Vegetarian Tacos

Perusing the various triathlon, running, and cycling website, blogs, twitter feeds, etc. while having lunch today, I have come to the conclusion that people really focus, or at least angst, about their nutrition this time of year.  Not from a performance perspective, per say, but rather how not to gain that pesky holiday weight that will plague us endurance athletes until the season begins.

My mom really raised my sister, other siblings and me on an ideal diet, I think, for athletic performance, so I've never actively sought out processed foods, too much meat, and I admit I suffer withdrawal when I travel to certain parts of Europe for work for lack of fresh fruit and vegetables of any kind that aren't covered in some sort of cream dressing or mayonnaise.  Mayonnaise = Satan. Call it the perks of having a semi-Asian diet at all times (usually fish or beans, veggies, a grain of some sort, and lots and lots of fruit!), but I enjoy cooking and luckily off-season weight gain has never been something I have struggled with.   I know Amanda will probably chime in with the problems of trying to maintain a healthy diet while on a grueling medical school class and study schedule--it is late nights in the library post cadaver session that Honey-Nut Cheerios right out of the box seem to equal a meal!

Living in NYC, what seems to get me more than food over the holidays (I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so one or two Christmas cookies about does it), is BOOZE.  It's everywhere! And I work in publishing, which is already a very socially lubricated business, so now it is just more booze with holiday cups.  Runner's World put out this great article that beer is actually not that bad for female runners, yay, and lord knows I probably spent half my college swimming career thinking about my next opportunity to get beer, drinking beer, or else recovering from its effects, but as age settles in, I just can't hack it like I used to!

One meal that I always fall back on that is super healthy and has all the right nutritional elements for fuel/recovery if working out, you need to have something that isn't party food, or need something post-hangover is vegetarian tacos.  They are fast, the cleanup is a cinch, and there are always leftovers...ideal for a busy holiday schedule!

 You will need: corn tortillas, tomatoes, one or two eggs (depending on how hungover you are!), a can or two of black beans, a head of romaine lettuce, red wine vinegar, salsa (or sriracha sauce if you are addicted to it, like me), lime and cilantro. I also like to shred/grate some cheddar cheese to taste.

Take an onion and slice it up, sautee with olive oil in frying pan until clear.  Place finished onions in a bowl.

In the same hot skillet, heat up the canned beans (rinse them off first, just cause they are super salty out of the can).   Reserve beans in their own bowl.

Dice up tomatoes and toss with a bit of red wine vinegar in their own bowl.

Rinse and slice up your romaine lettuce.

Give your corn tortillas a zap in the microwave to warm.

Re-oil the pan and fry your egg (or eggs).

Now you have all the ingredients to make your tacos! Dress them up with as much hot sauce, lime squirts, and cilantro as you like, and then whatever is left over is for munchies later. 

A lot of times I won't even add the egg, but if I am super hungry, the extra heft helps.  It was just the thing for me after a long run today, and I am sure I will be noshing on the leftovers after drinks tonight!

Run, Sasha, Run!

Sasha: But I want to go on your long run!

I am putting it out there--I love my little dog Sasha an absurd amount.  My husband and I were on our honeymoon in Greece, and I swear that we spent half of our time wondering what Sasha was doing at my mom's house.  She's a ball of energy and spunk and no pigeon or squirrel in Brooklyn is safe from her adorable "stalk and hunt" act.  She's also a really fast runner.  At a full sprint, I can't even come close to keeping up with her, and the expression on her face is unparalleled.  That is something to always remember--forget the pace or how many miles you have to log in--just running to feel the wind in your hair (or ears as the case may be) and enjoying the exhilaration of speed is its own reward!  Even my sister's dog, Cosmo, would zoom around the backyard in loops with a funny little pug-grin on his face.  He's so old now, he doesn't have the energy for too many yard-loops, but ever once in a while, he still will take to the fence and run along side some kids walking home from school.

Here in Brooklyn, Sasha gets most of her runs in Prospect Park, running back and forth in the main field between me and my husband, stopping for a few seconds with each of us for a kiss and bite of grass before zooming back to the other. 

