Critique my Refrigerator and Pantry

From time to time, I catch shit from people about things I choose to eat and drink, like Coke, jelly beans, Pringles, etc. But unless you've been inside my fridge and watched me eat on a daily basis, what the fuck would you know about my day to day diet?

So in the interest of full disclosure, I hereby present pictures of my fridge contents:

Above is the business part.

Top Left:

• Bottles of Gatorade. These are used during swimming, biking and running. Behind the Gatorade bottles are my bottles of Endurox R4, which has been my preferred recovery drink for 15 years.

Top Right:

• Coffeemate, low fat Hazelnut. Yes, it contains sugar. I like it.
• Behind the Coffeemate is coffee. For years I used to ship 100% Kona coffee here, and it was delicious, but I don't drink as much coffee as I used to (3 small mugs in the morning), and I am good with Starbucks or Gevalia or whatever looks good at my grocery store.
• Bottles of Infinit. These are here for the Tour of Sufferlandria. Normally, I only use Infinit for rides of 3+ hours or when I both swim and run in the morning before work. For the Tour, I'm drinking it every stinking ride because I want the caffeine and race-type fueling. I have 3 custom Infinit mixes that I use as needed--for Monday-Friday of the Tour I am using my lower calorie mix, and for Saturday and Sunday I'm using my fairly high caffeine, higher calorie mix.

Second Shelf, Left:

• Eggs, eggs, eggs! The small bowl has hardboiled eggs. I eat one for breakfast every day.
• Herring. This is a snack food for me. I like it from time to time. 

Second Shelf, Right:

• One container of brown rice.
• One container of a chicken/vegetable dish that was in my freezer, that I will eat either for lunch or dinner today depending on how I feel. It will go over rice.

Drawer, Left:

• Various protein snacks live in here, such as string cheese (sometimes Cheddar), braunschweiger (yep, I love that stuff), regular American cheese, Canadian Bacon and Lox, depending on what I'm in the mood for. The lox and Canadian bacon are for when I do a swim/run combo and I need to eat a significant snack after, which consists of an English muffin buttered with one of them on top.
• Corn tortillas (you can't see them). For when I want a bit more carbs with dinner (to soak up some sauce) or an ad hoc tortilla wrap.

Third Shelf, Left:

• Homemade banana/wheat germ muffins (in the bags). I eat one of these for breakfast every day, with a hardboiled egg. Gluten! GMO wheat! Sugar! Canola oil! These things will surely kill me!
• Behind the muffins is a big chunk of Parmesan cheese, that I periodically grate to go on top of salads or rice.

Third Shelf, Right:

• Cherry tomatoes, for salads
• More containers of brown rice. I made about 8 cups for the week, and it keeps well.
• Yogurt. This is what I consider dessert, when I want it.
• Bread. GMO wheat! For when I want toast or the odd sandwich.

Bottom Drawer, Left:

• Lemons. I use these when I roast a whole chicken. The chicken is stuffed with 2 separated heads of garlic, a halved lemon and some rosemary.
• Salad greens. I could buy the greens loose, but I'm lazy and I like the easy variety of the packaged ones.
• A small container of pignoli. For salads.
• Garlic. You can't see it, but there are 4 heads in there.

Bottom Drawer, Right:

• Coke! Because I like it during long runs on the treadmill in winter, to load up calories before long workouts, or when I've delayed a mid-day run or bike past lunchtime and need calories but can't eat lunch because then I'd need to wait even longer. On average, I probably drink 1.5 Cokes per week.

Above is the door. It contains condiments (ketchup, mayo, mustard, BBQ sauce, Chinese sauces), grated Parmesan (in the Jewel container), Starbucks espressos for emergency caffeine, almond milk (used in my breakfast muffins), a package of coffee (because it wouldn't fit in the freezer), bread crumbs, lemon juice, spare Coffeemates, Kringle Cream (it's awesome), Limoncello (it's also awesome), English muffins (which I will swap out for the homemade ones in late spring) and...BEER.

Above is the main part of my (smallish) freezer. In here are chicken (whole roaster and drumsticks), some steaks, some fish (salmon), a chuck roast, coffee, meatballs (in the Dean's containers), a Lean Cuisine (I usually eat one of those for lunch), and various containers of tasty things I've cooked in bulk and then frozen so I can use them on weekdays when I have zero time to cook. Also stuffed in there are a couple of slices of my deep dish pizza and lasagna in the tinfoil.

