Category Archives: Cooking

Odds and Ends

Posted on April 10, 2012 by goSonja| 8 Comments

I don’t have any clear and concise things to tell you all, but there are a lot of odds and ends I wanted to share.

I got a splinter the day before Galveston. It was in the tip of my right index finger. I couldn’t type on my phone with that finger. I almost died. Clint and Clints dad looked for the splinter and poked around with needles and such, both determining there was no splinter. 5 days later, I got it out. Amazing how much a tiny fleck of wood can rock your world.

I met Biju Thomas and Allen Lim. I found out through twitter that they were going to be at an event less than a mile from my house! I had a ride to do so I threw my Feed Zone Cookbook up my jersey, rode out to meet PIC and we went and met the guys. So awesome!!! I got to talk to Biju about the recipes I have made and get a few tips on the one that flopped for me. We talked to Allen about the secret drink mix, Skratch Labs, how he developed it, and how he means for it to be mixed. These dudes are pretty freakin’ awesome and I’m stoked I got to meet them and pick their brains.

Biju, Michelle, Me, Allen

They even signed my book for me, then I rode around with it the rest of the day up my jersey…not an easy feat.

The funny thing about it all was when I started cooking from the book and tweeting pictures of the food I was making I said to someone…was it Beth, or PIC?? I said…”Mark my words, I will meet these guys” I just knew I would. I’m sure it’s only the first time. Oh, and if you ride in Boulder, you have to swing by the corner of Broadway and 36 on the weekends, because Allen is usually out there with his rice cakes.

This last weekend my athlete Katie was in town visiting and we had some fun rides. On Friday we went to Ward with a fun little group. The descent down through Raymond to Lyons never gets old, but the howling wind from Lyons back to Boulder got a little old! It was one of the top 5 windiest days I’ve experienced out there, but at least it was warm wind!

Then on Saturday Katie got to ride again, but I drove the car providing SAG support this time, Troy rode as well. I have a whole new appreciation for all the times he has driven support for me, it’s boring! I spent some good time with Annie laying on the roof of the car looking at the clouds, that was fun!

At the top of Highgrade I had to take a picture of these guys. There were so many jokes that I wanted to make here, something about writing your phone number on your ass…dating advise…that sort of thing. But then I started wondering why on earth these guys were painted and I put it together. We just had a really bad fire near here with 900 homes evacuated, 27 homes burned, and 3 people died. So when you ride up Highgrade there are all these signs saying “Thank you Firefighters for saving our home.” I realized these animals were probably quickly evacuated in the fire and they just spray painted numbers on them so they could track who they belonged to. Such a hot and dry spring this year, everyone who lives in the mountains is already worried.

On the way down from Highgrade I saw a sign for eggs. EGGS!!! Like farm fresh, happy chicken eggs! Yes Please! I bought three dozen and will be bringing a backpack every time I ride Highgrade from now on. Fresh eggs…so happy!

Then, since I had all these wonderful fresh eggs I had to make the Frittata from the Feed Zone Cookbook. It turned out really well. I made it in my cast iron skillet, super yummy! It has a red pepper sauce on it that was really easy to make, just some EVOO, roasted red peppers (the ones in the jar) salt and lemon juice in the blender….whirl…and done! Nom!

I had the strangest ride yesterday. I am definitely still recovering from Galveston so every ride feels like a threat to my ego! Haha! Michelle dropped my ass (not the Donkey kind…but oddly on the same climb that the Donkey lives) last week. I always think I should recover quicker than I actually do. The wounds heal, and the legs aren’t sore, but there is always still the hidden fatigue, the kind you can’t see until your really strong training partner drops the hammer and you are left with choices…ride all out to keep up, or get dropped. Off the back I went, to wallow in self pity as we all do when we get dropped.

So yesterday, still nursing my legs and my ego I was out riding some hills when I passed a turkey on the road. Man, you can imagine how disapointed I was when I couldn’t get my phone out quickly enough to take picture of a turkey on my wheel. So sad I missed that one.

BUT THEN, I’m climbing up and I get passed by a girl like I’m standing still. That’s cool, I’m cool with that, you can’t stress when others pass you, especially if you don’t know them, heck, they could be Chrissie Wellington. At least you can convince yourself of that. But, here’s the deal…she’s wearing a boot. YES A BOOT. You can bet that I was pulling out the phone, and riding my tail off to get a picture of this. I don’t get passed by a girl on her bike in a boot without photo evidence. OFFICIAL BAMF!

Wait…here it is a little closer….

So, let’s just assume that my my ego was dealt the final blow on that one. I am reminded daily in this sport that if you take yourself too seriously, you will be humbled beyond belief. Just look around. You may pass a turkey…but then a girl in a boot will pass you back.

