The 4th of July & "Bourgee Night"

Fitness, Food, Friends, Fun, and Fireworks are on my agenda tomorrow! First I’ve got to do the training, and then I can do the celebrating!
I think I’ve got a bit of running and swimming on my Training Peaks workout schedule. I’ll be getting an early start on it all because I’m headed to a friend’s house for a 4th of July party! After having a good time at the party (which starts at 1pm!) everyone is going to hike up into the hills and have a sweet view of the Colorado Springs fireworks! Last year I watched them from the Velodrome…about ¼ mile away from the launch site…so it will be cool to watch from a different location.
I just got back to my room from a 2 hour baking spree at Jess’s house (she’s got a kitchen and I’ve got a need to bake…it’s a good combination!). I looked at some recipes online, took what I like about a few different ideas, and then made my own cookie creation…since I tasted them at every stage of the baking process, I can tell you that the cookies are YUMMY:)! So the 55 cookies that ended up not eaten, broken, or messy are going with me to the party tomorrow...if that’s not encouragement for everyone to show up, I don’t know what is.
The energy for that 2 hour baking session is a result of today’s workout schedule: DAY OFF…and that’s basically what I did: took the day off to recover from yesterday:)!
I’ll start at the beginning of Sunday…7am alarm and 7:15am breakfast. By 8am I was out the door and on my bike for an interval session at the Garden of the Gods. It went really well and I was happy with how I felt on the bike. I was back home around 10am for some rest and relaxation. After watching the finish of Stage 1 of the Tour de France and seeing George Hincapie take the yellow jersey, I headed into the heat of the day for a short (but fast) run on the trails. That workout was also very successful and I was encouraged by how strong I felt on the 1 minute efforts at 5k pace. After the training, it was time to start preparing for the long awaited, planned, and anticipated ‘bourgee night’!!!
Bourgee has been shortened from the word bourgeois…and the event was created by our “official-unofficial-party-planners-of-the-OTC”: Jasmine and Timmy. The motivation was a reason to get dressed up and take downtown COS by storm! After an hour of prep work (aka…getting dressed and doing hair and makeup) we started with our 6pm reservations at ‘The Famous Steakhouse’. I’ve been craving a good steak for ages…and this was the place to go! I had an amazing filet mignon and a sample of the 4 family-style sides that we ordered as a group: creamed spinach, onion rings, Portobello mushrooms, and green beans…and then I had NO more room for food!! It was absolutely delicious but only the start to ‘bourgee night’. Part number two was a trip to ‘Poor Richards’ (a coffee shop in Downtown COS) for a warm drink (hot chocolate for me) to settle dinner.
The group involved in ‘bourgee night’ got much bigger at part number three: a fun little place called ‘15C’. It was not very crowded when we arrived so our huge party (mainly triathletes and their dates or significant others) took over the back room…we pushed all the tables together and even created our own dance floor in the empty spots!
As the hours got later, the group of 20+ started getting smaller. But there were a few hard core ‘bourgee’ people that were determined to keep going…of course I was one of them! We made a decision to move on to part number four: ’The Ritz’ for some good music and lots of dancing. Although there were only 7 of the original ‘bourgee nighters’ left, we managed to take over the stage as our personal dance floor…I think I should be able to record 2 hours of dancing into my workout log because it was HARD work!
All that dancing left us tired…but more importantly…HUNGRY! What could possibly be open and serving food at this time?? A trip to DENNY’S made part number five!!! Since it was officially Monday morning…what could be more perfect than a Grand Slam from Denny’s?!?! Pancakes, eggs, and some strips of meat gave the remaining 5 ‘bourgee nighters’ the energy to go on! And go on we did…stop number six was over to the Dunkin’ Donuts (also open 24/7) for a few Boston Crèmes and one blueberry cake (my favorite)! Now that I was on the LARGEST sugar rush of my life…as official driver of ‘bourgee night’, I made part number seven a trip back to the OTC to get some sleep!
I’m already looking forward to the next ‘bourgee night’ and whatever Jasmine and Timmy plan next! But first I’ve got the 4th of July party and 55 cookies to get rid of (which shouldn’t be hard…any takers??).