Austria-Day 1

Greetings from Austria!  Yesterday went by really quickly once all the travel nonsense got finished.  After the plane and the nearly 2 hour drive to the hotel, we had a walk around the tiny town while we waited for our room.  It was small but very cute:

The town is so small that after about 20 minutes there was nowhere new to walk so we decided to try our first Austrian beer to kill the last half hour before we could check in.  Spoiler alert…it took me way more than half an hour to finish that thing.

we entertained ourselves taking goofy photos and sending them to friends back home who were just arriving at work.

When we finally finished and got our room, we took a little nap for an hour and then got ready for dinner.  Food is going to be one of my favorite things on this trip because I speak zero German and have no idea what any menus say, I just have to receive the food and try it.  Our trip includes a 4-6 course dinner each night so we don’t have to worry about anything except going downstairs and sitting down and just enjoying.  I forgot to take a picture of my mozzarella and tomato salad last night but here was the rest of the meal:

 

Today I’m going for a short run around town and then we are going to hike up the mountain directly behind our hotel.  We are surrounded on all sides by mountains so we are going to just keep tackling different ones each day.

 

Have you climbed a mountain before? Which one?

 Ever had to eat food and have no idea what it was? Did you like it? 

 

The day of bacon

Yesterday I just really really did not feel like running so I didn’t run.  I know, novel concept, but it just felt right.  I wasn’t tired, sore, injured, or anything of the sort, I just thought about running and decided that even sitting around and researching sounded more fun.  I can’t remember the last time that happened (though I will totally chicken out of runs in terrible weather or move rest days around…I just never REALLY don’t want to run).  Then I tried to ask myself if I wanted to do anything at all, and unlike those days where your body just wants/needs to lay around, I really did want to get moving.  For some reason, running didn’t sound appealing, but pretty much everything else did…including lifting (insert shocked face here).  I ended up doing insanity plyo, plus 20 minutes-ish of kettlebells and 15 minutes of core.  I’m going to hurt like you wouldn’t believe after that.  I’ve been very guilty of neglecting strength training lately.

 

When I went to go make breakfast, Joe told me that we had some bacon that we should probably try to use up.  There was quite a good amount of it so it wasn’t going to happen at breakfast but I figured it was the perfect excuse for pancakes and bacon.

This is Joe’s plate, I promise mine only had about half as many pancakes.  I’m really glad I exercised first though because I was stuffed to the gills after this.

 

At lunch time, I figured I’d try to use more bacon because it just had to be eaten, right?

Jalapeno wrap, pesto, gouda, turkey, fried egg, and BACON.

 

I had some cupcakes for an afternoon snack but since that doesn’t go with the theme we’re just going to ignore it and move on.  For dinner, Joe brought home a fresh baguette so I thought soup would pair perfectly.  I made some lobster bisque and then realized I was on a roll with the bacon today so we used up the rest in our soup.

If you’re wondering, bacon, parmigiano cheese, and lobster bisque are best friends.

 

 

You should be glad I didn’t have Joe take pictures of me working out in our non-air conditioned house (sweaty is an understatement) but instead provided you with pictures of a full day of bacon yumminess.  I’m declaring yumminess a real word, my English major be damned.

 

 

Ever have a “themed” day of eating? 

Do you ever just REALLY not want to run but still want to work out?  What is your go-to workout if you’re not feeling running?

Whoops, my bad

Obviously, I’ve been missing since forever.  Sadly, it’s been for nothing fun or exciting but for an absurd amount of work that I needed to get done.  I have two chapters of my dissertation that I’ve been simultaneously researching and writing and I have 7 more weeks of intense research but a huge chunk of hard work is out of the way so I can be back to consistent blogging again (and running, for that matter!).  If you want to see an example of what I’ve been up to, these are the latest books I’ve grabbed at the library…as in, this is my “to read” pile for this week and next week these go back and I get new ones.  There are actually a few more next to my bed but we’ll pretend this is the full picture.

I was still running 6 days/week for the first few weeks I was home visiting and trying to balance home and all this work, but I’ve moved to 4 days/week partly because of the work and partly because I’ve had my posterior tibial tendon acting a bit fussy.  I’ve been religiously doing strengthening work though 5-6 days each week and my last 2 weeks of running have had zero pain so I think I’m clear there (as long as I continue the rehab!) and I’m moving back to 6 days now.  And obviously, I’m still refueling like a champ:

 

Home was great, and I’m sorry I shared so little (though you totally saw one of the best parts…my date with Cori!).  I definitely fell very far off the healthy eating wagon but I enjoyed every second of my Cafe Rio nights.  You really cannot go wrong with a salad that weighs more than your arm:

And I got highlights…which is completely irrelevant to everything but makes me feel summery:

Side note…I hate when people try to flatten the crap out of my hair when I get it styled. Also, it’s really hard to capture long hair in a photo when you are short and have correspondingly short arms.

