Sticking A Fork In It

As I mentioned in my last post, the countdown is on until my big race in Sweden. I've had this race on my calendar for over a year now, since I qualified at USAT Long Course Nationals in Grand Rapids last June. The days in between have since been filled with hours of staring at the black line at the bottom of the pool, biking around Hains Point (and on the trainer...oh the trainer), and running routes that confirm beyond a doubt why my neighborhood is called Hillcrest. But other than the fact it's almost June 27 and I'd better be ready, there are some other telltale signs.

• I complain about the taper. After a long build of 15-18 hour weeks, dropping down to just 9 hours should feel like I'm on vacation. But yet I still find myself waking up at 4:30 for a 90 minute brick before work. What gives? (Granted, I don't also have a workout after work, but still...)
• Phantom pains. Everywhere. Did my knee just pop? What's going on with my shoulder? Are these shoes giving me blisters? I know they aren't real but they still get me every. Single. Time. Luckily, I have a (not so) secret weapon...
• Therapy. I don't mean a shrink and a couch. Before every race, I have an appointment at Rose Physical Therapy for Active Release Technique (ART). Unlike a massage, where you just lie there and the masseuse rubs oil on your back, ART works to identify and treat areas where the muscle tissue is impacting proper range of motion or causing pain--in other words, why my shoulders feel like they have pebbles in them. The therapist uses her hands to evaluate the texture, tightness, and (lack of) movement in my muscles, fascia, tendons, and ligaments. Then, we work together to get things running smoothly again. For example, the PT may put her fingers on my rotator cuff and ask me to stretch out my arm and give the thumbs up sign. Easy, right? And wow does it work! Because the therapists at Rose are also athletes (Holli and Sydney are triathletes, in fact), they know to target exactly where I need it. Plus, it's a great opportunity for me to spend an hour talking about the race and getting psyched up for it! 
• Social Life! Well, somewhat. I try to use the extra time in my schedule to catch up with friends whom I don't always see during the long training weeks. Did you know that there's more to life than swimming, biking, running, and consuming enormous quantities of food? Plus, this serves as a nice distraction from the phantom taper pains. And speaking of distractions...
• Voices in my head. Actually, this is a good thing. Starting with my first half Ironman in 2012, I've asked friends and family to keep me company during long races. This will be no exception. Please take a minute to fill out this form, in which you include your name, choose a mile of my race (trust me, there will be plenty), and give me a fun distraction or thought to share with you. I'll be happy to return the favor! 

So that's me. How do you know you're ready to race?

As always, thanks to Rose Physical Therapy and LUNA Bars for getting me race ready, as well as my family and friends for all the support. And beer. And ice cream. 

Ready to race!

Perfect Is the Enemy of Good

Since my last update in February, I have written some fantastic blog posts: how to ride the bike trainer at 5 AM on a dark Tuesday and not feel too sorry for yourself, great running routes in DC, how to [not] race a half ironman in April when the weather is 50 degrees warmer than you've been training in, etc. But I wrote them all in my head and never had the proper time or energy to capture them here. So rather than having a series of awesome blog posts to amuse and inspire my worldwide fan base extended network parents, I have a blank space and a lot of guilt. (No golf clubs were harmed, however.) 

So let's try something different: a quickie. Here's the 90 second version of the past few months. 

• Winter. Yikes. Thank goodness for Trainer Road + Wahoo Kickr (create a workout ahead of time and the trainer adjusts the resistance so I just pedal mindlessly until my legs fall off). Calculating 95% of FTP for 1:30 intervals is just not going to happen at 5 AM. Also, I'm lucky enough to have similarly crazy friends who are also training at that hour, so we entertained each other by texting animated animal gifs and recommending shows on Netflix. 

Welcome to my winter.

• DC Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon: Why did I ever think this was a good idea? 40s. Pouring. My timing chip fell off so I somehow did a 5k in 45 minutes but a 10k in 25 (total). Careful, runners--there seems to be a space-time vortex somewhere on the Rock Creek Parkway. On the plus side, a hot shower after suffering mild hypothermia is pretty incredible. 
• Spring #1: I got to escape DC's never-ending winter at the end of March for the LUNA Chix Summit in Berkeley. For three days, the entire extended LUNA family--from professional triathletes and mountain bikers to sponsored amateurs (including myself) to the running/cycling/triathlon clubs across the country--all gathered near the Clif bar headquarters to eat, run, bike, learn...and eat some more. I think I came home with at least 50 Clif and LUNA bars stuffed into my suitcase. That weekend deserves its own post so stay tuned.

