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Girls Night In + Healthy Veggie Dinner
Almost a year ago to the day, I took one of the best vacations of my life so far (what I justified as a “graduation present” to myself). As a country-lovin’ girl with a fascination for small town charm, rural areas, east coast beaches and southern accents, I excitedly planned a roadtrip through North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. I still think about that trip at least once a week.
I’m bringing it up again because my mom and I finally started to save all of our pictures from the trip and put them into a scrapbook. We had started our day with a sprints/HIIT workout during sunrise, and after work I had a strength training/plyometrics workout with our trainer for Boise Elite Running. Suffice it to say, I earned my glass of Riesling, which I think heightened my sense of nostalgia over this trip. I may have ended the night by creating a new Pinterest board planning my next southern road-trip (now to decide: autumn or spring?!).
My mom and I planned a girls night to make dinner together, rent a redbox movie, and hang out together. The low-key girls night without workouts, errands, or social stuff was so refreshing since most nights here have been go-go-go. When the sun is out til 10pm, it’s hard to stay home. But then it makes the rare nights with movies and pajamas so much more appreciated! :)
We knew we wanted a healthy dinner so that we could splurge. The most difficult decision: wine or ice cream?!
One of my all-time favorite meals is roasted root vegetables, no matter what time of year. Chopping up the butternut squash is so time-consuming (and slightly dangerous for my fingers) but so worth it. The rest is just chopping up sweet potatoes, zucchini, carrots, onions, apples, brussels sprouts and whatever else you want to throw on the pan. We mix the veggies with a little bit of olive oil and some marjoram spice, garlic and pepper. Roasted at 425 degrees for 50-ish minutes and they come out so warm, caramelized and flavorful. My mouth is watering!
Have you seen Hello, My Name is Doris? We LOVE Sally Field, especially from the old show Brothers & Sisters. This wasn’t my favorite movie but it was still cute. Some parts were so awkward that it was painful to watch, where you just cringe for the main character. I’d give it a 6.5 out of 10 stars, so we had to add an episode of Friends before we went to bed to end the night on a funny note. :)
Nothing super special about our leisure girls night in but sometimes it’s just what you need. Especially when we’re balancing out such adventurous weekends…..cliff jumping and paddle-boarding are on the agenda for the upcoming weekends. We are living more in Idaho than we did in 20 years in California!
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be meeting a friend I made through the running club in a nearby town for a trail run before work. I love driving when it’s so quiet out and running through the sunrise. The first five minutes after the early alarm clock goes off are the worst but thankfully a pot of coffee is waiting for me. And the feeling after a good run through nature is indescribable; you just have to experience it for yourself.
Hope you have some fun plans this weekend & I’ll catch ya back here Monday!
Seventeen Miles and Some Southern Cookin’ (Happy Birthday, Daddy!)
Hope you’re feeling fresh this Monday morning for a brand new week :) If not, well…there’s always coffee.
My dad’s birthday fell on Sunday….traditional long run day for marathon training. He’s been my long run buddy, tackling the miles right along side me on his bike. I offered to switch this week’s 17-miler to Saturday, or let him sleep in and head out by myself. But he insisted that he didn’t mind starting off his special day just like every Sunday for the past month. He’s a special kind of weird. :)
When he turned 50, he and I did a half-century bike ride together…50 miles to the beach. Last year, my “present” to him was hiking the Cactus to Clouds trail near palm springs. My little not-so-subtle reminder that age is just a number and being active is the best counter to aging. Plus I just like spending time outside with him. ANYWAYS, back to the run…
Of course it also happened to be 104 degrees on Sunday (Hey, Happy First Day of Autumn!). You can sleep in or you can escape the heat, you cannot have both. When I woke up to start the coffee pot, it was still dark out. By 7am, we were cruising around the neighborhood as I tried to piece together seventeen miles that were mostly shady, paved, and did not include running multiple loops.
