My weekly recaps of food, fitness, and other fun things from the beautiful, sunny week of 04.12.15!

FOOD:

• Breakfasts: Smoothies with the usual suspects of almond milk, protein powder, a frozen banana, chia seeds, kale, and almond butter. Some days I threw in some frozen cauliflower, some I threw in frozen raspberries, and some had no additions.
• Lunches: Salads with mixed greens, lentils, tomatoes, zucchini, and a dressing of olive oil, rice vinegar, lemon, salt, pepper, and mustard.
• Snacks: I had ½ grapefruit for my morning snacks and then had these almond joy energy bites or something similar in the afternoons.
• Dinners: My typical sautéed veggies (onion, green peppers, green beans, and kale) with eggs. There was also a kale salad with salmon and almonds. And then there was that one time I had cookies for dinner on Thursday (whoops).
• Other random meals:
  • My sister and I had Sunday brunch over at Red Cow in North Loop. It opened recently and I had been wanting to check it out. I got the breakfast burrito and Jaci got breakfast pot pie. Bloody Mary’s were also involved. Everything was really good! I want to go back for dinner.
  • Tuesday night dinner with Kristin at Spoonriver. I had the lamb burger with a side salad and it was delicious. I hadn’t had a burger in far too long!
  • Birthday meals: I had my typical pre long run breakfast before the trail race. Then I made a delicious omelet (it’s been forever since I’ve made an omelet!) with roasted garlic asparagus and parmesan and a side of blueberries. For dinner a few friends and I went out to Kramarczuk’s. I had a cabbage roll with tomato sauce and sauerkraut. Gahhhhh so good. There were also lots of good snacks in between 🙂

FITNESS:

• Sunday: Easy run. It was beautiful and sunny and so so sooo very windy, but I saw a bald eagle so that was cool. Total = 5.0 miles; 9:14 min/mile pace.
• Monday: Hill workout. My legs were a little bit beat, but I managed to do a 2-mile warm up, 6 hill repeats, and a 2-mile cool down. Total = 9.15 miles; 9:12 min/mile pace.
• Tuesday: Easy run. Man oh man, I could feel those hills from Monday! I wanted to stop at .2 miles, but worked on my mental strength and pushed through to 4. Total = 4.0 miles; 9:07 min/mile pace.
• Wednesday: Strength Training. I fit in a quick 40-minute strength training workout during my lunch break, primarily focusing on upper body and core. I’m lucky that General Mills has such a nice gym at headquarters! I did two sets each of the following circuits – 1^st: adductors, abductors, leg raises; 2^nd: shoulder press, biceps curls, knee-to-elbow plank with BOSU ball; 3^rd: bent over rows, triceps kick backs, weighted side dips; 4^th: glute bridges, push ups, 1-minute plank hold.
• Thursday: Variety Speed. A 20-minute warm-up followed by 3-4-5-4-3 variety speed and a 20-minute cool down. It’s very similar to this workout, but the intervals are different. I ran “hard” between 8:00-8:30 min/mile and recovered at 9:00-10:00 min/mile. Total = 7.0 miles; 9:18 min/mile pace.
• Friday: Rest day. This is the first full rest day that I’ve taken since mid-March – no yoga, no biking, no nothing; however, I did go on a nice little walk in the park and remembered how enjoyable walks are!
• Saturday: 25K Trail Mix Race. This was my first trail race ever and I absolutely loved it! It was all up and down hills through the Lake Rebecca Park Reserve. I treated it as more of a “long run” than a “race”, which is probably why it was pretty enjoyable. I went with a couple of ladies from run club and ran with my friend Meggan. We walked up the steep hills and stopped at the water stops and enjoyed the change of scenery. I definitely want to try out another one! Total = 15.5 miles; 10:35 min/mile pace.

