Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

Before Ironman Kansas Dave and I visited this kinda yuppy restaurant just off the campus of Kansas. The menu had me a little worried. I'm a carb-loader before a race and I like what I like--spaghetti, lasagna, ravioli, etc. But I picked this off the menu:



It's chicken and linguine with pesto sauce. And it was GOOD!!! Since I raced to a HUGE PR, it's probably lucky too.

This weekend Dave and I decided to make our own chicken and linguine with pesto sauce with our BRAND NEW MINIATURE FOOD PROCESSOR (think The Price is Right for that one)!!!

Dave started out by mixing the ingredients for the pesto.







Then he fixed the chicken while I worked on the whole grain linguine (did you read that Coach?!?).





And here is the finished product that we served with a salad and a tall glass of water.



It was really yummy. Maybe a little heavy on the bread crumbs and cheese, but otherwise very good. I would have liked the pesto to be a little creamier, but maybe taking out some of the bread crumbs and cheese will help with that. Unfortunately, after looking up the calorie content of this, we're a little more disappointed, but now we're looking for more calorie conscious options for this meal. Bon appetite!

Unplugging

I've decided to get offline for a few days. It's been a pretty weird week. I've said stuff that was inappropriate. I've been hurt by what others have said. And of course it was all done online which means no one has any idea what is REALLY being said.

That being said, I'm unplugging. No email (except work email), no blogs, no Facebook, no Twitter, no websites. I need to get some stuff done. I need to live in the real world.

See you in a few days.

I have been running with the same crew for maybe eight years. We're a close-knit, rag tag bunch. The group started as a lunchtime running group of the same employees of a business downtown. But over the years the group has gotten a little bit more "inbred", if you will. We are now a group that has dated, or is married to, or is the son or daughter of someone else in the group. This weekend we lost one of our own. Today is the funeral. It's going to be a rough day.

My Christmas Wish List

Here are some of the things that were on my Christmas list this year:

• Swimsuits -- Seriously I go through swimsuits like candy. I can never have enough. I am in love with Splish because they're cute and they last a lot longer than any other swimsuits.
• Road ID for wrist or ankle -- As a runner I've been wearing a Road ID on my shoes for years, but now that I also bike, it's time to have one on me at all the time.
• Running socks -- My favorite socks to run in are Balega. I like the short ones with the cushioning on the achilles. Now I've tried Zulu, which is also by Balega and do not like it as much. I'm kinda picky about my running socks.
• Rear view mirror for bike helmet -- Make fun of me if you want, but it's scary out there on the streets. Where I ride my bike involves a lot of BIG farm equipment and I want to see if coming before it scares the crap out of me! I will also be doing most of my bike riding by myself this year and I want to stay safe.
• Energy wrist band -- Hey if it's good enough for Kara Goucher, it's good enough for me.
• Cash -- Seriously peeps, races are expensive and owning your own business doesn't mean you're rolling in dough. I'm hoping for a little help paying for a few races.
• Waterproof case for our camera -- I haven't mentioned this yet, but Dave and I are going on a cruise next month and will be snorkeling. It would be fun to take the camera in the water.
• HED3 crack pipe -- Because it's hard to pump up my race tires with a regular pump.
• Compression calf sleeves -- I'm totally torn on if I really want these or not. I consider myself an organic runner - shoes on and out the door. But, I do run mostly mid- to forefoot and my calves get tight. If I don't get these, it won't be the end of the world.
• Clinique Even Better Dark Spot Corrector -- I have so much sun damage from baking in the sun when I was a kid. I've had many treatments to my skin but I really can't afford those anymore. I might as well try something that's a little more in my price range.
• Gift cards -- When I'm not working out, I like to dress nice. I do own a business, after all. My favorite place to shop is The Limited. And you can never do wrong with an iTunes gift card.
• Running tights/capris -- I only have two great pairs of winter running tights. Now that I'm training for a late winter/early spring marathon, I think I'd like to have at least one more pair. I've also been debating running capris. To be honest, I make fun of people who wear these. No self-respecting real runner would be caught dead in them. But, it would also be nice to have some for in between weather like 35 degrees. Don't publically disgrace me if you see me in them. :)

I gave this list to my mom and she said, "huh, I had a list for you already and nothing on this list matches my list." So, who knows what will be under the tree next week. Hope Santa brings all my running and triathlon friends awesome stuff next week (or already did for my Jewish friends).

Identity Crisis

I'm going through a bit of an identity crisis right now.

Coach has given me the green light to train for the National Marathon in March and things are going smoothly. Right now I'm running 3 days a week, mostly geared toward the marathon, and the rest of the week involves swimming, biking, and strength all for triathlon and the big iron distance race in 2011. All of my training is going great. I'm feeling focused and strong. So what's the problem? I love to run. I don't think you heard me right. I LOVE TO RUN!!!!!!! Running right now is effortless, almost poetic. The paces are swift but gentle. I'm absolutely loving every minute of it. And it makes me think, what am I doing messing around with triathlon?

For years I've dabbled in triathlon. I would tell people I'm a runner pretending to be a triathlete. But when I started to do better and place in my age group at races and having spent a year training for Ironman, I guess you can't pretend to be a triathlete anymore. I promised my coach that I would not pretend this year. I would stop saying I'm a runner and instead I would tell people and myself I'm a triathlete. But I'm having a hard time identifying.

One of my first times I did Boston I saw a girl I knew from the blogosphere, Elizabeth. At the time, Elizabeth and I were pretty similar runners. Not too slow, not too fast, but good enough. I even think we had similar experiences at Boston. Over the years I kinda lost track of her until this fall when I found out my teammate Janet and my real life friend Mandy were friends with Elizabeth. While reading Janet's race report from the Columbus Half Marathon I saw she had mentioned something about Elizabeth running the full marathon. I clicked on Elizabeth's race report only to be totally floored to see she had finished 2nd at the marathon. SECOND! What the heck happened? As Mandy puts it, she has a goal and will work for it.

So it makes me think, what is my potential at running? Since I started working with a coach I've dropped 6 minutes in the marathon (3:29), 3 minutes in the half (1:38), I've set new PRs, and have even won a race. Again it makes me think, what am I doing messing around with triathlon? If I can do that in just one year of working with a coach, what can I do in two years time? Three years? Four years? Can I qualify for NYC? Can I break my dad's PR (3:21). Can I finally run a race where I average in the 6:00s?

