A Dog, a Cat and a Rat. What?

Marathon Training Week 4 - Day 6

Saturday called for eight miles.  We decided to run at River Legacy Park in Arlington. It is a very scenic paved trail run.  It's also very shaded, and with the record temps already this season, shade is good.

Nice tree lined paths.

There are multiple bridges, water fountains and benches.

You go under a main road.  I have seen homeless sleeping under the bridge, but thankfully not this time.

We chatted nonstop the first four miles.  Than stopped and stretched, had a few Sharkies and popped in the headphones and ran silent for the last four.

My first time trying the Sharkies...and I really liked them!

I felt great on this run.  I think we will do more running here.  I believe they have eight miles of trail, so this location will also work for our longer runs.

Talia did not enjoy herself, and declared she was burned out on running.  Hmmm...maybe her new Vibram Five Fingers will get her back in the groove.

Brittany was all distraught over Talia's sudden dislike of running.  I'm not sure if she is channeling Elvis in this picture or passing gas.

Randee was just a ray of bitchiness sunshine.

Am I the only one who enjoyed myself?  How can you not be happy when you have boob sweat?

We headed over to Starbucks when we were done.

My weekly trio of drinks after my run.  Venti Nonfat Vanilla Latte, Chocolate Milk and Ice Water.  I'm also loving the Kind Plus bars.

I've only tried the Cranberry Almond....and they are tasty!

I had a fantastic "me" afternoon on Saturday.  No good pictures to share, but I had a manicure and pedicure and got my hair did.

Doug took the kids to the park to play.

Apparently the monkey bars took the hide off both of their hands.

I arrived home to lots of tears.  After screams from hydrogen peroxide, they settled down after I bandaged them up.  Today they seem much better, and I think they might survive.

Saturday night we went out with a few friends.

We went to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

You could give this guy money because he had a dog, with a cat and a rat on it's back.  I have no words....

We were gonna have a drink at Billy Bob's, but didn't want to pay the $15 cover.

So we went to the Neon Moon...where we were the only people in the entire place. That's Brad, Doug's friend since grade school.  He appears to be having a better time than me.

Doug's friend John and his girlfriend Laura joined us.

Lame is how I would describe the night up until this point.  Not my thing.  So we headed back towards our "hood" and the hole in the wall bar known as the Yacht Club.  The Yacht Club is nowhere near water.  Many of the people there are missing a large number of their teeth.  It reeks of smoke.  The live band was so drunk they could hardly stand up.  However, it was better than the stockyards.

Chuck and Cher joined us.  Don't know what's in those cups, but they are both sucking it real hard.

Aren't we cute!

When the band took a break Cheri played "Teach Me How to Dougie"....Doug's theme song....than they entertained us doing the Dougie.

Self portrait master piece.

We ended the night with a glass of wine by the pool.  Overall a fun evening. 

The best part....I slept until 10:00am on Sunday.  Awesome!

Doug grilled up some more tasty steaks...

...and played my "sexy pool boy" in his awesome new hat.

I laid in the hammock and got my lazy on.

Here is my top half chillin' in the hammock.

Here's my bottom half chillin' in the hammock.

The middle is the scary part, so no need to show that.

Now I'm sitting by the pool writing this blog.  A storm is blowing in.  The sky is gorgeous and the temps are finally dropping.

There is also lightning happening in the distance.

I'm hoping for some rain tonight, but clear skys for morning yoga by the pool.

Marathon training week 5 starts tomorrow!

Where Do You Run?

Where do you run?

We have a few regular routes.

Route 1 is around Angie's neighborhood.  This is probably my least favorite.  Not sure if it is because we do it so much or because it has a couple of hills that I dislike.  Two or 3 miles seems like freakin' forever when we do them here!

This is about as exciting as the view gets on our early morning runs...long before the sun comes up!

Route 2 is around Randee's neighborhood.  This is a very flat route that we have just recently starting using.  We can knock out 3 or 4 miles in her neighborhood no problem.

View's not much different here, but we can take self portraits in the glow of the streetlamp!

Route 3 is downtown Fort Worth.  This is where we go for our long runs on the weekend.  We can do 6+ miles here with no problem.  There are some hills, but there is also a lot of flat.  We encounter no shortage of homeless entertainment, and great scenery.  We also have our favorite Starbucks we visit regularly.

