A Good Treadmill Run?

So yesterday I decided to use the treader, since it was pretty hot outside and Jamie needed to get in a 5ish miler. We took the spawn to the Y and he did an outside loop while I "took it easy" on the treadmill. I started off easy, 2 min walking alternating with 3 minutes running, and then I sort of forgot to slow down for my walk interval and just kept going. I felt so good, I jacked up the speed :) I ended up running the last 5 minutes at a sub-9 minute pace, and the last 2 minutes sub-8. You know what? It felt really awesome. I am a bit sore today though!

I also did 75 crunches, the last 5 of which were really hard to finish. I used to be able to bang out 5 sets of 100 crunches like it was nothing! I have to be really diligent with my core work. If my core is weak, my form collapses in the last miles of my long runs and my time suffers. Last October at the Whistlestop I caved in at mile 11, and the last 2.1 miles were exhausting. After spending the winter working on core and strength, my spring half marathons went much, MUCH better. I need to remember how good a strong core makes me feel, and work toward that feeling.

Today in my exciting life, I have taken the children outside to play in the yard for about an hour (man, that is going to be so much easier when that fence goes up on Tuesday!), watered the new grass seed and my flowerbeds, prepped dinner so I don't have to do it with the circling baby vultures, and done three loads of laundry. Right now I'm chilling out while the small ones sleep. Poor little Pat fell asleep in his lunch, and Charlie was a near zombie when I put them down. I try to shoot for noon, but they were out by 11:35! When everyone wakes up, it will be snacks all around and then a walk around the neighborhood I think. That'll be my workout for today.

On the menu for tonight? Crispy oven baked chicken fingers and sweet potato fries (regular fries for Lily), with a green salad on the side for me (well, maybe Lily too, so she doesn't steal my tomatoes. Tomorrow is Adobo grilled flank steak with tomato corn relish. Love the new menu board and dinner plan. It's worked out so well! We finished all of the leftovers just in time to go grocery shopping with the clan tomorrow. The fridge contains just enough to get us through dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. No waste, which makes me really super happy. Also making me happy? I've spent very, very little in the hospital cafeteria this week, which is a big deal. I was buying two meals a day there, 4 days a week. This week I bought 1 sandwich and 1 salad, and that was that. I hope I can keep that up!