Long weekends...so wonderful, but always over way too fast.

However, it's safe to say, this weekend officially welcomed summer back to DC. The weather was amazing, and I spent my fair share of time overdosing on vitamin D.


Doesn't this picture just scream summer?

Between softball, happy hour, tailgating for the NCAA lacrosse semi-finals and my cousin's fifth birthday party, I spent a ton of time outdoors. And other than the unfortunate sunburn I picked up because I ran out of sunscreen, this weekend was pretty much epic.

Here's a peek at the fun!


Me and the birthday girl -- all decked out in her Elsa gear.


Me and the twins. They are getting so big!


Lax tailgate


Me and my mini-me


Proof that too much fun will make me fall asleep in the back of my friend's car. Pardon the red lines and the writing, I took a screenshot of my friend's Snapchat. I think this might be my favorite picture from the whole weekend. After Friday's night out and 7 hours of tailgating/lax watching Saturday, I was wiped out by 7 p.m.

If you read the title of this post and thought I was getting naked and running down a street somewhere, I'm very sorry to disappoint...I'm not going that kind of streaking.

I'm going on a running streak.

Runner's World is hosting its annual Memorial Day to July 4th running challenge. The goal is to run at least one mile per day every day between the two holidays.



If you succeed, you'll run for a total of 40 consecutive days.

I've signed up for Runner's World streak challenges before and haven't had the best luck. The last few times I ended up discovering I had stress fractures in my feet and had to drop out. This year, I'm hoping to be able to stay healthy for the entire length of the challenge.

Plus, it will be really good incentive to get me out and running on some of the humid and nasty DC summer days that are surely in my very near future. And even on my laziest days, I'll benefit from lacing up and running a mile.

Has anyone else singed up? Who's joining me?

One of my Ironman training partners from the gym completely crushed his very first Ironman in Texas this weekend. He finished the whole thing in 11:40 and put up a 4:02 marathon time, which is a whole lot faster than my fastest marathon time...and I didn't swim 2.4 miles and bike 112 miles before running it.


Shamelessly stolen from Facebook

Congrats Aziz! You rock dude! All those crazy, crazy workouts through the winter clearly paid off!

You know what I did this weekend?

I played a doubleheader in softball and followed that up with some flip cup at the bar afterward. (And to be completely clear, I don't drink beer because I think it's vile, but I have some bad influences on my softball team who convinced me I'd survive...)


Picture from last year because I forgot to take some this weekend

Needless to say, my athletic feats this weekend left a little something to be desired in comparison.

But I still wanted to get the low down on how the race went, so Aziz and I made my plans to hit the gym this morning for spin class. His idea...not mine.

Yes, that's right...he decided less than 48 hours after crossing the finish line in an Ironman he was going to go to the gym at 5:30 a.m. to spin and lift. Dude has problems.

When my alarm went off this morning, I was wondering why I agreed to such tomfoolery. I hit snooze, I turned off the alarm and contemplated curling back up under the covers.

But then I remembered a guy who had just finished an Ironman was going to spin class, so I guess my lazy butt could too.

And of course, I get there right as class is starting and he's already on the bike rocking a warm up, while I'm barely able to keep my eyes open.

I didn't love spin class today, probably because I was wishing I was out running instead (we had a gorgeous morning here), but I got to get the low down on the race and hear about the crazy swim, and the solid bike and run.

I'm always in awe of my friends who complete Ironman events and love hearing all their stories. It makes me really, really excited to spectate my first Ironman in September when another of my good friends is racing pretty much in my backyard. (Why do I have so many friends who do these things?)

Anyway, huge congrats to Aziz (who as I type this is legit still at the gym lifting weights) for totally killing it in his first Ironman and making me feel like a lazy bum!

Yesterday I decided to have a little fun in my kitchen and whip up a new frittata recipe I found.



