Taste Bud Adventures - Glass noodles with PURE BLISS PESTO

This is one of the recipes I made up while my parents were in Paris.

This was the first time ever I made my own pesto and as this posts title says, it's pure bliss.

Ingredients PURE BLISS PESTO:
Nutmix (ie I used almonds, hazelnuts, cashews and walnuts)
Hempseed
Fresh basil
Fresh cress
One ripe pear
Olive oil (extra vergine)
Pumpkin seed oil

Glass noodles (Dangmyeon)


Needed time: 20 to 30 minutes + 2 hours of soaking the nuts and hempseed

PURE BLISS PESTO Method:
1. First, and really do this, soak the nuts and seeds in water for at least 2 hours.
2. Rinse the nuts and seeds, shake them dry and put them in the food processor or mixing bowl to chop them.
3. Pick a handful of fresh basil (organic is best) and some cress, rinse it and add it to the nuts with a spoon of olive oil. Process, mix or blend it, whatever appliance you use. (Without the spoon!!! [Otherwise it's way too crunchy and your blender might be dead!])
4. Peel the pear and extract the core. Chop it into several pieces and blend it in with the nut-herb-mixture. Add some pumpkin seed oil for the taste and it is done.


You can enjoy it with pasta, ramen or glass noodles.

I did so with korean glass noodles, Dangmyeon which are made of a root, they come in those little nests, as you see in the next picture. This makes it pretty easy to keep an eye on your food intake. Easy portion control, love it.

Since they take about 3 minutes in the boiling water (my variety, look at the method that your glass noodle manufacturer tells you to use), you can leave a pot with boiling water on the stove and make one nest at a time, (use a laddle or colander for this, I used a ladle with holes, which was ideal). This leaves you enough time to think if you are still hungry and they are best served this way, so they don't get mushy or sticky.

This is one cooked nest, before I mixed it with the PURE BLISS PESTO. Don't let it fool yourself, this looks like nothing but it is very satiating. I just ate 4 nests when I was ravenous and I was full.


YUMMY!

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

3 kinds of adversity training (loooong pic post)

This weekend I was "enjoying" 3 kinds of adversity training. Here they are.

1. Swimming with Elliott (my dragon)
Yesterday I went for a swim and had initially planned to do my first "quadrathlon" biking to the pool, swimming, biking back home and then run around the block. Unfortunately my favourite pool, the 50m pool, is closed on weekends during the summer. And this city applied for the olympic games in 2012! Anyway, there is only one indoor pool (outdoor pools are for fun in Leipzig and not for training) open during the summer holidays and that is located in the north of Leipzig. No biking to that one.

So since I couldn't go there with my bike Elliott started nagging, but I kicked butt and headed there via streetcar. When I got to the pool I was positively surprised when I got inside. On the outside the building looks rundown, but on the inside everything is fine and it costs less then going to the 5om pool. Good times. There were just the right amount of patrons swimming, not overcrowded, but I wasn't the only one either. But I had bad luck on eyecandy, nothing nice to see, definitely no triathletes but some 15 months pregnant men in swim briefs, ugh. ;-)
Anyway, I swam an hour for the first time in months. (I'm getting better with the timing, when I swam in January I hadn't been swimming in years!) The first few lanes were hurting and all through the hour of swimming I had to watch out, since several muscle were shortly before cramping. This remembers me I wanted to drink Magnesium, wait a sec...

Okay, I'm back with a glass of magnesium and I moved to our balcony enjoying the weather. Where was I? Oh yes, my muscles.

I didn't feel that well yesterday, so Elliott thought that 15 minutes of swimming were more than enough! After 30 minutes he really tempted me to get out of the water and back home, because I felt yucky. Nevertheless I stayed for the full hour, thanks to some old ladies who always got out of the pool when I wanted to leave, I don't need to see naked old ladies in the showers. Then I got out and headed home. At the pools streetcar stop I saw those three, aren't they the cutest things ever?




