Thanksgiving Weekend

Thursday was a great day of biking and cooking.  Mountain biking was great; we hit the entire trail system at Chicopee including the advanced.  I can now say there is nothing I can not ride there.  It was a fun and challanging 2.5 hours of MTB when we included the advanced trail.  Copperhead has a lot more roots both up and down hill; a little rough on a hard tail.  I was able to ride faster through the corners on the easier trail once we did the copperhead successfully.  No real falls and not many foot down.  YIPPEE! 

Next came dinner, I had prepared in advance as much as I could but we still had 2.5 hours of solid cooking.  We had a great time preparing everything for our little Thanksgiving.  Unbelievable, everything turned out.  Kris did great on the risotto, constant stirring.  A perfect meal to a perfect day... except had to make due with serving dishes that a bachelor has...

Next day 3.5 hours of mountain biking then this...  (BTW, no real falls again!!!)

Needed food and entire body was shaking, how did I do Kona less than 2 months ago and 3.5 hours of MTB destroyed me.  I think it is using all those fast twitch muscles, to get over the roots and stuff. 

I still missed my family this weekend but the two days MTB were perfect with Kris.

Thanksgiving

This is another Thanksgiving that I am not with my family in Ohio.  I think I am at #5; I miss the wonderful Thanksgivings at my parents house.  But this one is the first one completely gluten free; and one reason I want it to be just me & Kris.  He is always willing to eat gluten free with me. 

The menu:

• Fresh Turkey
• Roasted Acorn Squash Risotto
• Ruby Applesauce
• Cider Roasted Vegetables
• Pumkin Cheesecake

Yesterday I spent most of my evening working on preparing everything so it just needs assembled and cooked today.  So first a little mountain biking and fun on the trails.  Then home to a wonderful gluten free feast.

Thank you Karina's Kitchen blog for the recipes

My Love Hate Relationship... Mountain Biking

Kris and I spent Saturday mountain biking at Chicopee.  The day was a perfect fall day for being on the trails.  Since I am new to mountain biking, we start out easy and slow.  We went to the Red loop and I rode it cleanly.  When we completed the Red loop; Kris took some front fork pressure out.  I am still trying to gets Kris's Hardtail Litespeed setup for me.  So we went to the white loop I made all the technical areas that I never had made so I was feel great and had some confidence and like the new setup.  So I tried not to constantly be on my brakes.  BAD mistake, I hit a root incorrectly and lost control.  I am sliding and my hip nails a tree stopping the slide abruptly.  OUCH, darn.  I was doing so well.  I was able to walk off the immediate pain and continue riding.  Hense, the love hate relationship; mountain biking is a great change to the road riding.  I feel like a kid playing in the dirt when I am out on the trails.  It is a great workout; does not feel like I am working hard. (well most of the time)  Each weekend, I get better at mountain biking but every time I try to go faster; I fall increasing my odds of getting hurt.  I do not want to get an injury that will prevent me from training but I want to go faster so Kris can have a good ride; but do not want to get injured.  (On a side note, we did have a fellow rider tell Kris not to let me lead on the uphills because he can not keep up on the up hills.  HA HA HA)

We did continue to ride for another 2.5 hours with no more crashes.  I rode areas that I never road cleanly on the coyote loop, the switch backs!  I did it; it was a great day except the one crash.  I felt like I had a challenging ride and felt very satisfied.  I feel effects of the fall today; my neck feels like a little whiplash and hip really hurt when I did breaststroke otherwise it is just a little bothersome.  So do I continue the mountain biking or give it up to reduce risk of injury...

Swimming like Dolphins

When did triathletes start doing butterfly?  I thought we only knew how to swim freestyle; darn this off-season is throwing me some surprises.  I choose the wrong day to start actually swimming (not just using swimming to stay loose) after my transition period.  Weights/Abs Tuesday, then Wednesday a swim workout completely around butterfly; what kind of sick joke? Butterfly with a pull buoy, WHAT!!  Thanks goodness that was short.  I am not even sure how far I swam today but I did experience something that I very rarely feel in swimming; muscular fatigue.  Stroke was going to crap at the end of the practice so started to think about all the lovely dolphins that I saw in Kona and try to use the abs and back more to lift my arms out of the water.  It worked, I finished.  There has it... I am back swimming a real workout.   On a side note, kudos to Ashley for teaching all the triathletes other strokes and trying to fix all my butterfly flaws I learned XX years ago.  If you ever need to add a little ab work in; just dolphin kick on your back.  A great little ab work!

Gorgeous Day for a Run

Had a great morning on Saturday watching Clearwater and following Coach Kathleen rock her way to 2nd place.  Congratulations to all the Clearwater finishers! It was great watching all morning.  I decided it was time to do the Sunday run on Saturday for hope of some mountain biking on Sunday plus it was 76 and sunny so a quiet easy run through the neighborhood and looking at the fall colors seemed perfect.  It was perfect until about 50 minutes into the run; I realized that I had not run more than 45 minutes since Kona and only on a flat treadmill.  Between the hills and head cold; my legs and lungs were fatigued.  Thankfully, I only had a little over a mile left.  I finished and realized it was the slowest run I have had since coming off my sprained ankle last year.  No worries, the lovely weather and scenery made it a perfect run.

Hello Off Season (rebuiliding season)!

After a long 2009 season with many highs and lows I am finally in full blown off season.  So I start blogging about my triathlon, cooking and life experiences.  My 2009 season left me excited for 2010 but realizing the importance of rest.  So bring it on...