17 miles, feelin good

Our 17 miler was yesterday, and it was great!  Weather was fairly sunny, between 55-65 degrees, and just breezy enough to keep the air moving.  We ran all the way up White Rock Creek Trail to its end in North Dallas (7.5 miles), picked up an extra half mile running around the nature trail up there, then ran back and finished up at the lake.  Our time was much faster than last time, averaging just over 10 minutes per mile.  Our spirits were higher, too.  Once you get over this hump in training, I really think things get much easier, both physically and mentally.

We came home as quickly as we could and showered and dressed before we had to be at Cafe Istanbul for dinner for Sara's birthday.  Talk about amazing food!  It's a Turkish restaurant, so we got an appetizer with hummus, feta cheese, dolma (stuffed grape leaves), and babaganush (eggplant puree), and of course tons of pita bread.  My entree was delicious, and beautifully presented: it's called doner durum, and it's lamb and beef wrapped kind of like sushi in a thin pastry, with tomato sauce and yogurt, with a side of cracked wheat pilaf.  All the food was so good, and really perfect for a post-run meal.  We finished off the night with the Cold Stone I'd been craving for a month: dark chocolate with gummi bears and cookie dough.  Yummm.  It will be a while before I'll have that again!  I really think limiting my sugar made me feel so much better, so I'm going to continue to limit my sugar during the week and have one treat on the weekend.  It's better for my training, I think, and the hiatus served its purpose: I'm not addicted the way I used to be.  Sure, I still want it, but not nearly as much.

Today, I feel great.  I woke up with very little soreness.  We went and got massages, and now I feel even better.  I can tell already, it's going to be a great week.