Triathlon Training Questions?? We've Got Answers!

Questions of the day: Nutrition, training while sick, and road biking vs. mountain biking while training for a triathlon.

Laura is training for the Iron Girl triathlon in Lake Tahoe (and I'm so excited to get to meet her at the race!). But, like anyone relatively new to the triathlon world, she has questions. Since these are things that many people might wonder, I asked her if it would be okay to answer them here, and she agreed. So here's the first one:

The whole topic of nutrition makes my head spin. There are so many different ideas about what is best. My understanding is nutrition should be viewed as fuel for the body yet I am having trouble filling my tank! I am hungry ALL the time.  I graze on wholesome foods during the day but, the hunger comes back within a half hour or so.  Do you know of any foods or perhaps the timing of when I eat that will help me feel fuller longer?  Also, if you know of any foods that seem to do a better job at sustaining energy throughout the day, I would love some ideas. Some days I am wiped out by three o'clock.  I realize this can probably be a tricky question because we are all unique. I would be appreciative of your input on  general nutrition guidelines an endurance athlete should follow.

It's definitely true that nothing besides religion and politics has as many opposing viewpoints as the topic of nutrition! My views on nutrition guidelines can be summed up pretty simply: Eat simple, whole, non-processed foods. If you've followed my journey here from vegetarian to Paleo, you'll know that while I've always focused on a diet of high-quality local and organic foods, I'm also not averse to changing things up to achieve a better and more nutritious eating plan. And recently I've been tweaking my Paleo ways to include more carbohydrates for endurance fueling.

When it comes to hunger, there are some important questions to ask. The first is, are you getting enough calories in? When you start training more, you get more hungry! This seems like such an obvious thing, yet a lot of us get used to "how much food I eat", and are reluctant to eat more than that, especially if we are worried about gaining weight. The fact is, how much you eat is directly influenced by how much you burn. I may eat 30 - 50% more food on a heavy training day than on a rest day, and I'm always amazed at how little I eat on my days with no workouts. It really doesn't take all that much food to keep a sedentary body going, yet it can sometimes take huge amounts of food to fuel an athlete's body. So the first thing to do is to make sure you're eating enough. If you're curious about calories in vs. calories out, you can use an application like Sparkpeople.com or FitDay.com (both of which have Android and iPhone apps) to track how much you're burning (including workouts) and how many calories you're taking in.

The second part of the equation is meeting your body's specific needs. If you're training hard, you are burning through glycogen, which you then need to replenish, hence the need to eat at least a certain amount of carbohydrates. Luckily, carbohydrates also fall fairly high on the satiety index, so they help you feel fuller longer. Sometimes that "empty tank" feeling is simply your body's glycogen fuel stores getting low. I've come to be able to distinguish between what I call "stomach hunger" (the familiar rumbling belly) and "body hunger" which is more an overall sensation of needing fuel.

Many people find that adding more fat to their diet helps them feel full longer. Healthy fats like olive oil and coconut oil are great for this (in fact, I had an athlete friend who swears by a tablespoon of oil when he starts feeling hungry). Now that we are far from the fat scare of the late 1990's ("eating fat will make you fat" was the motto of the Snackwell generation) and hopefully know better, we can make good choices regarding getting fats from great sources like eggs, fish, grass-fed meats, nuts, and seeds. I almost always start my day with two eggs combined with something (veggies, bacon, or coconut/banana are three favorite options) and that helps me avoid the hunger-crazies through the morning.

Hopefully that's helpful and you can avoid that afternoon burn out by fueling your endurance workouts! Next question:

The other thing is biking. I am mountain biker. I love the tranquility of riding in the dirt and through the trees.  Recently, I dusted off my road bike for the first time in three years.  This bike certainly handles the road much better than my moutain bike.  However I am not accustom to riding near traffic!  I need to shake the road riding jitters. Do you have any important road biking saftey or ettiquette tips (besides the obvious like wear your helmet and pray) that I should follow? I just want to be sure that I am not missing any important safety items, especially when I am making left turns or when the bike lane crosses between the right hand turn lane. Also, if I do some of my training rides on my mountain bike will that still be adequate training for the road coarse?  Or will I be short changing myself?

I completely understand - I love being off of the main routes of traffic and I know how nerve-wracking it can be to ride close to cars. My tips are as follows:

1) Wear girlie clothes. Sorry guys, but studies show that drivers are far kinder to female cyclists than to males. They even give them way more room when passing. Anecdotally, I've noticed that when I wear my flowered cycling shirts, I get more consideration than when I wear the green/blue/black team kit. So flaunt your flower power and get some pink/orange/girlie jerseys!

2) Give yourself some room. Unless there's a wide shoulder or bike path, I don't ride right on the edge of the lane. It's useful to take up a little room in the lane, not so much that cars can't get around you, but enough that if you swerve around a stick or rock, or get buffeted by the draft of a big truck, you won't go flinging into the gravel shoulder.

3) Be courteous to drivers and obey traffic rules. Know your state's laws for cyclists (including hand signals) and use them. I always try to send very clear body language to drivers to let them know what I'm doing. A big left arm out, encased in neon yellow is an easy sign that says I'm turning left. Don't make tentative gestures.

4) Wear great reflective gear, blinkies, and lights. A blinkie during the day is even a good idea, and my reflective gear has saved my life in dusk-like riding conditions. For the most part, drivers want to see you, and are happy when you provide an easy way for them to spot you in plenty of time.

As for training on a mountain bike, sure! Make sure you're comfortable on your road bike since the saddle, seat angle, and strain on places like wrists or lower back may be different than on your mountain bike, but go ahead and put in some of your training time on your mountain bike as well. I know the year that my hubby took up mountain biking he became a monster climber on the road bike. It's great training for those hills!

Last question:

What happens when you catch a pesky head cold during training? =(  Can I keep going and watch and see how my body feels? Will throttling back on the training hurt me race day?    

  Taking a few days off to recover shouldn't hurt you much on race day, but more than 4 or 5 might start to have an effect. Generally, I'll train through a light cold, but if I feel it start to go into my lungs or if I'm running a fever, I give it a rest. Also, my sister makes this awesome soup that has a ton of cayenne and garlic in it. If you feel a bug coming on and drink a couple bowls of that stuff, it knocks that pesky cold right outta the ballpark.

Countdown to Ironman, Week 44: Long Cold Swim? No Problem!

I've been told that one of the reasons that Ironman Coeur d'Alene does not sell out like the other North American Ironman events is because people are scared of the cold swim. I have no idea if this is true or not, but that's one aspect of the race that at least will not intimidate me. Because....

I swam across Crater Lake this Saturday!

My Aquaducks team have been planning and training for this for months now, and the weekend was finally upon us. I'll have more pictures and probably a long rambling post about it up soon, but the short version is that it took us nearly 3 hours of swimming, it was about 56 - 61 degrees in most places, the water was clear as glass, and it was fabulous, amazing, incredible, adjective-defyingly fun!

