49er Rush - Challenge Run Race Report

This post is way overdue and has  been sitting as a Gmail draft for 6 months, not sure why I didn't post it after I finished writing it... oh well, better late than never. I don't remember the exact level of my fitness but I'm pretty sure I hadn't run much since the half marathon I had done two months prior.

49er Rush - Challenge Run - 9/19/2015

Probably less than a quarter mile from the start, was the first station which was the 40 yard dash. Now I'm not much of a sprinter and this is where I lost my friend Erin. I slowed wayyyy down after the sprint, not quite a walk but a super slow jog. Luckily it was downhill a bit after this so it wasn't too bad. There was a water station, I slowed down to drink some then started jogging again. At some point there was a cone drill which was easy..  just weaving between around 8-9 cones which were pretty far apart.

The next area was on the practice field, where there were three stations. As I was jogging towards the first station I saw Erin waiting at the end of the line. There were about 3 people in front of her, the station was to throw a football into a net (quarterback toss) which was pretty simple. Then we ran over to the next station was to tie a speed parachute around your waist and then sprint up and down the field once. This sprint went better, maybe because I was more warmed up. The third station was called "vertical leap" and consisted of jumping on a padded surface while someone threw a tiny football at you, you caught it, then you jumped off and gave it back. Then we jogged back towards the start, I lost Erin again at this point. Yes she runs faster than me. I saw her on my way up of the next station which was carrying a sandbag up some stairs. She was on her way down while I was going up. I didn't see her again until the end of the race. I switched the sandbag to the other shoulder before I went back down. I have no clue how heavy it was. 20 pounds?  Somewhere between this station and the next station the stairs began. In between the next 11 stations we would end up going up and down stairs from the field to the top like 3 times. It was killer. The next station was "pop up & tackle". Basically you pushed this thing over and then tackled another one onto a padded surface and then went on to the next one. It was pretty straightforward. Then more stairs...

Next station was "ladder drill" which was super simple, basically stepping in each square of a fitness ladder until you got to the other side. Then after this was the push up station, you had to do 30 pushups. This one was rough even doing "girl" pushups. Next was more stairs all the way to the top of the stadium and then all the way back down where we were handed a medicine ball. The course map said "med ball slams" but it was basically just push presses with the ball. 20 of those and then back up more stairs. Then it was bear crawl, this started out okay and then halfway through I got tired and stopped like 5 times. I did pass a couple people though, yay! I saw a couple of guys at this point that i pretty much leapfrogged back and forth with until the end. After the bear crawl went down more stairs and then there were these hurdles you had to step over and under, about 10 of them. After that... you guessed it, more stairs. Up to the next level and then to the next station which was "cooler carry" , basically carrying a Gatorade cooler full of ice and water a few yards in a circle. Some of the water splashed on my shirt which was nice because it was hot.  At this point the race took a turn for the better as we started running down the ramp. No more stairs!

The next one on the map said "crawl", but in person it was called red web or something. It was basically like 10 strings set up and you had to go over and under them.

Next was 15 box jumps but everyone was doing step ups so I did too. More running down the ramp then back inside the bottom of the stadium, into the visitors locker room, which was pretty cool. We had to do lunges from the entrance to the other side of the locker room. Then ran through the hallway and out into the field! Yay, I was almost done. I saw Erin, she was already done. The last station was "the gauntlet / handoff" where I was handed a tiny football (which I got to keep)  and run through a "gauntlet" which is basically a football drill where you run through a machine like this http://www.rogersathletic.com/football/sleds/powerblast.asp?pid=211 only people were holding the pads. Then I ran around the end zone and into the finish line. Yay! My time was a little under 1 hour 2 minutes (1:01:56). All in all it was a ton of fun but I would definitely train more on stairs before attempting this again!

Simple Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer

Coming up on the first day of fall (although it will be in the 80's this week) and it's now somewhat appropriate to post a pumpkin spice recipe! This is 21DSD approved, as long as you don't add sweetener.

1 cup full-fat coconut milk
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 T pumpkin spice (purchased from Whole Foods - you can also use a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves)
1 vanilla bean, scraped (or you can use 2 tsp organic vanilla extract)

Combine ingredients in a saucepan and bring to medium-high heat stirring occasionally.

