What I Ate this Week + Workouts

Dude. I totally meant to participate in WIAW this week, but I just got so so busy. Sorry! Luckily I've been doing this sort of post the past couple weeks, so maybe I'll just stick with it while I'm so busy. :)

This week marked exactly halfway through the XC season (nooo!), and because of that, our coaches have definitely amped up our workout intensity, length, and types. Meaning more reps, longer runs, more hills (barf). 

However, I don't want to come off as complaining, because I had a fantastic week of practices. I really feel my strength, stamina, and endurance, increasing - I've just been in an overall good mood this week! Food + exercise = endorphins. 

Here's a peek at what I did to prepare for this week's race:

Monday: Lunges, 5 min jog, ABCs (basically warm-up exercises), Michigans (running/jogging intervals for 45 minutes), 4 x fast strides

Tuesday: Lunges, 20 min jog, 20 min SS on trail loop (HILLS OH THE HILLS), 10 min downhill strides, core, stretches

Wednesday: Lunges, 1 mile jog, ABCs, 12 x 400s with 400 recovery in between (hammer laps 4, 8, and 12) - this one was tough -we logged 7 miles and ended practice way later than normal. I was also hungry like every hour.

Thursday: Lunges, 35 min jog, 6 x strides, core, stretches

Friday: 1 mile warm up, 6x200s with 200 cool down, 1 mile cool down. Short. Sweet. Simple.

Aaaannn tomorrow's the race!

Now onto the best part - fOoOoOoOd. [You can tell when/where I photographed because of the quality of the pics - don't judge my 6:30 am ones. OR my attempts at doctoring them up, I know some are a leetle questionable. :)]

Breakfasts

Vanilla bean Greek yogurt (yums), one of my vegan apple spice muffins that I crumbled, and half a HUNORMOUS honeycrisp apple, plus some melty PB that I put in the microwave in a small dish for about 15 seconds. 

Remember that breakfast I mentioned? Done.

1/3 cup oats, 1 cup almond milk, 1/3 cup pumpkin, chopped apple, cinnamon, nutmeg + cinnamon, and Justin's Maple Almond Butter. Autumn in a bowl.

And I couldn't go a week without overnight oats! 

This was supposed to be an overnight oats parfait, but the yogurt+oats portion got a little too runny to see the gorgeous strawbs (I know some of you cringe at that word - sorry!).

Layers of apricot flavored Chobani (yum!) mixed with oats, strawberries, oat mix, strawberries, and a dollop of Sunbutter on top! Sunshine in a bowl.

Lunches

Wrap with leftover roasted balsamic chicken and peppers, eaten cold, a Honeycrisp apple, and steamed veggiiieeesss

Snack plate with two hard-boiled eggs, a pita cut into triangles, an apple, and salsa for dippin'.

Delicious bowl of brown rice, veggies, black beans, chipotle greek yogurt, and salsaaa.

Dinners

Only two dinners for ya because it's generally my least inspired meal - but I did get a bit creative!

This was a mini-pasta bake inspired by Cait's! It was guesstimated portions of ~1 cup whole grain penne, ~1/2 cup marinara sauce ~1/2 cup canned tomatoes, topped with a few slices of fresh mozzarella cheese, and baked in a 350* oven for about 30 minutes.

This was actually my favorite meal of the week! Mom made a "Mexican Salad Bar" - I topped my lettuce with veggies, black beans, corn, shredded chicken, salsa, sunflower seeds, and Greek yogurt. Side of a whole wheat tortilla. Delisioso!

Snacks

Bars, as always. They're so easy, especially on school days. I've been loving ALT Larabars lately! The pumpkin pie flavor was good, but I think apple spice crumble is still my favorite. The peanut butter is good too.

This is a throw-whatever-you-think-will-taste-good-in-a-bowl snack. And mmm, it turned out yummy! Unsweetened applesauce with cinnamon and nutmeg, half of a chopped apple, crumbles of cereal, and a dollop of almond butter. Bowls and almond butter make everything good!

I put plain greek yogurt, sliced banana, cinnamon, honey, and raisins...in a jar. It was so fun to eat out of! But let's be honest, I wished the raisins were chocolate chips...we had none. :(

If you look in the background, you can see what my life consists of. Ha.

Aaand my latest nightly snack has been my vegan apple spice muffins, sometimes crumbled on yogurts, sometimes smeared with peanut butter, and sometimes just a couple by themselves. I need to tweek the recipe before I share it, but I hope it'll be up soon!

Happy weekend!!