Lastly, spring has officially sprung here in Colorado. The pollen count is 5X higher than last year due to the early spring and my allergies have been worse this year than in the last 10 years. I’m not a fan of taking anything but I had to break down and take some medicine. We did have one random snowstorm and I got this shot on my phone. That tree is in full bloom, with snow all over it, I thought it was pretty.

Well, folks, that’s all I’ve got for now! 2 more weeks until NOLA 70.3. 2 more weeks of finding my legs again!

Oh, and Kompetitive Edge is doing a Newton clinic this weekend on the 14th. I’ll be there for sure, sounds so fun! Come out if you are in the area and have fun with us (click to enlarge)!

Posted in climbing, Cooking, Cycling, Triathlon

Vision Board – Act

Posted on January 12, 2012 by goSonja| 12 Comments

I’ve never done a vision board. I’ve known about the concept but never actually sat down and completed one. I was reading my friend Randi’s blog and she put one together, I thought it was pretty cool.

One of my athletes, Kelly put a virtual one together that I thought was pretty awesome as well. You can see it here.

So what’s the point? I don’t know. I just got a bunch of magazines and just ripped through them and found things that spoke to me. I know where I’m headed, all those decisions were made several weeks ago, but this is an interesting process in seeing where my desires lie. I probably have a little too much time on my hands right now while Dirk realizes that I am the triathlon equivalent to this or this or maybe more of this.

Looking at the completed board, I can tell that my family and PIC are like constant fixtures in my life. I want to continue to do a good job within those relationships this coming year, they have really become my day to day foundation of love and support. Food was a big trigger for me. I felt the need to rip out lots of pictures of veggies.

But the vast majority was triathlon related. It was odd that I kept cutting out 9s. I clearly had nine on the brain. And there is a funny little section with a scale and I put all these numbers on it and then the word peace underneath it. That’s because I seek peace with my weight.

There are THREE big purchases I want this year and shockingly I found all of them in my magazines (not as immune to marketing as I hoped)

- The Freak of Nature

-A Zipp 808 Firecrest carbon clincher rear wheel with a Power Tap, and a 404 front to accompany it.

-A new Gamin 910

And of course in the middle there is a hot girl, coming across the line at Kona with a big fat 9 number on the clock. She has abs, and she looks hot…hey, it’s MY vision board!

Some people think if you put all this stuff in front of you, that it helps make it come true. I think it was a concept made popular after “The Secret” came out. Your destiny is in your hand, the power lies with you, yada yada yada. I believe it all, I mean heck why not? I call it “putting it out there in the universe.” I hope I didn’t get that phrase from when I watched the secret like 7 or 8 years ago, that would be tragic.

I just have always been a firm believer of ACTION. I think all this stuff is good, it’s good to display your dreams and hopes and reminders of how you want to act and who you want to be. But it’s scratching the surface. The real secret lies in our actions on a day to day and week to week basis. I can tape on my vision board “Follow the Good” which reminds me of Troy. But if I don’t act in accordance, then it’s all moot. Actions are where it’s at.

Not long ago I was listening to NPR, I think they were discussing 2012 resolutions and someone was saying that they pick a word each year to focus on. A guide for their actions. This struck me, because in 2010 my word was DILIGENT. I didn’t have a word last year, but I wish I had. This year, it’s ACT. I just know it.

So, do you all use these sort of tactics at the beginning of a new year? Do you find them helpful or are they like every other New Year type of thing, forgotten by February? Do you do anything else that helps to focus your efforts?

Posted in Cooking, Family, health, Mental Training, Triathlon

Plant Based and Vega Sport

Posted on January 2, 2012 by goSonja| 7 Comments

As many of you know, I tried to go Plant Based last year. January through May were easy peasy. I loved trying all these new recipies and I love veggies like crazy so it was super fun to read new books and gain some knowledge. To those thinking about or leaning that direction, I suggest the following:

- Book: The China Study

- Book: Cook Food

- Books: Clean Food and Clean Start

-Movie: Forks over Knives

Movie: Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

Now those are great links if you need knowledge on general Plant Based Radtasticness. But what if you train 25-20 hours a week, you live on your bike, in the pool, and on the road? What if you don’t have time to chop chop chop and chomp chomp chomp? Well, you need a few more resources. So, start stalking:

- Book: Engine2Diet

- Book: jaiseed

- Book: Thrive

In spite of reading all this, I still didn’t make it through the year Plant Based. I struggled on several fronts, the main being affordable protein, the second being cravings. Meat is cheep and quick to get on the table. I didn’t quite have the systems in place to make it through the crunch months of serious IM training. But there is always 2012. Of the triathletes that are plant based that I have stalked followed (this is not a short list) through the years, Brendan has gone APE-CRAZY all over the Plant Based for Athletes vibe.

