Sometimes I get emails or comments from blog readers thanking me for the healthy eating/nutrition advice. That usually makes me feel a little bit like a fraud. I mean sure, I like to cook healthy-ish foods and devour vegetables, but I also eat a LOT of dessert, often wait too long to eat after running, and I’m a single 20 something living in NYC, which means sometimes dinner = cocktails. Anyway, the reason why I’ve been thinking about this is because someone was reading my blog archives and remarked on how I used to blog about everything I ate. I stopped doing that sometime in 2010 for a lot if reasons, but primarily because I’m not an expert (I studied Renaissance art and Italian in college, not nutrition science). I figured I had better stick to writing about things I sort of know about (running!) than things I don’t. Now, this isn’t to say I’m completely ignorant on the subject of nutrition- I’d like to believe I’ve become somewhat self-educated through reading books and articles about the subject. However, I just wanted to clear the air and remind everyone to take my nutritional “advice” at your own risk. On the other hand, if you want to chat about 15th century frescoes, let’s go.
Even though I don’t really do it anymore, I still thought it might be fun to bring back a “what I ate today” post. As humans we’re curious creatures and while I’m by no means the nutritional ideal, maybe some of you will find it interesting.
BUT FIRST! I’m going to tell you about Thursday’s tempo workout. It was my first team workout since the Philly half 6 weeks ago and while I’ve done a few races/ workouts on my own, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Luckily I had a good group to run with and we posted some solid negative splits. With the exception of the last mile, we were able to exchange brief conversation and dare I say…the first half even felt relaxed? It was a good re-introduction to tempo runs…here’s hoping I can keep this momentum up through mid-April!
The workout was one of our staples- a 6.5 mile tempo beginning at w. 72nd st and heading north on the west side, through the cut off at 102nd st and down the east side to Cleopatra’s needle around e. 80th st. Those first 3.25 miles were to be run around marathon pace and then we turned around and were instructed to run about 15-20 seconds faster.
1.5 mile warmup
6.5 mile tempo: 7:29, 7:21, 7:29, 7:05, 7:03, 6:59, last 1/2 mile at about 6:40 pace
1.5 mile cooldown
10 miles total for the day
Was this the hardest workout ever? No. But did we run it as instructed and finish with boosted confidence? Yes, definitely.
Last week has been decent in terms of mileage, still haven’t jumped into full on marathon training, but Ive been able to hold steady in the 40 mile range. It was also crazy busy at work, something I don’t think is going to let up any time soon, so on some days running at ALL was a victory.
Monday – 6 miles
Tuesday – 6 miles (2 miles at faster than marathon pace, 1 mike at 10k pace)
Wednesday – 4 miles
Thursday – 10 miles (6.5 mile tempo)
Friday – 5 miles
Saturday – 12.5 miles
Sunday – REST DAY, after 39 continuous days of running, the streak is over. My shins hurt.
Total: 43.5 miles
On to the food! The perfect diet for a 20-something who is running 40-50 miles per week? Probably not, but maybe you’re interested anyway. At least dinner involved vegetables, not vodka.
Photos from Friday, January 6th
Breakfast: french press coffee with half and half, orange, lara bar
Morning Snack: more coffee, vanilla chobani yogurt
Lunch: Although it looks like a bowl of lettuce, I assure you that this bowl of veg from Just Salad also included: romaine, kale, carrots, asparagus, scallions, sesame tofu, quinoa, and smokey paprika dressing.
Afternoon Snack: Many candy cane Hershey’s kisses. No photo. You’ll survive.
Dinner: Tomato and chickpea soup inspired by Runner’s World. Yes, I was cooking at 10:18pm. Normal dinner time these days, I guess.
My recipe was kind of loose. I sauteed an onion, some celery, and a bell pepper in oil until soft and then added some garlic. Then I added a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup water, and salt and pepper to taste. I brought this to a simmer for about 5 minutes and then removed from the heat. To finish up, I added a can of chickpeas (rinsed and drained) and 1/2 bag of cooked egg noodles. Serve with grated cheese and bread and dinner is ready in about 15 minutes!
Next time I might either use less noodles or add some broth or another can of diced tomatoes. The resulting dish was a a sort of pasta-soup hybrid. I would like it to be more soup-like, please.
Lately, every night has been ending with hot chocolate and whipped cream. I use instant packets, but doctor them up with extra chocolate chips and sometimes peppermint extract.
How do you make your hot chocolate? With milk? water? from scratch? with cinnamon/cayenne? Tell meeee.