Good morning again folks. Another week and another month is quickly speeding by. It’s going to be snowing again before we know it, sheesh.

It was another gorgeous morning out there and it really made me wish I had gotten up earlier to get a quick jog in.

In order for me to run before work though, I have to go when it’s still dark out. Morning darkness seems safer than night darkness, but I’m not sure it really is.

Do any of you run in morning darkness?

Yesterday was pretty run-of-the-mill. Work was surprisingly pretty laid back and I just went with the flow. Lunch was leftover black bean and corn salad from my mom on a tortilla.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been eating white tortillas. I usually like to buy whole grain wraps, but I just like the taste of the white ones better so I went with those this time. Life’s too short.

After work I went straight to the gym. I was not feeling the idea of working out, but the end of the week is going to get hectic and I knew I needed to get a good sweat sesh in while I had time.

I did 30 minutes on the treadmill – 5 minutes walking warm-up, 20 minutes jogging, 5 minutes walking cool-down – and 15 additional minutes on the elliptical. I was dripping by the end and felt like a billion dollahs. Gotta love those endorphins.

Note: I’ll probably not be posting my speed when I talk about my runs, even when I begin marathon training. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not fast – my natural pace is about a 10:30 mile (even when I’m running short distances).

My goal right now isn’t to be fast, but to increase my overall health and endurance. If for some reason, however, I randomly bust out 5 miles at an 8:00 pace, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll be letting you know

If you run, what’s your natural pace? Do you like to run for speed?

When I got home I was pretty dang hungry, so it was a good thing I had a super speedy dinner on the agenda.

I’ve had some Smoked Mozzarella and Artichoke ravioli hanging out in the fridge for a while, and I knew they needed to be cooked so I boiled them up and tossed them with some canned artichokes, diced tomatoes and some basil pesto.

The whole meal from start to finish took 10 minutes, and it was super filling! I’m not sure I really loved the flavor of the raviolis though, the smoked mozzarella kind of made them taste “meaty”. But it was still pretty tasty.

I dined while watching Losing it with Jillian. I’ve been watching this show, but haven’t been that into it, until last night. The family they had on really touched my heart – the Mom was just so loving and raw and I felt so sorry for her and happy for her success by the end.

What really got to me though, was their son Elijah. He was the youngest son (I think) and all of his three older siblings followed in his dad’s footsteps of excelling in sports. Elijah, on the other hand, was unathletic and didn’t fit in with the rest of the family.

I was hopelessly unathletic as a child, and it completely robbed me of self-confidence I should have had. I felt like a failure because I wasn’t good at basketball and softball.

I participated in other sports – track, golf, volleyball, cheerleading – but the kids at school didn’t consider you “sporty” unless you played basketball or softball.

If I ever have kids, I hope to work with them to help them really find their niche. I’d want them to be physically active and healthy, but I hope they’ll never feel like they have to conform or that their performance at a certain sport makes them less than.

Were you good at sports growing up? If you have kids, how do you handle their relationship with sports?