T-Minus 15ish Hours

Notice Mr. No. 1 above me? Nice. Also, is Jon Prasuhn the same as Jay Prasuhn of Triathlete Magazine? Hm. Well, we P's rock :)

I'm counting down the hours! As expected, this week has been whack. Everything feels "off" from my normal routine and it's driving me nuts. Plus, my sleeping is all weird - I've been getting enough of it, but in abnormal hours. I've also been having the craziest food cravings, while stuff I normally love eating is grossing me out. Weird.

My workouts the last several days have been generally shorter and easier with some intensity mixed in -- how could I not go all out riding with the Zipps for the first time; man I love those things!! This morning I got in my last easy 30 minutes on the bike. During my ride, I was thinking about the day I signed up for Oceanside. It was late September, and I was still at my old job. I was kind of in a funk then. Out of shape coming off the knee surgery, recently turned single, not liking my job so much... and I was ready for a new challenge! I signed up during work; must have been an exciting day at the office.

Headed out for the last pre-IMCA ride

Now with the race merely hours away, I'm so happy I signed up for this. I'm excited, nervous... every emotion! I've been imaging race morning in my head, and one thing I was planning on doing was getting a solid warm-up swim in. Well, that's clearly not going to happen! There's no warming up in the Harbor before the race. Automatic DQ. Period. We get in the water about 3 minutes before our wave goes off, that's it. Gnarly. I'm at least glad the swim is marked every 100 meters, I need that!!

A peak at the swim

At race check in, the weather was pretty nice. A tad on the windy side, but that's all - plenty of sun, no rain. Hopefully the sunshine sticks. I've been warned about the wind during this race, so that's no surprise. Plus, I've gotten in plenty of training rides in the good ol' Santa Anas.

Anyways, everyone keeps asking, "Are you ready?" "What's your goal time?" Being that this is my first half-Ironman, who knows! I've been dedicated to my training, so we'll see what happens. I honestly don't have a goal time. I'll set more specific goals and put more pressure on myself in future races, once I have some of these longer races under my belt. This is a test run. However, that's not to say I'm not feeling the pressure -- I'm a competitive chick, and I have some gnarly butterflies right now. I want to do well, of course, it's in my nature.

OK, now it's time to go pack up the gear, eat, label things, eat more, check the bike, eat, chill out, eat more, watch TV, eat more, rest. Ya know, typical day-before-the-race routine. Bright and early tomorrow! Well, it won't be so bright...we're leaving my house at 4 a.m. Ha ha.

It's all about getting here . Ahhhh!

Always on the Run

I feel like the energizer bunny on crack with how my life's been lately and with everything that's coming up. Tri season is here! IMCA is less than 10 days away (geez!), and I'm scrambling to make sure I'm totally prepared. One thing I had to do is update the tri wardrobe -- I've literally worn the same outfit in every race I've ever done. So I got a new (and super discounted) Orca suit from this great OC store: Tribuys. Check them out! (There I am at San Onofre testing out my new trisuit.) As for trianing, I officially started taper mode this week and am enjoying it! These last several weeks, I've really been pushing my body hard, and I've responded surprisingly well. I'm definitely noticing some increases in my fitness level. I wish I had another month to work at a higher level before IMCA, but no biggie. It is what it is....

This weekend I'm going down to San Diego (of course, right?) to watch my mom do Superseal, her first Olympic triathlon. I'm so excited to root her on and get a mini vaca on Coronado. Hopefully I'll see some familiar faces at the race!! I'd also like to point out this will be my mom's first race NOT riding her mountain bike. She's riding my Trek road bike, and given her past performances on a mtn bike, those 50-54 year-olds better watch out on Sunday :)

Next week I might go a little insane. It's my spring break at CSU Fullerton, but instead of a beer-drinking, bikini-wearing, Mexico-bound week (been there, done that, over it), I'll be taking it easy, tapering and trying not to stress about Saturday. For once, I might have too much free time: no school and essentially no major workouts! What will I do?? Well, I still have class (and an exam) at the community college. Otherwise, I'll have to channel all that ADD-ness into something productive. In the meantime, I'm being extra careful to stay healthy, well-rested and not have a stupid accident, like chop of my finger while making dinner because I was daydreaming about biking though Pendleton.

