Half marathon nutrition and recap

Happy Sunday! Did you enter my bedding makeover giveaway??? Dooooo it :)

This morning I woke anxiously at 5:15am for my 5:30 half marathon departure. 7:30am races are killer! How was I able to get ready so fast, you may be asking? I like to sleep in as late as possible (even if that means only 5:15am), so the night before I do some prep work.

I lay out my clothes:

Make a rock star breakfast the night before:

Peanut Butter & Banana Breakfast cookie: 1/3 cup oats, 1/2 scoop protein powder (I used vanilla SunWarrior), 1/2 mashed banana, 1 T PB, raisins, 1/8 cup almond milk, stevia, dash sea salt. *I also added 1 T raw chia seeds.

*Chia seeds don't taste like much, but they bind 10 times their volume in water (!), meaning they're good for hydration and also help lubricate joints. An added bonus: they're high in protein, calcium, and contain greater roughly 6 times more omega-3 fatty acids than other grains.

I also had [a little] coffee in this guy for good luck:

Coffee + steamed soy

Speaking of fueling for a race, there is a myth I'd like to squash.

Myth: To carb-load before a race, you add lots of carbs to your regular diet

Truth: You should eat similar to your normal diet but substitute some of your calories (and adding a little more) for complex carbs. In other words, eat the way you ate when you trained. There is no need to add unnecessary stomach issues on race day.

For example: Here are my eats the day before race day

Lunch: Instead of ordering a salad, I went for turkey and veggies on toasted multigrain bread with mustard instead of mayo (mayo sometimes upsets my stomach)

Snack: Tea + 1/2 organic oatmeal cookie

Dinner: Gigantic baked sweet potato topped with homemade tomato and black bean (light on the beans) salsa and dollop of Greek yogurt

*Other sweet baked sweet potato recipes here and here. Because of the race, I decided to opt out of the chili ;)

I ate like this (replacing some calories with complex carbs) for 2 days before the race. And not to mention plenty of hydration! My drinks of choice are coconut water (high in electrolytes and H20.

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The race was AMAZING. The course started at Mt. Vernon (George and Martha Washington's home)

source

Ran along the Potomac River

Across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge

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To the National Harbor

I was greeted at the finish line by the Manfriend, sister, and Michael (our pup):

All in all, I did OOOK, considering I had to stop to use the restroom THREE times, ughh. Ran 8:11min/mile pace (according to Garmin) but 8:53 official pace due to potty breaks. Eh, when nature calls, right? haha....TMI?

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Post run, I drank a coconut water, more H20, had some free race food (banana and granola bar) then came home to a PB-Chocolate-Banana Protein Cupcake:

1 scoop chocolate protein powder, 1/2 mashed banana, 2 T Greek Yogurt, 1 tsp PB, 1 T PB Flour, 1 egg white, stevia, dash sea salt, pinch baking powder, H20 (to moisten)

And then took a glorious nap.

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Before I go I want to share something I saw during the race. I saw two people, in their mid-50s, running side-by-side with their hands together. When I got closer I noticed that one of them was blind.

Anything is possible.

Have a great week,

Lauren