Appreciating the small stuff...

I don't think it's any secret... Lately I've become very frustrated with running. With school and all the personal crap going on in my life (these last 6 months especially) running has taken a back seat. However, a couple months back I registered for my first marathon (not to mention my first race period!) thinking it would get better as things mellowed out. Well nothing has mellowed out and marathon training has become a chore to say the least... I hired a running coach a while back thinking that maybe if I improved my form, I'd become more efficient and running would become easier, thus less of a chore. That's a big no... Since then, it's become worse. Every run I spend critiquing my posture, form, foot strike, etc, etc, etc... The joy is gone.

Today I went out hoping for a 7-9 mile run. About 4 miles in my hip started bothering me (yet again!). I spent the next mile walking and spouting off 4 letter obscenities to myself. Then I started thinking... Before I started marathon training I had barely run over 4 miles at a crack. I remember being so excited the first time I ran 5k! When I didn't care how efficient my running form was, when running was just fun, an escape from the stresses of my life and my "me time". Just last week I ran 9 miles... I should've been happy! That's the farthest distance I ever had run. But was I? No, I was pissed because it should've been 10. Where was my 10k milestone? Gone and passed without a second thought. Sadly, I'm almost to half marathon mileage and could care less because all that's in my mind is the 26.2 in February.

So today, after I was done sulking, pouting, swearing and kicking rocks I decided to change my route. It didn't matter that I cut my mileage short today, I finished my "first" 10k. And I couldn't be happier with myself. It wasn't as fast as I would've liked it to be since I walked an entire mile and my hip was bothering me, but I did it nonetheless. And in a couple weeks when I finish 13.1 miles during a training run, you can bet that I'm going to be just as excited about that. I'm not going to think about the end goal anymore, I'm just going to focus on where I was a couple months back and where I'm at now. Every long run from here on out is going to be longer than I've ever ran before and that's something to be appreciated.

Yummy Review and Giveaway...

Remember my last post when I said there would be a review and giveaway this week? Here it is! A couple weeks ago I was contacted by the wonderful people at Manna Organics about doing a review and giveaway of their organic sprouted breads. I was stoked, I had read about this bread a while back but couldn't find it locally (although most Whole Foods stores do carry it) and never got to try it. They sent me 4 yummy loaves of bread to review for you guys, and ONE lucky winner will get their choice of 4 loaves of bread too!! As soon as I got the delivery I knew I was going to like this. First thing I noticed was that the company delivers their breads with dissolvable shipping peanuts, and I always appreciate an environmentally friendly company.

The goodies :)

Then I got to the good stuff! I received a loaf of each; Carrot Raisin, Banana Walnut Hemp, Multi Grain and a Multi Grain Flax Sourdough (click links for nutrition information). And seeing as I try to stay at sugar free/low sugar as possible these days, I was especially excited for the sourdough! The first one's we tried however, were the Carrot Raisin and Banana Walnut Hemp. Yum! My kiddos loved them both too. They weren't dry like some other sprouted breads I've tried, they were moist and cake like and seriously delicious. The only issue I had was the banana one was slightly too banana-ey (that's so not a word...) for me. I'm not a banana fan however, with the exception of breads, but my kids are banana fans and it was enough banana for them.

Banana Walnut Hemp

Banana Walnut Hemp

Carrot Raisin

Carrot Raisin

Now onto the star (for me anyways) of the show! The Multi Grain Flax Sourdough :) When I first went sugar free, I pretty much cut all breads out of my diet because they all have sugar. All of them except sourdough... I had a pretty good whole wheat sourdough I was using, but not anymore. This is so good, it's not a typical sourdough tasting bread. My favorite way of eating it is as a grilled cheese, I added a slice of havarti cheese in between 2 pre-cut slices of bread and it was amazing! I should also add that these loaves of bread are small, but they are not lacking in anything. I was more filled up with a small slice of manna bread than I would be with a regular slice of bread.

Best Grilled Cheese EVER!

So now that I've got you good and hungry I'll let you know what you can do to try to win some of your own Manna Organics bread to try. Be sure to comment for each entry indivually.

Mandatory:

1 - Must be a follower of my blog (Just click the little follow button by Google Friend Connect.)

2 - Like Manna Organics on FB and let them know Haley @ Climb Run Lift Mom sent you and what bread you'd like to try the most. (You can let me know too in a comment!)

Optional:

3- Follow Manna Organics on Twitter.

4- Follow Climb Run Lift Mom on Twitter.

5- Like Climb Run Lift Mom on Facebook.

6 (7, and 8)- Share this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook and your blog!

That's 9 chances to win 4 loaves of your choice! The giveaway will be open through midnight, Thursday, December 8th. Winner will be chosen using random.org. Good luck!!!





It's training season!

First I'm going to apologize for my lack of posting yet again... Bad, bad blogger :( I've had a ton of stuff going on in my personal life that probably wouldn't interest you (unless you're a daytime soap fan, lol) and school has been killing me this semester. So those are my excuses...

But onto the fun stuff... It's officially training season for me! My first Marathon is creeping up on me faster that I'm probably going to be actually running it! A while back the lovely EMZ persuaded me into signing up to run a full 26.2 miles at the IMS Arizona Marathon.  And now President's Day Weekend is going to be here before I know it... I'm kinda freaking out, lol.

On another note, I've been going crazy in the kitchen lately. My joy for cooking has come back, and just in time with this cold weather creeping in! I've been keeping myself busy making lots of yummy healthy versions of family favorites. The first one is an already healthy recipe for Vegan Potato Leek soup from Steph Davis (one of my climbing idols!). The only modification I made was to omit the white wine to make it truly sugar free. It was delicious! She also has a ton of other sugar free, vegan, and even gluten free recipes for anyone who's interested.

A close up of all the veggies sauteing. Yum.

The finished product. Perfect for a chilly day!

My next project was cornbread. I remember as a kid, my parent's would make pinto beans and cornbread. The only problem was I was trying to stay sugar free. Enter... Spoonful of Sugar Free!! Alex has been a god-send with her great sugar free recipes (You have checked out her 10 day Sugar Free Challenge right?!). I found a great recipe for sugar free, whole wheat classic cornbread and it was a hit, the kiddos even loved it.

Sugar Free and Whole Wheat

The perfect side - Just cooked with Cumin and Coriander.

This next recipe is courtesy of The Gracious Pantry, an excellent clean eating themed blog. It's a recipe for sun dried tomato and black olive hummus. This was my first time ever making homemade hummus, and for how simple it really is, I was very intimidated. It turned out surprisingly good (I credit the recipe rather than myself, lol). I cut some whole wheat pita's into triangles and baked them until they just started getting crispy and enjoyed my homemade hummus. Don't think I'll be buying it pre-made ever again!



Sun dried tomato and olive Hummus

Who else is currently training for a race right now with me?

Anyone else running the IMS Arizona?

Do you have any favorite recipes this time of year when it starts getting chilly??

OH!!!

Keep an eye out... I have a great review and giveaway coming up next week :)

It's a yummy one... You've been warned!