18 Miler & Valentine's Day Celebration

I started off my weekend this morning with my longest long run so far for this training cycle, 18 mi. I was a little nervous because it was pretty cold out (temps in the teens) and it was lightly snowing which meant the dusting of snow on the ground would cause the roads to be slick. Luckily, it wasn't too bad after I warmed up the first few miles even though I had to run in the streets the whole time because the sidewalks were not clean. Typically for long runs 16 mi or greater, I have my fuel belt with me so I can carry water & sport beans, even though I hate wearing it, and today after about 10 mi, I passed my apartment and set it by my car because I knew I wasn't going to need it and it was driving me crazy. The only complaint I can note is that my glutes started to feel really tight about halfway through the run and it almost felt like they were cramping. This could be due to the fact I cannot eat anything before I run (so no breakfast otherwise my stomach gets upset, in fact, I never eat before I work out/run) and I only had a quick sip of water before I dropped off my fuel belt. My run was exactly 18 mi (thanks to my garmin 405, I love that thing!) and I did it in 2:35:29 which is 8:38 pace. I was very pleased with this since my goal was 8:30-8:45 pace. I didn't really check my splits that much while I was running because I just wanted to go by feel since I hadn't done a long run outside in 3 weeks but was happy looking back at my splits and seeing that I was consistently running between 8:36-8:42 pace.

After I showered and took a quick 30 minute nap, Todd & I started our Valentine's Day celebration. Well, I guess it started last night because he brought me some flowers and even though we weren't giving presents, I couldn't help but buy him a Dayton Flyers shirt since he doesn't have one. We also gave cards to each other which is really all I ever want. Fyi, I love Hallmark.

Todd and his Flyers t-shirt & gotchie
My beautiful flowers
I love that they weren't traditional red roses & they definitely brighten up my apartment too

We had a quick lunch at Winking Lizard before going to see Valentine's Day at the movies and eating lots of popcorn. I really liked this movie especially because all the story lines were intertwined, similar to Love Actually, one of my fave movies. A few of the story lines were predictable but there was one part at the end I wasn't expecting that had me tearing up.

After the movies, we went to Whole Foods to pick up some ingredients for our fondue. We had some prepping to do, such as grating all the cheese for the cheese fondue as well as making the soft pretzel balls for dipping before actually making it. We started with Four Cheese & Artichoke Fondue with soft pretzel balls & french bread slices for dipping. The four cheeses included goat, asiago, gruyere, and parmigiano reggiano. It was delicious!

Four Cheese & Artichoke Fondue

Fondue with homemade pretzel balls, french bread, and wine from our trip to Geneva in the fall

We planned on then having our main course (no fondue required) which we bought at Whole Foods. Todd had a Thai Coconut Panko Breaded Chicken Cutlet and I had a Sun-Dried Tomato Panko Breaded Chicken Cutlet, but we decided we weren't hungry enough to eat them though so we'll just save them for tomorrow night.

We ended the night watching the Olympics with Chocolate Fondue with strawberries, bananas, marshmellows, and mini brownie bites for dipping. Yum!!

Chocolate Fondue
Fondue with strawberries, marshmellows, bananas, and mini brownie bites

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!