New Food Obsession...

...I've decided it's high time I start taking my food consumption more seriously and in doing so, G has started calling me the "Nutrition Nazi" (please don't be offended!) we already eat "fairly" healthy and I more than G need to lose a few pounds off this frame in order to get stronger/faster. This is in NO WAY a diet, but more of a new obsession with HOW I eat, WHAT I eat and most importantly WHEN I'm eating certain foods.

So fast forward to me thinking about how good beans are for me- fiber, protein and lots of other great nutrients to fuel my body so I created what has turned out to be a pretty darn good bean salad.

Here is what it's made of:

Salad:
One can of Chick Peas (rinsed and drained)

One can Red Beans (rinsed and drained)

One can of Black Beans (rinsed and drained)

One can of Corn (rinsed and drained)

Four chopped stalks of celery

One chopped Yellow Bell Pepper

Chopped Grape Tomatoes

Dressing:

Top with Red Wine Vinegar Mixed with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a touch of dried Oregano

Mix it all together and about an hour or so before eating add the Dressing and stir. Obviously Refrigerate and Enjoy!! Full of Protein and Good Fats, a few carbs...everything an athlete needs for a healthy lifestyle!

Kona 2008- a look back

It's been over two months since our trip to Hawaii this fall and I wanted to share some of our experiences while we were there...first up- Hawaii Ironman Championships. We'd never been to Kona before, muchless the race...first time for everything. Having completed IMWI a month prior, I had full respect for what it takes to get to Kona and how hard all these athletes worked to be a part of it. A truly exciting experience. Our hotel overlooked the finishline area and the streets were a buzz in the days leading up to it. I was nervous for the athletes! I swam part of the course (and stopped to watch tropical fish along the way) as well as a trip to the "coffee boat" that parks itself out there and provides shots of coffee to the athletes...top notch treatment! Freebies were everywhere, swim caps, fuel belts, hats, t-shirts, you name it! So fun!

The day before the race is what's called the Kona Bike Count- we didn't know what was going on, but knew folks would be dropping off their bikes in transition so we wondered over and thought "why are all these people here with clipboards and pens?" well, turnouts the product companies count their stuff to see how many of their bikes, saddles, wheels, etc make it to Kona. It's mayhem at best! Greg saw an opening where no one was up toward the front so we wondered over and began to watch for people. Well, turns out we were right next to the Triathlete Magazine photoshoot area. SO cool to see all the athletes up close and personal....here are some shots worthy of sharing:

Macca

Macca posing with his (soon to be busted) ride

The ever smiling Chrissie

Umm..the girl is JACKED, huh?

the finish area from our balcony!

The Navy SEALS who jumped pre-race

the Normanator

Chrissie climbing

Hilary Biscay

This Army dude rode in full gear...sorry the picture sucks, Runner's World did a blurb on him, he finished under 14hours...so cool (or boiling hot, however you choose to see it!)

Natasha..I don't think she finished :(

Patrick takin' it easy out of T2
Chrissie snuck up on us, where are all the cameras and crew??
A shot of the finish shoot
The jumbo-tron they had at the finish shoot
the conch blowers/fire throwers!

G &D volunteering at the finish area- guess who we found coming in just over 10 hours!
What great photos, huh? Patricks friends were like "you sure were happy to see those volunteers!!" they didn't know we KNEW him!! The guy in the background didn't get this sort of greeting...he looks bummed out.

Aloha...we had a BLAST watching and volunteering at this race, what a fun experience!

Turkey Trot 5M, a new tradition?

Greg and I hope to have started a new tradition....running the Westfield Turkey Trot (5mi) while in NJ for the holidays. It's a nice race on Saturday (which is nice since we usually travel on Thursday) and it's in a cute little park about 15mins from where Greg's family is. Greg's brother, sister in law and two nephews and niece came out to watch (they've never been to a race before) and they seemed to enjoy it! Hunter even commented he wanted to run it. They have a 1mi race before the 5mi which a lot of kids ran, I mentioned it to him and said he had a year to train for it! So we'll see next year if we are able to run it again...we had a blast (I was WAY over dressed) and Greg had a sprint dual with the guy next to him in the picture...he ultimately let the other guy have his glory :P Too funny!

