Quality Foods!

Been eating some quality food lately everyone and have been an overall glutton in truth! Granted, I haven't been going overboard like last time...but let's just say I haven't shyed away from good foods either.

Went to an awesome raw vegan food restaurant today with my mom called Raw 118 degrees. Why 118 degrees? Because that's the temperature with which you heat food before you start breaking down enzymes and performing your own science experiments. It was wonderful and my mom and i were bashful. We had: California Cobb Salad, tostadas with spiced guacamole, burrito, enchiladas, green smoothies, coconut kefir and a to-die-for raw vegan chocolate brownie with fresh strawberry slices on top. Holy crap...makes me wonder what the hell everyone else is eating since this was so sinfully good.

Dinner was great too. I had a huge cabbage salad with soy protein [half of this was raw vegan and the rest vegan], edamame, some awesome pasta with mushrooms and then half of my moms tofu alfredo pasta. Don't worry, will post pictures of this soon!

Wanna see how steep Halekoa Drive is?

The above two photos are of Halekoa Drive and they really DO NOT do justice as to how steep this hill truly is. From the base to the top, it's roughly 3 miles of the absolute steepest hills on this island. It's no wonder you don't see many riders doing this hill; mainly, you need to be light, agile and an all around masochist for pain because it doesn't let up. Those may look like flats, but rest assured there's nothing but trouble there. Here is a quote from one of the residents that lives on that ridge where accidents from cars are commonplace:

"It's very steep there and I think people's brakes just give out."

My all time favorite though is from Hawaii's strongest cyclist, Mike Zagorski:
"Halekoa Drive is probably the worst. It's nasty, it's just steep and never flattens out. On Halekoa, you never get to relax."

Make no mistake with this hill, it is straight up filth but one that I have grown to love and enjoy doing repeats of. I see folks walking their dogs only in their driveway because it's too steep for them to walk down and walk back up again. The first time I did that hill, I had to stop because it was so damn hard and brutal - my early days of cycling [hah! going on 3 months now so it's like my early early days really]. Tim, that's the beast of Oahu, probably harder than willow pass road too.

More Motivation

Gotta really cool message from an old college friend that really is the inspiration of this particular post. In short, I'm glad people can look to me as an inspiration to see what's possible on the vegan / raw vegan lifestyle. Truth is, I'm still figuring this stuff out too so it's a learning process. One that is both painful [like now] and joyful [like gulping a big smoothie after a long ride] and extremely rewarding.

I've also got requests to post more pictures of what I eat, heart rates for workouts and some pictures of well run routes. For those that are tech-savvy, I have a Garmin 405 and can use this to show my workouts along with my heartrate and pace. Running right now though is a bit too much work for my road-rash-ravaged leg but when I get some skin back, I'll be sure to be more detailed. I'm a huge fan of the Heart Rate monitor method of training and should comment on this with another post.

Today I had a pretty good cycling effort which consisted of 2 workouts, both heavy on hills. The morning effort I did with Sarah at the gym on a stationary. It was still pretty gross because my bandages keep slipping off. Note to others: Don't use adhesive tape for your wounds as this will - counterintuitively - make the bandage more prone to peel off. The reason is the tape adhesive is not as strong as that on the bandage [Tegaderm is the name]. And so sweat can easily cut through the tape, making the bandage fall. My afternoon cycling effort was awesome and was highlighted by my new cycling kit that came in the mail today. It's the Liquigas King of the Mountain kit which has polka dots all over it.

Diet Log:

Breakfast: Green Chocolate smoothie made with Navitas Naturals raw cacao powder and cinnamon.

Lunch: Another green smoothie with Clif Builders Bars. Big fan of this bar as it's 20grams of protein and VEGAN.

Dinner: Salad pizzas with tofu cubes on brown rice tortillas. Brown rice pasta with arrabiata sauce and a massive salad.

Snacks: Water, LaraBar, Clif Protein Bar, Odwalla soymilk product.

