Recovery Running & Veggie Enchiladas

I was really excited when I went to the sports dr yesterday and he didn't think it was a meniscal injury!! My knee was actually feeling quite a bit better by the time I saw him (amazing what a day of rest will do for you!). He did say my IT Band was really tight, and my tibia was out of place. I got my back, hips, neck adjusted. He also stretched my adductor muscle, a really fun active release technique which involved pushing down hard on this muscle on the inside of my leg, near my knee while straightening my leg out to the side. Awkward and painful.

He also gave me these crazy exercises to do before I run as well as after. Apparently a lot of runners have kinetic chain issues because we have lazy muscles on the outside of our chins. These exercises cause these muscles to start firing, waking them up, so they are contributing to the work load when running.

To perform the exercise you squat down low - wide stance so that your rear is almost lower than your knees if possible. Take six steps forward - it should be really hard to lift your toes off the ground. Then do 3-4 really low squats, at the top of the squat really squeeze those glute muscles forcing your hips to open up and move forward. Repeat this 4-5 times and then run. After your run continue this exercise to muscle fatigue.

After all this I went home and hopped on my treadmill. I kept the pace easy, but wanted to run for an hour as long as I didn't feel pain in my knee. I did 6.14 miles in that hour, 9:46 pace. Yes, slow, but miles are miles. This week is all about taking it easy on pace as I am sure my knee issue was from overdoing it this weekend. After a PR 5k, I got up and did 8 miles the next morning, then did a pretty hard track workout that evening. Dumb.

Then it was dinner time. I have not made enchiladas in forever! Most of the ingredients were on sale at Hy-Vee this week, cheap bell peppers, cheap soft shells, cheap enchilada sauce, cheap cheese, cheap avocados. How could you NOT make enchiladas when all the ingredients are on sale!

I threw a tbsp or two of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. In went:

• 1 leek, halved and sliced
• 1 green belle pepper, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced

When the veggies were starting to soften I added:

• 1 can Rotel
• 1 small can diced chiles
• 1 can refried black beans

Stir til warm and bubbly and thick



This mixture made enough to perfectly fill 8 tortillas. I used Old El Paso 8 ct pack of tortillas. Layer a small amount of shredded cheese, 1/8 of bean mixture and roll.

Layer into a casserole dish sprayed with Pam



Cook @ 350 degrees until the tortilla starts to brown, then add a can of Old El Paso mild green chile sauce, and top with more shredded cheese.

Meanwhile make an easy guac. I mash one avocado and mix with store bought salsa until it's the consistency and avocado/salsa ratio that you like. Sprinkle liberally with garlic salt.



Pull the enchiladas out of the oven when the cheese starts to brown. I like to douse mine with Cholula hot sauce and serve with a couple tbsp of light sour cream and lots of shredded lettuce on top for crunch.