Tag: Jingle Bell 5K

Somerville Jingle Bell 5K Recap

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I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas (if you celebrate) with your family and friends! Mine was absolutely perfect; I’ll share a recap with you soon, but until then, let’s catch up on the 5K I ran with my sister last weekend- it was so fun!

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As I’ve mentioned a number of times by this point, last weekend, my sister and I ran the Somerville Jingle Bell 5K. Since it was my sister’s first race and my 6th Jingle Bell race, I decided to run the race with her as her “pacer” to help her reach her goal. She works out 4-5 times a week, but she enjoys classes and spinning more than running, so not only was this her first race, but it was also her first time running 3 miles! We picked up our bibs Sunday morning then waited for our parents to arrive

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After having a slight issue with parking, we arrived at the start line just in time for the race to start (literally. It was 10:59 by the time we got there and the race started at 11).

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Our parents were so cute! they literally walked along side us until it was time for us to actually start the race.

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The race went really well! Danielle was a little nervous about it because she’s been getting shin splints lately and running has just felt hard, but she rocked it! I watched my watch throughout the whole race to make sure we didn’t get going too fast and then burn out later; I wanted to make sure she had enough energy to finish the race strong!

Our parents were able to catch some great pics of us as we were just about to cross the finish line- so happy to have these memories on camera.

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I think this was the best first race for Danielle to run since it was mostly flat. On top of that, there are so many fun costumes to look at- people get REALLY into it. We didn’t really wear costumes, per say, but did you see those lovely vests we wore, courtesy of Sue Gags? She’s got quite the collection 😉

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Post race we grabbed lunch at Christopher’s in Porter Square. We did this last year and it was perfect because if you go there straight after the race, you can get a table very easily! To celebrate the race, we got cocktails, duh. I call this blog Burpees to Bubbly for a reason, ya know 😉

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I ordered some Mexican breakfast plate and it was delicious. We love Christopher’s because the atmosphere is great, food is delicious and the prices are very reasonable. We had a blast chatting and getting excited about Christmas. As I’ve said before, Christmas Eve is my favorite night of the year, so talking about the food and friends who are coming made me very happy!

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All in all, it was an absolutely fantastic day. I love when I get to share fitness passions with other people, and when my sister is one of those “other people”, it’s even better. Thanks for running with me, Danielle- Can’t wait for the next one!

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Questions for you: Who is your favorite person to work out with? Have you been to Christopher’s?

Weekending: Granary Tavern, Birthday Lunching, Jingle Bell Running

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I’m pretty sure the weather this past weekend did nothing for getting people in the holiday spirit, right? Nothing like 60 degree weather in December! Oh well, by the end of the weekend, I was able to ignore the weather and fully get into the Christmas/holiday spirit!

Friday Night

Friday night, my sister came over and we headed into the city to meet up with my former yoga instructor and current friend, Alyson. We decided on Granary Tavern, which I love. Alyson was running late so Danielle and I grabbed a drink at the bar while we waited. I splurged on the La Crema because, well, why not?

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We shared a few things like the Fondue, Ahi Tuna and Pizza. So good!

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After dinner, we bounced around to a few places before going our separate ways. Such a fun night and we definitely need to do it again, Alyson!

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Saturday

For the first time in a month, I didn’t have to teach last Saturday! But, to be honest, I missed it 😦 I really love starting my Saturdays teaching at the Oak Square Y because the energy is so good in that class and it gets me pumped for the whole day! Last Saturday, I decided to head to the Wellington BSC for some cardio, core and BodyPump. It was great!

After lunch, I met up with some of my college girlfriends (I love when I get to see them more than once in a week!) at the Yard House for our friend Lauren’s birthday. Have you guys ever been to the M Street Shops? They have so many stores (including a Lulu!), coffee shops and restaurants. I’m seriously obsessed with it and cannot wait to go back. Lunch was delicious, but what made it even more special was the fact that our friend, Kelly, who lives in San Francisco now, joined us. It was perfect!

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I hope you had a good birthday lunch, Lauren!

