Morning Glory

There's a saying that things/events usually happen in sets of 3.  Sometimes they're good things, sometimes they're bad.  This morning they were good. 

1) I saved a little tree frog.  It was sooo cute.  Pretty much looked just like this:


I almost stepped on it walking through the gym.  I was able to pick it up and take it outside. 

2) I had a good tempo run:

10 min w/u on elliptical
5 min w/u jog @ 7.0 (8:34 min/mi)
6 miles @ 8.2 (7:18 min/mi)
10 min c/d jog @ 7.0 (8:34 min/mi)
5 min walk @ 3.5
Total time - 1:05
Total distance - 7.90 miles (not including the elliptical)

3) Sarah sent me some links to easy recipes with quinoa.  I have never had quinoa before and I had no idea how to use it, but heard a lot of good things about it.  So, I made Hot Banana Breakfast Quinoa from using the instructions from here - www.thewannabechef.com.  I am happy to say that 1) it was easy.  Less than 8 minutes including the 3 minutes to heat everything up in the microwave.  And, 2) it was yummy.  I need to add some more sweetener to it, but it was still tasty without it.  I am very excited about this because I was getting sick of my low carb wrap with veggie cream cheese and egg beaters for breakfast.  It was either that or a protein shake from the gym on the mornings that I swam.  Thanks Sarah for sending me the links!

(Mis)Adventures in Training - Dragonflies and Frogs

I recently posted about running over a squirrel on during a bike ride.  That was quite an event for me.  I’ve managed to miss them with my car thousands of times, but apparently I’m not quick enough to miss them on my bike when they run out in front of me. 

This past weekend I guess nature decided that I should have tried harder to miss the squirrel and my good deed of saving the baby turtle wasn’t enough to make up for it.  At about mile 50 of this past weekend’s bike ride, I got hit in the right eye by a dragonfly.  I wish I would have had sunglasses on.  But, I started before the sun came up and didn’t even think about bringing them.  Lesson learned I guess.  It hurt so bad and I wasn't even going that fast because I was slowing down to take a slight turn.  It felt like someone threw a hackey sack at me. 

On a better note.  I saved a baby tree frog this morning in the gym.  I almost stepped on it.  It had some dust fuzz on his butt so I couldn’t tell what it was at first until it started hopping.  I managed to pick it up and take it outside to a little patch of grass.  Surprisingly it was a lot easier to catch than a lizard.  Man those things are slick. 

Carrot Cake Protein Muffins with Almond Flour & Wheat Bran

I’m always on the lookout for healthy, grab-and-go snacks. My alarm goes off by 5:30 AM 5 - 6 days a week, so saving even 5 or 10 minutes in the morning by having breakfast prepared is definitely a plus. I lean towards sweet over savory when it comes to pre-workout fuel, and Jamie Eason has quite a few easy and yummy protein bar recipes on Bodybuilding.com that I have enjoyed in the past. Her Carrot Cake Protein bars are some of my favorites, but since my kitchen is currently stocked with 14 different types of flour and I love to experiment, I decided to switch up the recipe a bit. My changes included swapping out some of the oat flour for almond flour & wheat bran, increasing the cinnamon, adding cardamom and vanilla extract, and replacing the water with a non-dairy buttermilk substitution.

Carrot Cake Protein Muffins with Almond Flour & Wheat Bran

Adapted from this recipe
Makes 12 muffins

1/2 cup oat flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup wheat bran
2 scoops vanilla whey protein (I used Dymatize Iso 100)
1 tbsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/3 cup Ideal Brown Sweetener
1 1/2 tsp Splenda Nectresse

3/4 cup liquid egg whites
2 4 oz. jars or packs of baby carrots
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice + enough unsweetened vanilla almond milk to make 1/2 cup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare silicone muffin cups or use the foil muffin cups with the paper insert removed.
Whisk together all dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir only until all the flour has been incorporated; you don't want to overmix the batter or the muffins will be tough. The batter will be quite runny.
Spoon the batter into the 12 prepared muffin cups. Bake in the preheated oven for 13 – 16 (it took 16 minutes in my oven) minutes until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out mostly dry.  Let cool on wire racks. Once they are completely cool, they should be stored in the refrigerator.

Nutrition Information per muffin
Calories: 66
Fat: 1.6g
Carbohydrates: 5.9g
Protein: 7.1g
Calculated on Sparkrecipes.com



I was a big fan of how these turned out. The almond flour added some healthy fat and kept the muffins moist, and the bold spices were reminiscent of fall. I’ve especially enjoyed them paired with some Laughing Cow Cinnamon Cream Cheese Spread.

