My Crazy Version of A Rest Day

It was so nice to wake up and realize there was nothing that I HAD to do on the calendar today.  Other than getting some groceries, dropping off some bank deposits, and making a couple of phone calls, my schedule was wide open.  I did originally plan to get in some yoga as well on my rest day from my half marathon training plan but I switched up my plan a bit as the day progressed.  Let me just tell you I'm a glutton for punishment and it appears I have my priorities a little out of whack.  You'll see why as you read on...

Our day kicked off with a leisurely breakfast of scrambled eggs, Morningstar sausages (my boys and husband love these things and I've learned to like them too), and a waffle topped with strawberry jam...oh, and of course, COFFEE.  Now that the Intelligentsia coffee is gone, we have moved on to the Caribou Mahogany blend.  We already miss those yummy Intelligentsia beans...Hopefully there are more in our house in the near future.  The Caribou blend smelled a bit like cigars...not sure what I think of that.

After we cleaned up breakfast and made ourselves presentable for the day, we headed off to one of our favorite places to visit, Publix.  We can't seem to get enough of that place and go there at least once a week, usually twice.  Lucky for us, Gina was there again this morning to give us balloons.  She's so good to the boys!

I had trouble getting them to look at me.  There were
too many other interesting things going on in the parking lot.

Our next stop was the bank where the boys got some lovely blue suckers.  They thought it was funny when they got home and could see their blue lips in the mirror.

Once again, they're not very smiley today.  So serious!  Maybe they knew what was next up on my plan for the day...haha.

As I unloaded the groceries, I started thinking, "What if I just do my long run today?"  My friend had just invited us over for "world famous margaritas" and I didn't want to have to miss out on enjoying them since I had a long run scheduled for first thing tomorrow morning.  (Last time I drank the night before a run, my run was less than stellar and I didn't want to repeat that event.)  This is what I meant when I told you earlier I have my priorities out of whack--I ran so I could drink!  What's wrong with me???  To my defense I also wanted to have tomorrow to dedicate completely to family.  If I squeezed in my run today, I wouldn't have to worry about it tomorrow.  I could make tomorrow my rest day and I'd much rather have my rest day on a day when we can have our whole family together.

Once the groceries were all put away, I had made up my mind to go for it.  I chugged some caffeine and electrolytes in the form of one of these delicious little babies...

(Thanks to Lindsey for the recommendation.  She described them perfectly, "like heaven and sunshine.")  I don't even like coconut water but I LOVE these.  Check them out!  Once it was polished off, I loaded up the boys in the stroller along with their snacks and water for all of us and we hit the road.  Did I mention it was 11:30 at this point and 87 degrees outside.  This is the part where I'm a glutton for punishment.  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

I can't claim that this was the best run of my life.  In fact, it might have been one of the most torturous runs of my life, but I figure if I can survive 9+ miles in midday heat pushing 100+ pounds of stroller weight, 13 miles at 6 am on October 28 should feel easy, right?  I'm not gonna lie.  I NEVER take walk breaks and I took at least 5 little breaks to chug water and convince myself to keep going.  On top of it all, MapMyRun wasn't working.  Check out what it was telling me...

 8.36 miles in 33 minutes and 45 seconds.  I wish! I think it was more like 9.5 miles in 1 hr 35 minutes. Only 3 more long runs until the big race.  I won't be doing any of them in the midday heat EVER again.  Lesson learned!  

At least the views were pretty.  I ran over that bridge you see in the distance.  It was probably the coolest part of the run with the breezes off the water.  Thank goodness for that relief!  Somehow the cloud cover that I thought I'd have when I left the house seemed to disappear as I ran.  Not cool!

Once we got back home, I chugged LOTS of water and finally felt like scarfing down a giant salad after my shower.  I love the combination of almonds, craisins, blue cheese, Organic girl super greens, black beans and balsamic.  YUMMY!

I didn't take a photo of my salad but if you haven't tried these salad blends, it's time you did.  I just bought a baby kale mix I can't wait to try as well.

I have a batch of black bean brownies in the oven as we speak.  I used this recipe and changed it up a bit by adding peanut butter to the mix in place of the oil and using a dark chocolate bar in place of the chocolate chips.  I hope they turn out as yummy as the batter tasted.

Now, I think I've got time now to squeeze in some of the yoga I had planned for today and them hopefully I can prop my feet up and read more about Tamar.  Monday's book club discussion is sneaking up on me and I have some work to do on my book.  Thank goodness I'm enjoying it.

It makes me really glad I don't live in Bible times and I got to choose my amazing husband.  I cannot imagine having an arranged marriage.

Only 2 hours or so til I get to enjoy a highly anticipated margarita.  Hope you have something fun planned for your Friday night as well.  Cheers!