I made some in California.

• Summer #1: DC may have still been trying to hang on to winter, but it was early April and therefore time to start my race season. In Florida. Sigh. "At least it's not Panama in February" was my spurious logic when I signed up in the fall. I think this race can best be summarized by the following numbers:
• 50: The difference in temperature, in degrees fahrenheit, between DC and Florida
• 46: The one-way distance, in miles, between Orlando (where I thought the race was/where my extended family lives) and where the race was actually located (Haines City)
• 10: The number of gears my borrowed race wheels were designed to hold
• 0: The number of gears present on the wheels when I picked them up (lesson learned: the cyclist is expected to add their own cassette to borrowed wheels)
• 882: Number of watts my power meter said I pushed on the bike course. This is incorrect.
• 0: Number of beats per minute my heart rate strap said I was expending on the bike course. This is also incorrect. 
• 60 and 4: Respectively, the number of minutes and adults required to disassemble and pack my bike after the race.
• 0: Desire I have to do that race again. 

Not pictured: all the seagrass, salt, and mud that accumulated during the race

• Spring #2: DC finally flirted with spring in May. It was nice. 

This happened.

• Summer #2: And then DC decided that sweltering heat and humidity are more fun. Yay. 

And that leads us to today, where it was "feels like 90" for my 80 minute run at 8 AM. However, I'm not long for this town or this weather. In under a week, I'll be en route to Sweden for the ITU Long Distance World Championships. 

Me dress fancy one day.

As always, thanks to my fantastic family and friends, as well as sponsors Rose Physical Therapy and LUNA Bars. 

Thanks to Florida, I now have a Rose PT temp tattoo tanline!

Diving In

Welcome back, future triathletes/fence sitters/bots/family members. Now that you have your big, hairy, audacious goal in mind, where to start? Since this is a triathlon-focused blog (and alphabetical order is over-rated), let's start with the swim. Not only is it the first leg of the triathlon, it's the one that tends to freak people out the most. But never fear, this blog post will turn you all into Olympic-caliber swimmers give you a solid introduction help you procrastinate for five more minutes.

Location, location, location. If you're in the DC area, you have a lot of pools at your (pruny) fingertips. DC residents can swim at any public pool for free, including the Olympic sized Wilson pool by the Tenleytown metro, complete with a hot tub big enough that you don't have to actually make eye contact with anyone. Each pool has different operating hours and lane configurations ranging from 20 yards-50 meters, so check the Parks & Rec website. My favorite is the newly opened Barry Farm pool, which is 25 meters, located across the street from the Anacostia metro, and features a ridable (fake) alligator. If you're in Arlington, the pools are in good condition but can get crowded, especially Washington & Lee. I've had better luck at Wakefield, especially if you arrive just as a swim team leaves. I haven't personally visited any Maryland pools yet, but hear the Prince Georges Sports & Learning Complex by FedEx Field is quite nice, as is the Kennedy Shriver Center. I mean, if it's called an "aquatic complex" it must have something going for it. A few gyms also have pools. The YMCA has a 25 meter pool in downtown DC or a 25 yard pool on 14th and W, NW. (A word of caution: the pipes in the ceiling above the pool do not exactly align with the lanes, so if you use them for guidance when swimming backstroke, you'll hit the wall after about 20 yards.) Many other gym pools are <25 yards or just two or three lanes, which can be frustrating for training.

What Not to Wear: Now that you know where to go, what should you wear? Definitely a swim suit, to start. I don't know of any clothing-optional pools around here, nor would I like to. For triathlon training, ditch the board shorts and halter top bikinis. Most men wear "jammers" (a speedo that provides more coverage than the name implies) and women wear a one piece or workout bikini. If you aren't particular about designs, Swim Outlet has great deals where you specify the size and brand and they send you a suit.

Though sometimes there is a reason why that style was so cheap...