I'm starting to realize how selfish the triathlon lifestyle can be. So me! me! me! Except for one thing: Sunday is my birthday, and it hasn't even been on my radar. Not even important to me at all right now. The only significance: this is my last year in the 20-24 age group..... I don't even know what to think about that!

Sydney Scores!

So I've been feeling bad about not taking Syd on a run since my recent blog. I had a 90-min bike and T-Run scheduled today, and during transition, poor Sydney was home all alone practically jumping in my arms wanting to play/exercise. Border Collies have effective ways to communicate their need to burn off energy; "no" is not an option. So, I gave in, deciding to take her on my run. As soon as I said those magic words, "you wanna go bye-bye?" she was howling (really) and jumping all around ...but first... I demanded that she go poop! (Something about running gets her "engines revving" and she always poops, forcing me to haul a blue bag of crap. Ew.) Sometimes she'll poop on demand pre-run -- quite a talent! -- but not today. I was denied. The most I got out of her was a little pee, and I wanted to get goin, so I grabbed a blue bag and hoped for the best.

How can you say no to this?

Happy dog

The run went great, Sydney's such an obedient dog. And best of all, she didn't go poop! I wonder if she can hang on my LSD runs. Hmmm.

Oh yea, today was my last day of PT; I got the OK to run to my heart's desire (with caution)! Last week I totaled about 30 miles of running, so I think I've been doing that already :)

Thirsty dog!!

Memory Lane

I'm sure some of you SDers did the St. Patty's Day run Saturday. I didn't make it down this year, but I was thinking of when I ran it in 2007! Instead of the 10K this year, I did a 62-mile bike and 40-min T-run. Whew.

See me in the starting line (and my mom standing next to me)? I drank lots of green beer that day. It started with the post-race beer garden, continued in PB and ended...?

P.E. Time ...and Cute Dog Pics

This may sound crazy, but I never run on a track for my training. Ever. I've had this preconceived notion that it must be so boring just to run in circles. (Kind of like how I used to perceive swimming laps.) It'd probably help if others were running with me, but the OC Tri Club's track workouts don't work with my schedule and I haven't researched when other nearby OCers run on tracks. So, basically, I stick to the roads, and do farlek and tempo runs for my higher intensity days. The Garmin 405 keeps me in tune with distance and I can get in more hills that way too.

But Thursday I decided to give track a chance. I ran over to my alma mater, El Toro High School, and it turned out to be a great experience. I'm all for track workouts now! First off, since I graduated, the school's put in a deluxe track, so that right there made me feel pro. Ha. For real though, being in a controlled area really let me test my limits and push my running. I had a hefty load of HIIT, and I was working in a high HR zone (80%-94% of my max) for a good portion of the session. I was worked by the end, but stoked. Having a structured run workout like that made the time fly by. Also, my ankle is feeling great! No pain (knock on wood) at all!! I must credit my awesome PT crew at Aliso Creek Physical Therapy. We have this running joke that I keep getting injured just so I can hang out with them... the ankle deal is the third issue in the last year-ish that's had me there on a regular basis.

While I was running, they were doing what?!

There was something else going on during my run that was depressing as hell: 6th period P.E. Yup, those kids who don't play sports, the ones who have to dress out and get "physical." Physical? Riiiiight. It's depressing to see the state of physical education today.

The thing that made me the most angry is that the P.E. teacher was threatening the kids with having to run around the track if they didn't follow directions. Since when is running a punishment? I understand that not everyone likes running (I know I don't sometimes), but we shouldn't condition people to associate running with bad behavior. No wonder America has a problem!! He should have used the threat that the kids would have to go back to the locker room if they didn't participate; not being able to play the sport would be the bigger punishment in my opinion.

