Two things.

I feel like this is my last week of "freedom" before I get sucked into marathon training (next week, people!). So, if I don't feel like running, I don't. I've been doing a lot of yoga lately instead... Sometimes I get bored in the library and I start distracting myself with asanas since I'm the only one there. 

I usually do self-led yoga postures, but sometimes if I need some inspiration or something a little different, I resort to podcasts. This one and this one are my favorites from 3 Dog Yoga in Santa Rosa. If you have a background in yoga and have a basic knowledge of what certain postures are, I couldn't recommend these more! They are the best.

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I celebrated this past Saturday night by watching "A Lot Like Love" and making flourless chocolate cupcakes. I found this recipe and am now not only obsessed with these cupcakes but also with The Iron You. These cupcakes had everything I love; almond milk, chocolate, coconut :) And The Iron You loves all of those things plus running and yoga and racing triathlon. I will have to get lots more recipes from his blog!

Hope your week is going well :)

Great summer salad.

Do you ever find a recipe that you really like and then proceed to make it over and over again until you get completely sick of it?

That's what I'm doing with this summer salad. 

[Source]

I made this salad for my roommates a few times over the course of this past school year, and it's always been a big hit. When friends were coming into town over the weekend, I wanted to make something that would accommodate everyone's preferences and dietary restrictions (vegetarianism, dairy allergies, etc.). This ended up being the perfect solution, and I got to use some fresh, sweet corn that is available in vast quantities in my country town this summer. 

All you need is tomatoes, red onion, black beans, corn, an avocado, and seasonings.  I love this recipe because it has such basic, easy ingredients that I usually have on hand, and is very quick to prepare with little clean-up. I chop everything up first, and then toss the fresh veggies in a bowl before adding the rinsed black beans. I like to cook the corn in the microwave for 4 minutes and then shear it off the cob with a knife. Once you've got everything together just add olive oil, salt, and pepper to your preferences and there you go! Great for sharing or to get you through the week. I'm getting ready to make a new batch today!

Some random things and a few recipes!

A few randoms:

My friend/roommate got me this great shirt for my birthday - love it!

My toes were VERY messed up after the marathon... blisters and cuts everywhere for weeks. I've always questioned running in toe socks but I went to our local running store with a gift card and he suggested these. They have been GREAT for blister prevention. I haven't done any truly long runs yet but normally I get small blisters here and there just from short runs and with these - nothing! No rubbing. I want to get a second pair all in pink :)

This is why I like to start the day with exercise :)

My knee has slowly but surely been getting better. I tried to run outside a few weeks ago when the weather was nice but all of the hills here really aggravated my knee and I had to take some days off after that. So since then, I've stuck to the treadmill. Sometimes I'll bump it up to 1% incline about halfway through my run, other times I leave it at 0. THIS article explains that it might not necessarily be more beneficial to your runs to use the incline. I'm undecided, personally! This week my running has looked like this: 

Sunday: 5 miles
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: Off (work 7-9:30AM)
Thursday: 6 miles
Friday: 7 miles
Saturday: 4 miles

My most consistent "rest day" is always Wednesday because I've started working at a dining hall on that day. I typically take another rest day off on Saturday or Sunday unless my knee is feeling really good and have time!

Tried to smile but it turned out to be a grimace because it was 6:58AM.

We had a snowday on Thursday (first full day cancellation due to weather at my university in FOUR years!) and I had plenty of time to get my run in and not rush to class. It was great :)

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Let's talk about recipes!

A friend sent me an awesome cookbook for my birthday - Racing Weight Cookbook. It has TONS of amazing recipes with maximum nutrients for athletes. It written by two authors - one is a marathoner and one is a rower/marathoner, so it's pretty much perfect! I've tried several recipes from the cookbook  and wanted to share a couple.

The first one I really liked were these wheat-free banana coconut bars. They have oatmeal, a banana, and coconut oil as the main ingredients and came out really well. I cut them up and packaged them individually so I could throw them in my bag for snacks at school all week!

Another quick, easy recipe from the book were these "salmon cakes." All you need is some cooked boneless, skinless salmon (in a can) and some panko breadcrumbs and these take about 20 minutes to whip up! 

Smoothie bowls with the following ingredients are a hot item around here right now too...

