I Kind Of Remember Why Runners Love Hitting The Streets and A Perfect Evening

This morning I did something I haven’t done in Far.Too.Long.

 

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I got outside for a good run.

 

And it was amazing.

Zach and I had planned on possibly running together this morning, but with his leaving for London tomorrow he has a lot on his plate.  He threw out brunch together or a run together, and of course I went with brunch.  So I was on my own for the run.

 

With my trends this Winter, I was all ready to hit the treadmill on my own.  But as I sat drinking coffee with the family, I realized the sun was out and it looked like a BEAUTIFUL morning.  If Zach and I had gone together, we were absolutely hitting the streets (he refuses to run on the treadmill).  So, if I could do it with him, I could do it on my own.

I headed out a little after 8 AM, layered up and ready to go.  It took my lungs awhile to adjust (legs felt surprisingly OK), but overall I soaked in the Vitamin D and was without a doubt reminded why I love the outdoors.

I went for 4.79 miles, with 3 intentional hills, for a pace of 9:16 overall.  Not the best, but not the worst considering I haven’t done hill training since I was in St Louis for Christmas. . . . yikes.

• Mile 1:  9:12
• Mile 2: 9:06
• Mile 3: 9:04
• Mile 4: 9:33 (hill of death)
• Mile .79 9:01

I finished the run with a huge smile on my face, and completed the workout with a 2 minute plank hold with Zach :).  Beautiful morning for a run 🙂

Now I need to change my work schedule so that I have daylight hours available to me. . . 

Brunch

You know I held Zach to his bargain.  To take advantage of the beautiful morning, we took the 1.5ish mile walk up to one of our favorite brunch spots (we were there on New Years Day), Gallop Cafe.

I started my meal getting straight to replenishing my salt.

 

And for my meal, ordered the Four Corners Tortilla Wrap with eggs whites

 

I was hardly even able to eat half my sandwich, about a quarter of the potatoes and the orange slice, but boy was it worth it.  We have a ton of left overs and it allowed me to get some upper body work carrying that load of food on our walk home :).

We wrapped up the morning outdoors running into REI and a few stores on the Platt.  It was seroiusly the perfect morning. . . which of course followed a perfect evening.

Backtrack to Last Night

First off:  I was greeted by a package from the adorable, sweet, and my AWESOME little blogger twin, Amy.  The blogging community never ceases to amaze me.  Thank you so much hun!  I’m drinking the Nuun as we speak, and hiding the chocolate from Zach until he leaves tomorrow :).

hope he doesn’t read this…

I squeezed in a little bit of yoga to stretch out for my rest day

 

And then Zach and I were off to Stella’s for dinner.

 

As always, it was a great evening and everything from the service, wine and food were absolutely perfect.

 

I literally ordered the same exact meal as last time and as always, was not dissapointed.

The 32 salad with the creamy basil dressing on the side

 

And of course, we split the zucchini fries to start.   I seriously could make a meal out of those things.  Amazing.

And now, it’s time to possibly do a bit more yoga and relax for the afternoon.

Have a great Saturday everyone!