He created Vega which was a supplement line so that Plant Based people could make sure they were getting all they needed in terms of nutrients on a daily basis. But to me, that wasn’t where plant based endurance athletes were lacking solutions. It’s the training fuel, or mainly the large quantity of soy protein out there. If you are Plant Based, good luck finding a recovery drink on the market without whey in it, or a good quality protein bar.

I was stoked to see that Vega launched a new line called Vega Sport a few months ago. I begged to try it out and they let me..because they are nice like that. I got the box in the mail and it was really light. I kinda did a “tsk-tsk, don’t they know I’m an endurance athlete?” in my mind before I opened it. There was  cute little box inside. I was a like, Ummm….this will barely feed me during 2 Ironman training sessions.

Then I opened it up and shazam, it was an exploding box full of every single product and flavor they were putting out. It got to try it ALL (muh-ah-hah-hah). In short, I can say that if you are trying to stay vegan with your sport nutrition, this is your new best friend.

Here’s a little break down of what I think, based on the hard core endurance athlete.

PREPARE

- Pre Workout Energizer: This is for before training. I thought it tasted like Flinstones vitamins. It comes in at 70 calories which is a mere drop in the bucket compared to what I would get down before a large training session. But I liked that it was digestible. I did a double shot and blended it with a banana (about 240 calories) and I felt ready to get into my training day. Taste…strange. Effective…seemed to be.

SUSTAIN

- Electrolyte Hydrator: A NUUN type of product. It’s a no calorie little pouch of powdered goodness. It doesn’t fizz like NUUN though. I found this to be divine. They nailed the taste and I really really dug both the lemon lime and the pom berry flavors. I used this for a 2 hour easy spin and it worked.

- Endurance Gel: I’m not a fan of gels, I prefer the gummies that are on the market. However, most all those gummies have horse hooves in them so again if you are super jazzed about being plant based, you are probably stuck with gels any ways. These were two of the last things I tried. Mine were cold and they had little crunchy balls in the them…I think it’s the coconut oil. If I’m going to gag down a gel, I should probably gag down one of these, they are made with dates.

- Endurance Bar: Well shiver me timbers. I’m not a big “bar” gal, unless it’s those evil little White Chocolate Macadamia Candy Luna bars. Well, I loved these. They are clean tasting, but good, and they really hit the spot. I had them on a really long 5 hour traininer ride and they really performed well for me.

** During training I will most likely stick to my First Endurance EFS or NUUN in my bottles, but will add in the Endurance Bar and the Electrolyte Hydrator (to have a flavor contrast from NUUN) going forward. I really liked these bars.

RECOVER

- Recovery Accelerator: I was confused about this at first. It’s 80 calories and I was like “How is 80 calories going to get me anywhere after a hard session, I need like 300. ” Again, a mere drop in the bucket. But it tastes really good. I REALLY liked the Apple Berry. I read up and realized, I needed to add one of the next products….

- Performance Protein: 26 grams of Plant Based protein. I add this to the Recovery Accelerator and now  I’m in plant based recovery heaven. I liked the berry flavor the best because it made sense with the Apple Berry Recovery Accelerator. I didn’t want to add chocolate to Apple Berry, that sounded not so good. This combo made for 200 calories of recovery drink, but at 23 grams of carbs, and 26 grams of protein I would probably have a banana in addition to this. giving me 300 calories with adequate carb replacement. This seems like a lot, but this is what I’m looking at directly after 5 or 6 hours on the bike with an hour running afterwards. I’ve most likely skipped lunch and so this has to pack a punch.

- Protein Bar: Are you kidding me. These were amazing. You can tell they sourced the really really GOOD chocolate. I will be ordering two boxes of these stat. They were amazing. The Chocolate Coconut (and I dont’ really like chocolate) should win some sort of best bar award. Major Nom Nom.

** So I have been using First Endurance Ultragen as my recovery drink of choice. The cappuccino has a bit of a cult following in endurance circles and I will admit, it is divine. But it has Whey Protein Isolate and it’s not plant based. Even after trying the VegaSport products, the Ultragen is still the best tasting recovery drink on the market. I would switch to VegaSport if I am committed to remaining Plant Strong. Am I? There are certainly no excuses now that VegSport is on the market.

Also, apparently tomorrow Vega Sport is launching a huge sweepstakes. The prizes are pretty MAC-DADDY with a 15 day trip to awesome places and 30K in prizes. You can enter that at www.vegasportsweepstakes.com I will be entering for sure.

And lastly…Vega didn’t pay me for this review, they just gave me the tiny little box of stuff that I thought wouldn’t be enough, but ended up packing a punch. Good stuff, really, quite good stuff.

So, thoughts on the whole Plant Based thing? Are any of you hoping to go more this direction in 2012?

