running

You are currently browsing articles tagged running.

Its almost Friday. . . and Friday at 6 is my favorite time of the week! I hope you are all gearing up for a fun and relaxing weekend. I have a few product reviews coming up this weekend, and my first guest post ever will be posted on On a Lobster Placemat on Monday morning! I spent my walk home tonight thinking of a Travel Eat Love “Best of”, a post that I will schedule to do quarterly to share my favorites with you all. . . and to see how my favorites change as I try more things and go new places! You will see that my “Best of” isn’t always the most expensive option, that would be too easy! These are real-life things I love; yes, money might be able to buy better, more exotic, or more glamorous, but I wanted to share what was best right now. Sometimes I focus too much on the “I’ll be happy when. . .” and not on what I have been able to experience so far.

Feel free to continue the fun by copying and pasting, making city/town appropriate changes, filling it out, either in the comments section or on your own blog. I would love to learn about what you all love and to have more categories added. I could keep going and going. . .

And don’t forget that the Get Well Stay Well giveaway ends tomorrow! If you haven’t entered and Tweeted/posted about it, make sure to get it in before 8 tomorrow night!

Best of Fitness
Best half marathon: The Covered Bridges Half Marathon, Woodstock, VT
Best marathon: Boston, obviously 🙂
Best gym: Healthworks Back Bay
Best running shop: Marathon Sports
Best walking city: Barcelona Best running city: San Francisco hehehe  

Best of My Travels
Best hotels: The Landmark, London and The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs
Best airline: Virgin (America and Atlantic!)
Best overall travel destination: West Coast of Ireland
Best sushi: Katen Sushi Bar, The Marriott Marquis, Times Square, NYC
Best wine bar: Biquets, Galway, Ireland
Best spa:Spirit One Thermal Suite (Galway again!)
Best market: Naschmarkt, Vienna
Best atmosphere:
Old Montreal on an Autumn evening
Best Southern city: Charleston, SC
Best “European-like” North American city: Montreal  

Best of Boston & New England
Best cocktail bar: Eastern Standard (site appears to be down)
Best Italian: Bricco
Best tapas: Toro
Best French: Les Zygomates
Best lunch AND best fixed price menu:  Myers + Chang
Best after work”happy hour”  AND best brunch spot: Masa
Best romantic date spot”: Tangierino
Best suburban restaurant: Ten Center, Newburyport, MA
Best day or two trip: The Coastal Wine Trail
Best dive bar: Delux

Best wine shop: Bin Ends!!!!, Braintree
Best seafood: Neptune Oyster  

Best of Food and Wine
Best cheese: La Tur
Best red: Paso A Paso Tempranillo
Best white: Schiopetto Bianco
Best bubbly: Gloria Ferrer Va de Vi
Best grocery store: Trader Joes
Best chocolate: Cadbury Bourneville
Best olives: lemon marinated olives from Whole Foods
Best beer: Harpoon Old Salt Ale for Legal Seafoods (will be reviewing this weekend)

Tags: Boston, Food, marathon, running, Travel, wine

Saturday in the park. . . well the dog park that is! I am armed with TJ’s peanut butter dog biscuits and headed off to the MSPCA to visit my favorite furry friends, but before I head there I wanted to write a quick post about last night’s trip to Sail Boston 2009. SO cool! I have never gone down to see the tall ships and was very excited. Being a Pisces, I am a total water sign, and being near the ocean, boats, beaches, seafood, anything like that, makes me so happy.

 

We parked the car a little closer to town in South Boston so we wouldn’t have to take the T. Public transportation in Boston is atrocious and has become unbearable to the point that I would rather walk 6 miles a day for work, and tonight was no exception. We walked in along the water and could see the masts of the tall ships from far away. On the way in we popped into J. Pace and Son a new gourmet store that has just opened in Boston’s rapidly growing Seaport district. We only did a quick walkthrough to check it out, but it combines prepared foods, bakery, and a deli with all sorts of gourmet goodies – olive oil, balsamic vinegars, coffee, imported water (one of my guiltiest pleasures is imported sparkling water, I LOVE it, especially Gerolsteiner), homemade pastas, sauces, olives, and more. Since we were heading to the crowded Sail Boston festival, I didn’t do any shopping, but I promise I will be going back soon.

