Weekend Wrap-up!

My Friday morning started with another breakfast burrito. These were SO amazing all last week. It really helped to have everything prepped and ready to go in the AM.

I usually like my bananas still a little green, so it was kind of hard to eat this one, but I really wanted peanut butter and a banana. I made a sacrifice to enjoy this snack. It was worth it.

I’ve been needing some new pajama bottoms, but I’m kind of picky. I don’t like really thin bands and I don’t want a super thick material. I found these on Amazon and LOVE them. They’re super comfortable and fit really well. If you need comfy bottoms, check these out HERE. I got a small.

Lunch on Friday was Paleo chicken salad from Homemade. Delivered. (we ordered from them last week and I’m SO glad we did.) and some sweet potato tortilla chips! This was delicious. Tortilla chips are my weakness.

This is where Lu decided she needed to sleep while I conducted two interviews for my dissertation. For such a small dog, she sure takes up a lot of room.

Cool.

The last black bean brownie. Sad day. Guess I just need to make more!

Any time I put clothes on the bed to be hung up, Lu lays on them. It drives me crazy. But it’s also cute. Aspen will sometimes do this, but not nearly as often as Lulu.

We had Jake’s Christmas party for work Friday evening. We tried to take a picture and I accidentally had the timer on. Whoops!

Finally figured my phone out. ; )

Mmmmm. I was stuffed after this. Everything was delicious! The party was in Bolivar, which is where the main office is located. For new readers, Jake is a lineman and works on power lines.

I. Love. Pumpkin. Pie.

After the Christmas party, we met some friends to celebrate our friend, Val, graduating! So proud of her! Then it was home and to bed so we could get up early Saturday to get our runs in.

I was PUMPED to run. Brief recap: I have been battling some hamstring pain for about 7 months. I just ran through it, thinking it would heal itself. It didn’t. So about a month ago, after back-to-back trail races, I took a little time off. I’m really stubborn and hate taking time off from running, so I think I took MAYBE a week, which obviously wasn’t enough. After that, my hammy started to get super bad, I couldn’t even go to yoga anymore. I saw a chiropractor, did cryotherapy, had a sports massage, foam rolled, iced, heated, stretched, etc. I finally got sick of it and took two weeks off completely. I was pretty bummed because I’ve signed up for my first full (in April)  with one of my girlfriends. I also have a coach for the first time and I was supposed to start training December 11th. Well, that didn’t happen. On Monday and Tuesday of last week, the pain had gotten so bad that it was shooting every 30-60 seconds. Not good. BUT, I woke up Wednesday and had ZERO pain. None at all. I couldn’t believe it. The same thing happened Thursday and Friday. I didn’t have any type of pain. So, I talked to my coach, he reworked my plan, and he had me starting to run again SUPER EASY AND SLOW Saturday morning. So, like I said, I was pumped! I was also super nervous. I knew if the pain came back at all, that I’d be upset and would have to take even more time off. I really don’t want to have to pull out of the marathon. So, after all of that, I woke up to this temperature for my first run back on Saturday. I was still SO excited!

Pre-run coffee! Not pictured – the water I chugged. We think part of my pain was being caused from a little dehydration when I started runs. I couldn’t completely give up my pre-run coffee, but I am going to start drinking water before I start. I drink tons of water throughout the day, but I wasn’t drinking any before I started running, only coffee and BAAs. Not good for me.

SO happy to be running. Jake needed to do 10 and I was only doing 4, so he ran 4 with me and kept my mind off of focusing on my hamstring. ​

DID IT! No pain! At all! I think this totally changed my mood, too. I had been kind of down from not running. Now to ease back into it and keep up with my preventative stuff.

Came home to this goofball sitting at our kitchen table.

Foam rolling and stretching after my run!

Then we chowed down on breakfast burritos before our pre-marital counseling session!

