Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Wicked Training Weekends

I've had two mega awesome training weekends recently. I luv swimming, biking and running but it only gets better when I travel for it.. and when I'm surrounded by my best buds... and when our sponsors send us tons of delicious nutrition to stuff in our faces. My Nutiva friend, Mark, is the bestest for rushing the stuff through the mail to get there in time for the madness.

First we had the Mega Deth Training Weekend in Lake Placid. The boys are all training for IMLP and that means that I sometimes train for IMLP. That also makes me a badass because I'm not even doing an Ironman this year. I should also mention that I never really felt like I needed to recover from the 19 hrs of training in 4 days because my nutrition was perfectly spot on. I felt incredible. The weekend went something like this:


  • *Friday - Load up the car with the essentials (Phil, Javier, bikes, Nutiva goodies, Nuun goodies, Action Wipes, and ONE Coconut Water). Then swim 4k at Pond Blanco and run 10 miles before driving to Lake Placid to meet up with Rambonie and Jen.
  • *Saturday - ride an LP loop (56 miles) then stop for snacks (Nutiva energy bars and ONE coconut water) then start another loop and cut it short due to a mysterious cycling accident by Javier (Crash Gomez). After a short break, a run loop (13 miles).
  • *Sunday - Hemp shakes for brekky, made with coconut water to fuel up for another bike loop (56 miles) followed by a 3 mile run then a 2k swim in Mirror lake. We had to be on the road by 6pm to head home and people were psyched that we shared our sponsor goodies which also left us with less stuff to pack into the car.
  • *Monday - A spontaneous 14 mile run with Phil because we're just nuts, then recovery hemp shakes made with ONE acai juice (such a yummy mix). Phil is officially hooked, even though hemp is NOT addictive. It's a choice... a smart one.


Next up was my trip to Texas to meet Texafornia in real life and survive the Ride of Truth:

  • *Thursday - Missed my connecting flight in Dallas because of a delay in NYC, but didn't mind because I got to meet Triboomer and his wife. I have so many people to thank for helping/ offering to help with that situation as soon as they saw my updates on Twitter. Triboomer picked me up in Dallas and drove me to Waco, TX (3 hrs round trip) to meet Texafornia in Waco and drive back to College Station (3 hrs for him as well). This was all pretty crazy, especially since the airline offered to put me up in a hotel, but Tex said no to that because we had a trail run scheduled for the morning. Crazy, I know.
  • *Friday - Trail run with Texafornia. We were joined by his 4-year-old triathlete son Kai. I hope to be as tough as Kai someday. He started out on his mtn bike and finished up by running with us. Then we made hemp shakes and had a taste test with Kai. We recorded audio of this which is supposedly hilarious, listen for it on the Zen and the Art of Triathlon podcast via iTunes. After that we went on a healthy food shopping tour, joined by @Envirogisgirl and a cooking lesson (Sweet Potato Quesadillas) for our pre-ride dinner. We also made potato wedges with Nutiva coconut oil to fuel our ride.
  • *Saturday - ROT ride. I took the healthy hippie approach to fueling for this event by drinking my TOP SECRET maple syrup energy drink, and eating potato wedges and dates. I won't say much because you'll just listen to the podcast. I will say that it was 121 degree (heat index) when we finished the 70 mile windy ride. I survived and didn't complain once. I did feel like I got hit by a train for days afterwards. That night we went to a 4th of July party where we saw nothing that was weird. Not one bit.
  • *Sunday - Hemp shakes for everyone before our trip to Austin and Barton Springs for a swim lesson. If you ever have a chance to get a swim lesson with Texafornia, jump on it. It was awesome and I now have a few things to work on that will make me a more efficient swimmer. At 2pm, in the heat of Texas, we decided that it wouldn't be insane to do a trail run for 45 mins. After that we suffered heat stroke, jumped in the water again, then went to Mellow Johnny's for a Tour party. We also did another healthy shopping tour with ZenTriNurse (Texafornia's fabulous wife).
The above photo was taken right before the Ride of Truth. I do not have an explanation for Texafornia's behavior here.

7 comments:

Stuart said...

Now they're a couple of wicked good weekend!

Is Texafornia cowering/bowing to you superbness?

Molly said...

I liked this post a lot. I like seeing what products you buy and eat that aren't homemade - easy to grab and go stuff.

You should do a post on why you choose coconut water instead of a sports drink such as SmartWater?

Dene Percy said...

Hello from little old england, sorry to bother you but....

could you let me know the quantites of hemp seeds and cocunut oil you use for the hemp shake and how often you should have one.

I currently have a shake/smoothie every morning using frozen fruit, soya milk and honey but like the sound of hemp seeds and coconut oil but don't want to put to much in, in case I balloon up with some strange side effect.

Love the blog and your appearances on Zen.

Take Care

Dene

HolisticGuru said...

Dene,

It's not a bother at all! I love getting Q's from people.

I use 2-3 Tbsp of hemp seeds (http://nutiva.com/products/7_hempseeds.php) or 4 Tbsp of a hemp powder (http://nutivahempshake.com/choc.htm). Sometimes I use a mix of both. Then I might add 1 Tbsp of coconut oil. It tastes delicious with the chocolate shake mix.

You won't balloon up with side effects. These products are more natural than the soy milk you're using. You're essentially just adding healthy fat and protein. Here's the problem: this brand doesn't ship to the UK so we need to find an alternative for you.

Thanks for the props on the show :) I love getting feedback on that.

Let me know what you think of the shake if you try it.

Dene Percy said...

Hey holistic thanks for getting back to me so soon. I'm away camping in Scotland at the mo but will definitly try the quanties you recommend in the smoothies when I get back. One question though; if I want to have a smootie every morning will putting the coconut oil in not be quite a lot of fat to be consuming over a week. I've read that it is stored as energy and I train six times a week so should be ok if that's the case.

Questions questions ....

Laters aligators

dene

HolisticGuru said...

Hi Dene,

You're correct that coconut oil is said to boost energy (and also metabolism). By adding a TBSP a day you will not be adding too much fat to your diet and may even find that you're choosing less fat in other meals as a result. Try it for a week and see how you like it.

I hope you're having a blast camping! It's one of my favorite things to do.

Christine

Dene Percy said...

Yep tried your quantities and it tasted gooooood.

I got some whole hemp seed and some coconut from our local indian deli, blitzed them on the blender and added some fruit, soya milk and grated chocolate.

As a summer breakfast its great and you can't beat it, unfortunately the weather here is heading back to winter/fall so I'll be back to porridge soon (any good ideas for that).

A good breakfast for you to consider it:

Mix porridge oats with bran and raisins, apricots or any other dried fruits, add some milk and grated apple and put in the fridge over night.

In the morning add some more milk and honey to taste and eat. Try it sometime its delish.

Camping was good, but wet but hey you only live once.

All the best and thanks for the advice.

Dene