recovery | Fitness is Sweet

Guess who ran 14 miles today?

This girl.

Guess who had zero intention of running 14 miles today?

Uhhh…yeah.

Guess who tried a new route on her long run and TOTALLY missed the major turnoff?

Ummm…are we seeing a trend here?

But let’s back up.

I want to start by saying Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I celebrated by eating almost exclusively green food. No, really. It was totally by accident-and I clearly don’t have much in my fridge!

My first final today was at 8:30, so I started my day my making a spinach, egg white, and cheese scramble in my dorm room.

Then, I picked up a cappuccino on the way to the exam.

During dead and finals week, the cappuccinos have been prettier. It’s definitely a trade off though because it makes the milk foam pretty bitter!

I got to my exam super early to top off my studying.

My only comment about the exam is that 3 hour exams are very long and I get very thirsty. And the worst thing ever is getting stuck on a renal system and urine secretion problem during this time!

I was able to get out a bit early in time to eat lunch before my next exam. My lunch ended up greener than planned-I discovered this morning that my salsa was moldy!

Sweet potato, egg whites, and spinach. Plus a slice of marble cake to celebrate the end of my Bio class of the quarter! I spent SO much time studying for this exam the last few days!

After my Nutrition final, I made the decision to to Sunday’s long run. I was still feeling pretty good, and I wasn’t super excited by tonight’s Crossfit workout, so I figured, why not? I knew I’d need more fuel though! It was-you guessed it-more egg whites with spinach and cheese, plus a kiwi!

In theory, today’s run was 12 miles. I was super excited-I had an interesting new route mapped out! I even joked to my roommate about getting lost…and then guess who missed their turn…the road was a big smaller one that expected (which I found on the way back…). And I didn’t bother to check my maps on my phone until mile 7…when there was literally nowhere to go except back where I came from! I guess I could have still taken my turn on the way back, but I didn’t really need to do 16 miles today!

Want to know the crazy part though? Check out my half marathon split.

That’s only a couple of seconds off of my first half marathon-and I wasn’t really trying! And it’s crazy to think how bad I felt after that. I couldn’t move the next day. Immediately, my legs were in so much pain. The last mile was horrible. Granted, this time I did stop the clock to stretch/be really lost, but still! It’s amazing how far I’ve come since then! This is one reason why I may PR my half coming up without trying-I’ve just gotten so much faster! I’m not sure if I WANT to PR though-I really just want to enjoy the race more than anything else.

I think today’s run is really a testament to the training. In last week’s 11 miler, I felt like I was dying the last few miles. Today? I wasn’t even pushing the pace until the last mile, and on the way back I was easily under 10:00. (It was uphill out, and slight downhill back). More amazing? I was under 10:00 on the 14th mile. I was planning on just waling it, which I did some, but mostly I decided that since I felt ok still, and it was faster, it was worth it to run it.

To recover from my longer than expected run, I immediately put on my holiday appropriate socks.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that part of the reason I wanted to do my long run today was to wear these socks…

I definitely refueled well. I went to the local burger place, with full intention of getting a turkey or chicken burger, but this caught my eye and I decided I needed it NOW.

An egg salad wrap-and hey, it was green!

I also tried the Cherry Vanilla smoothie. When the nutritionist talked to my sorority, she highlighted this particular smoothie because tart cherry juice is supposed to aid in muscle recovery. The smoothie had vanilla greek yogurt, tart cherry juice, cherries, and strawberries. It was delicious!

This was the perfect post-run recovery meal! But boy oh boy am I ready for bed! 14 miles plus 2 finals?? I’m totally crazy!

Happy What I Ate Wednesday! Thank you to Jenn for hosting!

After my half marathon on Sunday, I’ve been trying to refuel well for as fast as possible of a recovery. This means lots of carbs and lots of protein. The good news? I’m no longer hobbling around like an old lady! Score! Here are some of my eats from this past week.

Taco salad from the Abs Diet cookbook. Plus some fresh guac-it’s been too long!