Above is the door of my freezer. Butter (butter keeps extremely well in the freezer), more coffee, and containers of various tasty things like pesto (I make a huge batch every August and dole it out as needed throughout the year), pasta sauces and rice toppings. And a few small ice packs.

Above are the top shelves of my pantry (it's a closet). Some cooking vessels, including a lobster pot, a tart pan and my good cookie sheets, and on the lower shelf are my flours (gluten! GMO wheat!), rices (brown and jasmine), sugars (brown and white granulated), and spare food wraps.

Above is the remaining shelves of my pantry. Lots of good things in there! Various sauces for Chinese cooking, couscous, sardines, tomatoes and tomato sauces, Chinese vegetables, olives, anchovies, beans, soups, sauerkraut, salsa, wheat germ, almond milk, ketchup, pickles, coconut milk, chile sauce, canned fruit, garlic chili paste, and there's a bunch of pasta in there.

So yes, I do eat some processed foods, I do eat some sugar (aside from naturally occurring in the fruit I eat which is typically bananas, dried figs, prunes, and seasonal fruits like berries, mangos), I do drink beer and the occasional aperitif or cordial (I have a pretty good wine rack in my dining room, too!), and I do take in engineered sports nutrition. I prepare my breakfast and dinner foods from scratch, and go out to eat maybe once a week or every 2 weeks, preferring sushi, good Italian and lately Caribbean.

I didn't take pictures of other food areas, like spices, oils and crackers. I use a lot of olive oil. Salads are topped with olive oil and creme of balsamic. I have fallen in love with the specialty Triscuits--cracked black pepper, sweet potato and roasted sweet onion. Sometimes I'll have a few with cheese on top as a snack, or have a few with dinner. I have a bag of fun size Paydays that are in reserve for long bike rides or whenever I feel like it. I have a package of Keebler cheese/peanut butter crackers that I like when doing long (3+ hour) rides. I have some jelly beans.

I cook on weekends only unless I have a day off work. Broiling a steak or fish or chicken does not constitute cooking to me. Cooking is a dish requiring prep time, at least 5 ingredients, and some watching. I've come to know a bunch of recipes in my favorite cookbooks that I make over and over. Pasta sauces are for when I'm training > 15 hours per week. Rice toppings are good any time. The pizza and lasagne are once a year deals, since they take a shitload of time to make. I'm still trying to decide if/when I will make my annual batch of green chile--it's another dish that takes the better part of a day to make, but I have no room in my freezer currently! I can now start extracting containers from my freezer, and when I have removed 4 or so, then I can make my next thing and freeze it. What happens is that by summer I have a whole bunch of different things in there to choose from, which is really nice, and they supplement grilling outdoors. In summer, I'm usually training like a beast and eating more pasta, and there are many pasta sauces I like that require very little time, and so I will make one when I feel like it (spaghetti carbonara, walnut pesto, sausage/cream, on and on!) and eat it for a few days.

Could I eat more cleanly? Of course. But I do pretty OK, I think, eating appropriately for the amount of training I'm doing, a good amount of fruits and vegetables (I have fruit for morning snack and on top of salads and in some rice toppings, and dinner features a lot of vegetables and some at lunch), a good amount of lean protein, appropriate use of starches, and I'm not a big dessert person. I do indulge in the occasional McDonald's, but that's about it for out to eat junk food. In my daily diet, most of my sugar comes in the form of sports nutrition. There's that little bit in my coffee, breakfast muffin and lunch. Sometimes I go through a phase where I'll have tuna and vegetables for lunch. It's healthier than a Lean Cuisine, but I also like a hot meal at lunch. I don't feel like I'm sacrificing. EVER. Do I think my racing would be better if I cleaned up my diet even more? Fuck no. It's important to me to enjoy life even though I train fucking hard. Good food is one of the rewards of hard training. I'm cognizant of the need to replace and top off my glycogen stores, not get fat, and time my meals and snacks based on my training. This is what works for me. Time to finish breakfast!

I love food--I love shopping for food, I love making food, and I love eating it. But I am also aware of nutrition, and I think I have it covered!

Orthorexia, Food and/or Grocery Store Nazis, Fat Acceptance and Mindful Eating

I do triathlons. Long distance triathlons. Ironman and beyond. I've been told I'm a badass, but I believe that one should not call oneself a badass. I always say that I am just doing something I love!

