Weekend Update!

First off, Saturday was a fun, fantabulous day!

My man and I went to the beach and laid out for like 4 hours. I did some writing and sun-burning (despite my application of sunscreen). It was such a beautiful day--sunny and the perfect weather. My kinda Saturday (I'm such a beach bum).

Afterward we went out for dinner at the delicious Duke's and had a drink and some seafood (I had a crab and shrimp salad--soo yummy!).

Then, today, we had a busy, busy day. We got up and went for an 8 mile run on the beach (another beautiful summer day).  Speaking of the run, today was a really interesting run for me. I think I've mentioned in other posts how fast I like to run and how hard I like to push myself. I don't really believe in jogging (at least not for myself!), and I feel most satisfied when every run pushes my limits and leaves me out of breath. Unfortunately, since injuring my hamstring over a year ago, I've been dealing with residual leg pain that will leave me sidelined for days or even weeks. I've been to physical therapy twice, which always helps, but I can't seem to shake the pain. So today I decided to try something new. Using my Map My Run app (if you're a runner you have to get this app--it's amazing! and free!), I decided to make myself slow down and see if it made a difference. Almost any runner will tell you that it's necessary to include easy runs in your schedule. If you run the way I tend to run (fast, regardless of the distance), you definitely risk injury. This is even more relevant when marathon training. Speed isn't important in the beginning of training--what really takes precedence is logging the mileage. Then, when your legs and body have adapted to long distances, you add in speed work. (Also--I am not a running coach (though I'd love to do that) my ideas and opinions are simply that--ideas and opinions). It wasn't easy adding a minute to every mile that I ran, it literally took all of my concentration. But it was totally worth it! Anytime my hamstring would tweak or ache, I'd remind myself to slow and the pain immediately went away. I was able to run the full 8 miles almost entirely pain free with only residual aching at the end of the run. It shouldn't have come as a surprise to me (I've been running for years and have been told to slow down multiple times), but I guess it took actually experiencing the positive results to realize that it's okay--and even beneficial--to slow down on long runs!

After the run we went out for a delicious lunch with Louie, then came back and started...CLEANING! Like hardcore cleaning. We have friends coming into town this week who are staying with us, so we figured we better try and convince them we don't live like slobs.

We vacuumed, cleaned the fridge and bathroom, dusted, swept and swiffered, organized, went grocery shopping, and we still have to do laundry and wash the Murf. Oh wait, we're gonna wash him right now. I'll let you know how it goes haha.

Sooo it actually wasn't that bad. The poor thing really doesn't like baths, but he handled it well.

And look how cute he looks afterward:

Ears down!

Ears up!

As soon as he's out of the sink he's super happy again and just wants to curl up next to you. Such a sweetie.

It's been a very productive day!  The man just went to do laundry (because he's awesome) and I'm catching up on writing/sending some cards, watching some Food network, and making sure nothing else needs to be cleaned!

Hope everyone had an equally productive and/or wonderfully lazy weekend!

XOXO!