miles and . . .

. . . beans - not quite in that order!

The day started with my 5 mile run. I wore my new Garmin FR 15 and felt pretty happy with it.
The run felt hot - I couldn't believe how much slower I was from the day before - but 5 miles is 5 miles, no matter how fast or slow you go.  The whole goal of training is to get faster - so we will see. At the beginning, I know it is normal to feel slow and also to question why am I doing this?

Here are my lap times from Sunday's run. As ALWAYS my first mile is the fastest.  Tomorrow I have 3.5 miles on the schedule and I am going to make sure that mile 1 is NOT the fastest!
Laps

Split Time Moving Time Distance Elevation Gain Elevation Loss Avg Pace Avg Moving Pace Best Pace Calories Summary 52:46.1 52:09.0 5.05 105 105 10:27 10:20 9:15 525 1 10:28.4 9:52 1.00 10 -- 10:28 9:52 9:23 105 2 10:27.0 10:27 1.00 -- 2 10:27 10:27 9:21 104 3 10:27.3 10:28 1.00 16 -- 10:27 10:28 9:51 103 4 10:28.1 10:27 1.00 71 85 10:28 10:27 9:15 105 5 10:27.3 10:26 1.00 9 9 10:27 10:26 9:20 104 6 :28.1 :29 0.05 -- 10 9:52 10:12 10:03 4

I struggle with the idea of slowing down - not literally, but figuratively, well maybe literally too.  At 58 it is hard to run and bike with friends that are younger than you, but yet, somehow I imagine that it helps make me stay active and keeps me on my toes. Sometimes I think it would be nice to be with my "own" age group - but that would require me to join a running club or seek out others my age that are active in the same activities as me.  I see so many of my friends and acquaintances slowing down, not getting out there for exercise, using excuses like; it is too hard, or too much work, I am too tired or there is just no time . . . yada, yada, yada! Let me tell you it is hard, and it is a lot of work and it makes you tired and you have to make time for it - but it is work it!  Trust me. The energy you get back more than offsets the energy you spend.

When will I slow down? Has it already started . . . and I just don't know it????  Will I stay as active when I retire? What would I do if I didn't bike and run and do Pilates? During the last 4 months, I spend approximately 40 + hours a month on average running, biking and doing Pilates. Since there are about 720 hours per month, sleeping, getting ready on both ends of sleep account for about 9 hours per day, or about 270 hours in a month, working 10 hours 5 days a week accounts for 200. If you are subtracting with me, that leaves about 210 for everything else!  Perfect - actually that is nice to think that there are as many hours spend doing what ever??? as working!

After running we talked about biking or going out on the boat and I decided I would rather go for a bike ride and then go out on the boat if we felt like it.  We biked around the Capital City Bike Loop, which is a 20 mile loop from my office and so we set off to my office and then hopped on our bikes.  The path downtown was extremely busy with people, kids and students. The first couple of miles were slow and weaving around people, but once we got beyond campus the traffic wasn't bad. Saturday and Sunday was Madison's, "taste of Madison" and I imagine there were lots of people downtown because of the food fair.  Overall, the bike ride was great - it was warmer than we expected and of course we didn't feel like heading out on the boat once we got home.  ???maybe a sign of slowing down???

The picture, from my phone, does not do it justice! The path was massively shaded with sunny yellow flowers all along this section.

Cooking:  Summer has been rough on my goal of cooking only from Jenna's blog, Eat, Live, Run and getting through all of her main course meals.  Well, I am not giving up! I might not have checked many recipes off the list during the summers months, but I am still committed to trying!  So here are two more recipes to "check" off the list!  I have made the black beans previously (before I started my 2014 challenge) and LOVED them - you just have to plan ahead so that the beans are allowed to soak over night.  And since we are from WI and brats are a standard summer staple (although this is only the 2nd time this summer we have made brats) I thought I would try Jenna's caramelized onion beer brats and boy of boy did they hit the spot.  Probably helped that I worked out for 2 1/2 hours, so at the end of the day I was hungry.

Cuban Beans from Jenna's blog - HERE, cooked in the crock pot, (I added some red peppers, since they were in the frig.) (at this point they are uncooked)

Labor Day Beer Brats with Caramelized Onions . . . again from Jenna's blog, Eat, Live, Run - HERE.

Today, Labor day is a rest day for me. Notice the irony? Labor Day - Rest Day!  I spent much of the morning in the yard, trimming flowers and bushes and weeding. Seemed a little silly to weed, since the growing season is slowing way down, but it is still nice to get rid of the little pesky weeds through out the flower beds.  The rest of the day, was spent relaxing, watching a little of the US Tennis Open and vegging out!  

Enjoy the last fleeting days of summer.