Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder, Yes?

I've been M.I.A. No, really. I haven't just been sitting around, eating Jif Mocha Hazelnut Spread, (maybe a little), not working out and getting "fluffy." June and July have been pretty busy with some work, some races, some rest and some relaxation. I've had plenty to write about, but just no *umph* to sit and do it (although if you are friends with me on Facebook, you know I've spent plenty of time getting my fix of Candy Crush and now Diamond Dash!).

June began on the 1st with my all-time favorite 5k, the Long Island MacArthur 5k Run For Veterans. It was my 1st 5k ever (have I mentioned that already? hehehe...) and also the 1st time the organization ran it. So, my 4th LIMA 5k, and again, for a spring day, it was as hot as a mo-fo. After coming off our half marathon in May, I should have been more than prepared for this race. To quote the hysterically funny Drazil: it sucked big, hairy donkey balls. Full sun and 80-something* of about 2 out of the 3.1 miles on an airport tarmac makes for a very unhappy and weak-minded Linda. Charlie did fine and was always his usual step ahead of me, which kind of makes me panic, like I can't keep up. However, when he's behind me, I'm wondering where he is. Can't win for losing.

31:52 finish. 51/154 AG (40-44), 971/2126 finishers

So then the following week I ran the Moriches Community Center 5k, solo. It's a great small race only 10 minutes from home and I get to see a lot of familiar faces, like Bob Beattie, who owns Island Timing USA, a company that does the timing for a lot of the races I participate in. It wasn't nearly as hot running through a residential neighborhood with trees to shade you and lovely, friendly spectators standing out with a hose to cool you off. It doesn't hurt that about the last quarter mile is somewhat downhill, to help make a faster finish.

29:52 finish. 18/38 AG (40-49), 132/235 finishers

No selfies of me at that race.

I worked a bit in June and was busy with all the dance/end of school year hullabaloo that makes me despise that month. I told y'all about that already. Finally, the race I had been anticipating had arrived. On June 29th I ran the 1st Annual Neighborhood Rd. Miracle Mile. I had never heard of a one-miler before and I was so excited to see what I could do. Apparently there are a couple more here on LI, but about a 40 minute drive to get to. I really don't want to drive 4 times as long to get to the race as it does for me to run it! We'll see... Anyway, it was a nice overcast, misty morning. I've realized that is perfect for me. No sun to overheat me or make me squint, since I run without sunglasses or a visor. I started out WAY too fast, and at my first quarter mile split I was running a 7:00 pace! That didn't last long. At one point later I looked at my Garmin and saw 9:30. I wish I hadn't blown it all in the beginning, but when you're part of such a small race, you don't want to be left ALL alone! Even though I slowed down a bit, I still managed to pass a few people. Okay, one guy was pushing a jogging stroller with THREE kids in it, but I'll take it! Is that considered 4 kills then?

8:44

That's me with the race director and the mayor of Mastic Beach Village getting my 2nd place age group medal! Now, before you get all excited and congratulatory, I was 2nd in my age group of only 3 women, aged 41-50! LOL! The 1st place winner in my age group came in at 6:44. The overall winner ran the course in 4:13! I placed 46th out of only 60 finishers, but it was my first age group medal and at a race in my hometown to boot, so it was a great moment.

How cool is it to have almost all of the runners of a race fit in one shot?!?

This month has been raceless and pretty uneventful. Last night I went to another group track workout with We Are Athletes. It's usually an interval run, where you run hard, and because it's been so hot we've been "taking it easy." That means we only ran 3-200's twice, with a 100 m recovery in between each 200 and a full 400 m walk after the 1st and 2nd set. After that it was 2-100 m intervals with a 100 m walk in between. To finish off the night, we did 2- 50 m accelerations, where you start out at a nice pace and aim to finish at about 80% of your maximum speed. Last week I wore my Garmin to give me an idea of just how fast I was going. As a disclaimer, I KNOW I would never be able to keep up this pace, but my first set I ran my intervals at a 6:12, 6:21 and 5:53 pace! I'm five frickin' feet tall people! And still could stand to lose another 20 pounds! When Charlie comes I love to see him FLY! He's SIX frickin' feet tall, people! LOL I'll have to teach him how to use the Garmin so we can see his pace next! Anyway, the sky opened up on us right at the beginning of the 2nd set, but that didn't mean anything. We kept on truckin'. Other than tasting my sweat and having pruney toes, it was a lot of fun!

