group running & vegan rice crispy treats

The best thing for me in 2011 with running and swimming so far has been group workouts: running especially. I have been swimming with the masters group for almost 2 years - Monday was the best workout yet. I have been complaining that the intervals are too slow and there is too much rest time. I shared this with a friend in my lane and she led the lane with another woman in my lane and it rocked. No men were in our lane Monday - they totally slow us down. For the most part, the ones in our lane just don't want to work, ya know?   Instead of doing 50s on :50 or :55 we were doing them on :45. 100s on the 1:30 (instead of 1:40 or 1:45) and 200s on the 3:00 instead of 3:15/3:30. What a great workout!! My arms hurt today and I'm ready to do it again the rest of the week. We'll have to get the guys in gear to work it.

Running the hills week 2 went well. I think last week was harder because I was struggling to keep up with the group cooling down. They ran a little slower this week. It was a good workout.  I love running with people.  I want to find people locally to run on Thursday early mornings and on Sunday but I don't know how to find people! The people that I run with on Tuesdays have their own friends/small groups and right now they are faster than me.  I don't want to invite myself and most people know I'm looking for running friends. I just joined daily mile in hopes of finding some local friends. There are other group runs at 8am on the weekends but right now I just like to sleep in and enjoy some family time on Saturday and Sunday so I go a little bit later.  Once I start going to them, I can probably meet more people that will give me more ideas of running partners on Thursdays. How do you meet people to run with?

VEGAN RICE CRISPY TREATS
OSG posted these 5 ingredient almond butter chews. I'm going to call them vegan rice crispy treats. They are very yummy! In my second batch I amped up the protein factor by using Kashi Go Lean instead of rice crisps. Use the rice crisps for a rice krispy treat w/o the marshmallows! I had to add a little more cereal to them - too sticky. And I omitted the chocolate chips.

• 1/4 cup peanut/almond butter
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup to 1 1/4 c crisp rice cereal
• 3 T brown rice syrup (find this at natural food store or healthfood section of grocery)
•  1 T chia seeds

 Microwave 30 seconds - peanut butter, vanilla + brown rice syrup. Add in cereal. Form into balls. Stick on wax paper in the fridge for 30 minutes or till firm. Great pre or post workout treat, especially if you use the kashi go lean - added protein!