Ask And It Shall Be Answered

Wasn't it just yesterday I was asking if you could fuel an endurance athlete on bananas alone? Today the answer appeared on my doorstep, in the form of John. John is a 66 year old cyclist embarking on a solo journey across the United States, and one of the coolest humans I've had the pleasure to meet. But I'll talk more about him, his journey, and the reasons behind it tomorrow and add some photos as well.

As it relates to my banana question, John informed me that he cycled across Vietnam eating largely nothing but bananas. There, my question has been answered! Man can live on bananas alone. He also started telling me that he eats rather differently now than he used to, he's on a mostly "caveman diet" now. I had to stop him from explaining further as I know exactly what he was talking about. He was right at home in our Paleo household.

Since my own burning question has been answered, I think I'll go on to address a couple of questions I've gotten this week. Both are swimming related.

The first is from Kathy, who asks:

Can I request a post? I've read about running frequently vs long runs and cycling in the same vein but do you believe swimming is the same? I.e. swim shorter distances but more frequently as IM prep? I'm already sold on running 6 days/week (but 1:2:3 ratio) but wonder if swimming 4-5 days/week would be "better" than 3 days (for the same distance).

 I don't think swimming more than 3 days a week would be harmful, assuming your stroke has good mechanics and you aren't going to give yourself an overuse shoulder or elbow injury. But I also don't think it would be necessarily any better for IM training for several reasons:

1. The swim is such a small component of the Ironman. Any extra time you put into swim training is not going to buy you much of a time advantage at the IM distance. Putting the same amount of training time into extra bikes or runs would probably give you a better net gain in your total time.

2. Swimming for most people is time consuming. An hour of swimming typically involves travel time to get to a pool or open water and may take as long as two hours to accomplish, where a bike or run can happen right from your front door. You get less training bang for your buck from hours spent swimming. Increasing the number of swims means also increasing the amount of wasted time (unless you live on the ocean or a lake or have your own pool).

3. If you're a fast swimmer, then extra swim sessions won't make you considerably faster in the grand Ironman scheme of things. If you're a slow swimmer, you're better off spending your swim time working on your technique, and for that you can optimize your time with one coached session, one session to work on what you're learning from your coach (more on that in a minute) and do some intervals, and one session to work on endurance.

Which leads me to the next question, from Stephanie at FitMomInTraining.com, who says

I need tips/training on how to increase endurance in swimming.

The answer to this one goes back to the discussion of technique above. When people think about endurance, they think of gradually building up the ability to go longer and longer. This works well with sports like running and biking, where if you just keep upping your training distances in small increments, you will eventually be able to go longer without fatiguing.

Not so with swimming.

And here's why: Both speed and endurance in swimming are more tied to technique than anything else. Water is more than 700 times denser and 55 times more viscous than air. That means that while you can wave your arms at your friends and family all you want while running a marathon, the slightest pinky out of place when you are swimming will cost you dearly in terms of increased drag.

Most swimmers do not take all the possible steps to reduce drag in their stroke, and many incur additional drag by making very common stroke mechanic mistakes such as keeping the head high or weaving from side to side. It takes a huge amount of energy to overcome this additional drag in water, therefore much of the reason for a swimmer's lack of endurance is simply that they're spending far more energy than they need to.

As a case study, I'll mention a lady in my swim class. On Monday night, I was watching her stroke. She has gotten the hang of a nice long glide phase in her stroke, which extends the "vessel" of her body in the water and reduces her form drag. Over the months we've worked together, she has also ditched her habit of crossing the centerline of her body on hand entry. This has greatly reduced her side-to-side wiggle, which in turn also reduces drag immensely. As a result, it now takes her 18 strokes to move from one end of the pool to the other, instead of the 28 that it used to take. You can easily see how her endurance can be greatly improved simply by the fact that she's taking 30% fewer strokes to go the same distance!

Beyond simply reducing drag, you can also increase the efficiency of your stroke. Many swimmers spend time moving water in all sorts of directions (downwards, upwards, to the sides) but the only direction that counts is moving water straight behind you, because that's the only way to gain propulsion in the forward direction (assuming you DO want to swim forward, right?). ALL of this muscle power that you may be using to move water in random directions costs you in terms of fatigue and reduced endurance.

So the bottom line is that to increase endurance in swimming, the best and easiest method is to improve your stroke and reduce your drag and therefore your effort in swimming. Finding a local Masters swim group or coach can be your best bet. If you live in an area with no available swimming resources, you can consider video coaching (which I offer, among other online swim coaches). As a last resort, I'd consider self-coaching using a book or DVD like Total Immersion.

Countdown to Ironman: Week 45: The Paleo Ironman

Everyone knows what endurance athletes eat: bagels, pasta, bread, gatorade, and Gu. Right? Isn't this necessary? Any endurance website or forum will tell you this much, it's an accepted fact. And if you're going to do an Ironman, better buy stock in the wheat farming industry, because according to many experts, it's "foolish" to eat otherwise than a heavy dose of grain-based carbs.

So what the heck am I thinking? I started eating Paleo when I was doing more intensive and less endurance-based training (Crossfit and Karate as opposed to Ironman). But I feel so darned good, I don't want to give up the benefits and go back to eating grain, sugars, etc.. For one thing, all of those niggling little joint pains I used to have? Gone. The creaking knees, the arthritis starting in my knuckles? Gone. Muscle aches and pains after a hard workout? Gone baby gone. Still think I'm nuts? Read 10 Reasons to go Grain-Free and get back to me on that one.

So that leaves me with the Great Unknown, which is how to train for an endurance event on a diet that doesn't give you a whole lot of carbohydrate replacement easily. I mean really, just how many yams and bananas can I be expected to eat? The guy over on the Castle Grok blog can answer that (he's transitioned from Paleo to a high-carb fruit-based diet that involves way more bananas than I will ever be able to stomach) but I don't think I'm cut out to be a fruitarian. Still, I know that as I ramp up my endurance workouts, my body suddenly gets this very intense carb craving, and I'm tuned in enough to my body to tell the difference between OMG get me a Cinnabon NOW and I really need some healthy carbs or my muscles are going to feel dead tomorrow.

So part of this new Ironman journey for me will be figuring out how to do it without the 80,000 boxes of cereal, bagels, and bowls of pasta I consumed last time. As my general guide, the book The Paleo Diet for Athletes will come in handy, although I think it didn't really go far enough in explaining what to eat during workouts. The book covered eating Paleo pretty handily for meals, and essentially says that during racing you need to revert to simple sugars like gels and sports drinks, but it doesn't really say much about how to eat during training, so I may be forging my own path in that direction.

Still, although the Ironman is a huge goal in anyone's life, my real aim is this journey to strive for ultimate health and fitness in all aspects of life. Finding a way to merge my desire to train for ultra-endurance and my need to eat in a way that fuels my body healthily is just part of the challenge.

Our War With Sugar: Notes From the Trenches

The battle lines are clearly drawn. I walk through the front doors of my local grocery store and this is what confronts me: a towering wall of sugar.

