Monday, June 20, 2016

Beaming....

 Seriously it is pure, organic joy and is the f'ing most expensive smoothie ever!  But dang they are so good.    
Sunday mid day smoothie date with Courtney at Beaming.  It was HOT here is pleasant San Diego.  Okay not 115 hot like in AZ, but we are spoiled, temperamental, sensitive people on the coast and when it hits 85 it is HEAT warning.  Keep your pets inside, check on the elderly kind of hot. 

Seriously I was hot on Saturday in Ramona at 98 degrees.... Yes inland San Diego was hot, hot.....I live near the coast for a reason. 

I digress.... smoothie date post run/swim/run/swim/strength session.  Who does that? Right.... well is seems Mike Ricci's athlete does that. When does he have the time to create madness like this?  just sayin...  The runs were in the pool with ridiculous intervals and the swims ended up being over 6k.   Why pool running.... more on that later.  Let's just sat the foot is not cooperating.   And then lets do some squats, single legged dead lifts, lunges, core work, leg press, and monster walks for fun! 

I was ready for some deliciousness! the bonus of paying $12 for a smoothie is they always have copious amounts of samples-  think Costco but organic, fresh, no shopping carts and no one is pushing you out of the way for the hot pocket.  They sample fresh foods, smoothies, baked goods.... small lunch happened when I tasted them ALL! 


So after my deliciousness at Beaming and my sticker shock $12, I decided to re- create The Daily Lean and Green later in the day. 

Recipe:

Lisa’s Daily Lean and Green

3/4 cup almond milk (we sprout our own that you can buy at any of our locations)  I  did not sprout my own
3/4 cup coconut water
2–3 Tbsp Beaming Plant-based Superfood Protein Powder  used vega
2 T Superfood Greens 
1/4 avocado used 1/2
1/4 cup frozen banana
1 large handful of spinach used spinach and kale- and more like 2 handfuls
1 tsp maca
1 Tbsp hemp seeds for garnish

Blend all ingredients in Vitamix.  for about 30 seconds. Sprinkle the tablespoon of hemp seeds on top. Enjoy


So I did ENJOY but I can tell you DON'T be overzealous with the Kale and Spinach and DON'T, do not, DO NOT add beet powder unless you want to make it a smoothie cleansing session. 

Check out the menu   - my other fav's are
- Sexy Mayan
- Rockstar- sub avocado for date 
-


Sunday, June 12, 2016

Ride Around the Bear

The crew that Rode Around the F'ing Bear 
 
Ride Around The Bear Century - the  black is the "sales" version of this event as written on the website. The red is my version! 

This 9,000’ century ride hosted by the Orange County Wheelmen, is one of the toughest and most exhilarating centuries in the area!  This is 100% true.  It was a tough as hell and exhilarating due to riding on the highway without a bike lane and 1000's of cars zooming up to Big Bear.

As you roll out, you’ll enjoy a few miles of flat pedaling through the semi-rural outskirts of town. Expect 15 miles of warm-up before you turn right up Highway 330.  As you roll out basically through the ghetto and miss the first of many turns of the day.  onto a crappy chip seal road before you turn right onto the Highway to Hell.
 
Groove Girls Riding Around the Bear 

In the early hours, traffic should be light. The CHP will be patrolling to protect your safety and you’re required to ride in single file because the roads are winding and narrow. Up the base of the highway, you will encounter 8 challenging miles as you steadily climb in the cool morning air. Remember to pace yourself, because there is much more to come! Or the traffic will be bumper to bumper with mountain bikes and every other truck honking and flipping you off.  Did not see ONE CHP.  Single file was the only option.