Back at home I ate some cottage cheese and took a nap. Which leads straight up to adversity training number

2. Staying awake.

Yes, you've read right. Problem is, since Friday I could sleep all day long and I feel yucky to no end. First I thought this was due to the weather or the stress of the assessment or whatever else, but no.
While eating lunch today it hit me: I had eaten tons of wheat this week. I don't have a full allergy to wheat or gluten, it depends totally on the amount I eat and this week it was obviously toooooo much, it simply adds up. It started on Monday and went on until Friday.

Wheat Food Diary:
Monday: 2 pain au chocolat
Tuesday: 1 bagel and some whole grain bread
Wednesday: 2 Spritzkuchen (something like german "doughnuts" only more fluffy, see pic below)
Thursday: 1 white flour roll and a Döner (with white bread)
Friday: Starbucks Chocolate Decadence Cake (or is it just chemistry? Doesn't matter it tastes divine!)


(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Mini-spritzkuchen-29.jpg)

All of this added up over the week, so that my body is in full out battle mode since Friday. This is also the reason why I was so sleepy on Friday, but slept like crap the night before. Even though, I still passed the project management test at class with 96% and I missed a whole day (Thursday)! Yes, I'm that fantastic.

Maybe I felt the first pressure of the Wrong Eating on Thursday, but I got that under control with an unintentional Starbucks Java Frappucino before I went to the assessment. (I came one train early, don't trust the Deutsche Bahn or you'll be lost.). I normally don't drink coffee and I ordered a Java Chocolate cream but she made a coffee one for some reason. Under other circumstances I would have given it back, but I figured I could use the caffeine to stay awake. (Universe helping me again?!) Since the assessment was scheduled for the time where I normally have my afternoon low and sink into a nap. Following you see the only pics I took on Thursday.




Since AZ asked for some explanation: This assessment center is for a postgraduate university. At which I'd like to make my Master of Science in International Management, but you can also make an MBA or an MA there. This program is special since you work for a company during those two years and the tuition, the traveling expenses and your "salary" (more like a grant) are payed by the company. The student works full time and has 2- or 3-day classes once a month and naturally some homework. The salary is pretty low, since the course costs quite a lot (mine is as usual the most expensive with 1184,- € a month) and the travel expenses don't come cheap either.
You can bring your "own" company or apply for one of the offered jobs. I applied for a job at Daimler / Mercedes, this job isn't open anymore, but there are some other new openings which are really interesting too, also Daimler.
Since I passed Thursdays assessment, my next steps are now to make the online competence test KODE (something like GMAT) and apply for the interesting jobs. I've already asked the universities key account managers on Friday evening for the contact information of the jobs that interest me. Originally I wanted to write the applications today and then just add the contact information tomorrow. But I didn't get around to make the online application training offered by the university yesterday, so I'll make some of the training after I finished this post and write the applications tomorrow.

Now, wanna know something funny? My Mom is scared by my determination to get into this program. She literally told me so on Friday, after I got the information that I passed Thursdays assessment. This is probably due to the fact that she never saw me work for something that I want and certainly not this determined. We also had a quarrel, since she again needed to tell me, that there is the chance that I might not get the Daimler job. She doesn't seem to grasp the fact that I know that, but I still do everything in my ability to get this job. Parents,... (insert annoyed sigh here)

Okay. 3rd adversity training: Picking strawberries on thistle field.
Huh?
Well, you can selfpick strawberries on a near field. Trouble or adversity was: There were as much thistles on this field as strawberry plants!! We nevertheless succeeded in finding and picking some strawberries even though my forearms were red from the thistles afterwards. Elliott was whining and Dads dragon wailed right along with Elliott (nice cacophony). Especially, since we got there really early, 9AM. We (Dad and me) got back at 10:30 AM with one full basket and I got back to bed to sleep until lunch at 1 PM.