The Perfect Day

Happy second day of fall!! <3 Boots! Sweaters! Football! Leaves! Chilly RuNs! COFFEE!

I'm gonna be a hipster and say that I loved fall way before the pumpkin craze started taking storm. I can't get off the internet without wanting to bake any and everything pumpkin, and down a pumpkin latte as quickly as the temperature permits me. Emma and Elsie's "pumpkin spice latte effect"? Totally true.

 (I haven't even had any pumpkin yet - this is practically blasphemy in the HLB world, peeps - BUT I do have a can waiting to be opened in my pantry...mwa ha ha.) 

I had a truly wonderful weekend - rainy Saturday was spent relaxing and spending time with the sis, and Sunday was really what I would consider a perfect day - and of course the first day of fall!

.......I gave myself permission to wear my first "official" fall outfit - simply meaning the addition of a scarf. :) When I pull out my boots, I mean real business!

Excuse the unnatural lighting...I'm not actually yellow. Need. iPhone.

.....Reibs and I got to teach the preschool class at church with these crazy kiddos. 

And by crazy, I mean crazy.

....the weather was incredible!! Zero humidity, blue sky with fluffy cotton ball clouds, slight breeze - it was truly picturesque. Almost nothing makes me happier than beautiful day!

....and of course I had to take advantage of the weather and go for a run. Nice and easy so I could soak in the sun and enjoy the scenery, of course! 

.....I had only planned on about 3/3.5ish miles, but I ended up feeling great by the 3 mile mark, so I just kept running along. I was on a total runner's high - I ended up with an extra mile covered! 

....I found one of my favorite Clif Bar flavors hiding in the fridge (I like them chilled, no judgey please...)! And it's a perfect post-workout snack.

....oops...

.....I found this in my cabinet, unopened. You guys, I can't quit thinking about how a-freaking-mazing this will be on top of hot pumpkin oats. MAH LORD.

....I got a little creative with dinner for once, and it was even easier than Cait's version that inspired my dish.

.....Reibs baked the most freaking. delicious. batch of cookies of all time. Pumpkin Spice Cookies - they're a soft, cake-like texture with cream cheese frosting. I die.

....I did a little {vegan} baking myself. I have lots of recipes coming, clearly!

Aaanndd the rest of the night was spent watching AFV with the fam, running lines circles sprints - practicing play lines with Reibs, catching up on blogs, and reading. 

'Twas a perfect day indeed! 

P.S...I'm thinking of cutting my hair! I really like just at the shoulders, and have been looking at about this length. What do you think???

Dealing with Rest Days

Disclaimer: This is a sensitive subject in the realm of people with EDs, and I get a little into it, so if you don't feel comfortable or ready to read on this subject, give me a visit mañana!

This has been on my mind lately, especially considering this is the first Saturday in a month that I
haven't had a meet, and since my long run got cancelled, and there's a very rainy, dreary, forecast after a week of beautiful weather.

I got up this morning, ate breakfast, and promptly began thinking about when/where I'll be able to fit my long run in today. Well, I don't drive, ergo cannot go to the gym, and I do not have a treadmill, ergo there is no running for me to do today. What? So what am I supposed to do with myself? 

I've been practicing and running practically every single day for almost two months (say wha?!?!), so taking a day off really didn't occur to me in that moment. Yeah, my legs are a little sore, but what else is new? I even tried to plan on what I would do while doing nothing. OCD, for the win.

(Let's be honest, these workouts have been way more intense than what I'm used to, and a lot of my time is practice, eat, sleep, repeat. I never took naps before XC!)

Rest days are essential for athletes, but sometimes adding in an extra rest day is difficult, especially for athletes, and especially for athletes with exercise/anxiety history. Ironic, huh?

In my past, taking a rest day was practically unheard of for me unless there was literally no way I could exercise (and I almost always found a way). I thought I would automatically gain weight, be lazy, and just overall felt awful about myself and body, which completely irrational and illogical thinking. I also always felt like crap - now I've learned a lot, know more about myself and my body, and know when and why rest days are so important for me, mentally and physically. Here's some indicators that I had a "take-it-easy day" coming on, even without the rain check:

1. Soreness.  My last two runs, although nice and short, left my legs feeling exhausted, sore, and cramping. Shin splints, anyone?

2. I've been run-down. I've never taken naps before xc, and I'm sure being run-down is a combo of things, but a 3-mile easy-paced run should not exhaust me so much. I've just been really tired and need to catch up on my energy.

3. I've been a lil cranky! See nombre dos. Yes friends, yet another thing makes me cranky. I'm just a little grump when I'm overworked, what can I say?