Speaking of things that I love, I love food. Not in a "I will eventually weigh 400 lbs." sort of way, but face it, food is...tasty. And when you are eating for performance, as I do much of the year, pretty much anything that goes in my maw is tasty. What I mean by that is go ride 150 miles and then eat kale with turd sauce. It will taste awesome because your body craves the calories, and when they hit your bloodstream all that wonderful insulin is secreted, beginning the process of replenishing the glycogen in your muscles. Although I hate kale. To me it tastes like grass, and not grass growing on a tropical island--grass growing in my neighbor's shitty, weedy lawn.

I grew up in a family with 5 children, and Mom and Dad did not make very much money, so we tended to eat rather frugally. Mom was a decent enough cook, and she could bake some great bread and cookies--although her pie crust left something to be desired--but we didn't care because the filling was always good! When she returned to the workforce when I was in 7th grade, I took up helping her prepare meals, and then when I was in high school, I completely took over making the family dinners, including a really nice dessert. My older sister was already off to college, but my 2 brothers, younger sister and Mom and Dad really liked my cooking, and I took to reading cookbooks and expanding my repertoire.

Fast forward to me being done with college and living on my own and deciding I wanted to sort of specialize in Italian cooking. So since I'm a tad OCD, I bought some cookbooks, studied them and had at it. I expanded into some Chinese and Mexican. Cooking is basically following instructions, and from repeated following of instructions, learning how to alter the basic recipe and then progressing to creating your own variants or completely new things. I still cook a lot of things from recipes, only because I believe they were already spot on! Some I have memorized, but many not--there's not enough room in my brain for all that in addition to everything else I need to keep on top of.

My love of Italian cooking and cheese got me in trouble once upon a time, because I was just eating too many calories for my activity level, and that combined with an adverse cholesterol test result spurred me to change my diet. Well not so much my diet, but my approach to food. What I really needed to learn was...wait for it...how to eat anything I wanted in moderation. At some point, either through deliberate action, or through serendipity, everyone realizes that you can't just eat with abandon, and either counts calories or uses some method of keeping the calories in/calories out in balance. I'm assuming here a person who has a realistic definition of what constitutes a healthy weight/body composition. Last night, I watched about :15 of a program about BBW women and I found it extremely sad that these women saw absolutely nothing wrong with carrying around an extra 100-300 pounds! But that's another topic for another day.

It took me a number of years to get the whole moderation thing, and along the way, I discovered a key aspect of my personal weight management methodology: many foods should be categorized as treats, and you can't have treats every single day and expect to maintain health/healthful weight unless you are exercising a shit ton. Whenever someone approaches me to discuss weight/dieting (and this happens frequently enough at my Y because I guess I look like someone who would know about this), this is one of the first truths I cover with them. You can't eat cheese burger and fries today, pizza tomorrow, huge dessert next day, and so on, and expect it to have no impact on you when you are barely exercising.

And that's the second shocking fact I give them--you are barely exercising. Your 30 minutes or 1 hour a day isn't much at all, and it's certainly not enough to give you free rein to eat whatever the hell you want all the time.

But, if you start to accept that you can't have everything you want to eat all the time, but you can have it sometimes as a treat, then over time, you will come to actually enjoy the core healthy foods: fruits, vegetables, lean protein, nuts, seeds, and less refined grains.

I don't espouse any particular "diet" like Paleo or Atkins. I focus on eating an appropriate amount of carbs for your activity level. That's it. I came to this revelation from a sports nutrition book I read years ago combined with an exercise physiology book and of course, lots of Internet reading. My Mom had Type II Diabetes, so I learned about that, and all this heart disease and weight management basically comes down to one thing: carbohydrate consumption. You eat too much for your activity level and your body (because it's really good at it) tries to put the excess someplace for immediate or future use. That will be fat--subcutaneous at first, then intramuscular, and finally within your organs (which is how you end up with fatty liver disease just by eating excess carbs!). And oh by the way you will have excess sugar floating around in your blood and become diabetic at some point. Oh joy! It's not a question of if, but when. It doesn't matter what type of carbs were eaten in excess, but usually it's not vegetables. It's usually processed crap which is nutrient deficient yet calorie rich.

