30 miles!

Since I was off work this week and the weather was beautiful, I revolved my days around working out outside.  I worked out for the past 7 days straight!  I lifted weights four times and also ran, walked, and hiked 30 miles this week!  Mid-week, my legs were fairly sore since I hadn't run in a few weeks but I'm feeling so much better and look forward to my daily workouts.  I think I might take tomorrow off as I should give myself a rest day at some point.  I don't feel as though I need to rest but I've experienced workout burnout before and would like to avoid it as I am hitting a good stride right now.

I'm challenging myself to 30 miles in 6 days (Monday-Saturday) this week.  Unfortunately, it looks like the weather is going to be hot and humid here for the next week so it looks like I'll be hanging out on the hamster wheel (treadmill) if I can't get myself up and on the road early in the morning.  I am also planning another four days of lifting.

Yesterday, I took my annual trip to Door County with my mom.  We did a little shopping and completed an easy 7-mile hike in Newport State Park.  I will add a few photos at the end of this post from our hike.  It's so nice to get out in nature and get a good workout at the same time!   I was also excited to realize that my stamina has increased dramatically in the past few months.  Last summer, I did quite a few long hikes (9-12 miles) in the mountains but was just so dead by the end.  Granted, yesterday's hike was no mountain hike by a long shot, but I was really good to go afterwards.  I think I may have even uttered the words, "I could do that again easily!"

As always, we hit Door County Coffee & Tea first (my favorite!) and I picked up pumpkin coffee for this fall and a milk frother that I love!  For those gluten-freers out there, you'll be happy to know that there are quite a few restaurants in Door County that offer gluten free menus and options.  We ate lunch at Wild Tomato Pizza, which had wood fired (yum!) pizzas and gluten-free crusts.  We ate supper at The Cookery.  Coincidentally, we ate both lunch and supper in Fish Creek, but we were pretty hungry after our hike that we were just looking for a place that we knew we would like.  The Cookery had a pretty bad fire since the last time we were there and went from a country cafe to a funky restaurant but is still fantastic! 

Trumpeter Swans in Lake Michigan.  They may not look like it in the photo, but these things are huge!



Anyone notice the large amount of bumble bees this year?



Shell beach!  Literally, this entire beach was covered in a very thick (1 ft minimum) layer of shells!  So cool!



Door County is so beautiful!

Flowers near Lake Michigan.