Lunch on the Run

It's cold and rainy today, and it seems all I've been eating is cold foods, no wonder I feel a little chilled.
Breakfast was plain greek yogourt with frozen blueberries, frozen banana slices, a little pineapple, almond butter and chia seeds. That left me feeling a little chilly, wrapped in a blanket on my couch, catching up on a couple of Oprah episodes I had recorded.
I just felt like staying put there, but had to go out for a haircut. That usually gives me a lift, but it's so gloomy, windy and cold out and I'm feeling kind of tired that the haircut didn't quite cut it - pun intended.
I mosied on over to a little thai fusion place I like and got a cold lunch to go, which I ate in my car in the parking lot - not very romantic or fun but ya gotta eat! So I had an order of rice wraps when what I should have done was call up a friend to come join me for  a bowl of pho.
The wraps were good, albeit cold

After that, I did some errands and 3:00 p.m. found me noshing on these, just a handful, okay, maybe two small handfuls - not the healthiest choice, although the advertising makes you think so, but maybe a little better than junk candy. I wonder if there really is any nutritional value left in the berry extracts.

 if you like chocolate and chewy

they contain acai, blueberry, raspberry, cranberry, pomegranate, elderberry, and lemon juices all wrapped in dark chocolate - texture is like a jujube.
Think I'll make something warm and toasty for dinner.
Happy Trails,
Lee

end of work week run

Thursday is the end of my work week. After a not very good sleep and a long physically and mentally demanding day, and a long commute, I just felt like plopping down on the couch. How's that for a run-on sentence!
However, I put on my running gear, funny how Shelby knows even before I go change that we are going for a run. On days I arrive home and won't be running, she doesn't get excited. She seems to know.
I ran 10/1 intervals. The first interval, I was feeling the effects of all the things mentioned in my first sentence. It was kind of gloomy and raining a bit. I wore my running jacket, or 'cult' jacket as my Learn to Run coach liked to call it. Should have known, I was feeling too warm by the start of the 2nd interval but not unbearably so. I was running down country roads. Shelby stopped to crap along the side of the road, I guess she's a real runner! I'm not part of that club, yet!
My run continued on pretty good. The last k was on the main drag that goes through our village so it motivated to keep my posture good. I finished strong and felt good. My run ended right in front of our local bakery which smelled great! I walked the last 1/2 k or so home as I'd accomplished my 6.5k that I wanted to by the time I reached the bakery, 6.59k to be exact. Not bad for this 46 yr. old gal who's lugging around an extra 20+lbs. Gotta get that off so I can run more efficiently, longer and farther. Funny how that's my motivation. I'm not running to lose weight, but I want to lose weight so I can run better. On my run, I ran past some of these flitting by

 then Shelby and I startled some of these, when we ran past a farmer's field,

and we also ran past a field like this on our last stretch

It was a good little run.
Happy Trails,
Lee

running in the dark

Ran 5k tonight. I dropped Sean off at church for Scouts and thought I'd run there instead of going home and having to come back. It was nice to have a new route, but I forgot there is a stretch of road with no street lights before getting to suburbia. I had my flashing Nike light on my running jacket but a headlamp would have helped. I was hoping I wouldn't step into a hole or trip on a rock, as I was running on the unpaved shoulder. Not good!

Beautiful clear night with stars and moon shining brightly
temp: 8C (about 46F), very nice for running although 0C is the temp for me. Felt odd not to have Shelby with me, especially in the dark. Also my friend Patti, who ran her first marathon this past summer has invited me to run a marathon in Kansas with her next year. Why Kansas, I don't know, we just talked in passing so I will have to get more details. Wonder if I'm up for that? hmmm.......

Autumn Walk

Today Rory and I went for a country walk. I forgot my camera which is too bad because we got up close to farmers clearing their fields and loading up the wagons with threshed? remains of the soy plants. It looked something like this

It was a sunshiny day. The walk was 4k and I could feel it in the top of my legs after running yesterday, felt good though. Then we came home and had leftovers of all the turkey and fixin's and watched Prince of Persia, and so nice to be having tomorrow off too.
Happy Trails,
Leee

Hips Don't Lie and Lucky Socks

Okay, so it's been almost two and half weeks since I last ran. I had the sinus cold that hung on forever and zapped my energy. I might have been able to run a little sooner but I just didn't feel any strength or stamina - not an excuse, but a true listening to my body. However, my mind started playing games with me, like, maybe you aren't really a runner if you're not itching to get back out on the road, or, maybe your just a lazy person trying to go against your real nature, or, maybe, you're such a poor runner that now you'll have to cut back and feel like you're starting all over, or, maybe, just maybe, you're not really a runner so don't bother....
I noticed the last couple of days that my hips started hurting. This is what was happening before I ever started running. I couldn't believe it! I was 45 and my hips are hurting, isn't that something that might start up arouns age 70?? The beautiful thing is that once I started running, no more sore hips! So, when they started acting up a couple of days ago I knew I had to muster up the mental strength, tell that little negative voice to shove it

and get my running shoes on.

I woke up at 7:00 this morning beautiful, sunny weather +4
I got on my gear and told my self I'd do 5k as slow as I wanted to, wasn't sure how I'd feel but expected it to be a big effort. Well, lo and behold, I immediately felt wonderful even though the wind was blowing so hard it blew my hat off. A young runner passed me along the way with a friendly bit of chit chat which was nice. I was feeling so good that I continued on to my 6k route and finished up with a 6.55k total. Not bad for this newbie after missing over 2 wks. It's great how the body 'remembers' even when the mind tries to mess with you. Maybe I really needed a break.
This week I found my favorite running socks, well, the one that was missing to make a complete pair, maybe they brought me luck today :)

It's Thanksgiving weekend here and I do have much to be thankful for
Happy Trails,
Lee

dang it

Thought I might feel up to a run after work, okay, it's almost 2wks. since my last run, that's just too long.
I'm still blowing my nose every 5 minutes it seems. I was ready to drive home from work (a 50 min. commute on a good day) and get on my running gear and go. Now, not that I'm making excuses but because of unforseen circumstances I didn't leave work until an hour later than I usually do which bumped everything up. Now normally I would persevere with my run, but I am still drained from this frigging cold! I did get two walks in at work and am physically active all day on the job , but still..... got to get it together -

Fall Garden

This is one of my favorite Group of Seven paintings. It's be J.E.H. McDonald. It reminds me of this time of year and kind of how my back yard is looking right now, there's work to do tomorrow...

I am finally starting to feel better, but still keeping the kleenex close by. Man, I've been so sick and have not gone out running. I'm hoping I'll feel fully recovered by tomorrow and test out my endurance.
It felt great to turn the calendar over to October this morning. I don't work Fridays and I started the day feeling lots of hope for this month for many things. I spent the day reveling in domestic bliss. It's a treasure to be home, puttering around the house, nesting this time of year. I'm looking forward to the cooler temps. for running too. It's been almost a year (end of October) since I signed up for my first running clinic. I think I'll do another one as I'm getting a little lonely running alone, well Shelby is ever faithful, but I did enjoy the camaraderie of running with a group.
During my 2nd clinic which took place in the winter months, I distinctly remember having a wonderful 6k run with 3 other women, we broke off from the larger group and chatted on for awhile. The temp. was hovering around 0Celsius (about 32F) and a few flakes of snow were falling, it was dark outside. The conversation slowly died out as we became almost lulled into the quiet rhythm of four pair of feet falling onto pavement - it was the best- and I want more of that... but it's not winter yet... looking forward to some nice Fall running.
Lee