A coffee . . .

. . . break! The wonderful spring weather that we are experiencing this weekend somehow feels like a pause, a short coffee break. While I would love to think it is going to continue, this long, brutal winter has taught me to have modest expectations for spring. But with the spring temp's this weekend, the goal is to get out there and enjoy it! Or enjoy it in the house, since the sun is starting to shine through my kitchen windows!

Early morning run with Sophie, followed by a Pilates 1 hour super stretch class. We stretched just about everything, including hands and fingers!

Home again, brought both of us outside. Todd cleaned the garage floor with the hose and I raked some of our front flower beds. I know there is still snow on the ground but the tulips and jonquil's are poking up and I know they would they appreciat getting the heavy wet leaves cleared away.

At 2:30 I headed out for a meet up at a local bicycle store for a women's bike ride. Easy ride around Lake Monona on a 45 degree day sounded great. Afterwards a few of us stopped for beer and some food. (Yup, that is me with my bike backwards!!!)

Sunday was supposed to be 60 degrees, with 20+ mph winds. A few of us had joined the local Trek bicycle club and this morning was an impromptu first ride. We met at Trek West and headed out this morning for a 20 mile ride. The ride didn't quite go as planned but it was still good great. My fried and I actually turned around and only did 10 miles. We had dropped a friend and waited for her, but after 5+ minutes and she didn't show up, we decided to turn around and make sure she was OK. As it turned out, we stopped at Barriques, a local coffee shop and called her. She had turned around and was glad to head over for some coffee.

10+ windy hilly miles earned us a coffee stop! Lesson learned, have a plan ahead of time, if some one gets dropped from a group ride. And we realized we NEED to bike on the west side of Madison more frequently, since there are WAY more hills on that side of town!

When I got home Todd was working on his bike. So with a little prodding we headed out in the afternoon and did the Lake Monona loop, 13 miles.

3 bike rides over the last weekend in March feels like a pretty good accomplishment.

Here is Lake Monona, still covered in ice, but not for long!

Enjoy the moments! Both warm and cold!

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Back . . .

. . . feeling much better.

My last post was a month ago on Feb 26. Wow, where did the month of March go?

I hurt my back, that's where it went . . . and I was lucky enough to be on vacation during the worst of it! I spent the week of vacation doing almost nothing between taking Vicodin and/or muscle relaxers to deal with the pain of a pinched nerve in my back.

The next week I was back to work and added walking the dog back into my morning routine and Pilates a couple of times a week. All this helped immensely. Each and ever week since then I have been attending 2-3 Pilates classes per week and have added running to my mornings.

This week my leg feels pretty good - I still have some numbness on the inside of my calf and have been thinking about seeing if an accuputurist can remedy this issue.

A couple weeks ago, on the 10th, we had a gorgeous beautiful pre-Spring day! Temps were in the upper 50's and my friend Tricia and I brought our bikes to work and got out for a lunch time bike ride around Lake Monona! We met up on the bike path and enjoyed 13 miles of joy! Yup, lots of snow still on the ground!

Since then we haven't gotten our bikes out again. I had hoped to bike to work this past week a couple of days when the high's were upper 40's, but the morning temp's are in the low 20's and that's just a little too chilly cold for me!

Recipes, recipes, recipes

Obviously dealing with a sore back/leg has meant that I have some catching up to do regarding recipes. My goal for the year is to cook all the recipes on Jenna's blog, Eat, Live, Run blog, HERE. Recipes, without reports or pic's include:

Southern Comfort Chicken and Biscuits - oh my, words can't really describe just how good and creamy and yummy this dish was!

Carrot Ginger soup - didn't sound too good to Todd, but he did eat it twice and was surprised that he liked it!

Winter Minestrone soup - good, hearty soup - can't go wrong!

Mini meatballs with Pinot noir sauce - They would be perfect for an appetizer, but worked well for dinner with mash potatoes and roasted asperagus.

So, I made 4 recipes in 4 weeks and have 107 recipes still to go in 284 days! That doesn't look that bad on paper, or screen, but I don't cook every evening! Heck, I am usually not home for dinner at least 2 or 3 times a week. Add every single recipe I have made produces left overs - which I love! So I have to get planning. There are about 40 weeks left in the year - so I need to average 2-3 recipes each week! I better double up a few of them, like soup and main course!

Off to morning Pilates, then shoe shopping for Todd and window blind shopping for idea's.

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