Since there was just too much to tell about my epic 14 mile run for multiple cups of hot chocolate on Saturday, I neglected to tell you all about my Sunday. But now I shall.
Saturday night, I stayed out far too late at a friend’s birthday. As in, despite not drinking very much, I was falling asleep on the subway on the way home. From Queens. Danger, Will Robinson! I was fortunate enough to have some good friends riding the subway with me, but it was otherwise not a good situation. Exhaustion + Laura does not = happy times. Sunday morning, I woke up later than usual – around 8:30am – and skipped the JackRabbit long run I had been planning to do, in part because I figured I had gotten plenty of miles in on Saturday, anyway! But I was still all-in for my Athleta run at 9:30am, and I was psyched.
Due to the NYRR race going on in Central Park, we took a different route than our usual and headed over to Riverside Park. Up and down the hills and along the river, just like the race the day before! It was tough, but with the help of some great company (and perhaps a little speakerphone song on the toughest hill of all), we made it for the whole 3 miles. Awesome job, ladies! From here, our long runs now go up one mile a week and start getting truly long – which means this Sunday is 4 miles. I’m excited to get to start running a bit longer all the time from now on, and while I think some of the women in my group are a bit nervous, I’m positive it’s going to be awesome. (And today I just got news on why next week is going to be even more awesome than usual – more details at the end of the post).
I spent the rest of Sunday mostly lounging around, figuring that I earned it – until I hit up an hour of yoga (via DVD – thank you, Bob Harper Warrior Yoga) in the late afternoon. I had now fulfilled my February goal of running 20 miles each week (I did 21! Boom.) and also mixing in some yoga! Score.
While some people reach a big work out goal and then feel like they can eat/drink anything in celebration, I tend to be the opposite – once I’m on a healthy track, I stay there. So getting in that yoga session was a double whammy – it gave me a workout and it got me in a mindset to not indulge too much at the Superbowl party I attended. On arrival, I had a cup of homemade turkey chili, and then turned my attention to enjoy the healthy snack I had brought: tons of veggies with Chobani Cucumber Feta Dip. Though my best friend teased me for bringing healthy food, the dip especially was a big hit – people didn’t know it was healthy until I mentioned it, and then when I did, they went after it with abandon. Further proof that healthy doesn’t have to be boring and tasteless! And of course, the Giants’ awesome victory was the perfect accompaniment to my great evening.
But looking ahead: as I alluded to earlier, our Sunday Athleta group run is not going to be just any run this week. Athleta is generously offering up one free entry to the sold out More+Fitness Half Marathon – to one of the participants on today’s run! All you have to do is show up, run your heart out (no speed required, and we don’t even care if you cheat the course a little if you can’t make it all the way to the turnaround point), and when we get back to the store, we’ll find out the winner. Nothing like a little race entry raffle excitement to make us run faster to the finish, right? For those of you pessimists out there, we usually get around 10 people for our runs, and some of them are already entered in the More Half Marathon, so you’re competing with a small pool – and getting to know a great group of women who will be with you from training to race.
Sunday, February 12. 9:30am. Athleta Upper West Side (corner of 70th and Columbus). 4 mile run + More Half Marathon entry giveaway. GET EXCITED!!!