Update: T-minus 1 Month to the Houston Marathon

Well things have been a bit crazy around here, out of town almost every weekend or with visitors! With more holidays coming up it isn't likely to calm down for a few weeks, but I will get some much wanted R&R and get to ride around my old stomping grounds in Denver followed by a ski trip in Tahoe.

I am about a month away from my first big race of the season, the Houston Marathon. Two weeks later I will be running the Surfside Marathon, which is ran down the beach and will present different types of challenges. Registration is still open for the Surfside race, and if you register by January 2nd you'll get a personalized race bib!

Due to the quick turnaround for the races I will be focusing more on time in the Houston Marathon than in the Surfside race. This will be my first time running a marathon outside of Ironman races so I am still trying to figure out my pacing strategy. At this point I have ran 18 miles at an 845 pace, so I am planning on starting at 9 min/miles and going from there. I have one more long run (going for 20) before the race then I will begin my taper. I still haven't decided how I am going to do this since it overlaps with the start of my Ironman Training for May. I am very excited for my first race as a member of Big Sexy Racing, even though it isn't a triathlon. 




I have recently made the jump to Newton shoes and will be racing in those. I bought a pair at the Las Vegas Ironman 70.3 World Championships and have ran on them ever since. After talking with the representatives at the booth, they helped me pick out the Newton's Distance U's a half size smaller than I typically run in. I'll admit the transition was hard, I had been off my feet for four weeks after Vegas with a partially torn Achilles and they induce a much different gait than most of us run naturally. My calves were very sore the first two weeks, where it's recommended you don't run over three miles until you are comfortable, but after that I started to see some marked improvements. I no longer have the hip, knee and ankle pain I used to experience and I can tell I am using more of the muscles in my legs than before. Overall I am running faster than I used to. I won't be needing a new pair for two months or so but am considering the Newton Ironman Elite they released this year.





I will keep you updated with a race review once it happens!



Recipe of the Week: Easy Peasy Hummus
Hummus is easy to make and easily modified to your preferred taste. As a good source of healthy fats and carbs, it's a great afternoon snack when you want to bridge the gap between your lunch and afternoon workout. 

It can be paired with fruits, veggies or pita bread to keep the variety up through the week!



What you need:

• 4 cups of canned garbanzo beans, drained but keep the juice
• 2/3 cups Tahini (Sesame seed paste, you'll find it in a can in the asian food section)
• Lemons for juice
• 2 tsp salt
• 1.5 tbls Olive oil
• 4 Garlic cloves, halved
• Paprika and parsley to taste
• Extras: you can add in almost anything, I've used bell peppers, spicy peppers, spinach, cilantro etc... If you use something like a pepper it can change the consistency but this can be balanced out by adding the juice from the beans in small quantities. 

What you need to do:

Depending on your blender or food processors capability, chop the garlic and extra add ins to the needed size. Toss everything but the olive oil, paprika and parsley in and blend to your hearts content. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkling of paprika and parsley. 

Because I typically make this on Sunday and bring it to the office throughout the week, I add the paprika and parsley in during the blending stage. 

Update: Getting Back in the Swing of Things

Back to work today, it's always hard to get up and going after taking any significant amount of time off. I always try to workout every day while on a trip (other than Mondays, Monday's are rest days and the rest day is sacred) but it's one thing to workout when you have leisure plans the rest of the day, versus working around the 40 hour work week.

The best advice I can give is to get back at it and into a standard schedule as soon as you can, my flight did cut my long run on Saturday somewhat short but I did get out there to do it regardless. It might have been for the best as I ran all last week anyway so it was good to give the ankles a rest. Workouts will probably feel harder and a bit slower this week due to the rest, so it's OK to ease back into it. A week of easier work is hardly anything and you'll bounce back quickly and newly refreshed!

Got my cute face on. 

I did do a Turkey Trot 10k while I was away, and while my Age Group placing was 6th (4 down from last year) I did do a significantly faster time and PR'd at 50:23 so I am overall happy with the results. The Magnuson course is also really fun because it has a lot of terrain changes. 

I always have trouble pacing 10ks, because I want to go as hard as I would in a 5k but can't and somehow my 10k pace is only 30 seconds faster than my half-marathon pace. I hope to start racing some Olympic races this year along side my full and half distances, so this is a good bench mark.



Recipe of the Week: Stuffed Bell Peppers

A bit of a warmer recipe for the cooler months, this recipe include quinoa, cottage cheese and chicken so it is tasty and packed with protein!


What you'll need:

Yum!

• 1 lb diced chicken
• 5 bell peppers ( I prefer red, but they looked a bit wonky at the store so green it is!)
• 1 cup coked quinoa
• 1/3 cup of cottage cheese (don't go for the fat free, they just add sugar)
• 2 handfuls chopped spinach
• 15 chopped up cherry tomatoes
• 1 onion diced
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

What you need to do:

• Preheat the oven to 400F
• In a deep skillet, saute the diced onion and garlic in the olive until soft. Add chicken and salt and pepper to taste. Heat until chicken is mostly done.
• Remove from heat, add quinoa, cottage cheese, spinach and tomatoes. 
• Cut the tops off the bell peppers and gut the innards, a quick rinse will get rid of the seeds. Fill the peppers with the mix.
• Place in a cake pan and cover with aluminum foil and cook for 20 minutes. Remove foil and broil for an additional 5 minutes to make the tops crispy.