OTHER FUN THINGS:

• My friend Katie and I booked a trip to Denver for the weekend of May 15! WOO HOO.
• Since it’s my birthday month Anthropolgie gifted me 15% off a purchase, so I bought two sale dresses (because sale on sale) and a new candle. The next day they announced an additional 20% off sale. #ofcourse
• I had a Twin Cities in Motion Marketing Committee meeting on Thursday. We are getting ready for the TC 1-Mile and Red, White, and Boom Half Marathon. Exciting stuff!
• I met up with a couple of friends on Saturday for the first beer rocket of 2015 at Tugg’s! It was my birthday and my best friend just finished her Master’s comp exam (not sure if that’s the actual legit name of it?). Plenty of reasons to celebrate!

I hope your week was as great as mine!

My recap of food, fitness, and other fun things from the week!

FOOD:

There wasn’t much consistency this week since I was out of town for the bulk of it. The highlight of the week (month, probably) was definitely Easter dinner.

Let’s just say mom really knows how to put a meal together. I ate 3x more than I needed to, but everything was just so amazing – Riesling-peach glazed ham, roasted purple fingerling potatoes, whole-wheat rosemary buns, cheesy broccoli casserole, kale and Brussels sprouts salad, and cream cheese brownies. Drooooool.

Other than that I basically just finished up all the remaining fruit (oranges) and vegetables (kale, cabbage, mini bell peppers, and broccoli) from the prior week. Nothing too exciting or creative, but I did snack on this awesome beef jerky and cherry trail mix. I’m obsessed.

FITNESS:

After a few weeks of speed, tempo, and interval workouts it was nice to have a cut back week and some easy miles.

• Sunday: Easy run. I forgot my GPS watch, but I think it was about 4.5ish miles in 40ish minutes back home in Hutchinson. I was facing some fierce wind on the way out, but benefited from it at my back on the way home.
• Monday: Intervals + Strength. I did a workout very similar to this one in my lovely hotel gym pictured above. 4 x [1-minute sprints (7:30 min/mi) + 1-minute recovery (11:00 min/mi)] followed by a 3 x [3-exercise strength training circuit]. Then I repeated that 3 times for a total of 12 sprints and 3 sets of the following circuits – 1^st: dumbbell chest press, sumo squat with shoulder press, triceps dips; 2^nd: Bulgarian split lunges, bent-over rows, plank knee taps; 3^rd: side leg lifts, biceps curls, Russian twists.
• Tuesday: Easy run. My co-worker told me about a 1.5-mile loop that circled around the Fort Wayne YMCA, so I ran that 4 times. It was windy and I could definitely feel Monday’s workout in my legs, but it was a good run overall! Total = 5.0 miles; 8:59 min/mi pace.
• Wednesday: Cross-training. Squeezed in this quick session after I got from the airport. 30-minute elliptical at resistance 15.
• Thursday: Strength training. I focused on core and upper body, since I was doing my long run on Friday. I did 2 sets of the following circuits – 1^st: cable pulls, cable push, plank hand to opposite knee; 2^nd: lat pull downs, scaption, weighted side dips; 3^rd: biceps curls, cable triceps extensions, crunches; 4^th: shoulder press, bent over triceps extensions, plank hold.
• Friday: Long run. It was a beautiful Friday evening for a run! 12.0 miles; 9:01 min/mi pace.
• Saturday: Core Power Heated Power Yoga

OTHER FUN THINGS:

• It was so much fun to be home for Easter. I hadn’t been out to Hutchinson since Christmas and it was nice to have a relaxing weekend with the family.
• My work trip to Fort Wayne was great. I learned a ton!
• It snowed big, wet flakes on Friday morning and then was in the 50s by the afternoon. How weird is that?!
• My friend and I had a co-birthday celebration yesterday where we hopped around Northeast. We started at Bauhaus, skipped over to Indeed, and then wandered over to Dangerous Man. It was a beautiful, sunny day spent with all my favorite people. My sister even made the trek from Sioux Falls to join in on the fun. I’m so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week ahead!

This is a new type of weekly series that I will be posting that will recap my workouts, food, and any other fun things to note about the previous week. These will be a bit more personal, but maybe you will find it interesting?

Maybe you won’t. You can give me your honest feedback. Either way, it’ll be like an online journal for me to keep track of my training and recipes that I made and liked.

