Lost and Longest Run of the year

As of this week, Steven and I have lived here in North Sydney for 4 months. I've done countless runs around our neighbourhood, often venturing outside my regular run routes and discovering new parks. 

Still, my favourite run is my "same old same old" route. It is essentially a bush-walk / trail-run route that goes through Berry's Reserve, through Oyster's Bay, and a loop around Ball's Head Reserve. 

Yet, as I set out today to do this run, somehow my brain managed to turn itself "off" (as if it's ever "on"!) and....

I got lost, and somehow managed the longest run ever to record on my Garmin, which means it's the longest run I've done this year. HUZZAH! 

I've also discovered some new MEAN hills on this route, and I loved it! I went out feeling really strong and ran my energy all out. 

I'm probably not going to qualify for any crazy races with these speeds, but I'm definitely improving, both in speed and distance.

You can see where I got my water / walk break at Mile 3. The water fountain is at the bottom of a hill, which was scary to speed down; it's like at 90 degrees. I decided to walk back up for fear of killing my glutes / puking up all the water I just drank. 

Do you know that feeling of coming home, hot, sweaty, tired, thirsty, and taking that first gulp of icy cold Gatorade? Cue angels singing "Hallelujah"! I might have to seriously begin thinking about bringing water/gatorade on my runs with me; if only I didn't hate carrying things while I run.

After a sweet, hot shower, I got on my new Pro Compression socks. I got the extra smalls this time, and they still fit perfectly.

Lunch was an omlette with all the random odds and ends in the fridge (eggplant, tomatoes, haloumi cheese, and thai basil that I'll be using forever; why can't they sell smaller bunches of herbs?!).

Now I'm hankering for an afternoon snack of some sort, like a Chocolate Cake or cookie or something. I might go out for some later, but Lazy has got a tight grip on me right now, so I absolutely cannot leave the couch. 

La Bettola lunch

Remember the days of hour-long lunches in the middle of your dreary 9 to 5?

Oh you don't?

ME NEITHER!

WAHAHAH OFFICE WORKING SUCKERSSSSSS!

Where is this insulting post going, you ask?

To La Bettola for a work-day lunch my friends! 

It started with fresh bread (not warm though), and olive oil.

A little balsamic vinegar would've made that piece of bread all the better, though.

We started with a really deliciously mushroom cheese arugula salad! 

Then, we had the buffalo mozzarella pizza. Very thin crust. Crazy good mozzarella!

Overall, a really tasty lunch, but without too many options for vegetarians. They have lots of cured meat things which are probably really good, so if you're into that, try it.

The pizza was 17 and the salad 13, so splitting it among the three of us made it a 13-dollar-lunch, which was pretty good for the fancy-shmancyness of the place.

But later, I was super thirsty and not feeling too good at all. I wonder if my system didn't like the salt, or if I was suffering some sort of Consistently-Skipping-Ashtanga-on-Fridays Syndrome.