The bestest, raddest, funnest weekend!!!

Boy, this week has sure flown by. I meant to get this post done on Monday... Anyhow, last weekend totally rocked. Here's a re-cap:

Friday night: Margaritas! And super-humongous nachos at the Iron Horse with Jim, Jenny, Liz, Dan, Kevin, Mamie, and Chris. Sat on the patio, chatted, lounged. It was great. Those ‘ritas hit the spot!

Saturday early morning: Thanked myself for only having 2 drinks :) Felt great, got up early, enjoyed hanging out in the house with the windows open and a sweatshirt on, enjoying the cool morning before the onslaught of the sun. Washed dishes, did laundry, etc. Appreciated quiet time.

Saturday mid-to-late morning: Did some more bike shopping. Rode several different makes and models at several shops. All seemed “okay,” but not great. Even the higher-end ($2200) Ruby Elite I test-rode just didn’t seem as great as I remembered the Trek being last weekend. So I returned to Open Road bike store and asked to ride the Trek 2.1 again. As soon as I hopped on, I knew. It was my bike. I giggled the whole ride, and went back to the shop with wallet in hand.

Saturday afternoon: Headed up the Blackfoot to go kayaking with Kevin and Mamie. Had a blast! It was my first time in a kayak since 2002, and it was great. I really felt like I was better than I was before! Perhaps the arms and abs are useful for something besides just triathloning!

Saturday evening: Kev and Mamie joined Jim and I for a cookout at our house. On the menu was grilled BBQ chicken, fresh corn on the cob, a big green salad, and lima beans. De-lish. Made even better by the fact that Kev and Mamie did most of the work while I sat on the porch and got toasty off of two light beers :)

Sunday morning: Met Amy for a 2 hour (approx. 11 mile) run in the Rattlesnake. The first part of the run was pretty nice, but by the end it was really getting hot (like, oh, 80 or so). Ugh! I got a super painful side cramp for the last few miles, which put a damper on things. But otherwise the run was okay. Hard, though. Nice to have that over with. It was our longest run before our ½ mary on the 13th.

Sunday mid-day: Went to the Good Food Store for salad bar and bread after the run. Then went back to Open Road to meet my awesome bike salesman Arthur who came in on his day off to help me get acquainted with my new ride. We spent a little over an hour going over the mechanics, ideal gearing, maintenance, tire changing, brake care, etc. It was totally cool of him to help out like that (new bike, dubbed “McDreamy” for it’s dreamcicle colorations and dreamy feeling, wouldn’t fit in the car the day before, so I had to pick it up on Sunday).

Sunday afternoon: Joined Amy and Jenny for an afternoon at the water park! We had a blast riding water slides, lounging around the “Lazy River” on inner tubes, and even doing a few laps in the 50m pool. A great way to spend a hot afternoon!!!

Sunday evening: Tracked Jim down in the hay fields. Took him a much-appreciated bottle of COLD water and rode around with him for a bit while he baled hay. It’s a little loud, but at least the tractor’s air-conditioned, so it’s not a bad place to hang out and chat on a hot evening (okay, so not really, but it was the only chance to get to see him, as he was going to be working til after my bed time).

Whew, what a great weekend. Exhausting, though!

And, as a note, I did really well with my “mindful eating” program this weekend. While Friday was an intentional splurge night, I planned well the rest of the weekend and ate well, enjoying good, tasty foods, but watching my portion control. For example, on Saturday for dinner I had just one piece of chicken (rather than the two or three I would’ve normally eaten), and shared an ear of corn with Mamie, used a smaller than normal amount of dressing, and had just one serving of the delicious limas. No seconds. No dessert. Two beers. I went to bed feeling satisfied but not overly full, and felt great the next morning. Yay.

This coming weekend’s agenda:
Fri: Get up and run 8 miles, shower, then hit the road for Livingston. We’ll meet up with Jim’s mom at the rodeo grounds in Livingston, where his brother David will be working the rodeo as a pickup man. I love rodeos on the 4th of July—what better way to be All-American?! It’ll be nice, too, to spend some more time with David’s fiancé Sarah, whom we’ve only met once. We’ll share a model room with Jim’s mom that night (ooh, yeah, romantic, I know— we all decided that with gas prices and such, saving $100 on a room would be worth it for one night).

Sat: Drive down to Red Lodge and tool around for the afternoon, then attend Jim’s cousin’s wedding that evening. It’s at a super nice looking lodge, and we’ll have our own room for the night (no, we’re not TOTAL tight-wads), so that’ll be fun.

Sun: Head back to Missoula. Be glad to be home.
Then the next week I’ll be in Missoula for work the whole week, which will be nice. What will Jim and I do with all this time together?!?

The travel and weddings and such will present some challenges to the diet goals. Anyone got tips or suggestions for how to stay reasonably on track when out of your normal element? I’d love to hear them!