Feature Friday: What I Ate In A Day

FRIDAY! We made it!! This was a LONG week! Right now I’m finishing up my long run (I put this post together yesterday) of 5 miles easy, 5 miles at Half Marathon Goal Pace, 2 miles easy!! Hoping I’m rocking it, but if not- there’s always next week! What do you have on the schedule today? I’ve also got Happy Hour Barre later this afternoon to get my strength work in (I love taking a pilates or barre class to get in my strength training rather than doing it all on my own… at least right now)! Normally on Wednesdays I do my strength work on my own and try to fit in 2 strength classes on Mondays/Fridays (or once a week and two sessions on my own).

I thought it would be fun to do another post about what I ate in a day! So here’s recapping what I ate in a day on this past Wednesday! Workout-wise: I had 7.07 miles with 6 x 3/4 mile repeats (1/4 recovery jog between sets), 20 minutes of recovery yoga & 20 minutes of strength later in the afternoon after work.

Morning: I didn’t eat anything prior to my run because I wasn’t hungry. I drank 8 oz of Nuun before my run. After my run (at work), I had my coffee, Noosa Yogurt with granola, peanut butter berries, and more water.

Mid-Morning snack: Beet & Blueberry Superhero muffin from Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow. I made a bunch of these muffins a week or two ago and ended up freezing a bunch of them. It works out so perfect for these weeks where I’m trying to save $ on groceries and have limited time. I popped one in my lunch bag last night and it’s defrosted by the time I want one the next morning!

Lunch: Spinach & Parmesan Ravioli, Carrots, Apple. Normally I do either soup or salad for my lunches, but I didn’t grab anything at grocery shopping this week for my lunches so I’m just either doing leftovers or grabbing a can of soup.

Mid-Afternoon snack: Popcorn! Love me some already popped popcorn.

Dinner: Brinner! Eggs with bacon, avocado toast, and garlic and sausages. Side of Silk Dark Chocolate Almond Milk since I was pretty hungry after yoga & strength

Dessert: Leftover pieces of the candy I got this past weekend. YUM

What do you have on your schedule today?!?

Favorite time & money-saving food hacks?!?

Strength training- how do you fit it all in?

What I Ate In A Day Between Two 20 Mile Training Runs

Happy Friday Eve! Alex is traveling this week (he is visiting his family back in New England), so it's just me and the animals until Sunday! One negative thing is that he normally does the dishes, so I have to suck up and do them, BUT on the plus side- more coffee for me ; ) In all honesty- we all miss him terribly, but I'm sure he's having a great time! 

I wanted to share with you what I ate during the day of my 23 mile run (and presiding my 20 mile run). I like to eat healthy (typically), but also follow what my body is craving. So if it's craving chocolate, I have it (in moderation) ; ) 

Breakfast: Cereal/ Triple Berry Caffeinated Nuun/ Coffee

Post 23 mile run: Clif Almond Butter Bar & Dark Chocolate Almond Milk (not pictured)

Stella was VERY interested.... ;)

Lunch: Half of an Italian Sub

Post Lunch treat: Tall Starbucks Triple Carmel Frappaccino with Almond Milk (this is soooo good!!)

Dinner: Run Fast Eat Slow Feta-Stuffed Bison Burgers with Alexia Sweet Potato Waffle Fries and Corn on the Cob

What do you have planned this weekend?!? --> getting relay manicure/pedicure & gardening & welcoming in the MS Run The US Segment #6 Runner on Sunday!

Favorite post long-run treat? Iced coffee or lemonade

Feature Friday- What I Ate In A Day

Happy FRIYAY! I hope you have something fun planned this weekend! I've got 2 x 8 mile runs on my schedule and am teaching skiing both Saturday & Sunday, so most of my weekend is already planned, but hopefully I'll get to fit in something fun one of those days. I wanted to share with you what I eat on a typical training day because nutrition is important! I've never been one to count calories, but I try to eat smaller meals (especially when training for a big race) every 2-3 hours and never limit myself to no sugary items or alcohol (but I'm not too into that stuff most of the time anyways). 

This is what I ate on Wednesday when I had a double workout (9 miles w/ 6 tempo miles in the AM & a Pilates Jumpboard Reformer class at my lunch break). I like to do my strength training days on my hard workout days to really fatigue my legs and keep my easy run days as a great recovery day. If I'm not working out hard (less than 70 minutes), I typically will only eat a banana before running in the morning (with my coffee & an 8 oz glass of water).

