Rockburn Reloaded Mountain Bike Race, 3.22.2009

Pre-Race Eats


Sunday morning, I woke up and had a great pre-race bowl of steel cut oats.

The race didn't begin until 10am, so we had time to digest a bigger breakfastSteel cut oats, banana, coconut, pecans, honey, and the last of the almond butter.


The Race (10 miles total; 2 five mile loops)


After checking in to get our bibs and markings, Kevin and I got on all our gear and went for a quick ride to warm up. It was a lot colder than I expected and I felt under-dressed.


We lined up according to our category group and I noticed there were only about 10 women in the beginner category. I also noticed that most everyone had clipless/platform pedals. I knew that would make it harder for me to keep up since the clipless pedals are much more efficient.


As I watched the two male groups go before us - I vowed to myself: Dont be the last woman and pass some men!


Classic newbie mistake: I started out waaay too fast. Meaning that after a few climbs - I thought I was going to die. You know the feeling in your throat when you sprint or go hard - its like a horrible knot in your throat and you feel like you may throw up? Yup - had that...for most of the first loop.


I tried to calm myself down, but found myself pushing harder since I didn't want people passing me. There weren't many log jumps, which was good for me because I am still learning how to clear those. About halfway through the first loop, I came around one corner and see Kevin sitting there with his bike. He had started 2 groups ahead of me, so I knew something was wrong. He cracked the chain ring on his bike - his day was over. Poor guy.

At that point - I was cursing myself for only riding once before this and was wondering if I would be able to breathe/make it through the second loop. Kevin, my sister, my niece and nephew were there cheering me on as I finished the first loop so that helped give me the adrenaline push I needed to keep going. The second loop felt slightly easier and I could mostly breathe again. I guess because I knew what to expect and was able to save myself for some of the more difficult sections. I even caught up to and passed a few men which gave me more confidence. The list at the end of the race said I was the sixth woman to finish out of ten. I am happy with that! I think I finished in 1 hr, 20 mins because the sport category race began at 11:30am and I came in before they started. (It was a pretty low-key event, so they didn't have anyone timing the race)

While I managed to smile in the picture above - my legs were wobbly and my entire body felt exhausted. A slug probably would have beat me in a walking race. But, I felt happy to have finished and feel that it was just the practice (wake-up call) I needed for the Adventure Race in a month!

Post-Race Nourishment

We headed over to Donna's Cafe/Coffee/Bar in Columbia to get some lunch after the race. This is a local chain that has a Mediterranean flair with a ton of great, healthier choices. Coffee was ordered immediately.

I decided on the Veggie Burger with sweet potato fries. The fries were great, but then again, I dont think I have met a fry I didnt like. Unfortunately, the veggie burger had a strong black olive flavor and since I don't like olives, this didn't sit well with me. I managed to eat half and then picked off of Kevin's salad.

We had a football game later that afternoon and my plan was to cheer everyone on with a beer in hand. Unfortunately for me, we were short on women, so I had to play some of the game. My legs ached like I had just run a marathon.

Monday, it was mainly my shins, triceps and back that hurt the most. I managed to take a walk in the park with Oscar but just laid around for the rest of the night to try and let my body recover. Tonight, I hope to do a light workout - just not sure what that is yet.

Anyone know a light, recovery workout that is good for loosening up sore muscles?

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Wed/Thurs Eats and More

Wednesday PM

On the way home from work, I munched on about 5 pieces of Butterscotch Bark (butterscotch chips, peanuts & pretzels) that looked like this:
Courtesy of my grandmom, who likes to keep me full of sweets. :)


I am excited to report that last night, Kevin and I were able to fit in a 50 min mountain bike ride before sunset. We started at the same location as the race will start on Sunday, so now we know exactly where to go and what type of trail we are up against.


My legs felt strong, which I am attributing to spin and the Jillian Michaels workouts where she makes me do a million squats and lunges. The weather was great and it felt good to be out there again.


Afterwards, it was getting late and we were 20 mins from home, so we decided to stop by Pei Wei for dinner. (please excuse the blurry iPhone pics)


Jasmine @ Sweet and Fit has been making me drool over the Vietnamese Chicken Salad Summer Rolls, so we had to start with those.
So light and fresh and TASTY. We will be getting these EVERY time we go there from now on!

I ordered Vegetable & Tofu Pad Thai for my main meal and it did not disappoint. HUGE portion, so I took a bunch home.


Thursday


Breakfast was another variation of steel-cut oats. I finally found the unsweetened coconut lots of people have been mentioning.
...and I just noticed it says to "Refrigerate after opening". Mine is sitting at home on the counter right now - oops!!
In my bowl: Steel Cut Oats, agave nectar, coconut, chopped pecans, almond butter. Not a horrible combo, but I definitely missed the sweetness of my banana.


This is what my packed lunch looked like for today. Leftover Tofu/Veggie Pad Thai, 3 cuties, and a Chocolate Peppermint Luna bar, which should get me through the afternoon.

