Monday Cooking

A mix of spices and olive oil. Garlic, pepper, crushed red pepper, salt, whatever you like.



Carefully lift up the skin on a chicken breast and place the spices. Put the skin back. Ok, even if you don't eat the skin, atleast cook with it!



Plated with some cilantro+lime rice and steamed asparagus dashed with thyme.



Some tasty bread, too. Good eve in the kitchen, in prep for a good week on the bike. Zoom, zoom tomorrow.

Guess What? Pork Butt!

Tonight's meal is one of the best things I've ever cooked. Starts out with cubed pork butt...

Browned in bit of oil...

Brown a chopped onion and an appropriate amount of garlic... I cannot reveal how much garlic. National security. Then cube up some apples...

Drop in the apples, some stock, some herbs. I used parsley, sage, rosemary and a pinch of fennel seed...

Simmer for an hour. Then add some chopped prunes. Yes, chopped prunes. No photo. Prunes are like yams. No way to make them look appetizing! Simmer for another hour. Then devour...

Ailing Motor

Tonight I set out for four 10'min intervals, 90-110%FTP. This should be an easy plan. It's just to check the motor under some nice controlled conditions... on rollers.

The first interval goes well. HR looks normal for the effort. Nice and smooth. Legs feel good. For the recovery interval... I tended to my potato soup. Maybe that was a mistake?

As I returned for my second interval... my HR shot up. On an interval like this I'd expect the HR to 'top out' and remain steady. But that doesn't happen. My HR keeps climbing. And my respiration was pretty ragged. I dialed back the power... but the HR never returned to what I'd consider 'normal'.

The purpose of this workout is to get right on the edge of being aerobic. Clearly... I was going over it. So... I stuck with the power that matched my respiration, my heart rate, etc. By the last interval... I got the effort right, and ended up with a more consistant effort. Finally.

Experienced some coughing after the workout too. Hmmm. Despite my cardio-pulminary difficulties... the legs felt great. My heart and lungs just can't keep up at the moment. I'm going to give it some more time before panicking.

Oh... the soup? Simple potato, sour cream, butter, milk, chives, and some bacon bits. It was good. A little thick. Loaded with carbs! Great training faire.

A Tasty Hit

Toasted almond slices, roasted garlic, and basil. Start of a pesto. Add some olive oil, lemon juice, whirrrrrrrr in food processor.

Then boil some shrimp. Toss the shrimp in the pesto...

Gobble up...

This was really good. I typically don't care for pesto. But making it at home allows customizing the flavor to what my tastebuds enjoy. Leftovers are good cold, too.

Simple Meal

Looong time since I've posted about food. Tonight's meal seems relevant to training. It is a quick meal. And a healthy meal. All cooked in one pan. First... start with some boneless skinless chicken:

Pan them with a dash of oil. Use breasts or thighs or whatever. When they are done, set them aside, brown some onions and garlic. After they are tender, add mushrooms.

When darkened add some liquid. I like to use one can of chicken broff and one can of beef broff. Season as you like. Add one can of rice. Juice of a lemon adds a kick. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the rice is almost done. Add the chicken to reheat...

Bon appetite.

Threshold Tuesday

Back to it tonight after a day of rest. Glorious rest. Tonight's menu is four (4x) 12'00" intervals at ++FTP. Six minutes (half of the work interval) of recovery between. This is a progression from last week's 4x10'00" interval. The added work duration was about perfect. Next week... it bumps to 14'00".

I refueled with roundsteak, rice & gravy. Accompanied with friends corn and a cucumber and tomato salad.

Bon appetite.

Temporary Injunction

Planned to leave for Palo Duro Canyon on Friday. Not going. The elixer of job stress, a head cold, and doubts about my fitness proves toxic to racing fun. Need to spend the week catching up on life's tasks. Fall season is jumbled up; but still have some good opportunities for fun. Look to be back for HSV and Ruston.

Completely inappropriate. I make chicken soup tonight. It is too early in the fall, and not cold enough. But I had a craving. Diced chicken, diced yams, whole wheat penne pasta, spices. What could be simpler? Keeps well, so the majority of my cooking is done for the week.