Speaking of fall, despite the fact that we are still experiencing temperatures well into the 80s here in Florida, I am very much in an autumn-like mood and decided dinner last night needed to be some form of comfort food. I made Pioneer Woman’s Perfect Pot Roast; it lived up to its name and actually was darn near perfect. My only change next time will be to add more veggies because those carrots and onions were absolutely delicious after cooking with the roast all afternoon!

102-mile Bike Ride Nutrition Review

Saturday night Daniel and I went to The Rack. I knew they had sushi so I agreed to go. I ended up eating 6 sushi rolls, edamame, 2 hot wings, and a few cheesy nachos with chicken. I know hot wings and cheesy nachos are not a good idea. I'm a sucker for finger foods and I love spicy foods. I was only going to have one hot wing to try them, but they were so good I had another. Thankfully the sushi came out so I could munch on something else. I also drank about 3 glasses of water.

This is what I had Sunday:

4:30 AM - 2 cups of Multigrain Cheerios with 1 cup of Silk Pure Almond Unsweetened Vanilla almond milk. I normally eat the Peanut Butter Cheerios, but I was was trying to be a little healthier and go with the less sugary stuff. What can I say? I've gone peanut butter and I'm not going back!

6:00 AM - just before taking off on the bike - 2 Powerbar Oatmeal Raisin Bites. These things are so good. I know you can easily make them yourself, but I am not a baker. I probably need as much training cooking and baking as I do for the Ironman triathlon. I can do, it just takes me forever.

6:00 AM – 11:30 AM (during the ride) – I tried to take a sip of my Infinit concoction (16 oz. of gatorade, 2 scoops of Infinit nutrition powder, and 1 scoop of BSN Amino-X) every 30 min.  I also took a sip of water every mile.  I went through 84 oz of water in the 5 hrs and 15 min I was on my bike.   

• :45 into the ride I had half a Bonk Breaker Almond Butter & Honey
• 1:30 I ate the other half
• 2:15 into the ride I ate a whole Honey Stinger Waffle Strawberry
• 3:00 I ate half of a Bonk Breaker Peanut Butter & Jelly
• 3:45 ate the other half
• 4:30 ate a Honey Stinger Waffle Vanilla

I didn’t have any stomach issues with any of the above.  A major plus.  I did have a little bit of an issue with the Almond Butter & Honey Bonk Breaker.  It was too dry to get down easily.  The PB & J Bonk Breaker was awesome.  It tasted delicious and was moist enough to swallow easily but not too gooey to where it stuck to my everything in my mouth.  The Honey Stinger Waffles were the same.  Those were even easier to get down because there wasn’t as much to chew.  The only thing that had any caffeine in it was the Infinit mix.  I don’t know how much caffeine is in the two scoops because it doesn’t say anywhere on the packaging.  I’m assuming it can’t be that much.  I was exhausted at the end of the ride.  I was full, but exhausted.  I bought some MiO energy to add to the mix for the next ride.  This has caffeine in it and will add flavor to the mix so I don’t have to use Gatorade and chance having issues with too much sugar.  I think this will be a win.  I’ll confirm or deny this next week.  I didn’t run after the ride so I couldn’t test the full effects of everything. 

Overall:  I think I took in enough calories (in – 1013; burned – 1,582), but not enough caffeine.  This is the first ride over 20 miles that I have not taken a gel and this is also the first ride that I’ve taken in more than 100 calories every hour.  I felt more tired after this ride than I have any of the others, except for the 100 miler out at hilly San Antonio.  Saturday’s workout was a 13 mile run, .75 mile swim, 20 mile bike, and ended with another 7 mile run.  I know that this had something to do with me being tired as well.  But, the tired I felt was more like I needed to take a nap immediately, like a just-ate-Thanksgiving-dinner need to take a nap feeling.  I didn’t even want to run 2 miles after the bike (when I had originally planned for 8) because I all I could think about was going home and sleeping.  In fact, I only made it about 3/4 of the way home before I started dozing off.  So, next time, I think I’m going to try and take in the same or about 100 less calories, definitely no more, and add the MiO and a couple of gels.       

10 Running Questions Answered

I saw this post with 10 running questions over on Food & Fun on the Run last week and thought it was a lot of fun to read her answers, so I decided to follow suit and post my own version.

