05.03.15 Weekly Recap: Food + Fitness + Fun

Despite the weather being a bit cloudier and cooler than I would like, it was a great week. I tried out a new recipe, tried two new DharmaCycle classes, onboarded two new guides for City Running Tours, ran a half marathon (with some minor issues) and went to the cabin for the first time this year!

Read all about it here…….

FOOD:

The food highlights for the week:

• I’m still obsessed with my super food muesli for breakfast. Never gets old.
• Pineapple made its way back into my life. I cut one up and divided it out for my mid-morning snack. This will only get better as summer rolls on.
• The abundance of Mexican food recipes popping up everywhere the last few weeks inspired my lunches this week: kale salad with avocado, red peppers, corn, black beans, and cilantro. Yum.
• Sugar snap peas and hummus tied me over between lunch and dinner.
• These sweet potato chickpea Buddha bowls were my dinner this week and I am obsessed -> Sweet potatoes and chickpeas, I love them. I swoon over anything with tahini. Kale, because kale. Plus, I’ve never purchased or cooked with broccolini before and I have no clue why. I’ll definitely be making these (or some sort of similar version) again very soon.
• I polished off a box of Lucky Charms this week for dessert. I’m in love with cereal, which is the exact reason I never buy it. But when they hand it out at work for free… well, I just can’t say no.
• Friday night before the Fargo Half Marathon my mom and I went to Toasted Frog in Fargo for dinner where we ordered sweet potato fries, pepperoni pizza, and roma-sonoma pizza. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we only ended up eating half of each pizza. This actually worked out great, because we kept the leftovers and ate them after the race!
• I spent Saturday night at the family cabin with my parents. Our neighbors brought over dinner and we had a delicious meal: grilled raspberry-chipotle pork chops, a salad full of veggies, roasted potatoes, and some crusty bread. For dessert we all split a mini chocolate cake and a mini vanilla bean cake that my mom and I picked up from Nichole’s Fine Pastry before we left Fargo. Everything was absolutely amazing – the food and the company.

FITNESS:

• Sunday: DharmaCycle Yoga 2. This was my first time taking a true yoga class at this studio and I really enjoyed it!
• Monday: Strength + easy run. I started out the day with DharmaCycle Prime Yoga (I love this class). Then in the after work I met with a new City Running Tours guide (!!) for a run. We did the Beer Run 5K route and then I added on an additional 2 miles at the end. Total = 5.2 miles.
• Tuesday: Easy run. I met up with another new City Running Tours guide (!!!) for the first 3 miles of my run then ran another 4.5 miles. Total = 7.5 miles; 8:55 min/mile pace (I only tracked the pace of my last 4.5 miles).
• Wednesday: DharmaCycle cycle class. I finally tried out the cycle class at Dharma. I really liked it! I’ve been really impressed with this studio.
• Thursday: Marathon pace workout. Well, this started as a marathon pace workout, but I was kind of going in and out of it. Part of the issue was that I don’t know what I want what my marathon pace to be. Total = 7.0 miles; 9:01 min/mile pace.
• Friday: Rest day. Making sure my legs are well rested for the Fargo Half Marathon!
• Saturday: Fargo Half Marathon. I registered for this half marathon with my mom. She wanted to cross “run a half marathon” off of her bucket list and asked if I wanted to do it too, which I did. The race went ok (more details below). Afterwards I ran two recovery miles back along the course to find my mom, then accompanied her for the last two miles of her race. Total = 13.1 miles; 9:02 min/mile + 4 miles recovery (run/jog/walk)
• Weekly Totals: 1 yoga class, 1 strength training session, 1 cross-training session, 4 runs (36.8 miles), 1 day rest.

RACE RECAP:

I started the race with the 1:55 pace group with the plan to pick up the pace for the last 5K. It was my first time running with a pace group. I have had intentions of running with a pacer in previous races, but could never find/navigate to them in the start line crowds. This time was successful! Usually during a race I spend too much time the first few miles worrying about if I am going too fast or too slow. While running with the pacer I didn’t look at my GPS watch at all and just trusted that he was keeping the steady pace for me, which really helped ease my mind! I really want to run with a pacer during Grandma’s.

But anyways, the run. I felt great for the first 8 miles – time was flying by! Then suddenly just before mile 9 I felt like I was going to pass out. It’s not like I was gasping for breath or running really hard. I just got really faint and dizzy and had to stop to regain composure. Then I slowed way down and concentrated on taking deep breaths and finishing the race. At mile 12 I tried to pick up the pace a little bit, but I got dizzy again at about 12.8, then really just almost lost it at 13.0. As in, I had to stop in my tracks as people were sprinting towards the finish until I could see again. I finished in 1:58, which is fine considering the circumstances, but I was hoping for a stronger race.

(Side note: Has this ever happened to anyone?! Something similar happened when I ran the Hot Dash 10 Mile in March. It’s really annoying and a little bit scary, so if anyone has suggestions on what to do, that would be great!!)

After I crossed the finish line and drank some water, I went back out to the course to find my mom. I ran 2 miles (which was great for recovery) and found her just before mile 11. She was doing awesome! We finished out the race together. I am so extremely proud of her!! This was a stretch goal for her and a huge accomplishment. She’s one truly amazing lady.

Besides the whole issue with almost fainting while running, the Fargo Half Marathon was great and a very well-organized race. I loved how it started and ended inside the Fargodome, especially because it was a chilly morning (but perfect running weather). The course was flat and featured a lot of live bands and DJs. The spectators and volunteers were fantastic. The medals are fun and the shirts are decent. The parking situation during packet pickup was a nightmare (the 5K had just ended in the same spot), but the shuttles before and after the half marathon were a breeze. Overall, I had a great experience would recommend this race!

OTHER FUN THINGS:

• Last Sunday I met up with a couple of friends for drinks on the patio at Tuggs. The weather started out as a gorgeous 80 degrees, then it got really cloudy and dark, and then started hailing. So bizarre. Almost every time (maybe like 67% of the time) I go to Tugg’s there is some sort of extreme weather. But anyways, it was good to catch up with friends – lots of wonderful things are happening!!
• I was able to spend a lot of time with my mom over Friday and Saturday, which was a lot of fun. She is… so funny. A lot of silly things happened, but they would sound dumb if I tried to type them out all, so just trust me. If you’ve ever met my mom I’m sure you can imagine. Again, I’m so incredibly proud of her for finishing the half marathon and I’m glad I got to share the experience with her.
• It was so, so exciting to go to the Jabin (AKA our family’s cabin) for the first time this year and hang out with my parents and our neighbors (Paul and Cynde). I love that place. I am planning on going to the Jabin basically every weekend this summer, so if you want to hang out you’ll have to meet me up north.

Hope your week was great! Don’t forget to tell your mom, “I love you” if you haven’t yet!