Wanna see inside?
Oh and I also brought two fortune cookies for dessert at lunch. Pei Wei puts a huge bin of them out for all to take, so I TOOK.


Random

Does anyone else have a desk calendar? Mine was a Christmas gift from my parents: Words to Woof by, 365 smiles for Dog Lovers. I thought today's was cute. I guess I am biased towards golden retrievers though. :)


What type of desk calendar/regular calendar do you have?

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Corned Beef & Cabbage plus Other Stuff

As soon as I walked into my house after work yesterday - I wanted to eat the air because it smelled that good. I asked myself a million times - why don't I use the crock pot more often? But, I still don't think I could do it every day for a year - now THAT is impressive!


After Oscar's walk in the park, we waited out on the front steps for Kevin to get home so I could watch his face as he walked into glorious smelling house. (I nominate myself for the "weird foodie award" for the day.)


I tried to hold back, but ended up sampling too much corned beef and cabbage before heading to the gym. I paid for it by having a horrible cramp for the first mile of my run. I managed to run 4 miles, but it was slow-going, and my stomach was yelling at me for the corned beef and cabbage shaking around in there.



Coming home, I felt icky and wasn't up to more corned beef and cabbage, so I took a picture of Kevin's plate.
Everything caramelized nicely and had a ton of flavor. The meat would fall apart to the touch...extremely tender. The one drawback of this meal - the meat was too fatty for me. I hate seeing the fat on meat and had to pick around the pieces I ate earlier.



I had a whole wheat pita w/ almond butter and honey for dinner instead. It was melty and dripping everywhere, so no picture.


Other Stuff


Whipped up steel cut oats, honey, almond butter, strawberries, and chopped pecans for a filling bowl of goodness this morning.
Served in one of my new bowls. This is a great medium-size bowl I picked up over the weekend as I am trying to improve my bowl/plate selection - for your viewing pleasure.


First Mountain Bike Race

As I was updating my Race Calendar list yesterday, I realized that I have my FIRST-EVER mountain bike race this weekend. I think I have been in denial it was so close. I have not been on my mountain bike in months and the thought of competing in my first race makes my stomach flip-flop.

I need to do this to prepare myself for the Adventure Race in April and then the Off-Road Duathlon in July. I am entered in the Cat 3 (beginner) division and we will do two 5-mile loops. The course is described as "five miles of fast single track and double track through forests and abandoned farmland." They stagger the starting times, so hopefully some scary PRO wont push me off a cliff on a single track, as he laps me. This is who I picture:
Since the weather is back to spring-like conditions - Kevin and I are going to try to get a ride in tonight. Few important things that have to happen before that:

1. get some air in my tires
2. find my helmet
3. see if I have any cool mountain bike gear for my first race. ;)
   

Man, I am wordy today...hopefully I will be back later tonight with a mountain bike ride recap.


Blog Set-Up

I think I am just about finished updating all the content for the new the blog layout.

Let me know what you guys think - anything else you would like to see?

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Groats

Last night, we went to see Modest Mouse at Rams Head Live in Baltimore and while it was a great concert, there were two minor setbacks. One, they didn't play my favorite song. Two, this extremely tall, broad-shouldered, older man decided he should push his way directly in front of me so I couldn't see anything. He then proceeded to dance around flailing his elbows a lot. After getting shoved and elbowed numerous times, I decided to do the chicken dance...very near his back. He eventually moved out of my way. ;)

Eats

What do you know about steel cut oats? I picked these up at Trader Joes and had no idea what I was in for.

They are very different looking than my regular Old-Fashioned Oats. My source for all "stuff I don't know about" (Wikipedia) informed me that:

"Steel-cut oats are whole grain groats (the inner portion of the oat kernel) which have been cut into only two or three pieces. They are golden in colour and resemble small rice pieces."

I used the microwave method and the fact that I don't usually measure stuff didn't work out for me here. I think it is important to use the exact amount of "hot water to steel cut oats" ratio because mine still had a crunch to them after 8 mins in the microwave. Or maybe they are supposed to be crunchy?

I added chopped pecans, cinnamon, blueberries, chopped turkish smyrna figs, and a spoonful of White Chocolate PB to the mix. This was the first time I added figs to my oatmeal and I loved it...should have added more. But, I did miss the smoother texture of my regular old-fashioned oats.

The other day, I mentioned I would be trying this TJ's Lentil Rice Biryani for lunch. Well, I did and it was just OK. The front of the package said there were green beans, but I didn't see any. The flavor had a spicy kick I enjoyed, but overall it was too salty for my taste.

Would I buy it again? Maybe, if my salt tooth needed a fix, but I would mix in some veggies.

New Blog

I wanted to give you all a tip about a new blog a friend of mine started recently:

I Walk In This World

I think you all would enjoy seeing her perspective as she posts about her "...daily eats, food reviews, political topics, travel ideas, and general musings on my walk through this life."

Happy Friday!

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