Weekly Workout Totals 03/31/2008-04/06/2008 and Bunch of Firsts

It didn't get quite as warm as I hoped today, but still, I rode outside. First outdoor ride of 2008! First outdoor ride of 2008 on LGL! First bonk! First bit of suntan on my face! First time cussing at cars (OK so it was under 5 minutes before the first F-bomb left my mouth)! Most amount of stretching I've done in a week this season so far! Did the 60 pushups to qualify for "excellent" status (it was actually easy)! Right now I'm eating some homemade spaghetti and meatballs, and I have to say it's my best version ever. Yesterday I made this Italian salad (recipe below) that is da bomb, and that will give me a few more lunches. Eating (and cooking) well is one of the perks of all this training.

I only took Gatorade with me on the ride today, and since it was still cool-ish, I didn't drink enough, and I should have supplemented with gels (or else used my custom Infinit which always gives me enough calories). As always, my first outdoor ride was a shock to the system, what with actual terrain, wind, needing to pay attention to cars and such. And then, there was the fact of what I did last weekend. And that I ran like a woman possessed yesterday. So my legs did not feel quite up to the task of a hard ride. But after an hour of noodling around (and removing a top layer as it had warmed a bit), I finally kicked in to some decent intensity and was enjoying it. Part of the ride ended up being recon, and man, some of the roads are in crappy ass shape after our snowy winter. It's like pothole city! One road on my interval loop is so chewed up that it caused an issue with my Nokon cables to surface--the rear derailleur cable kind of flops down after rolling over so many bumps and holes. I know my LBSG won't be thrilled when I ask him to remove a couple of the "links" in it so this doesn't happen. Good thing I noticed when I heard an unusual noise, which was the cable rubbing against the lower cog thingie.

When I got off the bike, I noticed my legs didn't feel too great. This wasn't entirely unexpected. I probably didn't need to do a brick run today, and it would have been better if I waited a few hours until I ran, but I didn't start riding until 10:15 since it dawned cold, and I had other things to do, so I suited up and took off. My legs felt at least as bad as they do when you start the Ironman marathon. This tells me that I am not in Ironman shape yet, which is fine, because I shouldn't be! I don't think I took in enough calories while riding, but no worries. I was supposed to run for :30, but I bargained with myself and instead decided to tough out 3 miles, which was plenty of running! After I finished, I wolfed down some of my Italian salad and an Endurox R4, and decided I needed a little lay down, which felt great.

After about :45 I got out of bed and started in on making the meatballs and sauce, and I'm eating now (and enjoying a Turning Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon--half of the bottle went into the sauce), but I must go and veg out for a bit now and call it a day.

Hope all you readers had as great of a weekend as I did!

Insalata russa con gamberi

Shrimp and Vegetable Salad

Serves 6 (allegedly)

Note: You can fudge on the amounts of each of the vegetables, and it will still probably turn out just fine. I am rarely precise in my use of ingredients, especially when it comes to vegetables or garlic!

1 lb. medium shrimp, unpeeled

1 TBSP. red wine vinegar

¼ pound green beans

2 medium potatoes

2 medium carrots

1/3 of a 10-oz. package frozen peas, thawed

6 small canned red beets, drained and dried on paper towels

2 TBSP. gherkins in vinegar, preferably French cornichons (available at Trader Joe’s), cut up

2 TBSP. capers, the smaller the better

3 TBSP. olive oil

2 tsp. red wine vinegar

Salt

2 ½ cups mayonnaise

Directions

1. Wash the shrimps. Put them, whole and unpeeled, in boiling salted water. Add the TBSP. of vinegar to the water and cook for 4 minutes. Allow the shrimps to cool; then shell and devein them and set aside.
2. Snap the ends off the green beans, pulling away any possible strings. Rinse them and drop them into rapidly boiling salted water. Taste them early and drain them as soon as they are tender but still firm, in as little as 8 minutes if they are very young and fresh.
3. Rinse the potatoes and boil them with the peel on. When they are easily pierced with a sharp fork, drain them and peel them while they are still hot.
4. Scrape or peel the carrots clean and drop them in boiling salted water. Do not overcook. Drain when tender and set aside.
5. Drop the frozen peas into boiling salted water and cook very briefly, not more than a minute or a minute and a half. Drain and set aside.
6. When the vegetables have cooled, set aside a very small quantity of each (potatoes excepted), which you will need later for garnishing, and cut up the rest as follows: the green beans into pieces 3/8 inch long; the potatoes, carrots and beets diced into 3/8-inch cubes. The peas, of course, stay whole. Cut up the capers also if these are not the very tiny ones. Put all the ingredients, including the cut-up gherkins or cornichons, in a mixing bowl.
7. Set aside half the shrimps. Cut up the rest and mix with the vegetables. Season with the olive oil, wine vinegar, and ½ teaspoon salt. Add 1 cup of the mayonnaise and mix thoroughly. Taste for salt and correct.
8. Turn the mixture over onto a serving platter. Shape it into a shallow, flat-topped, oval mound pressing with a rubber spatula to make sure the surface is smooth and uniform. Now spread the remaining mayonnaise over the entire surface of the mound. Use the spatula to make it as smooth and even as possible. Indentations or deep pockets will spoil the effect. You can omit this step and just scoop the salad into serving bowls.
9. Now decorate the mound. Here is one way of doing it. Place a thin carrot disk on the center of the mound. Put a pea in the center of the carrot. Make a rosette of shrimps around the carrot, placing the shrimps on their side, nestling one around the other. Over the rest of the flat surface scatter flowers made using carrots for the center button, beets for the petals, and green beans for the stems. Emboss the sides of the mound with the remaining shrimps, heads and tails imbedded in the salad, backs arching away. There are limitless ways in which you can use shrimps and vegetables to decorate this salad. Use your imagination! Caution: if you are preparing this many hours or a day in advance, decorate with the beets at the last moment before serving. Their color has a tendency to run. Note: Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Weekly Workout Totals	03/31/2008-04/06/2008
Swim:	9600 yards (5.45 miles) in 3.45 hours; 23% of weekly workout time; approx. 1207 calories burned
Bike:	Approx. 94.79 miles in 5.42 hours; 36% of weekly workout time; approx. 2439 calories burned; Total TSS=347
Run:	Approx. 29.04 miles in 4.39 hours; 29% of weekly workout time; approx. 1987 calories burned
Strength:	1.75 hours; 12% of weekly workout time; approx. 438 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 129.28 miles in 15.01 hours; approx. 6071 calories burned
Sleep:	8.11 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.63 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours