Posted on September 29, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

A Day of Sundays

If you took a week of Sundays and condensed them into one day, that day would be today.

I woke up at 3:30AM and tried to go back to sleep until 4:45. And then I gave up and decided to eat half of a Pure cherry cashew bar…

…and go for a Couch to 5K Week 4 run. I was chilly walking to the fitness center–it suddenly got cold in NC at night! I made it all the way through the first 3-minute run, but the first 5-minute run was a bust–my legs started cramping up again. I called it quits and will go again tomorrow. I think there are two things I’m doing wrong–one, I’m not doing the full 5-minute warm-up walk at the appropriate pace, because I start the five minutes while I’m still in my apartment and then walk to the fitness center, and two, I’m trying to do all of the runs at 5.5MPH and it’s sapping all my energy in the first half of the run. I poked around on the Couch to 5K Facebook page and apparently this is a common problem coming out of Week 3 because of the big jump between Weeks 3 and 4. So tomorrow: full 5-minute warm-up walk and slowing down to 4.5 MPH for the first two jogs. We’ll see if that works…

After I showered, I started setting up my “alternative workstation” at my dining room table, since I had to work at home today as part of my agency’s pandemic preparedness exercise. I pulled what may be my last cherry muffin out of the freezer to eat while I started working.

These were superb when they were fresh from the oven and while two or three months in the freezer have toyed with the texture, they’re still great.

If only cherries could be in season  year-round!

I started working at 6AM and took a break sometime during the morning to eat the other half of my Pure bar. Lunch was a quick and mostly leftover affair–a grilled chicken thigh with Ozark seasoning, leftover lima beans and broccoli from Sunday night, and leftover potatoes, onions, and carrots from Monday night.

I’m really bad about using leftovers, and here’s one reason why–leftover potatoes taste weird.  They even look kinda funny…

I worked until 3:15PM, at which point I gave up for the day (and yet, I’m already ahead for the week…). It was the longest day ever! While I hope we don’t have any pandemics for obvious reasons, I also hope we don’t have one because working from home as a result would drive me utterly mad. There were barking dogs and people walking up the steps and planes and leafblowers and men climbing on roofs, and nowhere to go to get away from it. There’s no one to get up and talk to when you’ve been staring at your computer screen for too long–a minor point, as I’m a huge introvert, but a point nonetheless–and even worse, there’s not really anyplace to go. I can’t think sitting down and there’s only so much room in an apartment to pace. I will be happy to be back at the office tomorrow…

After I was done working for the day, I took an awesome nap with my dog. I think I fell asleep around 4PM and didn’t get up until 7:30PM. Naps are good…there were lots of naps at the beach last week.

In the half-hour in which I had to cook before The Biggest Loser started, I threw together some taco salad.

Dip made from refried beans, cream cheese, and taco seasoning, covered in cheese, tomatoes, and onions, then run under the broiler, topped with lettuce, and eaten with tortilla chips. Yummy…horrible for you, probably, but yummy. Although this is not a good shot of it, I would also like to point out the lovely blue au gratin dish that my mom found at the thrift store and bought for me. Innit pretty?

The Biggest Loser was crazy tonight…I loved Jillian getting all serious business with the purple team and while an Amber Alert interrupted the love fest at the end right when it was getting good, I thought the team that ended up getting sent home went out in a very admirable and sportsmanlike way. Can’t wait for more crazy purple lady next week…