SLO Tri Preview

I did it! I swam, I biked, I ran and I just accidentally deleted the recap I spent an hour writing! Doh!

So in the interim here are some the highs and lows of my first triathlon.

Highs-

Hitting 32.7 mph on the bike!

No stomach issues

Finishing much stronger then I had been earlier

I finished ;)

Finishing something like this with my sister was even more awesome

Lows-

Delayed start without an adequate backup plan for hydration and nutrition lead to dehydration

Ripping headache due to dehydrating

Dropping my water bottle off the bike and having to stop for it

Walking much more then anticipated during the run 

So I will write an expanded version soon but overall it's done, it went ok and I can definitely improve for the next one!

Dilly Beans and roasted tomatoes!

So the ear infection is definitely getting better. I was able to meet up with my sister and do some canning. 

I have to say, I have serious garden envy!

All of that is from my sister Jessica's summer garden. There is loads more still getting ready for harvest too. 

Jessica has not done any recent canning so I took my canning pot and tools to her house and away we went. 

The recipe for the Dilly Beans was from the above book. I love this book and it has become my go to with canning. There are tried and true classics recipies as well as some fun stuff, strawberry jam with Thai herbs? Yum!

With the help of my nephew we got the beans under way. 

Herbs into jars.

Beans into jars. 

Add the brine. 

And into the water bath!

I love how colorful the beans were in the jars, unfortunately because we don't use any preservatives you loose some of the vivid colors in the canning process. 

Two weeks from now those beans are gonna be good! They need time to really get that happy pickled flavor. 

I was on call for work that night so I headed home and my sister took off canning homemade tomato suase. 

I got sent home with lots of fresh tomatoes! Although we ate some of them fresh I wasn't sure we could go through them all as fast as we would need to so I decided to roast some. 

Easy as can be! You will need:

-tomatoes

-olive oil (I used a Tablespoon or so of a Blood Orange flavored oil)

-garlic

-salt

-pepper

-Rosemary 

Pop them into a 300 degree over, stirring every half hour or so, for 2.5 hours or until they look "done". 

I'm planning on spreading these on a sandwhich with a little turkey and soft cheese for lunch! I now have a jar in the fridge and one in the freezer for whenever I find a use for them. Although last night I was just eating them with a spoon, they are that good!

I don't think they would preserve via water bath canning but my guess is we will go through them pretty darn quick!

Sunday is Tri day and although I am nervous I am also excited! 

That's not how I planned it

Today was supposed to be my epic brick day in preparation for the San Luis Triathlon on July 27th. 

I was supposed to bike 20 miles and run 30 minutes which would have been about 2.75 miles for me. 

That didn't happen. 

Instead I drug my sorry ass to Urgent Care after getting off of work. Last night I didn't feel great. I thought it was the fact that I was actually working (running 911 calls) into the wee hours of the morning. I feel into my station bed at about 5am and awoke at 7am with right ear pain. 

Damn it. It wasn't bad but I have a history of middle ear infections which progress rapidly and get severe. Ruptured eardrum in the middle of a flight home from the Carribean and a trip to the worlds most ghetto Urgent Care in El Segundo severe. 

When the dizziness hit at 10am I headed to the Doc. An hour and a half later I was popping my first amoxicillin and praying for some relief from the pain. 

Now I am playing the waiting game and hoping the antibiotics are the right ones for this rounds of "wasn't I supposed to outgrow these things two decades ago!?!". 

I had secret wishes of a sub two hour tri. 800yard swim at <18 minutes, an hour for the 15mile bike and a hopefully easy 35 minute 5k. Now I'm hoping I finish without walking, especially walking in my cycling shoes. I know I still have a week to get my ass back in the game but right now it feels like any single part of the tri would have me laid out on the ground. 

On an unrelated subject I have had my weight creeping up on te scale. I have maintained my goal weight of 160-165 since December and when I hit 168 and held for a couple of weeks I went back to counting Weight Watchers points last Monday. 

I've counted them all. I am hoping to break even on points for the week but all I want to eat right now is a Jamba Juice and that will put me over. 

I have been playing with the idea of dropping another 10lbs and seeing if 150 will help improve my running efficiency but I just want to be back at goal. I know I am very good at gaining weight and getting rid of it. Maintaining is another beast entirely! 

More on this (hopefully tomorrow) but I am on day 7 of Erin Motz 30 day yoga challenge. I love it. I have made the time to hit the mat daily even squeaking in at 1130pm one night at work. 

Monday is supposed to be a day of "putting up with the sister" ;) and helping my sister can some of her surplus garden veggies. I'm still hoping that I will feel well enough for that! 

Brick

Yesterday was my first brick workout for the triathlon which is in 17 days! Better late then never right?

