slowest run ever :-/

This morning I was not eager to get out of bed at 6:20am, but the construction workers here start at 7… so I reluctantly rolled out of bed and into my running shoes around 6:50.

Yes, for those of you who have known me for quite some time – we are getting up every morning between 6 and 6:30.  The boyfriend wants to learn to wake up with the sun and go to bed early – which makes sense for his upcoming trip and even for here at the lake.  The RV isn’t a terribly exciting place to hang out in the evening.

So, off to run it was!  The course I mapped out started with an uphill, so it was a slow start but it definitely woke me up.  What I didn’t realize was that this hill wouldn’t be my only of the morning.  As soon as I turned the corner, I found another hill.  Not super long or anything, but fairly steep.  Ugh.  I picked this course because I knew that the majority of the road was downhill!  Apparently only after climbing a few hills first… oh well.

Anyway, I set out to do two miles, and I only vaguely recalled from the course I charted online where the 1 mile mark was.  Time felt like it was going by ridiculously slowly, but I was definitely trying to push myself to run at least a reasonable pace.  When I thought I was close to a mile, I glanced down at my watch, and it read 14:08.  I thought to myself, that can’t be right!  I must be way more than half done with this run.  But as I pondered how far I had left to go, I knew I had only made it halfway.  What the heck?!?  Am I really running a 14 minute mile pace?  That’s way slower than even my hard days in the ridiculous heat and humidity back home.  This morning was humid, and probably in the 70s, but it wasn’t anywhere near as severe as some of the weather I’d run in earlier this summer.

So, I did my best to pick up my pace without burning myself out for the remainder of the run.  But I think someone must’ve put lead in my legs overnight, because when I reached 2 miles, my watch read 28:15.  W. T. F.  I was not a happy camper.  But I guess that’s just how it goes some days.  Thursday will be better – I hope.

I did spend a few minutes pondering what might be making me go so much slower than normal.  This morning and on Sunday morning, I didn’t eat anything before I went.  I wasn’t really hungry, and I didn’t feel like I was exhausted / had no fuel left to push through.  I am generally not hungry in the morning, so I felt fine about not eating (plus, if I run at 6:45, how early would I have to eat to have the food digested before running?).  To those of you who run in the morning: do you eat beforehand?  If so, how long beforehand, and what do you eat?

Anyway, enough about my ridiculously slow running… I finally got to cook again today!  For now, we have the grill and a microwave, but no stove.  So, today I made Sweet and Sour Chicken Packets.  Yum!  I have recently discovered that I do, in fact, like pineapple, which made this recipe way more exciting than it might have been.  Here’s a before picture of the packets:

 And the grill I'll be using for the rest of the month:

Yay grill!  Anyway, the recipe included bell pepper and onion, but for my picky eater boyfriend I only put a few teeny tiny pieces of each into his packet for flavoring.  Here's the finished product, ready to eat (my plate, more veggies):

Natural lighting is so much better for pictures!  The chicken took longer than I expected,  but luckily I have a master griller as a boyfriend, so he helped cook it to perfection.  He agreed with me that recipe turned out quite well, but he wasn't crazy about pineapple with sweet and sour chicken... he's so plain-Jane!  He must've mostly liked it, though, because he cleared his plate, except of course for:

Oh well – you can’t win ‘em all!  (And yes, I ate those few bites of peppers myself).  Tomorrow has some rain and thunderstorms in the forecast, so I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be able to go for a swim and do my yoga… but it should clear up by the evening, so I definitely should be able to grill some dinner!  Now, I’m off to work on my latest project: teaching myself to KNIT!