Busy, yet good weekend

This weekend flew by, but it was a lot of fun.

Friday night, Matt and I went to the interclub social. I wasn't much in the mood for chatting with people about triathlon, but I did have a nice conversation with Sara's hubby about math and math education. I hope some school wakes up soon and hires him, because we need more good math teachers out there. If it wasn't for my three good ones in high school, I don't think I'd be the math geek I am today. Too many people think that math is hard because they didn't have the right teacher in school. That is my opinion of course. Okay, rant off. Here is a picture of some hawt chicks:



Saturday, I did my long brick. 3 hours on the Computrainer doing the Lake Placid course went better than last time. At 2.5 hours, I had averaged 16 mph on the course, but by the time I hit 3 hours, my average was down to 15.5 mph. That climb back into town really hits the average speed and I didn't even finish the 56 miles. Again, Matt assures me that the course isn't as hard in real life (probably because you don't have to pedal the downhills), but he did say that the last 12 miles hit your average speed hard. That is why patience is so important. After the bike, I debated about running outside. It was snowing and had been all morning during my ride, but I really didn't have time to head to the gym and it was supposed to be a brick. So, I drove to a nearby development, so I could run on the partially cleared roads. I put on the Yak Trax that my mother bought me a few years ago for the first time ever and they really did help with traction. I was hating running in the cold and snow for the first 10 minutes, but eventually I grew to appreciate the beauty of the snow and was feeling proud of myself for getting out there. I found a 22.5 minute route through the neighborhood, so I did it twice to finish my assigned 45 minute run. 4.3 miles in snowy conditions isn't too shabby.

After the run, I hurriedly got cleaned up and headed south to meet my brother for lunch and a movie. We ate at Hoggy's and I really socked away the food. I ordered the monster 1/2 chicken, which lived up to its name. I only ate the breast part without the skin, but had it with asparagus and baked beans. We topped off lunch by splitting the Ho Ho cake. Well, I burned off 2000 calories that morning and needed to refuel, right? We then went to see Ghost Rider, which was surprisingly good. Most of the villains were hokey (except Peter Fonda as the devil), but Nicholas Cage wasn't too bad and the plot was good. I give it a thumbs up, but of course, I like stuff like this, so keep that in mind.

On Sunday, I ran with my pal, Sam J. and we had a good time traipsing on the snowy road at N. Chagrin while avoiding being plowed by the snow plow guy. The Yak Trax worked like magic again and I completed my longest run (7.6 miles in 80 minutes) since November with no IT pain. Yay!! Oh, as an aside, I've run in my orthotics twice on the treadmill. Got a small blister on my left foot and my right toe box was a little sore, but otherwise, the runs were good (no IT pain). Again, Yay!!

After the run, I had a good weights session at the Progressive gym, showered up, and went to the local coffee shop to work on the professional development portion necessary to complete my actuarial credentials. I am determined to finish this by March 22. Seriously, I should have been done with this long ago, but I haven't made it a priority. That is just plain dumb, because I'm not just postponing a raise and a bonus - I'm also postponing getting the respect of having finally completed my fellowship in the Society of Actuaries after 14 years of dealing with the exams and other hoops. No more excuses. As we Hillbilly Goats like to say "Git R Dun".

Matt and I had tickets to the Cleveland orchestra yesterday at 3 PM and we just barely made it in time. They were playing Vivaldi, Handel and Bach. It was a smaller group with mostly violins, violas, etc. There were two oboes, 1 bassoon and the director played the Harpsichord. I am really not a classical music kind of gal, but it was nice being there with my husband and I know he really enjoyed it. Being dressed up, we decided to go to dinner at a swanky restaurant called XO in downtown Cleveland. While the food was okay, I wouldn't recommend it. Everything was a la carte, so basically you pay $30 for just the steak. The meat wasn't that good. But, it was a nice meal with my husband and I always have a good time hanging with him.

I crashed at 9 PM on the couch that night. Not too bad for not having taken one nap the entire weekend. It was busy, but a lot of fun. Now, I better run to the coffee shop to work some more on my professional development. Wish me luck!