Some more food, and running in the rain!

Happy week of rain for those of you in the bay area! Sooo much rain, after such a long period of NO rain. I'm still pretty ecstatic to see it, even if that means that drivers on the freeway go 20mph and I have to actually mow our lawn.

It was a wet run!

Unfortunately, all of my techy devices that I love to bring with me aren't waterproof. Actually, none of them are. I keep thinking of buying a waterproof phone case, but always fall back to a couple of zip lock bags in my semi-waterproof jacket. I also put saran wrap on my water-resistant Polar watch, because I just don't want to take any chances. It was pretty wet out today.

The run didn't go like I hoped. I felt like I was going a bit faster, and since I turned off the notifications to Strava, I dreamed of coming home and seeing paces in the 10 min mile range. I didn't get a proper warm up because it was SO COLD OUTSIDE and I stupidly wore these flimsy shorts and needed to get my heart rate up to stay warm. 

My high tech waterproofing

So the final pace average? About an 11:55 min mile. To give myself a bit of credit, I DID include about a .3 mile walk when I attempted to warm up. Still was pretty pathetic.

I also am still sore from horseback riding. :| 

I came home and reallllly wanted to give up. I am really losing my patience here, so I honestly don't know how long I will last. I am trying my best though. Hugs and words of encouragement are welcome, haha.

For those of you that have been running in the bad weather or nights, my boyfriend showed me quite a convenient trick if you have an iphone (a similar feature is probably available through Android, but I only have an iphone). You can go to the messages, click on "details" in the right corner of the person you want to message, and then click to share your location for either an hour, to the end of the day, or indefinitely. We use it for an hour or so, just to kind of keep track and make sure that everything is going as planned, and nobody is hurt. 

It is a nice feature if you want to keep an eye on a loved one, but don't want to be all creepy.

TJ's Salsa Verde!

Next up, is food! Today I have been RAVENOUS! Completely insatiable hunger all day. I think it's my body finally responding to the several day soreness from horseback riding. I keep eating and eating, and drinking a lot of water, but nothing seems to help. I came home to some chicken I made in the crock pot and just hovered over it and downed two chicken thighs in about 3 minutes. By the way, you've got to try this chicken. I forget where I initially found the recipe, but all you need to do is throw some chicken thighs in a crock pot and dump in a bottle of salsa verde! I put in about a half cup of water, just because my crock pot is huge and I don't want them to overcook. SO GOOD.

A bit high in sodium but I'm not exactly licking
the plate clean here.

Mmm so juicy and tender!

Soup made with our homemade bone broth!

Sorry for the terrible formatting, I still don't fully understand blogger.

You might see a pattern developing, but I am obsessed with our slow cooker. I swear by the thing, and I don't know why more people don't use them! Healthy and juicy meals every time with hardly any effort, and they're always hot and ready by the time you get home!

I even made bone broth for the first time in my life with our leftover turkey bones. I did it a bit spur of the moment, and as we were running out the door to catch a movie, I threw the thing in the crock pot with some whole carrots and onion, and filled it up so the water was to the top, and we just let it cook until the next day. My lovely boyfriend strained it, and it turned out so delicious and perfect! The only thing I'd do differently is put in a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in to leach some of the minerals out more.

Bone broth is wonderful for anyone, but can definitely benefit runners with the amino acids and minerals, and is great for your ligaments and joints. I couldn't believe how easy it was to make, and I'm definitely going to be making more soon.

I have another 5 miles to go tomorrow, so hopefully there will be less rain and more smiles. Oh, and while I work I have been drowning myself in podcasts from Endurance Planet. They are extremely informative, especially if you're interested in MAF training or a low carb/high fat diet. You can look up "maffetone" in the search engine, or I like to listen to nutrition advice from Ben Greenfield. Great stuff, and Tawnee is very informed and is a great interviewer that always seems to be asking the questions that I'm thinking in my head.