New Things

I’ve been trying a lot of new things lately! 

New Workout Studio

I had two coupons to attend a free class at Core Pilates in Anchorage, so Kristy, my sister, and I decided to take a Barre Pilates class last week. 

I had never been to Core Pilates—or even heard anything about it—but I was impressed when I walked in. 

Very nice, clean, and modern on the inside. I loved all the natural lighting.

Going into the class, Kristy and I didn’t know what to expect, but the instructor was great and very helpful. 

We did a combination of dance poses coupled with arm and leg strengthening exercises to very upbeat music. 

We used a variety of equipment, which is always fun. We did not, however, use the TRX straps. 

Overall, it was a fun class—not too intimidating, and I felt like I got a good workout. Surprisingly my arms were the most sore the next day. 

New Workout “Food”

Gatorade sent me some of their energy chews to try out.

They immeditately reminded me of Clif Shot Bloks, which I’ve had before and like. 

Each package contained 6 individual chews, which equaled 100 calories. I tried two of each flavor before my workout yesterday. I really like using something like this if I’m not going to eat breakfast but need a little something before my run. I ate these about 20 minutes before heading out and they did not bother my stomach. 

I was a little bummed that the Cool Blue flavor had artificial flavoring though. Other than that, they tasted great. 

New Restaurant

We met up with some friends at E.R. Ale House this weekend in Eagle River, AK. I had never been to this restaurant before but a couple of our friends had. 

I think I’m kind of creeped out by Craig’s face in this picture. 

I ordered the Southwestern Salad. It was quite tastey–nothing spectacular but still good. 

Kristy, my sister, ordered the Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad. She shared some of it with me, but I liked my salad better. 

This is a close-up of Kristy’s salad. There was too much meat (chicken and bacon) on the salad for Kristy and me. 

Craig ordered pizza naturally. (It is his favorite food group.) He chose the Polynesian BBQ Chicken Pizza, and it was very delicious. The only downside was that the dough was kind of soggy in the middle. I don’t know if that was from the BBQ sauce or just the pizza dough itself, but other than that it was very flavorful.

New Food

I would NOT recommend this at all. It was weird and tasted funky. I thought it was cool that it was meatless and soy-free, but it was not good. 

“New” Running Item

I’ve actually had my CEP Compression Socks for a while. (Here’s the post where I originally reviewed them.) But I’ve been wearing them more, so they kind of feel new to me. In the past I’ve mostly worn them for recovery purposes after a long run, but now I’ve been wearing them while I run as well. 

I wore my Progressive Running Compression Socks for the race on Saturday. I figured they might help me during the race since I had been doing a lot of mileage that week. Now I don’t know that the compression socks actually helped me get a PR on Saturday, but my legs sure felt fresh during the race!