Watching the kids get active was pretty much a joke too. The class broke off into guys and girls. Wait, guys and girls can't even participate in the same activity anymore? Too risky? Geez. The guys did flag football while the girls were playing some softball-like game with a handball. Huh? Some of the guys were getting into the game, which was nice to see. However, most of the girls were sitting on the ground talking about their finger nails or weekend plans for all I know--not too much physical activity! Yet, none were "punished" with having to run. One of the girls asked me what lap I was on as I passed her clique, and I said "not sure." I heard them giggling as I moved on. To think that I was the "oddball" for being so active out there is sad. Then maybe after being on the field for 15 minutes, they picked up and left. The worst example of P.E. imaginable. I hope one day that changes.

Here's what I did:

Track Workout
20 min. warmup (run to the track)
6-8x accels
1200/800/600/300 @ 10k pace/hard effort w/ 200 recovery between
800/600/400 @ 10k pace or harder w/ 400 recoveries
600/400 @5k pace/very hard w/ 400 recoveries
25 min. moderate run/cool down

After my workout, it was time to mess with my dog, Sydney. She's such a trooper for letting me do this. I must have been a little crazed from my run. Ha ha. You gotta love Border Collies, they're so smart, not to mention she has endless energy and can run run run! She's in the perfect family. Unfortunately (for her) I don't take her on runs with me anymore because she poops all the time, and running with a bag of poop isn't very fun.

Here's Sydney asking to be fed. When we eat, she eats. Well, not every time--if she ate every time I did, she'd be a fatty. But she's hilarious, she'll sit there and tap her bowl until we fill it. She has my family so whipped!

My Greens & My Weakest Link

I can't stand wheatgrass shots. I despise the smell of fresh cut grass (gag!) and that's what I associate wheatgrass with. Yuk. So when a friend of mine introduced me to Greens Plus, I was like, "Can I just puke on you now and save you your green-crap?" But he, and "research," insisted this powder substance is a major superfood. And I like healthy things. A lot. So, I sucked it up and tried it mixed with water. Ew, did I make a bitter face. Tasted like freakin wheatgrass! So, what did I do? I bought myself I tub. (Sometimes I question my logic.) I honestly tried to like it for nutrition's sake, but it wasn't happening so on my vitamin shelf it sat. Last weekend, after hearing the spiel on Juice Plus, I recalled the Greens+ that cost me like $30 something. That's a lot of money in my world just to go to waste, so I decided to give it another try before it expired. And I found the answer: smoothie! I just loaded a ton of crap in our Magic Bullet Blender--yogurt, fruit, ice--and wow! It tasted pretty damn good. Now I'm gettin my greens, maybe it will make me faster. I could use some help :) And on that note.....

Weakest Link

Sometimes I go through the motions of training without really letting it sink in. Don't get me wrong, I watch my times, paces, heart rate, speed, etc., like a hawk and get home and log it all, but sometimes I forget to look at the bigger picture: my progress over time. This is, after all, about improving and getting faster, right?

Point is, my weakest link was brutally clear to me this morning: I suck at swimming! I felt like an anchor. It's so frustrating. It gets even more frustrating when I swim with someone who "never swims" and they kick my ass.


But, putting in perspective: I've really only been swimming since September '08; my "swimming" before that consisted of half-ass, technique-less, 1000-yd-max, lane-splashing at 24 Hour Fitness or the Arc at SDSU. (The first time I got in a pool to swim and not just float around was Feb. 2007.) I did enough to squeak by in triathlons, but definitely not enough to improve.


So last September I went outside my comfort zone and joined a 6 a.m. class. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made, thanks to my excellent coach. I went from not knowing what 15x50 @ 1:00 even meant and having no clue how to flip-turn to feeling what it's actually like to "sweat" in the pool... and be in it for more than 30 min. I've come a long way, my coach points that out to me, but now I'm itching to get to that next level and it's just not coming.

