I’ve decided to blog about our latest gluten free baking adventures in parallel to my running.  They go hand in hand on the weekends, I run then I eat the sweets.  This week we planned to make lemon meringue pie but we did not have time for it so opted for a basic yellow cake.  The search continues for a nice gluten free yellow cake recipe that will be our standby family recipe.  This one may be it (see below) but the chocolate frosting did not work out.    We are working through our newest cookbook Gluten Free Wish List, by Jeanne Sauvage.  Last week was cream puffs, highest rating from the crew.  We’ve also made the matcha chocoloate cake.  Cake, 5 stars, matcha frosting– I don’t care for it.  We’ve been watching Great British Baking Show this week as well, a lot of baking AND miles this week.   I’ve hit 800 miles year to date!

Planned 27 miles / Actual 30.9 miles.

Monday – OTF to kick off Monday morning.  Plus 4 easy miles after work.

Tuesday.  Off.  Had thoughts of going for a ‘perfect week’ on Apple watch but it didn’t happen.  No excuse really as i worked from home but it didn’t happen

Wednesday – Orange Theory matched up perfectly with my planned track run.  I was to run 6 x 800 and today’s OTF workout was 1/2 mile sprints on the treadmill.   I ran 3 half miles at OTF and then jumped on my treadmill at home for the other 3.   Workout jackpot for 4 miles total.

Thursday.  6 mile tempo run (5 mile tempo + 1 warm up) plus tried out my new Camelbak hydration thingy.    Apart from choking myself trying to drink and run at mile no. 1, the pack works pretty well.  I think it needs to be tighter though.  Note that my basement treadmill area looks like an episode of Dexter.

Friday – OTF for 2.9 miles.

Saturday – Off.

Sunday.  13 mile long run with Camelbak.  Plus bonus $30 parking ticket!  So I parked where I always park down by the beach which is a strip of road about 50 yards long that connects the main beach road to another back road.   The road is split between two towns and i parked too far on the wrong side of town.   Grrrr….  I guess i should have noticed i was the only car on that portion of the road, but in the morning there were few cars on the road any way. I just assumed i was early for the beach parking rush.

Camelbak.  It worked pretty well for 13 miles.  I did get a bit of chafing on my arm but that could be related to my outfit.   More test runs are required.  I am trying camelbak because I would like to carry one pack/belt/hydration system that will fit all my stuff including my iPhone plus–which doesn’t fit into any belt that i own already.   I have run with my water belt and an arm band for the phone (too much chafing) and then with my water belt AND my spibelt for the phone (2 belts seems too dorky).  Enter the camelbak for long runs.

What about the cake?  Here’s a picture of the yellow cake.  We had family over who helped eat it but the frosting was too runny and oozed out when the cake was cut.   I think with a different frosting this will be a winner!

Next week, I’m striving for a perfect week on Apple watch.  What’s a perfect week? Hitting my goals for exercise (30 mins); “moving” (650 cal) and standing (once every hour for 12 hours during the day).      I’ve hit a perfect week a few times in the Spring, going for it this week!

see you out there,
– Jenn