Coming Back to Life

Legs feel remarkably good right now. The nice thing about coming back after a long layofff; progress happens fast! Every day the legs feel a little stronger. Almost bombproof. Tonights' ride challanges me. Two 20min threshold intervals, 30min at endurance pace with 10sec acceleration spinup at top of each minute, and for good measure three 5min max effort intervals. Topping it off, doing it in the rain.

Rain rides are always just a bit more satisfying. Perhaps because you start out with a valid excuse for not doing them, but do them anyway. Or maybe because you don't see anyone else out riding except for the occasional other crazy person.

Tonight's meal didn't go as planned. My plan was to grill some fish and shrimp. Shoulda checked the forecast, because it was raining. So, pan grilling the salmon and boiling the shrimp was plan B.

A tasty meal, served with sourdough bread and spinach. It was a bit intricate for this night. Prep too a long time and leaves me feeling a bit time crunched. Sleep calls!

Experimental Breakfast

Cooking breakfast with the Jetboil this morning.

I'm trying to work up a packable pancake recepie for camping. Testing the current version today. Tastes good. But needs some perfecting.

Afield or at home; no breakfast is complete without bacon...

The Final Stretch

I'm nearing the end of elbow rehab. The final push for motion range is on. Tons of stretching, strengthening, and heat. Extension is still being stubburn. My threapist started me with a different type of splint last week. It's a spring loaded mechanism that keeps solid tension on the arm. That's the robo-arm thing I'm wearing in the pic. It seems to be helping. Some. I've got about 10° to go before I'd consider it full-use. Certainly I'm going to lose some range, but need more than I've got now.

I'm able to do most things now. Including wash the car. Haven't driven it since hurting my arm. Dusty! But it was a nice day to be outside and washing. Water was cold though!

I'm enjoying cooking. Baked chicken basted with a garlic and ginger extract. And served with spinach with feta and fresh slices of ginger.

Thus begins the final and perhaps most difficult part of injury recovery. Ditching those pounds gained while being on the couch.

Morning Pancakes

Plodding Along

Plodding along. Not only rehabbing the elbow, I'm rehabbing my cycling fitness too. The elbow continues to improve. When it's good it nears 100% range of motion in flexion. When it's bad it still has a few degrees to go. In extension (straightening) is being stubburn. My OT is setting me up with anther type of splint to open things up.

My cycling rehab is about where my elbow was six weeks ago. That is... just at the beginning. In some ways I've given up on reaching for long rides. I've only got a few more weeks until I'm riding outdoors. Just trying to prep the legs for that, rather than focusing on gaining specific fitness.

Tonight's meal...Spicy Red Pepper Pasta inspired by VeganYumYum.com. In this pot fettuccini:

In my way-too-big wok: broccoli, sun dried red tomatos, red pepper and some olive oil:

Cook both and combine. Add some lemon juice and zest:

Super simple. Super quick. Super tasty.

New Accessories

My new fashion accessory! Stylish, non? This is a splint that I'm now wearing around the house in the evenings. Simple design. String around the wrist gets tighened to a mount on the shoulder. The shoulder mount is just like the string peg on a guitar. Similarly one can really crank up the tension, and hold it for super long periods. Seems effective. No complaints and only minimal pain. The pain's no worse than a strained muscle or hyper-extended joint. Which, is exactly what I'm doing with the splint. My therapists have been super, and the treatments are working. Elbows are long injuries.

My house brand tire -Vittoria Open Corsa- while great on the road absolutely shred on the trainer. Most winters I only minimally ride the trainer. It hasn't been a big deal. This year of course is different. Given the months of trainer time ahead... no reason to waste perfectly good road tires in my living room. I mounted up a Continental Hometrainer tire. All I have to say is... mounting a tire with 1-1/2 hands is not fun. Bring the patience and utilize the feet and toes. Pics of this process would have been comedy gold!

Focusing on eating correctly again... some veggie wraps make a nice meal. Simply take some spring mix pre-pack salad, shoestring carrots, and some grape tomatoes. Put on a tortilla with a bit of cream cheese. The real secret is to take a bit of lemon juice on the veggies. Really brings out the flavor. Wrap. Eat. Yum.

