CUPCAKE TIME!!!!

(imagine that in the cookie monster voice)

Sorry it's been a while since I've blogged but I've been so busy with work, I haven't had time. I missed Flashback Friday so we'll reconvene next friday with a new one. In the meantime, I was VERY excited yesterday about a trip to a couple of new places in downtown Greenville this week.

Before I get to that, let's review my workouts for the week:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: Nike Training Club workout - 45 minutes - weights and body weight strength stuff
Wednesday: morning intervals - 4.1 miles
Thursday: 45 minute swim - 900 meters
Friday: 45 spin class, afternoon yoga class
Saturday: 9 miles with the distance group. I met a new lady, Cindy, and it was fun!!

I will say that spin class the day before a long run is not good. My legs were sore and tired. I'm going to have to switch thursday and friday...

Now onto restaurant review for downtown greenville!!!

The Trappe Door is a new Belgian restaurant downtown in between Barley's and Luna Rosa. The first thing I want to mention is the owner of this restaurant took a trip to Belgium and that's where he came up with the idea for this restaurant. The authenticity is apparent in the decor and menu. It feels very European and the atmosphere is relaxing.

The menu had a variety of things including burgers, mussels, and my fav, CREPES!!! So, of course, that's what I got. I had a shrimp and asparagus crepe with some kind of cheese. It came with a side of asparagus drizzled in a cream sauce and prosciutto. It was rich, but exactly what I was looking for. Others in our group got a burger, salmon, and soup. All looked delish!! 

My only complaint was the service. We ended up being there an hour and a half which is okay when you are out for a leisurely lunch with your friends, not when you have an hour for lunch. Other than that,  highly recommend. 

*all photos are from the Trappe Door website

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Greenville has a new cupcake shop called The Chocolate Moose. YUM YUM YUM... I love dessert more than anything, as you've seen in previous posts, so I was excited when I learned about this new cupcake shop downtown. They are located directly across the street from Guadalajara, which made for an easy trip after a lunch of yummy mexican. They have all KINDS of cupcakes including 

black & white

almond

key lime

and the INFAMOUS red velvet

They have other desserts as well, such as

cake pops

Tira-Moose Sue

Muffins, coffee cakes and cheesecakes!! Yum

I had the Red Velvet Cupcake and the pop. What I will say is that I still like Iced the best, but both desserts were delicious. They also use organic ingredients so it's GUILT FREE!! 

*all photos are from the Chocolate Moose website

I love that Greenville has all of these little local gems. As a "foodie", these are the types of places that make a town have charm so as a native, I'm proud my hometown is coming into it's own!!!

Where are you from?

What kind of fun local stores does your town have?

Yoga Pose Wednesday & a few other things...

OK, let's get the point of the post out of the way first because I've got a few other things to discuss.

Today's pose is..... (the dots are for drum roll).........

source

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana

Upward Facing Dog

Upward Facing Dog is the second pose in the Chaturanga series and is usually the pass through before going to downward facing dog. 

Urdhva Mukha: facing upward

Svana: Dog

Asana: pose

It's therapeutic use: sciatica and asthma

Benefits:

Improves posture

Strengthens spine, arms, and wrists

Stretches chest, lungs, shoulders and abdomen

Firms Buttocks

Stimulates abdominal organs

Relieves mild depression, fatigue, sciatica and asthma

Reference: Yoga Journal

The main thing to remember is that one should not "sit" in his/her shoulders which is a typical mistake. Make sure to lift the heart center and push shoulders down. Hips are off of the floor legs are straight and strong, If you have back issues, it's best to have your legs a little wider apart. 

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Now, onto other things:

Today is JENNIFER SETZLER'S 30TH BIRTHDAY!! 

Yeah, Jennifer... welcome to the 30's...

I love Jen because she is:

Funny

Super Smart

Very loving and generous

Loves Clemson like me

Caring

So, Jen, here is your tribute for your birthday:

source

(just kidding... inside joke)

source

Lastly, if you do not follow this blog, you should, because she features doggies and I LOVE  them!!

Why I Blog...

As someone who is relatively new to blogging and is still trying to find herself in this whole blogging world, I often get confused in what my purpose is for this blog. There are so many different examples of blogs as well as advice for helping your blog gain popularity.

As I continue to write about different subjects, I struggle to find my true voice. One thing about myself that I've learned is that while I can be confrontational in relationships, I don't usually like to rock the boat. I don't post about my political or religious beliefs here or on Facebook because I don't feel like dealing with the backlash of comments one can get from doing that. On the other hand, I don't want to be just another fitblogger who never discussed anything of any kind of substance. I wonder if my blog should be focused on training, food, travel, or a hodgepodge of it all. I've heard your blog should be focused but I've also heard you should write about your passion... IT'S ALL SO CONFUSING.

