Niki's Neverending Adventure

I had a WONDERFUL 8 miler today!! After last week’s not so hot 8 miler I was a little nervous about this. I woke up not really in the mood to run plus it was lightly raining and dark outside. I really just wanted to hop right back into bed but I knew I had to run. The first improvement from last week is my pre run fueling. Last week the 1/2 slice ww bread with PB upset my tummy almost the entire run! So this week I decided to have this:

PB Zbar! Love these! And it worked out perfect! No upset stomach or side stitches at all! Finally found something that works!!

So I drove to my long run “spot” and headed out. I just told myself to go slow because last week I went out way too fast and was dying the last 1/2 of the run! So I tried not to look at my Garmin and just run comfortably. I thought about all kinds of stuff from school to how to make my blog more interesting! Ha! And then I zoned out. That’s the best part to me about long runs, I can totally zone for miles and then have no recollection of it! It’s relaxing in a so not relaxing way! I saw a lot of other runners which is nice to see and keeps me going. No walk breaks were needed and I actually added in a lot more hills than I normally do on my long run and I really felt great the WHOLE time! My pace was 10:43 for 8 miles which I am pretty happy with! Loved how I felt at this pace, although I would like to be a little faster for the half… but we’ll see:)

I am SUPER swamped with school and really trying hard to concentrate on that right now so I may have to cut my 5th run of the week out for a few weeks until school settles down. I hate to do this because I feel like I really do benefit from some extra mileage but I think it will be ok to have 4 solid runs and just cut out a shorter run for a few weeks then reevaluate. I’m just afraid that if I don’t do this, I am going to start to resent my runs because it takes away my much needed study time. What would ya’ll do??

I felt in the mood to post my other eats today so here they are!!

Making a Fruit Smoothie after my run this morning. I added 1 frozen banana, some frozen mango and berries, and 1 cup of skim milk.

Super yummy! It made a lot too and I definitely drank it all!

My awesome lunch included:

Scrambled egg with veggies(broccoli, red onion, and tomato) and celery with Naturally More PB! This was a wonderful lunch! Loved the egg-veggie combo! Oh, and I put ketchup on everything, including my eggs:)

And for a sweet after lunch treat:

This is an Apple Pie Fruit Roll from the apply farm in Nancy, KY where our lake house is! These things are the best! My mom brought me and my brother some home from the lake last weekend! I only have 1 more left!

Not sure what I am going to do for dinner. I may pick up a Lenny’s sub because I have been craving one! I LOVE that place! And other Lenny’s sub lovers?? Or I may just make grilled cheese and tomato soup which I have been craving also! I am so PUMPED for Grey’s tonight!! And, my huge test got moved back to Monday so I can actually watch Grey’s tonight instead of study! Yea!

Posted in: on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at at 1:17 PM