Add 1-2 Tbsp to your coffee as desired. Store the remainder in a glass jar in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Pumpkin Spice "Latte" Smoothie

I know it's not technically Pumpkin Spice season but it's been freezing here in Nor Cal this week (and by freezing of course I mean temps in the 50's), also I saw a recipe for a Pumpkin Spice smoothie in my new cookbook (the 21 day sugar detox cookbook) so I modified it to make it a breakfast smoothie and it came out delicious, I drank one almost every morning this week!

• a few cubes of ice
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup coconut water
• 1/4 cup full fat coconut milk (in the can)
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1-2 scoops of vanilla whey protein
• half a banana
• 1 instant coffee packet (I use VIA from Starbucks)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Blend all of the above ingredients in your high speed blender. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.

Paleo Tortillas

I made this today: http://theculturedcavewoman.com/2014/01/07/crockpot-shredded-chicken-tacos-with-paleo-tortillas/

The "tortillas" actually came out pretty good, it was like making pancakes, the first one was thick and kind of broken apart but the rest came out pretty well. They have a crepe like texture and kinda tasted like egg but they were good. I didn't have almond milk so I used canned coconut milk mixed with some water. I also used wholly guacamole instead of making my own.

I ate two of the tacos and then put sliced black olives on the third one after the pic was taken. Salsa and lettuce would be a good addition as well.

Loving that it's 7pm and still light out, not loving that I lost an hour of sleep, I was not feeling rested this morning but that could also be attributed to the wine I drank this weekend! My goal is to eat clean all this week, I washed and chopped up lettuce, spinach, carrots, bell pepper, mushrooms and red onion for salads, and am broiling a couple fillets of salmon for the salads to bring for lunch.

Time to finish my other Sunday activities (folding laundry, etc) and try and get to bed early... I know, my life is so exciting ;) Good night!

Suja Juice Cleanse Review

I decided to try the Suja juices because they sell them at Whole Foods and I wanted to do something to reset my body after filling it with alcohol and food during last week's trip to Vegas.  Online, they offer a 1, 3 or 5 day cleanse but they also sell it at Whole Foods, which is much cheaper because you don't have to pay for shipping. It's still not cheap, but you save $80 in shipping costs alone! Since you can just buy it per bottle at Whole Foods, I decided to do it for 2 days, over the weekend, when not much was going on. Originally I had wanted to do the Sambazon cleanse from Costco because it's super cheap and you still get to eat but apparently Costco is not carrying them until January?!?? (I asked them on Twitter)

Again, most people do this for 1, 3 or 5 days (a lot of the reviews I read were for 3 days),  but I did it for 2.

Ready to go

Day 1

I set my phone alarm for every 2.5 hours starting at 7am to remind me to drink all 6 juices. I also consistently drank water throughout the day.

7:00am

I woke up at 6:30am Saturday because I had to work and had a customer call at 7am. I should have gone to bed at 10pm instead of 12:30, oops. Instead of my usual coffee I started with a cup of warm water and lemon to alkalize the body, a little while later I had the "Glow" juice. Apple, cucumber, celery, mint, kale, spinach, collards. It was really tasty and refreshing.

9:30am

I was on another call and grabbed the "Fuel" juice out of my fridge. This one tasted like carrot juice but the addition of orange, apple, pineapple, lemon, and turmeric made it quite delicious.

12:00pm

I was getting pretty hungry by this point so it was a relief that it was time to drink "Purify". Whoa, holy beets batman. LOL. This one is carrot, apple, celery, cucumber, beet, and lemon but the beet taste is pretty powerful. Luckily I don't hate beets.

This one wasn't bad, but the other 2 were better. "Glow" is still the winner but I was most excited about the upcoming "Vanilla Cloud", with coconut, honey, almonds, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg - doesn't it sound delicious?!?

At this point I was starting to miss coffee,  I was definitely glad I decided to only do 2 days because I was feeling sluggish...

2:30pm

I decided to watch Fat Sick & Nearly Dead again for inspiration. I think Joe Cross is adorable! Must be the accent. I started getting sleepy while sitting on the couch and was about to take a quick nap when my alarm went off for Juice #4, "Fiji". This one has: fuji apple, cucumber, celery, kale, spinach, collards, lemon-ginger. This one kind of reminds me of "Glow". Nap time!

