daylight savings time getting the best of me? better recover with delicious morning muffins.

What an awesome weekend.  I was super lucky to get to spend some time with my girl friends in Philly this weekend doing an awesome workout for the #MyCityMoves campaign, which left me oh so sore, but oh so satisfied.  Is there anything better than a new, challenging workout?  Plus we didn’t look to bad afterwards if I do say so myself.

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Daylight savings time came in full force on Sunday though and I wasn’t ready for it.  I had some how convinced myself that 6 am would feel like 7 am and that the mornings would be bright and cheery.  Spoiler alert: this is not the case.  In fact, it is the exact opposite.  I woke up on Sunday feeling sleepy as all get out an confused about why it was so dark outside when my watch blinked 6:45.  I got up and got my butt to the gym anyway.

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Good thing I was the only one there.

I’m not kidding when I say it was me and one other person.  That’s it.  But that made for an awesome workout because I could play around with any and all machines I wanted and not bother anyone.

I ended up putting together a quick circuit workout after a leisurely 4 mile run.

Complete all three circuits with a 60 sec rest between each and repeat the whole thing 2 more times.

Circuit 1: 10 weighted lunges, 10 squats, and 10 burpees

Circuit 2: 10 squat jumps, 10 straight leg deadlifts, fast half mile run

Circuit 3: 10 ice skaters, 10 squat to row, 10 lateral lunges

Throwing some running in there kept my heart rate through the roof and made me feel like a powerhouse.  I got up to 10.2 on the treadmill and kept telling myself “Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall” for the entirety of my sprint (also I didn’t run the whole half mile at this pace, don’t worry).

The hardest part about waking up these past couple of days has been motivating myself to do so, so when my boyfriend asked me to make delicious muffins to wake up to, I had to oblige.  These bran muffins may not be the healthiest thing out there, but dang if they’re not delicious.

Bran Muffins 

Ingredients

-1 1/2 cups bran cereal (I used Fiber One Bran Cereal)

-1 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have this, you can use milk and vinegar)

-1/3 cup melted coconut oil

-1 egg

-2/3 cup of brown sugar

-1 cup all-purpose flour

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-1 tsp baking powder

-1 tsp baking soda

-pinch of salt

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Steps:

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly spray a muffin pan with nonstick spray
  • in a medium bowl, soak bran cereal (I like to crunch it up a bit first) in the buttermilk for 10-15 minutes
  • Add in melted coconut oil, brown sugar, vanilla, flour, egg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and stir it all together.  The mixture will be thick, but delicious
  • Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tins (mine made about 15 muffins, but it easily could have been compacted to 12)
  • Bake in the oven for about 13-15 minutes or until a poker comes out clean.

These muffins are everything.  Super easy to make and 1000% delicious.  I’ve probably eaten about 30 thus far (I made multiple batches, don’t you worry) and I have no shame about it.

Also, please look at this.  Sloths or chocolate croissants?  I was dying.

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  • How are you doing with Daylight Savings Time?
  • What’s your go to breakfast these days?

-sj

my workout secret weapons and Boo’s side-eye game

Happy Wednesday y’all!  This week isn’t going as fast as the last, but the weekend is in sight, so I’m not complaining.  It’s been a pretty good week thus far full of lots of training and lots of enjoying this beautiful weather.  I’m definitely loving it after a weekend spent inside not feeling well.  Perfect change of pace.

An even better change of pace has been getting back into my half marathon training full force after being sidelined on Saturday.  It’s only Wednesday and I’ve accrued 22 miles since Friday, so my legs have been feeling it.  My half marathon training has been a little haphazard.  Haphazard as in I am not really following a plan, more listening to my body and getting in one long tempo-ish run, one speed workout, and two easier runs in per week.  What day I do it on hasn’t really remained all that consistent due to my travel schedule, but I’m still logging those miles.

Take Monday for example.  I went in to the run aiming for a light 5 just to start off the week with a solid base.  Well that 5 very quickly and smoothly turned into 10 and next thing I knew I was a sweaty mess of exhaustion, but I felt amazing.

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By the time I got home from the gym though, my little legs were burning.  So I turned to a couple of my favorite post-workout recovery methods to ease the pain.

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Enter my trifecta of running/workout goodness.  I don’t use all three of these things every single day, but when I have a particularly difficult workout or run coming up, you best believe these bad boys are involved.

  • Good Day Chocolate: I wish I loved coffee, I really and truly do, I just don’t.  There are some mornings that I need an extra push in the energy department, so I was so stoked when I stumbled upon these bad boys at Whole Foods.  Essentially, they’re little energy chocolates and they are a) delicious b) effective.  There is a notable change in my energy levels (and speed workouts) when I take these before my runs.  Also, caffeine has been shown to be extremely effective during endurance workouts, so count me in.  Chocolate + energy + better athletic performance=100% yep these are great
  • Sport Legs: Ah, Sport Legs.  I first heard about these bad boys on one of my favorite blogs Hungry Runner Girl.  I only use these when I’m doing a particularly long run (long for me anyway) aka anything considerably over an hour.  Unsure if it’s the placebo effect or if these actually are the thing of gods, but I feel like my legs stay fresher for longer when I take them.  I got them off of Amazon, they’re competition legal (NCAA, IOC, WADA, USADA, and UCI approved) and they came highly recommended, so they’re in the rotation.
  • Compression Socks:  My loving boyfriend got these for me for my birthday and to say they have changed my recovery game is an understatement.  What they do is basically stimulate blood flow in your legs helping you to recover more quickly.  There’s a lot more science that goes into it, but a quick google search will give you all you need.  I honestly notice a huge difference in my legs ability to recover for a solid workout the next day if I wear these after a long run.

Of course these three things are not the only things I consider my secret weapons, but they definitely help.  I also love to foam roll, ice my legs, and stretch, stretch, stretch in the evenings after a particularly hard day.  Shout outs to Yoga with Adriene and doyogawithme.com for giving me something to put on during the Real Housewives that forces me to stretch.  You’re the real MVP.

And finally for a little Boo action.  This nugget was giving me all kinds of side-eye when we went on a walk through the preserve the other day.  So immeasurably happy that the weather is picking up so we can do this again!

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  • Are there any “secret weapons” you swear by?
  • What’s your favorite way to recover after a tough workout?  I think mine is eat everything, but that’s just me

-sj