Eats n Miles

I PRed!! I ran the Adidas Half Marathon this weekend and PRed with an official time of 1h 36 min and 13 sec. My previous PR was 1h 37 min (I don´t know with how many seconds) but I shaved about one minute off my previous time. My average pace for the race was 4 min and 31 sec /km and I couldn´t be happier. It was a great race since I felt strong, finished strong and didn´t feel any pain or discomfort throughout the race. I can truly say I enjoyed it the whole time.

It was very nice to have my mom right there cheering me on when I crossed the finishing line. She snapped this picture of me right when I finished.

While I ran the Half Marathon, the Husband ran 10k with Maia in the stroller. We just bought a new jogging stroller (the BOB) and I´m loving it; such a difference with the old one! It was Maia´s first race.

After the race we went to breakfast at Starbucks with my parents and I had my favorite banana muffin with a chai soy latte. I love Starbuck´s muffins but try to enjoy them every once in a while since they are pretty caloric.

On the fitness front, my next race is the New Balance 15k which isn´t until July 7th (about 6 weeks away), so I plan to take it easy this week (I´ve been doing some light jogging) and next week (cross training) and start training the week after that. I want to give my body some time to rest and recover.

Today is my last day at work and I´m having some mixed feelings. I know it´s the best decision for me, but I´ll miss my co-workers. I´m picking up Maia at her daycare and spending the afternoon with her- haven´t done that in a while! We´re going out for fro-yo at Pinkberry and just having some mommy-daughter time.

Tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY!! I´m turning 26 and have a great, relaxing day ahead of me. I´m having lunch with the Husband at my favorite sushi place, relaxing at the spa with a gift card I got a while back and going out to dinner with my family at night- I´m so grateful and couldn´t ask for more!

Hope you´re having an amazing week!

Hey guys! TGIF!! Today´s my last Friday at work since my last day is next Thursday. Next Friday is my birthday (26!) and I´m so happy I won´t be working… I´m looking forward to a relaxed day including a workout, spa trip and dinner with my family at my favorite restaurant.

My Half- marathon is this Sunday and I can´t believe how fast 10 weeks of trying have gone by. I feel prepared and I´m just going to go out there and have fun (I promise you I won´t be mad if I PR) . I´ve been giving it a lot of thought as to what type of workouts I want to do after my HM since my next race won´t be until July (a 15k). I want to give running a mini break in order to stay away from injury and to switch things up a bit. So yesterday, my friend, her husband and I took a test class at a local Crossfit box. I had only read about Crossfit, but had never done it and I really enjoyed it! I love the fact it´s a short but high intensity workout that made me push myself. Starting on Monday I´ll be going to 3 Crossfit classes a week and couldn´t be more excited. I´ll let you know how it goes and what changes (if any) I see in my body.

On a random note, I haven´t shared my meals in a while because I´ve been lazy, but here are two things I really loved this week:

Banana blondie with THREE scoops of icecream and butterscotch on top- AMAAAAZING

Today´s breakfast- Soy caramel macchiato from Starbucks and a home-made corn muffin with Sun flower seed butter. I´m obsessed! I still have to make a couple of tweaks to the recipe because the muffins were a little dry, but I´ll share it soon!

Now, I´m off to lunch with 2 friends from work who I´m going to miss so much and I have a fun-filled weekend ahead of me. Tonight the Husband and I have dinner plans with some of his friends from Colombia, tomorrow we have my friend´s wedding (during the day) and Sunday is the HM. Stay tuned for a recap!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Hey guys! It´s been a while since I´ve been on the blog because I was in Miami last week for my cousin´s wedding. I got in on Friday and this weekend I spent it with my family celebrating Mother´s day.

Miami was great, as always! Because I used to live there, I always love going back for vacation and just enjoying a couple of relaxing days full of good eats, shopping and just lounging in the pool/beach. This trip was really great since most of my dad´s side of the family also travelled to Miami for my cousin´s wedding. Her wedding took place at a Club near the beach, filled with good food and cocktails and great music. We danced the night away and I loved watching my cousin so happy with her new husband!

