Bike Rides, Le Tour and New Bars

The holiday weekend has been filled with lots of fun bike rides through new spots in and around Richmond and lots of time watching the Tour.  Saturday morning we rode on the east end through town on a course that began at fellow Guppy Bryan's house.  12 of us rolled through the beautiful countryside of New Kent and Mechanicsville.  My goal for this ride was to throw out the power meter and HR monitor and just ride for fun... push it when I wanted to and spin when I didn't.  My ride was much improved from the weekend before.  I actually had some legs but still need to do quite a bit of hill work.   Most importantly, it was the most fun I had on the bike in some time and reminded me how much I love to just ride.  After the ride, it was pancakes courtesy of Bryan and Nikki.  I brought my GF mix and the fresh blueberries that his kids picked the day before made our post ride fuel perfect.  

Chef Bryan

Part of the hungry crew...

On the way home, we stopped at a local farmers market and loaded up with lots of local fresh veggies to get us through the next few days.  The Hanover tomatoes are the best!

Today, we headed out again, joined by much of the same group and a guest appearance by the the sponsored rider and his wife.  Today's ride started south of the river and headed west through Powhatan and Goochland.  Although allegedly a "recovery" ride on the bike, the pace was not recovery pace and the terrain out west seemed on a gradual climb.  I worked hard on the way out, but managed to keep a wheel, thanks in part to Bart's domestique skills to bring me back to the group when I did get separated.   After the store stop in Maidens, we crossed over the James and headed back east on River, before the sponsored athlete took us back across the river via the prison.  Yes, you read that right, the prison.  The prison owns a beautiful piece of property that borders both sides of the James.  So we used their cut through route to get back on the south side.  Despite being faster paced than I had anticipated, it was still a great ride, a fun time with friends, and I was pleasantly pleased with what I had in my legs.

Other than bike rides of our own, we've been watching the Tour.  I love this time of year.  There is nothing better than getting to be able to watch hours of cycling through the amazing French (and surrounding country) countrysides.  I must confess I become a bit of a Tour addict.  This year is even more fun having met some of the Cervelo Test Team guys at the Tour of California.

And finally. . . week one of my eating plan has gone fairly well.  Lots of big salads for lunch, fish for dinner and even some new protein shakes.  My stomach felt great when I stuck with that diet and slightly less so when I diverged with some grass fed beef and wine on Friday night and some 4th of July barbeque on Sunday.  So today, it was back to cleaner eating.

I also made some homemade recovery bars/balls this weekend that were extremely yummy.  Based on a recipe posted by Bree Wee, they had dates, coconut, walnuts, lime juice and cranberries.  Mix everything in the food processor, roll into balls and bake at 350 for 7 minutes.  Will make a great mid-day snack or pre-morning workout bite to eat.

Hope everyone had a great Fourth!

An Experiment in Eating

For those of you who know me, you know that food and my body are not always friends.  While I love to eat, cook and think about food, food and my digestive system don't always agree.  For the last 2 1/2 years, I've made significant strides in improving this relationship with the help of a fabulous nutritionist and friend, Tina Shiver.   She thankfully diagnosed my wheat and gluten intolerance and that in itself has changed my life dramatically.  But we continue to try and fine tune my diet, not only to allow me to get to a healthy "race weight" but predominantly to get my system back to "normal" and healthy functioning.

Recently, I been reading up on endurance athletes and other high level athletes who switch from a normal diet to a plant based diet -- i.e. a vegan diet.  Hillary Biscay,  Rich Roll,  Brendan Brazier, Martina Navratilova and Carl Lewis to name a few.  All espouse to have found new energy and fitness with a plant based diet.  Coupled with this, I just finished reading Omnivore's Dilemma.  If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it!  Pollen doesn't draw conclusions for you but explores the food industry in a very straightforward, openminded way.   And, I suppose the third factor may be that despite my already fairly restricted diet, my stomach and energy levels haven't been great.

So, I've decided to do a little experiment in eating.  My goal for now is to gradually begin to switch my diet to a predominantly plant based diet.  What does that mean?  It means that fish -- wild caught and local to the extent possible- or the occasional pastured, grass-fed lean meat -- will be the source of protein for only one of my meals during the day.   And, if I don't know where it is from or how it was raised, I'll stick to plants.  For my other meals, it will be veggies, fruit, beans, nuts and non-gluten grains.   Lunch in particular is a big green leafy salad with lots of veggies and beans.  Milk products are out for now too -- they've been causing havoc lately for me anyway.   Smoothies (with rice/hemp protein powder) will likely also be a standard staple.

I'm curious to see how I feel and how my body reacts to these changes.  In the meantime, I'll be trying lots of new recipes and spending more time at our local farmer's market.    Last night was sea bass fish tacos (baked sea bass wrapped in cabbage leaves with homemade guac, salsa) and quinoa.   Yummy!

One week away

My "A" race for the season, Eagleman, is one week away and needless to say my thoughts are all over the place going into this race.   Despite a winter focus on the bike and tons of progress in January and February, I feel like my bike has gone backwards each month since April.  Very few rides have felt strong and on most, I've struggled to make my power goals.  Yet some day's I've seen a glimmer of hope -- a strong ride in the mountains at Wintergreen, a great double brick the other week.   My run, for the most part, has been decent and certainly looking like the most promising for improvement.   My demon for the run however will certainly be the heat and humidity that arrived a few weeks ago and hasn't left since.  While I've tried to make the heat my friend and workout in the hot temperatures to acclimate, my body's reaction to it certainly isn't consistent and definitely not welcoming.  

With one week left, what training is done, is done and now I need to continue to work on the mental part.  My goals for next Sunday are within my grasp if I lay it out there and believe.   Time to focus