Laid Back Weekend and my 5k Recap

Once again, the weekend was here and gone. It's funny, whether we are going non stop or don't really have any plans, the weekends still fly.

My two days were quite pleasant. Saturday, I ran a 5k in Hershey with my friend Sarah. It went very well, and although we weren't too hung up on times, we both agreed that we would be happy to finish under 30 min.

Unfortunately, it rained in bit in the morning, which is never a good mood setter for a race, but thankfully, it cleared right as the race began. We got there early to register and then waited at the start line to begin. I was really excited to start for some reason and felt my adrenaline rise as the time grew closer. Then, we were off. This is when something strange happened. I don't know if it was a mixture of all of the people or just not having much experience running outdoors or the rain, but I started to feel really anxious. I started to second guess myself and my head began to tell me "what if I can't do this!" This occurred for the first .05 mile and then I just told myself "come on Lauren, this is cake. It's only 3 miles, you run 5 miles every single day without a sweat and you've ran so much longer." After I talked myself down, I was absolutely fine. My natural stamina set in and I started to enjoy it. Thank goodness! I think this happened for a couple of reasons. 1. I really haven't done a lot of training outside. Most of all of my runs are on a treadmill, and running outside, as many of you know, is an entirely different game. 2. I am not use to running with other people. I started to notice them and think I wasn't as fast or not as good.

Thankfully, my anxiety was short lived and we finished with a 27:11 time. I was quite satisfied with this and hopefully, as I get more training outside, my speed will improve. Sarah and I both decided to sign up for another 5k in June and are looking into some more races this summer. It was so nice to have her there and I am really looking forward to running more with her. It will be nice to train with someone and she is even thinking about signing up for the 1/2 marathon with me this September.

There weren't too many other events this weekend. A Russian b-day party at the infamous Chinese buffet for Toly's grandma, grocery shopping, cleaning, week prepping (the usual Sunday affair).

My parents joined us for dinner tonight. My dad and I originally had plans to work on my garden in the afternoon, but we got rained out. :(

Dinner tonight was a new recipe, inspired by Rob Miller. It was a last minute thing because I had planned to grill, but again, the rain put a stop to my intention. I saw this recipe a couple of weeks ago and put it in my food bank memory.
Roasted Chicken with Goat Cheese and Pistasico crust. I made a couple of enhancements by adding cranberries, using crumbled goat cheese, and dijon to the honey mustard. It was very tasty and considering that I don't eat much meat, I definitely enjoyed this chicken.

I also roasted some butternut squash with evoo, salt, pepper and rosemary and then tossed it with spinach. And roasted asparagus.

Since my mom and Toly are not squash lovers, I also made some orzo pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese and peas. For just winging this side dish, it turned out very good. It reminded me of a risotto. (Sorry forgot to picture)

Well, I am officially exhausted due to another night of bad sleep. I don't know what is going on with me. I never seem to have trouble with sleep, but this past week has been rough.

Hopefully you all had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to a great week ahead.