Hi there

I began training for my half marathon yesterday! I hadn’t realized how long it’s been since I’ve ran consistently. Almost a year now :/

My training plan told me to walk 2 miles, run a mile, and then speed walk 2 miles so instead of searching for my Garmin watch to track my distance, I decided to run around the track at my old HS. Unfortunately when I got out of work it was packed with after school activities. I wasn’t about to run in front of a whole bunch of high school football players so instead I headed over to the center of my town, where there are two ponds I can run around.

Running around both of them equals 1.5 miles. I kinda threw my plan out the window and decided to jog around the ponds once, then walk it once, and then jog around it once again because walking 4 miles would take SO long. Of course when I attempt to turn on my i pod I find out it’s dead so instead I called one of my best friends from college and talked while jogging. This made it go by really quick and I found out that she’s about to start training for the Pittsburgh marathon!

So instead of walking 4 miles and running 1 like my training plan said, I ran 3 and walked 1.5 in about 56 minutes. Today is cross training so I’m going to hop on the stationary bike after this. As usual, I have A LOT of magazine reading to catch up on

For breakfast yesterday I tried a new (to me) Kashi cereal – Heart to Heart with Oat Flakes & Wild Blueberry Clusters. I had it with some pear chunks and almond milk. I might just be my favorite new cereal.

I worked 10-3, which always messes up my eating schedule. I ate a Bumble Bar (compliments of Corn Free Cass!) around 1 on my 15 minute break so I’ll count that as my lunch.

Now that I think of it, I’m sure I can bring a sandwich or something next time and eat it in 15 minutes. The Bumble Bar was yummy though

I returned from vacation last weekend to find an empty kitchen. The only thing I could think to make for dinner was pasta.

Ingredients:

• One box whole wheat rotini
• One can red kidney beans
• Two 14 ounce jars marinated artichoke hearts
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• One large onion, cut into thin slices
• Tsp minced garlic (I use jarred)
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Italian seasoning to taste

Directions

1. Place olive oil in skillet over medium high heat. Add onions and saute for 10 minutes, or until brown.
2. Meanwhile, boil salted water and cook pasta as directed on package.
3. Add garlic, artichoke hearts, and beans to onions. Cover and cook for 4 minutes, or until warm.
4. Combine pasta and onion mixture in large bowl, mix in remaining ingredients.

I had pictures but every time I put my memory card in my computer it tells me I have to format the card, and I have no idea what that means. I hope I didn’t lose all my pictures Ever have this happen to you?

Question: Do you usually follow training plans (or recipes if you’re not a runner) to the T?