Noses

Hello....its me!  (Just celebrating Adele on Ellen yesterday, which was hilarious.)


So, as you all know I have been sick which is a real joy when training.  Yesterday Brad and I went to the gym and I had the intention of running a good five miles.  Then mile three happened and my chapped nose from all the nose blowing I have been doing burned so bad that I literally had to stop.  It was kind of depressing.  In happier news, I woke up this morning and felt much better, and by the looks of the wheather, I might actually get to ride my new bike tonight!!! YAY.


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend full of health and happiness <3

Flash back Friday to our long run last weekend, and cheers to my mom for making me a knight hat so I can continue to look cool while I run.

Moms yogurt oatmeal


My mom always put yogurt in my oatmeal when I was younger, and I continued the tradition.  This is a sugar free version though, and I eat it almost every day at work! 




1/2c oats
1/3c plain natural yogurt
1/3c blueberries


Warm up the oatmeal with the blueberries and water for 1.20mins
The blueberries will release their natural sugars, which I might add are delicious. 
Add the yogurt and consume!


You will love it!


Kara, XO

Sick Again

I'm so excited to report that I am sick again (note sarcasm).  I finally recovered from whatever funk I had last week to wake up on Saturday morning unable to breathe through the snot in my brain. So that was exciting news. But did I let it stop me? NEVER.  haha.  So Saturday brought about amazing news..


I GOT A ROAD BIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And here the beaut is....so freaking pumped!!!!




Saturday was a day of rest, and a day to celebrate love with my cutie pie.  So we hung our new microwave up above our stove (this took way longer, and was much more frusterating than anticipated.)  Went and got my V-Day gift ;), went out for mexican food...MY FAV, and then saw the new movie "How to be Single" which was quite funny.  From there I went on to have a sleepless, coughing night and waking up early to run a short 15 miles with my buddies in running group.  I know you all probobly think this was a dumb idea beacause I am sick, but you know what running outside actually makes me feel better.  Also, I cannot fail to mention that I got a PR on Sunday for my furthest run...EVER!!! Beautiful view before our run.

Monday brought with it a nice long swim, 2x1000 meters, and Tuesday was an hour long bike, of which I boosted up my level to a 13 and watched the bachelor on my phone! 

I hope you all are feeling healthier than me, and are staying positive as their is talk of a sunny weekend, and maybe the potential chance of getting to ride my new bike outside. (With a helmet, mother).

Recipe!

Healthy Choc-Penut Butter protein pie and homade healthy ice cream!

Pie Crust, pulse in food processor until all combined

1/2c cashews

1/2c walnuts

1tbsp honey

1tsp vanilla

8 pitted dates ( I used 16, beacause they were half the size of medjool dates)

2tbs cacoa powder

Shape into pie glass: Below

Pie Filling:

1/2 cup natural PB

60g powdered PB ( I used the cocoa powdered PB)

1/2 c cottage cheese

1/2c natural plain yogurt

2tbs unsweetened almond milk

1 tsp coconut oil

2tbs maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

blend in food processor until smooth

Topping:

on low heat melt 2 tbs coconut oil

add 2tbs cocoa powder

1tsp vanilla

1tbs maple syrup

spread over the top!

Freeze for up to 1 hour and then place in the refrigerator until your hungry!

Ice cream is simply 2 bananas peeled and chopped and placed in the freezer until frozen. Place in food processor with one can of whole fat coconut milk and 1 tsp vanilla.  Put in tuperware and freeze for 5 hours. It does get really hard if you freeze for longer so make sure you serve immedietly.

Kara, XO



Goals

Been thinking a lot about my goals lately.  I think I lied to you guys earlier, a triathlon typically takes around 5 and a half hours... woah. 

So I broke it down

Swim: I'm hoping I can get the swim done in about 30-35 minutes, I feel that swimming is one of my stronger suits at this point and my pool swims are usually below this time for a 1600m, granted their arent waves and multiple other bodies next to you, but you also have adrenaline on your side.

Bike: 56 miles...whew this is a tough one for me...Especially because as of right now my bike is not a speedster (although eeeek, that might change this weekend.)  Still I'm hoping I can get the bike done in about 2 hours and 25ish minutes. 

Run:  My fastest half up to this point is 1:45 which is about an 8min/mile pace.  Everyone I talked to said to be realistic I should be in the 9's for my half ironman goal.  So I decided to make it 9.15 for my overall pace.  This takes me to about 2 hours and 1 minute, and I'm betting if I push really hard I might even be able to knock off that minute ;).

All together with transitions(this is another story for another day), My goal is to be below 5 hours and 10 minutes.....We will see what happens!

This brings us to the elephant in the room....


FIVE hours........................................   Holy.    Crap.   

The face I make in a holy crap moment.

It took me a minute to recover but here I am, knowing I can do it, as long as I keep a positive attitude, continue to train and Ahem (Brad) get my fast bike!!!!

I might be crazy you guys. Ha! Did you catch that I said might?  Okay, so I am crazy you guys, but I am actually thinking about registering for the Michigan Titanium Triathlon too, which is  in August... I mean all this training for just one Tri?  Might as well do two right?  Plus then wait for it.........I can know a time to beat!!!

Oh the competitive spirit!

Thank you all so much for your support and love... Your my heroes.




Devouring a breakfast burito before biking/running, gee my selfies remain so attractive.