4. My stomach hurts. I ate out twice in a row yesterday, and not at the most quality restaurants (Chic-fil-e and Canyon's Burgers....yeah....), which I'm pretty sure is contributing to my less-than-stellar appetite right now. Who wants to run with a tummy ache, anyways?

I feel like a lot of people experience "exercise guilt," but they're not entirely sure why. In the past, and we're venturing to Ed-land here, I had a lot lot lot of guilt when I couldn't exercise the way I thought I should. But news-flash, friends: exercise is not the end all-be all, even for athletes!

I'll admit that it would be pretty dang easy for me to allow myself to feel that guilt. Excuses are easy to come up with - coach says run every day, wanna keep up my endurance, running is mah life, I feel fine, yada yada - but I've come far enough to be honest with myself and be okay with just doing...nothing. Sometimes your leggies just need a break!

I work hard every practice, and I know for a fact that I have a hard workout coming on Monday.

Moral of the story: taking rest days is taking care of yourself. You know when you need it, and it's not logical to think that you have to work hard every. single. day. We're only human - I know most of us would go a lil crazy if we had to work super hard all the time! So do yourself a favor.

Do nothing every once in a while. I promise, it's worth it.

Peace out, girl scouts!

What I Ate This Week + Workouts

Whoops. I didn't mean to make it a whole week before I posted again! Mah b. At least I'm feeling extra perky this morning!

It was fall break around these parts, and ohemgee. It's actually been feeling like fall!! I've been scouring Pinterest for fall outfit ideas, ways to use pumpkin, and homecoming style ideas. Sorrynotsorry.

Anywho, the temps made waking up for practice and running that much more enjoyable! Yup, I still had to wake up at 7 am this week. Better than 5:45 if you ask me.

Although we didn't get a chance to go to the apple orchard (sadness), it's on the agenda for next weekend, so hopefully it will happen!!!


So heeerree's my list of running workouts done for zis week, along with my breakfast that particular day. Because I love me some breakfast.

Monday: 6 mile progression run with 1 mile cool down. Woooooo my favorite! And I'm not even being sarcastic! I was one of the only JV girls at the practices, and I kept up with a couple of Varsity girls for the first 4 miles - that was quite an accomplishment to me! Plus I had a wicked awesome sprint at the end, thankyouverymuch. Wait, am I allowed to brag?

Breakfast:

Bagel, peanut butter, apple, cinnamon, and coffee. Mmm.

Tuesday: 35 minutes easy on the trails (!!), 6 strides, 7 minute plank workout, 7 minutes of lower body stuff (ex. lunges, squats, step-ups, squat-jumps), and "ultimate football" after practice. I have no comment on the status of my skill level when playing ultimate football.

Breakfast:

This breakfast makes me so happy. Chai-spiced pear overnight oats, topped with Sunbutter and a side of coffee. I was sohungry after that practice (I blame Monday's workout), and my oh my do overnight oats hit the spot.

Wednesday (aka freaking hard day that hurts so bad good): Fartleks! Hooray. 1 mile warm up, 45 minutes of alternating 2 min hard, 2 min easy, 1 mile cool down, and 4X100 sprints. This was one of those practices that you wonder why your coaches are torturing you, and when you finish up, you feel so awesomely awesome and energetic yet your legs are jiggly and sore and all you want is to eat and sleep, but you also want to run around even more. It's peculiar.

Breakfast:

The perfect example of an end-of-summer breakfast: plum oatmeal. It was 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup almond milk, 2 diced plums, and a dash each of salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. The plums got warm and started oozing out their sweet juices, and it gave the whole bowl a warm, plum compote flavor. Yums. And what could make it better but with a spoonful of Sunbutter?!

Thursday: 35 minutes easy, at home. I didn't have to wake up, yay! Around 11 I headed out for my easy run around the neighborhood, and it was delightful. I still got in 3.5 miles, not bad!

Breakfast:

You guys, I actually made pancakes!!! Kodiak cakes, to be exact. With a side of warm pear slices, sprinkled with cinnamon and nutmeg, and topped with natural peanut butter. Can you tell I'm so ready for fall?? I LOVE PEAR SEASON!

Here's another pic in case you didn't catch that:

I took advantage of the morning off and made a batch of Kodiak cakes (I'm obsessed with the fact that these babies are whole grain, with a fantastic ingredient list, and all you do is add water to make them). I have the rest wrapped up in the freezer for later!

Friday: 35 minutes easy. Self explanatory. Shin splints.

