Shamrock Shake. Vegan.

“It’s that time of year again Mom!” my daughter exclaimed yesterday afternoon. Snow time? Winter time? Exhaustion time? What time may I ask? Shamrock Shake time. Ah ha! Well, yes you are right with St. Patty’s day next month already. Well my response to my dairy and gluten free daughter: “Get to making your own version.” That’s what she did and it turned out really yummy!

Kudos Sydney on your creation. Tastes way better. Let’s face it.. it isn’t nuclear green thanks to food coloring but to healthy spinach you can’t taste. Plus vegan. And not totally packed with gross ingredients, sorry McDonald’s but it’s true.

Ingredients:

One pint of Coconut Milk Mint Chocolate Frozen Ice Cream
1 1/4 cup of cashew or almond milk (unsweetened)
1 handful (about a cup of loose packed) baby spinach leaves
1/4 teaspoon of mint extract
If you have fresh mint leaves (add 2) but it’s optional

Directions:

Add your ingredients to your Vitamix and blend until creamy. Made two medium sized smoothies or one large. Garnish with vegan chocolate chips or mint leaves.

What a week last week was for me. Training was taking its toll on my body. My daughter got her varsity letter at her last swim meet. We planned her surprise 16th smallish surprise party with her close friends and I had to run 20 miles. STRESSFUL!

So one day at a time.

Last week recap…

Sunday: 18 miles
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 5 treadmill run/weights/core/balance
Wednesday: 8 outdoor miles
Thursday: 5 treadmill miles/weights/core/balance
Friday: Rest/Surprise party
Saturday: 20 outdoor miles
Sunday: Rest
Monday: 5 treadmill miles/weights/core

Longest mileage week yet!
Not bad after party night. My biggest lesson while running after a long, hard running week was to just put one foot in front of the other. Don’t worry about pace just nailed the distance. This is my run. My time. No one else’s and I wasn’t worried about anything but focusing on this run, and the collective moments/thoughts that comprised it. I think sometimes we worry so much about what the perfect run or race looks like and not grow from the journey. Trust me – I was standing face to fall with the walls I’ve built about doing these distances again and it was so nice knocking them down.

Back to the party… So the surprise party started at my daughter’s favorite Indian restaurant. Her friends surprised her there. Then back home to watch Gone Girl and enjoy lots of fun treats from our candy bar. Here are just a few pics before I crashed in preparation for my long run.

I even found confetti with her name.

And then Sunday came. And I got to sleep in and cuddle with my favorite four legged love while my legs recovered in my Pro Compression socks. That’s it from here. Looking forward to a drop down in mileage and recovering this week before the build up peak next week.