Friday Thrive

Friday Thrive

Happy Friday! Each Friday Thrive rounds up some of my favorite things from the week, from food to drink to running. Here’s this week’s list!

Eat

I made whole wheat sourdough tortillas this week and they were delicious. The long fermentation of sourdough – 8+ hours for this recipe – renders such a flavorful dough and soft tortilla, perfect for wraps. All I used was 4 oz. of starter, 8.5 oz. of whole wheat flour, about 5 oz. of water, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and 1/2 teaspoon salt – that’s it! It’s amazing how fermented flour and water can transform more flour and water into a fluffy and flavorful bread. 

Friday Thrive

Drink

My first batch of homemade kombucha is ready to drink! We chose to flavor it with blueberries and strawberries and the final result was flavorful and just as store-bought, if not better. The kombucha carbonated quickly, and one bottle sent berries flying all over our kitchen, up the walls and along the pantry doors, when we opened it. Apparently, storing the bottles on the fridge door can shake the bottles just enough to cause a carbonation reaction! Thankfully, most of the kombucha remained in the bottle and was still drinkable, and I learned to not fill up the bottles as much (I left about 1/2 inch of space, but will leave more next time) and to store them in the fridge shelves, not on the door. 

Friday Thrive

Our homebrew beer is almost ready for drinking as well! 

Wear

I experienced some tightness in my calves last week, which is my normal tight spot that triggers my plantar fasciitis. I have some pairs of compression socks, but I don’t really like the heavier, thicker fabric in summer. Smartwool is one of my favorite sock brands (along with Darn Tough) and so when I saw a pair of their compression socks on sale on Amazon, I ordered them immediately. 

Friday Thrive

Like all Smartwool socks, the merino wool is soft and breathable. The socks provide graduated compression and did their job – my calves feel much better. (Doing the calf smash with a lax ball and rolling out with the Tiger Tail roller both helped significantly as well, but the compression socks are much cuter than those tools of myofascial self-torture.) 

Run

Runner’s World published a sample of statistics from Running USA’s 2017 National Runner Survey and the results are interesting, albeit not surprising. The most popular distance is the half marathon, fall is the most popular season for running, and most runners run for health and/or fitness. What I found interesting was that most runners are early morning runners. 

Friday Thrive

Read

I revel in number to crunch and data to analyze – but nowadays, paralysis-by-analysis exists because there are too many metrics available to us runners and coaches. We can know everything from our vertical oscillation to our basal metabolic rate to our VO2max, but what metrics are actually valuable to a recreational or low-level competitive runner? 

“Which Stats to Track and Which to Ignore” from Outside delves into that very question – with some interesting conclusions. The article recommends tracking Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and daily/weekly training volume and intensity while ignoring other metrics such as racing weight and calorie equations. 

[Tweet “From home brewed #kombucha to the training metrics you should use, catch up with @thisrunrecipes #FridayThrive #running #runchat”]

What metrics do you rely on in training?
What time of day do you run? 
What flavor of kombucha is your favorite? 

 

 

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15 Responses

  1. I find that interesting that morning is the most popular too. Although I’m guessing it’s not sunrise early. Lol. We rely on the RPE scale a lot in rehab even though we also track HR, BP, METS, etc. The patient’s perspective is the most important. Cheers to home brewed kombucha. I will remember to NOT store mine in the fridge door. Whoops! 😉

  2. do you know I totally forgot that I used to live in my pro compression socks?! how did that happen that I just stopped wearing them lol. I can’t imagine being an evening runner, I’ve always been an early morning runner which I guess is the case for most runners too.

  3. I hate running in the morning but I’m about to go do that right now. :/ I’ve never owned compression socks… which ones are those? Do you have a link to them?

  4. I don’t like running early in the mornings. I like running in the mornings at say, 8 or 9, but not before 7. 7 or 7:30 is about as early as I will wake up to run unless there is a reason for it like having to go out of town or work duties. I feel like most people who run early are doing it because of family or work though. I would if I had to, but I don’t so… I choose to run later!

    Compression socks are great for calves! I need to wear mine more as well… they actually helped my peroneal tendinitis, I felt like.

    Those tortillas look delicious!

  5. I have a long list of kombucha flavors I want to try, but I really like mint – I actually just stick a sprig of fresh mint in the bottle and leave it there. I added some cardamom pods to the mint in yesterday’s batch. I’m also trying a combo that’s supposed to taste like cream soda – molasses + vanilla extract.

  6. Great post! So cool that you made your own kombucha – I definitely want to try this one day. My favorite kombucha flavor is pink lady apple (I love Health Ade).

    I run/workout first thing in the morning, otherwise I won’t get it done!

  7. I think one of the important metrics is heart rate…

    I used to be an afternoon/evening runner, but have – out of convenience and time restraints – started working out early (which is 5 AM during the week, between7-9 am on weekends)… 🙂

    I’ve never tried kombucha. What does it taste like?

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