>Half marathon nutrition and recap

>Happy Sunday! Did you enter my bedding makeover giveaway??? Dooooo it 🙂

This morning I woke anxiously at 5:15am for my 5:30 half marathon departure. 7:30am races are killer! How was I able to get ready so fast, you may be asking? I like to sleep in as late as possible (even if that means only 5:15am), so the night before I do some prep work.

I lay out my clothes:

Make a rock star breakfast the night before:

Peanut Butter & Banana Breakfast cookie: 1/3 cup oats, 1/2 scoop protein powder (I used vanilla SunWarrior), 1/2 mashed banana, 1 T PB, raisins, 1/8 cup almond milk, stevia, dash sea salt. *I also added 1 T raw chia seeds.

*Chia seeds don’t taste like much, but they bind 10 times their volume in water (!), meaning they’re good for hydration and also help lubricate joints. An added bonus: they’re high in protein, calcium, and contain greater roughly 6 times more omega-3 fatty acids than other grains.

I also had [a little] coffee in this guy for good luck:

Coffee + steamed soy

Speaking of fueling for a race, there is a myth I’d like to squash.

Myth: To carb-load before a race, you add lots of carbs to your regular diet

Truth: You should eat similar to your normal diet but substitute some of your calories (and adding a little more) for complex carbs. In other words, eat the way you ate when you trained. There is no need to add unnecessary stomach issues on race day.

For example: Here are my eats the day before race day

Lunch: Instead of ordering a salad, I went for turkey and veggies on toasted multigrain bread with mustard instead of mayo (mayo sometimes upsets my stomach)

Snack: Tea + 1/2 organic oatmeal cookie

Dinner: Gigantic baked sweet potato topped with homemade tomato and black bean (light on the beans) salsa and dollop of Greek yogurt

*Other sweet baked sweet potato recipes here and here. Because of the race, I decided to opt out of the chili 😉

I ate like this (replacing some calories with complex carbs) for 2 days before the race. And not to mention plenty of hydration! My drinks of choice are coconut water (high in electrolytes and H20.

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The race was AMAZING. The course started at Mt. Vernon (George and Martha Washington’s home)

source

Ran along the Potomac River

Across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge

source

To the National Harbor

I was greeted at the finish line by the Manfriend, sister, and Michael (our pup):

All in all, I did OOOK, considering I had to stop to use the restroom THREE times, ughh. Ran 8:11min/mile pace (according to Garmin) but 8:53 official pace due to potty breaks. Eh, when nature calls, right? haha….TMI?

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Post run, I drank a coconut water, more H20, had some free race food (banana and granola bar) then came home to a PB-Chocolate-Banana Protein Cupcake:

1 scoop chocolate protein powder, 1/2 mashed banana, 2 T Greek Yogurt, 1 tsp PB, 1 T PB Flour, 1 egg white, stevia, dash sea salt, pinch baking powder, H20 (to moisten)

And then took a glorious nap.

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Before I go I want to share something I saw during the race. I saw two people, in their mid-50s, running side-by-side with their hands together. When I got closer I noticed that one of them was blind.

Anything is possible.

Have a great week,

Lauren

>Labah day

>Happy Saturday and 3-day Labah-day weekend (sometimes I pretend I still live in Bahston)! Thank you all for your kind words regarding my experiment to be featured on CBS’ The Doctors. Pretty excited over here 🙂

The last few days have been consumed with essay writing and filling out applications (to physician assistant school). The Manfriend headed down to the Jersey Shore to visit a friend’s beach house, and (kicking and screaming) I decided to stay and finish these apps. Go go go! <— Hope your holiday weekend is more exciting than mine! heh

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Some new recipes & dishes I’ve tried out the last couple of days:

Breakfast:

Pineapple-banana Green Monstah: 1 scoop vanilla protein, 1 frozen banana, hand full fresh spinach, 3/4 cup frozen pineapple, 1 tbsp unsweetened red. fat coconut, 1 tbsp healthy-fat-of-your-choice (I used flax seed oil; to promote absorption of fat soluble vitamins), steiva, 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, dash sea salt, ice. Garnish with coconut.

PB & Vanilla Chia Overnight oats: Night before, combine: 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein (I use SunWarrior), 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, 3/4 cup almond milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp PB, stevia, dash sea salt.

Lunch:

“Mac N’ Cheese” Savory oats: 1/4 cup cooked oats, 2 scrambled eggs (1 egg + 1 white), diced medium-firmness tofu (~1/6 block), 1/4 cup frozen spinach (optional), 3 tbsp Nutritional yeast (for cheeeesy flavor), 2 tbsp lite shredded cheddar, sea salt & pepper. <– Oats in a non-breakfast dish seemed weird to me at first too. Try it, I swear it’s great.

Chicken salad with dill: 1 diced chicken breast, heaping tbsp Greek yogurt, generous amount of dill (~1/2 -1 tbsp), chopped pickle, 1 tbsp pickle juice, sea salt, pepper. Served over toasted Everything Bagel Thin. <—Greek yogurt as a substitute for mayo is fantastic! Add a tbsp of pickle juice and it’s even better!

Dinner:

Not really new, but worthy of posting: Grilled turkey burger topped with sauteed veggies, sweet potato fries (or chips?), and a simple salad w/ balsamic vinaigrettee

Sweet Potato Fries (so easy!):

Preheat oven to 425F

Dice 1 medium sweet potato per person

Spray tinfoil covered baking pan with cooking spray (I use EVOO)

Place diced sw potatoes on baking sheet

Spray with more cooking spray

Add sea salt & pepper

Bake ~ 15 mins then flip. Bake another 15 until browned.

Snacks & Dessert:

PB Yogurt: 1/2 cup 0% Greek Yogurt, 1 heaping tbsp PB Flour, 1 tbsp PB, stevia, dash sea salt

Chocolate-covered Strawberry Protein “Ice Cream”

Combine:

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 frozen banana

1 tsp xanthan gum (to thicken)

stevia

dash sea salt

~5-6 ice cubes

~1/4 cup almond milk (slowly add more if necessary to allow mixing)

& Blend

Thickkk and delicious:

& Vino:

My siblings and I have an inside joke that whenever we see the word “gnarly” we have to try and pronounce the G and the N. Sounds like “Gah-narly”. Say it fast. Funny? No?

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To kick off the holiday weekend, my sister and I met a friend out for drinks. It was waaay too nice to spend the evening indoors, and a rooftop bar & deck seemed quite appealing.

Fashion moment:

My beautiful sister (and roommate!), Kelsey.

And awkward bathroom photo of yours truly.

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I’ve decided that a fall marathon is looking pretty good right now. No injuries, my pace is pretty fast. I am comfortably running 7 miles, 3X per week including a long run. I’m debating this Washington, DC half marathon…What do you think?? It looks pretty amazing.

Recent workouts have included:

Sun: Rest

Mon: 25 min HIIT (high intensity interval training, aka sprint workout) on treadmill + abs

Tues: BodyPump class + 3 mi run

Wed: 45 min spinning class

Thurs: Total body weights + Boxing class

Fri: 6 mi run

Sat: Bootcamp: 10 min run + 1 circuit + 1 circuit + weights

This marathon season, I’m including much more cross training. More yoga/strength training and less injuries 🙂

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Have a fantastic Labor Day Weekend!!!!

Lauren