I know I have unfinished business at the iron distance. And don't get me wrong, I plan to get my revenge. But I just wonder if right now is the time? If the goal is just to finish, am I wasting running potential in the years that count? I just don't know.

Wardrobe Malfunction

My running shoes seemed to be the only thing that went right with my run yesterday.

(Actually, that's not true. My run was FANTASTIC! But my wardrobe was a different story.)

I looked at the temperature when I woke up. Thirty degrees. Crap! What do I do with 30 degrees? Mid thirties, I consider shorts weather. Under thirty I consider tights weather. But I never know what to do with 30. And this was a longer run (10 miles) so I needed to consider the warm-up factor. I put on a pair of ankle socks, tights, a base layer shirt, a light zip-up top, and knit gloves. I had my winter cap in hand, but walked outside and decided on a ballcap instead. That was a good choice. Throughout the run I was warm, but got cold multiple times when the wind would get whippy (yes it's a word). The gloves came off and went back on about four times throughout the run.

Here's the real kicker. I was wearing a water belt. See, I have a rule. Any run one hour or less, I will carry a hand-held water bottle. With a long run, however, I like to wear a water belt to have plenty of water and to be hands free. I have had my water belt for nearly 10 years and it really is starting to show it's age. Two of my four bottles leak. I only wore two bottles yesterday and somehow managed to get one of the leakers. My left side was wet for the entire run. The real problem with my water belt is that the elastic is stretched and the water belt does not stay put anymore. It's even worst when I'm wearing shiny, slippery clothing, which is pretty much all running clothing. So yesterday I fought with my water belt for the entire 10 miles. It was driving me nuts. When I was supposed to be picking up the pace, my water belt was around my ribs. Seriously. I looked and felt like a total tool bag! I met Dave after the run for some hot chocolate and told him if he wasn't finished Christmas shopping for me, I'd LOVE a new water belt.

Here's what I'm thinking. I currently have a Fuel Belt brand and it has served me well. I know they have newer options, especially ones you can adjust so there's no way it could ever ride up to my ribs. But, I've fallen in love Amphipod products this year. I have the small handheld and a waist pack and they are both terrific. I wrote about my the waist pack here. I was checking out the website yesterday and there are all kinds of options for water belts, but this is the one I think I like the best. It's their trail runner's water belt, and although I never trail run, I think it would be a good option for me because it's adjustable, it's got a BIG pouch on it so I can carry all my nutrition without having to stop at my car halfway through a long run, and the two water bottles are the same volume of four of my current bottles. (I haven't determined if that's a good thing or a bad thing because I like to spread out the weight of the bottles front and back and this might be a little more than my back can handle. Although I think you can reposition where the bottles go.) I really like the bungee cords on the back too which allows me to stash things I may need again, like my gloves in the winter or a shirt in the summertime. Plus, Amphipod has this no bounce guarantee so I know this sucker is not gonna move all over the place.

Anyone have this or any Amphipod water belt? Thoughts?

Foto Friday

I posted this a while back on Facebook. But if you're not my friend on Facebook you're seriously missing out on the cuteness that is my dog Sloopy. Seriously.

Battle of the Bulge

"You don't look like them." That's what my dad kept saying to me at Dave's FullRev race this past September. And by "them" my dad meant triathletes. Yes it's true, triathletes and runners look nothing alike. Triathletes are what I call triangle people--broader shoulders, smaller waists. Triathletes tend to be taller, and muscular, and a little less concerned about bulk. Runners, on the other hand, are what I call rectangles--everything is proportional. Runners are a little shorter (or in my case, way shorter), super lean, and almost too skinny, like emaciated-skinny.

I most definitely have always been a rectangle:

Nice picture!

But now that I've moved primarily to triathlon (except for that marathon I'm doing in March) I'm trying to transition my body to be more triangular. Now, I know I'll never be tall (dang it!) so bulking up has always scared me. Being that I'm 5'1", every pound that's added on, shows in all the wrong areas. So this time around I'm trying to build lean muscle while not putting on any extraneous weight. I've been tracking my body fat and my weight along with my calories and nutrition. Since my first big race of the season is a marathon, I'm trying to drop a little bit of weight but I'm also trying to bulk up my arms (swimming) and legs (biking). I'm hoping by the time the BIG race of the year rolls around I'm going to look like a solid triangle (and hopefully with abs like Michelle)

2011 Racing Schedule

Since my wedding and event schedule is starting to fill up for 2011, it's time to put my racing schedule together also. The big races are planned but I'm still ironing out everything in between. So all of this is tentative and will remain that way until about a week before each race. :)

February - Winter Run 15 miler or Last Chance half marathon. The Winter Run is cheaper but it starts at 1:00 in the afternoon which I don't like. The half marathon is a one mile course you do again and again. I'll keep thinking about this one.

March - National Marathon. Yeah, you read that right. I'm heading back to my roots!

April - Miami University Student Foundation Triathlon

May - Rev3 Knoxville Olympic Triathlon

June - Racing for Recovery Half Ironman. This is an "A" race for me and I plan on rockin' it!

July - JCC Independence Triathlon. I better sign up for this soon before it sells out.

September - Rev3 Cedar Point FullRev. What I've been looking forward to for a year. Bring it!

And it looks like as of right now Dave and I will be heading to Hawaii to spectate the Ironman World Championships as a finish to our season. 2011 is going to be epic!

November Totals

Taking two months off (basically) was the best thing I could do for myself. I have come back feeling refreshed, reinvigorated, and focused. I have had possibly the best month of training EVER. I did not miss one single workout and I did them all in order except for two. I feeling stronger, look leaner, and am faster than I've been in a long time. November was awesome!

Swimming - 21,800 meters (13 - 1/8 miles)

Biking - 110.68 miles

Running - 60.34 miles

Weight training - 5.75 hours

Total hours - 25 hours 16 minutes

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

My favorite thing as part of a holiday meal is deviled eggs. And I make the best. :) Today I'm going to share my recipe with you.

6 eggs
3 tbls mayonnaise
1 tsp vinegar
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Paprika

I did my recipe with 12 eggs (big family). For this case, I just doubled the recipe.

Begin by putting the eggs in a pot, fill it with water, and bring it to a quick boil. Once it comes to boil, turn the burner off and let the eggs sit there for 20 minutes. At the end of the 20 minutes, remove from heat and immediately chill the eggs under running water. This keeps your eggs yolks from turning green.


