June 22, 2013

Long run with Renee

I woke up at 5:15 this morning to get ready to run with Renee. Since it was so early, I just ate a peach and decided to wait to eat breakfast after the run. I drove over to Renee's so we could head out from her house at 6:30. I had to stop at the end of my street to take a picture of the Mayflies. It was unbelievable just how thick the piles of them are:


It looks like mulch, but those are all Mayflies. My car even slid a little while driving through a pile. It's like driving through snow!

We did an out-and-back route from Renee's. I used to park at her house and run this route all the time when I was training to run my first half-marathon in 2011. We started running at what felt like it was probably a 9:00/mi pace (I didn't want to keep looking at my watch), but when I did look, it was more like 9:30. I tried to pick up the pace a little and prayed I could make it through the whole thing ;)

It was 72 degrees and pretty humid, even at 6:30 this morning. The first half of the out-and-back passed pretty quickly, and I felt good. I felt like I was going faster than I was, but that has been happening on all my runs lately. At around mile seven or eight, we stopped at a drinking fountain to refill our water bottles, and I forgot to restart my Garmin for a quarter mile. So after that, my Garmin was a quarter-mile behind Renee's.

Starting at around mile seven, my legs felt like they turned to lead, and I felt bad that I was slowing us down. When I finally looked at my heart rate, I could see why I was feeling so cruddy--my heart rate was almost in Zone 5 (it's supposed to be in Zone 3 for a long run). Renee asked if I wanted to slow down some more, but at that point, I was desperate to be done, so I just kept going.

I'm sure I was miserable company for the last mile, but it felt like forever, and my legs were so tired! When we reached Renee's house, her Garmin beeped for mile 11 (even though mine only read 10.83, there was no way I was going to run farther just to see 11!). I was totally drenched in sweat, and so relieved to be done. We sat on Renee's porch for a few minutes with some water before I headed home.

I'm really glad I ran with Renee; if I had been running alone, I'm sure I would have gone much slower and it would have felt so much longer. Running with someone else always makes the time pass faster. And because of my effort, I managed to burn nearly 100 calories per mile! Usually, it's more like 80.


We averaged a 9:10 pace, which is slower than I'd hoped I'd be able to do, but considering I've been running more like 9:30 lately, I was happy not to slow Renee down too much ;)

Noah is at a sleepover tonight, so I wanted to do something special with just Eli. When I asked him what he'd like to do, he said, "Go to La Pita for dinner!" Hahaha, I have no idea where that came from, but he's certainly his mama's boy.

He'd been asking to go to Chili's for a while, so I asked him if he'd rather go there instead. He was really excited about that. I'd only eaten there maybe once in my life, but I know my sister likes Chili's, so I asked her what I should order. She highly recommended the Margarita Chicken (which comes with black beans and rice). That's what I ordered, and I was SO impressed with just how good it was! For 14 PointsPlus, you get this:

The beans were my favorite part--they had the same flavor as black bean soup. I only wanted to spend 10 PP on my dinner, so I decided to skip the rice, but I tasted it and it was fantastic. Normally, I'm not one to eat a chicken breast unless it's cut up in a casserole or something, but even the chicken was delicious. The whole dinner was excellent, and I would definitely go back there to have it again. 

Eli and I got cookie dough ice cream to have during a movie tonight. I'm spending all of my activity PointsPlus on that. After my hot and humid 11-miler this morning, I can't think of a better way to spend those PP!

9 comments:

  1. Mmm I love black beans, I recently had a black bean and smoky bacon dip, and it was so delicious!

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  2. AnonymousJune 22, 2013

    I don't usually comment, but I have to say how horrible those Mayflies must be. That picture was downright gross, I had to show my husband. We had the cicadas here, they finally just died off, and I thought those were bad, but the mayflies look so much worse. I feel so bad for you having to deal with those!

    Also, I get the margarita grilled chicken every time we go to Chili's -- it's always been good. Get extra lime to squeeze on top!

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  3. We don't have any weird bugs in the Northwest it seems. I've heard about the cicadas but not about the Mayflies until I read about them in your blog. That is GROSS!

    Great job on your run! Now that it is summer the heat is definitely making things harder. I think if it were 55 and cloudy again I'd shave about 30/sec a mile almost instantly!

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  4. Those bugs are so gross! Did you run through them when you did your run today? I'd probably scream haha!

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  5. I am in Texas and I like to run in the evenings since it's so hot here. I HATE the junebugs that bother me when I am running, but I can't imagine those Mayflies. Do they fly around and get on you? Ah! I am grossed out, haha!

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  6. Amanda...i live in texas too and thought the june bugs were bad. I would be indoors until the mayflies were gone! GROSS!!
    Katie...how do you even go outside?? I could never do that!
    Nice job on the run! I did 15 miles fri night and didn't even start until 730pm bc it's hot! The heat does make you slower...even running in the evenings or early mornings here in texas it is still well over 85 degrees a lot and add the humidity if feels like a 100!

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  7. I loved that dish at Chili's. We went for lunch with a friend and I actually only ate half of it and ate the other half for dinner.

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  8. Everytime I order that dish it looks different lol. I've ordered it with extra beans no rice quite a few times.

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  9. First off- EWWWWWWW. Thos mayflies look DISGUSTING! I couldn't even imagine.

    That black bean dish looks delicious though! The nearest Chilis to me is about an hour drive, but next time I'm down near it I just might have to stop in and try this!

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