Easy Like Sunday Morning?

Have I finally solved my issues with running? Too soon to tell, but today’s interval session was fantastic! Details to come, but first…

This morning was pretty much a repeat of yesterday; sleep in until 9:30, stumble to kitchen for coffee and oatmeal, then plop down on the couch. Oh, and there were two crumpets that needed to be eaten, so Husband and I each had one.

No Heat Wave this morning though, because I finished it last night. Instead, Husband and I sat down to watch this weeks episode of Stargate Universe which we are both liking so far. I had a second cup of coffee on the couch watching The Vampire Diaries (it’s no Buffy, but it’s not half bad) and paging through Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven which I picked up from the sale table at Coles on Friday. Looking for some appetizer type ideas for a Halloween party and found a couple of possibilities.

Eventually I got myself off the couch and headed down to the treadmill for a Cardio Interval session. Before putting my sneakers on, I inserted a pair of Dr. Scholl’s gel arch supports. I have complained about my issues with running. Then I compounded the issue by overdoing a treadmill workout back at the beginning of May. I took it easy for a while, and feel pretty much recovered, but sometimes I still feel like my left foot in particular is not quite right.

I used to put Dr. Scholl’s Gel Heel inserts in my sneakers – mainly because the backs of most sneakers hit to high up on the back of my ankle bone and it would end up giving me blisters. But, I also felt more comfortable with the extra lift under my heel.

The I bought my first pair of Mizuno's; I believe they were Wave Rider 9 runners and they were the best pair of sneakers I ever had. Also, they were the sneakers I wore while the whole running thing came together for me. I’ve had 3 pairs of Mizuno’s since then (two of them being new improved Wave Riders) and none of them have been as perfect as that first pair (why do companies insist on ruining things by coming out with new improved versions? though this last pair is the closest to the first pair I had, so hopefully they will improve to the point of getting it right again). I stopped wearing the gel inserts with the Wave Rider 9 because the sneaker fit so well and I always wondered whether it was a good thing to do anyway – they design sneakers the way they do for a reason, right?

However, since I’m still feeling the odd issues with my feet – feels like my arches are falling in – I decided to try the insoles. And today my run was perfect. When I finished, I didn’t even feel like I had been running. Now, I can’t say for sure it was the insoles; I can cite the fact that I did no exercise at all yesterday and had a nice carb-y breakfast with 2 large cups of coffee…but still. It felt so good today I wanted to keep going, but a) I knew I had a lot to do today and b) I don’t want to push my luck; I figure I should give it some time and see if things keep feeling good. So I stuck to my regular interval workout – thought I did increase my speed for the last two intervals.

I’m sure all these details are not all that exciting to read, but I wanted to document it for myself. I’m done now!

After my run, I had a protein drink. I love the Bolthouse Vanilla Chai, and saw this new flavor when I was shopping yesterday. However, it contains milk and I wasn’t sure how my tummy would take that so I got a small one to try and had half today. It was pretty tasty.

Then I had a shower, and my plan was to make myself a salad for lunch…But Frank wanted a walk, so I decided to take him out first and then of course Zappa wanted a walk.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then I came in and thought about everything I wanted to get done so I grabbed a snack, and never did get around to lunch.

I made yogurt, a batch of soup for lunches over the next couple of weeks, a batch of steel cut oats for breakfast this week and tried a new recipe for supper. Phew.

I finally has my salad at supper time – green leaf lettuce, red bell pepper, cucumber & tangerine with Asian Sesame dressing and slivered almonds.

For the main course, I tried a recipe from Judith Finlayson’s Complete Whole Grains Cookbook . I picked it up on sale a while ago, and marked some recipes to try but this is the first time I’ve made anything from it.

We’ve been spending a lot on groceries and our kitchen cupboards & fridge/freezer are filled to capacity, so this week I mainly bought produce and I’m working on using up some of the things we have laying around the kitchen.

Today was Red Beans & Rice – except with Black Beans because I have several cans in the cupboard, and green beans instead of peas just because I felt like it. It looked pretty…

Very colorful, but Husband and I both thought it was lacking in flavor. I ended up putting salsa on mine.

Oh, and I defrosted a package of sausages from the freezer and cooked those for Husband to have.

We’ve got enough for leftovers, but I think I’ll be trying to jazz it up tomorrow and give the rice & beans a bit more flavor.

Kitchen is all cleaned up and now I’m getting blogging out of the way. May possibly have a snack, but we’ll see…

But I did it. I blogged through the weekend, which I’d set as a goal for myself. Oh, and the lack of cookies & M&M’s mentioned is not because I forget to photograph/report them, I just haven’t eaten any. Imagine that.