So Long Sweet Summer

Remember this sweet girl?

Oh hey, Bama!

She got adopted this weekend!  I'm so, so happy for her and her "fur"ever home.  I'm glad she found someone who is willing to help her through her shyness and give her the love she deserves.

Saturday I spent a little time in the gym on the elliptical.  I decided to venture a little off my normal routine to shake things up a bit and chose to do the interval workout option on the machine.  It basically was 2 minutes at level 7, 2 minutes at level 10, switch and do 2 minutes backwards at level 7, 2 minutes at level 10, repeat until you are panting and sweating way too hard for a 32 minute workout.  Got it? :-)

After, I came home and did a few arm exercises: 15 push ups, 15 tricep kickbacks, 15 bicep curls, 15 overhead tricep raises, repeat 3x.  Yay cross training!

This weekend was the Lucky Dog Animal Rescue's happy hour fundraiser at a local bar.  My nice friend agreed to go with me and enjoy $4 Dogfish Head drafts while I played with a sweet puppy.  I love my boy way too much to share my full time attention, but luckily she was adopted this weekend, too.

Love that face.

It was a beautiful day, so we decided to walk the 2.5 miles to our next stop.  My friend had gotten a Groupon for RFD a while back, and we had been meaning to use it.  Since my summer is officially over (insert mad tears here), it seemed like an ideal time to go.  I was excited to see a veggie sandwich with goat cheese and pumpkin beer on the menu!  The pumpkin beer tasted more like pumpkin pie juice, but if some pumpkin beer is out it means that Dogfish Punkin' Ale is soon to follow.

Sunday I lazed around for a really long time.  I made Julie's peanut butter pancakes using Peanut Butter Company's White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter.  They didn't stick around long enough for a photo op.  Yum!  By the time I finally got around to my run it was getting late.  Honestly, I was super cranky about summer ending and all I wanted to do was cuddle with my pup.  I had every intention of running outside, but the skies looked ominous and it was getting darker.  So, you probably guessed, I took it to the treadmill.  Again.  Next long run I promise I am doing outside.  It might be because it is a race weekend, but you take what you get sometimes.

The run was ok.  Like I said, I was ridiculously grumpy the first 5 miles.  I was in this mental slump with a totally negative attitude.  I'm actually really ashamed because normally I manage to pull it together a little more.  After 5 miles I took a Clif Shot Blok.  I tried the cherry ones this time and they were just as delicious as the strawberry.  My legs finally loosened up a little and then took another Shot Blok at mile 7.5.  I wanted to experiment cutting back a little bit to see how it would affect my body, which was probably dumb seeing how awesome I felt after my 11.5 run when I nailed it.  I felt great until mile 8 when I started having awesome tummy troubles.  After a quick break, I managed to power through and ended up with 10 miles in 1:34:32.  At the end of the run I took another Shot Blok and drank some G2 when I got home.

Despite my mental blahs, I'm actually pretty proud of my time.  It was a little faster than last time and my last mile felt really strong.  I need to build up my confidence so I can take it outside and power through.  Luckily I'll have a friend to run with on my next long run.

I had to work today, so I need to go spend some time with my sweet pup.  I missed him way too much today.  Working is hard!  Happy Monday!