So round 1, here we go! Things from the week of March 29:

WORKOUTS:

• Sunday: Core Power Hot Yoga Fusion. Super sweaty and awesome.
• Monday: Hill workout! 2 mile warm-up + 5 rounds of hills + 2 mile cool down. Total = 8.0 miles; 9:11 min/mi pace. I ran into (figuratively, not literally) my little brother during my cool down. He was going for a stroll around Lake of the Isles. We set up happy hour for the next night.
• Tuesday: Core Power Yoga Sculpt. I got there late (as in, a few minutes before class started), so I was stuck right next to the heater in a super crowded space. It was a good workout, but I essentially had to run out of the room for fresh air afterwards. The picture above is from my refreshing walk back home.
• Wednesday: Tempo workout! 2 mile warm-up (~9:20 min/mi) + 2.5 x 10-minute tempo intervals (~8:20 min/mi) with 1-minute rest in between + 2.25 mile cool down (10:00 min/mi). Total = 7.5 miles; 9:15 min/mi pace. I was really soaking up that cool down (AKA: going slow), not my strongest performance.
• Thursday: 45 minute elliptical. I didn’t know I was doing my long run on Friday night until later on Thursday evening; otherwise I’m not sure I would have done this.
• Friday: Long run! 17.0 miles; 9:20 min/mi pace. This run felt great! I could have gone a few extra miles if I needed to, but I was glad I didn’t have to.
• Saturday: Core Power Heated Power Yoga. Perfection.

I have been feeling some pain in my left foot and ankle during my runs recently, so I have been limiting my running to workouts and long runs only during the last few weeks. It felt much better this last week, so I’m hoping to increase the frequency this coming week. I didn’t get as much strength training in as I would typically like (just the sculpt class), but did get some great yoga sessions in. Overall, a good set of workouts this week.

FOOD:

I tend to have the same skeleton of meals – smoothies for breakfast, fruit for morning snacks, salads or soups for lunches, vegetables for snacks, and vegetables with eggs for dinner. I just make sure to switch up the fruit, vegetables, and protein from week-to-week. Sometimes I’ll get inspired by a new recipe and make that, but the variety in fruits and vegetables keeps me interested.

With that said I usually eat the same thing everyday throughout the week, but I really don’t mind because everything tastes good.

• Breakfasts: Smoothies consisting of 1 cup unsweetened almond coconut milk, 1 scoop Sunwarrior vanilla protein powder, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, 2 handfuls kale, 1 frozen banana, and ¼ frozen avocado.
• Mid-Morning Snacks: 1 navel orange.
• Lunches: This paleo detox salad with some quinoa added in.
• Afternoon Snacks: Sugar snap peas, mini sweet bell peppers, and hummus.
• Dinners: A mixed bag this week depending on what my plans were. The majority consisted of sautéed vegetables (cabbage, kale, mushrooms, broccoli, and peppers) with poached eggs, but then there were some happy hours in place of dinners too.
• Indulgences:
  • Tuesday night happy hour at Lago Tacos (chips & dips with a carnitas taco) on a patio!
  • Wednesday night wine and appetizers at La Grolla (Carpaccio di Manzo and Capesante) on another patio!
  • Some post-dinner molten fudge cake filled cookies. I got the cookie dough free at work and then stored the package in my freezer. I sneak them for dessert every so often. You’re not supposed to eat them raw, so don’t do that. Ummm… don’t judge me.
  • My brother’s 30^th birthday celebration on Saturday night that consisted of smoked pork sandwiches, German potato salad, baked beans, and tres leches cake. So, so, so, so, soooo good. Everything.

OTHER THINGS:

My aunt Linda is doing a 30-day Just J.Faye challenge where she is doing a workout from the blog everyday! This makes me so happy. She started with the burpee run, which is (in my opinion) one of the hardest ones. I’m excited to hear about all her experiences.

I hope you are all having a lovely Easter!

Did you get to any patios this week? Have you run outside in shorts yet?