Once cooled, peel eggs and cut in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks and mash them with a form until fine and crumbly. (Yes, I have a deviled eggs dish, from Pampered Chef.)


Here's my dog trying to get the yolks....


Once the yolks are finely mashed, add in all the ingredients and blend until smooth.




Fill the white halves with the yolk mixture. Be generous in making the halves slightly rounded. Sprinkle with paprika to finish.


Luckily, we got to enjoy a few of these before my mom accidently dumped them all over the floor. :)

Foto Friday

No children were harmed in the making of this picture. :)

This is my niece. She put herself in Sloopy's crate.

Pilgrim's Progress 4 Miler

This might be the first and possibly the last time I will ever get to do a Thanksgiving race in a pair of shorts, no gloves, and a ball cap. Surprisingly warm for Thanksgiving but we also woke up to POURING rain. I did not want to race in the rain. We ate breakfast, packed up dry clothes for after the race and headed out.

We picked up our timing chips, hit the port-a-johns and then the rain stopped. Sweet! We did a little warm up and then we were ready to go. This was our first time doing the Pilgrim's Progress race having done two of the Thanksgiving races in town. To date, this one ranks high. Ample parking, good swag (more on that in a minute), decent course, and my favorite, a small racing field.

Side note....I had worn a lighter pair of socks because I didn't want to have heavy wet socks during the race. But, during my warm up my shoes kept "eating my socks" and one pair even wound up only around my toes. So, I decided to do what I've never done and what I'll never do again: race without socks.

I mentioned the swag before. Each entrant got a nice race shirt and a pair of socks in their grab bag. Both of mine fit. YES!!! Then for each age group there were awards which were a $75, $50, and $25 gift certificate to the Polaris Mall. I knew it would be hard to get since each age group was ten years instead of five, but I wanted one and I was going to work to get one.

I'm not daring nor fast enough to line up in the front, so I lined up in the second row of people. The gun went off and so did I in what I thought was a conservative but quicker pace. When I hit the first mile in 7:04 I knew it was not conservative. The second mile was also moving but then I got a stitch under my right ribs that was really making breathing difficult. I tried to breathe it out. I slowed down (a smidgen). I put my arms above my head while running. Nothing was making the stitch better. I hit the second mile mark in 7:33. Right after the water stop at mile 2, I pulled to the side and stretched my belly. When I saw a woman go by me who drives me batty with her running style, I knew it was time to take off. I pulled beside her and around her and kept on building the pace. The stitch was not gone, but I was not going to let it ruin my race. Mile 3 was 7:40 (even with the stop). In the last mile I was ready to conquer the people who I was previously running with. I knew who was in my age group and darn it, I wanted a gift certificate. The last part of the race is a little uphill and then goes through the parking lot of the mall with two 180 degree turns in it. Not exactly ideal, but I like a challenge. I'm flying up the hill (that's what I do) and I catch a girl I know I'm competing with. As we come down the hill to make the second 180 degree turn she smokes me. I hate downhills. I try my best to hold on but she gets me in the end. Mile 4 was 7:11.

I didn't get a gift certificate. But neither did the girl in front of me either. I was 17th female overall and, get this, 8th in my age group. Seriously, the thirties are a tough age group to race! In addition to the nice bloody heel I got from running without socks, I got a new PR by a minute: 29:30 (7:22 pace) and a very cool mug. I love races that are innovative and think of race swag beyond a finisher's medal. A mug is so much more useful.


The best part of this, for me anyway, is that I'm still gaining speed. I have been racing now for nine and a half years and have spent the last year on nothing but aerobic pace in swimbikerun. Yet, I've had some very fast races recently. This gives me hope that there's still many more PRs to come.

SWIM TEST!!!

This is fall back week for my training so that means tests, tests, tests. Doesn't seem right, does it? Today's test: swimming. Dave met me at the gym during his lunch break to time my sets. After a short warm up the test worked like this....10 X 100 with exactly 10 second break. Record each individual time and the total time. This is how it went (oh yeah, I swim in a 25 meter pool):

1 - 1:28
2 - 1:32
3 - 1:33
4 - 1:32
5 - 1:34
6 - 1:36 (this is where I thought, "oh no, I'm losing it!")
7 - 1:34
8 - 1:34 (and this is where I thought, "I'm going to puke!")
9 - 1:34
10 - 1:34

Total time - 17:07

My previous swim test had an average of 1:38 per 100 meters. This swim test kicked that swim test in the junk! My slowest interval was faster than my previous average. This swim test averaged 1:34 per 100 meters. Yeah, 2011 is off to a good start.

The Harsh Reality

I knew that ball would drop....

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

Since my grandmother is not in the best health, this will be the first Thanksgiving in recent memory where my grandma has not made the pies. So, Dave decided to take it upon himself to make dessert. Problem is, he's never made a pie. Martha Stewart to the rescue! Last night Dave had a test run with pear and cranberry pie.











Dave made this dessert while I was at the gym, so I had no idea what was going on. The presentation looked great, but I have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of pie, so I didn't really think I would give it a try. Dave made me, though, and it was good. Now here's Dave's take on the pie...

When we volunteered to make dessert, I wanted to give a shot at doing a homemade recipe. And I didn't want Thanksgiving dinner to be the first try. So, a test run was in order...and the verdict? I win at pie. Seriously, could this have looked better? And it tasted fantastic too. It was just the right blend of sweet from the pears and sugar and tangy from the cranberries. Since Meredith's family aren't big on fruit pies, I'll be re-making the same crust but putting pumpkin in it for Thanksgiving, and Meredith is putting together a chocolate pudding pie.

Pinch by Pinch

Last season when I started training I tried to take body measurements every week to see how my body was changing with the training. Things got busy and I didn't continue with the measurements, but I can definitely see and feel in my clothing that my body has changed. This time around, I wanted to do a better job of tracking weight and body fat. For the last couple of weeks we've been sneaking over to my parents' house and using their scale which has body fat as part of it. Each week I watched my weight stay pretty consistent and my body fat go up and up. I started to think that maybe the scale wasn't so accurate. So, I bought this...


Then Dave and I found some online information, mainly, how to use it and how to calculate body fat percentage. Here's the website we used for instructions (you can easily switch to female) and here's the website we used for calculations (again you can easily switch to female).

So what were the results? On the scale this week I came up with 25.4% (don't judge), which is about what I've been averaging the last four weeks. Using the calipers and a 7 pinch test I came up with 22.17%. My friends on Facebook told me it's usually about a 5% difference, so the scale and the calipers are right on. Many, many more weeks to come...

