The 3-Day

Hope you all had a lovely 3-day weekend! I for one would like to know why every weekend can’t be a 3-day weekend. I feel about 100 times more refreshed than I do after a normal weekend.

Our long weekend was a perfect mix of all the good things – running, pilates, food, wine, friends and relaxing. I honestly could have used a few more days!

After a late night Friday, I managed to drag myself out of bed at the ungodly hour of 7am on Saturday (after a few Grey Goose and sodas and a 2:30am bedtime the night before- ouch) to fit in a 4-mile run before Pilates Teacher Training at 9. I actually found out on Friday night that through work, boyfriend and I will be headed to Hawaii in 15 (!!!!) days, so the run was mainly fueled by thoughts of being on a warm, tropical, beach in juuust over 2 weeks. I gotta say though, I cannot wait for our vacation, fresh Hawaiian fruit and fish, macadamia nut banana waffles, and lots of cocktails on the beach! November to May also just happens to be when the Humpback whales take up residence off the coast of Hawaii bringing me thismuch closer to my lifelong goal of seeing a whale in the wild. It will happen.

A highlight of the long weekend? Heading down the coast to Santa Cruz (after stopping at our favorite Italian deli in Pacifica) for a double date night!  When we arrived, Keith and April (amazing host and hostess!) had an amazing spread of farmer’s market appetizers (cheese, pita chips, hummus, fresh fruit), and a refreshing Hanna Chardonnay. In lieu of going out for dinner, Keith broke out his Paella pan, we hit Whole Foods for ingredients, and he got to cooking! Hello homemade Paella, and about 6 more bottles of delicious Mazocco and Rosenblum Zinfandels.

I mean just look at it. Nice work Keith!

Saffron Rice, Haricot Verts, Fresh Clams, Fresh Mussels, Fresh Shrimp, Chicken, Roasted Red Peppers

We woke up Sunday morning feeling surprisingly refreshed and ready for a big homemade breakfast and a day at the beach.

A lovely weekend indeed.

We headed back on Sunday night after some beach-side appetizers and yours truly was in a coma on the couch by 9:58pm. I really am the life of the party.

Yesterday, after a refreshing 10-hours of sleep, we woke up ready to get back in the groove. I headed out for what was meant to be a 5-mile run… that magically turned into 10.5 miles, and boyfriend hit the gym.

When I got to my 2.5 mile turn-around for the 5-mile loop, I felt great, my legs were solid and it was perfect running weather (overcast, 60′s). Had it not been for the abundance of holiday weekend tourists riding extremely precariously on their Blazing Saddles bicycles, it would have been the most perfect run ever. 10 miles is the perfect long-run distance for me.

Pre-Pilates Teacher Training (I promise I’ll work on an update for that – we’ve completed the mat module and moved on to the reformer in our lecture series!) we settled in for a relaxing afternoon of Hollow Chicken Round 2, and to watch the movie 50/50. Have you seen it? Parts were an absolute sob-fest, but I really enjoyed it, thought it was very-well done, and it made me hate Anna Kendrick a lot less. (Seriously, was she not the most obnoxious type-A person in “Up In the Air”?) Dare I say I even like her now? Yes I do judge actors/actresses on the characters they play in movies, even if it couldn’t be further from the truth.

A lovely 3-day weekend indeed! What was the best part of yours?

Beach Weekend + Week 1 to 26.2

Hello! Hope your weekend went well!

The absence of posts this weekend can be blamed on the fact that immediately following my long run on Saturday morning, we headed here to spend the day:

And night…

Santa Cruz! It’s about a 2-hour drive from SF and it’s such a fun beach town to escape to on the weekends. I love it! It was a great day and night – perfect way to spend a weekend!

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In other news…

I’ve successfully completed Week 1 of Marathon Training!

Monday - Cross-training (in the form of a Mat Pilates class + 45 minutes on the Elliptical @ Resistance 9, Incline 20)

Tuesday - 3 Mile Run + 30 minutes TRX

Wednesday - 5 Mile Run + Mat Pilates

Thursday - 3 Mile Run

Friday - Rest

Saturday – 8 Mile Run – first long distance run of the training program and the furthest I’ve run in one sitting since my Half Marathon last year. The weather was perfectly overcast, there were minimal tourists on bikes (aka a deal breaker for a run) and there was a nice breeze – perfect conditions.

Aside from a LARGE hill around Mile 4, I felt good and kept up pretty consistent splits, which I was happy about. I loved having Garmin to look at to increase/decrease my speed.

Sunday – 5 Mile Run – waited until around 5pm to complete this run – big mistake. The wind was at full force (think a large hand pushing you backwards) and the tourists/walkers were out in full force. All of that aside, I had a nice little runners high kick in around mile 2.5 and it was smooth sailing from there – especially running on a not-so-great night of sleep – and about 6 hours of it!

Done. Bring on Week 2.

Off to eat dinner… we’re utilizing the slow cooker for the first time and I cannot wait. I also may or may not have picked up this badboy for dessert:

Now that is what I call a great end to a great weekend – real, ice creamy goodness! I foresee this being gone in 48 hours max.

Hope you had a great weekend!