You'll also want goggles (like these, not these), and probably a cap. Not only will a cap help you swim faster, you're far less likely to rip out your hair when removing your goggles. Silicone caps last far longer than latex, often for years (unless you let them get moldy in the bottom of your swim bag, oops). Also useful: flip flops because the pool deck and showers can be icky, a lock for your locker, a towel, and a spray or shampoo to remove the chlorine afterward. By now, if you've opened the Swim Outlet website, read an issue of Triathlete magazine, or visited a pool deck, you'll know there are a lot of options for pool toys. Fins! Pull buoy! Paddles! Metronome! Snorkel! Tether! Swim watch! The options are limitless. Your bank account is not. (Or if it is, hello there!) Therefore, I recommend sticking to the basics until you...

Talk to a professional. Not necessarily a professional swimmer (though Katie Ledecky does train at Wilson sometimes), but rather a coach. Depending on your needs, schedule, and budget, you can hire a coach for (semi) private lessons, take a clinic, or join a masters team. ("Masters" simply means "not a child," not like Masters for golf or something.) I've been a coach for DC Tri Masters since 2012, so I'm a bit biased, but I strongly recommend working with a coach at least once. They can help you avoid injury, improve your technique, and motivate you to work harder than you probably would on your own. The DC Tri Club program also offers weekend clinics, semi-private lessons, open water-focused sessions, and underwater taping. If you live on the moon and don't have access to a coach (but do have a pool, hmmm), Swim Smooth is a great online resource. (Hundreds of terrible online resources are just a google search away, so tread carefully.) Also, if you experience pain while swimming, talk to someone ASAP. Rose PT offers clinics for swimmers, including using a biofeedback machine to check that people were activating the right muscles during a (simulated) stroke. Spoiler alert: bad form --> wrong muscles --> shoulder pain --> no swimming --> sadness.

Get out of the pool! Yes, you read that right. Pool training is useful for the majority of a triathlete's training volume, but unless all your races are indoors, you'll need to practice in a real body of water. But I'll save that for another chapter. This one is getting long, and don't you have a swim workout to do?

So many swim toys, so little time... 

That Wonderful Feeling

You know how it goes. You find your next big challenge, something that seems so daunting, so exhilarating, so necessary, that you know you won't be able to live with yourself if you don't at least try. And then you want to throw up. Congratulations. You have a goal. It doesn't matter whether that goal is finishing a 5k, racing an Ironman, or taking your pro card, if it doesn't scare you a bit, you aren't being bold enough.

You know you want to.

Maybe because it's the new year, or some of my friends and family are approaching milestone birthdays, or they are just awesome, but several people have asked me lately about how to take the leap into swimming, biking, and/or running. With these next few blog posts, I hope to answer some questions, solicit additional tips from my awesome athlete readers (hi, Dad!), and maybe inspire a few more people to smile and then run for a trash can.

First things first: if your BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal) involves physical activity, make sure you're up for it. This isn't just a legal disclaimer about talking to your doctor, but really think about all aspects of your life. Are you trying to train for an Ironman while working full time, moving cross country, and finding the love of your life? It's possible but tread carefully. When you consider a workout plan, remember it's not like you can go for a long bike ride or run and then go about your day; you also need to prep for the training (bike maintenance, gathering an obscene amount of nutrition bars, gels, drinks, etc.), and recover from it (food, sleep, and oh so much laundry). So magically, a six hour training session takes 10 hours out of your day. The math still applies to shorter events: add around 25% to your expected training schedule and plan accordingly. The upshot is you'll discover how efficient you can become with other aspects of your life, prioritize what really matters to you, and appreciate the value of a good calendar.

This could be you!

Ok, so you've decided that you are physically and mentally up to the task. Next: specify your goal. Maybe it's completing a particular race, hitting a time or distance, or reaching the podium. But you need to be brave enough to write it down and, in the case of a race, put your entry fee where your mouth is. Get that sucker on your calendar so you don't forget, and don't let it sell out while you waffle. Some people like to shout their goals from the social media rooftops and some prefer to stay on the down low. Still, it's worth telling at least one person so you have a cheerleader in your corner. If you're into writing, the Believe journal is excellent; each week it prompts you to think about your goals and record your progress.

Think process. This is especially true if your BHAG is somewhat out of your control, like achieving a certain time (what if it's windy?) or placement (what if faster people show up?). You should also create process-related goals that you alone can control, such as completing at least 90% of scheduled workouts in a month, hydrating properly, or participating in an open water practice swim. This post from QT2 (free login) explains this concept well. These seem less glamorous but really make the difference between achieving your BHAG and getting discouraged and distracted.

Solo or group? Do you want to train alone, with a buddy, or a group? Do you need a training plan? A private coach? The magic answer is... "it depends" (yeah, boooo, sorry). You'll learn a lot about yourself during this process. Does training with a group push or intimidate you? Do you need ultimate flexibility or structure? Can you hold yourself accountable or do you need to pay someone to keep tabs on you? Or you can try all of the above and see what works. For example, you could download a training plan (e.g. from Training Peaks or there are plenty of plans of varying quality floating around the Interwebs), do some workouts with a masters group or run club (more on these in future posts), and share your workouts via Strava to receive kudos from friends.

Have a support system. Check in regularly with family, friends, co-workers, teammates, randos on the bus, etc. and share your progress, your frustrations, your awkward questions about chafing. People who have been around the track a few times are always happy to offer advice (says the author of a blog post on the topic) because back in our day, when we were biking uphill in the snow, we also had questions about pacing, or nutrition, or snot rockets. My friend (and Rose PT therapist) Holli and I still nerd out over articles on heart rate zones and core exercises. Athletes are amazingly supportive of each other. Case in point: twitter is hopping at 5 AM as triathletes are biking on their indoor trainers. Join us!

Prepare to fail...just a little. No one is perfect. But what makes all the difference is your ability to not get derailed when things go off track. How to do this? Start planning to fail now. From the comfort of your couch, metro seat, boring meeting, etc. make a list of obstacles you may face and how you will deal with them. For example, "If I'm supposed to go for a bike ride and it's pouring rain, I'll take a spin class instead." or "If I work late and don't have time for a run, I'll power walk down the hallway for 15 minutes." By deciding ahead of time how you'll make good decisions, you're far more likely to follow through than if you're working late, it's cold and rainy, and the latest episode of Parks and Rec is on. Channel your inner Tim Gunn and make it work.

Things didn't go according to plan?

So. Now are you excited to start making swim/bike/run magic? Excellent. Tune in next time...

Oh the places you'll go...

Recipes For A Well-Fed Triathlete

After the Washingtonian put up their photo spread of some of our favorite adventures in cooking, we received a lot of questions about recipes for the featured items. I’ve written up about half of them below, and I’ll try to do the other half soon. Katie has described my approach to using fixed amounts of ingredients as ‘haphazard” or “what do you mean a handful? How much is a handful? Your hand or my hand? Argh!”, but I have tried to formalize things a bit in the recipes below. I would encourage you to play with the proportions a bit, though, until you get a result you like.

I would not recommend messing around with the temperatures on the yogurt, though. That is more science than art.

Peanut Butter

Takes 30-40 minutes. Quantity produced depends on how many peanuts you use. 1 lb of peanuts makes a goodly amount.

Required Items:

Food Processor - We use (and love) the Ninja. The old standby 2-blade Cuisinart might or might not work for this one.

Oven

baking sheet

Ingredients:

• (shelled) peanuts. We have used roasted and unroasted, salted and unsalted. All will work.
• salt
• 1-2 TBS oil per lb of peanuts. I use olive oil, as we like the taste, but if you don’t love the taste of olive oil, you could use any neutral oil instead.
• (optional) cajun spice and honey

