Race comparison + a recipe for you to try + last day!

I love Timehop – this popped up on my memories. I am doing this same race Saturday morning. These are my results from 2016 and 2017. I love getting to do the same race and seeing improvements after putting in the work. In 2016, my average pace was 9:48 and in 2017, my average pace was 8:18. That’s a 1:30 per mile improvement. I definitely will not come close to running that faster pace on Saturday, I’m just not there right now and I’m battling a few issues with my knees and hips, but I am still excited to see what I can do.

I spent Wednesday morning in classrooms, so that made time fly by. I sat in on interviews for various positions in the afternoon, so I squeezed in lunch between all of that. Chili and cornbread. Mmm.

The end of the school year is always pretty bonkers, and we still have 40 some days left. Today is our last day with students, then we have a workday tomorrow, then we have an entire week off. As long as our flights don’t get canceled, Jake and I will be heading to Florida to spend some time with my grandparents. We are both super excited. 

I needed to lift as soon as I got home, so I sipped on a little bit of pre-workout on my drive home from school. I have a hard time working out after school. I would much rather get everything finished before my work day starts, but I just don’t have enough time before I need to be at work to run AND lift. I am way more likely to lift or ride after school than run. If my run doesn’t happen before school, there’s a 90% chance that it won’t happen that day.

Guys, this dinner is incredible. Pesto Spaghetti Squash Chicken Casserole. It’s so easy to throw together, too. First, bake a whole spaghetti squash. I leave mine whole and just poke holes into it because I have almost chopped off my entire arm trying to cut a spaghetti squash in half. I bake a whole one on 350 for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on how big it is. You just want the outside to be soft to the touch. Once it is cooked, cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and scrape out the squash. While my spaghetti squash was baking, I also baked three chicken breasts. Once those were cooked, I chopped them into small bites. Once I had a cooked and scraped spaghetti squash and chicken breasts, I sprayed a baking dish with nonstick spray, threw in the spaghetti squash, the chicken, an 8 ounce jar of pesto, one container of mushrooms, and then sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on top. That’s it! I baked this at 350 for about 15 minutes, until the cheese was melted. We will have this again tonight and I am already so excited.

I put some hot sauce on mine and chowed down.

Here’s the nutritional information and the ingredients.

Kayla sent this to me last night. It made me laugh really hard.

The second my alarm went off at 4 AM, I jumped out of bed. That usually doesn’t happen. I have been tired the past couple of days, so I was excited that I woke up feeling rested. I made sure to get in some band work before I met the girls for some miles. My chiropractor told me I need to make sure to work on my glutes and hips in addition to my knee. 

These are the bands I have. I have had them for over a year and they’ve held up really well! I like the variety, too.

I met the girls for an easy 5 miles this morning. The 3 of us are also running the ShamRox 15k Saturday, but I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that we are mostly excited for brunch after the race. Don’t get me wrong, the race is always a blast, but brunch has mimosas…

Happy Friday Eve, friends!