Lunch with Eli

Today was Eli's "special day" with me. Once or twice each school year, if the kids' grades are good, we let them skip a day of school and have some one-on-one time with Jerry or me. We call it their "special day", and we let them choose what they want to do. Noah had his day in December, when he and Jerry went to the Star Wars marathon. Eli decided that he wanted to go to the movies and to La Pita for lunch with me for his day.

The movie was at 10:00, so I wanted to get my run done first thing. Eli got kind of dressed up, and did his hair for our "date", so I made sure I'd have enough time to do my hair and make-up as well. I think it makes him feel special when he notices that I put effort into his day.

Anyway, I had "4 x 5:00 fast" on the schedule today. It had been two weeks since I did speed work, because last week I took five days off of running (due to my knee incident). I was a little nervous to see how it would go today. I've been hoping to get my "fast" speed to 7:30/mile, and it's tough! My race pace is going to be 7:55/mile, so at this point, I should be able to handle 7:30 for short periods. Here is what my scheduled run was for today:

10 minute warm-up
Intervals:
5 minutes at 7:30 pace
Walk to recover (heart rate less than 136 bpm)
Repeat intervals for a total of 4 times.

It was a great morning for a run! Low 30's temperature, but no wind to speak of. As soon as I started my warm-up, I could feel it was going to be a good run. My feet felt nice and springy, which is always a good sign. I kept my warm-up slow, and then when my Garmin beeped at the 10 minute mark, I started running hard.

It felt REALLY good. Honestly, the first interval felt so much easier than I was used to. I don't think I could have gone much faster than 7:30, but running at that pace a couple of weeks ago felt much harder. And so it went for three more intervals. By the fourth, my legs were definitely tired. My heart and lungs felt good, like they wanted to go faster, but my legs just couldn't turn over fast enough. So, my pace was a tad slower for the fourth interval. But I was very pleased when I checked out my stats later!

My pace wasn't quite 7:30, but I think it was good enough without staring at my Garmin the whole time. The point of running at that faster pace is to make race pace (7:55) feel easier. I have to say, I really like this Run Britain training plan. It's very different from anything I've done before, and while I don't know yet if it will get me to PR my 10K, I have really enjoyed doing it. The plan is specified for a sub-50 10K, but you could use it for any time goal you like, really.

After my run, I showered and got ready to go out with Eli. First, we went to the movies to see Kung Fu Panda 3. We were the only two people in the theater, which was nice; and the movie was cute. Eli and I laughed out loud several times.

There was one line during the movie that was actually really thought-provoking, and it caught my attention. I didn't write it down, so this may not be an exact quote, but it was something like this: "If you only do what you know you can do, then you'll never do anything else." This is very true, especially when it comes to weight loss and fitness goals. I could set my 10K goal much easier, because I know I could do it. But I'm aiming really high, even though I have no idea if I can do it!

After the movie, we headed to Dearborn to have lunch at La Pita. I love that Eli loves La Pita enough to choose it for his special day! He got the chicken kabob, which is what I usually get. Today, I decided to try something different, and shrimp was sounding good, so I got the shrimp appetizer and a side of garlic sauce.

The garlic sauce is that white mayonnaise-looking stuff at the top of the photo. It's made with garlic, olive oil, and potato to thicken it. It's absolutely delicious, and my favorite thing about La Pita. I scooped out a quarter cup, because I could easily eat the whole dish if I wasn't paying attention. It's 100 calories per tablespoon, so just that sauce was 400 calories--yikes! But the shrimp and vegetables were low in calories, and I only had one small pita. Guesstimated the total to be 622 calories for what I ate. I loved the shrimp, and would definitely order it again. The carrots were really good dipped in the garlic sauce, too.

Eli was very happy with his special day, so that made me happy. Later, I made homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner. My friend Adam had mentioned on Instagram that he loves homemade chicken noodle soup, so we invited him over for dinner, too. He's allergic to the cats, so he couldn't stay very long, but it's always good to get to see him. Great day!