I geared up and took a 15.5 mile spin on my bike. I was planning on putting in 15 miles which is the actual distance of the bike for the tri but would up wussing out at a major intersection and detoured which added the .5 mile. Left hand turns with multiple lanes of traffic just make me nervous!

Yesterday marked the first successful ride clipped in since my "crash". Four years ago I couldn't get my foot out of the pedal when someone stopped abruptly infront of me. I crashed, landed on my right arm and spent the next 9 months out of work! A fractured elbow (really a non issue since it was barely a crack!) and torn cartilage and ligaments in my wrist (fixed with surgery) set me back on the bike. I have been spinning clipped in though and have been able to get my foot out every time so I risked it and did fine yesterday. 

I wore my new tri kit for Coeur Sports (loving it but waiting for a full review until I use it more!). However it was cool enough and breezy enough that I threw a long sleeved tech tee over it for the ride. Yep as the rest of the country is battling heat and humidity I put on long sleeves. 

I also had a Huma gel on the ride. No stomach issues with it although the texture will be something to get used to. Just don't think "wow I bet that's what frog eggs feel like". I made that mistake. 

Eating on the bike it harder so I just shoved the gel in my mouth and spent 2 miles squeezing a bit in every now and then. My nutrition goal yesterday was one gel and my full water bottle. Got them both down without too much problem but I can't continue pedaling which drinking water. I have no idea why I can't but it was not happening. 

Off the bike and a quick stop at home before heading out for 2 miles. The tri has a 5k for the run but I figured 2 miles was ok for practice. I thought I had set my Garmin up for Multisport but couldn't get it to switch to the transition or run so I scrapped that idea and manually went to run. I would guess less then 5 minutes later I was out running. 

It wasn't too bad but I definitely couldn't get my steps as high as I would have liked. There was a shuffle going on for the first three quarters of a mile. I kept the pace <11:00 for the run through so it was a win overall. 

More bricks are in my future for sure as is more time on my bike versus in spin class. I need some hills on the bike as well. 

Today it's a Centergy (yoga/pilates mix) class and 1000+ yards in the pool. Luckily I am changing stations for work this week and will have a treadmill available as well as a nice hill to run hill repeats on if I want. It's also about 45 minutes closer to home then my previous station so I'm gonna to be saving major communiting time! 

And so it begins again

Well I have been an absent blogger!

A large part of that was dealing with a big unknown which now is known and not as big a deal as I thought it would be!

Two weeks before the SLO Half Marathon I injured myself. Not running, not even doing anything remotely cool. I managed to hit the backside of my elbow on the bathroom counter. Holy sweet baby Jesus! It hurt like hell!

It was really early in the morning and Chad was sleeping but somehow he knew that this ouch was a different ouch then my normal "hey I walked into the wall that's been there the entire time we've lived in this house" ouch. Immediately following the pain I became nauseated and walked to the kitchen. Well the nausea kept coming and I was focusing on not puking. Apparently I should have been focusing on remaining conscious because the next thing I know I'm laid out on the floor with Chad holding my shoulders and rubbing my nose (New trick for work? Rubbing an unconscious persons nose wakes 'em up!).

Now I felt like an ass. Really I hit my elbow and passed out!? Once I was awake the elbow felt pretty good considering. However my right knee did not feel right. See straightening it out hurt, bending it hurt, but hey running didn't hurt!

I iced and wrapped it and took a few days off running where it did improve and then went on to PR the crap out of the half! Then a few weeks later I was running and got a gnarly "cramp" in my right calf. Well I did the right thing and made an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. Yes at 32 I have my own knee Dr. He's already fixed it once (dislocated patella with continued instability until he fixed it) and I was counting on him to fix it again. 

Well the "cramp" wasn't a cramp, it was a mild tear to my muscle. And he put all running and impact sports on halt until the almighty MRI came back thinking I was altering my stride trying to protect my knee and causing calf problems. He was pretty sure I had a tear to my meniscus. 

Good news, no tears on the MRI and in fact my cartilage looks "really good for a 32 year old runner". I'll take a compliment of my soft tissue integrity any day!

Bad news, my knee was still gonna hurt. Best guess is that there may be a small rough area to the cartilage which is causing inflammation. It will get better but we have no time frame and I'm not damaging anything. I was immediately cleared to restart running (after 4+ weeks off) as long as I eased back into it. 

Luckily I spent my non running time falling in love with cross training! I am now a regular at 6am spin class before going to work (who does that!?) and am swimming 1000-2000meter a couple times a week in addition to yoga. 

Its a good thing I didn't throw everything out the window because now I am back on for my first triathlon on July 27th! Half mile swim, 15 mile bike and 5k run. 