Sugar in caramels, sugar in cookies, in chocolates pressed to look like Lego pieces, or Band-Aids, or even more horribly, in chocolates pressed to look like vegetables! To the left is a wall of sugary juices, and straight past the main Wall O' Sugar is the bakery section with donuts displayed prominently in front. To my right is the mocha stand with its drinkable forms of sugar, surrounded by more stacks of scones, cookies, and jars of biscotti.

Clearly, I have to walk through the encampment of the enemy just to get to allies: the meats, the vegetables and fruits. Is it any wonder that good health is so hard to achieve? We are not just having to employ our will power to eat healthily, but that will power is being actively sabotaged at every turn. And it's not just the grocery store. A trip into my daughter's favorite clothing store, Justice (don't even get me started on my clothes-made-in-sweatshops rant, it's her money that takes her in there, not mine), reveals yet another wall of sugar at the checkout. This more of the Gummy Worms and Sour Patch Kids variety, yet its purpose is quite clear: make money for the store and addict our children to not just garden variety sugar (bad enough) but a chemical goo of food coloring and high fructose corn syrup. In case we somehow overlooked its glaring neon-boxed display, the sales clerk drew our attention to the fact that all candy was on sale, two boxes of crap for the price of one.

Is there any good news in the war trenches? Well, I'm happy to say that there is. You might recall some of my previous posts about what a terrible sugar addict I have been. So you might think that walking past this barrage of sugar-soaked gluten-engorged substances would be darned near impossible for me. My trembling hands would simply reach out and start filling my cart while my brain looked helplessly on. But the truth is that after going cold turkey, and buckling down to a solid few months of Paleo, it's just not even that appealing to me. After all, when you stop eating the stuff, then you get a total sugar hangover when you do indulge, it's loses a lot of its luster.

I can stand there and look at this enormous pile of macaroons, cookies, cakes, donuts, gelato, mochas with whipped cream, and then turn and walk away. I can turn and walk away! Without buying a darned thing. This is the kid who used to fill her pockets with cookies at the Methodist bake sale, take them into the church bathroom and stuff her face with sugar until she puked. This is the girl who had such raging yeast infections that she had thrush as a teenager, stumping her family doctor who'd never seen it outside of infants. I mean, I've been a sugar addict my whole life. This is huge.

And yet, I try really hard not to be like those converted evangelists. I try to resist the temptation to tell everyone I know who struggles with the same thing how simple the answer turns out to be. When people say things like "I could never give up bread." or "I couldn't live without my mocha and scone", I try to just be sympathetic. When someone says to me "I can't give up my sugar, so I can't give up my 90 minutes a day of cardio, I nod my head because I know what that's like. Totally know what it's like. But now I also know it doesn't have to be that way.

The Ironmom Extra Mile: 

First Read This: The Definitive Guide to Insulin, Blood Sugar, and Type 2 Diabetes from Mark's Daily Apple

Then Do This: The Whole30 Challenge

That's It. You won't regret it.

Can Home Improvement Cause Insanity??

Have you ever heard your voice, elevated beyond all rational levels, arguing with your husband about.... brick colors? If not, congratulations. You've never embarked upon the utter madness known as a Home Improvement Project. They might as well call them Marriage Destruction Projects. And because we didn't have enough craziness in our lives (right???), we decided to tear off our back deck and tear up our entire back yard to redo everything. I'm just praying that the rains don't come early because you can only imagine what our two dogs would look like after romping around in these piles of clay dirt in the RAIN.

Since our entire back yard has a slope approximately equal to the sides of Mt. Everest, creating any flat space at all is A Project. Involving backhoes, bulldozers, and millions of wheelbarrowloads of gravel, rocks, and retaining walls, several million workers, and lots and lots of noise and chaos. Did I mention that I'm the kind of introvert who craves peace. And silence. This has been a trying summer.

The good news is that this particular series of holes and dirt piles on the side of our house will be a water feature and  a pond (yes, that's my kitchen door you see hanging out in space with no deck below it!). I think this will be gorgeous when it's finished. The kids are excited about koi for the pond. I'm worried that my dog will think it's her personal waterpark.

And this giant hole with concrete pillars:

This will be a covered patio that will no longer drip water on our heads when we go outside. And above it all will be a new deck without the scary rickety railings and splintery boards of our old one. So all will be good at some point. I am hoping I'll be home from the loony bin in time to enjoy it.

Countdown to Ironman: Week 46

Forty-six weeks to an Ironman that I'll do at age 46. How's that for synchronicity! Forty-six is a year that, according to Google searches at least, women are concerned with crow's feet, tummy tucks, anxiety and depression meds, and the onset of menopause. I don't know about you, but that sounds downright depressing! No wonder we have midlife crises. But triathlon can give us a wonderful gift - a desire to concentrate more on what our body can do than what it can't do, to look at what it's capable of and not so much what it looks like (because for sure I have crow's feet and grey hairs and all that fun stuff). So, forty-six. Is it an age at which you could expect to feel at your peak, mentally and physically? I'm hoping the answer is yes.


It's hard to believe, but at age 45 my body feels fitter, stronger, and healthier than it ever has. It's not the lightest it's ever been in my adult life (thank you anorexia, I don't want to go there again). Nor is it the heaviest (I always did tend to gain a *lot* of weight when pregnant) but it feels like I can ask it to do almost anything and it responds willingly. It sleeps well and trains hard, it craves healthy food and feels mentally alert and creative.

This last weekend saw me do about a 70.3's worth of training. Three miles of swimming, 57 of biking, and 12 miles of trail running over two days. Considering that I took a fair bit of time off of training to heal my arm, it all feels fairly easy and I'm not sore or overly tired. I think I can comfortably lay a good base down this winter for my Ironman specific training. Now that my kids are older, I can train a bit more than I did last time and hopefully feel even better prepared than I was for the first.

Paleo-style training nutrition this weekend included my Banana-coconut custard, some fruit leather for the trail run and bike, and my chia gel before my swim. At-home meals were grass-fed hamburgers and salad, shrimp-veggie stir fry, and chicken masala.

Monika and Laura (ThreeBoysFull), please contact me

I don't have a way to contact either one of you about the Iron Girl race entry giveaway. Please leave me an email or some other method of contact. Thanks!

Got Gear? What You Really Need to Do A Sprint Triathlon

It's six weeks to the Iron Girl Sprint triathlon at Lake Tahoe California. With only a month and a half to go, it's time to start thinking about gear. You can look at my own Triathlon Checklist to get an idea of what I take to a race.

Triathletes are notorious gear junkies, and the selections of everything from water bottle holders to tri shorts can be overwhelming for a first timer. What do you really need to do your first sprint triathlon? Surprisingly little!

SWIM:
Suit
Goggles
Swim Cap
Wetsuit (optional)

The first thing you have to think about it the swim. A pair of goggles is highly recommended, and the most important thing to consider is how they fit. Try them on if possible (press them against your eyes and if they stick a moment, they'll probably be fine in the water).

