Odds and Ends

This is going to be kind of a random post, so consider yourself warned! First of all, thank you so much for all of your wonderful advice regarding my last post. My stride still feels a little bit off, but it seems to be getting a lot better--I'm guessing it's simply a matter of fatigue. For whatever reason, I think the half-marathon took a lot more out of me than I thought (which is ridiculous considering I walked half of it, but whatever). So for now, I'm just trying to be cautious of overdoing it, but still continuing on with training.

I got in 10 miles yesterday at a 9:50/mile pace, and while I was hoping to get at least a few more miles in, I didn't want to push it. I've come to the conclusion that I'd rather get to the start line under-trained and healthy than to be exhausted and/or injured (been there, done that, suffered a lot). Thus, when Wilson and I were both struggling with dead legs at mile-7 yesterday morning, we decided to finish our loop and head home from Prospect Park, thus quitting while we were ahead. I think I am STILL picking pollen out of my eyeballs (it was windy and the pollen was blowing EVERYWHERE). But the good news is that my illness is pretty much gone. So yay. Take that, nasty chest cold!

After we got home from our run, I actually felt REALLY good and even had what you might describe as a runner's high (hooray!). We did the laundry and I folded it all and put it away while Wilson did his school-work (he's in animation school right now); then I did some core training . . . and actually contemplated heading out to run AGAIN and log some more miles. But I thought better of it and told myself just to hold onto that desire for the next time I run.

Work was slow today, so I used my lunch break to hit up the gym, where I got in 15 minutes of hard biking + some medicine ball core work + biceps/triceps/shoulders. I feel good and strong now. Ah, how I missed you, strength training!

Finally, I have to share a delicious recipe with you all that Wilson and I made this weekend. I found it here.

Ingredients:

-2 large sweet potatoes (about 2 lb), cooked, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
-3 cups cooked quinoa
-1/2 cup almonds, chopped
-3 oz. fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
-1/8 cup white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
-1/8 cup sesame oil
-2 T. soy sauce/tamari
-2 T. agave syrup
-1 t. powdered ginger
-1/2 oz. chives, chopped-zest and juice from 1/2 orange

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, soy sauce, agave syrup, ginger, chives, zest and orange juice to create the dressing.

2. In a large mixing bowl, fold together the sweet potato, quinoa, almonds and spinach. While stirring, drizzle the dressing over top. Taste the salad and add the dressing to your taste.

3. Refrigerate the salad for about an hour before serving. This salad tastes good cold, or at room temperature.

As I am from the Midwest and I add meat to everything, I added some apple-chicken sausage and it was AMAZING! If you are a quinoa fan (and you should be), I'm going to have to recommend that you try this out. It's a winner for sure! I'm trying to focus a lot more on nutrition these days, and this recipe just goes to show that your food can be nutritious AND delicious!

Alright, sorry this post was kind of all over the place! Hope you all had wonderful weekends! :)