Weekend (and then some) Recap

I didn't exactly go anywhere, except away from the blogging world. The only explanation for it, really, is that I haven't had much sweating to report. I hate to admit that but it’s true. I took Thursday off from running, Ice Skated on Friday (I’m going to pretend that counts as exercise), rode a bike on Saturday, and walked around a mall (sweating alcohol, no less) on Sunday.

I recently read that the best way to prevent running injury is to take a day off for every mile after a hard race. I would say that I ran the Hot Chocolate 15k pretty hard but I can’t honestly say that I strategically planned to take nine days off from running because of it. I have now run only twice in those past nine days. And I’m ok with that. Here’s what I did instead…

Friday

Josh and I celebrated five years of dating. We had a lovely picnic of baguette, cowgirl creamery VT Tam cheese, pickles, and godiva chocolates. We sat on a curb by the mall and it was fun and romantic until a mouse tried to steel our cheese. No joke. Don’t worry, I told that mouse who was boss. Nobody tries to steal cheese from this girl, especially $26/lb cheese.

Then we waited in long lines for tickets and skates at the Sculpture Garden’s ice rink. We skated for about 90 minutes and got all hot and sweaty. I always think skating is going to be romantic and then it just ends up being a bunch of kids in your way and “NO RACING ON THE ICE” announcements over the loud speaker. Not so much romance on the ice but I did snag some photos of Josh and I being in love.

Yes, our feet are in love with each other.

After skating, we were still hungry. I thought Kramer’s would be the perfect place to go eat and, before I could even say it, Josh proposed we go there. Aren’t we just so perfect? (Are you barfing yet?) We walked the 2.2 miles to the lovely bookstore/café in Dupont, stopping to play tourist at the National Christmas Tree on the way.

Me and the Maryland Tree

Then we ate our dinners, Nachos for me and a buffalo burger with avocado for Joshua, at midnight and laughed a lot. Happy and full, we fell asleep on the bus ride home and almost missed our stop. Five years is a really long time and somehow it has flown by so smoothly.

Saturday

My five-year boyfriend and I went on a great bike ride in Rock Creek Park in the afternoon. I thought about running instead but I wanted to do something together. It was hella cold and we only made it worse by riding fast and creating our own wind. We did a quick 12 miles and stopped a few times to take photos of the bare trees and sunny sky.

Cold weather biking is really rough but I just love it. I can’t even explain why because it is actually kind of miserable. But it also makes you feel really alive. (More barfing?)

Saturday night we went with by bff Ingrid to hang with some new friends in Old Town, VA. We ate chili, played games, and danced a lot. I may not have been wearing spandex and dri-fit but I consider three dance parties in one night truly Sweating in Style.

Sunday

I slept through Frisbee, which ended up being cancelled. Then I shopped for presents and sparkly shoes and ate greasy food. I am clearly setting a wonderful example of how to live a healthy, active lifestyle. Sometimes you just have to go a little crazy and I'm ok with that.


Monday


I shut down my computer right at 5 and headed to the bathroom stalls at work to change into some cold-weather running gear. Hadley, Nikki, and I had plans to set off on our second annual zoo lights run, a 4-5 mile run from the office through the festively-lit National Zoo and back.

We ran a mile south and turned into the dark zoo to find that there was mostly just darkness. We could see all of the light fixtures set up but, aside from the display out front, none of them were lit.

Deciding that it might not be the safest thing to continue into the pitch darkness, we turned around and headed back to the entrance where we read a sign that said the lights are only lit on weekends from Thanksgiving- Dec 16. They will be lit every night from Dec 16- Dec 31. Well, it's a good thing we did our research.

Instead, we ran to Dupont Circle and back admiring lit christmas trees in windows, light displays in front of restaurants and apartment buildings, and evactuated, smoke-filled city buses. There was a lot of starting and stopping but good times were had by all.

That hibernation syndrome is trying to win me over and i plan to put up a fight. I am going to run more this week and I am also going to make a plan to bike a lot. I am all jazzed about bike riding now that I have a 3,000 mile ride to train for. It’s really a great time to be jazzed about riding a bike, with the air being freezing and all. If anyone wants to join in on that fun, I would love to have you!

I hope you all had great weekends!