Granola Balls and Pre-Run Snacking

I'm not very disciplined when it comes to my running nutrition. While I understand the importance of eating before and after a run, I don't always put it to practice. On shorter runs more often than not I skip the before run snack and I have been known to skip the occasional breakfast post work-out (tsk, tsk right?). On my long runs, I almost always have something to eat before I get going and afterwards I'm usually so famished that I eat whatever I can lay my hands on. On a couple of rare days when I have had nothing on hand at home to use as a pre-run snack, I have run my LSD on an empty stomach (bad, bad idea!)

Anyways, a while ago, I had come across this really cool recipe for home-made granola bars. (Click here for the original recipe). Packed with energy, these bars are an ideal pre-run snack and quite yummy too. I had made it once using the exact same recipe only substituting the almond butter with peanut butter and it came out nicely. It refrigerates well so you can make a size-able batch of it and keep it for a week or two. Yesterday, I suddenly recalled this recipe and decided to make it so I would have something to nibble on before my workout today. Turned out I didn't have a couple of the ingredients so I tried out a stripped down basic version of the same recipe and the result was still quite good. I also didn't have the patience to lay it out, compress it and cut it into squares like the first time so instead I rolled them into little balls. (Just as effective)

All it takes is:

Instant Oats: 1 Cup (I used Quakers plain instant oats)

Peanut Butter: 1/2 Cup (I used an unsweetened, organic, chunky kind)

Honey: 1/3 Cup (Also organic)

Cinnamon Powder: 1/2 tsp

Salt: 1 pinch 

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Pinch little chunks off and roll it into a ball. Put in container and refrigerate it overnight. Ta-da! (Now you understand why I called this recipe cool.) This recipe yields 14 granola balls (about an inch in diameter - which is bite-sized for me) and each one is approximately 90 calories which makes for an ideal pre-run mouth-popper.