I can't believe it's already Memorial Day this coming weekend. One thing I've noticed since moving to a warmer, temperate climate is that I find it hard to instinctively know what season/month/holiday it is. In Idaho, you sort of know what time of year it is based on the weather. When it starts to to turn warm, the snow melts and it's rainy -- you know it's Spring. As it gets even warmer and doesn't freeze at night -- you know it's Memorial Day and time to plant flowers and the remaining garden items!

But, In LA, it's basically just 65-70 degrees year around. Yes, it still gets darker earlier in the winter and yes, the ocean is bearable to swim in towards the end of Summer. But, other than that, it's sunny and warm all the time and I sort of lose track of what season or what holiday it is without thinking about it for a few minutes.

The benefit to that is that we've been trail running every weekend for the last few months and will continue to do that for the entire year. There's no waiting for the snow to melt and the ground to dry out. If you want to go running, you go. There's not dependency on weather. There is, however, a dependency on my shins. I have had the worst shin splints the last few weeks and I think I've narrowed down the reasons:

1. Shoes with a lack of arch support (my feet roll inward pretty badly)

2. I went from running 3-5'ish total miles on flat ground per week to 10 miles in the hills in 1 day

3. I finally figured out how to do double-unders but it takes a lot of effort which means TIGHT calves

Sooo, I've stopped doing double-unders (at least for now), I've been skipping every other weekend of running, increasing my yoga to stretch, icing my shins, I bought new trail shoes with more support, AND I bought some shin sleeves which are supposed to help get your shins back to new. Hopefully, I can make it back out this weekend because I've realized that I absolutely LOVE going out into the mountains on the weekends and running. It's the combination of everything I love -- peaceful, stress-free, beautiful scenery, exercise, and lots of time with friends to enjoy being together with good quality conversation for hours while you run! BUT, not so great if every step creates pain. 

Anyhow, food-wise, I recently walked down to the Farmer's Market just a couple blocks from our house and bought a fresh create of strawberries -- love strawberry season (and it is actually strawberry season regardless of what the weather tells me)! We made a variety of items but had some leftovers that were getting old in the fridge. So, last weekend I decided to make some jam with the leftover strawberries as they were looking a little questionable but no mold. This is a quick and easy stove-top jam that was delicious on pancakes, toast, eggs, or anything else you want to put it on top of!

5 min. Strawberry Jam
1/2 small crate strawberries (10-15)
1/2 to 1 orange, juiced (depends on how acidic you like it!)
1 Tbsp. corn starch / 1 Tbsp. cold water stirred together in separate dish
1/4 c. (or to taste) sugar
Cut tops of strawberries. Throw into pan and turn on med-low heat. Add juice of 1/2 to 1 orange to pan. Add sugar and stir. Let come to a low boil. Add cornstarch/water mixture and continue to boil until thickens. Add more cornstarch/water mixture based on how thick you'd like it. Remove from stove and serve!

Top 2 photos -- photo credit to Kate Voda Photography