An Active End of the Month

The past two days were spent sitting in a training for work.  Lots of "snacks" were provided, some were better than others.  Cookies, trail mix, string cheese, candy (salt water taffy, tootsie rolls, tootsie pops, etc.).  Yesterday I did pretty good limiting my snacks, and the lunch provided was a taco salad.  Today I felt I didn't do as well.  I really didn't need that second cookie and I didn't need to keep eating the salt water taffy just because a coworker kept putting it in front of me.

Tuesday night I bought new running shoes.  Aren't they pretty?

Wednesday after sitting through a day of training, I headed to the gym to try them out.  Now I know that new shoes need to be broken in so I only ran for half the time I usually do.  I wasn't counting on the back of my foot getting raw.  This has never happened to me before. 

Today is the last day of the month and again I found myself in the predicament of needing to go to the gym to get my 12 monthly visits in.  After another day of training (and too many snacks), I headed to the gym.  I did about 20 minutes of weights since Thursday is Zumba night and I didn't want to miss Zumba.  Well then I got the "smart" idea to walk to Zumba.  I should have left home about 5 minutes sooner than I did because I had to run the last few blocks.  I got there during the first song.  After Zumba, it was a leisurely walk back home.  Here is the GPS info I got on the way home.  1.81 miles one way--a little farther than I thought it was, but that's ok. 

So today's activity included: weights at the gym, walk/run to Zumba, Zumba, and walk home from Zumba.  It made me feel better about all the treats I had. :)

Fargo Marathon 5K

Last night I ran in the 5K portion of the Fargo Marathon.  Despite 90+ degree heat, it was awesome!  I went with two coworkers.  It was their first  5K and my fifth.  This was by far the funnest race I have ran.  There were over 9,500 registered runners.  The whole atmosphere was so inspiring.  Along the race course, there were people cheering the runners on.  With the heat, people along the race route had their sprinklers on and sprayed you with water guns!  There was even a spot where the fire hydrant was turned on to spray a mist!  I wish I had pictures, but I can't take pictures and run at the same time--I'm not that talented!  I forgot to bring my mp3 player, but there were places along the route with DJ's, radio stations, and even people playing music!  It was such a fun experience!  My time was 36 minutes and 24 seconds.

This is me taken shortly after the race.  Very proud of myself.

This is the medal that everyone received for finishing the race.  The back side says "Finisher."

The Smoothie Experiment

I made a smoothie tonight--without following a recipe.  I love the website greenlitebites.com.  I have tried and enjoyed several of the recipes.  One thing that Roni makes often is smoothies, but I never seem to have the ingrediants that she uses on hand.  Last year she posted an "elastic" approach to making smoothies.  Basically it is a way to make a smoothie using what you have on hand.  I have wanted to try this for awhile and finally did it tonight.  This is what I did:

• 1 banana--starting to ripen--put in freezer for a few hours
• 4 whole frozen strawberries
• 1 packet of Splenda

Put ingrediants into fake Magic Bullet.  Add skim milk about 2/3 full and blend.

That was it!  It could have been a bit sweeter, but it was pretty good.  I will definitely try my own smoothies again!