dessert for dinner?

The mostaccioli recipe was good, but nothing terribly exciting.  I'd make it again, as its a good basic pasta with tomato-based sauce, but it didn't blow me away.  Although, again, I don't own a blender, so the sauce might have been improved by actual blending instead of just chopping things up quite small and mixing them together.  I really need a blender, haha.  Anyway, I didn't eat lunch until 2:30pm, since I had coffee and fruit around 9am and then a snack of pecans round 11.  That plus drinking lots of water kept me feeling full until dinner time.  Dinner tonight was Graham-Crusted Tilapia, which I was excited about ALL WEEK.  It was from the "Center of the Plate" chapter of the cook book, which means there were no veggies or anything to accompany it.  I used this as an excuse to have my leftover ravioli lobster on the side (even though they really don't "go together" very well), and cooked some extra mushrooms to go with the ravioli!

The ravioli was good with extra mushrooms, I only wish I had some spinach to add to it!  The tilapia... well, it was good, cooked the right amount (I cooked it for about 8 minutes instead of 10), but I'm not sure how I feel about the combination of graham crackers and fish.  When I think of graham crackers, I think of s'mores... so this sort of confused my palate: am I eating dinner or dessert?  (Although, dessert for dinner is probably my favorite way to avoid overeating but still get to eat unhealthy food).  Can't decide how I feel about this dish.

This morning's run with M was a success in my book!  It is SO HUMID HERE, so simply finishing what we set out to do is a success as far as I'm concerned.  We decided to return to our trusty intervals, and went with 1 minute walking / 7 minutes running - something we both thought should be fairly easy.  At 95% humidity, NOTHING is easy, but we powered through and made it 2.65 miles in 32 minutes, for a pace of about 12:04.  While reading up on potential training programs last night, I found a quote: "When the temperature rises above 60° F: runners slow down by 30 seconds a mile for every 5 degrees above 60° F." (source: Jeff Galloway)  Umm, it's 90 here most days, and it is at least 75 when we head out for our morning runs.  So by that logic, if we are normally able to run 10 minute miles in 60 degree weather, we should run at 11:30, which we have proven that we are able to do.  By this logic, when it finally cools down in October, we should have no problem pumping out 10 minute miles.  Flawed logic?  Maybe.  Am I going with it anyway? Absolutely.

So, M and I are currently planning out our training plan for the next 9 months, leading up to the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.  We are going to use a half-marathon program for that race, which will start in mid January.  Before that, we figured we ought to try some shorter races, so we are planning to do a 10K training program in the fall (before the holidays and vacations make it hard to train), and a 5K before that.  We weren't crazy about the 5K programs we found, because they start up with very short runs - only 1.5 miles.  And sure, I've yet to run more than 1 mile without a walking break, but I've tackled nearly 4 miles with my intervals!  Plus, I just don't like the idea of running 1.5 miles and calling it a day.  So we chose a beginner 8K program instead, and will race either a 5k or an 8k in mid September, depending on what we find.

Question to my readers: all these programs suggest strength training twice a week.  What strength exercises or programs do you enjoy?  In the fall, I might go to a Body Tone class at the gym once a week, but as for strength at the gym or at home, what are the best strength exercises for runners? 

It's game time... GO CELTICS!