National Running Day and Liberty Lake Falls Hike

Happy National Day of Running!!

I hope you all got out for a run and if you haven’t yet, it’s not too late. I began the morning with a speed workout. It didn’t go as planned and I had to cut it short, because I had to pee. I haven’t had to pee during a short run in so long, and since I was running on a running trail through a residential area I couldn’t just go in nature. Darn it!! I contemplated it, but there were too many runners out and that would have been awkward.

The last mile was slower than I wanted. I don’t know about you, but when I have to pee, I can’t be speedy. It makes things worse. I was supposed to do hill repeats, but my physical therapist begged me to skip the hills, so I did intervals or speed surges. My legs were heavy and tired, but I still managed 6 miles in 42:20.

Mile Splits:

• Mile 1- 7:29
• Mile 2- 6:58
• Mile 3- 6:56
• Mile 4- 7:05
• Mile 5- 6:54
• Mile 6- 6:56

Now onto the cooking:

Last night I made a vegetarian Mexican Lasagna that is gluten free. Marc says it’s more like Mexican casserole but I am sticking with lasagna. I know it’s getting hot out and turning on the oven is the last resort, but I needed to use up some frozen veggies and sometimes you just crave Mexican food.

It was more runny then I would have liked, but I know exactly why that is: too much enchilada sauce. My sister loved it and said she could eat it everyday for the next year!! My food critic, Marc (also my fiancé), said he loved it. He might be bias though.

It’s flavorful and it’s heavily layered. I used brown rice, frozen veggie mix, black beans, onions, cheese and some seasoning with green enchilada sauce and green chiles. And of course I threw in some avocado. Find the full recipe here.

I enjoyed some time with my sister and nephew after work. We did a hike when her husband got off work.

I decided that I wanted another run too, so I did a quick 4 mile run to the trailhead and met them there. I love that her house is literally 4 miles from the Liberty Lake Falls trailhead. It was a 6.5 mile hike. We ran/walked and enjoyed some pretty views.

We climbed up and up

We almost stepped on two snakes, at two different points in the hike. Let me tell you, I hate snakes!! They scare the living daylights out of me, and that gave us an adrenaline rush.

Then we made it to the falls.

I am sure my physical therapist would approve ;). I just won’t tell him.  It’s National Running Day, and that calls for some running!!

I logged 16.5 miles today!! Go National Running Day!!

How did you spend your National Running Day? Log any miles?