A Great Run

Hello all...I am finally back with a semi-real post :)

Today we had our long run day - 7 miles. The weather was gorgeous outside! We had to run separately - because we didn't think that Charley would make it with us for over an hour. So Jimmy ran this morning and I ran after he got back. I did my 7 miles in just under an hour and 15 minutes.

IT. FELT. GREAT.

I wasn't really dreading this run for some reason. I went on mapmyrun.com and planned out a route. I didn't really want to do an out and back type of route - so I made a loop route. It had about 6 or so turns which help me - because that gives me little things to look forward to - running on one road straight is a tad boring for me.

I headed out and really enjoyed the run - and it kind of flew by. And I kind of can't wait until our 8 mile run next weekend - though I'd have to say the enjoyment of today's run was being outside in the sun and the weather. So now I am just keeping my fingers crossed for 6 more weekends of gorgeous weather :) I took my time on this run - on the long runs per our training plan you are only supposed to run at 60%-75% of your normal pace.

Here is my Nike+


After our runs we headed out to Kennedy Kreiger - which is a local school/institute for kids with disabilities. My sister-in-law works with kids who have disabilities (Jimmy used to work with them too when I met him). Well some of her kids were participating in a wheelchair basketball tournament there. We went to this same tournament last year. It is such a great event and so much fun to see the kids having a blast and working together as a team.

It really makes you appreciate life - while I was there I was thinking about how many times I dread my runs and going to the gym etc. And these kids, most of whom can't walk - were loving life and having a blast doing what they had the ability to do. I am sure these kids would love to go outside on a run without their chairs and most won't have the chance to do it. So I need to appreciate what I have the ability to do and enjoy it - just like the kids did today at the tournament.

So far my long weekend has been amazing and it isn't even over yet!!

Jimmy, Charley and I headed out for Valentine's dinner last night to one of our favorite Italian restaurants. Charley was a little angel...though when we are out to eat she has a little bit of a flirting problem. She was constantly waving, smiling and giggling at a guy whom we were sitting next to - who was trying to have a nice Valentine's Day dinner with his wife. They did seem to think it was cute...well at least they said so...

Charley started to get a little fidgety after we got our appetizer. So we decided to get our entree to go - it was a blessing in disguise - we were STUFFED. And we knew if we sat there and had the main meal too - we both would have felt the need to eat some of it. So all in all...the salad, bread sticks and appetizer were amazing - we enjoyed our time out as a family and we didn't OVER stuff ourselves.

Jimmy ran me by a local chocolate shop on the way to dinner to get a little bit of yummy chocolate for Valentine's day. It was delicious :)

Here are 3 pics from Valentine's Day - we asked our neighbor to take a picture of us as a family and then there is a cute one I got of Ms. Charley and one of Charley and Jimmy - they looked so cute getting ready to get in the car ---though when I told Jimmy I wanted to take their picture - he wasn't too thrilled as he thought we were running late :) hence the look on his face...it makes me laugh!


And last but not least here is my menu for today...I have 6.5 AP's left over for later in the week :)

Food	Units
crab cake	3.5
pudding	1
lots o' strawberry mini wheats w/ skim	8
panera u pick 2 tortilla soup w/ fuji apple salad	13
milk	1
graham cracker	1
7 mile run	-11
breyers free	2
Total:	18.5

Table provided by Roni's Food Tweet, Eat, Post Generator.