 

Oh, and I doubt you’ll notice it on the blog, but Joe is sure getting an earful of it every five minutes…I miss my puppies.  My parents (and Joe’s parents for a few weeks!) are watching them for us while we do the whole moving process and get things finished up with all the logistics that come with moving nearly everything you own.  It’s so weird not having them around and we miss them a ton, though it’s a lot easier to sleep in when the little one doesn’t lick your face and jump all over you as soon as the sun comes out.

She looks like she’s just soaking up the rays.

 

Today’s plan is 6 at easy pace followed by approximately six million pages of reading and then rewarding myself with my favorite pizza tonight!! I haven’t had pizza in AGES because there’s nothing good near where our parents live in Virginia and Joe has been dying to get one ever since we got back.

 

 

SO…

Any PRs in the last month I need to know about?  I’ve been living in a 1790s cave so spill!

Anyone injured? (please say no!)

Give me three things you are most looking forward to this summer!

So many questions!

I had three very sweet blogger friends nominate me for Liebster Awards last week so a big thank you to Lauren, the Half Mad Runner, and Kristina for thinking of me!  So, lucky you, you get to read THREE sets of answers and learn way more about me than you thought you would today.  You all probably already know the drill by now, I answer the questions put forth by these ladies, and then nominate a few blogs of my own and give them a different set of questions to answer!

Lauren’s Questions:

1. What is your favorite sport to watch on tv/in person: Ouch.  This is a tie.  I’m a HUGE football fan and remain glued to the tv all day every Saturday in the fall (yes, Saturday, NCAA>NFL).  But I grew up playing and watching soccer and I don’t know that even football ranks above it.

2. Pancakes, waffles, or french toast?  Waffles!  I make good pancakes though 🙂

3. Do you have any interesting nicknames? I don’t think any that would qualify as “interesting” but my nickname in high school was “Duchess,” often abbreviated to “Dutch.”  One of my best friends started it when she met me at age 14, but it was picked up by my soccer and basketball teams and boyfriends too.  Bonus points if you can guess why Katie started calling me that.

4. What is your biggest running-related goal?  Hmm.  Well, I have a secret one that I’m not sharing but I’d really really really like to win a race.  And not just win because there are 20 people and I ran a slow time but not the slowest (though I’ll take it for now! haha) but win a decent sized race because I put up a great time and beat some serious runners (not Kenyans though, duh…I’m not that fast).

5. Do you run before or after work? Because of grad school, it changes.  I’ll run before I have to hit the library but after early meetings, it all depends.  And if it’s a day that I’m just home writing or researching, I love just going whenever I’m feeling the most pumped to run.

6. What was your high school mascot?  I have two, special me.  Panthers and Bruins!

7. Have you ever lived in another country? Indeed I have!  France just for a summer for study abroad but England for a total of 3 years.  Living in another country for at least a year as an adult was on my bucket list so I’m really happy to say I’ve done this.

8. How many alarms do you set in the morning?  Most days, zero.  I just wake up early.  But one is enough if I need to be up for something specific, I’m a very light sleeper.

9. What are your top three pet peeves?  This is hard to think about off the top of my head.  One is definitely misspellings.  I can’t think of others but I know there are many haha.  Lots of things I hate aren’t really pet peeves, it’s more frustration with people who can’t follow basic rules of human decency.  When I think of pet peeves I think of people who say “quote unquote” or “intensive purposes” and just make me want to crawl in a hole and hide from them.

10. How do you feel about the new “Girl Meets World” show? I have no feelings on it really, I watched BMW a bit when I was younger but I was never that big of a fan and it’s unlikely I’ll ever see an episode of this new one.

 

Half Mad Runner’s Questions:

1.  If I was coming to your city and could race only one race, what would you recommend?  Haha if you’re talking about where I live specifically, you are out of luck, we have no races.  The closest race to me is a 50 mile trail race so I hope you’re an ultra fan!  It’s beautiful here though, I love the forests and trails 🙂   If you’re looking for the closest big city, I’d give the win to the Marine Corps Marathon and recommend it to anyone.

