Speedwork, Strength Training, and an Easy Salad

This week I decided to try and start speed work again in preparation of a 5k and half marathon I have coming up in October. After working out with Kate on Sunday, my arms were sore for most of the week. The soreness finally subsided yesterday, but I was worried how it would effect my running on Tuesday. Thankfully, it didn't. I wanted to kick things off with a tempo. I met up with the FNRC for the 2nd week in a row on a Tuesday. There are a few folks in the group who are around my pace and they were on board for the temp run attempt. However, I was a little rusty on how to properly adjust my Garmin. I had it set to the "average pace" function instead of the "lap pace" function so things didn't exactly go as planned.

The warm-up was a bit too fast at an 8:27 pace. The next two mile splits were exactly the same (including the turnaround) at 8:14. We picked it up for the last tempo mile and it was more 5k pace than tempo pace (7:21). The last mile I slowed things down for a legit cool-down (10:07). My legs felt great and I enjoyed pushing them, but I know this wasn't the best executed workout. However, I'm okay with it and this workout gave me a little bit of my confidence back. Next week I'll try something different for my speed work and I know it can only get better!

I don't really like to cook and when I make dinner, I look for the EASIEST recipes that include ingredients that we have on-hand. Thanks Pinterest for existing! Last night my husband and I wanted something lighter for dinner since neither of us were super hungry. I found an easy Pinterest recipe (found here) for a corn/tomato salad. I modified it slightly and left out some of the ingredients (on accident). My salad included:

Spring greens

Corn (from a can, we had it on hand)

Plum and grape tomatoes from our garden

Fake meat beef tips (found here)

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Coarse salt (margarita salt, actually)

All it needed was a quick toss and voila! I used the flash so things are kind of bright, but it was light, delicious, and totally hit the spot. I bought mozzarella cheese and croutons to use but totally forgot it. It still tasted good without it too! I made another one to bring to work today with the leftover corn and tomatoes.

After this delicious salad, I laid down to do my PT exercises. Pepper just wouldn't let me lay still so I did some strength training too. :)

Ropey is her 2nd favorite toy (after the tennis ball)