Groundhog recap

Good Morning!  What a great weekend it was, seeing people accomplish their goals and getting the chance to hand out medals all day Saturday to marathoners and half marathoners at the finish line of the Grand Rapids Groundhog Marathon.  We had a great group of runners brave the cold and ice on Saturday in order to run the groundhog, which was a 4.4 mile loop that the half marathon runners completed three times, and the full marathon runners went on to do 6 loops! We had a total of about 300ish runners, lots of hot chocolate, soup and motivated individuals.  By the end of the day, I was exhausted but was so happy to be a part of yet another successful Grand Rapids Marathon event!  The even better news, I got to run my own half marathon on the same course the very next day with my buddies Don Kern (yes the famous one), Mandy and Efrain, all friends who typically run in our Sunday group and who help me accomplish my goals each week.  My dear hubbs came out with us to run too (he took the picture), he completed 2 loops making his total around 9 miles.  How beautiful is this background though?

Here is another picture of the course, and if you look closely you can see swans swimming in the open water. There may be a lot of complaints about Michigan weather, but after running this beautiful trail 3 times, I have no complaints (and I had great company).

So Sunday, I completed a half, my furthest run since the Gazelle girl half marathon last year.  Don gave us all a medal, since we completed the course, so this was really cool I should get a picture of it for next post! 

Monday it was back to the pool, for a sprint swim! 

400 full then 4x100 fast, 300 full 3x100 fast, 200 full 2x100 fast-

My goal was to complete the fast 100's around the same time so that I didn't lose any endurance over time which actually worked.  I was happy with the end results, but during it was a lot harder than it looked on paper!

Tuesday was a great day!  After an early morning bike/hill workout, I went to the PT/Chiropractic clinic to get my hip worked on which ended up being really good.  Then at the end of the day, my friend Mandy invited me to a beer run that the fifth third river bank run was putting on to support their race in May at Perrin brewing co.  It was a blast!  A 3 mile run that ended up pushing me to stride out and get a little speed work in because of the short distance, and was a blast to run with my friends. 

The recipe that I am about to share with you all will change your life!  It tastes like pumpkin pie and every time I have a bar I want more!!!

Sweet Potato Protein bars

Via The lean green bean

1 c cooked mashed sweet potato ( I used two)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 c maple syrup (try to use organic)

2 eggs

1/3 c nut butter (I used my homeade almond butter!)

1/3 c plain greek yogurt

Mash all these together and add

1/2 tsp baking powder

2/3 c protein powder (I used vanilla) If you don't have any protein powder you can prob substitute with whole wheat flower or coconut flour, but I havn't tried it!

pour into greased 9x9 pan or baking parchment.  I had to bake mine for about 35-40 minutes, but the recipe said to bake for only 13-15, after this time mine was still a  gooey mess in the middle so I continuted until I had a firm middle.  I have been keeping them in the fridge and warming them up in the microwave when I want one and they are soooooo delicious!

Enjoy

Kara,xo

sick

My friends...I knew this would happen at some point in my training because isn't it inevitable.  My poor body either couldn't keep up, or I picked something up from some poor soul who was feeling this poopy last week.  Either way, I am trying to struggle my way through it.  Swallowing appears to be the devil right now, so trying to stay "hydrated" (because that is what you do when you are sick) is literally painful.  But I am remaining positive!  I do not have a fever (that I know of), and I'm extremely excited for the weekend, to see lot's of runners cross the finish line in groundhog.  With that being said, I didn't quite get a workout in last night because I was running around putting things together for the race on Saturday, and when I got home I promptly went to bed.  I don't think any of you will be mad at me for taking one day off, and in fact if I didn't I would probly be getting a nastygram from my mother :).  Pray for me!

Breakfast Eggrito
Wheat wrap
2 eggs
mushrooms and peppers sauteed
Handful of spinnich
little bittle of cheese


This is such a healthy breakfast and is really filling!  Did you know that if you are working out consistantly, you should be getting around 6 doses of whole grains/day.  You need them for energy! 

Homeade Almond Butter


2 Cups almonds ( I used plain with skin)
a food processor or blender


Blend for 20 minutes stopping every 5 to clean edges of processor.
The natural oils of the almonds will release over time and turn into this delicious mix! 


Great on homade bread, in smoothies or on healthy pancakes! This is so much cheaper than buying almond butter at your local gorcer, I promise!


Kara, xo

Long Week

Good morning!  This week is certain to be a long one with the Groundhog marathon quickly approaching us on Friday and Saturday!  I am very excited to work the event and be a part of such an amazing staff again!  Last week was a good one for me, I did a sprint swim on Saturday, a long run on sunday and a long bike on monday!  Tuesday was a 30 minute biking hill workout, which was actually quite fun, and then I did 5 miles on the treadmill. 




Awesome book I found in the Library!  It explains a lot of great stuff and

 is great to read while biking!

We had a running group party on Saturday, where I met a guy who is actually a Tri coach.  He hooked me up with some really good resources to look at through facebook so I am really excited about that connection!

Before my long run on sunday modeling my new avalance jacket I found at goodwill for a solid $3.45!

With my third class in Grad School quickly closing in, I have a lot of work to do on papers/group projects etc, so I apologize in advance if my posts are short and sweet or not every day!  I have a lot of pics to share with you guys today though, so you should be pretty excited! 

 

Post long run...Dying

Recipe Time!!!


Vegetable Lentil Soup, with a slice of rye bread
chop:
2 carrots
1 parsnip
2 celery
1 large yellow onion
1 large zuchinni
place in pan with 20ml of extra virgin olive oil
cook for 10 minutes
add into pan 2 cups of vegetable broth (reduced sodium if possible)
3 chopped tomatoes
Bring to a boil and let simmer for 15 minutes
add in one cup of lentils and cook unitl they are soft (about 5 minutes)
I then placed them in a crockpot on low heat for about 30 minutes to let all the flavors soak in and chopped 1/2 cup of fresh flat leaf parsley for the top.


This soup doesnt smell like much with your making it, but trust me it is amazing!  And it makes enough that you can eat it at work for a solid three days after, which is my kind of meal!

Kara,XO