Great Race for the List

Whoa, where did the weekend go already? It’s been a good weekend, productive and I had a great 10-mile race yesterday and great run at the gym today. Friday night I made a simple pre-race dinner of curried lentils and quinoa with veggies, quinoa or any simple grain dish seems to be a great pre-race meal for me.

And got up way too early Saturday morning with my sister to be ready at the start line by 7:30am.

I’m typically not a fan of Saturday races because trying to do the packet pickup on a Friday with work sucks and didn’t happen this Friday since neither my sister or I could make it into Sacramento around our work schedules. Luckily this was a smaller scale race with plenty of parking and race morning packet pickup was not a problem.

This was the Buffalo Stampede 10-mile race and it’s scheduled to be a fast training distance for the Urban Cow half marathon next month. It’s also a competitive race hosted by the Buffalo Chips running group and offers cash prizes attracting elite runners. I registered for it literally a few days before to support my sister and add to my Sac Run Series mileage count for the year, but I was not feeling too great about my performance for it after a crappy long run in the smoke and heat last weekend and congested training runs during the week.

But I actually did good! Ran faster than my target half marathon pace and had no problems cruising along with more elite runners for sections of it! Being perfect, cool running weather and a flat and fast course helped for sure. And the scenery was nice going through neighborhoods of older, well-manicured sprawling ranch homes with huge trees. It finished in the high school parking lot and I felt great racing to the finish line.

And came through the finish early enough to score lots of loot and snacks. I spent a lot of time at this booth for Vicia Energy Bars chatting with co-founder and ultramarathoner Nathan Flood.

An energy bar company founded by vegan fitness enthusiasts looking for cheaper whole food energy bar options for any fitness adventure! I snacked on the Cafe Mocha and Coconutty flavors which were gooey, chocolaty heaven with a great, hearty texture but still soft enough to chew, break down, and digest on the go unlike granola bars and some of the tougher options I’ve tried on long runs.

And I brought more bars home which I can’t wait to tear into for pre-long run fuel. I’m seriously tempted to support the Kickstarter campaign because I like the list of whole ingredients and that these bars can double as energy gels with caffeine in a much more enjoyable form.

After I got home and took a thorough shower, hubby and I headed to Zest Kitchen for a healthy, post-race lunch where I got my favorite chana chickpea wrap with avocado and rice wrapper.

And he tried the kicky chipotle chickpea tacos with avocado.

The race was a much needed boost after a running slump in our crazy summer heat and my first race since turning 40, so I’m happy it went well and hoping for a strong fall race season. So here’s a little boost from the Sunday blues with the weekend list:

This recipe for buffalo tofu bites with dilly tahini sauce looks amazing.

The Gaurdian is pro vegan.

With so many extreme weather events lately, this is an interesting article on food and climate change.

This is an eye-opening article of the risks of prolonged sitting and aging.

5 new vegan films to watch.

4 ways going vegan can trigger a food love affair.