There is bacon in this blog post.

Today I went on a 10 mile run.  It was really windy (16 mph winds), but the warmth and sun made up for that.  I was wearing one of my favorite race t-shirts and my screaming neon yellow running capris, and I was stoked that I didn't have to wear gloves.  But it wasn't a typical 10-mile run for me.

I was feeling pretty darn spectacular the entire time.  I felt really strong in mile 8, which is odd for me.  Even though I had to slow down when I was running head-on into that crazy wind (my stupid fault for not looking at the wind direction when planning my route), I felt good the whole time.

I felt strong.

I remember my first 10 mile run.  I felt like my knees were going to secede from my body, and it about destroyed me physically (But not mentally!  I was pretty pumped!).  I remember struggling to do 12 minute miles.  I remember how hard it was to finish that 10th mile, trudging down the street with my quads like cinder blocks, throwing my legs out in front of me and hoping like hell my legs wouldn't decide to stop before I did.

Today's run felt easy.  It's amazing what four months of marathon training will do.

My next round of marathon training starts on June 16th, this time for Twin Cities.  Let's see how much stronger I can get.

But I know you all are just dying to know what my weigh-in was like this morning, so I'll shut-up and just show you the picture:

So, in a week, this means I have lost 2 pounds--just by cooking at home.  My husband and I did go out yesterday before we went bike shopping (more on that in a later post), but I had oatmeal, fruit, and a strip of bacon that will make all other bacon hang its head in shame:

Oink.

The only reason I had a strip was because I realized that my meal had no protein in it whatsoever.  Since I am technically still recovering from my marathon, I have been very protein-conscious this past week.

Thus, I feel my week has begun in a pretty groovy way, on both the exercise and eating fronts.  Let's see if I can sustain the strength throughout this week, as I come to the slow realization that I have only 2 short weeks left at my current place of employment.