Greens w/ Peanut Butter

There's not much training happening, so that leaves more time for cooking! I'm heading towards the end of the Fall/Winter Doe Run Farm CSA but I've been enjoying copious amounts of greens, lettuce, winter squashes, and sweet potatoes over the last 6 weeks. So although I've missed documenting plenty of goodness, some is better than nothing.

For this recipe, I used 1 bunch of mustard greens plus half of a bunch of swiss chard. The mustards have a pretty strong bite raw but are balanced nicely with the peanut butter and raisins.

Ingredients:

1-2 bunches greens, roughly chopped (mustard or collards work best)

1 onion, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2 T EVOO

1/4 tsp ground corriander

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp salt

2-3 T peanut butter

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup water

Method:

In a large saute pan, add EVOO and bring to medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute for 5 min until almost translucent. Add the garlic and saute for another minute. Add corriander, cumin, cloves, salt, and greens. Add water and mix everything together, cooking the greens. After a minute or two the greens should begin to wilt. Add peanut butter and rasins and mix to loosen peanut butter. Remove from heat and continue mixing so that peanut butter is evenly distributed. Enjoy!

Nov22-28

S: 12,600 yds

B: 3h 50min

R: 2h 49min

Total: 9h 58min

I did work out a bit last week, although it certainly didnt classify as training. I swam some, mainly to test out some developmental equipment, I biked some because it was really nice outside, and I ran a few days in the morning to get over hangovers. So needless to say, it was nice to workout if I wanted to (or not) and not worry about power, pace, etc. I do believe the modest activity and largely liquid diet has helped me stave off the dreaded winter weight gain.

Of course more importantly last weekend was Thanksgiving, and if you dont enjoy that holiday, well, you're probably not American. (Incidentally, since we have readers from all over the world, I mean that literally and figuratively.) The one benefit of the lateness of Clearwater is that the Thanksgiving weekend conveniently falls smack dab in the middle of the offseason. So last weekend rather than worrying about working out, I played some golf, watched football on TV, watched football in person, ate a lot of food, drank some (ie a lot) of beer, hung out with some old friends, and enjoyed some family time. So basically all the things "normal" people do!

Hope everyone had a great a Thanksgiving!

Applying the Rules for Zombieland, 70.3 World Championships RR

SWIM (25:25)


Rule 6: Travel in a group
BOOM!!! Goes the cannon, and we were off the beach and sprinting into the Gulf of Mexico. As soon as we started swimming, it was apparent that zombies were out in the ocean, as the Gulf's usually serene waters were replaced by a zombie generated wave pool. I tripped a bit on the run in which left me to play catch up early, requiring a really hard effort for the first 400m or so. Eventually I found a group and just hoped we weren't too far back from the leaders. The conditions made it difficult to determine how many people were "up the water", but I was swimming hard and in no place to escape our decent sized group.

Exiting the water, I recognized a couple of faces and heard a couple more names of guys coming out behind me, so I was pretty happy to have escaped water zombies in relatively good position. My focus immediately turned to T1, which I knew would be crucial.

BIKE (2:14:31)


Rule 17: Dont be a hero
Out onto the bike and what do you know... more zombies, this time in the form of a stiff wind out of the East. After the first few minutes, I was grouped with a few others when we made a turn onto a longish straight road heading east towards the main out and back section of the course. Up the road I could see another largish group and my first instinct was to chase. However, my Zombieland training kicked in and I reconsidered. Dont be a hero. Due to the straight road, the pack was likely further than they looked. Additionally, I was already riding moderately hard at the back of our little group and we were heading into a headwind. Passing the group and then chasing the others down would've been a sure ticket to zombie cannibalization, especially at the beginning of the 56 mile ride.

Rule 8: Kill with Efficiency
With that key tactical decision out of the way, I focused on staying with my friends and keeping the pace honest. This was especially challenging with the course traversing primarily north and south, leaving us with a day full of zombie crosswinds. Thankfully my Shimano C75 wheel was more than up to the task, annihilating wind zombies left and right.

RUN (1:15:48)

Rule 22: Be Ruthless
Coming to the end of the ride, my leg/butt was feeling really tight so I was looking forward to getting off the bike. After gaffed transitions last year, I was really focused on good transitions this year. Towards the end of the ride I moved to the front of the group, jumped off my bike, grabbed my bag, threw on my shoes, and headed out on the run in no time. At this point, it was time to Be Ruthless. I had been waiting to attack, and now was the time to go in for the kill-shot. I took off out of T2 and after a minute of stumbling, found my stride. First mile: 5:36. The early mission of zapping my biking companions was effective. Now: to pick up some more scalps. I notched a couple more on the first lap but as I headed for the turnaround to start lap 2, I realized there was only open real estate in front of me.

Rule 32: Enjoy the Little Things
At this point, with my place more or less set, I focused on keeping my turnover up and enjoying the day. I made it over that stupid bridge for the last time and cruised in, soaking up the crowd support from awesome Timex teammates, friends, family, and the plethora of others who were out cheering.

TOTAL: 3:59:20, 25th Overall, 7th American

Rule 1: Cardio.
In the end, it still all comes down to fitness. You can make the correct tactical decisions during a race, but if you dont have the fitness to execute them, they are useless.

Nov1-7

S: 29,400yds
B: 6h 36min
R: 2h 15min

Total: 16h 36min

Well... the time has come! Clearwater is ON this Saturday and not a moment too soon. DST is over, the temps have dropped, and I'm ready to rock and roll! Well, mostly anyway. The last 6 weeks or so of training have gone really well except for an achilles flair-up which has been bothering me the last week or so. I've had to miss a few runs, but hopefully it will hold up for the race. After all, its only 13 miles, right?

Oct25-31

S: 26,500 yds
B: 11h 8min
R: 3h 30min

Total: 21h 36min

October is in the books! And not a moment too soon. Not that I have anything particularly against the month itself, but it just happened to include the final push towards Clearwater, which involved some thoroughly entertaining high intensity/high mileage weeks. Therefore I'm more than happy to welcome November which happens to coincide with the start of the taper.

After a very solid month of training, the final week was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand I had an awesome ride + run on Saturday with a very strong last 1.5h and controlled run at race pace off the bike. On the other hand, my achilles has been giving me some issues and forced me to skip the track workout last week. Also not fun was spending Wednesday night in the Atlanta airport.