A Quest Fulfilled

Since my arm's been out of commission cooking has been a challange. This weekend I went on a quest to find things I can cook using fresh ingredients, that don't require two-handed prep. On VeganYumYum.com I found this receipe for Hot and Sour Cabbage Soup. Sounded good, but slicing cabbage out of the question. On my trip to the grocers...

TADA!~ pre-prepared cole slaw mix and pre-chopped onions!!

Perfect! Although I'm not vegan, it doesn't prevent me from eating vegan food. In fact, I really like vegan food as it relies on spices and natural flavors rather than resorting to the "throw some fat in it to make it taste better" method. Nothing prevents me from taking some pan seared chicken into the soup. And that's exactly what I did.

Otherwise... I followed the receipie, but added VN chili sauce in lieu of the chili flakes. I liked this soup. A wonderful mix of hot, sour, and sweet notes to the pallet.

Also from VeganYumYum... I made some homemade No Kneed Bread.

This also worked well. One change. I used 1/2 whole wheat flour, 1/2 all-purpose flour. I've never scratch made bread before. This was a great experience and quite tasty!

There's something about fresh from the oven bread. Another high recommend from me.

For a Wet and Dreary Wednesday...

... homemade chicken soup is the perfect prescription.

There's Nothing Like A Race

Only a race can truly reset one preceptions about how fast one can ride. Both good and bad. It's exposed the slack in my training the last month or so. The upside, my fitness has improved since the spring season. Definitely not satisfied yet. Will I ever be?

This evening was awesome. Only 78°F at ride time. On the downside... the days are getting noticeably shorter. I ordered a updater today from Saris, so I can use the road bike PowerTap with the Garmin. Soon I'll need the backlight as all weekday rides get pushed into the darkness.

Howabout a simple meal? Step 1, grill some chicken...

Step 2, deglaze the pan with marsala wine and throw in some mushrooms...

Serve with some corn and mashed yams/steen's syrup/nutmeg/cinnamon...

Fast eating.

Tonight's CX race makes me feel fat and slow. Atleast I can be fast in the kitchen! Lettuce, cherry tomatoes, deli chicken, cucumber slices, blue cheese, dash of vinegar. Wrap. Done. Takes like 45sec.

More about the CX racing after next week's race. Need to do this right before I form any opinions...

A Respite

An overcast cloudy day, made for some nice temps. In the 80s! Out I went for some VO2 and LT intervals. Ran down 11th/12th street areas. I've always admired this Schill Steel sign. Old school.

Sorting out the new camera.

But I still need an SLR sometimes... stopped to watch Reagan High's football team doing passing drills. A reminder that fall's around the corner!

And I whipped up some homeade jambalaya. I finally found a recepie I like. Until now, I usually mixed fresh veggies with Louisiana Brand's mix. Not any more. I'll post the recepie on a slow day...

Thresholds and Steak

A threshold ride provides today's challenge. There isn't much to say about this ride. I ramp it up, keep it pinned just a hair above threshold and keep it there for the 20min time. Repeat two more times. You know you've done threshold rides right when you start out saying "this is easy" and by the end you're wondering if you'll be able to finish.

I managed to cook a meal tonight. This started with some beef sirloin steaks...

I like sirloin, but I'm careful with selecting a good cut. It's pretty lean, but will stay tender if you're careful not to overcook it. I sliced some 'maters capped with a slice of jack and basil leafs from my garden. These went into the oven. BUT... don't put the basil on until they come out of the oven. They just turn black.

While the 'maters were cooking... I made a sauce by deglazing the pan with brandy. Then added some dijon mustard, a bit of heavy cream, chives, and blue cheese.

Just toss in and reduce. I'm terrible at reducing sauces. No patience! Here's how the roasted tomato turned out with replaced basil leafs...

Served with some roasted potatoes. The beef and sauce were tasty. The tomato, while ok, isn't a rawker. Some homegrown tomatoes probably would have been good. But my tomato growing is over for this season. Dommage.