The Pain and the Pleasure [twisted I know]

<--- That's a picture of me on a stationary bike spinning after an intense morning cycle. Notice that nice, red area on the hip. But for you ladies...notice that very sexy cyclist arm tan I'm sporting. Incredibly pronounced huh?! Yeah, thought you'd like that.

Sadly, the road rash has made running all but ridiculous as I look like a flat-footed duck. The lesson being, running 5-minute miles with road rash is damn near impossible and incredibly painful. Don't try this at home kids, seriously.

Thankfully, I'm going to treat myself to some good food tonite after I gulped down 2 incredible green smoothies. It's also the Tuesday Download and I've ALREADY been going strong and have some quality updates. Thank you iTunes for FINALLY putting out some decent music. Will update later on tonite with the download + the day's log. If you're wondering, I put rubbing alochol AND peroxide on it when I finished my ride....HOLY CRAP. I'VE NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER IN MY LIFE EXPERIENCED A STINGING SENSATION SO BAD BEFORE. DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!!!!!

Another week of intensity [along with a badly bruised hip]

Crash +1 day...still hurts. Thankfully, I put this stuff on it called Tegaderm and it basically acts as my second skin. Got up and had a recovery ride for about an hour, nothing too serious, probably close to 16 miles or so. Climbing Diamond Head this one rider tried to stay on my wheel and I quickly dropped him after a bit and then kicked it on the downhill = he had no chance.

Ironically, I have the legs and the power today but the cut on my hip is making fast movement a bit difficult. Nonetheless, the workouts must go on as planned...such is the dreadful and monotonous life of the aspiring athlete. Oftentimes, I question why it is I subject myself and my body to the phsyical torture and the truth is I believe I've been blessed with athleticism that I've discovered 'late' in my youthful years. Along with this diet came the weight loss and the energy that is no vital to do what I do. I mean, how many vegans and mostly raw vegans can compete out there with really accomplished athletes that have been doing this for DECADES [longer than I've been born] and still eat crap. I take it as my personal responsibility to try and show people what can be accomplished on a plant-based diet and spread the word about health and nutrition. It's a sensitive subject with me because I remember what I was like eating regular American food...cereal, oatmeal, subway sandwiches...Oftentimes, I'm tempted to go in and smell the scent of a good steak sizzling on the grill or look at some raw sushi being prepared. I think 'man, that looks good!'. And right as I'm about to grab it, I remind myself of my personal mission and to stop and be thankful for my athletic gifts and the supporting crew that represents my team.

From my coaches, friends and sig fig, I'm only as strong as my cast. As I see it, that's reason enough for me to press on despite the pain and suffering. So here's to you all. I'll make the next 6 miles good. =)

I crashed [and then got up and rode some more]

So today's assignment was to ride 4-6 hills of medium length and I figured, 4 repeats of Tantalus [7.6 km @ average of 5.7%], 30 mile easy ride then finish with Halekoa Drive. Tantalus is a fine climb because it's long and the descent is very technical so you have to be on your shit. Problem was it had rained earlier and there was all kinds of shit on the road that I couldn't see / avoid.

And so on repeat number 4, the climb was fine but on the descent, my bike gave way and I crashed backwards [rather than going over the handlebars] and I slid for about 10 feet...quite gnarly to be honest. But when I did it wasn't so bad really, I knew nothing was broken and there was no pain in the muscle = all good to run. When I got up, my Liquigas kit was ripped to shreds and blood was coming out through the clothing. In short, I have a *BIG strawberry on my hip and then cuts on my wrist and elbow. Pretty annoying really not because they hurt but they sting terribly. I've bandaged it properly and have some gauze on the cut area but I imagine it will take a week to scab over. It's really not that bad and I've seen far worse. Still, crashing sucks regardless and even more so when you slide a few feet.

It looked really bad ass though, take my word for it =) After this, I hopped back on the bike, did an easy 30 miles and had pretty 'fresh' legs going into the Halekoa climb. And for once, I saw another rider!!! This is an incredibly rare occassion as I NEVER EVER see other riders attempting this climb [at 14% for 3 miles, you can understand why]. Granted, he was descending but this was a first for me and I was relieved to see that there are others of the same sadistic species out there.

