No Supervision

You know...I love my job and I really love my boss. I lucked out, for sure. But I can't lie...I still love those days when I know she's not coming in.

It's not like I do anything differently, really. I guess I could. It'd be tempting to come to work in yoga pants, for example. I truly don't think anyone would notice, because when she's not here, I may not need to interact with anyone else at all, except my secretary. Who isn't going to judge me. (At least, I don't think she'd judge. And if she did, she'd still be nice to me, so whatever.)

But there is just something freeing about knowing that I don't need to get X done by Y time. Which means I can blog at 9am and not feel guilty about it.

Distance Run/Rock & Roll Half training is going...OK. I had a 7-miler this weekend, which was also my first ever run with my brand-new Camelbak. PhillyGuy was away, so I couldn't take pictures for you, but I dig it. I bought the Annadel:



Not too big, not too tiny. I filled it about 1/3 of the way the night before and laid the bladder flat in the freezer overnight. In the morning, I filled it the rest of the way with lemon-lime Gatorade. Since the ice was in a big sheet, it took longer to melt and kept my Gatorade nice and cold.

I got a later start than I wanted, and didn't hit the road until just after 9am. I ran a nice out-and-back on Kelly Drive and the Schuylhill River trail. As I was running out, I started thinking about how I should build in a cooldown period. Oh! Wouldn't it be great to make it so that I wrapped up my seven miles just as I was exiting the trail back onto Locust Street? Then I'd have a nice half-mile walk home to cool down, instead of running straight back to my house and having little to no walking time. Great! I'll just run an extra half mile out before I turn around.

Are you better at math than I am? Because I was AWFULLY surprised when I hit my 7 mile point when I was still on the trail. Not just still on the trail - I hadn't even made it to the steps at JFK/Market Streets. Oh...DUH. An extra half mile out before you turn around is NOT an extra half mile. It's an extra mile. And I am a total moron.

Oh well. I had a nice mile long walk home with the Garmin turned off. Splits:



Eh. Those splits are a little deceptive, to be completely honest with you, blogworld. I took a couple of "stretching breaks" between a few of the miles. Like between miles 2 and 3...and again at mile 3.5. And again at mile 4.5. And again at mile 5. And then I just straight up walked a bit during mile 7 - but, of course, that's actually reflected in my time. So even though my Garmin tells me I covered 7 miles in 1:08.52, it actually took me more like an hour and twenty minutes, because I paused the garmin during my stretching breaks.

I need to stop doing that. Breaks are OK, don't get me wrong -- but it's not helpful to me to look at my time and say "oooh, I did 7 miles and averaged a better-than-10-minute pace!" when, well, I didn't.

Ok. Moving on. Another side effect of my training? My poor toenail, which bruised and eventually fell off after Broad Street, has not been able to grow back properly. Brace yourselves for gross feet pics:



Oh, you poor thing. It doesn't hurt or anything, it just looks...well...busted.



I've been telling my pedicure ladies to just leave it alone. They don't seem to mind. I'm afraid to paint it, like somehow the nail polish might inhibit the regrowth process and I'll be doomed to have a busted toenail for the rest of my life.

Meh. Now, who's ready for food pictures??????

Monday dinner:



Mexican crockpot chicken. I throw mushrooms, onions and peppers (usually -- I didn't have any on hand this week) in the crockpot with a bunch of chicken breasts (frozen works too if you forget to thaw them), black and pinto beans, cumin, paprika, chili powder, salt and pepper (or a packet of taco seasoning for the really lazy), and dump a jar of salsa over the entire thing. Cook on low for 8 hours. Come home to delicious chicken that falls apart when you stir it.



I like to serve it with hot sauce, black olives, green chiles and plain Greek yogurt.

Breakfast today:



I treated myself to a delicious DiBruno's whole wheat bagel with their lox spread.



SO GOOD, even if I did have to scrape 2/3 of it off. And it took about four hundred times longer than usual, because I scraped it off and then performed surgery to dig out the lox pieces and put them back on the bagel.

I suppose I should get to work now.

Anyone want to join me for an 8-miler this weekend? Assume a 10:00 pace. And assume that I will actually run the entire time, which I generally do when I have someone with me.