20:03 and disappointing pastina

Let's start with the run, the reason I write these posts anyway. I know I just wrote yesterday that I've been lucky with the weather not being too hot or too cold. Well, I spoke too soon. It was around 50 degrees this morning, unbeknownst to me when I picked out my running clothes. I noticed all the other people out walking and running had their long sleeves and hats and pants and stuff. Then there's me. I'm running past with my short sleeves and shorts... and goosebumps. Yes, I am the only person I know that still ends up with goosebumps and cold hands after a run. My ears were really the worst part for me; they were sold cold they hurt. I literally held my hands to my ears for five minutes after my run until they were normal temperature again. Now, watch, I'll wear ear muffs tomorrow and it'll be 65 degree again!

The run itself felt great! Much better with a full night's rest. My legs didn't feel as tight, for whatever reason, and my feet didn't hurt me as much. I felt like I was bounding up the hills and didn't need to slow down on the down hills just to catch my breath. I was actually really excited about it and couldn't wait to see my time. I was a little disappointed to see that, after the way I felt, my run was only 5 seconds faster than my last 2 mile run. Which is basically no difference at all. It was kinda like in football when your team does their best and "finishes the drill" (a little reference to my bulldogs) but the other team is just a little better; you know when it goes down to the last seconds and there's nothing else you could've done (maybe I'm the only one that feels that way...). Anyway, try as you may a loss is still a loss, no matter how well the team played. That's how I feel about my run. I felt great and I thought I ran my best but, at the end of the day, I couldn't break 20. But, there's always tomorrow.

Now I'll talk about the second aspect of my goal - the food! Last night's dinner was more than a little disappointing. I'm guessing that I did something wrong but Giada's pastina soup didn't turn out at all like I expected. It smelled delicious while it was simmering but then, I added the pastina, which absorbed all of the broth as it cooked, and I was left with watery pastina with carrots and peas. I know I must have down something wrong because Giada's stuff is normally so good.

You can see from the picture, although it's not the greatest, there's just no liquid there. It looks like rice with peas and carrots, which is kinda what it ended up like. Whomp whomp... Tonight I've got collards and spicy pumpkin so, let's see how that goes! Here's too Fall foods and cooler runs!

Barely Fall

The weather has been pretty sunny and warm lately. You'd have no idea that it's mid-October if you didn't look at a calendar. Luckily it's been pretty mild in the mornings. I haven't seen too much heat or too much chill. That being said, more times than not, I'm cold. I'll be the person running with ear muffs when it's sub 60 degrees. The cold wind blowing past the ears makes my head and ears too cold its painful. Sometimes I end up with a head cold because of it.

This week has been even more mild, so no need for ear muffs! However, I still end up tired and that makes it more difficult too. I was particularly tired this morning because I didn't get that much sleep last night. I'm gonna go "dream journal" for a moment and record the happenings of last night.

I woke up, still half asleep, thinking I heard the roar of a crowd coming from the TV down stairs and puppy paw steps on the hard wood. Since I was half asleep, I thought it was still the football game on downstairs and my puppy walking downstairs to tell them to come to bed, she does that sometimes. Then, I woke up completely and realized the game was way over and there wasn't actually a crowd like roar coming from anywhere. I also didn't hear the puppy paw steps anymore so I thought I was just dreaming it all up.

As I laid there, trying to go back to bed, I heard scratching on my door. It sounded like my doggy but, unlike her it was one scratch and then silence. She normally whimpers when the door doesn't magic open for her. So, then my mind started racing. It went places minds normally go during the month of Halloween (or anytime really) when it's dark and you hear something abnormal. And of course I couldn't open the door and go figure it out - that's how the characters always meet their doom! No, I was staying in my room. I wasn't about to go to bed, however, I was too scared. So I knelt down on the floor and looked under the door. I saw my puppy's paws and then her nose sniffing the floor by my door. I opened the door and my doggy was so excited to see me - even more excited than when I come back from being out all day or for a couple of days. I appreciated it but still didn't understand why she came to my room in the middle of the night.

I took her back to my parents room, worried maybe one of them was hurt, but they said it must have been the thunder. What thunder?! I'm assuming that was the roaring crowd I "heard coming from the TV." Anyway, all is well that ends well. Needless to say, I couldn't go back to bed very quickly and didn't sleep well afterwards.

That made it tough to get up this morning. I did, eventually, of course. But, between being tired from last night and tight I didn't enjoy my run as much today. I felt particularly tight behind my knee... which is strange. It definitely made it difficult to punch it up the hills. I ended up with a pretty good time despite all that - 29:08. I really expected something closer to 30, or over 30 minutes. So I am pretty pumped about it!