Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!

I've recently had to revamp my diet, for some medical reasons. While in the bulk food section of the grocery store checking out the grains, I ran into a bin for chia seeds. I didn't think much about them, other than having a quick chuckle at the thought. Just a few days later, I received an Active.com newsletter with an article on new foods to try, including a "pudding" recipe using chia seeds!

I did a quick search on what else one can do with chia seeds. I'm a trifle skeptical of all the claims people make, but I am experimenting with food so I thought I'd give it a shot. Plus, apparently you can use chia seed gel as a replacement for eggs in baking, and at some point I'm going to try that.

I still haven't tried the pudding recipe, but I have made up a batch of regular chia gel using 2 cups water to 1/3 cup seeds. The chia gel is...odd. The seeds are fairly tasteless, which is nice. However, it does gel pretty impressively with the water, and eating a mouthful of tasteless jelly is, well, tasteless. I've only eaten a few spoonfuls of it since I made it. Some people claim it gives them this great boost of energy, which I have not yet noticed. I have noticed, however, that it does a very good job of making me feel full or satisfied for longer.

This past weekend I needed to work an outdoor athletic event, and I wanted a good way to not feel too hungry, as I knew I wouldn't have many chances to eat. In my google searching I came across an interesting recipe on No Meat Athlete's page about making a chia energy gel. I like the idea of orange and pineapple, but I am not a fan of brown rice syrup, nor do I have any in my house.

I decided I would try my own bastardized version, using strawberries as my base. I wasn't going to worry this particular time about the electrolytes, as I knew the weather wasn't going to be too hot. I added vinegar because I thought it might help as a natural preservative while I was outside all day. Plus, who doesn't love strawberries with balsamic vinegar? Unfortunately my strawberries weren't quite as fruity as I would have liked, and while the mix was good, it was still lacking some oomph. I went ahead and added some sweetener. It turned out pretty well, I think. Here's what I used.

Strawberry Chia Goo

2 cups strawberry puree (I was slightly under, so just added a little water to get to 2 cups)

1/2 oz tangerine balsamic vinegar

1/2 oz lemon balsamic vinegar

1/3 cup chia seeds

1/2 oz (probably less, I didn't measure) maple syrup

1 oz honey

Stir together, then allow to rest for at least 15 minutes so the seeds can gel. I made mine the night before. This makes a fairly thick (and chewable) goo.

Photo will be added when I remember where I put my camera!

I filled a brand new 3 oz GoToob (which I have been calling Goob Tubes until I went looking for a link!) and took it to the field with me. Whenever I felt like I was getting hungry but either didn't really want to eat or didn't have time, I ate some goo and was good to go!

While I am enjoying it on its own, I bet it would be good in a lot of ways, including thickening up a smoothie.

Bicycle Trainer - It's Harder Than It Looks

I've been wanting to get a bicycle trainer for a while now, especially as I'm currently without a gym. Fortunately I know people who had a mag wheel bicycle trainer they weren't using, and they offered to let me have it.

Many moons ago, in preparation for one day getting a trainer, I purchased some TV Ears from Costco. I knew trainers could make a lot of noise, and I knew I'd never use the trainer if I couldn't be entertained at the same time. I figured the TV Ears made a pretty good hack for entertaining myself without blowing out my eardrums.

I wanted to get a mat to put down on my carpet, but those suckers are surprisingly expensive! I have some carpet remnants around so I decided I'd try to use that. I put it upside down because I figured if there would be any grease coming off the bike I wanted it to be on the underside of the carpet remnant and leave the top side for use down the line. I did make sure to get a block for the front tire.

The trainer didn't come with any directions so I had to look online to figure out how to use it. Although first I had to pump up my tires. Apparently they go kind of flat when you don't use them for months and months. Anyway, back to setup. I'm not the brightest bulb sometimes so I was really struggling with how to attach the back wheel. Fortunately I found enough of a video tutorial for a different trainer manufacturer on youtube and was able to figure out how to attach my bike.

Then came the moment of truth - had I done it? Turns out, no. I got on my bike and it promptly proceeded to fall over. Oops. I rechecked the quick release lever for the rear tire and screwed it into the system again. This time, happily, it seemed to hold.


I selected an episode of Merlin to watch on Netflix, as I figured 45 minutes or so would be pretty good. Hahaha. Turns out, even with the trainer on fairly low resistance it was still a lot more effort than I expected. I got about 20 minutes in and then hopped off the bike to take a breather. It felt like my heart was beating more than maybe it should be, or at least felt like it was beating more than when I went for my mile + run on New Year's Day. My poor body has been through so much lately, I'm not even entirely sure what kind of range I should be aiming for, heart-wise. Anyway, I took some time to let the cats climb all over me and sniff out the weird contraption in the middle of the living room while finishing the episode, and then got back to it.

I lowered the resistance all the way to the lowest possible spot, chose a much shorter episode of NewsRadio to watch next, and hopped back up. I can't say I moved my legs the entire time, but I was moving for a good portion of the episode. I am really glad I got the TV Ears. They are a little odd to use, but still fairly light and certainly good at giving me hearing over the trainer. I ended up flipping it around so that the battery part was actually resting more on the back of my neck than the front, so it would stop wobbling around.