Next you need to decide if you're going to need a wetsuit or not. It's important to find out the predicted water temperature ahead of time and plan for what you're going to need to wear. Tolerance for cold water is highly individual. My personal rule of thumb is that I can tolerate 55 degrees or above in a full sleeve wetsuit, 62 degrees and above in a farmer john (sleeveless) wetsuit, and about 70 degrees and above with no wetsuit. Some races will not allow wetsuits above a certain water temperature (76 degrees is typical).

If you will need a wetsuit, you may purchase one, or rent one. Iron Girl races have wetsuit rental available, and this is an excellent option for first time triathletes.

If you're wearing a wetsuit, you can wear triathlon shorts and a top underneath the suit if you want to, or you can wear a swim suit or one-piece triathlon suit. If you're not wearing a wetsuit, wear something you can swim in, such as

a one or two piece swimsuit, or triathlon wear designed for swimming.

Stay away from non-triathlon wetsuits. I often see first-timers at triathlons in some sort of water skiing wetsuit. These are bulky and difficult to swim in. You may get chafing and other problems from wearing such a suit.

Speaking of chafing, pick up a stick of BodyGlide and you will be much happier! Apply it liberally around your neck, under your arms, and anywhere else your wetsuit might rub.

Lastly, most races will provide a swim cap, but I always stick an extra one in my bag, just in case.

BIKE
Helmet
Bike
Shoes
Sunglasses (optional)
Gloves (optional)

Obviously, you need a bike to complete a triathlon! If you already have one, you're in business. Many first-timers use a mountain bike or commuter-style bike in their first race and you don't have to worry that you'll be the only one. Make sure it's a bike that you're comfortable on. If you're borrowing a bike, make sure you get the seat and handlebars adjusted to fit you. An improper bike fit can cause knee or back pain, something you definitely don't want!

Helmets are always mandatory in triathlons, and make sure the buckle is secure and will stay so throughout the entire race. You must buckle on your helmet before leaving the bike transition area, so getting used to doing that before every ride is a good idea.

You don't need fancy bike shoes or pedals, but if you have specific pedals/shoes, make sure you are comfortable getting in and out of them.

Sunglasses are optional, but I always wear them in a race to protect my eyes from any road debris or flying bugs. Gloves are also optional. They take some time to put on, especially when your hands are wet from the swim, but some people feel much more comfortable with them on.

RUN
Shoes
Socks
Hat or Visor (optional)
Sunglasses (optional)

Run in shoes that you're comfortable in, that you've trained in, and that are not brand new! Don't buy new shoes just before the race, make sure you've had a couple of weeks to break them in. I always go over my socks before I pack them to make sure there are no splinters or burrs in them. A hat or visor can shade your head on a hot day, and sunglasses are something I always wear for eye protection.

EXTRAS
Watch
Towel
Nutrition and Hydration
First aid kit
Sunscreen
Safety pins
Electrical Tape
Garbage Bags

A watch is a great thing to wear if you want to know how fast you're going. Some folks don't, so it's not mandatory! A towel is something you put down in your transition area for your gear to sit on. I always bring one that I can easily identify.

Depending on how long the race will take you, you may need to bring some food (gels, energy bars) and water or electrolyte mix such as Gatorade, Accelerade, etc. Most races will have water and electrolyte drink on the run course at the least. Many athletes like to pack some kind of protein bar to eat in the transition area about an hour before the start, and one gel to take 10 minutes before the start. In a sprint triathlon, many people find that they don't need to eat anything at all during the race.

Sunscreen is a must-use, as you'll usually be out on the course for at least an hour or more. I always bring emergency items such as a first aid kit (with ibuprofen, band-aids, etc.), electrical tape (for anything loose on the bike), safety pins (for wardrobe malfunctions), and garbage bags (big black ones, in case it rains - you can cover your gear and you can cover yourself.)

Ditch the Sugary Gels? Paleo Fuel for Endurance Training

How much money does the average triathlete spend on sugary gels and bars in one year? Now wouldn't that be a scary statistic?  Maybe I don't even want to know, especially considering that most of what's in them is some form or another of sugar, and some flavoring. Maybe a few electrolytes thrown in if you're lucky.

Now don't get me wrong, when I'm racing I know that my body starts shutting down digestion in ever more serious ways. It starts gently but by the time you've been out there five hours or more, there's very little that you can put in your stomach that will actually make it to your bloodstream. Simple sugars are one of those few things. Even the coke that I wouldn't normally ever touch will start to be a necessary staple of my existance at Mile 14 of the Ironman marathon. So I'm not saying that there's not a place for gels in the triathlete's arsenal. I'm just wondering how necessary they are in the overall scheme of a year's training plan.

Tomorrow morning's lake swim will probably be about four miles. I'm going to follow that up with a 1 - 2 hour bike ride. Do you think I might get hungry? Yeah, I'm guessing so. I'm trying to take a "train low, race high" approach to fueling my body. Instead of relying on those sugary gels and bars to get me through my Ironman training like I did last time (I shudder to think of how much money I actually spent on that crap!), I'm going to try and use a more whole foods approach for the bulk of my calories, with some gels/bars thrown in for training purposes (never do in a race what you don't do in training is an important truth in triathlon). I know I'm an Experiment of One when it comes to this kind of thing, so I'll let you know how it fares in human guinea pig land.

So what am I eating tomorrow? A breakfast of my favorite Banana-Coconut Custard, which I've recently taken to adding Chia seeds to for a bigger protein boost. I've also made up some Chia gel, which I've created by combining several teaspoons of Chia seeds with some coconut water. I make these up in little tupperwares to take with me. I need to experiment with finding a more gel-pouch-like way to carry them on my bike though. Stay tuned as I experiment with that in weeks to come. I happen to like the Nutiva Organic Chia seeds, and I buy them from Amazon.com as I've found it's cheaper than the bulk food section of my grocery store when it comes to chia. Chia seeds have this absolutely cool property where when you combine them with a liquid, they turn into a jelly-like substance. This makes them easy to slurp down, but nicely high in protein. Sometimes I mix a few teaspoons of juice in, like cherry juice or a berry mix for a different flavor.

For post-race, I'll bring along my favorite "Macadamias Mix Gingerly" nut mix from Trader Joes, which has macadamias, almonds, cranberries, and candied ginger. Yum!

Reminder: Drawing for Free Iron Girl Race Entry is TOMORROW!

Tomorrow I'll be drawing the name of a lucky woman who gets a free race entry to Iron Girl's Lake Tahoe Sprint distance triathlon on September 18. All you have to do is comment on this blog post, telling me why you want to do the race. I will draw one winner at the end of the day tomorrow.

52 Weeks To Ironman: (Gulp) Week 47 Already?

I was thinking I'd do a cool countdown here on the ol' blog: 52 weeks to Ironman. Except when I looked at my calendar I realized there's only 47 weeks now.  How did that happen? But that's okay, I can recap the first few weeks easily for you:

Week 52: Reading race reports of awesome studmuffin friends doing Ironman. That looks like so much fun. So exciting. I should sign up!

