I really didn't want to but I'm SO glad I did

I have a serious question. 

What in the world are tootsie rolls made of? Free high fives to whoever can tell me. I do realize that I could find the answer to my question with one swift Google, but opening up another tab sounds like way too much effort right now.

Tonight after work I was in the worst "I-hate-myself-I'm-not-ready-for-bikini-season-my-life-sucks-so-bad" kind of mood, and I did NOT want to run. Like at all. What I really wanted to do was go home, turn off all the lights, crawl into bed and have a 6 hour glee marathon with myself, and maybe some Reese's too. I told myself that maybe if I made a trip to Target and walked around for an hour then maybe I could get myself psyched up to run.

Um, no. Not so much. 

But I still headed over to the gym because I'd already missed one of my runs this week and if I missed 2 out of 4 I'd be a massive failure at life and I was feeling way too fragile for that type of self disappointment. My half marathon training plan has me doing 5 miles of speed or hills on Thursday. I did hills last week, so this week I knew I needed  to do something at least remotely resembling a speed workout. My runs have been pretty slow lately, so again, this sounded like the very freakin last thing I wanted to spend my evening doing.

It's funny how you can start a run hating your life and finish a run absolutely high on life. 

I LOVE RUNNING.

Here's how it went:

-Easy 2 mile warm-up at a 9:22 pace

-0.25 mile at 8:00 pace

-0.25 mile recovery 9:00 pace

-0.25 mile at 7:53 pace

-0.25 mile recovery 9:00 pace

-0.50 mile at 7:47 pace

-0.25 mile recovery 9:00 pace

-0.50 mile at 7:35 pace

-0.25 mile recovery 9:00 pace

-0.25 mile at 7:18 pace

-0.25 mile recovery 9:00 pace

I realize that workout looks super non-sensical and random. It totally was. But it was fun. It kept me breathing hard and best of all it kept me super entertained and helped my run fly by. Mission accomplished. I'm excited because I feel like I'm slowly but surely getting back into half marathon shape and my pace is finally getting back to what it should be. YAYs all around.

(Side note: Whenever my pace reaches the 8:30 min/mile or quicker mark, I always give a sympathy nod to the guy on the elliptical directly behind me. Because he gets to witness the most attractive aspect of a poorly ventilated gym treadmill run - butt sweat. Don't judge me. Your butt sweats too.)

After my run I was starving. The weird dinner saga continues...

I know that looks disgusting. I can assure you, it was not. That is my new favorite delicious smoothie concoction (bunch of frozen fruit + Naked juice + orange juice + pineapple juice = HOLY CRAP YUM), a black bean burger, and the rest of the broccoli that has been sitting in my freezer for three weeks. That plate was clean in approximately 17 seconds. 

Guess what we are only one work day away from guys....

My plans are:

PARTYFRIENDSPARTYFRIENDSPARTYFRIENDS!

Taylor's friend Andy (who graduated a couple weeks ago) is having his graduation party on Saturday. This is amazing for the following reasons: 1) POOL TIME! 2) FISH FRY! 3) I LOVE THOSE PEOPLE! Also in case you haven't been paying attention, The Bachelorette premieres Monday night.

Yes, I am a little excited. 

Tootsie Rolls - yay or nay?

Who's going to be tuning in to this season of The Bachelorette?? 

It's such a ridiculous time suck but I am addicted and there is no cure. 

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat