Sunday: Run and Swim

Moab!!

You know, after looking over my last two blog posts, it actually rather frightens me when I think what might happen if I did not work out a bit.  I would apparently just READ ALL DAY and write book reports about what I read.  There would probably be a crossword puzzle and some knitting and needlepoint thrown in, but in the grand scheme of things it looks as if I might become some sort of bookworm hermit.  I really should learn to play bridge so that old age does not find me sequestered without human contact for months at a time.

Anyway, this morning, I popped out of bed with a tasty bowl of oatmeal and headed out to the park to run the 5.8 mile loop with friends.  It was a great laid back run that was perfect after my weekend of sickness.  It was chillier than expected and I wore the wrong shirt which kept riding up under my jacket and exposing my stomach to the cold.  Cold stomach is one of my least favorite cold sensations, right after cold fingers and toes and I made a mental note to relegate said shirt to the yoga shirt pile.  It is no longer fit for running. Post-run, it began to snow just a tiny bit and I was glad to head home. At home,  I made some more oatmeal and loaded up Sloan the Younger to head to church.

Church was great.  Our organ has just been retuned and had a few pipes added and the music was so beautiful.   Our final hymn was Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning.  (Lyrics)

At home, I had a bit of lunch before packing up and heading in to swim.  It was such a gray cold day outside, that the idea of getting into the pool was particularly chilling.  AND, there were many splashers at the pool today, by which I mean people that practically cannonball into the water to start their lap swimming.

Confession: I greatly dislike being splashed, which is pretty much in keeping with my deep-rooted nerdiness now that I think about it.  I have only ever been that girl sitting on the side on the pool slathering herself with an epic amount of sunscreen and giving the stink-eye to unruly splashers.  Never once, have I engaged in a game of chicken in the water.  It is just not who I am.  Who I am, is the girl who once won THE SMALLEST SPLASH award at camp.  I was remarkably proud of the negligible impact of my entrance into the water at the camp pool.  In retrospect, however, does not THE SMALLEST SPLASH award sound like something you give to the nerdy kid who sat on the side of the pool all week carefully applying sunscreen and frowning at splashers.  Oblivious to the deep schoolmarmy nature of my 11 year old self, I no doubt accepted my award with more than a modicum of pride.  Ahhh, my 11 year old self.

Anyway, after I smallest splashed myself into the pool, our workout was as follows:

• 400 warmup
• 3 x 400 swim @ 8:30
• 3 x 400 pull @ 7:30

I made butternut squash pasta for dinner and it rocked my world.  Totally easy:

• whole wheat pasta cooked and drained and still hot
• mix in 1/4 cup milk
• and 2 tablespoons of butter
• and 1/2 cup of butternut squash purree
• and a goodly bit of parmesan cheese
• serve it up!!