Weekend of Awesome

I had a super busy weekend, but one that featured all of my favourite things: friends, social activity, fitness, laughing and trying something new. It doesn't get much better than that!

Friday night my girlfriends and I headed over to our other friend's house to bring the party to her! She blew her MCL and ACL and is awaiting a surgery date. We had Swiss Chalet, watched "Pitch Perfect," laughed our butts off, ate way too many dark chocolate almonds, jujubes and chips and guac, and stayed out til 2:30am. It's been awhile since I saw that time of night/morning! I knew I had a 15k run the next day, so I kept my wine consumption to two small glasses (4 oz each) and had been hydrating all day Friday, like I usually do to prep for a long run.

Saturday, I hit the road (literally!) with my pals. The sidewalks were miserable for the first 5k. We were picking and choosing footing, slipping and tripping-which loses time, throws off your pace, and makes you work way harder. We decided to take the path MORE taken, and turned down some side streets and the road. I'm not one who ever really drinks when I'm running. I just don't feel like I need any water or anything. I'm sure that will change once Winter is over (if it EVER is over!) and with the increased distance, but so far it hasn't been an issue. I hate wearing belts, so I stuck a water bottle in my pocket (I kid you not) as well as some fuel. Once I hit the 10k mark, about an hour in, I walked a minute to drink down my water and slurp down my fuel. It took about ten minutes of feeling like I was slogging it out before they kicked in, and then energy was BACK baby! The exciting news was that I picked up my pace the last two miles, so I know the endurance is in there. Of course, running is a total crap shoot anyways, some days you have a terrific run, and some days you don't. It can depend on what you ate, drank, how you slept the night before, if you're fighting a cold, and a million other weird and random reasons. I try not to focus too much on that, and just do my body's best for that particular day or moment in time. I did the 15k distance and was super glad I was done!

I'm usually ravenous after a long run like that, but for some reason, I was just exhausted more than anything. I tried to shower and nap, but that's hard to do when your daughter just wants to snuggle and watch a movie with you. (ie talk non-stop so no one can actually hear the movie OR nap) I ditched grocery shopping plans and we just all hung out in our jammies for the afternoon.

On Sunday, which seems wrong somehow, I went with my friends to try out Pole Dancing. Who knew my friend Claire is a natural, with instinct and grace? She was working that pole like a pro. HA! I'm not really into the hair flipping, sexy crawling stuff, but I loved the tricks and flips and such on the pole. Somehow, the fireman came easily to me and I spun myself around and around as many times as I could! We had a blast, and I think doing something like that with friends that crack you up is definitely key. I'd totally do that again!

The rest of Sunday was groceries, which I was loathing, but at least it means a house restocked with yummy and healthy (and some not so healthy!) foods! I'm trying to increase my protein intake, and eating every 2-3 hours a day. This means I have breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. Each with a protein in it's mix. I've also upped my calories (well, not on MFP formally but in my head!) to see if that helps fuel the activity I'm doing. I ran 35k last week, did Pole Dancing, an arm workout, a leg workout, shoveled crazy heavy snow and walked 30 mins a day so.....1200 calories MAY not have been enough. We'll see. There's a lot of trial and error to figuring this all out, and I'm okay with that.

It's a new week, with more new activities to try, more runs planned (16k coming up!), and more social fun with some of my favourite, hilarious friends.

When life keeps giving me plenty'o lemons, I just look at weekends and times like these, and am thankful for all my bountiful blessings.