Breaking My Routine

Hi everyone! How are things this week going for you all? I am amazed at how quickly this week is progressing. I can’t believe its Wednesday already, can you?

This morning, as I was walking to the gym, I began to think to myself that I have been really awful at varying my running routine. I run the same distance at the same pace every single morning. 5 miles at a 8-8:30 mile. It always takes me 42 min (give or take) to run this and I’ve been completing this routine for months.

I do long runs on Saturdays, but I still fear that I am not getting enough variety and that it’s probably a good idea to add some assortment to my morning runs. I haven’t done a speed run in awhile, so before I got to the gym, I prepared myself for some good speed-work.

Here is how it went….

5 min warm up- 6.0-6.2 mph

Min. 6-8: 6.5 mph

Min. 9-11: 7.5 mph

Min. 12-14: 6.7 mph

Min. 15-17: 7.7 mph

Min. 18-20: 7.0 mph

Min. 21-23: 7.9 mph

Min. 24-26: 8.2 mph

Min. 28-30: 8.5 mph

Min. 30-35: 7.2 mph

Min. 36-40: 7.5 mph

2 min cool down

Overall, I ran 5 miles in just a little over 41 min. This was my fastest time yet and it felt great to push myself with some sprinting.

I think I get some comfortable with running the same routine each morning, that I often forget how important it is to add variety and work different parts of the body and muscles.

Do you find that your runs or workouts are fairly repetitive? What are some things that you do to add change and excitement to your routine?

I plowed my way through the morning with lots and lots of work and then when 12pm came around, I realized I was huuunnngggrrry! Decided to give myself a nice break today and actually headed back to the casa for a nice prepared lunchie.

This salad was calling my name. It really was. Mainly because I made it last night while I was making the salads for dinner. I love doing that, I figure if I have everything out already, I might as well be efficient and productive by making tomorrow’s lunch at the same time. How’s that for multi-tasking? :)

Holy yum, this salad was a beauty. Romaine, radish, purple cabbage, cucumber, yellow tomatoes, yellow pepper, sweet pickles, blueberries, sprouts dressing with some white bean hummus and balsamic. Ahhhmmmmaaazzziing! And on the side, my new favorite veggie obsession….kabocha. Steamed in the microwave with salt, pepper and smoked paprika (this little spice is awesome on squash!) And drizzled in ketchup, naturally. The juiciest watermelon for something sweet to finish with.

I left my house with one big happy belly full of goodness and was filled to the brim for the rest of the aternoon.

Toly emailed me at work and asked if we could Shred again tonight. I of course complied, but only if he would try Level 2. After some trash talk, I convinced him.

Lucky for him, he got out of the dreaded Level 2 tonight when the AC man showed up right after he got off work to look at the new unit. He is coming on Saturday to install this beast but wanted to make sure he has everything for the job.

Oh well, guess his shredding will have to wait for next week.....

Toly had quite the long day, especially after we discovered just how much this heatfy little job of installing our AC is going to be. I wanted to cheer him up with one of his favorite meals for BFD….fritattas.

My frittata was spinach, asparagus, apple and red onion.

Toly had Apple, Bacon, Ham and cheese. Here they are getting ready to go into the oven to finish cooking...

And here they are coming out...

On the side, we had English muffins and fruit salad.

Okay, now that we are both completely content from a wonderful BFD experience, it’s time to get ready to curl up on the couch and watch The Real World re-runs. (We never make it for the new episodes on at 10pm, but we try to catch the week before which is on a 9pm, a much more reasonable attempt even though we are a week behind)

Good night friends.

PS- This is your last chance to enter my POM Wonderful Giveaway. I will announce the winner tomorrow!