Not much on the schedule for a while. A 5k and 10k in September, hopefully, then the Diva Half on 10/6!!

MyOatmeal Review

When my friend Gigi of Running On Candy shared the link for a great opportunity to try MyOatmeal, I couldn't pass it up. All I had to do for my free bag was to promise to write a review of their product (and pay for shipping, which was about $6). In fact, the coupon code at checkout was "ipromisetowriteareview!"

I've been eating a lot of oatmeal lately. My favorite is apple cinnamon with a tablespoon of peanut butter swirled through it. If I'm feeling ambitious, I chop up an apple, nuke it with a bit of cinnamon and honey, and then toss that on top. I checked out My Oatmeal's website and they had tons of flavors (50 to be exact), including apple cinnamon. Some interesting choices would be German Chocolate Cake, Key Lime Pie and Mint Chip! So when you get to the ordering process, called "building your own blend," you start with what size bag you'd like, and since the My Oatmeal coupon code would cover up to a $12 bag of oats, I chose the 1 lb., or small, bag. You then select which oats you want as your base. Next it's time to choose the flavor you would like. I lied. Mine was called "apple brown sugar." It still sounded heavenly to me.

After that, you then select what fruits, nuts and sweetener (recommended when adding a flavoring to the oats) you desire in your blend. You can go crazy during this process! There's 22 fruit and 11 nut choices! I chose to add dried apples and cashews to mine, along with sucralose or Splenda as the sweetener. The BEST feature to the ordering process??? While you are creating your own personal oatmeal blend, My Oatmeal is constantly calculating the calorie count of a serving of your oatmeal with every selection, as well as the cost of the bag!!!! How frickin' cool is that? The final step of the building process is to name your blend!

My bag only took 2 days to arrive!

This is what 1/2 cup dry looks like- look at the huge pieces of dried apple!

My 1st bowl- 1/2 c oats with 1 c water makes a huge bowl! Add 1 T of peanut butter and the entire breakfast is only about 250 calories!

My "Grandma's Apple Pie" blend- 152 calories per serving

I microwave mine every time- easy peasy!

I absolutely loved how much 1 serving of Grandma's Apple Pie made! It seemed to be SO much more food than one of the packets you get in a box of instant oatmeal. The dried apples were huge, unlike the little nibs in that other brand, and you could actually see the pieces of cashews in the bowl, which added a nice crunch to my oatmeal. The only negative thing I can say about my choices is that I don't really like the taste of the artificial sweetener. Now, I'm a person that does not shy away from sweeteners and I'll save a calorie anywhere I can, but I can actually taste the sucralose, where I usually don't notice it in other "diet-y" foods. However, once I add the peanut butter (which I always will do) and the chopped apple, I can't taste the difference. If I bought My Oatmeal again, I'd choose another sweetener.

I think my favorite way to eat My Oatmeal is as a topping to my Greek yogurt! I'll dump the yogurt container in a bowl, add some cut up fruit, only 1/4c of My Oatmeal, and mix it up. I got fancy and added some fat free Cool Whip on top. It is the perfect cold lunch on a hot summer day, and we've had WAY too many of those on Long Island already this summer.

Blueberry Greek yogurt with 1/4 c My Oatmeal, 1/2 c sliced strawberries and 4 T fat free Cool Whip!

My Oatmeal is a really fun way to customize your absolute favorite oatmeal blend. There was just so much to choose from, you can reorder to your hearts content and NOT duplicate a flavor combination. The combination I chose would have been around $8.50. It was worth the $6 shipping to give it a try, however I can't justify spending a lot of money on a single item that only I eat. It's definitely a nice treat that I may splurge on from time to time, most likely this winter!

If you go ahead and like Myoatmeal.com on Facebook, they are in the midst of doing another $12 coupon for you to test it and write a review!

These opinions are my own and I was not paid to write this review.