8 Mile(s)

Sorry for the infrequent postings! I have had house guests quite a bit for the past few weeks so I keep myself busy trying to entertain them. I am actually really sad that the guests are slowing down-summer is almost over so back to school/work/whatever. It makes me so happy when people seem to have a good time here, I love showing them my favorite parks and beaches and the restaurants where I can nom nom nom into oblivion but the best part is just getting to hang out and catch up. When guests come I always make some sort of baked good-scones, muffins, cookies etc-this time I made my favorite chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies. They are so moist and full of tasty deliciousness. I could seriously eat a stack of them but luckily I gave most of them away.

Seriously make these. They are my all time favorite cookie...and needless to say, I have had my fair share of cookies.

The recipe can be found here. I like to add a bit more than 1/4 tps of salt and instead of doing so much fresh ginger, I add 1 tsp of ground ginger and 1 tsp of cinnamon. Try them, if you are a chocolate fan you won't be disappointed.
Usually when I have guests or am on vacation my workouts fall to the side but this time I have actually kept up with everything. Logan and I leave for Jamaica tomorrow so I made myself do my long run today since let's be honest- keeping up with workouts while hanging out in CT is great, running shorter distances in Jamaica is possible but running for 2+ hours on a treadmill when I could be laying out on the beach while drinking rum based cocktails? don't think so. Luckily I made myself go run 8 miles today so now I only have to do three 3 mile runs and one 5 mile run. I never would have thought that I would be saying that I "only" have to do those runs, especially while on vacation. To be honest, I will be happy if I get 2 3's and the 5 done...I'll update when I get back.

Sorry for no updates...I'm busy laying in the sun and drinking fruity drinks!

8 miles went surprisingly well today! I really love trails where I can run half the distance in one direction, it takes away the choice of quitting. I have to finish the entire distance or I am not getting back to my car. I have read that you should refuel when you run for more than an hour and I can see why. I didn't bring anything to snack on and by the end I had a pounding headache and felt gross. No surprise since my Garmin said I burned over 1000 calories! That is many banana rum smoothies! actually, it's probably not...maybe two? It sucks that burning calories is so hard when putting them on is so easy. It was a beautiful run, completely shaded and surrounding by trees, rock formations and running water (which didn't help my desperate desire to pee for the last 5 miles).

So pretty...makes it a bit easier to keep going. The path is often really soft with pine needles so it's easier on my feet.

I finished in around 1 hour and 45 minutes so it works out to around 13 minute miles. I am pretty okay with that since by the end I was really tired and feeling gross so I was barely trudging along.