2.  Almond Butter or Peanut Butter?  Almond butter.

3.  Your favorite running shoe company has just offered to sponsor you to run 50 halves in 50 states.  It’s all expense paid, plus you get to bring a friend.  Who (dead or alive, famous or not) do you want to run with?   Ok, this just sounds awesome in general.  I’d actually just want to run with Joe but Brooks better have some magical powers that can turn him into a runner first!  I just prefer to travel with him, I have more in common with him than with my friends so we tend to agree all the time on what to see/do.

At a soccer game in Italy 2006

 

4.  What is your must have, can’t  live without running gadget?  Garmin.  I hate not knowing how far/fast my runs are and I’m such a dork about analyzing my stats and making sure I’m staying right where I need to in my training.

5.  Dream race-station location?  Race-station?  Like an aid station?  Or just dream race location?  Okay since I don’t know which one (and the first one makes no sense to me haha) I’ll say middle of nowhere Iceland.  I know Reykjavik has one (and I’d still like to do it!) but I really want to run out in the middle of nowhere in the beautiful countryside rather than amongst the city buildings.

6.  Runderwear or no?  I wouldn’t rule it out, but I prefer the tiny spandex shorts.  I just think it looks better on me (and most people).

7.  Are you as annoyed as I am by the signs & shirts that say, “Run like Ryan Gosling is waiting for you at the finish line?”  I don’t want him to see me all sweaty and gross.   Haha well, I’m not attracted to him so it doesn’t motivate me in the slightest.  I don’t like the idea of those signs in general though, that kind of thing would never motivate me.  But I firmly believe you should do whatever motivates you to push harder at the hard parts in races so if you need someone to hold up a sign like that for you at mile 22, by all means GO FOR IT.   I’m a competitive freak so one of my favorite signs was one that had race times of a bunch of famous people on it and I loved feeling like I was ticking off targets as I ran.

8.  How many running related stickers do you have on your car?  Just one!  26.2.

9.  What’s the most annoying thing you’ve had to deal with on a race course?  Clearly the idiot who knocked me over and tore my knee ligaments.

10.  Pen and paper or technology?  Pen and paper.  I still write all my notes out in longhand for my research and only type them up right before I submit.

11.  How far out do you start your training schedule?  16 weeks for a marathon, usually 12 for a half.

 

 

Kristina’s Questions:

1.  Where do you draw inspiration from?  For just about anything, from someone who is successful at whatever it may be.  For my professional work, from people who were in my position and are now established in the field and from my supervisors.  In running, from elites and sub-elites, but particularly those who started later in life like me or who have achieved a lot despite continuing to not be professional and/or still work full-time (people like Michael Wardian, masters runners, sub-elites who win races but aren’t sponsored, etc).

2. Stolen from Leigh Anne- you favorite vacation spot?  This is hard because I don’t like to go back to the same place.  Not that I wouldn’t, so many places I’ve loved so much and would love to go back, but I make the choice not to because there is so much of the world left to see and a second trip to Australia, for instance, means I might never see Cambodia.  So I don’t have a recurring favorite vacation spot, but my favorite places I’ve been are South Africa, New Zealand, Rome, and Croatia.

I must really like taking photos at sunset.

 

3. Food you will never, ever try?  EASY.  Balut. Or anything currently alive as I eat it.

4. Food that you haven’t tried, but are totally desperate to try?  Hmm.  Not one kind of food per se, although I’m sure there is something I can’t think of at this moment, but I’m so desperate to eat sushi in Japan.  I’m a massive sushi fan and Joe and I really want to go to Japan one day and eating at one of the Michelin-starred sushi restaurants is a must for us.

5. Most memorable “foodie” moment/ most memorable meal?  THANK YOU FOR THE BEST QUESTION EVER.  I am a massive foodie, not that you could tell from my pizza and cake issues.  I’ve eaten at several Michelin-starred restaurants and had some great meals, including two Michelin meals on our last trip to Paris but my favorite meal was at a little place in Paris with no stars and simple decor that serves only duck.  Well, all but one or two things on their menu anyway.  Both Joe and I think it was the best meal we’ve ever had and the service was great, too.  It was the best, most romantic night in the most casual setting.  There was a toaster on every table!  We had duck appetizers, duck main courses, and creme brulee for dessert.  I’d go back in a heartbeat and it’s on our must-do list for every time we are back in Paris.

6. Have you climbed/hiked a mountain?  Where? I have!  I climbed Mount Washington with a good friend when I was 18.  It holds many of the records for awful weather (wind, cold, fog) in the U.S. and was really interesting to climb as two rather petite girls.

