I’m glad I ran, because I really really REALLY didn’t want to and thought it might end up being a death march since my legs hurt and it was hot and humid. Then I remembered that less than a month ago, I ran an actual 26.2 mile death march in the heat and humidity and didn’t give up there. Suddenly 4 miles seemed like a cake walk.
As much as I tried to keep my pace to a 9 minute mile so the run would be super easy, I failed. I wasn’t too far off though, my average pace was 8:43... meh, I don't have an easy pace. I have a normal pace, an "I'm having a good day" pace and tempo pace. Occasionally I have a "Oh HELL no you aren't passing me, beotch" pace. And that's about it. While running I was treated to some on-course entertainment in the forms of screaming kids leaping into my path from out of nowhere, people with portable grills cooking stinky, smokey meat on the East River Esplanade, and a couple jet skiing in the mucky swamp also known as the East River. If you see a radioactive man and woman with weird superpowers a la Alex Mac wandering around Manhattan tomorrow, you’ll know it’s them.
I finished the run in 34 minutes and change, as evidenced by el Garmino on my sweaty wrist.
I was hot, sweaty and overall gross-tastic, as evidenced by this:
I swear my eyes aren't that big in real life. Creeeepy.
After trying to take a picture of myself while sweating all over the apartment, I chugged 2 bottles of water, fed the zoo and whipped up what turned out to be The Best Salad Ever- baby romaine + regular romaine with carrots, yellow pepper, tomato, chickpeas and hummus drizzled with balsamic vinegar. This proves my theory that there’s no such thing as too much garbanzo. The more the merrier.
After the salad digested for a bit I ate some cherries! These babies are on sale at WF this week, so I have about a million, which is just how I like it. Unfortunately they are not organic. I thought about selling a kidney on the black market so I could buy organic ones, but I figured the risk of dying from eating sprayed cherries is probably lower than the risk associated with a black market kidney removal operation.
Today was one of my half dreaded, half cherished rest days. This morning I slept in til 7:15, which felt amazing. I actually went to bed at 9:30 last night which means I got the recommended amount of sleep for toddlers and grannies, not healthy 24 year olds, but it was just what I needed. Of course the only thing I wanted for breakfast was more Rudi’s Organics spelt bread! I slathered a slice of it with dark chocolate dreams peanut butter and sliced half a banana on top. It was out of this world. Definitely tasted like something I should feel guilty about eating!
As promised, I’m reviewing Rudi’s Organic Bakery spelt bread, which btw is on sale at Whole Foods in the tri-state area! There’s a coupon in their flyer for $1.00 off of any 2 products. If their other baked goods are as dreamy as this bread, you should run not walk to the nearest WF, tear a bunch of coupons out and buy as much as you can fit into your cart.
The spelt bread’s nutrition info is pretty standard for a loaf of bread. I like that Rudi’s doesn’t use HFCS, anything artificial, or preservatives (which also means one loaf went into the fridge and one went into the freezer ASAP!).
To be honest, I don’t usually buy bread or grain products with so many ingredients (like sweeteners or different types of flours), but I’m so glad I gave this bread a try because it’s unlike any other spelt bread I’ve had before. Spelt definitely has a stronger, nuttier taste than whole wheat, which can make it difficult to enjoy with sweeter foods like nut butters and jams. However, Rudi’s spelt bread is very mildly flavored. It tasted just as good plain and with spicy hummus as it did with my pb and banana combo this morning. It’s very chewy, the slices are thick and you can bet I’m happy that my love affair with bread is once again going strong ;-)
**Note** The allergy info on the Rudi's Organic spelt bread says that the bread contains wheat. Spelt and wheat are two very similar grains, and some sources say spelt is the "grandfather" of modern day wheat, meaning it's what wheat would be if it hadn't been tampered with for the past couple decades. While they are very similar, they are not the same grain. Some people with wheat intolerances do well eating spelt bread. Some don't. Hence the dislclaimer, I suppose. My French Meadows bread says the same thing, but my body says it's NOT wheat, lol.
After my chocolate pb fest I walked the pup, almost melted into a puddle of sweat, came back home and packed lunch and snacks for work. For lunch I took the brown rice cucumber avocado roll from Whole Foods along with carrots and hummus. I ate maybe half a tablespoon of the soy sauce with my sushi and was drinking like a fish all afternoon. I usually eat hummus with my sushi but TJ's was out of the classic hummus :-( Don't they know they need to stockpile it in the back for the crazy blonde chick who buys 5 at a time??
For snacks I had cherries, an apple and a Lara Bar. Because the only thing worse than working on a national holiday is working on a national holiday while practically dying of hunger. I also may have skipped across the street to Duane Reade to get my fix of caffiene and aspartame in he form of Coke Zero. It was the last one in the store, which basically makes me feel like it was an act of divine intervention and I'm meant to be a Coke addict. Coke Zero, that is.
I didn't actually have much of an appetite today. If you've ever spent a day (ok even 2 hours) with me you know that I'm always snacking on something. I still snacked, but I wasn't ever that hungry, I just felt like I "should" eat. Maybe it's the heat, or more likely, stress from some very huge life changes that are around the corner...either way by the time I left work my stomach was in knots. I walked el pupperoo and sat around for a bit before attempting to eat a bland-ish dinner. I tested the waters with half a banana (leftover from this morning) and a little pb. This revved up my appetite a bit, so I made half a pb&j sandwich on spelt bread and rounded out the "meal" with about a cup of raw cauliflower with hummus. Not my best meal ever, but I'm nearly out of salad veggies and that probably wouldn't have been that great for my stomach anyway.
Before eating I frantically searched for my camera, to no avail. After dinner I found it in the utensil drawer in my kitchen. Cuz that's a totally logical place to store your camera, right?
After-dinner snacking included an apple and a dark chocolate square. I have eaten my fair share of dark chocolate- well, I've probably eaten a lot of people's share of dark chocolate- and my favorite is Trader Joe's organic 73% dark. Soooo creamy and delish. So dark. So perfect.
I'm gearing up for a long run tomorrow, and it's supposed to rain all morning but at least that means it won't be 90 degrees! Marathon training round II doesn't start until June 17th, since the Green Mountain Marathon is on October 17th, but during my last training cycle I fell in love with the long runs (or maybe I fell in love with masochism...) and have been incorporating runs over 15 miles regularly for months. So I'm planning on 16 tomorrow, which means I'll have to get up super early to beat the heat incase it doesn't rain, which means this old grandma will be in bed by 10:00 for the second night in a row :-)
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