An Embarrassingly Slow Pace

2nd time’s a charm!  I went for another outdoor run today and it went great!  So many of you left helpful and encouraging comments last week when I was frustrated with my first attempt and I carried all of those thoughts and ideas with me today.

The comment that resonated the most with me was Tiff’s suggestion that I set out at “an embarrassingly slow pace”.  She suggested that even though it might seem too slow it’s probably still faster than I should be going.  It totally worked!

I also…

• put the little foamy covers on my earphones, which kept them from falling out of my ears (duh)
• wore a former fitting hoodie (so my key wouldn’t bounce in my pocket)
• did not carry my camera
• did not carry water
• used my armband to wear my iPod instead of putting it in my pocket

All of this combined with a very slow pace and a good playlist made all the difference in the world!  I still need a digital watch or Polar to track my time, but I think I did the 3km in about 28 mins.  That’s the same as my first crappy attempt, but this time was much smoother and my running intervals were properly timed.

• 2 min walking warm-up, 2 x 5:1 on the way in, 4 x 2:1 on the way out, 2 min walking cool-down. (all times approximate because I was trying to use my iPod to track).

OK, enough of that…you want to see pictures, I know!

After my Amazing Grass and a shower, I made a bigass salad.  It’s been ages since I made a bigass salad and ate it straight from the mixing bowl!

In the big bowl: baby spinach, mushrooms, celery and hard boiled egg (forgot the tomatoes!)

Dressed with EVOO, sea salt, and cracked pepper.

Late afternoon I had planned a pumpkin muffin, but the last two evil PB pumpkins called to me.  See they aren’t really so evil now that Hallowe’en has passed.  :)

After finally going to Staples to pick up printer ink (seriously, this has been on my to-do list for three weeks!) I came home to see if I could do something with the leftovers from last night.

I sauteed up some garlic in a bit of butter, added some dried basil, then stirred in the ricotta and beet pasta.  Used a little warmed cream to well…creamy it up! 

Add a bit of extra spinach and salt & pepper.  Definitely better than last night!  but the beets are still too hard.  :(  Oh well…you live, you learn.

Thankfully I got all of my chores done yesterday because I’ve discovered that we have Food Network free this month and haven’t been able to tear myself away!  nom nom nom.  Totally just discovered 5 Ingredient Fix…love it.

(FYI: Food TV is part of one of those special channel bundles and we don’t want anything else in the bundle so it’s not worth paying even more for our ridiculously expensive cable package…sad.)

The kettle is calling…night all.