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Mental Block and Solving the Mystery

Hey guys! I am currently in between finals, and since I feel moderately prepared, I figured I’d give my brain a break and blog. (Hmm the fact blogging is a brain break probably doesn’t speak well of my writing…) Also, can you believe tonight is my last night sleeping in this dorm?? I miss my bed at home! It is wayyy more comfortable!

 

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(Recycled photos- sorry!)

Yesterday was my 5 mile training run. So naturally I chose the biggest hill imaginable for this run! It was…very unpleasant. To be fair it was super windy. Yeah, great idea Aurora, on the windiest day of the year, find the highest, most open space. It was also kind of a wake-up call. I had the whole run to think about running. One thing: I really need to train smarter. As in, stick to the training plan. Running 3 days in a row just does not work for me right now, especially when my 5 mile run was less than 24 hours after my previous run. My legs were shot on the first mile, before we even reached the giant hill. Also, I am kind of terrible with recovery. I nee to roll out more and get back to yoga. My legs are soo tight today, but I sent my roller home, and today is a rest day, so I’m not sure I want to go all the way to the gym just to use the foam roller…

Anyway, the other day, Beth raised a really good point- if I don’t focus on my running, my runs will not be very good, and I can’t put all my effort into them. That got me thinking-why aren’t my runs my priority? I haven’t fallen in love with running yet. Why? Because it is HARD. I think one of the biggest reasons I’ve avoided running is because it forces me to stare in the face of the fact that I have definitely lost fitness in the past few months. Running is where that loss is most apparent. By avoiding running, I am somehow avoiding this fact. Running right now is harder for me than it has been in a LONG time, and the fact that it isn’t as easy as I remember takes away from the pleasantness. So that revelation, mixed with the fact that my sister and her boyfriend smoked me on the run yesterday has made me really decide to dedicate myself to this. The problem is, it won’t get easier unless I do it more. So for running to be more enjoyable, I need to push through. The plan is to put more effort into my runs. I’m going to do some speedwork and hills on my shorter runs- the goal of my longer runs is just to get the mileage in my legs. Tomorrow I’m going to face the dreaded treadmill to get a faster paced 3 mile run in. What type of intervals do you guys do to work on speed? I may also add in some sprints- In the past, I was used to doing sprint-centered conditioning 2x a week for softball, which I am sure helped my running. 

Ok, now that that all is out of the way, on to the fun stuff! The advantage of running with someone with a car, is afterwards, you can go out to frozen yogurt. We went to Wildberry, which is BY FAR my favorite fro-yo place. I haven’t gone since I had mono, and I’ve been dreaming about it all quarter! Salted caramel pretzel=the best thing ever. That alone won me over. Image

I didn’t have my phone with me, but I really wanted to share this all with you guys, so I borrowed my sister’s. Right side is salted caramel pretzel, left is plain tart. OMG SOOO GOOD. 

My evening was spent in the library learning studying for Chem. Unfortunately, my brain was finished studying before I was. I tried to revive myself with some tea, but alas, I was done for the night. Image

I am kind of in love with this mug…

The tea was Strawberry Lemonade. The ingredients were all fruit and flower petals. Is it weird that I was wondering whether the leftover tea leaves would be good in oatmeal?

This morning I had a “final.” We played jeopardy…for 3 hours. The brought us breakfast from an awesome cafe, but I must say, jeopardy with dog toy squeakers as the buzzers is not the most conducive environment for studying for a Chem final! Talk about stressful…

Once it was over, I realized I only had 4 hours to completely master Organic Chemistry. Hah. So it was off to the library again, where I saw this guy:ImageImageThen it was on to lunch.ImageI ended up eating the insides out of the sandwich since I was having the other bread, and didn’t want a carb crash during my test. And as the title of this post says, I am slowing solving the mystery to this Mystery bread. I cam across something online the other day talking about how sunflower seeds undergo a reaction with baking soda (or was it powder?), causing them to turn green. So that explains that. I really took some time to think about the other ingredients today.

