First, on Friday I went to see Inception. I have a strong belief that no movie should be more than 90 minutes long. Because odds are that long movie includes extensive action sequences, or unnecessarily long epic battles, or whatever. The bottom line is that I have the attention span of a lemur (i.e. longer than a gnat, but shorter than the higher primates) and I get bored.
BUT Inception is completely 100% engaging for its entire 2.5 hour run. It wasn't too complicated to follow, but complex enough to keep me engaged. And Leonardio DiCaprio + Ellen Page + Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the adorable guy from 10 Things I Hate About You) = inevitable awesomeness! So I don't usually do movie reviews, but seriously, go see Inception - I cannot get over how good it was!On Saturday activities of length really kicked in. Co-worker Megan and I planned a bike ride to Mt. Vernon, which is 18 miles from the Roosevelt Island parking lot in Arlington. After factoring in getting to our meeting place, I'm calling it at least 40 miles.
And neither of us was particularly prepared. Late last week I emailed one of my roommates to borrow his bike, which he graciously agreed to. (So he's an over-6-feet-tall man and the bike is a mountain bike...whatevs. I'll make it work.) But early Saturday morning I couldn't find his helmet. Oh no! So I panicked, then got my Google on and learned that it's not illegal to ride without a helmet in Virginia or DC. So that's horrifying...but lucky in this circumstance.
And then the bike chain was disconnected/derailed/off the gears/wrong. Luckily my fingers (like my attention span) are lemur-like, so I was able to fix that problem without too much trouble.
I got to the parking lot to meet Co-worker Megan, whose tires were completely flat. She had a pump, but it would not work. So we flagged down a biker mid-ride (I'm sure all you real bikers are sufficiently horrified by this story by now), and asked him to help us. He spouted off some mumbo-jumbo about different kinds of pumps and tires, the result of which was him lending us a key piece that would allow Megan to inflate the tires of her dad's bike.
I got to the parking lot to meet Co-worker Megan, whose tires were completely flat. She had a pump, but it would not work. So we flagged down a biker mid-ride (I'm sure all you real bikers are sufficiently horrified by this story by now), and asked him to help us. He spouted off some mumbo-jumbo about different kinds of pumps and tires, the result of which was him lending us a key piece that would allow Megan to inflate the tires of her dad's bike.
Those early mini-disasters aside, it was a lovely ride! The whole 40-mile thing sounds much worse than it actually was. I'm used to riding in Northern California, where we have hills, and potholes the size of Delaware, and drivers who enjoy running bikers off the road - so the nice flat Mt. Vernon bike path was nowhere near as challenging as I anticipated. We took our time, finishing in about 4 hours (with a stop to eat in the middle - OMG have you tried the Chocolate Peanut Clif Mojo bars? So good!). At the end of our ride, we went on a very sad misadventure into Arlington in search of Slurpees - no luck. Where's a 7-Eleven when you need one?!?!? So I was extraordinarily dehydrated by the time I got home. I walked in the door, turned on my fan, and just lay on the floor for a bit wondering what to do with myself (that happens more often than I'd like to admit, but this is a full-disclosure blog). But don't worry, I drank some water first...
Saturday evening consisted of an activity of length for my teammates, but just some good quality spectating for me. I accompanied SpeedyKate to the Rockville Twilight 8k, where 18 of my teammates raced. I ran that race last year, and I was kind of sad (but also kind of glad) to not be racing it on Saturday (it was hot and humid and that course is hilly!). Go CAR!
Just 7 short hours after getting home, SpeedyKate and I were off for another run. We met our team at Fletcher's Boathouse for the Sunday long run at 7am. We all know that some long runs are longer than others, and this was definitely one of those! I did 10.5 miles on the towpath and it was hard.
I can't say for sure, but I think it qualifies as one of my sweatiest runs ever. We all looked like we had just taken a dip in the Potomac, but we hadn't. That was all sweat.
Normally I'm not a sports-drink kind of girl (I'd rather eat my calories, thank you very much!), but Sunday's run was an extreme circumstance. After sweating out my body weight for the second time in two days, I needed some serious hydration. Enter the best thing in the world: G2 Natural Gatorade Blueberry+Raspberry flavor. Freeze it overnight, then let it sit in your car while you run. Then shake it to break up the iciness and make it almost Slurpee-ish. You will not regret it - trust me on this.
By 10am on Sunday I was sufficiently exhausted, but in the best way possible! I couldn't bring myself to go to Yoga Sunday afternoon (I just don't think I can handle sweating that much twice in one day), but I did get up to some pretty fantastic cake-baking! So look forward to that later...
*Green Friday = we save energy/the environment by not going to work. You're welcome o-zone! Glad to help!