I constantly struggle with breakfast ideas that I can transport to work easily (necessary when you get in a 7 a.m.). I had burnt myself out on hard boiled eggs and I prefer started the day with something protein-based, not a bagel or a bowl of oatmeal.

Hence, the mini-fritatta experiment last night.

Lucky for me the recipe was super easy to follow, and when I posted the picture on Instagram last night, I was asked to share the recipe.

So here it is:

Ingredients
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk (I used water b/c I don't like milk in my eggs)
salt/pepper (forgot to add this)
2 Tbsp red onion
3/4 c zucchini
1/2 red pepper (I used orange)

I also added some chopped tomato, I have no idea how much but it wasn't a lot.

The recipe called for some amount of cheese, which I left out.

Basically you chop all the veggies. Beat the water and eggs in a bowl. Add the veggies and mix.

Then pour it all into a muffin tin. (About a quarter cup of the mixture per muffin slot).

Last pop it into an oven set at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes. Then let cool for five minutes.

The recipe said you can freeze them once they cool, but I just popped them in the fridge because I figure I'll probably polish them off within the next few days.

Monday morning I was feeling all happy about running.



I mean I had just come off the most epically awesome EU Embassy Run over the weekend, and after giving myself Sunday to recover, I was ready to get back out there.

Except...my legs weren't on the same page as my brain.

Know how I know that?

When my planned five mile easy jaunt turned into a .75 mile run immediately followed by some emergency stretching and a 1.25 mile walk home with my calves and hamstrings screaming in pain.

Turns out being on your feet for seven hours and covering 13 miles with lots of stops and starts will really, really make your legs tight.

So I stretched a bunch, gave myself my normal Tuesday rest day and then tried running again this morning.

Luckily things went better. I still had to stop and stretch my calves once and there was a bit more walking than I'd like, but overall, it was a much, much better run.

I went on the most epic run ever on Saturday. If you follow me on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), you may have seen this post.


7 hours, 13 miles of running, 10 embassies. Put a fork in me, I'm done. #EUEmbassyRun.

And yes, that means I spent pretty much all day Saturday running around the city. More specifically running from one European embassy to the next.


Running from Finland to Poland, I think

Saturday was the European Union's embassy open house, which means you can tour the various embassies, try lots of delicious food from the different cultures and visit a bunch countries without ever leaving DC.


The EU


Hanging with Apollo in France - don't mind my squinting into the sun

The DC Capital Striders, one of the local running groups, organized an awesome group run where we got to run from embassy to embassy, skip the lines that wrap around the block to get in and eat some delicious food.


Outside Sweden


Wearing large clogs and nom noming some oversized cheese in the Netherlands


Good food in Poland

I didn't know a single person going, but the run sounded way too much fun to pass up.

So I headed over to the French embassy bright and early Saturday morning and found myself surrounded by about 40 other runners.


The group in France

We did a quick warm-up, ate some delicious French cheese and then set out to our next destination.


The UK

In total we ran to nine other embassies: Sweden, the UK, Denmark, Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands and Austria.


They love their Angry Birds in Finland


Hanging with the Finnish Ambassador

Most of the distances between embassies were pretty short -- about a mile or less. There were two fairly long stretches between Finland and Poland and from Poland to the Czech Republic. Those stretches were probably closer to 2.5 or 3 miles.


Awesome dancing in the Czech Republic


Some of the gang in Hungary

Nothing that wasn't manageable, but by the end of the day the lactic acid was definitely building up and my legs were toast on some of the nasty DC hills. All the stopping and starting and walking through embassies was definitely taking a toll.


An ad for Coke...or stretching our legs in Hungary

Being on your feet for seven hours is exhausting, but this run was 100 percent worth it. I got to see parts of the city that I didn't even know existed (and I've lived here for a pretty long time at this point), I got to tour some really cool embassies without waiting in line and I met a ton of new friends.


Sweaty and exhausted at the end of our journey in Austria

Seriously, runners are the most awesome people ever. I showed up not knowing a single person and by the end of the run I felt like I made 40 new friends.