I'm pleased that the only part of me that was sore today was the part making contact with the seat. Oof does that really wear on the bones. Someday I'm going to pony up the money and time for a proper bike fit to make sure I'm in the right spot, but until then I'll just keep wiggling around, trying to get comfortable.

Now, since it's been sitting there taunting me all evening, I think I'll attempt another NewsRadio episode "workout".

Happy New Year!

I am trying to get back to triathlon, or at least back to activity, now that my body isn't trying to reenact the Dead Parrot sketch.

I originally thought I would try to start my new year out with a 3 mile run, but I changed my mind and only ran a little more than 1 mile. I ran the whole way without stopping, which is pretty good. I still don't like running. I didn't expect that would magically change, but I thought maybe now that my health is getting better I would feel more gazelle-like. I did not. Oh well. After my run I met up with a friend who lives in that area and we walked around for roughly another 3 miles. We were quite satisfied with ourselves.

I'm feeling somewhat sore today, although I figured I would. I'm more feeling discomfort in my shins than anywhere else. I was trying to do more mid-foot striking than heel-striking, as a couple of years ago I really gave myself some bad shin splints/compartment syndrome, but it's a work in progress.

While the weather is mild today we're going to work on weather-stripping and putting up the shrink-wrap plastic stuff on my doors and windows so I won't go broke with my heating bills. I'll consider that an "upper-body workout". Yeah.

Here's to 2011.

Health Issues

Apparently one of the side-effects is muscle weakness. I wonder once it gets under control if I will soar like the wind? I've been cleared for activity, but not really doing any workouts anyway. Although I have to do some major yard clean up and that will certainly count as activity.

Stay tuned!

Saddle Sore

Egads, I have so little time left before the Philly Women's Tri next Sunday.

Two weeks ago I managed to get back in the pool. I spent my time in the deep end trying to mimic as much as possible an open water swim. It went ok, surprisingly. I am working on breathing only to the right instead of trying every third stroke, like I was trying to do last year. Rather unsuccessfully during open water swims, and only half-way successfully in the pool. Might as well change it up a bit.

Last Saturday a friend of mine was racing in the Philadelphia Insurance Tri, the only coed Philly race. I took my bike in with me to the city so I could ride the loop as practice before my race. Unfortunately for my friend, he got kicked in the shoulder during the swim which dislocated his shoulder so he couldn't finish the swim and therefore couldn't finish the race. Fortunately that hasn't curbed his desire to race again, so I look forward to cheering for him again!

I wore a pair of tri shorts and my new dragonfly jersey for my practice ride. The tri shorts were a bad idea, since I hadn't been on my bike in months. Over 6 months in fact, I think. My poor body was very unprepared for a long ride with such a little pad between me and the
bicycle seat. I managed to do the first loop, although not fast, and then I stopped to say hello to a massage buddy who was volunteering for the athletes. I probably spent about 30 minutes chatting, trying to decide whether I wanted to force the second loop or not. My ischial tuberosities (aka sitz bones) were already quite sore. I decided to persevere anyway, but the second loop was much much slower than the first loop.

I was saddle sore for an entire week! I still needed to spend more time on my bike, so today, on the 4th of July, I took advantage of the beautiful weather and got a 20 mile bike ride in. I was smarter though, I wore full on bike shorts with the thicker padding. I'm still a little sore, and tired, but I feel pretty good all things considered. Plus I'm wearing my Super Grover jersey, which always makes me happy.

My goal is to get on my bike at least 3 more times this week, and hopefully to get in the pool a couple of times before the tri. I had new house chores which work my arms a bit so I am less concerned about pool time. I have decided I'm going to walk the run portion next week, so I'm not going to worry at all about getting out for a run. If it happens, great, if it doesn't, well, there's always the week after PWT.

Training after hiatus, could it have been worse?

I guess it could be, since I didn't bonk. Of course I only "ran" 2 miles, and they were painfully slow miles, but I was "running" more than walking. I am back to using the run/walk method; I am happier with the walk breaks, seems to make me not hurt as much by the end. Used 2 minutes running with 15 seconds walking.

Hopefully by June I will have time to train. This spring has been chaotic.

IRONMAN

While I was in DC this past weekend I got a chance to catch up on viewing 4 0r 5 Ironman races. We watched IMLP (Lake Placid), IM Louisville, IM Wisconsin in Madison, IM Coeur d'Alene, and then we watched the big one - the Ironman World Championship in Kona.

Not all of the broadcasts are as well-done; I really wish they would all spend more time on some of the age-groupers and their stories. I realize it's hard to take a 17 hour race and condense it down to a one-hour broadcast, but that doesn't mean I don't wish they'd do some things a little different.

It is amazing to watch the Pros compete - they make it look so easy. You kind of get sucked into thinking "I could do that". Then to see the Regular Joes, and how they struggle along the course it reminds you of what an accomplishment it really is. Congratulations to all who undertook an Ironman race.