I have a new discovery for my taste buds! It is the Eli Earth Bars.  These are  heavenly candy bars! They are vegan, GF, soy free and non-gmo. And it tastes like a snickers. I mean it doesn't get better than that! I don't partake in these on a daily basis. For one they are a little spendy but for me they make for a great snack on the trail.  These will for sure be in my race bag for my ultra races. I am not one to devour chocolaty sweets of cakes and cookies (even if they are vegan).  I mean I could. But I just don't.  Actually my weakness is watermelon and cantaloupe. I would take the melons over anything anyday.

So I am on a major pankcake eating frenzy lately. I love my recipe that I make.  4-6 for breakfast and I am good to go for a 2-3 hr trail run. Digests super easy.

I am still doing my 100 squats a day.  I am on day 20.  Still going strong. I do them right before bed along with 4 other core exercises.  I tried to do them right after my run but I am usually cold and/or wet from my run.  Right before bed is perfect.

And my run mileage for this week was 52 miles and 10,000' vertical. I have been really consistant in the last 3 months. Which is always a good thing.

So I am on day 9 doing 100 squats a day and 50 pushups. I also do other weights and core exercises but the squats and pushups are everyday.

As the weeks go on I will start seeing more benefits of 100 squats a day. But one improvement I have seen already blows me away.

My right knee has a condition common in athletes. I believed it accumlated over time snow skiing for so many years and having bad form as a snow skier. My knee cap doesn't track straight when I go from the squating position to the standing. It grinds  My knee has gotten SO much better over the years from keeping my quad muscles strong. It has never prevented me from doing anything but I tend to baby it more. I have to be careful when I do leg day at the gym. 

For the first week of  doing 100 squats, I could hear my knee grind.  And by the third day there was a little bit of pain. I am doing the full squats, going all the way down, doing them completely right. So today while doing the squats I couldn't hear my knee grind. I'm like what the heck?!?! Then I went up my stairs (because it always grinds going up), and no grinding either. I'm so stoked! Could it be that I baby-ed my knee for too long. I mean I used to get serious pain there and don't want to go back to that. But maybe 100 squats a day is what it needs.

Yesterday's menu and exercise

-breakfast - none (went to a party the night before, ate a ton of vegan food, was not hungry when I woke up)
run-20 miles 2400 vertical plus my core workout, fuel dried fruits
lunch- taco salad, lots of it and potatoes
dinner - pancakes

I just bought some oat flour for the pancakes, I really like it!