The weather this morning was cool again and overcast with a bit of sun at 17° – the best conditions for running. I did a bit of resistance training with my abs before my run (I hate doing abs), but with all the cardio I’m doing, I need to make sure that I do some resistance (and consume a ton of protein) to keep my muscle in tack. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but since the challenge started, I’ve lost weight – some fat, but a lot of muscle.

My pre-workout meal has been consistent over the past few weeks -two energy balls and a protein smoothie. At the beginning of this challenge, I was experimenting a lot with my pre-run meals and started with some of my marathon favourites; eggs and toast, G2’s, power gels, oatmeal with protein powder, etc. I really like having smoothies in the morning because it sits well with me before a run. The only problem is that they weren’t  calorie senses and since I’m burning roughly 1,500 calories a run, I needed something more substantial to keep me full and energized. The energy balls were an easy way to pack in a lot of calories without having to consume a lot. For this batch I used dates, chia and hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, large flake oats, banana, peanut butter, and Vega Vanilla +greens protein powder and threw them in the freezer.

I continued listening to my audiobook, Born for This, occasionally drifting into my own thoughts. With educational books, I find that I need to listen to them more than once – when I hear new ideas and relate them to my life, I tune out of the book itself and can miss sections.

Weirdly enough, my pace was exactly the same the past 3 days. Slow at 6’13km/10’01mi after 2 hours 13 minutes and 58 seconds.

*Follow my journey as I run 70 half marathons consecutively on behalf of Oneiric to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society. Any donation big or small makes a huge difference. To Donate, visit our #RUN70 Canadian Cancer Donation Page.

All updates will be posted on the #run70 Half Marathon Challenge Facebook page -follow along if you’re interested 🤘🏼