Saturday Morning Tempo + An Italian Date Night

I began my weekend with a tempo run on the grass.  Jesse met me for the second hard workout of the week and I'm not sure what was going on with my body, but I was a little on the tired side compared to Monday's mile repeats.  Granted, the intervals were slightly longer than what I have been doing, but I just couldn't catch my second wind.  

Workout: {1 mile at ~6:25 pace, then 2 x 1.5 miles at same pace}

10 minutes warm-up

1 mile - 6:23 
3:00 rest
2 x 1.5 miles - 9:37 {6:24 pace}, 9:32 {6:21 pace}, 3:30 rest in between

15 minutes cool down 

Total distance: ~7 miles; 4 miles of hard stuff!

I did end of up pushing through the workout, but it was a struggle...just one of those days.  Afterwards, I dug in to a bag of sour patch candy from the help-yourself candy bar at Wegman's, my latest craving.   

On the flip side...I had a good workout under my belt prior to date night at Molinari's.  

We were very excited to try out this place since it opened last November and it did not disappoint.

To start, Fred and I shared the Baby Arugula Salad with toasted hazelnuts, oven dried tomatoes, Parmesan Reggiano and a balsamic vinaigrette dressing, as well as the Roasted Eggplant and Ricotta Crostini with basil, pine nuts and lemon olive oil.  Both were filled with simple, yet stunning flavors.  

For my meal, I ordered the Braised Short Ribs over Polenta with sauteed kale.  The meat was tender and fell apart with only using a fork.  

For dessert, we shared a Dark Chocolate Budino {Italian for pudding} topped with whipped cream and a toasted hazelnut and sea salt crunch.  One word...divine.  We had a much-needed, quiet evening for two with no kids.  Love.  

Sunday was filled with an early morning trip to a flea market with my dad followed by an afternoon at the Celtic Fest, an Irish festival in downtown Bethlehem.  More to come on these events in the next few days...

Enjoy your Monday!