9 miles!

Water & whole wheat toast with cherry preserves.  I didn't realize just how crisp it was outside until I walked out the door.  WOW!  It felt amazing!  Of course, being the typical Floridian, I turned the heat in my car on as soon as my car warmed up.  In my defense I was in a tank top and running shorts.  I made a split second decision to run at Alligator Lake Park instead of the route I've run the past 2 weeks.  Alligator Lake is a public park exactly 1 mile from my house that has 12 miles worth of trails around a "lake."  The lake is really more like open marsh land as there isn't much water.  It has a trail formed out of a dike that circles a majority of the lake.  I ran the long trail 3 times thinking it was only about 2-2.5 miles long.  I ran this trail a few weeks back and another runner had told me how long it was, but naturally I had forgotten.  I finished 3 "laps" in 89 minutes, so I averaged right at 30 minutes per lap.  Whenever I got home I used Google Earth to figure out the exact mileage and was flabbergasted to see that one "lap" was 3 miles which meant that I ran 9 miles this morning!  And to boot, I averaged 9.89/mile!!!  That's the longest I've ever run and the quickest pace I've run--even shorter than my 3 mile runs!  It had to be the cooler weather.  It's much easier to breathe and move whenever you don't have to swim through humid air :).  I was on Cloud 9 for a majority of the morning.  I still am.  I'm also not sore at all.  I thank the Lord after each run that He's given me the ability to walk and run lengths such as that.  Around mile 7.5, my legs started to tire a lot, but I kept going and just slowed my pace until they felt okay again and then I sped back up to normal pace.  Amazing.

After I got back to my house, I showered then decided I wanted pancakes for breakfast.  I used this recipe to make oaty cakes--definitely not pancakes.  Much more oaty.  I changed the recipe some; I subbed 1 tsp vanilla extract for the brown sugar, 2 tbsp egg whites for the egg (didn't have any eggs!), 1 tbsp canola oil instead of 2 and I added blueberries into the mix.  These turned out very nice and, again, very oaty.  If (or should I say when) I make this recipe again I will add milk to make them more pancake-ish.

 

The recipe made six (1/4 cup servings) cakes.  I had two, topped with 1 tbsp pure maple syrup, and one sliced banana on the side.  It was a wonderful Saturday breakfast.  I also iced my knees as I ate.  Shortly after breakfast, Thad and I went to our nephew's, Samuel, birthday party at Lake Swan.  He is 12 years old and it just blows my mind!  I'm starting to feel old around my Tisdale niece and nephews.  They all have grown so much since I first them over 4 years ago.  It was a beautiful day at Lake Swan, but we spent the entire time inside due to lots and lots of wind.  I was a bad food blogger and didn't snap a picture of lunch.  We had hoagies at the party.  I had 1/2 a wheat hoagie with pepper jack cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato and spicy mustard with a Claussen pickle.  Everyone thought I was crazy for not having any deli meat on my sub, but like I tell everyone in defense of veggie subs, I can't taste the meat on subs so I prefer just to eat the veggies.  I also had a small piece of birthday cake.

After the party, Thad and Ricky replaced the back brakes on my car.  I dutifully watched the Gator game at Ricky and Becky's house with Becky and the kids.  What a bad game.  I'm glad the Gators won, but that was not pretty.  I'm actually glad I didn't watch it with Thad because I know his commentary would have been relentless.  He's a South Carolina Gamecock fan aka Steve Spurrier fan.  After the game and the completion of my brake change, we headed back to Lake City.  As we headed home we discussed dinner options.  Thad told me he "wanted something good" and I agreed.  Thad's version of "something good" is Taco Bell.  I vetoed any and all fast food, and he declined any sit down restaurant (due to feeling nasty after working on my car) so we decided to just head home for dinner.  So typical of us :).  I had packed some almonds + dried cranberries and carrots + grape tomatoes so I snacked on those on the way home.  As we made the hour drive back, I began to think up dinner options.  I hadn't planned anything since I didn't know where we'd be for dinner.  I hadn't had any green vegetables up unto that point in the day so I quickly concocted a green veggie dish I had the ingredients for.  However, I wasn't really "feeling it."  I kept thinking about what else sounded good and nutritious and then it hit me: I wanted a potato.  Now, I don't normally deeply crave food--especially something I don't eat that often like white potatoes.  Whenever I look in my cabinets or fridge, everything looks pretty good to me and I can normally be completely content with whatever I pull out.  Tonight though, I was craving a potato.  Obviously it was my body telling me that I hadn't gotten enough protein and potassium after my long run.  It's essential to the healing of muscles to properly refuel your body after running distance.  With that in mind, and a potato shaped hole in my stomach, I had a good ol' Yukon gold potato: