An "and then I did this" post

Summer.
Ahhh.
It's bliss.

I didn't make the most of summer for a long time. Not during high school and certainly not during uni. I've gradually worked on doing more with my time, without burning myself out, of course. P's really come on board with this this year particularly, which is SO cool. I don't think I tried to effect these changes in him, but I never would have thought the man I fell in love with 2 1/2 years ago would be looking forward to a climbing Mt Arthur for my Grandfather's 80th, or kayaking in Abel Tasman for our next years holiday, or doing Xterra for his stag-do!

This weekend was a good 'un. Felt like a "proper" weekend, apart from the fact that we need to do some serious spring cleaning. Hmm.. Next Sunday? Mebbe.

Friday started with a 6am Boot Camp (beach drills.. I kicked some serious butt, and was happy to see 650 calories burned in the hour-long workout). I tucked into my current breakfast fave (Naturlea plain yoghurt with blueberries, almonds and runny honey- SOOOOO good), dressed in a sweet new outfit (being a size 12 is SO much better when you have size 12 clothes), and enjoyed a semi-productive but not too busy day at work. We decided to skip the pool after work, and instead grabbed some takeaways (accounted for in my calorie-count.. thank you Wisconsin for the "petite" option). After chilling at home for awhile, we saw Juno, with my sister and her boyfriend.

Saturday started early. Well, early for this lazy tri-girl, anyway. I met up with the Scottish crew at Khandallah pool at 8am and we headed out. I soon realised that I was not going to be keeping up with the pack (they were speeeeedy!), but fortunately Bel was also hanging back. We ran down to J'Ville, up Ohariu Rd, down to Rifle Range road, then up RR and up the Old Coach Road to the Skyline walkway entrance. It was a nice climb, not as hard as Belmont, but not easy. Running at Bel's pace rather than trying to keep up with the main pack meant I kept my average HR around 154, which was OK with me. We ended up doing about 1:40, so about what I wanted to do. I love 90-100 minute runs. Long enough to go to a lot of places/have an adventure, but short enough that you can do two in a weekend (unlike the 3-4 hour runs of marathon training season). P and I had brunch at Sweet Mothers (not as good as expected...) then headed home to get prettied up.

My baby sister's 21st was out in Kaitoke, which I LOVE. I had my 21st there, and my Dad got married there. The weather wasn't ideal, but it wasn't wet, and everyone had a great time. I was reasonably restrained, both food and alcohol-wise, although I didn't actually count calories. Too hard, too not fun. My speech was pretty lame, but R loved the (lame) short story I wrote for her (family tradition), and immediately picked up that I was channelling Ann M Martin. P, D and I went for a quick swim in the river after dinner. Lovely.

We camped overnight ($5 each-sweet!). Haven't slept in a tent for years, and it wasn't too bad. Woke up early, went for another river swim, enjoyed cereal and tinned fruit for breakfast (camping nostalgia moment), then helped pack up for a bit before heading out for my run. I ran the Kaitoke ridge track, from one entrance to the park to the other. The run was great. Hard uphill (I walked most of it, with my heart rate in the 170s), a nice run along the ridge, and a not-too-technical downhill. All up I was out for about 90-100 minutes. Met the family at the blueberry farm/mexican cafe, where I got a couple of birthday presents, ate some fabulous Chillequiles, picked a ton of blueberries, and went back into the river. Lovely!

Back to work tomorrow, and boot camp. Turns out tomorrow's a Tinakori hill day. Ow!