Had the engagement dinner for my daughter and her fiancé tonight. In anticipation, I ate clean and lean today, worked out hard and was on top of my game plan. Until I saw the cake bombs and engagement cake made as a gift by the professional pastry/cake chef cousin of the maid of honor. What are cake bombs you might ask - golf ball size cakes of various types. Like chocolate covered blueberry, chocolate covered red velvet, chocolate cornered chocolate, cinimon crusted cinimon. And then the cake was a 2 1/2 foot high 3 layer blueberry, chocolate and champagne. All resolve crumbled. I ate more sugar at this one meal than I normally eat in 6 months!! I’m surprised I’m not in a sugar coma at this point. Even my son, who trains and eats with the discipline of a ninja ate 5 cake bombs lol.
The cake terrorists struck again. B-) Congrats to your D!
(I wanted to get rye bread, but I decided against going to the deli - cannot resist the siren song of their Napoleons, Bird’s Milk, and Prague cakes…)
3 hr and 5 min is a decent first marathon time for a dude… running in traditional Amish slacks and suspenders:
http://news.yahoo.com/amish-man-runs-marathon-traditional-slacks-suspenders-211314199.html
Imagine what this guy can do if he begins to train for his runs and wears shorts?!
Michael, glad you decided to cut loose and enjoy some cake bombs!
It’s cold here this morning - it was 28 degrees or so at 5 am - got out for 5.3. Wasn’t cold for long, but I do need to find some thermal running pants. Rest of the week is supposed to be warmer, thank goodness!
Bromfield - just saw about the pup! Very glad the aloe was not to her liking. I don’t know what they’re thinking sometimes.
Cold here also, getting a bit of snow. I’m trying to decide if it’s too messy to run outside or if I have to use the treadmill :(.
Sabaray, I have these tights for winter running and absolutely love them. http://www.brooksrunning.com/en_us/seattle-tight/220998.html?dwvar_220998_color=001#start=2
I love that they have zippers to help get them on and off and mine are not super tight so that if I need to put a layer underneath I can. That’s probably won’t be a problem for you as I only did that if the weather was below 0. These are the pants I XC skied in all last winter. I just bought a XC specific pant for this year at rei as I wanted another pair.
Michael- that sounds fabulous. We’re all looking forward to the wedding and reception! 
Bromfield- glad disaster was averted!
Sabaray- We don’t have iDad to give us the full review, but even before iDad I’ve been wearing Polarfleece tights. H and I swear by them. My oldest pair (and still my favorite) is a REI house brand and they don’t have them anymore. I got some from Athleta 2 years ago but they don’t fit as well. I am a complete wimp about cold, and these are almost always (until single digits) the only layer I need. I think there are a bunch out by other vendors this year, but I can’t really tell from online. Athleta might have some this year that are better.
3.2 this morning- 23 degrees and clear. I wore my older Lulu pullover puff and it felt good. I hate to be cold.
WildChild is here and headed off on a bike at 3:30 yesterday afternoon (36 degrees) and wasn’t back by dark. I was really worried, but he rolled in about 5:35. Ugh.
Bunsen- good sale on the skirts! I’ll check it out.
Thanks for the suggestions deb and MOWC - one of the women I was running with this morning had Polartec tights from Athleta that she really liked, so I’ll probably try there first. I’m hoping we don’t have another really cold winter - thinking back to last year, we had a really messy snow right about now! I far prefer shopping for warmer weather running, but I was cold this morning and I am never cold. I must be getting old or less insulated.
MK, those cake bombs/pops sound divine!! I nabbed one at - a carrot cake one - at a conference earlier in the month - it was actually amazing - glad I didn’t have access to more!
3 miles on the indoor track this morning. Showered then walked over to my office. At least I had a full sized towel this time! But totally forgot my jewelry, so I’m feeling naked without it! I too am hoping for a bit of a warm up!
It sounds like the Monkey was a fabulous success, as usual. Sabaray and I need to run it! 
2016 is just the year to do it - the year of the Monkey!
Sabaray, I like my CWX fleece-lined tights. Also, if you need just a base layer, Helly Hansen makes fantastic ones. They are in business of ski and snowboarding clothing, so they know how important moisture wicking is.
