An out of body treadmill experience...

I had a strange thing happen today.  I was on the treadmill and, for just a moment...

I kind of forgot I was running. 

It was like when you're driving a really familiar route and you sort of space off for a while and then go "Oh. How did I get to this exit?", and realize that you don't exactly remember the last few minutes of your drive.  Well today, about 50 minutes into my run I had the same experience (except with my legs instead of my car).  I don't think I've ever allowed my mind to wander that far off while running before.  It was like being on auto-pilot.  It kind of freaked me out for a second.  But, then I thought about how awesome it would be to be able to get into that frame of mind during a longer race.  To just turn it on and zone out.  Obviously, this meant I wasn't pushing myself terribly hard today, but I was running at a pace that I'd be happy with for a half marathon.  I ran close to 8 miles today--farther than I've run for some months now--and it felt really good.  I felt like I could've kept going, but it was time to pick up my little guy from preschool.  Today's run made me feel like I could definitely pull off a half in under two hours this year.  I would be plenty happy with that.

So, I think all of this body jostling (aka running) may be wreaking havoc on my lower intestines (if you know what I mean *wink wink*).  And, speaking of wreaking, my husband has politely asked me to take a break from all the beans for a few days.  You know what they say "beans, beans, the magical fruit..."  I made chili, with both black beans and kidney beans, for dinner last night and had a big salad for lunch today with a bunch of garbanzo beans on it.  And then, this is what we had for dinner tonight:

I almost got away from beans but, alas...not so much.  Refried black beans with our cheese quesadillas, avocado, salsa and fat-free plain greek yogurt (this is my new sour cream substitute--love it).

Do you ever go into "auto-pilot mode" during your runs/workouts?

Does running mess with your digestive system?

***Now I've got to go figure out how "The Tooth Fairy" is going to scrounge up a couple bucks for my little girl, who lost her fifth tooth tonight after dinner!  There is no cash in this house right now!!  And, this "Tooth Fairy" usually delivers a new book along with the money.  I hope there's still some in the secret stash!***