*Check out my latest piece on Balance Bar: Getting the Most Out of the Last Few Days of Summer

First of all — I got such a wonderful response from my last post. I felt a little naked putting it out there but I knew I’d get good feedback and hear from others who could relate. Thanks for prayers & love 🙂

Runner’s World Half-Marathon, 10k & 5k: It’s coming next month & I’m going to be there, along with a ton of other fabulous bloggers — no to mention hundreds of runners and everyone from the Runner’s World crew. I’ve got discount codes for EVERYTHING so click here & consider joining us!

Running Lately

I’ve definitely gotten in some awesome sunrise runs lately — it feels awesome. The weather is perfect warm fall and running makes me feel amazing every time. You can’t beat photos like the one above, right?

At this point, I’m still planning on running Marine Corps Marathon though not exactly feeling great about my fake “training.” I wanted to get in a 20-miler tomorrow but I’ve been having stomach issues and it wasn’t going to happen.

Ran into a couple friends today who both still have 20-milers on the schedule so hopefully that will motivate me to do it next weekend!

Cool Online Running Project: Run With Me

I recently participated in a virtual race through the platform “Run With Me.” It’s a cool new website that allows you to sign up multiple people to run a virtual race. You log your miles each day and see who can reach your destination the fastest.

My race was from DC to NYC and I came in third! You can create your own race but here are some of the ones that are already in the platform:

• Yosemite Park Loop (50 miles)
• Appalachian Trail, GA (71 miles)
• Boston—Provincetown (117 miles)
• Mustang Trail Race—Nepal (124 miles)
• Spartathlon, Greece (133 miles)
• Marathon des Sables (154 miles)
• Gothenburg—Malmo (167 miles)
• NYC—Boston (217 miles)
• NYC—Washington D.C. (226 miles)
• Miami—Orlando (235 miles)
• Appalachian Trail, NC (277 miles)
• Paris—Amsterdam (313 miles)
• Los Angeles—San Francisco (411 miles)
• Blue Ridge Parkway, USA (466 miles)
• Chicago—NYC (792 miles)
• Appalachian Trail, USA (2,106 miles)
• NYC—San Francisco (2,908 miles)

So that’s a lot of options! It’s new and someone I know created it — I hope you will give it a try. They are making improvements everyday. If nothing else, it’s a fun way to motivate you and your friends or co-workers to get running!

Hot Yoga Fun

This week I got to attend hot yoga for the first time. It was actually just semi-hot yoga because it was a beginner class and apparently was way less hot than the real thing. I’m not really sure how I would deal with the real thing after today!

I actually liked the temperature and enjoyed my complimentary class at Mind Your Body Oasis in Crystal City. I had been there once before but was excited to try something different. I really liked this yoga class because it was more focused on breathing and relaxing than getting a workout. It was a class called “Gentle Warm Flow.” The teacher was fabulous — very calming and yogi-ish. I couldn’t believe that an hour and half went by so quickly. Definitely what I needed to quiet my Sunday Night Anxiety.

CrossFit Catch-Up

I’ve been doing loads of CrossFit lately — so much that I even felt like skipping a day or two and that never happens! No, really, I’ve been working hard to get my strength up and doing exercises to eventually get me to a strict pull-up.

My form is getting a little better and I’m just striving to be better and work harder. I can really see and feel my arms being more toned and weights have been going up a little more. More than anything, I always LOVE Trident cause they are awesome 🙂

True Food Restaurant

I was really excited to get an invitation to the new True Food Restaurant in Falls Church/Fairfax area this weekend. It’s a new healthy food restaurant but it was way more than just that.

First of all, they had a beautiful space in an up and coming area that has recently been decked out with Anthropologie, Target, Sweetgreen & more. It’s got a cool outside bar area to eat at and a huge indoor space with high ceiling and a earthy, airy feeling. I loved it!

They do all the food prep in front of people (hard to explain) but it’s a great way to have TRUE transparency in how your food is prepared!

The menu was large and impressive. I loved that they have tons of creative, fresh juices, yummy cocktails and signature drinks as well. The food menu was full of delicious sounding, healthy foods — lots of kale (made me happy!) but also a large variety of foods to suit everyone’s needs.

The service was great and I loved all the food I got which included:

• Kale-aid drink
• Grapefruit-avocado dip w/ flax chips
• “Inside out” quinoa burger w/ sweet potatoes & kale salad
• Flourless chocolate cake w/ maple sorbet

Everything was great but the burger was phenomenal. It was like a sandwich created for ME! It included feta cheese, hummus, quinoa, avocado, lettuce, tomato & I loved every bite.

Here are a few photos. I would highly recommend this place and will definitely be going back so you for you DC-area folks, check it out. They are also in Houston & Atlanta!

Other than that this weekend, I got a wonderful massage, went to church and watched the movie “In Secret” with Elizabeth Olson, who is proving to be a fabulous actress! Got lots of rest but still felt pretty tired all weekend which was distressing but ready for a good week this week!

How was your weekend? Ever been to True Food? Try any new workout classes in the past few weeks?