Weekend

This was a busy weekend, and I was really needing it. So often, during the winter months when I can't seem to get my core temperature up, I will hurry to do stuff in the mornings on the weekends & then just stay on my couch the rest of the day. Enough with that!

On Saturday I opted to start my long run a tad bit later than originally scheduled & do the same marathon course loop that the rest of Rogue was doing, but start near my house. I did this for a number of reasons:

a) I wanted to go somewhere afterwards and would be that much closer to my house to shower when done;
b) I have a lot of negative self-talk when running that starts around mile 16. I start strategizing of ways to alter the course & cut it short to get back to my car. I come up with all sorts of excuses as to why I don't REALLY need to get in the number of miles on the schedule. Sure, lots of people say "this is why you should run with people" but I need to work through that on my own. No one wants to be around me when all I can mumble are complaints about how tired I am, how much I hurt, etc.
c) I wanted to enjoy the weather and it turned to be more sunny than was predicted;
d) so I didn't have to get up so damn early.

I did run 22 miles and I did it alone, and officially I am not friends with the marathon course. But I did it, I did not call someone to pick me up (which did occur to me several times...). If I had ran earlier, I would have annoyed everyone I was with and I also would have spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch instead of outside. I never made it to my appointment, but luckily it wasn't life or death.

On Sunday, I went on the Woodpussies' Tour de Austin. Just a nice 17 mile loop around town hosted by the Woodpussies (TimH, Ostrich, Tony, KP, and Panther). Panther was running Houston, but the rest of us plus Gareth & Jane, Rhonda, HP, Kerry and a few other new friends rode & it was a blast! Road bikes, tri bikes, mountain bikes alike, we had a great time in the beautiful weather. After a good dose of sun-sourced Vitamin D we went over to the Flying Saucer.

And then to finish up the weekend I had my first painting lesson. It was a perfect way to cap off a perfect weekend.