A little birdie had told me there was this kick ass garage sale happening on the other side of Tampa this morning. Apparently, it was a must see event. There were rumors of sweet vegan treats freshly baked by one of my favorite professional blogging chefs for sale. And who am I to turn away from such amazing goodies?
Before the rain poured down I managed to make it out to see Jenna in all her glory as she sold her wonderful vegan treats at her parent’s garage sale.
She had Vegan Blondies, Cupcakes and Cookies all beauitfully plated and ready to be eaten.
I had one Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcake while chatting with Jenna and it was of course amazing. 
Despite the rain, Jenna’s family’s garage sale was a huge hit. Dozens upon dozens of customer pulled up and shopped in the rain just in the hour I was there. I have to say there are some die hard deal hunters out there!
It was great to catch up with Jenna as well. We dicussed Healthy Living Summit details and upcoming races. Jenna has agree to run the Miracle Miles 15k with a few other bloggers and I in September! I can’t wait for race season to start up again here in Florida. Taking the summer off from racing is tough.
I had brought Abbie along to the garage sale and she had a ball running around with Micky and Miken.
The three of them just kept chasing each other in a circle over and over again around the house. The good part is this led to Abbie looking like this in the car.
She couldn’t keep her eyes open, she was so pooped! I owe Micky and Miken a big thanks for wearing Abbie out!
We had made plans to head to a local dog beach today, but the rain cancelled those plans. Instead we headed to International Mall for a great lunch and light shopping.
The mall actually had some great choices for lunch including Too Jays Deli which has a menu that would make anyone happy.
I was very intrigued when I read about the Vegetable Reuben Ciabatta. I love traditional reubens with all the sauerkraut and was hoping this dish would be similar to the original.
I asked for no butter on the bread, no peppers and the dressing on the side.
It was not exactly what I was picturing. I guess I was picturing fresh spinach and mushrooms pilled high with saurkraut and swiss cheese? It was so-so. I mean it was good, but very greasy.
The sandwich came with a lovely side of fresh fruit.
I ate all of the fruit, ignored the dressing and left behind a few bites of the sandwich.
After lunch was did a little shopping and explored the great mall.
The main reason I wanted to visit this particular mall was to check out the running store Fit2Run Jenna had highly recommended. I desperately was in need of new running shoes and knew this would be a great place to purchase a new pair.
It was love at first sight with Fit2Run. The store was stocked with all my favorite running gear and the majority of the wall around the store was filled with nothing but beautiful running shoes. I especially loved all of the inspirational running posters hanging from the roof.
A Fit2Run employee immediately asked to help me and I launched into details of what type of shoe I was looking for, my running style, and the type of training I was planning on doing in them.
He then had me stand on some sort of machine that detected where I bare all my weight in my feet. From this image he determined I have a very high arch and that when I stood still I evenly distributed my weight in my forefoot and heel.
Next I ran on this nifty treadmill while a video camera filmed my feet.
From the video he determined my legs run pretty straight and that I run on the front of my feet. It really was not until Derek stepped on the treadmill next that I noticed how much different my running style is then his. You could see Derek’s whole foot hit the treadmill as he ran, while my heel never touched the ground. I was literally running on my toes.
The employee informed me that Derek’s style of running is actually how a person usually runs regularly. To obtain my running style I would have had to train myself to do so. He said there is nothing wrong with running on the front of your feet and it’s just another style. I also asked him if it was maybe my high arches that caused me to run this way, but he said it was unlikely as when I am standing still the weight is evenly distributed on the balls and heels of my feet.
So, basically somehow I subconsciously trained myself to run on the front of my feet. Very interesting.
With my stye of running he suggested I run in a light, neutral shoe. I highly agreed as thats the shoes I prefer to run in anyways. He also tried to suggest some orthotics to support my high arches, but I was just not a fan of running in them.
I proceeded to try on multiple types of shoes and styles. Each time I put on a new shoe I would complete a lap around the track in the middle of the store.
After trying on several pairs of shoes I happily left Fit2Run with a new pair of Saucony Progrid Triumph 6s.
These shoes were very thin and light and my favorite by far of all the shoes I tried on.
It doesn’t hurt that they were a pretty blue either. 
The shoe store also had a wonderfully inviting Smoothie & Juice bar up front that I had been eyeing during the whole sales process. On the way out of the mall I just had to try one of their vegetable juices.
I have been very jealous of everyone’s wonderful vegetables juices I have been eyeing on so many blogs lately. I had never tried a vegetable juice before, but was dying to try one. All the choices seem great, but I had no clue where to start. Having never had a vegetable juice before I didn’t know where to start.
After the juicer recommended The Green Thing cucumber, celery, parsley, carrots & spiriuna I decided to give it a shot.
With a name like green thing I was little surprised it was orange.
Derek had a sip and gave the juice a big thumbs down.
He did not like the strong carrot flavor.
I really wanted to like it and had to give it a so-so.
I decided to try sipping on the drink on the way home to see if I would develop the taste, but it got to the point and where I was cringing as I was about to drink it. I ended up pouring 3/4 of the drink down the drain. Yuck.
The flavors just did not mix into anything exciting. The carrot was too strong, the cucumber did not taste right and I could distinctly taste the celery and I don’t even like celery.
I decided the veggie drink also reminded me a little too much of milk. I strongly dislike the creamy thick texture I have found in every milk I have tried whether it be cow’s milk, almond milk, coconut milk and so on. The vegetable juice had the same thick creamy texture as milk and was giving me the same curdling in my stomach thoughts.
I am not giving up on vegetable juices yet, I think I just picked a bad combination. I think next time I want to try one with ginger in it to see it give the drink the kick it was missing.
After reading up on my vegetable juice experience does anyone have any recommendations on what I should try next time?
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