1. Best Run Ever: The Fargo Marathon, hands down.  I was running in my home state, the weather was perfect, crowd support was amazing, and I somehow managed to qualify for Boston with a time that was faster than I thought I would ever be able to run.  The best part, however, was being able to share the experience with my parents, my sister Miranda, and three of my lifelong girlfriends.  The fact that all of these people whom I love were willing to travel from out of town to watch me run a marathon, which is not exactly the most spectator friendly sport, meant the world to me and made that moment so much more special.
2. 3 Words That Describe Your Running:  Therapeutic. I saw this post on Facebook the other day, and it really resonated with me. I can’t even begin to count how many frustrations, disappointments, and conflicts I have left behind on the pavement.Sweaty. I sweat…..a whole lot. But, as I learned on one of my Ragnar relays, “It’s not sweat, it’s liquid awesome!”  Gratitude-filled. Not sure if that counts as only one word or not, but I’m running (ha!) with it anyway. Running has helped me transform my body, it has given me an outlet for my stress, and it has connected me with people I never otherwise would have met and become friends with. Running has truly been a gift in my life, and I try to remind myself of that every time I run.
3. Go-To Running Outfit:  I generally just grab any clean pair of shorts and a tank top from my giant pile of workout clothes, but my Brooks PureConnects, my Spibelt, my Garmin, my iPod, and my water bottle are never left behind.
4. Quirky Habit When Running:  I do a lot of math while I’m running – How much can I slow down and still meet my goal pace?  If I was running a half marathon at this pace, what would be my finish time?  It’s 7:25 right now, I have 8 miles to go, I’m running at an 8:10 pace…..what time will I be eating breakfast??
5. Morning, Midday, or Evening:  Morning, all the way. I love starting my day with a workout, I know exactly what works for me nutrition-wise, and watching the sun rise over the bay never gets old.
6. I Won’t Run Outside When…..it’s too hot, humid, and sunny. I wilt in the heat, and I hate it. I will gladly wake up at 4:30 AM to get my run in before the heat gets unbearable. 
7. Worst Injury and How You Got Over It: I had a small tear in my left meniscus about two and a half years ago. Luckily, it didn’t require surgery, so I got a cortisone shot, took 8 weeks off completely from running, and went to physical therapy. It was a long 8 weeks, but I was fortunate enough to have trainers who customized a workout plan that allowed me to maintain my cardiovascular endurance and force me to obey the doctor’s orders so that I didn’t injure myself further.
8. I Felt Like the Most Badass Mother Runner When I was running my second leg of the Florida Keys Ragnar in 2011.  It was about 9 miles in the dark on a canal trail. Runners had very specific instructions to stay away from the water and not discard anything that would attract the wildlife (wildlife = gators). One of my teammates was engaged to a Ragnar staff member who had texted her pictures of the alligators sunning themselves on the trail earlier in the day, so I knew that the warnings were serious. It was easily the scariest run of my life, but I felt invincible when it was over.
9. My Next Race Is next Sunday!! I’m running the Women Run the Cities 10 Miler in Minneapolis, MN, and I was able to convince one of my sisters and two of my girlfriends to run the 5k. I’m so excited to share the race experience with them!
10. Running Goals for 2013: I’ve still got a 10 miler, a 15k, a half marathon, and a full marathon in 2012 to focus on. My main goal for 2013 is to train properly to allow me to truly enjoy running the Boston Marathon. While I hope that there will be many more Boston experiences in my future, there’s no guarantee that I will make it back again, so I want to soak up every second of the race in 2013.

Weekly Recap (Competitive Week #9)

This week was tough.  I had to wake up before 5 AM three days this week.  The good news is that I just completed my biggest training week of the 36-week Ironman training plan.  5 Weeks to go to race day!  

 

Monday – strength training (Mark Allen’s 12 best strength exercises – Phase 3, week 2, Day 1):

3 sets (10, 8, 6 reps) of the following:

• pull-ups – Yes, I did make 10 pull-ups in a row!  This is a first for me.  Breaking new ground is always motivational
• leg extensions – 60 lbs
• leg curls – 55 lbs

2 sets – 12 to 15 reps for each (2 count lift, 4 count lower).  Each of these will be 12 reps unless otherwise noted:

• bench press – 50 lbs using assisted machine
• squats – 50 lbs
• lateral dumbbell raises – (2) 10 lbs
• calf raises – 50 lbs – 15 reps
• backward lunges – (2) 15 lbs.  Set 1 – 12 reps, set 2 – 15 reps
• bicep curls – (2) 20 lbs
• tri extensions machine with rope.  Set 1 – 9 reps @ 40 lbs, 3 reps @ 37.5 lbs; Set 2 – 12 @ 37.5
• leg press – seated machine.  145 lbs

added workouts:

