NTC Marathon Crew event at Centered Chef

Last night NTC Lincoln Park hosted a Marathon Crew team huddle event at Centered Chef with about 30 young women, most training for the Chicago Marathon. It was a combined fitness and nutrition class and lots of fun! We started off the night with an NTC class lead by my favorite trainer and college sorority sister, Kate Hiipakka. She teaches (free) NTC classes at 11 am on Sundays so check her out! We worked our butts off with lunges, squats, burpees, and core work.

Next, we replenished with water and veggies and hummus and sat down to hear a seminar from sports nutritionist Linda Samuels. I personally didn't agree with everything she said because she advocated for eating dairy, but I did learn some things. Your post workout snack with carbs and protein should be eaten as soon as possible after exercise. I get lazy with this but I am trying to make and drink my smoothie immediately when I get home from a workout. She also said to add tart cherries to your diet daily to alleviate muscle soreness and pain. I have been adding tart cherry concentrate to my post workout smoothies occasionally but I'm now going to do it daily. Someone asked a question about vegan sports nutrition products and Linda said that Vega has some questionable ingredients. I didn't get a chance to ask her what they were but I might email her. Finally, Linda told us about the HydraPouch to use during races instead of trying to drink from a cup, I might just have to get one!

After learning about nutrition, Centered Chef served us a buffet dinner with quinoa griddle cakes and kale salad (pictured above) and also rosemary chicken and chocolate avocado pudding. I didn't eat the chicken but everything else was amazing. Main Chef Ryan Hutmacher (pictured below) then proceeded with an interactive class on how to make the food that was served. I thought the quinoa cakes were delicious and I want to make a modified version because his recipe included bread crumbs, eggs, and parmesan. I'll definitely take out the parmesan and maybe replace the bread crumbs with sprouted wheat. The kale salad was easy to make, and Chef Ryan made a point of massaging the kale and making your own dressing. The, the pudding was simply made out of avocado, cocoa, honey, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. 

This event was great and I hope that the NTC marathon crew does more like it. I also want to attend another cooking class at Centered Chef. They have a vegan cooking class coming up on July 15 but it includes the quinoa, salad, and pudding that we already learned to make last night. Maybe I'll go to the 50 Shades of Green: The Side of the Garden You Never Knew cooking camp instead :)

How do you fuel during a long run or endurance event?

Don't forget to enter my Elite Dark Chocolate giveaway!!