It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve written a blog! Let me catch you up on what I’ve been doing this weekend.
Friday I went for my run right after I got home from work but I didn’t have very high hopes for it. It just didn’t start out well and seemed to get worse as I went. My stomach hurt the whole time I was running, it never ended up raining like I thought it was going to so I was hot the first half of my run with my hat on and annoyed the second half because I was carrying my hat, my toes started rubbing against each other funny in my shoes and giving me blisters, and my legs were just really tired at the end of the run. By the end of my run I was just ready to go home and have myself a little pity party with Ross and chalk it up to being a disaster. I think I might have been being a bit dramatic.
Nothing really bad went wrong on the run so I know I shouldn’t really complain, especially since it was the only bad run I’ve had in the last 6 weeks of running 5 days a week. Regardless, since the run felt so disappointing I didn’t expect much from my results. I was so shocked at when I looked at my average pace at the end and saw this:
Do you see that pace?? That’s 1:16 per mile faster than the run I did on Monday, with the exact same heart rate (71%)! One minute and 16 seconds doesn’t seem like a lot of time but it really is when it’s spread out over 4-5 miles. I was over the moon on my drive home! It felt so good to see that my slow running is really starting to pay off! I know that running 13:59 per mile is NOT fast, but I keep reminding myself that I’m not trying to run fast right now. My goal with these runs is to keep my HR around 70% and just keep increasing the amount of time I spend running, which is eventually supposed to make me a more efficient runner. I’m resetting my aerobic base to make me a better running in the long run. I am so happy that I seem to really be (slowly) getting faster without increasing the effort. I have two more tempo runs before my race, which is ONE WEEK away! I’m so nervous and excited!!
After my run Friday night Ross and I had our date night and went to Austin Java for dinner (really romantic, right?). He got his typical burger and I went with two breakfast tacos: one with black beans, potatoes, and spinach, and the other with black beans, tomatoes, and avocado. These breakfast tacos weren’t as good as the one I had there last weekend, but they still weren’t bad. I cut our date night a little short because I was really excited to get home and get into the kitchen!
I’ve been reading Brendan Braizer’s book Thrive, which is all about what to eat before, during and after exercise to improve your performance and recovery time.
I really wanted to try out some of his recipes for pre-run and running fuel. I’m going to write a full post about this later in the week, but I will tell you that everything I’ve made from his book so far has been delicious! I’ve made energy bars, energy bites, smoothies, recovery pudding, and even some pancakes and they were all so good.
Saturday I got up at 7:00, ate a homemade energy bar so it would have time to digest before my long run, and went back to bed until 8:30. I was on the trail around 9:00 and ran for the full 2 hours and 5 minutes I had scheduled. It started pouring after about 35 minutes and rained on and off for the rest of my run, which was fantastic except for the fact that I encountered a couple of puddles so my socks were soaked. My legs were tired by the end but I still felt a lot better than I had at the end of my run on Friday!
Ross and I had a wedding to go to Saturday afternoon and I was excited because I love weddings! This was a tradition Catholic wedding which means that the ceremony was a full Catholic mass. Ross was not a huge fan of that but I reminded him the wedding wasn’t about him, it was about the bride and groom and their beliefs. The groom looked really nervous through parts of the ceremony and even ended up giving his bride the wrong hand to put the ring on. They were precious. : )
I was honestly worried about what I was going to eat at the reception because the meal was being catered by a BBQ restaurant, and Texas BBQ is typically not very vegan friendly. I told this to Ross while we were still at home getting ready and he responded with, “Oh, yeah, when Chris and I hung out last week he told me that there was going to be a vegan plated option for you.” Seriously? I almost cried when he told me that.
I am used to people giving me shit for being vegan: criticizing me for not eating meat, asking me where I get my calories and my protein, telling me that they “could never be vegan,” assuming that I only eat vegetables, and asking me if I feel deprived or like I’m missing out by choosing to eat the way that I do (i.e. not eating cheese). No, I don’t feel deprived and I don’t feel like I’m missing out. I honestly love eating a plant-based diet! Not eating meat or dairy is a choice that I’ve made and I never expect people to make special arrangement for me. I am always so touched when people go out of their way to make sure there’s something for me to eat and I appreciate it every time! Tears really did come to my eyes when Ross told me that. Sometimes I get emotional over the weirdest things.
So while everyone else at my table enjoyed various BBQed meats, here’s what I dined on:
I know it’s not the best picture, but y’all should be used to that by now since I use my iPhone as my camera. Real camera coming soon! I was honestly a little bummed when I saw that half of my plate was filled with bell peppers and green beans, the only two vegetables I don’t like. The rice also had bell peppers in it but I ate them anyway because they were small. The rice was sweet like it had been cooked with a teriyaki sauce and pretty good. I decided I would be a big girl and eat the green beans anyway, and I am so glad I did. They were really good and I ate every last bite! I did push all the bell peppers to the side though. I can deal with them chopped up in a dish but I couldn’t bring myself to just eat strips of them. Overall I was really pleased with my meal and so glad that I didn’t have to resort to the granola bar and peanuts I had in the car! Thanks Chris and Laura : )
Sunday I met up with some old co-workers from the law firm I used to work at and we chatted for a couple of hours over brunch and pomegrades (pomegranate lemonade and champagne). Then I met Lynn at the gym for an awesome workout, came home and made a yummy butternut squash, sweet potato and pumpkin soup, made some potato enchiladas for Ross, went and did my tempo run (which I ran averaging a minute per mile faster than my last two tempo runs!!), came home and cleaned the house and went to bed. It was perfect. : )
my healthy chef 