5:00pm

My nap lasted all of 10 minutes due to getting another call, but it surprisingly helped a little, I wasn't as groggy as I was earlier. Also, between the last juice and this one I had a handful of almonds. The almonds really helped as I finally didn't feel hungry for the first time all day. There are a few things that they consider "acceptable" cheats: fruits and veggies, half an avocado, baked sweet potato, and broth-based soups. I thought I saw almonds on there but I guess I made that up. Still seems acceptable to me. I'm also not as cold as I have been all day, maybe because my stomach is finally digesting something. Before that, I had had a sweatshirt on, the heat up to 74 and was under a blanket...

Dinner time! The juice of the hour is "Green Supreme".  Apple, kale and lemon, pretty simple. It's really good and refreshing. Almost Vanilla Cloud time!

7:30pm

Finally, it's time for Vanilla Cloud. It was pretty delicious, but I think I hyped it up too much, it wasn't like "OMG the most amazing thing I ever tasted". I ended up falling asleep on the couch at 9:30pm. Do I know how to party on a Saturday night or what?!

Day 1 cheats: 8 almonds

Day 2

9:45am

I must have needed sleep because I let myself sleep in until 8:30am, 11 hours! Felt good to finally sleep in, however I woke up hungry and with a headache. Instead of trying to let it go away naturally which never seems to work for me I took 2 Advil and downed a glass of water. I usually go to a yoga class at 10am, and  I had wanted to run some errands afterwards so I thought I'd better drink the first juice as close as possible to 10am. I started off with some warm lemon water and then brought the "Glow" with me and drank it on my way to yoga. I got to the gym at 9:50 and they told me yoga was already full. What?!? I guess that makes sense because the group exercise room at this gym is pretty tiny and you end up doing yoga with like 2 inches of space around you. He told me another gym a few miles away had a 10:15 class so I went over there to try my luck and luckily I got in.

2:15pm

After yoga I went to Target and did some Christmas shopping and went to the nail salon, it took longer than I expected. I had planned on going to the grocery store for a couple of things but by this time I was starving and my juice schedule was all thrown off, I still had 5 juices to go! I got home and drank "Fuel" and had half an avocado and a handful of almonds. Oh and a pear slice. Ahhh, much better. At that rate I would have to drink another juice every hour...

3:30pm

Beet time! I started my food prep for the week, I had been dreading this all weekend because I thought it would be super difficult to cook all this food that I can't eat. Just as I started to get hungry it was time for juice #3, "Purify". Drinking a juice every hour now seemed feasible. I really like how each bottle shows exactly what is put into it. Only 1/2 a beet in this drink but it definitely does not go unnoticed.

4:45pm

Drank "Fiji" while I cooked. I was cooking and chopping up all the ingredients for the Butternut Squash Chili and it was REALLY hard to cook bacon and not eat it. That's willpower right there!

6:15pm

"Green Supreme" time.  Yummy! The chili is simmering and I julienned some zucchini to make Zucchini Chicken Pasta.

8:30pm
Food prep done! I baked a pound of chicken breast, julienned the zucchini, vitamixed the pesto, baked sweet potatoes, made the chili, and made coconut chia seed pudding for breakfast for the next 2 days (recipe coming soon).  I also had to run out to the store to pick up a few things. I drank Vanilla Cloud a little later then I intended to. I also ate a walnut and an artichoke heart while I was chopping them for the zucchini pasta. Yes just one of each... haha. After all that food prep I drank Vanilla Cloud, laid on the couch and caught up on DVR.

Day 2 cheats: Almonds, half an avocado, pear slice, walnut, artichoke heart

Post-cleanse

The next morning I woke up and ate the coconut chia seed pudding I had made the night before along with a cup of coffee. Honestly the pudding was not that good, it was little too sweet and the consistency was like melted frosting so I'm not posting the recipe, but it had coconut milk, protein powder, vanilla extract and chia seeds. Monday night we had a work event and I ended up eating lava cake for dessert plus had a glass of wine. Oops! Tuesday through Thursday I ate fairly well and went to Crossfit all 3 nights. The juices were really good and nutritious and I may keep a couple on hand for a quick (and tasty) infusion of fruits and vegetables. I don't know if I'd do a full cleanse again, I like food too much, but it did help me get back on track (aside from Monday night).

