Daylight Savings

What are you going to do with your extra hour today?

– relax?

– take a walk?

– go to bed early?

I’m not sure how I’m going to use my extra time, but it sure is nice to have an extra hour this weekend!

I know many of you are excited that the sun will be rising earlier, which will allow you to photograph your breakfast in natural light, but I am actually not looking forward to the change of sunrise/sunset times. Let me explain.

Today’s sunrise: 9:41 a.m.

Today’s sunset: 5:46 p.m.

As you can see, this means our sunrise next week will be at approximately 8:40 a.m., and sunset at 4:45 p.m. Yikes! That means I will be arriving home from work after the sun has set!

Now begins the days of going to work in the dark and arriving home in the dark and never really seeing the light of day! I really dislike this! 🙁

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Check out how quickly we have been losing daylight over the past month.

8:00 a.m. this morning

(This should be a pitch-dark picture. The light is just lights from the city.)

Two weeks ago at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, October 25.

Four and a half weeks ago at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 6.Winter is in full swing here now! 🙁 The snow keeps falling, and while there hasn’t been that much total accumulation, the ground is covered in snow.

Breakfast

My pre-run breakfast included two pieces of whole wheat toast spread with sunflower seed butter and banana slices.

This food combination seems to work well as a pre-run meal for most runners. So if you are new to running and aren’t quite sure what to eat before heading out, try bread + nut butter + banana. The carbs + protein + simple sugars in the banana sit well with most people and help to fuel you through a run.

As far as how long you wait for the food to digest, that depends upon your stomach. Some people can be out the door in 30 minutes or less, while others need up to 2-3 hours to digest the food. I usual try to head about the door 1.5 hours after eating, but when I get up before 7 a.m. on Saturday, and the sun doesn’t rise until almost 9:30 a.m., that presents a little problem, so I usually end up eating a little something else again. This isn’t ideal, but it is not fun getting hungry while out on a run either!

Run

Today’s long run was 12 miles. I wasn’t that excited to go out and run in the cold and battle snow and icy roads, but at the same time, I did want to go for a run! What can I say, I’m addicted!

There definitely were quite a few icy patches, but I was able to find good traction more often than not.

I ran for a total of 1:42. I figured my pace was closer to 8:30 minutes/mile than my usual 8 minute miles when the weather is warmer and the roads are dry. Overall it was a good run.

Lunch

A green monster protein smoothie.

Green Monster Protein Smoothie

2 handfuls of spinach

1/2 frozen banana

1 scoop soy protein powder

unsweetened vanilla almond milk

vanilla extract

chia seeds

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I like drinking smoothies through a straw!

I also made myself a small wrap that contained: turkey, hummus, Laughing Cow cheese, tomato, and spinach. It was okay; I am not very good at making tasty wraps. I also had a serving on Sun Chips alongside.

Craig and I are off to run a few errands this afternoon.

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Question

How are you going to enjoy your extra hour today?