Diet was pretty cool today and I enjoyed my food thoroughly!
Pre-ride: 1 Larabar, 3 bananas with mac-nut buter, some electrolyte drink
During-ride: 3 larabars, blended dates with peach, electrolyte drink [lots of these]
Post-ride: 2 raw vegan protein shakes, 2 bananas, 2 Clif Builders bars [vegan!]
Lunch:Oatcake, Larabar, apple and freshly squeezed OJ. I absolutely LOVE fresh squeezed OJ now!
Snack: Raw vegan protein shake, Clif builder bar, another LaraBar, Water
Dinner: Big grilled tofu salad sandwiched between a rice tortilla with hummus. 1 Amy's Spinach-pesto pizza [wheat and gluten free, vegan of course].

All of the place right!

Throw-back Thursday

Boy, today was quite the throwback in terms of feeling. I was sore all over my body! This sensation has been abset for a while now and it's good to have it back...let's my body know whose daddy! - which, ironically, my body seems to be daddy.

Okay so I tried out a new bar today and it's the new Clif Builder's bar, a vegan 'protein' bar jam packed with 20 grams of organic protein and a host of stuff on the back of the label that I have since given up trying to pronounce. Let's just say though, the bar ain't exactly raw vegan =) Nonetheless it is vegan and as my job as Note-taking Nancy, I feel compelled to report that the bar was tasty but a bit sweet for my liking. I enjoy sweet fruit...I enjoy sweet lemonade with stevia...hell, I just love stevia! But this was sweetened with organic evaporated cane sugar root. I tried the chocolate-mint and that one was pretty forgettable...won't be having that one any time soon. The other flavors I will get tomorrow along with some larabars are cookiesncream, vanilla almond and lemon. I'll let you know how those go. I need a ton of amino acids now that I'm routinely tearing the crap out of my body. Self-mutilation would probably be too strong...but I wouldn't put past todays workout which was only done at half-length [still made me want to vomit!]

Exercise Log -

AM: Hour bike session, active recovery.

PM: 1 mile warm-up, 4 x 1 mile negative splits. Times were: 5:30, 5:21, 5:18, 5:09. Each one felt fine and easy except for the last one and then my ankle started to act up [shit].

Diet Log -

AM: Green Smoothie with Oatcake and LaraBar

Lunch: Green smoothie with Larabar

Dinner: Salad, Spirulina musubi and grilled tofu hummus sandwich

Snacks: Banana, raw vegan protein shake, Clif builders bar, apple, water.

Finally, a grueling day!

Just like the title indicates today toally sucked in a really good way. My bike ride was 50 minutes of absolute hell this morning. Literally, my mouth was open and I was cringing in pain. Emily doesn't like sports that my mouth stays open for long periods of time...well, she definitely won't watch my cycle races it seems. Natrually my running races are a no-no too!

But yeah, my morning was an insane bikeride...totally insane. But again, I'm learning to live with pain. I know that sounds pseudo-masochistic but it's true...such is the reality of being a cyclist. PM was a nice 7 mile run that started off hard and then ended slow when I went 'shit, I've got a hard run day tomorrow'. Immediately after the run, I wolfed down 3 bananas real quick.

Diet was pretty good again today too. I'm growing fonder and fonder of apples again...big, delicious red apples are so good, especially when they're cold =)

Breakfast: Green Smoothie
Lunch: Green Smootie
Dinner: Salad with a grilled-tofu vegan sandwich, loaded with veggies and extra sprouts
Snacks: larabar, apple, freshly squeezed oragne juice [huge fan of this now].

Tomorrow will be a nice recovery ride which means some good iTunes cranking at 5:30am. Sweet. Emily started her blog about applying to med schools...I've put it on my blog list to the right.