7. What accomplishment are you most proud of?  I think graduating at the top of my class with my M.A. degree, I worked my butt off for that and I was so proud of the work I did throughout the program.

8.  A goal of yours that makes you shake in your boots, just a little?  Publishing a book someday.

9.  Place you would move to if given the ideal opportunity?  There are so many places that could be my ideal but Park City, Nashville area, or somewhere in Texas.

10. Celebrity that makes you cringe?  Lindsay Lohan.

 

 

For my nominees, I’d like to pick some of the people I’ve discovered more recently (in the last month or two) so I’m sorry if you’ve done this six million times!

Brianna

Salt

Cat

Karen

Andrea

Nicole

 

I know it’s not 10 but almost everyone I know has already been nominated recently!  I guess that’s why this exists, so we can find new blogs and runner friends 🙂

 

Your questions:

 

1. You have unlimited space and resources, how many pets do you have and what kind?

2. What sports/activities did you do as a young child (prior to age 12-ish)?

3. What is the first thing you do when you visit your hometown? (other than seeing family/friends)

4. You get an all expense paid vacation anywhere you want but only for a week (no around the world trips!), where do you go?

5. Favorite American city to visit and why?

6. What’s the craziest thing on your bucket list?

7. What novel has been the most influential at any stage in your life?

8. You can choose: be able to run for life but never get faster than a 9:00/mi or you get the next year to be amazing and win marathons but then you can never run again.  Which do you choose?  (aka the Achilles question)

9. Do you have the same favorite color as when you were a child? What is it now/then?

10. Favorite article of clothing?

 

Everyone else: answer one or all in the comments!

 

 

Oops I did it again…

HI!!!! Okay, sorry for the excitement but I missed everyone.  I knew I was going to be busy all last week so I scheduled posts to go up and then…they didn’t.  I still don’t know what happened.  So I have to catch you up on some things.

There has been a LOT of reading.  Nothing you want to hear about (unless you get your rocks off learning about revolutionary literature in the 1790s…doubt it) so we’re moving on.  There has definitely been running:

Especially enjoying the heck out of running on these beautiful sunny days.

And food…obviously.  I just discovered the wonder that is the salads from Cafe Rio and I’ve eaten there three times this week.  They should sponsor me, apparently black beans are my fuel of choice because I’ve been feeling great on my runs all week.

Good ol’ Virginia beer.

You just need to reward yourself with a beer now and again.  Or far too many times this week…but it’s just so right on a gorgeous night.

 

And we have our niece and nephew in town and my super talented 11 year old niece drew a picture of me:

Ignore the date, she meant 4 but wrote 3.

 

I love it.  She pretty much nailed the lips I think 🙂  Love the braid too, my hair is in a side braid like 85% of the time.  I’m just amazed in general because my drawings stopped advancing in technique when I was about 5 and she’s all super skilled.

 

We have them in town for the whole week so we’ll be doing a bunch with the kids all week.  Last night we had all 13 of us for dinner for the first time in about 5 years.  If you’re wondering the 13: Joe’s parents, Joe&I, his sister&brother-in-law, his brother&sister-in-law, our 5 nieces and nephews.  It’s crazy to go from not seeing anyone at all while we were so far away for a couple years to back with EVERYONE.

 

Can’t wait to catch up on what all of you have been up to!

 

Do you have any nieces/nephews?  How many and how old are they?  I have 5: 2 nieces ages 11 and 5, 3 nephews ages 10, 8, and 8.

What was your best run last week?  I went for an easy 6 that felt AMAZING in the sunshine, light and easy, only to find out I was running 20 sec/mi faster than my usual easy pace with no additional effort.  It was one of those magical days where everything came together for no good reason.

Eating before a run

At some point I was looking through my Google searches and saw that quite a few people found me searching for “what to eat before a run.”  I realized, though, that nowhere have I actually addressed this, though you can find plenty on what I like to eat after a run.  So here we go…I’m sure all you veteran runners have your fueling all figured out but if any newbies are out there reading, I hope my experiences help even just a little!

