My favorite way to spend my Saturday mornings is doing something crazy fun and fitness-related.

Usually that just ends up being a long run, nothing fancy or special, but this weekend, I went all out and had one crazy day of fitness.

It started off with the Four Courts Four Miler race on Saturday morning.


This is another Pacer's sponsored race. They hands-down put on some of the best races in the D.C.-area. They're well organized, have fun themes and usually offer some pretty great race swag.


The course itself is just an out and back. It's two miles downhill and then you turn around and run those two miles uphill.



To give you an idea of how steep the first hill is, I clocked my first mile 7:36. It was literally impossible to run slowly down that hill.

To add to the fun and festive St. Patrick's Day theme, 20 minutes after the gun, one lone, super speedy runner starts and is accompanied by a leprechaun on a scooter. For every person the runner passes, Pacers donates money to charity.


I didn't think I stood much of a chance of beating the leprechaun because I wasn't planning to "race" this race. But somehow I was able to hold on to my super speedy start time, even up that brutal hill at the end of the race.

I finished in 33:33, an 8:24 average pace per mile, and well before the leprechaun! Whooop!


After meandering around the Irish bar after the race, my friend Zach and I fueled up with some bagels, and set out to run two more miles to get in my long run distance for the weekend.



We ended our two miles in Arlington at my favorite spin studio, Revolve.


You might remember I tried a class there a while back and totally loved it. So I was thrilled to see they were offering a free community class on a day I was already going to be in Virginia.

I rarely "cross the river" from the Maryland/D.C. side into Virginia, but since I was there for the race already, I figured I couldn't pass up a chance to spin.

After less than 15 minutes of spin, my quads were expressing their extreme displeasure with me. I looked over at Zach who looked like he wanted to murder me for coming up with such a ridiculous plan. Apparently his legs were hurting too.


The class was a complete sweatfest but other than my quads hating me, it was awesome. Can I mention again how much I love cycling in clipless shoes?


So as if running a race, tacking on two more miles and then hitting a spin class wasn't enough, I rounded out my day of fitness with an 8-minute run after spin to get to my friend's apartment.

I collapsed on his sofa in a complete heap of uselessness and spent a little while there watching the ACC tournament until I could muster enough energy to Metro my butt back home.

I got home, demolished some Subway, and curled up with some TV for the rest of the afternoon.

My friends think I'm crazy, but that is seriously mind kind of a perfect day.