Hopefully, I'll be getting some raw granola from one of my sponsors tomorrow. Will let you know what flavor I get! Aloha

Tuesday Download - Something positive

It's been a while since iTunes put something of value together but they did something right today. Check out Andy Van Buuren State of Trance August 2009. Pretty good couple of songs in that eclectic mix. I'm also downloading 2 new CD's: Hed Kandi - Served Chilled and Space Ibiza 2009.

Starting to get back into the swing of things athletically which I suppose, is synonymous with my blogging. Again, light exertion day but certainly felt a nice twinge behind my calf. Tomorrow will be a rough cycle day too. Man that one is really going to suck but I guess this is what it takes to build than pain threshold.

Diet was pretty good today and I'm pleased with where I'm at.

Breakfast - green smoothie with a larabar

Lunch - green smoothie with a larabar

Dinner - grilled tofu salad with hummus, soy gluten-wheat-free pizza.

Very satisfying and filling! Doesn't take the sting out of soreness but it'll do.

Sick and Injured [Triathlete?] + Reader Question

Okay so it's been a while yes...and the readership [more than my mother it seems] is getting antsy about a post so I figured I better jump on the saddle [pun intended] and get things going. This past weekend I was totally sick with a case of food poisoning. I know...you're all thinking 'What the hell from Alex? You live a really clean lifestyle and your diet is squeak clean?". Well...yes and no. Yes, I like to think I live cleanly and that my diet is that good but in truth, I have an awful tendancy to overeat, especially on cooked foods AND EVEN MORE SO after an intense workout.

And so extreme hunger + extreme fatigue = overeating of cooked foods. Too much to digest, too foreign to my body which resulted in some problems. These problems led to a weekend sitting on the comfy chairs of my gym, watching the PGA championships, dozing in and out of sleep, wondering how the hell people can watch golf for so damn long and thinking about how badly I want to get back out and run / cycle again. In short, it sucked. But I'm back and I'm able to stomach the sight of food now and can finally hold meals down. In fact, last night I had a nice hummus salad with some 'cheeze' pizza and this was fine. So, with a fresh new intestinal track [gross] and a renewed sense of being [now that I can kind-of-run and kind-of-cycle] let's get to that reader question.

This person asked me if 95 days [approx 14 weeks] is enough time to run a half-marathon given an active training base of 3 times weekly cardio and tennis thrown in for good measure. First off, 95 days is definitely enough time to do this so YES! The other good news is that you're not starting from your couch, YES! And finally...and really, the best part of all, this person is VEGAN, Double YES [YES]! In short, running 4 times a week at varying lenghts and intensity will get you there. But follow through is a must! As with diet too...I get tons of people who always start strong but for whatever reason, they cannot follow through. And I hear excuses all the time too...I digress. Below is a decent sample running routine using that 4 times per week training. As you've probably guessed, there will be 3 days off from running. I'm going to assume most people have the most time on the weekends and so the longest runs will be on the weekends. Starting from Saturday....

Saturday: Run easy 4 miles, Think 'slog' pace [get it! SLOW + JOG = SLOG]
Sunday: Long run of 8 miles, light pace. [you should feel tired but strong enough to walk]
Monday: OFF
Tuesday: Hill work. Find a hill or go to a gym and incline a few % and run for 3 miles.
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Speedwork. On a track or treadmill, run 3 x 1 mile repeats at race pace with 5 minutes rest between each sete.
Friday: OFF.

Each week, increase Sunday's run by 1 mile, Tuesday's workout by 1/4 mile and Thursday's workout by a 1/2 mile. By race day, you'll be able to really kick butt in the half marathon and hopefully say I got you there and we'll both me on the front page of NY Times. But really, this routine is good enough to for the avid fitness individual.

Run hard.

LOOOONG overdue post!

Gracious, posted nothing for three days and people are complaining! Good heavens! =)

Sorry I've been away, things have been hellacious and not only that, I'm INJURED!!!!!!