Posted in Cooking, health, Ironman, Triathlon

33 things before 33

Posted on November 9, 2011 by goSonja| 13 Comments

I stole this idea from Erin at Just Run With It. Every year after her birthday she posts a list of things she wants to do before her next birthday. I have followed her blog for several years and I always love seeing the lists and then seeing what she gets done, what doesn’t get done, and how much fun she has along the way. So, I’m stealing it this birth-year. Next year is the big 33…an AWESOME YEAR because it’s 3×11..and 11 is a wicked rad prime.

33 Things Before 33 (in no particular order)

  1. Break 10 hours for 140.6 miles of swim bike run.
  2. Swim a mile in the pool faster than 24:00
  3. Go kayaking in the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge
  4. Go to the top of the Sun sphere
  5. Attend Engine2 Immersion or something similar with Troy
  6. Qualify for Kona
  7. Go camping with Annie and Troy
  8. Run a winter Ultramarathon
  9. Plant a garden in the backyard
  10. Make Annies Halloween costume from scratch
  11. Write a cookbook
  12. Run the Boston Marathon
  13. See Cirque Du Soleil
  14. Decorate my triathlon cave room
  15. Learn about bike fitting
  16. Swim 100×100
  17. Learn to glue on tubeless tires
  18. Hike a 14er
  19. Do something on my own that I didn’t think I could
  20. Learn to make a really good Veggie Terrine
  21. Go down an alpine slide
  22. Get Annie reading
  23. Start a monthly group call with my athletes
  24. Paint something at one of those paint your own ceramic places
  25. Run a race with Troy
  26. Paint some walls in the house
  27. Learn how to make Risotto
  28. Get some stamps in my passport
  29. See all the movies nominated for 2011 Best Picture
  30. Be an Ironsherpa for an Ironman this year
  31. Take Ukulele I at Swallow Hill Music
  32. Read 10 of the 100 Best Novels
  33. Buy a real camera

Whew, I’m getting old, that’s a lot of things! Should be oodles of fun.

 

Posted in Cooking, Crafts, Family, Gardening, health, Hiking, Ironman, Travel, Triathlon, ukulele, ultramarathon

Real World Food Challenge Update

Posted on December 15, 2010 by goSonja| 20 Comments

This Real World Food Challenge is shaping up to be a lot of fun! I am really enjoying all the blog posts, and the totals coming in from around the world!

- Kara did a great job and majorly scored at the Marquette Food Co-op in Michigan coming in at $37.16. She did have to drive on snowy roads to get it done though, discipline! She also had to endure a nasty comment on her blog about the whole thing. I applaud you Kara, keep fighting the good fight, you brainwashed blogger you.

- Donna is like a 12 hour flight away and she participated by comparing three different UK online shopping sites. Her all organic price came in at $49.80 (exchange rate applied). Her post really got me wondering what the price of the box would be if none of it was organic, I wonder what it would be at Walmart…could I even find pea shoots at Walmart?

- Kelly rocked it out in Baldwinsville, New York by making a trip to Wegmans. Yes, this does sound like a funny name for a store, but we have “King Soopers” here, so I’m not judging! Kelly did pretty good with a total of $46.13, but similar to my experience she couldn’t locate organic kiwi, lime, or pomegranate. I had trouble with limes too, I can sympathize. Kelly experienced a similar phenomena as I did at Whole Foods. I could buy one conventional lemon, but if I wanted to buy organic, I had to buy a bag of 10 lemons. What is up with that? I love lemons and with all the Chuckie tea I drink, 10 lemons is not a problem, but I still just don’t get it.

So, folks, keep it coming! This is a lot of fun and I’m really loving all the price comparisons out there. Now I promised some recipes. Well, rather than recipes I’m going to give you rundowns, hopefully this will give you license to get started but keep you free enough to get your hands dirty!

Sooo, you’ve got some fennel on your hands? Here are a few ideas. Chop it up along with some sweet potatoes and any other root veg you have around that you need to use up (carrots, potatoes, etc). Toss it in some EV Olive Oil (EVOO), some Salt and Pepper, and throw it in a baking dish, 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Toss some balsamic all over it before it goes in too, that makes it extra yummy. Pull it out when everything has a nice roast. Mmmm.

Another one, dice up that fennel and saute it with some EVOO. Cook up some Israeli Cous Cous (or rice), and toss in some pomegranate seeds (to get the seeds see here). Whisk together (separately) some red wine vinegar, and oil (whatever you like, I like grape seed sometimes) and use that as a dressing. I like Thyme and Sesame Seeds in it as well. Major Nom Nom.

Why so many lemons? I admit, that is my fault. Fresh lemons alkalize the body (lemons are acidic, producing alkali chemicals in the stomach). Michelle and I drink a lot of what we call Chuckie Tea. It was one of the first things he had me do when I got sick once and the habit stuck. A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (I get Organic Braggs), 1/2 lemon juiced, and agave or honey to taste. It’s a daily thing for me.