Take a moment to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the cars whizzing by you as you are out of water and looking around every bend for that GD rest stop.  at the first rest stop (mile 24) as you nibble on the fruit and goodies being offered by the friendly volunteers. Volunteers were friendly, PBJ's on Milton's bread were fantastic, fruit? don't recall
 
at some aid station- faking I am happy 

The next segment is up and down, (mostly up) as in 90% up and you are realizing this is going to be a LONG LONG day. No longer do you look at your odometer as it is too depressing.  to the second rest stop (mile 30) at Running Springs. And you stop because it took you an hour to get there from mile 24.  Did I say it was a long day?  And this was my next error, took off the wrong way and realized gee no orange arrows and no other cyclists but I did find a nice farmers market.  Turned around and back on track


  From there, enjoy the fresh mountain air and the incredible lakeside views as you pedal around Big Bear Lake and Julie, Jackie and Monica missed the Damn- NO arrows, no marking and we looked but kept on riding. Welcome to downtown Big Bear- little voice saying, I didn't think we went to the main town and wow we are awesome we dropped all those guys......ha ha- they turned left and we rode 6 miles UP.  U turn and back to   lunch at Dana Point Park (mile 46), which will fuel you for the final stretch of climbing.  Ok so more PBJ and some scary looking ham and processed cheese or turkey and cheese with offerings of mayo?  Seriously.  I was bonking hard so while was passing judgment on the processed meat I went for 4, yes 4 oreo's and a coke.   I can tell you I was having a shit day, my legs were just trashed and hurt. I was struggling and the xtra 12 miles was not helping.  But I had the company of friends so we commiserate and kept on going.  Seriously I thought about hopping in the SAG, but really, who DNF's a Century Ride?  And I would have to wait for Liz anyway so I may as well keep on suffering.  I also popped a Motivator. Sugar, fat, chemicals and caffeine.  I was humming now.
sweeping views of the power lines along the highway


The toughest climb of the day is the 9 mile ascent to Onyx Summit (mile 63) as the day is warming up. I disagree this was not a tough climb other than than the 8000+ ft and no O2 and well maybe I was jacked up on caffeine and sugar. So much so that I was craving more oreo's at the summit.   Once you peak the summit there are still a few more hills to climb,as in 2 more mile long hills that feel like 10 miles  but you can breathe a sigh of relief as the enthusiastic volunteers help you refill and refuel once again!  Heavy heavy sigh


On the exhilarating descent down Hwy 38, you’ll be tempted to fly down the hill, but it is very important to ride safely and be aware of traffic. I flew down - goal was to keep it over 40mph as much as possible.... there were a few hills that seemed like Mt Everest as you legs are cramped up and you just want to get down!    After the final rest stop at Angeles Oaks (mile 82),  what rest stop I flew by that at 30mph you’ll be rewarded with even more miles of glorious nonstop downhill back towards Sylvan Park (mile 101).  when 10+ semis with trailers come humming by and you are like WTF? turns out it was a movie crew?  seriously.....I  am glad to be alive and yeah 112 mile with 9875 ft of elevation.

So it turns out that on the cue sheets they gave us, thank goodness for that, it said NOTE not all turns are marked.  Seriously how hard is it to put arrows at the MAJOR turns or maybe a sign or 2.... Just sayin...  

Nice BBQ at the end and they even had nice Black Bean burgers, chips and fake guacamole. An ice cold beer would have been great, but in theory only, as we had to drive home and that ride took us 7 1/2 hours.  OMF'ing SLOW

So that gives you a good sense of my opinion of Ride Around The Bear.  If you want to ride in Big Bear do the Tour de Big Bear!!! 
 
view from the hotel 

The weekend was fun.... Liz and I drove up Friday figuring it would beat getting up at 3am.  We booked a room at the Race
Lizard in our cozy room 
Hotel - Motel 6 in Redlands.  Now I did not have any expectations about the Motel 6, but Redlands sounds like a nice place and the ride was sponsored by Whole Foods.  So in my mind....we would be near glorious Sylvan Park, which is really a crappy weedy park, in an ok Motel 6, which was ok, and close to Whole Foods, which turned out to be 75 miles away.  We overlooked a used car lot and a scary Mexican Restaurant. We did find a Trader Joes and elected to buy a conglomeration of foods for dinner and breakfast and dine at our table in the room.  We were in bed plugged into our iPads before it was dark.  
romantic dinner in the Motel 6

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Throwing a wrench in the plan

Memorial Day was planned out.  Big swim, as in 8k swim at Encinitas Y and a day of relaxing with John and dinner with my Dad and K.  We woke up early, nothing unusual there, and John commented "thank goodness your mom is home safely from Europe"  She just returned from a 3 week adventure, cruise, cobblestones, spiral staircases etc and was home safe and sound. 

