>This week has been a successful week for me.. I’ve been eating well most days and working out most days. Yesterday I went to the grocery store and went crazy in the produce section. Endive, avocado, tomato, strawberries, watermelon, onion, pineapple, carrots, snap peas, and leafy lettuce all found a place in my cart. I pureed some of the fruit and made ice cubes to put in my low-cal lemonade. I also got some 40-cal popsicles so I’m not tempted to run over to McDonald’s or DQ for ice cream. I have a horrible horrible sweet tooth, so hopefully those things will help.
As far as workouts go, here’s what my week looked like…
Sunday: 2 miles at the gym before church.
Monday: Rest day, but went with kids to Peoria Zoo. That was a workout in itself.
Tuesday: 4-mi tempo run before work. Yes, I did say before work. Felt great to be up with the sun.
Wednesday: BodyFlow class for an hour, and then ran 3 miles with Tim up and down Grandview.
Thursday: Rest day.. first real day of summer break!
Friday: BodyFlow for an hour
Saturday: Gabi and I are planning 7-8 miles tomorrow morning.
What a great week for working out! I got rid of those two pounds that were bugging me. My goal is not to lose more weight, but to tone up and be confident at the pool.
I also did a little yoga sporadically after my runs, just to stretch everything out. This included some oblique crunches. I HATE AB WORKOUTS. Do ya hear me?! HATE ‘EM. But I’ve been doing them, and by golly, I’ve noticed even the slightest change. Only a few more weeks before the hubby comes home!
I’ve found that since the marathon, I’ve been working out not because I feel obligated (well, maybe a little after eating all that ice cream…) but because I want to. Because I like the endorphins and confidence a good workout brings. I like feeling lean and strong, and I like feeling sore muscles the next day because it means that I did something.
Besides the 5K next weekend, I don’t have a big training goal right now… the closest race is in December in Las Cruces, a half marathon. I’m just going off of some principles in the Run Less, Run Faster book. The idea of doing three key runs and two cross-training sessions per week is amazing to me. I’m going to go off my current training paces with a goal of getting faster. Training paces in this book are based off of a recent 5K time (mine was 27:56).
5K pace: 8:57
Short tempo: 9:16
Mid tempo: 9:31
Long tempo: 9:46
Marathon pace: 10:22
Easy: 10:51
The great thing is that these are the paces I naturally settle into when running different kinds of runs. On our run tomorrow, I’d like to shoot for 10:00 pace.
So far, I’m embracing summer. Now, if only the weather could agree…
mercies per mile 
>I love running before work. There is something cool about knowing you were up and got more accomplished (exercise wise) than most people will do all day.