Three Things Thursday

photo via John K on Flickr

ONE

Happy Earth Day! I wanted so badly to go out for a run/walk this morning, but my body felt otherwise when the alarm went off at 5:15. Next thing I knew, my backup alarm was sounding at 6am. Welp. So much for that morning run! I was able to do a quick 1 mile walk at lunch, though. I’m weighing the benefits of going back to a Galloway program for a little while. Maybe my heart rate is whacked out because of a combination of pollen and suddenly being worked a lot again? It’s worth a shot; nothing wrong with a little run/walk action. I’m thinking a 3:1 combo would be a good start. Heck, I could even pick up the pace for those 3 minutes and count it as heart rate training! Yes, that sounds delicious.

TWO

Speaking of delicious, I came to the realization earlier this week that I’m a dummy for lugging lunch to work every day. Why is this? Well, my office is an update apartment, so we have a full kitchen that is only shared by 5 people, and there are two grocery stores within minutes of our front door. So I’ve started buying basic ingredients and making my lunch at work! No more stressing if I forgot to pack lunch the night before, and no more hoping that whatever I packed doesn’t leak all over everything. This isn’t to say that I’ll never bring lunch again… but it sure is nice to have a non-soggy sandwich ;)

THREE

I took another abs class at my gym last night, and spent about 30 minutes on weights. Two weeks ago, I was in agony the day after doing these. Today, I feel awesome! There’s just a little bit of soreness in my shoulders (I worked them with free weights a LOT, though), and only a slight twinge now and then in my torso. YEAH! I’m getting stronger :)

Lunch Time is Blog Time

Howdy, campers. How is your day going? This is my first time posting while on my lunch break, so it’ll be another short entry.

This here is all about lunch at work. As I mentioned in a previous post, I use my wonderful Mr Bento for all my lunching needs. 4 containers: a 15.2 oz main bowl, a 10.1oz side bowl, 6.8oz small side/snack bowl, and a 9.5 oz soup bowl. Ahh, so perfect. (Edit: I should also mention that it comes with a metal spork. Yes. A metal spork. You know you need this now.) I do most of my dinner prep on Sunday, then just throw a meal together the night before work. Today’s Bento consisted of Kashi Warm Cinnamon Heart to Heart for a snack, chicken, peppers, and onions for my main dish, brown rice with chickpeas and black beans  (Creole style) for a side, and some butternut squash and cauliflower soup (vegan!). Then an apple as another snack later on if I’m feeling snacktastic.

How do you guys prefer to eat lunch: brought to the office, at a restaurant, or back home? What do you typically eat?

Until later, alligators…

“Just a Half Marathon?”

That’s what someone said to me the other night. They asked me like it was the weirdest thing. “Just a half marathon”… there’s no “just” about that! That’s 13.1 miles of muscles, sweat, motivation, and weeks of preparation. I may not be the fastest runner, or have the best endurance… but I will work to do the best I can. Sheesh!

I got my 2 miles in this morning, even though I felt like my head was a hot air balloon filled with lead (that doesn’t even make sense!). The first half of my route was almost all uphill, the last few feet having a super steep grade, but I ran right through it. It was probably just because there were people doing road work there that could see me, and I didn’t want to slow down when people were watching, heh. Don’t lie, you’ve tried to show off like that too ;) The downhill after that was a gift from the heavens. Mile 2 was all flat, making it a nice recovery run after the hill. Even with my congestion, I averaged a 9:36 pace! I’m really happy with that. It’s 18 seconds better than my PR 5K pace. Let’s hope I can maintain/improve this.

Speaking of congestion while running, does anyone else feel like they turn into a neanderthal in running shoes once the cold weather hits? Unless I bring some tissues with me, I’m a sniffling, gross mess. It’s slowed me down on many days. I need a better solution than just tissues and/or gloves with terry cloth on them.

Post-run I didn’t have much prepared in the ways of a snack or lunch. I grabbed a Laughing Cow cheese with a serving of Multigrain Wheat Thins, followed by the second half of yesterday’s grilled chicken sub for lunch. I feel like I need to keep some more fruit in the house. Grapefruits are coming into season. This is a very, very exciting thing for me. There’s nothing quite like half a grapefruit swirled with cinnamon and honey, put under the broiler for a few (it sounds weird, I know. But try it before you judge).

How do you guys plan out your meals? Do you have it set up day-by-day, or just eat whatever appeals to you at the time?