Friday ended up being a very strange, somewhat stressful work day, so I was REAL glad I had a secret bag of candy in my purse.  

SKB

made these cute little bags & passed them out at Pancake.  Treat yo self!

On Saturday morning, I went to the Y & did yoga with Lana & then stayed & did strength training.  I've missed the last 2 weeks of yoga, so it was good to be back.  I even did a handstand!  Well, kind of.  Lana had to hold my legs up once I got them up, but I got them up!

Post work-out, I hightailed it to Smyrna for my twin nieces' 4th birthday.  My favorite picture of Hannah & Hailey is actually from their birthday last year when they both freaked out when we started signing 'Happy Birthday' to them.  Picture

here

.  They held it together this year.  Barely.

John & I had tickets to see Ira Glass on Saturday night, so we treated it as a belated Valentine's Day & grabbed a nice dinner beforehand.  I'm a long-time fan of

This American Life

, but I had no idea what to expect from this show.  Ira was great!  He was funny, engaging & played lots of clips from past shows, including a hilarious, never-aired poem by David Sedaris.  It was a good night!

I typically run my Sunday long runs with a fairly large group of women, but basically no one could run yesterday, so...  it wasn't looking good for my 8 mile run.  Kristine took one for the team & met me in Maryland Farms to run & swim.  Kristine, tired from a Saturday race & sore from a fall, stopped at 5 miles.  I stopped with her & after a few seconds, realized that A) I needed to run 8 miles & B) I need to work on my mental toughness.  So I bid Kristine adieu, restarted my watch & took off.

I told myself I'd just run one more mile, that I could run one mile by myself with no music.  But when I got to one mile, I felt okay, so I kept going & I ran the whole 3 miles!  Y'all, this is a HUGE step for me.  I ran 3 miles alone, with no music & no route.  I did still talk, because, of course I did.  I passed a bunch of geese & talked to them:  "Hey Goose, how are you doing?  Good looking feathers.  Say hi to your mother."

After my run, I went into the Maryland Farms Y & met Kristine in the pool for a 30 minute, 1000m swim.  Turns out, my coach is right - swimming after a long run is kind of awesome.  Speaking of my coach, this was my first full week training with her.  It's funny, it's the same amount of exercise that I was already doing, but I feel like a total badass.  I mean, I am riding my road bike in my living room twice a week.  That shit is legit.

Oh, & because this is the only thing people care about - I started

House Of Cards

season two.  I only had time to watch the first 2 episodes, but holy crap the first episode!