Oh, it is ON!

Well, it's official.  I gave up my garage parking spot at my office as of June 1 and am now traveling to work via my own two feet.  This takes some planning on the weekends because I do not want to be schlepping my clothes and lunch on my back four miles each way over a huge hill, so by Sunday I need to have dropped of a weeks worth of work clothes, a fresh towel, and breakfast, snacks, and lunches for five days.

So how is my first week going so far?  Different than I planned...

Yesterday I got up over the top of my first moderate hill and had a change of heart about going up that second burner of a hill that stands smack in the middle between the office and me.  I veered right.

In veering right, I knew I was committing myself to two extra miles, but I just didn't want to deal with huffing and puffing over Capitol Hill.  Not on a rainy Wednesday morning.  So my alternate route got me there in about an hour and I enjoyed the run every step of the way.

You can see from the picture how beautiful it is.  It looks like a rural road or a temperate rainforest, but it is actually smack dab in the middle of the city.  I know - it's awesome living here.

At the end of the day I suited up again and struck out headed north to my parents' house in Wallingford, exactly four miles on foot, door to door.  My pops was nice enough to drive me home at the end of the evening.

This morning, despite having logged ten miles yesterday, I felt great - not tired at all!  I woke up 1 minute before my alarm and popped out of bed.  This may have been because I knew I had an easy day.

I'm having dinner with some friends tonight who live a mile and a half away from my office, so I drove and left my car near their place, which cut my on-foot part of the commute to only three miles total.  I got to the gym with enough time to spare to bust out 60 reps each of chest presses and bent rows before my shower.  Now here's the part where you're going to call me nutso:

I made plans to run with a friend today at lunch.  Yep, that's right!  No rest for the weary, folks!  I need to look good this summer for a variety of reasons and I'm not going to get in shape by doing the bare minimum.  What would you think of someone who just does the bare minimum?  And let's be honest:  I do want to express myself - in a bikini on a boat, preferably.  So onward-ho!

Running 'Round the Lake and Other Adventures

I went for a run around Lake Union today and snapped this photo at my halfway point.  The sun on my face felt as amazing as this photo looks.  It's days like these that almost make me forget how much I hate the winters here.  Truth be told, though, I felt like hell the whole way around the lake, trying not to puke because I was running so hard.  Being nauseated while running is not awesome, but it was totally worth it.

When I got home I decided to take a go at crock pot marinara - cooking from scratch for the lazy girl.  My kinda cooking.  My aunt gave me a mini slow cooker recently and I'm making it my mission to use the heck out of it.  I've tackled cheese fondue, but something about marinara seems more practical for daily life.  So my plan for this marinara is to layer chopped raw ingredients into the crock pot and keep it on low all night.  Here's what's in it before I tweak it tomorrow morning:

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 chopped onion
5 cloves chopped garlic
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
2 Tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1-1/2 tsp sea salt
8-10 chopped roma tomatoes
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp honey

I needed a little something to get me out of my slump, and refocusing on the two things that helped me drop 30 lbs in the first place, running and nutrition, seemed like a good bet.  I'll check back and let you know how it came out.

Update on May 18: I woke up in the morning to the extremely powerful smell of onions.  I mean whoa.  It looked good when I gave it a stir, and I decided to take the immersion blender to it for a few seconds to lightly puree the ingredients.  The taste was meh, so I added another tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a quarter tsp of ground black pepper.  It's still bubbling in the crockpot today while I'm at work.  Hopefully when the liquid cooks down a bit it will have a nicer richer flavor.