Wright Park Take 2!

Week two of my training is now complete.  Wow, time seems to be flying by!  I feel like my running is steadily improving even though my focus right now is on staying injury free rather than becoming a speed demon.  I just can't help but always try to push myself as hard as I can.  Plus, on the treadmill I get bored so if I can give myself little challenges while I run it makes it a little more tolerable.  On Wednesday I ran as long as I could at an 8:27 pace (1.5 miles) and that was after my boxing class!  It felt really good actually.  I think I will try to keep adding to that and maybe I can do a full 3 miles at that pace eventually.  That would make for a killer 5K time for me! 

Friday was an actual day of rest for me!  Our soccer team had a bye weekend so I had the opportunity to get one full day of not working out!  Niko and I decided to go check out one of the new parks in the area with a few friends instead.  We headed there right after dropping Devan off and stayed for several hours.  The weather was chilly but the kids didn't seem to notice and we had a great time. 

Feeding the ducks

I was happy to see that they went for a more traditional style of park instead of the more new age ones that have been popping up lately.  I honestly hadn't seen an actual SLIDE at a newly remodeled park for a long time!  The wood they used was really nice and there is also a spray park area that will be fun in the summertime.  I enjoyed watching the boys play- they sure are different than girls!  The three of them are all in the same preschool class and are "best friends" according to Niko. 

The spray park area

I got up Saturday morning and headed out the door for my 7 miler.  I was meeting up with Cynthia down the road about 1.5 miles and we were going to run down to Wright Park, around the loop and back.  I had estimated it to be around 7 miles and I was pretty close (7.18!).  I left the house around 8:45am and the weather was actually pretty perfect.  So I ended up at the park two days in a row!  The run was a bit hilly, but I think I am just going to have to get used to that- wherever I go in Tacoma, there are hills!  I can make this course into a longer run by simply running around the park trail a couple of times.  I am always trying to find new routes and I think this is a keeper!  It was fun to run with Cynthia one last time though since she is leaving on Tuesday morning to move to Boise.

Today I was supposed to do some cross training.  However...I worked 8 hours, went immediately to Devan's soccer game in Gig Harbor then went on a date night with my hubby for Valentine's day.  A big thank you to my mom for coming over to watch the kiddos (and Devan's game) so we could have some adult time!  So for my cross training we went to this cool little bar called the 1022 where I had some alcoholic beverages along with some fantastic cheese and bread.  Then ate some more cheese and bread.  Discussed how we could live on cheese, bread and fruit forever because we love it so much.  Then headed to The Melting Pot and had dark chocolate fondu and discovered my new favorite drink in the whole world- a strawberry drop.  Yum. 

Tomorrow I need to do the spin bike for about 3 hours to burn off all of those calories but it was SO worth every bite.  By the way...I don't have time to do spin bike for 3 hours tomorrow so I hope 15 minutes plus a 75 minute yoga session will do the trick.  Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Happy Birthday to my friend Betsy (2/14)
A few of my favorite things about her:

1.  She has a great smile and is one of the nicest people I know.
2.  Her daughter is Devan's best friend and they always invite Devan to go with them to do fun things
3.  She is not afraid to speak her mind and does so because she cares
4.  She is a great defender at soccer even though she gets hit by the ball more than I do (which is nearly  impossible btw!)
5.  She is always there to help out when needed and can always be counted on