If you look at the results, you can see how slow some people do it. There are costumes (but no one in suspenders)- one woman dresses like Dorothy every year. There are encouraging signs saying things like “Idiot” on the course.
I have Polartec tights from Athleta and am very fond of them (my pair is four years old and patched in several places where the dog nails tore through them). I also really really LOVE Patagonia’s new baselayer http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/womens-merino-air-bottoms?p=36470-0 which is ridiculously pricey but feels like wearing nothing except a layer of warm air.
I was thinking I might be faster if I wore the pants and suspenders. Might be worth a try!
Bunsen, I’m game if you are. Those slow finishing times are encouraging to a turtle like me!
Warm leggings – I bought these last year – http://athleta.gap.com/browse/product.do?pid=2431040020003&cid=1027151&locale=en_US – and they are great. Fleece on the inside and a windproof outer that really worked. This year’s version is here: http://athleta.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=1002684&vid=1&pid=137994002. I have Polartec fleece from Athleta, too, but those wind panels were nice.
Sorry to hear about your knee, countingdown. Good luck with your surgery – and yours too, MoWC.
Today was a swimming day for me. I ran 6.2 miles on Saturday and did yoga on Sunday. Thursday my whole family is doing a 5K Turkey Trot – I’m running, they’re walking.
Ok, sabaray, let’s enter the lottery and run as the Slowsky ladies. Im sure MOfWC will vouch for us. I’ll bring some WA wine for after the race (and whine for the course) and a volunteer who likes to tag along with me. It should be fun!
Continue my quest for missing ingredients for the upcoming feast. How come only PCC carries celeriac this time of the year?!
MK - went to spinning class tonight. I know you might have explained it before but can you explain the concept of wattage for my small and shrinking brain? Why isn’t wattage applied to other fitness activities, ie treadmill etc
Thanks @fireandrain ! I just ordered the Athleta tights - and a cute top to go with them. Wind can be an issue here so I’m curious about the wind panels.
So many posts to catch up on - travelling can be so annoying! I flew from Shanghai to Seattle on Friday and H met me here to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter. Great trip so far. We did a beautiful hike in the mountains on Saturday - I really enjoy hiking in the snow! The trails were packed snow so it wasn’t as if you needed snowshoes or anything. The scenery was spectacular. This morning was a 5 mile run.
Every year on Thanksgiving we run in the “Drumstick Dash” at home which is a 4.5 mile run and a huge fundraiser for a homeless shelter. It is a very fun time and a great way to start Thanksgiving. I was excited that they now offer an alternative for those of us not at home because we’re visiting relatives. So we’re all doing the “Outta Town Dash Around” on Thanksgiving! It’s a reduced rate entry that gets us the shirt (these are always one of my favorite race shirts) and we’ll enter a contest to vote on best pictures from people out of town. If we had stayed in Shanghai we could have sent in a really good picture! But I also like that we’re still supporting the homeless shelter even though we won’t be there for the race.
Bromfield-how scary with your puppy and the plant, glad he is doing OK.
I will have to check out all the info on cold weather running tights. I only have capris now which is what I ran in all last winter and that definitely got pretty cold sometimes.
What a joyous day, Michael!
Thanks for the Lulu link, Bunsen. I love the butterfly pattern shown. Alas, wrong sizes 
Glad you’re back from the travel, C3Baker.
I hit a new distance with my running today: 8 miles! We had our first cool morning of the season (50 degrees), so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to go for it. I’m amazed at how much better I felt with a slow 8 miles today than my slightly slower 6.5 last week when it was 30 degrees warmer. I was comfortable wearing a skirt and Nike dri fit tee shirt. I wish all of my running could be done at this temperature.
Great job, Plantmom! New milestone.
C3B- I’m not usually a fan of virtual races, but yours sounds like a great option and a good cause. Your travels exhaust me.
WildChild ran 17 miles in Monkeyville today. I wish he had been here early enough to do it during the race yesterday. He eats constantly. I’m going to gain 5 pounds while he’s home!
C3Baker, are you up for a Beer Trail run?