Food prep heaven

Food prep heaven

Approaching Sail Boston was incredible. SO many people, so many boats, and the harbor and city against the backdrop of a perfect blue sky. How lucky we are to have such a day!
There were boats from all over: Uruguay, which was my favorite, and Russia, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and we didn’t even go to see them all yet. It was so crowded!
What I loved most was all of the different people from all over the world. Events like this truly draw a great crowd, and I loved seeing all of the different fashion and hearing so many languages in one place.

My favorite

My favorite

For all of my Canadian bloggies!

For all of my Canadian bloggies!

Portugal. . . I think?

Portugal. . . I think?

ship2

We walked around for about an hour and a half, then headed to the car to go grocery shopping and get our tired selves home to watch Chopping Block. Do you guys watch this? It’s a great contest with Marco Pierre White as the head chef and judge.  There were two teams, each comprised of smaller teams of two, and they had to open two real restaurants where their challenges take place. It’s a fun show, but each week a food critic is “planted” in the restaurant, and these real life chefs/foodies never know who the critic is! Most of the time I have known just by sight who the person is and what publication he or she writes for.  Last night it was Andrew Knowlton, the Bon Appetit foodist. Hello. . . he is easy to spot, and he is all over the food world! You would think that if you were going on one of these shows you would at least brush up on this kind of stuff! I don’t know why, but it really annoyed me. . . time to let go 🙂

I will do a dinner post from last night a bit later. Busy busy day ahead, volunteering, my niece’s 6th birthday party, a visit to the produce shop, and then working while the hub goes to watch a mixed martial arts match with a friend. I am thinking of trying a Dave Farmar yoga podcast or some other yoga today. My joints are telling me NOT to run, and I am going to listen. Enjoy the beautiful day everyone, and I will be back with more later. 🙂

Tags: Boston, Gourmet food, J. Pace and Son, running, Tall ships, yoga

Wow, is it gorgeous out! Do you guys remember that “It’s a sunshine day” song from The Brady Bunch? I used to watch that show alllll the time.

I hope that you all had a good day. Mine was not too bad at all! Started it out with a very filling smoothie complete with Nasoya Chocolate Silken Creations, chocolate soy milk, spinach, Chocolate SuperFood, and a half cup of pumpkin. It was rich, smooth, and delicious, but I could only finish 3/4. I plan on freezing the rest and eating it like ice cream a bit later tonight. Yum!

My run home was a-mazing! I stretched after about a mile and it made all the difference in the way my knees and ankles felt. There are times when I feel like I am in great shape cardiovascularly but my legs just ache. I loved how warm and sunny it was out. It feels good to sweat!

Supah fast

Supah fast

On the way home, I stopped at the Newmarket Produce stand near my house and went a little crazy:

Summer bounty

Summer bounty

I was craving cherries the entire run, so I bought some more. I crave the strangest things when running, today it was fruit, but sometimes its skim milk. Weird, huh? Do you guys crave anything while running? The funny thing is when I actually finish, I usually can’t eat anything.

I am off to do some strength training, then to make some Dr. Praeger’s veggie burgers and salad topped with a little bit of this:

Homemade hummus

Homemade hummus

 

I LOVE making my own hummus and white bean dips. Eaten hot or cold, they are delicious with veggies, bread, and even alone! My recipe:

2 cups of dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and simmered on low for about 30 minutes in a pot with the soaking water + 3-4 cloves of garlic, fresh ground black pepper, and crushed red pepper

3 cloves of raw garlic

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/3 cup water

I cook some of the garlic to take some of the bite out of it, but also include a few cloves of raw because I love a garlicky kick! I just blend this all together until super smooth in my Cuisinart. If I have it on hand, I throw in a few drops of sesame oil as well.

Ok, that is enough for now. I hope you all have a good evening. With The Bachelorette and Weeds, it is a super fun tv night for me! 🙂

Tags: amazing grass, hummus, running, Vegetarian

Newer entries »

new restaurant
WordPress SEO fine-tune by Meta SEO Pack from Poradnik Webmastera