When I am looking for new races, I tend to search for race recaps so that I can get a runners honest perspective of the race.  I find that this is more helpful than any information listed on the race website.  So years ago, these searches led me to some local-ish blogs that I ended up falling in love with and following.  Sometimes I look for recipe ideas, but mostly they provide me a little extra motivation to continue working out when I read them.  When I say they are local-ish, I mean the bloggers live in the DC area.  I do have to admit that I tend to find myself a little jealous of all the workout options that the city has to offer.  It seems there is always some trendy fitness boutique around every corner!  I have a gym membership that I enjoy, but I’d love to have options such as Soul Cycle, Orange Theory, Pure Barre, etc! 

Over the past week or so, I have been very excited to be able to incorporate some new workout experiences into my routine and I have LOVED it!  I am a gal who loves a routine, but a nice break from it every now and then can be exciting!  So without further ado, I’ll recap the last 10 days below:

Wednesday, Feb 1^st – Rest Day

Thursday, Feb 2^nd – Spin Class at Salt Cycle Studio!  We finally have a boutique style spinning studio in the county and I was fortunate enough to try it for free, thanks to my company and their commitment to promoting physical and mental wellness.  I had tried spinning once or twice before, but it was years ago, so I was basically a newbie.  I really enjoyed this “party-themed” class.  Between the great music selection and the glow in the dark lighting, it was definitely a workout with great energy!  If I can find a way to fit it into my schedule, I’ll definitely go back. 

Friday, Feb 3^rd – Ran 3.5 Treadmill Miles (9:50 pace) Steven was laughing at me because I told him about my music routine when I run on the treadmill (since I’m not currently watching anything on Netflix).  I tend to overthink things and when I’m bored and running on the treadmill, I need constant change to keep me going.  So, I have been changing the song every .20 mile and I increase my pace every .5 mile.  Do you have any whacky routines that help you get through a boring workout routine?

Saturday, Feb 4^th – Body Pump

Sunday, Feb 5^th – Ran 4 Treadmill miles (9:55 pace).  My first 4 miler of the 2017.

Monday, Feb 6^th – Yoga at home.  Makayla kept me company, but she decided to sit this week’s yoga session out.

Tuesday, Feb 7^th – Ran 3.5 Treadmill miles (9:41 pace).  It was beautiful outside (upper 60’s and Wednesday was 70.  Spoiler alert – these temps did not last)!!!  It would have been a great day for a run outdoors, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take a lunch break today and by the time I get home from work, it’s starting to get dark outside.

Wednesday, Feb 8^th – Body Pump.  I increased my weights tonight (except bicep track…it’s a doozie!)

Thursday, Feb 9^th – Rest Day

Friday, Feb 10^th – Ran 3.5 miles in the FREEZING cold!  Steven and I decided to go on an early Valentine’s Day date since we both had the day off and the kids were in school.  We decided it would be fun to go to Georgetown Cupcakes.  I think it has been 2 years since we went and the cupcakes are SO good (fun fact – I won my first dozen through a radio show contest by captioning a photo of Ellen DeGeneres and Katy Perry).  The last time we went, we talked about how it would be a fun place to run.  So, naturally I decided we should take a run first and then get the cupcakes.  Steven reluctantly agreed.  I think sometimes he wishes he had a normal wife who just wants to go to dinner and a movie – lol!  Unfortunately, the wonderful temperatures from earlier in the week were gone and my van was reading ~30 degrees when we got to DC around 9:45.  With the wind chill, it felt like ~19 degrees.  I think Steven was hoping I’d change my mind about the run portion of our date, but he should know by now that when I get an idea in my head, I’m pretty stubborn about keeping to the plan ;o)

I’m not super familiar with the city, so I looked up some routes online and found that we could easily get to the National mall by foot.  That became the plan.  After finding a restroom and bundling up, we started running.  While running in the city was fun and exciting, its a little hard to get into the groove when you have to keep stopping at crosswalks.  Once we got to the bike path, we didn’t have many more cross walks for a while, but then hit a few more towards the end of our route.  I also stopped once just to make sure we were headed the right way (it almost seemed too easy).  So, our pace wasn’t very fast, but we still enjoyed it.  We were at the Lincoln Memorial at ~1.65 miles so we decided to just keep running along the reflection pool until we reached 2 miles on the GPS.  Our faces and hands were pretty cold along the way (even with gloves), but other than that, we stayed pretty warm during the run.  Once we stopped, the cold really set in, but we decided to brave the elements and walk around for a bit.  We checked out the World War 2 Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  Unfortunately, Steven had some major chaffing going on during the first part of our run and it became increasingly painful as we walked around.  The pain seemed to subside a little when we had decided to head back to Georgetown, so we started running back the same route we came from.  We made it ~.80 mile, when the pain became intense again and we decided to walk.  He was even having trouble walking for a while, but we knew we had to get back to my van.  After a while, he decided to push through the pain and we began running again.  I had turned my GPS off when we got to 1 mile so I turned that back on and we ran until it totaled 1.5 total miles for the return trip.  We made it (barely)!!

We finished our date with a stop at the Nike store and a visit to Georgetown Cupcakes (where we purchased 16 cupcakes and I may or may not have eaten 4 today.  Ughhh…I have no will power!).  We decided to head back down the road at that point because we aren’t big shoppers and it was too cold to just walk around.  We stopped for lunch at Chili’s and were back home around 3:30.  All in all, it was a fun date!  I’d definitely love to do it again with Steven when the temps are a little warmer.  I’m also hoping to plan a girls day with some of my running buddies in the Spring!  It’s so nice to have a change of scenery every now and again!