I swim 5,000-8,000 yards a week, I can do a sub-9 min 500 and my pace for 100s is 1:40-1:50--none of that is something to brag about, just pointing out. My endurance has built--dude, I used to get the worst session-ending calf or toe cramps in the pool!--but my speed is at a plateau. And today, I felt even slower. Granted, my ankle is jacked up so that affects things.

But, honestly, by now I'm ready to graduate to a faster lane!


I'll just keep working at it.

1 Flat & 1 Rolled Ankle Later ..... But it's not all bad news

I have tears in my eyes right now because I rolled my ankle again, the same one that's just getting over a sprain. [Update: Just fyi, I'm not crying anymore. Sh*t happens. I'll cope.] I'll get to that later... because it's been a great week up to that.

The highlight of my week was speaking with Jim Felt of Felt Bicycles (duh). I've had some issues with my new bike, and, long story short, Nytro rocks and Mr. Jim Felt himself got wind of my situation so he got in touch with me. We talked a couple of times, and he is the nicest, most down-to-earth guy ever! It's great that the man at the top is so willing to take the time for all of his customers. Truly an amazing guy. And it looks like I'll be getting a new bike. More details on that as the story develops.

As for training, the pool I swim at is fixed, so it's warm enough to comfortably last for a full 3,000-yd session. So swam twice (total 6,000), got in a killer AT trainer workout on my CycleOps Fluid 2, a 90 minute hill ride, an 80 minute hard run w/ intervals and drills, and a couple strength-training sessions of about 30 min each. And all that while studying (cramming) for and taking a gnarly anatomy/physiology exam and doing stuff for my master's program. Sleep suffered. So by Friday night I prepared for the big training weekend by making homemade beef stroganoff (my dad's favorite, and I owed him a favor) with steamed asparagus. Putting the recipe at the bottom. As much as I ate, I still had room to indulge -- that's right, frozen yogurt. I polished off a large container while getting my iPod ready for Saturday's long ride.

I'm on a training plan that called for a 270-300 minute ride, so I set off Saturday in the right state of mind. But I'm realizing this weekend was a test of how I cope when things go wrong. Ten minutes into my ride -- pop! -- a blow-out flat in the front. Luckily I didn't crash (still riding Nytro's Cervelo). Glass was the culprit I'm assuming; the hole was so bad I had to put on a new tire too. Thankfully, my pit crew (mom & dad) were only about 4 miles away at home and brought me the spare tire and another tube for the rest of my ride since I was using the one in my kit. From there, all went smooth, thankfully. I went from my house in Lake Forest, up to John Wayne Airport then U-turned and went south to San Clemente State Beach/Cristianitos Road, then back up through SC, Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano and inland to my house. Good litmus test of the amount of nutrition I need: Water bottle with Cytomax, several Hammer Gels, Bear Naked granola, almonds and, of course, gum! I had to stop to refill on water a couple times too.

Overall my riding time was about 3 hours, 45 minutes and a total of 70 miles. But I was gone for almost 5 hours factoring in the flat, stopping at a billion stoplights and peeing/eating in San Clemente.

Saturday night I was invited to a "Wine & Wellness" dinner party with some girlfriends. I skipped the wine and loaded up on sushi, chips & guac and a killer salad--one of those that are a meal in itself (inspired by this: Marcy's Salad). The "wellness" part of the evening was a consultation on Juice Plus. I'm almost convinced to jump on the bandwagon. Hm.... Later, as I was driving home at the oh-so-late hour of 9 p.m., I laughed thinking how my life has changed. Three years ago, I so would have been out partying and drinking till God knows how late on a Saturday, no doubt. Now I'm talking nutrition instead of chugging beers, wearing casual sportswear instead of skirts and tube tops, and aiming to be in bed no later than 10. And I couldn't be happier. So got home, polished off a bag of popcorn while making fun of my parents for renting "Pineapple Express" and to bed....

