo to hot tub, swim a bit and then go to sleeeeeeeppppp! Disney World is really so much fun but also really so tiring!  I find myself wondering why children are still awake and in the pool when I am past ready for bed… don’t they ever sleep?  An uninterrupted day at Magic Kingdom is on tap for tomorrow!

Day 4: EPCOT

We got a super late start this morning… we woke up at a decent time but by the time we did some stretching, I wrote yesterday’s post and we had our coffee in the room, it was 9:30!  We walked over to our resort’s breakfast place for some Waffles + bacon + fruit (YUM!) and then on the walk back, wandered all over our resort to check out the different areas (Carsland, Nemo, Lion King and Little Mermaid).

By the time we were showered and on the road, it was like 12pm – oops!  EPCOT was a little bit busy in the morning but got less so as the day went on.  We started our day with the plan to just walk around the World Showcase area and come back another day for Future World but since the crowds were so minimal late in the day, we got all the Future World rides done in about 2 hours!

We walked into the Mexico pavilion first and did the little boat ride in there. Nothing super spectacular but still cute.  It’s amazing how they really transport you to the various countries with their buildings!

Next up was Norway for a ride called the Malestrom!  It was another water ride and sort of a roller coaster type one but you weren’t buckled in if you know what I mean… Then came China, Germany and Italy with no real rides or shows or anything like that.  We were trying to find lunch at this point and striking out horrendously so we ended up just walking back to a place in Future World we knew had options for a quick lunch break.  I actually found a goat cheese + beet salad – ha!

Once we’d lunched, we started in Canada on the opposite side and watched the Oh, Canada! Circlevision show that was really cool! Then it was a stop in United Kingdom for a Strongbow for sister and then on to France, Morocco and Japan for some quick pictures and a walk around.  We did stop in the American Adventure for the show there that is kind of creepy + interesting at the same time (thank you animated robots).  Only thing to note from that show is Disney needs to be informed that Lance Armstrong needs to be removed from the American icon montage at the end (and Justin Beiber added to the Canadian one!!!)

After walking the world, we ended up waiting for GMChevy Test Track and were surprised to find a new ride!! (Sort of).  Same concept, different effects and NO PRE VIDEO!!!!!!  I think we waited 5 minutes for that one?

I hope these people appreciated my photo bomb

Mission Space was next door so we did that as well and waited another 5 minute wait to get on the ride.  I’d forgotten how that one really gets your Gs going

We waited for Test Track one more time but that still did not kill enough time for us to get in the Fast Pass line so Mom and Sister stopped in a gift shop and I went on the Living with the Land ride in The Land.

We ended our day with a flight over California in Soarin’ and then we were ready to go find dinner and go to bed!  Since it was already almost 8pm, we opted for Sweet Tomatoes again (shocker) and then back to the resort to crash…

We change hotels on Tuesday so that will kind of cut into our day but hopefully we can still have some fun at a park in the afternoon!

Running Recap: 2012.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas yesterday!  My second most favorite Holiday ever Too bad I woke up feeling sick as a dog and have continued to feel horrendous for the past 48 hours.  You know what’s also awesome?  Being the only person out of three at work this week when it’s our busiest week of the year.  #fml

I’ve seen quite a few bloggers post about their years in review as far as running is concerned and I really liked that idea so here is my year in review:

Total miles: 807 per Daily mile.  This is likely not 100% accurate.

Total Races: Started = 10, Finished = 9

This is not going to end well.

Total States run in: FL, TN, MN, IN, WI

# of new shoes purchased: 4-5 I think?

New Distances: Marathon! and 15k

PRs: 5k!

Favorite Race: Tie between Maritime Marathon and Disneyworld Half Marathon

And just like that… a Marathoner!

Least Favorite Race: Turkey Trot 15k.

Most forgotten race: Bellin 10k.  Totally forgot about this one happening in 2012  Also, the Madison Shamrock Shuffle 10k…

Most remembered race: Fox Cities Half Marathon

Most disappointing race: Cellcom Marathon

Best Race Photo EVER!: (You’re quite welcome for this)

Don’t let anyone tell you marathons are easy.

It really was a crazy running year for me this year.  Starting with hurting my back in January and being unsure how I would recover to run again.  Then, the fiasco that was Cellcom and living with the severe disappointment of a race that I never got to finish because of the weather.  Five more weeks of training and then FINALLY becoming a Marathoner!  Totally being burnt out on running after training for 6+ months and then taking a running break that lasted a few months (and fighting a piriformis/sciatic issues all the while).  To really make it a weird year, throw in one of my most favorite half marathons ever in Appleton and then randomly deciding to attempt Lakefront even though I was not trained at all and finishing it in relatively good shape…

I think 2012 will always be remembered by me as the year where I learned you have to just throw all your expectations out the window with running and just have fun!  Rest when you need to, break if you want to but run when you can.

Here’s to another good year in 2013!

Girls on the Run – Fall 2012.

It’s really hard for me to believe that this season of Girls on the Run is already over!  It seems like this 10 week session was going to take forever but then all of a sudden it was over.  It’s strange to think that I will likely never see any of the girls again from our group and even stranger to wonder if they really learned anything or had any real takeaways.  One thing that always keeps me guessing about kids is this – you think they are getting nothing out of it and you are just wasting your time and then all of a sudden you learn something from their parents of they say something that makes you realize you are getting something across to them!

New shoes are so exciting!

I’m not going to lie and say this season was all fun and fantastic.  We had a few challenging girls and a few challenging events with said girls but I’m guessing all groups had some interesting experiences these past 10 weeks??  Also, some of the lessons really had me and the other coaches rolling our eyes… like the lesson on good v bad levels of popularity – really strange… but for the most part, we tried to just trust the process and go with what we had outlined for us even though that made for a few really random confusing transitions from warm-up to lesson.  Maybe us coaches were not smart enough to follow along or something?  We also were perpetually running out of time and rushed because the program is designed for 90 minutes and we only had 75 minutes at our location.  Talk about scrambling.  Plus when you add in the ability of kids to be utterly distracted and obnoxious for the first 20 minutes/entire lesson…

Never distracting, no…

Even though I know I swore I never would help with this again at certain times throughout the last 10 weeks, I am actually excited to help again after seeing the girls run on Sunday.  I know there are things I will do differently to try to make it run (haha) smoother and to not sweat the small stuff so much and follow the lessons so closely.  That was way too stressful and not worth it!  Guideline is the key word!

Totally jealous of those laces!

Sunday was their season ending 5k and the other coaches and I got to cheer on the girls and their running buddies as they all did something that many adults in American have never/will never do and that was run a 5k!  3 whole miles + .1!  When I was their age, that would have seemed like an eternity!  I was so proud of each and every one of those girls on Sunday.  I also thought it was fantastic that their running buddies were willing to run with them even though many of then were not “runners” at all!

Runners on your mark…

It was really interesting to watch the girls develop in their running abilities over the past 10 weeks.  We had the two girls who ran with no problems from day one but got much better at pacing themselves and even pushing themselves a bit.  Those two girls were some of the first GOTR finishers yesterday and I was so proud of them for that!  Then we had quite a few girls who were not really active at all prior to the program and the first few weeks could hardly keep active for 10 minutes.  Well, on Sunday, they all kept active for about 40+ minutes for the entire 5k!  So proud! I also loved how most of them were still smiling as they were gunning for the finish line!  And then we had the little girl who was definitely our greatest challenge this season… We really struggled to get her to keep moving for 10 minutes every lesson but yesterday she actually made it for a little more than half the 5k!  (It was about 2.5 laps around and she made it the 1.5 in about 30 mins or so).  But considering where we were with her the first week to Sunday, that was a really awesome advancement!

Besides (hopefully) teaching the girls something this past season, I hope I also can remember the lessons these girls taught me.  I’d forgotten what it’s like to be so trusting and so willing to be friends with everyone, regardless of your personalities.  I’d forgotten how to laugh and be goofy and not care what anyone else thinks of you.  I’d forgotten what it’s like to just be yourself and be proud of that, not wanting to be less, not wanting to be more.  I’d forgotten what it’s like to just be me!

