Sad Tummy

Happy Monday! I hope that some of you have today off and are enjoying a wonderful 3 day weekend! Today is my last day off before school starts back up tomorrow! Lucky me, though, on Tuesdays I only have one class at 8:30am haha easing back in I guess. About 2 weeks ago, I started up my training for my half marathon in the beginning of April. Yesterday was long-run day, 9 miles! Before my run, I enjoyed a banana smashed up and 1 T of PB, and then heated in the microwave. I'd seen Tina do this on her blog, so I thought I'd give it a try. DEEEElicious.

I headed to the gym for the run. I thought about doing it outside because, despite the cold, it was pretty sunny yesterday. However, I'd been keeping an eye on sidewalks and knew that trying to navigate all the ice and snow covered paths would frustrated me way too much. Weirdly, the gym was plenty entertaining, despite the fact that they were playing the same infomercial on all the televisions I guess I've gotten used to treadmill long-runs, which is a good thing here in Chicago! When I got back I made up some lunch. I wanted to get in some protein and veggies so I made some Veggie Egg White Spaghetti. Veggie Egg-White Spaghetti Ingredients: 1 small zucchini 1 and 1/2 cup kale 1 cup bean sprouts 4 liquid egg whites Coconut Aminos (or soy sauce or other substitute based on your allergies) nutritional yeast Directions Spiralize a small zucchini to make spaghetti . If you don't have a spiralizer, use a vegetable peeler to make more fettuchini like noodles . Then steamed the kale and place on top of the zucchini. Steam the bean sprouts and then put them and the egg whites into a skillet and cook until the egg whites are done. Place contents of skillet on top of kale. Then, I placed the whole dish in the microwave for 30 seconds, because I prefer my zucchini to be warmed up. Then top the dish with some nutritional yeast and Coconut Aminos (like soy sauce, but soy and gluten free). It was totally delicious and I scarfed it down! I love having zucchini as spaghetti, it's fun! However, about a half hour after eating lunch I started to feel very ill. I guess a large amount of veggies after a long run isn't the best idea, but this was much worse than just an upset stomach. I had drank plenty of water before, during and after my run, but I had an awful headache and felt horribly nauseous for hours and hours afterwards. Literally, laying on my bed curled up in a ball hoping I wouldn't throw up I used to feel a little ill after long runs, but I've been doing 8 mile runs over break and never had any issues. I'm really not sure why this one was so bad! I did manage to pull myself out of bed after a while and ended up making some Carrot Cake Protein Bars from Jamie Eason's Livefit Trainer. I've heard several bloggers talk about her program for strength training and a high protein and veggie diet, and I wanted to try it myself! However, the program requires minimal cardio and since I'm also training for a half, I've decided this is just not a good time for me to try and do both! I am, however, trying to implement some of her diet ideas. I'm definitely not following the diet completely since I definitely need carbs for running, but I am going to use her idea of eating six small meals a day, eating a lot more lean protein and veggies, and some of her recipes! These Carrot Cake Protein bars were pretty good! I subbed the oat flour for Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Powder. It probably made them more dense, but I thought they were delicious! And I've been wanting to make my own protein bars for a while now because buying bars can get really expensive! I think I'm going to try the chocolate one today!   To any runners out there: do you know what causes this ill feeling after long runs? Any suggestions for me?   Have you heard about Jamie Eason's Livefit Trainer? What do you think about doing strength training and running training at the same time?