Training, Recipes and IM

My second week of training saw some more running mileage and after doing 20 or less miles a week for many weeks, I was back up to 27 this past week. It's definitely becoming more challenging to fit everything in, but way more exciting to have the variety than just running.  Here's what the training looked like:

WEEK 2 of training
Monday: Swim 4200 yd
Tuesday: Easy Run 5.2 miles, Easy Bike 12.9 miles
Wednesday: Easy Run 5 miles, Swim 3550 yd
Thursday: Long 8.8 miles
Friday: Run 4.6 miles, Bike 20 miles outside
Saturday: Swim 3000 yd, spin class 23 miles, run 3.5 miles (my own mini triathlon)
Sunday: OFF

Run 27.1 miles, Swim 6.1 miles, Bike 55.9 miles

I've been enjoying the outside bike rides and hope that I'm improving! I was thinking about signing up for another triathlon in between now and Nation's Tri in September but decided to just work hard leading up to the race instead.  However, I now feel like I'm doing alot of training and don't think I'd have to add too much more into it except biking to train for a half iron.  I'm swimming more than I need to, building up to marathon training and would just need to do longer bike rides - I think?  So I'm toying with the idea of doing a half iron before the marathon. I'm not sure how good of an idea that is, it would be about 3-4 weeks before.  Any thoughts?

I've come across some recipes lately and have been trying to meal plan each week. This weekend I made Kate's strawberry rhubarb bars. I'll have to make them again to give you my recipe but it turned out great! Here are my estimations below.

Ingredients:

for the jam:

12 oz organic strawberries

1-3 stalks rhubarb ( I only had one)

1 T raw cane sugar

1 T chia seeds

for the bars:

2 c oats

3/4 c whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 c maple syrup

1 T chia or flax + 4 tbsp warm water

2 T c coconut oil, melted

1/2 c almond milk

Directions: Add strawberries and rhubarb to a saucepan over medium heat with 1 T sugar, bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken, stir in 1 T chia seeds and simmer a few more minutes, remove from heat and set aside. In a small bowl combine 1 T chia seed with water to form an “egg” set aside stirring every few minutes to thicken. In a large bowl combine oats, flour, maple syrup and baking soda. In another bowl combine coconut oil with almond milk, and maple syrup, add wet to dry and stir until just combined. Using 3/4 of the mixture press into a greased baking dish (8 x 8 seemed too big and didn't fill it), top with the cooled jam mixture and sprinkle the remaining topping. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and then cool another 30-60 minutes before slicing!

And this was Bill's birthday cake. I think I will call it Peanut Butter Dough Ball Chocolate BOMB Ice Cream Cake. Death by Chocolate Peanut Butter!

So it's Trader Joe's Joe O's with melted butter and coconut oil (didn't measure) to form the crust. I froze the crust for hours to let it set then added in some Breyers Chocolate Ice cream and Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream and chunks of the dough balls - raw ones. YUMMMMMM.