Running For The Fun Of It

Aaah! Thank you so much for the positive comments on my last post! You have no idea how good it felt to get that off my chest! As of right now, I’m just going to keep my eyes open for the right opportunity. There are a few avenues I’d like to pursue but I think I need to be still for a little bit before I dive into anything right away. It’s comforting to know I have a decent job to go to every day in the meantime :)

You’ll never guess what I had for breakfast this morning :P

A chocolate macaroon breakfast cookie! I’m happy to hear that people are having breakfast cookie successes after posting my how-to video last week! The amazing Ellie had her first successful attempt at the overnight cookie. Except she made hers snack sized. Such a great idea!

There was also a honeydew melon at some point as a pre-run snack.

I always do cottage cheese in a cantaloupe bowl, but I saw this combo on Tay’s blog and knew it was a “must have!”

In the melon is yogurt, Optimum banana almond cereal and cinnamon. While this was a stellar combo – the cinnamon totally made it! ;)

I was feeling reeeally tired and “blah” today. I wanted to get out for a run, but I decided to not set the usual goals for myself. After two straight weekends of races, and my toughest long run to date, I felt the need to just let loose on the trail. So I set out without any time or distance goals. I didn’t run hard or fast, I just ran to remind myself that it’s fun :)

SO glad I did! I’m not sure about you guys, but I get so caught up in setting fitness goals for myself, I sometimes forget that just doing it is fun. We had a perfect fall day here. Sunny and slightly brisk. I never run along the trail later in the day, so the sun was coming through the trees in the most gorgeous way. It was full of yellow and orange leaves, and I got to say hello to many fellow trail-goers :)

If you must know, I did 4.2 miles in 41 minutes. Perfection! No walk breaks since it was a shorter run. I felt like I could have kept going, but I’m terrified of getting an overuse injury. So I kept my weekly mileage in the “safe” zone :)

My cycling-obsessed boyfriend teased me into thinking he was going to run with me today. Alas, he once again opted for is two wheels. Aaahhh, the woes of being a cycling widow :P Or…is he a running widow?

Anyways, we met up after our respective workouts for some refuelling in the form of a homestyle dinner.

Canadians, especially Atlantic Canadians, will know what an Irving Big Stop restaurant is. Big Stops are essentially giant gas stations for truckers. They’ve got huge stores attached and rest areas. They also have homestyle restaurants.

It’s by no means classy.

The food may be simple, but it’s quality. Plus, we kinda like these places. So much so, it’s where we came for Valentine’s Day!

They have one of those “Simply For Life” menus (which I discovered is a local diet centre/program).

I went for the roast turkey dinner. “All white turkey meat served with mixed steamed vegetables and baked sweet potato.”

I love turkey dinners!! Probably one of my favourite meals (and why Thanksgiving is actually my #2 favourite holiday after Halloween ;) ). There was soooo much turkey. I ended up mixing it with the veggies and sweet potato to get combination bites. It was mega tasty. The perfect post-run meal.

Chris went a little ahem, bigger, with his recovery meal.

Chicken poutine. I can’t say much though, bastard burned 1300 calories on his ride! I assume most people know what poutine is, but for clarification sake this one had french fries, turkey gravy and mozzarella. Traditional poutines are made with cheese curds, but cheese is always delicious no matter what the kind :)

I also have an official announcement to make.

I’m going to do a half marathon in May!! It’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I ran the 5k portion of the same race this past May. All I needed was a little gentle nudging from Brie who signed up for her first half marathon in April!

It still seems pretty far away in my mind. But it was this time last year that I decided on the triathlon, and that approached pretty darn quick!

The only thing I’m worried about is training during the winter months. I don’t think running in freezing temperatures will be that bad. I’m just concerned about the ice and snow. I don’t want to run on the icy sidewalks, which means a few months training will likely be done on the treadmill. 

Anyone got any tips for training in the winter?

If you live in a warm climate, got a spare room? I jest, I jest :P

Okee folks, cookie is in the fridge, and I’ve got a bed that’s calling my name. Hope you’re having a great weekend!