Fuck, I completely digressed. The point of this post is that I don't have a list of "foods I should never eat." Now, there are many processed foods I just have no desire for (what the fuck is "Texas Toast?"), but hey, if I really want gas station brownies because my blood sugar is plummeting, then I'm going to eat them.

Recently, in a Facebook group containing triathletes (mostly Ironman level, although for some reason they let in those loser sprint people--ha ha, just kidding), someone who was stepping up to Ironman distance asked for people's nutrition recommendations. And she was smart, in that she said her biggest concern was eating enough for performance. Someone else posted about how Paleo eating is the best thing since sliced bread.  I posted my handy carb calculator spreadsheet, and added comments about how when I'm training a lot, I add in things like Pringles, Cheetos, Twinkies and candy.

Well someone got all bent the fuck out of shape and went on a rant about how those things are horrible junk food that nobody should ever eat. Like I'm stuffing my face with huge amounts of those things! Um...no. I have personal rules about certain treat items and my starch consumption that I have found help me to keep my weight/body fat in check throughout an annual training cycle:

• Under 10 hours of training per week (which is rare for me), I'm a fucking rabbit--dinner is lean protein and a big salad--no starch. 
• 10-14 hours of training per week and I get to have rice more often than not at dinner time, because I am needing more carbs. But no pasta. And rarely Coke.
• 14-17 hours of training per week and I pretty much need starch at dinner every day, and pasta 1-2 times per week. Coke becomes necessary once or twice a week, either to wake the fuck up (from boredom at work) and pre-load for a workout, or to keep from killing myself while I'm doing hard bike or run intervals.
• 17+ hours of training per week and all bets are off--pasta, rice, and that's when I buy Pringles and candy. And if I feel like it, Cheetos, Twinkies and anything else.

So I get a kick out of someone going all nuclear on me for saying I eat certain foods when they have no clue about exactly when I do it. I also like Coke. A LOT. It's training fuel for me--all that luscious sugar and caffeine!  I smile whenever I see a semi-trailer carrying Coke, and if I'm close enough to it, I will wave at the driver!

Well a number of other people chimed in to support my POV on nutrition, including one guy who said he "eats like a goat." That's a good way to think about it. Now, I have complete respect for people who want to maintain a pristine diet, either Paleo or some other variant that includes zero processed foods. That's fine. I personally don't have 4 hours a day to spend on food obtainment and preparation, so I do utilize some processed foods. But in general, at dinner, I am eating home cooked goodness.

I know a couple who shops only at Whole Foods (yeah, them I'm sure you know them, too) and has at times gotten on my case about some of the things I eat. Oh but so why are you fat and I'm not? I guess it's better to be fat from eating only shit from Whole Foods than it is to be appropriate weight and eating like a goat? The thing about food is that once you eat it and burn it it's out of your system!  Who knew? But sometimes when people say "you are what you eat," I respond that, "then I'm a can of Pringles with a side of Coke and Gummi Bears." Even if you are eating your so-called organic food, it's being grown in the same air that the Pringles grow in. I know this.

The other component to my nutrition plan is that I can review at the end of a day and recount everything I ate. So while I don't count calories, I know whether I've been good or not. And I've been not great lately, but with just a little bit more focus, the 3-5 lbs. I want off of me will be gone. I know it's shocking that I can get overweight, right? When I'm up even 2 lbs. I start telling people I'm fat, and I know it makes them nuts. But then I say, "well if I don't care about 2, then I'm not going to care about 5, and then 10 and so on." There was a time long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, when most of the US population thought the same way that I do--that 5 extra pounds was something that needed to be taken care of right away. I remember it! But that attitude has degenerated into "fat acceptance" and blaming the food industry for making us fat.

I don't buy into that. Sure the food industry compels us to purchase their cheap carb-laden products, and they are tasty. But unless you have some standard about the way you maintain your machine (i.e., your body), much as you probably have standards about how you perform at your job, then you are going to blame all sorts of external factors for why you're fat.

This blog is and always has been about the mind-body connection. If you do anything mindlessly, you will suck at it. When it appears a person is doing something in a state of flow, you can bet that they have put in countless hours to get to the point where they can be on autopilot. When you introduce mindfulness into eating and consider your perception of pleasure vs. sustenance, you either learn that pretty much any food is OK, or if you feel you need to control it precisely, that's OK, too. But don't get on my case and I won't get on yours. Both ways are OK.