Sundance Square

The Bitchy Runners on our usual route

During the holidays they had this super cool light display we could run through

Then there is our favorite Starbucks that makes really bad coffee!

Today we will be trying a new route.  The Trinity Trail in Fort Worth.  The main reason we have not tried it before is because we run in the dark.  We are too scared to run the trail in the dark, even though it seems to always be full of people.  I expect it to be a fun place to run!

source

Looks nice and scenic!

As our weekly runs get longer we are going to have to investigate new places to try.  You can only run in one mile circles for so long!

What is your favorite running route?  Do you go to parks or trails or do you stick to your own neighborhood?  If you are in the DFW area, do you have any running locations you recommend we try?

Don't Drink and Run!

Workout:  3 sweaty miles.

Saturday was another beautiful day in Texas!

Angie had a lazy morning reading "The Long Run" and sippin' coffee. Perfect!

Then the family was of to Fort Worth.  Angie let Cyn massage on the hammy, and then it was a visit to Fort Worth Running Company to get the hubby some new running shoes.  Nothing for me today! Sad face!

Sexy!

Run Forest Run!

Audrie found a new running partner.

Then we headed home for some 'King of the Hill' fun with friends.  We started the afternoon in Glo's front yard and ended the evening in Cheri's backyard by the fire. Another perfect.  Except for maybe the amount of wine we consumed.  More about that when you get to this mornings run!

The ladies chillaxin' in the beautiful weather!

Sippin' wine and icing.

The man who has to put up with Randee.  Bless his heart!

I had to go get Brittany out of bed to join us.

Wake up sleepy head and CLEAN YOUR ROOM!

Little Brittany and her 100,000,000 text for the afternoon.

Yeah, not sure what I was doing here.  I think this a great look for me though.

We ordered pizza.  Let the kids roast marshmallows.  And perhaps we might have had a bit too much wine.

Cheri and Randee - all smiles!

Randee and a blurry Glo

Um yeah, it was time to go home at this point!

So we learned a lesson last night.  Don't consume mass amounts of wine and expect to enjoy your run the next morning! 

The first words out of Brittany's mouth when Randee walked out of the house was "oh no, she looks super bitchy this morning."  She was correct!  We sweated like we were really doing something as we did our slow moving 3 miles this morning.  Thank goodness our training plan had this as a short run today.  I think there was some divine intervention on our side.  It took all we had to finish the three.  Brittany just giggled and rolled her eyes at us.  I'm not sure she enjoyed having to run our slow pace!

Due to the Super Bowl coming to town, downtown Fort Worth was kinda crazy.  Our normal parking spot was a "non parking" zone and several streets were closed except for foot traffic!  We finally found a spot and did a bit of stretching.

Self portrait!

Stretching the calf and checking out the eyebrows.

Um yeah, I don't really stretch.  I'm way to cool for that.

Then along the way we came across this.  Someone had a mighty fun Saturday night!

Nasty thong on the ground.  Brittany is convinced it was Randee's.

Run GURLS!

The bitchy runners doing what they do best.  Bitchin' and runnin'.

Brittany self portrait

Finally, we were done.  We decided to act like all the other nimrods and take pictures of all the ESPN Super Bowl hoopla. 

Everyone else seemed to be taking pics in front of this...so thought we would do the same.

The area where ESPN will broadcast live during the Super Bowl.

Downtown Fort Worth

Then it was FINALLY time for our coffee! 

Us in front of our "usual" Starbucks.  We usually end every weekend long run here!

2 Chocolate Milks.  2 Venti Lattes.  2 Ice Waters.  Same every week!

Of course they did not make Randee's coffee to suite her.  Same as every other week.  So she returned it and got yet another free coffee for our next visit. We really should try a new Starbucks.  They kind of suck at making coffee at this one!

So Brittany was right.  Randee was in a mood.

Now I am icing of course. Hopefully my afternoon will include finishing "The Long Run" and finally cleaning my house!

P.S. Talia we missed you today!  Feel better!

Do you drink and run?  Do you regret it?  What kind of weather do you prefer to run in?  Cold?  Hot?