Now I'm sitting on the balcony and enjoying the lovely summer weather in the shadow of the canvas blind. Yessss, that's a Sunday as I like it. Tonight, my parents and I will watch summer theater at the Gohlis Castle, it's a play by J.W. von Goethe. I'm quite excited since I love open air theatre, especially when I don't have to pay for it (parents pay). ;-) Here is a pic from the castle for Big Daddy. I'll see if I can take some more pictures at the venue and from the play for you tonight.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Gohliser_Schloesschen_Leipzig_2.jpg)

That's it. Hope your weekends were as relaxed as mine and have a good start in the new week.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!!

NEED.CHOCOLATE.CAKE.NOW!!! (Update)

There are days when I'm in a ROTTEN mood and then I need sugar and fat in form of Starbucks Truffle (Triple or Decadence [same cake everywhere but in Dublin its called 'decadence' which is a fitting name]) Chocolate Cake as seen below.


(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/63093545_0a05dc4ec9.jpg)

Today is one of those days. (insert heavy sigh here) Even now, that I'm feeling slightly sick from it, I feel that it was absolutely necessary.


No, the assessment center at the Steinbeis University in Berlin went okay. And I was STELLAR as the minister president of Baden-Wuerttemberg (german federal state in the south west, yes we've got federal states too, I live currently in Saxony). I sucked at the self presentation, 2 minutes and in f***ing English, talking isn't as easy for me as writing, because I write a lot more than I talk, thanks to my blogs.
They made us also answer 3 questions, to test our english writing skills, this is were I excel. My three questions were: 1. What is your career goal? My answer in short and over the top: Global Domination. Yes I literally wrote "global domination". You didn't actually think that I take this kind of test seriously, now did you? 2. question: How do you react to critics? This one I answered seriously. 3. What would you contribute to this master course? I'd contribute style and humour. Yes, I literally wrote that and something more. Mostly because I didn't have a clue what to write. And I wasn't alone with that, we, the attendees, often asked each other, what do you answer to this or that question, everyone had some different questions?

The interview was weird. My interviewer told me that she had full confidence that I'm abled to do the studies, but the problem is my meandering vita and my quirky, creative and outgoing personality. I don't fit the forms or normal picture german bosses and entrepreneurs have from engineers (Too bad that I'm not boring, than I would have a job in no time!) and therefore it might be hard to get me into their partner companies, without them thinking: how crazy is she?

I haven't heard back from them until now, but until Monday evening I will know. There is just the money question left. The minimal payment is way to low if you ask me and definitely too low for living in Stuttgart.


The last night was awful, I slept really crappy. I nearly overslept this morning and wasn't really awake until I ate my monstrous chocolate cake. Even when I rode to school and while I wrote the project management test I wasn't that clearminded (54 out of 56 points as a result, I am absolutely fantastic!!! Even half sleeping and reading job offers during the test didn't stop me. Yes, I'm that good, got a job for me?).

Tonight I will ride another training round and tomorrow I've planned to go swimming!

Congrats to KK she made a great over all 3rd place at her last tri, you find her race report here. Big Daddy finished 3rd too in his last race and won his own pukie award for this race twice. Read his report here.

Have a great weekend and good luck on your races, may you have tail wind all race long! (Headwind for training, we need the adversity in training and perfect conditions in the race than we can beat the pros. Muahahah)

UPDATE: I passed the Assessment!!! Now I have to do a GMAT like onlinetest and rewrite my applications for the different jobs and in a few weeks I could work and study. WOHOO. I'll get some icecream for celebration now, the weather is too weird to go for a ride.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

I tell you the Universe is on my side!!!

Todays elle uk horoscope:

"Grab it while it’s hot, Virgo. Your ruler Mercury remains in your career zone for just one more day, so now is the time to whip up last minute pitches and proposals that will get your professional goals to the next level. Your powers of persuasion are on fire right now."

