Denver

I don’t even bring a camera when I travel anymore.

Disclosure: The following post is sponsored by Fitfluential LLC on behalf of Verizon Wireless.

When I got my first smart phone, it changed my world. I’ve never liked having to carry multiple devices or go to more than one source for tasks.

Verizon offered me the chance to upgrade from my iPhone 5 to a 5s and I pounced on the opportunity. From the solid, light-weight of the metal-casing to the fingerprint-reading lock, I am impressed. I also love the new iOS7 system. It offers iTunes Radio, which is like Pandora but better because you can tag songs as favorites to remember to purchase later. I’ve wished for this feature on the radio SO many times!

The light weight and the radio features allow me to travel light on a plane or the gym – just grab the phone and my in-flight entertainment or energy-inducing jams are there. I love being able shake up my music songs – my playlist was getting OLD after all this competition training.

Since I spent the weekend with Heather in Colorado for our competition, I joined her for a final workout. Radio up and headphones in, I killed the last back/tri workout I’ll do for 2 weeks (it’s REST time!). It was SO much fun to be able to do it with a friend, and to shamelessly ask gym employees to take iPhone pics for us.

Best of all is the super-fast Verizon 4G LTE service. I’m extremely impatient, so being able to over-share instantaneously via Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter is a must. I did just that alllll weekend long from Colorado!

I’m drafting this on a flight home and the internet is painfully slow, so the full recap will have to wait. In the meantime, here’s the iPhone-powered Cliff’s Notes:

Heather and I didn’t get top 5, but we had a blast. AND we got to cheer Lisa, who placed 4th in Bikini Class C.

We celebrated in style at one of Denver’s best restaurants, Fruition. Kait joined us too – it was so great to meet her for the first time. I ordered pasta carbonara with hand-made cavatalli, pork belly and a 6 minute egg (I ordered that solely for the #yolkporn) and duck conﬁt pierogi with caramelized brussels, kumquat marmalade, and roasted apple pan jus.

The food was great, the service was perfect, and the company couldn’t have been better… but I’m still amazed I didn’t fall asleep in my (unpictured) dessert.

Sunday was a beautiful morning – not a cloud in the sky! Heather, Kirk (her husband) and I slept in and headed out for coffee and a hike.

We headed back to meet Lauren and Greg (her husband) for brunch. We sipped on a Kirk-and-Heather whiskey barrel-aged homebrew (out-of-this-world good!) and shoveled a cheese plate in our mouths while Kirk prepared the meal The smoked salmon eggs benedict was one of the best I’ve had!

I’m sad to leave, but made a ton of good memories… and rekindled my desire to MOVE to Denver! It was all pretty marvelous.

***

I am so grateful for Heather and Kirk putting ~~up with me~~ me up for the long weekend, and to everyone who commented/tweeted good luck messages. It all made the weekend that much more special. Thank you! <3

Are you an iPhone or Droid lover? What are your favorite apps? I’ve become addicted to LINE camera.

Do you like to hike? That’s one of the reasons I want to live in Denver!

Starting the week 3 hours behind is weird.

I woke up Monday morning in Denver, CO.

The Good: I woke up super early because I was on East Coast time
The Bad: By the end of the day I was pooped
The Weird, cont.: Now I’m in Chicago… in another time zone

Have you guys ever been in the Denver airport? Having a massive airplane inside the airport gives it extra cool points.

I checked into the Hampton Inn (which was surprisingly well-kept/updated) and discovered that they had little pictures outside each guest room. Pretty cool – they were all different!

However… don’t you think mine was a little risque?!

I swear I’m not running a prostitution business out of my hotel room.

Waking up super early meant I got in a couple of good workouts. Hooray for hotel gyms! Note the motivational sign across the mirror.

The WIAW part of my week is… weak…

Don’t kick me out, Jenn!

_____________________________________________________________________________

Breakfast:

Luke-warm hotel instant oatmeal. Made with water. Eaten out of a styro-foam bowl with a plastic spoon. Thank god for peanut butter.

Instead, let’s pretend I ate some of this:

Zucchini Bread Oatmeal with homemade quick blueberry “jam” was one of my better ideas.

I may stop for zucchini on my way back from the airport Friday…

Lunch:

How one conference could offer SO MUCH bad food is beyond me.

This was some sort of attempt at enchiladas. I picked out the chicken and made a salad with the shredded lettuce. Maybe one of those tortilla chips was eaten – they were ridiculously salty (even for a generic brand).

Snacks:

Not pictured, but these items were key to my survival:

Apple taken from the hotel breakfast bar
Peanuts I saved from my flight
Chocolate-Toffee Think Thin bar from home

Plus copious amount of tea to keep warm in the very well-air conditioned room and remain ~~heavily~~ caffeinated.

Dinner:

Again, not worthy of a picture. It was an airport salad with 2 cucumbers and 2 tomatoes (not kidding). I did manage to convince them to give me some hummus then regretted it.

This would have been much more delicious:

A big salad with hummus dressing (basil hummus mixed with a bit of apple cider vinaigrette) and a side of roasted brussel sprouts (coated with herbed dijon mustard and olive oil).

Served with 1/2 a Food for Life Sprouted Grain and Seed English muffin and a big ‘ol scoop of my new favorite oil-free, vegan condiment:

Beet Sunflower Pesto.

You should try the pesto. No need to like beets. Guaranteed.

***

For a whole slew of eats MUCH better than mine, please hop over to Peas and Crayons.

Do you prefer East Coast time? West? Somewhere in between or far away?

Let me live vicariously through you – what deliciousness are you eating this week?

Competition Weekend Through an iPhone Lens

WIAW: The Rockies Edition

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Snacks:

Dinner:

Follow Me!

Popular Posts

Affiliate Links: This site is monetized through the use of affiliate links. This means that if you were to make a purchase through one of these links, Sprint 2 the Table would receive a small percentage of the sale price. Thanks for your support!