January 30, 2014

Birthday lunch at La Pita

This post is going to be extremely short, because I haven't had a whole lot going on, unfortunately. But, thankfully, the kids went to school today! I've liked having them at home (minus the arguing), but the fact that they went to school meant that the roads were okay to travel on, which meant I could get out of this house! This winter has made me feel like I'm losing my mind.

Renee had mentioned that for my birthday, she'd like to take me out to lunch at La Pita. So I made plans of going with Renee and Jessica today, assuming that the kids would be back at school. When we got the all-clear this morning, Renee said to meet at her house at 10:00.

After I got the kids ready for school and on the bus, I ate a quick breakfast and then got ready for a treadmill run. Today, I had three miles at half-marathon goal pace (8:20-ish/mile) on the schedule. I set the treadmill and started running, watching an episode of Flashpoint while I ran. My heart rate was in the low end of Zone 4, which was perfect for this run.


I'm curious to see what happens to my pace when I start running outside regularly again. In the last month or so, I've only run outside a few times, and I was dodging ice the whole time. In the past, I've noticed that the treadmill has helped me get faster, because I tend to run at a faster pace on the 'mill (the faster you run, the sooner you're done!)

I took a shower and got ready to head out, and then drove over to Renee's, where Jessica was waiting. It was 20 degrees out, which felt really nice! This is the warmest it's been in what feels like forever. Renee drove, and we stopped at Macy's so Renee could spend a gift card, and then I dropped off a box at FedEx. Then we got to La Pita a little after 11:00, and we were the only ones there at first. Usually, the parking lot is totally full. It was nice, because we didn't have to wait long for anything!

I got my "usual"--a lunch portion chicken kabob with rice pilaf, hummus, garlic sauce, salad, and pita bread. The last several times I've gone there, I was counting PointsPlus, and it was really nice to eat today without worrying about guesstimating portions and logging my food. I ate until I was comfortably full, and enjoyed every single bite.

Tomorrow, I'm really hoping to go visit Mark. I haven't seen him since Monday, and that was very brief because I had the kids (and one of their friends) with me. Mark watches the news, so he knows that when the weather is bad, I may not be there for a couple of days, but I always feel sorry when I can't get up there. I think of the stir-craziness I've been feeling, and it must be magnified times a hundred for Mark. He's been in the hospital/nursing home for nearly two months, and he can't even walk on his own!

I made plans to run with Stephanie for her long run on Saturday. She's scheduled for 15 miles (she's training for her first marathon!), and her pace is 11:30-12:00/mi right now, so even though I haven't run that far in a while, I'm sure I could handle it at the slower pace. The last time I did a long run with her was when she was training for her 2:10 half-marathon, and we ran a route that I told her I thought was a connector path to join two of the Metroparks. It turned out that I was wrong, but a couple of months later, I saw that it actually WAS being turned into a connector path, and they'd finished it.

I asked Steph if she'd want to check it out on one of her long runs for marathon training, and we planned to do her 15-miler. But the weather is looking extra crappy for Saturday, and while I love Stephanie dearly, I don't want to run 15 miles in the snow and freezing rain when I don't have to. So it looks like I'll be doing my long run of seven miles tomorrow, on the treadmill. I've really been enjoying Flashpoint, so it won't be too bad ;)

3 comments:

  1. I'm from Manitoba, Canada and we are also getting tired of the winter and it's only January! Some days, with wind chill, it's been -45 Celsius here (-49 F). Too cold! School isn't cancelled unless it hits that temperature though. Yep, true story. I was born in Manitoba and winter's are very hard on me emotionally/mentally. I can relate to your need to get out of the house! I can't wait until spring!! Stay warm!

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  2. I hope it's a very happy birthday!

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  3. It's so nice that you are still seeing Mark regularly. He is very lucky to have you and your family.

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