A Birthday Getaway..

I know you've all been sitting hovered over your laptops, hitting refresh again and again in hopes a new post would appear. And if you haven't, lie to me and tell me you have.

Caitlyn is enjoying sunny Florida this week with her dad, so I decided to escape to Stowe for a few days as well. The boyfriend and I packed up and left Massachusetts in our dust early Monday morning, for a week of running, cycling, hiking, swimming, and kayaking. What? You thought I actually RELAX on vacation? Nonsense my bloggy friends, nonsense.

It was a simply fabulous few days, and my body is sufficiently trashed. We went on a great hike when we arrived in Stowe on Monday. It was a steep technical hike that made me engage muscles I never use. Yeah, not so warm and fuzzy feeling. And you HAD to know that the trail we took was appropriately named "Hell Brook". Right.

As a reward for our hard work, we fed our my sore muscles table side guacamole and margaritas. Delish.

Tuesday I woke up early enough to get in my double digit marathon training mileage, and then geared up to summit Mount Mansfield. My legs were sore, but I told them we were sending off year 31 in style, and they should probably just lock it up. They eventually gave into my whining.

The hiking Tuesday was a perfect mix of gorgeous and challenging. Lots of steep rocky sections, mixed with a few flat sections that allowed you to gulp water and chow on swedish fish. Don't judge. And the pay off was this view at the top. Perfection.

Wednesday was all birthday happiness. An early birthday run with perfect weather for this newly appointed 32 year old; a cool 60ish degrees along a bike path winding me around very cool parts of Stowe. A ridiculously fabulously awesome pancake breakfast (banana chocolate chip, thankyouverymuch), and then we were on a mission to find water. I was in need of an open water birthday swim. We were lucky enough to land at a reservoir in Waterbury that allowed me to swim about 2 miles. For someone that's only swam twice this season, I'm lucky my arms didn't fall right off. I asked Phil to canoe in front of me, so I wouldn't get taken out by any of the recreational toys in the water; secretly it was to act as a bail-out device for me, should my shoulders wave the white flag. They hung on, and I was in heaven.

As for birthday dinner? Un-freaking-believable. I ate dessert AND had a boozed filled coffee. In addition to a bottle of wine. Yeah, thats right. And enjoyed every last 28746582 calories.

We left Stowe today, but not after a last run on the Stowe bike path. Upon our arrival back in Massachusetts, I was able to squeak out the last few miles of this double run day; I'm finishing up my mini-vacation cozied up with some Phish Food Ben & Jerry's fro-yo (I can't quit Vermont quite yet) and a pre-season Patriots game. Glorious.

One day in, and year 32 is pretty damn awesome.

Happy Training!