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The color is so smooth, and it’s a dark dark purple-ish maroon, but almost looks black in certain lights. I think it’s a solid staple for fall, winter, and early spring!
And now some random Friday Facts:
1. One of my favorite ways to eat popcorn is with Sriracha on top! I pop it, dump some of it into a bowl, drizzle Sriracha on top, and eat it with a spoon like cereal. I know it sounds a little weird, but it’s delicious!
2. I’m exactly half way through this age-year, as today is my half-birthday. No, I don’t celebrate half birthdays, but I do pause and take stock in how I’ve spent the year so far. Overall, I’m really happy with everything I’ve done in the last 6 months… but they sure have gone ridiculously quickly!
3. This past weekend I made Root Beer Float Cupcakes! I’ve made them a few times a year since December of 2012, and I’m obsessed. Seriously, if you’re looking for an easy option for making cupcakes, these are a great option!
4. A few months ago I found the blog Essie Button , and while I don’t wear tons of make up, I am really really enjoying her youtube channel. Have any of you watched her videos before?
5. I finally watched the Parenthood finale- TEARS. I really loved how they wrapped everything up, and I definitely had lots of feelings flying around in those final minutes.
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s one random fact from your week? If you could choose any flavor of cupcake to eat right now, what would it be?
Happy Thursday! It’s been much chillier this week than the previous three weeks, so in some ways it feels like we’ve reverted back to early January instead of early February. What’s up with that?! All weather aside, here’s what I’m thankful for right now:
I’m thankful for a solid month of base training in January. After my off season the second half of November and all of December, January has been a great time to get back on track and start building up a strong base before I enter into training once again. I’m thankful for a month to pick up on PT exercises to continue to strengthen weaker muscles and get my cardio back up again!
I’m thankful for the ability to read. Not only was I born into a place where there is a written language, but I was also taught to read (and had a love of reading instilled in me) at a very young age. I think most of us (I certainly do!) take it for granted, but I’m so thankful for the ability to read. It certainly makes work and day-to-day tasks easier, but it also provides a relaxing, fun, and life-giving activity!
I’m thankful for my stationary bike. No matter what the weather or time of the day, I can get in cardio when I like because of my bike trainer. January was my best month of bike trainer riding yet, and I’m really thankful that my parents got it for me back in 2013!
I’m thankful for all the “extra jobs” I have. As I’ve mentioned over the past few years, I have an 8 week extra job from February-end of March/beginning of April. This wasn’t an opportunity that I went looking for, but it was brought to me back in 2012, and I’m so thankful for it! It’s nice to have some extra income come in those months, and I’m so appreciative of both the money and the experience!
I’m thankful for electricity. While my sleep/wake schedule might feel a little more regulated without it, I’m so thankful for electricity. I can’t even imagine living life the way I know it without it, and I definitely take it for granted! What a truly amazing thing we experience every time we use it!
Now it’s your turn to share! What’re you feeling thankful for today?
This lesson from running is often most prominent during the first two minutes of an ice both. These minutes are the worst. I have to focus on my breathing, I’m shaking violently, and my body aches- and I wonder what in the world I’m thinking that I keep putting myself through this. And then I remember that I put myself through that discomfort because the results are SO much better for me, and are well worth the discomfort. If the discomfort wasn’t worth it, I would certainly not put myself through a 10 minute ice bath that includes violent shaking and teeth chattering. Ice baths make a huge difference for me, so I tolerate discomfort because it provides something good.
I’ve also learned to tolerate discomfort in the burning of my legs and lungs as I run my VO2max sprints. At the end of the workout I want to throw up and feel dizzy every single time. It’s certainly not comfortable at all, but I do it because it provides something good. I put up with workout after workout of sprints, and I credit that in helping me set a new half marathon PR after 2 years of trying. The discomfort, gasping for air, and feeling like I’m going to throw up is worth it, even though it doesn’t feel good.
I learned to tolerate discomfort in the injuries that I’ve gotten. I’m really prone to injury, and when I get injured, I’m uncomfortable physically and mentally as I wait to heal. I tolerate discomfort and injury along the way because it’s part of something that I deeply value- training and running.
Running has taught me to tolerate discomfort in the moment to get to something much bigger in multiple ways, and this lesson from running is absolutely critical in all of life. In life, if we want growth and change to happen, we need to be able to appropriately handle and tolerate discomfort in our lives. If we can, the journey can be fantastic.
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s running taught you? How have you learned to tolerate discomfort in life?
For $15 off your 2015 Rock ‘n’ Roll series race entry, use the code RUNWITHCAROLINE (if you run into problems at any point with this code, please let me know!).