• hip abductors – 95 lbs – 15 reps
• hip adductors – 100 lbs – 15 reps
• abs.  Jack knives w/ medicine ball – 15 reps; Crazy Willy’s (this is a name that I made up for an ab workout that I learned from another trainer years ago) – 15 crunches each position. 
• There are four positions, no rest between switching positions.  You can do however many you want for each position, but if you’ve never done them before, I would start at 8 or 10 crunches in each position.
• Position 1 - Lying on your back, lift feet and bend knees at a 90 degree angle.  Put your hands behind your head and crunch up. 
• Position 2 – Lift feet straight up.  Put your hands behind your head and crunch up. 
• Position 3 – Bend knees to 90 degrees again.  Crunch up to touch ankles
• Position 4 – Lift feet straight up again.  Crunch up to touch toes or come as close as possible to your toes 

Tuesday – swim, my attempted bike ride   

Wednesday (day 1 of waking up before 5 AM.  Wake up time – 4:00) – Davis Island bike speed work, treadmill tempo run

Thursday – treadmill speed run, strength training (Phase 3, Week 2, Day 2):

3 sets (10, 8, 6 reps) of the following:

• bench press – bar + 15 lbs each side
• squats using assisted machine – set 1: 90 lbs, set 2: 100 lbs, set 3: 110 lbs
• bicep curls – (2) 20 lbs
• tricep extensions with rope – 37.5 lbs
• leg press – set 1: 145 lbs, set 2: 150 lbs, set 3: 155  lbs

2 sets – 12 to 15 reps for each (2 count lift, 4 count lower). Each of these will be 12 reps unless otherwise noted:

• lat pull down – set 1: 85 lbs (12 reps), set 2: 70 lbs (15 lbs)
• leg extensions – 55 lbs
• leg curls – 55 lbs
• lateral dumbbell raises – (2) 10 lbs
• calf raises (using assisted machine) – 70 lbs (35 lbs each side) – 15 reps
• dumbbell pullover – (1) 30 lbs - 15 reps
• backward lunges – (2) 15 lbs – 15 lunges each side

added workouts:

• back extension (single leg) – (1) 25 lbs – 8 reps each leg
• planks – 60 seconds each side and regular

Friday – swim

Saturday - This is when the fun starts! (day 2 of waking up before 5 AM. Wake up time – 4:30) – 13 mile run, .75 o/w swim, 20 mile bike, 7 mile run 

Sunday - (day 3 of waking up before 5 AM. Wake up time – 4:30) – Solo century bike ride

Sweet Tooth Saturday – Chocolate Revel Bars

Sweet Tooth Saturday went retro this weekend!  Is it just me, or did everyone’s mom have some version of this cookbook when they were growing up?

image source

I don’t know how old my mom’s copy was, but I know that by the time I started cooking, many pages of hers were crinkled and stained from use.  My amma (grandma in Icelandic) gave me my own copy when I was a teenager, and while it’s no longer my go-to cookbook, I still refer to it for ideas when I’m in the mood for something that is easy to prepare but tastes great.  When I was paging through it last weekend, I came across the recipe for Chocolate Revel bars.  These might be my favorite bar cookie ever.  When our college cafeteria made them, I turned into a bit of a food hoarder and would wrap as many as I possibly could sneak out in my back in napkins to eat later…..healthy living wasn’t really a focus of mine back then, clearly.  I had forgotten all about these ridiculously delicious treats until I saw the recipe, but it took all of two seconds for me decide they HAD to be made once I remembered them.  I made a few modifications to the original recipe, the most important being cutting the oat mixture in half and leaving the chocolate filling ingredients as written. There can never be too much chocolate, right??



Chocolate Revel Bars
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk, divided
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
1.  Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2.  In a large bowl, beat together 1/2 cup butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg,  1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. In another bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, and 1/2 of teaspoon salt; stir into butter mixture.
3.  Pat 2/3 of the oat mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Refrigerate for one to two hours.
4.  In a medium saucepan, heat remaining sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, 2 tablespoons butter, and 1/2 teaspoon salt over low heat, stirring until smooth or mostly smooth. Do not heat for too long; if the chocolate mixture is heated for too long, it will seize up and become very difficult to spread.  It’s better to remove from heat with a few small bits of chocolate left unmelted than it is to overheat. Stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Set aside and allow the chocolate to cool until the oat mixture is ready to be removed from the refrigerator.
5.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
6.  Remove the oat mixture from the fridge, and spread the chocolate mixture evenly over the top.  Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the top; some of the chocolate layer should still be visible.
7.  Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is lightly browned; the chocolate mixture will still look moist. Let cool on a wire rack, then cut into bars.

These bars are so easy to make; the hardest part is the waiting.  Cesar was pretty thrilled with them as well. He may have slipped into a mild depression when he realized he only had two left.  Luckily for him, every week includes a Saturday, so there will be something new to lift him out of his funk before too long.

Now that I’ve taken care of that business, here’s a silly video to brighten your Saturday.