What I love about this salad is the dressing-it’s simply salt, pepper, olive oil, and lime juice with chopped tomatoes. This salad recipe has inspired my family to make our own dressings for salads-even a simple dressing like this makes the salad taste so much fresher! Most dressings can be whipped up in just a few minutes. If you haven’t made your own dressing before, I highly recommend trying it.

This morning, I awoke with a stiff/sore calf. At this point, it seems that the best remedy is Spin class-how convenient. I left Spin feeling much better. Once again, I am so grateful my calf held up for my race. The race igniting a running fire under me, but I’m forcing myself to take AT LEAST a week, probably two, off of running before I start training for the Nike Women’s half. My calf needs to be 100% better before I start again!

After spin, I had been planning on trying a new protein smoothie recipe. Instead, I decided to put my pineapple Chobani to work.

Instant pineapple frozen yogurt! I didn’t actually need to coconut water-I only added a splash and I had no trouble blending. I simply blended a pineapple CHO with frozen pineapple chunks!

This probably could have used a bit more time in the blender-it was super chunky and not as thick as a result.

Cinnamon raisin toast has been happening a lot lately. I blame the race 🙂

Cinnamon raisin toast topped with a little butter and cinnamon sugar is a great treat that’s on the lighter side. It’s healthier than a cinnamon roll while still hitting all those key flavor notes, but it won’t leave you in a sugar coma!

Midmorning, I was craving banana bread. I made a microwave version!

I mixed up a banana, egg beaters, coconut flour, a pinch of baking soda, and a splash of almond milk. Plus bittersweet chocolate chips, which obviously MADE the dish!

In the future, I think I would omit the coconut flour. It masks the banana flavor a little too much!

More carbs were the name of the game later in the afternoon. I made a spin-off of PB&J. Did you know that in middle school/beginning of high school I ate a PB&J sandwich every day at lunch? I was quite the connoisseur. I had the brand of PB all figured out. I also used to put two different types of jam on the sandwich.

My aunt makes the best jam in the world and sends us tons of it. My favorite is the raspberry-she grows her own raspberries for the jam! I’ve always loved PB&J, but somehow my face seems to object to peanut butter now. Sunflower seed butter and jam isn’t quite the same, but it’s a close second!

I also had some leftover turkey taco mix from the previous night’s dinner.

I made the mistake of eating a fairly large snack, and then another granola bar, right before Crossfit. Ugh, not the best idea!

At Crossfit, we worked on snatches. I kept being too far out in front on mine, probably because my hips are so tight from my race!

The WOD was harder than I was expected. The Rx for the deadlifts was 155, but I stuck to 135 since there were so many reps. Here’s the workout:

25 deadlifts

25 toes to bar

25 box jumps

25 toes to bar

25 deadlifts

I really liked this workout! I really need to strengthen my abs though-my core was really quaking on the deadlifts! Also-I start cleaning my box tomorrow! I mean, a membership in exchange for cleaning is awesome, but to be honest, I just want to spend more time around the box. And hey, if I’m in there anyway, it’s an excuse to work on my pull-ups!

I was not hungry AT ALL after Crossfit, but I decided I needed to refuel. I made a chocolate coconut protein smoothie.

The coconut flavor came from shredded coconut and coconut extract. I’ll post the recipe once I perfect it-it could have used more coconut extract! This time I think I added a little much xantham gum and not enough ice. I’m kind of at a loss with the amount of xantham gum to use-I either add to much or too little! Help?

Today while pumping gas, I thought about two things. 1. This freaking car is such a gas guzzler-I just got gas last week! 2. My irrational fear related to pumping gas. I’m scared that somehow I’ll manage to blow up the gas station by spilling gas. It kind of freaks me out when the nozzle drips because I’m imagining that scenario.

Aaaand once last thought for the day. I FINALLY got my first post up for my town’s fitness blog! It’s just an introductory post, but here it is! Don’t worry-this new blog won’t change anything about Fitness is Sweet. I’ll link to the other blog from here, but I’ll mostly discuss different things. I’ll definitely discuss anything relevant (such as workouts, interesting studies) on here as well!

Have a great week!

Do you have any irrational fears? Do your cats like to “help” you blog? Mine does…He’s here right now!

How do you recovery from a race or competition?

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