running AND meal #3!

Today, M and I tried out the Al Buehler Trail.  A few months ago, when Susan was visiting, she went for a run on this trail and blogged about how hilly it was.  Well, I'm here to confirm - it is VERY hilly!  My Achilles' was definitely killing me whenever we had to go uphill - so much so that 35 minutes in we had to stop running for a while - in fact I thought I needed to stop running for the whole day, but we decided to walk for a while and after 15 minutes I felt up for a bit more running, so we did intervals for the last 5-7 minutes.  In total, we went about 3.7 miles over the course of 55ish minutes, so that's an average pace of 15.4 minute miles.  Given how much walking we were doing and the pain I was in, I feel fine with that!  It's weird how my Achilles' hurt so much more when I run up hills than when I run flat or downhill - is that normal?  I think it's because it's stretching the tendon out more?  I wonder if there is anything I can change about my form or whatever to alleviate that... thoughts, anyone?  Anyway, we've definitely run places with hills before, but the Al Buehler Trail hills are a new level of hilliness that I'm not quite ready for!  I also went into the day still feeling sort of sore, so that didn't help.  We probably won't return to that trail for a little while - but it's SO nice, and in the shade, so maybe when I'm pain free and a bit stronger we can try it again :-)  The OTHER strange part was, after my 15 minute walk break, I had significantly less pain while running all the way to the end... maybe I just need to be pushing through more when I'm in pain?  Or maybe the longer break allowed my tendons to calm down a bit and be ready for more?

For those of you who were dying to know, M used a program called Audacity to make the play list where she mixed in songs with a recording of her voice, telling us when to start walking or start running!  The funny thing is - I had NO IDEA it was HER voice telling me to walk or run... she sounded very different on the recording.

Anyway, I need to be better about stretching over the next few days in order to make sure I'm not in any pain for our next run - which is tentatively scheduled for Friday, but might get pushed to Saturday afternoon depending on pain levels / other factors.  For the time we did walk/run today, we did 1 minute walks and 2:30 minute runs - and aerobically felt pretty good (especially when there were no hills), so next time we are upping it to 1 minute walking, 3 minutes running!  If we keep upping our intervals of running by 1 minute each week, until we get to 1 minute walking and 10 minutes running, we should be in good shape to run a full mile without stopping to walk by the end of June.  The first week of July tentatively begins our 5k training, which starts of with 1.5 miles of running.  So, I'm feeling pretty good about that!

Alright - onto food!  The salad I made for lunch today was delicious, other than the spinach which was eh.  I think I discovered a new love for pecans, so that's exciting!  Then, tonight I made Orange- and Ginger- Glazed Chicken, which I had with steamed broccoli and (leftover) brown rice:

The glaze was deeelicious, although it was almost TOO sweet, and I probably didn't put enough ginger in it.  I have never cooked with ginger before, so I'm not sure how it would have tasted with more/less.  Oh well!!  It was still good, and I put some of the sauce over the broccoli as well to spice it up!  YUM!  I also bought some mac and cheese today (including gluten-free, lactose-free mac and cheese for my friend who is allergic to both, yikes) so that on Friday, I can make FRIED MAC AND CHEESE.  Doesn't exactly fit in with my healthy living plan, but I made it once for friends in the fall and they've been begging for more ever since!  One of my friends is having an end-of-semester party Friday, so I'm going to make and bring some delicious fried treats.  Yay for my favorite things (that I shouldn't eat): fried food and food with cheese, haha.

Alright - that's all for today - thanks for your comments so far!  3 meals down, 297 to go, and 341 days to do it :-)