Last weekend started with a dear friend’s bachelorette party, since this isn’t a party blog I won’t go into the details of what we did. Instead I’ll share with you some of the food and beverage choices I made starting with dinner on Friday at Adobo Grill a fairly traditional Mexican Restaurant.
There were eight of us and we shared a bunch of small plates. We ordered tamales, sopes, quesadillas, ceviche, salmon tacos and guacamole – which is some of the best in the city. A woman rolled out a cart to our table and made it our heat preference: mild, medium and hot.
Adobo Guacamole Cart
They make guacamole just like how I would make it at home, amazing! We loved it so much that we ordered a second bowl.
Adobo Guacamole
The sopes, they look pretty but were disappointing in flavor. The first one was filled with plantains in mole sauce, the middle was filled with shrimp in salsa and the third one pork with goat cheese. The pork one was my favorite of the three, but I wouldn’t order these again.
Adobo Sopes
During dinner and the rest of the weekend I didn’t pay attention to food portions, calories, ingredients, labels or protein intake. Whatever was in front of me I ate. I didn’t feel guilty nor do I regret what I ate. In fact I enjoyed most of it, it was delicious. What I didn’t enjoy was the full feeling I had, the feeling of the tortilla chips sitting in the pit of my stomach until the next day and the insatiable thirst I had due to high sodium intake and putting on 3 lbs of water weight. Eating junk food once in a while and going overboard is a reminder of why I choose to eat clean everyday. Also, I had two alcoholic beverages the entire night, I can only imagine how much worse I would’ve felt had I drank more.
Later in the weekend…
Warrior Dash
For those of you not familiar with Warrior Dash it’s a 3.3 mile obstacle course with cargo nets, mud pits, barbed wire, fire and more mud. This race was awesome! We signed up for the second run of the day at 8:30am, a very smart decision. The course gets muddier and muddier throughout the day as thousands of people run through it.
This is how it started.
Squeaky Clean
This is how it ended.
Muddy Muscles
Muddy Muscles 2
I finished with a time of 39:33.60 that put me in the top 20% overall and top 7% for my gender age group. Because of all the muddy obstacles I couldn’t run with my Polar heart rate monitor, normally I rely very heavily on it. I felt a little naked at first but once I got going I didn’t worry about it. This was the first race where I pushed myself so hard that I had to stop at one of the water stations to pour the water on my head to calm down. What can I say, I got excited. I’m always trying to beat my own time and do my personal best. I also know that my racing was impacted by the way I ate over the weekend. I definitely felt slower than normal, I won’t have to learn that lesson again.
Have I mentioned how much I love racing culture? If you’re reading this and have never participated in a race I don’t care how slow you think you are, DO IT! You can thank me later.
I’m considering a new kind of challenge for next year the 10-mile Tough Mudder. I wonder who I could get to do it with me. Who’s in?
Joanna's Fitness + Nutrition Blog 
It is comforting to know that I wasn’t the only one who took off too fast in the Warrior Dash. I ran the race last year in Texas and started at 5k pace, as though there were no obstacles. After a few hurdles, a mud pit, and a junk yard I was very aware of my mistake. Regardless, it was an awesome race that I would be thrilled to run again. The Tough Mudder looks incredible! A forest of electricity, I am in! (I’ll be running the one in Dallas though.) If you enjoy the obstacle races you should check out the Gladiator Rock’n Run and the Spartan Race, they are similar to the Warrior Dash but with their own unique challenges. Hopefully at least a few people take your advice and begin racing. They will quickly become addicted, especially running obstacle course races.
I will definitely check out the other races, thanks for sharing. We’ll have to swap stories for Tough Mudder next year, I’d do my race in Wisconsin.
I love Chicago racing culture…all the crazy people 🙂 warrior dash was sold out when I tried to register a few months ago!
Wow, congrats on your time on the Warrior Dash, that is awesome! I definitely say yes to the Tough Mudder….for you, not me 🙂
That guacamole looks awesome and is a must when I go out for Mexican. Too bad on the sopes, they look delicious as well. I hate when something is pretty but tastes horrible, it’s just a let down.