Sunday. Not a fun day. I was scheduled to do a 2-hour run; that's not the "not fun" part. I was amped for the run; however, I got going and I'm not gonna lie, my legs were buuuurning and my pace wasn't up to par. But I would survive, or so I thought. Ha... 5.5 miles into the flat street run, I rolled my bad ankle off the asphalt into the gutter. A familiar pain. Uh oh. I cringed as my ligaments throbbed and and fell into some nearby grass, rolling around, grabbing my ankle and letting the tears flow. I was crying about the implications of this dumbass move more than the pain itself. So Pissed!! My PT warned me that if I rolled my ankle again, things could get nasty for my running life. I first sprained the same ankle about 6 weeks ago, so I it's a "high-risk" situation, very susceptible to re-injury (why I've done NO trail running). To top it off, I was 5.5 miles from home when I rolled it with no pit crew (parents) around to save me and no cell, and I don't know any one's number by heart. I went to a hotel across the street and they let me borrow (sweat) all over their phone. I remembered my friend Lindsay's number, and thank God she answered. She lives right by me so she came and picked up my crying ass. So grateful. ....R.I.C.E., Ibuprofen and more tears followed. Who knows what will happen now. We'll just wait and see..... 1 month till Ironman California. Crap.

Tritonman & 50 on the Bike - A Perfect SD Day!

I was almost that person who runs with a helmet on....

I did the Tritonman sprint triathlon at Mission Bay today, and though it wasn't nearly as cold as it's been lately, it was still freakin chilly first thing in the morning! But overall, I had a blast. I did this tri to practice racing in cold before IMCA and am so glad I did. I have total issues with cold hands and feet, and today was a reality check as to how bad that gets: I screwed up my transitions because of numb extremities. T1: couldn't un-velcro and un-zip my wetsuit; T2: couldn't unclick my helmet!! Asked for help with both.... I ended up getting 2nd in my age group, so my bike/run was legit enough to make up time (not my swim, ha). It was a 500yd swim, 12-mile bike and 5k run and I did it in 1:10. Oh yea, ankle is still kind of sprained too.

Here's how it went down:

I showed up at 5:30 and got to set up transition in the pitch dark. Note: bring flashlight to "small" races. Tritonman was put on by UCSD, had 400 participants and transition area was right on Fiesta Island - no high-powered lights to guide us. Kind of a cool experience with it being pretty laid back - no assigned rack areas or anything. I helped a first-timer who didn't know what to do with his race numbers, he had the helmet sticker on his bike. I racked next to some super cool Marines who were Nytro-lovers too. Good times. This was my first race minus a support crew. Totally on my own; however, my ex-boyfriend-turned-good-friend was doing a 16-mile a.m. run and planned to end up on Fiesta and watch me cross the finish line.

Swim

Race got off to a late start because of registration overload. I was in the second to last wave and jumped/ran around in my sandals -- no bare feet on cold mud -- to stay warm (forgot those sandals on Fiesta, they might be there now). By the time Open Women's went off (7:10?), the sun was blinding in the direction we had to swim. I'm already bad at spotting/swimming straight in the ocean, so this didn't help the matter. Surprisingly, though, the water was way warmer than I expected. Tasted like complete crap (heard something about a dead whale recently?), but at least it wasn't arctic. Got out in like 9 minutes, ran up the beach and into T1 where the wetsuit-taking-off problem happened. God knows how long I took.

