A birthday among other things...

Yesterday I quietly turned 32. The day came and went without much fanfare or reflection. Our long run on Saturday morning was at Enchanted Rock, so we drove out to Fredericksburg on Friday after work so that we wouldn't have to make the drive early Saturday morning. We had a delicious pasta dinner out there on Friday then called it an early night at a local B&B. We met up with our group shortly after 8am at Enchanted Rock to get the route then off we went. We started out running around the perimeter before the climb up.
Despite the amazingly hot temps (and minimal tree cover), I felt really good and had a strong run overall. We came up the back side of the rock and finally there was really only way to go...up and over. Once I realized what we had to do, I wanted to stop and cry like a baby. I was terrified of sliding down because the surface was so smooth in some places that it was difficult to get a good footing. Seriously, the only way that I made it up was with group courage. Thankfully, I was with others at that point.
Once we made it off the rock, we stopped to refuel/hydrate then went out again for a shorter loop (avoiding the rock this time!). I was on my own and took a wrong turn so I just headed back the way that I came with a little extra mileage tacked on for good measure.

After the run, we headed back to Fredericksburg to quickly get cleaned up before we had to check-out then had lunch at Cranky Frank's BBQ. The food was yummy, and we even got a t-shirt from the restaurant for K's dad who is indeed "Cranky Frank."
Since I hadn't been to Fredericksburg before, we decided to spend a couple of hours window-shopping down Main Street. I didn't get a post-run nap though so I was on my way to turning into "Cranky Mel," so we headed back to Austin in the late afternoon. No elaborate birthday dinner either...K just picked up pizza for us instead. I think I was in bed by 10pm for the second Saturday in a row.

Overall, I'm still happy with my running right now. I'm getting all my runs in, even with everything else we have going on. For example, I knew we wanted to get on the road quickly after work on Friday so I did something that I *never* do - I got up early and ran before work. And, I realized that I much prefer running in the higher temps of the evening than in the higher humidity of the morning. I enjoyed sleeping in this morning and did my 6-mile run on the Greenbelt this evening instead. I also got a much needed massage today.

In wedding news, we'll hit the 30-day mark in a few days. We had our walk-through at the venue with the caterer last week. I think it was supposed to reduce my anxiety to know that they have things under control, but it had the opposite effect - it raised my anxiety because there's still many things to do and we're quite simply running out of time, especially when you factor in running and my upcoming teaching gig.

An interesting proposal has recently come up at work. The County is considering allowing some employees in certain roles to shift to a 4-day 10-hour work week. When my supervisor initially told me about it, I assumed that it would only apply to line staff in my unit and not necessarily to me. But, I am eligible to be considered for it. So, K and I have talked about it, but I'm still not sure that I'm gung-ho about it for several reasons. I'd probably be willing to give it a try (if it goes forward) to see how it would work, but I'm still not sold on it. It is a nice change of pace though to know that they are actually considering something like this.