Easter Weekend Snapshots

Happy Monday! I am still in a sleepy daze this morning, but I am fully prepared to share a ton of fun photos from this weekend, which include a new book and salt scrub, a sneak peek of Platte River Half race photos, a hard-yet-short speed workout, and a 10-mile Easter Sunday trail run with gorgeous views.

Take a look!

Friday Surprises!

Friday was an off day, thank goodness, because I was exhausted. I came home from work to find three packages awaiting me! I got my second read from the Book of the Month Club, as well as my second order of Great Lakes Gelatin Collagen Hydrolysate… and a mystery package from my sister-in-law Kara!

Turns out she read my (many) blog posts about my love for salt scrubs and pampering myself after a long run. She’d seen Simple Sugars on Shark Tank and wanted to try it for a while, so we’re trying it together! What a sweet gift (pun intended). I’ve already used it three times and I’m hooked: It makes my skin so soft and moisturized, and it smells like a heavenly strawberry dessert that I want to eat!

Their products are all natural and formulated for sensitive skin. Love! Getting all of these fun packages in the mail was such a welcome start to the weekend. That night, Nick and I did something that was much less surprising: drank wine, ate Cosmo’s Pizza, and watched Netflix (we’ve been into Life in Pieces lately, for some light-hearted laughter).

Saturday Sprint-Day

Saturday morning, the man went to run some serious climb in the mountains, and I woke up slow, sipping coffee and looking through the official Platte River Half Marathon race photos! For some reason you can only buy prints of the photos… so how am I supposed to share them on social media and my blog?! Do I have to order prints and then scan then like it’s 2006? Ugh. To be continued… but I can at least share some of the funny iPhone-photos-of-my-laptop-screen that I took that morning. Look at my arm muscles in the above photo! I’ll take it. (Also, look at the cheesy grin on the man’s face! Classic.)

This might’ve been the only time I smiled during the whole race! Nick is always there to remind me to have fun. 🙂

I think this was around mile 6 or so.

Anyway, looking at all those race photos got me motivated to do a 2-5-1 treadmill interval workout at the gym. I pushed myself and did the 1-minute all-out sprint section at a 6:58 pace! It felt really good, although for the rest of the day I was exhausted and even took a nap. Old lady.

I worked some heinous Easter-y colors because we desperately needed to do some laundry.

Sunday Run-Day

On Easter Sunday we got up extra early and headed out to Lair o’ the Bear to do a long trail run on Bear Creek Trail. It was such a gorgeous day, and the weather was absolutely perfect. I felt great during the entire 3-hour trek: 10 miles with a lot of climbing (of which we hiked a lot). It was an amazing workout, and my legs are a tad sore this morning.

Above you can see me posing while chowing down on some fuel.

Running along (and even over) the creek was so nice; I’ve missed the sound of running water and the smell of it in the breeze.

I’m a dork!

Nick was a great coach and has successfully made me fall in love with running trail! Remember the idea of “focusing on the what” from The Ultra Mindset? Well, trail running is all about the what: what’s in front of you, what’s around you, what incline or downhill you’re trying to master at the moment… and it’s such a better workout. It challenges and sculpts your muscles like no other (just look at his!).

The scenery is hard to beat, too. I love our Wash Park runs, but seeing the same thing over and over again during each lap can get pretty boring. Can you beat this view?

… and the opportunity to climb a tree? 🙂

After our run, we picked up some goodies (like these lox bagels from Rosebud Cafe) and headed on over to City Park for a picnic for the rest of the day. We lay around, talked, and had a great time soaking in more sun rays.

I had to try this novel concept: a cupcake inside an ice cream cone! It was delicious.

After spending the whole day outside, we went home and took extra-long showers (we were very dirty at this point!). I’m pretty sure I passed out before my head even hit the pillow.

How was your weekend?