Bike

I was ready to crank hard, wanting to average at least 20 mph. I'm currently borrowing a Cervelo P2SL from Nytro (some issues with the Felt, more on that later), and was stoked on the level of quality. I felt great the whole time on the bike. But looking back, I should have put on gloves or even a long-sleeve shirt. I was going fast enough to really freeze my hands and skin. Three laps and about 30 minutes later I dismounted, feeling on pace to do well. Then T2 happened. First, I dismounted too early and had to run for way too long in bike shoes to my transition area. Then the helmet catastrophe. I spent probably 2 minutes trying to unclip it and just couldn't. I was ready to go running with it on, but I asked for help instead. Putting on shoes was crazy too - my feet were so numb it felt like I was putting shoes on someone else! Don't know what my T2 time was, but likely 5-plus minutes!! Crap-o-la!!! That makes me so mad!!!

Run

Frustrated with T1 & T2, I was anxious to get running. I felt great from the start. My ankle is still techinically sprained and I've only run maybe 5 times since being off running for a month (yikes!), but I was able to bust out a decent pace. Feet thawed and I think I ran it in about 21 minutes? Not sure. Meanwhile, the college crowd was finishing their race and the weather was getting better every second!

Finish

Crossed the line at 1:10. Not as good as I wanted (of course, I'm hard on myself), but a great learning experience - those transitions got the best of me! I now have a lot to think about and plan for IMCA!

Then...

After the race, pro Jim Vance was the guest announcer and UCSD had a crapload of legit prizes to give out. I think about 4 Xterra wetsuits were given out, on top of shirts, backpacks, books, watches. To win a pair of Rudy Project sunglasses, Jim set the challenge: Swim across the bay, run out and touch a tree and swim back (looked like about a 500yd trip). Anyone could charge, fully clothed or whatever. And with that, roughly 10 guys were in the water. Jim also had couples who raced do a wheel-barrow race down the beach for some prizes, there was more water competitions - people went in fully clothed! He's a funny guy and got the crowd rambunctious. Quite entertaining.

Post-Race Day: A 50-mile bike ride

My friend, Brad, showed up to see me finish as planned, and we headed to Cantina to grub after the show was over. Cantina was excellent as always. Nice and full, Brad and I decided to get in a solid bike ride. I knew I still needed to get in training mileage since the sprint was only about an hour workout, and Brad was in the same boat. So, we set off from La Jolla, up PCH, swung right in Solana and headed east on Del Dios Hwy, eventually turned around and back to PCH, and then my favorite: a nice long trek up Torrey Pines to finish up the ride. Love that hill! Killer. While I was riding up, a dude with his age written on his calf passed me. Had to ask - yes, he had done Tritonman, too, and was riding back from pizza/beer at Pizza Port with his friends. He said he was pretty buzzed. Ha! I think I would have died if I were him!

So, pretty cool day. Started off coollldddd, but ended up being gorgeous. Just one of those picturesque San Diego days.... Hope things stay nice for the Tour of California Sunday!

Oh Yea...

Oh, and speaking of cold, I was offered the opportunity to do some writing for a really cool triathlon website, www.amateurendurance.com. Check out my first article here! (It's on cold-weather training.) This is a great site geared toward newbies, but there are tons of resources that any level of triathlete can find useful and informative.

Gluten-Free Banana-Pumpkin Bread

First, health & training update: Things are finally going well, besides lots of rain and crappy weather. But I feel excellent - fought off that cold damn quick; and besides a little lingering foot pain - still doing some PT - I'm able to train at full speed. I'm actually kind of trippin out on how much energy I have these days. I think it's due to several factors: healthy eating with a few new spins to my diet, a big dose of daily supplements, zero alcohol since New Year's (besides a friend's wedding, but I don't want to go there), no coffee just tea (this is a big deal for me), a full schedule (having lots on my plate always motivates me; I make a lot of to-do lists)....

But back to eating. I decided to make banana-pumpkin bread, but not just any kind, gluten-free style. I don't have celiac disease, but I've been on the GF bandwagon for a while now. Why?

