Purple Sunrise Smoothie

I am a big fan of breakfast. It's the one meal I won't ever forget to eat and most days, I actually have two or three breakfasts. I know you other endurance athletes hear me on that one! Usually, I grab a Lara bar before I ride, have recovery drink after my ride (Vega Recovery Accelerator), and then have a real breakfast when I sit down at my desk and start to do work with coffee. Lately though, I've gotten tired of taking the time to pack, and then lugging around the breakfast, lunch, snacks, and sometimes even dinner that I take with me into MIT to get me through my day. I almost never buy food on campus so with the amount of food one has to eat if you're doing a lot of training, this gets old really fast! So that I can get away with packing less, I've started making smoothies in the morning, even if I haven't gone riding since it's something I can "eat" while getting ready. i.e. One less thing that I need to take with me! It's a throw-back to high school, when during swim season, my Mom would have my brother and I drink Carnation Instant Breakfast along with our "real" breakfasts just so that we wouldn't get too hungry before it was time for lunch. This smoothie recipe has been my favorite lately. It's only 4 ingredients (blueberries, spinach, protein powder, and almond milk) and with those packs in a serving of fruit, a serving of vegetables, and some good quality protein. With my vegetable smoothies, I've been using a sweetened protein powder, specifically Vega One Nutritional Shake. This protein powder is fortified with extra nutrients including omega-3 fatty acids, chlorella, antioxidants, and probiotics, which helps me forgive the addition of stevia. Also, adding spinach or another non-sweet ingredient helps cut what I consider to be the excessive sweetness offered by the stevia. I hope you enjoy it!

Purple Sunrise Smoothie

3/4c frozen blueberries
3/4c frozen spinach (or fresh spinach if you don't have a high speed blender)
3/4 scoop sweetened vanilla protein powder (For this, I've been using Vanilla Vega One Nutritional Shake)
1/2- 1c vanilla almond milk and/ or water (I usually do half and half)

Blend or food process all ingredients until smooth. This will take a bit longer than usual because of the spinach. If you don't have a high speed blender, use fresh spinach, as the result will be too stringy with the frozen spinach. Check the viscosity and add additional water if necessary. Enjoy the sunrise with a nutritious start to your day!

BBQ Cauliflower & Bear Mtn RR

This past weekend I drove out to New York for the Bear Mountain Road Race. There was a women's cat 3 race, which I was thinking I'd do for some upgrade points, but my coach encouraged me to do the women's elite race, which was nearly twice as long and of course promised better competition. Except for the fact that I'd like some upgrade points so that I can upgrade to cat 2, I usually would be happy to race with the P12 women on a hilly race, as one of my favorite things about racing is the way that your competition can really draw the best out of you. However, this race looked like it was going to be extremely technical. Basically the only description posted in the race guide was:
"Caution: two miles into the race, there is a fast descent into a 180 degree turn into the main climb."
Great, I figured. So I was going to be dropped on the descent and miss the break in the climb.

I was really, really nervous and I have a history of not doing well on neutral rollouts downhill. Basically, I was 50-50 for actually making it to the start of the race with the field from a neutral rollout down a hill. I am never a great descender, but I'm much better once I get climb in my legs to get my jitters out. Well, let's just say I'm now 2:1 on getting dropped on neutral rollouts. I missed the 180 turn because no one was signaling, there were no signs, and I got too tight and nervous to be able to make the turn in time. What a way to start the race! Fortunately, they let me chase back on, but there went Big Match #1 while everyone else was settling in, comfortably neutral.

Cursing my coach and hating the race course, I settled in to the pack, but timidly: I was still intimidated by all of these P12 women. I moved towards the front and was on the front for the small descent on the back side, but allowed myself to be bullied backwards by the time we got to the Big Descent again. Fortunately, I put on my big girl pants, got into the drops, and tried to execute my very best descending technique. I even passed a girl or two and hit the 180 degree turn at the very back of the pack. Relieved, I shifted to start the climb, but my bike did not respond. Rather than thinking, I frantically flicked the gears and... dropped my chain. Cursing, I got off to put it back on. I'm sure at this point, the motoref was thinking: "Who is this Pedal Power joker??!" Someone in the pack picked up the pace and by the time I got back on my bike, I could already see girls falling off the back of the pack on the climb way up the road. Desperate, I chased as hard as I could. Apparently, it was quite hard, as it seems that that climb, from the dropping of my chain to the top, might be the Strava QOM of the day. There went Big Match #2, but somehow I was still with the thinning pack.

