Champion Day

This morning’s smoothie turned out smooth, creamy, icy, and sweet.  Just the thing to make me feel like a champ.

Combine in a VitaMix or blender:

1 small ripe banana

3/4 cup frozen pitted cherries

1 scoop Vanilla Peaceful Planet protein powder

1 cup of ice

1 or 2 handfuls of spinach

1 cup of almond milk

I’m not sure if it was the smoothie, the egg sandwich I had after, or just the right combination of things, but I had the most incredible jog today.  It really couldn’t have come at a better time.  I’ve been feeling pretty down the last few days.  I found out last week that I have high blood pressure.  It was a huge hit to my psyche.  I really identify as a person who values my health and works hard to maintain it.  So it was a bit of a blow.  More than likely given that I’m 34, and live a healthy lifestyle it’s probably genetic.  I also have two immediate family members with hbp.  Still, it sucks, and it’s taken a few days to sink in.  I’m under good treatment for it now and it’s already gone down a bit.

Today’s workout really lifted my sprits.  My favorite place to run (and favorite park) in Seattle is Discovery Park.  I highly recommend you visit if you’re in Seattle.  It’s a beautiful place even if you don’t hike the entire Loop Trail.  I love the constant changing scenery, the perfect amount of hills and the fact that it’s quiet in the morning and during the week.  I did a combo of walking/jogging to finish the 2.8 mile trail in 44 minutes.  This is a very good time for me given that it’s a trail with some big hills and I haven’t jogged in over two weeks.  Back when I did triathlon I think my fastest ever time jogging the entire trail was 33 minutes.  Or 11/mile.  My fastest ever average mile on flat surfaces was 9/10 minutes.  So I’m very pleased!  I didn’t really plan to jog at all but I had so much energy I just went for it.  My main goal was to keep my heart rate between 125-150.  I burned 450 calories according to my hrm.  I just felt so GOOD.  I finished and nothing hurt, I didn’t feel wiped out.  I think the key is yoga.  When I was a jogger in the past, I always did yoga twice a week as well.  For some reason I just stopped the yoga.   After that I was plagued by injuries.  I was also running at that magic time of the day between 9-11 am which is my peak fitness time.

I’m hoping to stay on this path of yoga + jogging because it seems to work for me.

I also made some granola bars today which I’m calling Champ Bars because today has been a Champion day.  I’ll post that recipe later in the week. 🙂