Happy weekend! I’m enjoying our last weekend at home before we embark on four weekends straight of traveling in August. Eek! Luckily, they’re all fun travel plans (including two beach trips – score!).
Sometimes workouts are more fun with friends and I’ve been lucky to have some pretty awesome workout buddies this week. First, I taught BodyPump TWICE on Thursday. I usually just teach Thursday evenings but I had agreed to sub for the morning instructor weeks ago not realizing that it would mean teaching twice in one day (I just switched back to teaching Thursdays instead of Tuesdays). I would not have made it through the second class if it wasn’t for our awesome members and my fellow instructor Kathryn.
Kathryn and I never get to teach together (she reads the blog!) so it was so fun to have her company. She totally rocked the first half of class and motivated me to step it up for the second half! Although I survived round two, I’m pretty sure that I never want to teach the brutal 6 minute BodyPump 74 lunge track twice in one day again. Ouch, ouch, ouch!
I was so excited about Thursday night’s dinner. An old favorite – Penne a la Betsy (originally from the Pioneer Woman – who doesn’t love her!?).
Pasta was a definite must after my tough strength training day! 🙂 One of my secrets for keeping pasta night under control is making my salad on my dinner plate. That way I can’t pile as much pasta on my plate. Really helps portion control. (Because come on, it is waaayyy to easy to overeat with pasta – yum.)
Friday morning I found myself up at 5:30 and getting ready for my favorite Friday tradition – hot vinyasa at Y2. I honestly should have slept in and rested my body – I was really sore from the week’s workouts – but it’s like a magnetic force pulls me to the yoga studio. 😉 There’s a gaping hole in my weekend if I don’t start my Friday with yoga!
I had fun lunch plans with co-worker’s Friday. We went to Nolen Kitchen for a send off for one of our interns.
I was a little disappointed to discover that Nolen Kitchen didn’t have any vegetarian sandwich options. I decided on the Nolen Salad which was field greens, spiced pecans, goat cheese and apples. I asked for the cherry vinaigrette on the side. Overall this was a tasty salad but I wish that they would have thrown a few more apples on there.
Yoforia is right next to the restaurant so a frozen yogurt stop was planned before we even walked in for lunch. I inhaled mine so fast that I didn’t stop for a picture but it was 100% fabulous.
Brandon and I decided to use our Groupon for Sunset Grille for dinner.
After quizzing our waitress on the legitimacy of the black bean burger (making sure it was not a frozen patty) I was sold. This burger did not disappoint! You could totally tell it was homemade – flavor and texture were great. The only thing that was a little strange was that they served it “caprese style” with fresh mozz, tomatoes and basil. I thought that was an odd flavor combination but it somehow worked. I had grilled zucchini and a Bell’s Two Hearted Ale on the side. (My most favorite beer at the moment!)
I came home and crashed at 10 p.m. because I had plans to meet Kelly for an early long run today. I woke up at 5:30 this morning (before my alarm, who am I!?) and had peanut butter and honey on an English muffin.
I met Kelly at 7 a.m. and we knocked out 10 miles. I couldn’t get over how pleasant it felt outside. It was in the low 70s, mostly overcast and breezy. Heaven. It was so nice to have company on my long run and I had fun hearing about Kelly’s upcoming weeks. She’s getting married next weekend and going to Italy for two weeks on her honeymoon! Jealous!
After our run I stopped by the farmer’s market to pick up some fruits and veggies for the week and then Great Harvest for bread. Came home and got straight in a loooonnnngggg hot shower (my favorite post-long run activity) and then had a green monster.
In a mason jar, of course. Spinach, half of a frozen banana, ice, one scoop of vanilla protein powder and skim milk.
Plans for the rest of the day include rest and relaxation. And that’s about it. I think a nap is definitely in order for me and at least nine hours of sleep tonight. I’m exhausted…but in a good way!
Do you have workout buddies? Do you find that it helps with motivation and making your workouts more fun?