Yum.

Yesterday for lunch I made a sweet-potato chickpea wrap from a recipe on Thug Kitchen. If you aren't familiar with Thug Kitchen, you should DEFINITELY go read that recipe ASAP. It's worth it - you'll probably laugh the whole time. I love Thug Kitchen because despite their tough exterior, they offer healthy, vegan recipes and make eating healthy the BA thing to do. 

These wraps were the bomb.

Steam the sweet potatoes and chickpeas

Slice up some red onion to sauté with lemon juice

Thinly sliced apple

Shazam! Delicious wrap! Or burrito bowl if you wrap ends up ripping like mine did.

Hope those recipes tide you over - more are coming!

Cooking at my apartment.

My blogging was so sparse last semester that I don't think I ever talked in depth about how I was doing with the cooking at my first apartment. Throughout the semester, I never stopped loving being able to prepare my own foods and go to the grocery store. It's one of my favorite things about apartment life. I never once opted to eat out to avoid cooking. 

I try to stay organized about my grocery shopping so that I don't grab the wrong things that I won't use, or certain components for recipes but not others. For example, if I don't go in with a plan, I might come out with 3 boxes of delicious cereal but no milk. 4 cucumbers for a salad, but no lettuce or dressing. Or, 3 bunches of lettuce that I'll never be able to eat before it goes bad. Peanut butter, but no jelly. You get the idea. So, I always make a grocery list. I sit down and plan out the meals that I'd like to have for the next week. I like to write the list in the order that I go through the store; usually starting with produce and ending in dairy. I methodically work my way through the store, crossing stuff off my list as I go (or deleting it from my phone). 

One of my favorite parts of grocery shopping is that I generally bring Alex with me. For the majority of last semester, we always went to the grocery store midday on Fridays (which we both had free from classes). Often times, we didn't spend time together all week until Friday, so it became our "thing." However, while I try to be methodical about my grocery shopping, Alex is the opposite. He likes to run all of the store in no particular order, as things come to mind. It drives me CRAZY! The supermarket is giant, so I inevitably have to chase him so I don't lose him, all while trying to maintain my composure and grab the things I need along the way, trying not to allow my organized system to be disrupted. It's equal parts frustrating and hysterical. 

Towards the beginning of the semester, I did several crockpot recipes; usually thick soups or stew-type meals. I still have some leftovers from those in my freezer. As the semester went on, I got very obsessed with roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli and started eating those everyday. Post-marathon, I started making goals to meet a daily protein quota, so I started finding fancy ways to fix eggs so it wouldn't get boring. I also began eating a lot of vanilla Greek yogurt with cereal. And of course, lots of nut butters :)

I haven't busted out the crockpot yet, but I did make blueberry muffins on Sunday night while watching Downton Abbey. 

My mom has been recently obsessed with the cookbook "Thug Kitchen." It's pretty hilarious; take one glance at their website and you'll see why.  Once you get past the language, there are tons of amazing recipes to choose from. AND all of the recipes are vegan! Many of them offer non-vegan substitutions, but even so, most of these recipes are very healthy. A lot of them even offer tips on where to find certain ingredients in the grocery store, which I find helpful, particularly for the more obscure things. 

I made a list of the "Thug" recipes that I thought I would enjoy most, and I'm hoping to try a few soon!

Chickpea Tabbouleh.

"Hoppin' John."

Sweet potato & chickpea wraps.

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I've been running about 30 minutes every day since getting to Oxford - all treadmill miles since it's usually dark in the mornings when I'm running, or just too cold. 

This morning I had the pleasure of having the fitness center to myself the entire time. Loved it.

I loved being able to run without feeling self-conscious - and setting the TV to the channel I wanted!

Hopefully next week I'll go up to doing some 40 and 50 minute runs!

Happy Holidays!

Merry belated Christmas to everyone celebrating! Hope everyone is having wonderful holidays and is able to relax with family. 

We went to a couple of services on Christmas Eve and went to bed early... gettin' old I guess.

Started off Christmas Day with my physical therapy exercises before everyone else went downstairs. Hopefully the new year brings new hope in terms of my recovery and return to running!

