I’ve always loved spinning. I even became certified to teach spinning a few years ago (though, I found out the hard way that it was more fun for me to take a spinning class than to teach it – I’ll stick with step and weights – classes I know I’m good at teaching!). However, I didn’t fall in LOVE with spinning until I attended one of Jenn’s classes. And when she opened her own studio (Psycle) I was ecstatic!

It’s seriously a party on a bike. Great music, motivating instructor, and a badass attitude – she basically kicks my ass every class. It’s awesome.

So when I received an email saying that Anne, one of Psycle’s instructors, had made it to the final round of Bad Girl Ventures, I couldn’t not promote it. She wants to create an indoor cycling studio using bikes that generate electricity while you spin, making her studio “green”. Check it out:

Anne Hartnett, 28
Prospective Founder, Harness Fitness
Founding date TBD, Cleveland, Ohio

The idea: As one of BadGirl Ventures’ Spring 2012 Finalists, Hartnett is in the fledgling stage of her entrepreneurial career. She envisions Harness Fitness as a wellness studio that will garner a “triple bottom line.” With stationary bikes that capture the energy exerted by their users, Hartnett says she’ll evaluate her success not only on profits, but also on “the community we create, the impact our products and services have on the planet, and the influence of our profits on our local economy.”

Sweet inspiration: “I really look up to the entrepreneurs that we’re seeing birthed through our compromised economy,” says Hartnett, citing Danielle Deboe, who opened the the trendy retail spot The Dredger’s Union in Downtown Cleveland in 2010 and the niche boutique Room Service in 2007. “She’s paving the way for local businesses to grow. She sells all locally made products and they’re very unique.”

(source)

If you think Anne’s idea is as cool as I do, please complete this short survey. Once the survey is submitted you’ll be entered to win a $50 Lululemon gift card. Win win!

Edited:  Sorry, the Lulu survey is closed, but this one will enter you to win a $25 gift card to Market Garden Brewery (it will literally take you 2 minutes).  Sorry about that!

Do you spin? Do you have a favorite spinning studio in your city??

This weekend was the epitome of over-indulgence. I was in a wedding and for some reason all bets were off. Friday and Saturday I ate and drank like the world was ending. I got little to no sleep and my diet consisted completely of carbs, carbs, and more carbs.

Oh, and lots of this:

And this:

And these:

Ugh. Never again.

But I did get a meet a reader who introduced herself to me at the rehearsal dinner. Turns out there are people out there other than my family reading my blog (well, at least one)!

Hi Nikki!

So, even in my food/alcohol hangover and with only a few hours of sleep, I got up this morning and went for a 5 mile run with J. I hadn’t run since last week’s half marathon so it felt good to get out there and pound out some miles. I’m happy to get back on track after a weekend of overdoing it.

Is it hard for you to get back on track after a period of over-indulging? Two days usually is my max before I start to feel gross and NEED some veggies and exercise back in my life.

We’re one week closer to this year’s Silver Spoon Awards Party!

J is so excited that he is constantly counting down the days. The only other thing I’ve ever seen him this excited about are the craft beer events!

Since I showed you my “sexy list” last week, I figured today I’d go with my second favorite category, the “strong list”:

Angelo’s Pizza

Bubba Q’s

Buckeye Beer Engine

Flip Side

Shinto

These restaurants remind me of a tall, muscle-y, Jersey Shore kind of guy. Not necessarily my type, but definitely something I can appreciate.

I’m most excited to try Flip Side. I have yet to eat there so I can’t wait to see what they bring!

Anyone disagree with my choices??

Like I mentioned last week, J and I are volunteering at this year’s event, but I was offered 2 tickets for my parents in exchange for blogging. I can’t wait to share this experience with my folks. You should join us! Tickets can be purchased here.

To say my legs were sore from Sunday’s race is an understatement. They literally felt like I had run a full marathon when I woke up Monday morning. My hips were aching and my hamstrings were screaming. My hips were actually so bad that they woke me up a couple times during the night! If that doesn’t confirm “old lady status” I don’t know what does. <——–so sad

I thought for sure I’d be good to get back at it by today but my hammy’s and IT bands are still talking to me some. There’s no way I’m taking a chance at injury by running too soon. I’ve learned my lesson with that (again, old lady status). I can wait another few days to lace up my running shoes again. But there was no way I could go another day without a good sweat session.

