We all know that I love me some running.

Running has been a major source of fulfillment for me in the past 16 months. It relieves my stress, reminds me to enjoy the world around me and keeps my body fit. The races I’ve completed in the past year are a major source of pride for me. From 5k to half marathon, I was born run 🙂

Of course I am jumping at the opportunity to participate in She Runs LA!

Share the Fun, Share the Passion, Share the Run! Join us for She Runs LA: Powered by Nike +.

She Runs LA: Powered by Nike +, kicks of the first ever digital, all women’s race in Los Angeles. On April 27 at 4:00 pm, women all over LA are invited to run to complete a 10K (6.2 miles) within 24 hours and sync their run on nikeplus.com using a Nike+ device (IPhone, ITouch, Nike SportsBand).  This run is like no other; women all over LA can choose their own location and invite their friends to join the run and the fun!

Afterwards, Nike is throwing a full on Hollywood red carpet bash to celebrate all participants’ 6.2 mile run in style, at the NOKIA Theater in downtown LA on April 28 at 7:00 pm.  Nike has pulled out all the stops for a night of show-stopping fun; Red carpet, live musical performances, celebrity and Nike athlete appearances and more.

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Students Run LA, a non-profit organization, whose mission is to increase access to the sport of running for underserved youth across LA Unified School District.

Below are all the details:

– Register for She Runs LA event at signmeup.com/sherunsla and find out more at www.sherunsla.com. Registration fees are $35 for high school and college ID holders, and $40 for the general public.

– Run a 10K and sync on nikeplus.com between 4PM on 4/27 and 4PM on 4/28. Celebration event to follow on 4/28 at 7PM in downtown L.A.

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The best part is that part of the proceeds are going to be donated to LAUSD (Los Angeles public schools). This makes me so happy as I have a passion for studying equal public education and organizing around public schools. 🙂

Who else is in?

Have you ever participated in a bribery brunch? I have, routinely. The bribery brunch is when you have work to do and you know that, without bribing yourself with brunch, it won’t get done. When I was in college I was always in Trident over the weekend, eating pancakes and doing homework. This was the inception of the bribery brunch. I’ve engaged in a lower scale version of the bribery bunch since I’ve been in law school but yesterday I had a massive case to read and I decided it was necessary to engage in an old school bribery bunch.

At 8:30 am (hence why I won’t work if I’m home), I headed over to Tavern. Despite being uber popular the Larder at Tavern is never too crazy. Especially early, I was able to get a nice table, with light streaming in the window. Perfect working conditions!

Delicious iced tea with a sprig of mint + liberal refills!

I decided to order something different yesterday. I stuck with a bribery brunch classic: pancakes.

So tasty and 100% fueled my productivity. The pancakes were plain but so tasty. The actual cake had a butter aftertaste. Um, delicious.

I also couldn’t resist adding some protein on the side…

Maybe not the healthiest protein but hey, it was delicious!

I got a ton of work done this weekend and was able to just unwind a bit. I also got a ton of errands done, like getting my oil changed. I also had a very healthy weekend. I ran 10 miles and went to two yoga classes. All I can say is HOLY ABS. I will be the first to admit that my core strength isn’t all that but I got pushed Friday in yoga and yesterday we did hundreds of bicycle crunches. I also managed to get my feet off the wall in headstand which I was pretty proud of. I’ve been working on inversions since January and finally having the strength to get my feet off the wall and hold it was a pretty exciting accomplishment! I love Sunday night yoga class. I always leave feeling so much gratitude.

Do you bribe yourself with food?

Today I went on my first double digit run since November! That last run that was double digits was the Malibu Half back in November. I walked/ran 10 miles this afternoon and it felt pretty good.

But why was it a walk run?

Because on Thursday I discovered a blood blister on my right foot. Yep, I’m at the point where I develop them and don’t even realize that I have them. Its like under a callus which totally sci fi. In addition, while my platers in my left foot is clearing up (two weeks with minimal pain hell yes!) I want to take it slow on the long runs so as not to re aggravate it.  I still have two months until San Diego and plenty of time to get my runners legs back.

I also took the week of spring break off. First, it was raining and I was having such a good time with LCCMom that I didn’t take time to run. I need to ease back into running (I only ran 5 miles in the school week). Hopefully next week I can up my weekly mileage a bit more.