Lap 3 was rather uneventful, as we had dropped all the people who were getting in my way on the descent. I really need to learn to descend more confidently! During lap 4, there was big excitement, as the girl who ended up winning with a solo break attacked on the hill. I jumped on her wheel and went with her, but when I looked back, I saw I was the only one. Instead of thinking "Oh boy, this girl has 3 strong teammates to block back there for her, this is the break!" I thought "Oh boy, my legs are spent from my stupid technical difficulties using up Big Match #1 and #2. There's no way this will hold, I'll just ease up and slink back to the pack." Well, that was the winning break and I made the erroneous choice to miss it. Oh well. Live and learn. And hopefully gain experience and confidence on the way! There were 17 girls still around in the pack at the end of the 4th lap and I had learned that somehow, even with all my stupid cat 3 level technical skills, I was one of the better climbers. So after the last Big Descent, I felt a burst of confidence (I survived the fast descent into a 180 degree turn 5 times! And I didn't have to do it again!) so rode up to the front of the pack. I didn't think I had an attack in me (should have more confidence in myself) so I just hammered away on the front, driving the pace and hoping that some of those girls would fall off. When we got to the top, I looked around to see that there were 10 girls left. Excellent, my climb had gotten rid of almost half of them! At this point, I was content to finish with the pack, as I barely have the balls to contest a flat sprint in a W3/4 race and here the finishing sprint was on a legit downhill. (In an ECCC race in 2010, I was involved in a serious crash in the sprint finish when I was front and center. A girl clipped my bars and I ended up taking down half the field and breaking my shoulder. Other girls were really hurt too. It's going to take me a lot of years to get over that.) In the end, I ended up 9th of 36 in the elite women's field. Not bad! Although later, I found out that the winners got teddy bears and I am about as motivated by teddy bears as a 4 year old girl should be. Missing out on upgrade points and a teddy bear made me really sad that I didn't do the W3 race!

Ok, enough racing. On to the food! We have to stay energy neutral, after all. Today's recipe is a bit long. It's not hard, but there are a few distinct dishes, which is different than most of my "one pot wonders." This is definitely something that you can make if you're trying to impress someone! This inspiration for this recipe came from my visit to Northstar House in Ithaca. I decided to go with a dish with beets in it, in preparation for the race the next day, but their BBQ Cauliflower really stood out to me, and once I saw how great it looked (my cousin's husband ordered it), I knew I had to try to make it. According to the description the dish is "Slow braised cauliflower, tossed in house BBQ sauce. Served over polenta with kale & mushrooms." Today's recipe is basically just that, with the addition of some pinto beans with the kale and nutritional yeast in the polenta. Basically, while cauliflower makes a stunning main dish and is a complete protein, it's protein content isn't that high so I added in more complete protein sources to the side dish to make sure that this was a nutritionally balanced powerhouse. I also took some time to create my own BBQ sauce, which is smoky, sweet, and spicy-- all without any processed sugars! It takes a tiny bit of time to throw everything into the blender or food processor, but you'll be so pleased with the result that you'll never go back. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

BBQ Sauce

2 (15oz) cans diced, fire roasted tomatoes
1 (4oz) can tomato paste
1/2c molasses
3T maple syrup
3T liquid smoke
3T sirracha

Food process until a smooth texture is reached. It'll be a bit lumpier than store bought, but it's so good! This will be more than enough for this recipe plus extra for future burgers, ect

BBQ Cauliflower

1 head of cauliflower
BBQ sauce (recipe above)

Preheat oven to 400F. Cut a head of cauliflower into 6ths. Dip each piece into a deep bowl of the BBQ sauce, taking care that the sauce gets into the nooks and cranies. Bake for 30- 40 minutes, until cauliflower is tender, but BBQ sauce isn't burned.

Polenta

2c polenta (yellow corn grits)

6c water

1/4c nutritional yeast

optional: 1/2c shredded cheese

1/4 sweet yellow onion, diced

salt and black pepper to taste

On the stove, bring the water to a boil. Add all other ingredients and continue to heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat once all of the water is absorbed and the polenta is tender.