A couple of highlights from my trip included a little shopping (I bought a dress for one of my good friend´s upcoming wedding), great food and treats and just relaxing with the Husband. I also got a couple of great runs in since the weather was really nice! My mom and I went on an 8 mile run on the weekend and I did a couple of runs on the treadmill.

Here´s a picture of my dress:

It´s kind of a strawberry color and all lace. I loved it the moment I saw it!

Some great foods and treats I had in Miami included my favorite Frappuccino of all times- green tea- , froyo (I had it like 3 times in less than a week), an amazinggg spinach, banana almond milk smoothie and a trip to Whole Foods. We also went to Hillstones where the Husband got ribs and I got sushi. YUM!

At Whole Foods, I bought lots of nut butters (especially because we only get PB in Peru). I brought back Cashew, Almond and Sunflower Seed Butter. It was my first time trying Cashew and Sunflower seed butter and let me tell you I´m a fan! I think I liked the sunflower seed butter better… I just can´t get enough!! I might have to practice some self-control…

So, in a nutshell, my trip to Miami was great.

***

As for Mother´s day, yesterday was my 3rd Mother´s day (my first was when Maia was in my belly) and it was really nice. Maia and the Husband gave me two amazing running related gifts- a new nano Ipod and a new Garmin!! I couldn´t be more excited!! I just love my new purple Garmin. Saturday was my first run with it (I did 10 miles) and I just love how easy it is. I spent the day with my Mom´s side of the family at a lunch and then went for froyo at Pinkberry; such a great end to my day.

Running update- TAPERING week

As for a quick running update, my half- marathon is this weekend and I´m kind of a nervous wreck! I usually get really antsy the week before the race because of tapering and just second-guessing myself. I´ve heard that the course this time around is harder than last year´s due to more hills so I´m a little nervous! It doesn´t help that I just hate tapering (it´s a hate-love thing) since it’s nice to relax a little more, but I´m afraid I´ll “lose” my fitness but I know that doesn´t happen in a week. I´ll let you know how it goes!

On a random note, after I´m done with the HM, I´ll still be running but I won´t have another race for about a month and a half (a 15k) and then my next half won´t be until the end of August, so I´m looking into different activities. A friend and I are going to try out Cross Fit and I´m stoked. I´ve heard great things about it but didn´t really have the time with training. I´m really looking forward to complementing my running with other forms of exercise!

Hope you have a great week!

Question of the day: Have you ever done Cross Fit?

Nope, I’m not pregnant!

On Monday, I told my boss it was time for me to quit my job. As I´ve mentioned before on the blog, I have a two (very different) business that require my time, work and supervision. One of my businesses (Deva- which commercializes products for wooden floors) is up and running since the beginning of this year and I´m fortunate I have a business partner (hello Juana!) that works there full time and takes care of everything alongside our two sales associates. The other business, which I haven´t really discussed on the blog because we (my 2 cousins and I) weren´t sure it was a done deal, but now that we have a location I can talk about it. My cousins and I are starting a healthy restaurant/café where we´ll offer personalized salads and wraps. We´ll also be offering different quiches, vegetarian and non-vegetarian lasagnas and sweet treats such as different types of bread, cookies and muffins- all healthy of course! I´ve been meaning to do something like this for a while now, but I never had the time, money or partners. I´m really excited about this project and can´t wait to open our first location probably in July/August. I´ll keep you posted about how we´re doing and will share our logo and name in a couple of weeks. I feel sad that I´m leaving my job because of my amazing co-workers, but I know it’s the best decision for me right now and I couldn´t be happier to focus on something that´s mine. I´ll be leaving my job at the end of May (the day of my birthday to be exact- May 24th).