Well, first, gluten is a complex protein found in wheat, rye and barley, so it's in most breads, pastas, grains, etc. Without going into the whole science and history of it, it's said that gluten can cause fatigue, digestive problems, malabsorption of nutrients, GI issues (no fun), joint pain, among other things, and some claim it's in an endurance athlete's best interest to limit or cut out gluten. Check this out. Read that even pro triathlete Desiree Ficker is gluten-free. A Google search can bring up tons of resources.

GFism is pretty abundant these days - there's a link bewtween a GF diet and "curing" autism, Jenny McCarthy stands by this one - and everywhere from Trader Joe's to Whole Foods to regular grocery stores have GF products. In no way is this a low-carb diet. Pastas, cereals, breads, crackers, flour, baked goods, cookies, snacks, etc... you name it, there's a GF version. I'm all over brown rice pasta, breakfast tacos with corn tortillas, rice crackers, GF oatmeal, etc., but I hadn't baked anything GF. Until now. Something about wintery weather (SoCal has gotten a lot of rain/cold lately) inspires me to bake. Having four browning bananas chillin in our kitchen also sparked the idea. Not to mention, I have a fetish with anything that is or tastes like pumpkin pie, so adding pumpkin was a must!

As you can see, I used Bob's Red Mill GF Garbanzo & Fava Flour. A good source of protein unlike regular flour, not to mention a good amount of carbs/fiber: For a 1/4 cup it's 110 calories, 1.5g fat, 18g carbs, 6g fiber and 6g protein. There are other GF flours, too: brown rice flour, millet flour, buckwheat starch, potato flour, you get the idea; many GF bread/baked goods recipes call for a combo of flours.

The bread turned out extremely tasty, though a little dense and still kind of doughy in the middle. It was even better the second day, though, once things "settled in." However, I'll most likely do some recipe-tweaking and also bake for 10-15 min. longer next time.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups GF Flour

2 eggs

3/4 c brown sugar

1/4 c butter, soft (used light butter from Trader Joe's)

1/4 c sour cream (used fat-free from TJ's)

1 1/4 c mashed banana

1 1/4 c canned pumpkin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350

Spray 9x5 loaf pan

Bowl 1: Combine flour, salt and baking soda

Bowl 2: Blend sugar, butter and sour cream, then add mashed bananas, pumpkin, vanilla and spices and stir together until well mixed.

Combine flour mix with banana mix and fold together.

Put in loaf pan, let it set for about 20 minutes then bake for 65 minutes. (That's what the recipe says, but you'll likely need to bake for at least 75 minutes.)

I got the majority of this recipe off Recipezaar.com, but I tweaked some things. Also, next time I'm going to add flaxseed meal for Omegas.

Endurance Randomness: 4 Things to Make You Ponder, Laugh and Go "Ewww"

Does anyone know where I can get a magic elixir? If having a sprained ankle wasn't enough, I guess my body decided that my year-plus of being sick free was up. That's right, I've had a nasty cold thing goin. Just as running was back on the radar (I had my first successful post-sprain run last week!), I had to go get sick. So, yea, some sort of elixir - one that cures/prevents sprains, sickness, etc. - would be nice. But enough about my issues, this ain't the feel-bad-for-tawnee blog.
So, how 'bout some fun stuff instead...
Like most of you probably do, I come across some random things in endurance sports that aren't always headline topics in the latest magazine. Sometimes I laugh, sometimes it's "WTF, that exists?" and sometimes sheer awe or even disgust. Well, I want to talk about it...

My List of Random Realities in Endurance Sports

1. Hypoxic Tents. Cheating? Borderline. Expensive? Hell yea. If you don't know, these are contraptions that simulate high altitude - a low-oxygen tent that you sleep in if you live at or near sea level areas and want the benefits/adaptations of living in high altitude. Why do athletes want to train in Colorado and high-altitude? Because there's less oxygen in the air, and as a result the body adapts to that over time by creating more red blood cells, which carry oxygen, which makes for better sports performance because more O goes to the muscles. (Blood doping, EPO, all relatively the same concept.) Sea level areas have close to 20% oxygen in the air; high altitude (8,000 to 12,000 feet) has about 12%. So you can see imagine how the body would adapt by making more RBCs. As far as using this to race better - the ethics are being debated, but it's not banned as far as I've read. However, one of these tents will set you back thousands - saw one quote at about $5,700 - so don't jump in the car to go hypoxic-tent shopping. Something to think about next time some Lance-type guy flies by you though.