Sautéed Kale and Mushrooms

1 bag kale or 2 large bunches, washed and shredded

1 box (8oz) shiitake mushrooms, sliced (other mushrooms would work too)

1 can pinto beans (or any other white bean)

1/4 sweet yellow onion, diced

Additional BBQ sauce

Add all ingredients to a frying pan and sauté until the kale is wilted and mushrooms/ onions are tender. Top with extra BBQ sauce so that the leaves can absorb the smoky flavor.

Serve cauliflower steaks with the kale and mushrooms served over the polenta on the side. Top with additional BBQ sauce if you'd like. Enjoy!

Veggie Lasagna and Adventures in Ithaca

Happy Wednesday! This past weekend I visited my good friend in Ithaca again. The weather was still a bit cool and dreary there, but we had a blast anyways, making delicious channa saag and pancakes. We also took advantage of the rainy Saturday afternoon to watch Frozen, which I had partially seen with the MIT cycling team while in California, but this was the first time I was not distracted by a fiancé on the phone. (Instead he was sitting on the couch next to me.) Seeing it only strengthened my recent nostalgia for the Disney movies of the 90s. We also made a ton of popcorn using a classic popcorn popper and man, that was good! Much better than the stovetop. Saturday evening, we all went out to dinner with my cousins at Northstar House, which served delicious local food with many vegetarian options. I had a carrot & beet flatbread, but the dish that most impressed me was the BBQ Cauliflower, which I'll be attempting to recreate later this week. Before leaving on Sunday, I raced in the Hollenbeck's RR in nearby Virgil NY. I use the term "raced" loosely, as I was the only W123 racer signed up. So I got to race with the men's 3/4 field, which was quite the experience. The winds were brutal so I did my best to find someone's wheel to suck and stay low, both things that I need practice at anyways! I also got a loud and clear reminder to be more assertive in my pack positioning, as it was my positioning and not my climbing abilities that ultimately led me to be dropped. Oops. The course was just perfect for me though: several significant but not-too-long climbs, rolling, non-technical descents and a steep uphill finish. Afterwards, I was greeted by wonderful refreshments from Ithaca Bakery and Gimme Coffee and a cool-down bike ride with my friend on her new bike.

View from the finish line of Hollenbeck's RR. A nice little climb up for a stunning view of NYS!

But enough about what I've been up to! It's been a while, but I'm bringing you an Energy Neutral original: grain free lasagna. I made my traditional lasagna few weeks ago and was reminded of how much I like a good veggie lasagna. I traditionally make it with mushrooms, spinach, eggplant, and a heavily herbed ricotta. And this recipe is still made that way! However, I have yet to find a decent gluten free lasagna noodle, so this time, I replaced the noodle layers with kale and swiss chard so that I could share! As a result, this recipe packs even more of a nutritional punch. We've talked about the nutritional benefits of kale previously, but what about swiss chard? Like kale, swiss chard is a cruciferous vegetable and offers the anti-cancer antioxidants that you've come to know and love. Swiss chard also offers large doses of vitamins K, C, and A as well as calcium, iron, magnesium, and potassium. I also find the flavor to be a bit more mild than kale or collard greens, but the leaves are still large and satisfying, making this a good substitute for lasagna noodles! To add back some of the carbohydrates I took away by using greens instead of pasta, I created a cheesy herbed hummus to use instead of my traditional herbed ricotta. However, if you aren't worried about your dinner being low-carb feel free to use my traditional herbed ricotta! Herbed tofu ricotta is also an option and delicious! If you just want to make a delicious basic veggie or vegan lasagna, use the ricotta and the noodles, that recipe is below as well. I hope you enjoy it!

Veggie Lasagna

1 bunch swiss chard (full-sized leaves, not chopped)

1 bunch kale (full-sized leaves, not chopped)

OR 1 box no-cook lasagna noodles

1 large eggplant, sliced

1 box baby bella mushrooms, sliced

1 package frozen spinach (Optional and recommended only with the noodles. You can only fit so much in a pan and the kale/ swiss chard takes care of your green needs!)

20 oz of your favorite spaghetti sauce (we use TJ's organic or basil)

1 recipe cheesey herbed hummus or ricotta (below)

1c shredded mozzarella or vegan cheese shreds (TJ's makes a good vegan option) for topping

Cheesey Herbed Hummus

1 large bunch basil

1 small bunch parsley

2T dried oregano (or fresh if you can find it! I never can)

6 cloves garlic

1/4 onion

2 cans white beans, washed and drained

2c nutritional yeast

Food process herbs, then add white beans and nutritional yeast. Food process until desired consistency is reached.

Traditional Herbed Ricotta or Tofu Ricotta

Substitute white beans & nutritional yeast for 3c ricotta or one package extra firm tofu (trust me, the tofu works!).

The assembly process

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Cover the bottom of a  9x13 pan with a thin layer of tomato sauce

3. Add a layer of kale and swiss chard (or lasagna noodles.)

4. Add a layer of the herbed "cheese" of your choice, then some mushrooms and eggplant (and spinach, if you're using noodles). Top the layer with a layer of spaghetti sauce.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to fill up the pan. If you're adding the veggies right, it'll only be 2 or 3 layers...

6. Once the pan is heaping, add a final layer of kale/ swiss chard (or noodles) and then top with tomato sauce and a sprinkling of the shredded cheese of your choice. 

7. Cover with aluminum foil and cook for 45 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes, then slice, serve, and enjoy!

Bikes and Subarus, hurray!

Tropical Chocolate Sorbet

Whoa. Three days in a row this week. Crazy, I know! However, my big confession as to the reason that I haven't been posting as frequently is that I haven't had time to find pretty plates to make my food look delicious. So this has been inhibiting my writing. However, we all know that I'm not a typical food blogger. When I read other food blogs, I scroll impatiently through the dozens of pictures until I finally find the recipe. And today's recipe, a chocolate sorbet, is a particularly non-photogenic food. So instead, I will share a beautiful picture that I do enjoy looking at from one of my adventures.

Top of the Teton Pass looking down on Jackson Hole WY, June 2013

This is a picture from the top of the Teton Pass in Wyoming that I had the privilege of taking last summer. It was actually shot from the bike path that goes up and over and not the highway. It is such a joy and wonder to be able to witness nature from these points of view! This particular picture was taken the first time I traveled with my bike: my fiancé was unable to come to the wedding with me, so I took my bike as my "date." Riding has enabled me to see things from an unparalleled point of view, and while descending mountain passes is one of my weakest skills on the bike, I will never forget the view as I crested and started my first switch-backing descent in the Tour of the Catskills last summer. Incredible!

Anyways, back to the chocolate sorbet. I've made chocolate sorbet in my ice cream maker quite a few times and found that it's quite delicious. I followed this recipe from about.com and was definitely pleased: I especially recommend adding in cinnamon or mint. While I gave up sugar for lent though, I experimented with no-sugar-added fruit sorbets and found that they could be quite pleasing! My favorite sorbets have been using a mango base. Mango is creamier and sweeter than many fruits, and they are also a good source of fiber as well as vitamins C, A, and B6. Processed sugar can't compete with that! Combining it with cocoa powder makes this recipe a sure win. Unsweetneed cocoa powder is a good source of many micronutrients and antioxidants and actually is a fairly high quality source of protein.

Tropical Chocolate Sorbet

1 1/4c frozen mango cubes
1/4c cocoa powder
3T unsweetened coconut milk (the kind that comes from a carton)

Food process mango & cocoa powder to a fine powder. Add coconut milk and blend until a creamy, just churned, sorbet consistency is achieved. (Add more milk if necessary.) Enjoy! This recipe yields enough for two or a very generous bowl for one (190 calories, 3g fat, 5g protein, 10g fiber)

Drinks and gels and bars, oh my!

Well, it is a cold, grey day here in New England. And I am coming down from the adrenaline high that two days of tough racing will produce. I'm now left with exhaustion, which in combination with the unforgiving sky makes everything seem lost. I'm deeply missing rowing and have had dreams the last two nights worrying about lab and crashing after seeing a friend crash first hand on Sunday and having a few other friends already have bad accidents this year. I know this will pass once the sun comes out and my fiancé returns from his travels, but right now I feel like I'm being sucked back into my ugly abyss of despair... Yikes! These lows are bound to happen... you can only ride adrenaline so long!

Back to the topic of the day... drinks, gels, and bars that I think are particularly worthwhile. For most of my sports life, I avoided all of these things. Which I could get away with in swimming, and almost even in rowing, but definitely not as a cyclist. I hate drinking Gatorade and Powerade during sport. It's so sticky and sweet... blah! I can almost feel the bees swarming around me as my hands and equipment get coated with the stickiness that inevitably runs down the sides of the bottle. No thanks! I tried diluting it and also tried the low sugar versions back in the day: Zero and G2, but to me those just tasted like chemicals. Exactly what you want to be putting into your body when your furnace is burning it's hottest, right??? Anyways, over time I've done my research and experimented with various products. Below are the drinks, gels, and bars that I currently prefer and why I like them. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but just some suggestions as to what I think works!

Drinks

Best for Before: UCAN Tropical Orange
Powered by "SuperStarch," a slow burning carbohydrate with long lasting blood-sugar stabilizing effects this is a new comer to the market. This particular flavor is sweetened with monk fruit extract, which I find far superior to stevia or xylitol, which many other companies use as "natural" sweeteners. I haven't tried this during exercise yet: it's expensive and it's recommended that you consume the entire serving at once, which just is NOT going to happen for me during a race, since it's all I can do to convince myself to drink a bottle over a couple of hours. This was recommended to me by a pro-triathlene friend and I love it for before racing! I threw in some protein powder with it and didn't have a problem getting my nervous pre-race stomach to accept it, unlike solid food. The only downside is that it costs $70 (when you include shipping) for a 32-serving tub. Ouch!

Best for During: Hammer Heed, Unflavored
Hammer did it. They made a sports drink that tastes like... nothing! I strongly prefer the taste of pure water to sports drinks during strenuous exercise and the unflavored version tastes like water and delivers calories and electrolytes.  Win-win! I'm not thrilled about the xylitol or stevia, but I can't taste them so I try to ignore them.

Best to Sustain: Hammer Perpetuem
Electrolytes, protein, natural carbohydrates, and amino acids. This product delivers everything you would want during an endurance race, although I've recently read that the verdict is still out on the necessity of protein. I've tried the Orange-Vanilla and found it mild, palatable, and not too sweet. I'll probably also try the Unflavored. Strawberry is kind of weird and the Caffe-Latte isn't really refreshing. I'll confess: I don't find this product to be perfect. It uses soy protein, which my stomach can be finicky about. I use a fairly dilute bottle and haven't had any problems as of yet, but I'm still on a look-out for a product that delivers everything else that Perpetuem offers with a non-soy protein.

Best for Recovery: Vega Recovery Accelerator, Tropical
This stuff is gold. It tastes awesome, and provides everything you need to recover quickly. I started using it late last summer and immediately I noticed that my recovery time between workouts and races significantly improved. Bonus points for it's complete, plant-based protein but points off for the use of stevia. It's normally $40 for a tub that'll last me 4-6 weeks, but it's on sale for $30 through the end of April at Whole Foods. Go buy some, it's worth every penny! (And it will probably start earning back it's keep for you, if you tend to do races with cash prizes!)

Best All-Natural Solution: 1:1:1 Cherry Juice: Coconut Water: Water
Most of 2013, I went with this option but ultimately found the Heed products delivered more calories and were easier to stomach during races. I still prefer this for winter training and LSD rides. Coconut water offers natural electrolytes and cherry juice has been shown reduce muscle damage during exercise. Plus, it's not too sweet and you can easily find it at Trader Joe's or your local grocery store!

Gels

Best "Natural:" Honey Stinger Gold
Honey with electrolytes, plain and simple. No odd ingredients or unnatural sugars and I find it to be super-palatable and the perfect viscosity. Also, the packets are super easy to open, even with numb hands. (Found this out this weekend while racing at Quabbin!) The only downside is that this has a really high glycemic index. This can be a bonus: if you eat one about a minute before your final sprint or when you try to make a break, it'll hit you fast. But it also causes a sugar crash, so if you only eat these to power a 3-4 hour race, you will feel a little queazy afterwards and never want to touch sugar ever again. This weekend, I found that drinking UCAN before the race and mixing this gel up with others helped mitigate the crash.

