Half-Marathon Training Plan

Something mighty exciting happened for me today: Jessica of My Healthy Passion featured a few of my recipes on her blog this morning! It was my first guest post ever, and I hope you'll check it out! Plus, Jessica is a new blogger, like me, so give her some love! You can read my guest post here.

We're well into Week 1 of our half-marathon training. We somewhat arbitrarily chose Hal Higdon's Half-Marathon Novice 1 Program, and I think it's going to be a great choice for us. 

I'm already nervous about week 7 - that'll be a record distance for me already!

Today, like the committed half-marathon-trainers we are, we completed our three-mile run and the following strength exercises:

New plank record for me!

We focused on legs because we have a day of rest and a light cross-training day ahead of us, so we can be a little sore those days without hurting our run on Sunday. Although my husband is already experiencing hip flexor, quad, and lower ab pain, so we'll see how that goes.

We were starving after our intense workout. Luckily, dinner wasn't too rough because I used the same ingredients as yesterday to create a new recipe! I layered my homemade marinara sauce, roasted eggplant slices (slice the eggplant crosswise, toss with olive oil and salt and pepper, roast at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes), goat cheese, and cooked spinach.

Marinara, roasted eggplant, goat cheese, cooked spinach.

 Add a little more marinara on top and bake, covered, at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly.

Delicious!

We enjoyed our eggplant casserole with meatballs, zucchini, and whole-wheat garlic bread.

For dessert, a couple of the Powerballs I made yesterday (this time I managed to take a few photos). 

Delightful and real food!

Perfect dessert!

While I cooked dinner, I prepped tomorrow's dinner as well, because we'll be out of the house until at least 9 p.m. I grilled up some zucchini with olive oil, salt, and pepper for our vegetable.

Yummy zucchini!

Zucchini, goat cheese, and meatballs.

Add marinara and the leftover eggplant from tonight's meal.
Yummy, colorful layers!

Hope you enjoyed an awesome Groundhog Day! Sorry to those who might be bummed about the six more weeks of winter, but I am jealous of anyone experiencing cold weather! I haven't worn my nice winter coat at all this year!