Week 51: Is the Ironman still open? Maybe it's filled up already. Maybe I don't have to make a decision.

Week 50: Maybe I shouldn't do another Ironman until I forget how much the last one hurt. How many years will that take?

Week 49: Ah Crap! I did it. I signed up for another Ironman.

Week 48: What the #@!#!%! was I thinking?

Week 47: Huh. Guess I better start thinking about training.

 So here we are, at week 47. My initial plan for heading into this Ironman year went something like this: In August I'm going to swim a 10k. In September I'm going to run a trail marathon. So all I'll have to do is some biking this winter and I'll be ready to roll.

That was the initial plan. But now my thought process is something like this: Holy Traction Tires Robin, you'll have to do all of your long rides in April and May. In Western Oregon. Where it rains all April and May, and sometimes sleets and snows for good measure. What were you thinking?

I'm still wrestling with that one. I'll let you know how that shakes out for me. I'm thinking a lot of bike trainer time. Yeah, maybe another season or two of 24 (I never did catch up on that) would see me through some long trainer rides.

The Nitty Gritty of Week 47 (for the 2.3 people who might be interested in such details):

Swimming: 2.5 hours (including one 3 mile lake swim)
Biking: 4.2 hours + 1 hour of bike commuting (not bad considering I couldn't ride a bike with my arm a couple of weeks ago)
Running: 3.75 hours, and I even made myself do a sprint run, a tempo run, and a 10.5 mile long run. See how disciplined I'm being?

Total: 11.5 hours of tri-specific training + 5 hours of assorted other stuff (karate, gym work, etc.) for 16.5 total hours.

Food: Still Paleo, though I did eat a gel at mile 2 of my 3 mile lake swim, just to see how well I tolerated gels while swimming, which I've never done before. That seemed to work out fine.

A Paleo Triathlete's Day of Food

On my recent post on Paleo and Healing, Beth asked if I could share what a "normal" day of eating looks like for me. That's a great idea, and I love to read through other Paleo blogs to get new ideas about food for the day. So yesterday (a fairly typical day for me, food-wise) I logged everything I ate, and here it is:

 

That's just the raw ingredients of course, but here's what my day of meals looked like:

Missing from the photo is one Lara Bar, so here that is:

I ate the Lara bar just before heading to the lake for a 2-mile morning swim. Washed down with a steaming mug of Yerba Mate tea.

After the swim, it was breakfast time. Typically my breakfast is some combination of eggs and vegetables. Often it's one of my Seven Paleo Power Breakfasts. This morning it was zucchini, onion, mushrooms, and bell pepper sauteed in a bit of bacon grease and combined with a couple of scrambled eggs from my free-ranging chickens.

Mid-morning snack: 1/2 cantaloupe

Lunch: Stir Fry vegetables with shrimp. I sauteed up some snap peas, broccoli, the rest of the zucchini, pepper, onion, and mushrooms and tossed in a couple of handfuls of frozen jumbo shrimp. I use sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and Bragg's liquid amino acids as my typical sauteeing sauce.

Mid-Afternoon snack just before my bike ride: A smoothie with a banana, some coconut milk (also not pictured), a raw egg, some vanilla and crushed ice.

Post bike ride: One half baked yam with some butter

Dinner: Roasted chicken salad. Lots of romaine lettuce, some local chicken, and a olive oil and balsamic dressing I make up with mustard, garlic, and a bit of maple syrup. Two carrots and a bowl of blueberries on the side.

Evening snack: Raw shredded coconut, a handful of Trader Joe's macadamia/almond/cranberry nut mix, and two squares of 88% ultra dark chocolate, with more hot tea.

According to an online calculator, this day's eating provided me with 2094 calories, 212 grams of carbohydrates, 96 grams of fat, and 105 grams of protein. It's important to note that although I eat Paleo, I am not interested in eating "low carb" since I'm an endurance athlete. The two miles of swimming and 25 miles of biking require a fair amount of carbohydrates to fuel. Recently on a triathlon website, someone questioned whether or not a triathlete could compete without bread, pasta, potatoes, corn, oatmeal, and other traditional "high carb" foods. I'm here to tell you that you can! Think of all those empty (not to mention potentially damaging) grain-based carbs, that have been replaced by incredibly nutrient-dense carbs from fruits, nuts, seeds, and veggies.

Similarly, although I definitely hope to get plenty of protein, I typically do it by feel and not by counting grams. I don't tend to worry about fats at all, since all of the fats in my diet come from extremely healthy sources. As someone who only has half of a thyroid gland, having plenty of my fats come from thyroid-healthy coconut is a big benefit.

I'd also note that most of what I eat (with the exception of the tropical things like banana, coconut, and macadamia nuts) is local and easily accessible here where I live. The tropical stuff for me are treats, and I treat them as such. We're lucky to have access to such luxuries, but I try not to make them a staple of my diet. Compared to a soy, corn, and grain-based diet, what I eat is very local in nature. From meat to eggs, fruit, and veggies, most of what our family consumes is locally available, especially in the summer. In the winter, I tend to eat a lot of frozen berries (which our family is picking right now and storing in our chest freezer), and we buy our meat 1/4 cow or 1/3 pig at a time and again store it in the freezer.

Several people locally have questioned my recently displayed ability to heal so quickly from serious injury. When you look at what's on my plate on a daily basis, should that really be so surprising? Compared to the standard American diet, I'm giving my body what it needs on a cellular basis to thrive and maintain optimal health.

Kicking Off: 8 Weeks to Iron Girl Lake Tahoe Triathlon

I'm very excited to be racing at Iron Girl's beautiful Sprint triathlon at Lake Tahoe, Ca on September 18. Want to join me? I'm giving away a race entry on this blog, so comment and tell me why you would love to do this race! Doesn't this look like an amazing place to race?

Think you can't do your first triathlon? I've got a plan for you. Ironmom's Eight Weeks To Your First Triathlon plan is here for free. And here's the plan in an easily printable table format for your refrigerator door. Getting in the best shape of your life can happen by the end of the summer, and all you need to start off with is a bike (any old bike will do), some running shoes, and a swim suit and a plan.

If you're nowhere near Lake Tahoe, pick a September Triathlon near you and train with me. There's nothing like starting off the cold weather season having just challenged yourself to keep you encouraged through the winter months.

What Happens When Nervous Nellie Rides Again?

Getting back up on the horse isn't as easy as it sounds. My bike threw me once, and while I didn't take it out and shoot it, that particular bike (my commuter) is relegated to the back of the garage for now. But my sweet little triathlon bike wasn't to blame, and I've had it on the trainer for the last few weeks with no troubles, so why not take it out on the road?

