Hello peeps.

I have done a couple of runs since I last popped in.  I also had the flu.

Feeling better again and hoping to do a small 5k this weekend to see if my recent speed work is actually working.

Seven days without meat makes one….weak.

Okay, not necessarily, but it did for me (and Hubby).

As I mentioned earlier, Hubby and I decided to go vegetarian for a week.  I really did enjoy eating more veggies.  Maybe I am weird, but I actually like vegetables and never feel like I get enough of them.  I never really craved meat all week, but I definitely craved protein.

The cravings for protein probably were not a necessary consequence of going vegetarian, more like the consequence of not knowing how to properly go vegetarian.  We definitely did not incorporate enough protein into our food to make up for what we would normally consume in meat.

I think it affected my running.  I am not positive it was going veggie that did it, but my recovery was much slower this week.  My legs always felt tired and not well rested, even after an entire day off.  I was also more tired this week, which is probably a direct result in something lacking in my diet.

The consensus?  We have agreed to eat less meat, but not give it up completely.  Actually, this week’s menu only includes meat on one day and its fish.  Also, more veggies.  Lots more veggies.

In an effort to keep this blog mostly running related…

Hubby and I decided to go vegetarian this week.  It has actually been sort of a slow progression.  We do not really eat THAT much meat anyway.  Usually just east poultry—beef and fish once a week each. 

Hubby heard an interesting segment on NPR last week about chicken farmers in Michigan and was saddened by the condition that the animals we eat have to live in (I tried to find a link to the article, but no luck).  I have been steadily trying to keep us eating healthy, taking tips from Caitlin, Angela and Meghann. 

So this week we decided to see if we could go veggie.  So far so good.  Last night was almost a breaking point though.  We both came home from work hungry starving, but we had to run an errand before we could get dinner.  By the time we were driving home we were at each other’s throats because we were so hungry.  Luckily, I have the phone number for our local Thai restaurant on speed dial.  I called them up and by the time we drove from our errand to the restaurant our steaming hot food was waiting for us.  AND, we ordered it vegetarian!

Thank goodness for Thai food!

I was tempted to swing into McDonald’s, I was that hungry.

More on this subject when our meat-free week is over.

I’m back.

But different. I started this blog as a running blog, and I’m going to keep it that way. I had too much hodge-podge on here before, and trying to keep this blog updated with everything that was going on in my life was impossible.

I’m back and I’m focusing on running.

I had a horrible summer. Studying for the bar brought me to my breaking point. There were health issues with several friends and family members. My wedding photographers set out to emotionally hurt me. I stopped running.

I stopped running. Running is so much more mental than physical for me. In dealing with all of the above mentioned items, I had no mental energy left to run. I couldn’t force myself to lace up my shoes. I was physically and mentally exhausted.

But I’m back.

Unfortunately, it took me longer than I thought it would to get back. I had planned on running the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon in a few weeks, but I had a little accident in our back yard. I stepped in a hole. Sprained my ankle. Had to baby it for two weeks. Flushed the Detroit Half dreams down the drain.

But I’m running now. I ran almost 5 miles last night. My ankle hurt, but in a good way. A tired and sore but happy kind of way.

So, I’m back. And I’m running. And I’m happy again. Thanks for waiting for me.

Also know as the most unorganized event ever.

This race is in my hometown over the biggest holiday weekend they have. It draws in probably 300+ runners. And it's not chip timed (really, my hometown is still in the 20th century, they're only 9 years behind the rest of us).

That being said, I also extremely dislike this course. Arguably, it is a beautiful course that runs along the lake, through a residential area and in the country park. But it is a straight out and back course with quite a few small hills. And normally, the temperature is smoldering by the time 8:30am hits and the race begins.

This year was the first year I didn't want to kill myself during the race! Hooray for that! The temperature was probably 15 degrees cooler than my last race, and I had just run a personal worst, so I knew anything I did in this race was going to be better. Oh, and Hubby ran it too! His second ever 5k!

The race went pretty smoothly and one dumb kind resident even left a sprinkler on for us to run through. Running felt good. I wasn't sweating to death or overheating like last weekend, and just enjoyed myself and pushed hard.

My "official time" was 23:59. How can this be, you ask, when my last race time was 33:35? How does one improve so much in just one week? Where can you get that training plan?

Remember how I said this race was unorganized? And it wasn't chip timed? Well apparently their clocks run on time from a different universe too. Oh, and the volunteer who was tearing the bottom parts of the bibs off for scoring dropped all of the 5k tabs and didn't know what order they went in. Apparently someone had a good time putting them in their own order.

My real time? 27:15. And I'm happy about it. That's still over 6 minutes faster than my worst time ever. Here's what the difference was: weather was approximately 15 degrees cooler, I actually ran during the week before the race, Hubby was there, and the hills were not nearly as bad.

No pics from this race. Our camera is on the fritz right now, and with bar studying I just don't have the time to figure out what the heck is wrong with it. Oh, and we adopted a puppy over the weekend, and he's taking up some of my time too.

Ripley

More to come on this cutie later.

THIS JUST IN: According to Athlinks.com, this race was a PR for me. Beating my 2006 time in the same race by 10 seconds. I'm not sure if it is an actual PR, but I'll take it!