The Fine Art Of Fueling

During today’s run I realized again how important it is to eat the right kinds and amounts of food before your workouts. Apparently, I haven’t mastered the fine art of pre-run fueling yet. I’m not sure why, but my stomach felt totally off today, even before I started running. I really need to figure out what and how much I can eat before my runs, preferably before my next race!

The Stats:

• Distance: 5.0 mile (8,0 km)
• Time: 59:30 minutes
• Average pace: 11:54 min/mile
• Feeling: Nauseous & hot

Stupid me, I made another mistake today, namely choosing the wrong outfit. It was way hotter than I had expected, and I got way too hot in my long, heavy running tights and long-sleeve shirt. For a short moment, I even considered running in my underwear, or jumping into the river, but both options were not reasonable.

So far, the training for my next race is going quite well. To be honest, I did skip a few runs for various reasons, but I still have three weeks to go, and I’m fairly confident that I can finish the 10k distance. As usual, I don’t have a specific time goal in mind. I just want to finish and have a good time. I’m a little bit worried about the temperatures, though, as the race is supposed to start at 2 pm. We will see.

What is your favorite pre-workout fuel? How long do you have to wait before starting?

See you!

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What I Ate Wednesday #9 – Black Is Beautiful And Delicious

Happy WIAW everyone!

I can’t believe that I totally forgot about Black Day this year!

What the heck is Black Day, you ask? According to Wikipedia:

Black Day (April 14) is a South Korean informal tradition for single people to get together and eat jajangmyeon (noodles with black bean sauce) [...]. The idea is that those who did not give or receive gifts on Valentine’s Day (February 14) or White Day (March 14) can get together and eat jajangmyeon, white Korean noodles with black bean sauce, to celebrate their singledom.

This year, I was a week late, and even though I’m not single anymore, I celebrated anyway and enjoyed a plate of delicious jajangmyeon for lunch on Saturday.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a recipe for you, as this is a typical ‘wing it’ dish, but you can find a really good jajangmyeon recipe on Maangchi’s site. Feel free to leave out the pork belly and replace the vegetables with what you have in your fridge, just like I did.

Saturday’s dinner was another random salad creation, while the men in the house feasted on a spicy meaty stew. Millet, black lentils, and cherry tomatoes on mixed greens.

On Sunday we had a filling late breakfast, so I wasn’t very hungry when lunch time came around, and just had a some home-made oven fries with ketchup and mayonnaise. A bit boring but very tasty!

Sunday’s dinner was djuvec quinoa, inspired by Mama Pea’s Spanish quinoa. I used ajvar instead of tomato sauce, added some peas and sweet corn, and served it with even more salad and a little bit of avocado on top.

And now please excuse me, today is my husband’s birthday and I plan to pamper him a little.

See you!

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What I Ate Wednesday #8 – Spring Break Is Over

The first post after a longer period of silence is quite awkward, isn’t it? The past few weeks have been emotionally challenging, to put it nicely. In short, our financial situation had gone from dire to devastating. So I just wasn’t in the mood for blogging. Things are starting to look a little better now, so I’m cautiously optimistic that I will soon be able to make ends meet again.

Anyway, let’s get to the good stuff, aka food, okay?

This month’s theme for What I Ate Wednesday is to eat an extra cup of veggies.

Inspired by that theme I tried my best to add even more vegetables to my meals in the past few days. Here are some of the goodies I enjoyed over the weekend.

Saturday started with my favorite breakfast option, open-faced sandwiches. I had two slices of whole wheat toast topped with a fried egg on one, and butter and cucumber slices on the other. Seriously, you have to try that!

After a very random and unpictured cream cheese sandwich on the go for lunch, we made some spicy Indian-style curry, with chicken for the husband, and chickpeas for me. My curry already contained a lot of vegetables, but I was craving something green so I spontaneously added some steamed broccoli.

Sunday’s dinner was another spicy dish, chili sin carne. (Can you already tell that it’s been unusually cold around here? Sigh!) In order to reach my veggie quota of the day, I added red bell pepper, green beans, and button mushrooms.

This week I’m looking forward to starting Pilates again! I had to take a break for a few months, and I’ve really been missing my weekly class.

What are you looking forward to this week?

See you!

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