Wait — where’d THAT come from?

Remember the options I left myself this morning for my workout of the day?

• hill repeats
• treadmill run — speed work

If you go back through the comments of the day — you’ll see I got some much needed motivation helping me to lean towards the hill repeats.

To be honest, I wanted to get outside.  All of my training runs last week were on the dreaded ‘mill due to the raining and flooding.

So — when I got home, I put my big girl pants on and hit the open road for a run with hill repeats.

my big girl pants

Workout of the Day: 4 miles

• 2 mile warm up
• 5 hill repeats
• .75 mile cool down

Welp…the first two  miles were planned to be warm up.

my pace at 2 miles: 836

upps.

I have NO idea where that came from.

My first mile was 8:06.

I wanted to pat myself on the back, seriously.  I have no idea where that speed came from, but I felt strong and fast, so I just went with it.

At exactly two miles (well, I ran in circles for a second to make up the .1 mile)

I then hit the bitch of a hill.

 

I know it doesn’t look that bad — but let me tell you, it was killer.  At by repeat number 5, I was ready to die.

I finished my hill repeats about 3.25, and just cruised it home until I hit 4 miles.

 

Then walked it in.

I must say — to average under 9 miles on hill repeats? Hello, who am I and where did that speed come from?

Especially that first mile.  WOW.  Hopefully that means all my speed work is helping!

Needless to say, I came home hungry.

Thankfully I have an amazing husband who loves to grill.

For dinner tonight: steak, grilled corn and a side salad.

 

Zach and I split the steak, and each had our own corn and side salad.

Seriously, the steak was huge. HUGE (I spy an August…)

 

Perfect grilled onions

 

And a perfectly fresh side salad with

• arugula
• dried pineapple (from nature’s box)
• tomatoes
• carrots
• purple pepper

 

I dressed it with homemade raspberry jam and balsamic.  Amazing.

And that’s our night folks.  Now we’re just relaxing and enjoying a nice evening with doors open, and nothingness on the tube :).

Thank you to everyone who motivated me to get out and run this afternoon!  You know sometimes I need the extra push to get outdoors 🙂

Goodnight all 🙂

Question of the night: When was the last time you surprised yourself in a workout?

I really have no idea where that speedy first 2 miles came from, but I’ll take em!

The Wedding Cake Saga That Resulted In Us Having To Eat 3 Cakes

You all have heard me mention our little wedding cake a few times. . .

It was honestly the most beautiful wedding cake I’ve seen. . . maybe I’m biased, but none-the-less.

Zach and I choose to work the The Makery for our wedding cake.  Check them out, they are masters at what they do.  They make cakes turn into works of art.

We went to The Makery about 6 months ago, excited to try lots of cake but  without much direction on what we wanted for our own cake.

Within an hour, we had our sugar cravings satisfied and were confident that not only would are cake TASTE delicious, it would be beautiful as well.  By signing with the Makery, we guaranteed a beautiful wedding cake, anniversary cake (a cake we can pick up at our one year instead of freezing the topper, included in price), and a sweetheart cake for the bride and groom (a small cake, brought to the event but meant to be kept for the bride and groom to enjoy post ceremony.  About 8 pieces, or 4 Zach and Ashley pieces 🙂

Move Forward to Day OF

We put in our cake order fairly far in advance, before we began getting RSVP’s.   It was VERY important to me that each guest get to en joy our cake, so we placed our order for 130 people (at the time, our ABSOLUTE top number was 120. . . but I wanted to be REALLY sure everyone got some :).

Come the day of, we only had 85 people in attendance.  That equals a lot of extra cake 🙂

So, when Zach and I went to cut our cake, the caterer asked us if we wanted to save the topper.

My guess, looking back, is that the caterer wasn’t very familiar with the Makery’s policy of a sweetheart cake, and because most bride and grooms save their topper, assumed we would be doing the same.

In the moment, Zach and I actually decided to SAVE the top cake layer.  I figured we could use it for brunch the next morning, or possibly just enjoy it ourselves :).  We had guests staying with us for awhile, and it would be a fun treat to have.

Well. . . the evening went on, much fun was had. . . and come 1215, I became a pumpkin and we went home without any thoughts of the cake.

Our contract with Boettcher mansion stated that anything that was left over was to be given to Zach or I’s parents, and that his parents do a final walk through by the end of the evening to make sure nothing was left.

the Next morning

Thanks to my sweet tooth, it didn’t take me long the next morning to begin asking about the cake.

Asked my parents, they knew nothing.

Asked my in-laws. . . they knew nothing.

HMPH…it was probably left at Boettcher in the fridge where no one saw it.  I guess we can just pick it up when we go up there to clear out the rest of our storage shed (each couple is given a storage shed for them to store stuff for the weekend, and for caterers to bring stuff up and store pre-event).

Sunday, the day after the ceremony, Boettcher was closed so we were unable to check it out then.

Monday rolled around, and we were busy with family and getting people to the air port, so we were unable to get up there before 4 PM closing.

Come Tuesday morning . . . you know I was jonesin’ for the cake!   So I called Boettcher first thing to see if they had our cake.

Nope 😦  The fridge is unfortunately empty.  BUT, call the vendors, they recommended.  So of course, I did.

