Thursday, July 5, 2012

Fourth of July Recap!

Happy belated Fourth of July!

Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday! I definitely did. I enjoyed a day off work, even if it was kinda strange because it was mid-week. You'll never hear me complain about having a day off, so I was happy! :)

I think I started "celebrating" Tuesday night. The Hubs and I had dinner in (goat-cheese pasta with lots of veggies) over a movie (The Grey... skip it. Trust me.). The Hubs and I wanted to go for a walk, but figured it'd be smart to go later in the evening to let the temps cool a bit. Yeaaah, not really sure it helped. We went out for a 3 1/2 mile walk at about 8pm and it was still over 90*. Craziness. Luckily, we stopped for fro-yo, so that helped cool us off. After our walk I crashed pretty much immediately... hey! My normal bedtime is 9pm, so staying up til 10 was big news!

I started my actual holiday off with an EARLY morning, 5:20am alarm. While this is "sleeping in" compared to a normal Wednesday, for a HOLIDAY-- it was damn early. However, with the forecast calling for 80* temps by 6am, I knew I needed to get out there early to even have a chance of getting all 14 miles in. It helped motivate me to get out there when I saw this note when I fell out of bed.

So, with a little hubsbandly encouragement (meanwhile he was sound asleep in the nice, cool bed), I got moving. An English muffin with PB later, I was out the door and running by 6:15am.

WOWZA. That was a hot run. The hottest I've ever experienced, I think. I kept telling myself for the first 6 miles, "Meagan, just get to the half way point. Then, you can go to the gym and do the last miles on the treadmill in the A/C." Well, by the time mile 7 got there, I was still 2 miles from my car (bad planning, Meagan), so I decided just to suck it up and finish it all outside. It was H-O-T. It was crazy humid. It was sunny. I was moving SLOOOOOWLY and stopped for lots of drinks. But, I made it. 2:32:30 for a 10:53 average pace. It felt (and WAS) so slow. But, I gave it all I had. I was DRAINED by the end. I think it was partially just the heat, but I also think the mid-week long run is just brutal, since I didn't have a rest day before and I haven't had a rest day for over a week. Whatever. I finished it. I was and am proud of myself for that. When I started the run it was 80*. When I finished, it was a smidge warmer.

Add crazy humidity and no breeze to the mix and I was spent. 14 miles. Done and done.

I stopped by a gas station after the run to buy some ice, then headed home for a good ol' fashioned ice bath.
With a side of low-fat chocolate milk. You KNOW I was still crazy hot when this ice bath felt GOOD and I was looking forward to it. I usually dread them and think they hurt more than the run. 20 minutes soaking in that ice and my legs started feeling alive again. A 20 minute shower later and I started feeling alive again.

After I got cleaned up and lounged around for a few minutes, my tummy started demanding FOOD! I was happy to oblige. The Hubs and I decided on an extremely patriotic meal... MEXICAN!

Is there anything better than chips and salsa and fajitas?? Not much. The Hubs got the steak fajitas and I got the chicken. We shared. Believe it or not, I finished pretty much ALL mine, while the Hubs had left overs. Yeah, I was a lil' hungry. Hey, at least I only had 1 tortilla, none of the rice, and he and I only had 1 basket of chips to share. I'd say I did pretty good, post long run.

We ran a few errands (I looove Target, btw!) and when we drove past a local frozen custard place and I saw "Chocolate Covered Banana" on the menu board I KNEW we had to stop for dessert.

Just look at that deliciousness. Chocolate Covered Banana custard with Resses on top. OMG. Heaven. Absolute heaven. I DEVOURED this thing. The Hubs got a hot fudge sundae. Perfect July 4th treat.

We ended our day with more apartment-decluttering to prep for our upcoming move, an accidental mini-nap (love those!), left overs for dinner, and a chick flick (This Means War... again, I'd skip it. It was OK, but definitely not great or even good. I do love Reese Witherspoon, though.).

I was in bed by 9pm and back up this morning at 5am for the gym. Luckily I wasn't even a little sore from my long run (thank you ice bath!!).

When I pulled into the gym parking lot at 5:20am this morning I immediately noticed it was EMPTY. Like, 2 other cars empty. Dead zone. Weird. When I went in and got to the group fitness room and saw only 1 other person with their stuff set up, I knew something was off. The class, Signature Strength, is usually packed. It ended up being just 3 participants (including me!) and the instructor. DUH, MEAGAN! It's the day after the 4th of July. Most normal people are dealing with hangovers or took the rest of the week off or are on vacation. Oh well. It was actually really fun to have such a small group. We each got some 1 on 1 attention and it was a BRUTAL workout. Every muscle in my body was shaking by the end. I finished my workout with 2 quick miles on the treadmill after the class. I was DRIPPING in sweat by the end, but it felt great to get in such a hard workout knowing I have 2 rest days to look forward to this weekend.

All in all it was a great, low-key holiday and now I'm already back in the swing of normalcy again. Happy belated 4th, all!

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a busy AND productive 4th of July. How sweet of your hubby to leave you a good luck note! That would have made my day and my run even better. We are supposed to get a heat wave in Spokane over the next week. Considering the weather we have had, I won't complain. I just hope that it isn't 80 degrees by 6 am! Luckily, we get zero humidity so hopefully it won't be too awful. :-)

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    1. The note was super sweet. He's a keeper! :)

      Hopefully your heateave won't be too bad. A little heat is nice... a LOT, not so much. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Have a great weekend!!

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