« Blustery | Main | Happiness is a Hot Shower »
October 27, 2005
The Attack of the Flying Popcorn
For the longest time, I didn't really care for popcorn. The regular microwave stuff that is drenched in butter is not appealing at all. About two years ago, I saw a clip in the newspaper about putting regular kernels in a paper bag and microwaving it. I know that Alison wrote about this before. I like my popcorn this way, our microwave sometimes burns it a little, but I like it a little on the burnt side. My mom, on the other hand, hates it burnt and hates the burnt smell even more. In order to solve this, she went out and bought an airpopper for the popcorn. The thing does pop the popcorn well, but it goes everywhere. Popcorn is flying all over the kitchen, as well as unpopped kernels. It doesn't just go out the chute into the bowl, it goes everywhere. I think that I'm going to stick to using the paper bag method, it seems a little safer after I got hit with an unpopped kernel.
I don't want to sound like I am complaining about the weather, because it seems that I am never happy with the weather. It is just that we have had very few perfect running weather days lately. This morning was chilly compared to what it has been. I believe that we even had some frost overnight. I went out for my easy five miler this morning. My body was very tight when I started out and stayed that way for about the first three miles. That is just how my body is first thing in the morning. My hands started to get warm in the last two miles, so I pulled my thumbs out of the gloves. The wind still hadn't died down completely, but it was better than yesterday.
This afternoon I got a bunch of errands out of the way before my life of leisure is gone. I had to pay my credit card bill, which I can do in person. The branch of the bank is out near the running specialty store, and my Mizunos that I won't really stray from are almost shot, so I stopped in there. The Mizunos probably can make another week or so, but I was there so I picked them up. The light on my watch died and it is getting dark for when I do track work, so I got a new watch while I was there too. My track shoes are pretty done, but I'm just going to use one of my pairs of racing flats until January when I have more income. A few shops down from the running store is a gourmet grocery store that is the only place that carries the kind of chocolate that my dad eats (his one and only indulgence), so I picked up three of his chocolate bars because I was there. Finally, I picked up a few groceries at the regular grocery store on the way home so that I could have dinner tonight.
It was quite chilly, in my book, when I went to the track for the workout tonight. I wore pants over my shorts so that I could have them on for the warm-up and warm-down, but in hindsight I may have preferred to have them on during the actual workout as well. There were only five of us doing the workout, so it was a small group. We had a leisurely warm-up and then started the workout. The schedule called for 6 x 800, but because I am racing I was only supposed to do four. The rest of the group only did four for various other reasons, including racing this weekend. Tonight was one of those nights that I would have done a lot better if there had been someone for me to run with. That isn't to say that the 800s weren't OK, but they would have been much better with someone to share the work. The first one was right where I wanted it to be, 2:51-holding back. The other three were 2:55s, but it was hard to push myself that much more by myself. My quads were freezing and it was harder to breathe. I workout better with someone else. Some of it is that you have someone to work with and some of it is that if I ease up I feel guilty that the other person is depending on me to set the pace. Only M did the warm-down with me. It was really dark by that time and I forgot my reflective vest so I don't think he would have let me go on my own even if he wasn't going to do it.
I think that next week I'm going to start doing the bulk of my training in the afternoon. As much as running in the morning is nice, I think that is part of the reason that I have not been running as fast as I once did. My body just can not run as fast as I would like first thing every morning, so I want to train myself to run faster on my normal runs again. I have to work out some kind of schedule with my dad about when I'm going in, but he is willing to give me a key so that I can get in early and leave early to run. We'll see how it works out.
Posted by Blondie at October 27, 2005 07:38 PM
Comments
I love slightly burnt popcorn and purposely burn it every time. As a matter of fact, I think I'll do that now...
The light on my watch is also dead, just when I'm really going to need it for the upcoming runs in the dark. It really makes me angry because I don't want to buy another watch when I've barely had this one.
Posted by: Caitlin at October 28, 2005 06:24 PM