To make things even better I got a last minute application consulting at school yesterday, because someone else canceled his/her appointment. Talking about coincidence. And in the evening on my ride with Chris I practiced my selfpresentation and she gave me some good advise. I tell you, I will rock this assessment center today and get to the next stage.

Love you guys and gals for your support. THANK YOU.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Castle and "supportive" Mom

Good Evening.

So, since Big Daddy asked here is a picture of the baroque castle (it's not me who named it a castle!!) of Wiederau from Wikipedia:


(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Schloss_wiederau.jpg)

Today and tomorrow I prepare myself for the assessment center on Thursday, so no big posts until Thursday evening or Friday.

My Mom is her usual "supportive" self.
(The drip, drip, drip you hear is my sarcasm.)

When I told her that I prepare myself for the assessment center she asked: "Are you afraid of this?" Read: "Don't know why you do that, it's not as if you stand a chance against your competitors".
So I told her calmly that it's important to me and that I really want this job (a new one, even better than the former super job) at Mercedes and therefore give my best and start prepared in this assessement.

She answered: "Yes San, but there are a lot of others, who applied for this job too and only one can get it." Read: "You have no chance to get this job, you simply aren't good enough to work at Mercedes, because everyone else is better than you."

Then she said "Hold back on telling about this triathlon stuff or they might think that you get injured often and are often on sickleave". I answered that triathlon isn't skydiving, which brings us to her bomb: "It's just showing-off and not anything real anyway!"

At this point I put the shrinks advice from my map-finding to work and just turned around and went to my room without saying another word. Success in altering my behaviour! Hehe.

How dare she?!
I know that there is a chance that I don't get the Mercedes job, I'm not stupid. But I am good in my job, I know I could rock it at Mercedes and when I go prepared to the assessment center I have good chance for this or another cool job!

How dare she say that triathlon for me is nothing more than showing off?
Okay, so I'm still at base training and had to step down from the marathon again, so what?! I have a goal and I work toward it, it might take a few years or even a decade, but I will get there eventually.

Grrrrr!!!!

That's it for today. Preparations going on and on and on and on an...

KEEP MOVING FORWARD and make your dreams come true, only you can do it!!!

50 k under the motto - Where the hell are we now?

Yes, you've read right, Chris and I rode approx 50k today!!!

We met 11 PM and then, after stating my goal of a ride of at least 30 k, decided to drive to the Zwenkauer See (Lake Zwenkau). Unfortunately the signs weren't that well put, so we got lost quite a few times. (Good thing, cause making more k and more fun!) In any case we succeeded in finding the lake, which isn't completely filled with water yet, as you can see in this picture:


When we got to another cycle sign post and we had the choice to ride to Zwenkau, we were exited to learn that there is baroque castle near (5,6 k), at this time we already had approx 18 k in our legs. We thought what the heck and drove to the baroque castle.

Me on the way. The weather was cloudy, but while it was warm, the wind was quite chilly. At the baroque castle we stopped for a few pictures. Here am I with Aurora in front of the entrance:


After that we finally took the cyclists map out and decided upon our way back. We made a few more picture stops, because:


(all pictures by Chris)

On the way we granted ourselves some icecream (I had cookie dough and chocolate) and got back about 4 1/2 hours after we started. My parents already thought we had an accident, since we were never riding this long before.

So here are todays stats, which aren't that accurate, because I sometimes forgot to stop it or get it going again. (Whoops)
distance: approx. 50k
time: 4:17:55 hrs
in zone: 1:18:45 hrs. (pretty bad, but who cares? We've had some wonderful 5 hours)
HR: 113 bpm

On the job front:
You don't have to worry anymore that there will be a satellite falling on your head in a few years, I got the "no" from the research fascility today. (Who in his right mind is writing such an email on a Sunday noon? A physicist, obviously.)

