Every so often I bake

The occasion was my brother's 30th birthday party. I made a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting.

Seriously, though, my lack of time in the kitchen has become quite sad. I used to love cooking. Now it just doesn't thrill me. I'm busy with work and tri training and when I get home, exhausted and hungry, all I want to do is eat something quick and easy. Honestly, it's not always something incredibly healthy. For example, microwaved frozen gyoza dumplings and microwaved soup-in-a-box make for a yummy dinner, are somewhat nutritious but a little generous with the sodium.

I've decided to order food from a delivery service. I am trying Vegin' Out. They deliver a week's worth of dinners. For a week's worth of food for a single person and delivery, the cost is $110. To me, that's well worth it if it cuts down my grocery shopping and time in the kitchen.

Malibu Classic Triathlon

0.5 mile swim, 18 mile bike, 4 mile run. Several celebrities, though I can't say I saw and identified a single one. Lots of cameras and paparazzi.

I have nothing exciting to tell about this race, other than that I just felt good doing it. The course was all familiar territory to me. I've ridden that bike course on every other Saturday since March, and I've swam and run at Zuma Beach a few times. So I felt like I had an advantage.

My next two races are Pumpkinman Sprint Triathlon on October 18 and Soma Half Ironman on October 26. I could use a break from racing, but I know that over the next few weeks my training is really going to ramp up. I look forward to the challenge.

Los Angeles Triathlon

This was a tough one. I finished in 3 hours and 23 minutes. This is ten minutes faster than last year and on a tougher bike course.

Usually, I show up alone, and maybe see one or two people that I know on the course, and will cheer on anyone with an LA Tri Club jersey. This time, though, I got to race with a friend, which was nice. Not only that, now that I have lived in Los Angeles for over a year, I knew a few people who were racing and on the sidelines. Without those friendly faces, this would have been a much tougher race.

The swim was at Venice Beach. All 200 women doing the olympic distance course started at the same time. There were lots of limbs and elbows, especially at the first buoy. I seemed to drift to the outside on the swim, which maybe was good because that means I didn't have as many limbs to deal with.

Out of the water onto the bike. We rode from Venice Beach to Downtown LA. Venice Blvd to Fairfax to Wilshire to Highland to 6th Street to Alvarado (with a couple BIG hills) to Sunset (more hills!), turning around on Sunset just after Kaiser Permanente Hospital, and then into Downtown.

Then on to the run! I got my shoes on, stopped in the port-o-potty for about twenty seconds and headed for my 10K. The run was an out-and-back couse that we had to run twice. There was a HUGE hill, heading up toward the Disney Concert Hall. I couldn't run it, and even power-walking the hill my heart rate was 179! I saw my buddy near the top of the hill, which inspired me to run the last little portion of it. Then I ran down, which felt good, then headed for the turnaround to do it all over again.

I headed back up the hill for the second time, and was just absolutely beat! At the top, someone starts running toward me yelling my name -- it was Hans my spinning instructor! What on earth....? He started running with me! It was great to have his encouragement because I was tired out. I think I ran faster with him. Then we got to the water station, where there was no water. No water?!?! Luckily, Hans had an extra bottle of water which he handed to me. I was so incredibly grateful.

It was a tough race, and great to see that I've gotten faster over the past year.

Yes I Still Can Cook!

I used to cook a lot, and you can see that in my earlier blog posts. But, living alone, working more than full time, and training for triathlons, I'm just not inspired to cook nearly as often.

Here's a simple creation: A teriyaki stir fry with broccoli, baby portobella mushrooms and Trader Joe's Chik'n Strips made from soy protein, on a bed of jasmine rice.

Hot Dogs and Cancer?

Eating processed meats significantly increases the risk of cancer. This is fact.

I was very excited to hear about The Cancer Project's new commercial, which dramatically makes the public aware of this link.

And I'm fascinated by the public outcry over it. It seems as if people don't want to hear the truth, as if it is heresy to let people know that a traditional American food causes harm.

Not only does processed meat, in the quantities that the average American consumes it, increase risk of cancers, it also increases the risk of obesity, raises cholesterol levels, raises blood pressure, and as a result increases the risk of coronary disease, heart attack, and stroke.

Yes it's alarming, but people need to hear this message loud and clear.

Watch the commercial here.

Image from hankblog.wordpress.com

I'm Racing Against J-Lo!!!!!