2. Snot Rockets. Ah, a juicy topic that everyone should be intimately familiar with - guys and girls. First off, in no way is this a guy-only act, chicks should feel comfortable and proud of their s-rocket skills. It's ain't glamorous, but it's essential. When the air is wintery brisk, you're 20 miles into your ride and your nose starts dripping, what else is there to do? God forbid you let your mph drop for a runny nose, but you can't just let it slither down your face, and there's no Kleenex in cycling! You have to cover one nostril and blow that stuff out the other, and (key point) blow with force... Guys generally have this down no prob; some girls need to let go of being dainty - won't work, that just creates a mess on you and the bike. I'll admit, I'm an extreme case as far as girls go when it comes to s-rockets: I get a runny nose even on the hot, dry days - basically every time I go riding... Needless to say, I'm a master of the art. Nothing to be ashamed of. Heck, I can even do a hands-free snot rocket. And I'll do one on my first ride with you. (Really, I'm not a gross, offensive, manner-less person; it's just a reality in cycling.)

On that note, there are some "rules" involved. No. 1) Always look behind you to make sure you're not about to shower someone with snot. That's not cool, it's happened to me. However, there's a gray area with No. 1 if that person behind you is your rival/enemy. No. 2) Make note of the wind. Logical. No. 3) Steer clear of landing it on the bike as much as possible. Crusty bike = tough cleaning. No. 4) Make sure there's enough snot accumulated for a quality rocket. No half-assing this. ....For more insight on snot-rocketing, check out Ryan's blog.

3. Spin Classes. Love-hate relationship with these. They're a great addition to cycling training, as you can really push yourself to the max - just add that tension and spin hard, no stop lights, cars or pedestrians to take out. But you're in a small room with a bunch of other sweating people. Now, I sweat a lot as it is, but I sweat 10x more in a spin class, so I can only imagine others' sweat level. This almost reached a breaking point with me once when some dude next to me must have had Indian food the night before. He had the most foul-smelling sweat. I swear, I gaged. I'll leave it at that to spare you the grossness, but I almost left that class, and ever since I've been cautious (but not discriminating) toward choosing my spinning neighbors. The thing is, once I start a class, I'll go to the end... no leaving early like someone inevitably always does. (C'mon people, one hour, that's it... and you need that cool down.) Guess my point with this one is, I love them, but I hate the idea of being boxed up with smelly gross people for an hour. Not to mention, every now and then an instructor will play the worst bee-bop-type music ever. That always kills it.

And my last installment for the day....

4. Dirty Water Bottles. Ever leave just a little leftover Cytomax (or your drink of choice) in your bottle and forget to wash it? Go to grab it out of the bottle cage on your next ride a couple days later, untwist to refill and....oh God. Now that's a foul smell! Not to mention, things start growing in there, science-experiment style. Cytomax, for one, creates this weird black oily substance. I know this well because my ex-boyfriend was notorious for not cleaning his bottles. He'd leave them in dark corners and let them ferment and then, like nothing, he'd grab one, refill it and be off. Never got sick. Crazy. As for me, I usually forget to clean my bottles because after a long ride I have a one-track mind: EAT FOOD. Bottles suffer as a result. Probably even worse than leftover Cytomax though is an old whey protein shake in a bottle. All it takes is just a little leftover drink, like one sip, for the smell to get so bad that you might as well just toss the bottle. No saving. My gym bag has been home to these stink bombs. Their next home after that? The trash. I can afford to purchase another $5 bottle.

Until next time... happy training!