So I headed back to my beloved spinning studio, with the husband in tow. Ever since I had this sub-2 goal I was more focused on getting my miles in than spinning. And it was everything I hoped it would be. Killer music, sweat everywhere, screaming quads – everything a good spinning class is made of! Rocked my socks off.

I’m not sure you’d necessarily consider this “takin it easy”, but at least I wasn’t pounding my legs on the pavement. Plus, it was such a nice break from running.

And to celebrate our awesome cross training (big nerds!), we grilled pizza for dinner.

SO.DAMN.GOOD.

Do you take it easy the week after a race? Or just get right back into it?

I have a bad habit of buying up holiday candy the day after the holiday when it’s on major clearance (even though we don’t need it). And now I have bags of Easter m&ms left and not enough ideas to know what to do with them!

So I went straight to one of my favorite baking blogs for inspiration. She only had a few m&m recipes, so it didn’t take me long to decide on the XXL M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I don’t have a fancy muffin top pan so I just made regular cookies.

But these didn’t turn out so “regular”.

They are AMAZING.

Even better the next day. In fact, if you make these, I INSIST that you wait until the next day to eat them. The flavors are spot on!

Plus, the texture is killer. They’re dense and chewy with just a slight hint of salt (I always add a tad more salt than the recipe calls for – I’m a sucker for the salty/sweet combo).

I still have 2 bags left (one plain and one peanut) – what would you make with them?!

And I still can’t believe it.

I mean, I thought I could do it, but at the same time I wasn’t sure. I knew my speed was increasing since I PR’d at both the 5 mile and 5k distances this year, but 13.1 miles is a whole other level. Keeping that pace for almost 2 hours isn’t easy (for me)!

But let’s start from the beginning. The day started like any other race day (except the night before we got a phone call from the front desk telling us they received complaints about our room being too loud. Hehe. So funny. We’re such the party animals, you know).

Jen(ay) and I put on our spandex, ate our peanut butter, laced up our turquoise shoes, and headed to the University of Toledo’s campus bright and early.

Luckily we had two cute boys to cart us around and take photos:

It was chilly (40 degrees maybe?), but perfect racing weather! We got there shortly before the race started and headed right to the start line.

I don’t think I ever mentioned it on the blog, but my goal was to finish in under 2 hours. Jen and I both had yet to break that barrier and we were trying to PR (my current PR was 2:03:02 back in 2009!). I knew it was going to be close.

I got lucky because Jen really pushed me. She set the pace and I just followed. Unfortunately she pushed a little too hard and I had to let her go after mile 6 or so. But I could always see her in the distance. Her bright ass pink shirt was hard to miss:

We were about this far apart until mile 11 when I pretty much wanted to die. I remember seeing J and not really even acknowledging him:

So pretty when I race, yes? Riiiiiight…….

I felt like I was racing a 5k those last 3 miles. You know the feeling, like you’re running so fast and breathing so hard that it feels like you’re gonna puke? Yeah, except I wasn’t running a 5k pace. But I kept on pushing, and just started counting down the miles. It seemed to help counting down 3, 2, 1 instead of 11, 12, 13 for some reason.

Once I reached mile 11 I knew I’d reach my goal as long as I didn’t walk (or keel over and die!). So I pushed. And pushed. And really tried to sprint to the finish. But it wasn’t really a sprint, more like a shuffle. I’m sure I was quite the sight (and kinda scared to see the race photos when they come out)!

But I did it. Crossing that finish line and seeing a ONE in front on my watch made me completely giddy.

Jess, me, and Jen (who I’m so proud of for finishing a whole minute ahead of me – she KILLED IT!)

I’m not gonna lie. Running for time isn’t very fun. It’s hard and stressful and painful, but it is SO WORTH IT when you cross that finish line.

Yay for PR’s!! Party on the football field!!!

Thanks to everyone who believed in me and sent me well wishes on Twitter, Facebook, text, etc. I didn’t respond before the race started because I was too nervous.

Happy Monday, friends!

One of my most favorite events of the year is coming up next month! J and I are HUGE fans of the Cleveland’s Silver Spoon Awards party! We’ve gone the last 2 years and don’t intend to break that streak this year.

We’re actually volunteering this year and I’m going to do a couple preview posts before the event to hopefully get all you Clevelander’s pumped up about this amazing event!

The Silver Spoon Awards party is a food and wine charitable event that benefits the Arthritis Foundation. It features the Silver Spoon Award-winning restaurants and international wineries all in one place on one night. Besides the silent auction that takes place, the food that is offered is beyond amazing. All the best restaurants in Cleveland?? SIGN ME UP!!

