fitness friday - my home away from home gym

my home away from home gym

european rail trip - part 1 sopron

it's been a while since i traveled anywhere, i've been falling into a rthym of life in budapest. we had a long holiday weekend and lucky me, my best friends decided to make the trek from the us all the way to budapest just for little old me! it was the 10 year anniversary of us being friends so we felt it was appropriate to celebrate, we're kind of a big deal.

502pc!

fitness friday

i'm getting a bit ambitions by naming this "fitness friday." it's put me in the box of posting fitness items on friday. i'm not a fan of boxes, unless i can make them into a fort, but here i am.

the official motto of 502

minimal-ish travel beauty bag

while i've never been the full on face of make up type, i don't consider myself a minimalist either. my skin is too dry for that!

on my recent overnight trip to prague i was only packing in my backpack so i knew i'd need to streamline even further than i usually do. here's how the packing in went:

the whole load

my face

easter trip to paris - part 2

i know i said "next week" when i first posted but i had some personal requests to update on mallory...she's kind of a big deal.

on to day 2 in paris, also know as: the day i spent with dead stuff.

there are 2 places in paris i've wanted to go for a while but was never able to do to either time or co-travelers not being interested. this trip it was all about me! 

i got up very early on easter sunday, 7:30am is early when you're on vacation ok, and took the train down to the catacombs. i tried to go on saturday but the line was massive and i wouldn't have made the cutoff time. when i arrived at 8:30am for a 10am open, i was the 10th person in line. by the time it opened, there as already a 2 hour wait. that's right, people line up to see a bunch of bones just like they do to purchase a new iphone.

am i actually gonna do this?

packing for a year in europe ...

if you thought the ... would be followed by a "in 1 suitcase," you've come to the wrong blog.

there's no way i was going to budapest with just 1 suitcase. i have mallory with me after all.

i did pack for this trip to north carolina in one suitcse

update - the self magazine 30 day summer challenge

so week 4 is here and everything hurts! ok, maybe not hurts, but there is definitely some aching, in a good way.  i’ve enjoyed the last 4 weeks of scheduled butt kicking, not to commandos really but i no longer fear the burpee.

new gear for 2015

i've been pretty good at curbing my gear purchases. i can be very much a gadget person and that just gets costly. but occasionally, purchases have to be made.

i upgraded my garmin thanks to american express. about 6 months ago i cashed in most of my rewards points and purchased the forerunner 15 in teal. it's a lot less bulky than my previous garmin, i love that i can wear it as a watch to track my steps during the day without looking like a deep sea diver.

just charge it honey!

there are many activities my mom and i enjoy together: watching college basketball, watching college football, netflix binges on crime dramas and shopping. it's our cardio. more specifically, bargain shopping.

when she came to visit me on her first solo trip to los angeles we decided to check out the outlets at camarillo. we figured a nice chat on the drive there, 2 hours of shopping, some lunch, and be back in time for dinner and some tv shows. 9 hours later the back of my jeep was filled and we were trying to find a restaurant to feed our hangry selves.

i swear we left stuff for other shoppers

friday favorites 4.18.14

box.com
some of you may have seen the stories flying around the last 2 weeks after dropbox announced they added condoleezza rice to their board of directors. i've used dropbox for years and have loved it, but i made the switch this week to box.com for 2 reasons. 1. personal political views, 2. more space for free. clearly, in the course of normal life, more space for free would have been my first reason to switch, but if not for the "rice" of it all, i would never have sought out an alternative. box.com works just like dropbox but with 7gb of storage more for free. it does require a higher os on my laptop than i current;y have in order to have a synced folder on the desktop, but i'll be upgrading that soon as well. even if rice's appointment doesn't bother you, it's still worth checking out box.com.

pop physique

if you're not following mindy kaling on instagram, you should be. the sartorial pics alone are enough to brighten your day. a few weeks ago in a refresh i saw this

via instagram.com/mindykaling

it was like something out of speed racer. i had to google away. pop physique is yet another exercise class created by a former ballet dancer, but this time, the music is rockin! i found one in my neighborhood and decided to give it a whirl. lucky me, groupon had a 5 classes for 50% off deal, score!

friday favorites 4.11.14

zombies run 2

i started a mission with zombies run 1 way back when i was training for the disney half. now that the sun is up long enough for a short run after work, i'm back to the zombies. in season 2 there's now an online community and base building within the app. there's also 5k and 10k side missions to help get ready for a race, rather than just interval training. the app also integrates your playlist in between instructions. it's been 2 years so i've reset the game, runner 5 is on a mission!

friday favorites 4.4.14

trader joe's channa marsala

this is one of those items i pick up every time i go to tj's. i got it first when a friend was going out of town for 8 months and emptied the contents of his fridge/freezer into mine. this is my go to quick dinner with some batsimi rice. i pour half the channa over rice and save the rest for later.

friday favorites 3.28.14

run keeper app
i love this app b/c it not only tracks my run, but i can share my runs with selected friends. i'm not posting all this to social media, but i do have a cross country friend i share my runs with. we occasionally comment on each others workouts, good or bad.

friday favorites 3.14.14

nike miler tank

loose fitting but not baggy, loop at the back to control head phone cord and there's a long sleeve version. i actually wore both on my 6 mile run in vancouver last weekend, didn't over heat and didn't freeze. it's the running top combo goldilocks would have worn.

via nike.com

new gear for 2014

started off the year with some new duds. my shoes were beyond old and i really just "needed" some stuff.

shoes: brooks pure flow 3
the sales associate at frontrunner fitted me in these after i told him "i hate shoes." they're lower profile than any i'd had before, i love them! the swoosh is actually pretty white/reflective in real life.

"breaking in" or "breaking bad habits"

so, i got seriously lazy last year. all my get up and go from 2012 when i ran the disney half marathon was gone. i don't know what happened, it rolled under the sofa or something. 2014 is going to be different, seriously, soon, for reals.

knowing i'm only motivated by concrete deadlines, i wish i had signed up for the tinkerbell half this year. my hopes were that i'd be out of town on a job, no such luck. so i've decided my first run will be the hot chocolate 15k in san diego in march. time to get myself moving.

http://www.hotchocolate15k.com/sandiego