Apart from me quitting my job, things have been pretty uneventful this week- just working and getting my run in. Training has been good this week, especially since I´m only two weeks away from my HM. Since I´m leaving to Miami tonight for my cousin´s wedding, I went for my long run this morning and covered a little over 10 miles in 1h 24 min. My overall pace was about 8:27/mile- not bad! I was feeling a little off at the beginning, but then picked up my pace (and actually woke up since it was early) and finished strong. I´m planning to take a rest day tomorrow because we get in to Miami at 5 am and my cousin´s wedding is tomorrow night.

As for Miami, I´m really excited to go back (the Husband and I were there in January for the Marathon). I´m looking forward to the beach, going out to eat, a little shopping and a trip to Whole Foods! I haven´t had Almond Butter in over 2 months- I´m craving it so bad.

Hope you have a great weekend! See from Miami!

PS. I got this for the Husband for our anniversary. It´s going up on our living room.

And a picture of Maia because she’s just too cute!

I´m on a smoothie kick. Instead of my usual nighttime snack of a pancake, toast or egg whites with nut butter and honey, I´ve been having smoothies. The past two nights I had green monsters and the night before that I had a delicious blueberry-banana smoothie. I´ve never been one to have smoothies at night because I was so used to my pancake and nut butter combo, but lately I´m trying to make a more conscious effort to incorporate more fruits and veggies (and whole foods) into my diet. I´ve been feeling really good about myself and notice that smoothies as nighttime snacks keep me full and I don´t wake up the next morning starving. I also like knowing I´m having at least one fruit and veggie with every smoothie.

My go-to smoothie recipe as of late:

- 1 frozen banana
- Lots of spinach (about 3 cups worth)
- 1 ¼ c milk (almond or regular)
- 1 scoop of greens super food (I don´t remember the brand, but I´ll be sure to take a picture for you)

Here´s a picture of my smoothie and I from 2 nights ago. Excuse my PJ look, I was about to go to bed.

Since incorporating more “real” foods into my diet and possibly increasing my calories (I don´t count calories, but I feel I´ve been eating more), I´ve noticed I don´t crave sweets as much as I used to. Don´t get me wrong, I still have some chocolate every day, but I don´t crave it as much. I´ve also noticed I don´t have much of a sweet tooth since I haven´t stepped foot in Pinkberry in a week- I know, MAJOR progress!

Running update

As for running, I´m currently in week 8 of my 10 week HM training plan and I couldn´t be happier with the results so far. I haven´t followed it EXACTLY since I´ve taken a couple more running rest days than the plan called for, but I have been religious at following important workouts such as speed work, tempo and long runs. I´ve learned quickly that speed work is key if you want to improve your race time.

Here´s a look at this week´s workouts:

Monday – 5 miles (my plan called for 6 easy miles, but I was pressed for time so I ran a speedy 5 miles).

Tuesday- 4 easy miles and upper body weights

Wednesday- Tempo run? I actually did my tempo run yesterday so I might just run easy

Thursday- OFF

Friday- 10 miles (I usually do my long run on the weekend, but I´m leaving for Miami on Friday night so I prefer to do my long run before that)

Saturday and Sunday- Don´t know since I´ll be in Miami

***

On a random note, I´ve decided to break up with the scale. Lately, I had been weighing myself weekly in order to keep tabs on my “X+6” journey, but I´ve noticed it doesn´t make me happy and the scale doesn’t budge (my body likes this weight). Yes, I´m a good 6-7 pounds heavier than my lowest weight and yes I´ve been a little too obsessed with the scale before, so I think it´s best for me to stop using it and just get weighed whenever I´m at the doctor´s office. I´m a little obsessive and I know I´ll have some trouble at first not knowing where I´m at weight-wise, but I also know that in the end it´s for the better. Sometimes it´s best not to know. I´ll keep you posted and hopefully I´ll be able to break up with the scale once and for all. I chose to write about this since I read a post from Elizabeth at My Neon Running Shoes about her struggle (and how she´s overcoming it) with the scale which got me thinking.