Something's Not Right

A while back I signed up for a triathlon and in the process had to renew my USAT membership for 2011. In the meantime, that race was postponed and my money returned. Soon enough I got my USAT card in the mail along with a second mailing from USA Triathlon. Lo and behold, it was a second membership card, this one expiring in 2012. Just last week I went out and got the mail and there was a third mailing from USAT. Wouldn't you believe it, it was a third membership card, this one expiring in 2013. Now, according to my records I only paid for one of these, but I also haven't checked my credit card statement to see if I'm the one getting screwed. For now, I'm set for YEARS!

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

This week's recipe is courtesy of Colleen and is chicken divan:

I bag frozen broccoli cooked
3 chicken breasts cut into small cubes and cooked
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 cup of sour cream (mix with soup)
1 cup shredded 2% mild cheddar cheese (or more!)
fried onion straws (optional)

In a casserole dish, place the broccoli, then the chicken, then the soup and sour cream mixture, then the cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. In the last 5 minutes, top with onion straws.

I was quite excited to get this recipe. Chicken divan was a staple of my childhood diet as it's my dad's favorite meal. However, this recipe was different (very different) and I was excited to try a different chicken divan.

We started by boiling the chicken. Don't know how to do this? Take your chicken breasts put them in water with a bouillon cube (or not), bring to boil, then turn back down to medium heat until cooked. Simple!


After the chicken was done we began to assemble the casserole.




In the meantime, my dog Sloopy figured out how to jump up on the kitchen table all by herself.


Finished product:



Conclusion....this was very yummy. It didn't get as hot in the cooking time as indicated. We had to put each piece we ate in the microwave for a few minutes. That's probably because we didn't thaw the broccoli. My favorite part of this recipe was probably the fried onion straws. It gave it a nice crunch. My mom's is more creamy, almost soupy, so the crunch was an unexpected surprise. We will definitely be making this again and will probably find a recipe for my mom's too so we can compare.

Honesty

Sometimes I think this blog is a bunch of bull. For six years I've been blogging about superficial stuff that means absolutely nothing and is not an honest reflection of myself. Today will be different.....

Truth be told, I don't like myself very much. Let me rephrase that. I hate myself. I hate myself about 99% of the time. I have pretty much hated myself for as long as I can remember. I'm sure you're reading saying "woah, that girl is depressed" and maybe in a way I am. But really I see it as a series of unfortunate events that have lead me to this place, to this person I've become. These unfortunate events have caused me to be a very cynical and opinionated person. And it's not as easy as 'just letting go'. I am constantly reminded that I've "chosen" to be this person or no matter how many times I try to be someone different, I'm still this person, this monster.

I've had a rough week, couple of months, this past year. The workload and training for 2010 stripped me to the core and revealed my true colors to everyone around me. I knew this person; most people did not. Now I feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle to save face, to try to win back people. I'm fighting with my own inner demons, though, knowing that this is the real Meredith and now people know. I've never felt lonelier. I tell people I nap every day for recovery from my workouts, but in all honesty I do it just to get through the day. Part of the day goes away and I just get one step closer to the next day. The next day has got to be better, right? Yet, it never seems like it.

I often wonder 'why' about a lot of things. Rolling into my second week of training I'm wonder 'why' I am doing all of it again? Do I really have anything to prove? Am I proving it to myself or to the people that I feel I need to prove it to? Do those people even care? And then I think about my business. Why do I put myself out there only to be judged, which I take very personally? Why am I trying to expand my business when it seems I can't get anyone to rally behind me? When is the dam going to break and people will figure me out and turn against me? Seems like it always happens. The question I've asked a lot this year "why don't people like me?" And really I wonder, why am I like this? Why can't I let go? Why?

Don't read more into this. Yes I probably need professional help. Doesn't everyone? No I'm not going to do anything drastic like harm myself or others. I just want a new me. I want to replace the me that's there and finally be happy with me. I just want to be happy with me.

Thursday Thoughts

Last week I was watching Jeopardy and I swear Coach's husband was a contestant on it. A quick text message sent and received, and it wasn't. But, a flurry of text messages later I let her know how to test for Jeopardy. Yes I have taken the test to get on Jeopardy. It was hard, I sucked, and I don't know if I'll embarrass myself like that again.

Confession, in college I also applied to get on MTV's "Real World." Oddly enough, I made it to the second round of questions where they called me at 2:00am (I kid you not) and asked me dumb questions like, "would I ever beat someone up who called me a bitch?" Needless to say (and thankfully) I didn't get on that show either.

So it got me thinking...have you ever applied to be on a game or reality show? Have you ever gotten on a game or reality show?

I need your help!

Yes, it's true. I don't know anything about being a triathlete. :) I need your help. I've got two problems this week.

1. My bike is a mess. I mean, it's sticky, it's dirty, the chain is making noise. I'll admit, I don't know the first thing about cleaning my bike/chain. How do I clean my bike? Do I just use soap and water? What about my chain? Do I have to remove the chain? Do I have to relube (he he!) the chain afterwards?
2. In an effort to get stronger and be a better swimmer, there seems to be a lot of butterfly popping up on my workout calendar. Although I took TWELVE!!! years of swim lessons, I was never taught how to do butterfly. What I know I've learned on my own. I can make it a good 3-4 strokes before things start to go downhill and I start sinking to do the bottom. I don't know if I don't have a strong enough kick or my lack of flexibility in my shoulders is keeping me from doing the stroke correctly. How many out there can actually do butterfly? What are some tips that can help me? Do you have any good drills to build into a better fly? Do you do butterfly as part of your workouts?

Thanks guys, for your help!

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

This week's recipe is courtesy of my coach. It is something we had no idea what it was and took forever to find at the grocery. Today's recipe: Vegetarian Pumpkin Polenta with Spinach and White Beans.

I have a confession. Although I've been the one writing these "Monday's Menus", Dave is the one who does the majority of the cooking. This recipe was all on him and honestly I had no idea what was in the recipe. Maybe I should have paid closer attention because this recipe did not meet my requirements: has to include things I like. See, I don't like pumpkin and I don't really liked cooked vegetables, especially spinach. Nonetheless, I continued to help with dinner.