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spread peanuts out on a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet.
3. Roast peanuts until they look “sweaty” - usually takes 8-12 minutes, depending on what type of peanuts you are using, but can take longer with dry-roasted peanuts.
4. Remove peanuts from oven and pour into food processor.
5. Add 1-2 TBS oil per lb of peanuts.
6. Turn on food processor and find something else to do for about 5 minutes. Do not watch the food processor, or the peanuts will not turn into peanut butter. I have tested this.
7. Check food processor and scrape down sides. Depending on any number of factors, you will have a substance that is someplace between peanut chunks, peanut powder and peanut butter. If the former, have faith, trust this unfootnoted recipe you got from the internet, and turn on the processor again for another 5 minutes. If the latter, proceed to step 8.
8. If you have something that looks like peanut butter, taste, add salt if needed, and decide if you like the consistency. The longer you process it, the less chunky it will become. If it looks soupy, do not despair; it will thicken as it cools. If it still seems powdery after 10 minutes of processing, add a bit more oil every 2 minutes until this is no longer true.
9. (optional) If you are bored with regular peanut butter, and ready to have your mind blown, add spicy cajun powder and honey (start with 1 tsp cajun/1 TBS honey, and go from there). Or add a handful of chocolate chips. Probably not both, though.
10. Refrigerate until cool, and eat. I don’t know how long it will keep in the fridge; ours has never lasted long enough to find out, but at least a couple of weeks.

Yogurt:

Takes 15 hours of total time; requires 20 minutes of attention at the start, then a burst of activity an hour later, then sits unattended overnight.

Required equipment:

• candy thermometer
• stove
• large (1-gal+) nonstick cooking pot
• sous vide heater (optimal) or an oven that holds heat well (not optimal)
• 1 gallon glass jar (if you are using the sous vide option)
• very large stock pot for the sous vide water bath
• metal strainer or colander
• cheesecloth

Ingredients

• 1 gallon milk (any store-bought milk is fine; does not need to be raw or hippie)
• ½ cup of plain yogurt with active cultures

Process:

1. Heat up milk in cooking pot to 185 degrees, then turn off stove. Be careful when stirring, as a scorched layer of milk will generally form on the bottom of the pot. This is fine, but you don’t want to scrape the bottom when you stir as this will bring the scorched layer back into the milk, altering the flavor. It comes right out of a nonstick pot afterwards.
2. Set up sous vide heater to 105 degrees and start the water bath. If you don’t have a sous vide, turn on the oven to 150-200 degrees for 10 minutes then turn it off. We had very mixed results with the oven method, so I don’t really recommend it.
3. Allow milk to cool back down to 105 degrees. If left unattended, this takes a little over an hour in our house; if you are impatient you can dip the cooking pot in a larger bowl of ice water and stir.
4. Add ½ cup of yogurt and mix.
5. If using sous vide, pour the yogurt/milk mixture into the glass jar, and set in the sous vide water bath. Do not cover the jar. If you are using the oven method, place the cooking pot in the oven and pray.
6. Go to bed, or let sit for at least 6 hours.
7. When you return, lay two layers of cheesecloth over the colander, and pour the mixture from the jar into the cheesecloth. It should resemble very soupy yogurt.
8. Let sit in the cheesecloth, stirring occasionally, for 1-3 hours, depending on the desired consistency of your yogurt. Save the whey that drips out for breadmaking.
9. Pour the resulting yogurt out of the cheesecloth into a storage container, and refrigerate. This should make 1.5-2 quarts of yogurt per gallon of milk. Higher fat milk makes more yogurt per gallon than lower fat milk.

Pairs nicely with bloobs.

Standard Loaf Bread:

This is a variation off of the recipe in Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese, a book that has been our starting point for many of these adventures.

Required Items:

• Oven
• mixing bowl (a stand mixer is great for this recipe, especially with a dough hook)
• 2 loaf pans

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp yeast
• 3 ½ cups whey or water at room temp
• 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ cups wheat flour
• 2 TBS honey or molasses
• 4 tsp kosher salt
• neutral oil for greasing
• any or all of the following:
• ⅓ cup flaxseeds
• ⅓ cup wheat bran
• ⅓ cup chia seeds
• ⅓ cup hemp seeds

- (optional) 1 C raisins, 4 TBS butter at room temp, 1 tsp cinnamon, ⅓ TSP ginger, ⅓ TSP nutmeg,  1 TBS sugar

Instructions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl or stand mixer.
2. Stir honey or molasses into the whey/water, then add to the dry ingredients (helps prevent clumping).
3. Stir until a dough is formed. I usually use the dough hook on the mixer for a minute or so.

