Beach, Birthday and a Wedding

My week of birthday celebrations is coming to an end....yes I get an entire week haha.  I got home Thursday from work, the day before my birthday, with flowers waiting for me :)  It was the perfect start to my long weekend. I took Friday off because we were going to our friend's wedding at the beach that night, and because I think it's no fun to work on your birthday.  Since I had off, I decided to move my long run to Friday morning. My body woke me up at 5:25am. Yikes. So I went with it, and went to the park to run 10 miles. I started my morning with a half a bagel with almond butter and craisins on top. Then I was off!

Me after my 10! I finished with a 10:04 pace and felt really good. I felt so much better than my 10 mile run last weekend. I got home, showered up and got to packing for the beach!

I made myself a high protein recovery meal of "oatmeal minus the oats."  I've been eating a lot of this lately and have found that I like it cold better than hot.

In an almost empty peanut butter jar. 

In the mix:

1 mashed banana

1/2 cup egg whites

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tbsp ground flax

several shakes cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

handfull of craisins

Heat on the stove until it starts to thicken up and then enjoy.  I usually make mine the night before and stick it in the fridge to have the next morning.

After stuffing my face we were off! We drove 2 hours, checked into our hotel and then headed over to the beach for the wedding.

Janice walking down the aisle with her brother.

After the ceremony we went to Irish Eyes for the reception.  We ate some really good food and enjoyed the views of the marina.

I may have taken the nautical theme too far, but I loved my dress lol. 

Matt and I were both pretty tired that night, so we went to bed early and saved the bars for Saturday night. Saturday morning we woke up to a cloudy day.  The morning was chilly and windy, but by noon the sun was coming out and we got a couple of hours in at the beach before heading out to Jamfest at a local bar.

Jamfest at The Bottle And Cork

Holy crowdedness.  That place was packed! I almost got smooshed trying to get to the bathroom.

The lead singer got on the roof for one of the songs!

Later that night we met up with a bunch of friends for dinner, then went back to the bars.  I was proud of my usually early to bed self.  I made it to 1:30am!!

Sunday we got some time in at the beach, and then went home :(  Even though we were tired, Matt and I both wanted to get a strength workout in before we crashed.  I decided to do this Medacine Ball Workout from Blonde Ponytail:

I used a 10lb medacine ball and my inner thighs and arms are killing me today!

I was so depressed going to work this morning and then I walked into my office and saw this:

My birthday cubical.  Work flew by, thank goodness, and I went for a quick run after work.  3 miles went by quickly and I finished in 28.42!

When I got home I did a quick crossfit style workout to finish off. 

3 rounds as quickly as possible

25 dips

25 crunches

25 pushups

25 russian twists

Time to go make my breakfast/lunch for tomorrow.



A Weekend In Workouts

This was such a great weekend, I'm sad to see it come to and end.

This is how the weekend started:

Drinks at the Chesapeake Inn.

And this is how it ended:

My first instagram! haha.  Watching the olympics with the boys.

And there was a lot of fitness going on in between.  Saturday morning my plan was to wake up at 6am, eat a small breakfast and head to the park for my long run of 8 miles. In some sort of miracle I woke up 8 minutes before my alarm was about to go off and snuck out of the bedroom without waking up my super light sleeper of a husband. I should have known this would be a good day right from the start. I ate a peice of whole wheat toast with almond butter and craisins on top and headed out the door. I also ate one of these on my ride to the park:

LOVE these. They saved my life on my run.  I also brought with me one bottle filled with water, and one frozen bottle filled with half water and half coconut water.

I started my run and felt really good after the first lap (2.6 miles). I stopped and grabbed some water and started on my second lap.  After number 2 was done I still felt really good. I grabbed another Gu Chomp and started my third lap.  My legs were getting stiff, but nothing compared to last weekend. I had 8 miles on my schedule, but thought to myself, I can do this. I can do 9! So...I went for it!  I ran 9 miles!!!! This is the first run where I have felt totally comfortable and confidant that I can  actually finish this race in Septmeber!

10.04 pace!!

Part of the reason I felt so great I chalk up to the sun not coming out until an hour after I finished.  How did I  luck out with that?

I went out and got a foam roller on Thursday night. I rolled out my IT band on Thursday and Friday and man did it hurt! I had huge knots in both of my legs and managed to get them out.  This helped me big time on my run.  I also foam rolled after my run on Saturday and felt 10x better after doing this.

Sweaty hot mess. When I got home, I looked down at my shorts and it looked like I had peed my pants I was sweating so much. 

My legs didn't feel half bad the rest of the day and on Sunday morning I woke up feeling great. I found this great Medacine Ball workout on Blonde Ponytail. 

I did this workout at home and used Matt's 12lb medacine ball. It may have been a bit too heavy for me, but I finished!  I had to take a couple breaks though during the pushups, thrusters and plank holds.  I think an 8 or 10lb ball would have been perfect for me.  I can already feel my legs starting to get sore. OUCH. Hurst so good though. 

I'm so happy I had a good weekend of workouts and am excited that I am almost into the double digits for running. Either this coming weekend or next weekend I'll hope to hit 10 miles!!