Monday Ramblings

I took a little blog break, because it has been positively gorgeous these last few days. A nice mild temperature, the sun is out, and there is just enough breeze to make everything a-okay!

Yesterday morning was my 5k. No new PR, mainly because the hill I had to tackle was extreme. It wasn't the hill I experienced last Novemeber. This was one that makes you cry out in agony. I tried to run most of it, but 2/3 up the hill, I just knew that if I wanted to finish the race strong, I would have to walk the rest. It sucked. I was 8 seconds away from a new PR. EIGHT SECONDS! I hate you hill.

Then after my friend and I finished our post race breakfast (pancakes, waffles, sausage, and bananas, oh yeah), we waited to watch the elites finish the half. Seriously, these people are fantastical!

Average Pace: 4:53... I could do that. I just choose to be super slow to make them feel better about themselves.

Side note, we all know everybody has their own "type." I like 'em tall and awkwardly skinny. For the longest time, I couldn't find them out there. Now I know they've been hiding out at races. Seriously, amazing. It's like "Alisa's perfect men stable" at the long distance races. Reason number 596412 why I'm so glad I got into racing.

Hey Guinness, what did you do while I was racing and finding you a dad?

LAZY!

That dog is so lazy. I forced her to take a walk with me in the afternoon.

"For realz? I get to go to the park?!?!"

Once we made it past the yard, she got a little too excited and started pulling too much for my taste. So we turned around and made a quick costume change to her shorter leash. Then we were really off! We did a little easy rock climbing:

"OMG BEST DAY EVER! Thanks mom"

Chased squirrels and ducklings and birds that were unobtainable:

Do you see it? We totally saw it.

Today I did a 6er and it felt really good. Considering after my first three 5ks, I hurt the next today, this is huge. Not only did I not hurt, but I could actually get out and run again! Ahhh... the healing power of yoga. I swear by it. I do basic stretches right after running and then yoga later in the day.

But back to the 6 miles. The weather was so wonderful to me, except that I forgot to put on sunscreen. Now, I may be the first person to remind you to wear some sunscreen. And I may wear it 96% of the year, but when I forget, it's always on a sunny day. Hello sunburnt nose! Thank you summer for reminding me why I hate you.

I tried to take picture of my burn, but my pale skin make it look like I'm just blushing a little. So I'll just give you a picture of what I imagine the sun really looks like:

EFF you and your evil ways sun!

So I'm just going to relax inside the rest of the day, watching old Disney movies online (don't be jealous of my love for Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century), eating popcorn drizzled with peanut butter and chocolate, and drinking yummy iced tea. Oh yeah, my life sucks a lot.

Best Idea Ever! Send me money as a thank you later.

A candy cane striped straw makes me think of winter and no sunburns.

What did you do this weekend?

Besides racing and taking walks with Big G, I also helped my parents garden. It was the perfect weekend for gardening.

Did you have great weather?

I hate summer, because I don't do well in heat or humidity, I melt. But this weekend and so far, this week, have been wonderful.

What kind of Ninja are you?

I've been obsessed with McChris for a long time (only thing I got from a really dumb ex). He's really low key in the music scene, so imagine my surprise when I heard one of his songs on a new Honda commercial! The song is "Hoodie Ninja" and is youtube-able. It made me think about my skills. I would be sucky ninja, but I have skills! Like speed work. And soup. Moving on...

Ninja like this...

I have a 5k on Sunday! I ran the same route on Thanksgiving, so I'm hoping real hard to drop my time down, maybe even a new PR? There's a killer hill at the end. Which is odd, because you never really go down, just up at the end. Hmmmmm... what goes up, doesn't have to ever go down? So what's a girl to do to get a new 5k PR? Speed work. Or as I call them, sprintervals (you get it... sprint... intervals... sprintervals... no? sad face). Guinness and I were just happy it wasn't 96 degrees today! If it's 98 degrees, that's okay, because I'll just ask them to sing to me while I run! (ohhhh, that was a horrible joke. I'm so sorry you had to read that.)

They are totally coming on my next run.

So the skies parted and the rain stopped enough to let me get in my sprintervals. And then I worked on building my ark. Because it rained FOR-EV-ER today. And apparently it will rain the rest of the week. I shall start gathering two of everything later.

I very much like my purple hat!

All morning long I kept telling my coworkers that I wanted soup for dinner. Why? Because it was thundering all night and was raining for over 12 hours straight. Also, it dropped about 40 degrees in those 12 hours. (I'm not complaining, it made for nice running weather, once the rain stopped) It just felt like a soup night. I used some leftover grilled corn and made a spicy corn soup with some garlic bread for dipping. RANDOM FACT: one of my favorite meals is soup and salad. I had my salad about three hours before my soup course today. This girl is happy.

Spicy Corn Soup

3 ears of corn
2 dried bay leaves
6 pieces of bacon, chopped
1 red onion, diced
4 shallots, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups veggie broth
2-3 tablespoons chilli powder (I used chipotle powder)
1 avocado, chopped

1. Slice kernels of corn off cob. Save the kernels and any liquid that comes off. Place bare cobs in about four cups of water, with bay leaves. Heat to a simmer and let cook at least 20 minutes with lid on.
2. Crisp up bacon in a pan. Drain cooked bacon and reserve 1 tablespoon fat. Cook onion and shallot in bacon fat about 5 minutes, then stir in garlic.
3. Cook about 30 seconds, stir in veggie broth and chilli powder. Let cook for about 10 minutes, then stir in cooking water from cobs (without cobs and bay leaves).
4. Once everything is heated through, stir in corn kernels, let cook about two minutes.
5. Serve topped with chopped avocado and bacon! You can also top it with chopped tomato, but I don't have any...

Check out that thick layer of fat on top. Yummm!

Do you crave food based on weather?

Rainy requires soup, no matter what temperature. And the first weekend about 70 degrees, makes me want bratwursts and beers.

What is the next race on your schedule?

I have my 5k on Sunday and then maybe a 10k in July.