Frustration

Frustration is the first step towards improvement. I have no incentive to improve if I'm content with what I can do and if I'm completely satisfied with my pace, distance, and form as a runner. It's only when I face frustration and use it to fuel my dedication that I feel myself moving forwards.

- John "The Penguin" Bingham

I opened up my RW Quote of the Day email and chuckled at the timeliness.

Tonight's 8 miler marked the return of Hains Point. Yep, I think we're up to 4 or 5 visits now? We're going to be BEST BUDDIES, I tell ya. To avoid grumbly tummy syndrome, I chomped on a small salad from Daily Market (which clearly has become my go-to lunch place), a banana and some Salt & Vinegar Pop Chips for lunch. The S&V Pop Chips were ok...I definitely shouldn't have opened them so close to my face because when it opened, I almost fell over with the strong smell! They were nice and tangy, but I still prefer the Salt & Pepper flavor.

That was lunch #1 at 12:30.

Did I forget to mention that I packed a mini burrito for lunch but I didn't want it at lunch, so that's why I found myself walking to Daily Market? Oh yeah. I might have forgotten that little tidbit.

My mini burrito was the result of a frantic lunch packing at 8am this morning. I stuffed a small multigrain tortilla with leftover pinto beans, some string cheese, meatless ground round and salsa - basically a variation on dinner the other night. I think I hate non-white flour tortillas. They just aren't right. Some things aren't good when you turn them healthy. Flour tortillas are one of those things.

It occurred to me around 3:30 that if I was going to eat lunch #2, I should probably eat it sooner rather than later. There's nothing worse than a belly full of multigrain bean burrito before an 8 mile run - YIKES!
I went to nuke my burrito and ran into a coworker. Apparently eating two lunches is weird because she shot me a look when I told her it was my second lunch...which immediately lead to me launching into an explanation of why I needed to eat before my run. AND THEN I got even crazier looks when I told her I was going on an 8 mile run on a Thursday evening. Am I weird? I don't think I'm weird. No, not at all.

We started our 8 miler a little late so dinner was a dump stuff in a bowl sort of meal. The base was a Kashi Moroccan Curry Pilaf Side. While it is pretty sodium laden (at about 400mg per serving), it was totally what I needed post super sweaty long run. I'm pretty sure this would make my fingers swell pretty easily on a regular day. Blech.
I added a few frozen mixed veggies and thought it was pretty good for a packaged side dish. It had a slight kick to it, but it smelled stronger than it tasted. I wouldn't eat it plain as a side dish...it would definitely need some extra ingredients.

I am EXHAUSTED. We finished what turned out to be an 8.26 mile run in about 1 hour and 21 minutes - that's after calculating about 4 minutes of stoplights, including a presidential motorcade stop (sometimes I wish traffic would stop everytime I left my house). It felt like we were stuck at lights for a lot longer than 4 minutes, but who knows. I stopped counting after 3 minutes. Oh how I hate city running :\ I'm feeling better and back on track...like that fast mid week run gave me an extra boost!

Bedtime for me. I'll be back tomorrow somewhere between my quick run and work...hopefully with some fun eats! Tomorrow's dinner - pizza :)