Week in Review

75 Miles
Down Ladder on the Track
16 mile Long run
0 Days Off
8 Runs

After a quick turnaround after my stellar track workout on Tuesday, I decided to get my long run out of the way on Thursday morning.  An evening flight to California made it necessary to get this run out of the way before I left for the office.  My long run went by fairly quickly with Laurie and there really isn't much to report from it.  My legs weren't too tired from the track workout, but they didn't feel nearly as sprightly as they have in the past couple of weeks.  After the long run, I went to the Elizabeth Family Practice to get some bloodwork done that Dr. Price had called in for me.  Given that I hadn't taken my iron pills in a while and my poor performance at the NC 10k Champs, I already kind of knew what the results would be.  Sure enough, Dr. Price let me know that my Ferritin level was a 13. This is a bad number for most people, but it's an okay number for me.  So long as I keep my runs, workouts, and races within 10 seconds of my target pace, I don't go into oxygen debt.  Basically, I just need to race really smart and I can still run well.  Oh, and I need to take my iron pills, which I have been doing; I even brought my pills with me to California!

Speaking of California...the trip was amazing.  The weather there truly is unbelievably perfect and every time I go I wish I lived there--that is, until I hop into a car and sit on the freeway for two hours to go two miles.  My college roommate, teammate, bridesmaid, and all around best friend, Merry, flew from Tucson to hang out with my sister and me and we took advantage of our time together.  Every night we went to bed before 9PM, woke up before 7AM to get out the door for a run by 730AM, and hung out the rest of the day.  Our interests are so similar and it worked out perfectly for all parties because when we ran, it gave our gracious host and my sister a chance to relax and get things done around her place. We got the full southern California tour this time around, with a 24 hour stop in San Diego, a shopping excursion in Orange County, and a night in Silver Lake, near where some celebrities live.  We ate so much very delicious food that it saddened me to come back to Charlotte's dismal selection of healthy and local eats.

Williamsburg Anniversary Trip

So as you may know from last week's posts, my husband and I went to Williamsburg this past weekend to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary! We had a great time and can't wait to go back! 

When we arrived we walked down through Colonial Williamsburg. Here's my husband Brian photo bombing the Colonial Garden. They had all kinds of plants for sale...I wanted one of each! 

Garden photo! 

I love this little cottage and the way the front yard is landscaped! The houses are absolutely gorgeous there!

We ate at The Cheese Shop for a late lunch on Saturday and it was SO GOOD! I definitely recommend it. 

I had a turkey and provolone sandwich on wheat with house dressing and it was fabulous! They also have many cheeses for sale and unique treats as well as a huge wine cellar full of wines and beers. 

We breezed through The Candy Shop that's next door to The Cheese Shop but it was really crowded so we didn't stop and buy anything. Blessings in disguise! 

Here Brian decided to give T.J. a few pointers on a document he was working on. I think he's taking them into consideration. 

While we did see a lot of "Made in the USA" signs and stickers, I also saw way too much of this. There were so many things for sale that were supposed to look authentic and really colonial, yet they were made in China, India or other countries. Sad. 

I freaked out like a little girl when I saw these two horses! Brian practically had to pry me away from them! Since living in Lynchburg, I haven't gotten to ride or be around horses hardly at all. I miss it so badly! 

We also walked around The Pottery which I had heard a lot about. Let me tell you...the name is deceiving! I was thinking The Pottery was a cool place where they made pottery in front of you, sold freshly made pottery of all shapes and sizes and maybe you can even paint some pottery. Far, far from the truth. If you haven't been, it's basically one huge store divided into three buildings. One for kitchen wares and food, one for home decor, and one for outdoor items. I was disappointed because even though it was kind of a neat place, the prices were expensive. They had a large natural/organic/unique section of food and a huge wine section if you're into those sort of things. I even happened to see wine from a vineyard in Louisa County, Virginia which is where my extended family is from! If you don't know where Louisa is, just remember it's where the epicenter of the 2011 East Coast Earthquake was. 

After a disappointing dinner on Friday at a place called Daddyo's (Yelp reviewers had given it great reviews!), we stopped by Handel's Homemade Ice Cream and Yogurt. 

