Weekend Recap & a Major Case of Runners Block

People keep asking me how my Thanksgiving was and I've got a pretty solid reply that I'm sticking with. Thanksgiving was great, but a four day weekend was spectacular. I'm seriously considering drafting a very official request proposing that all weekends consist of four days and all work weeks consist of three. I will let you all sign it and then send it to the president. Or the Senate. Or Oprah. I don't know. Who makes those decisions?

Black Friday began the best way I know how: SLEEPING IN! There is absolutely nothing in the world that I need badly enough to warrant getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to wait in a line to purchase. So after lazying around for awhile, Tay and I decided to go see Red Dawn, which was actually pretty stinkin' good. I may be a slightly biased critic though. I mean, Chris Hemsworth was in it. I'm pretty sure I could watch him clip his toenails for two hours and still be entertained.

That evening, we headed to Midlothian (with Taylor's roommate Jordan and his lovely girlfriend Morgan) to visit and have dinner with some friendsies. (New word I'm trying out. Go with it.)

After stuffing my face with the world's best shrimp tacos at Campuzano's, we went back to their cute little house to hang out and catch up. They were needing a little help taking a Christmas card picture with their ginormous great dane. Lucky for you I captured the entertaining magic that was this photo-sesh:

It took fifteen minutes of Taylor's weird and unsanitary hand to mouth noises, Jordan's arm flapping, and about a hundred high pitched "Here Molly!"'s to get this dog to take a picture.

HILARIOUS.

After all that, we headed back to Fort Worth with a little pit-stop to satisfy some serious ice cream cravings.

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP.
BEST ICE CREAM FLAVOR OF ALL TIME. 

He wouldn't share his fries with me because
he insisted on dipping them in his milkshake.
Rude and brilliant.

Ice cream is melting. No time for smiling.

So we're just sitting at Braum's, enjoying our ice cream and making fun of the teenagers making out three booths down, when Jordan whips out his straw, sticks it in his armpit, and says :

"Hey did y'all ever use to do this when you were little?" 

Um, no, but I'm definitely going to start. Instant conversation saver.

Saturday I got up semi-early to attempt to tackle a seven mile run on some trails out in Keller where Taylor lives. Because Taylor is 100% man, and has absolutely nothing edible in his entire house, I was doing this one on an empty stomach. It was cold, windy, and awful. The minute I stepped on the path, I was miserable. I was nauseous, exhausted, sore, out of breath. Take all of the negative words you can wrap your mind around and they applied to me. I went a slow, miserable four miles before I had to stop. I felt terrible. I was in tears, and just felt so incredibly defeated. I walked two more miles before I called it quits and met back up with Taylor. We were talking and I just kept saying I have no idea how people play team sports. Because when I fail to achieve a goal I've set (in this a 7 mile run) I am so mad. Like irate. And I have only myself to blame. It was so frustrating for me to have had the best run of my entire life on Thanksgiving morning, and then 48 hours later, to feel like I'd never run a day in my life. Mentally it was exhausting. Luckily Taylor is a sweetheart and helped to get me out of my funk and put a smile back on my face. So I just told myself I'd get back on track and try again the next day. 

Saturday evening we headed over for a birthday dinner with some of Taylor's oldest family friends and some of my favorite people in the entire freaking world. Seriously, greatest people EVER. Our friends just had a gorgeous gorgeous baby girl, so we all took turns oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over this sweet thing all night.

 And Taylor held his first baby ever.

If this doesn't melt your heart then you are a robot.

Sunday afternoon I headed home, and got ready for my run. I worked so hard at pumping myself up mentally and forcing myself to think super positively, and I headed out on the trails with a really strong mindset. About three miles in, I hit a brick wall. Total runners block. The wind felt like it was gusting 100mph in my face, my body ached, I felt weak. An absolute nightmare. I stopped just a little after four miles, and walked the last three with tears in my eyes and probably the worst attitude ever. 

I don't know what is wrong with me, and with the 10k coming up this Saturday, this couldn't really be any worse timing. I think I might just be getting a little burned out. It's hard to run alone all the time, and I really feel like I'm craving a little bit of a partnership/accountability. I think that's why I'm so obsessed with blog stalking all these inspiring runners. I decided today that I wasn't going to try to run (crying at the gym is embarrassing), so I spent some time on the elliptical tonight, and with the 10k coming up Saturday here are my Monday Mileage Goals:

Monday: 3 easy miles on elliptical

Tuesday: 6 miles ('mill run)

Wednesday: Elliptical/lots of stretching

Thursday: 3-4 miles ('mill run)

Friday: Rest/Carb Loading

Saturday: 10k Race Day!

So even though I had a fantastic holiday weekend, running wise, it was a definite low point for me, and I could definitely use some encouragement. But on the bright side, only 28 days until Christmas!

Anyone ever experienced this "runner's block"? How did you get over that slump??

What's your favorite ice cream flavor? 

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat