Calories in. Calories right back out.

I'm sitting at work scarfing down an energy bar and trying to stave off the shakes. I already ate my hard-boiled eggs and cucumber concoction that has everyone in the office looking at me funny. My heart still feels like it's hurling itself full-force at my ribcage. It is now official. The results are in.

This Morning's Fartlek: 1
Mo: 0

Let me preface this. Last night I did a little strength training before meeting my parents for dinner. Might have stressed the hamstring a little bit (it's kind of high strung - pardon the pun). We went to ilios noche for dinner which is a fabulous little greek restaurant in the South Charlotte area. It has a nice uptown feel until you're sitting outside on the patio and you feel like you should signal before raising your fork. You are quite literally in the parking lot. But this is not where my complaints lie. The dinner gets 5 stars from me - the food was fabulous and the service was top notch. We had a taste of all spreads which included hummus, tzakiki, etc. We started to run low on pita slices and still had quite a lot of spread when our server brought us an extra helping of pita. This is the first time I have been to a restaurant and they anticipated this common problem with spread-style apps. He dropped it off and said, "They never give you enough in the first place." I ordered a salad with macerated figs (thankfully this doesn't mean pre-chewed), fennel, red grapes, goat cheese and grilled chicken with some champagne vinaigrette on the side. Good gracious it was perfect. Especially after my lunchtime rampage on the leftover Ben and Jerry's I had in the freezer. What? I got distracted in conversation and suddenly it was... well... not gone... there are about 3 spoonfuls left. And yes, I did put three spoonfuls of ice cream back in the freezer.

I've gotten off topic.

So the food and service were both fabulous. My issue is the wrought-iron patio furniture. Did the manufacturer of these killer chairs give restaurants of all kinds a discount or something? From the cheap mexican place down the street to a nice thai restaurant in Asheville... my hamstring is in protest over this sorry excuse for patio furniture that appears to be universal. Last night's seating was no different and as soon as the check hit the table, I was up and out of there. Kind of sad because I love lounging around and chatting after dinner. Wait a minute... maybe it is just a ploy to turn tables over faster? I have got it! I've solved the mystery!

I crawled into bed last night with the thought in my head that I could forego the workout and just run in the morning if need be because the sitting at dinner had fired up my hamstring. But this was not to be. I told my running partners what I was thinking when we were lacing up our shoes and all it took was the tiniest bit of resistance and I was all in. Just like when I know they're going to be there... I'll get up at 5 am and meet them at the park instead of hitting the snooze. Jinnie helped me to make the workout happen instead of unnecessarily postponing it.

We did a 4 minute on, 2 minute off Fartlek. We were supposed to be ON 6-8 times. I opted for the 6 because I'm still being very careful with how much I load the hammy. After the first one I felt like we had gone a little quick but it wasn't too bad. After the second... I thought to myself, there is no way I can do 6 of these. But Stan dutifully told me the time was up and we were off again. My legs were burning and my arms felt like metal clubs swinging by my sides. When we slowed down to recover, my temples were pounding and my breath was racing. I barely caught my breath before we were off again. The second to last one was Stan's last so he pushed it extra hard and I just held on for dear life, ending up maybe 10 meters behind him. My last 4 minutes were an all-out fight between my legs and my mind and my lungs. I think everyone lost. Or won. Because when I finished and ran a half mile cooldown... I felt on top of the world. It's all coming back. Yea, Celine, it's all coming back to me now.

If only I could move my arms... that would be good. Must have something to do with that 20 X 50 yd swim workout I did at 5:30 am yesterday. Just now hitting me... moving the mouse and handing people appointment cards now appears very labor intensive.