Pizza fail, and week 1 (technically 2) of marathon training.

What a humbling week it's been.  It's never easy to admit your shortcomings, but this past week has been jam-packed with them.

This was my first official week of marathon training.  Luckily, the first few weeks are meant to set you up for a solid 12 weeks of training (in my opinion).  Because my race date doesn't correlate with the training schedule, i technically merged the first two weeks together.  I will also have to tack on extra mileage to my long runs all throughout the program.  I am not too concerned about this, because once i actually start running, it is pretty easy to continue.  But man, is it hard to wake up, get ready in the dark, and go run in the freezing cold.  I definitely lack motivation to do that.

I have a lot of friends running the F^3 and Polar dash half marathons in the upcoming weeks.  This makes me painfully aware of the fact that not only could i not come anywhere near a decent race time right now, i don't even know that i could finish a half marathon.  It's scary how quickly we can reach that point.  I ran a marathon two months ago and felt great!  Now 6 miles leaves me tired and wheezy.  I am in for a world of pain as i ramp back up.  

Speaking of that recent marathon, my toenail hasn't improved at all.  It's actually looking worse.  It's still black, and it now appears that base of the nail is separating from the skin.  I would post a picture, but it is straight up disgusting.  I am starting to lose hope for spring sandals.  

For Christmas, i got an amazing cookbook of complex vegetarian recipes.  This was pretty exciting, because most vegetarian recipes i have found are a little lack-luster.  I like salad and all, but i want to be challenged when i cook.  And challenged i was.

Since i started attempting recipes in this book, i have been reminded every day that i do not have the proper tools to have a functioning kitchen.  Exhibit A:

I don't own a rolling pin.  Therefore i was forced to use a wine bottle to roll out the pizza dough.  It didn't really matter anyway, because something had already gone terribly wrong in the dough-rising process.  I tried everything to make this dough rise, and it just sat there mocking me.  We carried on with the pizza anyway, and it ended up tasting ok, but crust was so dense it was like eating a brick.  Matt still put away 4 pieces though, you know, to make me feel better. 

This battle is far from over.

Despite spending me weekend failing as a runner, and failing as a pizza chef, i did succeed in cuddling.  After my 8 mile run on Saturday, i had a hard time warming up, so i curled up on the couch with a pile of blankets.  Within 20 minutes, i had been swarmed.

They all just came over and fell asleep on top of me.  It kind of sucked to be unable to move for two hours, but it was endearing at the same time.  

Here's hoping that in 16 weeks, i am running the best marathon of my life, and making a pizza that will knock you on your ass.  (and not just because it doubles as a battering ram.)