Ah, the yummy pain...

Well, I finally frickin' did it. I got up and in spite of the imminent rain, I went to the park to run. I wasn't about making good time. I just wanted to do the 15 and get it over with.

The problem is, my feet were perfect. Since I only trained twice last week and didn't do my 11 last weekend, my feet were like, "wheeeee!" BUT, it was FALSE, I tell you. Remember how I used to walk my first three miles? Well, lately, I've been doing pretty well running after a ten minute walking warm up. So, yesterday, after my ten minutes, I started running. I felt so fine that I figured I'd just run the first six miles, then walk to eat a carb gel and give it a mile to kick in and then run two more... I'd repeat this three times and run in the last two miles of my 15. Well, very long story short, it didn't happen that way.

I did my 15. For that I'm ecstatic. But I did it about 20 minutes slower than I had wanted.

I had several things working against me--"hormonal" things, this damn cold, not enough sleep, need to change my shoes, and lack of training. So, I guess if you take those things into consideration, I didn't do half bad. But still, my average pace was NOT up to marathon par. I'm going to have to crack the whip on cross training and I'm going to have to keep up with my during-the-week training.

Speaking of... you know what was harder than doing the 15 yesterday? Getting up and running this morning. I only had to do a 20easy, but DUDE. My feet were like "WHUH?" But I did it. And like yesterday (and Thursday) I took the stairs when I got home. I'm pretty much making it a habit to climb the stairs when I come home from runs. It works other muscles that don't get worked out.

Tomorrow is supposed to be an "off" day, but I think I'll get up and ride my bike on the trainer downstairs for half an hour.

So, today, we're doing roots and pear preserves. "Roots?" you ask? Yes. Roots. If you'll notice, most of my farmer's market harvest this past weekend was rooty. Beets, black radishes, turnips, rutabaga and some weird root called panaes that my father in law hadn't even ever seen before. Well, I'm gonna steam the beats, black radishes, and the panaes. Then I'm gonna saute the rutabaga (I just have one). Then, I'm gonna puree the turnip. I'm gonna chop up the steamed roots, and mix 'em with the sauteed rutabaga and mix the whole thing into the pureed turnips with a teensy bit of light cream and shredded cheese and bread crumbs and onions. THEN, I'm gonna take the whole kit n' caboodle and pile it into a big gourd-y squash and bake the daylights out of it. I might as well call it "Rooty Caboody." I'll report back.

And THEN, I'm gonna cook down the pears, run it through the food mill, add in some sugah and a reduction of all the apple juice I have left over from making my apple buttah and stir it all together into a pear preserves. Cross your fingers. It's an experiment, y'all. Pears are in season over here right now, so I'm gonna do what I can do. I'll report back.

If I get time, I have had a request from husband and children to make some more zucchini bread and pumpkin muffins. I aim to please. I'll report back.

I also would like to try out my shiny new pasta machine. I'll report back.

BUT, I didn't make word count quota yesterday (cuz I had a LUNCH DATE!!! with a WRITER!!!!), so I might have to spend my afternoon catchin' up on that.

About the lunch date... It's someone who is doing Nanowrimo this month too (the novel in a month thingy). She's Indonesian, but lived in Maryland where she met her French husband. After getting married, they moved to England but when they wanted to have a kid, they moved here. They've been in Lyon for two and a half years. She's a graphic novel buff and loves/writes sci-fi/fantasy!!! YAY!!!!!! We ate and talked and laughed and swapped stories. She's just as bilingual as I (YAY) and lives, I kid you not, RIGHT across the river from us. Like, we can wave at each other from our front windows, yo (guess that means I'll have to stop walking around the apartment nekked).

I'm gonna try to talk her into helping me start a writers' group here made up primarily of other Wrimos and extending out if we can. I'm so excited about that.

Okay, well, I had better get cooking. I'll report back.