Hello, how’s Tuesday treating you? It is getting chilly here with lows in the 40s, time to pull down my winter clothes and throw my summer clothes into storage! I also need to start shopping for warmer running clothes because this running in cold temps and rainy weather is foreign to me! Guess I need to surf 6PM.com’s running gear sale.
About 2 months ago, I switched my weekday workouts to mornings before work and have been consistently getting up at 5 AM every weekday and stuffing in a workout with my other morning routines before dashing out the door for work at 7 AM. But I’m taking a break from that and going back to evening weekday workouts for a couple of reasons:
- I’m tired, getting up that early is exhausting and I’ve been averaging 6 hours of sleep on week nights because getting to bed earlier hasn’t been easy.
- Weekday morning workouts are usually hurried and sometimes I can’t stuff in all I want to if I’m running a few minutes behind schedule.
- I just haven’t been feeling that great sweating away at such early hours being more tired and out-of-it, so I’m questioning the quality of the workouts.
- Being more tired, I’ve noticed an increase in appetite, odd food cravings, increase in intestinal issues and just being more cranky.
If I didn’t have to be at work until 8 or 9 AM, then I’d have more time in the mornings and would probably be sticking with this schedule, but it’s just too hard at that hour. Plus I started looking at workouts more as a chore I wanted to get over with in my half-awake stupor rather than something positive I’m doing for myself and should be taking more pride in. Maybe I’ll try this schedule again when things settle down a bit, but it was getting to bit much with everything else going on.
Remember the half marathon I ran a few weeks ago? I finally snagged some pricy pictures. So here’s proof I look like a dork running. :-)
I was totally focused on crossing the finish line and the burning pain in my feet, not smiling for the cameras, next half maybe. :-) I got over focused while the runners around me were smiling and waving as they crossed. I get told I need to smile more all the time and maybe one day I’ll actually do it.
With the cooling temps, I’ve been turning to more cooked vegan dishes for dinners not fighting my cravings for something hot this season. Like baked acorn squash and Gena’s tofu scramble.
My egg-loving mom has become such a fan of this recipe that I had to print it out for her to make tonight. If you have not tried it yet – do it! Aside from pressing the tofu, it’s a fast and fun recipe to throw together that’s filling. And you can curb the tofu pressing time by buying pre-pressed high protein tofu at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or any health food store.
I’ve also been craving a lot of soups for dinner lately and threw together a miso tempeh soup I mutated from a few miso soup recipes using what ingredients I had.
Tempeh chunks are actually a great add to soups and I made the broth extra strong using kelp granules and chopped green onions. I need to perfect this mutant recipe more to post. I’m still in a bit of a food rut and am really looking forward to trying new recipes and creating some. But first I need another pricey shopping trip to Whole Foods which I’m been putting off until as I use up what we have in the freezer and pantry.
I can completely understand the early a.m. workouts. No one goes to bed earlier just b/c they got up earlier that day or have to get up early the next day. We tell ourselves we will, but life happens, and we dont.
I workout about 2 hours after I wake up. I get sucked into my computer and life and oh yes, parenting :) and it’s a couple hours after i wake up that I am out the door. B/c i work at night, I cannot do 4-7 pm workouts most days..but if i had my choice, based on weather, mood, personal energy levels, etc that would be my choice.
Oh and that tofu, still looks lovely and the perk of barely needing to press it.
Gena’s scramble, havent made it. Good to know you’re THAT much of a huge fan. Noted :)
You dont look like a dork running at all! you look strong and intense!
Great race pic!! I think you look like a warrior!
Totally understand about the morning workouts– it sounds like they’re really messing with your sleep (and, consequently, your mood).
Love the race picture.
Morning workouts are tough. I just to be so good about getting up at 5am to do my workouts, but these past 2 years it is has been a struggle, so now I do my workouts late morning or early afternoon. I miss doing them first thing though. Maybe one day I will get back into them. ~Lori
Not fighting my urge to eat hot either. I’ve always appreciated that you posted your cooked eats too.
Isn’t it crazy how quickly it seems the cooler weather became upon us? Even though I live in the hottest place on the planet, I still prefer the heat to the cool!