Tomorrow´s labor day in Peru and I couldn´t be happier. I love having days off in the middle of the week. Hope you have a great week!

Question of the day: Have you ever struggled with the scale?

Have you ever told yourself I´ll start my diet on Monday, and then used that excuse to eat everything you can the weekend before? This has happened WAY too many times with me and my promise to eat cleaner. Although I´m not looking to go on a diet because of many reasons, some of them being: 1. I don´t believe in them, 2. I need my daily treats or else I get moody, 3. I´m not overweight, etc I still feel I go overboard the days before I decide I´m going to start “eating cleaner”. For the past couple of months, one of my goals has been to eat more whole, unprocessed foods, but I just can´t seem to do it. I have to admit I´m doing a little better, but I really want to step up my game, and I want to do it NOW. I´ve decided that today is the day to take action and not wait until Monday to eat better. I think if I begin eating cleaner today, I might make better food choices this week and on the weekend instead of eating like crazy.

I want to be clear with you guys on one thing; my plans to eat cleaner does NOT mean diet or restricting/cutting out foods, just a little less sugar and more whole foods. I´m not looking to reduce my calorie intake or anything like that since I´m a pretty active person and I´m training for a HM I´m running in a month, I just want to get the majority of my calories from whole, unprocessed foods. And of course I´ll still be having my daily dose of chocolate or other sweet treat (today I´m craving Pinkberry- I´ll definitely be having that tonight!)

Long story short, I´m just going to try and make better food choices at every meal. Today, for example, instead of my usual pick-me-up chocolate bar at 4 pm, I had half of a sweet potato with homemade almond butter.

I satisfied my sweet tooth with a healthy, unprocessed snack and I feel it’s going to become a usual pre- run snack. It left me feeling satisfied, but light.

The Husband and I had a pretty rough night yesterday since we only got in about two hours of shut-eye (due to Maia not feeling well), so I didn´t make it to my early run. Because I´m only 3 ½ weeks away from the HM, I´m making sure to follow my plan almost exactly. A 6 mile run is on the agenda for today.

Btw, I participated in a 5k on Sunday and placed 2nd in my age group (18-34) and 4th overall with a time of 20:27. It wasn’t my PR (my PR is 20:06), but I was very pleased with my results since I raced with NEW shoes. Remember how I mentioned Nike was sponsoring me and how I was trying out the LunarGlide 4? Well… those didn’t quite work out. I tried them a couple of more times last week and I just wasn´t feeling them. They actually gave me blisters! I was offered to try out another shoe – the Vomero 7- and Sunday´s race was my first time trying them out. Let me tell you, I´m a fan! They felt great during my race and I tried them out again yesterday and I have no complaints so far. I´ll be trying them out this whole week, so we´ll see how that goes. So far, so good.

Here´s what my training schedule looks like this week:

Mon- 5 miles

Tuesday- 6 miles

Wed- XT

Thurs- Yasso 800´s (8x 800 m)

Friday- OFF

Saturday- 11 miles

Sunday- OFF

I have two days off on the agenda for this week and couldn´t be happier. I feel like I NEED my rest. And my anniversary is this weekend, I’m ready to celebrate and spend time with the husband.

Hope you´re having a great week!

Question of the day: Which running shoes do you wear?

First of all, my heart goes out to all the people in Boston. For those of you who lost loved ones, you are in my prayers. <3

I haven´t done a food and fitness update in a while, so I thought today would be good for an update.

