First Week Back

Needless to say it's been a busy week of moving in, catching up with friends, going to meetings for Phi Mu and Sirens, and starting classes today!

Here's a quick update about what has been going on...

New shoes! I wear my running shoes constantly so they tend to go through a lot of wear and tear and within 6 months of buying them, they are dirty and have holes throughout. So this time I went ahead and got two different pairs of tennis shoes as us southerners call them (not sneakers!). One pair are Brooks (great if your feet tend to pronate)--only for running outside and long runs on the treadmill. The other pair are the Nike Free 5.0--more for wearing to class and at the gym when it's not a heavy running day.

Both in cool colors! Obviously...

While I was busy getting new shoes, Joey was out getting a new pet. Meet Mo (short for Moses...I don't ask questions...). He was rescued from the SPCA and is actually the cutest thing ever.

The hamper is his favorite place to sleep...heart melting yet?

Next update on the list...the suite!

Closet is still a mess

Our suite has pretty views of Balti!

We have such a cute kitchen! We all like to cook so making it look warm and homey was a must. We also got an island from Ikea (unpictured) to put in there so that we would have more countertop space for cooking purposes. 

Say hi to two of my three roomies! Becca and Sophie :)

Okay so that's the stuff that's been keeping me busy over the past 5 days. Now I'll share my eats. I haven't been photographing every meal, but you'll get some sort of idea about what delicious and usually healthy food I've been enjoying! 

First dinner in Baltimore was a little bit of a mish-mosh (don't know if that made up word describes it accurately, but you get the idea). Carrots with hummus, reduced fat swiss cheese on reduced fat Triscuits, Chobani Blood Orange Greek Yogurt, and grapes

First breakfast in Balti- Chobani Raspberry Greek Yogurt with blueberries and Kashi on top. 

Breakfast post trip to Whole Foods- Whole Foods Organic Brand "High Fiber Morning O's"-they're delicious. Plain 0% Fat Fage Greek Yogurt with Raspberry Crofter's Preserves for flavor, flax seed, and cut up strawberries.

I had an all day Phi Mu meeting on Sunday. They offerred pizza to us for lunch, but it doesn't sit well with me so I packed my lunch to go! It took me less than ten minutes to assemble and was totally worth it to avoid the uncomfortable stomach aches I get from pizza.  Spinach salad with carrots, hummus, broccoli, and quinoa. A little almond + dried fruit trail music, 3 corn cakes, and grapes too. It definitely fueled me through the long meeting.

Plain 0% Fage Greek Yogurt with Raspberry Crofters Preserves, flaxseed, Dorset Muesli, and berries for breakfast on Labor Day.

I went over to Joey's apartment and made him chocolate chip pancakes. Look how fluffy they turned out! I would  definitely have to say that my pancake skills are getting better by the batch-best one yet. 

Here are some of the groceries we have in our humble abode. I'm lucky to have roommates who eat so well! 

So stocked...

It's apple season! We have Honey Crisp apples out the wazoo, and I would never dream of complaining about that.

Full fridge too! Carrots, flaxseed, lettuce, cucumber, tomato soup, a huge tube of cooked quinoa, cheese, greek yogurt, just to name a few of the many items in the fridge. 

Someone else in this room likes Unsweetened Vanilla Almond milk besides me...I promise. Thank goodness for Sophie. 

In terms of working out, I've been changing things up a little because I have a half marathon looming in my near/distant future (October 13th). So instead of doing all of my running at a fast pace with frequent sprinting, but shorter distances with the occasional long distance run, I've been doing longer runs at slower paces and no breaks. This is to get myself ready for the 13.1 mile race. So far it's been going well.
Generally I'd say my pace is about a 8:45-9 minute mile pace and I'll go for anywhere from 5-9 miles a day. In a couple of weeks I will up the mileage to closer to 10/11 miles a few days a week so that my body gets used to running at a moderate pace for that long without stopping. One time before the race I would like to try and run 13 miles at one time just to prove to myself before the race that I can do it, but this isn't totally necessary. None of the training programs I have looked at say that you necessarily have to do this, it's more for the mentality of knowing you can do it so that during the race you stay confidant.

Alrighty, that's it for this week's updates. I don't think it will be that long before my next post, but at Hopkins, you never know.... See you soon hopefully!