In honor of my festivities last Thursday, here are some pictures from Katy Perry’s Prismatic World Tour with my mom. The concert was so much fun, I went three years ago to her Teenage Dream Tour, and it was so awesome. This tour did not disappoint… I wish I could do this every week!!
I feel like we are in the heart of summer… even though it seems like it’s just about over (as my coworkers so graciously remind me!) This past weekend, felt like the stereotypical summer weekend, and it was so much fun! It started on Thursday night when a friend invited us out on her boyfriends boat. A bunch of us loaded up with yummy hors d’oeuvre, some drinks of choice, and then we cruised along the coast, singing, talking, and watching the sunset! Not to mention the weather was perfect. It was nice to socialize with everyone outside of the office, and with our significant others!
Cleveland!
Co-worker photo
Kelsey, Me & Allie
With Moz!
Kevin & Allie
B and Me
Friday evening we went out with my aunts. We have a recent tradition were we try and go out to dinner whenever they are about to go out of town, which is about once or twice a month (esp. over the summer)! We had happy hour dinner and drinks at Georgetown in Lakewood. They have a great happy hour! I would highly recommend the “One Drop” Martini – Vodka, Olive Juice, Tabasco Sauce, and Blue Cheese Stuffed Hot Pepper… it was so good! I also had the Mushroom Pizza, which had Wild Mushrooms, Prosciutto, Basil, Parmesan, balsamic and olive oil drizzle, amazing!
Saturday, I road tripped up to Vermilion, OH with a bunch of girls for our friend Erika’s bachelorette party! Our days itinerary started with brunch on the beach followed by a winery tour via limo bus to a few different wineries in the Vermilion area. We went to; Quarry Hill Winery, Vermilion Valley Vineyards, Matus Winery, and Paper Moon Winery. I was very impressed with the wineries, although they were very spread out, so the limo bus was a smart move! The tour was an all day event! The boy came out and picked me up and we grabbed a later dinner at a local brew-pub.
Sunday, we got our morning workouts in and then headed to his parents house for a classic pool day, lounging out and cooling off in the pool when needed! Plus we brought Moz and she went for a swim a few times (even though she is not a fan!) when she wasn’t playing with Haywood, his parents labradoodle.
Erika’s Bachelorette Party!
Lauren, Erika & Me
The Captain aka Bride-to-Be!
Moz & Haywood
Pool Day!
The weekend was full of sunshine, good friends and family and good times! It was definitely your typical summer weekend. I can’t wait for more warm, sunny days!
Now that half marathon training is in full swing, I came out strong in week two, and boy… did it feel GOOD! I haven’t had a solid workout week like that in a LONG time… sadly I’ve come to realize that these types of weeks will be few and far between due to work, life, and everything else. I just need to stay motivated and remind myself of how good it feels.
Monday – 3 miles Completed: 27:09
Tuesday – 2 miles or cross Completed: Walk 1.5 miles
Wednesday – 3 miles + strength Completed: 28:24
Thursday – 30 minute cross
Friday – 30 min. run Completed: 29:51 (3 miles)
Saturday – 4 miles Completed: 37:38
Sunday – Strength Completed: 1-hour Spin Class
Week Total Miles: 14.5 miles
On top of training we had a jammed packed weekend. Friday night, Bentley and I went to Twilight at the Zoo which we have had the pleasure of attending for 3 years now! A little rain tried to ruin our evening, but it quickly stopped and turned out to to be a beautiful night! Food was sparse, but beers were flowing. My favorite animal spotting of the evening was a Malayan Sun Bear, he was a cutie! Bands were scattered throughout the zoo each with a different genre! We wish our friends would’ve been able to join us but we still had a fun date night together!
