Another QC taper, another week of QC rambling

Life did not go on repeat as I wanted last week. But that's okay, I did some other cool stuff.

I ran a week ago today feeling a little sprightly when I was nearing the end:

Watched my garden come into bloom:

Friday, it rained like crazy pretty much all day. The Greenway was flooded/it was raining really hard anyway so I took my run indoors. 4 miles on the treadmill--8:34, 8:00, 7:30, last mile cooling down from 7:30 to 8:34 at 1/10th mile 1/10th mph increments.

Started getting ready for the Pig with an order from Amazon:

And a new tutu was created:

My friend Megan made me a Gu bouquet just in time for my 14-miler (I took a strawberry banana and an orange):

Easter Sunday was spend romping in the woods:

I felt kind of yuck for the first few miles, but then I started get into my groove. Thankfully, the 7:50 pace didn't seem any harder than a tempo effort. I'm "training" like I'm going after something right now. But I'm really just running so that I can maintain good fitness. Summer always beats me up. It's so dang hot and humid. Every run feels like the Incredible Hulk is squeezing me like a sponge. If things check out with the Jackson Hole marathon (the Saturday following Hood to Coast), I will be racing that. And I might have checked the results from last year and seen that the first female had a slower time than my PR. So there's that....

Anyway, I digress--one marathon at a time people.

After my 14-miler, I was tired. Apt to spend the day doing nothing with my favorite lazies:

But now that I am back in taper mode, I can finally enjoy some cooking:

And do some preemptive baking prep for the Pig:

Chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, pie crust, and strawberry buttercream. I'm staying at the Hilton. I'll let you know which room I'll be handing out sugar comas.

I ran last night because I was too lazy to get out of bed in the morning. Weather-wise, it was perfect, but my legs were tired:

Today, I went to the running store where I had a $15 gift card to use from the 39.3 challenge that I came in 3rd place. I decided to get a running skirt--pink of course, so I could wear it to the Pig.

 I headed directly for the Greenway and did a stealth change in the parking lot. Then I took that pretty little skirt for a beatdown:

I giggled a bit when I heard "Just A Girl" piping through my earbuds in my pink skirt, bopping along at a 7:10 pace. Now if only I can find a way to hang out in cute running skirts all day baking and running. I'm freshly inspired by Boston stories (wahoo Meb!), BQ desires, and SPRING!

I'd like a repeat button for my last week (caution: awesome is inside)

It's been a looooooooooooog week of ALL. AWESOME. I'd just like to put this last Tuesday to Monday on repeat please.

Began with 10 miles last Tuesday morning. Nothing special. I was on the 'mill because the Greenway had flooded so badly. I bid my time by watching The Heat... it wasn't too awful.

Adam and I then piled in the car and made our way to the Braves home opener:

We got tickets for our friends for Christmas and the four of us enjoyed hanging out for the hours leading up to the game:

Adam keeps score during the game, I drink lots of beer. It works:

The home opener coincided with the 40th anniversary of Hank Aaron's record-breaking home run. They had a neat little presentation:

And 715 people piled on the field for each of his home runs (he'd go on to hit 755 in his career):

Unfortunately, we lost the game. Torrance got a consolation prize:

Wednesday, I went to dumb old work and then hit the Greenway for a 3 mile, 5 mile, 6.2 mile run:

Thursday was date night a day early at one of our favorite local Italian places. Then it was time to get all my stuff packed to spend the weekend doing wedding activities.

First, I squeezed in a run on Saturday morning:

Then I picked up some coffee and headed to my sister's house:

We dropped off the after-party accoutrement at the hotel:

And then ate gluten-free pizza on the patio of a cute little restaurant in the Marietta square. Then it was time for manis and pedis for the bridesmaids:

And off to the rehearsal:

We enjoyed a rehearsal dinner hosted by my sister's now-husband's parents. And suddenly, it was countdown to wedding time!

But first, I had to push my lazy self out of bed to squeeze in a run:

I run on the flat Greenway most of the time and this was a nice hilly little booger. I was hungover dehydrated and still half asleep until probably the last mile. But it was nice to get up with the sun and feel relaxed for the impending day.

We laid out some of the important stuff:

Got our hair did:

Got our make-up done and had a few nerve calmers:

Soon, it was time to get the bride into her dress and be on our way to the venue:

Probably one of my favorite parts of the day was when my brother came to pick us up from the hotel to chauffeur us. I'm pretty close to my siblings and it was kind of neat to share that moment together on my sister's special day. Made me tear up a bit...

The ceremony was fun--they included their dogs. I walked the white fluffy "ring bearer" dog (my sister's dog) down the aisle and the best man walked with the "flower girl" (my now brother-in-law's dog).

Here's some other pics in case you need to Pinterest some stuff:

Sunday........... I was pooped. Adam and I took epic naps on the sofa, watched the Braves, and ate a stupid amount of pizza.

Monday was my 32nd birthday. Woot!

I went for a 32K run:

Which was actually pretty awful. I felt yucky the whole time. Tired, blah, lead legs, unmotivated (save for the whole 32K/turning 32 thing), and ready to taper again. I kept thinking it was going to get better. But.......there were only about 2 miles that I felt like this:

There were many more that were like this:

It was a pretty decent day for running with a little misty rain here and there:

But the last mile was in the pouring rain. My shorts were so soaked that the liner was drooping in a funky way. Glad it was the last mile I guess...

Anyway, Adam had booked me a surprise massage appointment following my run. Um, that was probably a bad idea because it was heavenly. Now I'm going to want one of those instead of an ice bath after every run!!

The awesomeness apexed in the evening where we went to dinner at one of the best steakhouses in Atlanta. It was perfectly pretentious and I enjoyed getting wined and dined:

Now where is that repeat button?!?!?!