Workout of the week: Practicing for open water in the pool

When I started in triathlon, I was deathly afraid of the swim. I was a weak swimmer to say the least and adding a crowd of people and taking away the lanes wasn't bound to help.

Unfortunately the best solution to swim start anxiety is practice practice practice, never make your first race of the season your A race and if you get a chance to swim with a group outside.

It is surprisingly difficult to swim in a straight line in the open water, in the pool you have lane lines and guides to keep you on course. Unfortunately in the open water you just have the wild blue yonder. Practice swimming in the pool with your eyes closed and see which direction you drift, most people tend to be stronger on one side than the other and it pushes them off course. Once you find which side this is, one armed stroke drill can be done to even it out. 

When you get yourself swimming in as straight a line you can, it's time to practice sighting. Sighting allows you to look up occasionally without interrupting your stroke and redirect as needed. Either pick a landmark in the pool (such as the diving platforms) or set up a kick board at the end of the lane to sight off of. Keep your eyes closed when your face is in the water and every eighth stroke or so push up slightly with the arm going into the water and bring your head up to catch a quick glimpse at the target. The more you do this, the more natural it will feel and you'll find a sighting position that works best for you. 

That's it for this week! Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments on things you want to see!

Weekly Update: Gobble Gobble Edition

I'm positing a few days early, I'll be visiting the west coast all week!

Holidays are a weirdly stressful thing for many serious athletes. I love the time off work, and traveling and seeing family but I always feel like I am throwing my workout and diet plan way off track. I am limited to running and the odd swim workouts and I end up eating poorly because we tend to eat out more often. So how are triathletes supposed to handle this break from the routine?

Typically vacation means relaxing, catching up on sleep and having fun with family, and we should do the same. Rest should be an integrated and critical part to any athlete's training plan, and variety is refreshing. No significant impact is seen in muscular strength or VO2 max for approximately a week, so while many triathletes feel guilty for missing a workout, a workout here and a workout there will not be the end of your race. 

Tips to surviving the holiday (as far as training goes anyway):

• Relax! If you stress about training the whole holiday you will miss out on all the benefits of recovery.
• Plan ahead, if you're traveling you'll likely be limited to running and a few swims so map out a few routes and find a lap pool near by. If there is no lap pool, a swimming leash is a viable alternative.
• Workout in the morning. Family and friends will likely not be planning any early morning activities so it's a great way to avoid conflicts between working out and family activities. It also will leave you refreshed and awake for the rest of the day and you will not be worried about completing a workout later.
• Sign up for a turkey trot! Most towns have a 5k/10k race on thanksgiving day and it can give you a small goal for the week and justify at least some of the turkey dinner face stuffing. This also can be a family activity with some people running and others walking. 
• When you do eat out try to order a healthy meal, but not if its in lieu of something on the menu you actually really want. Healthy eating is important, but if you let it control your life to the point you don't enjoy your meals you won't be able to keep it up. Sometimes cheat days are ok.
• If you miss a day working out, don't stress about it! You will survive and live to fight another day.

Now go forth and enjoy your vacation!

Recipe of the week: Leftover Turkey Salad

A great way to use thanksgiving day leftovers and by substituting Greek yogurt where mayo would typically be used increases the amount of protein and decreases the saturated fats. The yogurt is a bit tart, so go crazy with the grapes if you want!

What you'll need: 

• 3 1/2 cups diced turkey
• 1 6oz plain greek yogurt
• A handful of dried cranberries (to taste)
• A handful of halved grapes (to taste)
• 1 cup diced celery
• Pepper to taste

Toss it all in a bowl and mix it together. Really complicated I know, but you've this.

Delicious sandwich filling for the upcoming week!

Workout of the week:

Thanksgiving 5k/10k!

Races, even small, local and unsanctioned races can bring out your competitive side. That's the side that arguably makes us awful people, but also better at sports! (I think I just realized why my girlfriend didn't want to do a relay race with me...)

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! 

Kicking Off the New Season

Hello all!

Many friends recommended I start up a blog and a few months ago I made the web address.... then I stopped there.

Recently, I was very excited to learn of my acceptance to Big Sexy Racing triathlon team with Chris McDonald at the helm and figured this was as good a time as any to get the blog started.

I am recent convert to triathlon, having gotten my start in cycling races at 15 in Denver, CO. My cycling career resulted in several state championships as well as a couple conference championship wins once I reached the collegiate level.
My first inkling of interest in Ironman length triathlons came during a road trip with my college friends. We listened to podcasts to pass the time and happened upon Limits, discussing the limits of the human body and mind. The first segment of the show documents Julie Moss's journey to becoming an Ironman, and I knew just had to find that limit. 
My move to the Gulf Coast of Texas was the final push into the sport, with such a strong triathlon community, making the leap was easy and encouraged. 

My first year in triathlon included three half Ironman races and one full Ironman. I managed to qualify for the Las Vegas 70.3 World Championships by winning age group at Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3. Placing second in my age group at Ironman Texas gives me hope to qualify for Kona this coming season and I'll put everything I have into it. 

Over and out!- Lydia