Lightweight Eats

A year ago, I was in a very different place than I am now.

In January, Dan and I got married!

In May, I gave up coaching to start training full time.

In August, I left Piquant Prose behind and moved the blog to my own domain name.

In November, we moved from an apartment into a house, and I started working.

I hope the new year brings as much joy and as many wonderful developments as this one has. Every year, my life has gotten better and brighter.

Rowing has a very strange race and training calendar. Because we have two seasons, we have racing scheduled for most of the year. At the elite level, we race 4-6km in the late fall season and race 2km in the late spring and summer.

The 2000m distance is the primary race distance and is the focus of our season. As such, the end of summer marks the end of our training year.

In the fall, we try to focus on longer training and building our training base while also preparing for the fall racing season. This is the most awkward season--do you focus long-term on preparing for spring or do you do the work that will best prepare you for fall racing?

Once the fall season ends, training shifts focus to volume work. This is the season of epic workouts: two to three hour bike rides and 10-mile runs.

This type of training helps improve the efficiency of your muscles. It provides the infrastructure you need to add increased intensity: it's like adding and repaving surface streets and highways to your city in anticipation of a significant increase in automobile traffic.

There is nothing quite like slogging through two hours on the bike at heart rate 130. Fortunately, I've learned some tricks to help pass the time! I'm a huge fan of watching movies on my computer, chatting with friends and even doing work online from the bike seat.

Epic runs are a bit harder to manage. I hate carrying water with me, so I get super thirsty. I also inevitably have to use the restroom, which severely restricts my list of possible routes. I listen to music, enjoy the scenery and spend time thinking. Sometimes, I menu plan or figure out what I'll eat when I get back. Now, I can also check my heart rate or my mileage.

Even though they are boring, these are my favorite workouts. There is something very meditative about them--the slow, consistent pace doesn't require much thought and lets me get lost in its rhythm and repetition. The sweat clears my system but the intensity doesn't completely wear me out of the rest of my day.

What's your favorite type of training? What are you doing right now?

Soups are easy. They are much less about precision and more about tasting, simmering and using up the things in your fridge that are starting to wilt anyways.

My father-in-law's birthday is the day after Christmas. Needless to say, celebrations are usually muted, and definitely don't call for a cake the day after feasting. Instead, we decided to make a healthy, satisfying soup that had a lot of his favorite things.

We have tons of leftover that will make great lunches for the rest of the week.

I didn't take any photos because, frankly, lentil soup is not very photogenic. I also prefer to eat my food when it's hot.

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Curry Cauliflower Lentil Soup

4 stalks celery
3 carrots
0.5 onion
1 head cauliflower
3 cups black or green lentils
curry powder (about 2T)
cumin seeds (about 2t)
water or veggie broth

1. Dice/chop the first four ingredients and saute in oil until softened.
2. Add the lentils and spices and stir to coat. Cook for a minute, or until the spices become fragrant.
3. Add enough water/broth to cover the veggies. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 45 minutes or until the lentils are softened.

Serve with bread or rice.
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As part of our new Christmas tradition, we celebrate Christmas Eve with my parents in the Bay Area and then fly up to Oregon on Christmas morning for a second round of celebrations.

We are currently enjoying some down time on the Oregon coast while Dan's office is closed for the holidays and my teammates are mostly out of town.

Here's a peek into our time up here:

Dan got me a Garmin for Christmas!

My first run with the Garmin. Very cool! Average heart rate was 154.

We visited the local health food store to get groceries for the week. Dinner plans include lentil soup, black bean & sweet potato tacos and a giant salad. Yummy!

Dan went out and took some photos while I was on my computer doing work.

I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays! Hopefully I will have the opportunity to update once more while we're up here.

Have you ever been on FoodGawker or Tastespotting? Or read a food blog? (Yes, I'm guilty of this as well.)

In case you're wondering, every recipe either has bacon or is "healthy". With a myriad of fad diets out there, from gluten-free to paleo to raw vegan, everybody has a different definition of healthy. And, frankly, if you have to call a recipe out as healthy, it probably isn't.

Take these "healthy" chocolate coated gingerbread balls:
http://www.nutritionistinthekitch.com/2012/12/13/chocolate-coated-gingerbread-bliss-balls-vegan-gf/

Between the dates, the maple syrup and the molasses, I don't consider these particularly healthy.

When I picture healthy, I see a huge fresh veggie salad topped with an avocado-based creamy dressing and lightly toasted nuts, served with a whole grain and beans. Or a grain bowl. Not chocolate-covered anything.