Discovering what works for me was very much a trial and error process.  When I first started running, I didn’t do it with any particular training in mind nor did I read running literature so I knew nothing about fueling, I just continued to eat exactly as I always had and just happened to run 5-6 days each week.  I figured the stomach cramps I had after 90% of my runs were just a side effect of being new to running and I’d get used to them.  Luckily for the future of my running, after my college classes got switched around and I had a long 2-3 hour break in the middle of my day, I changed my eating.  With my new schedule I had breakfast before I went to my first class then changed and ran after class and showered and brought water and something to refuel with me to my afternoon classes.  Suddenly, my stomach cramps went away.  This is when I learned I run best 2-3 hours after I eat so that takes care of issue number 1: timing.  I’ve since learned that many coaches and nutritionists advise waiting 2-3 hours if you’re eating anything more than a snack-sized meal before your run so it turns out, I accidentally discovered just about the ideal ratio.

 

Even once I mastered my timing, I found I would have GI distress on longer runs (8+) or runs where I ran particularly fast.  I was aggravated to say the least because it wouldn’t happen on any other runs and I thought I had all my eating figured out.  By now I was googling running articles and learned this was pretty common so again, I ignored it for the most part.  But I did start experimenting with different foods to see if any of them made things better or worse.  It took all of one very ill-advised run to determine cereal was a no-go.  Ditto yogurt.  My go-to breakfast of bagels were just fine.  Oatmeal was the best.  Clif bars work fine, but they are less filling so I typically eat them only 60-90 minutes before I go out.  For me, the biggest determining factor was being sufficiently fueled yet not too full, and giving myself plenty of time to digest.  If I do that, I run without any tummy troubles all the way up through marathon distance and through most foods (including doughnuts and macarons if you’re really interested haha).  If I rush my run too close to when I eat or eat too much, well, I’ve made more than one emergency run back to my car/home.  So for me, timing is way more important than the type of food unless I’m racing and really pushing my body to its limit, but if you start experimenting, you’ll find out soon enough if yours is the same.  My body has always been very tolerant of all kinds of foods.  If you’re struggling with what may be causing issues, try tracking your diet before runs until you can pinpoint what types of foods or timing may be causing you trouble.
The funniest thing about all the experimenting is, every runner I’ve met has their own method that works for them.  It truly is a trial and error process specific to each runner.  If you stumbled upon this looking for advice, the best general advice I can give is cut back on fiber before a run and make sure you have easily digestible carbs in the pre-run window.  Everything else is determining what feels best for YOU.  Track your intake until you can run without issues every time.  It turns out, I can’t run at all on an empty stomach.  I tried multiple times over the summer to get out the door quicker and beat the heat but I feel sluggish and horrible.  I have to wake up at least 90 minutes early and get some real food in or I’m an all-out disaster.  You might be different.

 

How about you?  What’s your pre-run food ritual?  Oatmeal or a bagel 90 minutes-3 hours before I run (I can run anytime in that window, I just procrastinate sometimes haha)

Did you have any cramping or stomach issues when you started running?  How did you learn how to fix it?

Favorite food to eat if you know you AREN’T going to run that day? PANCAKES! (I can run after pancakes, but they’re heavy so I have to wait a really long time to not feel full)

 

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday! Oh, wait…that’s me 😉  Just saying a quick hello before I run and then spend the rest of the day playing games and eating all the deliciousness!  Joe brought me these yesterday and I was supposed to have them for breakfast today:

They didn’t last the day…oops.  Oh well, they were yummy!

Have a good day everyone!

What is your run/workout today?

What is your favorite thing to do on your birthday?

You know you spend too much time in your pjs when…

I’ve got some fun stuff for you guys this week!  Was working on it yesterday and I think we’re all set now.  Meanwhile…

No speedwork yesterday, keeping it easy this week before my next cycle of my training program starts Monday.  Push-ups and pull-ups and 6 easy miles followed by my favorite post-run meal:

It’s just so good.  Expect me to have this for lunch every day this week.  This was dinner:

Crabcakes are delicious.  They also remind me of home, we used to have them at brunch on Sundays after church when I was a kid.  Crabcakes and waffles…the new go-to combination. 

 

Oh, and I forgot to show you the deliciousness from the night before last!

I was really in the mood for a burger.  That second picture is me showing you that there is pulled pork on my burger too, not just my fries 😉  Pulled pork, blue cheese, and fried onions on the burger in case you were curious.

 

So I have this habit of wearing pjs to bed (obviously), waking up, eating, running, showering, and changing right back into sweats or pjs.  I know a lot of grad students do work in libraries and I just can’t.  I go and pick up what I need to last me a couple weeks, then sit at home to do all my reading and planning and eventually, write it all up into a (hopefully) coherent chapter.  So I’m home ALL THE TIME.  At home, I like to be comfy, so it’s running clothes or pjs.  You know you spend far too much time in pajamas when you wear a hole into the knee of your pajama pants instead of your jeans.