One evening, after we both had been cooped up all day due to a crazy work crisis on my part, I put on my running gear and thought I'd take her for a walk and then head right back out for a night run along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.  Round-trip from my door, it is probably only 4 miles, but it's well-lit and safe, and ideal for stress relief after a long day when anything else is just not in the cards.

So, I leashed her up and right when we headed out the door, she kept pulling me forward. She was in no mood to just walk.  Faster! Faster! So I broke out into a run, and instead of trying to zoom off ahead at full speed, she settled in to a nice trot just ahead of me.  At our usual turn-around spot for walks, I didn't have the heart to do it so--she looked so happy and was clearly eager for more.  So we kept running.  

Up into Brooklyn Heights, along the Promenade, and garnering a few funny looks a long the way.  I had the biggest sh*t-eating grin on my face for having such a sincere and adorable running buddy, and Sasha is so tiny (15lbs) but so fast, no wonder people stared!  We were hauling!

When I reached the end of the hill at the base of the Promenade, I crouched down to see if she wanted to take a rest or walk the rest of the way back.  After she licked all the sweat off my face, she turned around and started pulling to go back up the hill the way we came.   So off we went! All the way back home.  And it was even a bit of a fartlek workout on the way back, and the closer we got to our apartment, she's lay on little bursts of speed and I'd have to keep up! No way could I let a little bean like her finish me off!

I had always told Amanda that some day I wanted a dog I could run with.  Who knew that this tiny little Cavalier Spaniel was already the one! She's 2 years old and at her physical peak, and the vet said to keep it steady and not go too far too fast, but as long as she's happy to set the pace/lead, go for it!

We now go running together 2-3 times a week, at about 3-4 miles.  She loves it so much, that this has to be built into my Ironman training, whether it is her reward for waiting for me to come back from a bike ride or get off the trainer, or I do 3-4 with her and then drop her off back home and continue on for however many miles to complete my long run.  Every time she sees my lace up my running shoes, she gets that look! And how can I deny that little face?!?!

Hopefully we'll see some of you at a Brooklyn/NYC Doggie Dash in the near future!

Boredom

Boredom. A big part of my longer running and biking workouts and always part of my swimming workouts.  I did another swim workout yesterday (it was too cold and too late for a run and my bike is still in the shop getting aero bars put on), and after my 1000m warm-up, I was already ready to get out of the pool!  At least when I run, I can ramp up the tunes and literally think of nothing...in fact, I'm pretty sure I black out for the middle 50 minutes of all my runs, which is probably a good thing after all the thinking I'm told I should be doing for medical school.  Back to swimming.  While I swim, I can't seem to shake this boredom.  I can't listen to music and I can't seem to reach the same state of not thinking that I get when running.  This is actually probably a good thing because if I did reach this state while swimming, the lifeguards would need to jump into the pool and rescue me from the bottom. It isn't so bad when I swim with my sister because, at least in between sets, I can talk with her and she can give me tips on how to improve my technique.

So, the big question every time I go swimming by myself is "what am I going to think about while swimming today?" At first I tried reviewing what I was learning in school in my head.  I quickly realized that that wouldn't work for multiple reasons. 1. I actually really didn't want to think about those things while I worked out. Working out is one of the few things I do to escape school! 2. I can't fact check myself. What if I'm just reinforcing the wrong concept?  3. It was often just depressing to realize how much I don't know haha.

For those of you who suffer from boredom as much as I do, I've found that doing different workouts really helps, as well as doing timed sets.  Putting in some repeat hundreds on an interval usually work really well to spice up my swim workout.  100s are long enough to be painful, but short enough that I can sprint the whole 100. The perfect combo, and perfect jog to my otherwise tedious swim workouts. Additionally, this works both in and out of the pool.  Shake up your running workouts with some track workouts!

For those curious, my swim workout was:
1000m warm-up
2x (2x100 sprints on an interval, 150 kick, 200 IM, 150 pull, 2x100 sprints on the same interval)
warmdown (I only did 200)
total: 3000m

Good cycling training videos?

You'd better work!