Off to write another application. Hope all of you had a wonderful race and training weekend. Have a good start in the new week.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Friday Celebration (including Hawaii pic just for you!)

1. Celebrating 4 weeks of freedom from nasal spray. Wohoo.

2. Celebrating my first adversity training ride today (with water!!!). Since the FSI Rollski-Worldcup is held this weekend at the Markkleeberger See I couldn't take my usual route. (first adversity) I decided to drive in the city and then along the river. I've had headwind all the way in. (second adversity) As soon as I left the Sportforum behind me Elliott started nagging: "Are you sure what you are doing? You've never drove this way" Yadayadayada. (third adversity) When I finally got to the Auen lake I was really excited since it is literally at the other end of the city and it takes ages to get there with public transport. I got there in only 45 minutes and I drove slow. My mom was impressed when I told her where I had been and concerned that I stress my knee too much.
Anyway, here are todays stats:
Distance overall: approx. 30 k
Distance training ride: approx. 20 k
time (tr): 1:28:58 hrs.
in zone (tr): 53:57 min.
HR: 125 bpm

3. Celebrating my first ever bike training week. Since last Saturday I drove overall, tadaaaa:

125 k = 77,67 m

Next weeks goal is to beat this!

Sunset on Mauna Kea Summit, December 2008! Best vacation ever!

4. Celebrating my new tri-budget and account and bikeparts. Yesterday I finally got around to buy the bottleholder and to actually install it right away.

5. Celebrating to have found some strength drills for solving my knee issue. Good thing there is youtube and Dave Scott (yes, our Dave Scott, the 6 time Ironman champion). Now all I have to do is do them and get this thing (thera band? rope?)

6. Celebrating to have found some core strength drills that I will do now every day. Thanks to youtube.

7. Celebrating to have found some new and exciting tri-blogs and a hilarious tri-book.

8. Celebrating you, my lovely readers, thank you for all of your support. By the way I know I shouldn't compare myself to others but old habits die hard. And Elliott wailing with me to get faster is a first step in the right direction, since this means he starts to support my sport and training.

I've also decided to ask BMC for "sponsoring", as far as I can see they have no age groupers so far. In any case, since they want a application answering a lot of questions (what races this year? ahem, no races this season.) it will take a bit of preparation. Worst case is a "no", so nothing to worry about.

I wish all of you a wonderful weekend and successful races and training. Cheers.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Best Tri-Newbie article ever!!!

Yo, guys an' gals, you gotta read this article over at active.com, I was literally rolling on the floor laughing.

http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Top_10_newbie_tips_for_a_personal_best.htm

My favourites: No. 10, 9 and 1.

Don't read this article after core strength training or your stomach muscles will really hate you.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Riding 25k again, but still without water ;-)

Since I got home pretty late due to my hairstyling appointment, I didn't have the motivation to race against the clock to get to the BDO just to buy a bottle holder. So instead I ate Dinner (Mom had made apple-milk-rice) and took a short nap (1/2 hour). At 7:30 PM I got Aurora out, tested the air pressure at the rear tire and hit the road (metaphorically, I didn't crash! ;-). Before I got out there came a "wonderful" mom remark: "Don't you think you drive a bit too often?" Me: "huh?" Her:"Well, with your knee, not that you stress it too much." Me: rolling my eyes. I bet you, that her next remark will be that I'm fat and should lose some weight!

"Ouch, ouch, ouch" were my thoughts over the first few minutes since I still had saddle soreness from Mondays ride. After that everything went pretty well, even the climbs seemed a little easier than on Monday (at least with hindsight, not when I was pedaling!). There were more cyclists and inline skaters out than on Monday, mostly they drove in the other direction so I couldn't really compare. But one cyclist drove in my direction, read "drove by really fast". He was way faster than me. I wailed in my mind: "I want to be that fast tooooooo" and Elliott wailed right with me. LoL.
In any case I had the impression that I was a little faster than Monday but I'm not sure, since I don't have the exact distance and there are traffic lights along the way.
So here are yesterdays stats:
Distance: approx. 25k
time: 1:30:33 hrs.
in zone: 1:11:21 hrs. (definitely better than Monday)
HR: 144 bpm (also better than Monday)
I think this is a combination of a slight training effect and the recovery.

