What We Got For Christmas!

Hope you all had the merriest of Christmases!! We sure did! We really had a great Christmas, and it was really nice to gather with friends and family for a few days to celebrate. Good friends, good food, good beer, and good running. Can't get any better than that. It was a really nice few days off for Ryan, and Miss Bethany is lucky enough to have all the way until January 4th off! Lucky girl! We also got in a couple good runs (and one that was not so good, for Ryan, anyway.) So here was our Christmas in pictures . . . .

10 miles with the KRDP on Christmas Eve, sealed with a smooch.

Ginger, the Dog Who Loves Christmas [Food].

Ryan's face when Miss Bethany opened her special present. See below.

Deborah Lippman 'Happy Birthday' designer nail lacquer. Basically confetti glitter nail polish, and Miss Bethany LOVES glitter, confetti, and crazy nails! See below.

Miss Bethany and her confetti glitter nail polish. A little blurry, but you get the idea.

Miss Bethany's nephew, not so sure about the talking Night Before Christmas Bear.

Christmas night at Miss Bethany's parents' house.

Part of Miss Bethany's Bloggy Gift Exchange from MCM Mama. 

YUM! Thanks Erika!

Miss Bethany's new pink I <3 Running bottle.

Ryan's new books. He LOVES to read, and has a complete man-crush on Lance. See below.

He loves Lance. So does Miss Bethany. How can you not?

Miss Bethany and her butterfly and flower paper cut-outs. She's so crafty. That's right ladies, Ryan picked them out all by himself.

Miss Bethany bought Ryan the sweetest clock: 'Love is cheering from the sidelines, TRUE Love is crossing the finishline together!'

Ryan bought Miss Bethany four pairs (three shown) of lovely earrings from Be Jeweled in Downtown New Bedford [very nice little place]. That's right ladies, Ryan picked them out all by himself.

Miss Bethany bought Ryan a core stability disk. Ryan MUST work on his core in 2010. It is his primary New Year's Resolution. Be sure to check out our upcoming post on New Year's Resolutions and Goals for 2010!

Ryan bought Miss Bethany an LL Bean Sleepytime Snuggler. She loooooves him! [and talking on her Blackberry of course].

So, that was our Christmas, in pictures. As you can see, we love Christmas almost as much as we love each other! We had a great holiday, and we hope all of you did too! So now Disney Marathon is LESS THAN 2 WEEKS AWAY! Time to taper, rest, hydrate, and prepare mentally! We are so excited!

SNOW and 15 Miler

This weekend our running plans got a bit messed up thanks to Mother Nature. Bethany had planned on running 10 miles on Saturday and then 15 on Sunday with Ryan. Since it was predicted that we would get 18+ inches of snow, we had to run 15 miles on Saturday and no running on Sunday. On Saturday we did the first 10 miles at A-goal marathon pace and then the last 5 nice and easy. Bethany's ankle started to really hurt towards the end and she even had to walk twice. Come to find out her running shoes had a defect! The tongue on the right shoe came up way too high and really irritated her tendon from all the rubbing (she has very tiny ankles). She was able to return the shoes for a new pair but her ankle is still a bit sore but getting better.
We had 2 Christmas parties on Saturday and then the snow began to fall at about 8:00pm Saturday night and continued until late in the afternoon on Sunday. We got  about 20 inches of  light, powdery snow. Since we went home to our parent's house for the weekend we were separated during the snow storm and didn't get to play in the snow together.
 Bethany was lucky enough to get a snow day on Monday but poor Ryan had to work (although he got a fancy Christmas lunch of lobster at work so don't feel bad for him!)

The view outside Bethany's house. We got about 5 more inches after this picture was taken.

Bethany all bundled up to go play in the snow. It was kind of sad, she was the only person out, she even walked around the block looking for the neighborhood kids, lol. It was only 9:00am on a Sunday...

 

Bethany's nephew, Robby, 18 months. Not too thrilled with the snow.

 

 

Getting used to it...

 

Bethany found this poor little mouse shivering in the snow. She scooped it up with a shovel and built a little snow cave for it. I'm sure it died anyway. 

 

 See how much snow is behind him?!

 Robby waist deep in the snow!

Okay, this is cruel. This is us in the Dominican Republic in 2008 after a nice run on the beach. Ugh how nice it would be to be running there rather than in cold, snowy Boston, Massachusetts!!

We have a 20 miler planned for this weekend, Hopefully Mother Nature doesn't mess things up for us again. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Stay tuned for our upcoming post on our goals and resolutions for 2010. What are yours??

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas Festivities and 20 Miler!

