Hoppy Easter!

This was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time. 

On Saturday, the sun and warmer temperatures made a long-awaited appearance in Portland.  Because Sunday was Easter, Jules and I made plans to do our long run on Saturday instead.  The plan was to run at least ten with an eye towards twelve; I was secretly hoping to sneak in the 14 miles that was on my training schedule. 

We ended up doing 10.63 miles.  I think we could've done more except we were getting much too warm and I had kinda sorta forgotten to eat anything beforehand.  It was one of the best runs I've had ever.  I think the change in blood pressure meds really made the difference.  Friday, it was as though a light was turned on inside of me.  Suddenly I wanted to cook dinner, and cook something healthy; I ended up making baked tilapia and brussel sprouts with bacon with a pint of fresh sliced strawberries for desssert.  When I was still a little hungry about an hour later, I had a banana rather than the brownies still sitting in my kitchen.  I was excited that I was going to run tomorrow, and I woke up early on Saturday still excited. 

We ran the Fanno Creek trail from the Denney trailhead in Beaverton down to the Tigard library and back.  I wished we'd started earlier in the day because we were both feeling so great.  Thankfully we ran through a park with a working drinking fountain so that we could re-fill our water bottles; I must have drank at least 80 oz on that run.  I burned through the 50 SPF I was wearing and through my white tech tee.  Jules and I have decided; next long run we start early!

Sunday I planned to bake up hamzilla.  I looked up recipes for mashed sweet potatoes and for a cucumber salad; I had to make a trip to the pharmacy so I decided I might as well pick up what I would need to make these recipes as well instead of just doing the usual.  Around 1:00 p.m. I checked my phone for the first time and had a message from my friend S who moved to Bend last fall; she and her husband were on their way up to Portland for a few days and did I want to do dinner?  I called back and we quickly made plans for them to come over here with another friend and I'd cook Easter dinner.  It was great!  I so rarely get to cook for anyone but myself.  We added in some roasted garlic bread for those among us who eat grains (I did have one piece) and then for dessert we had brownies (the rest are out in the trash, yay!) and fresh sliced strawberries.  Yum!

My blood pressure had been great.  I've been taking it at night, usually after hanging out on the couch for a couple of hours.  A few nights, it was so low I was tapping my wrist saying "Is this thing on?"  i mean, 111/55 is EXTREMELY low for me.  Tonight I took it shortly after company left, to see how it was after normal activity, and it was still good, 131/71.  The headaches have almost stopped.  It's been easier to wake up in the mornings and I've had much more energy.   Work will pick back up again in a couple of weeks, so I am hopeful I'll still feel this good when it does.

I hope you all had a hoppy easter!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl