I heart beer....

This week I saw a nutritionist to get feedback on my diet. I had been wanting to talk to a nutritionist for a while, but whenever I researched it, I found it cost prohibitive. Then, on advice from Kelsey, I called my primary care physician and told them I wanted a referral to a nutritionsist. They said "Ok, here's your confirmation number. Call this person..." It was crazy easy! And my appointment (and up to 3 follow-ups) was free! 


I had a few goals going into this appointment. Most importantly, I am still trying to lose fat while gaining muscle and training at ever-increasing intensity and duration. So I want to make sure that I'm fueling my body enough for my workouts, but not over-fueling and preventing fat loss. I keep really good records of everything I eat and my workouts so it was pretty easy for him to evaluate what I've been doing so far. And according to him, there's not much that I can improve about my diet. Most of the goals he gave me, I am already meeting regularly:
1. 1300 calories/day on rest days
2. 1700-1950 calories/day on regular workout days 
3. <10g saturated fat/day. This should be really easy now that I've discovered that cheese upsets my stomach. Without cheese, there's pretty much no sat fat in my diet.
4. 100-130g carbs/day
5. 52-117g protein/day. This is a really big range, but since I'm training a lot, I'm mostly staying around the top of that range. 
6. Once a week I should keep a pen-n-paper log and compare it to the app on my phone. At first I thought this was a silly suggestion, but I tried it Wednesday and my app said 1398 calories and 111g protein vs my paper diary said 1527 calories and 127g protein. It's tough because mostly I eat produce and lean meat/fish, which don't have nutrition labels. So my app results vs googling "brussels sprouts calories" comes out pretty different. Something to keep in mind when I'm aiming for really specific calorie goals. If everyday I'm eating 125 calories more than I think I am, that's an extra pound/month that I could be losing/gaining.


One thing he noticed from my food log that's not so great: I drink beer 2-4 times a week. I love beer. And there is nothing better than a delicious cold beer after a long workout.

Notable beers from my travels. Clockwise from left: England, Alaska, Half Moon Bay, Nashville (Sportsman's, obviously), and Paris. 

Me: If you tell me that I won't be able to reach my goal unless I give up beer completely, I will. 
Nutritionist Dude: I can't promise that.
Me: Ok good. I'm going to continue drinking beer. 


I have definitely cut back on the drinking since the beginning of January and I haven't been getting drunk very often at all. But the benefit of giving it up completely is not worth the suffering! So I'm glad that he didn't think this was too big of a deal. Although I didn't even mention the bloody mary issue!

They're so pretty and delicious!

So the bottom line: I'm pretty much doing all the right things already. Lots of veggies and fruits and lean protein. No refined carbs, very minimal carbs at all, actually. And I eat small meals often. I'm seeing him again in a month to see my progress. Hopefully knowing that someone else is monitoring my weight will keep me focused on days when I really just want to hang out with the guys in lab drinking beers. 


Have any of you seen a nutritionist before? What do you think of the goals he laid out for me? Leave me a comment!!

90 degree Brick Workout

90 degrees in the Bay Area?! Wtf? Since I moved here I've been telling everyone that I really miss the heat and humidity of the south. But now that it's actually hot here, I'm not so sure that's accurate. Don't get me wrong, I love beer festivals in the sun and 100 degree heat and being able to go out at night in a skirt and tank-top and not get cold, but training is soooooooo much easier in the mild climate of NorCal. So when I set out for my brick workout this afternoon, I was slightly under-prepared for 90 degrees and full-on sun for 3 hours! I only brought 3 water bottles (only one of which had electrolyte drink in it) and I forgot my visor for the run and sweat towel for the ride home. But I made the best of it! 

My route on the other side of Berkeley Hills.

The route was a 19 mile loop with a 1234 ft elevation gain, around the reservoirs on the other side of Berkeley Hills. For reference, my place is on the northwest side of campus (the brownish area). So I drove over the hill, parked, and got on my bike!

Footwear #1

I was planning on doing the loop twice. But as I mentioned, I was a little under-prepard for just how hot it was and was afraid that if I attempted 40 miles with insufficient water, I would actually melt into the pavement. So I did the loop and then an out-n-back to total 30 miles. It's a super hilly ride, so I was happy that after the loop, I was able to actually ride past my car and keep going. Luckily, it's also a really pretty ride....

And then it was time to run......

Footwear #2

I was hot and my calves were super-stiff and crampy, but I managed to run for 20 minutes at my normal pace. I think the only thing that got me through was Kanye West's Stronger. I was singing it to myself during the bike (because cycling with headphones is just dumb) so once I got my ipod out for the run, I turned it on pretty loud. nah nah that that don't kill me... can only make me stronger.... Both were equally possible today, but luckily, it didn't kill me. 


And then it was smoothie time! Yay!

Footwear #3 - I'm still not sure if those are tan lines, or dirt lines

In the mix: lean vanilla protein powder, almond milk, and frozen berries (rasp, blue, and straw). Delicious after a long, hot workout! 


Final stats for the day:

Footwear #4: compression socks!

• 30 mile bike in 2 hr 14 min
• 1.9 mile run in 20 min
• 1685 calories burned
• >25 bugs stuck to my arms and chest (gross)
• $6.19 spent at the grocery store on the way home ($4 for ice and a glitch in the computer gave me a 6er of Abita Amber Ales for only $1.19! My lucky day!)
• 12 min spent in an ice bath (my first one!)

The ice bath was not the most enjoyable part of the day, but I'm hoping that it will help me recover faster so I can do a long run tomorrow. 


Sunday Update: The ice bath worked! I ran 9.2 miles today with (relatively) no problem. I should have done 10, but I was soooooooo hungry I had to stop. I guess this means there will be more ice baths in my future :(


What are your thoughts on ice baths? And what is the best beer to drink in an ice bath?? The Abita Ambers were good, but I'm open to suggestions  :)

What a productive weekend!

This was the most productive weekend in a loooooong time! I started increasing my training intensity this weekend. My schedule says that official training for 140.6 starts next week, but I decided to start a week early. I have at least one weekend in June when I'll be out of town and not training (yay for Chris's graduation!!) and the 100 mile ride in Tahoe will probably require a few rest days before and after, so an extra week of training at the beginning couldn't hurt. I also got a lot of work done in lab both Saturday and Sunday, did a private tutoring session (I love extra money!), did my taxes (I love refunds!), planned my meals for the week, and did the grocery shopping to get everything (I love food!). 


Training deets: Saturday was a beautiful day so I laced up my shoes and did a 9 mile run on the Bay Trail. I've posted pictures of the bay trail before so I didn't take any this week, but just imagine a blue, cloudless sky, about 60 degrees (not too hot!), and the whole bay to look at. Despite the fact that I made several rookie mistakes (wearing the wrong socks gave me blisters, wearing the wrong bra was not comfortable, my toenails cut their neighboring toe and made them bleed, and I didn't get sunscreen around the back of my neck under my pony tail so I got sunburned) it was a really enjoyable run! I probably could have kept going for another mile or 2, but I was trying to save my legs for Sunday. Speaking of which.....


Sunday was our first group ride in preparation for 100 miles around Lake Tahoe. We did a 24 mile ride around Sausalito and Tiburon and it was awesome! The weather Sunday was a little cooler and cloudy, but it turned out to be perfect for our ride. 

Starting in Sausalito. Beautiful view of the bay and SF, but a little too cloudy for the pictures to come out well.

We rode through Fort Baker.

Turned the corner and there's the Golden Gate Bridge! 

GG Bridge again.

Another cloudy view of the city/bay bridge.

Part of our route was on a bike/running path through Sausalito. Here you can see Tiburon on the other side of the water. That's where we're headed!

My riding buddies! Snacking at the halfway point.

After our ride we were starving so we went to Le Garage for brunch. Actually, I can't speak for the whole group, but I was so hungry that I was getting grumpy (some might call it bitchy) and almost didn't let Kelsey park in the valet lot because the valet dude was pissing me off. Luckily, we were able to park and didn't have to wait too long for a table. The food was delicious, but the most enjoyable parts were the company and the wine :)

Nothing like a French Rose after a long ride!

All-in-all I burned 3,422 calories in 6hr 40min of workouts last week. Let's see if I can beat it this week!!

Weekend of fun with the fam!!

The weekend of fun with the family is over. I'm sad because we always have so much fun together, but kind of happy because our version of fun involves a lot of food and adult beverages. 

Yay, first drink of my staycation! (on my uncles' awesome deck)

It'll be nice to get back to normalcy (ie: eating healthy and working out regularly). Unfortunately, this is what I have to look forward to this week:

At least we had great weather over the weekend. And I wasn't completely lazy and gluttonous. My sister and I went out Friday morning to Crissy Field for a run/walk.

Look how fast she is!

We covered just over 5 miles and it was so much fun!! We even made it to the end of the run/bike path at the bridge.

We may or may not have taken 10 pics to get this one shot where we are both looking in the right direction with the bridge in the background.

We also ran into this new Fitness Center they are demo'ing for the next 6 months. 

They had personal trainers hanging out to take people through the workout For Free! There are 7 stations and you do each for a minute (45 sec of activity, 15 sec to get to the next station). The stations included: plank position, walking lunges, modified push-ups, modified pull-ups, box jumps/squats, agility (think hop-scotch), and back extensions. Each station had a bunch of different ways you can modify it to fit your fitness level. It would definitely be a good workout to go through the circuit 3 or 4 times or to do each activity for longer. The plan is to replace all the wooden fitness areas in parks with these things. I hope this catches on! Here's the website if you're interested in more information.


This week marks the official start of Tahoe 100 training! Sunday I'm meeting up with Kelsey and the Uncles for a 25-30 mile ride in Sausalito, ending at a fabulous brunch place (yet to be determined). I'm so excited that I was able to convince them to do this ride with me! The training is going to be so much more fun with them than it would be on my own! I've got about 8 week to prepare for the 100 mile ride so I need to get my ass in that saddle! Luckily, it's Tuesday so I can do my favorite workout tomorrow - watch Biggest Loser on nbc.com while riding my bike on the trainer. I love that show! It's really motivating and during the commercials I sprint to mix up the ride a bit. 
Is it a good sign or terribly depressing that every week I really look forward to my BL time on the bike??


9:15pm update: I forgot to bring home my macbook power cord from lab!! How am I going to be able to watch BL with only 11% battery left?!?! <sigh>

Windy run

Getting out there to run today was not easy! I woke up this morning in a cabin in Pescadero, CA. It's about an hour south of the city on the 1 and it's beautiful! Yesterday I drove down to meet up with my friend from grad school Brenna, her boyfriend Zach, and her friend in the city Sarah. We had a good dinner, a lot of good wine, and some quality hot tub time in the rain and sleet. So this morning we were pretty slow going, but once we got on the road we stopped at Half Moon Bay Brewing Co for brunch, which was awesome, and then headed home. When I got home at 3, after sitting in a lot of traffic, I was exhausted and really just wanted to nap and be lazy all afternoon. But it was a beautiful day outside so after a lot of arguing with myself I finally got off my ass and went down to the Bay trail. It was really windy, but still beautiful.

View from the bay trail - Bay bridge on the left, then SF, then the golden gate on the right. This is an old picture and today wasn't quite as clear, but you get the idea.

I love the Bay Trail!!  But today it was super windy and really challenging. I still managed to knock out 8 miles and actually enjoyed it, which is encouraging. Then I came home and did 20 minutes of a yoga DVD to get some good stretching. I'm glad I went because I know I feel a lot better now than if I had vegged on the couch all afternoon. And that brings me to over 3,000 calories burned this week in workouts, which is my goal every week of pre-season training. Sweet! Next week is going to be a challenge because my family will be in town so I'll have to kick ass at the beginning of the week. Better go to bed early!!


How do you motivate yourself to workout instead of nap?? Leave me a comment!