Post-Colfax: Meals and the Next Step

Ever since I saw this recipe for Mexican Black Bean Spaghetti on FoodBuzz, I've been dying to try it out. Unfortunately, Whole Foods didn't carry the black bean spaghetti, so I opted to use quinoa instead. I bought some black beans to keep the black bean taste.

I didn't include jalapenos or sour cream, but it turned out pretty alright. I think I undercooked the black beans, and I didn't warm up to the taste of quinoa right away, but my salad tonight made me come to terms with it at last.

This was made using spinach leaves and the leftover ingredients from the "spaghetti." Basically, quinoa, tomatoes, corn, and black beans. I think I can get used to quinoa as part as my regular diet!

I've spent this week recovering from the half marathon, and starting tomorrow I should be ready to attack my training plan. I've based it off of Hal Higdon's novice marathon training plan with a few modifications based on my summer and autumn plans and my weekly schedule. I also included crosstraining, yoga, pilates, and Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.

The basic structure of the plan goes like this:

• Mondays: Strength-training day. Spend 15 minutes on the elliptical to warm up, lift some weights, do some pilates, and cooldown with another 15 minutes on the elliptical.
• Tuesdays: Rest.
• Wednesdays: Rock Bottom Running Club to run 5K, easy. 30 Day Shred day.
• Thursdays: Interval training, alternating between speed and hill every week. 30 Day Shred day.
• Fridays: Easy run of slowly increasing distances. 30 Day Shred day.
• Saturdays: Cross-training and yoga. Cross-training most likely going to be biking and/or swimming.
• Sundays: Long run day

There will be races in there, I'm sure, and my training plan will adjust accordingly. I'll do my best to coordinate my long runs with the races as often as I can.

Also, telling my coworkers about my switch in diet has been extraordinarily helpful, too! Charlotte gave me her copy of Vegetarian Times, and there are a few great recipes in there and great tips to help with some of the things I've been struggling with. This is definitely my next grocery list. I'm excited to try out recipes outside of salads!

As far as the iron diet goes, I took a look at the multivitamins I've been taking, and there is no indication of its iron content. Next time I buy some, I'll definitely be taking a careful look at the nutrition label. Fortunately, the food I've been buying has a good amount of iron in them (quinoa has 20% of the recommended daily allowance!), so I should be fine.