Because…
Today is mine and Patrick’s 7 year dating anniversary 🙂
I ran 7 miles this morning.
My first half marathon is in 7 days.
I’ll start with the run. Just like my long run last week, this one was rough. Maybe I’m just making excuses, but I really think the weather has been a killer for me. Last week we started the run earlier in the morning. The heat wasn’t so bad, but the humidity was awful. Today I thought I would wait for the humidity to go down a bit, and I didn’t start running until 11 AM. It was only supposed to be 75 degrees or so, but it felt HOT.
I think I started out too fast, but I really don’t think that’s what’s getting to me. A 10 minute mile doesn’t feel too fast, it feels comfortable. But after running 10-15 minutes in the heat, my heart rate was up way too high for running less than 2 miles, and I knew it was going to be another rough one. The walk breaks started during the 4th mile and it went downhill from there.
I took my Gu after completing 4 miles. I finished my 20 oz water bottle right after that and forced myself to jog to the next water fountain to fill up again. No matter how many walk breaks I took, I couldn’t get my body to cool down. And at 6 miles, I quit.
My legs didn’t hurt and I wasn’t out of energy. I was just hot and mentally exhausted/frustrated, and I gave up. I stretched and started walking the half mile back to my car. But I started to feel really angry with myself for quitting, and told myself that if I could just run 1 more mile, I would have at least run more than half the distance of a half marathon. So instead of turning off toward my car, I took off for my last mile.
Of course, since I was letting myself off with just one more mile, I decided to book it. I walked two or three times, but even with the short walk breaks, it was still my fastest mile of the day. When I finished, I considered running/walking the last mile, but I could feel a blister forming on the back of my right foot, and when I looked down, there was blood covering my sock and shoe. So I stopped at 7 miles. My splits:
- Mile 1: 10:03
- Mile 2: 10:00
- Mile 3: 10:06
- Mile 4: 10:34 – Gu
- Mile 5: 11:27
- Mile 6: 11:10
- Mile 7: 9:45
- Total: 1:13:06 (10:26 average pace)
Looking at my times, I feel like maybe I was too hard on myself. But I felt absolutely miserable by the end of the run. The past two weeks have been rough, which makes me extremely nervous for the half marathon next week. I feel like I’m not going to be prepared. I hope that by pushing myself through my long runs in this heat, my body will slowly adapt.
Now for the fun stuff – our 7th dating anniversary! Even though we’re married, it’s still fun to recognize the dating anniversary. My parents always celebrate theirs, and I think it’s fun. And since we were dating for more than 5 years before we got married, I feel like it would be sad to not recognize those 5 years anymore.
Usually we go out to eat for our dating anniversary, but it’s been a busy (but fun!) weekend for us, so I decided to make us dinner at home. We went to Costco today and picked up some risotto packages that looked really good. To Kim and any other gluten-free friends – this risotto is gluten-free and it’s amazing!
I decided to try the Creamy Parmesan tonight, and just added baked tofu and onion. I started by preparing the tofu. I cut the tofu into cubes and sprinkled them with garlic powder and parmesan cheese.
The tofu went into the oven for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Meanwhile, I prepared the risotto. It was very easy. I heated the rice in a bit of EVOO and added half a yellow onion. I then added 2.5 cups water and the flavor package to the pan. Pat contributed a little bit of butter to the mix 🙂 I then brought the rice to a boil and let it simmer.
I watched this…
become this…
and then added the tofu.
It was that easy! I also made a side salad for us. It included spinach, mozzarella cheese and ranch dressing. I also added grape tomatoes that we bought at the store this morning. Unfortunately, I thought grape tomatoes would be similar to cherry tomatoes, but I did not like these at all. Neither did Pat.
Although the tomatoes were not a hit, the risotto was! After dinner we went to Swirll for some frozen yogurt (I told Tara I was going to get some this weekend!). I’ve been craving it for awhile now, and our anniversary seemed like as good excuse as any 🙂 I went for a combination of red velvet and birthday cake frozen yogurt, topped with all kinds of chocolate goodies. No pictures though, because it was a melted mess by the time we got home.
The rest of my weekend has been dedicated to March Madness. It’s been hard to peel myself away (up until today my bracket was in great shape!), but we did take a break for some fun yesterday afternoon. We went to the Saint Arnold Brewery near downtown Houston. For $7 you can sample up to 4 types of beer, and people hang out at the picnic tables there for a good part of the day. We had been once before, but this time we came prepared. We brought lunch, snacks and board games. We played some Apples to Apples, and then we played a new card game called Bang! I’m so addicted. Has anyone else played Bang!?
Since this is a super-long post, I’ll leave you with a few questions…
Any suggestions for getting out of my mental slump when it comes to running in the heat? I’ve been drinking a lot of water and Gatorade both before and after my runs, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
If you’re married, do you still celebrate your dating anniversary? What do you do to celebrate?
What’s your favorite flavor of frozen yogurt? I’ve been obsessed with the red velvet/birthday cake mix!