Farmer's Market and Sweaty Six

Yesterday morning, Cosmo and I took a little stroll to the Fitler's Square farmer's market.

I felt a little guilty taking one dog and not the other, but Sophie is...well...not the world's greatest walker. She's good for about four or five blocks or so, and then her little legs start to get tired, and she plops her little butt down in the middle of the sidewalk whenever it pleases her. Which is like...twice a block. That becomes a serious pain in the ass when you're carrying groceries and walking another (normal) dog.

So, I left Sophie snuggling in bed with PhillyGuy, and off we went in the sunshine.





(Can you see his awesome collar? It's pirate dogs with eyepatches. It's the collar he had at the shelter -- I never would have picked it out, but it cracks me up)

As predicted, Cosmo was a perfect gentlemen in the farmer's market. It was sort of a clusterfuck in there -- usually, it's not quite as crowded as it was yesterday, but it was almost impossible to squeeze through everyone. All I had intended to get was a bunch of fresh crimini (aka "baby bella") mushrooms, but the Jersey strawberries on the end of the row caught my eye. Even if they were a whopping $6.50 per quart, they just looked SO fresh and juicy and about a billion times better than the half flats of unnaturally enormous berries I've been picking up at Costco.



SO GOOD.



I chopped up about half of the mushrooms, and tossed them into a frittatta with spinach, chopped broccoli, some crumbled bacon and an ungodly amount of eggwhites. I've been craving eggs for a couple of weeks now, and it was nice to finally have the time to make them.

Afterwards, we took the pups for a long-overdue trip to the dog park -- where they exhausted themselves completely:







This morning, I woke up and headed out for a six-miler. This is the first "official" long run of my training schedule for the Distance Run/Rock & Roll half. Not going to lie, I wasn't necessarily feelin' it, especially when I caught the weather on the news and heard the phrase "relative humidity is at 87%" (um, worse than Broad Street? awesome). It was only going to get hotter, though, so I laced up my shoes and hit the pavement. I ran a pretty random route through the city, since I figured (correctly) that I'd have a better chance of it staying shady on the actual streets than on the trail along the river. It was hot, it was sweaty, and I did stop a couple times to stretch and breathe -- but I did it. 6 miles in about 1:01.

Let me take a minute to pimp, AGAIN, the best hot-weather running tank EVER: the lululemon run:swiftly tank.

Me, post-run:



Back:



I bought this tank the day before Broad Street, breaking pretty much all of the rules regarding trying new things on race day. And I'm so glad I did. It's looser-fitting up top and slim through the hips. It's literally the closest thing I can do to running shirtless, without ACTUALLY taking my shirt off. I barely even feel it on, and it's just so amazing for nice, toasty runs like this one. I very clearly need to buy at least one more, with so many summertime long runs coming up.

One more, cheesin' for the camera and so happy to be back in the A/C:



I wear that grotty Sam Adams Light visor on almost every run. I have since I got it when I was bartending back in college. I periodically throw it in the dishwasher when it gets too salty. I should really do that soon.

Now we're off to my mom's for a Memorial Day/family graduation celebration party. It's sunny and in the high 80's -- perfect BBQ weather. Hope you guys are all having a great holiday weekend!

No Farmers Market for You

I'm already up one for the day, since I actually managed to, you know, GET OUT OF BED AND GO FOR A RUN instead of falling back asleep. Of course, I think it helps that it was 7:30 and not 4:55.



After walking the puppies and downing some instant caffeine (Via freakin' rocks) while watching Real Housewives of OC "Lost Footage," I was more than ready to head out. Inspired by Melissa at Miles for Markets, I planned to do an easy four-mile out-and-back down South Street to Headhouse Square for the farmer's market.

I stuck to an easy, comfortable pace, which ended up getting me down to 2nd & South in about 19:48. Cruising down South Street east of Broad always makes me want to cry a little bit. Like most people who grew up in this area, high school for me was punctuated by more than a few Friday night visits to South Street. It was nothing short of AWESOME. Funky, random little stores, Zipperheads, and a fantastic crowd of really, REALLY cool people.