Jennifer "J-Lo" Lopez will be racing the Nautica Malibu Triathlon on September 14. While I am disgusted by her love of wearing fur, it is neat to see a celebrity drawing attention to our sport.

Photo from justjared.com

Hansen Dam Sprint Triathlon

After my foray this past year into olympic distances and a half ironman, I decided to take a step back and do a sprint triathlon.

The swim: 500 meters. Small inland lake. Water felt like bath water. Because of the temperature and the short distance, I chose to go without a wetsuit, a decision I do not regret. The start was crowded -- for some reason, all women 39 and under started at once, and the older women, 40-49 and 50+ each got their own waves to start in. I'm a little jealous, but I guess age should come with some privileges. I swam a bit off course and had to swim back around a buoy, maybe losing 10 seconds. My time out of the water was about 13 minutes.

Transition 1: I've been really focusing on getting my transitions better, trying to take a few extra steps out. I removed the strap on my sunglasses in advance. So, run to bike, put on bike shoes, put on bike helmet, put on sunglasses, wish good luck to guy I know in transition, and run out with bike. Bam bam bam.

The bike: 11 miles, relatively flat. Coach Jamie said go hard because it's a short race, don't save energy for the run. So I pushed myself. I passed a lot of people on mountain bikes and a few on road bikes. A lot of people passed me too. But hey, the bike is not my forte. There was one sharp turn where the woman next to me nearly took out my bike. My pace ended up being about 17-18 mph. For me, that's good.

Transition 2: Another area I've been working on. Before dismounting the bike, I un-velcroed my shoes and pulled my feet out. So once I dismounted, I could run faster with bare feet than with my clumsy bike shoes. Helmet off, right sock on, right shoe on, left sock on, left shoe on, and this time with thinner socks that are easier to pull on than my usual thick socks. Grab visor and run. But, boy did I have to pee! So I made a quick pit stop at the port-o-potty. It took me 20 seconds to do my business. As I dashed out, someone yelled to me, "Quickest transition port-o-potty stop ever!" Funny.

Run: The phrase that I always repeat to myself during the run is "Mind Over Matter". I really think the run on any triathlon is as much mental as it is physical. It's the point of the race where our bodies are tired from swimming and biking, and we have to find it in us to efficiently use all the energy that's left in us to finish those last few miles. The trail run was for the most part flat, though there were a couple of slight hills. At the end was a rather short, steep hill. My heart rate shot up to 194. Mind over matter, keep going. And I just pushed to the finish. Average run time: about 9:15/mile.

Overall time: 1 hour, 19 minutes.
Average heart rate: 164/min

These are my measurements. Official times have yet to be posted to the internet. But I'm really happy with how I did. Probably my best sprint tri ever.

Another Reason Why Meat is Unhealthy

The salmonella bacteria that infected crops of tomatoes was derived from contaminated meat. Somehow, this fact gets missed in the mainstream media cover of the salmonella outbreak that caused over forty thousand people to become ill.
Photo courtesy of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, PCRM.com

Flip Turns

As a triathlete, I race in open water. However, I practice at the pool once a week. I proudly wear my LA Tri Club swim cap to proclaim to my master swim group that yes I swim slowly, but I run AND bike too!

Nonetheless, I've gotten the urge to learn to do a flip turn. My grab-the-wall-and-push-off technique is pretty well streamlined, but real swimmers do flip turns.

The way the flip turn should go is, flip over, push off with feet onto back, turn onto stomach, and swim.

Mine goes something like this:

One stroke to go before hitting wall. Look up and hesitate fearfully. Take deep breath.

Flip over. Realize, I'm flipped over, don't inhale.

Panic and inhale, getting water up nose.

Search for wall with feet.

Push off. Be surprised by random direction in which I am pushing off. Sometimes launching to bottom of pool. Other times diagonally toward oncoming swimmer.

Panic again with water up nose. Eventually hit surface. Cough.

Proceed with stroke.

I need a *lot* of practice with flip turns. For now, though, the grab-the-wall-and-push technique is working well enough.
Image from blogs.phillyburbs.com

Zapped

I've never experienced anything like this.

Coach Jamie told me to take it easy this week to recover from Vineman 70.3.

Now, I've done marathons, and I'm sore for three days, but after that I'm up and roaring, back to my usual workouts.

