Life, Love, and Marathons: August 2011

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Wedding Part 1: Rehearsal Dinner

Now that Todd & I are back from our honeymoon, I'm hoping to get my life back under control and get back to blogging on a more consistent basis. With that being said, my next few posts are going to be wedding-related, starting with our rehearsal dinner.

Our rehearsal started at 5:30 PM on Friday, August 19 at St. Joan of Arc Church and of course, as soon as people were pulling in the parking lot, it started pouring down rain. I honestly hadn't seen it rain this hard in a long time and it seemed to stop as soon as everyone got into the church. Needless to say, a lot of people were soaking wet, especially Todd who was going out to help people in with an umbrella.

Despite the rain, the rehearsal went off without a hitch and I was so excited for our actual wedding the next day.

Hanging out with Megan, one of my bridesmaids, and Lynn, my Matron of Honor, beforehand

Todd picked out his outfit himself and it matched our wedding colors perfectly

Practicing putting the rings on

In front of the sign outside the church congratulating Todd & I

Immediately following the rehearsal at the church, our bridal party, parents, siblings, and grandmothers headed a few miles down the road for our rehearsal dinner at Luce. The food was outstanding, the wine was great, and everyone had a really good time. All in all, it was a perfect evening to kick off our wedding festivities.

Todd & I enjoying a few minutes together

My cousins, aunt, and grandma

Todd's family

Todd's groomsmen plus their significant others

My bridesmaids plus their significant others

Toasting to a great evening

Todd & I had a display set up with our homebrew as well as the article from the newspaper

We also had cookies to give as favors

Todd & I thanking everyone for coming and explaining the homebrew

Bridesmaids opening up their gifts

Groomsmen showing off some of their gifts

Hanging out with my cousins from Phoenix...our flower girl was Ellie, the one on the bottom right

My Grandma and I

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Weekly Recap: August 22-28

One word sums up this week of workouts: HONEYMOON!

Monday: REST

Tuesday: 5 mi (8:08 pace)

Wednesday: Total body circuit (30 min)

Thursday: 7 mi (8:08 pace)

Friday: 15 min bike; 4 mi (7:54 pace)

Saturday: REST

Sunday: 5 mi (8:05 pace)

TOTAL: 21 mi

**All runs done on the treadmill at resort in St. Lucia**

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Sneak Preview of Our Wedding

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect and I couldn't have asked for a better day! Our photographer gave us a flash drive at the end of the evening with a few pictures to hold us over until we get all of them in a month or so.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Weekly Recap: August 15-21

It didn't matter if I didn't run or work out once this past week because Saturday was, by far, the best day of my life. I became Todd's wife and it was a perfect day. Of course, I did get up early that morning to run with one of my bridesmaids but it was a relaxing run and help calm any nerves I had. I'm sure my mileage won't be outstanding this week either as Todd & I relax in St. Lucia on our honeymoon.

Monday: 8 mi (7:59 pace)

Tuesday: taught 1 hr Spin/TRX combo class

Wednesday: 7 mi (3 x 1 mile: 7:29, 7:11, 7:04; 7:39 average pace)

Thursday: taught 1 hr Spin/TRX combo class
Insanity Pure Cardio (40 min)

Friday: 7 mi (8:01 pace)

Saturday: WEDDING DAY--4 mi w/ Emily (8:41 pace)

Sunday: REST

TOTAL: 26 mi

Friday, August 19, 2011

Last Minute Details

In exactly 24 hours from now (2:30 PM), I'll be walking down the aisle about to become Todd's wife! With that being said, the past 24 hours for Todd & I have been busy with running errands to make sure every last detail is perfect.

We stocked up on beer for the bridal party on the trolley between the ceremony and reception

We picked up our cookies for the rehearsal dinner

Cookout at my parent's house with some of my family who had flown in from San Francisco, Phoenix, and Houston

Pedicure....

and manicure!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Wedding Wednesday

Seriously, please tell me where the last 11 months went? With just a mere 3 days until I marry an amazing man (clearly, I'm biased), the time has flown by. Now granted, last fall when we had just started planning our wedding, August 20, 2011 seemed like it would never get here and you know what? Now that it's almost here, it's like I don't want it to be here because I don't want it all to be over. I can only imagine the slight "depression" that ensues once the big days has come and gone. I mean, I get like that after running a marathon and I've only committed a few months to training, not an entire year of planning! There hasn't been one day since Todd & I got engaged on September 19, 2010 that I haven't thought about or planned something for the wedding. Looks like I need a project to occupy my time once we get back from our honeymoon.