Ride Like an Egyptian Ride and FOOD Report

Yesterday I did, for the first time, the Ride Like an Egyptian century out of Dekalb.  I'd wanted to do this ride for a few years, but either the weather has been shitty, or I was doing a NothingMan (which used to traditionally occur the weekend after Ironman Wisconsin).  This year, the weather was going to cooperate, even if it started out a bit cold.

I woke up at 2:30.  I am doing fine on 7 hours of sleep, thank you, but pass out like 7:30PM.  I am such a loser but it works for me as I LOVE the early morning hours to straighten up the house (such as it is with a constant triathlon tornado blowing through), load bottles and stuff into the dishwasher, write blog posts, gaze upon my psycho training plan and review my master TO DO list to see what I might be able to knock out that day.

It was chilly outside, only 51, and the hourly forecast called for temps to drop even further by 7AM, which is when I wanted to start riding.  I chose a riding outfit including tights and a long-sleeve jersey from Jordan Rapp with a Descente underlayer on top, long socks, toe warmers, helmet beanie, and my awesome Castelli wind stopper gloves. I'd fixed my bottles on Wednesday this week (usually I don't do it until Friday) because I had to go to downtown Chicago on Thursday to get my new laptop (which I still haven't finished configuring because I haven't had time but that's on the list for tomorrow) and Friday I had a repairman coming (to fix my oven YAY it's fixed!) and then a massage and of course, work, so I got the head start on the bottles.

Pre-ride I took in:
FOOD ALERT!!!!

• Toasted Bay's Sourdough English Muffin with blackberry jam on top
• Hardboiled egg split in two on top of the muffin
• 3 cups of coffee with fat-free Hazelnut Coffemate (yes, it has SUGAR!)
• 300 calories of Ultrafuel, my sugary goodness that I use for any workouts over 3 hours
• 1 can of Coke during the drive to Dekalb.

So that's maybe 850 calories or so.  On the way to Dekalb, I saw the temperature dropping, to a low of 43!  I knew I'd made the right decision on clothes, even though I'd brought a pair of bike shorts just in case.   I even turned on the heat in my car!

When I arrived at the Egyptian Theater, where the ride began, it was pretty chilly when I got out of my car.  I got there just after 6:30AM, and there were already a good number of riders getting ready.  Some of them just had shorts on, and while I am pretty tough, I am tiny, and knew I'd be better off covered up today, even if it got to 70.  I'd rather be a tad warm than at all cold!

Here's the outside of the theater:

You can see from the sky that it was a beautiful morning!  In retrospect, I should have had someone take a pic of me doing the Egyptian walking pose in front, but oh well...

I figured from the outside facade of the building that it must be pretty cool looking on the inside, so I went in and snapped a few pics. First, here I am in my lucky Jordan Rapp jersey (official good luck to him in Kona!):

This is the second time I've worn this jersey--it's DA BOMB! Perfect for that starting out riding cold and may warm up a bit but you won't get hot in it. Next I went inside the theater proper and look at all the cool stuff in there:

I thought they'd let us check in like 6:45, but they wouldn't until 7:00AM, so I had 2 more funny pics to knock out:

Now why the dude taking the pic didn't get me head on I don't know!  Some people just have no clue when it comes to taking pics.  Meanwhile, everyone was marveling at how small I am and calling me skinny and I HATE that!  I am NOT SKINNY! 

I talked to a girl in line who had just started doing triathlons this year and she was so excited, and I didn't say anything about myself (after all, I was dressed like a roadie with a Castelli hat and all) until after I'd asked about all her races and times and stuff, then all I said to her was, "I've done a bunch of triathlons."

Got registered, got a map, failed to ask what the road/signage markings were for turns, and went back to car to retrieve Skull Kingdom and get started, but I had to pee again, because cold weather really makes me need to pee a lot.  I was going to use some shrubs in the parking lot, but there was a disgusting porta-potty that I used instead.

I headed out and within one mile was lost--no signs, no arrows.  And the map I thought I'd stuffed into my back pocket was not there.  I must have just dropped it on the ground.  There were a few guys around me (trying to keep up with me) and I asked if they had maps, and NO.  Fuck.  Well it took awhile to find someone riding WITH A FUCKING MAP and then we got on track.

