My training schedule called for nine miles this morning, but my brain was calling for more sleep. The only thing that got me out of bed was thinking of a banana sandwich. So despite not really feeling it, I headed up to Central Park to meet up with Caitlin. We’d planned on doing 8 together and then I’d run the mile-ish home. We ran one full loop (six miles) of the park, running it counter-clockwise like the half-marathon course will go. 

Our legs and our lungs felt really tight, but we pushed on until we’d finished that first loop, and then Caitlin decided she’d do her last 2 on the treadmill, and I decided to exit the park and the hills to finish my last 3 on flat land. I ran through Hell’s Kitchen and the far West Side of Manhattan  to finish up my 3. I overestimated a bit where finishing up 9 would leave me, and I ended up running an extra .14 to get home. It was a really hard run, but I’m glad I did it.

My face was really red from the cold.

Today, I wore three layers on top: a base layer, a mid-layer and a fleece. I wore one pair of pants (although I seriously considered a second pair) and two pairs of gloves. Check out my winter running tips here.

After I was done, I was in no mood to make sense of the random assortment of food in my fridge, so I ordered this chicken stir-fry bowl and ate every last bite of it. My running appetite is definitely coming back.

Running 9 miles in this frigid cold was really more than enough outside time for me today, so I did the lazy thing and ordered some FreshDirect to come tomorrow, so, for dinner, I was determined to make something of the random contents of my fridge.

Whole wheat pasta, chicken patty (from my fave grocery store, in NJ), marinara sauce and a little goat cheese. In an ideal world, this would have also had some spinach or broccoli. But I don’t live in an ideal world.

Now, I have some studying to do. Will explain tomorrow!