On Saturday I finally had enough.

The week prior was my late shift week, which meant working 9-6 on Mondays through Thursdays and 10:15-6 on Fridays. I can see where people who like to sleep in would like those hours, but frankly, they’re horrible. Pretty much nothing happens after 5, getting home closer to 6:30 pretty much kills any evening plans, and by 10:15, half the morning is over.

I also learned there was an updated assignment schedule that I never got an email about, so I wasn’t even supposed to be on late shift that week anyways. I was pretty red around the ears on Friday.

I planned to run Saturday but the rest of my chores took over and physically, I just couldn’t do it. By 3 I still hadn’t had a shower and my boyfriend was coming over at 4:30 for the weekend together. No matter how much I try to keep up my apartment can never seem to stay clean and I had no meaningful time to myself in a week.

So I did the next best thing: I called my mom, cried and blew off all the resentments that were building up. I even cracked open a wine cooler to cool off – and because Mom sent me home with some Raspberry Smirnoff Ice and had been bugging me to try them.

They were good, by the way, although I can assure you all I won’t be developing any unsavory habits.

The weekend was a lot of fun once my boyfriend arrived. We finished up the Star Wars prequel trilogy and put away a frozen Donatos pizza and booze (well, he did. He loves Yuengling) Saturday night. On Sunday we both overslept and decided to go snoop through a house on the market before heading over the Slate Run Farms. Saturday night in Columbus was a monsoon and I had just enough foresight to carry my rain boots for Slate Run … but not actually put them on.

It was a muddy mess, but seeing the animals and petting the horses were worth it.

We also discovered a new restaurant just outside Canal Winchester on Oregon Rd, Blystone Farm and Butcher Shop. Blystone also has a bakery inside and an event center on the land. My boyfriend was impressed with the meat selections while I wanted to snoop around the bakery. Dinner last night was a homemade chicken pot pie, so we decided to get something to go from the bakery for dessert – apple pie for me, blueberry cheesecake for him.

Both were 10/10, would recommend.

Which brings me to today. I slept in a bit, thus killing my opportunity to go to the gym and use the treadmill, but then I remembered that it’s sunny and warming up a bit. So I would be an idiot if I didn’t go outside on my lunch hour and run.

Three miles done at my normal pace, 9:45 minutes per mile. I figured that I’d have to rebuilt my speed after a little over a month, so you all have no idea how elated I was to bounce right back into it.

The last time I ran outside was February 9th, but I was pleasantly surprised to find my body naturally fall back into the motions. This past week I couldn’t make it on the treadmill without wheezing and feeling faint, and for the last two weeks I’ve been having sharp pains in my calves whenever I would try to do anything active – run, use the elliptical, lift, etc.

On Saturday I was frustrated and feeling sorry for myself. Today I went through my day as normal – unbothered and in good spirits. I credit it all to going outside and running again after a maddening, unexpected break.

It’s three weeks to Carmel and seven weeks to Glass City. Time to roll.

– Allison

P.S. Here’s some animal pictures from Slate Run as well as my running selfie for your amusement.