Living it Up

As much fun as the off season is, I'm ready for it to be over. Given I have all this extra time on my hands, I've been trying some new recipes and experimenting with some new food types. Here is one I recently tried and loved...Great for the gluten free types~

Black Beans and Quinoa

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,
3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and cilantro.

*I only used one can of black beans and also added some tomatoes. I'm pretty new to quinoa but love love love it. It's so good for you and yummy. And one batch will last you awhile....

Besides baking and eating, I've been doing my fair share of drinking way too many adult beverages. As a matter of fact, I think I embarrassed myself at a christmas party when I told my husband's commanding officer that he needed to do more core strengthening exercises. Oops. I was one hot mess. Needless to say I think I got that out of my system.

Other than that, NOLA 70.3 training starts Dec 27th. Since I'm coming off IM FL, I will start 16 weeks out. I know most programs start at 20 weeks out, but I think 16 is a smarter strategy. Looking forward to it big time! As for now workouts have been swimming, biking, and running an hour or so 1x a week and lifting/cross-fitting/core on the other days.

If you need some off-season inspiration, this is one of my favorite workouts:

"Helen"

Three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell X 21 swings (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)
12 Pull-ups

Other than that, I'm off to the "burgh" tomorrow for a physical therapy presentation at the University of Pittsburgh. Hopefully, I don't ripped a new one and I don't freeze my butt off. I feel bad for all my fellow northerners. Brrr!!!

Week 1-2: the transformation

From my perspective, week 1-2 were a success with training and for the most part ~the gluten free diet. I didn't miss a beat of training. The real struggle was Heidi vs the gluten free post-training re-fuel. And the second struggle was weekend celebratory cocktails.

Ironman training has been ramping up quickly. I won't bore you with details but week 2 looked like this: 15 hours total. ( 3 swim, 6 bike, 3.5 run, 2 lift). Not too bad of a volume yet. For some reason it has felt like a lot more than it really is. My main battle has been the heat. I'm not a morning person at all but would rather forcibly become one than sweat my butt off in the afternoon heat. I am also in dire need of some training buddies. With work, trying to stick to my training schedule, and being new to the area, it hasn't been easy. Luckily my hubby will hang for some of the workouts but I do miss my Pennsylvania girls!

I've had a lot of questions about the gluten free diet. So far.... so good like I said. I'm usually fine during the week but lose it a little on the weekends. Last week for the 4th of July I definitely kicked back and drank a few strawberry flavored Abita beers. (oops)... I also had barbecue with friends. "Eating" is what people do in New Orleans so it's going to take a lot of will power on my behalf.

I'm still learning about the GF diet so I could be wrong or misinformed, but here are some of the staples I have been eating....

Breakfast
Oatmeal (controversial GF-??? Don't think I can give it up.)
Smoothies (Ingredients: a combo of the following: OJ, POM juice, Greek yogurt, strawberries, peaches, blueberries, raspberries)

Lunch
Various salads
More smoothies-(Smoothie King Green Tea Tango is my favorite)
Yogurt-(Danon Greek)
Fruit
Riceworks Brown Rice Crisps
Trail mix

Dinner
Rice/beans
Gluten free pasta
Chicken stir fry
Gluten Free Pizza-NAKED Pizza (a New Orleans must have!)
Stuffed peppers-with rice, ground turkey, fresh tomatoes

I'm usually fine for breakfast and dinner. Lunch is always hard for me as I miss my regular PB & J. I really do miss my bread! For training nutrition, I've been using Gu gels, Melon Heed, Hammer Sustained energy. There may be gluten in these products, but I have not refined everything 100% yet.

I'm going to give this a "go" for another 2 weeks and see what happens. I "think" I feel better but am not sure if it's just some placebo affect. This GF thing has definitely made me more conscious of what I'm eating and I've honestly been eating far healthier overall. No offense to my GF peeps out there, but I don't know if 100% GF is totally for me. I definitely don't have the resources to purchase GF everything at Whole Foods. Secondly, I'm not sure if I can sanely stick to 100% GF while still getting the proper fuel I need. So then I ask myself, is it worth it to do a 80 % GF/20 % non-GF or am I wasting my time?

I'm still learning for now.

One more thing.... Anyone out there doing Augusta 70.3? I have a late Dec. birthday and am moving to the scary 30-34 AG next year and really want to get a fast 70.3 under my belt this year. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Have a good week ya'll ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~