Despite the fact that we got poured on at a few points during the run, I honestly can't think of a better way to spend a random Saturday in May. We covered about 13 miles of running and 10 embassy visits in just about 7 hours.

Thanks to Chito and Orlando and everyone else who helped organize and lead such a fun run! And thanks to Catalina and Skvora Limited for sharing the awesome photos! I'm looking forward to lots more events with this group!

DC was gifted with pretty much the perfect spring weather over the weekend, and I did my best to take advantage of every second of it and be outside as much as possible.

It started out Friday, when I spent the evening at Maryland to watch the Terps baseball game. It was seriously the perfect night for baseball. Warm with a little breeze and zero humidity.



Plus we got to watch the Terps beat Notre Dame in the last ACC series to ever be played on campus. (We're moving to the Big Ten next season).

Saturday, I woke up and headed downtown to fill in on my friend's flag football team. The rules in this league were way different than what I'm used to in my normal league, but I caught on quickly enough.

Unfortunately we ended up losing by one point, but overall still a good start to the day.

I hustled home after the game to meet my friend Adam for a bike ride.

Yes, you read that right. After close to two years, I finally dragged my bike off the trainer and took it outside for a ride.

I even broke out my bike shorts for the occasion, and I'm glad I did because the trail we were riding on had some major bumps that would have inflicted some serious pain on my butt without them.


Bike shorts...world's most unflattering workout gear

I met Adam midway through his ride and we probably covered about 10 miles together before I split off to head home. Not bad for my first time out in ages.

And I topped my fun and active outside weekend off with a 5K yesterday.

My friend Linh was the race director for the AFCEA Race for Excellence up in Columbia, and she happened to have an extra spot on her company's team.


Nope I was not taking a picture of those people, just of the start line

I was happy to take the bib off her hands and lace up my shoes for a race.


Me and Linh before the race

I also decided it would be fun to see how fast I could start and how long I could hold on to that pace. Normally I never advise this (and as you will see later it was dumb), but I figured it was a small race, I wasn't in it to win it and I wanted to see what would happen.

Turns out, what will happen on a hilly course if you're me and you drop a sub-8 first mile, is that you will crash and burn by mile 1.75. You will walk some to leg your legs recover, and then you will hate your life for the remainder of the race, especially up the 3/10 of a mile hill at the very end.

I ended up finishing in 28 and change, which was good enough for 4th place in the 21-29 age group. Hollla! Don't think I've ever finished that high in an age group. Three cheers for small races.

After the race, I came home, attempted to grade some papers for class, but immediately passed out on my sofa instead for a solid two hours.

I guess all the fresh air this weekend tuckered me out.

Tuesday and Wednesday it pretty much poured all day long in DC, and since I wasn't about to ruin my brand new running shoes by getting them completely water-logged, I decided to take Wednesday's run indoors.



I jogged the two blocks to the gym fully prepared to grind it out on the treadmill with my music on tuning the world out.

But when I got there, my Ironman buddy had just grabbed a treadmill too. So I grabbed the one next to him and we chatted through our warm ups.

He had something like an hour of running he needed to get done, while I was planning to do a shorter interval work.

The other day when I was playing around on Instagram, I found a new HIIT workout that I thought I'd give a try.


Where would I be without Instagram for inspiration?

My problem with intervals is that I always start out way, way too fast and don't recover at an easy enough pace, so by the last half of the workout I'm completely gassed.

That was definitely the case yesterday too. With about three intervals to go, my legs were toast and instead of jogging for my recovery minute, I definitely slowed down to a walk.

Running on the treadmill certainly didn't really follow the Zen running theme I've been going for with my runs lately, but I will say it was kind of fun to push myself to run fast again.

And when I got home from the gym, I had fleeting thoughts of maybe making intervals a more regular thing...almost like with a training plan...

But I probably shouldn't get ahead of myself. Not trying to dive into a training plan when I just want to enjoy running for running's sake.