Happy Turkey Trotting...

New gear always keeps me excited to workout…

One thing I never think much about is fashion in the pool (who cares, right?) with good swimming suits costing more than my wallet wants to part with, I am usually one to wait until the one I’m wearing falls apart before I buy a new one. I usually run to City Sports at lunch and buy whatever one they have in my size and I wear that until it falls apart (repeat cycle!) Well, when I received an email for 30% speedo and saw that my favorite fabric (chlorine proof endurance by speedo) suit was already 50% off ($39 down from $78) and an additional 30% off on top of that I had to splurge ;) I bought both of these and two new pair of goggles all for (drumroll please….) $85. Well my suits arrived yesterday and I almost didn’t get out of bed for swimming this morning, but when Greg hit the snooze and I didn’t go right back to sleep, it was the excitement of wearing a new suit that ultimately got me up and to the pool. Sometimes, it’s the change for the norm that motivates us.

Watts (or whats) a watt?

A watt is defined as the measurement of power. Power is an expression of work rate. These two terms have become everyday words in our house, along with “work”. Work is defined as Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something. Sounds like fun, lets do some hard work (expressed as power) to improve how many watts I can produce at a given time. In the “power world” this is usually measured as a functional threshold power (aka FTP) usually as a one hour all out effort. There are a bunch of ways to test for your FTP, but I’ve always done the 2x20min all out with a 2min easy effort in between. You take the NP (normalized Power) of that entire 42min effort and that is your FTP #. A month ago, mine was 207w (after having taken off almost two months after IM Wisconsin) I dedicated 4months of hard work to raise my FTP (with a goal of >10%, or 230w or more) this is week #4 of 16 weeks. I retested last night and I’m already at 217w, pretty much 5%. It’s amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it. I earned every one of those watts gained and frankly, I worked for them, too. I was reviewing my charts in WKO+ (the software used to analyze my power) and my power distribution chart (for the past month) shows that 30% of all my time of my bike this month has been at my FTP range…in other words. I’ve gone hard/all out for 1/3 of my time on my bike this month (including warmups and cool downs.) I was astonished to see that percentage that high, but I guess that’s how you get better. When “hard” isn’t “hard” anymore, you’re improved. I’m proud of those 10watts, and know that next motnh it will likely be less of a jump but am hopeful that come week #16 I will be at or above 230w. If I could set a longer range goal, I’d like to be at or around 245-250w by May. Let’s shoot for the stars!

My harder work is on the run. Biking is far more natural to me than running. But don’t worry…I’m working on that too. And if I remember correctly, last winter improving my FTP actually helped my running, too. It’s a long road but I have lofty goals for next year and want to see myself achieve.

I am SO thankful for my health, Happy Thanksgiving.

Broke out the tights and mittens and hat...BRRRRR...

With temps not leaving the 20s and wind gusts in the 20s it was quite cold this weekend so I decided it was time to break out the tights and mittens and hat and I still froze!! wow, it was cold out there. I forgot how hard running in the cold and wind is, but I'll take it over the heat and humidity anyday! So I bundled up, and set out to do some Z3 intervals, and nailed them all. So I really can't complain. I'm trying to get my running mojo back. This time last year I was running easily 20secs faster in each zone than I am currently, and I was loving it. Ever since I hurt the ol' calf in May my running just hasn't been the same. So cross your fingers for me that my run mojo will come back. I miss it dearly.

Here we go again....

Today is Nov. 7, 2008….any idea what you will be doing Nov. 7, 2009/ 365days from today? I hope to be traveling 140.6miles, again…this time in Panama City Beach, Florida. With Greg and his cousin Dave…should be lots of fun. Granted, lots of work leading up to it….lots of pain, heartache, eating, sleeping, riding, sleeping, running, eating, swimming, and did I mention sleeping :) 2009 is sure to have lots of roads that lead to success and we can only get there when we challenge ourselves! My goals shall be to stay healthy and lets see if I can break 12 hours this time around :)
IM Florida, here we come!