Gluten Free Energy

Last night I made up for not having a weight workout first thing Monday morning.  I hate skipping out on my usual routine.  After work Monday, I went into the gym to pump up the chest and arms.  It didn’t take me long, about 40 minutes.

I’m in one of those “Oh…I don’t know….”  kind of moods so I can’t tell you my workout plan for the rest of the week.  It looks like it’s going to be day-to-day. However, the goal mileage for running is between 30 – 35 miles.  A slight reduction from last week.

I was reading a paragraph from the July issue of Runners World magazine that talked about “Racing For a PR” (page 52).  It says

“Expect some pain => Your legs and lungs will burn. Have a “bring it on” attitude…..Remind yourself that you wanted this: The challenge of pushing yourself to achieve something new.” 

I told Ted my legs and lungs have never burned.  He said “REALLY?!!  Honey, you need to push yourself.”   Trying to go back and remember what I felt like in every race, whatever the reason was that I couldn’t go faster, it certainly wasn’t burning legs or lungs.  Guess I’ll have something to work at.  Do you push yourself THAT hard in a race?

Today’s workout was pretty good.  It was one mile warm up run with 1 set of of 2 x 200 + 1 x 400, equivalent rests in between.  Total of 5.35 treadmill miles.

Weights: Legs for 30 minutes.  Outside Dog Exercise:  A 3 mile run with Shane.

A product evaluation. 

I don’t do these much but this product caught my eye in Peter’s Cornucopia the other day. These are Gluten Free products from Franklyn Natural Bakers.

Lets begin with the “meat”:   The cost is $1.99 per bar.  That’s less than I spend on my protein bars.  There is 3.5 grams of goodness in this dense, fruity treat.  By the way, the brownie isn’t  promoted as an “Energy Bar”, but it’s made up of nothing short than natural, healthy ingredients.

Organic cane JUICE, whole SOY flour, BROWN RICE flour, chocolate chips, RICE syrup, NATURAL cocoa, SOY oil, NATURAL cappuccino flavor, …..Nutrition:  *This is where you have to be careful because the nutrition is for HALF (1/2) a bar!!!  180 calories (for 1/2 a bar). Total fat 8 grams. Carbohydrates 29 grams Fiber 2 grams, Sugars 18 grams, and Protein 5 grams.

This brownie isn’t too heavy on the cappuccino flavor.  But then again, I’m a Starbucks STRONG coffee fan. The texture is very good. If you like really fudgy brownies, you won’t appreciate the texture which falls in between cakey and fudgy.  It’s a trade off.

On my cheat days, I certainly wouldn’t give up an old fashioned brownie for this but any other day of the week, when in need of a sweet tooth fix, this brownie would do the trick.

What about the REAL energy bars?  The serving size is also HALF a bar, or 50 grams. 

Dates.  Don’t you just LeeeOOOVVe  the sweetness of dates?   This bar offers good texture and a good dose fruit.  The date bar offers a few more calories, 2 more grams of fat, less carbs, less sugars, and more protein.  This is my favorite!

Raisins are usually my favorite and especially if they are coupled with cinnamon.  For that reason, I really thought this bar would be my favorite.  It was a little softer than the date bar but a little less sweet although the spiciness of cinnamon was evident. 

The review result:  I liked all three bars.  Franklyn Natural Bakers puts out some good product.

How often do you buy products you have never tried before simply out of curiosity rather than necessity?

Saturday’s race results just in: The good news is that I came in 80th out of 329 entrants in the Nate 5K Race.  The bad news is I didn’t PR.  Time = 24.10.  I was .05 off from my last 5K.  The GOOD news (again!) is that I won my age group.  The bad news (yes…again!) is that I didn’t stick around for the award.

Joanne