Every Christmas morning, we host a brunch, and on Christmas Eve I prepare a blueberry apple coffee cake for everyone to enjoy. I followed this recipe and would definitely use it again! 

I received some Nutella in my stocking and ate it with a banana this morning... just like I used to do for breakfast everyday in Europe!

My sister got me some socks (socks are my favorite) - these ones are perfect!

My dad set up clipless pedals on the bike I was using over the summer for the 50-mile ride. I'll start practicing to clip & unclip indoors and then try outside! A relative generously gave me some hand-me-down clipless shoes. I can still expect to go down a couple of times before I'm used to it but I'm excited to start using these clipless shoes - hopefully helps me be speedier!

In the meantime, I can be found on the erg. I've still been working on long and low pieces but I will start with shorter explosive pieces soon so I can get ready for the upcoming sprint season.

Vegetarian Chili, the 18-miler, and other important things.

I feel like I have so much to catch you up on! Last week was extremely busy, and I am still adjusting to my new routine but hopefully will be able to get posts up a little more often now that I'm settling in. 

Let's start at the beginning. Last week I threw a bunch of veggies into the crockpot and made CHILI. 

I loosely followed THIS recipe.

It was comprised of several different kinds of beans, zucchini, asparagus, tomatoes, bell peppers, sweet potato, and lots of other goodness. 

Lasted for SEVERAL dinners and was a big hit among my roommates.

I also discovered this:

It's very delicious but a little pricey so I will only eat/buy it on special occasions. 

I had a busy weekend with 2 really early wake ups so I used that almond butter to bribe myself out of bed.

On Saturday, I did my 18-MILER! It was one of the most fun I've had on a long run, and the miles seemed to fly by (well, sort of). This was due largely in part to the fact that I had two AWESOME friends tag team it through my run. My roommate got up with my at 5:45AM to start me off, and she did about 6 miles with me. I did about 4 miles on my own, and then met my other friend who got me through the last 8 miles. Having someone to talk to for most of the run was amazing, and distracting from the potential misery that I could've been in.

By the end of the long run, I felt SO done. The distance was manageable though, and I felt confident. I hit marathon pace in the last 4 or so miles, but most of it was easy-paced. On Thursday, I had done 9 miles with 6 tempo miles on the treadmill. That went well. I'm still bouncing back from my "injury" but not having any problems. One week till it's time to taper.

When I got home from the 18-miler on Saturday, I rolled out my muscles and stretched, and then sat on some ice packs for awhile to help my muscles recover. Before long, my parents came into town to hang out with me and my sister for a few hours!

We had gelato, bought some a college sweatshirt for my mom, and hung out enjoying the cooler weather. 

As a side note, some challah was also made last week. This will be happening again soon.

On Sunday, we left at about 6:30AM to go spend the day in Dayton playing with service dogs. We get to help foster/socialize them! We don't have our own service dogs to individually foster yet but we're hoping that next semester there's an opportunity for that. For now, there's just lots of playing with the puppies :)

On Sunday evenings I always spend some time planning out my food for the week. I decide what I need for lunches and dinners and whether I'll need to pack lunches, meet my sister for lunch to use her discounted meal plan, or whether I have evening engagements after class that will include dinners. If I'm going to do a crockpot meal I decide what day of the week I should cook that up (Monday or Tuesday?) depending on my schedule. 

As I approach the marathon taper, I want to veer away once again from snack-y, unfulfilling foods, and focus on eating cleanly and wholesomely. In the past 2 weeks I've been so busy that I've opted for more quick, easy options more often than usual. In many ways, my health will be of the utmost importance in the next weeks leading up to the marathon, and diet plays such an incremental role in that.

I decided I wanted a salady type of meal for this week, so last night I whipped up a quinoa salad with what I had in my kitchen. I had lots of corn on the cob I needed to use, so I cooked that in the microwave, made some red quinoa, and mixed it all together with some baby kale that I needed to use up. I thought I could add more to it, so I also stirred in some frozen broccoli (my fave). To dress it, I just mixed in a bunch of olive oil and some salt and pepper.

I just had some for lunch and I really liked it! It's good cold; I prefer it room temperature. It's balanced and filling with lots of great energy in it! Also, I love being able to clean out my fridge before stuff gets too old. 

Coming up this week : 

-Rowing in the double starts TOMORROW.

