Travel, no workouts, one gross hotel, extreme temps and an a cappella sensation.

Put all that in a bag and shake it up. You've got my weekend:

This weekend I took a very mini vaca to Atlantic City. The day before I left I wasn’t feeling well, so I decided to take a rest day. I knew I probably wouldn’t get a chance to work out the rest of the weekend but if I could, I would. Even so, I didn’t want that rest day on Friday, because it meant having 3 days in a row of no training. However, it was just one of those things that happened and I had to deal with it.

I hadn’t been to Atlantic City in at least 8 years so I was excited to visit the love child of Reno and Vegas. As we were driving down to AC on Saturday, we noticed the temperature in my car climbing rapidly. I wanted to be able to walk my way around AC or try a run if the fitness center at the hotel wasn’t up to par. But seeing the ridiculous temps while driving pretty much told me that it wasn’t going to happen.

This was 10 seconds after hitting 105.

We arrived at our hotel to find that our room was one of the few that had working air conditioning. Score. That alone was the selling point given that our view was of dumpsters outside the building, the ice machine on our floor wasn’t working, 2 of my pillows had something blackish on them and there was a curious looking stain resembling blood on the carpet that we covered with the ice bucket to ensure we wouldn’t step on it by accident. Whatever, it was one night and I had my own pillow with me.

We had an agenda for visiting AC other than suffocating weather and terrifying hotel rooms. We had tickets to see Straight No Chaser during their residency at Harrah’s Casino. And I love blackjack. We left our ghetto fabulous hotel and went over to Harrah’s for the night.

We had dinner at one of the restaurants near the concert venue (which ironically was named “The Concert Venue”. They’re original.) and I noticed our waitress had on a button that said “Ask Me about Straight No Chaser”. So I asked. Then I asked her about her button and she took it off and gave it to me.

And then I put it on.

I have seen Straight No Chaser in concert more than a few times. I love, love, love a cappella and these guys are amazing. Like, amazing times 100. Each and every one of them is filled to the brim with talent. And ladies, they aren’t bad to look at either!

You’ve probably even heard of these guys and didn’t even know it. Around Christmas time their famous 12 Days of Christmas song is on the radio all the time.

Since I just received my Run Around Sara bracelets I figured I could put them to good use and share a few with these guys. I may or may not have fired a bracelet up on stage during the show. You’ll have to ask them if it’s true or not, but as I talked to them after the show they were more than willing to show their support.

My previous blog post talked about why I got these bracelets in the first place and I’m glad these guys were happy to model them for me.

I SUPPORT MY FRIENDS....DO YOU??

I SUPPORT MY FRIENDS...DO YOU??

One of the guys spotted my button and asked me about it. I said that they were some group of guys that could sing. He asked me if they were any good and I said “Eh, they’re okay”. I don’t think he knew I was joking, because he didn’t seem too impressed with my answer.  What I should have said was this right here:

Because they are all that and a bag of chips!

Check them out if you can. You won't be disappointed.

After all that excitement, we blew some money in the slots and decided that people watching was a lot more fun than the slots and we played a little game I like to call “Who needs a mirror?”.  There were a LOT of contestants.

We went back to our hotel to suffer through one night of gross. (Comfort Inn, I’m looking at you here.)  The next day brought us the same crazy temperatures so after a lackluster continental breakfast (though I’m not complaining...it was free!!) we decided to check out the fitness center. If it had a/c we were gonna do it, since there wasn’t a pool on the premises and it was still in the triple digits outside. I asked at the front desk where it was located and was told that it was on the 4th floor, but it was undergoing renovations and we couldn’t use it. But it was there! Hey, thanks.

So we packed up and left. Three days, people. Three days of no working out. I’m guessing I’m going to have to hurt myself at the gym tomorrow to make up for this. I can’t wait.

