Runners Tell All: I Eat Cupcakes Before I Run

You can probably use your common sense and realize pretty quickly that I'm in no position to offer any advice on how to properly fuel your runs.

Example: I've eaten a cupcake before I've run.  Like as I'm walking out of the locker room into cross country practice.

Example 2: I ate a few bites of a sub about five minutes before my 4X100 race last year in track.  Granted, I didn't realize that my race was so soon, but I still ate it.  And my coach still will not let go of it - Subway is my new middle name.

Example 3: Once I ate a granola bar while I was running.  I wasn't even hungry, I just kind of felt the need to eat, so I took my granola bar with me.

You may be gasping in horror right now, sure that the following runs were disasters with consequences such as throwing up all over the person in front of me or having to run 0.5 miles per hour because I felt so sick.  Don't fear though! I was completely and perfectly fine all three times! In fact, I'm pretty sure that I PR'd in my leg of the 4x100 that day. (Thanks, Subway!)

My apparent superpower of having an iron stomach does have an Achille's heel, however.  I do not want to eat/taste/see/smell/hear food within the first five minutes after a run.  At one cross country meet where I had run particularly hard in the last 400 meters, there was a team that was having a COOKOUT right next to the finish line.

When the aroma of hotdogs and burgers drifted over to me, I was breathing hard (duh.) and as soon as I smelled it, my stomach just flipped. I literally gagged and had to keep running to get away from it.  Here's the kicker: it was like 9 AM.  Who wants 'burgs and dogs before most people are even awake on a Saturday morning?

Anyway, the point of all that was to show what a bad example I am when it comes to running fuel and how you should never, ever come to me because my advice would be:

because it's what I do and I haven't died yet so it must be working.  

I do have some favorite things that I eat in relation to running though.  

Before: 

Obviously, I have no time restraints on when I eat before a run.  For important races though, I do like to keep my last meal at least 45 minutes before start time.  Cereal, bagels with peanut butter, protein bars, and bananas are my favorite pre-race breakfasts. Lots and lots of water throughout the day (if I race in the afternoon) is key to not having to decide between dehydrating and having a full bladder while running. 

During:

Well, I'm not too experienced in this category, but Kashi Chocolate Almond Sea Salt with Chia Bars (longest name ever) seem to do the trick! :) 

After: 

I'm a smoothie girl! One of the first things I crave after a run is a fruity, cold smoothie! If those aren't readily available, then fruit, Gatorade, and protein bars will have to do the trick.  Of course I chug about a gallon and a half of water a few minutes after I run when I'm done gasping for air, but I try to keep up a steady water intake for a couple hours. 

When I do get smoothies post-run, I like to make my smoothies protein-packed so it can be a one-and-done sort of ordeal. I use CrioSport Vanilla Whey Protein powder and I think it's pretty good.  I'm not very educated in the realm of protein powders though, so if you have any suggestions, let me know! 

Last night I made a delicious fruity smoothie that I want everyone to know about because I love it so much! 

Here's what you need:

- frozen pineapple chunks (I didn't measure, but about 3/4 cup? Maybe?)

-blueberries (Fresh or frozen. Mine were frozen. ½ cup?)

-1 frozen banana

-1/4 cup of oats

-water

-1 scoop of vanilla protein powder

Blend up the oats by themselves first to avoid having oat chunks.  It's not as gross as it sounds though.  Next, blend everything else until it's nice and smooth.  

Enjoy!

I linked-up today with Amanda and Beka! If you want some real running fuel advice, you should probably check out some of those links over there.  You know, maybe you'll find some people who don't eat cupcakes right before they run.  

What are some of your running food rituals? Any protein powder suggestions? 

Smoothie Round-up

I love smoothies.
Let me say that again:
I. love. smoothies. A lot. 

My smoothie consumption is definitely higher than that of the average smoothie enthusiast.  My accomplishments include (but are not limited to) drinking a smoothie every day of the week, occasionally drinking a smoothie for every meal of the day and owning about five smoothie recipe books.  My mother is proud.

Since I'm obviously a guru here (#sarcasm in case you can't tell), I'll impart a little smoothie knowledge on you.  Some things I've learned about smoothies:

1) If using spinach, blend the spinach and your liquid first before adding the other ingredients. Otherwise you will have spinach chunks.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

2) Frozen bananas are the best thing ever because they make smoothies thick and you get to eat them with a spoon.

3) There's no such thing as too many smoothies.

With this being said, it would be cruel of me to tell you all this and not give you anything to practice your newly learned skills on, wouldn't it? Here's some of my favorite go-to smoothies:

(I have no measurements because I don't measure things out . . . sorry!)

