Biking Around and Free Vegetables

Before going out for another bike ride and have some Sunday shopping with friends, I'll leave a quick post. Yesterday, I biked 8 miles to meet with a couple friends just so we could run around the lake. I am so jealous they live so near. Rea and Del also climbed Mt. Fuji with me last year. They are going again this month! While Rea has been regularly running for a year already, Del does not run at all so he just biked along. Rea got busy around April and stopped running to focus on work (like me, they are also IT Engineers). Yesterday was her first run since April and she got really tired 30 minutes into the run so we had to walk the rest of the course. Goes to show how running should be a regular thing if one wants to maintain endurance. She promised we'll run the entire lake perimeter next time so I'm hoping this will be a regular weekend workout. We'll see.

{Lake: Pic From Google}

As if my veggie supply is not enough, I've been getting free veggies from workmates. Some of the people I work with have farms and they sometimes share their harvests with us. I have received the biggest reddest tomatoes, potatoes, and melons in the past. This week, I received another big bag of potatoes. It was just too much I had to share the rest with friends. Hahaha!

{Unfamiliar (for me) Melons}

The melons I received before where not the usual melons that I know of. It was my first time to try these and I didn't know how to cook them. They told me these were pickled. Having no pickling skills at all, I just randomly added them to soups, sliced and ate them just like cucumbers, and added them in sandwiches for the crunch. I'm still alive so I guess that was okay. :P Have you tried pickling? What fruit/veggie have you tried for the first time recently?

Monday: Start Your Week Right!

My weekend was great and based on what I read the past couple hours, you guys had amazing weekends as well! I ran 3 miles on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day cleaning, baking, napping, and reading blogs (but of course! :P). In the evening, I biked to some friends' place and brought the banana carrot bread I made earlier. We had fun eats like yakisoba, spaghetti, and vanilla ice cream. I tend to make less healthy decisions food-wise during the weekends that I actually welcome Mondays because it makes me go back to my normal eating mode. Yay for Mondays, right? :P Here's my usual rice-veg-fish lunch.

{Soy Sauce Bunny}

Wanting to start the week on a healthy note, I woke up early for a 40 minute walk knowing that an evening run is not happening tonight due to rains. :s Hopefully, I'll be able to run 3 or 4 days (3 miles) and another day for this week's 'long' run (4.5 miles). Avoiding injury is my top priority so I'm heeding your tips and insights on my last post. If somehow my body is not feeling a scheduled run, I won't push it. I'll just walk it or do stretches (I love stretching!). Interval training (as suggested by burpandslurp) sounds great so I'll also incorporate that in one of my runs this week.

Seeing adorable dogs during my walks/runs always makes me smile. This particular doggie was so used to the camera obeying his "mom's" directions to seat, look at the camera, and SMILE! :D

{Cuteness!}

Aside from the health benefits you get from exercising outdoors, what other things make you smile during your walk/hike/run? Do you also adore dogs or are you afraid they may come too near and might bite you? I am usually focused on my run and would admire a dog from a safe distance. When I'm walking though, they are always a delight! :D

Before running, I was in love with walking.

I feel good about running 5 nights this week. I know I am slow and still have a looong way to go but I think I did well for a beginner. I have never ran a total of 14 miles in a week before! Last Friday night was the first time I ever ran 5K straight. Yey for baby steps!

Before I started running, my daily exercise was an hour's walk. After work, I would take evening walks. During the weekends, I would either go biking or take a long walk. Walking allows me to bring along my camera and take some pictures of whatever interests me. Here's a photo of some lovely whites I saw during one of my walks last spring.

{Roadside Pretties}

Back then, I was completely satisfied with walking and never imagined myself being able to run for an entire minute. Although I plan on upping my miles and trimming my running time, walking will always have a special place in my heart. I think all the walks I took helped with my transition to running.

Did you also start with walking before switching to running? During 'rest' days, is it okay to take a leisurely walk? I don't want to completely break up with walking just yet. :P