April vs. May: The ultimate showdown on National Running Day

April totals

Swim: 1.45 miles

Bike: 42.16 miles

Run: 18.5 miles

Rest days: 12

Yoga: 20 mins

May totals

Swim: 2.62 miles

Bike: 25.27 miles

Run: 18.03 miles

Rest days: 15

Compared to April, May sucked. I mean, it wasn’t horrible, but my running was less, my biking was almost half, and I had more rest days. I need to work on that hardcore. Swimming looked pretty good though! I really felt like I did more in May. And seeing the numbers puts me in my place. So I need to cut it out and stop with so many rest days. I mean, I know I need to rest my body, and I think I really only took rest days when I was in pain, sick or utterly exhausted (or unless I hadn’t taken a rest day that week and it was scheduled). Except for last weekend. Two of those rest days were complete laziness. But 2 out of 15 isn’t too bad. Should I really be putting myself down for this? Or is it normal? I feel like I should have done better.

I’m stepping up my game in June. I swear. Maybe.

I started that enthusiasm with a run this afternoon. I had a vet appointment for my mom’s cat at 6pm. I get out of work at 5pm, So, I planned to run after I got home from the vet at around 6:30 or 7pm. Instead, I got out of work early around 3:15 and called my vet to get an earlier appointment. They didn’t have one for the cat doctor, but I needed to take my dog, Snickers, in for her yearly exam anyway and scheduled a 4pm with the dog doctor.

Meanwhile, a huge storm front was moving through.

The white X is where I live. On the outskirts of the storm.

By huge, I mean severe thunderstorms and tornado watches. Since it was only sprinkling when I left the vet’s office for the first time, I decided to get my run in before my second vet appointment. I took my other dog, Finn, with me. He’s 7 months old and not a good leash dog, but I figured, practice makes perfect, right? So we set out. It was barely sprinkling as we started and figured I wasn’t going to melt so why not? Well, after about 3/4 mile, it started downpouring. That’s why not. One of my neighbors saw me go by and opened her door and yelled out to me “We’re under a tornado watch! You should get inside!” I replied “Yes, I know, thank you!” and continued on my way.

See those 3 blue spirals? Yup, tornado touchdowns.

Finn actually did quite well on the leash.
New running partner!

Completely soaked.

What was I thinking? I have to admit, I was more concerned with getting hit by lightening that I was with a tornado. I was counting the seconds between lightening and thunder to make sure I was safe. All of a sudden, I saw lightening and counted to ONE, before the thunder snapped all around me. Finn was jogging slightly behind me at this point and he hightailed it up to me and tried to go between my legs, almost toppling me in the process. I was already soaked, I didn’t need to fall into a puddle, thankyouverymuch.

I took that as a sign to turn around and go home. After vet appointment number two, the sun came out. My timing is amazing.

But about the actually running. I re-did Couch to 5K week 2 day 3, since I hadn’t run in a week, but I felt like it was easy. I mean, not easy, but I probably could have done week 3 day 1 which goes from a 1:30 running intervals to 3 minute intervals. And, this was outside and not on my treadmill where I’ve been doing the C25K program. I thought it was going to be harder. I was pleasantly surprised. However, my biggest critic (myself) had been analyzing everything. Either my biking last weekend really helped strengthen my legs and made my running stronger, or, I was running a lot slower than I do on the treadmill. My pace on my Garmin says that I was running slower. WAY slower. Yet my average times are right on point, even faster, than what I was doing on the treadmill. Whatever, who knows. Blame it on the rain. And really, isn’t the point to keep running for longer periods of time, and work on the speed later? Right, I thought so.

I guess it was only fitting that today is National Running Day

I found that out tonight after my run. No, that’s a lie, I heard about it earlier today on twitter, but I forgot about it until I saw people talking about it, and showing off their badges, when I was reading blogs tonight. So of course, I got my very own badge. I mean, really, If I’m gonna do it, I want a medal badge for it.

Uh, not really. I run because I have to. Because it's part of the triathlon. It doesn't feel great. Whoever tells you that is lying. It hurts.