Swim, Run, and Valentine's Day Fun

As far as training has been going this week, it's chugging along just fine. On days that I swim, I usually hitch a ride to the pool from Mr. Sweetie, as it is on his way to work. This also prevents me from taking my sweet time when it comes to getting out of bed and getting moving - Mr. Sweetie is much more punctual than I am and he WILL leave without me. And then I would have to run to the pool. This morning I was really proud of myself because I got up early enough to fit a run in before we left for the pool at 6:40. This meant I had the evening free, free, free!!

Swimming is going fine, I swam with Kendra a few times and I'm starting to recognize alot of the regulars at the pool. I like running into people I know (or am getting to know) when I go to the pool because it makes me feel like I belong. Speaking of swimming, I bought a pair of fins last weekend. I haven't tried them out yet, but they are short ones and will hopefully be much less awkward during flip turns than the Scuba Steve flippers I usually borrow from the pool's flipper bin.

I've been doing short hill repeats every now and again during my run workouts - for these shorter repeats I've been going to the Walter Reed Dr hill (site of the long, not-so-fun hill repeats I do every so often). I think I need to take my shorter repeats to another hill because, after doing short ones, it's going to make the longer hill repeats (all the way to the top, not just halfway) feel mentally 100x harder. Speaking of running, I've been running to work here and there after swimming. It's not quite as scenic as when I run from my house (and end up going over the Memorial Bridge and down the Mall), but I've gotten to see more of downtown, non-touristy DC. The first few times I got a little turned around, which is sad considering the fact that DC is laid out like a grid and the streets are labeled in a very methodical way - nothing like Boston). But now I have a decent route mapped out and it's actually a pretty quick 6.5 miles.

Mr. Sweetie and I had a nice Valentine's Day. It's not a big holiday for either of us (I tend to only get squirrely about my birthday and Christmas when it comes to gifts). I gave up chocolate for Lent (womp womp, day before Valentine's Day, womp womp. And today there was chocolate cake in the 12th floor kitchen at work, womp womp woe is me) so he smartly decided against purchasing anything chocolate for me. I got up early and made him pancakes (and didn't put up a fight when he asked if he could take the leftover pancakes into work for a snack). He made homemade gnocchi for dinner that night. It was a typical evening, which was what made it so nice. It doesn't take a special occasion for Mr. Sweetie to make a yummy dinner, he simply does it because he knows I enjoy it and he likes to cook. That is true love.