ImageHere’s what I’ve determined that this contains: raisins, sunflower seeds, carrots, coconut. And I have no problem solving this mystery one delicious piece of bread at a time. 🙂

Also, I’ve been trying to figure out what to fuel with for before my runs. In the past, I ate pb and banana on toast. However, nuts cause my skin to break out. And I’m not a big fan of working out on nuts- the fat in them kind of messes with my stomach. And I’m a little hesitant to have grains given my sometimes weird reactions to them (which I plan on getting tested about this summer). Any other suggestions? Also, my sister wants to eat sour gummy worms to fuel during the race. Would there be any problems with that?

I would love some long distance running advice!

Almost Done!

Happy Friday everybody! 

I can’t believe I only have 3 days left of classes! How crazy is that? What’s on tap for me in these next few week? I have 3 finals, only 1 of which I am actually worried about. My half marathon training continues-more on that in a minute. This weekend I have a sorority fancy dinner, a pledge class planned party, a banquet for my dorm, and sorority initiation. Next weekend I have Kitten Nursery orientation! For those that don’t know, I am volunteering at an animal shelter this summer, and I will be working with kittens-so unbelievably pumped. ImageThrowback to Charlie’s kitten days!

This week I have been in a bit of a food and exercise rut. I’ve missed quite a few workouts due to schoolwork, and I haven’t been feeling that great since schoolwork=not sufficient sleep, plus my allergies have been bothering me. I’ve also had a weird headache, which might be allergy related…it is really stupid though because it is likely that my allergies will improve if I change my air filter….but I have so far been too lazy. Whoops!

As far as workouts go, I got some good stuff in Tuesday. Wednesday was devoted to paper writing and studying. Thursday was morning spin. Today I got in a quick weight lifting workout-nothing too crazy, just to get the blood pumping. So what is the common factor that is missing from my week? That’s right, half marathon training. So far I’ve missed 2 runs, but given that it is midterm/finals season, I’m not too concerned. It is still week 1 and the runs are still short. I want to make one of them up today, but I might do that later tonight after my fancy dinner because I feel like I literally just showered, and don’t particularly care to shower yet again. It is sad that being freshly showered (aka being too clean) has prevented me more than once from doing a workout…

But now on to eats! Yesterday, I went to 4 coffee shops, and spent time working in 3 of them. Don’t worry, I did not get coffee 4 times. Otherwise yesterday’s post would HAVE BEEN LIKE THISSSSSSS.

Here is some deliciousness from the past couple of days:ImageImageSalad with hard boiled egg, garlic hummus, and some type of corn salad. This was surprisingly delicious- I’ll need to recreate it this summer for sure!ImageI made a chicken burger at the dining hall with a piece of grilled chicken and a whole wheat english muffin. I don’t know why I’ve never done this before-it was so good! Plus a vat of ketchup on the side. My side of the dining hall always runs out of ketchup, so I had to run to the other side to grab a bowl of it. Yes, a whole bowl of it. If I was going to that much effort, I didn’t want to run out!ImageYesterday morning I didn’t feel that great (thanks 4+ hours of sleep) so after spin, all my body was craving was a green smoothie. I put a ton of spinach in, and this was still tasty! Spinach, yogurt, peaches, strawberries, banana. I think the key was using water to blend it instead of milk. Sidenote- I topped my egg whites with cream cheese to make them more interesting. However, I first topped them with whipped cream on accident…not feeling that!
IMG_2657 />Yesterday’s cappuccino. I had to share this picture because in taking it, I spilled my drink everywhere. The things I do for you guys!ImageDelicious salad- blue cheese, apples, pears, walnuts. I also realized yesterday that if I want any hope of going to the Healthy Living Summit, I need to stop shelling out so much money on expensive salads and fancy coffee drinks. ImageMore delicious mystery bread. I have absolutely no clue what is in it, but it’s sooo good. I know it at least has sunflower seeds, carrots, and raisins. Not sure what else though. I need to ask sometime! Hey, I’ll take another excuse to go back!

This afternoon has been pretty low key so far. I am expecting a fun and busy weekend though! I have 3 days of classes, and then Dead Day. Yes, one day (welcome to college…), and then finals! Finals are Fri, Sat, Mon, Tues, Weds, but my first isn’t until Monday. Hope everyone has an awesome week!

Do you ever skip workouts?