Well, as usual, it was another busy week for us, filled with lots of Christmas festivities, starting off the Brown University Club of Boston's Holiday Party at the Park Plaza Hotel on Thursday night. We had a great time, with a nice little open bar, lots of delicious food (but no dessert! booo!), and good friends. Friday night we threw our own little Christmas Gathering at our apartment. Lots of delicious Christmas beers and clean Christmas snacks! Saturday morning, Miss Bethany ran 11 miles, while Ryan slept in :-). Brrrrr, it was 20 degrees and windy! Then Saturday night, the KRDP had a November/December birthday party, which was a BLAST! Sunday morning we ran 20 miles on the trails with the KRDP, most of whom recovered nicely from a very 'festive' night before! The ground was frozen, which beat up our feet a little bit, and made footing uneasy at points, but we survived, and felt like we got a GREAT workout in. Miss Bethany had a nice little fall, it was sad to see her go down, but she got right back up and kept chugging along!

Here we are just before leaving for the Brown Christmas Party.

 

Lobby at the Park Plaza. Wow!

Our festive Christmas apartment :-)

Miss Bethany preparing the clean treats by the "fire."

More festive treats!

 

Stealing a smooch under the mistletoe. 

 

Celebrating birthdays with the KRDP!

Miss Bethany with her nephew in his brand new house. (Bethany is excited because her nephew can finally say "Ah-B" like "Aunt B").

 After finishing 20 miles on the trails with the KRDP. Wow, we were out there for 3 hours and 45 minutes! Longer than it takes to run a marathon!!! (We run at a slower pace on the trails because it's all woods, ups and downs, logs, rocks, steep hills, etc., etc. Lots of FUN!)

As usual, we have another busy week this week, with more Christmas parties, Christmas shopping, and of course, running! Have a great week everyone!

Winter Weather has ARRIVED!

We had quite the busy weekend (as usual)! On Saturday, Miss Bethany ran 10 miles with Team in Training, and then worked on her annual Christmas ornaments all day. Saturday night was Ryan's office Christmas party at the Langham Hotel in Boston. It was nice to get dressed up, and have a fun night of dinner and dancing with all of Ryan's colleagues. We even got a bit of December snow.

Sunday morning we hit the road at 8am sharp! We had planned to run about 13 miles or so on the Boston Marathon course, and then run the Holiday 5k at the Boston Hatch Shell along the Charles River. Our friend was the race director, and all the proceeds went to Faulkner Hospital Breast Health Center, so we wanted to show our support. Well our run didn't go as planned, but it worked out well in the end. We started out on the Boston course, but it was SO icy, and Ryan almost fell and cracked his skull numerous times! So we decided to turn back after 6 miles, and let the sun come out and melt some of the ice, and head back out to finish later. We ended up getting up to 9 miles in before the 5k, and then Miss Bethany pushed the pace, and we finished the 5k at a decent 7:41 pace. We topped it all off with 3 more miles to bring our total to 15 miles on the day, and we both felt like we got a good workout in. 

Sunday afternoon and night, Miss Bethany continued on with her many ornaments (170 to be exact!!), while Ryan relaxed and watched some Christmas specials on TV :-).

 

The lovely couple at the PB Christmas Party!

Here's the link to a great pic of us finishing the Holiday 5k:

 http://www.runnermikedmd.com/Sports/Holiday-5K-Against-Cancer/IMG9632/733575645_4cezg-L-1.jpg

Finishing strong, Ryan struggling to keep up! Race director J. Alain Ferry in the background pointing to us, and explaining to a friend how we're the couple who got engaged at the Boston Marathon :-) Thanks for putting together yet another great race, Alain. (Photo by Mike Brown Dowling)

 Here's Miss Bethany with some of her many ornaments. Finished product to be unveiled in a later blogpost.

Another busy week ahead: Biggest Loser finale tomorrow, Brown U. Club of Boston Christmas Party on Thursday, our own little Christmas party on Friday, then a nice loooong 20 miles of trails (hopefully snowy) on Sunday with the KRDP!

Have a good week everyone!

Thanksgiving Weekend!

We have SO MUCH to be thankful for! Good family, good friends, good food, good health, and good runs. Most of all, we are so thankful for one another and the GREAT runs we have everytime we hit the road together!

We had a BUSY Thanksgiving weekend, starting with a Turkey Trot on Thursday in Seekonk, MA. Miss Bethany ran the 5k (19:48, 4th female overall, 3rd in 20-29 age group), while Ryan ran the 10k (47:25). PRs for both of us!!!!

 Since Miss Bethany did the 5k, she was able to snap some pictures of Ryan finishing the 10k. Here's Ryan chugging down the home stretch! Big PR!

The two of us after the race!

Miss Bethany collecting yet ANOTHER piece of hardware!

 

Oops, can you tell what this is? (Left a half-eaten Honey Stinger on the windshield.)

Preparation for BLACK FRIDAY! We got up at 4am, braved the crowds, and went shopping! Crazy people out that day!

Miss Bethany's barefoot 0.5 mi run before our trail run with the KRDP on Saturday. Too cold to run barefoot in the winter. Will try again in the spring!

After 17.5 mi on the trails with the KRDP, and a nice fall into a mud puddle at mile 17. Yum!

 

The closeup.

Again after the trails. (BTW, Miss Bethany does have more than one shirt. Just with the laundry rotation, the blue shirt somehow always ends up on top.)