• Chocolate Peanut Butter: (creative name, huh?) Sweet & thick. Tastes somewhat like chocolate ice cream or a Frosty to me!
• frozen banana (the more the thicker, as they always say)
• vanilla protein powder
• oats
• peanut butter
• cocoa powder
• water
• Orange Strawberry: So delicious! Not as thick as the CPB, but it's so fruity and the orange juice just makes the flavor perfect.
• Orange juice
• Strawberry yogurt
• Vanilla yogurt
• Frozen strawberries
• Frozen banana
• Tropical Greens: Pinapple-y and so, so green. But not thick. 
• Frozen pineapple
• Mango
• Spinach (remember tip #1!)
• Frozen banana
• Plain/vanilla yogurt
• Water

And there you have my three favorites! I also love to include frozen blueberries, raspberries, almond milk & flax seed in a lot of my smoothies. 

If you want some more ideas, feel free to swing by my Pinterest board dedicated completely to smoothies (another one of my qualifications)!

If you end up trying any of my favorites, let me know how you liked it!

P.S. If all is going according to plan, I should be somewhere in Greece right now! I'll respond to comments and update you on my trip as soon as I can get some reliable wi-fi!

Sweat & Sweets

Last night, I did something that I haven't done in a long time.

I went to the gym.

I know, I know.  Shocking, right?  I would have convinced myself out of last night's expedition if the left hand turn lane that led to the gym had not had a shorter line than the right hand turn line that led to my house.  That's my reasoning in a nutshell right there.  But I'm so glad that I went, even if I only had 25 minutes.

I started out with a quick run: only 1.5 miles.  But here's the exciting part.  I finally got my mile time back under 8 min/mile! I haven't been able to do that since cross country season ended in November. Maybe all it took was having limited time and having to get in and out of the gym quickly?  I don't know, but it makes me happy!

Then I turned to the app that I love to hate: Nike Training Club.  It kills me.every.single.time.  But I just keep going back for more, and I haven't died yet, so our relationship is working out pretty well.  I did a fifteen minute legs workout that has me wincing (in a good way, because our relationship is so great! Remember?) every time I go to sit down.

Now all that working out and healthiness (okay, it was like 25 minutes.  I spend more time than that picking out what to wear in the morning some days) was good and fine for yesterday.  But today is today and what today needed was something extra sweet.

Pinterest Crazy

Ahhh, Pinterest.  There is no other social media that I would rather waste my time on (except for Instagram, maybe).  My Pinterest days began wayyy back when you needed an invite to join and all my friends thought I was crazy for being obsessed.  Now that they're all crazy-obsessed themselves, I can definitely say "I told you so."

But despite the abundance of crafty DIYs, "simple" recipes and "easy" hair tutorials, they just never seem easy enough for this non-artistic, toast-burning, hair styling-challenged girl.  So I just pin them.  And that's the end of that.

Yesterday was a little different though.  I went a little Pinterest crazy.

It all started off when a friend and I started making another friend a birthday cake at 12:30 am.  I regretted joking that we would end at 4am when 4am rolled around and I was still elbow deep in soapy water, half-asleep.

The finished product (a Pinterest recipe!) definitely will be worth it when I get a slice of its double layered white-chocolate raspberry deliciousness on my plate though.

After a refreshing five hours of sleep, I got up to have the entire house to myself for the day.  This resulted in the creation of THREE more Pinterest recipes. I expected three naps, not productive and delicious creations.

It all started with the for real easy, healthy and yummy "breakfast cookies" which have turned into "breakfast cookies plus 11 am, 3pm, 8pm and pretty much any other time I walk into the kitchen cookies".

Next, for lunch, a vegan twist on tuna salad caught my eye and 30 minutes later, I had myself a mashed chickpea sandwich which tastes much better than it sounds . . . and looks.  

I spread avocado on some bread, added a few spinach leaves, plopped the chickpea masterpiece on and . . . volià! An amazing lunch was created! 

Finally, dinner came and not feeling in the mood for something fancy, but wanting something more than the frozen chicken nuggets that I eat every time I'm left to my own resources, a quick look a my Pinterest boards gave me the recipe to a Lauren Conrad baked oatmeal creation.  I tripled the recipe, threw it in the oven for 40 minutes and waited while it made the whole house smell like cookies. (I had already exhausted my Pinteresting for the next six months though, so cookies didn't actually happen.) 

This: 

became this:

and once I had topped it with some almond butter and bananas, it proved itself to be worth the wait.

So I guess the moral of the story is, stay up until 4am baking cakes and you'll never know what will come out of it.

Happy Pinteresting, friends!

Love,
Allison