Anybody have an recommendations? A drizzly and freezing-rain day in NYC today thwarted my plans for a run, so it was up on the trainer again for me, and while catching up on the episodes of Ru Paul's Drag Race that I missed was positively riveting (Raven was ROBBED) as I pedaled away, especially during the segments of Lip-Synch For Your Life, something a bit more conditioning and strength focused might be a good idea to have in the queue.   I welcome any suggestions!

There are many great things about this blog for me.  Not only does it force me to do some sort of workout everyday so I have something to write about, but it also makes me think through my workouts, for good or for ill, to figure out what to write about.

Damn you water fountain!

Today I did a longish run (11.2 miles in about 1:30) along the Rock Creek Trail in Bethesda, MD.  As I was plodding along thinking about what to write for this post, I decided to go with something we have to do in medical school (another sign that school is taking over my life): analyze our feelings and context...so here goes.  I felt GREAT for the first 50 minutes.  The weather was great, it was sunny, I had some sweet tunes queued up on my Ipod, I was holding a good pace, all was good in the world.  Around 37 minutes I passed a water fountain along the trail, but alas it did not work.  At this point in my run it didn't bother me, but in about 20 minutes it would make me SO annoyed.  Around 50 minutes, I hit a sort of wall.  My pace slowed way down and I could feel myself getting a blister.  The run was no longer feeling that great and I was definitely feeling annoyed about my lack of physical fitness.  The peak of my irritation was when I passed that same water fountain 20 minutes later, but this time I was extremely thirsty and it was just sitting there...not working...taunting me!  At this point I was about 1:10 into the run.  It was time to make a decision.  Was I really going to waste energy being annoyed for the rest of my run?  Or was I going to suck it up and push through?

Well, I distinctly remember thinking the IronMan is 80 bigillion times longer than my run, so I better start learning to suck it up and be positive.  As a result, the last 20 minutes was similar to my first 50, minus the fast pace.  I'm not sure whether my happier attitude was because I was on the home stretch or because of my mid-run attitude adjustment, but I suppose having a good end to my run is all that really matters.  Overall, what I really took out of this run, besides the physical exercise, was that I can't let a slower pace or non functioning water fountains get me down!  Better to just stay positive and push through those hard parts in the runs, as I'm sure there will be many more.

As I'm writing this post I'm a little giggly because we have to write very similar essays to this quite frequently in medical school.  Somehow writing those just aren't as fun...My professor for that class, Dr. Auster, would be proud.

Pedal off that stuffing!

Thanksgiving is a huge deal for our family--the hubs was recently commenting on how much food our family makes.  It can be a bit stressful "the morning of" in the kitchen, with three people (my other sister, my mom, and me) trying to prepare an 18lb turkey, wet and dry stuffing, brussell sprouts, sauteed string beans, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (I make it cinnamon, cloves, all spice, nutmeg and orange zest...my masterpiece!), and pumpkin pie, but it is totally worth it.

My dad, brother, husband and Amanda are barred from the kitchen, as they are of the culinary skill set of able to ruin cereal.  They do things like set the table, keeping the dogs at bay, and pouring us three chefs glass after glass of Malbec.

And while cooking is definitely it's own form of aerobic exercise, I ate enough food over this weekend to sustain me through at least three Ironmans from a carb-sugar-and-every-bad-thing perspective.  When I got back to Brooklyn today, I vowed that I had to get through a session on my bike trainer once I got back from work.

It was a very sweaty, grunt-y, 90 minutes, let me tell you.  Sasha kept coming in to check on me to see what all the weird noise was.  I feel like my legs are still in decent enough shape from training for the NYC Marathon, but for me, being in good running shape and good bike shape are not the same thing.  Different muscles, different way of utilizing conditioning and strength.  When I run, I can lope along for miles and miles, but I still have not put in the time on my bike where I can settle in to a good spin cadence while still feel like I am putting some power in to the pedals.

Needless to say, 90 minutes on the trainer is a looong way from seven hours on the road, but I'll get there.   Plus, though the longest ride I have under my belt is 60 miles (East Hampton to the Montauk Lighthouse and back) it was all my old road bike.  I have not done more than 26 miles at a time on my new tri bike since purchasing it in mid-August and hardly spent any of those miles in aero, as I just didn't feel comfortable enough on it to be in the position during a crowded Central Park training ride or in a race.

