Week in Review: 10/10/2013

Hello All!

Well it has been an exciting week on the Gulf Coast. I am over the top excited to join my new team, Big Sexy Racing and have already been hearing from many of my new team members. The official announcement of the 2014 team should be coming this week and it is exciting to see triathletes from all over the world joined on one team!

As my first week in review post, I am going to try a few things and see how it works. I am hoping to keep up with a healthy recipe of the week, best workout of the week and maybe a few other notes so here goes:

My Favorite Workout of the Week: 20/20s on the Bike
20 minute intervals are always a good standby for endurance athletes and I typically do them when I am time crunched and trying to pack a good workout into an 80 minute time slot. They help increase an athletes lactate threshold (power output before everything really starts to hurt) by teaching the body to metabolize the lactate faster. It also allows for a fast, but effective trainer workout.

*efforts are based off of a functional power threshold (FTP), the maximum effort that a person can hold for an hour at a time. If not using a power meter, these efforts can be approximated through feel and heart rate.

10 min Warm Up at an easy pace
5x (30 second sprint, 30 second rest)
5 min Rest 
20 min at 85-95% FTP
10 min Rest
20 min at 85-95% FTP
10 min Cool Down 

Total Time: 80 Minutes

As an example, my workout power plot is below: 

If trying to replicate without a power meter think of the 30 second efforts as a 9-10 out of a scale of 10, and the 20 minute efforts as a 7-8. You want to be tired at the end of the first interval, but not so tired you can't complete the workout. 

Recipe of the Week: Quinoa with Cranberries and Cashews

I'll admit it, I had to Google a picture because I got distracted and ate the dinner before I had a chance to take my own!

This is a very easy recipe and easy to make in bulk if you want to pack up the leftovers for lunch. The quantities below make about 5 meals worth (at least for me!). It is a bit of a spring time dish, but it was 80deg here today, so I feel like it's still acceptable.

• 1.5 Cups Dry Quinoa
• 3 Cups Chicken Broth
• Three Diced Shallots
• 3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 5oz Package dried cranberries
• 1 cup Cashews (chopped to preferred size)
• Fresh Mint, chopped
• 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• Pepper to Taste

Step 1: Saute the diced shallots in 1 tbsp of the olive oil until tender. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add quinoa and cook until most of the chicken broth is gone.

Step 2. Add cranberries, cashews and mint and mix together.

Step 3. In a small bowl whisk together remaining olive oil, lemon juice and pepper. Once combined mix in with the quinoa. Dish is good warm or cold!

With that I'll head out for the week and see how this does! 

I am new at this so appreciate any advice you'd like to leave in the comment section!

Have a lovely week and ride on!