I am definitely feeling a little burnout from my triathlon training. But I am totally okay with it. Why? Well, my race is one week from today, so I just wrapped up the peak of my training, and this burnout is just going to motivate me to change things up a bit and start a new routine. I have been training consistently with at least two days of each discipline (swim, bike, run) since February–that is a good solid 8 months. My plans for after the triathlon are to really take a full weeks of rest; where I do not feel like I have to do anything, and any exercise I do do will be because I simply felt like it. After that I want to completely give myself over to yoga, strength training and anything else I simply feel like doing. This was definitely giving me something to look forward to as I wrapped up another week of intense training.
I started Saturday off with two colorful and nutrient rich local, pasture raised eggs, served over a bed of quinoa porridge cooked with cashew milk, and topped with a dollop of hummus and a fresh grind of sea salt. Hummus + Eggs–don’t knock it until you try it!
I threw a whole chicken in the slow cooker to have with dinner and for leftovers later in the week.
And went out for a beautiful 6 mile run down the local creek path. The cooler temperatures are making morning runs a bit more enjoyable. I came home and refueled with a refreshing smoothie:
- 8 ounces coconut water
- 1 cup frozen green grapes
- 2 inch piece of English cucumber
- 1 handful baby spinach (Food Of The Day on Saturday!!)
- 15 g brown rice protein powder
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened dried coconut flakes
I am definitely missing adding chia seeds and xanthan gum to my smoothies to thicken them up a bit.
And on to the real Food Of The Day–Salad! I am a salad FREAK! Whenever I am in the need of some comfort food I head straight to the Whole Foods salad bar and load myself up with pure crunchy heaven. I used to be in a routine of eating a salad a day, but until this weekend, lettuce and spinach were not on my list of allowable foods. So of course I had to have a big old crunchy salad the day I added spinach back in to my diet.
- Spinach
- Carrot
- Green Pepper
- Cucumber
- Black Olives
- Garbanzo Beans
- An un-photogenic piece of leftover sunflower seed crusted cod
- A dollop of homemade hummus
- Homemade balsamic vinaigrette
Lets just say I was like a rabbit in heaven. Later that evening we had my parents over for dinner. My sister just moved out to go to college this past week, so I figured my parents could use a dinner made by someone else for the evening. I started them off with some baby carrots, English cucumber and homemade hummus while I cooked.
I decided to try making Pupusas, an El Salvadorian dish. We have had these at our local farmer’s market and a local restaurant and I really loved them. I would describe them as a stuffed corn tortilla. I used plain old corn flour because masa harina is typically laced with lime, which was not tested in my food sensitivity test and therefore I cannot eat it. I made a variety stuffed with some combination of: chicken, re-fried pinto beans, chopped spinach and cheese (except for mine). I topped mine off with a bit more re-fried beans and spinach, while the rest of the crew topped theirs off with cole slaw, salsa and Fage 2% Greek Yogurt (in place of sour cream). And we had some steamed green beans on the side.
Making these was a great experiment, but they turned out a little dry. Next time I will add a little more water and try to make them a little thinner. I’m sure the salsa and Greek Yogurt made them a little more moist. Nice change of pace though.
Sunday morning I decided to make Tea the Food Of The Day, in the form of decaf Earl Grey topped with steamed and foamed cashew milk. Tea and steamed milk used to be a daily morning routine for me. I would get out of bed and head straight for the tea kettle. I felt like I could not do anything without my warm tea, even though it was just decaf. There was something about the warmth of the tea and milk that was made the start of my day better. But since it has been so hot out and I started my elimination diet I have been replacing that morning tea routine with leukwarm water with 1/2 of lemon. I have found really taken a liking to starting my morning off this way–I find it very cleansing. But this morning, I decided to bring back the ritual.
It was comforting and warm. However, I still got a little low blood sugar/shaky from the hint of caffeine (even though it is decaf)–I am just super sensitive like that. I think I will save it for cooler mornings or afternoons when I need a break. But I had something else in mind today when I added tea to my diet ;-). You will find out verrrry soon! For breakfast/pre-workout I had some quinoa porridge with a fresh apricot, a small spoon full of sunflower seed butter, and a hard boiled egg.
I hesitated to head out for my swim (hello burnout), but then I reminded myself that I wanted to do this and told myself I will give it a try for at least 10 minutes and if I still did not feel like it–I would stop. Turns out after I did a 300 meter warm up, I felt great! I ended up doing 2000 meters total, practicing some flip turns and doing some speed work. I came home, ate two aprinut balls, and went out for a bike ride with the fiance. The opportunity to ride with the fiance are seldom, so I gotta take advantage of them when I can! We did a little over 22 miles and it was lovely. I was sweating (a.k.a. “glowing”) like crazy though! Must have been residual sweat from my swim. I came home feeling extra hungry, so I made up 1.5 servings of brown rice pasta, cashew cream, green peas with 4 ounces of chicken and extra sea salt.
I spent the afternoon checking out my Sister’s dorm room, pantry stock (think a carton of Goldfish, Top Ramen, Bagel Bites, Uncrustables, Cheetos, Double Stuffed Oreos and Arizona Green Tea) and walking around campus helping her find all her class rooms. I cannot believe she is all grown up. Going to college is such an exciting time…until class starts ;-).
How was your weekend? How do you change up your routine when you start to get bored or burnt out?
Maybe my burnout is a result of not having a glass of wine for three weeks ;-)!
Those eggs look perfect!! I’m all about the local freshies. 🙂 I just read about pupusas recently and have been meaning to make them. I’m on a huge masa harina kick. I just love the flavor! Not going to lie, your smoothie sounds scary!! hehe Majorly impressed with that swim + then bike…WOW! Can’t wait to hear about your tri! Good luck!
You should definitely try the pupusas! They are a great gluten free option, and you can mix and match the fillings however you please. And that smoothie was so refreshing, but you just might have to trust me on that one ;-)!
Less than a week until my triathlon–I can’t wait! I hope to see you out there training for one some day.