Thankfully, I'm recovering nicely and I hope to be able to run a good mileage on Saturday at a light pace probably then be back at full strength next week. Given my strenuous bike rides, I highly doubt I have lost my endurance - probably gained if anything! - but I just need to get some running miles under me and it pains me that I haven't been doing that. It sucks!

One thing I want to mention is that I've been straying from the raw vegan diet with regularity...maybe for 3 or 4 meals per week. These 3-4 meals per week most certainly have tons of raw food in them, however, there is also some cooked vegan food. I think this makes sense from a practical point of view as a raw vegan diet is wonderful (best diet in the world as far as I'm concerned) but hardly sustainable. I love eating and I love being social. As a banker, it's awkward for people to eat lunch with me knowing my lunch will be like 12 bananas or something like that. I have no problem with it but as a buddhist, I am taught to think of others first. As such, I will deviate and have healthy vegan food. And on that note...here is a list of the cooked vegan foods I've been eating weekly:

1) Pasta! I love my brown-rice pasta (wheat, flour and gluten free). I throw in raw tomatoes, basil and a whole zucchini on top to get my raw fix. Pair this with a salad and you've got a yummy dinner any night of the week!

2) Brown rice balls. These are balls of brown rice stuffed with veggies and mushrooms. Tasty as all hell. again, notice the lack of gluten.

3) Pizza! This would be Amy's vegan soy cheese pizza. On top of this I will add a huge raw salad.

I think the key is just balancing the raw diet with some cooked foods a few times per week. Still, the bulk of my diet is overwhelmingly raw fruits and veggies and I plan to keep it that way. So at least 16 out of 21 meals are raw vegan smoothies with tons of fruit, greens and flaxseed. On a huge blueberry fix right now....holy crap. That and dates. Oh man.

Here's the log. Exercise Log

---------------------------------

AM: Bike workout in hurricane weather. It sucked out there. Pouring rain makes breaking and descending hills difficult.

PM: Bike workout, very intense, again in hurricane weather. Caught a team of triathletes on my last rep that was a lot of fun.

Diet Log:

----------------------------------

Breakfast: Green Smoothie with lots of blueberries

Lunch: Same thing

Dinner: Same thing

Snacks: Jocolat Chocolate LaraBars, Brown rice ball, water, tea, banana.

Super Sunday - Sweet Ride

Today was a team spin and we went roughly 75 miles...pretty light ride considering. But it was good reality test for me to see if I can partially withstand two days of hell in the saddle. As you know from yesterday, miles were put in and I was curious to see how my legs were today.

Well turns out, they were pretty darn good. I stayed in the front of the pack and at the first climb, mike said 'just go alex, at the top, don't slow down like last time, just go and don't let them catch you whatsoever'. And that's just what I did. I climbed like hell up that damn hill and burned the team...then again up Makapu'u and then again going back home on Makapu'u. In fact, on the way back, I caught everyone at the top despite the gap that was created by the front group. In short, I tore it apart and had a very good, hard ride despite my hellacious Saturday ride.

Dinner with Mike was pretty good too to cap off a good Sunday. No running for one week though! Yikes! I guess that means a lot of miles on the bike =)

On the plate tonite:1 california roll with brown rice and veganaise, veggie gyoza dumplings and then some basil pasta. Wow. Good stuff.

Word, I'm all done today. Sat in the ice bath for 25 minutes, resting at home sipping an electrolyte drink with a bag of frozen strawberries over my ankle. Saweeet.

"Alex, what's a GREEN SMOOTHIE?!"

So a lot of you have been curious as to my liquid meals. Yep, they are liquid meals no doubt but I have attached a photograph of what I put in my smoothies. This makes 4+ 8 oz. glasses of smoothie which is more than enough to keep me satiated. TRUST ME. In short, a green smoothie is a combination of fruit, greens and water.

So let me describe what's in this diabolical drink. We've got:

3 bananas

1 pear

1 mango

1 papaya

1/2 cup of blueberries

Watermelon

Kale

Flaxseed & Dulse

Cinnamon...because that's how I roll. Blend that together with a bunch of ice and water and you've got a killer smoothie.