Ahhh, the innocence of childhood  Until next season!

Running Chorizo for the win!

Indianapolis: Day 5

Um, yeah, I have not been in Indy for the past three weeks.  I’m actually just a total blogging slacker and have yet to post my final adventure that I had in Indianapolis.  And actually it was one that Sister got to partake of too!

On Thursday morning before we left to head back to ‘Scony, we signed up to take a Running Tour!  (see now why it is applicable that I post this here even though it took place forever and a day ago?)  The same company that led my bike tour on Monday led this running tour and once again I was not disappointed. We ended up being the only ones on the tour again and it worked out well because we got to leave a little later than the typical 7:15 am start time.  I think we selected to head out at 8am and the tour guy met us right at our hotel so it was doubly convenient.

We started out running around the canal area that I had explored on Sunday but it was Sister’s first chance to fully see the area as she had been working on Sunday when I was out exploring.  As a side note, we told the tour guide that we wanted to take it easy but apparently we were not descriptive enough about our definition of “easy” because I don’t think we ever ran a slower than 9:30/mile pace for 4+ miles.  Luckily we had lots of stopping breaks for photos and stories so it was Ok but man, I realized I am really out of running shape and really slow.  Not that I really care but it still opened my eyes a wee bit…

We continued to run past quite a few memorials, my favorite being the September 11th memorial.  By far my favorite tribute I have seen in any big city.  They actually purchased some of the burnt beams to be placed in the piece to represent the towers – very cool and considering our trip fell the week of Sept 11th, even more special we were able to pay our respects there.

 

We ran, ran, ran some more and saw some more memorials, memorials, memorials and before we knew it, our four miles was up!  I was actually quite surprised how quickly the time passed when we were actively listening to a tour while running.  Too bad they don’t offer running tour marathons.  Might be a new business venture for me!  No fair stealing it

 

Trees planted by all the Gov’nas!

My favorite things about this vacation were the running tour and biking tour.  My eyes have been opened to searching out experiences like these in future towns I visit because it really is an awesome way to stay active on vacation but still have fun and see the sights!  Plus you have the added bonus of not wandering around feeling lost all the time.  Active Indy has a really cool mission in their city and I hope if you ever are vacationing in Indianapolis that you check them out!  I know I wish I could start a business like that here in Milwaukee.  Too bad I am so horrible at small talk that I would likely scare people away before we even begin – hehe!

Even though it’s been three weeks, I sill really miss the laid back feel of vacation and really wish I could find a way to live in permanent vacation mode.  Oh to dream big!

Happy Friday!

Do you have a favorite active vacation pastime?  Do you still exercise on vacation?

Impulse Decision.

I don’t consider myself a very spontaneous person.  But for some reason when it comes to making “big” decisions, I do best when I just decide, sign up and move on! And that’s what may or may not have happened yesterday

I’ve been thinking about studying to be a certified personal trainer for a while now.  And over the past week, a job interview got me thinking about my current job and if that’s really what I want to be doing the rest of my life and every time I have these big life thinks, I always end up wishing I was a personal trainer… I am sure being a PT has it’s issues too but I will never know unless I try it out!

So yesterday, when I was checking NASM.org‘s website to look at the materials, they were advertising a sale… Well between the thought provoking interview and the sale on materials, I determined it was a sign that I should give it a shot!  Who knows what will come of it, maybe nothing, maybe a side fun job or maybe, someday, a full time career.  But the only thing that is certain is that I will never know unless I see for myself how it goes!

I could have just himmed and hawwwed about whether to make this decision but the sale ending yesterday made me just put my money on the line and go for it!  So in a week or so, I should receive my study materials and then from there, I will schedule when and where to take my exam.  From there, only time will tell!  I did splurge on the package that includes the *free retest so if I fail the first time, I won’t be done for  I really hate tests (ACTs ahem, LSATs ahem) so I know I might need the second chance  But overall, I am just excited for the option to try something new!