Miss Bethany ran again on Sunday, in preparation for Goofy's Challenge. Then we also did some major Christmas decorating in the apartment on Sunday night!

And just to clear things up, we did get a ride back to Boston last week after our run to Lexington :-).

So that was OUR Thanksgiving, now how was YOUR Thanksgiving weekend? Hope you all had a great weekend, and are now getting ready for the BEST holiday of all: CHRISTMAS!!!!

Happy feet, all!

Boston to Lexington

On Saturday we ran out to beautiful Lexington, MA to watch our friend at his soccer. Since neither of us have a car in Boston, what better way to get out there than to run! It was 13 miles from our apt to the soccer field but once we got there we added 2 more miles to top it off at 15. For you blogger people not from MA think back to middle school history class and you will know where Lexington MA is (hint: our run was a semi re-creation of Paul Revere's  midnight ride except we didn't go at midnight and we didn't get captured by the British army.)
Anyway, the weather was perfect and we both had a great run with non-stop chatter the whole way!

 Gotta bring the camera with us on our runs now that we are bloggers!

 

 Our friend, also named Ryan, in the blue shirt.

 

Miss Bethany cleaning blood off her ankle after stupidly getting tangled in a pricker branch that was sitting in the middle of the path.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!!!! Tomorrow we are running a Turkey Trot, Friday we are getting up EARLY for Black Friday shopping and Saturday we are running 18 miles on the trails with KRDP, and in our spare time we are helping Bethany's sister move into her new house! Wew its gonna be another busy weekend! Enjoy the long weekend everyone!!

This is How We Eat....CLEAN!!!

Many people have been asking me about Clean-Eating lately, specifically what foods/recipes I eat, so here is a post for you all.  If you are unfamiliar with Clean-Eating, its basically eating foods the way nature intended; free of chemicals, artificial colors, artificial flavors, preservatives and additives of any kind. Aside from eating foods that are natural and unprocessed, it also means eating more nutrient dense food. When foods are prepackaged, they lose valuable nutrients in the process. Below is a picture of our food for 1 whole week. I spent $45 at Trader Joe's about $35 at Shaws. In the picture below are; eggs, almonds, chopped walnuts, milk, Greek yogurt, chicken, fish, whole wheat pizza dough, whole wheat tortillas, a loaf of bread, peanut butter, pizza sauce, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, 100% cranberry juice not from concentrate, a pineapple, apples, pears, bananas, garlic, red onion, white onion, green onion, garlic, cilantro, red, orange and yellow peppers, cucumbers, and oranges, lemons, limes, broccoli, fresh mozzarella cheese and protein bars by Clif. As you can see, that's a lot of healthy food and $90 for 2 people isn't that bad. in the extra money that you spend with Clean-Eating you save by not going out to eat as much.

Thumbs up for Eating clean!

Stuffed Peppers with Quinoa (keen-wah), lentils, veggies and spices. I hate following recipes, I make up my own. easy and surprisingly fast!

Stuffed peppers with broccoli and sweet potatoes with cinnamon. Quinoa is an ancient grain that is complete and packed with protein and fiber.

This is what Bethany typically takes to work. Protein shake with milk, peanut butter, a banana and unflavored 100% whey protein powder, a pear, Greek yogurt(has a ton of protein), hard boiled eggs (I don't eat the yellow part), a string cheese, almonds, broccoli, organic apple sauce (dessert), cut up veggies with hummus (read the label, you gotta find the hummus WITHOUT preservatives, a sandwich-tofu mixed with veggies and brown rice.

I whipped up fish quesadillas in about 10 minutes. Above is all the veggies I added, again, made up my own recipe. ingredients-tortilla, spinach, cucumbers, peppers, onions, cilantro, corn salsa, lime, mozzarella cheese (not shredded, the kind you buy in a ball) and of course, fish.

Gotta love the George Foreman Grill.

This pizza is SO easy to make and it only takes about 15 min from the time you open the fridge to the time you eat. I made the pizza on whole wheat bread called Naan, it's Middle Eastern. Then I put on sauce, veggies and fresh cut mozzarella cheese.

This is a cranberry chicken recipe I created. I wasn't sure how it would taste but it was delicious and made the apt smell like fall! ingredients are chicken, cinnamon, cranberries, nutmeg, cranberry juice, oranges (and peels) and walnuts.

I started Clean-Eating at the end of June. Since then I have lost about 6 pounds, noticed a lot more muscle definition, been feeling more rested from less sleep, more energy (no afternoon crash), I feel stronger, I recover faster and all around I just feel so much better! And I felt pretty great before! Also, since eating clean I have been running SO much faster! Not just by a few seconds, I'm talking big PR's all around. Ryan started eating clean back in September and he has lost about 8 pounds and he has been running faster and stronger too!

Clean-Eating has been really fun too! I love going food shopping each week! It's definitely a lifestyle and not some fad diet that you do for a month then quit. We are definitely going to eat-clean forever!!!!  WAHOO! :-)