Running, Relaxing, Red Mango and Pizza

Running, like most things in life, tends to have a cumulative effect. You know, the whole day after day of doing something thinking you have got it all under control until one day you wake up and it hits you like a ton of bricks.

Friday morning’s run is best described with bricks. In my legs.

I shouldn’t have been all that surprised considering I have increased my mileage a bit over the last month or so without really feeling it. Until Friday.

I knew it was a lost cause in the first mile and since I preferred to save myself for Saturday’s long run, I didn’t push it.

Saturday was slightly better which may or may not have had to do with my midrun snack of choice:

I had stopped bringing jelly beans with me on long runs in favor of raisins but for whatever reason, went back to jelly beans on Saturday. I can’t really say though if they do much other than give my mouth a refreshing burst of sugar around mile eight.

With the half marathon now in less than two weeks, I am already cutting back my mileage, especially after the bricks on Friday and feeling a bit more tired than usual after running on Saturday.

In fact, I did something I rarely do over the weekend – relax. Rather than run from errand to store to errand, I made sure to sit down a bit more on the couch, catch up on television under a blanket and keep the computer screen as far away from me as possible.

I even let the whole concept of relaxing carry over into Sunday morning when I slept in well beyond my usual get up and go time.

May I just say that I enjoyed every second of it.

Of course I still got out of the house for the important stuff.

With only a spoonful of Mighty Maple left in the pantry, I wasn’t about to choose rest over my favorite peanut butter.

Now, talk to me about this sign posted in Red Mango:

Clearly Red Mango has felt the cumulative effect of giving those cute little cups that allow us to sample our way through the store.

While I understand why they want to keep us from eating away at their profit margin, I can’t help but feel annoyed by such a limitation.

My parfait was delicious though.

Whenever I started to get too mental during Saturday’s long run (you know, when your head starts calculating miles and telling you that maybe you aren’t enjoying yourself and should stop) I quickly turned my thoughts to how much more delicious my  food would taste in the hours following my long run.

I wonder if there is science to support my theory. Laugh if you want, I am truly convinced that something happens to the taste buds that helps to enhance the flavors of everything my mouth comes into contact with for about 12 hours following any hard run or any run over seven miles.

And this pizza from Saturday night was no exception.

I need more pizza in my life.

With three pizza places to choose from every quarter-mile on Long Island, my vegetarian heart goes out to Villa Monte because they make a seriously massive whole wheat crusted vegetable pie loaded with asparagus, broccoli, spinach and I don’t even know what else since I drown it all in an extra side (or two) of marinara sauce.

In fact, I love this pizza so much that I may declare one night a week pizza night and pick this up for dinner.

Normally I buy Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough and we make pizza ourselves. I cook most nights of the week and truthfully, it can get a bit exhausting.

I monitor all of the sales at the grocery stores and stock up to save money where I can but the more I calculate things, the more I realize that certain meals, such as my favorite pizza, may come out to the same cost or even less than if I were to make dinner for us at home.

If only I could figure out a way to rationalize the Whole Foods Food Bar.

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What do you carry with you for long runs – jelly beans, gels….?

How many nights a week do you cook?

Favorite pizza place?