Indianapolis: Day 3

I missed posting yesterday but I’ll try to catch up eventually… this recap is from yesterday but I’ll have adventures from today to recap at some point also.

Yesterday was another full day but it included sister as she had a much longer break from work on Tuesday! She had to help with some morning items but by lunch time, we were free.

Boring + Healthy Breakfast

We started with lunch at cafe patachou. This place was excellent!! It was a farm to table type place that made most items from scratch or were as locally sourced as possible. I had split pea soup + half a turkey sandwich. It also came with a little side salad. Everything was fantastic!

After lunch, we head off to check out the zoo. Sister knew she got in free but I was planning to pay but when we went to get her voucher, the checker asked if I was her guest and said I’d get a free ticket too! Score.

The zoo ended up being kind of boring and it was really hard to see the animals.

One of the good exhibits.

I think we have one of these at home. We call him Crosby.

But it all became worth it when we saw the baby elephants!!!!! Elephants are my favorite animals but I’d never seen a baby one at a zoo before so this was extra cool. I think sister and I sat there for like 10 minutes saying “awwwwww it’s a baby!”

The two smallest ones are sisters I think!

After the zoo, we headed to find Whole Foods and lululemon in a mall in north Indy. Both turned into major busts… Whole foods was so run down and small and lulu was just not worth it to us today. No shirt there seemed worth their ridiculous $80 price tags. They all seemed worn or weird or something… I know that’s probably sacrilegious to say on a blog but oh well.  The mall was also a total dump construction zone. Total waste of a trip.

Then we spent about 20 minutes trying to find a dinner location. So annoying. But ended up at Cheeseburger in Paradise so we were pleased in the end! I had an all American cheeseburger, fries, side salad + a piña colada! Yuuuum!

I’ve missed cheese

Even though we’d had a largish dinner, we both still really wanted ice cream but struggled again with finding a good place so we ended up getting sundae makings at the grocery store. We ended up throwing a lot away but oh well, it was delicious and still cheaper than going for froyo or something like that. And was exactly what we wanted!

We had our “little” sundae back in the hotel room, watched a few castle episodes and hit the sack. Lots of steps again even though I was shooting for a rest day… Try 12,600!

Only one more full day

Horrible Series Ending + an Experiment.

Total random post alert!  And has nothing to do with running… you are warned

For as long as I can remember, I’ve needed to watch TV while I am getting ready in the morning.  For whatever reason, silence at that time of the day just puts me back to sleep.  I used to have a TV in my room which made this easy but since living in my current house, I have been sans bedroom TV because there are no jacks in there and I just don’t have another TV.  So to occupy my time in the morning, I have been watching trough seasons of all my favorite TV shows on hulu and Netflix. I’d pretty much exhausted the Netflix options so I cancelled my service with them after 9ish years!  (They’ve definitely gone downhill since the good ole days)  BUT, I have been really getting into some of the options on hulu!

My last series I watched through was one of my old favorites, The Pretender!  I never watched this show when it was on TV for real but I did watch through many episode on TNT when we first got cable in like 2001.  I don’t know what it is about this show but I really think it’s one of my all-time favorites  But anyways, I could not for the life of me remember how the series ended so I had to go back and watch them all again, of course!  I finished the series this week and well… I don’t remember how it ended because it was the worst ending EVER!  It just left you hanging in total suspense and it made me so mad.  Thank goodness for google though because I quickly entered “the pretender ending” and found there are two movies that they made post-cancellation!  I have obviously ordered these and will be watching them as soon as they come although it sounds like not all the answers are reveled in these movies. grrrrrr!  But whatever, worst series ending EVER.

Oh, Jerod

Now I am on to watching Angel.  I’ve never watched this series but thanks to hulu, that will be changing  I’m pretty sure this makes me a huge nerd and that’s just fine.

