The first thing I noticed when I woke up this morning was my shoulders were so sore.  Thank you yoga and push-ups.  I tapped Brad on the shoulder and asked him what he wanted for breakfast.  His reply?

Pancakes.  Chunky Monkey Pancakes.

I took the recipe from the link and multiplied it by 1.5 and doubled the mashed banana.   When I multiplied the recipe, I got 9 smallish pancakes.

These are Brad’s favorite of all the pancakes I’ve made.

I topped mine with coconut, ~1/2 Tbsp. sunflower butter, Greek yogurt, a drizzle of maple syrup, and coconut.

We spent the morning being lazy.  I did a little blogging and Brad and his dad watched old episodes of Chapelle show.  I always feel wrong for laughing at that show, but I just can’t help it.

Brad suggested Intermezzo Pizzeria for lunch so we headed over to the Plaza Midwood neighborhood around noon.

I started with the Intermezzo salad, which is a green salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onion.  That red onion had quite a bite, so I ended up leaving most of it on my plate and eating around it.

For our pizza, we ordered the 16″ Pomodoro Diversi and asked them to add spinach.

Sundried Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Mozzarella, Romano Cheese

If you read my blog consistently, you know I like a lot of pizza places in Charlotte.  But I really  like Intermezzos.  They have several vegetarian pizzas and all have really great inventive toppings.  Not your typical veggie pizzas.

Wally and Joy also ordered a Piroska.

 

 

I had one piece of pizza and called it quits.  I was still slightly full from breakfast and didn’t want to overdo it before my long run.

I made a trip by Harris Teeter after lunch, where I found Lemon Chobani!!!  So glad that someone around here carries it.  It’s the HT on East Blvd. if any locals want to know where to find it.

Around 2:30 pm, I finally decided to head out on my 11 mile run.  Brad and I decided that he should run a shorter distance today on the treadmill, so if he had any issues, he wouldn’t have to walk back home.  After his run, he planned to work out his quads as his doctor suggsted.

Random fact:  I always write my running routes on this Santa note pad.  Then I fold it up and carry it in my hand.

I had a little bit of cinnamon strawberry cereal in a snack bowl before my run since it has been about three hours since lunch by the time I got completely ready to go.  I made this cereal for a blog post I did for Savor NC Magazine.  Click the link for the recipe.

After my cereal, I spent 15 minutes looking for my running belt, which I haven’t used since the marathon.  Since I was running alone, I wanted to be sure to take my phone with me.  I finally found it, in the most obvious of places.

In my belt, I also packed some fuel for my run.  Chocolate is my very favorite flavor of Clif Shot Gels.  It pretty much tastes like chocolate glaze; like something you would put on cupcakes.  The first time I had it, I joked that it would make an excellent cupcake topping.

Can you imagine in?  The runne’rs cupcake: chocolate whey protein batter with chocolate Clif Shot Gel glaze frosting.  Haha.

I felt sluggish during my run, but pushed myself to keep just under a 10 minute pace.  I did some pretty serious hills throughout the route, but the scenery was nice.  Around mile seven, I found myself at Freedom Park and found a water fountain.  I thought it would be an excellent time to take my Shot Gel since I had water available to wash it down.  Too bad the water fountain didn’t work.  I’ve found that only about 50% of all water fountains around Charlotte work.  It’s a little frustrating when you really want some water.

I finished strong in 1:46:35.

Eleven miles done and done.

Sadly, Brad didn’t have such a good run.  He almost ran a mile before his knee started bothering him.  He did some cardio on the elliptical and the bike, which I thought was smart of him.  He was able to get some cardio in to work on his endurance without stressing his knee.  He also did his quad exercises.

He has decided to take the week off from running and continue to do some cross training and his quad exercises.  I really hope that this week off helps him to fully recover so he can get back to marathon training.

We’re going to cross our fingers and hope for the best.