Fitness

As for fitness, I have some exciting news to share with all of you. Last week I got a call from Nike asking to meet with me to see if I want to be sponsored by them and on Friday I signed a contract and couldn´t be happier!! I´ll be getting a fixed amount of money a month to be spent on clothes, shoes and accessories. My end of the bargain is to run with their clothes (and shoes- more on that later), attend their events and participate in races. This Thursday, for example, one of Lima´s most important malls is opening a new Nike store just for women and I´ve been invited to attend. I have to go in workout clothes since we´ll be doing some type of workout with a fitness instructor brought from the States. So excited! As for running shoes, this will definitely be a big change for me since I´m used to running with Brooks (I´ve only run with Adrenaline GTS) and now I have to run in Nike shoes. Because I´m a pronator, I was advised to try out Nike´s LunarGlide +4 and I´m really liking them so far. I´ve run with them yesterday and today and they´ve felt good. I know it´s a process, but I want my feet to get used to them ASAP since my half- marathon is in one month!

Speaking of the race, my training is going as planned. So far, my runs this week have looked like these:

Monday: 6 miles with a few strides

Tuesday: 3×1 mile repeats with ½ mile jog between each repeat and 1 mile warm up and cool down. (It ended up being a little over 6 miles)

Both of these runs have taken place with my new shoes and it´s been a little hard the first mile or so until my feet get used to them!

Tomorrow I´m taking a much needed rest day since I haven´t slept too well because of Maia the last couple of nights. I need some extra rest.

Food

As far as my eating goes, I´ve done pretty well at eating healthy, balanced meals with some indulgences here and there. I tried to “sugar detox” last week and did manage to not eat sugar for a couple of days, but then realized it was making me moody and that my body NEEDS some sugar every day and I´m OK with that. I´m just trying to make healthier choices, like choosing dark chocolate over milk. I´ve also had some pretty good meals lately like this Chicken Platter from Chili´s the other day with the Husband.

Tonight I´m having dinner at home, but still can´t decide what I´m in the mood for. I´m in between a make-my-own Chipotle Burrito Bowl or a Green Smoothie and some PB on toast… I´ve been really feeling breakfast for dinner lately! I want to have a healthy “home-cooked” meal today since I´ll be eating out tomorrow all day- literally. I have lunch plans with my mom and cousin and then a Sushi dinner with my friends from school since one of them gets in town tomorrow. Can´t wait!

Hope you have a great week!

As always, my weekend in Bogota was a blast. Here are some pictures of my weekend. This was my first wedding in Colombia and it was really different to the weddings I´m used to in Peru. In Colombia they are smaller, lunch/dinner gets served at the table (not buffet-style like in Lima) and waiters get your drinks instead of you ordering at the bar. I had lots of fun watching people dance (Colombians are one heck of dancers) and I enjoyed a couple of “dance lessons” courtesy of my Husband.

The rest of the weekend was spent with family, I got some shopping in and ate lots of good food!

As for my “weight posts”, I told you guys I would do updates on Thursdays, but I weighed myself today and decided to do them every Wednesday instead. Because of my trip to Colombia and all the amazing food I´ve eaten, the scale hasn´t budged one bit; I´m still at X+6. I thought I would be disappointed with myself, or it would “ruin” my day or mood, but after reading Janae from Hungry Runner Girl´s post about Running and Periods, I realized it is just a number and it can´t determine how I feel. I´m happy with my body and with what it can do (it helps me run fast and it gave me Maia), so if I´m a couple of pounds over my “happy” weight it´s no big deal. I´m not going to stress over it and I´m just going to try and eat healthier in order to feel and perform my best.

I still want to take part in a week long sugar detox in order to end my addiction (it´s really bad), but I know I’ll be doing it for the right reasons (to not be too dependent) instead of entering a restrictive vicious cycle (where I would cut out certain foods from my diet) like I would have done in the past. I’ll be starting tomorrow with the Husband, I’ll let you know how it goes!

Question of the day: Have you ever done a sugar detox?

Hey guys! It´s time for some new goals and a quick review of last month´s goals.

March Goals:

1. Eat less processed foods- I didn´t do so well here. Lots of eating out, bbqs, and Pinkberry on hot summer days.
2. Blog more- I haven´t done well here either. I´ve been blogging about once a week due to my hectic schedule.