-On Wednesday I might make a slow-cooker "bean medley..." I will have to let you know how that goes!

-More challah baking

Running recap from last week (9/1-9/6):

Sunday : 5 miles easy (treadmill). 

Monday: 6 miles on the treadmill with miles 2-3 and 4-5 at marathon pace.

Tuesday : 4 miles on the treadmill.

Wednesday : Off

Thursday : 9 miles with 6 middle miles @ 7:45-7:48 pace.

Friday : 2.5 miles ( I stopped because I thought I could feel my hip tightening up and I was worried!)

Saturday : 18 miles.

Total : 44.5 miles (and feeling good!)

Hopefully another post in a day or two - I'm trying to get back in that pattern!

Things Lately.

The BEST concoction ever.

Have you ever tried one of these? I'm really enjoying them lately!

I finally received my yearbook from our semester abroad and I'm still really excited that we crushed the competition on this one... ;)

My hip has still been inflamed, and I took Monday and Wednesday completely off (other than all my bike riding and walking back and forth from campus, and I'm about a mile-and-a-half so that makes a good workout in itself!). I did about 45 minutes of spinning on Tuesday, and that felt okay, plus a 30-minute foam rolling class, which maybe helped. Today I knew I had to take action since I'm still not ready to run, and I don't want all my fitness and hard work over the past several months to just disappear. I did 36 (yes, 36!) minutes of pool running early this morning before the elderly ladies' aqua Zumba took over the pool. Pool running started out slow and boring but I liked it more and more as I went along. 

I brought my cap and goggles in case I needed them to do laps but the awesome thing about pool running is that you never have to put your face in :) 

So my hair and face stayed dry and chlorine-free!

I first learned about pool running as cross-training (or as a replacement for real running when you have an injury) when Hungry Runner Girl started using it as a tool when she got injured before her marathon. She made great instructional posts here, here, and here which I've consulted to make sure I'm doing it properly! Before I saw her doing that, I thought it was something only elderly people do! Now that I've done it, I can say that it's a GREAT workout, although not as great a real running.

Hopefully I'll get to try out the elliptical in a few minutes and see if that feels okay - just to get some extra cardio! I'll be back on the roads in no time!

Alex's Favorite Pasta.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Alex's favorite pasta dish : spaghetti aglio e olio. I believe we first made this dish together circa 2009, when we began dating. Alex, the pasta connoisseur, will only eat spaghetti noodles if they are prepared this way. Otherwise, he's a penne guy all the way. I think this is a great, summery pasta dish that pairs well with most main courses and is yummy served warm or room temperature. I promised I would make this for him tonight and I will be eating a rice and veggies dish (GF).

We have always used THIS RECIPE from one of Ina Garten's cookbooks. Now we adapt it in our own way - a little different each time :)

Spaghetti aglio e olio has a translation that sums up the simplicity of the dish in four words : Garlic and oil spaghetti. 

Now when we make it, we typically make 2 servings, and Alex will eat them both. I'm still feeling great on a low to 0 gluten diet, but I definitely don't want to discourage Alex from eating gluten and getting the quantities of pasta and other awesome carbohydrates he wants needs and enjoys. Sometimes if he's feeling really ambitious, we make a whole pound of pasta. His abilities are truly impressive.

Start by boiling the water for the pasta in a large pot. After draining the pasta, set aside 1-1.5 cups of pasta water.

You can also start heating the olive oil in a large sauce pan on medium-low heat. Meanwhile, chop up some parsley and about 4 cloves of garlic. You can always add some white onion or other flavorful crunchy veggies that you enjoy.

Add the garlic to the pan of olive oil and let it cook - but don't let it get too brown! Now, take the pasta water and add it to the sauce pan, allowing the mixture to simmer for about 5 ish minutes. Then, add in the pasta and toss off the heat. Stir in the parsley and lots of parmesan cheese.

Voilà! A delicious, easy, and simple pasta meal :)

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Three things that made me happy yesterday :

1. My sister helped give me a "manicure"... I like shiny glitter!

2. Before every semester at college, I go shopping at Trader Joe's (my university isn't nearby to one) and pick out a favorite treat/essential. Yesterday I picked this :

3. I found these FINALLY at the normal grocery store... I first saw an ad for these on Facebook while I was living in Europe... I've been on the search ever since! These will also be coming to school with me :)

I try to eat ^ those sparingly those because they have so many artificial ingredients and are pretty bad for your teeth because of all the sugar... hopefully they last for quite awhile!

