Week 7 Challenge Update + Eataly visit.

Last week I wrote that the weather was ‘oddly warm’ and it was hard to feel the holiday spirit. Well, I am definitely feeling it today because I woke up this morning to a 3 degree actual temperature and a -10 below wind chill. Yikes! Stay warm today if you are nearby.

On Sunday afternoon, K and I visited the new Eataly downtown. It is a huge, beautiful {over 60,000 square feet} Italian market and collection of restaurants, with any specialty Italian item you could dream of. There is a fresh pasta bar, a Nutella bar, many restaurants, a brewery, and fresh fish, meat, and cheese for what seems like miles. We didn’t want to wait to be seated at a restaurant, so we wandered for close to two hours and tried several different things. Pizza, proscuitto, lemon soda, fresh mozzarella on a baguette, etc.

There are close to twenty Eataly markets in Europe and Asia, and one in New York City. We can thank Mario Batali for bringing this to the U.S. We didn’t bring any market items home because we had Christmas presents to carry from earlier in the day, but we picked out many things to pick up next time. Eataly, we will be back! Maybe when the excitement dies down a bit – the market had 120,000 visitors last week after opening and had to close yesterday to re-stock. Chicagoans like their food.

I definitely need to run extra miles this week to make up for the delicious weekend – and today is the end of week 7 of the Winter Running Challenge. I’m still eight miles behind, but I have a plan to make up for it during week 8. This challenge has been a great motivation for winter running so far, and I am getting used to {and enjoying for once in my life} treadmill running.

Winter Running Challenge Log: Week 7
Tuesday: Sculpt Class
Thursday: Ran 4 miles {treadmill}
Saturday: Ran 4 miles {treadmill}
= 8 miles
          +
Week 6 = 11.55 miles
          +
Week 5 = 14 miles
          +
Week 4 = 0 miles
          +
Week 3 = 14 miles
          +
Week 2 = 11.35 miles
          +
Week 1 = 3.1 miles
————————————
 62 miles ~ 62% to goal