My Favorite Songs to Run to

Here is a list of some of my favorite songs to run to recently. Feel free to share some of yours!
1. Dog Days Are Over (Florence and the Machine)
2. Little Lion Man  (Mumford and Sons)
3. Somebody to Love (Queen)
4. Someday, Someway (Marshall Crenshaw)
5. Swanee River (Hugh Laurie's version on Let Them Talk)  This is a great album - just got it not too long ago
6. Sandstorm (Darude)
7. Wizards in Winter (Trans Siberian Orchestra)
8. All These Things That I've Done (The Killers)

Today's Workout: 30 minute run  I am really sore from the past couple of days so I took it easy today =)

Kundalini Yoga

I had my first experience with Kundalini Yoga tonight. Since one of my goals for the year is to improve my yoga practice, it seems like a good idea to try the various classes. I liked it. It wasn't as active as I was hoping for, but I need to learn to relax and meditate. This class will be good for me as far as that goes. I took a spin class right before it, so at least I got all of my energy out somewhere today. Fire breath was hard to learn. Luckily the instructor knew that I was new and came over to help me. We did another exercise where I was on my stomach with my hand pointed forward. I had to lift my arms and legs and then start that fire breath. I got really dizzy! The instructor told me that my body was detoxing - yay! Will I do it again?  Yes - I think it's worth another go. The biggest mistake I made tonight was not bringing a change of clothes for after the spin class. My sport bra and shirt were really sweaty and then I got to the yoga room where we were basically just meditating. I got extremely chilled and had to finish the class in my jacket!

Today's workout - Spin class and Kundalini Yoga

Will everything else be a let down after NY? I hope not!

So I was listening to a podcast about marathons last night and the host was talking about the NY Marathon.  One of the listeners wrote in that she was running the NY marathon as her first marathon.  He was shocked!  He made it seem like once you run NY, nothing else compares.  I hope that's not the case.  NY was the second marathon I ran (Marine Corp. was the first).  Since I do plan on running more marathons, I sincerely hope that I am not going to be let down when I run in places that aren't NY.  Right now the plan is to run NY again next year.  I am already qualified, so I might as well take the bib.  Chicago and Disney are also on my list.  An overseas marathon would be cool too.  Does anyone out there have an opinion on this?  I am hoping that I won't regret running NY so early in my marathon history.  Should I have saved it for later?  Please let me know about other great marathons you have run.  I am sure there are lots out there!

Today's workout schedule:  5 mile run followed by a cardio-barre class

The Best Pumpkin Pie EVER!

Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) is quickly approaching.  This recipe is for the best pumpkin/pecan pie ever.  I have gotten nothing but rave reviews every time I make this.  I know we are all trying to watch the waistline around the holidays, so I tried where possible to lighten it up a bit.  Here it is - Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:  1 - 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (I use organic)
1 - 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk low fat
2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

1  - 9 inch unbaked wheat pie shell

2 egg whites

Topping:   2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar (I use the Splenda mix)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter chilled (I use the real thing here!)
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:   1. preheat the oven to 425F
2. Mix the first three ingredients then stir in the next four
3. In a glass bowl whip the egg whites until you get soft peaks.  Fold them into the mixture from above. Pour the filling into the pie shell.
4. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven.
5. Prepare the topping while the pie cooks by combine all ingredients with a fork or pastry cutter. When the 15 minutes is up, top the pie with the topping and bake for and additional 40 minutes or until the pie has set at 350F.  Don't forget to turn the oven temperature down at this point!  
6.  Eat and enjoy!


Workout for the day - Spin class at 5:15 and then maybe some abs when I get home  

Beautiful Day

Today has been such a peaceful, beautiful day. I don't want it to end! I started with a gentle yoga class this morning at 8. This has now become a new goal of mine - get better at yoga. I am pretty good at the poses once I learn them, but I am very unsure of the different names so I find myself with my eyes open through most of the class because I am watching the instructor. Hopefully I can get to point where I don't have to be in the front of the class and I can just close my eyes, relax, and do the things she says to do. Vynasa yoga is still a little bit difficult for me. It just goes too fast and not being familiar with the poses makes that hard. On the bus ride to the marathon last weekend, I overheard a girl talking about how she never is sore and rarely gets injured. She swore it was because of all the yoga she does. We'll see. I'm going to aim for two classes a week.

After the hike, I met up with three of my girls and we went for a beautiful hike around Skylands Manor.  It was a picture perfect day for hiking.  We did run into a bit of trouble trying to find the trail around Shepard's Lake (picture on left) and had to climb through prickly bushes and trees for awhile before we got back on track. It was all good though.

After the hike, we head to Prime 15  for lunch.  I had a nice big skirt steak, french onion soup, a baked potato and a glass of pinot noir.  It was soooo enjoyable.  The fresh air wore me out in a good way.  Now I'm home and getting ready for a full week of school tomorrow.  We haven't had a full week in three weeks because of teacher conventions last week and a snow storm the week before.

On the Twitter front - I'm getting the hang of it.  I have started following some people and it is really amazing how many people are out there with similar interests and really great blogs. I even joined (I think) a Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge at Run To the Finish.  I posted a link to it on the wall here.  If any of you that started following me are reading this, please let me know if I am making a fool of myself with the tweets.  Yesterday I tried to send someone a tweet directly.  Unfortunately I sent it someone else and had to redo it.  I also don't really get when to use the # symbol in the tweets.

Here are some more pics of the manor - It really is a beautiful place.  I can't wait to go back in the spring and summer to see the botanical gardens that are there.