Weekend Twofers

[grumble grumble] Monday morning [grumble grumble] temps in the triple digits this week [grumble grumble] sore legs [grumble grumble] so much to do this week [grumble grumble] I'd rather be in bed. Excellent -- now that we're caught up, let's begin.

My weekend seemed to settle neatly into pairs:

2 delicious meals

1. As you might have guessed from Friday's picture, my mom and I kicked off the weekend early with a yummy trip to Melting Pot on Thursday night. The highlights included two fantastic pomegranate martinis (half off!), the Boston lager cheese fondue, and our usual dark chocolate with Baileys for dessert. Yum indeed.

2. Dan and I headed out for date night on Friday and ended up at our local Mellow Mushroom. We often order takeout from here, but it has been years since I ate in their actual restaurant, and we enjoyed it a lot. We ordered a ton of food and brought home lots of leftovers, which is always a plus. I was in a rare mood and didn't feel like wine or beer, so I ordered a hard cider which turned out to be exactly what I was craving.

2 tough runs...

1. I have begrudgingly reinstated the long run in my training. Through most of the winter, I milked the "sore shin" excuse primarily on Saturday mornings (the pain drove me crazy all week, but came in handy when I wanted to sleep late on the weekends), so it has been tough to get back into the habit, but this Saturday morning I hit 11 miles for the second weekend in a row. I have been really good about starting early the past two weekends, hitting the street before 7 am to avoid most of the disgusting heat. This weekend was tougher than last, but I think it was mostly a mental thing -- I thought very seriously about cutting it short several times, but ended up just gritting my teeth and suffering through all of it.

2. My recovery run yesterday was equally rough. All I cared about was three easy miles to get me past my goal mileage for the week and loosen up my legs a little. I let myself sleep late, and then wimped out and headed for the treadmill to avoid the heat. I turned on the platform diving trials to keep my mind occupied... and it didn't take long to realize what a mistake that was. Something about the combination of running but not actually moving forward and watching people do handstands on an extremely high ledge and then spin through midair really did a number on my stomach. I watched maybe three dives before I had to turn it off, and I felt queasy for the rest of the day.

... and 2 great runs

1. Friday afternoon after work I headed out for just a couple miles, and despite the awful heat it felt pretty good. My legs felt fast and it was one of those (rare) times when I could have kept going and going. Getting home in time to shower for our date took precedence, though.

2. This morning I managed to talk myself out from under the covers early enough to have plenty of time for a run. Monday mornings are often a struggle because they are the one morning a week that Dan has to be at work by 8, so we are both rushing to get ready and out the door on time. This morning, though, I managed 6.5 miles (a workday morning record) and still had time to dry my hair and pack a lunch. Nice way to start the week.

2 movies... kind of

Saturday evening, we headed out to meet Dan's family at a drive-in movie "theater" in one of our neighboring counties. It was absolutely packed with a strange mix of relatively normal people who had also made the trip from our hometown and some real characters from the outlying counties. The line for the snack bar was truly people watching at its best. I made it through nachos, previews, the first movie (Brave, which was adorable and quite funny), twenty minutes in line for a bathroom (twice), and about five minutes of the second movie (The Avengers) before that morning's 5:00 wake-up call caught up with me. Luckily, it was easy enough to snuggle up under a blanket and nap -- and thankfully Dan enjoyed the movie enough to stay awake and drive us home at a ridiculous hour of the night early morning.

catching up with 2 great friends

Between work, wedding planning, running, and trying to find time for sleep in between, I have been terrible lately at keeping up with friends from college. Luckily, one friend was visiting my hometown this weekend and we were able to meet up for lunch on Saturday. I had such a great time hearing about her life and getting updated on lots of our mutual friends. I also finally got to talk to one of my awesome bridesmaids last night after weeks of playing phone tag. As tough as it can be to find time to sit down for a phone conversation these days, I love getting to talk to my girlfriends and know that I need to do that more often.

...and 1 breathtaking sunset

Finally, an 11th wheel: a wonderful addition to our weekend that has no matching set. Last night we headed out for milkshakes and a drive with some beautiful scenery...

Not a bad way to end a weekend!

This week is going to be a bit crazy... I'll be writing tomorrow about why (hint: those wedding bells off in the distance are getting louder by the week). Hope everyone has a fantastic Monday!

   Love,

    Meg