Blogging the Menu: Day 124

Did you miss me?  I've been supremely lazy.  With blogging.  Not with other things.  I worked my shadow week on thirds and came out on the other side none the worse for wear.  Unfortunately my off week will be shortened up by an illness, but it means I get 20 hours of OT so I can't complain too much.  With luck my counterpart will be shipshape after a few extra days of rest.

This Saturday I drove to Des Moines to run the Drake Relays-on-the-Roads half marathon.  It was an adventure.  I tried a new route south that worked out quite well.  It was fast, interesting, and very scenic.  Southwestern Wisconsin and Northeastern Iowa are beautiful places that don't get enough credit.  There are few places more bucolic than this region.  The road is technically challenging to drive (at a high rate of speed, of course), and the distance (450ish miles) feels short.

I spent Saturday afternoon with a friend I haven't seen in a while, eating sushi (which I love) and shopping (which I generally loathe).  I got a few super clearance winter running shirts, which pretty much rules, and some new underpants.  I will not say panties and you can't make me.

Saturday night I turned in early after meeting another friend for a drink at Peggy's (because you have to go to Peggy's).  I'm too old to spend any length of time there, so I was sleeping by 10pm.  The half was scheduled to go off at 7:30am and the forecast was grim-20mph wind and rain a virtual certainty.  I got to the start line at around 6:45 and found out that the Knapp Center was closed to all but the elite athletes.  Now, I get this. The Knapp Center is a beautiful facility and a mob of runners is disgusting.  A shitting, pissing, GU wrapper tossing, missing-the-garbage-can-and-leaving-the-banana-peel-on-the-floor mob of nastiness.  Still, the wind was really high and there was a question of whether the race would even start.

They made the call to delay the race and opened the Knapp so we could go inside.  No sooner were we in than the heavens opened and there was a solid 45 minutes of torrential rain, hail, thunder and lightening.  To my great relief the race was only delayed until 8:30 and we were off shortly thereafter.  The wind was still high, but the rain had stopped and we were off to downtown.

I hung with the 2:15 pace group for a while, but when we started climbing I dropped back.  I wasn't in the mood to run hard into a headwind for 8 miles.  I was more in the mood to look at the scenery and reminisce. Sue me.  This was the hardest half course I've ever run.  It was really cool, but the hills were killer.  So much so that there were timing mats at the bottom of "Bulldog Hill" and at the top so they could provide you with a split for the hill.

I don't know what my split time was.  They couldn't pull up my number at the timing tent.  I haven't looked at the website for the race yet.  My overall time was around 2:30 (clock time was 2:33 and change).  Considering the difficulty of the course, I'm cool with that.  I got to see a lot of places I missed and run down roads that I'd only driven down before.  I also got to chat with a hot guy in a kilt around mile 4.  That is never a bad thing.  Also not a bad thing?  I dropped him there and never saw him again.

Today I'm home again with the smalls.  My big plans for going to the Children's Museum were blown when I discovered both it and the Neville are closed on Mondays.  I did get to take all of them to puppy class and then to Target for shoes.  Three separate people blessed me.  That is really disturbing.

On to the Menu!
This morning I discovered we had no bacon.  I died a little inside.  Cheese to the rescue.  This is 2 eggs with a little shredded cheddar and a grapefruit.  I put a little coconut milk and a teaspoon of maple syrup in my coffee to even out the carbs and fat.  3 blocks.

This was a disappointing grapefruit.

A little one block snack in the late morning.

Venison stick and a tablespoonful of nut butter.

I had planned to make Peruvian Roast Chicken tonight, but I realized we have so many leftovers in the fridge that I have neither the containers or the space to store it.  So today was clean out the fridge day.  Tomorrow I'll roast a chicken (when my husband is home to help eat it).  Moo Shu pork with homemade Hoisin sauce.  The butter lettuce I usually eat with this was frozen in the back of the fridge.  Awesome.

Still delicious though.

Afternoon snack mostly because I was bored.  Venison stick (I have quite a few of these 1oz-ers), one macadamia nut, and a couple of prunes.

I know.  Random.

For dinner we finally finished up all the spaghetti and sauce.  I used up some of my zoodles from the Pho I made last week.  Still lots left.  The juilenne peeler makes so many more nice narrow noodles than my spiralizer did.  A sprinkle of mozz for interest.

Can't feel bad about a meal that's mostly veg.

This was my dessert.  Did I mention I took three small children to dog training class and then to buy shoes.  For all three of them.  Well I did.

And I'm spent.

Today was long.  This week is going to be longer.  8 days in a row at work including a half marathon after my shift on Saturday and then 4 days of travel and running a Ragnar.  May is going to be crazy and something tells me I'm going to owe my husband big time.  Good thing I got this OT so I can buy him something pretty.

Tomorrow's goals:  Get to the box.  Get the girl child's hair cut.  Make Peruvian chicken.  

That's all I got.  I'm about to be really tired for a while.