Friday Thrive

Happy Friday! With anticipation of Easter and the Boston Marathon and vitamin-D induced joy from sunny spring weather, there’s a lot to celebrate this week! 

Eat

Regular readers probably notice two recurring trends in my cooking: an obsession with perfecting a recipe and an obsession with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. I’ve tried too many at-home falafel recipes using canned chickpeas that turn into mushy, unpalatable pseudo-hummus patties. Falafel is not baked hummus – it’s supposed to be crispy, crunchy, firm, and delicious. 

This Cookie and Kate Crispy Baked Falafel recipe is the perfect at-home falafel recipe – and it contains no binders, just dried chickpeas, olive oil, onion, herbs, and seasonings. The texture is crispy and sturdy, even though it’s baked. I whipped up a full batch to have for lunch throughout the week and it tasted good both freshly made and as leftovers. 

Friday Thrive

Run

After my great shoe debate last week, I ended up purchasing another pair of Kinvaras. I still can’t decide what shoe I want as my second pair and I figured peak weeks of speed workouts for 10K training wasn’t the best time to try a new shoe. Plus, REI had these beautiful Kinvaras on sale and I needed to use my member coupon before it expired…it was just too good of a deal to pass up. 

Friday Thrive

(And yes, I have big feet. I wear a women’s 10, which is guess is to be expected since I’m 5’9. On the bright side, my size of shoes doesn’t sell out as quickly!)

Listen

Running for Real Podcast. Many of you know and follow Tina Muir, who hosted the Run to the Top podcast. She releases her own podcast today and I’m really excited to listen to it. As a coach, possibly the hardest part of training runners isn’t developing the workouts or assessing progress – it’s working on the mental side of training. Tina’s authenticity is incredibly refreshing and relatable, even though she ran as an elite runner up until recently. You can subscribe now on iTunes or another podcast player. 

Friday Thrive

Read

“The Longer the Race, the Stronger We Get.”  Outside has been publishing such well-researched and interesting content lately, both in their print magazine and on their website – and this recent article is no exception. The piece examines how women are beating men and having outstanding athletic accomplishments at endurance sports – the longer the event, the better women perform.

If a man and a woman put the same amount of effort into a long, slow physical task—one that mostly involves muscle endurance or is more skill based—the woman will take longer to fatigue, she adds. Other research indicates that women are faster to recover from physical exertion than men, regardless of the intensity of the effort.” 

Friday Thrive

Outside also delved into the world of women’s running this week with their article “Has the 2-Hour Marathon Already Been Broken?.” Recent research has attempted to determine the female equivalent of the 2-Hour Marathon – and based on one study, that equivalent barrier has long been broken, with Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15 world record in 2003. There’s not an exact way to determine what the equivalent would truly be, but it’s an interesting discussion nonetheless. 

Celebrate

Easter is this weekend! While we don’t visit family now that we live in Seattle, we still treat it as a big holiday: lots of food and drink. I probably overdo it a bit, but food for me is as much celebratory as it is about nutrition – and Easter is one of the most celebratory days of the year for us. It’s appropriate to celebrate by just indulging – chocolate, brunch, a nice meat at dinner, and plenty of wine and beer. Last year we went out to brunch at a local cafe and I’m already dreaming about eating those cinnamon rolls again. I even purchased some Cadbury Creme Eggs to eat – I’m not big into candy, but I have to have those every year. 

Friday Thrive

[Tweet “Friday Thrive: #Easter, #running4real podcast, new @saucony shoes, and more! via @thisrunrecipes”]

What’s your favorite Easter candy?
Do you run better at shorter or longer distances?

 

Sign Up for My Newsletter for More Running Tips

* indicates required

Share this post

14 Responses

  1. I’ve really been loving Outside Online lately too. Really great stuff! And of course, I love the Saucony shoes. I have the exact same pair. Shoe twins! I’m so excited to listen to Tina’s new podcast. In fact I just downloaded the first episodes right before I popped on here. Happy Easter!

  2. You know I’m a distance person. I like to plug, chug, cruise. You should try my kale falafels! Speaking of, I need to make more of them… Have a great Easter weekend!

  3. I really love the Cadbury mini eggs. Not a fan of the creme ones, but the mini ones are delicious. The dove peanut butter are good too. I’m going to check out that article about women runners and didn’t realize Tina’s podcast was already out, so I guess I need to listen to that too!

  4. I love the Cadbury Caramilk eggs. I have one with a cup of black coffee in the afternoon. YUM. I’m excited about Tina’s new podcast! I’m going to listen to it this morning when I (hopefully) get out for a run. Happy Easter!

  5. The Outside Online articles this week were fascinating!

    I like to think I run better at shorter distances, but that might just be impatience talking.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *