Weekend Adventures

Hello my friends! What a difference a week makes in terms of weather – last weekend it was blizzarding, and this weekend it was sunny and warm (ish – felt warm to us anyway!). So weird – but awesome!

On Saturday morning, I met up with my friend Kathleen for a flexibility and strength workshop at Urban Athletic Club. It was really cool, but we thought it was going to be a workout, and after it was over, we were itching for some endorphins and some fresh air and decided to do a spur of the moment run. The Capital Crescent Trail is nice and clear of snow – perfect.

We weren’t planning to run so I didn’t have my watch (or proper running shoes, but I made it work), but I think we ended up covering 4 or 5 miles at a good clip. We were both so happy to be out getting some fresh air after being cooped up most of the week! And yes, I was running in a tank top and it felt AMAZING.

After our run, we walked over to our standard sweaty fave, Le Pain Quotidien, for brunch. I went for my usual – the mushroom and goat cheese omelette – with some unpictured bread that we had them bring first because we were starved. :)

On Sunday morning, I had a fun adventure planned with my college friend Sarah! One of her friends is engaged to a personal trainer named Paul Medina, who owns his own in-home training company in DC called Capital Energy Training. Sarah won a free training session with him via his Facebook page and thought it would be fun if I joined in and wrote about the experience. Sign me up!

Since Paul travels to clients homes/offices/gyms for his training sessions, we decided to meet at my place and use our basement for the session. I had no idea what to expect, but I was excited because I’ve been looking for a good trainer in DC/NoVA/MD to refer my nutrition clients to who ask me for trainer recommendations! Love that he comes to you – makes it so much easier. He brings all the equipment you’ll need, too!

When Paul found out Sarah and I are both runners, he turned the session into a great functional movement/mobility session, which I loved. I know I should do more mobility work but I never want to take up the small amount of time I have to fit in a workout to do mobility stretches, so I liked that he incorporated them as part of our workout rather than as a separate thing – so efficient!

Right away, Paul noticed that both of us had tight hips and did some interesting exercises that had us stretching and strengthening those muscles in particular. As he described functional exercise, it’s like taking a word apart and putting it back together – you have to learn how to pronounce each letter before you can pronounce the whole word. It’s the same with the body – breaking down the body step by step and making sure each part is solid before putting it all back together.

He explained that most people have a weak gluteus minus, tight hips, and a tight lower back which can translate into injury eventually. Uh, yep, that’s me.

We spent the hour doing a mix of stretches and body weight exercises to target some of those regions. This stretch felt AMAZING.

It wasn’t a cardio/heart pumping workout (although he says he offers that sort of training, too) but a lot of the strength moves were hard since we had to hold them for quite awhile. We definitely felt the burn!

I’ve been having some tightness/soreness in my right hip and right lower back for quite awhile now that I’ve stupidly been ignoring, so Paul and I are going to continue to work together once per week to see if we can get that situation improved. I’ll highlight one of the specific exercises that we do each week here on the blog in case you’d like to try some of them yourself at home!

If you’re in DC and are looking for a great trainer that will come to you, check out Capital Energy Training! I was really impressed with Paul’s professionalism, knowledge, and attention to detail. While I’d definitely recommend him to runners looking to improve mobility and strength and reduce injury risk, he’d be a good fit for anyone looking to improve their strength/fitness – his clients range greatly in their goals, ability levels, and ages.

As a thank you to Sarah for including me in the training fun, I invited her to stay and have breakfast with me and Matt afterwards!

I decided to throw together a veggie egg scramble for us and started by sautéing some green pepper in a pan with a little oil.

A couple minutes later I threw in a huge handful of greens to wilt down.

Once the veggies were soft I poured in 6 eggs (that I whisked in a bowl with some salt and pepper) and stirred/scraped the pan until the eggs were mostly cooked, then enlisted Matt to throw some grated sharp cheddar on top.

Et voila! Topped with some avocado and served with a side of orange slices and pumpkin bread. :)

The pumpkin bread came from Relay Foods (<– my affiliate link for $30 off your first order with them – they are an awesome online grocery store) – I ordered a bunch of pantry staples and some other unique sounding local items last week including that bread, just for fun. Yum!

After breakfast, Matt and I said farewell to Sarah and headed over to Great Falls Park (the Maryland side) for a hike with a big group of friends!

We were hoping to do the Billy Goat Trail but it was unfortunately still closed due to snow melt/flooding, so we ended up just doing a hike along the canal. It was still nice – SUCH a beautiful day – almost 60 degrees?!

We ended up stopping for an al fresco beer at the Old Angler’s Inn, because the trail we were on dead-ended right across from their parking lot. Don’t mind if we do!

It’s kind of fancy inside but it was nice enough to enjoy the patio – perfect.

Such a fun way to spend the day! We ended up grabbing dinner – burgers and sweet potato fries, my favorite post-hiking food – afterwards with a smaller crew. Hit the spot.

It’s lovely out again today – I have some AnneTheRD client meetings around Virginia so I’m working from home and looking forward to a walking break later. :)

Have a great day, my friends – and happy week 2 of the Winter Shape Up! Don’t forget to check in over on my week 2 meal plan page and Gina’s week 2 workout page to be entered to win the giveaways from this week’s sponsors!

Did anyone else enjoy a nice weather weekend?