Pleasantly Surprised

Ah, I got back home yesterday and today is my first full day home. I woke up bright and early this morning and drove to the gym. I had been talking to my friend who mentioned that she ran 10.5 miles yesterday, and that got me all excited to run today. I haven't really run since after the beginning of April because running on the treadmill just wasn't fun anymore and the weather where I go to school is generally crappy all the time.

I wasn't expecting much when I decided after a 20 minute elliptical warm up to do a little running on the track. I decided to push myself for the first mile and see where it would go, since lately my shins have been hurting. I ended up making just over a 8:30 mile, while breathing heavily, haha. I walked a lap and decided to take the next mile easy. When I looked at the clock after running the second mile, I was astonished. Another 8:30 mile, but it felt so easy! I walked another lap, then ran at the same easy pace because I was a bit skeptical, thinking I lost count of the laps or something. Nope, this one was right on par. I was pleasantly surprised. I just assumed I'd run slower if I weren't on a treadmill, but I actually prefer being able to change my pace whenever I want to.

I think I tend to focus more on how fast I'm running as opposed to how far I run. Having once been able to run a 7:00 minute mile, it's kind of discouraging to not be able to do that anymore, but I guess it's better for me to run 6 or 7 miles at a 10:00 minute mile pace rather than 3 at a 7:00 minute mile pace.

My weekend eats:

Congratulations to my sister on graduating! Do you think we look like twins? We used to get that comment all the time, but we hadn't for a while until today, when a woman asked us if we were twins. Perhaps we look like sisters, but definitely not twins...

After the graduation we went to eat at Cool River. One thing I love about eating vegetarian and sometimes vegan is the mix and match style of eating. I love to order a bunch of little dishes, like the side dishes or appetizers, which give me a little taste of everything. We shared the fire-roasted artichoke for an appetizer.

Very messy to eat...the heart is clearly the best part... ;-)

For my entree, I ordered the broccoli and the sweet potato hash.

The meal...I didn't take an individual shot of the broccoli because I thought it would be rather boring, haha.

My mom also ordered the hash, but hers wasn't nearly as crispy and caramelized as mine was...the hash was on the sweeter side and had a hint of warm spices in it.

The chef came out during our meal, since the restaurant was pretty much empty. He asked if we were celebrating anything, and when he found out it was my sister's graduation, he had this sent out to the table:

The slice was ginormous! My sister cut it up and doled it out to the family.

We were so surprised! They even wrote congratulations and her name around the edge of the plate in chocolate. The cake was decorated with a strawberry cut like a rose and grape "flowers." The cake was a little dry. I was more interested in scraping off the chocolate writing and eating that instead of the cake, haha. The service was really excellent and very thoughtful, and it was a great way to celebrate.

Dinner was a pretty uneventful stop at Sweet Tomatoes.

I'm hoping on making a few things during the week I'm a home, so hopefully I'm able to and can share them here with you. I'd like to make dinner a couple of times, so I'm putting together some menus in my head.

Questions: Have you ever been told you and your sibling(s) looked like twins?


Runners, have you done a half marathon? If so, what motivated you?


Treadmill or outdoor running?