Three years ago on this same weekend, I ran my very first half marathon – ZOOMA in Annapolis. It was insanely hot, I felt terrible the whole time, and I decided I’d never again do a summer race in the DC area.
Flash forward three years, and I’ve completed 5 additional half marathons, including 2 earlier this spring (Rock ‘n’ Roll USA and Nike Women’s Half – new PRs at both!). You might say I’m kind of addicted to them. So when I was offered a free bib to the ZOOMA half this year as part of a blog ambassador program, I thought, “Hmmm. It could be fun to return to the scene of my very first half. And I mean, it can’t be THAT hot again, right?!”
Um, yeah. Wrong.
Sigh. Here we go again, my friends. Wish us luck! The game plan is to take it slow, not worry about pace, and drink a LOT of water. No time goals for this race, given the heat AND the hills! Hopefully we can just take it easy and have fun with it.
My blog buddy Theodora arrived last night – she was at the beach in NC for a week and is running the race tomorrow, too, so she swung by to stay here for the night and we’ll drive up to Annapolis together later this afternoon.
Given that I just came back from Italy where we spent way too much money on food, I decided cooking something for us at home was a better option than going out. Matt had a soccer game last night so he ate an early dinner, so I threw together a quick and easy meal for me and Theodora.
Into a pan, I threw two chicken breasts, a little olive oil, chicken broth, and lemon juice, some string beans and mushrooms, garlic powder, and a little of this fun artichoke pesto that Theodora gifted us from her travels. Normal artichokes would also work fine in this dish!
I put a lid on the dish so the steam would cook everything through, and let it sit on medium high heat, covered, for about 10 or so minutes until the chicken was cooked through.
That was easy! Really tasty, too! I’m really loving these one pan chicken/veggie creations lately (my other recent favorite is the Saucy Tomato and Artichoke Chicken I posted a few weeks ago).
Served atop some couscous that Matt had prepared earlier. Yum, yum!
Traveling and eating out is always awesome, but it’s nice to get back to healthier, simpler meals too. I’ve been making a lot of big salads for lunch this week – my favorite of which featured this Farmer’s Salsa from Whole Foods – basically normal salsa but with a bunch of veggies added like carrots, zucchini, etc. It’s really good!
I simply topped some arugula with tomato, green pepper, avocado, feta cheese, black beans, the salsa, a squeeze of lime juice and a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and voila!
Simple, nutritious, and delicious lunch ready in minutes.
I’ve also been loving getting back to my favorite workouts! I haven’t made it back to CrossFit yet, but I got in a couple runs, went to the outdoor free yoga in Dupont Circle on Wednesday night, and also hit up an Ultimate Fitness Kickboxing class (this place is connected to our CrossFit gym) on Tuesday. It was an AWESOME class – I was drenched in sweat afterwards, and it gave me the chance to try out a fun new PWR Love Fit Tee that Reebok sent me this month!
Isn’t it cute?! Reebok is killin’ it with cute workout gear this year. So creative and fun! I loved the combination of the pink and blue, but it comes in a ton of other cute colors, too. I know it’s silly, but I’m definitely more motivated to work hard when I have inspiring gear on, and this shirt did the job.
The other shirt from Reebok I was sent to test out this month was also really cute – it’s the CrossFit inspired PWR Short Sleeve V Neck – I love the “1 more” on the left and “rep” on the right. Again, so creative and fun. Motivating, too!
I loved the shirts so much and I knew you guys would, too, so I asked Reebok if I could do another giveaway to share the love. They agreed! Just a heads up that the shirts run a little loose, so order a size down if you like tighter shirts!
Two lucky randomly selected fANNEtastic readers will win their choice of either the PWR Love Fit Tee or the PWR Short Sleeve V Neck, in their choice of color and size.
To enter to win, simply leave a comment on this post about the most awesome workout you got in this past week. 🙂
Want additional optional entries?
“Like” fANNEtastic food on FacebookFollow me on Twitter and then leave another comment stating you did so.Tweet the following and then come back and leave another comment stating you did so: “ I want to win a @Reebok shirt from @fANNEtasticfood ! http://bit.ly/1381Ujp #livewithfire #fitfluential “
I’ll randomly select and notify the winners on Monday. Good luck! U.S. and Canada residents only, please.The giveaway is now closed – thank you to all who entered!
Have a great weekend everyone, and wish us luck tomorrow for our hot half marathon! Theodora and I are getting a few hours of work done and then hitting the road for Annapolis, where we’ll met up with our buddy Tina. It will be fun to run together again – the last time all three of us did a race together was the Army 10 Miler in October! I’ll be sharing Instagram photos of our adventures throughout the weekend, if you want to follow me over there! 🙂