The ride is a hub and spoke system, which is cool.  We ride out to central rest station and then there are 3 different loops from it, so theoretically, it was 11.5 miles to the rest station, and then each loop 25 miles, do them all you have 100.  Well it took me 1:07 to get to the rest station (I typically don't look at mileage because time controls when I eat/drink), and I'm thinking fuck I must have added a bunch!  Or their mileage was wrong.  It was a little of both.  I asked a volunteer for a map at the rest station and they didn't have any!  OK, poor organization, but I can't blame the volunteers.  They had all kinds of food there--PB&J sandwiches, bagels, fruit, GORP, etc., but I was on the Infinit and didn't want any of that yet.

I chose Loop #1 called Burlington first, as it was allegedly the most scenic countryside.  It was really pretty!  But it wasn't fucking 25 miles!  It was actually 30 something!  But luckily there was a water stop in the middle of nowhere because I only had a 16-oz. bottle of water in addition to my (2) 3-hour concentrated Infinit bottles.  At the water stop, I briefly chatted with a woman who was on an MTB, and asked about her shirt.  It was from the Toys for Tots motorcycle ride, that I know of.  I asked her what kind of bike she rides, and she said Kawasaki Vulcan.  *I* had a Kawasaki Vulcan way back when!  I asked the year of hers--1996--mine was an 85, I think, and mine was only a 550 whereas she has a 700.  I asked her which type of bike she likes best, and she said bicycle, because it's less nerve-wracking.  I have to agree, there.  Except that even on bicycles, people are trying to kill us!

The Burlington loop was blessedly free of traffic and had some decent rollers, but nothing I would call a major hill.  Great roads, lots of corn and soybeans, cute country homes, nice smells!  When I got back to rest station, I asked if anyone knew the exact mileage of the loop and where they were at, and people who HAD NOT BEEN LOST at the beginning like me (I must have missed just a single turn) had like 38 miles where I was up to 46 already, so yay me!

I was a bit hungry-ish at this point so I chowed a 1/2 PB&J and washed it down with Infinit.  I looked at the map on the wall to see which loop I'd do next--while I really liked #1, I didn't want too much excess mileage since I'd planned on riding again next day, maybe even another century.  Of the other 2 loops, one was labelled for "advanced riders," and I asked if that meant HILLS because I LOVE FUCKING HILLS but no, they said it was just on major roads with a lot of traffic, WTF???  So I decided on Loop #2 next.

Loop #2 rocked (Kaneville loop) because it started out going into the wind, which meant we'd have some tailwind on the way in.  I got about 1.5 miles in and passed a small girl on a tri bike riding next to a guy on a road bike.  About 30 seconds later, she rides up on me pedalling like mad to catch me, gets right next to me and says, "Are you a misfit?"  My addled brain is trying to process what she just asked me and I had no idea how to answer, so I just said, "Excuse me?"  She said there's a tri group called Misfits, and she thought I was one because of the skulls on my bike.  I smiled and said, "No, I'm not in any club," (except the one in my head LOL), then a few seconds later added, "I am a social misfit at times, though."  She could not keep up with me and dropped back.

I continued on Loop #2 and into a headwind (going south, I think), and then we hit this road called McGirr, which was fucking awesome.  The name reminded me of the ERMAHGERD meme, and I had miles of laughs saying ER MCGIRR to myself or even out loud.  I was needing water and pissing regularly, so luckily about 15 miles into this loop, just after we turned off McGirr was a library, with a porta-potty.  So that was good.  Then 10 more miles and back to rest station, and this time the loop ACTUALLY WAS 25 miles!!!  Well, 25.5.

I talked to and met some guys, 2 of them doing Ironmans, and 2 of them just riding, and we were laughing and stuff, and they got all gaga when I told them what the hell I've done, including Ultraman.  It still flabbergasts me that people think it's such a big deal, since I figure if *I* can do it, almost anyone can.  Anyway, I had to decide on my last loopage, and decided #2 again would be fun, so I asked these 2 guys (not the triathletes since I already knew they were faster than me) how fast they were riding, and they said 15-16.  I thought they were kidding or sandbagging, and told them to suck my wheel so we could ride together.  Well that lasted all of 2 miles and then I was gone. Once again, I had total fun on ER MCGIRR Road, and this time when I turned off, I needed water.  I asked a maintenance dude outside the library, and he said it was open and there were water fountains in there.  Which there were!  And they were ice cold!  I used the "Girls" bathroom, too!