Option 3a. If you want a sweeter, richer bread, add 3 TBS of butter to the dough and mix. Then put the dough on a floured surface, and stretch/roll into a rectangle with a  short end the length of the loaf pan. Spread the surface with the remaining 1 TBS of butter, and spread the raisins evenly on the surface. Mix the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and sugar, and sprinkle evenly over the surface. Press the raisins lightly into the dough so that they stay in place, and roll up the dough from one of the short ends.

4. Grease loaf pans.
5. Put dough in loaf pans (should fill them about ½ to ⅔ full) and cover with a towel or plastic wrap for about 2 hours, or until it is near the top of the loaf pans.
6. Preheat oven to 450.
7. Bake loaves for 30 minutes.
8. Remove bread from pans, and return to oven for another 15 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow if tapped.

More to follow. Happy eating!

Life Hacks, Kitchen Edition

Non-triathletes who patiently read this blog (hi, Mom!) rejoice, here's one that might actually interest you! And since it involves food, keep reading, fellow tri geeks. Now that it's the off-season and Elliott and I have more time for socializing, we've hosted a few food-related events. Each time, we receive questions or comments about some items in our kitchen (or how we work there). Here are the highlights, in case you are interested in acquiring something similar...or want hard evidence that we really are dorks.

• Tea Baller: Like loose leaf tea but not the hassle of scooping juuuust enough tea into the awkwardly clomping strainer before it spills all over the counter? We are big fans of this clever spoon. Just scoop the tea and twist the handle to seal. We painted one of the handles with nail polish so we can tell them apart. Bad things happen when I drink Elliott's stiffly sweetened mostly sugar ewww brew tea. 

• Rolling Pin: Sure, you can use a wine bottle or a Nalgene. But a marble rolling pin is far more fun. You can chill it in the fridge so it keeps dough cold (and easier to work with) and it's so heavy, you can just roll it back and forth and the dough gets out of your way. Plus, it feels super classy for about $20-- not a lot of dough (ha, see what I did there?).
• Water Bottle Rack: How to store all your water bottles without risking a domino disaster? Use a wine rack or build one out of PVC pipe. The advantage of the latter is you can pick the pipe diameter to fit the types of water bottles you use, e.g. bike bottle or Nalgene. And you can brag to your friends about having a bespoke water bottle rack. 

We can turn wine [racks] into water [bottle holders]!

The soft light. The roaring fire. The PVC pipe... 

• Silicone Baking Mats: Baking something and don't want it to stick? Sure, you could grease the pan, but that gets sticky and makes the delicious, delicious chocolate chip cookies even less healthy. Parchment paper to the rescue...until you realize you are out. Again. Enter silicone baking mats. They are naturally non stick, can handle high heat, and will last for years. 
• Spice Rack: This is a DIY project that has served us well for years. Attach a magnetic strip to the wall or cupboard door (Ikea sells them as knife racks) and super glue a washer to the back of a spice jar. Magic science!

Hey, nice rack!

• Vacuum sealer: Want to avoid having a freezer full of ice-crusted tupperware? Use a vacuum sealer for your leftovers. It even works for wet(ish) items, like spaghetti with tomato sauce.
• Sous Vide: It may sound fancy, but it actually feels like cheating. Put meat, veggies, fruit, etc. in a sealed bag (or ziploc), dunk it a pot of water, set the sous vide to the proper temperature, and walk away. The sous vide heater will bring the water to the set temperature (e.g. 135F for medium rare steak) and hold it there, cooking your item to exactly that temperature without going over. This means goodbye to rubbery chicken, steak that is rare in the middle and scorched on the surface, etc. (You can sear the outside of a steak with a blowtorch if that makes you happy. And it probably will.) Even if meat isn't your treat, you can also use it to make incredible Greek yogurt for around 25% the cost of buying from a store. 
• Books: Yes, the internet also has recipes, but cookbooks are far more fun. We often check them out from the library first to make sure we actually like the recipes and not just the photos. Over the past year, our three favorites have been Oh She Glows, Smitten Kitchen, and Mighty Spice. OSG is vegan. We are not. But we still love all the recipes. That says something. SK is fun to read, features incredible desserts, and includes a few American-Jewish classics that make me feel right at home. I even gave this book to my mom and she raves about it. MS is organized by--you guessed it!--spices. Want to finally use that turmeric that has been staring at you from your spice rack for months? Now is your chance! (Pro tip: it will make everything yellow. Plan accordingly.)