Here are some important details:
- Valid for $15 off marathons & half marathons in 2015
- Includes Canadian destinations – Montreal and Vancouver
- £3 (GBP) off International races
- Does not include: Mexico events, Vegas Half, 1-miles, 5k, 10k, Kids Rock, 2-Person Relay, or TourPass
- Expires on 12/31/2015
For the list of race locations and dates, check out the Rock n Roll Website!
Feel free to pass this code along and share with friends and family members! I hope to see some of you throughout the year!
Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever run a Rock ‘n’ Roll race? (if yes- please share!) Are there any RNR races you’d love to run this year?
For the next few months, I will be starting work 2.5 hours later than normal, meaning that I get to start my week with a bit of a lazier and relaxing monday morning routine.
While I might occasionally bike in the morning (it depends what happens on Sunday afternoons), I plan to start my morning with some gentle pilates, stretching, and core work (I teach barre later in the day so I get cardio then, but I’ve found that mat pilates is incredibly helpful to me as a runner). Pilates, which is a mind-body exercise, is so good for me physically, but I also find it wonderfully relaxing and grounding.
(this is an old picture- do you see how still my shoulders are here? I’ve worked pretty hard at loosening them up and “dropping them down my back”. It’s made a big difference)
While I get to sleep in just a little more than if I was going into my office at 8 am, I try to only allow about 30 minutes of extra sleep before getting up to eat breakfast, catch up on some blog reading, and watch the news. Then, with the sun rising, I go outside, take some nice, deep breaths of fresh air, and enjoy some tea or coffee. Sure, it’s a little chilly, but it feels wonderfully calm and peaceful as well.
And then, with the sunrising beside me, it’s pilates time before getting ready for my day. That sounds like a pretty great monday morning routine, right?
These are just little things, but they make a big difference in how I start my week!
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s your Monday morning routine? Do you do anything specific to start the week off on a good note?
By the time I took this picture my nails had been painted for 4 days, so there’s one or two tiny chips. Sorry. Each of my nails has two coats of midnight cami except for my 4th nail. On this nail I did one coat of midnight cami, and then topped it with “the world is not enough” (just one coat). This made the nail silver, with a dark undercoat, and I absolutely loved it! These nails really remind me of a dark winter night 🙂
Now for a few random facts for Friday:
1. I have a bit of an embarrassing confession. I’ve enjoyed the song “Domino” quite a bit over the last few years, and I thought it was Katy Perry singing it. Last week, however, I discovered that it is in fact not Katy Perry who sings it, but it’s Jessie J. Embarrassing for me, am I right? It really does sound like Katy Perry though!
2. A few weeks ago I was in the tea aisle at the grocery store, and noticed a box of tazo chai tea in concentrated liquid form. It was on sale, so I snatched it up and am LOVING IT. I got a milk frother for Christmas in 2013, so I feel like I can get at least somewhat close to the real deal (for far fewer calories, sugar, and most importantly, MONEY). I love good finds like this!
3. I’ve had about 9 hours of assessments to score this week, but I’m done! I get to do this one week a year for some groups that I lead, and while it certainly takes a lot of time bent over assessments while scoring, I really enjoy it! I spent most evenings after work this week doing them, and it feels good to be done!
4. Well- I did it! I finished Friday Night Lights last night (the TV show, not the movie). I watched the first two episodes the day before my last half marathon in November, watched a few more episodes in December, but watched the majority of the show over the last three weeks. Gosh. I loved it.
5. I saw “Into The Woods” this past weekend, and I have really mixed feelings about it. I liked the movie up until the last 20-30 mins. It was a weird paced movie, so I thought it was over, and then had to sit through another part of the story that just felt really unnecessary. If I had left the movie before it ended, I would’ve solidly said that I enjoyed it, but as it was, I left feeling pretty “meh”
Now it’s your turn to share! What was one of the highlights of the week? Have you ever watched Friday Night Lights?
Happy Thursday! January has been so restful and refreshing to me, and that alone is something to celebrate on this final Thankful Thursday of January. Here’s what I’m thankful for today:
I’m thankful for the extra boost of happiness and smiles from Christmas decorations. I just took my Christmas decorations down a week ago, so instead of focusing on how sad I feel that my living room feels barren, I’m focusing on the happiness I felt for the last 2 months as I enjoyed my tree and white lights. 🙂
I’m thankful for a lighter month. January has been a lighter month with 4 day weekends every week (I’ve still worked 40 hours, but jammed into 3 days), and I’ve been really thankful for it. The fall was really hectic work-wise, and I’m going into another 4 really crazy months of work, so a chance to re-group, rest well, and get some big things done has been SO nice. I’ve been really thankful for this time.
I’m thankful for my milk frother. I love having a way to make drinks feel a little more fancy. For example, I love chai tea lattes from starbucks, but I hate paying over $4 for a little drink. So, I can make something that tastes pretty similar at home because of that milk frother. I’m thankful that it adds some fun and variety to life.
