Day 1 of 100 squats a day
Some of my friends are doing a challenge of 100 squats a day for the whole year. And I have decided what the heck, I'm in. Who doesn't want buns of steel? They started Jan 1st, and I started today. Right after my 20 mile run. Oh boy.
I did my squats tonight and as much hills as I run, I will be feeling the squats. No pain no gain! On top of the 100 squats a day I want to do 100 push ups a day. A few years ago I was up to doing 100 push ups but not everyday though and definately not all at once. I would have to take breaks.  But I just did 50 and half were girl push ups.  Haven't done push-ups in awhile. So we will see how long it takes me to get back up to doing 100 non-girl push-ups.

Today's menu
breakfast - pancakes with maple syrup
run 20 miles, dried fruits for fuel
lunch - quinoa, broccoli, veggie burger, apples
dinner - sweet potato, garbanzo beans
snack - bowl of granola cereal with hemo milk

It is the end of the month, low on funds and food. Just been eating what is left.  I am almost out of fruit. I gotta have my fruit. I love eating  fruit meals. I don't like paying high grocery store prices so I wait until we make a run for the wholesaler.  So looking forward to some oranges or anything fruit.

I do everything possible to make my meals and drinks from scratch. There are exception to the rules, but in general that is my style.  It is winter and if you are looking for something warm and sweet to get you through a cold day, give homemade apple cider a try.  Most apple ciders come in a package and in the package......well I am not sure what is in the package. I mean it is a powder with apple flavoring.  Ewww, ( I am sure I made something similar to that in organic chemistry lab in college) but  I like making mine from real apples.  I just juice my apples and lighlty heat it up.  My kids love it! And you can juice more than you need and keep it in a mason jar in the frig. Then it will be ready whenever you would like some.  Typically use it in 2-3 days.  You can also take it with you do work or where-ever.  Add a little bit of hot water to it and you are good to go. 

I have been really consisted with my running. Our winter weather has been great. I think this is the most miles I have ever accumluated in the months of  Dec and Jan. 

My meals have been pretty much the same. I am trying to use all that I have in the house before we have to make our next run to the wholesaler.  Still have a few sweet potatoes left, they should be gone soon. I think I will get a case of red potatoes next. I like rotating different potatoes. We buy in bulk and shop every 2 weeks, so much cheaper. I guess if you like variety everyday this would not be for you. A case of potatoes lasts our family two weeks. Potatoes and quinoa are a huge staple for us right now. Come spring when more fruit is  available, I will make my evening meal just all fruit, like one meal will be 2lbs of grapes plus 2lbs of strawberries. Oh I can't wait for spring when we can get cases of grapes and strawberries!

Today's menu:
breakfast- steel cut oatmeal, with raisins and dried figs, some granola for crunch, 1/4 apple and maple syrup.
run 8 mile 2400' vertical
lunch - white rice, broccoli, veggie burger, onion and tomato
snack - 2 apples
dinner - sweet potato and chickpeas

Yes I am a carb person.  And this week I got 10,000 feet of vertical climbing. To most ultra runners it doesn't seem alot but it is January and there has been a lot of ice and snow and wind. So for me getting this much in, in 4 days, in January is great. I am hoping to consistanly get 10,000 feet weekly in, then I will be ready to double that this spring. I am looking to pick up a 50k in March and a 50 miler in April.

My vegan gluten free pancake recipe that I posted on my previous blog post is great for the kids.  Kids need more fat that us.  So for us big people, you can use only 2 tablespoons of the coconut flour and then add more of the rice and qunioa flour. And of course don't forget to add blueberries!

As usual, I try to take pics of my meals but forgot.

Today was supposed to be a nice hill workout in the mountains. The trail was icy! Forgot my microspikes.  I went up anyways, but that was stupid to do. It took me forever to get down. And I landed  on my ass.  Not a hard fall at all, but slow motion.  Lesson learned. Always bring my spikes when the ground is frozen!

Yesterday though had a great run. Breakfast I ate pancakes followed by some sweet potatoes.  Probably 700 calories. Waited at least two hours and headed out with a friend.  We ran 18 miles. Didn't need any fuel during the run. My breakfast kept me content. Felt great afterwards.  I wanted to keep going but had to get back home.

My lunch is always my biggest meal.  I cooked up a huge sweet potato, I love this stuff. My kids like to add dijon mustard to their potatoes. I also had garbanzo beans, I think this is my fav bean.  And I steamed up italian kale, onions, tomatoes with a veggie burger with cilantro and dill. This was in a huge bowl. I ate everybite.  Later that evening, I had a huge glass of green juice and ate 3 fuji apples.

I love making things from scratch.  Lately I have been trying to perfect the gluten free vegan pancakes for my kids.   I had been buying pre-made in a box. But it is costly and it has so much freakin' sodium!

I do have  picky child. And this recipe got a thumbs up from her. That is huge.

This amount made 6 medium pancakes.  My kids said they were soft and fluffy. That is good, right?