I was happy to be heading back, and maybe 5 miles later who do I run into but the 2 dudes who weren't as fast as me, and I'm WTF how can this be?  They said they were right on with the turns and all, so I guess there was some turn I missed which caused me to get an extra 3 miles on this loop!  Once again, YAY ME!  I passed them again, got back to rest station and chatted again with the triathlete dudes (one doing IMAZ and other doing IMFL), we had some more yucks, then I had to get out of there.

The way back to Dekalb consists primarily of FUCKING KESLINGER ROAD which was the most hilly road of the ride PLUS A HEADWIND!!!  Fuck.  Oh well, gotta get 'er done.  I forgot to mention I'd been riding all day with a fucked up right foot, care of some shoe/insole/metatarsal pad experiments I'd done on Friday with my running shoes.  It cause my anterior tibialis and peroneals to go all FUCK YOU on me causing the front of my ankle to hurt like a mofo.  But I kept thinking as long as I didn't feel like I was making it worse by biking, I was OK.  It did hurt to unclip, but oh well.  That is why I wasn't riding like a bat out of hell.

FINALLY we got off the road from hell and were close to Dekalb.  A volunteer had said it was 14 miles back, which meant I'd end with 111 miles, which was cool, but of course the voices in my head are saying RIDE MORE SO YOU GET TO 112 YOU DUMBASS, but I was resisting them.  Finally I saw a sign WELCOME TO DEKALB, and I said DE-FUCKING-KALB I was ready to be done!

Well I roll into town and I'm already over 111 miles, I'm like, OK NOW I have to get to 112, and I was maybe 2 blocks from the theater, and I yell to some dude who'd just finished I'M AT 111.75 DO I RIDE AROUND TO GET 112???  And he knew the correct answer, which was YES!!!  However, I rolled past the theater into the parking lot, got to my car and was like HOLY FUCKING HELL LOOK AT THIS!

I mean, what are the odds that I added just enough lostness and extra miles on Loop #2 to get to this?  It made me smile hugely!  I wiped down my face and Skull Kingdom and put her into the car and grabbed my Endurox.

Here's what I had during the ride:
FOOD ALERT!!!!

• 6 hours of 1/2 Money Shot and 1/2 Money Shot 25% Less Caffeine custom Infinit mix.  245 calories per hour
• 1/2 of PB&J on white bread sandwich
• 1 fun-size Payday
• At least 6 16-oz bottles of water, probably more like 10.

I went back into the Egyptian Theater, and was giggling like a little kid I was so happy to be done, and they had a big spread of food, so first I headed there, and then sat down to chat with the volunteers and gave them this ride feedback:

• Have beer when we are done.  DUH.
• Have a whole pile of extra maps at the rest station since we are all clumsy and drop them like they're hot.
• McGirr Road is FUCKING AWESOME!

The 2 dudes who'd tried to ride with me came in a few minutes later and the 2 triathlete dudes went for a short run and came back to eat and we all chatted and exchanged names (if they are brave enough to read this blog and/or my Facebook page).  Here's what I ate immediately post-ride:
FOOD ALERT!!!!

• 1/2 egg salad sandwich on white bread
• 1/2 tuna salad sandwich on white bread
• 2.5 cups of beef/vegetable soup (YUM!)
• single serving of Lay's potato chips
• 1.5 scoops Endurox R4 mixed w/water
• about 5 1" cubes of cheese and 4 crackers

I had to get home to shower and stuff and meet my brother Mike for dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant.  But it was already 3:30PM and we were to meet at 5, so I called him and said 5:30, knowing full well I'd be ready for another meal in 2 hours!!!

I drove home rather fast, using the cruise control because my right ankle and glute were hurting like mofos.  Got home, immediately cracked a beer, OMG it was the BEST BEER EVER!  Unpacked the car, showered up (BEST SHOWER EVER!), dumped pics out of camera and onto Facebook while icing my right glute and ankle.  When I looked at my ankle, I actually had this 1" red lump on it, whoops!  But it went down pretty quick with the ice.

Then I met my brother Mike for sushi and me talking 200MPH because I was hopped up on caffeine and having had such a great ride and I've got 11 weeks until IMCOZ and I am so happy and feel great!  Here's the rest of the food I had yesterday:
FOOD ALERT!!!!