Today I took my bike to class for two reasons:
1) I'm moving and therefore burning the bad carbs
2) I can drive to the BDO right after class and don't need to get home first.

Tonight I might be riding again, but I will decide upon it depending on how I feel about it.

Okay, okay, so KK is "just" training for an Ironman, but when I read that she started out with Triathlon training 9 years ago, I started thinking about my longtime tri-plan. Initially I had planned to do Challenge Roth (Ironman distance) in 2013 and Ironman Hawaii in 2017, at least that was my plan before the knee issue and I knew that I won't buy a roadie in 2010. At the moment I haven't changed the Hawaii plan (yet), but Challenge Roth is bound to be shifted to 2014. I think I will make those decisions next year, when I know how my knee behaves and I have done my first triathlons.

For the moment I just want to gain general fitness and get a job, ah, make that a job and general fitness.

And you know what?! KK's training rides have nothing on this girl: Dirt Diva aka Catra. She runs 100's. No, not metres or kilometres, she runs 100 mile races!! And I only finished a half marathon which led me to walk down the stairs backwards for 3 days in 2008. I felt so badass back then and that's only 13 miles! *Ouhhh, hang my head in shame.*

To close this post a nice quote from "The triathlete's guide to mental training":
"I guess you can get muscle biopsies and that crap, but desire will always be the most important thing" Jimmy Riccitello, former pro triathlete (p. 28)

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

And there I was thinking

that I live in a safe town. I don't know if you have heard about this hostage situation in Leipzig yesterday. I'm still shocked, I mean something happening like this in New York or even Berlin okay, but in Leipzig?!!! At 1 PM I walked over the market and this H&M store is right around the corner, but I didn't have a clue what was happening there. You know what's really embarrassing for the media? The best and fastest updates on this you could find at twitter and not at the websites of local radios or newspapers. The weird thing is we had class just a few hundred meters away. This is really disturbing.

Super Job
Aisshhh, the job at Mercedes motorsport marketing is taken. Darn it. Anyway, Mercedes is big, there are other job/study offers from other companies and there is still the possibility of landing the job at the research fascility where I can build a part of a satellite.

On the sports front
I didn't make my short training ride yesterday evening. No, Elliott didn't talk me into staying. You know those days when you are sleepy as hell? Yesterday I could've taken a nap every 25 minutes or so. So I decided to better not drive my bike in this condition. Instead I went to bed pretty early. I was even too tired to read in my mental training book! This also made me realize, when I'm already tired I eat food that makes me even more tired, read carbs! I had icecream and chocolate waffles galore yesterday. Dang. Okay, now that I know that I can hold against it the next time.

In any case I realized on Monday, that I need to take some water with me on my "long" training rides. "Long", hah, when I read KKs last blogposts my jaw dropped. I call 15,5 miles long when she does 90 miles rides for training. Elliott took his chance to beat on my self confidence: "She does 90 m rides and you gloat about 15 m?! You're so pathetic!" "Oh, shut it, Elliott. She's done an Ironman and I'm just starting out, there is supposed to be a difference between the training distances and intensity."
So after todays appointment at my hairstylist, prepping me for the assessment center, I'll buy a bottleholder at the BDO and attach it to Aurora. Good thing I still have some money of my tribudget left for this month. Yes, I opened the tri-account Monday.
And since I had a day of rest, I'll do another 25k tonight. With water this time;-)

Off to read in my mental training book. Cheers.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!!

