Training Update

It's been a while since I posted about my training. The season is broken up into a few major chunks. The first chunk was from January through NSR1 (or NSR2 for those people who raced in it, which was this past weekend).

Now that some of that selection has been completed, plans are starting to fall into place for the summer season, which lasts through the World Championships at the end of August. (Last summer, Canadian Henley marked the end of the summer season for me, as I wasn't vying for a spot at Worlds.)

---

It's been just over a year since I started training with CRC and I'm starting to see some real improvements—physically and, more importantly, mentally.

One of my big goals for the past year was to become a better athlete. I have always struggled with pulling back when the going gets tough. When I'm tired, I give 90% instead of 100%. This is especially true when I'm training by myself. I'm beginning to see that change. I'm completing more workouts, pushing the boundaries of my heart rate zones and increasing weights when I lift.

Having training partners and coaches that really care about your individual progress is really helpful. It was also helpful having such a positive experience at NSR1—at that race I felt like I was in the mix, which was encouraging, but not quite where I need to be, which was motivating.

I'm not sure I'm quite ready to call myself an elite athlete, but I certainly feel that I've made progress in that direction.

---

This summer season, I want to capitalize on that athleticism. It's really starting this week and next. I've got two hard weeks, back-to-back. Most mornings start off with extensive endurance work: 75-100 minutes meant to push the limits of the anaerobic threshold. The afternoons follow up with a "short and easy" 60' run, or a challenging (but not impossible) weight lifting session.

It's a great opportunity to shift my mindset. Previously, I would approach these weeks warily. This time, I'm ready to attack the workouts. I've completed three of the five hardest workouts this week. I'm starting to make the connection between training like this consistently and being really, really fast. I know that the fitness I've built up over the past year has allowed me to get here, but I think it's going to be a lot of fun going forward.

---

As summer starts, I can also expect more wind. I've been on land every day this week because of it, and I expect a lot more weeks like it. As we get more lightweight women in the club, bigger boats (doubles and quads!) become a possibility; bigger boats can handle rougher conditions. It's also good for me to reconnect with the erg and the weights; and running certainly helps me stay at weight.

Like last summer, it will be over before I know it; and then we'll be down to three years before Rio.. every workout, I'm chasing down my dreams.

Read More

Food Prep

Things have been picking up at work for both Dan and I. Add rowing, gardening, scuba diving (for Dan) and general life to the mix and we're suddenly quite busy. Still, eating well is a top priority for us. So this weekend, while I was doing laundry, cleaning the house and telecommuting to work, I also put in some time by the stove.

On Friday night, while Dan packed for a scuba trip, I was busy in the kitchen cooking up pasta and rice, all while getting our tofu pressed/marinating, chopping broccoli and cleaning up dishes from dinner.

Tofu, black rice and pasta. That giant pot is full of black bean soup.

Saturday was all about sweat and tears—onions galore!

I made a bolognese style pasta sauce with fake ground beef. It's not something I would normally buy, but our housemate left it here when she moved out and it needed to get used up. It'll be a nice change from beans and tofu.

I also caramelized a huge batch of onions. Well, it was huge until I cooked it.

Our menu plan for the week:

One of the new time saving strategies I've been using: re-using meal parts. For example, we used peanut sauce last week, and made a big batch of it so we had some this week. We're using rice multiple times, and having black bean soup twice with different fixings.

I've also planned lunches so they can be quick combinations of things in our fridge. Saturday's lunch was plain, pre-cooked pasta tossed with artichoke hearts, olives, nutritional yeast, soymilk and paprika. It took 6 minutes to make, including three minutes in the microwave.

It's not ideal. My dad would probably be appalled by our pre-cooked plain pasta. We'll probably be sick of black bean soup by the end of this week. And chances are we'll deviate from our plan at least once, probably twice during the week.

Ultimately, though, we'll eat our fair share of broccoli, onions, kale, whole grains, beans, tofu and more oh-so-good for you things. And all this while working, training and living very full lives.

Read More

Dear Graduating Seniors

It's that time of year. Graduation.

I remember the triumphant joy when I realized nobody could ever take that away from me. And when I visited Princeton, I went out of my way to proudly walk out of the Fitz Randolph gate.

I have grown up a lot since I left school, and I've had a lot of time to reflect on my life so far and on who I am and want to be. There are many things I think I did right, and many I would have done differently.

High school seniors:
You made it. It seems high school has become a tracking system into college, rather than an educational platform. Watching the girls I coached talk about grades, SAT scores and college admissions, I realize that high school is no longer about understanding, but about getting the grade.

I beg of you, don't let college be the same. Spend this summer rethinking your approach to school. Whatever degree you choose to obtain, think of college as an opportunity to learn. You will learn facts, figures, dates and formulae. But also learn how to think. Learn to be passionate. Learn to make choices for yourself—not your parents, friends or professors.

Yes, grades can be important. But when you write a resume, you can leave your college GPA out. It matters much more who you know and how passionate you are—so put as much time and effort into developing relationships and interests as completing your problem sets.

And along those lines, decide your priorities. You can't have it all. It may seem like your peers do, but I promise that you have something they don't: a connection to your family, a full night of sleep or 1000 facebook friends, perhaps. To me, sleep was important, until I met Dan. Then, I sacrificed many a full night to talk and laugh in the dorm stairwells.


College seniors:
If you already have a job, congratulations. If you don't, congratulations—take the free time to find a company that you are passionate about. Go to as many interviews as possible—not to get the job, but to figure out what companies have to offer you. Practice interviewing your friends and family, so you know what it's like being on the other side.

You can give yourself this luxury of time by choosing to live below your means. Certainly spend money on the things you value, but don't spend money on that which you don't. Maybe you value organic produce or being able to watch Comedy Central whenever you want; maybe you'd rather spend time out of your home than have a nice one.

Remember: nobody has time to judge you anymore. In your life til now, somebody has either been tasked with judging you (your parents) or paid to judge you (your teachers). No more! You can choose to love the rain and long lines, to only eat purple vegetables, or to say hello to everybody you pass. Certainly college was an opportunity to reinvent yourself, but there were always constraints.

Your constraints are gone. Embrace the terrifying freedom and make tough choices.

Read More

Protein Powders

Oh, protein powder. Such a contentious thing.

I've definitely tried my fair share of vegan protein powders. I'm definitely not an expert, because I'd rather not eat enough of them to become an expert, but I'll add my two cents to the myriad of online opinions.

General pros and cons:
+ much easier than pressing and frying tofu or eating 4 cups of broccoli
+ usually provide complete proteins, often with no limiting amino acids
+ can be added to a lot of foods
- can taste tremendously terrible
- work best in sweet applications, and I'd rather save my sweets for things that are actually tasty
- are usually very processed

Conventional Protein Powders
My two favorite protein powders are the SunWarrior Vanilla

http://www.sunwarrior.com/product-info/warrior-blend/

and any kind of generic hemp protein powder.

The SunWarrior seems to disappear into smoothies and hot cereals, adding a hint of stevia flavor and subtle vanilla notes. I only use this in sweet things because of the stevia and vanilla flavors. (I highly recommend vanilla over chocolate—the "chocolate" flavoring is usually pretty awful. If you really want chocolatey protein powder, add cocoa powder to the vanilla flavor.)

Hemp protein powder is great for more savory foods. I mix it into savory oatmeal along with nutritional yeast. I will also use it in sweet hot cereals with richer flavors like molasses and ginger. It's less than stellar for smoothies.

Unconventional Protein Powders

I'm also a big fan of PB2 as a protein supplement.

It's not a complete protein, but it works superbly in both savory and sweet applications, just like normal peanut butter. It's also relatively simple (the ingredients are roasted peanuts, sugar and salt).

Nutritional yeast rounds out my list of supplemental protein sources. It's best in savory dishes, and gets bonus points for being rich in Vitamin B12. The flavor marries incredibly well with curry.

Save your $$$

As I mentioned earlier, skip the chocolate protein powders (and the chocolate PB2) and just add cocoa powder yourself. 

You can probably also skip the soy protein powder. Although I don't eschew soy proteins, I also understand that moderation is key in everything. I drink soy milk and consume tofu regularly. I would rather supplement my protein intake with a non-soy protein powder.

Any other brands I ought to try? What are your thoughts on pea and brown rice protein powders?

Read More

Making Time to Cook

Have you heard about Michael Pollan's new book? It talks about home cooking, and why it's important. It's started a whole conversation about how to get Americans back into the kitchen.

Growing up, we had family dinner every night. Despite falling right in the middle of The Simpsons, dinner was served between 6 and 6:15pm daily. (My dad was not amused when afternoon crew practice interfered with dinner timing.)

