There's Always Room for Running Shoes

Since I won't be able to share much in the way of workouts over the next two weeks, I figured I'd write something a little different than usual. As I'm sure you've noticed, I tend to travel a lot. It's not always glamorous and frequently is just a quick jump across the country to go home for a weekend. Still, there's something about travel that has a tendency to throw off your usual routine, particularly where workouts are concerned.

So, what do I do when I travel?

I'm going to drop a bit more of my Dad's wisdom on you here. When I was younger, I was notorious for trying to pack everything humanly possible in my suitcase. Once, I remember asking my Dad if it was okay to include some running shoes in my suitcase for a family trip to Florida.

"There's always room for running shoes," he said.

That has stuck with me throughout all my travels. Whether I'm going to Russia for work or just going home for a weekend, I always bring my running shoes. Whether you're going to Vegas for a weekend or off to New York, there's always someplace to run. Ask at the front desk of your hotel and they can usually give you a map or rundown of local running trails and areas to avoid. The ability to run anywhere in the world is actually a big reason why I started running in the first place!

A few other good tips and tricks for staying fit on the road...

• Check out the hotel gym and pool. It may not always be big and fancy, but it's something!
• Some hotels, like the Aria in Vegas, offer fitness programs for guests. Ask at the front desk!
• Take a workout DVD along or sign up for an online workout program like Daily Burn (my sister swears by it!). These are usually designed to be done in smaller spaces, so a hotel room or guest bedroom floor should work just fine.
• Bring multi-purpose clothing. I personally love wearing yoga pants and leggings both for fun and workouts, so they serve double duty when I travel.
• Don't go too crazy when you go out to eat! Even though it's tempting to throw your cares to the wind on vacation, splurge where you really want to but don't go crazy at every meal.

Anyone else have any tips that have worked for them? Tweet your tips to me (@ripode) and I'm happy to add them in!

Shake it Off

After a few days off courtesy of a rolled ankle, I'm back at it!

I typically do my weekend runs on Saturday mornings, but yesterday I was busy helping Crystal with stuff for her wedding most of the day (we made some pretty awesome centerpieces!). So, this morning, after being lazy and thoroughly enjoying my morning coffee and an episode of Covert Affairs on the living room sofa, I decided to run the Golden Gate Bridge again.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky, which isn't all that common here in San Francisco! While I can't say the running part was as great as my last bridge run (I had to stop for walking breaks pretty frequently and wasn't winning any awards on speed), I did end up getting to 10 miles total! Taylor Swift's super catchy new single popped up on shuffle right at mile six when I was thinking about taking a shortcut home...but it reenergized me and I got four more miles in.

Tank: Forever 21 [similar]

Sports bra: C9 [similar]

Shorts: Lululemon [exact]

Shoes: Newton Running [exact]

Sunglasses: Oakley [exact]

San Francisco runners are spoiled because it's pretty much always cloudy and cool, which makes the weather absolutely perfect for running. Today, though, it was HOT!! I took my tank top off for most of my run and just wore my sports bra (which I'm sure thrilled all of the tourists on the bridge who bumped into sweaty me when they weren't paying attention). I was pleasantly surprised by how little sweat was visible on these shorts!

I've been pretty good food-wise this weekend. I did reward myself with ice cream post-run, though! They say chocolate milk is a great recovery food, so that means chocolate ice cream is, too, right?!

Taking Out the Head Trash

My dad is an awesome runner. He's in his 50s but runs half marathons at least every other month (including at least one in every state I've lived in!). Anytime I have an excellent run, I call him during my cooldown walk to tell him about it.

His dad was also a really great runner. One of the things I remember my dad always telling me that his dad said is that a run is when you take out your head trash. I didn't really understand what that meant when I was trying to run when I was younger. But with each foray I make into running, I understand it more and more.

It's been a busy week at work. One of my clients had a corporate launch, which meant 10+ hour days and early mornings. I hadn't been eating properly because I tend to reach for the potato chips when I'm not consciously thinking about nutrition. Even though I wanted to exercise, it was the last thing on my mind when I was getting home at 9pm and hadn't eaten dinner yet. So, over a couple of days, my "head trash" had started to pile up.

This afternoon, I was just mentally exhausted. For the first time in a long time, I just had this feeling that I had to run. I knew in the back of my mind that running was what it was going to take to get rid of any leftover stress. So, I threw on my running shoes as soon as I got home from work and I ran.

My goodness, did it feel great!

I ended up running 3.5 miles and was smiling by the end. I love it when that happens!

Top: Nike [similar]

Shorts: Lululemon [exact]

Socks: C9 [exact]

I can't say my outfit today was nearly as impressive as my run! I love these shorts (the colors are some of my favorites and the fabric is very light while still opaque) and shirt (it's from my Olympic days!), but together, they just don't look amazing! But, hey - they got the job done today!

An Exercise in Hills and Dodging Tourists

The weather in San Francisco is amazing today!! In honor of that, I decided to run the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. I started my run in the Presidio, which meant lots of hills before actually getting to the bridge itself. I'm NOT a fan of hills at all! I very, very rarely actually run them! But, I managed to force myself to do it today, repeated over and over again in my head that I'd get to run down them later.