I’m thankful for heated seats in my car, especially in the morning. It just makes it that much easier to head out in the cold when my seats are immediately warm and cozy.
I’m thankful for some great time with friends. This past weekend I got to spend time with a few different groups of friends, and I had a really great time! On Saturday night a bunch of us cooked a delicious Greek meal, spent a few hours playing games, and ended the night watching an episode of Dance Moms. Sounds pretty great, right?
Now it’s your turn to share! What’re you feeling thankful for today?
Being happy where you are is SO difficult, isn’t it? I can say for myself, it’s not something that really came naturally. Two years ago I posted about living in the present, and how I was trying to find more and more happiness in the little things in the moment. Part of what led to me calling this blog “The Little Things” is the result of that journey of learning to live in the present. I found out these little things that I was missing in life that brought joy and happiness to me, and I learned to embrace these things and hold onto them.
As we start this journey through the cold winter months, and this new year of 2015, I thought I’d share the following quote by Richard Carlson in his book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” :
Be Happy Where You Are
“Sadly, many of us continually postpone our happiness – indefinitely. It’s not that we consciously set out to do so, but that we keep convincing ourselves, “Someday I’ll be happy.” We tell ourselves we’ll be happy when our bills are paid, when we get out of school, get our first job, a promotion. We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren’t old enough – we’ll be more content when they are. After that, we’re frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, when we retire. And on and on and on! Meanwhile, life keeps moving forward. The truth is, there’s no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It’s best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from Alfred D’Souza. He said, ‘For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life’.”
Powerful, isn’t it? The fact is that life will constantly have obstacles, pain, and suffering attached to it. This is the reality of living in this world. The reality is that we’ll always be able to imagine that “if only ____” happens, then I can really be happy, and this will continue throughout our lives if we aren’t careful. There’s no better time to be happy than right now, is there? In reality- it’s all up to you.
You see, in college I was absolutely not a runner. I was still trying to figure out what was going on with my POTS diagnosis, and I wasn’t on a beta-blocker until the end of college (that alone made a big difference, and I desperately wish that I had made the decision to go on that medication earlier). Not only did I not have POTS under any sort of control, but I would’ve told you that I absolutely despised running, and that, in no way could I ever see myself as a runner.
That thought alone absolutely astounds me, as I truly can’t believe that I ever used to live in a place where I hated to run.
Along the way I ran past my dorm where I lived for three years. I thought about the friends I had, the long nights of laughter (and some of tears), and all the passion and dreams I had for my life then (and the fact that I am living some of them out already really makes me happy). My best friend from college would often convince me to go to the gym with her, but at most I did the elliptical. She would run on the treadmill, and I would ask her almost every time how she tolerated running (This is funny now because almost every time we talk she says she doesn’t know how I handle running as much as I do. Ironic.).
I ran past a place on campus that, in part, commemorates a few of my friends who died while in college. I was reminded of the promises to myself I made when they died- to live deeply, purposefully, and passionately, and to not take life for granted. I probably spent close to a mile just thinking of them/how it changed me.
I ran just over 4 miles that day, and I felt like my mind never shut off the entire run. I reminisced, reflected, challenged myself, and enjoyed the growth in my life that I’ve experienced since college.
I’m thankful for little moments like that that remind me where I came from, the growth I’ve made, and where I want to continue to go. And really, it reminded me how thankful I am that even though I hated running, I decided to give it a try again after grad school, and fell in love with it.
Now it’s your turn to share! Have you stopped to reflect on life lately? Did you enjoy running in college?
lactose free peppermint hot chocolate while reading
The book follows Bill Rodgers’ (the Marathon Man) journey from running in college to becoming one of the top runners of his day, winning Boston and New York City Marathons. The book was a pretty quick read, and there were many parts of it that were really interesting. He jumped around quite a bit date wise, and sometimes it got a little difficult to follow along, and part of me wished me had stayed in chronological order just a little bit more than he did. I also feel that the book probably could’ve been about 40 pages shorter and been just as good (or maybe better). I felt like some parts of the book dragged a bit with details that didn’t feel that necessary. Other than those two things, though, I really enjoyed the book, and really enjoy learning more about the history of a sport I enjoy so much. I gave the book a 3.5 out of 5 stars on goodreads.
Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the book:
“Our stories are proof that passion and purpose in life can lay dormant for years. But then, one day, you find your desire, your dream, your strength. It was in you the whole time. And once you find it, nothing will ever be the same. From that day forward, you will put everything on the line, make every day count, test the limits of your heart, and embrace the challenge of your spirit. You don’t know when it might come-this spark- which is why you should never lose all hope.” (294)
I like it.