And, almost every night, that meal was home cooked.

Dan and I have continued the tradition, although we are a little bit more lax about the timing. Oftentimes, dinner is on the table less than 20 minutes after we arrive home. Sometimes, we even eat completely different meals. For example, last week, Dan had lettuce wraps with rice, chopped veggies and peanut sauce, while I enjoyed a grain bowl with quinoa, mushrooms, snap peas and peanut sauce.

How do we do it? It's not as hard as it seems.

A few of my tips:
1. Always make extra.
The rice and quinoa? Those were leftovers from other meals. And later this week, we plan to have black bean soup from a batch big enough for two dinners and two lunches apiece.

2. Multitask.
That black bean soup? We let it bubble away on the back burner while we were cooking, eating and cleaning up another dinner.
While I'm pan frying something, I often turn the heat to medium. Sure, it cooks more slowly, but it doesn't require constant attention. While the broccoli slowly heats, I can make a tasty tahini dressing or begin cleaning up.
Slow cookers and rice cookers do the same thing: they multitask while you're off at work.

3. Share the work.
Dan is our official saucier. Sure, I can brown garlic without burning it, and get a beautiful crust on a batch of tofu. But Dan is the master of sauces. So while I tend to grains, greens and proteins, he dances about the kitchen fetching soy sauce, nutritional yeast, lemons, oils, herbs, spices and more. He always make a big batch—enough for lunch and maybe a second dinner.

4. Think simple.
Ever been to foodgawker? If that was your only source of recipes, you'd think that every meal had 15 steps and 25 ingredients. Not true. Many of my favorite meals seem too simple to share with the world:

-- leftover rice, microwaved with soymilk, nutritional yeast, paprika and curry until creamy

 served with raw veggies and (if I'm feeling fancy) some beans

-- hummus with roughly chopped veggies and pita triangles

-- fresh corn, canned beans, lettuce, olive oil, salt and pepper

All of those dishes can be on the table in 10 minutes.

5. Semi-homemade

Hummus, barbecue sauce, salad dressings, teriyaki sauce—all of these take a collection of ingredients and make them a meal. Dan's not always home to make sauces, so sometimes we use pre-made stuff. I'm not always home to start beans in the slow cooker, so sometimes we use cans.

6. Get better knives.

Nothing sucks the joy out of cooking faster than a dull knife. It will add 50% onto your prep time, and make it impossible to multitask. It will give you uneven pieces of food, which means uneven cooking, increased stress and poor results. And a decent knife doesn't have to be expensive.

Seriously, if you hate to cook, it's probably because you have shitty knives.

Read More

Live Below the Line

The recent press surrounding the Live Below the Line challenge has gotten my attention. Food is near and dear to my heart, and I have a deep appreciation for what I can afford and have access to, as well as for how that nourishment affects my body.

Dan and I make an extraordinary effort to eat well. We focus on whole, organic, locally sourced foods. And, although we eat vegan meals for a number of reasons, much of our original motivation was financial—we sacrificed meats in order to afford fruit and vegetables. And, when moving and additional income allowed us to increase our food budget, we allocated that money to organic produce rather than meats or animal products.

Still, we are fortunate. Nothing has taught me that more than travelling.

Our local grocery store just re-organized its extensive produce section, expanding the organic section and relegating convention produce to the back corner. An area equivalent to most stores' organic section is dedicated to produce sourced from a single farm. When I was travelling, I was lucky to find any organics, let alone three different types of organic kale.

Even more fortunate, we have the resources to start our own garden. The SF Bay Area certainly makes it easy. Our local public library has an open seed library, we have a farm and garden store around the corner, and Oakland boasts the best weather in the nation. Still, nothing cuts a food budget down like growing your own herbs and salad greens.

We definitely put some money into building our raised beds and purchasing some of our trees and plants, but many of our most productive plants cost very little. From the orange tree that came with the yard to the peas that are producing as many pods as we can eat, if money were tight, we could coax a lot of food from our small plot of land.

And so, I'd like to take the challenge. Being the analytical person that I am, I needed to test feasibility of ingesting sufficient calories for training on $1.50/day, and so I did some math.

I eat 3000-3500 calories per day. To be conservative, I'll stick with the upper end of that range. Dan eats 2000 calories per day. That means we have $3 to spend on 5500 calories.