Brian got a chocolate milkshake and I got cookie dough ice cream in a waffle cone. They don't play around! Look at that sucker! It was delicious too!

The Governor's Palace

Beautiful skies framing a brick house. 

I loved this side yard too with the stream running through the middle. 

If only we had somewhere to put it! These bird bottles are so cute! 

I loved hearing the clip-clop of the horses' hooves as they walked on by. We didn't take a horse drawn carriage ride, though. It's $20 a person for 15 minutes! Trust me, I know horses are expensive pets but holy moly that is so expensive. That's $40 for 15 minutes for two people. Rip off. 

And we also made a huge mistake by buying a pound and a half of homemade fudge!! As we walked out the door I said to Brian, "What...have...we...done??" The flavors are so amazing, though! In the box on the left it's blueberry cheesecake then Oreo. The top left in the other box is chocolate, caramel, and peanuts, and the one on the right is the Williamsburg Special which is caramel, chocolate chips, white chocolate fudge, then regular chocolate fudge. Bottom row is peanut buter chocolate and then peanut butter. 

Each morning we drove just into Yorktown (our hotel was in Newport News which enabled us to have dinner with some of our close friends who live in the Portsmouth area. We were SOO thrilled to see them and we had a blast talking and laughing over dinner.) and ate at this breakfast/lunch place called Food Craft. We ordered breakfast both times and it was so incredibly delicious! The fried potatoes weren't greasy and they were so tasty! The biscuits and gravy were incredible too. It was so good that we're already trying to find excuses to go down there again! 

And finally, we came home to about 4-5" of snow! Fortunately we beat some of the snow but did end up driving in it for about an hour. It wasn't too bad, though. Glad it's all about melted now! Bring on Spring time!! But Summer...you take your time.

Thank you to everyone who recommended Williamsburg adventures! We want to go back soon and see/do it all!

Have you been to Williamsburg? What's your favorite thing to do/see?

Till next time,

Catherine

(Bachelorette) Week in Review

78 Miles
3 Doubles
3 Runs with Wake Girls
11 Mile Long Run
3 Mile Tempo Fail

So this week started off with a terrible tempo, which seems to be the theme for me the past couple of weeks.  I had a goal of running 5 miles, and I only ran 3 and felt awful.  My left hamstring was still preventing me from getting the full range of motion and I just felt like it wasn't worth it to push it.  It was also exceptionally humid, which didn't help my breathing.  I've also come to the self-diagnosis of having low ferritin because I get this feeling like once a year and I hate running, feel terrible, am tired all the time and take forever to recover and absolute crap workouts.  In a nutshell, that's how I feel.  I know that with a couple of week's time, I'll get over it and feel more confident again, but such is the ebb and flow for running for me right now.  Of course, since the week started off on a mediocre note from the running perspective, I was more than ecstatic for my bachelorette weekend in California, where I would be reunited with Michelle, Selina, Liz and Marley--four of my former teammates at Wake.  Also, my sister, Athena and Anna would be making the trip from California.  By the time I got off the plane in San Fran, the crisp, cold, fresh air greeted me with a great welcome and I immediately knew running would be better here.

Debauchery occurred on Thursday night at the bars in downtown San Fran, and then after that, a much more low key and relaxing trip commenced.  We made family dinner every night, floated the river in our backyard with deflated tubes, hiked in the redwoods, winery-hopped in Sonoma County and relaxed in a hot tub.  I felt like I was back in college because every morning the five of us trekked outside in the 50-degree weather to run together...even if it was only for 45-60 minute runs, they were a blast.  On Sunday, we made our way to Sonoma Coast State Park on the beach, in hopes of running along a trail on the cliff of the ocean.  The first six minutes of the run were up and down a cliff, and we were all huffing and puffing, secretly hoping that this wasn't going to be the entirety of the run. Fortunately, the terrain leveled off and we were left in the dense fog that was blocking our view of the expanse of the ocean only 500 feet from us.

By the time Monday came around, I didn't want to leave our blissful river cabin in Guerneville, California, but I knew that the Democratic National Convention was calling my name back to Charlotte to witness some of the mayhem going on back here.