I wouldn’t consider J and I “foodies”, but we do love food (I’ve got the thighs to prove it!). Last year J made it his mission to try all 32 restaurants featured at the event. He managed 24 of the 32. Total fail. I definitely expect more of him this year.

I have a list of the confirmed restaurants (so far!) and broke them up into categories:

• Sexy
• Elegant
• Strong
• Stylish

I can’t help it, I think of restaurants like I do men.

So, this week you get the sexy list:

Michael Symon’s B Spot Burgers

Deagan’s Kitchen & Bar

Paladar

Pearl of the Orient

Blue Point Grille

Clevelanders, what do you think, do you agree with me?

Everyone else, do you have a restaurant in your city you find sexy? Why??

J and I are volunteering at this year’s party so we were provided with 2 tickets to the event. However, I offered to in exchange for blogging I have been provided with 2 additional tickets so I can take my folks. They’ve never been and are going to love it. You should join us, too! Tickets can be purchased here.

So, this is it. Time to man up. Put up or shut up, if you will.

To say I’m worried is an understatement. This Sunday is going to have to be the perfect day if I want to PR:

• perfect weather
• no belly issues
• asthma under control
• light legs
• baller attitude

If it all falls into place I think I’ve got a shot at conquering my goal. But it’s going to be close, I can tell you that for sure!

I went to the University of Toledo my first 2 years of college so I’m excited to go back to the campus (and feel old, I’m sure).

What’s great about the race is that the course finishes at the Glass Bowl (stadium) and, from what I hear, the course is pretty flat:

But does that look flat to you? Ha – at least it’s downhill the second half of the race I guess.

This week I’m just trying not to overdo it. I don’t want to overdo it at the gym with squats (last week I was sore for 3 days!), I don’t want to overdo it with my diet (no overeating at any meal!), and I don’t want to overdo it at home (GET MORE SLEEP, HEATHER!).

So in an effort to calm my mind, I talked everyone into a family walk tonight.

And now I’m about to go run a few easy miles.

How do you deal with stress the week of a race? Or are you one of the lucky ones who doesn’t stress about it?

I’m on a roll, kids. I’m on a roll.

The key lime pie I made this weekend turned out DELICIOUS. And it’s so easy it’s kinda silly.

I used this recipe for the pie and the only substitution I made was to use fat free sweetened condensed milk instead of regular (you know, to make it “healthy”).

Btw, don’t you just love the 10 year old’s finger print? I wanted to taste the firmness of the pie and C thought it was an invitation to taste test! Boys…….

The crust looks a little funny but I guess I just went up too high on the side of the pie dish? Whatever. It still tasted ridiculously good.

And I will tell you this: graham crackers, butter, and sugar = amazingness. Seriously. Make your own crust – it’s crazy easy and tastes heavenly.

What? Don’t you like cool whip? Cool whip was invented for pie. I’m sure of it. So pile the stuff on! It’s Cool Whip Free so it’s “good for you”, right??

Are you team cool whip or team whipped cream?? Cool whip is for pies and whipped cream is for ice cream in my book!

I think Marathon Monday is my new favorite holiday.

I took the day off of work so I could enjoy the Boston Marathon without interruption. Best decision ever.

The day started off with walking C to school with J and the pups.

And from there we all split up. C went to school, J walked the pups home, and I took off for a run.

5 miles later I was home just in time for the 9:30 women’s start. So I plopped my sweaty self down in front of the computer and stayed there for the next 2+ hours.

J and I had fun tracking the runners while watching the live feed. Gotta love all the technology!

Once my mind was blown by the way the race finished (hello, Mr. Korir!!), I put on my swimsuit and headed up to the pool. The pool has the WORST adult swim times ever (Mon and Wed from 2 to 4??) so I had to take advantage of it since I was home.

2000 yards later I was on my way to the school to pick up C. Mondays are unicycle club days so I was excited to finally see him ride the sky cycle!!

Can you see that?? He’s riding the sky cycle. The tall one. The one they ride in the circus and in parades. And it was no problem for him. Unreal. Can you get a college scholarship for unicycle riding?? Seriously, I’m not kidding. Can you?

The day ended with a long walk with a great friend I hadn’t seen in awhile while the boys were at soccer practice.

Perfect day. I think this may just become a tradition. My kind of Marathon Monday!

Did you watch the race today??