I am a little shocked at how hard running is right now but I know it will get easier. I'm going to focus on slooooow which is not what I want to do but is what I need to do. 

I will also get to finally use my new toy to its full extent! After the half I got a Garmin 910xt on deep discount with an additional mail in rebate. Sometimes the stars align! 

I was obviously missing running because I dressed Charlie in all my Ragnar gear! That poor sweet dog hehe.

Next up will be more tri training talk, the great return to running and a summer/fall full of fun!

Go bananas!

So I have an odd relationship with bananas. The potassium powerhouse and I do not always get along. See I love bananas straight up but do not think they play well with anything else. I think they make smoothies slimy and generally overpower anything they hang out with food wise. 

I also don't like ripe bananas, they have to be a little green for me to eat them, by their lonely self. 

The above pictures bananas? Too ripe. 

Since I wouldn't eat them as is I had to figure out something to do with the suckers. It has been years since I have even tried banana bread because I didn't like it. So what did I choose to do with the banana? 

Make banana bread muffins! Hey if I still hate them either Chad will eat them or I can take them to work (people in the medical field love free food, it's a fact).

Banana Bread Muffins

Yields 12 muffins + one shallow loaf

5 ripe bananas (mine were on the small size, had they been full size I would have used 4)

1/2c brown sugar

1 egg

1c unsweetened apple sauce 

1tsp vanilla

2c flour

1tsp cinnamon 

1.5tsp baking soda

1/2tsp salt

1/4c ground flax seed

1c thawed frozen blueberries

In a bowl mix brown sugar, egg and apple sauce until thoroughly combined. 

In seperate bowel smash bananas with a fork. 

Add bananas to the apple sauce mixture, add vanilla and stir to combine being careful to not over mix the batter. 

Slowly add four, baking soda, flax seed, salt, and cinnamon. Fold in blueberries. 

I used a light spray of olive oil and then dusted the muffin pan and loaf pan with flour to prevent sticking. Fill muffin pan cups about 3/4 full and pour remaining batter into loaf pan (or another muffin pan if you have one!).

I had some left over honey almond slivers from making granola bars and sprinkled them onto half the muffins before baking. 

Bake at 350 degree for approx 20 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. 

Cool on a wire rack or enjoy nice and warm from the oven! 

I wrapped about 10 of the muffins in Glad Press and Seal and then threw them into a large ziplock and froze them. They thaw out pretty quickly at room temp but can be popped into the microwave for a few seconds to speed up the process. 

Overall verdict?

I liked them! They aren't overly sweet which I think is one of the things I don't like about very ripe bananas and most banana breads. The small amount of sugar and use of apple sause came out just right for my taste. Chad likes them too. 

Now I can't wait to make zucchini bread muffins which are my absolute favorite! 

Does anyone have any other muffin recipes they like? I find having frozen muffins is a great go to for rushed breakfasts. 

 

Summer garden

In the place we currently live there is no real place for a garden without ripping out landscaping which unfortunately we cannot do. 

I really wanted to plant a veggie garden this year, especially because so many of the veggies we use are easy to grow! 

Living in wine country many people do small project gardens in half wine barrels but that can get expensive with half barrels costing up to $35 a piece! 

Enter the humble kiddie pool! Although not an ascetically pleasing it gets the job done for a faction of the cost and really who cares what the garden looks like!?

I went and picked up the supplies needed at Walmart for under $40. That got me the kiddie pool, red mulch, 2x 2 cubic feet of Miracle Grow garden soil, 2x tomato cages, bamboo poles for support of vinong veggies, and garden twist tie to hold up the vines. 

Our local hardware store was running a 20% off special on plants so I wound up getting 2 tomato plants, 2 jalapeño plants, a tomatillo plant, 4 pole bean plants, a habenero plant, and a peperoncini! My garden is probably over crowded but I am hoping for the best!

Anyhow here's the basic how to!

Add drainage holes to the bottom of the pool so your plants won't be sitting in standing water. I used a 1" drill bit and it was easy. If you don't have that I think you could get by using kitchen shears to cut out holes, the plastic isn't very thick. 

Add a thin layer of mulch or hay, whatever you can get for cheap. It just helps with drainage and the overall cost because you need a little less soil which is more expensive. 

Throw in the dirt and the plants! Couldn't be any easier ;) 

I purposefully choose veggies that grow up (pole beans) and bush (pepper and tomatos) rather then things that vine along the ground (squash and zucchini) due to limited space. 

Make sure and give the plants that vine up something to climb and support them and cage those crazy tomatos! I am anticipating some fun times ahead cooking with and potentially pickling and canning my summer veggies! 

I'm not trying to decide if I need a second kiddie pool garden ;)

Charlie's vote is yes!