That's exactly what I did yesterday, but I was surprised at how nervous I was! I took it easy and spun up the hills, not standing to climb so I wouldn't have to put any pressure on my still-healing arm. But going downhill I had a sudden attack of the chicken and started riding my brakes. My bike felt like it was all over the place, so wobbly that I could barely control it. I guess my nerves were getting the better of me and I slowed down even more. That's when I looked down and noticed my front tire was completely flat.

So I guess it wasn't my nerves making me all swervy after all, that's a relief. One changed tire later and I had a fine bike ride out in the sunshine. My legs are a little out of practice on the hills, but I'm sure that will come back with time.

As a side note, has anyone else noticed that they break valve stems frequently while changing tires? I've never broken one in my life until recently, and then someone posted on the Trifuel forums about how it seems like valve stems are being made cheaper and cheaper and they break all the time. Sure enough when I changed my tire, the stupid little end of the valve stem broke off in my inflator. If anyone has a recommendation for an inner tube made with quality valve stem construction, I'm all ears!

Iron Sickness

It's almost a year away, but it's already occupying far too large of a corner in my brain. Yes, I've got the Iron Sickness, caused by signing on the M-dotted line, committing yourself to the craziness that is the Ironman. That causes you to start thinking about training for Ironman, reading books about the Ironman, perusing websites and blogs, visiting forums and reading race reports and agonizing over the tiniest details that you don't really need to settle for at least, oh, five or six months.

Oh well, at least Borders has a going out of business sale. That allowed me to justify spending some $$$ on Macca's book "I'm Here To Win", (of course after buying some homeschooling-ish books for the kids, ostensibly what I wandered into Borders to do) and this has at least diverted me from reading through various training plans online, for awhile.

I Don't Need A Boob Job or Lipo, I Need One Of These

In my unceasing quest to find a good rationale to buy this bike:

 No. Wait. Not just this BIKE. This amazing piece of road gorgeousness that would rock my whole triathlon-loving world...


In my unceasing quest to find a rationale that would sway hubby's cold, frugal heart, I hit upon the perfect argument. So I laid it on him when he came home from work last night.

(Me, sidling up to him with sweet smile): Hey honey, you know how a lot of guys buy their middle-aged wives boob jobs and tummy tucks and liposuction and face lifts and all that?

Him (not really paying attention): Umm. yeah.

Me: Well, that costs easily like $10,000 or more, right?

Him (becoming wary of where this conversation is headed): Um. Yeah.

Me: Well, that amazing Blue bicycle that I wanted would be less than that! And it would do just as good a job of keeping me looking amazing as any of that nasty surgery stuff.

Him (not even fazed by this argument): You already have terrific looking legs. That's why I married you. I don't think this bike will make them look any better than they already do.

Sigh. Foiled again. Back to the drawing board.

Paleo And Healing: How Diet Makes A Difference

I didn't set out to become a case study of one, but coincidence dumped me here anyways. I've broken the same bone in the same place in the same arm two years in a row now. Common sense would say it's harder to heal from that injury the second time around, since tissues have already been damaged once. However, the first time I had to recover from this injury, I wasn't eating Paleo. Now I am.

I already posted about how bruises from my karate class fade within hours, clearly evidence that my body's ability to heal itself is greatly increased. But what about a fractured bone? The X-rays don't lie. It healed a lot faster this year (after 15 months of Paleo eating) than last year (back when I was eating a very "healthy" diet with lots of meat, veggies, and fruit, but that still included grains, legumes, and more sugar).

Here's what a radial head fracture looks like on a CT scan reconstruction (Note: this is not my arm, but my X-rays show a very similar fracture):

My orthopedist took a set of X-rays the week I broke it, and another set 3.5 weeks later. The bone was totally healed in that time. Many people are still wearing a cast, yet a month after breaking my arm I have near full mobility in the joint and a pretty decent amount of strength. Of course, I'm not testing that by doing anything too crazy (if you don't count a 1.5 mile lake swim as crazy, that is), but all in all the arm feels remarkably good. Last year's bone break did not heal near this easily, and I needed a lot of physical therapy to get to the point that I already feel I'm at now.

How many times have you heard "You are what you eat"? As it turns out, it's true. Feeling vibrant, full of energy, quick to recover, and easy to heal is our human heritage. The fact that most modern humans feel tired, wrung out, sick, or have to turn to the myriad drug offerings that litter our magazines, newspapers, and TV ads just to function says something about what's going on inside them.

If you needed that little extra nudge to try out the Paleo way of eating, or if you're wondering if all the changes you've been making really are reflected by changes deep down in your body, look no further. If a body can heal from big injuries so much more easily on a Paleo diet, what is happening at the micro level? What is happening with cell damage on a daily basis? What about the immune system? There's a reason that Paleo folks can jump out of bed feeling rested and full of energy day after day. What you eat matters, so why not feed your body the way it was meant to be fed?

The Scent of a Memory

I could smell the cable car before I even saw it. What does a cable car smell like, you might ask? Something like a forest fire, but not quite. The famous San Francisco cable cars use pine tar on their cables for lubrication, and when the grip is holding the cable, it melts and then vaporizes. Also, the brake shoes used on the cars are made of Douglas Fir, and have to be changed every few days. The brakes are literally smoking as they stop the cars on those amazing steep hills of The City By the Bay. The smell is unmistakeable. For several years of my young life, I lived in the Bay Area, and this unique aroma was obviously burned into my brain at an early age.

My teenage son looked at me quizzically when I said "I can smell a cable car", and then we heard the characteristic "ding ding" and the car rounded the corner. He was enjoying the newness of the city, but I was reveling in the familiarity of the sights and sounds. We didn't do too much touristy stuff while we were there (although the mandatory stop at Ghiradelli square wasn't missed). He wasn't interested in crowding onto the tourist-clogged cable cars, so we walked all over the place. From Fisherman's wharf to the Cable Car Museum, down through Chinatown, and then the following day through The Presidio and Golden Gate Park, with a long stop at the Legion of Honor (a wonderful art museum that's home to over 40 Rodin bronzes, a good selection of paintings, and ever-changing traveling exhibits).

I think a lot of tourists somehow pass over this museum since it was fairly empty, despite currently hosting The Lod Mosaic, an amazing 50 x 27 foot Roman mosaic from around 300 A.D.  Mackenzie is a big Roman history buff, so this was an exciting thing for him to see. Lucky for me, he likes art museums and suggested we visit the Legion for the Roman mosaic and their traveling exhibit on Dutch and Flemish painters.

Every year, he and I get a little mom-son trip together when my daughter Asa stays at my mom's house for a week of acting with the Missoula Children's Theatre. This year, she ended up as the lead role of Mary in their production of The Secret Garden, which she was, of course, terribly excited about. So we dropped her off with a big fat script to memorize, and a week of excitement with grandma (they got to see The Young Dubliners in concert, for one thing). In years past, we've gone camping but this year he wanted to do something different so it was off to California's central hub on a road trip. I guess I figure if a mom and her teenager can hang out together for a week long roadtrip, then we must be doing something right. Truth be told, he's an easy traveling companion and a fun guy to hang out with. Yep, I'm a lucky mom.

