This week was a test to make sure that I felt every emotion imaginable: stress, anxiety, doubt, delight, happiness, sleepiness, crankiness, etc. I was excited for the weekend to get here!! And let me tell you. It did not disappoint. Not because we did anything spectacular. It was simply a perfect balance of fun, family and fitness!
The hubs signed us up for a Parent’s Night Out Friday evening and it was awesome. We had dinner, drinks and of course, dessert at the Yard House. It was a perfect pre-long run meal of chicken, rice and veggies, a couple of beers and a big ol’ brownie with mint chocolate chip ice cream. Yuuuummmy! Being the wild and crazy folks we are, I made sure I was in bed by 10:30pm (I had a long run at 6:00am and I need my sleep).
Saturday morning, Nina picked me up and we headed to the Highline Canal for our 14 miler. I told her the day before that I needed to run something flat. All of my runs have big rolling hills and I just needed a little ego boost and see some fast times. She agreed. She runs those same Highlands Ranch hills! The temps were perfect Saturday morning, the company was great and we were in a groove. We ran 7.5 up the trail (the extra 1/2 mile was spent looking for a port-a-potty) and ran back until we hit 14. We walked and jogged for the next .5-1.0 mile back to the car but didn’t clock that part. We finished fast. Under 2 hours! We averaged a 8:10 pace for 14 miles. That’s nuts. What was nuts was how easy it felt. Come on race day!!!
Here are some of the cute old barns that I made Nina stop to take a picture of. You know how much I love barns and bridges!!!
Jim and Noah were out when I got home. So, do you know what that meant???
A shower. Oh sweet shower without a toddler peaking around the curtain, without having to sing Old MacDonald!!! Delightful!
Nina’s little boy was having a party so we all went over before the big kids came. They had a huge inflatable waterside in the backyard so we splashed around in that for a bit (Noah wasn’t quite ready to climb up the big slide). But the big fun was when Nina brought out an old tractor that her boys no longer used and Noah just squealed!! Oh my gosh, he had a ball!
That evening Nina and I went to Barre Class at Core Power Yoga to tone our tushies! I just started giggling at Nina during part of it because my legs were quivering so bad that I literally couldn’t hold my leg up anymore. It was just what the doctor ordered after a long hard run that morning. The hubs and Noah picked me up from class and we headed over to the park so Noah could play in the sprinklers at the big park. The night ended perfectly with me and Jim sitting outside with our neighbors eating fro-yo (oh wait, I was the only one eating fro-yo). No matter, still perfect.
Sunday has been easy going with a blueberry muffin kind of morning followed by a hike around Daniel’s Park.
all geared up and ready to go
I have a little running, sewing, food prepping and toddler chasing to do later, but now I will bask in all of my life-balanced glory. At least until I trip and fall. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
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Sounds like such a perfect weekend. What an awesome 14 mile run, congrats! I’m itching to get back to double digits. Trying to be good and add it back in slowly! We also had a parents night out this weekend… such a treat.
I haven’t had a long run that fast in a long time. It felt good!