Papers & Pavement

First fall crockpot meal + dead legs

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Sweet potato and ground turkey chili in the crockpot to cook all day! YUM. This is one of my favorite fall meals. Well, I could actually eat it any time…SO GOOD. It’s so easy to make, too. I cut up 4 sweet potatoes, half an onion, browned ground turkey, and threw it all in the crockpot with some honey, cinnamon, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, black beans, and water. That’s it! I let it cook all day on low. I usually don’t put beans in it, but we had a can we needed to use up, so I threw it in there.
Thank you humidity during my run for messing up my perfectly straight hair! Hot mess express over here.
I think we found another race to do together!! Has anyone done the Glacier Half?? It sounds amazing!
Lunch #1…leftover tilapia tacos. I was STARVING all day yesterday.
Made tons of progress on my dissertation! Eek! Also, I would be lost without my lap desk. I’m obsessed with it. I’m hoping after next week, I can start submitting my study to the university and get started on it!
Lunch #2…which I inhaled before I remembered to take a picture. It was some of the enchilada casserole that I made for Jake for lunch this week, it’s really good! I also had a little protein shake with super greens and collagen in it. I was so hungry and I felt like I ate all day. I can tell I’m getting back into some higher mileage/more intense workout weeks.
After lunch #2, I had a phone meeting for a couple of hours, then I chowed down on some sweet potato chili. I LOVE Greek yogurt and avocado on top of chili. It’s delicious. If you haven’t tried this, I highly recommend it! Oh, and of course Sriracha. ; ) I added some honey and cinnamon to the chili, so it’s spicy and sweet, which is my favorite.
Jake went to dinner with his Dad to celebrate their Leadman finish. For new readers, my fiancè and his Dad competed in a series of 5 races in Colorado this summer. They did a trail marathon, a 50 mile mountain bike, a 100 mile mountain bike, a 10k, and a 100 mile run. Jake proposed at the finish line of the 100 run – he had carried my ring the whole race. It was perfect! So, they finally got to go out, just the two of them, to celebrate! I relaxed on the couch while eating and watching Scandal. I’m trying to get caught up! I missed two whole seasons. We never use our TV, is that weird? Probably…laptops are just easier! I watch on Jake’s laptop and work on mine. It’s perfect!
This chili is one of my new favorites. I also had some Ritz crackers with peanut butter because I had a hill repeat workout in the morning and knew I would need fuel. I’ve been kind of dragging this week.
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Sorry this is blurry, but I was laughing so hard at Lulu. She would start waving her arms in the air whenever I stopped rubbing her belly. We call it “swimming”. She’s such a goofy dog.
I try not to eat after 8 because I get acid reflux when I lay down, but at 7:53 I decided I needed a popsicle. It was delicious.
Lu stared at me like this the whole time I ate it. Eye-roll.

Then it was up get my hill repeats in! I did not sleep well last night. I just couldn’t fall asleep and when I finally did, I woke up every 30 minutes or so. I wanted SO badly to hit snooze and put off my workout, especially when I finally crawled out of bed and my legs felt SO dead. I knew I needed to at least try to get a little hill workout in. I wasn’t going to push it super hard, but I needed to try. I have a race challenge next month that has two trail runs back-to-back, so I need to get used to running on tired legs. I have a lot of work to do…

​Side note: we got this new coffee to try tomorrow! I’m excited.

I was also STARVING when I got up, so I had a little peanut butter. I REALLY just wanted to crawl back into bed…I kind of hope it keeps raining here all day so I can take a short nap later, I love napping when it rains…fingers crossed!
My plan was to do a 3 mile warm-up, 4 hills (about half a mile each), and a 2 mile cool-down, so I would end up with 7 miles. This is the hill I use for these repeats. Where you can’t see anymore is where it gets super steep and it burns so bad. I start at the railroad tracks and run to the top, which is right at about a quarter of a mile, then jog back down. The last minute of climbing is the worst. I did my 3 mile warm-up, during which my legs just felt super fatigued. I kept reminding myself that I did a hard 9 miles yesterday, so it’s normal that my legs are tired. I finished up my warm-up at the bottom of the hill and started on my repeats. About halfway through the first one, my legs felt like they were going to give out. I decided to try and get at least two hill repeats in before doing my cool-down. It was a struggle to even just do that! I was really dragging today, but I’m listening to my body and not pushing it when I already feel this fatigued. Sometimes I push through fatigue, but I didn’t get the feeling that this was a time for that, plus I don’t know if I could’ve. This is my second week back on a serious plan and I know I didn’t ease into it. I didn’t want to push too hard and risk an injury, so I did two of the hill repeats and then a 2 mile cool-down. I ended up with 6 for the day and I’m okay with that.
I was worn out after that! I sat in the garage and stretched for a long time, then I took Lu on a little walk while Jake and Aspen ran.
Had my Ezekiel toast concoction again – it’s just so good! I’m really on a hummus kick right now.
I’m going to do some work around the house today and finish up some edits for my proposal! Jake finished painting our front door last night, so we will hang it back up tonight! I’ll post pictures tomorrow!
Happy Wednesday!
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