Running and Yogurt

The budget cycle at work is nearly over—yay! Friday evening was the first time since the start of the month that I didn’t have to bring work home and although I made myself available for this weekend’s final push to closure, I haven’t been needed. Thank goodness! I’ve done my part and the final tradeoffs are in our budget goddess’s hands, which suits me fine.

I celebrated another lovely Saturday by running to Memorial Park today. It’s a little scary how easy these twenty mile runs are getting to be, but that’s the range I need in order to enjoy some of my old running routes from before I moved last August. I don’t like driving somewhere so I can run. It makes no sense to me and adds anywhere from 30-60 minutes to my time budget, cutting into the time I could be doing some actual running. So in general, if I can’t get there on my own two feet, I don’t go.

But now Memorial Park and the Buffalo Bayou trails are doable again, and that makes me happy.

I’m managing so well in spite of my chronic hip pain that I’m even beginning to think about ultras and getting back into long course triathlons. I need to consider the time commitment, though, in addition to the possibility of making my hip worse and ruining a good thing. I’ll probably stew about it over vacation, along with some other matters I haven’t been able to ponder deeply due to the constant busy-ness of my daily life.

And now for a rhetorical question: Am I the last person on the planet to have discovered Greek yogurt?

I’ve never thought myself a yogurt philistine, and have tried runny yogurts, creamy yogurts, sour yogurts, mild yogurts, some from cows, some from goats, some from tiny Hill Country organic farms and some from far-flung places I don’t even know if I can pronounce correctly. I even went through a phase where I made my own. But I somehow missed out on firm Greek yogurt, so when I had some left over after using it in a recipe, I tried eating it plain. OMG! This is the first plain yogurt I can truly say I love! Of course, it’s even better with a little honey mixed in, but now I’m hooked, which is a shame, since it’s four times the price of my current favorite. I may be getting back into yogurt-making if I can find a good recipe for this stuff, price of milk be damned!

Friday’s Cooking
Banana Bread
Carrot Cookies

This Week’s Workouts
Monday: 30 minute elliptical, 10 minute row
Tuesday: 6.5 mile run (went to Hermann Park to see the ducks)
Wednesday: 45 minute spin, abs and weights
Thursday: 35 minute elliptical
Friday: scheduled rest day
Saturday: 20 mile run