Nope 😦  Once again, the vendors have no idea, but said they’d do some research, too, to see if they knew where it could have gone.

Zach and I were stumped. . . the cake was the major thing we were wanting to retrieve from Boettcher. . . so Zach, being the thinker that he is, asked that I call them back to see if there was, in fact, anything that was worth making the drive up to Golden for.  By this point in the week, the weather and rain had started to turn, so we didn’t want to drive up if we didn’t need to.

So I called, and the same nice lady answered.  She agreed to check the storage unit for us and put me on hold. When she came back, she gave me the news.

Well. . . I found your cakes.

My little heart sank.

Not only did that mean we lost our sweetheart cake, which was meant for the bride and groom, we also lost the top layer of cake.

If I’m being totally honest with you guys, I cried for a minute or two, then bucked up and changed my perspective.

Our wedding day was BEYOND perfect.  BEYOND my wildest dreams.  And if a lost wedding cake was the worst that happened, we made it out just fine if you ask me.

Once I got my happy pants on, I called up the caterer to let them know the news.  Right away, they were EXTREMELY apologetic and offered themselves to replace the cake, without even having to ask.

Being completely honest with you, I was fine.  It was a bummer that our cakes got left in the shed, but we would still get a replacement cake, and I was still so in wedded bliss that it didn’t even matter.

Back to Boettcher

Later that day Zach and I made the treck up to Golden to pick up our stuff from Boettcher.  I prepared myself to see sad, melted cakes in the shed.

but I didn’t.  I found a sweetheart cake that was still as beautiful as the day it was made, and the cake topper, that had definitely seen better days, but still looked completely edible.

The cold weather that Golden had been given after our wedding had kept the shed cool enough to preserve the cakes fairly well.

Being the risk takers that we are. . . Zach and I decided we would risk the food poisoning, be brave, and try the cake.

It.

Was.

Delicious.

Zach and I literally ate on cake from Tuesday night until Saturday night of last week (pretty sad we ate two cakes that fast).  We dominated every.single.bite and lived in happy wedding bliss.

And then yesterday came.

Natalie, from relish catering our caterers for the wedding, had ordered a replacement cake, and it was ready for pick up (a mere 48 hours from finishing our previous two).

Natalie did not order a replacement sweetheart cake.

She ordered a beautiful, much larger version, of our sweetheart cake.  Probably equivalent to the cake topper we had on our wedding cake.

It is beautiful, and even BETTER than our previous cakes…likely because it was fresh and hadn’t set in a shed for 72 hours. Ehhh… details.

So now, Zach and I have a 3rd wedding cake to enjoy…while we live in wedding bliss.  Honestly, the only SMALL issue of our wedding, and it ended up benefiting us.

We truely are the luckiest and happiest couple in the world.

And that. is the saga of our wedding cake 🙂

Question of the Afternoon: Any fun stories from your wedding?  Or from a wedding you attended?

I ENJOYED Traffic?!

I think I ate too much cake last night because my dreams were ALL over the place.

 

I’m going to spare you all the details. . . but maybe 2 pieces of cake at 930 PM isn’t the best idea.  Just saying. . .

totally worth it though…

This Morning

By the time I snapped out of dream world, it was 725, which means no AM workout.  Normally I’d be frustrated about that, but this morning I was A-OK with it.

Partly because last nights yoga class was tough on the shoulder work and I woke up with a creak in my neck and back. . . (nothing some stretching and aspirin through out the day can’t help)

 

And also because I wanted to give myself the option of running outside today, and the AM’s are starting to be dark and cold here around Denver… I can handle cold OK, but I cannot handle dark, and especially not dark AND cold.  AM runs are probably going to be stuck on the treadmill for the most part from here on out. . . But at least now I have options for tonight.

My workout options for tonight are:

Option 1:  Run hill repeats outside

Option 2: Mile repeats/speed work on the treadmill

Last week all of my runs were done on the friendly little machine, so I am hopeful to get outdoors.  I’ll keep you all up to date.

 

The REAL odd part of the morning.  .  . 

I got ready and was out the door by 810, my normal time.

I ran downstairs and was out the door, ready for a quiet ride to work.

Until I hit this. . .

In the year plus that I’ve lived in Denver, I have only hit traffic ONCE on my way to work, and the first time I was actually able to avoid it.

So, this mornings traffic was the first time I’ve had to sit in commuters traffic since moving to Denver.

The odd part?

I was happy to see the traffic.  I sat back, and just relaxed.  I actually ENJOYED the slow move of the traffic and the fact that no matter what I did, I couldn’t go anywhere.  Traffic was completely out of my control.   Normally that would freak this Type-A girl out. . . but instead this morning I basked in it.  I knew I was going into a crazy day at work, so I took traffic as a bit of quiet time before the day.

What has gotten into me? I actually ENJOYED traffic?

After about 30 minutes, I made it up to the wreck.  Fortunately. people seemed to be walking around and OK, but there were at least 5 cars and some looked pretty seriously impacted.  My thoughts are with everyone in the wreck. . . I hope everyone made it out safely.

So anyway — that’s my odd morning.  Weird dreams, sleeping through a workout, and ENJOYING traffic.  Who am I becoming?

Question of the Day:  Have you ever been happy to hit traffic?

Today was definitely a first for me. . .