We had pre-marital counseling from 8:30-3 on Saturday. It was actually a lot of fun and we both enjoyed it. The time also FLEW by. We went to Galloway for lunch and both had the reuben, which was on special. It was amazing. We went back after lunch and finished our session. We were told that we are a Master Couple, so we were pretty pumped about that! ; )

I mentioned that I am a Nuun Ambassador for 2018. I LOVE their vitamin tablets. You just add them to water and you get all the vitamins you need for the day. And they taste amazing. I also really like hats…

We went to Cantina Laredo Saturday night with two other couples. Jake and I got there first, so we sat at the bar and had a drink and a snack. (I was starving…story of my life).

Then we shared fajitas and the tortillas were homemade. I have never been so happy!

After dinner, we went to Galloway. Jake and I are at Galloway two times a day more than I’d like to admit…it’s just SO good. And so close to our house. .This was the best picture we could manage. We always have a blast when we get together.

Sunday morning was spent grading. Final grades in the two online courses I’m teaching are due Monday (today) so I got caught up on grading finals and sending feedback to my students. Finals week always feel chaotic!

Jake made us breakfast while I worked. He’s the best burrito roller I’ve ever met.

Then I got to run AGAIN! I also rocked my Nuun hat.

I was putting my hair in a ponytail using the mirror on the back of our door and saw this. Never a dull moment!

Another run with no pain!!! I did a slow 3 miles with Lu while Jake rode his bike with Aspen running next to us. It was fun! The slow pace is definitely difficult, but I need to ease back in, so I remind myself of that each time I want to pick it up a little. I need to remember I felt this way when I’m complaining about speed work…

Someone decided to jump in ALL the muddle puddles on her run, so she got a bath when we got home. This was before. She wasn’t real happy with me.

Then she REALLY hated me. She looks like a little drowned rat.

Blurry picture! After Lu got her bath, Jake and I headed downtown to test out a new race course he just designed. It’s a 9.6 mile run, so I didn’t run with him, I rode my bike. It was FREEZING. I wasn’t going fast enough to exert any energy and it was rainy and cold, so after about mile 3, I shivered until we were done. BUT, I loved the course and I think it’s going to be perfect. Jake ran the whole thing at a super great pace, so I was proud of him. He had almost 20 miles between his runs Saturday and Sunday.

Not looking forward to getting out of the warm car…

After our run/ride downtown, we rushed home, cleaned up and got ready, then went back downtown to meet friends for dinner. We wanted to go to Brew Co because it was their 20th birthday, but they had a long wait and we were starving. We were bummed to miss it!

We ended up going to Dublin’s, which is always delicious. Jake and I love Irish car bombs, so obviously we each HAD to have one.

Then we ate this deliciousness. Fried food gives me terrible acid reflux, but I ate some Tums and that helped a little. Both of these just sounded so good.

Then I had another drink, which was Guinness and champagne. It’s called Black Velvet. It’s pretty good! I couldn’t drink more than one of these because it’s pretty sweet, but I enjoyed the one I had.

After dinner, I went to the bathroom and walked out to this. Boys…

Then we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. And for those of you still wondering, yes, Jake still has his mustache…

We ended our Christmas light looking at Bagwell Lights, which is a well-known house that goes all out here in town. They have a musical program that goes along with the lights, so you tune to a certain radio station and you can listen as you watch. It’s pretty cool!

We came home to this elf on our front porch. We were both dying laughing.

We had no idea who left this at our house.

When you love your Dad SO much, you’ll sleep on his feet.

We laid in bed and watched Bloodline, which is our new Netflix show. We only have 3 or 4 episodes left. So sad! I don’t know what we are going to watch when we are finished. Any suggestions?! We were hungry, so we had oranges.

My future sister-in-law posted this on Instagram – guess we know who left us the Christmas elf! HA!

We started our Monday with a little garage workout. We both use Monday as a rest day from running, so we did arms and abs this morning. We did about a 50 minute circuit, I think.

I love these – the Escalente. They’re like wearing a sock. For real. They’re crazy comfortable.

Then it was time for breakfast! We had sweet potato hash browns, ham, and eggs.

I have another interview today, then I want to knock out some meal prep and finish up our Christmas shopping/wrapping. I just finished up some laundry, so I’m happy about that.

Happy Monday!