Happy (early) 4th of July!

I won't be blogging tomorrow, I will spending the day with family and friends celebrating the good
ol US of A! Turbofire, an ice-cream birthday party social, and then BBQ and fireworks at the parents house are the plan. I love summer holidays- the sunshine, the badminton and volleyball games, cornhole, smores around the campfire and grilled foods, at least that's how we thrown down over here.


Steak Kabobs- red pepper & onion on mine, yum!



Last night I got in a 4 mile run before coming home and grilling some delicious steak kabobs from the new cookbook I picked up last week: Everyday Paleo. There are delicious recipes in there, I highly suggest anyone wanting delicious meals with minimal and easy to find ingredients should pick it up. I am kind of testing out the waters on the Paleo lifestyle, the main change I am making is more veggies as side vs. grains and not consuming much dairy. I love cheese so this is hard for me however I notice whenever I eat much dairy I bloat and start to breakout. Got to keep this face camera ready for race shots :p Just kidding- kind of. The first recipe I made was Apple Shallot Pork Chops and they were a hit. I was surprised to find I had all the ingredients I needed in the house already and the ending result was a meal that felt almost gourmet!

Back to my run, it was still in the 80's here and I wanted to run before dinner so I left about 4:45. My friend Krissy couldn't meet me right then so I devised a plan to just run at the track so she could meet me there. If you have never run on a black track in the summertime with no shade anywhere near let me just tell you it was like 100 degree out there. I didn't start with

Random picture of my adorable girls :)

intervals so I just ran 2-3 laps stopped at the bleachers and drank some water then got back to business. About 2.5 miles in I saw Krissy coming down the hill and we decided to do some road running to escape the suns punshining glare. Not lying I was hoping to soak up some sun and get tan but after 25 minutes shade sounded pretty enticing. My avg pace at that point was 9:50 which I was surprised by and thrilled with considering it was so hot. Krissy had ran to the track from her home so we kind of ran a little less than half way to her house and then I turned and headed back to mine while she continued her loop. 10:16 overall pace- still pretty darn happy with it. Sad to say this was the longest run I've had for um....3 weeks? I've mainly been fitting in 2 milers. Running Saturday is out of the quetsion due to family events so I'm hoping to maybe fit in an early morning long run Sunday then hit up yoga. Note: and when I say long right now I mean 6-8 miles, not like Marathon long when I considered anything under 10 short :)

Enjoy your holiday, remember it's about more than burgers and fireworks!