committed.

Mark your calendar, kids.

Sunday, August 7, 2011 

I'm doing it. 

13.1 miles.

Scaryyy.

Excited.

I've been pretty hesitant to commit to this. I mean 13.1 miles is far. and is going to take me a loong time. But really, its time to man up and go after it. If I want to be a runner, which I claim to & if this is my goal, set a date already!?   

done and done. 

Goals for 28

As many of you know, I'm a HUGE list person. I make lists for everything & I usually have a handful of lists going at once.
so, I made a number of resolutions for 2011 (which I'm about half way through) but I decided that in addition to (and slightly overlapping), I needed some goals for my 28th year. 
- Inspired by On Tap for Today

1. take a cooking class

2. take a photography class

3. watch 28 movies (1/28)

4. run a 5K  (or a few)

5. run a 10K - registered RnR 10K NY  10/22/11

6. run half marathon - registered RnR Providence 8/7/11

7. run a "fierce" race (warrior dash, rugged maniac, etc)

8. go to one blogger event - registered HLS in Aug

9. try bikram/hot yoga

10. plan and go on an excellent vacation
11. come up with 10 awesome alli-original recipes.

any other fun suggestions? 


Progress
Movies
1. The Machinist - 6/14/10

Just a bit different

Yesterday afternoon, after my weekend of fun, I decided it was necessary to do some serious cooking.   I surveyed the recipe pages of a few blogs & came up with a plan.
First -
Sweet Potato Meatloaf.
I love that its a different twist on meatloaf. I'm on a big sweet potato kick and make a LOT of meatloaf.

joys of cooking for 1 - 1 now, 5 for later

 delic.  (I put a lil bbq sauce on the side too)

Next up! Granola. 

last week's granola was so fabulous, I need to start making it more often. 

1 cup rolled oats

1 Tbsp chia seeds

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 Tbsp sunflower seeds

3 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp agave nectar

mix all ingredients. spread evenly on parchment paper. bake at 325 for 10 minutes. flip granola. bake 10 minutes. 

Flavor is good - but I should've used a touch of oil. Not as crunchy as I wanted it to be. 

Now for one of my favorite snacks, which is definitely just a bit different, but I've been eating it this way for yearss & secretly, its the only way I want popcorn.   

(I know I didn't make it up. a chrissy creation maybe?) 

Bare with me - it sounds a little weird, but its awesome. 

94% fat free microwave butter popcorn

Frank's Red Hot sauce

little bit black pepper

so good. 

just try it. 

I'm getting to the point in my training plan that I have to up my short runs. Tonight's run was a pretty brutal 4.5 miles. My right shin tightened up right away and it felt like I had one lead foot. I can't even explain it, but it made running realllyy hard.  So I paused stretched a lil and powered through. Once I got to about 2.5 miles, it loosened up & I started feeling pretty good. 

I feel like a terrible Boston-ite Bostonian (fail alli. fail.) I'm not even pretending to watch Game 6. Oops. 

Go Bruins! 

birthdayyy

I had a phenomenal birthday!! thanks everybody

Friday morning I got up & did a 6.6 mile loop through the common, the Esplanade & over to Cambridge. It wasn't hot or overly sunny so great for a long run.

   

Pineapple makes me really happy so perfect for a post-run breakfast 

Then the real fun begins!  
Early afternoon, Suzy & I headed over to Fanueil Hall for some lunch & cocktails.

love it. 

this was delicious. Kingfish Hall's - Fish & Chips

(birthday is a great excuse to eat something so fried and wonderful)

lindsey came to join us :)

sister love. 

we later moved to the bar to "watch" the bruins game & eat pre-birthday-celebration

jager bombs at 7? sure suz - that sounds like an excellent plan. 

We spent the entire night & Clarke's, which was great. 

People came early, people came late, people stopped by, I just set up shop & enjoyed every minute. 

so many fun people came out!  

(though so many got missed by the camera - sad)

overall - fantastic night & wonderful start to 28!!

Other exciting news!  I got a ticket to this year's HLS!!

Will be so fun. I can't wait! :) 

so sooon

Thanks for your suggestions on races!!  
I haven't quite decided which to do yet but I did register for this. 10/22/11

really excited for this one 

I'll be adding a bunch more to the game plan so keep em comin. I almost (eeeekkk) registered for the half but decided I needed to wait until after tomorrow's 6.5 miles. If I can get through half the distance without keeling over, I can get there. 

I finally synced my phone & took it on a run last night. (breen - love the app, thanks!)

I paused to stretch and couldn't resist.  

I love this!  How can I resist a run with this view?!

After last night's run, Lauren came over for dinner. I made some pearl onion risotto & spinach salad. delic! and of course, there was wine, some celebratory bubbly & a fantastic cupcake.  picture fail. none taken.  

