How’s everyone doing? My allergies have still been raging pretty much all day. I took allergy medication last night and went to bed so I wouldn’t wake up for my workout too drowsy. And I slept with double pillows, which probably helped my nose but now my neck is pretty sore. In my medication-induced sleep, I tossed and turned and kept finding myself thinking about half marathons. Odd. After a granola bar, my morning workout was pretty unpleasant. While my nose is clearing up, I awoke with my lungs feeling full. Ew. So basically for my erg I felt like my lungs were going to explode. Although each part of my workout was better than the last. My 30 minute run felt much better. And my allergies have been progressively improving throughout the day so I’m hopeful that tomorrow I will be much better. Plus, I’m still really sore (though less sore than this morning).

After my workout, I made myself a smoothie.

I’ve been wanting to do my blackberry-watermelon smoothie for a while, but there weren’t any watermelons today. Or bananas. And to make a good smoothie, I knew I needed some kind of sweeter fruit. The solution? An apple! My smoothie included blackberries, a little yogurt, a little frozen peaches and mango, a small apple, and milk. Topped with peanut butter of course! On the side were some eggs. Not really sure what was in them though….And on my way out I grabbed a piece of French toast.

Not worth it. It is never as good as I am expecting…

Around the beginning of my first class, I started developing a sinus headache. Everything from the lungs up was aching…after class I took Advil and just lay down for a bit. Lunch was a random mix of things in my room.

These guys are pretty good though not quite as flavorful as I was hoping…

Thai chicken soup (I picked this up from Whole Foods over the weekend), celery, and a cracker. I wasn’t really feeling the cracker, so I opted for half a slice of European style rye bread.

I topped all this off with a bit of trail mix and my banana mixture (banana, dark cocoa powder, peanut butter). I’m not a big fan of meals like this that have a ton of random things thrown together. That was kind of what all my meals were like today. I think I prefer lunch in the dining hall, where I can have a big salad.

Before practice, I had an orange, 2 granola balls, and on the way out the door, one of the delicious ThinkThin bars (German Chocolate).

Practice held a new experience for me. Today I rowed in a double for the first time. Not only is this the first time I’ve rowed in a 2 person boat, but it’s the first time I’ve sculled, which means rowing with an oar in each hand. It was interesting. Kind of like learning to row for the first time again, except I picked it up much more quickly. I was grateful I was in a boat with a total of 4 oars, because that is much more stable than a 2 person boat where each person has one oar. After practice was dinner out of my fridge:

A salad with greens and tomatoes that I stole from the dining hall yesterday, plus avocado, olive oil and White Balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. A sweet potato. Leftover cheese souffle. Not a bad meal. I had more of my banana mixture for dessert, but this time I added a little bit of liquid egg whites. Not my best choice because I think the egg took away from the sweetness of the banana.

What an attractive picture, right? I borrowed the banana from my roommate. I think she has at least 15 very ripe bananas. She’s way better at stealing them from the dining hall than I am! She loves to bake, so I think she’s gonna make something with them. Right now I think she’s working on some type of pear muffin/cake. I’m not sure if this counts as a sweet….either way I’m pretty full so I should pass. My eating was kind of all over th place today. I think I ate too many carbs. Do you ever get that feeling? I don’t know how to describe it. Also, I don’t think my meals were as enjoyable as they could have been because I was kind of panting through them. As it turns out, we tend to breathe through our noses when we eat…

Well, that’s all I have for today. I really hope my allergies clear up for my workout tomorrow. And especially by Thursday. We have a 2x6k at max effort which I’m really dreading…have a good night everyone!

What new experiences have you had lately?