On a totally unrelated topic, I am currently trying a new “diet” experiment.  I’ve had a stomachache pretty much every single day for the last 5+ years and am bound and determined to find something that will help!  I’ve been to the doctor and nothing is really, really wrong but it’s just annoying more than anything.  So the experiment is to try something called the Blood Type Diet.  I’ve heard about this diet before but never really put much faith into it until one of my sister’s co-workers had really good results using it so I figured it’s not going to hurt to try it.  It’s not limiting your food by any means, just avoiding certain foods that are supposed to be “poison” for your blood type and add more foods that work as “medicine.”  Seems kind of out there but clearly something is not working for me currently…

Since I am O+, that means avoiding coconut, peanut butter, dairy, wheat,  corn, avocados and other things as well and eating more kale, spinach, red meat, kelp and sweet potatoes.  I already avoid wheat because I know that’s an issue for me but dairy will be missed – very, very much  I’m planning to give this a full two weeks of being pretty diligent about it but then you are supposed to only need to obey the rules 80% of the time so that seems pretty doable (so I will get to eat fro-yo and ice cream occasionally!!! – hopefully) so we shall see.  I am not too convinced this will do anything but I figure it can’t hurt to try.

I started on Monday and so far I am 2/3 for not feeling like crap so maybe it’s on to something… or it’s just luring me into a false sense of security, one of the two.  Yesterday was not a great day but the first two this week, I felt better than I can recall feeling recently…   Another good thing, finding new to me food that I really like!  Two main ones being figs and okra  They both sound weird but I was surprised by how good both are!  In fact, baked okra nuggets might just be my new favorite food. (Ketchup is technically outlawed but let’s be honest, ketchup is worth being a little bit sick for )

As you can see, the meals don’t look weird at all and actually look pretty good!

Can you spy someone’s birthday dinner??

If it goes well/fails miserably, I’ll try to post an update in case you are curious or have ever thought about trying it!

Questions:  What is/was your favorite TV show?  It would be really hard for me to pick just one…

Have you ever tried a random diet?  Are they all just a bunch of fluff or do some actually do what they promise?  I’ve tried Paleo, South Beach and low fat diets and all have just made my stomach feel worse.  Although South Beach did really help me feel better for awhile but zero carbs + running = disastrous bonks all around!

Workout Recap.

I had every intention of doing a weekly workout log entry blog post but somehow it’s been two weeks and I have not yet caught myself up to date.  Luckily I have at least been sort of jotting it down on some paper somewhere!  I think it will be important for me to at least track what I do manage to get in running-wise especially since I am not following any training plan to at least be able to track week-to-week.  Plus, then when everything totally bombs for me, I will be able to look back and remind myself why

So to catch myself up to date, here are my entries from the past 2+ weeks:

8/13: Physique 57 + upper body weight DVD
8/14: 2 mi run + 15 min total body weights
8/15: 2 mi run + Physique 57
8/16: 2 mi run + Ripped in 30
8/17: Rest
8/18: 4.5 miles + quick upper body circuit (pushups, bicep curls, tricep dips 12reps X 3 circuits)
8/19: 12 mile bike ride + 300-400m swim + Yoga DVD
8/20: 3 mi run + 15 min upper body DVD
8/21: 2 mi run? + Ripped in 30 ( I either walked or ran this morning… for the life of me can’t recall for sure which!)
8/22: 3 mi run
8/23: Walks + Yoga
8/24: 2 mi run
8/25: 10 mi bike ride + 40 min weights
8/26: 30 day shred + 30 min Thigh and Seat Physique 57

Overall, I have not been hitting anything super hard lately.  I’ve been trying to get back to feeling normal and exercising less has been feeling better for me and my leg issue so I’ve been sticking with that for the time being.  Also, I’ve had too many after work events lately, it’s been messing with my routine

One quick note on swimming, man, it made my shoulders/body so tired and sore for DAYS!  Crazy how something new on the exercise front really manages to send your muscles for a loop!  I’m hoping to get a swim in 1x ever 2 weeks or so once I decide which gym to join!

Hopefully these next few weeks I can up the ante on running and biking.  I have my 36 mile bike ride in 2 weeks and then a half marathon walk/run in 4!  Time is sure flying and I would like to at least attempt to finish these things, even if I come in last place