Things we can forage from the local cityscape:
Rosemary bushes are abundant, as are fennel plants. There is also a secret avocado tree near the boathouse that occasionally drops its fatty fruits, and the local loquat trees are bursting with fruits. Perhaps we will get lucky. Nasturtium is also plentiful, and I will keep my eye out for easily pluckable plants.
There's also a chance Dan will get lunch at work one day, and I know of a few places to get free samples in San Francisco that might fill in a few hundred calories.

Things we can use from our yard:
Our spring mix is thriving. A packet of 1000 seeds cost me $3.50. I will very generously assume that enough lettuce for the week was 10% of that packet, or 35 cents. The radishes and peas are in full swing and need harvesting; I'm not sure how much those cost to produce. Perhaps we can leave them for 5 days?

Where that leaves us:
That leaves us $2.93 to spend on 5500 calories. That means every 100 calories has to cost less than 5.32 cents. Obviously, the bulk of this will have to come from high caloric density, inexpensive foods. Beans and rice are probably the most cost effective options.

A pound of dry rice has 1600 calories. That means it has to be less than 85 cents a pound to fit into our budget.
A pound of dry black beans has 835 calories. That means it has to be less than 45 cents a pound.
Dry chickpeas? 1100 calories per pound; they'd need to be less than 58 cents a pound.

Is that reasonable? At 60 cents a pound, this rice is definitely affordable. And every bit of calorie we can add for under 5.3 cents/100 calories eases our budget elsewhere.


Before we embark on this challenge, we'll need to use up the supplies in the fridge. We have very little food wasting away in our cupboards and fridge, so this should take more than a week or two. I will keep you updated. In the meantime, if any of you have taken part in a similar challenge and have any advice, please let me know!

Read More

Sleep

Although I didn't start drinking coffee until quite recently, I have come to really enjoy lingering over the breakfast table with a hot cup of coffee. Maybe it's the beautiful garden view from our dining table or the time spent just sitting in the morning quiet with my husband, but it can be so soothing.

Unfortunately, I've noticed that, on the days I skip coffee, I am tired sooner and sleep more and better throughout the day and at night.

Why is that unfortunate? Well, it's become clear that I need the sleep my body naturally asks for.

In college, I didn't drink coffee partly to prevent myself from getting too little sleep. The 8+ hours I got every night in college kept me awake, alert and focused in class better than any triple shot could have. I attribute good sleep to much of my success in college. And, as my college coach pointed out, I become quite a pain when I'm tired.

I've always been a needy sleeper. It seems nothing has changed.

Training 3-5 hours a day, it seems that 9 hours is a bare minimum for sleep. Most days, I sleep 7.5-8.5 hours at night, plus 2-3 hours of sleep during the day. And every other week, I get in a full day of sleeping, spending over 12 hours with my eyes shut in a 24 hour period. (Usually, this is in the form of 9.5 hours of sleep plus a 2.5 hour nap.)

And so I'm learning to cut back on the coffee. Still, I'm attached to our morning ritual. The rough, slippery feel of a warm Heath mug, filled with rich, hot, not-quite-bitter brew calls to me. But, I'm a woman of solutions, and so we've started buying decaf.

I don't always pick the decaf. If I know I'll be working in the morning and napping in the afternoon, I welcome the caffeine. But on days where I expect to head to bed right after the morning row, more and more I'm reaching for the decaf.

Some random thoughts on coffee and sleeping:
- A good mattress makes all the difference! I was having issues with my back and was just exhausted all the time. We bought a new mattress and within a week things were back to normal. We made a pretty big jump in quality (the old mattress creaked and pinged when you sat on it), but I'm a firm believer in good mattresses.

- We love our Aeropress. I've never been willing to commit to having a coffee maker. We started with a french press, but when it broke, we wanted a temporary solution while we waited for Oxo to send the replacement part. Our temporary solution ended up replacing the french press. The Aeropress looks funky, but it makes a mean cup of coffee. Since we switched, I've dropped milk and sugar from my morning cup'o'joe.
Once the water is boiling, the whole coffee making process takes about 2 minutes. (45s to assemble/add coffee; 30s to brew; 45s to walk to the sink and clean up.) Awesome. Plus, it makes espresso, so iced coffee and homemade cappuccinos are not possibilities.

- Dan and I are opposite sleepers. He can fall asleep through anything, but wakes up in an instant. It takes near perfect conditions for me to fall asleep, but once I'm gone it takes an airhorn to wake me up!

Read More