• 1 Harp Lager
• 1 Giant Sapporo with dinner
• 1 Raspberry beer just before bed and when I woke up 2 hours after my first sleep
• 2 brownies that I brought home from the ride.  I should have brought more
• At least 23 pieces of assorted sushi rolls and nigiri, possibly 30
• 2 small fortune cookies
• 1 bowl of Miso soup
• 2 small pieces of Hershey's dark chocolate

And guess what?  I woke up this morning with A HOLE IN MY STOMACH!!!  So had "real" breakfast today, 2 eggs fried in butter, English muffin slathered with butter, next I am going to have like 8 fresh figs and a banana.  FOOD CHANNEL!!!

I didn't add up my calories from yesterday, but I probably needed at least 5,000, so I will just keep working on them today ;)

Oh by the way, I averaged 18mph yesterday, not bad for an old lady with a bum ankle!!!  Today I'm signed up for another ride, but it's going to rain all day, so fuck that, I'm going to have fun with my girl, Lori, on the trainer (and she might run on the treadmill), for about 3 hours, and then we are going to EAT FOOD!!!

Two more big weeks of training and then a rest week.  YAY!!!  My ankle should be fine by Tuesday, which is when I do my next scheduled run.  Meanwhile...MORE BIKING!

Food

I like food. I need to eat a lot of food when I'm training in my usual fashion during the summer. Michael Phelps needs to eat a lot of food. It seems some people are pretty incredulous about the types of food he eats. Hey--when you need to eat 8,000 calories a day, it's pretty hard to get that all from fruits, vegetables, lean protein and whole grains. There is not enough time in the day to chew all of that! I mean seriously! When Eskimos used to subsist on a lot of whale blubber, was there someone telling them, "Hey, don't eat all that whale blubber!" Hell no. You eat what you need to eat and sometimes your body tells you to just eat a lot of calorie dense food that's not too bulky. Example: cake, cookies, candy.

So far today, I have biked for 1:40 and ran (brick) for :45 (**NEW** NO BONKING!!!) and here's what I've had to eat/drink:

Breakfast:
4 cups of coffee with non-fat Coffeemate creamer
1 Powerbar Triple Threat

10:00AM snack
2 large bananas

Pre-workout carb loading:
4 fruit slices (candy)
1 can Coke (unknown calorie content!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

During workout:
32 oz. Gatorade

Post-workout Recovery:
Endurox R4

Lunch--Sandwich consisting of:
2 slices bread
1 can albacore tuna packed in water
about 2 tbsp. low-fat mayonnaise
about 2 tsp. pickle relish
1/2 of a medium tomato

Salt Craving:
3 Pringles

How many calories in all that? Off the top of my head, I'd say about 2000? Except for the Coke, fruit slices and Pringles, pretty nutritional stuff. I could use more veggies. How many calories do I need today? About 1250 for the exercise, and about 2000 for my basal rate. So let's call it 3,300. So I need 1300 more. No problemo! Spaghetti and meatballs (homemade meatballs and sauce) tonight and a couple of beers should do it.

I think it's pretty easy to hit 3,500 calories a day of pretty healthy stuff, and that's already a lot of food! I can't imagine needing 5-7,000 more than that!

Back when I mostly just lifted weights, I was a little heavier than now (fatter, too) and could only eat maybe 1600-1800 calories a day to maintain my weight. Fuck that shit! I like food! For a person of my size, I think about 2,500 calories a day lets me eat a lot of different things in moderation (figure 1800 basal rate and then about 1.5 hours of exercise). 1.5 hours of exercise a day is only 10.5 per week, and that's about my winter load. This is why I stay away from pasta unless I'm at 15 hours or more a week--it's just too calorically dense and more of a treat.

But tonight, I'm going to add a bunch of carbs so I'm prepared for about 3 hours of training tomorrow. By the way, last week's little stomach upset I'm chalking up to well, just readjusting to training and introducing more carbs back into my system. Even though I rode for well over 6 hours on Sunday, I did not eat any starch post-workout and felt just fine yesterday. I feel like I need a ton of protein right now, and so I'm going to honor my body's request, and throw in some starch as needed.

If Phelps can win 8 gold medals eating whatever he wants, who are we to tell him he should do differently? Amongst whatever it is he's eating, he's getting what his body needs. Rock on, dude!