Yesterday after the long run, we spent the rest of the day furniture shopping for a new couch and arm chair!  Our original plan was to go to cheap-o places like Value City and Ashley Furniture, but as it turns out, apparently North Carolina is like the fine furniture capital of the country??  Who knew!?! 

After a good pep talk from my mother in law, we rethought our plan and decided that it might be worth it to spend a little more to get something good that will last, especially since we live in what appears to be a furniture mecca.  We went to three different places, and found two different sets that we really liked.  We’re hoping to narrow it down and place an order on Monday morning – yipppeeeee!

Having run ten miles that morning, every couch we sat down on felt amaaaaazing, so I was a little worried we weren’t being very selective!  Not to mention by the time we were finished I was STARVING.  We got home and immediately went to work on dinner. 

Originally I had planned to make spaghetti squash spaghetti, but I was too hungry to wait for the squash to roast.  Casey suggested we just eat real spaghetti instead, which at first I protested, but then after actually thinking about it for two seconds – sounded delicious!  We had run ten miles, so we had definitely earned a pasta dinner.  Plus the perfect accompaniment to our noodles had just arrived on the doorstep…

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received these Bertolli sauces to try and review!  Tonight we tried the Arrabbiata sauce – spicy tomato and red pepper!

While I waited for dinner to cook, I snacked on my favorite Trader Joe’s crackers, and Kath’s delicious homemade curry honey hummus – yum!

I was starving for dinner, but knew I wouldn’t want a huge bowl of just pasta, so I threw together a big pot of frozen veggies and some fresh cherry tomatoes.

When it came time to dish up, I took about 2/3 veggies and 1/3 whole wheat rigatoni noodles…

And then topped the whole bowl with the Bertolli sauce, and some sprinkled parmesan, mmmmmm.

This sauce is awesome – I will definitely buy it when it hits grocery stores!  It’s much spicier than typical marinara sauce, which I really liked.  A lot LESS awesome, however, is where my evening headed after that…

I couldn’t really sleep well at all last night, kept tossing and turning and trying to figure out what felt…off.  Finally around 6am I got up and quickly discovered that I had some sort of food poisoning.  I am blaming a mid-day yogurt snack that I had that tasted a little funny, blech.  Fabulous plans for
yoga and a movie with Kath were quickly sidelined, as I needed to be within a 3 second leap to the bathroom at any point.  NOT FUN.

Today has looked like this…

There is a person (me!) in that ball of blankets, and it looked that way until almost noon.  So sick that I didn’t want to see sunlight, or hear tv or anything – just silence and cozy blankets.  Indy was happy to participate in my pity party.  I finally just dragged myself off of the couch to attempt to look/feel like a human.  Very touch and go at this point.  I’m attempting to get this down bite by bite…

But it is going veeeeeeerry sloooooooowly.  Beautiful bright sunny skies, and I have my face in a garbage can – booooooo :(  Here’s hoping this passes very quickly.  I think I’m off yogurt for a LONG time…

This post is probably long overdue, and is going to cover something that I think is VERY common in the running world, but rarely talked about.  That’s right folks, I’m talking about POOP.

Running and pooping are about as synonymous as running and sweating – it’s just unavoidable.  But no one is ever willing to talk about it!  Maybe it’s gross, maybe it’s unnecessary, but I think it’s important.  Here goes…

I have had many a close call in my 3-ish years of running, probably more than most.  I have a really sensitive digestive system, and running double digit mileage almost always sends my stomach into a spiral.  Back home, I would literally plan my runs around possible bathroom stops, knowing that it was only a matter of time before my breakfast turned on me.  My wonderful running partner, Lindsey, was more than understanding of my digestive dilemmas. 

It sounds funny (or maybe just gross) but it’s actually really horrible and embarrassing!  There is NO worse feeling than being miles from a bathroom with no other options.  Back in Cincinnati it was even more of an issue because I almost always ran with my dogs, and you can’t take dogs into public restrooms!  Over time, I’ve learned that in order to avoid public humiliation and panic, I need to plan my running and eating accordingly, so that there are no more close calls.  But even knowing what I know, sometimes it still gets the best of me.

This morning I woke up later than usual, and didn’t get to eat breakfast until almost nine – just two hours before the long run.  I knew right away that this wouldn’t be enough time for – errr, cleansing – but I also knew that in order to run I had to eat.  I ate my PB&J and hoped for the best, but when 10:40 rolled around and it was time to leave, no cleanse had happened.  We headed out the trail regardless, and got ready to run!

When I got up this morning it seemed really cold outside, but when we got to the greenway I was pleased to discover that it was the PERFECT day for running!  I ended up ditching my long sleeves and ran in my t-shirt after mile two.  The sun was shining the whole time, and we both felt awesome!  But around mile seven I could feel my dinner and breakfast weighing me down, and making me very uncomfortable.  I could tell it was slowing my pace, because I felt really heavy. 

Kath was a good sport, listening to me complain about my bathroom woes, and didn’t seem horrified or grossed out.  I made it all the way to mile 9.25, but knew that at that point, walking was a MUST if I was going to make it back to the car without an accident.  I told Kath to take off, and I slowly walked/jogged back to the parking lot and straight into a port-o-let.  It is SO frustrating to have a good, strong run controlled by my stomach.

Does anyone else deal with running and digestive problems??  What are some of your tips and tricks?  Please do not be afraid to share!

Not exactly the way I had planned to end my 10 mile run, but still a successful run nonetheless.  It was fun to join Kath as she ventured into the DOUBLE digits, too!

Even though my near-accident forced me to slow down at the end, I still finished exactly at our goal time – 90 minutes!

After the run, we all headed back to our house for quick showers, and a yummy lunch!  I have seen the smoothie-in-a-bowl featured on many blogs, and I knew Kath was a fan, so she introduced me and Casey to this sludgy bowl of deliciousness…

Into our mix (I think!) was spinach, Amazing Grass meal, cantaloupe, honey, Silk almond milk, and frozen banana – topped with a crushed up Trader Joe’s peanut butter crunch bar!  SO GOOD!

On the side, a piece of Great Harvest bread with blackberry preserves and Naturally Nutty cinnamon cherry peanut butter, mmmmmmm…

YUM!  Casey and I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for a new couch, and I think we found some really good possibilities!!  We are hoping to make a final decision tomorrow and place an order, so that hopefully we will have a new living room in just a few short weeks!  And now I am starving, so I’m off to make dinner.

Thanks for listening to my taboo discussion about POOP.  Someone had to finally do it, right?  :)