Spaghetti Squash

Mmmmmmmm. I'm eating freshly roasted squash seeds. They're still warm from the oven. I feel so domestic, having roasted them myself. But let's be honest, I really just like the oil and the salt. Pretty addictive.

I made spaghetti squash for the first time tonight. I didn't even know what is was until Nalani was telling me about it a few weeks ago on a run. But even as she was describing it, I couldn't imagine what she was talking about. I thought she meant that she put pasta sauce on squash (like butternut squash) and it sounded pretty gross to me. But then she gave me one and told me to cook it and once I did, I figured out what she was talking about. Is there as Spaghetti Squash fan club on Facebook? 'Cause Scott and I would join*.

So we did our longest swim of the year today (Nalani's longest evah!). 5500 long course meters later we dragged ourselves out of the pool... actually, it wasn't that bad. We actually finished up a lot stronger than I anticipated we would. We started with a 1500 straight swim, descend the 500's to fast, remember the splits for later... then at the end of the workout we did another one, with the intention of going faster than we did in the beginning. I figured we could go a little faster, but I honestly didn't think we'd go 42 seconds faster! I checked our split at the first 500 (of the 2nd 1500) and had to gulp, wondering if we'd be able to descend much from there... but the next 500 was 9 seconds faster... then I was sure we were screwed b/c there was no way we'd go faster than that on the final 500... but we went for it... and dropped another 14 seconds! Holy cow. If someone would have told me the pace that we would hold finishing up that workout, I would have told them they were silly. Seems I need to stop underestimating myself in the water.

In other news, I unpacked my bike today! It's been resting peacefully in it's bike box for several weeks now in my living room. I hope she doesn't get too excited though because I'm still not going to ride her for a while. It's really not that I don't want to- it's more that I'm running and swimming kind of a lot right now and adding the bike would make my weeks look like I was training for an Ironman or something, which I am not. Once my two long swim and run events are over, I'll spend some time recovering and then will get back on my bike when my swim/run volume is more normal. In all honesty, the only reason I unpacked the bike was because my lighter running shoes were in there and I want to use them for my tempo run tomorrow.

Finally, what is the deal with all the maintenance workers who smoke right outside our condo? I swear, whoever hires those guys must ask the applicant to describe their smoking habits, only offering the job if the answer involves the word chain. I was returning from the grocery store today, carrying Moana in one arm with 3 heavy bags over the other shoulder and had to walk right through the new guy's smoke on my way to my steps. I was actually sort of nice at first when I asked him if he was new here... he replied that he was... then I turned on him like a cat... told him to take his cigarette up the hill and away from my home.

*Okay, Scott probably wouldn't join. But not b/c he didn't like the squash. Just because he isn't addicted to FB like I am.