Quick weekend update!

I am definitely a creature of habit, which is exactly why traveling (especially work trips) can derail any attempt at a regimented meal schedule or set of foods to eat!

Just got back from a weekend at the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers National Conference in Anaheim, CA, where our SHPE Boston Professional chapter got 2nd place for the Business Plan Proposal and brought back $2000 for our chapter!

Me, Clara, and Jeizel after our presentation to the National Board of SHPE Directors and BOEING 

As exciting as it’s been to visit New York, Texas, and California over the course of the last 3 weekends,
it’s nice having all of the travel behind me. I warded off airport munchies temptations by bringing along books to read, but failed at portion-sizes when it came to meals: I think I was so excited to not have to be paying for the food that I would grab as much as I could fit on my plate! Haha, whoops.

Needless to say, I’ve enjoyed some delicious food over the past 3 weeks: from copious seafood appetizers
and a huge bowl of Red Mango frozen yogurt in Texas to Rainbow & Spicy Tuna rolls (see above!) with Tutti Fruti frozen yogurt and Coldstone Creamery Coffee Ice Cream in California. I've certainly enjoyed it!

Fortunately, my majority of travel is over for 2011. I have my trip home in 3 weeks for Thanksgiving,
which I couldn’t be more excited for (and of course I will be allowing myself to splurge because it’s a holiday and Pumpkin Pie & stuffing are DELICIOUS), then Las Vegas in December for my half marathon, and then finally home again for Christmas.

On a better note, I still managed to make my required runs for training for the half marathon. In New York, while visiting Jade in Brooklyn, I did a 7.5 mile long run around Prospect Park, while in Texas, I did a 4 mile Plano run (super-hot 80 degree weather!) and did an 11-mile run (in an hour and 40 minutes!!!!!!!!) in Boston the day after getting back from the trip. To finish it off, while in California, I did two 5 mile runs on
Thursday and Friday morning, around Disneyland park, and then yesterday morning I did a 10 mile loop by
doubling the 5-mile run. This was especially difficult because after one loop, I was already feeling it on my legs and it was a mental challenge to push myself to start a second loop when the left turn back into my hotel and to the Starbucks was a million times more tempting... but I did it! What worked for me was putting the thought of stopping my run early out of my mind for just long enough to distract myself and before I knew it, I was back in the zone.

Sunny Anaheim, California (on my long run!)

Now I'm back to a busy week at work - catching up on things from the past few weeks, getting ready for the end of the semester with school (can't believe it's almost over!) and trying to stay on top of SHPE and fundraising! Speaking of, I'm still a little ways away from my goal and have about $1000 left to raise (though I am waiting for some matching gifts from my company to come in so I'm not sure of the exact number) so if you haven't donated, pleaseeeee consider giving to: http://www.active.com/donate/NE11TCVEGAS/MFowler33

I'll try to update more frequently! It'll probably just be less detailed than ones like this!!

Anddddd I'm back!

Don't worry! My lack of blogging has not meant that I've been missing out on training for the half marathon.... Just that things got really hectic for a while trying to get used to balancing work, school, my budget, and training (especially as the mileage has been increasing, and outdoor temperatures steadily dropping). I finally feel like I have a great routine going on, and this past weekend I was even able to find some time to do social and fun things with some of my favorite people, (despite being so busy!)

To start, let me update you all on what I've been up to! The apartment move in is still not fully complete - I'm in need of finding a slip cover for our living room couch and buying a bigger flat screen TV- but it's so difficult researching and buying in the little time I have after work... I'm looking for a 40-46" flat screen LCD HDTV if anyone has any suggestions.... at this point, it might be better just to wait until Black Friday for some super deals!

Work and school has been going great! I love being busy and I feel like things are going in a positive direction in both respects. This upcoming weekend I'm going to Plano, TX for an Adult Deformity case, which I'm excited for but I know I'll be super busy and have no time for anything but lots of surgeon talks and cadaver labs.

This past weekend I took my first vacation since starting work and traveled to New York with Ashley to visit Jade!!!! I hadn't seen Jade since Ashley's birthday in April, so it was really nice catching up with her, seeing her apartment, and shopping / eating out / going out in NY! We had such amazing food (pictures below) and lucked out with amazing fall weather! It was so nice to break from the "catch up on errands" normal weekend and actually enjoy my time off!


Jade and I (with curled hair thanks to Ashley!) before our night out in NY Saturday night!


Prospect Park on Sunday - couldn't imagine a better fall day

Fundraising:


Well I'm officially at $2428 thanks to everyone who continues to donate!!! I'm only $1200 away from reaching my goal so I really need to push for support in these next few weeks! Every dollar counts and the more money I can raise, the more money can be provided for research and improving the quality of life of patients suffering from Chron's and Colitis! So if you gave to my fund already, THANK YOU, and if you know other people who would be able to support me, please forward along my fundraising page!

I'll be raffling off some Museum of Science tickets and most likely having a bake sale in early November to get some more $$ so keep an eye out for that!


Workouts:

I'm not going to go into ALL of the workouts I've done since my last post (which I realize is a month ago!) but I will say that in the month of September alone, I logged 99 miles of training in over 16 hours :)! And last week was my longest week of running, as I tracked 40 miles in a mix of long runs, sprints, and some recovery runs too. On my off (non-running) days, I'll do the elliptical mixed with some abs. I still need to try out my new running shoes:



Also, I managed to do the Samaritan's 5K in Brighton on 10/1 and set a new PR (24:38)



Food:

Again, not going to go through the daily list of items for all the days I've missed, but I will mention some fun items I've had (especially this past weekend!)

Vegan Cookies 'n' Creme & Butter Pecan Ice Cream


Spinach and Goat Cheese pizza and Roasted Carrots and Avocado Salad @ ABC Kitchen in NY


Delicious Bircher Muesli: Oats soaked in fruit juice with cream, dried fruit, almonds, and greek yogurt and a diced apple @ Milk Bar


Yum! Homemade asparagus & mushrooms, with chicken and tomatoes and a side of whole wheat pasta


Sauteed veggies and black beans :)


Chubby Hubby ice cream :) ... thank you Ben & Jerry's