Now just gearing up for my Sunday long run... Going to spend today hydrating and resting as preparation! 

Monthly miles and granola.

I ran 154.5 miles in the month of July... yippee!

This afternoon I made GRANOLA. I'm very picky about homemade granola because I often feel that it's too bland or doesn't have enough crunch. 

I have experimented with a few recipes and ultimately ended up making my own with ideas from several different ones. Here's what I used :

-2 cups rolled oats

-1 packet of Quaker cinnamon instant oatmeal

-1/2 cup of white quinoa

-1 cup of muesli (with dried apple and mixed raisins)

-1 cup of slivered almonds

-About 1 cup of finely shredded coconut

-1 handful (or more) of dried cranberries

-1 cup of coarsely chopped apricots

-1/3 cup honey

-2 tbsp. olive oil

-2 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 325*F and cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Mix all of the ingredients together with a wooden spoon, until just combined. If you feel the mixture needs to be stickier or sweeter, feel free to add more honey! I'm not big into measuring cups or spoons and am much more of a "fistfuls of everything" type of girl. Spread the mixture out evenly on the cookie sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes. Be sure to stir it every 5-10 minutes so it doesn't get too well-done on one side!

Then, enjoy! (But don't burn your tongue like I did!)

It's a blueberry jam makin' kinda day.

Today, we did something I've been wanting to do forever. We made ourselves some proper jam out of the fresh blueberries I picked on Wednesday. 

In June 2004, we made jam with our neighbor (she led the reins on that project at the time). If it hadn't been for that experience I probably wouldn't have ever known that it's simple and easy to make your own jam! Jam-making was the primary reason I wanted to go pick mass quantities of blueberries. 

I got my mom in on this because I knew jam-making would a two-person gig. Over the past few days, we've read a few different articles on jam-making, the sterilization of the jars, and the proper sugar quantities to use. 

We were lucky, the only thing we needed to buy was pectin, since we had a bunch of jars leftover from our prior jam-making extravaganza (a decade ago). 

So here's a quick one-two on the old jam-brewing business!

The first thing we did was go to the store and buy the pectin. This is likely going to be found in the jars and canning section of your grocery store. I did not know such a section existed, and spent about 10 minutes staring at the Jell-O section before finally asking. Sure enough, there's a whole section in your grocery store dedicated to making your own preserves! If you need jars and/or lids, buy them here as well.

We ended up primarily referring to the recipe and instructions inside the box of pectin. These were the most helpful to us.

The first thing you've got to do is mash up your berries as well as you can! We used about two cups (mashed).

Next, pour those mashed berries in a pot on medium-high heat. Pour your pectin in immediately. This is what pectin looks like (iced coffee=optional).

Keep stirring until it begins to boil, and then immediately dump in your sugar. You will need 1 cup of sugar for every 2 cups of mashed berries that you have. So, since we had 2 cups mashed berries, we added 2 cups of sugar.

Allow to boil for 1 minute and then remove from the heat immediately.

Your jars and lids should be ready and sterilized. (To sterilize, keep them in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove with kitchen tongs.)

Carefully ladle your blueberry mixture into the sterilized jars. If you get some of the mixture on the edges or sides of the jars, wipe it up with a damp paper towel. The jars should be filled pretty much to the top with a smidgen of extra room (this will allow the lids to be sucked on, which allows the jam to be preserved).

Then, using tongs, place the jars in your big pot of boiling hot water (left over from when you sterilized the jars). Pour several cups of cold water over top of the jars. Turn the heat up and allow them to boil for 10 minutes.

Carefully remove your jars after 10 minutes. Now, as they cool, wait to see if the lid sucks onto the jar. It will likely make a vacuum-like sound. If you can no longer press down on the clicky top of the of the jar, then it has properly sucked on. This means you can keep the jam in the cupboard, rather than in the fridge, and it has a much longer shelf-life! Of course, once you open it, keep it refrigerated for up to 3 weeks.