So I think my goal for the next couple of months is to find out where I want this thing to go. Maybe what I should do first is remember why I started blogging:

1. I wanted to use this as a tool to track my training for my second half marathon. I wanted to be able to keep a log of what I'm doing so that I can look back later on and see what worked and what didn't. I also wanted this to be a place where my friends and family could keep up with my training as well. It was a tool to help me in my fundraising for the American Cancer Society

2. I read an article about fitness bloggers and women who were writing about unhealthy eating habits. I wanted to be a healthy voice for people who could possibly be struggling with eating disorders whether it be from restricting in some way or from overeating. I myself, have struggled with an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise and I wanted to show that you can be healthy but still enjoy food and life.

Here's what's been holding me back:

To refer to my thoughts from above, I sometimes get nervous about expressing my true thoughts and feelings for fear of the response I'll get. I am born and raised in an area that is not very accepting of being "different". In high school, I was never super popular, I dressed weird and I was interested in things that were not of the norm. I don't think I was weird, I like to consider myself, "worldly" :). But the point of what I'm saying, I've learned that I can't express my true self because other people won't necessarily like it... so just be accommodating, mold yourself into whatever it is that seems to be the norm and stick with that. I'm coming to a point in my life where that just doesn't interest me as much. I am not saying that I'm going to announce my opinion on everything to everyone, but my blog that is my own, that I can do whatever I want with, is going to be my voice, pure and simple. If I feel like writing about the injustice that happens in Rwanda, I'm going to do it. If I want to write about how red onions give me gas, then I'm going to do that too. So, we'll see where this new idea takes me....

My Afternoon Trip to Italy

Buongiorno!!

How many blog posts am I going to start with that word? This afternoon, I went to Italy downtown Greenville to visit a little place called Luna Rosa. As we all know, I am obsessed with Italy right now and I just wanted to have a peaceful lunch with some prosciutto and gelato. I ate lunch by myself which always makes me nervous, but for whatever reason, I really had no fear about it. I didn't really even try to find someone to go with me, I just made the plan to go by myself.

My table:

LOVE the flowers

My view:

downtown Greenville is so awesome

My main course: a Prosciutto Panini with a side salad

I wish it had just a couple more tomatoes

all done!!

and INFINE....

I got to sample two types of gelato....

chocolate something... it was so good and grapefruit sorbeto... happy to get a little preview of my final product... I chose the chocolate, but went with lemon instead of the grapefruit... 

By the time I got to my gelato, I was kind of full... but I promise you this... I ATE EVERY LAST BITE...and I do NOT feel guilty because it was so good. 

I am a triathlete, wait no, duathlete, wait no...

Today was my first brick workout. Let me start by saying I have no desire to do a triathlon and I've been saying that for a while. But, a lot of my friends are triathletes and because of that, I've been doing endurance style workouts. My friend, Lori Levasseur has been riding and swimming with me. Holly Di Giovine, like no one who reads this has ever heard that name, has been helping/leading rides, so I've gotten a LOT of cross training in for my marathon training. Lori is showing me drills for the pool and helping with my technique... she deserves a medal because i'm not a strong swimmer... at all.... Imagine my phoebe running in the pool. Yes... that's me...

SO TODAY WAS THE DAY OF THE....

BRICK WORKOUT

To be honest, it was way more fun than I thought. The Caine Halter YMCA is having their annual Sprint Triathlon on June 18th, so this was a course preview. Holly was nice enough to host this preview with her Team Primo Victoria and they invited some of us novices out for a tri try. :)

I'm the one with the black tank and white hat

Source: Holly Di Giovine's camera 

The Bike: 8.35 miles, 37:05

We did a small 3 mile loop that we circled 3 times. It was super hilly so my biggest challenge was shifting. I'm still learning and getting comfortable and the biggest problem I have is switching between big gears, or my front gears. They're a little bit more difficult to switch and so I don't love doing it. I almost always knock the chain off, which happened this time, and have to stop and put it back on. 

What I loved:

*The speed.... I'm getting more comfortable with downhills and even dropped my chest forward a few times to gain speed. Max speed was 31.5 mph which is good for me. That usually makes me nervous

*The alone time... I was pretty much by myself and I got to think and really just pay attention and enjoy what I was doing. 

*The challenge: this is hard but in a different way. I actually like cycling better than running and this was the same. 

What I didn't love: 

*Changing gears all the time. I'm assuming this isn't always the case, it just happened to be a hilly course

*Not being as comfortable with traffic laws - I wasn't sure how long I needed to wait at lights when turning left, blah blah... I'll learn

*Not being faster!!!! That will come with time

The Run: 3.16, 32 

This was definitely different but what I will say is that since I knew this would be tough, I broke it down to a run 3, walk 1. By doing that, i could run at an efficient pace and feel good doing it. My legs were super heavy and it was a weird sensation for the first mile. 

What I loved:

*I already felt warm so the first mile wasn't as terrible as it is when I just start out running 3 miles

*I felt good because I knew I was challenging myself in a different way

What I didn't love:

* heavy legs - haha

* 10:10 pace...

Those are things that will improve I'm sure. 

All in all, it was a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll do it again. If I can get my crazy swimming under control, maybe I'll even do a tri... 

Last thing: I wanted to try to make my breakfast look pretty like other bloggers, Fit Foodie Finds, Peanut butter fingers, etc. Here's my first attempt

I need to work on it