I worked on the polenta:





Dave worked on the vegetables:



In the end it looked like this:


Honestly, I couldn't do it. I couldn't eat it. To me, it looked like CoCo Wheats covered in a wet salad. It just made me a little nauseous to even think about eating it. But, Dave did eat it and he liked it. Today, you'll get his take on this meal.

Dave, you have the floor....

Well, I agree that the texture and appearance wasn't much like any of our other dishes. When I tasted the polenta by itself, it was a little on the bland side. But I think the spices and cheese in the topping gave a nice contrast between the slightly sweet taste of the polenta and the tanginess of the Romano cheese. So, I thought it was pretty tasty. And I have LOTS of leftovers all to myself. :)

November 1st Weekly Goals

One thing I'm going to do for accountability reasons is to create weekly goals for myself to help me attain my "big picture" goals. The goals will be written in my notebook and will get gold stars when completed. Yeah, I'm a 12 year old girl. :)

This week's goals were pretty simple, kind of:

1 - Go to bed by 11:00pm every night. You'd think this would be easy because, man, was I tired from the first week's workouts. But, 11:00pm is quite a bit earlier than I normally go to bed and it's hard to teach a old dog new tricks. I did good the first part of the week but fell into old habits by the end of the week. I was still asleep by midnight each night. This one is going to take some work.

2 - Get up to an alarm no later than 7:00am. Same thing as above. I usually don't get up until after 8:00am, so this is just relearning. When I went to bed before 11:00, I easily got up at 7:00. When I didn't, I didn't. This one's hard as Dave doesn't get up this early and I have to remember it's my goals, not his.

3 - No eating after 9:00pm. This goal is inspired by my teammate Sonja and is a challenge because we usually don't eat dinner until after 9:00pm. But surprisingly I did really well at this one. I actually gave myself a gold star for this one even though I did crack one night and have a 2-bite cupcake around 11:00pm. I was STARVING!!!

4 - Eat EVERY meal in. Man this was a struggle as I was CRAVING pizza and Mexican and Wendy's and everything bad for me. Instead I made tacos at home and pizza at home. I feel better both mentally and physically having eaten in all week. Plus, we're saving ourselves mad money by eating in.

5 - Do all workouts. Check and mark. It was important to me to start the season off right. This week was a struggle. I'm not going to lie. In my opinion, it was a big first week back. Sure it was a lot of drills and therefore not a lot of mileage, but those drills put a little more strain on the body than just miles. My body is sore. This goal will stay as a goal for many weeks to come.

It was a good first week back. I'm still feeling positive and excited about all that is to come.

Your Questions Answered

Yesterday I asked you to submit questions for Thursday Thoughts and I would answer them today. Well, I only got a few, but your answers are here!!!

Big Daddy Diesel asked: Why triathlons?
This seems to be the million dollar question that I'm not sure I have an answer for yet. I started marathoning because it seemed like the thing to do. I grew up watching marathons as my dad has run, like, 25, and when I graduated college I signed up for one. Over the last 9+ years I've run 13 marathons, including 4 Bostons, and PRed in 2009 at Boston with a 3:29. So with that success, why pause and move into triathlons? Well, I've become a little disenchanted with marathoning. Not that it was easy, but I felt like I had accomplished what I wanted. I had qualified and run Boston and run it well. My goal for years was to break 3:30 and I did. Honestly, I only have a few goals left to accomplish in marathoning: breaking my dad's PR of 3:21 and qualify for NYC marathon (with a 1:37 half marathon or 3:23 marathon), although I have no plans on running New York.

I know, I haven't answered the question. For years in between my marathons I dabbled in triathlons. I did sprints off and on and even did two half Ironmans training on my own. Honestly, I did not like triathlons. I would go to the races and people would be warming up on trainers and wearing fancy gear. I thought everyone was snobs. And I struggled to understand why I could be okay at swimming (I've been swimming my entire life) and obviously decent at running (I often posted the fastest run splits at many of the triathlons), but I would get my ass handed to me in the bike and therefore, I would have terrible overall results. So every year I would give up and just go back to what I was good at: running. But after my 3:29 at Boston in 2009, I thought it was time to tackle my biggest life goal: finish an Ironman. Coach had been encouraging me to reach for my goals and she knew I could do an Ironman and do it well. I signed up and decided to put running aside for a year and concentrate on triathlon. And here we are a year later having not finished the job and looking toward another year of triathlon.

Velma asked two questions: (1) DId you apply for the Trakkers team again? (2) Are you working with a coach again or are you going solo?
Yes, I will be a member of Team Trakkers again in 2011. Team Trakkers is awesome and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it in 2010 and I'm looking forward to representing the Green Machine again in 2011. As for working with a coach, absolutely! Coach has transformed me into the athlete I've always wanted to me. She's taught me to believe in the abilities I have and reach for the stars. I don't think I would have reached the goals I have without her.

Jeff asked about a million questions. Question 1: For you, which smells illicit the strongest response?
Interesting question. I'd have to say that a lot of smells don't bother me. Gross trash. Okay. Dead animals. Okay. Skunks. Okay. Remember, I grew up in the sticks so those were daily smells. :) Personally, I love the smell of a swimming pool and bleach. Those are my favorite smells. As for the strongest response....I had a boyfriend in high school who wore a lot of cologne and to this day if someone is wearing that cologne it always makes me think of him. Not in a "ahhh, high school love" way, just "huh, that smells like so-and-so."

Question 2: What has been your biggest hurdle with the VIP Photo Booths and how did you overcome it?
This sounds like an interview question. :) When I started working as an engineer it because clear very quickly that I could either become a career engineer and do the same things forever or go into management. I had absolutely no desire to go into management. When Dave and I started the business we had planned on just having one photo booth and working it ourselves. After working our first bridal show just four months after starting the business we quickly discovered we were going to need two photo booths STAT and that we would need some help. Just nine months after our first paying job in August of 2008, we had two photo booths and two other employees. Now 2-1/2 years into the business we still have two photo booths, four employees, and we're hoping to expand in 2011. So, what's the challenge? I had no idea how hard it would be to grow the business as quickly as we have. Honestly, we were going to give it a few months and then reevaluate and decided if I would be going back to work. And during the first 2+ years I also held down a part time job. This year, 2010, we just exploded. We set our goals very high and exceeded all of them. We went from scheduling the booth around our employees' schedules to scheduling the booth every opportunity we could. Having hired people I knew from my "inner circle" it's been difficult to separate friend/family from employer. It's often created tension and conflict when there should have been none. Dave and I have worked very hard to come up with creative solutions to keep our employees interested and fulfilled. So far, I still have them all and really appreciate what they do for us. Hopefully 2011 will continue to be amazing for the business.

