Chocolate Overdose.

The nice weather we were blessed with over the last few days disappeared by this morning. Its a good thing you don't need sunshine to eat chocolate. Lent was officially over and the chocolate eating could have commenced yesterday, but since I had that slip up a week ago I still owed a day. And since tomorrow I begin my 30 vegan adventure... I basically ate enough chocolate to last the 70 days and then some!

On Friday as I left my house for a run, I got about a block away when I felt like I was missing something. My IPOD! I never run without it. I decided not to go back and test out running without it. It was such a great run! Instead of blaring my music and forgetting that I was running, I was completely involved in the run. I was very aware of my breathing and stride (also, has my knee always popped like that?!) my pace was much faster that normal. I ended up running 5K in 29 minutes (in March I during my St. Paddy's day run I did 3.1 miles in 32 minutes) I don't think I could always run without music, but it's good to know I can do it successfully! Today I was kinda sore from my hike yesterday so I only did a mini run, I think it is important to keep moving when you are feeling sore!

Today was all about CHOCOLATE! With a few side notes!

Lunch! I had some leftover pesto and decided to make an open faced sandwich.
One of the many things I love about Italians is their gift of pesto to the world!
This was a surprisingly delicious combo.

Yes, I'm 25 and still get an easter basket!
And its awesome!
Don't be jealous!
My two favorite things are Reese's eggs and cadbury chocolate mini eggs!
That giant reese's was awesome, but I like the little ones better... they have a better ratio of chocolate to peanut butter.

I was feeling the effect of all that sugar in my system so salad sounded good for dinner again!
Roaste veggies and salsa with cheddar broccoli risotto on the side! 

Remember how for my brother's birthday at the end of March my sister-in-law Carly made a Chocolate Chocolate cake?!
Well she froze a slice for me! So I got to enjoy it today! So chocolatey!

Well my 30 days of veganism begins tomorrow. I'm pretty excited! Especially after the gorge fest that happened this weekend! I need to cleanse my body!

Running with Book Updates.

Its the middle of March and I've only read SIX books! When I wrote my post for March 13th 2010 I had just finished book number 21! I'm finding that lately I've been reading a ton of magazines. Mostly periodicals that fit with my most recent obsessions. I've been reading a lot of running, gardening, cooking, home improvement, and traveling magazines.

I was reading through a running magazine the other day and found a random side note that mentioned that running on a treadmill can cause shin issues! Hello! I have shin issues! I've been searching the internet for info on shin-splints and had never heard that one! Apparently when your foot smacks down on the revolving belt it tends to shift the belt a miniscule amount to the side. That tiny shift can actually be enough to cause stress on your shins. Since it has been so darn cold outside I've been primarily running on a treadmill. Thankfully it is starting to warm up a little bit cause I'm going to have to change that routine!

It may be getting warmer, but it isn't getting any drier out there! Carly, Callen, and I braved the elements yesterday to run the St. Paddy's day 5k in Tacoma!

(Post race! Its a shame I couldn't find anything green to wear!)

This was actually my first ever race! Maybe a little silly cause I'm signed up to run a 13 mile race in 84 days?! Yeah well it made me a touch nervous that I would hate running with so many people then end up dread my half-marathon. But I loved it! We had a blast (even with the downpour)! I also found that I might be a little more competitive than I originally thought I was!

My stats from the race: I finished 792 out of 1607 with a time of 32:21 and a pace of 10:26. I was hoping to keep it a little bit closer to ten minutes but it gives me a better idea of how to pace myself in the future. The 5k length felt good, I ran the entire way without too much difficultly, but adding another ten miles on there is kind of intimidating! There is a lot of hard work ahead for me!

(Callen, Me, Carly: Pre-race!)

This is the next 5k Carly and I are thinking about doing: YMCA Y Run for Kids. Then I will be running in the Viking Fest 5 mile Road Race. I think those are the only official races I'll be doing until my big one, they are just too expensive!

Almost everyday for the past three weeks has been what I consider the perfect reading day. A perfect reading day is made up of many factors including: Grey-cold-never-ending-rainy-weather, the lack of motivation to do anything productive, and a really good book to read.

I feel like I've been holding out on you! I've been blabbering on about other resolutions while there are books that I read in January that I haven't updated you on! So here goes!

Update Book 04: The Reef by Nora Roberts

There is nothing better than a really good romance novel to read on vacation! Especially when you are reading that book on a beach and the book takes place in a tropical location! "The Reef," is classic Nora Roberts. I'd even go so far to say that it is Nora Roberts at her best. There is a little bit of mystery, a little bit of adventure, and a love story. I really liked this book and I was really glad that I had run out of books that I had paked so that I had to pick this one up off the lend me pile in our condo, something that wouldn't have happened if I would have had my Nook!