Me and the Chocolate Factory

I opened the back door this morning to let the puppy outside and I immediately wanted to just stay out there.  It was beautiful out!  It was so cool and crisp that I closed my eyes for a minute and forgot what season we were in.  It felt like mid-fall, not late summer.  It was beautiful.

I worked on my Luke Skywalker in stormtrooper costume for much of the morning and almost got it finished before I left to go to my friend's house.  I suggested that we take her kiddos to tour the local chocolate factory (and get a free candy at the end of the tour).  We left her house and headed to the chocolate factory.  We had to back track a couple of times because there was some road construction right around the factory.  We got there, finally and I took the two older boys in for the tour.  She and the youngest went to run some errands while we were there.

I had been on this tour last summer when my mom and I came up to Ohio to look for a place for my husband and I to live.  We had a good time last year and I knew the two boys would like it.  I was right!  The younger of the two got a little bored during the past about the history of the company and the growing of the chocolate, but once we actually got to see them making the chocolate and candies, he was entranced.  They both did really well and the oldest even had a question to ask the tour guide.  Their hunger after seeing chocolate for so long caused them to get distracted towards the end, but they were really good and handled themselves well.

After the tour, and the candy that you get at the end, we went back to their house where they had lunch and I headed back to my house to eat.  Before I left their house, I did remember to borrow my friend's hand-held water bottle to use for my long run this Saturday (and possibly after).  Since all of my runs from now on (except the week before the half) will be 6 miles or more, I thought it would be important to start having water on my runs.  There didn't seem to be any good options except for bringing water with them and since I knew she had this bottle, I thought it would be a good thing to try for starters.  We will see how it goes on Saturday.

It even has a little zipper pocket, although I am not sure what to put in it.

Since I had candy at the factory, I ended up having a really light lunch.  After lunch I finished up my Luke Skywalker.  It think he turned out well but he took longer to finish up than Ha did.  I think it was because my fingers were really sore.  I hadn't crocheted in a while and my fingers tend to hurt after doing it for a while when I am out of practice.  I was a little bummed that I didn't finish him before I went to the chocolate factory, but I will see them at least on Sunday and be able to give them to the boys by then.

After I did that, I watched a few episode of Pawn Stars and then decided I should do my run before I ate dinner.  I did intervals today.  I did 3 minutes of running at 13:00 mile and then 3 minutes of running at 10:00 mile pace (I usually upped the pace 0.1 mph every 30 seconds on the last few) 4 times.  Then I did 1 minute of walking at 15:00 mile pace and 1 minute of running starting at 8:34 mile pace 3 times.  With the short runs, I upped the pace by 0.2 mph every 15 seconds or so.  I did the last 15 seconds or so at 8.0 mph on my treadmill (7:30 miles)!  I had never hit that button before!  It was super exciting to know that I do have the ability to go that fast, even if it is just for a short period of time.  It means I do have the potential to get faster, I just need to keep working at it!  This run gave me my faster ever average pace, even beating my 5K PR!  I went 2.7 miles so it is quite possible that the next time I run a 5K I could PR again and hopefully get a time below 35:00 minutes!  Woot!

After my run I showered and asked my husband to bring home something sweet for me.  I was really wanting to think of it on his own, but after I thought about it for a little while, I knew I would be more disappointed by him not having something for me.  So I texted him and asked.  He stopped and got me a McFlurry, not the best thing ever but something to kill the sweet craving I was feeling.  Hopefully my weigh in tomorrow will be under my freak out weight since it has been going down slowly over the past few days.