Foodie Penpals March Reveal!

This is my second month participating in the Foodie Penpals program. You can see my first post about it here. I think I am still as excited about it this month as I was last month, and I will be participating again in April!

This month my box came from North Carolina. Follow my sender, Lyndsay on twitter and on her blog.

So I requested something "local" and was rewarded with dried apple slices from a local farm! They were so good. The only thing I received that I remains and I haven't yet tried is the BBQ sauce. I am so looking forward to nicer weather so I can break out the grill and use it.

The popcorn is something I have been eying at Trader Joe's. I had no problem finishing the bag, but the popcorn absorbs the moisture from the toffee & chocolate and is not a crunchy as I would have liked. I probably wont buy this on my own, but was glad to put my curiosity to rest.

My favorite thing in the box was these Special K Chocolate Pretzel bars.

At 90 calories, they are too good to be true. Such an amazing sweet/salty snack. I will definitely be stocking up on these when they go on sale.

All in all an amazing box :)

If you want to participate in Foodie Pen Pals next month here is some information about the awesome program that Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean has set up.

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.

-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!

-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!

-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)

-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.

-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We've determined things might get too slow and backed up if we're trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I'm going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for March, please send an email to Lindsay at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and include the following information:

-Your full name

-Your email address

-Your blog name/address

-Your twitter handle (if applicable)

-WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT. - this is SUPER important so you get on the right list!

You must submit your information by March 4th as pairings will be emailed on March 5th!

***PLEASE NOTE: if you send an email, you WILL GET A RESPONSE within 48 hours. If you don''t....please re-send your email or contact Lindsay via Twitter (@LeanGrnBeanBlog). Last month we had a few emails get lost as spam so we're trying to avoid that!

Mother's Day 5k!

Some of you may know, one of my ultimate fitness goals is to complete a Sprint Triathlon. You may also know the thing that has kept me from the race is the running portion. In order to eventually meet this goal, I have decided to train for the Mother's Day 5k in early May. I have decided to go with an Online training program, Up & Running Online. (Also see the snazzy badge on the right sidebar). I decided this was best because I can do the running whenever I want (as opposed to when the fleetfeet group or some other one meets). Plus I am an internet junkie.

I am still doing #GoOrGive, despite a February Hiatus! The training will be an excellent way to get my 10K steps in too :)

I decided to run Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, which gives me some leeway on the weekend if I need to make up a run. Also, I usually have plans on the weekend, and so it will be nice not to have to worry about getting up early to "make time" for my run.

Here is my "Running Diary" from my first training session:

Overall, I am counting this workout/run as a success! With daylight savings time here, it was dark out when I started, but I got the benefit of seeing a gorgeous full moon.

Things I am proud of:

1. I got my butt out of bed at 6am and drove to the park to start my workout in a balmy 40 degrees F (4 degrees C for all the Euros in the group!)

2. I was prepared: I input the workout into RunKeeper; I picked out my outfit the night before; I make an electrolyte water mix and put the waterbottle in the fridge; I planned the route and reviewed the workout; and I set my alarm

3. I reviewed the workout 4 times or so, and with the help of RunKeeper, was able to do the whole thing w/o stopping.

4. When it came to the actually running part, I ran .3 of the .6 mile! and then fastwalked the rest.

Things I want to improve this week:

1. Figure out a better way to run with my iphone/keys (any good ideas?)

2. By my 3rd workout, the last of this week's series, I would like to be running the full .6 of a mile

3. Stay consistent/don't be afraid of the looming rain in the forecast!

Workout for today = CHECK!