So with a few days to go, I am officially stress free and done with all major projects wedding-related. After work yesterday, I went over to my parent's house and my mom & I made all of the hotel welcome bags for our guests staying at the hotel where we have a room block. We made about 35 bags and I think they turned out great.....and just in time for our first guests to arrive this afternoon! My Grandma along with my aunt, uncle, and cousin from Houston will be here shortly followed by my family from Phoenix, including the flower girl.

Setting up all the goodies

Bottled water, pretzels, gum, mints, granola bars, buckeye candies, Cheryl's Cookies, info about Columbus, and a special note from Todd & I

All the bags stuffed

The final product complete with tissue paper and a monogram tag

Monday, August 15, 2011

Weekly Recap: August 8-14

Overall, I had a great week of workouts. I was very surprised at my morning 6 mile run on Wednesday when I ran my last mile in 7:15 and felt strong and potentially could have run it faster. I was planning on running Thursday afternoon but we ended up scheduling a meeting for our wedding and the run was moved up to Wednesday afternoon. I was a little hesitant to run a double that day with my history of injuries but, knock on wood, my legs have felt great recently and the 2-a-day on Wednesday was fine. I ended my running for the week with a 17 miler on Saturday morning in 8:15 pace. Not bad for my longest run since the marathon back in October!

Monday: 6 mi (8:11 pace)

Tuesday: taught 1 hr Spin/TRX combo class
Insanity Pure Cardio (40 min)

Wednesday: 6 mi (8:10 pace; 4 mi w/ Todd & 2 mi by myself in 7:45, 7:15)
4 mi (8:13 pace)

Thursday: taught 1 hr Spin/TRX combo class

Friday: Insanity Power Cardio & Resistance (40 min)

Saturday: 17 mi (8:15 pace)

Sunday: taught 20 min core & taught 50 min spinning

TOTAL: 33 mi

Sunday, August 14, 2011

My Last Weekend as a Single Woman

I cannot believe Todd & I are 6 days away from our wedding! Luckily, the stress levels are pretty low right now and we're both just excited to celebrate with our friends and family.

So what did I do on my last weekend before becoming a Mrs?

Ran 17 miles early yesterday morning

I had to restart my Garmin after the first mile so my watch says I only did 16 but I actually did 17 miles in 2:20 which is 8:15 pace

We spent a lot of Saturday cutting our place cards and gluing them on colored cardstock

We had place cards everywhere!

After hanging out at the pool for a couple hours, we had our last date night as an engaged couple at Lemongrass Fusion Bistro

Sushi to start with

Followed by the most amazing Pad Thai

Todd had seared Ahi tuna

Today, I taught my normal core & spinning class then headed home to finish the place cards....we had to glue them all into the wine corks and alphabetize them

176 place cards done & ready to go!

You can kinda see the wine corks in this one....we actually had saved all the wine corks from bottles we had drank since we started dating and my brother sent us quite a few too!

6 days to go!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Beer Tasting at House Wine

A couple nights ago, Todd & I ventured over to House Wine in Worthington for a beer tasting. I know, kinda ironic to go to a beer tasting at a wine bar but House Wine supports a lot of local businesses, such as Rockmill Brewery. I'd heard about this new microbrewery last fall but it is run by one guy and he doesn't have the right liquor license for tours so when we found out there was a tasting at House Wine, we jumped all over it. Or rather, I told Todd and he jumped all over the chance to go. I actually had a glass of wine while we were there. Anyways, the tasting was $15 for 4 beers as well as a cheese or chocolate pairing. Todd really enjoyed the beers and I'm sure I'll be seeing some show up in our fridge soon.

Inside of House Wine

The owner of Rockmill Brewery pouring the beer and explaining what kind of beer it is (he makes all Belgium beers)

The cheese & chocolate pairings....I might have snuck a piece or two from Todd's plate

Todd enjoying one of his beers

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