Therefore, during these past 90 minutes, I was getting tired not just in my legs, but in weird parts of my back/shoulders holding the position! I remember the pro who fitted my bike telling me it would take some time to build up those weird small muscles, so the trainer sessions should really come in handy there, and hopefully there will still be a few more mild days for me to do some more outdoor riding before it gets too cold!

Fun reads

Working in publishing, I paradoxically find that the last thing I seem to have time to do is read for pleasure.  Every time I curl up with a new book, I feel guilty that I should be reading one of the 7 skillion submissions I have that need to be responded to, or working on a manuscript that I've acquired and should be editing (currently on the docket of guilt, an 500+ page biography of ballerina Alicia Markova, which actually promises to be fabulous, but nonetheless, it's still work).

But since it has been Thanksgiving weekend, I have made use of travel delays and snuggles with Sasha and my mom's pugs to read Hillary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies, the novel that follows her incredible Wolf Hall.  Both novels won the Booker Prize and Wolf Hall won the National Book Critics Circle award, too, so I'm not the only one that adores them.  Thought-provoking while often laugh-out-loud funny, the complexly ambitious character she creates out of the historical figure Thomas Cromwell will fascinate anyone with even a bit of Anal Annie within them, which let's face it, I think all triathletes have to a certain extent. 

And more directly related to triathlon is Chrissie Wellington's A Life Without Limits, which a dear friend actually was responsible for commissioning in Wellington's native U.K.  Just watching Chrissie race is inspirational enough in and of itself.  She doesn't have to say a word! But now that she's put her life and philosophies on triathlon, training and life in general into print, you can be inspired whenever you'd like without having to worry about commercials.  From her struggles with body image and an eating disorder, to finding her true calling professionally and emotionally, there is enough there outside being one of the greatest the sport has ever seen! Some of the training is mind boggling.  Even just being back at my parent's home for high school all I can think about is how insane some of our swim practices used to be with my old club team (triples!), and that doesn't hold a candle to what she's doing.  It is a fast read and definitely motivated me for a few early mornings or post-stressful-work-day workouts.

I also had the privilege to briefly correspond with Chrissy regarding a rather upsetting discovery about an old coach of mine earlier this summer, which paralleled a story she shared in her book.  She could not have been warmer or more gracious and sincere in her reply and it helped put what I had learned in to perspective.  It meant so much to hear it from someone who had dealt with  a similar issue with such grace, and the fact that she took time out of her busy schedule to do so shows how awesome she is on all levels!

A Weekend of Firsts

Today Jessica and I did our first swim workouts since getting into the IronMan.  For me, it was a difficult 3000 yards due to some 100 repeat timed sets worked in there.  Jessica and Samantha (our other sister), rocked the whole workout due to their swimming backgrounds, while I floundered the whole way through.  I was very proud of my 100 repeats in the middle of the workout, but then immediately died after our first 50 of butterfly in a later 2x200 IM set, and continued to get lapped for the rest of the workout.

Soon.  Very Soon.

Although it is sometimes less than encouraging to do swim workouts with my sister, these workout sessions always give me new sets to do next time I get in the pool by myself.   This is ESSENTIAL for me because, even though I am working hard when I swim, I easily get bored when I do the same workouts multiple times in a row and it makes me much less likely to get in the pool.

For those interested our "start to get into shape" first swim workout was:
500 free (warm-up)
400 IM
300 kick (first 150 on your back)
2x100 free (on a set interval)
8x25 sprint
2x100 free (on the same set interval as above)
300 kick (first 150 on your back)
2x200 IMs (descend, i.e second one faster than the first)
500 free steady

Thankfully, I lived through this entire workout to do it another day, and I can now justify eating Thanksgiving leftovers.

A tale of two bikes

So pretty!

Now that Amanda and I have stuffed ourselves up to our eyeballs with food, we figured that some sort of aerobic activity might be in order.  After two short, but high intensity trail runs near our parent's home, a nice fall ride sounds like just the thing.