Best with Protein: Accel Gel 2nd Surge
Filled with natural sugars (agave, brown rice syrup, cane sugar), electrolytes, and whey protein I find this to be easy to deal with during a race and it also doesn't cause quite the crash that the honey does, since it's coupled with slower-burning protein. Props to Pacific Health Labs for not using soy protein, but lots of people have trouble with whey protein, so hopefully in the next iteration they will up the ante and find an even better alternative. (Pea protein, please?) The only downside is the low viscosity: it is quite runny in the summer heat.

Best with Caffeine: Hammer Gel, Espresso
Powered by maltodextrin and supplemented with natural sweeteners, amino acids, and electrolytes this gel would take higher marks all around if not for it's viscosity. I find it to be really too thick except for all but the hottest of summer days. It's not yet been warm enough this year for me to actually be able to get all of the gel out of a packet. Packets are also frustratingly hard to open, thanks to the cute hammer shape they put on the top.

Bars

I haven't found a bar that I can eat during a race, my stomach just won't have it. I can safely say though, that I've pretty much tried every bar under the sun. Cliff and Luna bars taste great, and offer protein and are fortified with nutrients, but unfortunately also pack in a ton of sugar and use soy protein. Many athletes eat a ton of these, since they are convenient and offer a good balance of macronutrients. However, I attribute these bars to my over-exposure to soy, which caused my intolerance. Should I have eaten less of them? Sure. But I don't think I approached these bars any differently than most athletes. My personal preference currently are the Lara Cherry Pie Bars. All natural ingredients, no processed sugars, no soy protein, and all the performance benefits of cherries.  Cherry Cashew Pure Bars are also great for the same reasons, and have even more protein than the Lara bars. Both are gluten free, as are all the products I use for racing!

What works for you and why do you like it? Feel free to share your favorites in the comments below!

What a difference a year makes...

Well! Things have been crazy here. And by that I mean my 2014 racing season has finally started! I know I should have posted last week-- I try to at least post once per week-- but I was traveling for Easter and then sick so there was chaos all around. Despite being sick, I've already gotten 3 races under my belt for the season. The first was the Farmersville RR in Pennsylvania near my parents house. This was a short, rather flat race through the rolling Pennsylvania countryside. The day was beautiful, but there was not enough hill to suit me and the thing came down to a sprint finish... I ended up 9th among an average W3/4 field. Since I hide my lack of skills and sprinting behind hills for most of my races, I wasn't terribly pleased, but couldn't dwell on it too long, since I had to get back home and to church. If you were wondering, yes, I did go to church on Holy Saturday in my racing kit because I did not have time to change. Another wonderful thing about Pennsylvania, besides the year-round farmers markets and rolling hills (which were completely under utilized during this race), is that you can find these signs on the highway.

It is normal to me to see a sign warning of horse-and-buggies, but I know people who aren't from around Amish Country get a kick out of seeing them. Probably less of a kick when they get stuck behind one for miles, but I enjoy this unique ambiance found around my hometown.

Last week was a blur of sickness, but getting out-sprinted at Farmersville motivated me. I had signed up for Farmersville because I wanted to get better at pack riding, but on top of that I decided that I also wanted to get better at sprinting and cornering. I had signed up for Quabbin RR which was on Saturday, but then decided to add a crit to my Sunday. So this past weekend turned out to be a double-header!

Quabbin RR is my kind of race. It's long (65 miles), hilly (7+ climbs of significance on the course), and finishes on an uphill stretch. Last year at Quabbin RR, it was a beautiful sunny day and I was in the W4 race, during which I got so nervous on the neutral roll-out that my bike started shaking. I thought it was a mechanical (since it was a new-to-me used bike) and spent 5+ minutes trying to figure out what was wrong before concluding that the only thing wrong was that the water bottle was loose. I then spent 65 miles time-trialing, catching many of the girls in my race, but never back on to the lead pack. During the whole 3+ hours, I only ate (or rather, choked down) 1 bar and drank about half a bottle of water. Maybe I had 1 honey stinger in there too. Maybe. I was in a world of hurt by the end.