Question 3: As a couple with both parties training for long endurance events, how has that affected your 'sexy time' and how do you overcome the scheduling/fatigue?
Since I know that both our families read this blog I really debated if I wanted to answer this question. But Dave and I talked about it together and decided to answer it. When training for Ironman you are always tired and hungry. And you can never get enough of either sleep or food. I was probably sleeping 12+ hours each day and eating upwards of 3000-5000 calories a day. Seriously. I had the luxury of being at home every day so activities always took place before Dave got home from work. But Dave, not being a morning person, did all his training after work so dinners were always after 9:00pm and sometimes after 10:00pm and most nights he would fall asleep on the couch while we were watching TV. Honestly, if I did not wake him up to go to bed most night, I think he would have spent more nights sleeping on the couch than in the bed. So did it affect our "sexy time" as Jeff put it? Most definitely. Don't be propositioning me at 11:00pm when I have to get up in the morning and do yet another three hour workout! I mean seriously, aren't you tired? :) BUT, our relationship goes a lot deeper than "sexy time." Dave and I built our relationship on years of friendship before we ever went on a date. And that has continued as we dated, married, and years later we are still great friends. Two years ago when Dave trained for Ironman and I didn't our relationship began to unravel. We fought A LOT. It was a lot of time apart and when we were together, Dave was too tired to be present. But last year we spent a lot of time together training and our relationship did much better than the previous year. So we may not have had as much "sexy time," but we did have a lot of "Dave and Meredith" time and it was a lot of fun. Time will tell how this year (2011) will go as Dave will not be doing an Ironman.

If you have a question you'd like answered, feel free to leave a comment on yesterday's Thursday Thoughts or leave a comment here and I'll add the question and answer on to this blog post.

Thursday Thoughts

I have been doing "Thursday Thoughts" for years and I'm starting to struggle to come up with questions to ask. Since there are so many new readers as of recent, I'm going to let you guys ask the questions today. Feel free to leave a comment and ask me a question, any question. I do reserve the right to answer discreetly. Remember, I am a business owner and don't want to say or do anything to jeopardize my business.

I'll answer the questions tomorrow so make sure you submit your questions TODAY.

Ask away!!!

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

This week's recipe is courtesy of Julia.

California Quiche

8 Eggs beaten
1 Cup grated Swiss cheese ( not lowfat)
2 C grated Zuchhini
1 small onion diced finely
1 Tbs Oregano
salt to taste

Beat the eggs( I do it by hand) saute the onion and the zuch until soft, not too well done unless you want them mushy in the quiche. Add the veggies to the quiche, add the oregano and salt to taste.
Stir in the cheese.
Put in a casserole ( covered) at 350 for about 45 minutes.
Keep an eye on it and towards the end take the top off to brown it.

The only thing we changed in the recipe was the swiss cheese. I don't like swiss cheese so we changed it to monterey jack. Here's some pictures of ALL the eggs and the sauteing vegetables.




Here's what the assembled product looks like:


Our finished product was served with biscuits and a salad:



Overall this recipe was not bad. I think Dave liked it more than me. I would have liked it with less onion. Personally, I like my quiche with some sort of meat in it and with a crust. I guess that makes it a soufflé. :) Next time we make this we might make a few changes. Thanks Julia for the recipe!!!

October Totals

'Twas the night before the new season
And all through the house
Meredith was hydrating
Plans were being laid out.

But enough about what's to come. Let's talk about what I did (or did not do) in October.

Swim - 11,100 meters (just shy of 7 miles of swimming)

Bike - 0 miles (last month of zero miles)

Run - 35.99 miles (I should have run a few more steps and come up with 36 miles)

Strength Training - 3.25 hours (lots more to come in this department)

Foto Friday

If you don't think this is cute, well...then....




Happy Halloween!

Motivation

My two months of gluttony off season is coming to an end. Monday, November 1st I return to organized training. Frankly, I'm ready to return. After two years of being coached, I have no idea what I'm doing on my own. The last two months I have been wandering aimlessly, running here and there, doing the swims posted at the pool, and not biking at all. I have big goals next year and I'm ready to focus and dedicate. But, I also know it's going to be a long, long journey towards 140.6 again. It takes a lot to stay focus, dedicated, and motivated. This week I've been prepping.

On the drive down to Louisville for the race, Dave handed me a big envelope full of encouraging cards and emails from friends and family. When things went bad in the race, I put them all back in the envelope and kept them there sitting on my bedroom floor. This week I got them out, reread them, and decide to use them as motivation. With most of the cards, letters, and emails I made this, which will sit in front of my bike this winter.


For years I've kept a journal about my running and racing. As the blog has progressed, I've gotten a little lazy about keeping up with that journal. I still write my race reports in the journal, but that's about it. My coach uses Training Peaks to communicate the daily workouts and therefore, I no longer keep a training log either. I really wish I had all my Ironman training workouts written down in a log so I can look back at that one day and say, "Wow, look what I did!". So, this week I bought myself a composition notebook and wrote down my first week's workouts and my weekly goals I've established for myself. I hope to continue to build this log and have something that's really interesting to look back on and be amazed.


The season's coming. And I'm ready.

The Bourbon Chase 2010

It's that time of year again. Time for the running adventure. Time for the 24 hour relay. After running Reach the Beach five times, it was time to try a new relay: Bourbon Chase. The Bourbon Chase is a 200+ mile, 12 person relay that travels from Louisville to Lexington, KY traveling along the Bourbon Trail. My previous teams for Reach the Beach expanded and created two teams: 3 Old Crows, 9 Spring Chickens and our master's team, The Flying Anvils. With a week of rearranging people and vans, we somehow only wound up with 11 on our team and thus we set out to beat our master's team.

The race began at Jim Bean and would basically travel from distillery to distillery, including Maker's Mark, Heavenly Hill, Four Roses, Woodford Reserve, and Wild Turkey. Waves started early in the morning, 8:00am, with the slower teams and the last wave left at 6:30pm with the fastest teams. Both our teams started at 3:00pm. Here's a picture of our two teams together:


I was the second person to run for our team and this may have been the last time our team was in front of our master's team (thankyouverymuch!).

There I go....