All I could think about while I was running was a Chipotle Burrito and I managed to hobble to my car and drive the half mile to Chipotle. They’ve started posting calorie counts at Chipotle which is moderately frightening. I always plug my order into the Chipotle Calculator before I got. My normal order is a veggie burrito with lettuce, guac, peppers and onions, rice, tomatoes and I decided to go wild tonight and get cheese. It rounded out to 700 calories which is more than I typically consume for dinner but I ran 10 miles so I needed to refill my tank.

Tonight I am working out outlining for Professional Responsibility and resting my body. Between a strength yoga class yesterday awakening my abs in a way I didn’t know they could be awoken, 10 miles today and tomorrows yoga class I need to rest my body a bit.

Right now, yoga is my favorite form of cross training. How do you cross train? I really like spinning classes too!

Yes. You read the title of this post correctly. It’s a bacon pasta recipe from cooking light! It may not be “healthy” but it’s “calorie light” (at around 350 a serving). Yes. You read that correctly, and you can thank me later.

I found this gem in a back issue of Cooking Light that I found while cleaning my kitchen in anticipation of LCCMom’s arrival. There are only 5 ingredients and the ingredients are bathed in bacon grease. Yum.

Ingredients:

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1 cup brown pasta (for some reason, CL never calls for brown pasta and I wonder why)

1 hand full of broccolini (spelling? Ya’ll know what I mean right?)

1/2 can garbanzo beans

2 stripes of bacon

Instructions

Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente. While the pasta is cooking, take your bacon and cook it up in a pan until crispy.

While the bacon is cooking rinse off the garbanzos and chop the broccolini. Once the pasta is about half done, toss in the broccolini to the pasta water and let it cook. When the pasta is done cooking, drain it, and separate it from the pasta.

Once the bacon is done cooking, remove just the bacon, pat off with a paper towel and crumble.

In the bacon grease pan add the garlic and garbanzos.

Let them absorb the grease a little bit and then add the broch.

Then, once the ingredients have absorbed the grease (like three mins) add the pasta and combine to serve.

I have made this more than once in the past two weeks and it was delicious. The garbanzos added some much needed protein to this pasta dish. It is no secret that I eat a lot of pasta but I need more protein in my diet and garbanzos are becoming my favorite quick and easy way to get it. I was also worried about dish not having a sauce but hey, when your pasta is coated in “bacon leavings” do you really need sauce? Uh, no. Finally, broccolini has been ALL OVER the FM the past few weeks and so obvi I decided it was time to snap some up. The quality of this broccolini was undeniable. Fresh produce really is the only way to go in my mind!

What are you all up to this weekend? I have a solid amount of work to do for school. We’re already heading into finals prep time. Can you believe it? I feel like the semester just started. I also have running and yoga plans 🙂

I have to confess that I was lazy pants the last few days of break. LCCMom and I shopped more (outlets), saw a play at the Geffen Playhouse (it was ah-mazing but closed last week), and ate more treats.

Some treats were familiar.

Celebration cake and coconut cake from Susie Cakes. What can I say that I haven’t already been said about Susie Cakes? It was fantastic! We actually popped in for Susie Cakes and ended up eating it for dinner! It was filling and very rich and sweet but we did a good job of pacing, chasing with water and not eating too much. LCCMom suggesting cake for dinner = why I love LCCMom. She explains me.

Other treats were new (to us)!

LCCMom and I finally tried Sweet Rose Creamery. I have intended to try Sweet Rose for a long time but you know how it is with ice cream… I know once I have one I’ll want 12. We sampled salted caramel and goat cheese, fig and walnut. Both were FANTASTIC artisanal ice creams. The salted caramel was a little bit smoky which was different. It wasn’t too salty which was nice. The goat cheese was super creamy and the fig and nut complimented it well. Sweet Rose changes their selections from time to time depending on the season and the freshest ingredients they receive (LOVE THIS). If I saw the goat cheese again I would totes jump on it but for a pint to take home I would probably get the salted caramel because it was pretty tasty. Overall Sweet Cream was a win and I expect many more outings in the summer.

So this is it for Spring Break updates. LCCMom left last Saturday. We had a great time shopping, seeing shows, chatting, going to Clementine, Farmstand, RFD, Susie Cakes, and Tavern, and seeing my Uncle. The last weekend of break was devoted to writing my big paper (which was due on Tuesday- so glad that it’s behind me). Overall, it was a restful break!

If you had a week off, what would you do?