Baking Time

I’m cooking carrot cake today. I’ve been meaning to try this recipe for like two years so it’s about time that I got down to it. And since tomorrow we’re having like a bon voyage kind of thing with the extended family combined with my much younger cousins birthdays which strangely enough are on the same day but two years apart, it’s the perfect time to bake it and make sure that everyone tries it. I’ll post the results later on though now as I look at the oven I see that it’s growing nicely.

After a tough week of working on my essay for uni I’m buggered and cooking is one way to relax and not think about further work. Ok so that worked for about five minutes. I told myself that once my essay was submitted I would take a week to do nothing that required mental effort. I would read books and forget about the Internet, writing, studying or learning anything that required only mental exertion. I can’t do it. It’s just not in me to veg out and completely relax for more than a few hours.

What I have made the effort to do this week is switch off the television before 10pm (unless NCIS or The Vampire Diaries are on) and read in bed. I haven’t done that in a long time. Over the past three years most of my reading time was crammed in whilst commuting. Considering I spent anywhere from an hour to two commuting each day I managed to get some reading done but it’s not the same as sitting down for an hour and not worrying about missing your stop.

This is a running blog but lately I haven’t been talking much about running or doing much of it either. I ran a few times this week, trying to keep it slow and gentle. At first my knee felt better but it still doesn’t feel as it should. Today I was going to go for a longer run but by mid morning I felt a twinge in my left knee that bothered me and so once again I gave running a miss. My workout today is limited to a weight training session using free weights which I love. Strengthening my quads, hamstrings and abdominals will make me less injury prone.

Tomorrow I was meant to run in a local winter 10km. I’m still undecided but considering that my knee feels off and it decided to start snowing again yesterday with -5 to -10 degrees outside, I think it’s best to give it a miss. Excuses. Excuses. But I don’t want a serious injury to develop and stop me from doing a marathon later in the year. If I feel up to it I’ll go for an easy run around my neighbourhood.