Hi, July!

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July 1, 2013 by Amy B

I have to be honest with you: Monday is winning, even though I had a great run this morning.
This is partly due to Sunday suckage which led to four unhappy folks at bedtime. I found myself yelling in exasperation, which is not the way one wants to wind down before going to sleep.

The alarm went off at 5:00 – totally planned, mind you — but I wasn’t ready. I finally extricated myself from betwixt two sleeping children (one whom is teething, yay fun) and the other who is just a bundle of flying limbs covered in scabbed over bug bites from scratching in her sleep (poor thing).

In the early years of marathon training, I hated Mondays. I find that I generally enjoy getting back into it on Mondays now, with the day off in between runs sometimes feeling eternal. I feel like I could put in a run on Sundays – maybe a short one – but I’m a little afraid of overdoing it.

Scott and I have staggered our training to accomodate long runs on different days (he goes Sunday and I go Saturday). On one hand, Monday’s mileage never creeps up past 4 miles (I’m doing the Hal Higdon Intermediate I) so it’s mostly a “test the waters after the long run” kind of day. I don’t go out for PRs and I don’t really have high expectations, other than to get loose and back into running.

I was pleased with today’s run.

I got out at 5:55am, which is right when I want to get going. There was an edge to the weather this morning, so I threw on a long sleeved shirt, which is almost unheard of in July). They’re doing serious road construction along our main drag, but for some reason none of the workers were out at 6am. Perhaps they were feeling Monday, too.

And even though I had plenty of time to get my shit together before leaving for work, I ended up being 20 minutes late and forgetting some important HR paperwork I needed to submit today. Fail.

At least lunch is tasty.

Black bean burger that didn’t have enough binder but tastes delicious + 1/2 c brown rice + spinach salad (tomatoes, onion, red pepper, chili lime dressing). The salad is a WW recipe I’ve loved for a long time (google: Santa Fe Salad Recipe). Washing it down with another nice Internet find:

I know I’m probably the last person on the Internet to know about flavoring your water with cucumber and lime (the recipe called for mint as well but I didn’t have any on hand), but so good. Thank you, Internet.

Speaking of food, I’m about to embark on an eating overhaul. I hesitate to use the word “diet,” because I swore I wouldn’t go on another diet again. I hate the word diet. This is a lifelong food commitment, not a fad or short term thang.

I did a stellar job of keeping the weight off and maintaining at the end of winter, only to watch the scale creep up slowly since April. Now on July 1, I’m up 7 lbs. Apparently I’ve been packing away too many calories somewhere. Granted, my diet is far from completely clean, but when I do indulge, I am careful to do it with restraint. I’m going to start journaling again and watching my protein intake – I fear I’ve been mowing down on protein and not watching those extra calories pile up.

Despite this, I’m posting some of the fastest running paces of my life, so it’s a little puzzling to me that I’m able to do this after gaining some weight. (I’m 5’1″ by the way, so 128 lbs on this frame is a lot for me). But more importantly, I need to get my diet back on track and stop the landslide before it’s completely out of control.

So warning: you might start seeing photos of food. 🙂