Yes, they are organized by color. And yes, there are more shelves. 

• Eat Your Books: Cookbooks are awesome. Searching each book's index for a particular recipe, not so much. Eat Your Books has indexed thousands of cookbooks, magazines, and blogs so you simply add the names of your books to an online bookshelf and search all of them at once. This site has helped me rediscover books that I hadn't used in years (often, admittedly, the ones without pretty pictures) and quickly figure out what on earth to do with the abundance of {fill in the blank} from our garden or CSA. 

What are your favorite kitchen toys or tips? What are your standard kitchen-themed birthday or wedding presents?

What I Did For My Summer Vacation

No, this is not a horribly out of date post, though we all know I'm capable of that. Nor am I unaware of the frigid weather descending upon DC this fall. Running a 10 K in sub-30 degree weather this morning sent a clear message that we are nearly in December. Let's just call this a "metaphorical summer vacation."

For triathletes in the northern hemisphere, race season runs from around March or April until September or October. This year, I started racing in February and was pretty burned out by 70.3 Worlds in early September. Enter the off-season. Late fall/early winter, aka off-season, is a magical time in the triathlete's year when sleeping in (until 6!), culinary indulgences, and reconnecting with long-neglected friends/relatives/spouses take the place of swims, rides, and runs. True, there are always cautionary tales of athletes who take it too easy and have trouble getting back into shape in the spring, or simply continue training and wonder why they are an unmotivated zombie in March. Time will tell where I fall in that spectrum, but here's my strategy:

• Sleep. That's a no-brainer. (Or actually, a better-brainer, since sleep makes you smarter.) Over the past year, I've gotten into the habit of going to bed early, usually around 9:15, since my workouts required a wake up call "in the 4s." Now that my training volume is lower, I can often sleep in until 6...nearly 9 glorious hours of snoozeville. 
• Core work. How to avoid over-use injuries? Core work, including abs, back, and glutes. What do triathletes never dedicate enough time to do? Core work. Knowing myself and my likes (being social, saving money, obsessively completing workouts in Training Peaks), and dislikes (doing crunches in a crowded gym, motivating myself to hold a plank longer than :30 if no one is watching), I am adding core work/PT/foam rolling to my Training Peaks calendar and also subscribed to Class Pass. If you haven't already been recruited into the Class Pass mafia, it works like this: $99 per month for unlimited (ish) classes at local yoga, pilates, barre, and spin studios. (The "ish" is that you can only take three classes per month at a single studio, but considering there are over 75 studios in the DC area and classes are usually $25 a pop, this is an incredible deal. H/T Lynn!) 

At left: the glute-burn-erator, aka, pilates reformer

• ART: No, not painting. Active Release Therapy. I'll do a separate post on it soon (yes, it's that awesome) but in a nutshell, it's a really effective soft tissue therapy that helps "remodel" muscles, prevent scar tissue formation, and improve range of motion. Rose PT offers it *and* accepts insurance, so why even bother with a "fluff n' buff" massage at a spa? 
• Social Time: Did you know that a universe exists in which people join their friends for brunch, talk about things other than training, and then go shopping (albeit for running shoes)? Or visit small farms in Frederick County and meet alpacas? I'm also enjoying the opportunity to learn more about the sport from people who know their stuff, like the Women and Bicycles event at Rose PT and my speedy triathlete friend, Holli. 

Well, hello, there.

• Culture: Yes, the other kind of art. Elliott and I are now making a point to schedule at least one cultural or educational activity per month. So far, we have attended a dinner with the Charcuterie Club of DC and learned about Civil War history in western Maryland. Next up: a 3D printing class. Fancy! 

Charcuterie + wine + fiance = happiness

• Racing: Yes, I know, it's the off-season. But my coach and I decided to add two low-key, non-taper, single sport races to the schedule to test my training a bit and put a fire under me for next year. Smart move: in both races (10 mile bike time trial and 10K road race), I placed second. Next year... 

What are your off-season plans?