Coconut Cashew Cookies

The higher you climb the harder you fall.

It’s been sometime since my last post. Not only was I on holidays and traveling abroad, as this has never kept me from posting here, but I was deeply demotivated to cook, photograph and write. The reason? My marathon training came to a complete standstill with a groin injury due to overuse.
In my last post I was bragging about a weekly mileage of almost 100k. These 100k were my downfall. A little niggle after a fast interval training session just wouldn’t go away, and within a day I was feeling that pain non-stop.

The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time. It was just before the important 30+k long runs. My training so far had gone absolutely perfect. But I wasn’t quite there yet in terms of distance when the level of pain made me realize it’s not sensible to keep on running. With a heavy heart I took a week off. It was particularly difficult because I was in Germany with perfect weather for any sorts of runs. My initial plan was to do as many of my long runs in Europe, so I wouldn’t have to run in Dubai at 38 degrees outdoor temperature with high humidity. Now I was sitting at home, watching valuable days go by while I was icing my injury and feeling terribly sorry for myself.

After a week I had enough and went for a 30+k run. The pain was there right from the beginning, but I could run with it. Needless to say, it didn’t get better. Common sense left me completely as I was panicking that weeks of marathon training would go down the drain, and I did another 12k run two days later. During that run I felt another niggle, in the hamstring of the same leg. Then we flew back to Dubai.

Upon arrival I made an appointment to see a physiotherapist. And went for another run right before the appointment. It’s obvious, after common sense left me, stupidity set in. The physiotherapist confirmed what I suspected: overuse injury of hip adductors, groin ligaments and lower abs. The hamstring niggle was a consequence of my running with the groin injury. By trying to avoid the groin pain, I compensated with other muscles. I was at high risk to get the next injury straight away. I was told that a hamstring injury would have me sit at home with complete rest for at least 6 weeks. The Berlin marathon would happen without me and probably even half of the Dubai running season which starts in October. This outlook put some sense back into me.

I have been completely resting for another week, wearing compression shorts, icing the affected areas, doing daily walks in the swimming pool, and religiously do my light strengthening exercises.

A week is most probably not enough to completely heal the injury. But I feel much better, and I am not in constant pain. I will go for a run tonight, hoping that everything will stay under control. I haven’t given up on the Berlin marathon, and my goal time of 3:10. My next physio appointment is tomorrow morning. She will have to fix the damage that I might be doing by going running to soon. In the end, it’s my actions that will decide if I will be fine for Berlin or not.

Do you understand now why my heart and mind wasn’t much with this blog in the past weeks? I am not even much into foods, as I am sitting at home, and my marathon fuel recipes are not much needed. To fill in, I am posting a cookie recipe. Grain free and just a third of a cup of sugar in thirty cookies almost doesn’t count as dessert or treat, does it?
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COCONUT CASHEW COOKIES
adapted from Kate’s Healthy Cupboard

Print Recipe

1 1/2 cups raw cashew nuts
1 cup dessicated coconut
1/3 cup grated jaggery or raw sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt

1/4 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoon coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Yields 30
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Preheat oven to 165C/350F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place cashews and coconut in a food processor and pulse until texture is of a coarse meal. Add sugar, salt and soda and pulse until combined.

In another bowl combine coconut oil, coconut milk and vanilla extract. Add to dry ingredients in the food processor and pulse again to form a dough.

Form balls of the size of a walnut out of the dough. Place on prepared baking sheet press down slightly to flatten them. Repeat until all dough is used up.

Bake for 10 minutes, until slightly brown.
Remove from the oven and let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes to set.