Cinco de Mayo!

So, what does Cinco de Mayo really mean? I know it means "the 5th of May" in Spanish, but what is the significance of Cinco de Mayo? I really have no idea and perhaps I should. This year, the 5th of May signified breakfast in the morning at Mi Madres on Saturday, dinner at Maudies Mexican with the same tribe of folks and blackened tuna tacos for brunch today at South Congress Cafe! (and I wonder why I struggle with my weight plateaus!) I swear I didn't mean for it to turn into a Mexican Food extravanganza, but it did. In fact, I attempted to go as "healthy" as possible at these wonderful local establishments.

Mi Madres--meat and egg taco with cup of fruit
Maudies--chipotle shrimp fajitas with one corn tortilla, black beans and rice
South Congress Cafe--blackened tuna tacos with 1/2 tortilla, black beans and rice

No Margaritas were consumed this weekend, I'm proud to say! I'm three weeks out from the wedding and the last thing I want to feel is like I'm retaining water from all of the salt.

Oh, I forgot to mention, in between my feedings over the last couple of days, I also managed to squeeze in a few workouts to make it all worthwhile!!

Saturday, 5/5--15 mile run starting from Gateway near the Arboretum and running to downtown Runtex. Several people were doing 20 miles today and I took it easy and only did 15 miles (yes, I said "only" rather smugly) So, it was humid and miserable from our 5:30am start, but we kept our pace very even and I felt good at the finish. Including all of our water stops where we paused for a few minutes and bitched about the weather, my overall pace for the 15+ miles was a 9:30. No need to drop the bomb right now on these long runs.

So, I finished with my run around 8:30am, and then headed to the gym, quickly showered and hit the 9:00am yoga class. Let me just say, it was WONDERFUL. Forced stretching and relaxation for an hour after running for over two hours. My legs felt so much better after that class. It kinda made me wish I could do an hour of yoga after every long run. At the end of class, we lay still for about 5 minutes in the dark. I totally dozed off and did the jerk reaction thing you do when you have the "I'm falling" dream. Thank God the lights were turned off because I'm sure I looked hilarious!

Sunday, 5/6--I had visions of a long bike ride today, but mentally wasn't really up to it. It was one of those feelings where I knew if I started riding, I'd be grumpy at the first sign of a hill or a breeze. So, we relaxed for a bit in the morning and around 10:30am, we hopped on our mountain bikes for an hour ride around Town Lake. Nothing strenuous, nothing hard or long...just a fun little jaunt on the crowded trail. I forget how fun trail riding can be and it makes me long for a little more mountain biking action. Unfortunately, I'm a bit of a wuss in that department and am always afraid of getting injured.

So, I had brunch with some wonderful girlfriends and then headed off to dance class with Shawn so that we can practice our wedding dance. We're having a blast attempting not to crush each others toes. Believe me, some moments are better than others!

After dance class, we headed to Shawn's gym and swam for about an hour. I alternated with some drills, fins, paddles and kickboard. I was pleasantly surprised to see my kickboard skills improving. I think we could've stayed in the pool for hours, but there were people waiting for lanes so we got out.

Marathon in Two Weeks
While we were in the sauna, Shawn mentioned that he had come up with a cool idea. He was doing to run 2 miles a day interval style on the track for the next 13 days. That would be a full marathon over the course of two weeks! We would run on the track by our house and throw some speedwork in for a change of pace.

So 10 laps around our track is a little over 2 miles. Tonight we alternated between 2 slow laps, 2 fast, 2 slow, 2 fast, 2 slow.

Total Workout Time: 16:50
Total Mileage: 2.13miles
Avg Pace for Workout: 7:55 pace per mile, that includes the slow laps and fast laps combined.


So, I guess I celebrated Cinco de Mayo weekend with cinco fantastic workouts!