Saturday morning was a scheduled 5-mile easy run, and I wanted to add hills so decided to go to North Park. I thought it would be a good run to try the Energybits I ordered from Kristy, who is nice enough to sell single-serving bags to try out. I got them on Friday, and I had to laugh at the "It's OK to swallow" notes on the packages. When my husband came home from work and saw them on the table, he was like, "What the hell is this?" Ha!
You can read all about these on Kristy's blog, but they are all-natural with vitamins and minerals, and many runners have said it's helped them. Because I have trouble swallowing pills, I decided I'd eat them instead. This is a single serving, so it's a lot.
I should point out that I HATE fish or anything fish-y smelling or tasting, even if it's vegetarian like seaweed. Even when I ate meat I didn't eat fish. So when I tried the first few, I thought, "Oh, it doesn't taste like much, that's good." Then I took another, bigger portion and started chewing. That's when the flavor hit me. I can't even describe it. It's not exactly fishy--maybe it's seaweedy?--but I did NOT like it. In fact, as I was chewing and trying to swallow them, my eyes teared up and I started gagging on them. Here's the other thing about chewing them--they turn into something like a glue and stick to your teeth, so that I kept tasting them even after I drank water. I had to run upstairs to brush my teeth and gargle with mouthwash, and even then I swore I still tasted them.
Well, after that I had no choice but to swallow them, which involved swallowing each one separately with a gulp of water after each time. It took a while.
After I finished them, I made a 16-ounce homemade sports drink out of water, agave nectar, fresh lime juice, salt, and chia seeds and took it with me for the ride. By the way, I love the taste of the chia seeds!
When I got to North Park, I thought there must be a race going on because it was so crowded. It didn't take me long to figure out it was the first day of trout season. It seemed like there were thousands of people there fishing.
I've never ran the five-mile loop around the lake. The portion you see at the road is kind of ho-hum, so I was surprised how pretty and scenic it was. I really liked the loop. I liked the rolling hills throughout the course and got to practice maintaining a consistent effort up and down hills. There were lots of people out, so it was fun to people watch, which made the time go by quickly. I wore a hat and the sun didn't bother me at all, plus it was still relatively cool and breezy, so the weather was great.
I had no lag in energy, but I usually don't for a shorter easy run. I think I'll be able to better test the Energybits on my next tempo run. The only bad part of the run was that my legs felt very tight and almost sore from the first step I took until the last. I suspected it was from not doing yoga the past three days.
After I got home, ate, and showered, we took Django for a walk in Schenley Park. There were about a million people out and about in Oakland! I think everyone was out enjoying the nice day.
But it was pretty hot for Django, who doesn't do well when it's much above 50. I had to stop about every 15 minutes to give him water to drink then douse water on his belly and fur to cool him down. Here he is saying, "I'm hot and cranky. Don't take my picture, Mom."
After we got home, I did the 25-minute Essential Yoga sequence on the Runner's World website. It felt so good!
That night, I tried on some new workout clothes to get my husband's opinion. Django looked exceptionally bored with my new clothes, and I asked my husband to take his picture. Here is the result, with an expression of, "More workout clothes? How boring!"
This morning was a short, easy run. This week was the first week that I've increased to five runs a week from four, so I wanted to keep my mileage on the low end of the range in my training plan. I did just over three miles on the river trail, toward Millvale. The PHenomenal Hope 5K was going on. It was warm but cloudy, so I didn't have much trouble. And yesterday's yoga must have helped--my legs felt fine.
After I got back, showered, and ate lunch, we took Django to Hartwood Acres for a playdate with his greyhound friends at the dog park. It was even hotter today, so Django kept lying down in a muddy puddle (and drinking from it, which this picture kind of captures).
After the dog park, we went to a nearby pond at Hartwood for the dogs to cool down. Once Django got in, he would not get out! I had to wait him out for a while. Here he is saying, "I am NOT moving."
When we got home, we gave him a much-needed bath. After that, he was completely tuckered and zonked out in his bed.
And just so the dog doesn't get all the glory, here's a shot of Rasputin giving Elsie some loving earlier today.
One more thing! I made a vegan version of Cincinnati Chili for dinner. It was fantastic! Even my omnivore husband liked it. Check out pics and the recipe over at my other blog.
Weekly Recap
- Monday: Rest and 60 minutes yin yoga, spine series
- Tuesday: Tempo run--Distance: 4.06 miles; Time: 43:57; Pace: 2 miles at 9:49 pace sandwiched in between two 11:30 pace easy miles | 30 minutes hip-release yoga
- Wednesday: Easy run--Distance: 3.16 miles; Time: 36:12; Pace: 11:26 | 40 minutes strength training
- Thursday: Intervals: 3 X .5 miles at 9:39 race pace--Distance: 4.16 miles; Time: 45:10
- Friday: 40 minutes strength training
- Saturday: Long run--Distance: 5.00 miles; Time: 57:44; Pace: 11:32 | 25 minutes yoga
- Sunday: Easy run--Distance: 3.30 miles; Time: 36:35, Pace: 11:05