Whole Wheat Gnocchi vs. Nachos Supreme

Training Log
Distance: 3.17 miles
Time: 28:32
Average Pace: 9:00 minutes/mile

Food Log
Breakfast: oatmeal with banana & 1 tsp. peanut butter, coffee
Lunch: vegetable beef and barley soup with saltine crackers, milk
Snack: Kashi dark chocolate cherry bar
Dinner: whole wheat gnocchi with grilled chicken, spinach and marinara sauce, piece of whole wheat toast

This morning during my run I was listening to an old running playlist on my iPod. "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West came on, and it reminded me of one of my first Wilmore group runs almost three years ago. Before we would set out on for the run, we would pray together as a group. I didn't know this the first time I went, so I was all ready to run with my iPod (I normally fell right in the middle of the pack and ran alone, so I wore the iPod) and then someone was like "ok, lets pray." At this point, I already had my music going, and the iPod was located a few layers down, and I had gloves on. It would have taken a lot to fish it out and turn it off, then turn it back on and get it situated again, so I decided to just leave it playing. I'll never forget standing in a circle with people who were praying, as Kanye West was pumping through my ears and making me feel like I needed to punch someone in the throat!

Tonight I really wanted to stop at Taco Bell or McDonalds for dinner. It would have been fast, easy and oh so delicious. But, I knew that we had gnocchi, spinach and grilled chicken at home. So, I made whole wheat gnocchi with a marinara sauce that I put chopped spinach and sliced chicken in. It was so good and really filling. And I know it will be much better fuel for my run in the morning than a double decker taco would be!

After eating, I watched Running on the Sun - a documentary about the Badwater ultramarathon. All I can say is WHOA. I've read about Badwater in Dean Karnazes' book Ultramarathon Man, but watching a documentary on the race really puts it into perspective. It is a 135 mile race in Death Valley, held in July each year. To get an idea, winners normally finish the race in 27-28 HOURS. This documentary was filmed in 2002 I believe, so the times are probably a little faster now. I can imagine maybe (and that's a big maybe) one day doing a 50k trail race, but I cannot imagine doing a 135 mile race through Death Valley!!