I'm sooo ready for the weekend.  

cleaned the apt. did my laundry. running in the morning. ready for lots of guilt-free fun. 

tomorrow - i have a fantastic day planned with my sister! 

then katie & chrissy are coming from NY! :) :)

& a GREAT crew coming out to celebrate.  can NOT wait!!

i keep trying to add to this post but really - i'm watching the king's speech. ha.  good at multitasking. not so much. :)

have a fabulous night! 

alli got an iphone!

the month of Boston begins! 
It felt really great to be here & home this weekend.
strolled over to the verizon store yesterday afternoon to get my iphone! eeeekkk. love it.
& managed to make some progress on one of my june goals. 

state house

washington in the public garden.

all the statues were in bruins gear

would love to have seen how they got that on there.

just pretty

I really need to start wandering around with my camera more often. then again the iphone camera does a pretty solid job.

my balcony

current set up - hence my goal to convert fully to the mac.

seriously... 2 computers. camera. too much.

I wasn't in the mood to run tonight. (must go in the AM)

but instead really in the mood to cook.

dinner:

2 small tortillas

1/2 cup fat free refried beans

one large slice red onion

1/2 medium tomato

1/4 avocado

1 oz shredded cheddar

salsa

in a sprayed skillet, on the stove til it gets crunchy.

delic.

and then I made GRANOLA.

coconut granola.  inspired by this.

i used agave nectar instead of honey since thats what i had.

i can NOT wait to eat this tomorrow.

sweet. crunchy. yum.

so glad Monday is over. I'm really hoping this week doesn't drag, but I expect it will.

Too many fun things happening this weekend.

can't wait!!



JUNE

saturday afternoon & I'm in a phenomenal mood.

Just did a slow but fantastic 6 miles. I got nervous that it was loong so ran slow and actually finished feeling really great. yayyy!

last night, I got drinks with Sara. still amazes me how 5 months ago she & I were both living in NY & now we both live here.  loove it.
JUNE!  its finally summer.  and I actually plan to spend the whoole month in Boston.
and I'm excited.  I've had a few weekends here but not nearly enough recently.  I did manage to snap a shot of this pretty sunset the other night though.

so goals for June.
1. get up to 7.5 miles
2. commit to the half marathon
3. have a fantastic birthday
4. take Boston pictures - since its finallyyy nice enough to spend some time outside.
5. fully convert to my Mac. I'm using both for now, but the mac is soo much better.

i'm off to enjoy this gorgeous day and will leave you with this:

two of my favorite men & their giant bass. 

doesnt get much more summer than that.

back in action

Next week, I'm going to be 28, which is just crazy. So I bought myself a domain name and revamped the blog a bit.

as you can imagine, I spend a lot of time thinking about life, who I am, who I want to be, etc.   I think the blog plays a part of that.  It pushes me to reflect on whats going on in my life and be proud of what I'm accomplishing.   (plus its just fun)

so that said, I haven't done a post in over a week! eeekkk

what have I been doing? 

I got up and ran 5.5 miles Friday morning!  my longest distance ever. (though not for long)  it felt amazing.    afterwards I jumped on a plane & headed down to Raleigh for my friend's wedding. 

so happy for you guys! beautiful day, beautiful couple.

 thumbs up desantis.

Sunday, I headed to the Cape to spend Memorial Day with the fam. :)

Since then, I made some decent food & a whole bunch of smoothies. but more importantly, last night was the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge!   Now, I know I'm a newbie runner & only have umm.. 2 races under belt ever. but there were wayyyy too many people. The entire course was super crowded. I felt like I was one blink away from stepping on someone the WHOLE TIME.  not cool.

3.5 miles. 33:59. not bad. not awesome.  guess i can't really expect to get a great time at such a huge race.

Overall, it was fun, but I felt like it just wasn't executed all that well.   

With this race completed, I have no more on the calendar!! I'm still a little nervous about signing up for the half. I think I really need to get 6 or 7 miles under my belt before I can commit to that. soon though.

But this means I need another race.  

Any suggestions?

only 2 more hours til the weekend!! :) :)

upgrade

making some changes. doing some upgrades. dont mind me while i fail at blogging for a bit. :)

lessons learned

things I learned in the last 48 hours:

1. I do not like mango. sad.
2. use xanthan gum sparingly - or smoothie gets as thick as well... gum. gross.
3. tempeh is pretty delic.
4. so is bbq sauce.
5. i'm a sucker for a 40% off deal.    dear banana republic - stop taking all my money. love, alli

and finally.. short weeks are soo much better than full weeks. 
I definitely already knew this, but its been sooo long since I've had a day off that I forgot.
just knowing that I don't have to work a full week again until the end of june puts me a fantastic mood. :)
so nice!  4 day weekend. i'm soo ready. 

smoothie this morning was a repeat by definitely one of my faves. this recipe but mixed berries instead of strictly strawberries.  so gooood.  i wanted it to last alll morning. 

as guilty as I felt not running on Monday, I'm really glad that it didn't. Yesterday was gorgeous and I was really in the mood to run. 
How can you not look forward to this?

Source

One of my favorite things to do while running is people-watch. I pay attention to everyone running around me, everyone thats out walking, etc. Some people look like runners, some people don't, some runners look like they're really enjoying themselves and some look like they're in pain. Now, if you know me, you know that I can't control the faces I make. So I can NOT imagine what I look like. ha. so I need to be more aware of that, though I'm sure it depends on the day.

I need to squeeze in 2 more runs by Friday since there is really no chance of getting my long run in while at Desantis's wedding in Raleigh on Saturday. (ahhh yay! soo soon) 
and its gorgeous out again today, so definitely looking forward to tonight.

(When did I become someone who craved a run?!  love it)