My Smell-O-Vision tour of my childhood followed me back to my hometown of Jacksonville, Oregon, where a nighttime thunderstorm and downpour scented the entire countryside. I took a trail run through the oaky hills near town and was overwhelmed by the heady scents revealed by the rainy evening. Unfortunately, there's one weed that grows there that smells something like funky teenage boy feet (not that I'd have much experience with THAT smell, ha ha). But except in those areas, the air was thick with the smells of oaks and lichens, wild honeysuckle and rabbitbrush. Every moment on the trail took me back to my childhood spent wandering through these hills on Pooh-like adventures with friends.

Then our weekend was capped off by watching Asa in the Secret Garden performance. They did a great job (not that I'm biased or anything), and the role of Mary was pretty well suited to her dramatic personality. Being on stage for her is like being in a lake for me. It's where she lives and breathes and shines, so I love to watch her and just soak it all in.

After all of that, it's good to be home again, although the rain seems to have followed me here. Maybe that's a good thing since I really should be spending the day cleaning and unpacking, something I'd find harder to do if the weather was better. I'm left with the memories of another great trip and of amazement at the people my kids are becoming.

It was hard to say goodbye to the Golden Gate. Driving across it and looking back always seems kind of bittersweet to me since I love San Francisco so much. But in reality, I'm a country mouse, not a city mouse, and it's nice to be away from the traffic and the hustle and bustle of the big city life. It's good to be home.

My Triumph Over the Worst Hotel Pool Ever

There are a lot of bad hotel pools out there. The competition is fierce, but folks I think we've found a winner in the San Jose Hilton at the Convention Center. Measuring in at just over 3 feet deep its entire length, with a width smaller than my armspan, and a length of about eight or so yards. Special features include a knee-busting concrete shelf that runs half of the length of the pool to teach anyone foolish enough to attempt a breaststroke or two a lesson. To enhance your swimming pleasure, the wall to the right blocks most of the sun through most of the day, so you can freeze in the shade instead of being refreshed.

Mackenzie and I are taking this week to toodle around central California, and included a stop-over in San Jose where we took in the Museum of Technology. We got to stay a night with hubby who was in town for business, hence the Convention Center hotel.

Most people, faced with the ridiculousness of this pool might've thrown up their hands in despair and given up, but not I. Since this is the one upper body exercise I can do with my arm, I'm loathe to give up so easily. I managed to eek out 1000 yards in this disgrace of a swimming pool, counting three lengths as one 25 yard length of a real pool. For those of you who are counting, that means I swam 120 lengths of this silly little body of water just to get my 1000 in. It's crazy-making, I tell you.

My point however, if I had one, is that we can let circumstances get us down, or we can soldier on. The people who are successful at maintaining fitness are the ones who get their workouts in regardless. They are the businessmen I saw in the tiny fitness center lifting weights, and the folks who take the morning walk regardless of the weather or the setting of an alarm. And yes, the ones who swim 120 lengths of an eight yard pool.

Tourism On Two (Running) Feet

The best thing about being a runner when you travel is that you get to go and see a city on your two feet as a non-tourist. In most places, a person jogging is fairly inconspicuous (although I've definitely been places where that was not the case, and in fact once when out on a jog in Palau, everyone who passed me kindly stopped and offered me a ride!). But most of the time if you head out on an early morning run, you see the city as it's waking up, kind of like seeing your spouse across the breakfast table. Nothing spiffed up or fancified, just the real sense of the place.

You can also reconnoiter any areas you might want to revisit later, or discover hidden gems. Once in Rome, I found this great little DaVinci museum tucked away in a courtyard entrance, and it had wonderful hands-on models of many of his inventions that my kids loved. On another trip, a Yorkshire morning yielded a rainbow that arched over the dales, flocks of sheep guided by anxious border collies and an older gentleman dressed head to foot in tweed.

This morning's jaunt from downtown San Jose originally took  me along a riverfront path, but construction detours forced me to head out into the city instead. I ran past the gorgeous Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph, and discovered the Museum of Technology before heading down to the UCSJ campus. Some times, its a little weird to be a woman out on my own running in a strange town, and this is where I'm grateful for some good situational awareness and a little martial arts training as well. Occasionally on traveling runs, I've ventured into areas of town that were better left unexplored, and once I even had a police officer kindly escort me to a better street in New Orleans. But in general, I've never felt particularly threatened when running, perhaps because I'm obviously carrying nothing of value, or maybe because I'm a moving target who looks like she can take care of herself. For me, it's worth it to be out there seeing the real side of any city, not just the parts that appear on a tourist map.

If you like to travel and want to run, I've found that the concierge or information desk at many hotels have running maps already printed up, or can give you good information on where to head for a pleasant route. Then all you need is to remember to stick your watch and shoes in your suitcase and you're off for an adventure. Personally, I also think it helps to enhance your navigation skills when you have to keep track of foreign landmarks and compass directions in an unfamiliar place, so it's a good workout for your brain as well as for your feet.

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Best of Times

What can I say? I am SO INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL TO BE LIVING RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.

I live in a beautiful place. We have gorgeous lakes, plentiful fresh water, surrounded by green forests and blue, smogless skies. I have good friends who are wonderful energetic incredible people. I have a body that mercifully works, even the parts that I break to pieces knit back together like the miracle that I am.

I swam a mile and a half this morning. Exactly one month after breaking my arm. What a blessing. What a blessed life I lead. I am so lucky, how can I help but be grateful? All through my swim, heavenly music played in my ears and I said thank you to God over and over and over.

And when it was all over, two of our swimmers who just got back from Germany had a veritable feast laid out. Meats and cheese and this stuff called Fig Mustard that let me tell you was AMAZING. And good dark German beer. Wow. Several of our long distance swimmers did 5.5 miles today, way to go guys!! Myself, I went home and took a nap in the hammock ;-)

Goodbye Nutella, I'll Do You One Betta...

My friend Julie posted this hilarious story about her missing Nutella the other day, and far be it from me to rain on anyone's Nutella parade. I mean, who of us doesn't remember the first time they tasted that chocolatey hazelnutty goodness and thought "OMG, Nutella, where have you been all my life?".But seriously, have you read the ingredient list? Hazelnuts are not the first ingredient, sugar is. Maybe they should call it "sugar spread" instead of "hazelnut spread". Then there's palm oil, and eventually you get to hazelnuts.

Now on the other hand, my little local market carries THIS stuff. One look at the label shows filberts as the first ingredient (that's what we folks around these parts call hazelnuts). You might not know this, but most of the hazelnuts in the U.S. are grown right here in my little neck of the woods. You might've thought that I was the Oregon State Nut but NO, it's the humble filbert. Every fall I run with my dogs through old filbert orchards gone to seed and glean bags and bags of the yummy little nuts.