(Great shot of Zipperheads, courtesy of Wikipedia, for those who might not remember:)



Well, Zipperheads is gone now. And apparently, so are all the really cool people. Although I strongly suspect that South Street may have always been so...um...shady...I prefer to believe that it was just a different, more awesome place when I was sixteen or seventeen. So tragic.

So, mourning for the South Street of my youth , I hung a left into Headhouse Square, wildly anticipating the Farmer's Market.

That is not really what I got.



After talking to one of the people at the single booth that was setting up, I found out that the market doesn't open until 10am -- which I consider kind of late for a Farmer's Market. It was 9:15. FAIL. Oh, well. I took a few pictures, stretched my calves and then hightailed it out of there:







I ran back up Lombard instead of South Street. MAN, what a difference a block makes. It was shady and quiet and tree-lined, instead of being lined by (not-so-funky) stores and a Dairy Queen. Most of it, I just ran, looking around and singing along (hopefully not out loud) to my iPod and just enjoying the relative quiet of a Saturday morning.





I wound up back home around 40 minutes later, sweating and smiling.



Today's fun playlist:



Now I'm hungry and so, SO ready to head out and get a much-needed pedicure. I usually get my nails done every other week, and it's been over a month since I've had time -- I think about 7 weeks since I've had a pedicure. My poor feet are really in need of a little TLC...especially since my big toenail is bruised to high heaven from Broad Street.

Happy weekend all!

Farmers' Market

Delayed post number one, here we go:

So, last Friday night was one of those nights where PhillyGuy and I were both just total wastes of space.

It's hard to remember exactly why. I know I had an insane morning trying to wrap stuff up before bosslady left for vacation, followed by dashing downstairs to catch a train out to Norristown for a hearing...only to discover WHEN I GOT THERE that it was cancelled, without notice. Booooooo. Double BOOOOOO for having to wait 40 minutes for a train back to the city. Triple BOOOOOO for having to pretend to do important work on my blackberry to ignore the woman in the train station talking to herself (and intensely!) about vegetables. BOOOOOO again for having to go back up to the office and deal with more shenanigans for a few hours, instead of going straight home from court like I'd hoped.

Hmm. Maybe I do remember exactly why. Oh, well.

Regardless -- PhillyGuy also had a long day. So, we did what any normal people would do after a long day -- headed straight to New Delhi up in University City, where we stuffed ourselves with Indian food, before coming home, collapsing on the couch, and watching Food Network until we couldn't keep our eyes open. Which was, um, like 8:30pm.

After our ridiculously early bedtime, PhillyGuy and I were both wide awake around 6:30 or 7 the next morning. After a nice leisurely dog walk, we hit the gym for shoulders, biceps and triceps. After a nice hour's worth of arm-destroying, we headed out, happy and sweaty, to run by the farmer's market.

First stop: Cafe Lutecia at 23rd and Lombard for an iced coffee.



I LOVE this place. It's very simple, very French, and everything is delicious. In our pre-P90X days (i.e. before our diets shifted to 70% protein), this was on our regular weekend breakfast rotation. Usually, we'd "split" a scone (that means I had three or four bites while PhillyGuy took care of the rest, pretending he ordered it just for himself), and order a couple slices of whatever their daily rotation of quiches was.

On to Fitler Square:



Every Saturday, a small farmer's market sets up right in front of the park from about 8am to 2pm.



It's only a few tables, but they always have plenty of local, seasonal produce, fresh dairy and eggs, and other treats -- delicious baked goods, local honey, jams, etc.

It was very crowded in such a small place, so I couldn't take pictures without causing a traffic jam...but we ended up with fresh portobella mushrooms, some asparagus, fruit and a dozen fresh eggs.

The puppies enjoyed the sunshine:



I love the "couples' leash," as our dogwalker puts it. Without it, I end up getting tied up when they try to run in opposite directions. Or in the same direction -- running in circles around my ankles. That's always a favorite.

So, okay, that was a six-day delay on that post. Ooops. Oh well. Coming soon: my recap of the Philly Foodie meetup at Garces Trading Co.!

(By the way -- good lord, did those eight miles kick my butt. I am creeeeeaky today. Still on the fence about Broad Street -- I need to make a decision, and FAST!)

What are your favorite farmers markets in the city?