Baking to-do list and winter training tips.

Today's workout:

-10 minute "warm-up" on the erg

-25 minute spin

-Indoor workout (x1)

-8-minute abs

Total: 50 minutes

Wore my team t-shirt and school-spirited shorts in hopes it would remind me how to row! The 10 minutes wasn't bad at all.

My post-workout lunch was a yummy kale salad...I'm now obsessed with kale! Definitely prefer it to a plain spinach salad.

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I'm not really planning on doing heavy mileage over the winter, but I found some interesting tips here - made me think of my 13.1 miles through a snowstorm last weekend! I might keep these in mind for future winters. Check out this article with suggestions on how to divide up long runs throughout the winter! 

Love this quote... keeping this in mind will be good motivation to keep moving throughout the winter even though I don't have any rowing or running races in sight!

On my baking to-do list...

I hope to make these happen over my break.

These too!

And these! Sort of like the Trader Joe's ones that I'm addicted to.

Important to remember, especially around this time of year (in my opinion). 

11:17 PM seems like a perfectly appropriate time to organize your drawers...right? Well now thanks to my quick re-arrangements I can see all of my t-shirts AND they all fit in my drawers. This way none of them get left-out (if I'm only wearing the ones I can see on the top). 

Definitely time well-spent! 

Rest time is over & pretty holiday sights.

Well today I did my first workout since Sunday's half-marathon! I did 25-minute spin, my indoor workout, and 8-minute abs, which all came up to about a 40-minute workout. It felt really good to get moving again and get my sweat on. Somehow when I'm really busy and the weather's bad (i.e. finals week) it's really easy to skip workouts but when I'm bored and/or supposed to be resting I get so impatient waiting for my "rest" to be over! Interesting how the perspective turns!

My legs definitely felt it for the first few minutes of spin but I went easy and my legs warmed up eventually. I think I'll abstain from running for another few days and will keep foam-rolling, but I hope to do some easy running on Sunday (one week after my half-marathon) while the weather's warm. I like it to be all white for the holidays but I'm not going to pass up an opportunity for a non-slippery run if it comes my way!

After my workout I went with Alex to visit old teachers. I donned my wool cream-colored skirt. I bought it WAY on sale with a gift card to J. Crew and am loving it. It's very thick and kept me nice and toasty and is definitely going to be coming to Europe with me!

Later on in the afternoon I did some work for the rowing team's Endowment Campaign and then caught part of the Sex and the City movie on TV so I watched that for a little while. That movie is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me...though I'll admit I prefer the edited TV version! 

Our house was freezing so I wore my snuggly socks from Alex...

...and even ended up putting slippers on too! (See our xmas tree in the background?)

This evening I went to back brownies with Alex. I've been driving by a beautifully lit house and really giant Christmas tree all week and really wanting to take pictures! Finally I pulled over and snapped a couple.

Can you see their front door? It's the pretty part. I think I should probably get out of the car next time...it was just too cold!

Stuck my hand out the window for this one! So pretty!

Relaxing and race photos!

Let's begin today's post with...(drumroll) a race photo!

Here's one of me cheesin' for the camera. 2 seconds before the picture I believe my words were "this sucks" but my race buddy (a veteran marathoner) reminded me that I should at least smile for the camera. Luckily I pulled it together for those few moments!

Started yesterday with a wintry outfit...I tried a new sweater dress and my "grandma sweater" (that's what Alex calls it). Wish the colors showed up here better but it's dark green!

Does anyone else still eat chocolate advent calendars? I hope my mom will still get them for me every December until I'm a million.

I was a bit under the weather yesterday, which wasn't fun but it was also fine because now I have nothing to do with myself for the next few weeks! I relaxed with a movie and lots of books.

Clearly not enough to choose from...I might need another bookshelf!

I ended up reading some library books on one of my favorite subjects...the Tudor family! Since I was about 10 or 11 years old, I have accumulated a wealth of (probably useless) knowledge on this particular part of the royal family and always welcome more literature on them. One is a novel and one is a biography - the perfect mash-up!

And another race-photo to end the day!

Here I'm pictured with the buddy who ran with me for 11 miles!