And then I thought...ahh this is S#@t!

It's 8:44pm on Saturday...a time when most youngsters are getting ready to take on the night. At least for me, a few years ago, I would be napping off my meat-packed dinner, getting myself psyched for the onslaught of vodka to come later on....man, I can't imagine doing that now.

Fast forward a fear years to the present and you'll find that I'm in my 'skins' recovery pants with an ice pack taped to my right ankle. Basically, I have some torn muscle in this one location that I clearly don't respect enough. Why do I say that? For starters, I put in a good 80 miles this morning. Awesome ride and was just catching folks / teams left and right. My descents are getting a lot better I think and I'm pleased with my small improvements. Today I climbed Halekoa Drive around mile 75 or so. It was awesome because I saw this car that rolled down their windows and said they were cyclists and that "you're crazy trying to ride up this ridge!" (lot's of truth to this...keep reading) but they were friendly and sprayed me with water when I asked for it. Going up that hill, it was brutal but I'm getting better and stronger at it. Anyways, I finished around 9:30am and hit the gym and cold plunge for 15 minutes! Wow!

Bounced to whole foods while listening to too short in my recovery skins. Awesome. Had a light lunch then slept at the club for a bit. Got up, then ran 10 miles at a blisteringly fast pace. Gotta be around 5:40 and even hitting 5:30 at times. This was not smart as I was injured and it looks as if I'm going to take this week off running and just hit the bike (plenty hard too). Emily says I should stop running this week...naturally she is the voice of reason for me and I will reluctantly listen.

Been reading a lot about cycling and nutrition. What a shocker...pros eat a lot of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Wow. Why am I not surprised. Run was stupid long today. Grocery day tomorrow after bike ride. What's on the list you say?

Papayas (3)

Peaches (5)

Pears (5)

Kale (2)

Bananas (maybe 15)

Butter lettuce (5)

Blueberries

Mangoes (4)

Strawberries

Flaxseed

...aaaaaaaaand we're done. =) Chances are, I'll throw in a case of dates too because I love em so much!!

Tuesday like Monday - Sucked as usual

Sigh...another day where I left to have lunch at home given the depressing state I was in. Ugh, there are times let me say, where my patience and personal integrity are questioned and that really irks me. The patience part I can deal with but the questioning of my integrity...well, that's a whole different story.  Thank god I have hellacious workouts to 'ease' the pain! Psyche. 

Been experiencing some interesting pains in my legs that are quite new. Granted, I basically crush and destroy my legs twice a day like everyday so perhaps it's some of that catching up? Doubtful as I've been doing this for a while. I certainly know what running sore is but I may be borderline running injured!!  It's in an interesting area just above my ankle.  The back of my calves are also quite sore but I think the area on top of my ankle is more tendon than any muscles. Hurts to run on it frankly.  And so what do I do? Yep, run on that beezy.

So here's today's log with day 2 of a cycling plan. Man it sucked too...in a good way that is.

AM: Vo2 bike workout. Interval training which was painful but really good...felt I burned a lot of calories!!

PM: 7 mile run. 1 mile warm up, then 6 hellacious miles at a 5% gradient. Average pace of 7:24 but I assure you, every quarter-mile, I upped the stakes a little bit and by the last mile, I was running a 6:18 on a 5% grade. Holy crap it was painful but wonderful to do. Easily 1300 calories burned. 

Diet Log (all over the place today)

----------------------------

Pre and Post bike: Electrolyte drink

Breakfast: Raw chocolate green smoothie with tons of romaine and kale thrown in. Wow. Almost too much green because it was that bitter.

Lunch: Went back home and polished off 2 bowls of vegan chili (black beans, lentils, celery, tomatoes, zucchini, garlic and onion...that's it!), brown rice ball, soba noodles with tofu and TONS of salad with some avo thrown on top. Yummy but waaay too much food. While I ran I felt weighed down with all that stuff in me!

