Celebrating Independence Day!

Several of my friends and I started our Independence Day off with a bang by running in the Firecracker 5K. We had a blast as usual and I’m so glad I was able to join in on the fun!

 

Once home, I met with two clients and then chilled for the rest of the day. Bill and I stopped by a local frozen custard shop looking for custard that measured up to Nielsen’s in St. George, Utah. It was good, but let’s just say we still have more homework to do!

We brought our celebration to an end with a block party and neighborhood fireworks. When the sky opened up with pouring rain, we rushed into our neighbor’s garage. Fortunately, there were several young men up for the challenge of carrying all the loaded tables into the garage.

Eventually, the rain stopped and we were able to move back outside to cap the night with a pretty impressive fireworks display, but with the heavy muggy air, the smoke stayed low making them harder to see.

Photo credit: Bill

 

Getting a Pablo Fix

I needed to pick up my race packet in Reston and Bill needed to drop his bike off in Arlington for repairs, so while we were out and about on Wednesday after work, we met our son and his girlfriend for dinner at a little pizza place. Apparently, pizza is a good pre-race dinner for me so I’ll have to keep that in mind! Pablo was thrilled we stopped by and met with us with his usual wiggle-butt prancing!

 

And Now on to a RunDown of this Past Week’s Workouts…

 

Running

As I mentioned in last week’s rundown, I really, really wanted to run the Firecracker 5K on Independence Day – I’d run it the past seven years and didn’t want to skip it this year. Since my angry SI joint had prevented me from running two weeks ago and hiking took over my life (in a great way) the following week, I headed out for an easy short run on Monday afternoon. Everything felt fine when I woke up on Tuesday so I signed up for the race!

Thursday’s Firecracker 5K didn’t disappoint. I started with my friends and despite the heat and humidity, I felt great so I did my own thing. I pushed harder than I have since early December and finished in 27:22 (8:49 pace) and just 14 seconds off third place out of 32 women in my age group. I’ll take it!

 

I ran a little later than my friends on Saturday morning since I’d trained a client at 6 AM. My tummy was off so I decided to keep it local in case I needed to rush home. As a result, I ran laps on my little half-mile loop in my immediate neighborhood.

 

While running those twelve laps, I picked up three old soggy newspapers that had been thrown in the street by the delivery person (between houses), two plastic cups, and various things from our fireworks display. There had already been a major cleanup of the area; I just let my obsessive-self pick up every little twist tie and wrapper that were more visible with the sun bouncing off. The long sparkler sticks were in a pile by the curb, most likely placed there and then forgotten by whoever did the fireworks cleanup in the dark.

As I’d round the circle, I’d dump my new haul onto our driveway and continue on my way. I normally designate my Thursday early morning runs as my trash pick up day so I can drop whatever I find in the nearest garbage toter that’s out by the curb waiting for pickup. I love doing my part to help keep our neighborhood streets clean.

 

Biking

I rode a walloping two miles on Sunday! When Bill got home from his ride, I hopped on my bike and rode to the Wine’ing Butcher with him to pick up chicken to grill for dinner. And prepared Brussels sprouts – their Brussels sprouts must be laced with crack because I cannot stop eating them!

 

Strength Training

It felt good to be back in the gym after a week of doing minimal strength training exercises!

 

Yoga

I thought I’d injured my back on Tuesday doing pyramid pose… Seriously, who does that? I felt a twinge and my back started spasming just as I twisted to go into the pose. I immediately lay on my back and did a few gentle stretches. Luckily, other than a mild awareness for the rest of the day and the next day, I was fine. 👍

 

It’s on the Blog

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

I’m completely torn about what to work on next. I really want to get my Firecracker 5K recap posted, but I also want to share our hikes from vacation. But first, I’m going on a “mellow gravel” bike ride with Bill and some people from one of the local bike shops…

 

In addition to the workouts I mentioned above, here’s a complete rundown of my workouts from this past week (completed mostly in our home gym)…

 

  • Questions:
  • If you’re in the USA, how did you celebrate Independence Day?
  • Do you like Brussels sprouts?  
  • Did you race on Independence Day or this weekend?

 

And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!

 

Disclaimer:  This post may contain affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a small commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.

 

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I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!