Productive Weekend

We had a busy weekend in our house last weekend!

It started off Friday night with this…

 

 

These are Chicken Pot Pie Biscuits, and they were delicious! I got the recipe from here, which worked well except she seemed to not have proofread it very well. (Was it 2 cloves of garlic or 4? And where were biscuits in the ingredient list??) Still, it was easy enough to figure out, and they were yummy, if a bit high in points (6 points for one, so I served myself 2 with some rice–that’s a pretty high-point dinner for me!)

I would change a few things about them, most significantly I’d rather make my own biscuit dough for them. I love biscuits, and I can make them way better than what can be bought in the store. But of course, that’s a lot of work!

After that high-point dinner Friday, I was ready to run Saturday for sure. Not as ready as my 10-year-old, though. I let myself sleep in a little, since I knew I was going to run with DS#1 and I didn’t want him out running before sunrise. He, however, was up at 7:30 and patiently waiting for me, lol! He had four miles on his schedule, while I had five.  He’s been running his long runs on the treadmill this winter, and has only had a chance to do a couple of outside runs.  It was a cold (cold!) morning, but sunny, so I suggested we actually take a drive to a Metropark to run.  His memory is like a steel trap, lol, because he immediately said, “That’s where I first ran 2.75 miles when I was training for my 5k!”  😉 He was excited at the idea of going back to run farther, so we hopped in the car and made our way out.

My Metropark pass had expired last year, and I knew I’d have to get a new one, so we stopped at the ATM for cash, and then we stopped for gas because I was almost on empty.  Then, we we arrived, we couldn’t find anyone to sell us a pass!  We went to both the north and south entry gates, but both were vacant. 🙁  I was desperate to not get a ticket, so when we got to the parking lot, I began to write out a little note that basically said, “Please don’t give me a ticket! I tried!” 😛

While I was writing it, DS#1 suddenly exclaimed, “There’s a park vehicle–let’s ask that guy!” So we stopped the grounds guy and he used his radio to contact someone, who said they’d be there soon.  I was a bit frustrated to have to wait even longer, but I wanted to do the right thing (especially since my impressionable 10-year-old was with me!), so we waited another 15 minutes.  I’m glad we waited, because the park ranger who came was very nice and thanked me for making sure I took the time and effort to pay.  (He also made a comment that all the unpaid cars parked in the lot for the sledding hill would be getting a nice little note from him. 😉 )

Finally, at 10am, we were able to get on our way.  We ran a mile north, and though the footing was a bit tricky for the first mile due to icy four-wheeler tracks, after that, it was just snowy and downright beautiful. Our pace wasn’t too impressive, but I insisted that DS#1 walk when he needed to, and take it easy.  We ended up with a 12:16 pace overall, which was just fine for a long, snowy run.  He was pretty tired when it was over, so I let him rest while I quickly did another half-mile out and back to get me to five miles.

After that, we went back along the trail and took some pictures.  I took a special picture of him and did a little Instgram filtering to it.  When I posted it on Instagram with a caption, I showed it to him, expecting him to be all embarrassed like usual. (He’s a bit shy.)  To my surprise, he was very quiet, and then he said, “Can you put those words on the picture itself and share it that way?” I was so stunned, but of course I told him I could.  I could tell he was quite proud of his accomplishment, and needless to say, so was I.

 

 

I’m not ashamed to say that I love that picture. 🙂

We had a hockey game that afternoon for DS#2, which they won! Then I had my monthly Winer’s meeting, where I got to hang out with friends, including some of my favorite runners!

 

 

That’s me with Renee and Carrie.  We had a great time talking about running and planning a race together!  I should have had Jessica and Katie in there, too, but I didn’t want to interrupt everyone’s enjoyable conversations for my photo-snapping, lol. 😉

The next day, DS#1 had a hockey game, which his team also won.  I love hockey weekends when I can say that both kids won! 😀  In addition to that, I did some strength training, and then I decided to do my planned Monday 4-miler on that afternoon (Sunday).  We were celebrating DS#2’s birthday with my in-laws that evening, and I had made him a big pan cookie to celebrate, and it needed to cool before I frosted it.  I figured I could knock out a 4-mile run in 40 minutes, plenty of time for the cookie to cool, and since the temperature was in the high 30s, it was a good time to go!

I started out pretty fast, and somewhere in that first half-mile, I realized I was doing very close to a 9-minute mile.  At that point, I decided I wanted to do a sub-9 mile.  Kind of crazy, considering I had just done some strength training, not to mention I’d run five miles the day before.  But, once I got it in my head, I knew there was no turning back. And guess what…

 

 

That’s me, proudly showing off my sub-9 mile!  It was 8:55 to be exact. 😀 At the time, I thought it was my first-ever sub-9 mile, however, upon further research, I realized I had done a sub-9 mile once before in my life, back in the fall.  However, I feel like this one is more impressive, because the last time was at the end of a short two-mile run, while yesterday’s was at the beginning of a four-miler, and it’s significant to note that I did not take a break after finishing it…I kept on going for three more miles, and managed to get a 9:24 pace overall! So yes, I am quite proud of this accomplishment. 😀

I’ll admit I really wanted a nap afterward ;), but instead, we went on to celebrate DS#2’s seventh birthday.

 

 

Isn’t he adorable? 🙂 I’m so proud of him and love him so much.  Today is his actual birthday, and we’ll be celebrating with–what else?–a hockey game! 😀  He thinks he will score a “birthday goal” tonight, but I’ll just be happy if he plays well and his team wins, as that will allow them to move on to the second round of the playoffs.

As I said, quite a busy weekend for us all…but I loved every minute of it! Thanks for reading!