Dinner: Green smoothie with watermelon thrown in. Killer combination.  I'm going to take a picture of what I throw in my smoothies since most people are amazed at the sheer VOLUME of food that goes in there. 

Snack: water, banana and a LaraBar. Post run was a raw vegan protein drink.

Ahh, rest day tomorrow....JUST KIDDING! Killer bike workout followed by a 10 mile run. =)

I would provide the Tuesday download but this isn't possible because my itunes says it cant connect (despite me writing this blog onine AND connecting from my iphone). Craziness.

Monday Sucked - So much so, I WENT HOME for lunch

<-- The closest I will ever get to eating meat again.  And honestly, after you see Food Inc. you wont want to eat meat again anyways. 

Yep, my day / morning was so rough, I decided to go home and be by myself for lunch! But it was all good because I had an outstanding green smoothie while at home. It had 5 bananas, tons of watermelon, kale and collard greens finished with some frozen strawberries. WOW. Blew me away with the flavor. Combine this with a chocolate LaraBar = raw vegan love. And lots of it at that.

So, while i was in my pj's drinking my smoothie during the lunch hour, I said, eh...what the heck and watched an episode of one of my favorite Japanese dramas - affectionately known as J-dramas.  Saw a badass movie yesterday, Food Inc.  For those that haven't seen this or are interested, I STRONGLY urge you to see it and be amazed.  I was shocked to find out that in the typical supermarket, there are 7,500 varieties of food and goods sold, of which 80% come from only 4 COMPANIES! That's practically a monopoly! And yet this truth is hidden and the process by which people consume meat and the exploited workers are also hidden.  One person today told me, 'I don't want to see it because I don't want to know'.  This is just like saying 'I'm going to smoke cigarettes and avoid the doctor until it's far too late for my life, but hey, at least I didn't know and lived in blissful ignorance'.  Such is the sad state of our people and our health system.  It's skewed towards being dollar-friendly; and for that reason, the big mac cost less than the head of broccoli.  Such a shame isn't it.

Anyways, here's the daily log of activities. Finally! I have a 'cycling routine' given to me by my cycling coach! Oh thank heaven (for bananas at 7-11) or I'd be SOL.  

Exercise Log

-------------------------

AM - recovery ride. 1.2 hours of nice, easy spinning.  No hill work really, just some honest to goodness cycling with a morning breeze. Ahh, just wonderful.

PM - 6 miles. 1 mile warm-up at 6:18 pace. Then the following 5 miles were hit with these times: 5:49 (mile 1), 5:42 (mile 2), 5:39 (mile 3), 5:30 (mile 4), 5:24 (mile 5).  I felt good until mid-way of mile 4.  Must've been the 150+ cycling miles catching up to me!

Diet Log

--------------------------

Pre-bike: Orange electrolyte drink

Post-bike: Lemonade electrolyte drink

Breakfast: green smoothie with raw 'granola'

Lunch: SUPER good watermelon smoothie. Totally, totally kicked ass. LaraBar to munch on.

Dinner: Massive green smoothie again with raw granola and vegan oat cake.

Snacks: Water, brown rice ball. I'm close to kicking this one though! Going to eat a LaraBar instead or more watermelon and be a 'fat' happy camper.

Got some left over vegan chili from the weekend. Might have that for lunch tomorrow...we'll see. Perhaps some vegan chili with a salad and rice ball? Sounds good to me.  Then load up on more watermelons of course! I went through massive amounts on Sunday.

Halekoa Drive, YOU GOT OWNED today

Yes! Finally made Halekoa Drive my b**** today.  I climbed all of her without stopping; sitting and standing in the paddle.  I just love watching the people in shock and awe.  I see people struggling to walk up the damn hill. That's when I'll yell 'imagine doing this on a bike!' and they simply stop, shake their head and wipe the drool off their gaping mouths.  Priceless.