I’m also noticing that I am using a lot of lemons now as dressing. My favorite Kale salad right now is chopped kale with EVOO rubbed into the leaves, sunflower seeds, diced red bell pepper, ginger powder, diced avocado, grated carrot, and then topped with the juice of one lemon.

Juicing lemons used to be annoying until I went home and used what I thought was my moms overpriced and highly unnecessary lemon juicer. I immediately asked for one for Christmas, which she bought me on the spot, and it has become one of the most used kitchen utensils I have. Seriously how did I ever live without this thing?

PEA SHOOTS! What on earth can you do with them (Troy says “Tasty Snack”)? Well, they have their own webpage, ya gotta love a veg with it’s own website! I went ahead and served mine up via a recipe that I found in Clean Start by Terry Walters. Carrots, Chickpeas, onion, Avo, Pea Sprouts, and a nice Balsamic dressing. It really doesn’t take much more than that. After 2 weeks of eating crazy amounts of veg, we finally found a leafy green that Annie loves. We will be growing more of these on our own in our windowsill.

Well, I hope this helps get you started, or inspired. I certainly have been inspired. The more veg I eat and the more recipes I make, the more fun I seem to have. The next phase will be to teach Troy how to make some of my favorites so that when training time kicks back in we can continue to eat this way. He is really enjoying it, but I’m doing all the cooking (and chopping) right now, and I won’t have as much time when training is going again. He’s excited about it, and I am really thankful for that.

One last thing. I took this picture today at my local “King Soopers”. TODAY. I took it TODAY, can I say that one more time…..TODAY, as in December 15th. There were three separate stands like this, right next to the checkouts. Really?

Happy cooking, happy eating, happy training, and for tri-gods sake, stay away from the Easter candy!

Posted in Cooking, health

The Great Organic Basket Challenge

Posted on December 11, 2010 by goSonja| 17 Comments

As I elluded to in a previous post I found this cool company called Door To Door Organics. I have been eating as much organic veggies as I can find. Not as much as I can afford but literally as much as I can procure. Does Troy think I’m loony? Yes. Is he feeling as wonderful as I am? Yes! We got our second box of D2DO veggies today, and yes, it was wonderful. I tweeted a picture of all the goods that came in our box and asked what people on Twitter thought?

Megan, my homegirl who lives in a different state, responded and thought you might be able to save more if you did it yourself. We exchanged a few tweets, I gave her the list, and low and behold she was off to her Whole Foods in St. Louis to simulate my box and get a price of her own. Yes, Megan, my sister from another mother (and father), is a scientist (she has a PhD), can you tell?

My Door To Door Organics box cost: $38.66
Megans Self Made Organic Box (err Bag) cost: $51.18

Megan also gets points deducted because two of her things weren’t organic (WF didn’t have them organically).

So now I’m all curious. I headed to my Whole Foods this morning to see how much my box would cost from there. I had to bring my kitchen scale because I wasn’t going to actually repurchase the items. I think the produce stockers thought I was crazy because I kept asking for the prices of items that had lost their price tags, but then I would weigh them and put them back.

I did buy some fennel, but I really can’t ever eat enough fennel, I love it in the winter. So my Whole Foods price is more of a close approximation, and came in at $41.53. That amount also included two items that weren’t organic (limes and navel oranges), and also the lemons were an issue because to buy organic you had to buy a bag of 10, so I took half that price for the 5 that are on the list. This is more reason why Megan should have moved closer to me, my Whole Foods bag was 18.85% cheeper than her WF bag (see, I CAN do math).

So we got an idea, OK, Megan got the idea, because well, she’s the scientist and it’s pretty much her job to come up with things like this to study and all. Megan’s idea was to have a contest of sorts, she likes to “study” things and we are now both interested in what sort of prices this box would cost in different parts of the country.

Here’s where you come in! As much as Megan is the scientist, see I’m the marketing director, so all I could think about was what we should give away. Ummm, DUH, Justin’s Nut Butter. You all go crazy for Justin’s and I visited the Justin’s office yesterday with PIC and they gifted me with a sweet new jar of my favorite flavor: Chocolate Almond. So, how about some of that?

What do you have to do? Well, you need to buy “the list” of veggies, and they need to be organic, or else Megan will doc you like $5 per veggie and charge you some horrible rate, you can read her blog for the nitty-gritty details. She’s good with the details, I just like to give stuff away! I’m posting the list below and we are looking for you to head to the store (tell us which one), buy all the organic veggies on the list, make sure the store rings them up separate from the other items you accidentally tossed in the cart, and tell us how much. Take some pictures, make a blog post out of it. Yes, I realize this is a big to-do.

Now since this is quite the endeavor (I know Megan just up and did it all on her own), and since I am the marketing director and she is the scientist, I’m thinking that a bit of a Justin’s cornucopia would be a worthy prize. Here’s what I am thinking. That’s 2 jars of Justin’s and two boxes of squeeze packs (so 20 squeeze packs total).