**I also consumed 4 * 32 ounces of water (plus maybe a little extra- not including my Nuun tablet & Natural Calm cup of hot water**

Before AM work-out: Coffee with a bit of Hazelnut Creamer/ Collagen Peptides (I LOVE this stuff) & Toast/Honey Almond Butter/ Half of a Banana & Caffeine-infused Active Nuun Mango Orange Tablet (I do this before my hard workout days)

After AM work-out: Starbucks Bacon, Cheddar, & Egg Sandwich & Beet/Spinach/Blackberry/Plain Greek Yogurt/Quarter of a Banana/ Cinnamon/ Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (I made a big batch of smoothies and then split them up throughout the whole week)

AM Snack Before Pilates Reformer: Run Fast Eat Slow Sweet Potato Breakfast Cookies (I made these a few weeks ago and froze the ones I didn't eat right away) & Banana

Lunch: Chicken Sandwich (Canned Ground Chicken/ Light Mayo/ Sprouted Bread), Baby Carrots, Spinach w/ Balsamic Vinaigrette, & Almond Sea Salt Crackers PLUS a cute little beggar

PM Snack After Lunch: Luna Greek Yogurt Protein Berry Bar

Dinner: Brinner! Totally not pretty, but it was pretty tasty! 2 Eggs, Ketchup, 2 pieces of toast (butter/ 4 berry no-sugar-added jam), and 2 pieces of Bueler's Breakfast Sausage & Natural Calm Raspberry Lemon Hot Water

After-Dinner Snack: Chocolate Cashew Milk!

Feature Friday- Pre Long Run Nutrition

HAPPY FRIYAY! Finally! This week was equally long and short. Don't tell that's not possible, because it most definitely IS. I wanted to share a few of my favorite pre- long run (or race day) nutrition products with you today. I mainly stick with all natural products before my longer runs (but have a pretty strong stomach and have definitely eaten some crazy things before shorter runs...sandwiches, eggs, waffles, ice cream..you get the picture) that has a mixture of carbs/protein/sugar. I typically also have atleast a half of banana (if not a whole one) about an hour before my run and try to eat 1.5-2 hours before heading out for the race/long run. 

• Bobo's Coconut Almond Nut Butter Oat Bar 
•  

• Nuun Active Electrolytes with Energy (caffeine)

• Nature's Path Frosted Wildberry Acai Pop Tarts

• Kodiak Cakes Flapjack & Waffle Mix

• Nature's Path Instant Oatmeal Maple & Brown Sugar (these are AWESOME to travel with!!)

Do you have any favorites for pre-race or long run fueling? 

Any special tactics you have for eating before a big race (1, 2, or 3 hours beforehand)?

Favorite fuels that work well when you travel to a race or do you find them once you get there?

Weekend Activities

Does anyone else ever feel like the weekend went by so fast that it actually didn't happen? We were relaxing on the couch Sunday night after a crazy weekend and I felt like it was still Friday night and we had 2 full days to fill with so many great activities (boy oh boy was I WRONG!). 

Friday I started off with an 8 mile run on the treadmill binge-watching Gilmore Girls (definitely a #guiltypleasure of mine) and then had a serious craving for a bagel and cranberry juice. Luckily we have ONE bagel shop in all of Steamboat that could cure me of my hangriness. 

The rest of the day went by relatively smoothly and we got out early (wohoo) so the weekend was here! We had leftovers (so glamorous, I know) and got some chores done (hellooo endless amounts of laundry- does it ever stop? and cleaning out the car). 

Saturday we originally planned to go for a hike, but the weather showed a pretty good chance of storms so we put that on the backburner. I had 8 miles to do, so I headed into town and did a little over a mile before my Power Barre class at Steamboat Pilates Studio and then did the remaining 6.85 miles afterwards! Talk about a seriously long work-out session. The class was really challenging and I knew that I would need to push through the rest of my miles (luckily I just had an easy pace scheduled so I could take it as slow as I needed and just get the miles under my belt). It didn't go as bad as expected and I met up with Alex & Stella afterwards to go check out the Farmers Market! We both got Falafels for lunch and shared a lemonade. 

The rest of the day was spent doing some grocery shopping and cooking! I made the mustard-glazed chicken thighs from Practical Paleo and twice-baked stuffed jalepeno sweet potatoes (find the recipe on my Recipe Pinterest page!). Both things were seriously SO good.

Photo was taken before they went in for their second bake!

I also made some homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies (those were gone by Sunday night), Superhero Muffins from Run Fast Eat Slow (for breakfasts this week), and roasted some beets for smoothies!

On Sunday (rest day), we finished up chores in the morning (lots and lots of cleaning!) and then headed out for a short hike with a few friends. I can't believe I didn't take any photos the entire time! So unlike me, I know.. Just take my word for it- the view of the lake below was beautiful! 

I did some meal-prepping for the week ahead and for dinner and made up this lovely salad for lunches for the week and dinner Sunday night with Salmon. Super easy and it had: Spinach, Arugula, Onions, Strawberries, Sesame Seeds, Feta, Broccoli, Thyme, Salt, Pepper, and basil. 

We headed out Sunday afternoon to the lake! We live less than 2 miles away from it and this was our first time being out on the lake. We just got a kayak so we wanted to test it out and rented a paddleboard (since the kayak was a one-person). I ofcourse ended up falling in the water on the paddleboard after getting a bit toooo cocky in my abilities and trying some warrior 2 yoga poses... I held it for a good minute and while waiting for Alex to retrieve the camera, fell in. It was pretty funny though and luckily the water wasn't TOO chilly.

That was our weekend full of chores, activities, and a little bit of rest! I'm excited to get back to a week of training and another long run on the schedule this coming weekend. 

How was your weekend?

Thoughts on splitting up a run between a work-out class?

Ever tried yoga on a paddleboard or paddleboarding?