This year at Quabbin, everything was different. I was in the W123 field and we were blessed with a typical New England "spring" day of 40 degree rain. Fortunately, since this weather happens all winter and is in the "pleasant" and "ridable" category (in contrast to the days we get several feet of ice and snow) I knew exactly how to dress. The one variable that I had to mess with was my gloves, since my winter gloves do not offer enough dexterity to allow me to eat. And I learned that lack of nutrition = death so I went with a layered approach of lab gloves- fleece gloves- dishwashing gloves. By the end, the water had gotten into the gloves and I had no feeling left anywhere between my fingers and my forearms, but it was ok. I managed to make the break when it happened and earned myself a 3rd place finish! Not bad for a cat 3 riding with the 1 and 2s! The biggest difference this year (beside, oh, the whole year of training...) was nutrition. I had 6 gels (bars just can't happen for me during a race), bottle of Hammer Heed (unflavored, i.e. the best flavor!) and a bottle of Hammer Perpetuem (actually half a bottle, oops) during the race, and also prepped myself with a bottle of UCAN before the race and a bottle of Vega Recovery Accelerator after. Tomorrow, I'll follow up this post with my preferences and observations on sports drinks and gels.

dish gloves = almost invincible

Sunday was another exciting and very different day. Crits are short and fast, and you rely on technical ability and raw power to win the race. So basically, crits are won by being everything that I am not! However, I am riding for the Pedal Power Team this year, and two of the other girls are great sprinters and technicians and have been doing quite well in crits this spring by working together. And I want to be the best bike racer that I can be and that means working on my weaknesses. So I told my teammates that I would try to stay on their wheels and watch them during the race, and if that got me into a good position as we neared the end, I would happily lead them out to victory. The race started fine and I was actually doing ok getting through corners and staying near the front. And then the crash happened. Far enough ahead that I had plenty of time to react, but the only reaction that could definitively keep me safe was stopping. I came to a complete stop and had to walk around the crash before getting back on my bike and chasing back on to the pack, which was now two corners away. I did in fact catch back on, but then couldn't figure out how to move up. Every time I tried, it resulted in someone squeezing me out (I almost got pushed into a curb) or me having to apply the brakes heavily. From my frustrated position, I watched my teammate get away and then a lightbulb went on. No one else wanted to take the slow line around the outside of the corners! If I took that one, I wouldn't have to use the brakes and it would be easy to come around. So I did just that and went all the way up to the front of the pack, where I successfully blocked for my teammate who was away and also led out my other teammate for second. So my teammates ended up 1-2 and I ended up 7th, which is my highest placement ever for a crit. Not a bad way to end the weekend! Also, the rain finally stopped and this was Sunday's sunset.

Beet Fries

By now anyone who's been reading somewhat regularly knows the benefits of beets. Beets (specifically, the nitrates in beet juice) have been shown to legally and significantly improve your athletic performance. These days, everyone's talking about it and if you haven't read up on it yet, you literally spend the rest of the week trying to read it all. Beets might just be my biggest discovery since I started drinking coffee before racing! I've found the weeks that I take the time to put beets on my evening salad, my performance on the bike is almost always better.

The funny thing about beets is that just two years ago, I had no idea what to do with them. I had a farm share, and apparently beets are very easy to grow in Massachusetts because I ended up with a ton of them. In the end, I tried to make beet chips, which was an utter failure without a dehydrator or frier. Making beet chips just does not work in the oven! Since then, I've mostly stuck to eating the steamed baby beets from Trader Joe's. However, last week I noticed that the farmers market had some raw beets on sale for a good price, so I picked a few up. After eating them raw in a salad, I was struck by how carrot-like they were in the raw state and while pondering it, realized that beets are a root vegetable (duh) just like carrots... and potatoes. So I started wondering... could I make beet fries? The answer of course, is yes! Read on to find out how...

Wait, what? It's a picture of my adorable bunny and not beet fries?!

Beet Fries

2 large beets
sea salt to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Peel your beets, just like you would a potato, using a vegetable peeler. Take care as to what you're wearing as beet juice stains!
3. Slice the beet into fry-sized strips. I found that for the best  beet fries, I need to cut them a little thinner than I would potato fries. (Less than 1/4" thick)
4. Put raw beet slices in a bowl and add some salt. Stir to coat.
5. Spread beets out on a greased baking sheet.
6. Bake for 1 hour. Be patient! These will take much longer than potato or sweet potato fries but are worth it!

I hope you enjoy them! We ate them plain, but usually a good dipping sauce really increases my enjoyment of a fry-eating experience. This honey mustard sauce would go well!

Oh, here are the beet fries. Not very photogenic, but disappearing quickly!