Happy Monday! I'm back from a weekend in Minneapolis where I attended my friend Kelly's wedding. This past week was crazy low mileage--6.7 miles!--but I got in some other good workouts. This was the first week where daylight saving time ended and, while it sucks that it gets dark so early, I do love that it's lighter in the mornings. I still run so early that I'm running in the dark, but at least it's starting to get light when I'm ending my run. I'll take it! Here's the recap.
Monday
30 minutes Yin Yoga
45 minutes plyometrics strength training
Tuesday
Pace Run: 3.55 miles, 39 minutes, 10:52 pace
Wednesday
30 minute cardio with plyometrics and a Bosu ball
Thursday
30 minutes core and butt strength training
This should have been a run day, but it rained all day and since I'm not training for a race, it was easy to skip my run. I focused instead on strength training to target my core and butt. My core was sore the next day, so it was a great workout. I do have to admit that I was bummed about not running--a combination of guilt and sadness.
Friday
We flew to Minneapolis so I didn't have time to work out in the morning. We got in and took the quick and easy light rail to our hotel in the Mill District. It was lunch time when we checked in, so we headed over to Kindee, a Thai restaurant around the corner from our hotel, where I ate an absolutely amazing butternut squash curry. This would be the first of many awesome meals over the weekend!
After lunch, we walked into Downtown. We visited my friend two summers ago but hadn't seen Downtown, so we spent the afternoon exploring. Unfortunately, it was very cold and windy. I think it did get into the 40s, but the wind made it feel like the 30s.
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| I loved the holiday planters throughout Downtown Minneapolis. |
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Pedestrian bridges connect most buildings Downtown so that people don't
have to go outside in the frigid winters. |
After walking through Downtown, we walked across the bridge that goes over the Mississippi River to the Northeast neighborhood, where there are lots of restaurants and bars. My Vegin Out Guide app, which locates vegan and vegetarian restaurants based on your location, took us to The Bulldog Northeast. They serve burgers, hot dogs, and pizza and have vegan versions of all those things. I ordered a homemade vegan burger, which was awesome. After dinner we walked back through the St. Anthony Main neighborhood to our hotel and spent the night watching bad cable TV--a treat for us since we have only a digital antenna and get about four channels.
Saturday
I started the day with a 3.15 run on the Heritage Trail, which goes past Mill City Ruins, across the Stone Arch Bridge, through St. Anthony Main, and back. It was actually warmer than Pittsburgh according to my weather app, but the wind made it seem extremely cold and I was literally in tears for most of the run because of the cold wind. Still, it's always nice to explore new places while running, so I enjoyed it.
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| Stone Arch Bridge behind me |
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| The trail leading up to Mill City Ruins |
After my run we walked to Downtown again to have brunch at Pizza Luce. They have vegan options, and I ordered the veganized Breakfast Pizza, which had hash browns, onions, vegan cheese, and vegan sausage. I think this would be easy to make at home.
If you've never been to Minneapolis, you don't quite know what the phrase "really into biking" means (unless you are from or are familiar with Boulder, Denver, or Amsterdam, which are similar). The city has an entire infrastructure built for bikes--separate highways just for bikes complete with on-ramps and off-ramps. It is completely different than in Pittsburgh, where you have to share narrow roads with cars. Plus, Minneapolis is pretty much completely flat. So while I'm terrified of biking on the streets in Pittsburgh, I loved biking in Minneapolis when we were there two summers ago. I would love to bike there again, but it was just too cold this past weekend. So on Saturday after lunch, we walked around a part of Downtown we hadn't seen and then through the Mill City section near where we stayed. We were bundled up in heavy coats, hats, and gloves and were still cold! Again it was about 40 but it was very windy, which made it seem much worse.
Minneapolis used to have a lot of flour mills, and now there are ruins of many of those mills. Much of the ruins are preserved, and there is now a Mill City Museum built on the site of one of the ruins. It's really cool to see.
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Pedestrian-only Stone Arch Bridge across the Mississippi River, leading from Mill City to
St. Anthony Main. |
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| Me in the courtyard of one of the mill ruins that now houses Mill City Museum |
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| Sign at Mill City Ruins |
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| Sign at the top of the ruins |
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| The new part of Mill City Museum connected to the ruins |
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| On Hennepin Avenue, going into the Northeast neighborhood |
We got back to the hotel with time to relax and regroup for a few hours before leaving to go to the wedding venue, which was just down the block from our hotel. The wedding started at 6 p.m. and the reception was in the same location. My friend Kelly works for the City of Minneapolis, and she asked Mayor Betsy Hodges to officiate, and she agreed!
I loved so many things about the wedding. The venue was candlelit, creating a wonderful ambiance. I loved their vows, and one really stuck with me: "I promise to love you for who you are now and for who you'll be in the future." People change and grow, and I believe it's so essential for spouses to grow together and support their partners as they change. I also loved the readings. Kelly and Dan had both written what they were looking for in a life partner before they ever met. They were read at the ceremony, and it was beautiful to hear how similar they were.
If I had to describe Kelly in one word it would be "fun." And when I met her fiance Dan this summer, I realized the same adjective could be applied to him. So it was no surprise when they ended the ceremony with a fun dance down the aisle!
They are both vegetarians, so there was a buffet of vegetarian and vegan food. Perfect! After dinner, they kicked off dancing with a special guest--a young boy dressed like Michael Jackson who performed to Billie Jean. He was incredible!!!! It turns out that Kelly saw him performing at a festival and asked him to perform at her wedding. He actually hung around for most of the night so that we were all dancing with a mini Michael Jackson.
From then until the rest of the night, it was pretty much straight dancing and was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take my heels off until late in the night, and when I did my feet were in agony when they straightened out. I almost thought I'd broken my toes! Since then I've been doing a lot of the toes pose from yoga and think my toes are finally back to normal.
Overall, I had a blast, and it was one of the funnest weddings I've been to, which was a perfect extension of Kelly and Dan's personalities.
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| The newlyweds, Dan and Kelly |
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| Newlyweds Dan and Kelly with me and my husband Dave |
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| Dancing! The four of us came from Pittsburgh and DC for the wedding. |
Sunday
Sunday was a travel day, so you know how fun that was. At least we had a later flight so got to sleep in. After we got home we drove to Greensburg to pick up Django where he stayed with his two greyhound friends (and had a blast, as always) and didn't get back until late.
It was a fun weekend, but I'm eager to get back to my routine this week. Happy running and working out this week!Labels: minneapolis, vacation, wedding, weekend running, weekly recap