Here is the list of veggies. Now go forth and shop, photograph, blog, post recipies, etc. Oh, and read Megans blog for the exact nitty gritty details if your into that. I’m just the marketing director.

Winner will be decided by Megan and I, and will be determined by how much we like your blog post (must be a blogger to win). We will pick a winner on December 20th.

Produce List (ALL ORGANIC):
- Roma Tomatoes – 5
- Avocados – 2
- Collard Greens – 1 bunch (don’t worry we’ll post recipes)
- Fennel – 1 LARGE root
- Golden Sweet Potatoes – 3 small
- Zucchini – 4
- Cucumber – 1
- Pomegranate – 2
- Anjou Pear – 2
- Kiwi – 2
- Pinova Apple – 2
- Pink Lady Apple – 2
- Navel Orange – 4
- Pea Sprouts – 1 box (also called Young Pea Greens, near the sprouts)
- Lemon – 5
- Lime – 2

Have fun and post your blog entries in the comments.

Posted in Cooking, health

I’m Intense

Posted on December 5, 2010 by goSonja| 10 Comments

I just am. I’m intense. When I do something, I go all in. I push all my chips forward and say “double down”. It’s not that I’m risky. I’m just intense.

So, in 2010 I unleashed my intensity on a rather daunting race schedule: 100 miler (because I wanted to) and 3 Ironmans. And when I qualified for Kona I focused (all) my intensity on training to do well there.


Nothing more intense than red Jellyfish! Annie, Mom and I viewed these at the San Francisco Academy of Sciences, can’t really tell that they are jellys, can you?.

After IMAZ I got really sick. I had warded off several colds towards the end of 2010 with Zicam, and Chuckie tea. So when I got sick after IMAZ I just let myself get sick. I said “Body, go to town, just get as sick as you want and I won’t even try to mask your symptoms, I will just let you do what you want for once”.

So I focused (intensely) my efforts into the couch. I didn’t really leave the couch. There were a few days I didn’t leave my parents house. Sometimes I went from couch, to hot tub, to bath tub, and back to couch. I was focused in my lack of activity. Thank goodness for grandparents to entertain Annie. Although we did get in lots of mommy/daughter snuggle time.


More cool jellys from the Academy of Sciences

By the time 10 days of that rolled around I was healed up and ready to delve into “the next thing”. Where could I heave my intensity into next? I totally knew what it would be.

FOOD! I love food. I love good food. By the end of last season I was getting very basic in the food department. Troy was doing a lot of dinner duty, and I was doing a lot of Whole Foods salad bar duty. I was craving good food. Being that it is the offseason, I am taking this opportunity to explore some aspects of FOOD that intrigue me. For once I’m not going to need to worry that my daily eating will impact my training adversely. I can explore for once.


Holiday Mixed Grain Pilaf with Red Chard from Rich Rolls cookbook Jai Seed

You may be thinking cookies, and baking here, but it’s quite the opposite. I love healthy, fresh, good, clean food. I’ve been intrigued by athletes like Rich Roll, and Scott Jurek who are bad asses and are vegan (even though I eat meat regularly). I’m intrigued by the term macrobiotic, and I don’t even really know what that means.


Deep Dish Greens with Millet Crust from Terry Walters book Clean Start

So, I’m taking the Type A, intense, individual that I am, and I doing some dabbling into food. So what if I don’t get “adequate protien” for a few days, so what if I don’t get all my B12 in. I’m learning the way I like to learn, which is “hands on”. I ask questions, I seek answers.

Seek first to understand.
-Stephen Covey

I really love learning new things. I like to broaden my horizons. I don’t like to make long term changes unless I am convinced that they are the right path, but I sure like to dabble, to learn, to get my hands dirty. I don’t pretend to know anything, I just endeavor to learn, to ask questions, that’s all.


Lemon Coconut Breakfast Bars from Julliemorris.net

So, this week I went plant based. It’s fun to monitor how I feel without trying to process the training stress along with it. It’s a bit easier to eat something and see if it’s enough, or not enough, makes me feel good, or not good when I’m not logging 22+ hours of swimbikerun. It’s a fun outlet, I’m learning things…like what “complete protein” means.

wikipedia: a source of protein that contains an adequate proportion of all nine of the essential amino acids necessary for the dietary needs of humans or other animals. Some incomplete protein sources may contain all essential amino acids, but a complete protein contains them in correct proportions for supporting biological functions in the human body.


Vegan Mashed potatoes, again from Jai Seed

The offseason is about lots of things, detraining being one of them. But I would hope that I can use my off-seasons to set myself up for good on-seasons without contributing to burn out. Food is a good start I think. Learning some new healthy recipes, learning more about nutrition, feeding my body some absolutely marvelous vegetables, those are all good things right now.