A bit ridiculous. 

Today’s plan is a 5 mile run followed my a 20 mile stationary bike.  Let’s just pretend I’m excited about the biking part, maybe it’ll start to grow on me. 

 

Do you wear “real” clothes when you’re just hanging out at home?

What is your favorite go-to lunch?

Switching it up

My training cycle for my next goal race (a half marathon at the end of May) starts in 9 days.  I’m going to switch things up a bit and just run easy for the next 9 days.  I’m not sure if this has any physiological benefits, but I’m thinking it will recharge me mentally and get me super excited for the hard training if I lay off hard efforts for a little over a week.  So I’m heading out for an easy 4-5 miles after breakfast. 

 

I’ve been on a huge avocado kick lately.  I get in random moods where I want to eat one food all the time, and I love avocados and eat them fairly regularly anyway, but lately I’ve been wanting to put them on everything.  Two nights ago, Joe fell asleep super early so I was on my own for dinner and didn’t feel like making my planned Indian meal to eat by myself so I had soup and grilled cheese instead, because I’m five.

I repainted my nails five minutes after I ate because I hated how chipped they were in this picture.

Yup, I put the avocado in my grilled cheese.  Add some sauteed onions in there too, it’s delicious.  And a little garlic.  You know when Phoebe calls Monica’s food “pretentious comma garlicky” (yes I had to spell it out, that’s how she says it in the show if you’re not a fanatic like me)?  Well, that’s my food.  If you can’t taste garlic in every bite, I didn’t cook it.  I get asked what the secret to my yummy Thanksgiving potatoes are…unless you REALLY want to know that there are three entire bulbs of garlic in there, don’t ask. 

 

And last night, I decided I was in the mood to be healthy (which is always easier after an easy run than after a long run/speedwork somehow).

Yes, my plate is half veggies.  It’s a miracle.  Plus quinoa, avocado (obviously), and a crusted fishcake. 

 

I’m so glad so many of you are in for our contest!  I’m beginning my push-up/pull-up training today and we shall see how that goes.  My plan is to do 50 push-ups (split up into 2-3 sets) and 2-3 sets of 8-10 assisted pull-ups 3 times this next week.  I’ll increase the number of push-ups every week and try to decrease the amount of “assistance” on my pull-ups every week until I can do one unassisted.  I’ll let you all know if I make any progress at all on the pull-up front.  I’m hoping I can at least crush the push-up portion though so I don’t fail my own challenge!  And stay tuned, I’ve gotten some good news regarding giveaways so I’ll be revealing those in the next week or two 🙂

 

Are you currently on a training plan?  If not, are you starting one soon?

Describe your cooking style in five words or less.

What a beautiful day

I hope you thought of the Chris Cagle song with that title.  No?  Yesterday was such a beautiful day.  Sunny and so much warmer than it’s been lately!  I was super pumped to run in shorts and a tshirt for the first time in forever and ever.  I probably shouldn’t have taken my pasty skin out in the sunlight without some sort of warning for anyone who happened to see me, I might blind them.

I took the advice of most of you guys and went out planning to split the difference and run 10 miles.  It felt great but my usual loop is 6 miles and I poorly designed my 10 mile run so I hit 10 and was still 1.25 miles from home so I reached 11.25 but I like round numbers in my mileage so obviously I ran in circles on the soccer field until it reached 12.  Clearly, I wasn’t so great at following either plan, and once I hit 12 the temptation to go the full 14 was overwhelming but I was already home so I called it a day.  At least it was a decent length long run, and so much more enjoyable than the 2 hours I spent biking as my “long run” last week.  Thou shalt not take running for granted!

 

Dinner was whole wheat pasta with pesto sauce, which does NOT look pretty when photographed.

So yummy though. 

 

Oh, and I read about this awesome thing the Canadians have going on at the Olympics.  I need one. 

 

Today is a rest day but I’m not going to take a full rest day because I took a couple for the broken toe so I will either do short and sweet 4 miles or go to the pool for some aquajogging.  I’m not sure why I’m tempted to hit the pool but it sounds oddly appealing today despite the long-ish drive to and from the pool.  Insanity also kicks back up today so I’m prepared to be experiencing major upper body soreness tomorrow from all the push-ups.  Is it weird that I’m excited for that?  I get far too restless when I take time off my normal schedule apparently.

 

What are you most looking forward to this week?

How far was your long run yesterday?