3/4 quinoa flour
1/2 coconut flour
1/2 rice flour
1/2 tb baking soda
1tb of arrow root
2-3 tb of sugar (this you can substitute any sweetner you like, agave, maple syrup) I just used sugar to start with and I will probably eventually try maple syrup. Hope it will pass the taste test from my picky one.
 And don't forget the milk. Not all milk is created equal. Hemp milk is more thicker whereas rice milk is more watered down. I actully use both kinds. I haven't measurd out the exact amount but I usually just pour enough to get a good consistency. And I sometimes mix both milks together.

I am not a bread eater, I don't like the feeling of dough on the bottom of my gut. So I don't ever eat it. When I do my really long, hilly runs I want a big breakfast and limit the amount of fuel I take with me. I actually fuel predomiately with fruit during my runs but fruit is minimal now.  My two hearty fav pre-run breakfast are oatmeal with granola and fruit and yams/apples.  I have been experimenting with the pancakes. I am gluten free so when I finally found a good recipe I thought I would give eating pancakes a shot again. Like I said I have not eaten bread or pancakes in 5 years.

I had 4 medium pancakes with peanut butter and maple syrup the morning of my long, hilly run.  This stayed with me and gave me plenty of energy. I was out for 4 hours and it wasn't until the 3rd hour when I had a handful of dried figs. I didn't feel weighted down it digested just fine. So if I am out of yams and oatmeal at least I know I can eat pancakes. But again, not a fan of bread. The pancakes are really delicious though!

I know a lot of you like it when I write down my meals and exercise. So I will try to post more often
Sunday
breakfast - 4 pancakes
run 4 hours with 3600' vertical
lunch - huge bowl of salsa (black bean, toms, corn, green peppers, lime, cilantro, olives) with veggies on the side
dinner - fruit meal of grapes and apples

Monday
breakfast - no breakfast
quick 7 mile run.  Too windy, trees were creakin'
lunch - yams, green beans, garbanzo beans, broccoli, tomatoes
dinner - 5 grapefruits. Found some great grapefruits

Finally we are able to make a run to our organic wholesaler so here is what our next load will be:

1 box of red apples (I will dehydrate  most of these for running fuel)
1 box of fuji apples
15lb carrots for juicing
3 boxes of oranges (for oj nd eating, oj is great for drinking while running)
40lb sweet potatoes (I alternate with yams)
8lb spinach for juicing
13lb roma tomatoes
12 heads of parsley for juicing
1/2 case of broccoli

Looking forward to when melon season is here. I love cantaloupes. I love sitting down and eating 2 huge cantaloupes after a run.

I don't follow the normal crowd of drinking and partying all night on New Year's Eve. I mean I use too.  It was fun and all but hangovers suck the next morning and I swear I age 10 years after a long night of drinking, lol!  Those days are long gone. Instead I spent my NYE running 20 miles with 5000 feet of vertical. 

I woke up that morning and ate a bowl of oatmeal with dried apples, raisin, pecans and maple syrup.  Headed out and ran 12 miles with hills.  Then on the last minute my friend called and said they are doing "Across the Years Run" where you start running before midnight and run through midnight.
Well I had a good morning run and pushed the hills a little and could feel my tired quads and thought "man I just ran this morning" but I am adventurous and of course I was going to run with them! 

I had to plan my meals right for the evening run, and I didn't have much to choose from at the house.  Lunch was yams and apples and dinner was gluten free pancakes and later followed by potatoes.  I had to eat more that I felt comfortable with in my stomach. I had just ran 12 miles with hills so I needed to re-fuel and then to fuel up for my evening run. Actually if I could snap my fingers and could have any meal I wanted I would have preferred a dinner of fruit, like a huge bowl of mangoes and pineapples. But it is winter and produce is minimal. I can get great fruit, but sometimes I have an abundance of ripe fruit and sometimes I don't. None the less what I ate fueled me perfectly.

Our goal was to start at one side of the mountain and go up and over, 10 miles with 3000 vertical. We started at 10pm at the trail head. The moon was 80% full and we had a clear night, about 28F. I was so bundled.  We started the climb, up to the peak.  I love this trail and it was the first time I ran it at night. It was sooo cool! The trail had snow on it and it was packed down. Footing was just fine. We arrived at the top of the peak 5 mintues before midnight. My friends busted out the bubbly and we cheered.  I don't drink but I did have a sip.  Then we continued our trek to the other side of the mountain.  We didn't get very far. We were sinking in knee deep. The trail was not packed down at this point. And with all the downed trees it made it difficult to find the trail. We decided to turn around. Good choice. So we headed back to where we started. The downhill was so fun. The trail was packed down so no roots or rocks to trip over. And the moon and stars lit up the snowy trail and the snow sparkled. We did have headlamps of course.

Even though we didn't get to the other side, we still got 8 miles in with lots of climbing, a three hour trip.  Alot of the time was spent pulling ourselves out of the snow on top and taking pics and drinking bubbly.  I got home at 1:30am and didn't even feel the need to eat.  I had eaten all day so I was good.  My head hit the pillow and I don't remember closing my eyes.  I would love to do this again next year. Gotta get some snow shoes though. We did have perfect weather but I just don't think we will get so lucky with the weather next year.