Each person ran somewhere between 12-20+ miles on this journey. I personally ran just under 15 miles. Because our team only had 11 participants I was runner 2, 13, and 24. My first leg was 6.2 miles which ran mostly on a freeway. Talk about scary! The second leg was 4.2 miles and I finished exactly at midnight. The first two legs I ran felt great. I was cruising along, had a great pace, and felt good. My third leg started around 7:00am and was also 4.2 miles. I said to my legs, "get moving." And they said back, "Um, no." My first 4.2 miles was 33:46 and my second 4.2 miles was 36:14. Yeah, I was toast. That's what happens when you don't run for like two months. :)

We didn't get a whole lot of rest on this trip, not that you ever do on these relays. I was in a van with 6 people, but the other half of our team only had 5 people and was the fastest of our 5 people (including one who recently qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials). So our van might have taken 4 hours to run our legs but the other van probably only took 3 hours. I might have gotten about an hour and a half of real sleep during the entire 26 hours.

So, we lost to our master's team. They're pretty fast. They beat us by an hour or so. Of course, my dad was on that team so I've heard nothing but gloating for days. Our master's team came in 13th overall and third in the men's masters division. The team I was on came in at 25:52:04 (7:46 pace), finishing 20th overall, and 10th in the men's open division (we only had 3 women--you need 6 for a mixed team).

Now the good stuff...

• I did a bourbon tasting at Wild Turkey where I had some American Honey, which coincidently is my favorite song by Lady Antebellum. Yummy! My second tasting was at Woodford Reserve. That sucker burnt all the way down!
• I finally got to meet super blogger, Amy, from Twenty Six Point Two. She has the cutest accent. Being that I was so tired I forgot to get a picture of us. Next time, Amy.
• I wore my finisher's shirt from Rev3 Knoxville for a majority of the race. Man, I got asked from tons of people about the race and lots of people said they were going to do it next year. Rev3 is totally going to blow up (especially after this crazy news)!
• And the weirdest thing of all...while wearing my Rev3 finisher's shirt I had a gentleman say to me, "I ran that race." He then really looked at me and said, "I ran that race with you." Turns out it was Chuck, who did run many miles with me during the 10K running portion of the race.

I had fun. I met new people. It was fun to be reunited with some of my old running buddies. It was good to see Andrea again. We haven't seen each other since Boston 2009. I think I ran decently. Maybe next time I'll do a little more training...

Monday's Menu

Each week, I will feature a recipe on Monday that Dave and I cooked the previous week. If you'd like to contribute a recipe, please leave a comment below or send it to me via email: meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com.

This week's recipe is courtesy of my high school friend Mike. After high school Mike went to culinary school and became quite the chef. He suggested I might like pistachio-encrusted tilapia. He was right.

The full menu was tilapia, garlic potatoes, green beans (which we forgot to make), and bread pudding for dessert. (Make sure to click on the links for full recipes and descriptions.) We started with the bread pudding actually (it would take a lot longer). First we cooked the bread to make it stale.


While I was working on the pudding, Dave began working on the potatoes. Here's what they looked like after he washed and peeled and them.


From there they got a treatment of garlic and olive oil and whatnot. Did I mention we used the leftover potatoes we had from last week's Monday's Menu. Yay for using all our food before it went bad!

Next it was time for the tilapia. Dave prepared the "bath" for them. We seriously need to find a better way to grind the pistachios. I think next time we'll use the blender.


We dunked the tilapia in the "wash" then in the pistachios and then put them in the electric skillet to just seer both sides. The cooking would be in the oven.

While the fish were cooking we finished up making the bread pudding. We added a whole bunch of really good smelling ingredients...cinnamon, nutmeg...and then we put in zucchini. I don't understand the zucchini but Dave's swears it was necessary. This is what the pre-baked bread pudding looked like:


The bread pudding went into the oven; the fish and potatoes came out of the oven. It was time to eat. This is what the prepared meal looked like:


The result was YUMMY! Now, I haven't eaten fish in like 20 years and I've been really nervous about adding fish back into the routine. I don't know....I just don't like fish. BUT, this tasted delicious. In fact, I wish I had more to eat. It was so easy to make. I highly recommend the tilapia. The potatoes were okay. Just okay. I didn't think they had a lot of flavor to them. I wound up cutting them up and putting some butter and salt on them.

After dinner it was time for dessert and bread pudding.


It smelled terrific. Dave dipped us both some and I took the first bite. Um, what's the best way to describe it....DISGUSTING!!! It tasted like wet bread. I've had some really good bread pudding before but this was nowhere near good. Dave took a few bites and he too agreed it was not good. We threw it all down the drain. Oh well. We're trying to become better cooks and improve our eating habits, but they can't all be winners, right?

Next week's recipe has yet to be decided. If you'd like to submit one, we'd love to give it a try. Happy eating!

Columbus Marathon Wrap-Up

If you didn't know by now, I decided not to run the marathon this year. I really wanted some downtime and I knew that my goals would be greater than what I'd actually be able to achieve so I decided to sit out. Despite getting home at midnight from a photo booth event and turning off the alarm, Dave and I did get out of bed with barely enough time to make it down to the marathon to cheer on our friends.

Congratulations to our many friends who ran the half and full marathon:

Janet Edwards - Trakkers teammate who had a BIG PR in the half!

Jeannie Ritchie - 3rd in AG for the half!

Brandon Bauer - 4th place overall finish in 2:22!!!

Maria Troutman - I coached Maria in high school. This was her first marathon and she qualified for Boston!

Tom Kingery - new PR!

Colleen Kingery - new PR!

Jennifer Hansen - first marathon and ran a 4:10 (that's better than I did my first marathon)!

Monday's Menu

I'm starting a new segment on the blog that I'm calling "Monday's Menu." As I stated before, one thing I hope to change in my triathlon training for 2011 is my diet. So, last week I put out a call for recipes on my Facebook page. And I got a lot of responses. Dave and I have decided to give at least one new recipe a try each week until we can totally redo our weekly menus and totally revamp our nutrition. Last week we gave Andrea's pork tenderloin (via Martha Stewart) a try.

Pork tenderloin all prepared to be cooked.

The recipe is simple (you can click on the Martha Stewart link above for the full recipe) but basically you season the tenderloin, put it in a baking pan, put your other "stuff" around it (we used squash and potatoes) and get to cookin'. After the initial cooking, you take the pan out, smear some Hoisen sauce on the tenderloin (yum) and put it back in the oven until the pork reaches a temperature of 140 degrees. (We got to use our meat thermometer for the very first time!). We had a little trouble getting our pork to reach the correct temperature, but after pumping up the oven to 400 and cooking it a little longer we were good to go.