Not this time.

I raced on Sunday for almost seven hours of swimming, biking, and running. Then, on Tuesday I went to my usualy bike/run workout. I got on the bike, and whoa, I definitely did not have my usual strength.

Then I thought I'd be fine by Wednesday, the day I do speed work at the track. Not so much. I was more tired and far slower than my typical speedwork pace. So instead of the usual workout, I mostly ran/walked around the track on my own.

I asked my coach how long -- he said to give myself a week and a half. I've taken today off completely from working out, and I'll swim tomorrow.

Maybe by then I'll be back to my usual self.

My First Half Ironman -- Vineman 70.3 -- Done!!!

Initially, my goal for Vineman 70.3 was 7 hours and 30 minutes. Then my coach suggested 7:10. And as I thought about it, I figured I can do the swim in 45 minutes, the bike in 3:45, and then run even if I completely fall apart can be done in 2:30. So my goal was seven hours.

And I had to remember, this is my "A race". I'm only competing against myself to do the best that I can, but this is *the* race that I've been training for. And, I need to focus. Often in races I find myself daydreaming and acting like it's just a training swim/bike/run, but this time, this is the real deal.

The day started chilly. My wave, the 30-34 year-old women headed to the water for a start. I hadn't been too nervous until just then.

"Ten....nine....eight...."

"I think I'm going to throw up." Not sure where that came from. But as the gun went off, any nausea dissipated and I started swimming up the river. Aggressively to start, per Coach Jamie, trying to draft off of someone. The outward portion of the swim seemed to last forever and I settled into a good pace. Shortly after the turnaround, my arm hit the ground and I stood up in the water which must have been only three feet deep. I glanced at my stopwatch, regained my concentration, and dove back in.

I finished the swim in 41 minutes. In transition, I tried to put on my bike shoes without removing my wetsuit. Whoops. That ate up a couple seconds. To the person who keeps mocking me that my transitions take too long, no I did not put on makeup or cook tofu in transition.

Off on the bike. I used disposable water bottles, which did not want to stay in the bottle cages. My Gatorade flew off the bike as I rounded the first turn. Whoops! So I had only one bottle of water, and no electrolyte solution, for the first nineteen miles of the bike. I bent my front bottle cage so that the water would not fly out. That took me a couple extra seconds.

The first five miles of the bike were flat. Then miles five to fifteen were rolling hills, and a bit challenging. Then around mile 25 was the first "hill". I pounded up it, and at the top wondered, "Was that a hill?"

Something hit my face around mile 40, then fell on my leg, and then there was a stinging sensation on my right thigh. I looked down, and there on my leg was a bee!!!! I was stung, through my bike shorts, by a bee!!!! It stung like crazy, and thanks to adrenaline I was able to for the most part ignore the pain for the duration of the race. But on the way home in the car that evening, I definitely felt the bee sting.

Then there was yet another, far longer and a bit steeper hill at mile 45. Not too bad. I was surprisingly faster than I anticipated on the bike. My average pace was 16.2 mph, faster than my goal pace of 15 mph, and in total the bike took 3 hours 36 minutes.

Then, off on the run, which was really hilly. I reminded myself that I had 2 hours and 40 minutes to finish the run -- even if I completely fall apart on the run, I will break seven hours for the course. The first four miles seemed to be all uphill, but as I ran them the opposite way on the way back, they sure didn't seem like they were downhill at all. My legs felt like they weighed fifty pounds apiece. My stomach started getting upset at mile eight. I'd start to walk a bit, but then I couldn't get myself to run again. We ran through the La Crema Winery, which was really the only pleasant part of this run, as the rest was just hills and more hills.

I felt awful during the last 5k of the run. I was exhausted, and my legs were heavy. My left calf started to cramp up in the last mile, and I tried to ignore it. I pushed myself for the final stretch. The announcer called out my name, then asked, "We've been waiting for you all day. Where have you been?" Kind of a bizarre question. Nonetheless, it got me some applause as I finished.

My finishing time: 6 hours, 48 minutes. I'm pleased.

Tapering and Chilling Out

There are four days until Vineman 70.3. I'm supposed to taper -- in other words, significantly decrease the amount of time spent exercising. It feels so weird. I went to the pool today, instructed to swim 500 meters, as opposed to my usual 2000 or so. I rebelled and swam 600 meters.