Saturday night was amazing- I did absolutely nothing! I feel like I’ve been on the go a lot on week and weekend nights so the fact that I had the chance to be home, alone, with no plans was awesome. I was in bed at 10pm and slept until 8am. Boy was that necessary!

Sunday

I woke up feeling like a new woman after 10 solid hours of sleep! After breakfast, I headed to Somerville to meet up with my sister and our parents for the Jingle Bell 5K. I will recap on that later, but it was such a fun race and day! We are so lucky that our parents are so supportive and love coming down to do things with us. They braved the ice storm and everything. Thanks mom and dad!

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After the race and lunch, I was SO happy to have a chance to hang out on my couch and shamelessly watch cheesy romantic holiday movies. I’ve been seriously obsessed with these movies this year!

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I don’t have many Sundays where I have no meal prep to do, no lunches to make, no grocery shopping to do, etc. I had a little blogging to do, but besides that, I was faced with an afternoon with no plans and it was lovely 🙂

Questions for you: Have you ever been to Granary Tavern? Did you or do you know anyone who ran the Jingle Bell 5K? What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

This Week: Workouts, Schedule & Things I’m looking forward to

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Hi there! I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was so fun… lots of girl time, celebrations and holiday decorating. Before I catch you up on that, though, let’s talk about workouts and getting on track! Last week was a really fun week of workouts for me because I tried new things, was really sore from my SHRED class and had big numbers in most of my classes. I’m not sure if the numbers will stay up as it’s getting closer to Christmas and therefore there are more holiday parties, but I was so happy to see a lot of people making time for the gym last week!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- My leg was bothering me on Monday (likely due to new sneakers), so rather than running, I decided to take a spinning class! It was perfect because not only did it allow me to workout without bothering my leg (my leg felt totally back to normal the next day, too), but it showed me that I don’t hate spinning as much as I thought I did!
  • Tuesday- I ended up having plans after work to grab dinner and drinks at the Intercontinental (sushi… wasn’t that good), so I got up and did a 30 minute upper body strength and ab tabata workout in my apartment.
  • Wednesday- I ran a 5K before teaching UXF Burn. It’s a good thing I was able to get in a good run before class and felt sore from my Tuesday workout because the class was packed and we ran out of weights and I literally had no place to stand! It was awesome 🙂
  • Thursday- I dug into my workout archives and pulled up this workout and decided to teach it. Holy moly. I was literally sore for 3 days. No clue why, but I wasn’t complaining! I taught kickboxing after.
  • Friday- I did 15 minutes of yoga in my apartment to loosen things up.
  • Saturday- I taught kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA. It was another big class with lots of energy!
  • Sunday- Since I was still a little sore/tight from Thursday and had a long list of things to do, I skipped out on the gym. I wasn’t hungover, I just didn’t want to schedule in a workout. Ok, and my hair still looked really good from Saturday night and I didn’t want to sweat and ruin that 😉

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I’m going to go to spin again tonight! Thanks to some comments from readers, I’m going to up the intensity if I need to. I will try to fit in some abs, too.
  • Tuesday- I’ll do a strength workout after work.
  • Wednesday- Running before teaching UXF Burn. I am running the Somerville Jingle Bell 5K on Sunday and would like to get another run in before that.
  • Thursday- Teaching SHRED and then Kickboxing
  • Friday- Rest day!
  • Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA again. 4th week in a row and I love it!
  • Sunday- Running the Somerville Jingle Bell 5K with my sister. I cannot tell you how excited I am for this race. I have run it for the past 5 or 6 years and it’s one of my favorite things to do every year. What’s even better this year is the fact my sister is going to run with me. It’s her FIRST race and I hope she loves it!

Schedule

This week is another quiet week for me in terms of plans after work. I might have something on Tuesday night, but it’s still tentative. I have a busy weekend full of holiday parties and the race, but that’s all fun stuff:)

Things I’m looking forward to

The 5K is probably what I am most looking forward to. My parents always come down and it’s so fun to get dressed up in ugly Christmas stuff. I’m also looking forward to decorating my tree and going to Jessi’s Christmas party on Saturday night.

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Questions for you: Have you ever run a race? What’s your favorite part about running a race? What’s your favorite holiday tradition that gets you in the festive spirit?