And.....good it was! It was delicious. The meat was moist and had great flavor. The potatoes could have used a little salt, but otherwise yummy, and the squash might have been the best tasting part of the whole meal (I had never had squash before). This recipe was easy, yummy, and we will definitely be adding it to our menu.

So now it's your turn to help. We DESPERATELY need help revamping our menu. I would love your nutritious recipes. Please comment below or send me an email (meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com) with your recipe. Dave and I will be trying something new each week and then it will be featured on Monday's Menu. Thanks, in advance, for your help.

Thursday Thoughts

Seems I stirred up a firestorm on my Facebook page yesterday. I mentioned that the local mall was opening a Lululemon and that I thought Lululemon was overpriced for what they offered. I had some people who agreed with me and wondered what constituted a high-end sweatshirt :) and others disagreed with me as they claim it's high quality and worth every penny. Personally I tend to buy sports bras from Target, get no-named brand shorts from Dick's Sporting Goods, and why would you ever need to buy a technical shirt when you get one from every race you do and do many workouts in just a sports bra?

Truth be told, I try not to pay full price for anything. I use coupons for EVERYTHING. I recently went shopping at the mall and bought a long sleeve shirt, two sweaters, a skirt, one pair of dress pants, and two pairs of earrings for about $100. How did I do that? Sales, a Groupon, and two coupons. Score one for the good guys.

So, what are you willing to pay full price for? What will you absolutely NEVER pay full price for?

Product Review: Amphipod Hydration Handheld

I'm a girl who always runs with water. If I'm going out on a long run I wear my fuel belt. For anything less than an hour I like to carry a handheld. For the last couple of years I've been running with a Nathan handheld.


In the beginning I really loved this handheld. But then one day the strap came undone and I haven't been able to redo it the same way no matter how many times I've tried. I finally just tied a knot in it but it's still looser than I'd like it to be. I now carry it with my thumb through the top and pretty much hold the bottle by the lid.

For our anniversary this year, I got Dave his own handheld, an Amphipod 20oz. handheld.


I tried it out on a short 5 mile run this past Saturday. And overall, I like it better than my other one. The only thing I like better on the Nathan handheld is the waterbottle nozzle. The Amphipod one, though,fits really close against the hand and it's hard to notice it's there. However, it's still a lot bigger than what I'm looking for. Amphipod also makes one that is 12 oz. which might be closer to what I'm looking for. I'd really like something that's more the size of my hand (tiny), stays snug against my hand without clenching it, and doesn't have to hold a whole lot of water. Any ideas?

The Offseason

My triathlon friends seem to enjoy their bikes WAY more than I do and thus are enjoying their off season cyclocrossing. Is that a word? Myself, this is running season. But since I don't have a fall marathon ahead of me, I've decided to do some other things besides running and swimming. I've decided to give weight training another chance. For the last two Mondays Dave and I have been attending "Strictly Strength" at our gym. It's sort of aerobics-meets-weight training. It's small weights, high reps, and it's all set to music. Sure it's kinda a "chick" class, but if it will get me stronger then I'm in. The first week was killer since I haven't lifted a weight since maybe May, but this past Monday I totally kicked that class's butt. For every squat and lunge I kept thinking "this is going to make me a faster biker." And for every fly, pushup, and shoulder press I thought, "I'm going to be a faster swimmer this year." I'm not nearly as sore as I was the first week. I hope to keep Strictly Strength on the schedule for many months to come.

Tonight I tried something completely new: CrossFit. Some friends of ours from college have recently started doing Krav Maga (kinda mixed martial arts) and CrossFit. I have absolutely NO desire to do any contact sport so we said we would join them for a CrossFit session. While filling out the information sheet I said my goal was to have "Big ass muscles!" I don't know if the leader understood that as big muscles or ass muscles, but he set up the workout to be strength, strength, strength tonight. After a short warmup we got started.

4 X 50ft walking lunges with weight overhead: I joined the other girls in the class with the small bar--30 pounds. I did three sets at 30 pounds overhead and then moved up to the 45 pound bar for the last set. Thank goodness I would say lunges are a strength of mine.

4 X 2 each side Turkish get-ups with increasing weight: What the hell is a Turkish get-up? Well, it's part sit up, part squat, part don't drop the weight on yourself. :) Start laying on the ground with a kettlebell in one hand straight up above. Take the leg on the same side as the kettlebell and bend it with your foot on the ground (to push off of). Then roll to the opposite side onto your arm, pushing up to your elbow and then onto your hand. The weight is still up in the air and is now above your head. The whole time you're looking at the weight. Now push off your hand on the ground and take the leg that's not bent and sweep it under you until your kneeling. The kettlebell is still overhead. Now push off the leg underneath you until you are standing up, keeping the weight overhead. Now reverse everything...down into a kneel, hand on the ground, leg sweeps underneath and is put in front, elbow on the ground, roll onto your side, and onto your back, of course keeping the weight above your head. I started with 4kg (~8.8 pounds) for the first set and then went up to 8kg (~17.6 pounds) for next three sets.

5 X 5 front squats with increasing weight: After adjusting to the technique of holding the bar in front (see picture), I totally rocked the squats. Squats have always been a specialty of mine. I started with a 30 pound bar, then 45 pounds, 50 pounds, 60 pounds, and I maxed out at 80 pounds. It gave me great pleasure when the total stud of the class said I did really great on the squats.

4 X 100m sled pulls with increasing weight: Finally the last workout of the night. I started with 95 pounds on the sled and then the instructor went crazy with the weight. I have no idea what the middle two weights were but the last weight was 195 pounds. People, that's nearly two of me I was pulling! I felt like such a cartoon character. My feet were going so fast and I was going nowhere. I was leaning at a 45 degree angle. Had I stopped, I would have fallen over. And I felt like such a fool as Dave and our friend Dave were walking beside me giving me encouragement as I was "running" with the sled. Seriously, though, I was pretty impressed with myself with all that weight.

Well, we gave it a try. It was fun and I think we did well at it. Unfortunately it's a little too heavyweight for our triathlon training, but it's certainly good to have learned some techniques that we can incorporate into our regular weight training at lower weights, higher reps. I'd say CrossFit was a success.