Breakfast: I forgot to take a pic of breakfast this morning, but it was leftover Kodiak cakes with Honeycrisp apple (!!) slices and peanut butter. But in replacement I have a couple of new favorite bars to share with you!

Odwalla Choco-Walla - oh my I think that this replaces my beloved Chocolate Chunk Luna Bar that I haven't seen in ages. It's super chocolatey with big chocolate chunks, almonds, and oats. Plus, I was more than impressed with the ingredient list, because I was kind of expecting it to have some not-so-natural additions, but this was mostly organic and all natural, with no protein isolates. Winner!

I found this ALT Larabar at Target the other day, and it's awesome! This was cinnamon apple crisp flavor, and it didn't disappoint. It really did taste like apple pie! The actual bar is a little bigger and the texture is denser than the original bars, and it's got pea protein in it for the vegan protein punch (10 grams). I have the pumpkin pie flavor as well and I can't wait to try that one!

So tomorrow I have a long run planned, Sunday is a rest day, and Monday is working hard again...

I hope you lovelies have a fabulous Friday!!

What I Ate This Week

It's Friday, kiddos. You know what that means.

There's a meet tomorrow! (Hmmmmm you thought I was going to say the weekend is coming. That would indeed be true if weekends existed in my life right now. Notcomplainin'.)

My coaches worked our BUTTS OFF this week, with sprints and trails and hills and weight room circuits and planks...oohhh the planks....but this makes me feel even more ready for mañana! It's a flat, fast, and familiar course, so my expectations for myself are higher than the last two (coughcough PR coughcough). Luckily yesterday and today were super easy runs. 

Even though I've been leaning towards the more fitness-y side lately, I did make time this week for good eats! As always. When posting about food, I generally join in on WIAW, sometimes I'll just post a pic if it's too delicious not to share ASAP, but today you're just gonna see what I've been eating through the week.

(Note: my settings and pics are kind of blah. Apologies - aesthetics aren't at the top of my priorities at midnight o' clock and the crack of dawn...only yumminess. :))

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Breakfasts 

One morning was a pancake waffle stack and coffee with a splash of soy milk french vanilla creamer (<---that stuff is good).

 Waffle, warm apples and cinnamon, waffle, warm apples and cinnamon, topped off with a glob of natural peanut butter.

Running-late breakfast: thick chewy delicious (aka bottom) half of a whole wheat bagel, banana, peach, peanut butter, and cinny-mon. Coffee and soy milk creamer x2 on the side.

Mmmm...carby cinnamony peanuty goodness.

Hot oooooooaaaaaaattttttssss. I've only had hot oats once in two weeks! Who am I?!

This darling bowl was 1/3 cup oats, 1 cup almond milk, 1/2 banana, chopped peach, cinnamon and nutmeg, dash of salt, and, of course, peanut butter. It was a bowl of sunshine.

Lunches/Snacks

Obviously I eat lunch at school and have to have snacks, so here's a look at what I've eat to fuel me morning through pre-practice.

Typical lunch: turkey+veggie+hummus wrap, side salad (dressing already on), an apple, and something extra just in case I'm still a little hungry. That day was a homemade granola bar, mmm.

Chickpea salad. Chickpeas, brown rice, canned tomatoes, carrots, dressing (olive oil+lemon juice+salt+pepper+paprika) on top of spinach. 

Along with my lunches, I pack a bunch of snacks to munch on because I'm hungry at least three times during the day. Here I had trailmix (pre-practice), an apple, a clementine, a homemade granola bar, and a dark chocolate coconut Kashi bar.

Here we have a turkey+hummus+veggie wrap, carrots, an apple, and salsa for dippin' (lunch). I also through in an Uber Larabar (midmorning), a half a Clif Bar, and trailmix (pre-practice). 

Dinners

Cassie's penne rosa pasta with shrimp that I'm completely obsessed with - I had this the night before a race. Carbing up, yo. 

One night after a particularly tough practice, my stomach needed something light but also packed a nutrition/protein punch - quinoa salad with roasted veggies! My heavens it was delicious and completely hit the spot. Recipe to come.

Pasta again!!!!! Mom made spaghetti and meat sauce, and I layered spinach under the sauce cuz I love me some veggies.

Snacks/Desserts

I actually don't really like celery, but one day I was just feelin' celery and peanut butter. Eaten in 2nd period.

Mmm best nighttime snack. Yogurt, banana, and.....peanut butter.

Larabars make a regular appearance, all but replacing my beloved Luna Bars!

And chocolate wouldn't be complete without a cup of java. At least I don't think it would!!

So there you go darlings! Wish me luck at my meet tomorrow!!