I made it through the run with three water stops and a tangerine gu, replaying my most adrenaline-inducing playlist. Two hours later, I had logged my longest run since 2014’s marathon. 17 miles, 2 hours and 4 minutes, 7:18 average mile pace. Complete success to me, considering I felt like I had plenty left in the tank as I cooled down and stretched. But all the marathon research I’ve done has been very clear about one thing: be patient, because you do not want to “peak” to early or fatigue yourself before the actual race. So I crossed that major task off my to-do list and re-focused my energy on new birthday recipes!
Typically my dad likes Mexican food on his birthday but this year’s request came way out of left field: homemade chicken & waffles, with peach cobbler a la mode. A southern meal that is pretty far from anything I’ve ever made before. I’ll take the opportunity for practice getting ready for southern living in the Carolina’s!
The meal is slightly healthified with some modifications. Not to be confused with “healthy.” There is nothing healthy about this meal, just keeping it real. Even future personal trainers break the clean-eating diet for special occasions :)
We oven-baked the chicken, made whole wheat waffles, and kept portions in check with a green salad. Success, y’all!
And no, I didn’t make my dad complete a Spartan race, an Ironman, or anything crazy for his birthday. Nope, we actually kept it low-key with a guilt-free relaxing afternoon, iced coffees, Mad Men episodes, football, NASCAR (okay, I totally Pinterest-ed during that part) and some presents.
We LOVED our cinnamon-y peach cobbler, and I promise there were candles but it was a little difficult to make the crumbly peachy mixture appetizing in a photograph. You can take my word for it ;)
This week I’m starting serious studying for the NASM exam, mixing in some speed and tempo workouts for the marathon training and getting back into clean-eating mode. See you here again soon! :)
Yasso 800s Workout & NASM Registration (!!)
Well hello there :) It’s been a whirlwind of a week already and I’m excited to share a life update, but first….my variation of Workout Wednesday.
Any marathoners out there have surely heard of Yasso 800s. It’s a fancy name for a speed workout that is highly regarded in many marathon training programs.
If you’re NOT training for a marathon, then why aren’t you training for a marathon don’t stop reading now! I promise not to bore you with running jargon for too long :)
Marathon training involves a careful combination of long runs and recovery, endurance, speed, and strength training. Add in injury prevention, hydration, nutrition, and mental strength and you have quite a lot to juggle. Best way to look at it is one day at a time! Just like in the race…one mile at a time.
If you couldn’t guess, I ran Yasso 800s this morning. (Geez, how many times can I say YASSO in one post?) This is a standard marathon training workout that is considered a “race time predictor.” The workout consists of ten intervals of 800 meters (approx. half a mile) with equal recovery time in between. The goal is to run all ten intervals at a consistent pace. The average of your 800 meter times is considered a pretty accurate prediction of your race time potential.
Essentially: if you run all of your 800 meter intervals around 3 minutes 30 seconds, then you will likely run a 3 hour 30 minute marathon. Apparently its proven surprisingly accurate. The first few weeks of this workout should begin with 5-6 intervals, building up to ten over time. According to this model, I should be looking at a 3:15-ish in a couple months!
Aaaaand that’s enough math for one day.
Life Update: I enrolled in a certified personal training program from the National Academy of Sports Medicine this week! I have a great office job that I’m very thankful for, but it has proven that I am not well-suited for a sedentary desk job that requires long hours in front of a computer. I crave to be active and engaged with others! Given that, and the fact that I’m overly passionate about living a healthy lifestyle (um, hello, I only blog about it every other day…) I decided that I would be so fulfilled with a job in the fitness industry.
After learning about exercise science, anatomy, nutrition, body mechanics, training planning and fitness development, I will take the CPT exam. Lots of late night studying coming up, which I’m not upset about :) I miss being a student and my brain is ready to be challenged!
Once I pass the exam, I will be qualified to “help clients achieve their personal health, fitness, and performance goals via the implementation of exercise programs, nutritional recommendations, and suggestions of lifestyle modification” and “design safe, effective, and individualized exercise and conditioning programs which are scientifically valid and based on clinical evidence” (NASM.org).
My health and fitness related future posts should have a bit more science backing them up! But for now, this girl still has her day job and it’s time to get to it :)
XOXO Kenz.