Saturday, my parents came into town from NY! In between the downpours and crazy boomers, we were able to go to Lakewood’s Art Fest to visit our favorite vendor, Foundry Woodprints we have a small collection started of illustrated vintage prints of downtown Cleveland. We also have a bunch of wooden coasters, because they are just so fun! In two weekends, Foundry will be at a festival at Edgewater Park! Saturday evening we went to my cousins marching band competition, yes you read that correctly! He is a senior in high school and has been traveling all summer with a marching band-camp, grueling through 12-hour practices and sleeping on gym floors, the whole thing is quit impressive. Plus we got to see more family, which is always fun.
Sunday, I started my day with a 1-hour spin class at Harness Cycle, it was an awesome and challenging work out. I was glad I got back for another class. Followed by Brunch at Market with my parents, aunts and B. Followed by house hunting!! Followed by me being absolutely exhausted by the time we got home that evening. This week has continued with the trend of busy, lots of work duties with little working out. I am finally at the part of my week were fun is ahead of me and hopefully a workout or two squeezed-in before the start of Week 4 training! I just hope I can let the good training weeks, outweigh the bad!
Last Monday was the official start of half marathon #7 training! As of today, one week down – 11 more to go before the Cleveland Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon. As I mentioned in my recap in May, I didn’t train very well… I’d like to think I am off to a better start this time around.
Here is my week breakdown:
Monday – 3 miles Completed: 27:32 (3.59 miles)
Tuesday – 2 miles or cross Completed: 17:57
Wednesday – 3 miles + strength
Thursday – Rest Completed 🙂
Friday – 30 min. cross Completed: 1-hour Spin Class
Saturday – 4 miles
Sunday – Strength Completed: 31:41 (2.30 miles)
Week Total Miles: 7.89 miles
I gained a little extra inspiration when we went to support a friend’s brother at his movie premiere on Wednesday night called “Running the Edge.” It premiered in Cleveland at Capital Theater, the film follows the journey of a man and his family while he works to break the record for running the Colorado trail…which is 468 miles long. His goal was to complete this in 8 days, 7 hours and 17 seconds, running anywhere from 12-14 hours a day and getting minimum sleep. It was incredible, his determination, time spent and self-discipline it took to accomplish this was beyond motivational.
Friday, I was able to try out the local spinning hot-spot, Harness Cycle, for a co-worker’s “Bride Ride Happy Hour” … a sweaty hour work-out + happy hour afterwards, was my kind of night! The spin class was a lot of fun, especially with all the girls from work! Not to mention it was a challenging work out (which I am always game for), mainly because it was really different from the spin classes I am used too. This class made you work your body more in tune to the beat of the music … and good music at that! I have always been a fan of group classes, because they help me stay motivated and push myself harder than I would if I was working out alone. I am definitely hoping to get back to Harness, the work out was great, and their studio is beautiful!
My goal is to continue to push myself harder each week regardless of the busy weekends and long days… because the busy weekends never stop!
Are you training for a half marathon, or any kind of race? What keeps you motivated?
Since I was 10, I have been going to Yankee’s games every summer in order to see my favorite player, Derek Jeter… and the Yankees play. I have been very lucky and fortunate to have once in a lifetime opportunities with great seats, field access for batting practices, dugout suite seating and even going to both Yankee Stadiums.
I can’t explain why I am so fond of Derek Jeter, but ironically one word does come to mind and that’s Respect.
Derek Jeter has played this American pastime with integrity, loyalty, and the utmost respect for the game and his team. Derek has played for the Yankees for 19 years… 19 years! I can’t recall any baseball player, ever, in history of baseball who has played on one team his entire career. He has stayed out of drama and the lime light, off of social media and on top of all of that, he has broken countless records.
Here is a run down of a few:
14 – All Star Games
12 – time MVP
1996 Rookie of the Year
3,408 hits to date
5 – World Series Rings
On top of all of that he is a stand-up guy, especially to his fans. I have had a few close encounters with him and he responds and acknowledges very politely. Even this season he has been signing autographs before games at each of the stadiums for his fans. I’ve been lucky enough to get his autograph twice, and he even handed me his sweaty-wrist band after a blow-out against the Indians in 2006. And then the occasional, “Hi, how are you doing tonight?” with the hat tip or a wave. (Because I am that person decked out in Jeter gear, yelling to him!)
