Thursday, June 23, 2016

Summer weekend in Atlanta

Hey guys - I miss you! Happy official summer and I hope that you all have been doing well. I think this is my biggest hiatus from blogging in a while and it's been a little bit odd for me. I have certainly had a lot going on - in training, in life, in family - but I've been doing my best to be intuitive about what is making me happy. Intuitive about eating, spending my time, getting in work outs, and writing. And lately when I have a free evening at home, I've been doing more reading or watching TV or catching up with friends than I have blogging.

I do want to get back into a rhythm though because like exercise or eating healthy, once I am in a routine it comes easier, and I am always happy I did it.

So let's start with something easy, shall we?  A weekend recap!

This past weekend was a really fun and really busy one in Atlanta. A great mix of fun, workouts, friends, and really good weather. I probably could have done for a little bit more relaxation because at the end of the weekend I felt like I needed another day of rest, but what are you going to do?

Friday evening started with double happy hours. I first met my friend Courtney from the gym at a bar by my house for happy hour. We went to Eleanor's, which is a "secret bar" or speakeasy, as some call them, in the back of a restaurant called Muss & Turner's. They've got great drinks and a fun atmosphere and we caught up about work, life, boys, and travel over drinks and some pimento cheese.


Following hanging out with Courtney, I went and met Brick at Bar Taco in West Midtown which consisted of margaritas and some tacos. The weather was absolutely beautiful and perfect for sitting outside. A lot of times it is just too darn hot in Atlanta so you have to be indoors, but this was the perfect kind of summer evening that made a margarita outside with a good friend absolutely amazing.



Instead of staying at Bar Taco, we walked down the street to check out a new wine bar that Brick had spotted and finished the night with dessert... a ridiculously decadent smores crepe that I probably should have stopped eating long before I did.



I love these types of nights and it is even better when I am home and in bed before 10:30 p.m.! At one point we both sort of looked at each other like, "Do you want another...?" with neither of us exactly wanting to be the party pooper  but both wanting to go home and go to bed. Luckily neither of us tried to play chicken and we agreed upon our oldness and went home for an early Friday night.

I'd wanted an early bedtime as I had an early morning planned to head out for a bike ride. My initial intent was to meet friends but I woke up to a text message saying that they weren't going to make it so I decided to sleep in a little bit longer.  With an extra hour of rest, I head out to Cartersville for a 45 mile ride and two mile run. I was very much not feeling the ride - and it had nothing to do with the drinks the night before. I was looking forward to riding with friends and was bummed that they cancelled and then once I got out there, the wind was CRAZY.  It was heavy winds, the kind right before a storm rolls through in the summer, the whole ride. From the very beginning I knew it was going to be tough and thought about only doing 30 miles multiple times.

Instead, I decided to let myself take some breaks and paused every 10 miles or so in order to regroup and then keep moving forward. It ended up being a really good ride and I was happy with how I felt at the end.  I finished the 3:00 hour ride with a 2 mile run where I chanted to myself over and over and over, "Two mile run, two mile run. Two mile run and you're done for the day. Done for the day, done for the day. Finish this run and you're done for the day. When you're done for the day, you're done for the day. Two mile run and you're done for the day."

I literally said this to myself over and over and over the entire time I was running. It got the trick done though and I finished up and returned back to Atlanta feeling really accomplished and happy with my pace, despite the wind and fact that I felt like I was crawling for a majority of the time!


When I got home I relaxed for a little, ate some foods, then head out for a haircut. It had been quite a while since I had gotten my hair cut and I recently realized that I desperately needed one. I have two weddings coming up and I was so excited that I was able to squeeze in the last appointment of the day on Saturday and get my hairs chopped off to be fresh and clean before being photographed a hundred million times.


The rest of the evening was spent bouncing around Atlanta. I went to a new-to-Atlanta restaurant, Tupelo Honey's, soft opening, where I got to try some of their delicious food before the general public (I love feeling special.) It was a super cute place, the food was great, and I met some really cool and interesting people. After the dinner, I met up with some friends and we all did what any grown adults would want to do on a Saturday night - saw a 9:30 p.m. showing of an animated movie, Finding Dory!


As I may have mentioned before, my uncle works at Pixar, and seeing his movies their opening weekend is something that I love to do. The movie was totally amazing and a great story that had me laughing a lot. I highly recommend and not just because I am biased (although I am)

Even though we saw a late movie, it was still a relatively early evening since I booked it home and hopped right into bed. I was pretty exhausted from the day and had another round of training on deck for the morning.

At 7:30 a.m. I met up with friends and we ran the 6-mile route of the Atlanta Peachtree Road Race. This is the race that is run from point-to-point (so it required some coordination of dropping off and picking up cars with my friends) on the 4th of July.  I will not be able to participate in the race this year, which I am pretty bummed about, so it was nice to get in some miles on the Peachtree race route. Last year was my first year running and it is downpoured rain so I was hoping to redeem myself this year, but I will have to wait until another year. It is the largest road race in the country with 60,000 runners and pretty iconic for Atlanta. I ran my fastest 10K time last year during this race, which amazes me!

I had to do 8-miles per my training plan, so I looped back a mile at the end, finishing 8 hot and sweaty miles that I felt good about throughout.



It was another quick turnaround at home, where I showered and ate and then went out to meet some friends at 1:00 p.m. at the Atlanta History Center.  This is a museum that I have run by a number of times, but have never actually been to. I actually never even thought of going to it until this past weekend when my friend invited me.

This past weekend was the celebration of the holiday known as "Juneteenth."  This day commemorates the day that the abolition of slavery was enforced in Texas. Which actually was about TWO YEARS after the emancipation proclamation was signed. Apparently without Facebook and Twitter it takes a bit loner for word to get out.

Anyways, many of my friends have known of and celebrated this holiday for years, but I just learned about it since moving to Atlanta.

In addition to having many exhibits about Atlanta and the history of Atlanta, they talked a lot about the history of Juneteenth, which began in Texas, when the ENFORCEMENT of the abolition of slavery actually began. It was two years following the emancipation proclamation that the southern slave owners were finally forced to have their slaves be free. As one of the speakers mentioned, "Some people think Juneteenth celebrates the freeing of the slaves. However, we had always known we were free. Juneteenth celebrates when everyone else enforced it."







It was a really great afternoon learning new things and a wonderful way to round out the weekend. I'm posting this as we hit Friday and the kick off to a NEW weekend but it just goes to show you how busy my life has been lately. I am certainly not trying to "have it all" but I am definitely working to have a social life, get in training, and also that little thing called a job. Which translates to being BUSY.

So, hoping to get into a rhythm soon with posting more. I miss you guys!  Hope to catch up soon.

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