I’ve been gone most of the past three weekends so it was nice to be home for this one. I was dead on Friday night, as usual, so we stayed in and watched movies 🙂 Saturday morning I was up and it was a beautiful day. I’ve decided to take this whole running thing more casually. Since I’ve decided to probably run the marathon, I am going to start doing some long distance runs just to keep up my fitness. After last weeks’ post, I heard from lots of people who told me they never train with high mileage and 35 miles a week is good for marathon training. I decided to get rid of my all or none thinking about and just accept that I can do the marathon without all that training, but I may not PR and that’s okay.
The Long Run
I thought about busting out 20 miles on Saturday just to prove to myself I still had it in me. But that seemed like…a lot. So I set out for a least 12 or 13. I ran forever in one distance before checking my phone. I swore I had run like 9 miles and would have to run 9 back. Turned out, it was only 7.5. I thought about the loooong way back and decided to turn around there. 7.5 more miles later, I was home and boy, these legs were tired. I felt the ache flair up on my right side a bit, telling me I’m still using my right side more than my left. It felt amazing to do a long run again and that beautiful exhaustion afterwards is the best feeling. I recovered with some Clif Shot Protein Recovery Mix in orange mango flavor, as well as some Muscle Milk and half a peanut butter sandwich. That must have done the trick because I didn’t feel totally wasted the rest of the day, like I do if I don’t eat/drink the right things post-run. It’s a MUST and both of these items have worked well for me. 
It was around 1pm when I headed out to the pool for the first time this summer. I love that we have a nice pool in our apartment complex. It’s great and never too busy so I read the latest issue of “Glamour” and just hung out.
Tim McGraw Concert
Then it was time for some fun. We had tickets to the Tim McGraw concert! I have seen a lot of country artists in concert but this was my first for Tim and he’s been a long time favorite. Tim McGraw is so nostalgic for me because I bought his albums, “A Place in the Sun” and “Everwhere” when I was 17. Both were played continously in my car all summer and school year. I blasted the song “Seventeen” when I was 17 and felt like he was singing about my life. “Just to See You Smile” was one of my favorite songs at the time, and I was such a hopeless romantic back then as well. So…I was really hoping he would play songs from those two albums especially.
We were there a little early and the opening acts were Cassadee Pope and Kip Moore — two I have really enjoyed on the radio. The weather was great although the crowd was realllly young and the girls were looking….a little too old for their age — but maybe I’m just getting old. Anyway, we had a great time. I spent Sunday running errands, walking and finishing up season 2 of “Orange is the New Black.” If you haven’t seen the last episode yet, it’s a good one, trust me!