A Happy Healthy New Me

I'm unusual for my age.  I turn 35 today and I find that I look forward to my birthday even more as an adult than I did as a kid.  Maybe it's because Christmas centers around my kids now, but I love my birthday.  In fact, as far as I'm concerned, I don't have one day to celebrate my birthday...I celebrate the whole weekend.  And this weekend turned into one of the best birthday weekends ever.

I kicked off "birthday weekend" with my free venti skinny 4 splenda extra shot of espresso hazelnut latte and, after work, headed to the gym for short intervals.  HA!  I have no idea why I bother planning these things sometimes.  My knee was still bothering me from the sub 11:00 mile (PR!) and 8 mile (PR!) runs earlier in the week and I accidentally packed the "pants on the ground" pants which are definitely NOT appropriate for intervals.  I made the best of it, went out WAY too fast on the first interval, but proceeded to modify my intervals for every other lap instead of 2 lap intervals.  I set a lap PR (that's 4 this week if you are counting!) and had a blast speeding around the track.  Imagine if I hadn't had to slow a little to pull my pants up at every turn.....I got home from the gym and got to open an awesome birthday present from one of my very good friends.  It was an OSU Mr. Potato Head.  Really?!?  How many people can say that they got a Mr. Potato Head for their 35th birthday??  :)  I was jazzed....

Saturday dawned with coffee and an outside run in the snow with the husband!!  Came home and immediately went out shopping for my BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!  What made me so excited about these shoes?  Well....they have toe pockets!!!  Yes, I am the proud new owner of Vibram Five Fingers.  The guy at the store was awesome and the second pair that I was planning on getting in the spring were 40% off so I ended up going home with two pair!!  See...birthday magic!  Saturday night, we went to the Big Bang Bar for drinks and all around great fun.  I was pleasantly surprised that the walk from the parking lot to the bar was easy peasy and could definitely tell that my running has had an impact on what I do in my daily life.

Sunday was one of the best days EVER.  One of the admins from fitocracy (seriously more addicting than FB) was coming to Columbus for his lifting tour.  So, Mike and I joined him and three other fitocrats for a day of lifting at OSU's RPAC.  I even got to lift in my new Vibrams!!!  We had a great time meeting new people and I got to learn how to squat, deadlift, row, press, and bench all in one day.  (Note: I'm very sore....)  We were definitely the newbies in the group but had a ball.  I'm definitely going to be working some lifting into my weekly routine to get me stronger.

Monday followed with my actual birthday.  What's on the fitness menu today?  HIKING!  Luckily, the weather held for us with no rain and no snow and 40 degree weather so Mike and I headed to Battelle Darby Metro Park for a nice moderate 5 mile hike.  Know what we found when we got there?  MUD!  In my new Vibram Treks (the trail shoe), I gleefully traisped through mud puddles, ice puddles, slippery mud, and off trail.  I had an enormous blast!  We are finishing the day with dinner at my favorite restaurant.

More than anything in my wonderful birthday weekend was that each and every day, the highlight was focused around something active.  I don't think I've ever had a birthday that was as much fun and filled with exercise as I did this year.  If this is what 35 looks like...I happily embrace it!!!  :)