Tangent: I haven't been running hardly at all (except whatever we do in Crossfit) but over Thanksgiving my best friend and I did our yearly Thanksgiving morning jog around Lake Merritt  and I killed my record according to Runkeeper. At that rate, I should be able to run a 30 minute 5K soon, something I have never done before. Since I haven't been running I'm going to chalk it up to Crossfit and overall eating healthier. Yay!

Zucchini Chicken Pasta with Homemade Pesto

I never thought I'd say this but after making paleo "noodles" with both spaghetti squash and zucchini, I seriously don't even miss pasta. If you don't have a julienne peeler you need to go out and get one stat (or ask for one for Christmas). They are awesome, my only issue with it is that it's really hard (or impossible) to julienne every last bit of zucchini, I usually end up with a few thick slices in the pasta but better than wasting it!

I first made this recipe with regular pesto that I bought at Whole Foods but it gave me stomach issues so I decided to use my awesome Vitamix (seriously, is there anything that thing can't do) and make my own cheeseless pesto, but you can always use pesto from a jar. You can also try adding sundried tomatoes to the pasta.

Ingredients for one serving:

• 2 large zucchini squash (julienned into noodles) 
• 1 tsp sea salt 
• 1 tsp black pepper 
• 4 chopped artichoke hearts packed in water 
• 4 large raw walnuts 
• 4 oz chicken breast, seasoned and baked with garlic powder, salt and pepper, then cut into slices
• 2 T homemade cheese-less pesto (see below) 

Homemade Cheeseless Pesto:

• 1 bunch basil
• 1/2 cup (60 ml) olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 oz walnuts 
• 1/2 tsp salt 

Blend in Vitamix for 1 minute at Variable 7 (start at Variable 1). It will make about a cup and will keep in the fridge for about a week.

Pro Tip: Peel 6-8 zucchini all at once and store the "noodles" in a tupperware, and bake and slice several chicken breasts at the same time, then you have 4 meals for the week, and all you have to do is assemble and heat up. BOOM

Low carb pasta! Yay

Paleo Crockpot Butternut Squash Chili

The end of summer and the beginning of fall means less fresh berries (boo) but more winter squashes (yay)! I bought a butternut squash a couple of weeks ago, but wasn't really sure what to do with it. I looked up what to make with it, found some Paleo chili recipes, and took some ideas from a variety of recipes to come up with the following concoction:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups butternut squash, cubed
• 1 lb grass fed ground beef
• 4 pieces of bacon
• 2 cups broth (any kind, I used chicken because that's what I had)
• 1 yellow onion, minced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can green chilis
• 2 T chili powder
• 1 T smoked paprika
• 1 T cumin
• 1 T oregano
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• Sliced green onions for topping
• Avocado or guacamole for topping

You'll notice I didn't include tomatoes, which is usually a staple in any crockpot chili recipe. The thing is, I am not a fan of cooked tomatoes. I noticed when I would eat dishes that had cooked tomatoes, I would push all the tomatoes to the side. So I decided just to omit them and see what happened.

Steps:

Brown the ground beef in a pan, put in crockpot
Saute the bacon, squash, garlic and onions until cooked, put in crockpot
Add the broth, spices, and chilis to crockpot
Cook on low for 7 hours or high for 3 hours. Add spinach and cook for an additional 30 minutes on high.
Top with avocado or guacamole and sliced green onions.

I haven't actually tried this yet but it looks amazing, I can't wait for lunch tomorrow. I had extra butternut squash so I roasted the extras with salt, pepper and olive oil for 40 minutes at 400F, it was a delicious snack.

I also made this Simple Creamy Cauliflower and Artichoke Soup from PaleOMG. It was super yum!! I precooked the chicken yesterday in my crockpot with low sodium chicken broth and some garlic powder. I kind of doubled the recipe, I used a whole head of cauliflower and a can of artichoke quarters packed in water. Another awesome puree done by my one and only Vitamix.

I'm getting a little tired of eggs, I've been eating Omelet Muffins the past 2 weeks, so I decided to whip up some protein pancakes for tomorrow morning and Tuesday. I'll probably eat em with almond butter, or maybe I'll splurge and whip out the maple syrup (organic of course :P)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!