Oh, and lastly, I just signed up for Door to Door Organics and received my first box of veggies (delivered to my doorstep). Oh my goodness. I had signed up with them about 4 years ago for several months, and wow was I surprised at the quality of veggies this go around. They have really stepped up their game, and I was super duper jazzed to get my box on Friday. If you are interested (and live in Colorado) and want a referral email that is good for 50% off your first box, let me know. I’m not affiliated with them, it’s just something they let you do once you sign up.

Happy offseason, Happy eating, Happy learning!

Posted in Cooking, Family, health, Living Simply

Push Your Boundaries, Win Some Chocolate

Posted on December 17, 2009 by goSonja| 44 Comments

You like chocolate, don’t you?

Ahh, but for me, not all chocolates are created equal. When Ritter Sport emailed to ask if I wanted to review some chocolate for free, I said, heck yea, send some over. But, what Ritter Sport didn’t know…I don’t really like chocolate. I like hot chocolate, I like brownies, but normal old chocolate, I can do without.

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Unfortunately after testing (and oh I was diligent) 30 different chocolate bars, I now know that not only do I really like chocolate, it’s just that I only like really good, really high end german Ritter Sport chocolate. The taste is not overly sweet, but it’s clearly chocolaty. The chocolate taste stands out above a sugary taste. It also goes down very smooth.

Ritter Sport is square, as in the package is square and the little chunks are square. I thought that was cool and it’s very easy to break off just one or two chunks, rather than devouring the entire thing (i tried both ways). Ritter Sport was founded in 1912 in Germany by Alfred and Clara Ritter, and the company is currently run by Alfred’s grandson.

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In 1996 Ritter Sport became the first company in the confectionary industry to organize environmental protection systems at the company level. They promote sustainable cacao agroforestry through their “Commitment Nicaragua” project, they have their own heating and power station, and the packaging is totally recyclable.

Lastly, my favorite thing about Ritter Sport, other than the fact that it turned a chocolate abstainer into a chocolate lover, is the way you open the package. You sort of snap off the outer squares and the packaging pops open. It’s handy, and smart.

My favorite flavors thus far (and I have gobbled up 11 of the 19 flavors) are:
- Cornflakes (the bright yellow one)
- White Whole Hazelnuts (the off white one)
- Whole Almonds (the green one)
- Yogurt (the bold white)

I thought that Ritter Sport would be like $7 chocolate, but I just grabbed three packages (for teachers gifts) at Walmart and they were under $2 (another fact I should probably forget).

I put Ritter Sport through some pretty evil testing. It went along with team “Bunnies for Boobies” for 44,000 vertical feet this weekend. We had chocolate in between most of our ski runs, and none of us bonked. The nuts in the almond chocolate we were eating kept us groovin’ down the slopes. With the nifty packaging it was easy to stick an open package in our pocket. You could eat it with gloves on.

Over the last several weeks I have been taking a minibar (4 little cute squares per package) for after swim practice. I find that a little treat helps me recover from an especially grueling workout before I can get home and eat my next meal.

You all want some don’t you? Ritter Sport has been kind enough to let me give away a box of mini chocolate to 4 of my blog readers. This is what a box of minis looks like (there is 84 in one box…I know this because they sent me one, and I ate them all…okay, not all, but I’m working on it).

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How do you enter?

Since my theme this year is to inspire others to do a little more than they thought possible, to enter to win a box of 84 mini Ritter Sport chocolates, leave a comment on my blog giving me an example on something you plan to do this year to push your own personal boundaries. That’s the rules.

Wanna be entered to win some chocolate? Commit to something that challenges you.

Want a second entry? Mention this contest on your own blog, then comment with the link, and I’ll enter you twice (as long as you commit to something that pushes your boundaries as well).

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On December 22 after AM swimming I will assign everyone a number and then will use Random to pull 4 random numbers and those will be the winners.

Excited to win some chocolate??

Ready…Go!!!

FTC Disclaimer: Ritter Sport provided me with oodles of free chocolate. If you have been to my house lately, you know this because I have made you eat some. Ritter Sport is also providing free chocolate to the contest winners.

Posted in Contest, Cooking, Giving

Death by Treadmill and Chocolate

Posted on December 8, 2009 by goSonja| 11 Comments

PIC (who has a new blog with the best url evah, check it out) and I wanted to do a little track workout today. I’ve been running with PIC as she trains for the Arizona Rock and Roll Marathon, and in the spirit of getting her quick we did a little speed work. The problem? It looks like this outside. Seriously?

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So, we hit up the matching treadmills at my apartment complex gym. It was awesome, we brought some tunes, cranked up the music, and off we went. I found out for the first time that my treadmill maxed out at 10mph. I ran 3 of the 4 0.5 mile efforts that we did with the treadmill maxed at 10. I think it’s easier to run this fast on the treadmill, you just spend a little more air-time and let the treadmill go zooming under you. PIC rocked it as well, she was uber close to maxing out, but the girls’ gotta save something for another day.