Once I was actually on the bridge, the challenge became dodging tourists! Despite the fact that the bridge has very clear signs directing pedestrians to one side of the bridge and cyclists to another, lots of cyclists seem to ignore that. People also tend to walk 5-6 people wide, meaning that they're taking up the entire path. As I got towards the middle of the bridge, though, it all thinned out.

On the way back, I had a few really great songs come on and give me the energy to power through to the end. I ended up running 4.5 miles without stopping and did a mile walking for both a warmup and a cooldown...so a grand total of 6.5 miles!

Tank: Old Navy [exact]

Pants: Yogasmoga [exact]

Shoes: Newton Running [exact]

Sunglasses: Oakley [exact]

These pictures quite clearly illustrate just how much I need to work on running form!

Now, onto clothes...words cannot express how wonderful these Yogasmoga pants are! I hadn't ever worn them for a longer run, but they seriously did not budge. There was no readjusting whatsoever. They fit perfectly. I supposed my only maybe complaint would be that they're a bit on the warmer side (which is generally a plus in this climate), so if you're in a super hot climate, they may be a bit too much. It's taking a lot of self control to not run out and buy like 10 pairs of these things! 

I may or may not have splurged on some Ben & Jerry's post run...soooo maybe not nailing it on nutrition today like I did on exercising!

Wine and Cheese and Running

I swear...anytime I don't feel like running at all, I end up having my best runs! When I got home tonight, my legs hurt and I was hungry. So, I gave myself a half hour to down some cereal and water and then forced myself outside. I ended up running for 35 minutes without stopping, which is way more than I was supposed to on this particular day of Couch to 5k. The weather was perfect tonight, so I'm guessing that helped!

Shirt: Columbia Sportswear [similar]

Pants: Lululemon [similar]

Shoes: Newton Running [exact]

These pants are actually five years old! They were given to me by a friend ages ago and still look and feel just as good as the day I first received them. I wish Lululemon still made things as high quality as these! Don't get me wrong...I clearly like Lululemon (almost every one of my #WOOTDs seems to include it), but it just isn't what I used to be. 

MyFitnessPal was great today! I ended up eating well enough throughout the day that I had a few calories leftover to enjoy a glass of wine and a little bit of cheese before bed. It's definitely been my best nutrition day in awhile. I also got inspired while grocery shopping tonight and made four days worth of yogurt parfaits to take to work so I can avoid my morning stop at Starbucks for breakfast. 

Good days are the best!

We Want Snowboarding!

For this next Sochi post, I'm going to let someone else tell the story! One evening, I made my way to the very same pub that was quite into Bon Jovi along with four friends/coworkers. Chris Knight, a great writer for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, shared our experiences with live king crabs, restaurant rejections, camaraderie with some Brits and more as we attempted to get snowboarding on TV in the pub!

Read it here.

A Trip to the Esto Sadok Alcohol Store

In my last entry, I shared the story of going grocery shopping in Russia for the first time. The second time that Sarah and I returned to the Food and Alcohol Market, we had a different target in mind. This time, we were shopping for vodka to take home as souvenirs.

As we stared at the large wall of booze, we met two men working who spoke virtually no English. Neither Sarah nor I were walking around in USA gear on that particular day, so they approached us in Russian. Having studied a bit of Russian on Rosetta Stone before leaving, I was able to respond in Russian when they asked how we were doing, but that was about the extent of my Russian-speaking ability. When they responded again in Russian, I apologized and said I didn't understand.

Instead of shrugging us off like I anticipated, both of the men laughed and smiled. "You know Russian!" one of them exclaimed. They asked, in broken English, what we were looking for.

"Good vodka," we explained, "Gift to bring home to our families." They didn't seem to understand, so I pulled out some random words from Rosetta Stone.

"For maya maht and braht and sistrou?" I said hesitantly (in my Russlish there, I was attempting to describe my family, so I said "For my mom and brother and sister?" Sorry, Dad - I couldn't remember how to say father!).

The men understood and quickly snapped the bottles we had previously grabbed out of our hands in favor of a bottle that looked like a Grey Goose bottle relabeled in Russian. I was a little skeptical, but it did have one key piece of English written on the bottle: "Made in Russia."

We thanked the Russian men and were going to head out, but they wanted to continue talking. One of them, who spoke a few more words in English than the other, asked us to tell him every word of Russian we knew. So, I spouted out a variety of random words: dog, cat, one, two, three, thank you, hello, doctor, etc. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy each and every word I shared.

After awhile, we eventually made our way over to the wafer cookies to replenish our supply. Once there, an older Russian man came over to us and pointed at the vodka bottles Sarah and I were now holding.

"Vodka very bad," he said sternly. We both looked up at him, not quite sure if he was cautioning us against alcohol in general or if we had been tricked into purchasing bad alcohol.

"They said it was good?" we replied. He sighed, clearly frustrated.

"No," he said, "Russian vodka very...make you sick."

We still weren't really sure what he was warning us about, but didn't want to seem ungrateful. So, again, we repeated that the vodka was not for us but a gift for others. He nodded and walked away.

Turns out, Russian vodka is much stronger than American vodka and that was what he was trying to warn us about! We recounted our alcohol store experience to some friends at dinner that evening, and they regaled us with their stories trying Russian vodka for the first time. Although neither Sarah nor I drank much in Russia, I think we were both happy to not have to learn that lesson ourselves!