I woke up extremely hungry this morning at 5:30 a.m. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t because my stomach hurt so much, so I calmed its hunger pains with a bowl of Nature’s Path Organic Sunflower Agave Plus Granola (that’s a mouthful!), organic low-fast milk, and one-half of a banana, sliced.

I had higher hopes for this cereal. I love the Pumpkin Flax Plus Granola and Pomegran Plus Granola with Cherries versions of this cereal and thought this would be on par with those as well. However, I wasn’t as crazy about this flavor. It still has the same underlying granola taste to it, but I don’t think the sunflower seeds have enough flavor to give the granola its own unique taste–as the pumpkin and cherry versions do.

I also had the last Blueberry Banana Muffin smothered with some Trader Joe’s Almond Butter with Roasted Flaxseed. I love the small bits of crunch the flaxseed provides in the almond butter. What can I say, I love crunchy foods!

After I let the food settle, I went out for my mid-week medium-long run. Today’s plan had me slated to do 9 miles, but I wasn’t sure I was up for that yet. I knew I wanted to do a tempo run in the middle, so after 25 minutes, I picked up the pace. I had hopes of doing a 30 minute tempo run, but after 20 minutes, I started to feel it in my hamstrings and knew I’d better cut it short at 25 minutes. I also decided that it was best to do just 8 miles instead of 9.

Overall, it was a good run though. I felt really good for the most part and it was fun to pick up the pace a little. Sometimes I do get bored on longer run, but any time I change up the pace (tempo run, fartleks, hill workout, etc.) it makes the time go by faster.

Yes, those are goose bumps on my arm. It seems kind of odd that running in the summer would give me goose bumps, huh?–that’s Alaska for you.

After 15-20 minutes of stretching, it was time for breakfast #2 of the day. A toasted sourdough English muffin topped with a slice of lower sodium deli turkey meat and one egg with some shredded cheese added in. Such a great combination.

For the past couple of years, I have been buying the Egg Land’s Best eggs. I am not one to spend extra money on an item unless there is a noticable difference between it and its competators, but these eggs definitely do taste better than “regular” eggs. Every once and a while I’ve picked up the “regular” eggs because they were on sale but always go back to these because of their better taste. (I especially notice the difference in the yolk when I eat them hard-boiled.)

I also had this juicy nectarine as part of breakfast #2!! I definitely like nectarines over peaches. I’m not sure if it is the fuzz on the peach or the fact they don’t seem quite as sweet as nectarines, but if I have the choice, I will choose the nectarine.

Time to go and run some errands and wrap my mother-in-law’s birthday gift. Happy Birthday, Kelly!!