Coconut Water and Anti-Dreadmill

Muffin enjoys fresh coconut water after a hard workout.

I’ve heard that coconut water is all the rage for runners in the United States. It’s popular on the streets of India because it’s cheap and refreshing, what with all the electrolytes to help prevent dehydration. I buy small bottles of it at the grocery store (convenient to throw in my gym bag) and go to the roadside wallas with a 24-ounce CamelBak bottle to have them fill it up. It takes about three coconuts to fill the bottle and prices have gone up recently to 20 rupees per coconut so it now costs about 60 rupees, which is $1.10, or less than 5 cents per ounce. I checked on Amazon.com and coconut water prices were 13 to 14 cents per ounce. I checked Peapod.com for the Washington, D.C., area and the prices ranged from 15 to 20 cents per ounce. Yikes! How can I afford this habit once I'm back? I guess I should take advantage of it while I can. Fortunately, Muffin will only drink coconut water when it actually comes from a coconut with a straw stuck in it, more because she likes the novelty than she likes coconut water. She always asks for a sip from my bottle, but then says she doesn't like it.

I hate the term "dreadmill" even though I dislike running on a treadmill. It's so negative I feel like I've sabotaged the workout with a negative attitude before even starting. It's necessary sometimes but I'm cutting back on treadmill runs because I'm not having fun. After a rough few weeks, my alarm is set for 5 a.m. tomorrow morning. I would have done it for today but I spent Sunday night at a friend's birthday party and I wanted to enjoy myself, not set myself up for failure the next morning (not necessarily by drinking a lot and eating too much, but by staying up later than I normally would on a Sunday night). I don't really like using the treadmill in the afternoon so my only other option is to wake up early to run on the road before the heat of the day sets in. If I'm going to the gym anyway for my yoga class, then I'll run on the treadmill but using it otherwise has become tedious. And I'd rather use Muffin's nap time for eating and napping myself instead of running during that time, squeezing in time for a good meal later, and being so exhausted that I fall asleep before she does in the evening.

Image from Pinterest.

I need to get back on track and work on my base mileage for half-marathon training.