3. Follow my half marathon plan exactly- I´ve been doing really well at following my plan. There have been a couple of tweaks here and there due to running a last minute 5k race and some changes in days, but other than that I´ve been following it exactly.

4. Read a book- I haven´t finished but I´m reading The Firm by John Grisham. I´ve been watching the series and LOVE it. I can´t wait to finish the book.

April goals:

1. Eat less processed foods- I´m still keeping this one.
2. Try a 5 day sugar detox- I´ll let you know when it will happen but I need to do it ASAP. More about it in the second part of this post.

3. Keep on following my half- marathon plan

4. Wean myself off of Starbucks- I still haven´t been able to break this bad habit (for my wallet and waistline). I´ve tried so many times and keep on failing. I´m off to Colombia tonight and there´s no Starbucks there, so at least I´ll be going 4 days without it!

Well, as for the “weighty” issue of this post (feel free to skip it), I stepped on a scale today and wasn´t at all happy with the results. I knew I had gained a little weight because my clothes fit differently, but I never knew it was this much. I´m about 5-6 pounds over my happy weight and don´t feel good with myself. I have a half marathon coming up and need and want to lose this weight (the healthy way obviously). I´ve decided to cut out sugar and processed foods from my diet starting Monday. I´ll be trying to eat healthier in Colombia, but being realistic, we´ll be having dinner parties, a wedding and lunch at my favorite place (wok) making it hard to eat healthy, home cooked meals. I´m not going to post my weight on the blog (I don´t want people to fall into comparison traps, each person is different), but will be making some updates about how I´m doing with the “extra” pounds every Thursday. So for today´s update I´m X + 6. (X being my happy weight and 6 being the pounds over that weight).

Update #1 on April 3rd: X+ 6

I would love to hear any tips/recommendations as to how you get back to your healthy weight after too many indulgences/dinner parties/ holidays, etc.

I´m off to catch my flight. Hope you have a great week!

I can´t believe it´s April already. The first trimester of the year has gone by in the blink of an eye! Summer is over in Peru and it´s officially Fall. I´m pretty sad beach season is over (this past weekend was my last weekend until next New Year´s), but I kind of like Fall/Winter and the different things that go on on weekends.

This weekend I was supposed to participate in a sprint Triathlon (400 m swim, 20 km bike and 5 km run) but that didn´t happen. I was mentally prepared, I even set up my bike and running gear in the transition place, but once I got in the water I totally panicked. First of all, the water was FREEZING and I didn´t have a wetsuit on, I went in with just a sports bra and tri shorts. And although I consider myself a decent swimmer, the waves were huge and I just couldn´t. I got through a couple of them and then began to panic; I knew I just couldn´t keep on going. Due to the fact I didn´t complete the swimming portion of the triathlon, I couldn´t continue with the rest. I was pretty bummed out since I was super excited for my first Tri, but figured that my safety is more important than anything and that there will be other triathlons.

Eventhough I didn´t compete in the triathlon, I still got a couple of good runs this long weekend. My HM training plan is going well so far and tomorrow I begin Week 4. I´m leaving for Bogota on Wednesday night with Maia since we have a wedding on Saturday and I´m really looking forward to visiting the Husband´s family and just being in Bogota, I love that city! I know I´ll be going out a lot with friends and family, but I have to focus and plan out my workouts since I have 3 “shorter” runs and a long run due this week.

As for the rest of my weekend, my MIL is visiting so we went with her to my parent´s beach house. We had a great time (even though the weather was only nice one day), but we spent quality time with my parents, went out for dinner (sushi!) and enjoyed time with Maia.

Here´s a couple of pics from the weekend. Maia had a great time at an Easter party!

Today is my brother´s birthday (he turns 19) and we´re going out to dinner to our favorite sushi place. I´ve had sushi so many times this week but it never gets old. I´ll be back tomorrow with a goals post. Hope you had a great weekend!