Paleo fuel for running

In October of 2013 I ran my first half marathon.  I’ve only been running for a few years and running 13.1 miles was something I ever in my life imagined I would do.  In training for that half marathon I learned a lot about fueling my body for athletic performance.  You can’t just toss back some White Castles and Pinot Noir and expect to have a great run the next day.

Prior to the race, its important to “carb up”, aka, eat carbs to provide energy for your run.  Pre-paleo that meant brown rice, pasta and pizza. Not all at the same time of course.  But none of that will work for a Cavegirl. 

Cavegirl’s favorite pre-race fuel is now sweet potatoes!  Again, not something I ever in my life I imagined I would eat for “fuel” but they are one of the best carb choices on the paleo diet.  I love sweet potato fries and  sweet potato “mash” - shredded sweet potatoes baked with ham or chopped up bacon.  Delicious!

Equally important to training is the post-workout recovery fuel.  The experts will tell you that the quality of your recovery fuel directly affects your next performance.  Pre-paleo my post-run fuel of choice was chocolate milk.  Yum!  Nothing like a cold chocolaty milk after a long hot run.   Just writing that makes me want some chocolate milk RIGHT NOW.   But NO!  Paleo is dairy free – No chocolate milk for you Cavegirl!

I found this recipe for recovery fuel in a book called Paleo Diet for Athletes by Rockridge Press.  Honestly, I’ve not tried it yet (I’m not in training at this time) but I think it sounds pretty tasty and it seems to provide a good balance of carbs and protein.

Tropical Post-Workout Paleo Potion (Paleo Diet for Athletes – Rockridge Press)

• 1 cup fresh pineapple juice

• 1/2 cup fresh strawberries

• 1/2 banana

• 1/2 cup frozen or 2 cups fresh spinach

• 2 pinches unprocessed sea salt

• 2 scoops egg-white protein powder

Combine all ingredients in your blender and blend

Let me know if you like it!

Do you like running?  What do you eat before/after you exercise?

Cavegirl “pasta”

This paleo lifestyle has introduced me to several new kitchen tools including a little gem called The Spiralizer.  Its such a wonder that there is a blog dedicated to it.  The Spiralizer can cut most any veggie into a noodle shape thus simulating a pasta like food for Paleoites. And its fun to use too.

 

No, butternut squash noodles do not taste "just like pasta." But they are very good!  So good in fact, that I make them almost weekly.  But they are not supposed to turn out like this.  #paleofail

Luckily I had another butternut squash so I spiralized it up real quick and threw it in the oven hoping to catch up to the cooking time of the bacon-wrapped filets .

 

So my squash noodles look delicious but this batch turned out the complete opposite of the other batch, barely cooked at all.  So they are placed on the table for the photo op only.  I can’t pay these people enough to eat raw butternut squash noodles. Yes, I tried.

 

At least one member of the family is tired of modeling for my blog.

Do you like squash? What type veggie do you want to spiralize?