It is here… time to begin my 16 week long 1/2 marathon training. As I stated before I will use this as a guide and hopefully stay as close as possible to the plan but no promises. In another post I gave you the overview of the sub 2:15 plan and some things  I thought were interesting. If you want to check that post, click here.

The race that I am training for is the St. Michaels 1/2 Marathon that is part of a running festival held on May 17th in St. Michaels, Maryland. This running festival features a 5k, 10k and a half. If you are interested in this race or would like more details, check out their website: www.runstm.com and if you want to join me and others sign up and use the code AMBKRISTENJO to save 10%!

So week 1 of my training plan seems easy enough. It should include 4 mile runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Since I knew I would begin training I have not been doing any long runs. I have been doing tsome readmill sprints or just short 2-3 mile runs. I am hoping the weather here in Delaware will get itself under control and warm up so I can do some runs this week outside.

Since it has been so cold I decided to make a big batch of soup today. I wanted to do something easy so of course I made a crockpot soup and it is delicous! It is so good I felt like I needed to share the recipe with you! I wish I could take credit for coming up with such an easy recipe but I can’t– thank goodness for the Internet.

The website I used to make this awesome soup is www.cdkitchen.com and I am planning to check out some more of their recipes when I have a chance. So here it is:

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients:

6 Large potatoes, peeled and cubed (I only used 4 1/2 due to having a slightly smaller crock pot)

1 Large onion, chopped

1 Quart chicken broth

3 Cloves minced garlic

1/4 cup butter

2 1/2 Teaspoon salt

1 Teaspoon pepper

1 Cup cream or half-and-half ( I used whipping cream)

1 Cup shredded cheddar

Chives

Optional Toppings that you MUST have: Sour Cream, Bacon, More Cheese!!!!

Instructions:

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large crockopot, cover and cook on High for 4 hours or Low for 8 (potatoes will be tender)

Mash mixture until potatoes are coarsely chopped and soupy mixture is slightly thickened. Stir in cheese, chives and cream.

Top with optional toppings and ENJOY every bite of this easy and declicous soup!

Are you running any spring races? When will you start training?

Have any easy soup recipes you want to share with me?

Enjoy your week- I plan to rock out my first week of training and dominate my huge crock pot of baked potato soup!