Of course, somebody on a paleo or raw diet might look at the "healthy" I just described and wrinkle their noses in judgement.

So in this new year, let's resolve to be a little bit more specific. "Reduced calorie", "low fat", "veggie-ful", "paleo", "raw" and "vegan" are all great descriptors. Even "butter-free". But please, don't go calling your fudgy brownies healthy because you added prunes. They're still brownies.

As I mentioned earlier, I've received a lot of comments and questions about my eating habits since dropping most animal products from my diet. To give you a sense of what I eat to maintain my health, I decided to track my intake and record it here. These days are not consecutive, but are over the course of a week or two.

Since we eat a lot of homemade foods, and tracking recipes is really time consuming, I definitely made some approximations. This is pretty close, though, to what I ate.

You will notice that I regularly consume over 120g of protein, plenty of fiber, and a good balance of macronutrients. You will also notice that I eat a lot of sugar. Yum.

Note: I am currently on a 500-calorie deficit to try to slowly drop down to racing weight by mid-January. The calorie budget reflects this, and is 500 calories less than I theoretically burn in a day.

Also note: I'm not a nutritionist, and I'm probably making mistakes. This is not necessarily the right or the best thing for you to eat. I'm trying it out, and it's what I think works best for me right now.

Day One:

(80' of rowing, 60' running)

Day Two:

17k row, short lift

Day Three:

2 hours on the erg

Day Four:

19k row, plus a lot of walking/cycling

Day Five:

19k row, plus hard afternoon erg session

I am working on decreasing my sugar intake some and replace it with more complex carbohydrates and fats. My diet used to be incredibly high in both fat and sugar; I'm doing better with both, although I think I dropped a bit too much fat from my diet--I've read that at a certain point you begin to increase your risk for injury.

You may also notice that I'm using a lot of protein supplements--protein powder, vegan sausage, etc. Partly, this is because of the decreased calorie load. Getting 120g of natural, vegan protein is a cinch when you're eating 3500+ calories a day; it's much harder when you take away 500 calories; I eat about 15% protein, so 500 calories takes away about 18g of protein. One scoop of protein powder or one veggie dog eliminates that deficit easily.

I'm also fairly certain that the program I use (MyFitnessPal) underestimates the number of calories I burn in a day. When I track my food, I definitely miss some stuff, and I still lose weight at least as fast as they expect, usually faster.

Sorry for the tardy publication.

Monday:

I said goodbye to my old boat this morning with a 15K steady state row. It took almost 2K to get used to rowing in the single again, but it was a decent row. I was having some issues with the shoes in this boat, but it forced me to make some good technical changes.

A 60' run in the afternoon was a good opportunity to escape the computer for a while, and I explored our new 'hood some more.

Tuesday:
Today was all about volume. The morning started off with an easy 30' erg, followed by 45-50 minutes of biking. I spent the whole day moving, between biking to and from the boathouse/BART and walking in the city to work and lunch with Dan.

In the afternoon, I completed the most boring workout in the universe: two hours on the bike at heart rate 130. I tried doing some work and reading, which was effective for the first 70-80 minutes, but just absolutely fried my brain afterwards.

I had hoped to lift today, but didn't find time.

Wednesday:
I woke up to rain, heavy rain. At the boathouse, we knocked out an erg workout instead of rowing: three 15-minute pieces at around HR170, low stroke rate. (I averaged a 2:05 split.) I followed up with a lift and core work.

Thursday:
Finally back on the water! We headed out in a quad for 20K of steady state. We threw in a few drills, but mostly just enjoyed the calm conditions. I had the steering, which kept me on my toes.

In other related news, the club purchased a new boat for me! It arrived Wednesday and I unwrapped in on Thursday. It's a lightweight Hudson, and it's gorgeous.

Friday:
On the erg again, we did a 30' erg test, drag 125, stroke rate 20. I got another PR, adding another 40 meters or so to my piece from last week for a total of 7266m. I would really like to reach 7500m on this piece, but I think it will take me at least another 3 months to get there. A lot of lifting is going to make a big difference. I followed this up with a lift, stretching and a short bike.

The afternoon was another epic 2 hour bike ride. This time, I watched a movie and some trashy TV. Much better.

Saturday:
Another epic morning practice, we started on the water in a quad. All told, we did 17km, including two 2.5km races against some men's boats. Afterwards, we hopped right onto the erg for 2x4km (~16 minutes), at around our 30 minute test pace. It felt awesome to be able to pull those number for 4000m that easily.

Sunday:
The workout schedule included a 45 minute run, but I ended up spending the day running around doing house shopping and lifting/moving/assembling furniture instead.