Going the Distance for the Weekend List

Happy Sunday! It is nice to relax a bit, I’m feeling more caught up and chilled after a busy couple of weeks. Friday night hubby and I stepped out for spicy Thai vegan comfort food – I just adore this simple cashew tofu stir fry.

I’m getting more into the fall spirit and have been making pumpkin pie smoothies for breakfast.

Vanilla protein powder blended with carrots, frozen bananas, greens, raw ginger, and pumpkin pie seasoning makes a fun fall breakfast treat.

Especially when followed by taking the dogs for long walks to enjoy the changing leaves.

And letting Leela pee a little on everything!

After the gym yesterday, I had a simple and hearty chickpea salad lunch with hummus dressing and snacked on veggie chips.

Then slow cooked a pound of chickpeas to use during the week.

I love using them in salads, soups, quinoa dishes and I’m experimenting with mixing them more into the dog meals since beans are great for dogs too and Miko might be a bigger fan of them than me!

I also took my mom shopping to our local Fleet Feet store to get new fitness shoes for her and a new pair of Brooks Glycerin 14s for me for my long marathon training runs. I could have easily spent hundreds there – new compression pants, socks, shoes, etc! But we had to move on to our next shopping adventure to get pumpkins and fall decor.

I love pumpkins, I might even be obsessed with them. They’re just such a festive fall decoration and picking them out was a fun, big deal for Halloween growing up. Good thing they’re cheap here because I like to have them all over the house.

And today was long run day, so I fueled up last night with a simple quinoa and chickpea dinner adding more yellow zucchini from our garden.

Then treated ourselves to So Delicious Neapolitan Frozen Dessert hubby found at Grocery Outlet.

For only 120 calories per serving, it’s very good! Creamy with a rich chocolate flavor and sweet strawberry flavor with visible strawberry chunks.

Whew, and there was today’s long run – 14 miles and the longest I’ve ever run!

I did not push the pace because I was pushing the distance and was a little more weighed down for this run with a full hydration vest, two smartphones since I’m on call this week, and Gu Energy packs to get through the miles. I was really feeling the distance for the last mile and the warm weather today did not help. But overall I’m glad I did it and did not notice any new pains during the run and had energy to take the dogs for a walk after. I also got through a lot of podcast episodes from Planet Money, The Bearded Vegans, and This American Life. But I’m ready to relax now … after catching up on laundry and running to Target!

The list:

Men’s Journal discusses getting ripped on a vegan diet.

Dr. Greger gets hardcore on type 2 diabetes

This woman’s struggle with running led her to her first marathon.

Running became this man’s best weight loss plan.

The challenges and joys of running a marathon.

DJ Khaled is getting closer to veganism.

These vegan Thanksgiving recipes look delicious.

So do these.

So many great sweet potato recipes here!