There is another thing to be said about him. As much as you may hate the Yankees, for whatever reason, most people find it hard to hate Jeter. I heard countless people at the games this past week saying just that, adding that they had to come see Derek Jeter play in person… one last time.
This past week, I was extremely sad, yet very happy and lucky to be able to go to all 4 games for the Indians vs. Yankees series. It was bitter sweet. I have had so many unforgettable memories and great times watching Derek and the Yankees play – it’s been a yearly tradition for nearly 14 years, and it’s now sadly ending.
Derek is truly one of the best baseball players of our time, he is a stand-up role model. The game of baseball won’t be the same without him, at least not for awhile.
So, if I could say one last thing to Derek Jeter, although I would love to say many… one thing would be… Thank you.
xo -eb
That time Derek Jeter slipped off his sweat band and handed it to me after a game. 2006
Recently Bentley and I have been looking at houses, hoping to find our home. After renting for the last 3 years (and even longer for B), we are both at the point where if we are going to be paying hundreds of dollars a month on rent, we would rather pay towards something that could be ours and build equity.
We have been on the search for a week and already we have had two house heartbreaks. We’ve found that the houses we end up seeing and loving, usually end up with an offer literally the next day. Then they’re gone. Just. Like. That.
We are eager to find a house, but also aren’t on any timeline, we still have time on our lease but at the same time are hesitant to look at houses knowing how quickly they get snatched up, or how quickly we’d have to decide and place an offer at the risk of entering into a bidding war. Only to end up having time remaining on our lease.
Recent homeowners, what’s your advice to first time home buyers when going through this process? Have you lost a house? How many houses did you see before you found the one?
This past weekend, B and I went on a whirlwind trip to New York City. For my birthday, Bentley got tickets to a Yankee’s game in NYC. So we could see Derek Jeter play one last time at Yankee’s Stadium before he retires… I have been waiting since March for this!!
So we decided to take the Megabus from Rochester, NY (that way we got to see my parents too!) over night on Friday. We were suppose to leave at 11:50pm, but didn’t end up leaving until 12:50pm, Megabus was late! We arrived in NYC around 7:40am on Saturday. Our bus back to Rochester would be leaving at 6:40pm that same night! That gave us 11 hours to explore the city.
This was Bentley’s first time visiting NYC, and only my second. I was last there when I was 13 for another Yankee’s game at the old stadium. Our goal of the day: explore and see as many landmarks as possible!
First stop off the bus was Starbucks for some coffee and breakfast!
Next stop was the Empire State Building. After doing some research prior, we knew roughly how much it would cost and that we wanted to go up to the 86th floor and the 102nd floor and that there was an express option to avoid lines. Well we got talked into doing this “Sky Ride” flight simulator through NYC (#tourists), thinking we would have express access to the 86th floor and102nd floor. Well that didn’t end up happening (86th floor only) and the Sky Ride was horrible. BUT… when we got to the 86th floor and saw the panoramic views of the city, it was absolutely incredible.
From the Empire State Building we walked to prime spots including: Time Square, Broadway, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, NBC Studios, Madison Avenue, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Park Ave., Trump Tower, Tiffany’s, Central Park, and of course Yankee’s Stadium.
We found a nice cafe in Central Park that we could sit and enjoy lunch, before heading up to the Yankee game. We caught a cab and got to Yankee’s Stadium. It was so surreal and amazing to be there, not to mention Jeter played great (disclaimer: born and raised in NY, Yankee fan since birth). I also got a Derek Jeter foam finger, and collectors baseball… of course.
Before heading back to the bus, we found a classic New York styled pizza restaurant (John’s at Timesquare) and chowed down on some pizza!
Overall, the trip was so much fun, just walking around the city, exploring, and site seeing with B.
We arrived back into Rochester around 2am, arriving back to my parents around 2:30am… and hit the sack. It was long, but so worth it. I mapped our walk around NYC and we probably walked about 10 miles, only catching 2-taxi rides – my feet and legs were killing me on the bus ride back!
