n00b can't have granola, and other things

Hello, blog world! I begin with yet another I've-been-busy/bored/unmotivated-but-I'm-back-now sentence. I could go into why I am lacking motivation to cook and bake and blog about it, but I'll spare you.

This recipe is one I made up at the moment and is good, though in need of a little tweaking; there is definitely something there somethemore. I almost destroyed my :granolatimes: since I forgot that you bake granola with a lower heat, so I lowered the heat but it still came out a little toasty. Not burnt, just toasty.

I've noticed that I tend to stick to the same flavors in everything I make (which probably contributes to my lack of motivation), those flavors being orange. Yes, there was orange in this in the form of grated orange rind and orange juice concentrate. With the addition of a little ginger powder and almond extract I feel like it wasn't a total copy of similar tastes.

Now I will give a shout-out to Stonyfield yogurt for their cream-on-top whole milk yogurt. I eat the whole milk yogurt with the cream on top because I don't feel like I'm fat.

Since I rarely talk about running I figure now is the time to do so. My current plans that are confirmed is the 10k at Sunburst, which I ran last year, and a 5k in Chicago a week-and-a-half afterwards, which I ran a few years ago and played a game of 'red rover, red rover, let the runner blast through the side-by-side walkers with their arms linked'. I'm getting my brother into running so he can enter the Sunburst 5k and I've been tailoring the plan he's using to fit what I need to do to be ready for the 10k marathon. I'm not where I need to be, but I feel like I should do fine. The brother is running well as apparently paces himself better than I do because he always blasts past me at the end of the run.

One aspect of running I've come to embrace is the timed run as opposed to mileage. I still run a mapped out route, but I don't memorize the mile splits and I run based on effort; I feel this has helped me regain some semblance of pacing.

Now my long-term goal is a half marathon at the end of September. Based upon the way things might go, I'm shooting for a sub-2 hour time and given the fact I have a few months to train with a few 10ks thrown in between for good measure (and race food), this seems like an attainable goal (along with attainable race food). I'm still nervous because even thinking about entering a half goes against my basic racing principle of not entering a race simply to enter a race unless I feel like I'll be able to race the race, otherwise it's just an expensive long run.

I swore I had something else to share with you, I just can't remember what it is. Probably wasn't very important if I didn't bother to remember it, who knows.

Another shout-out to Ninez from Nina Runs for Bob who has a marathon coming up this weekend. You've put in the training and I know you have what it takes to pwn the distance!

EoP