Earl Grey Tea Cookies

Weather check at 6:30 am. 20 degrees. Snow flurries. There's precipitation on my car. Nope. Not gonna happen. No 5K for me today. I went back to bed. I was going do it as a fun way to get my tempo run in but running outside in cold, maybe wet weather, isn't my idea of fun, even if it is with hundreds of other people.

So, instead of a race report, you get Earl Grey Tea Cookies.

Ingredients

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

If you have a food processor, put everything in the processor and pulse until a soft dough forms. If you don't have a food processor, cream together butter, sugar, and orange zest, then mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Dump dough out onto a piece of wax paper and form into a log.

If you want to get all Martha Stewart-y about it, put the log in an empty paper towel roll so you don't end up with a flat side as it hardens.

Freeze for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Slice firm dough and arrange on cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-15 minutes. Cool and enjoy!

I got my tempo run in indoors today. One mile warm up, three miles on the dreadmill at 9:05 pace, two mile warm down. 6 miles total. Even with my warm up, I felt horrid my first mile, but then, after that, I felt like "OK, it's going to be alright now."  I am hoping the weather warms up here soon so I can do my runs outside where I can use my Garmin to pace me. I really hate the dreadmill. I sound like a Clydesdale when I run on it, plus I'm a bit self-conscious because I only do my faster runs on it so I'm always breathing hard. Today, when I got done, the guy next to me told me he got tired just watching me run. I told him I was just happy I stayed on!

Week two of training is done. 21 miles.

How do you feel about the treadmill? It scares me. Plus, sometimes, I have problems adjusting the speed. There's a big difference between 10 minute miles and 10 mph, but sometimes I get mixed up!