I picked up my phone and saw 3 missed calls, 2 VM and that feeling of dread came over me.  Flew out of bed, listening to messages that mom was at Scripps, had fallen and broken her femur.

Optimistically I put on my suit and headed over at 5:30am planning on a visit until 8 and heading to swim etc.... Only to realize it was a major fracture, surgery pending, serious pain and this was not a quick event.   11 hours later she was finally taken into surgery for what was to be 2-3 hours.  41/2 hours later, thankfully I was home, the surgeon called and says "what a doozie"  Seems the bone was literally in 3 pieces and required 2 x 10inch plates with accompanying hardware, no weight bearing for 6 weeks and a tough surgery.  I opted to stay home as she often takes a long time in recovery.  And yes it was nearly 11 before she was in her room due to some complications.   Once she was out, I was so relieved I cracked a bottle of wine and had a glass, mind you the pour was probably 12oz, but it was a glass and tried to get some sleep.

Fitful sleep, worried about my mom, I called in at midnight to make sure she was okay and was up at 4 and  wanted to get in my trainer workout before going to the hospital.  Let's just say my watts were low but it felt good to sweat.  So began my routine for the week, early early AM training and then off to the hospital.  Someone post op in pain, on morphine needs an advocate. It seemed every time I left something happened, no meds, no this no that....so one really has to just camp out. The Dr's window of coming by is worse than SDGE they say 11-1 and sometimes it is 7:30 or 4pm and since i wanted to be there, well I had to be there.  Thankfully my mom's dear friend was able to spell me and help out  tremendously but hospital stays can be a full time job.   Luckily I have a mobile office.
83 and 99!  Impressive

I will spare you the day by day but finally on Thursday we got her transferred to Skilled Nursing, but even that had about 10 hiccups before it was sorted out. Meanwhile I had spend the day with my Dad and my Aunt who turned 99- holy cow!  Please let me have the Hancock genes.  WOW.  It was great to see her and my cousin. \

 I came home feeling great to 77 emails and complete upheaval with my mom. Finally got her settled and tackled work only to realize around 10pm I converted the Yen to Singapore $, the Singapore $ to Yen and the Denmark whatever currency to Yen vs all of the respective currencies to $$. So much for my master in Excel.  At this point I knocked back the "other glass" or bottle of wine, ate an entire XOXO Chocolate bar and chips and avocado.   Fuel of a Champion! 

Can I tell you how great I felt the next day in the pool.....pay the piper!   Ugh....it was ugly and I had no choice as I had not been in the pool all week. So I sucked it up and swam 5800 yards.
Cousin Eric, Dad and Me

Friday was ugly, averaging 5 hours of sleep a night for most of the week, the caffeine no longer working I had resorted to Vivarin. I crashed hard and slept 2 hours in the afternoon and with mom moved began prepping for the weekend.  

And well.... surprisingly I had a great ride on Saturday and even better run off the bike and nailed my run today!  Feeling like I am on track for Ironman.  Maybe things went so well this weekend because my brain did not have time to think about it? who knows....I just went with what I had.  I will say, other than the 2 winechocolate binges, the rest of the week I did stay on clean eating, hydrated well and I think that paid off! 

All in all.... successful week.  Mom is settled and thank goodness she is close.  I popped in during my transition run yesterday for water and See's candy and finished my run.  And it's easy to see her frequently as she is a few miles away. This evening I snuck in a bottle of wine and we had Happy Hour!  She has a long road ahead but she is headed in the right direction and has the right attitude!   I'm thankful she is okay....