This spread also boasts organic fair trade dark chocolate as its next ingredient, and moves on to sugar and cocoa butter as well as palm oil. But that's when things get really interesting. Our little dark chocolatey filbert-filled spread has wildcrafted betony on its ingredient list. An herb that's used as a liver tonic and headache cure, betony has a long and very interesting past. A common Roman proverb for someone troubled was “sell your coat and buy betony" and in medieval times you might wear it around your neck to ward off evil spirits. In France, this plant is called herbe du siege, from its roots having been eaten by the garrison of Rochelle during the siege in 1628.

On EatTheWeeds.com, you can read about Florida Betony, which apparently is a tuberous root that tastes something like Jicama. I wonder if the wildcrafted Oregon variety is similar, but there's no information on eating it specifically that I can find. I will have to ask my go-to guy for eating from the wild and see what he has to say about it. Nonetheless, it has found its way into this delicious alternative to the evil Nutella, and I'm not complaining.

On top of all of that, it's strawberry season here, and they're unusually sweet and lovely this year. We're putting up a couple of flats of luscious Benton strawberries, and I found that they go uncommonly well with the dark chocolate hazelnut spread for tempting local treat that's just right.

Traveling Paleo: Eating Well On the Road

Does this photo look familiar? Have you ever ended up at the "breakfast buffet" of a hotel you're staying at, only to stare at rack after rack of empty bleached white carbs? Eating well on the road is not always easy, but it can be done with a little planning and healthy decision-making.

We recently spent a week near Disneyland since our daughter Asa was dancing in the mouse kingdom with her dance team. The team families all stayed together in one hotel, and this is essentially what the breakfast looked like. Let me tell you, this stuff was so bad that my teenaged son actually took one bite of a donut and left the rest of it on the plate. Usually he eats so much we have to stop him from actually eating the plate ala the Cookie Monster.

Ironically, there was a sign over the only one section with anything that I would touch for breakfast at all. It had exactly this: hard boiled eggs and fresh oranges. The sign said "Healthy". At least they knew what they were talking about! Too bad there weren't a few more options under "Healthy" (the sign appealingly suggested a variety of fruit that never materialized), and maybe they should've had a sign over everything else that said "Massively Unhealthy".

Luckily, we were only a block away from my favorite breakfast stop while visiting Disneyland (yes, I admit we've gone there often enough that I have a favorite restaurant): Mimi's Cafe. Though it's not the cheapest food in town, for a couple bucks more than the sludgy McNasty Meals down the street, you get real eggs, veggies, avocado, and fruit. Those of you who live in the southern half of the U.S. may already be familiar with Mimi's, but since there's none located in the northern half, I'd never been to one before arriving at Disney for the first time. Getting Paleo-friendly fare there is as simple as saying "I'll take an Avocado BLT omelette, please substitute fresh fruit for the muffin, potatoes, and juice. And for dinner, they had some nice "petite" sized meals (read: normal portions instead of overblown American portions), and I had an awesome little sirloin and salad that was delish.

Eating well on the road often boils down to being unafraid to ask for substitutions. Restaurants notoriously fill up our plate with the most worthless (read: cheap) calories: bread, potatoes, rice, pasta. But usually for just a buck or two more (if that), you can substitute more vegetables, fruit, or a salad. This makes even an IHOP or a Denny's into a place that you can eat reasonably well. Sure, it's not a grass-fed free-ranging organic bonanza, but compared to one of these babies...

...it's downright health food.

Recovery and Some Inspiration

Asa drew me this little pic this morning, I think it sums up everything pretty well. The arm isn't fully healed, but overall I feel pretty great and I can do enough training now that I'm not going nuts.

I've been cleared to run, and I took my dog Sophie for a nice one hour jaunt on the Ridgeline trail this morning in the cool of the day. I can bike on my trainer, which is a good plan in the basement during the hot afternoons, and I can swim... well I can sort of limp along with a one-armed stroke, plus kicking and the dreaded aquajogging, but my SwiMP3 is keeping me company through the dull slogging swim workouts.

I even did my first karate workout yesterday, which consisted of doing kata so slowly that it felt more like Tai Chi, and I taught the Karate Conditioning class which was kettlebell swings, V-sits, jumping lunges, and a running loop - all of which I could do (kettlebells were one-armed, but still).

I'm still trying to fully process my decision to sign up for IM CdA in 2012, and what that will mean for my training in the coming 11.5 months. I think my kids are going to have to get used to waking up without me in the house, since this time the early morning workouts will prove crucial to fitting it all in.

One thing I love about the internet triathlon community is the incredible people out there. I don't always get as much time as I'd like to read through the blogs (and I keep meaning to update my blog roll) but when I can, I always find inspiration, community, advice, and support.

The posts that have really stuck in my mind and heart this week have been these:


Anton says "Everything I know about endurance sports I learned from Les Paul"
in this must-read post about what is REALLY important in endurance sports.

Marv shows us how to get it done, even if it's a hot hard 10 mile run, with Grace in his post "How Great Thou Art" (coincidentally, that's the hymn my mind goes to when I'm out running or biking in this amazing world we live in)

and IronMom Julie tells us about her Ironman Coeur d'Alene race day in the funniest and most inspiring Ironman race report around!

Oh No She Didn't! Or Did She?

I haven't posted about it at all, but there's been this internal debate raging inside my head for a month or more now. It's that little urge that starts like a tickle at the back of your brain when you're a triathlete. That little tickle whispers in your ear "I want to do an Ironman." Well, another Ironman, that is. And everyone who knows you that's not a triathlete has this mistaken notion that since you've done one Ironman, you've Done It. You know. You've Gotten It Out of Your System. Right? Riiigggghhhhhht.

So that tickle becomes a voice, becomes an insistent voice, becomes an internal debate, becomes something you casually mention to your spouse (who not so casually says something similar to "No F*cking Way!") and then you wheedle and beg and reason and cajole and if you're lucky they're supportive like my hubby or maybe have amnesia and don't remember everything it took last time to do this crazy thing and they say Yes. Whereupon you go to the computer at midnight with your heart in your mouth thinking "Do I really want to do this crazy-assed thing? Really?" And you register.

Which is how it will come to pass that I'll be standing on the shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene with 2500 of my best triathlon buddies on June 24 2012, ready to do Ironman CdA! Let the madness begin.

Getting It Over With

We've been back from Disneyland for a few days, and I keep thinking I should start my blog back up with some incredibly deep or witty or interesting observation after all this time away, but by the time it gets to the end of the day, I'm tired and I just go to sleep instead of being all deep and witty.

So I'm just going to say hi, I'm back, and leave it at that. It was good to get away while my arm was healing, because it kept me from going stir crazy and kept me from missing my workouts too awful much. We walked a million miles a day and had a blast at Disneyland as always. I saw my bone doc this week and he cleared me to run (hooray!) and bike on the trainer (hooray!) and said I couldn't swim until August (boo!) but I'm doing some one-armed swimming anyways because the weather is beautiful and I can't resist the call of the lap lanes.

That's it. Next post will be incredibly fascinating, I promise.