Chronic of an amazing weekend and LR!

We had a fantastic weekend! It felt like a mini vacation, seriously. I am still reflecting what makes a recharging weekend as I want more of it. 🙂

It started with an easy run which ended up not so easy. This was not a good sign as I had 16 miles long run workout the next day. I was worried that the high mileage last week is taking a toll on me.

Putting worries aside, I took the girls to the mall as the small adventure for the weekend. Sofia wanted to buy a gift to her teacher so we explored few stores, got gifts, got a new pair of jeans short for Sofia and decided for Japanese for lunch. The girls love going to sushi restaurant with sushi going around so they can choose what they like. We also got ramen, pan fried vegetables and edamame and seaweed.

I tried this salad which was out of this world! I loved it so much that right after I got home I googled recipe to recreate it.

Once home, girls did their kumons while I did some reading and spent two hours in bed watching a chinese tv series that is fantastic! That was a good rest for my legs, I guess.

Then my BFF called me and we talked for over an hour. So much to catch up! The talk with her really boosted my spirit, which was a bit low this week. That’s the magic of life long friendship, that changed my outlook and got me excited for what to come.

I had my usual pre long run dinner: vegetable dumplings and bean porridge. Went to sleep 8:30pm.

Sunday

I slept ok and told myself that I’ll have a good run today, regardless of what oura ring tells me. Fun fact: when I have a hard workout or long run, I get anxious and nervous, thus my readiness is down which reflects more my mental state than my physical one. I’ve realized this for few months and now pay less attention to readiness for Sundays. This article came on the right time. I was determined to ignore the negative voice, which has been present in the last two 16 milers, which left me defeated and exhausted. BUT no more.

The air quality was fantastic too! We rarely see green.

I had toasts, prepared my camel bag, packed fuel, sunscreen sticks and got ready.

That was the strongest run I felt for a long time. 7 miles easy run to warm up, 10 min marathon pace, which I’m not sure what it is, 1 mile easy, another 10 min MP and 6 miles easy. I surely went out too fast for MP segment and had to slowdown. Still too fast! I decided to ignore the watch and ran by feel, 7-8 RPE effort. The miles went by so fast and those last 6 miles felt so easy! I actually did 14.5 miles by the time I met Sofia, and then ran 2.8 miles with her to cool down. I absolutely loved this run! It’s all mental, no? If I started to doubt myself, then I would have felt the pain more. Since I wasn’t allowing that voice to come today, I felt amazing and barely felt my legs or any soreness!

Sofia also enjoyed the run, especially after she got a drink in those food stands. We got our usual snacks and went home, satisfied, happy.

After shower and breakfast, I took the girls to the pool for Lizzy’s exercise time. Sofia swam few laps and chill! That look felt vacation, right?

then we went to groceries store to get lunch ingredients. Few more status to “play” with

lunch was gado dado with tempeh (Indonesia salad with peanut sauce) and Hainan chicken, girls’ favorite.

For the rest of the day, I curled up to watch few more episodes of Blossoms Shanghai. It’s sooooo well made, nostalgia of the Shanghai I grew up with. It portraits part of the culture change that I wasn’t aware at the time (I was 10 years old), and subtle local customs and cultures that I miss.

What an amazing weekend. Now I feel recharged and energized to start the week, knowing that next weekend/vacation is just around the corner. 😀