Had a wonderful pre-ride meal. 4 really ripe bananas with mac-nut butter on them. Followed by an Oat Cake.  During the ride, had a pretty good combination of LaraBars.  I consumed the cherry pie plus the banana bread. Tasty as all hell! That, mixed in with some Ultima electrolyte drink make for a wonderful taste.  And to think, my breakfast tomorrow will be more of the same alternating peanut butter or some mac nut butter with a date-raspberry smoothie.  And then, it's off for a nice bike ride. God damn, I love it.  

And on that note, a lot of people have been asking about how this all started. How 7 months ago, I went from basically nothing to where I'm at today.  Indeed, it's quite a transformation.  So let's start at the beginning. Rewind back to January 2009.  I weighed 185 lbs and I was basically tired of being tired of being tired.  I got sick a lot in 2008 and had digestive problems that required 'back work'.  I'll spare you the details suffice it to say that I'm glad I'll never EVEr deal with that again.  I knew there had to be a better way and armed with desperation and a desire to be a pro endurance athlete, I set out on my journey to take responsibility of my health.  I wasn't married to any product, I was ready to do whatever it took to right the ship.  As such, I read about the power of green smoothies which is basically a fruit and water blended drink.  So, I began making these smoothies for 2/3 of my meals at first, keeping lunch open to a salad with some animal protein.  Still not vegan yet.  Then, I read more and more about digestion and realized how hard animal protein is to digest especially for the athlete.  At which point, it was early March and I dropped like 20 lbs in the first month.  I was slowly getting the body of my dreams and since everyone told me I was crazy, I knew I was on the right track!

And so, sometime around March, I cut all meat and animal products, cheese, dairy, etc from my diet and wow, things were incredible. I'm talking mental clarity to no end. Ridiculous energy...even today! I mean, how many people can be like 'I just climbed the steepest pitches Oahu has to offer AT THE END of my ride, I'm going to rest up then run 9 miles straight uphill, no flats whatsoever. Go home and repeat."  Few.  In march, I dropped another 30 lbs to make it 50 and that's when I realized what happened: total transformation occurred.  I didn't look the same, I didn't feel the same...in short, I changed my life completely. I'm talking a 1080.  With all of this energy, I started running in February for 20 minutes a day to get in shape.  I ran my first race, the Great Aloha Run and placed a 6:24 time for the course...I giggle at this time now.    This was good enough for 52nd place out of however many thousands ran that course. I think it was like 17,000 or something like that. 

What's my favorite smoothie? Well, in no particular order (because I just add in what feels and tastes right), here's what i've been using:

Flax seed, cinnamon, vanilla, cacao, dulse, kale or collard greens (a LOT), 2 bananas, mango, strawberry, blueberries and dates. Yum. Throw in a LaraBar for a crumble and you've got a wonderful, wonderful meal.  

Training Log:

AM - Stupid long cycle. Halekoa Drive to finish.  After this hill, NO HILL looks that steep or that long. I mean, it's so long and ridiculous it's no wonder people don't bother with it.  

PM - 9 miles, of which I averaged a pace of 6.34 / mile at a 3% grade for the whole run. Didn't change grades whatsoever and kept driving at a harder rate than what Kauai calls for.  My goal is to hit 6 minute miles going up hills. I can probably do 3 miles at 6 minute pace before pushing the heart rate to 180 or thereabouts. 

Diet: I love saturdays because I get to chow down like it's no ones business =)

All over the place!

Pre-bike: Electrolyte drink, Oatcake, 4 bananas plus mac-nut butter.

During bike: 2 larabars, electrolyte drink and 1 banana.

Post-bike - 4 banana smoothie with cacao, romaine and raw granola. INCREDIBLE!!!!

Snack - LaraBar.

Lunch - 2 more LaraBars, 2 bananas, 1 peach, soy protein drink

Dinner - 1 bowl of homemade vegan chili, raw flax chips, huge salad with avocado and braggs liquid amino's, amy's all vegan, no soy or dairy veggie pizza.  

And I still think I under-ate today! Tomorrow, I'm going to go for a long bike ride, probably put in close to 80 miles or so. Will let you know how that goes.