Saturdays & Rice Crispie treats!

I do like Saturdays, it's nice not to have to wake up early & go to work. Instead, i woke up early and went for a run, ha!

The run went well, i did my usual 4 mile run, and i'm really looking forward to the 10k "practice" race which is 2 weeks away(June 15th). I'm even starting to think about my pre-race routine, and my night-before meal, and what to put in my little backpack.

I've got my cheering section consisting of one enthusiastic boyfriend - who would be running it himself probably if it weren't a race JUST for woman, ha! I've got my co-runner who is also the colleague who co-hosted our bake sale, and let's cross our fingers for some good weather! The route is on the seaside and goes up & down the pier, so it'll be a nice scenic route at least.

So yeah, all is well on that front.

I did however, bake some rice crispie treats today because i had some marshmellows leftover from camping and what better way to use them up then to make something that is tasty and easy to make! So yeah, made them and proceeded to chow down on half the pan of them! Ha! They are super tasty! And sorta low-fat-ish?!

I'll be giving the rest of them away, fear not Mom!

:)

The Bake Sale Yummies

Our Bake Sale was awesome! People were so generous, everyone baked, brought or bought!! I was impressed with the amount of help/support we received from our friends in the office, big thanks to everyone!!!

Photos:

The Famous Chocolate Cake

Swirly cinnamon muffins

Banana Cake
End of the day empties

Let's get started - donate here!

Oatmeal Raisin cookies

Corned-beef pie

Coffee Kisses(my new favorite mmmm!)

Muffins!(pink or chocolate!)

So there you have it, there's not much more to say except that thanks to the Bake Sale, we've both had a big helping hand in our fundraising efforts for our charities!!!

Although i'm still working off the calories from that day.....ooops!

Not a 13-minute Mile!

So, i don’t actually run a 13 minute mile after all!!! Woohoo!! How exciting to realize that i run a 10 ½/11 minute mile, and i’ll tell you how i know.....

Using a fascinating webpage, brought to my attention by a friend from work, called mapmyrun.co.uk which actually let’s you MAP & then calculate the distance of your run along your own local streets. By using this website, i found out that what is becoming my “everyday run” is actually a 4-mile route. I was pretty psyched at that fact since it was getting relatively “easy”, but NOT easy as you know it...there is an easiness scale in my mind of course, and if 10 is super-duper easy, then my route was becoming a 4 on the scale. Slowly and steadily getting a bit easier to run each time, and becoming much less intimidating to be out running for such a chunk of time.

After that mileage realization, i stopped paying attention to the fact that i wanted to run for 45 minutes as my goal, and decided to see just how long it takes me to run 4 miles. My time came in under 45 mins(depending on the day anywhere between 40-42 mins . It may seem silly to pay attention to the exact minute but it makes a difference, really!).

So yeah.....Yay me! I’m pretty proud of myself.

:)

Virus gone, hopefully?

Well then, had a little trouble with my computer for a bit there. It all seems to have been sorted now, phew! It is super-frustrating to be without computer access, that's for sure!

I've been out tonight for a run and I feel good! It's 8:30pm and still light out - it's hard to get used to the fact that it will be light until pretty late(at least 9pm) and then get light again at around 4am! We are pretty far north here in Newcastle. And it's even more light when you have rather thin beige curtains - yikes! Ha! That's where a face mask comes in handy(along with my earplugs for my noisy neighbors & my mouth gaurd for my teeth grinding - Oh my! wWhat a cutie I am at night!!!).

So i think it's safe to say that aside from the occasional cool/rainy day, it is as close to summery as we're gonna get over here. We've had a couple of extra warm days and they were lovely - everyone is crossing their fingers that those few days of niceness weren't the whole summer already been & gone, ha!

Overall it's been really nice weather for jogging lately. So nice & warm that I've had to get one of those ipod armbands in order to strap my ipod to me since it's too warm to wear my jacket which had a pocket. So i have my cute pink armband which i like to think of as a sweet little accessory to go with my other pink accents.

So yeah, nothing profound or all that interesting at all to say today - just wanted to write something to explain that my computer was not a happy-bunny and that's why i've been "silent" for a bit, but it seems to be fixed, so all is well - yay!

Oh yeah!! Remind me i need to do an entry on the FABULOUS BAKE SALE!!!!!! I'll need more time than i have right now, so it'll have to wait. But i've got some awesome photos, you WILL BE DROOLING!!!!!!

Toodles 'til next time......

It's like the escalator...

So I went for a run this AM, and it was particularly tough to do even though it was first thing in the morning, which is usually a good time for me to run.

I guess some days will just be like that, but it'd be a heck of a lot easier if stamina/endurance was steady. It's probably one of those things that will come in time as my training goes on, at least I hope! And it is only the second month of my serious training, so I can't expect too much just yet! I should be happy just to be getting out there for a run, and I am, but it's difficult when the results are slow-going. Although, slow & steady does win the race. It's like my morning escalator ride...

Each morning I choose to walk up a very long/high escalator on my way to work. If I wanted to just stand & ride the escalator it'd be way easier and I'd just stand on the right with all the others who don't want to break a sweat before their work day, and up we go!

Instead, I choose to walk up the left side of the escalator and end up huffing & puffing when I reach the top(mainly because i don't have the patience to stand there for 5 mins while it slowly, slowly crawls to the top). I just take it one step at a time, at a nice slow pace and don't look up at the tippy-top cuz then I'd fall over, but I just keep focus on the single step in front of me, one at a time....and then all of a sudden i'm at the top and off to work I go!

So, somehow that relates to my running, yeah.....one day i'll be at the top of my training and off to the race i'll go! (hopefully in time for June 15th's 10k!!)

Or something like that.....ha!

Mileage

I’ve seen some really fancy blogs detailing runs to the minute and pacing for each type of run and heart rates and whatnot……which is all pretty interesting if you are REALLY into your running. I was actually pleased with myself that I managed to set up a basic spreadsheet that adds up my total minutes and sorta does the math for roughly how many hours total that I’ve run and roughly how many miles it would equal based on my pace of a 13min mile(which I THINK is my pace – but I could be wrong and haven’t timed it recently)

So here we go:

Total minutes run in April= 395 minutes
Hours = about 6 ½
Miles= about 30


Yay!