I sort of wanted to get started on my strength training challenge tonight, but it was too nice of a night to be inside a gym.

When I went home at lunch to take out Bailey, I decided that I’d run home from work tonight. I changed at work and left everything but my keys, card case and phone and put them all in my Spibelt. For some reason, leaving work in running clothes makes me grin like an idiot. I ran into Olivia, who wrote an awesome article about running for beginners, and I tried not to grin too hard when she asked if I was going running.

I only live a little over a mile from work, so just running home wouldn’t have been much of a workout. I decided to run from my office to Central Park and back home. I knew I wanted to run at least four miles but no more than six, so I began the loop (which will from here on out be referred to as THE LOOP) and then split off to run around the reservoir.

I took a bunch of pictures because it was a gorgeous night, and because I want to be like Ali.

I had some stuff I wanted to get off my mind and some stuff I wanted to procrastinate, so I ended up running 6.23 miles. That’s right. I knocked out a 10K after work tonight. I ran it in 1:03:07. That’s a 10:08 pace, which is a little slower than usual, but considering that in the past month, I’ve run three half-marathons and partied like a rockstar in Vegas, I’m okay with that. I’m happy that my first run back after a week off was long and enjoyable. It’s the first time in a while that I’m not training for any race, and it was kind of wonderful. I ran straight to Duane Reade for some coconut water, which I’ve been really addicted to lately.

I made a repeat of last week’s whole-wheat pasta shells with spinach, garlic and tofurkey sausage for dinner and then stopped procrastinating.