Coach Jamie says to do lots of stretching. Take "me time" -- when is that? When I'm busy blogging about how I have no time to take "me time"? I'm supposed to lie down for five minutes in a quiet room every so often and just relax. That's called sleep and it happens for five, maybe six, hours a night.

I don't relax. I'm pretty high-energy, high-strung. But, I'm trying to get more sleep, do less, and just chill out this week. But work is busy, and that's just not happening. Nonetheless, I'm trying to limit my outside committments to get myself ready.

Tomorrow I'll wake up and run my easy 1-2 miles, which will just feel downright bizzarely short.

Possibilities

Various statements I've made througout the years:

"I like to run... but I could never do a marathon. That's just too far."
(Since then, I've run three marathons)

"Yes I'm a vegetarian... but being vegan would be impossible! How could I live without cookies?"
(Vegan for three and a half years... and still enjoying a cookie every now and again)

"I do sprint triathlons, and maybe one day I'll do an olympic distance. But I don't ever need to do a half ironman. That's crazy!"
(I'm doing Vineman 70.3 this weekend)

"I think I can die without having ever done a full Ironman."
(I haven't done one yet... but I would love to be able to say that I'm an IronWOMAN!)

With this in mind, I'll contemplate whether I want to do an Ironman this November, or wait until next year to take one on. I'm just not sure I want to do it yet.

Breath of Life Triathlon Race Report

For me it was a good race. And a race where I finally have a picture of myself running where I don't look like I'm about to die. Excellent.

If you look at the race stats, I'm number 15 out of 17 in my age category, which is a bit depressing on first glance. BUT, this is only my fourth olympic distance race ever, and I've only been doing this sport for less than three years, and my times are getting better. My overall time, 3 hours and 9 minutes, is 17 minutes faster than my previous fastest time. And, my 10k run was in 59 minutes. I've never run a 10k in under an hour, let alone having swam, biked, and then run a 10k!

Swim: Cold ocean water, a bit choppy, but a favorable current.

Transition: Ran way too far on sand to get to my bike. I was a little tired out.

Bike: 25 miles almost perfectly flat. I cruised at 16.7 mph. For me that's fast. Your grandma could probably pass me on the bike.

Transition 2: How did it take me over three minutes to get out of my bike shoes and put on my running shoes? I'm still not sure, but that could use some improvement. Maybe I was thrilled to hear my name on the loudspeaker: "Heather Shenkman is racking her bike and is looking strong and about to go out and run 10k!" It was some guy from my tri club who had the microphone. It was cool.

Run: Whooooo hoo! I just had fun with the run. Cheered for people from my tri club,mostly people I don't know, because when you're in a club with 1500 people, you simply can't know everyone. Told some 70 year-old man who was racing that he's my hero and that when I get to be his age I just want to be able to crawl across the finish line. No, really. He's my hero.

Finish: Heard my name on the loudspeaker again as I ran toward the finish line. Felt great. Ate a post-race Boca Burger, which I swear was the tastiest burger I've ever eaten in my life. The man serving the burger asked me, "How come all the early finishers eat meat and you're getting a veggie burger?" My response, "How do you know I wasn't just chilling out for an hour?" I wasn't, but I'm not going to let him think I'm weak because I don't eat meat.

So that's the race. Two weeks until Vineman 70.3, where I'll try to dawdle less in the transition areas.

Still alive and Tri'ing

I haven't posted much. There are just over two weeks until my Vineman 70.3, my first half ironman, and I'm in the middle of a move to a new place. But I did the Breath of Life olympic distance triathlon this past Sunday, with a time of 3:09, my best olympic distance triathlon by 16 minutes. I'm still slow, but I'm getting faster. More on that, and a better picture, soon.

More on Tim Russert's Death

This is the best article that I've found to assimilate the medical facts and fictions with respect to Tim Russert's death.

Tim Russert

Tim Russert's death at age 58 has drawn a lot of attention to coronary artery disease, particularly because of his young age.

There has been so much speculation about what occurred. What we do know is that he had coronary artery disease, he was overweight, and he was a diabetic. He had "passed" (whatever that means) a stress test recently.

In all of the scare over coronary disease and sudden cardiac death, there is one thing to keep in mind: the vast majority of them do not occur out of thin air. Most people who have cardiac events had at least one risk factor, whether that be diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, a history of smoking, or a strong family history of coronary disease. I can think of only very few cases where there was no significant traditional cardiac risk factor.