We both have had rather fraught relationships with our bikes, myself more than my sister.  For some reason, swimmers always seem to struggle with the bike the most.  Perhaps it is because so many of us have bird legs (myself included) and a mediocre sense of balance.  After many years with my trusty Scott road bike, one race spill included, I took the plunge and purchased a beeeeaaautiful Cervelo P2 two months ago with this IronMan in mind.  I am 100% certain I am not using to its full potential yet, but I'll get there.  I rode it in a late season Olympic and Sprint race in September, but now the real bonding time shall begin!

Upon the purchase of this new bike, the Scott was thusly shipped to my parent's home where I can go on rides with my sister whenever I am home visiting.  In my current food induced coma, I realized that it is still sitting it its box this morning, so off we go to get it reassembled and to purchase shoes and a helmet, both of which I neglected to send back down from NYC, oops.

When I first started triathlon, it took me a full season to really warm up to my road bike.  First it was getting used to clips, then it was figuring out how to have a bike in New York City without feeling like you are going to die via bus, taxi cab or clueless pedestrian tourist 99.9% of the time.    Everytime I would bike out to the West Side Highway Greenway, I would be so frizzled from the 2 mile city-ride across town that my hands and wrists would be sore!   A bike messenger (those guys are ballsy to the point of insanity) once took pity on me and helped me navigate through a traffic jam, no doubt after noticing the frightened expression on my face and seeing me sweaty with fear on an otherwise chilly day!

Thankfully, after moving to Brooklyn, I am now very close to Prospect Park (no cars, hooray!) and also procured a coveted bike locker at the New York Athletic Club upon joining the tri club, which gives me easy access to Central Park as well as reasonably safe passage to 9W. 

I still don't feel confident, comfortable, or even safe riding in aero in Central Park yet.  Perhaps if I go at 4 a.m. when there are no cabs, pedi cabs, horses, or careless pedestrians....guess that's the price I pay to live in that fair city.  I'll be seeing a lot of 9W in the coming months for long rides! Glad I get down to DC often enough to mix it up on the W&O trail.

First Workout!

It has been a really hectic couple of days for me with almost no time to workout.  I had a big midterm on Monday and spent the last week living in the library and in the anatomy lab learning about various parts of the upper body.  But, I FINALLY got to go on a run, with Jessica actually now that she is home for Thanksgiving...my first in way too long.  It felt great to be doing something other than learning about all the things that can go wrong with my shoulders, which is what we have been learning about in anatomy class.   I'm excited to get back into shape!

The last workout I did before school took over my life, was a swim workout.  It was only two miles of yardage, but it was SO difficult.  I try to get some sort of swim in when I can because, unlike Jessica, I do not come from the swimming angle and need all the help I can get.

I'll definitely have more to post soon once I get back into the swing of working out.

Welcome to our blog! Amanda and Jessica are two sisters who have taken the plunge for the ultimate endurance challenge: the IronMan! After doing a few Olympic distance races and racking up some Age Group placements, we wanted to step up our game before the rest of life commitments come in (family, residency, you name it).  Thus, we will be racing the Arizona IronMan on November 17, 2013, and decided to keep a blog about it, which will range from training to discussions on nutrition, more training, race day tips and feedback, as well as our mutual musings as to how to fit it all in to a 24 hour day, which we both anticipate being the greatest challenge of all!

Jessica is a senior editor and head publicist at an independent publishing house in New York City.  A member of the swim team at Princeton, she is newly married to a husband who is incredibly sweet and supportive of this fixation on endurance sports.  She lives in Brooklyn with an impossibly cute pup, Sasha, who is also supportive, provided this Ironman does not interfere with squirrel and pigeon hunting expeditions in Prospect Park, playing tug, or belly rubs.

Amanda is a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Amy and a first year medical student at the Uniformed Services University in Maryland.  She was on the field hockey and lacrosse teams at University of Rochester, and the best pal to a black pug named Cosmo, who at 11 years-old, is in a perpetual state of non-amusement when it comes to anything besides snuggles on the couch and food.

Hope you enjoy following us on this exciting journey for the next year! Any tips, tricks, words of encouragement are welcome!