We got to spend time with my parents the rest of Sunday before heading back up to Cleveland. It was a perfect little weekend.
Yesterday I finished my 6th half-marathon, which helps me cross off one of my NYE resolutions for 2014! (And I will be running my 7th half-marathon and potentially my last this October!) Before, during and after every half-marathon, I always ask myself… “Why am I doing this?” and every time I have a different answer. Sometimes it’s because I like challenging myself, physical and mentally and other times I am trying to beat my own goal.
If you’re not a runner, or if you’re not a long distance runner, the sounds of running 13.1 miles for essentially 2-hours sounds crazy ridiculous. But when you tack on 12-weeks of training that includes long weekend runs (10 or 11 miles) you might think that is even more crazy. Well yes, it is. Unfortunately this race, I struggled both in training and on my actual race (because I didn’t train enough). I am still trying to find the balance between work, life and my workout life, it has been a roller coaster this year, but I am confident and determined!
This year, the Cleveland Rite Aid 10k, Half and Full Marathon had a new route around the city – which was really great, moderate hills and a change of scenery. However the last 3 miles down the shoreway to the finish were tough! To add another twist on running 13.1 miles I decided a few days in advance that I would try and live tweet during my run, and I did! #emrunscle2014
I crossed the finish line at 2:14:05
Bentley finished at 2:02:39 – and he didn’t stop! I couldn’t be more proud of him!
Here are a few in case you missed them:
After every race, it is hard not to feel extremely accomplished and this race was no different! Especially when you check the time and see it’s 10:30am to realize you’ve already run 13.1 miles and finished a free beer, wouldn’t you feel accomplished? Or just me? 🙂
If you are planning to run a half marathon here is the training routine I use, it allows for a mix of running and strength training, which is VERY important. These routines also allow for a variety of levels including beginning, intermediate and advanced, even a walking program!
I hope to document my training for my upcoming race in October, although that won’t be until end of July… and I hope to be able to train better to end my half-marathon career with a bang and lucky #7. Of course I plan to have updates before then! Much fun is looming in my future, our friends are getting married this weekend, we will be traveling to NYC for an upcoming weekend – just to name a few!
Call me cliche, but I really feel like this is going to be a good year. Not that 2013 was bad, but there were some moments (as there will always be!)
I started to write a few goals down for the New Year, which I haven’t done before. Which is ironic because, I have always been a firm believer that if you write something down and see it every day, it will eventually happen.
Here are a few of my 2014 Goals;
1) Run a half marathon
2) Read at least one book a month
3) Become an AE
4) Get back into my workout routine – strengthening and cardio
5) Save more money!
6) Take more trips with Bentley
7) Write more on my blog/journal
8) Don’t hold grudges/ be less stubborn
9) Continue to eat healthier
I hope that writing down my 2014 goals will help me strive and achieve self-improvement for a happier life! Writing my goals down has allowed me to reflect on some things that I may or may not want to admit to myself! ie: #8 The good thing about goals is that they can be small and simple or they can be big and require more work. I love taking on a challenge, especially when it’s myself, I can be my own biggest critic sometimes.
For more reflection and self-guidance, Bentley and I are reading a book together, called; “Where Will You Be Five Years from Today?” by Dan Zadra. It’s an interactive work book that allows you to fill out your top values in life, dreams, goals, which ultimately helps for you to assess your life and allow you to be your most productive self over the next 5 years. Reaching and meeting those goals and dreams that you long to accomplish.
In five years I’ll be 29! Eeek!!
The book provides some amazing examples of what people have accomplished in five years, for example;
Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel in under five years.
After loosing their jobs, Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus created and went public with their business model, Home Depot. Three years later their annual sales reached $1 Billion.
It’s a pretty interesting and thought provoking book, it’s helped me put my life and goals in prospective, although we haven’t finished the book I have been impressed with the first 6 pages!
So here is too a happier you and happier new year! Make this year, a year for you and a year for your future.
the bee life 