This weekend was a wonderful one – we got to celebrate Jake’s birthday (which resulted in hangovers for both of us), we spent time with family, and I GOT TO RUN! I’m still taking things easy, but holy cow…it felt so good to run pain-free. I took 6 weeks off running, which was my longest time away since I was 16. It was hard to do, but definitely what my body needed. I’m hoping between running and riding, I’ll be able to get ready for my 50k in November. I’m not healed completely, so I still need to be careful – I know this foot issue could flare up again, but time will tell! I’m going to be smart with training and not do too much too quickly – I think that will be the key. As badly as I want to go out and crush a 10-miler, that is going to do nothing but damage at this point. I’m praying everything continues to go well!
Friday morning started with breakfast with my family to celebrate my sister’s birthday. We went to The Big Biscuit and holy yum – their biscuits were delicious.
My Mom gets me. She had these pineapple shorts for me.
After breakfast, I finished getting ready for the semester to start, which happens today. I’m teaching an online course at UMSL, which is a university in St. Louis. After I got everything ready to go, I knocked out a TRX workout.
It’s been awhile since I shared a workout with you. Here ya go! This one is pretty easy to modify if you don’t have TRX straps. It was a good one.
Post-burpee hair.
I didn’t have much of an appetite after my huge breakfast, but I ate a late lunch of spaghetti squash and meatballs.
Jake came home from work and we headed to dinner before meeting friends to celebrate his birthday. I don’t eat a lot of dairy, but goat cheese doesn’t bother me and The Pitch has the best spicy goat cheese, so we got a pizza with that. YUM.
After dinner, we headed to 4 By 4 Brewing Company to meet friends and hang out. It was a blast.
These three…
We should’ve gone home after the brewery, but I talked everyone into going to Midnight Rodeo. Of course we had fun, but I paid for that fun all day Saturday.
Jake is a dancing machine and I needed a break, so I made our friend Leanna dance with him for awhile. She came back worn out, too. Ha!
I didn’t get out of bed until 10AM Saturday. Which I hate. But my body wasn’t having it. We grabbed a quick lunch at Hard Knox BBQ, which is amazing.
Jake took a nap after lunch and Rhea kept licking him. This is how she looked at me when I got onto her.
We had a family dinner with my birth mom, brother, and his family Saturday night, so I made a cobbler again and a side of potatoes to take with us. For new readers, I’ve shared before that I’m adopted and met my birth mom, Dawn, about 6 years ago. I have a brother, who I met about 2 months ago. It’s been so fun getting to know him and his family.
We had the most amazing dinner. Alisa, my brother’s wife, made the most delicious meatballs, and Mitch, Dawn’s boyfriend, grilled the most incredible burgers.
Here’s Dawn, my brother, Mike, and myself. Mike and I are full-blooded siblings, which is really rare for adopted kids. My parents are super supportive of my relationship with everyone, which is amazing. I feel very blessed.
Sunday morning started the best way – with a run! I haven’t gotten to use this function on my watch in awhile.
I had missed my running shoes. I think I was giddy, but also nervous. I was so anxious I was going to have foot pain again. The last time I attempted a run was 4 weeks ago, after taking 2 weeks off. I went out for an easy 3 miles and I didn’t have any pain until I got close to 3. I started to have a little pain, but I thought that was normal since I was just getting back into running after taking some time off. Well, about an hour after I had finished that run, I could hardly walk. It was awful. I cried, then decided 4 weeks off was necessary. After all of that, I was definitely nervous to get back at it yesterday.
I had absolutely NO pain during this run. I only ran 2 miles and I did a 5:00 run, 1:00 walk for the whole 2 miles, but I’ll take it! I’m trying my best to ease back into things. Rhea ran with me, so that was nice. She’s going to be such a great trail dog.
We ran into these two cuties when we finished our run. I was nervous for a few hours after my run, just waiting for the pain to set in, but NOTHING happened. I was so happy. Still, I know I’m not out of the woods. I HAVE to play this smart.
Jake and I had breakfast on our porch and enjoyed the weather.
After breakfast, I started on meal prep. Jake always has carrots and hummus in his lunch.
I made some roasted potato bites, too. These have olive oil, oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
For breakfast this week, we are having sweet potato quiche with turkey sausage and spinach. I forgot to get a picture of lunch, but we are having pineapple orange chicken – Jake will have rice and I’ll have broccoli.
We had some overripe bananas, which I won’t eat, so I made some blueberry banana bread. I made an extra loaf for Jake to take to the guys at work. It looks dark, but it isn’t burnt. Who knows! It’s pretty tasty.
When I finished meal prep, Jake and I headed out for a bike ride. I’m hoping by combining running and riding, I’ll be able to build my fitness enough to finish my 50k in November. We knocked out 16 miles together.
We met Jake’s family for dinner at Brew Co. Jake and I shared a sandwich and a side salad.
After dinner, we stopped by a new brewery downtown called Hold Fast Brewing. It’s adorable. We loved their patio and all those twinkle lights.
I’m off to crush this day!
Happy Monday, friends!