Carb Loading with Sweet Potato Pancakes!

Pancakes! Everyone loves pancakes, right? You love them even more, when you are required to eat them AND they are healthy!
A friend of mine shared this recipe with me the other day, and I knew that it would be the perfect base to create some freezer pancakes for ultra marathon training. I learned during marathon training, that I would use carb loading as an excuse to eat what I wanted, rather than eating what was healthy for me. I'm planning for that now, by having things on hand, so I won't go out and get things that I should not eat.
I stocked up on some sweet potatoes at the farmers market yesterday, and put them to good use. I doubled this, and got about 28 decent size pancakes, that should get me through all my long runs for training. These are perfect for the freezer, just grab a couple and warm in the microwave.
If I added chocolate chips, I think my kids would eat them, too!

Ingredients:

1 cup sweet potato purée*

4 eggs
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup (optional)

1/8 cup almond flour

2 tsp cinnamon

Whisk together all ingredients, until well blended. Grease frying pan with coconut oil, and put on medium heat. Pour batter onto hot pan. These won't bubble, like regular pancakes, so make sure to flip them after approximately 2-3 minutes.
Allow to cool completely if you are planning on freezing. I place them in a zipper freezer bag, and freeze flat so they don't stick together. Then I can grab one or two, to reheat, and reseal the bag.

*I put my sweet potatoes in the crock pot, on low for a few hours, in order to bake them. Then scooped them up and mashed them up with a fork. EASY! 

Running on Real Food

Just over two years ago is when I started my clean eating journey. It's also around this same time that I wanted to increase my running distance. As I started researching the many running fuel options, I came to a conclusion. There's just not much to choose from in prepackaged fitness food or drink that meet my clean eating criteria. I've ended up settling for Honey Stingers gummy chews for all three of my distance races. They are organic, and at least minimal ingredients, most of which are recognizable.

Now, I'm starting to prepare for my first ultra race, and I really want to train for and run it as close to Paleo as I possibly can. Training starts in a little over a month, so I'm getting my plan together now.

I want to share my list of foods that I will use to train for the 50K race.
(You can see my distance running recommendations here, if you want more information on what I use and when.)

Protein for mid long run and post run recovery:

Epic bars and bites

Paleo Life bars

(If you missed my reviews on these 2 great products, you can find them here and here.) 

Fluids

Homemade sports drink. Coconut water, salt, and fruit purée. (My own recipe!)

Carbohydrates/Sugars

Dried mango

Freeze dried bananas 

Puréed high glycemic fruits (baby food punches are easy to carry)

Bananas

Pre cut "cutie" oranges

Pitted dates

Almond butter and honey (Justin's brand makes small individual pouches)

Lara Bars

Bearded Brother bars

Homemade energy bites made with maple syrup of honey, nut butters, cocoa, dried fruits, and seeds.

Once I sat down and put this list together, I realized it was not going to be as hard as I once thought. So, for the next few weeks I will dream of cooler temps, and start working on a plan on how to carry this stuff on me, efficiently. Stay tuned!!