The Power of Rest Days

A couple of days ago I shared my current marathon training plan and got some really great feedback from all of you. Thanks! 🙂 Yesterday was one of the most important days in that plan, and it came along right when I needed it. After Tuesday’s elliptical workout, five sub eight minute miles, I wasn’t sore at all, but I was TIRED. Rest days are possibly the most important and influential part of my training plan. Even my walk into work  was overdoing it.

So last night when I came home, I did some deep stretching to help me loosen up for today’s workout, and then I got ready for a night of total vegging, starting with a bit of this:

It was our first time trying Harpoon chocolate stout, and it is definitely like dessert. For me, it was a perfect pre or post dinner drink, delicious, but it didn’t go well with food. The chocolate flavor is noticeable at first sip, and it moves from there into a nice, toasty, coffee like flavor. It is definitely a dark beer, and perfect for this time of year! Here’s what Harpoon says about the beer:

A chocolate stout is a beer with a noticeable dark chocolate flavor. This flavor is created from the use of darker, more aromatic malt that has been roasted or kilned until it acquires a chocolate color.

My favorite rest days include beer and pizza, so I borrowed from Nigella Express and made garlic naan pizza.

I started with two pieces of Trader Joe’s garlic naan.

I promise I don’t work for Trader Joe’s or get any compensation for writing about their products, but this is just another bit of inexpensive deliciousness that they offer. I love that they change their selection up; I get something different every time I go!

To make the pizza, I heated the naan in the oven at 400 for 4 minutes. Then I removed them and added the leftover homemade sauce, reheated from Tuesday’s dinner and Trader Joe’s ricotta.

I popped it all back into the oven for 4 minutes and voila, the pizzas were ready.

I served the pizzas with the most delicious and easy slaw ever.

It was just a bag of broccoli slaw with a cup of white vinegar, a sprinkle of sugar, crushed red pepper, and a few drops of habanero oil. I heated the vinegar and other ingredients until the sugar melted, then poured over the slaw. It was hot enough to get the flavors into the broccoli, but cool enough that it kept it crunchy. I ate about four cups of this stuff!

Dinner was ready in about 20 minutes, and I spent the rest of the night watching old episodes of Law & Order with my feet up. It was just what I needed, and made for a refreshed, energized workout today! Tonight I have a meeting regarding guest blogging for a new site and dinner at last at Craigie on Main a highly acclaimed Cambridge hot spot that I have not been to yet! Super excited, and I will be back with a review!