What Went On in August

At the end of last month, we had vague plans sometime within the next 12 months to move to Burlington, Vermont. At the end of this month? We have two weeks before we move! This was a pretty eventful month, to put it mildly. Here’s what went on in August:

We started out the month with a fun trip to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. If you remember, New Balance sent Roman his own little pair of running shoes recently. They also included tickets to the museum, which was such a great gift. 🙂 It was so much fun! I actually want to check out the Brooklyn Children’s Museum now as well, before we leave.

Tanner was pretty non-plussed about the museum – he slept in the Bjorn the whole time. But he has his own fun time with Mama when we do baby yoga. It is one of the sweetest hours of my week. It’s also been so helpful for when Baby T is grumpy, because I sing our little yoga songs and we do the ‘poses’ and he can’t help but smile.

Speaking of yoga, I took part in a yoga challenge on Instagram throughout August. Brittany was hosting the #findyourflexibility challenge with Momentum Jewelry as the sponsor (I love their jewelry and there just might be a little giveaway coming up on the blog in the near future). So, turns out, yoginis like Brittany make the poses look SO EASY and they’re anything but. I’m so glad I took part – it made me realize I was more flexible than I would have known in some poses and I also found my limitations and how to modify. This month Brittany’s challenge is a Pilates challenge with the hashtag #tightentone, so if you want to jump in on it, it just started yesterday!

Other workouts this month included a super fun spinning class at Peloton Cycle in Manhattan, hosted by Fiji Water (and there will be an awesome giveaway coming up from Fiji on the blog soon as well – I have lots of good stuff to share with you guys in September!). It was sweaty, fun and hard, even for a 30 minute class. I found out while I was there that Peloton actually sells their bikes for home use – then you can become a monthly subscriber to stream all of their live classes as well as on-demand and ride from home, even competing via their leaderboard, which you can display on your home screen for added incentive to push yourself harder.

In one of those quintessential New York moments, my friend Jo saw I’d checked in to the Chelsea location on social media, then texted me since she was in the neighborhood and afterwards we caught up for a coffee, perched on a stoop in the West Village. 🙂

Sticking with the virtual workout theme, I also tried out RunSocial this month. I mentioned it last week (when I made my Runfessions) and told you I’d be virtually running a 5K in Monterey, CA on Sunday, which RunSocial had let me download free of charge. I’m sorry if anyone tried to join me, but I hit a technical glitch (which was my own fault). So don’t forget, you can all try out RunSocial for free, using the code FFDRS13 on their website here, for a free download of the Monterey run. I assumed that it was a one-time only run on the download, so rather than get it set up ahead of time, I didn’t try to do it until I got to the gym. Big mistake, because my gym’s wifi is not exactly lightening fast, so I gave up waiting and just ran while watching my beloved HGTV.

When I actually got to run the course (which downloaded in under a minute when I tried again at home), it was so much more fun than I expected! The video and CGI are beautifully shot and combined. It’s not jerky and it’s shot from a runner’s perspective, rather than the more bird’s eye view you see on the pre-programmed courses you can find on some treadmills. This makes it feel more real and interactive.

And you automatically see everyone else running on the course, some of whom pass you, some of whom you pass. Of course the competitiveness kicks in, when you see someone is just 15 seconds ahead of you. You want to up your pace and watch their avatar fade behind you.

I started out conservatively, then gradually increased my pace as I went along and was running fast for the last quarter mile or so. It’s definitely my fastest run since I returned to running postpartum. What’s also cool is that you can really run whatever distance you want. I stopped it at 5K, because that’s what I’d planned for, time-wise, but the app would have let me keep going. And now when I open the app on my phone and go to that download, it gives me the option of starting over, or to run from where on the course I stopped.

See what you think of the freebie above, but I think it’s well worth it. The app itself is free and each running course is an in-app purchase of between $3 and $6. I watched it on my iPhone and it was fun, but I could see how an iPad or tablet would have been awesome.

So, what else did we get up to after Fran got laid off and we decided to move to Vermont? Well, lots of fun family stuff that’s a little bittersweet now we know out Brooklyn time is running out. I’m going to miss Prospect Park, that’s for sure.

And our summertime stoop hangs. So many memories on our little stoop. Hanging out with friends and neighbors, picnicking, having stoop beers, Roman playing and decorating with sidewalk chalk. And this August was no exception:

And a fun, spur-of-the-moment trek to go and see a friend performing in an open-air production of Much Ado About Nothing on the street in Brooklyn. Sadly, Baby T is apparently a philistine and cried once we got settled in, so we ended up sneaking out and wandering back home, with time for Roman to explore some of the cool Summer Stroll features like enormous chess sets.

Tanner was in a better mood when he and I were lone-wolfing it during Fran and Roman’s car purchasing trip to Vermont toward the end of the month. I took him to a friend’s place for snacks and cocktails and since my friend lives in midtown, I got all touristy and snapped a selfie of us in Times Square. And another one when he fell fast asleep on the subway on the way home. So squoodgy, so adorable.

I am blown away that my littlest one is already four months old. Although, now he’s just surpassed the 20 pound mark on the scale, it should be no surprise to me he’s growing up fast. He’s also about half an inch shy of being too long for an infant car seat, so we’ve already had to buy him a convertible seat. Pretty sure from memory we bought Roman a bigger seat when he was about 16 months old. Seriously  – what is in my milk??

Here are some of the posts this month that you may have missed:

I gave tips on traveling with a baby on a plane in one of my Throwback Thursday posts: That Time I Took a Baby on a Plane to Australia.

While social media and blogs might show you the highlight reel, nobody’s perfect. I shared what wasn’t working for me with my fitness and health in Nobody is Doing it All.

Lots of fun products and gear in a round-up post of the 15 Things I’m Glad Were Invented for Runners.

I reviewed the GoMoji foot massager (and gave one away, too). I seriously love this thing, I’m taking it for the looong car ride we have ahead of us on moving day.

After losing weight while Fran and Roman were away for the best part of a week, I wondered if lack of stress had an impact: The Stress-Free Diet.

And I came up with a plan for finding The Best Time to Run, as part of my Running Tips series.

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Did you go away or staycation in August? 

Have you done any of those Instagram monthly challenges before?

What was your favorite part of August?