The bottom line remains the same: Know and manage your risk factors. If you do not know your blood pressure or have not had your blood drawn recently to determine your cholesterol and electrolytes, then it's time to see a doctor for a check-up. And if you do have risk factors, they need to be managed with appropriate medications, diet, and exercise.

But, most important here is how we take care of our bodies. By eating well and exercising, the risk of hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia is significantly reduced; and as a result the risk of coronary artery disease is far less.

Bonelli Olympic Distance Triathlon

On the day before this race, I rode 47 miles, rounded on 19 cardiac patients, drank a Corona.... and still I had my fastest Olympic triathlon yet!

That said, this was not my "A" race. It's a concept that I'm getting used to. My "A" race will be Vineman 70.3, my first half ironman distance triathlon, which is in *gasp* six weeks.

Swim -- Don't ever put on sunscreen and then use the same sunscreen covered fingers to wipe out your goggle lenses. Baaaad idea. After a lot of rubbing, the lenses were clear. This was a small race, so maybe only 50 or 60 women, I think. The good thing is that there were fewer thrashing limbs to contend with in the water. However, on the flip side, I'm used to following a pack of swimmers, so I had to use a little more effort to make sure I was swimming in the correct direction.

Bike -- Three loops. I think the women were the last olympic distance wave. So, men who were on lap 2 or 3 on the course whizzed by. On my third lap, the quantity of cyclists on the course had thinned out, and a police officer directing traffic asked me, "Are there many more behind you?" "Yes there are," I responded, in deluding myself that perhaps many others at my pace or slower were still out there. How would I know how many people were behind me anyway? My bike wouldn't go into the small chain ring, which would have been helpful on a couple of hills, but wasn't a huge problem.

Run -- Due to a last minute course change, someone told me that the run was only 5.3 miles, not 6.2. Ack, ruin my celebration of beating my best olympic tri time!!!! Whatever. The run went better than my last run, but due to the small size of the race and the fact that I was in the last wave, I ran mostly alone. However, I did chat up an Australian guy who will be doing Vineman 70.3 next month also.

The End -- Never good being the last group to finish. I had to yell at some guy to get out of my way as he was meandering across the finish chute as I was sprinting in. And they ran out of Boca Burgers. Lately places are running out of veggie burgers -- are vegetarians taking over the world?

Pictures may be coming soon.

Making Change

A blogger friend asked me how to get her father-in-law who is undergoing cardiac bypass surgery to make lifestyle changes.

It's not easy. I struggle every day with motivating my patients to change their lives.

If many of my patients with high blood pressure stopped smoking, started exercising, ate better, cut out excess salt, and lost weight, they would be on fewer blood pressure medicines. And, in the long run they would have fewer health problems and live longer.

How do we get people to do these things? To someone who has lived a sedentary lifestyle eating whatever they want, making all these changes at once must be overwhelming.

The best time to get people to make changes is at a life-changing moment, such as when hospitalized with a first heart attack or when needing coronary bypass surgery. People are scared, and as a result they are receptive.

So, to my blogger friend who asked how to get her father-in-law how to live more healthfully, use the resources at your hospital while he's recovering. Ask for someone from the hospital's cardiac rehabilitation program to talk to him. Get the nutritionist to sit down with him and explain what he should and should not be eating. Encourage your father's nurse to educate him also. And, you personally may live a healthy lifestyle, but it's hard to hear these things from a family member. There's too much emotional attachment. It really has to come from someone else, not just you, so try not to sound preachy.

Think back if you've made lifestyle changes. Did you do it overnight? I certainly didn't. In college, I was a vegetarian who ate way too much sugar and dairy and barely exercised. During my sophomore year of college, I decided I should start running -- on that first day, I got halfway around the block before my friends drove by and picked me up.

Be patient, and be supportive, and best of luck.

A Needed Break

The Blog has been slow. Life has been busy in balancing work, triathlon, family, and friends.

I just got back from a very needed vacation in Ixtapa, Mexico. Four days to just relax in the sun. I didn't completely slack -- I did take a couple of 30-minute runs barefoot on the sand. I brought my goggles and swam a few laps, Perhaps I could have done more, but I didn't.

More to come to the blog soon.
Photo taken from http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/images/vacation-travel.jpg