9 Miles? Check. Hula Hoop? Check.

The weekend went by in approximately 38 seconds. Seems about right.

The forecast for Saturday morning seemed dismal. 60% humidity, mid-80's at 5:00 a.m., etc. etc. Pair that with a terrible stuffy nose on Friday night (and waking up during the night ON FIRE thinking I'd caught the flu or something. I hadn't, so who knows what that was.), and I cautiously set out for my scheduled 9 miles with no goal or or expectations. I just wanted to survive.

To be honest, I ended up feeling pretty dang good. It was the first long run I'd ever attempted with Nuun and I'm officially a disciple and fangirl. I do think I probably should have brought 9 ShotBloks rather than 6, as mile 8 felt pretty disastrous and weak, but overall this run went much better than I ever thought it would.

Not sure on my splits, but I think they were close to:

11:04
10:44
10:45
10:30
10:37
10:50
10:55
11:18 (crash and burn)
11:01

I finished 9.05 miles in 1:38:17 for a 10:52/mi pace. Was it fast enough for my 2:20 goal? No. Did it restore some of my confidence? Yes.

After brizza (obviously not my pic, but it's what I ordered and it was glorious) and nap one of the day, we set out to Sur La Table for the James Beard Taste America event that I'd RSVP'd to forever ago. We watched a cooking demo by Chris Bianco and got to sample some amazing homemade pasta, made right in front of our eyeballs.

(I spy tiny James Beard. Do you?)

(Cavatelli with Sweet 100 tomatoes, garlic, and basil. Topped with chive-mixed ricotta. This was amazing.)

I loved this presentation and what he had to say about working with locally-sourced food and cooking for other people. We also sampled some local crusty bread with olive oil made at St. Anthony's Monastery in Florence, AZ. I will now be planning a road trip up there and buying enough olive oil to last me a lifetime. It was outstanding.

After eating lunch at the ol' standby we came home and I took nap two for the day. I'm an infant.

Yesterday morning I tried to new-to-me class because I knew I wasn't going to make it to my regular 2:45 Sunday afternoon yoga. (Why, you ask? Well, the Chiefs game was actually being shown on TV here for once. Let's not talk about it.) 

I saw that the Gainey Village location of my gym was offering an 8:00 a.m. class of something called "FXP Coreflow," which I thought might be similar to a power yoga class:

"Fun, Xcessible, Portable! Meet us for the FXP CoreFlow Pilates/Yoga fusion class that will keep you challenged and motivated utilizing small props and your own body weight. The FXP CoreFlow class will provide a calorie burning, total body workout with a high energy, low impact, flowing sequence of moves set to music. The props utilized will deepen your core engagement, improve strength and coordination and increase flexibility. All levels welcome! Bring your yoga mat. Towels and small props will be provided."

It was more of a barre/core-strengthening class, which I'm fine with, but it had a huge emphasis on hula hoops! Holy crap. Have you ever hula hooped for two songs straight? I feel weirdly sore all around my waist in a way I've never felt before. To be honest, this was a great workout. It helped with my current desire to start barre classes again, which is how I know I've gotten a little bored with running. I just never really thought I'd use a hula hoop as part of a (decent) workout. The instructor was great and said they hooping for an hour can burn 600+ calories. What! I just might put this class in the ol' rotation. 

10 miles next Saturday. Already tired.