When we got back to my apartment there was a package waiting on the door step. Humm? What could it be. I opened it up and it’s CHOCOLATE. Lots and lots of CHOCOLATE! Oh my! PIC and I immediately start digging in. Ritter Sport emailed me a few days ago to ask if I would review their chocolate. Humm, I thought long and hard, I had a family meeting with Troy, and after much deliberation, we finally decided that we could accept some chocolate into the house. NOT!!! I was responding to the Ritter Sport email within pico-seconds. SEND ME CHOCOLATE!!!

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The thing is, I’m an endurance athlete, so I’m gonna put the Ritter Sport chocolate through the ringer. This weekend, the Ritter Sport will experience extreme skiing as I compete in the Pink Chase at Keystone. We’ll see if it can handle it.

Ritter Sport also offered some chocolate for my blog readers. I’m a sharer! So, there will be a massive chocolate giveaway at some point soon. Only the best for my bloggy peeps!

Posted in Cooking, Giving, health, Running, Skiing

Meal Planning Ease with Magnets

Posted on November 2, 2009 by goSonja| 10 Comments

Okay, peeps, this is mostly a triathlon blog, so some of you might just need to tune out this post, but I think it’s related, so I’m posting it! When I am training hard the first thing to go out the door is meal planning. When I loose time, I neglect to sit down and plan, I’m in pure “survival shopping mode”. It’s a solid fact that meal planning your week saves you money, and helps you to eat healthy more balanced meals. I’m sure there is some study out there proving it. And when you are training hard and racing hard, saving money is what you most likely need to be doing. I wish I could claim this idea as my own, but actually Troy came up with it on a whim, and I implemented it.

His idea was to have a magnet for each common meal that we make. When we plan for the week we could just fill in a sheet that is taped on the fridge with magnets for what we want to eat. Then if we had a binder that had a sheet for each meal, even if it’s for something simple like “salmon with rice and veg” that explained how to make that meal to back up each of the magnets.

This would enable us to:
- Easily plan a weeks meal: scan magnets, pick what looks good, and stick on sheet.
- Easily create a grocery list: flip to page in binder and write down what we don’t already have
- Cooking is easy: with each meals directions written out, Troy can make a meal while I am training (cooking is usually my deal, which means when I’m training Troy ends up with hamburgers, pizza, and fried rice, but he’s good with directions)

Tonight I implemented the plan.

I found these great magnet sheets at Office Depot. They were under $4 for a pack of 4 and even though I bought two packs, one would have sufficed.

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You peel the sticky sheet off the back of the magnet, then stick a piece of paper on it.

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Then cut the paper to fit the magnet.

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Then start thinking of recipes and write them down on the paper. I got tons of recipes on one sheet by just being space conscious. I made several “leftovers” magnets, and made multiples of breakfast items since we don’t have a different breakfast every day, usually just 1-2 different ones a week. Same with lunches, I made some magnets that said “same” so I could put one lunch in the lunch area on Monday, and then put “same” for the other days.

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Cut them out and stick them on the fridge. I kept them to the top half, so that Annie doesn’t get “curious”.

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I also made a few magnets to remind us of events that seem to happen weekly, like track club, Sonja racing, Troy racing. You could get creative here. I may add some that say “Troy cooks” or “Sonja cooks”, something to that effect.

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Then you can “meal plan”. I printed out this sheet, which is the template I use to meal plan on a regular basis.

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Lastly I pulled all the recipes I have for meals on the magnets, I labeled the end of the paper with the exact name on the magnet, and stuck them in a huge binder alphabetically. Now Troy can find the meal easily.

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I also made a list of meals that I made magnets for but don’t have recipes for (the ones that live in my head) and plan to work through those this week to create a sheet on each of them.

Troy loved seeing Type A Sonja attack his idea with a vengeance and we did the meal plan for next week in about 2 minutes. I made the grocery list in about 5 minutes. It was so much easier!

I love to try new recipes and I think this system will be easy to incorporate new recipes into. I put lots of blank sheet protectors in the binder so I can just slide a new recipe into, and I put spare magnets on the side of the fridge, ready for a new meal to be written on them.

Not totally triathlon related, but I hope it can help some of you out there!

More Resources:
- This Week for Dinner: Jane outlines some meal planning tips
- Definitely not Martha: Leslie outlines her meal planning process with a nice excerpt on how to organize your grocery list (step #5)
- Meal Planning 101: I like the idea of making a pre-made grocery list where you just have to check what you need, I would add a “quantity” section next to each ingredient.
- Simple Mom: this is a great link for A-Z menu planning.

Posted in Cooking, Family, health