Watermelon Smoothie and a Marathon Training Update

Remember these? (source)

For 1/15 of the roll, you get 160 calories full of milk, water, sugar, corn syrup, and cream. In that order. The only place watermelon shows up on the ingredient list is as watermelon juice concentrate. How sad. And may I take a moment to interrupt this post to tell you that Friendly's is also responsible for the grilled cheese burger melt.

(source)

For 1500 calories, 97 grams of fat (that's equivalent to 8 tablespoons of lard) and 2090 milligrams of sodium, you can satisfy your craving for that tub of Crisco and packets of salt that you just haven't been able to shake. Apparently Friendly's missed the memo on moderation.

Before I break the keys on my computer, I'm moving on to some healthier alternatives and the reason I am writing this post - back to the Wattamelon Roll. Like it? Well, here's an alternative that actually contains some real food ingredients you may want to eat. Because we've had a warmer than normal summer in New England, watermelons have been in excess! I've gotten one each week for the last 3 or 4 weeks in my CSA, and I have been struggling to keep up. But with this recipe, I'm sure I'll use them up. I also cut up the part I didn't think I'd use into chunks and froze. These pieces will be great for a smoothie in the future.

Watermelon Smoothies

1/2 seedless mini watermelon (local!)

4 oz plain yogurt (I used Chobani Greek yogurt)

6-8 oz low-fat milk or soymilk

4-6 ice cubes

1-2 oz lemon juice or lemonade

Blend all of this goodness together. Stick a straw in it and enjoy on a hot night after a hot run.

It was sort of my "watermelon-ized" version of mango lassi. I'm putting the remainder of it in the freezer in ice cream cups and planning on eating it like frozen yogurt.

I enjoyed it with some lentils, sauteed vegetables, and corn tortillas.

Marathon Training Update

You may or may not know, but I'm training for the San Francisco Nike Womens' Marathon, happening on October 17. I ran Boston this year and loved it. Training for this has been completely different, as training during winter in New England is much different than summer training.

This is what 17 miles looks like.

My long run is up to 19 miles, I'm increasing sprints up to 7x100's, and pace ran a 6-miler today!

This is what a 6-mile pace run looks like:

Please don't judge me based on how I take care of basil plants (in the background). I swear I watered them as soon as I saw this sorry-looking photo.

Speaking of races, next weekend is the Vermont Maple Leaf Half Marathon, a race I KILLED last year, and I'm concerned that I'll never see that record time again. We'll see.

Is anyone else running this race in Vermont? It's a really fun race and the food afterward is amazing. This year, they have their Green Festival immediately following the race, and, as always, Manchester Center has some fun shopping. It's probably one of my favorite weekends of the year! There are still numbers left!

Question of the Day: Any tips as I enter the last 6 weeks or so of training? And what do you think of the grilled cheese burger melt? I guess if I ate that and then ran the half marathon, I might just burn off those calories.