I Knew it Would Be Tough…

Saturday workout:
Run – 11 miles

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday workouts:
Nothing:(
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I thought long and hard before signing up for the Kinetic Half Ironman this May.  While I debated whether I wanted to sign up for the race, my first thought was “Am I crazy for wanting to do a half ironman?”  My second was, “Am I crazy for trying to do a half marathon and graduate school at the same time?”  I knew the answer to both of those questions was, “yes.”

But at the same time, I also knew that if I did not sign up for something to challenge myself this spring I would turn into a full-time desk jockey/stress eater, and I would be miserable.  I hoped that knowing I had a half ironman to train for would get my behind out the door to work out on a somewhat regular basis and that the workouts would give some balance to the stressful grad school lifestyle.  But I also knew it would be tough to balance life, grad school, and training for a half ironman.

Well, the good news is that the half ironman training has done a great job of getting me out the door, even when it’s been tough to squeeze a workout in.  The long runs and bike rides have also helped me cope with stress, and have given me an opportunity to work out paper ideas and other assignments in my head.

But this week, I faced the inevitable.  It’s midterm week, and I have numerous midterms due, and there was just no way to get a three- to four-hour workout in on Sunday AND finish my midterm due Tuesday.  And Monday was not much better, since I have class from 8:00 am until 4:20 pm and then had to finish my midterm.  And today I decided that trying to bike 45 miles and run afterward was not a smart idea on a total of eight hours of sleep in the past 48 hours.  So instead I took a nap:).

Hopefully I can get back on track now, but I have to admit I am a little bit stressed about missing my long brick workout this week, in what is one of the last building weeks before I start tapering for the half ironman.  I still am trying to decide whether I will try and get the my long brick workout in tomorrow or just give up and do a regular workout.  But I also am worried about getting my next long brick in this weekend since I will be out of down most of the weekend:/.

Anyway, this weekend was not ALL stress and badness.  I did manage to do a couple of fun things and eat some good food.  Here are some of the highlights.

On Friday night we got to go see Blue Man Group at the Warner Theater in DC.  My friend managed to score free tickets and we had awesome seats!  You know you’re in for a good show when the first five rows have to wear ponchos:).

I had never been to the Warner theater before–it is beautiful.

And we got to take our picture with one of the Blue Men after the show.  I have to say, I did not find them at all creepy during the show, but I was a little creeped out standing right next to him, haha.  Especially because he stayed “in character” and did not say anything–but just stared at us:).

Creepy, right?

Afterward we went to get FROZEN YOGURT, woo!  I always say I am going to just have a little bit, and I really mean to, but by the time I get my obligatory three different flavors and add 50 toppings because I can’t decide on one or two, it always ends up being huge, haha.  Mine was covered with whipped cream, so I took a picture of Eric’s instead (his had half of the candy bar on top of it;).

Saturday night we hung out a friend’s house to visit the-cutest-baby-ever.  I had THE best salad I have ever had.  Seriously, this thing may have changed my life.  It was from California Pizza Kitchen and had roasted beets, squash, red peppers, dried cranberries, avocado, dates, egg, almonds, and chicken with Moroccan seasoning on it.  I was seriously in heaven.

(source)

And Sunday night we finished off the last of our Georgetown Cupcakes.  I started cutting them before I remembered to take a picture…

Carrot cake and mint cookies and cream!  They were both delish!

Despite being super stressed and worried about having missed my brick workout this weekend, I am getting psyched for the Sprint Tri next weekend!!:)
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Did you do anything fun this weekend?!

Have you ever seen Blue Man Group?
-I had always wanted to see them, but didn’t even realize they were still touring until I saw they had come to DC.  They were a lot of fun!:)