This little monster

Elliott had me eating chocolate waffles this morning (4 AM) again. Dang. On the other side, I stood strong with training and dinner last night, so a few waffles are only a small setback along the way. This kind of nighteating will stop as soon as I move out, anyway. For two reasons: a) I'll buy no waffles b) this nighteating is a parents flat thing. Never did it when I shared flats and I won't do it in my own flat. So there's nothing to worry about.
I ate some Thai noodles and backed bananas (i just love those) yesterday for lunch (my mom and I bought a Deuter backpack for my dad, his birthday is on Friday, I made her treating me to lunch ;-). Unfortunately my skin started acting up last evening and now my inner elbows (old place for my neurodermatitis from childhood) are red and looking bad. I'm definitely sensitive to gluten. I don't have a problem with small amounts, so soy sauce is okay, but big portions of noodles are a problem for me. Good to know. Noodles (carbs) are bad for me anyway, so I'll make a big detour around them from now on.

The assessment center for Super Job is moved to next Thursday. So I've got even more time to prepare and enough time to work the "Mental Training" book through. (Looking on the bright side, right? Right.) Like Keith said in his comment, it has tons of good advice. Buy it! It's worth its weight in gold, in my opinion. I highlight nearly every sentence I read and I'm just on page 13! I wasn't too happy about this appointment shifting as you can read in yesterdays first post. BUT have a look on todays Elle UK horoscope for me:
"So much is happening behind the scenes at the moment—so much so that you’re not even aware of all subtle influences guiding you beyond your normal safety zones. Tune into the subtle clues if you want to get a handle on what’s really influencing you. Nothing is quite what it seems." Sounds good, no?

Triathlon insights
Yesterday I forgot to tell you what I also learned from my "long" ride. "CORE STRENGTH", until yesterday I didn't know why I should train it! Even when Molly wrote that "I thought of camp a lot, when Jen Harrison had talked about core strength and how much it pays off late in the race when run form starts falling apart." on her post about "Silicon Valley International Triathlon", I didn't get it. Since the second round of yesterdays ride I know now what core strength is for and that it hurts like hell, when I don't have it. This whole second part of the ride would have been a lot easier if my core muscles would have been abled to hold on. But it hurt. Elliott and my body weren't amused in the slightest. Now I have to find the right drills to get it done. By the way my chest muscles are still complaining.

Well, here is some wisdom from the "The triatlete's guide to mental training":
"In the beginning it's hard to understand that the race is not against others but against that little voice in your head that tells you when to quit" Charlss Brenke, age-group triathlete (p.12)

"You must train yourself to seek out and thrive on adversity and have the ability to stay calm and focused when the race is on the line. You need the ability to use your emotions to your advantage so that they help you perform well. Finally, mastering the pain that you will experience in training and races will enable you to endure the physical challenges you will face as you pursue your goals." (p. 11)

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Let me introduce you to "Elliott", he is

my Dragon. He was a lazy, untamed and slightly fearful dragon all my life, trained by my parents. He guards the door to my subconsciousness, unfortunately he does this sometimes too well and doesn't really like to change the believes I hold in me and my abilities, that he had put into this dark and deep cave. At the moment he is slightly disturbed, because I'm nudging him to change those believes that had been holding me back. As you can see in the picture he's quite afraid of those changes:

(yes, it's photoshoped)

Today Elliott and I had another quarrel. While we both agree that an afternoon nap is pure bliss, I wanted to train afterwards, but not Elliott. "Ah, no, we did ride 25 k yesterday and you still have sore chest muscles. And your metabolism is down and won't there be dogs! You really don't have to do it every day, let's just call it recovery day!" "No Elliott, I said I would drive 25 k today and I will do so. I thought we had discussed this. We both want me to look lean and chic. And you, me and the body want to be healthy and fit. Therefore we do this. We had our nap, now we take Aurora and go for a ride!"

Well, I succeeded in getting Aurora out and go for the ride. But Elliott didn't stop nagging! First my behind hurt from yesterdays ride, so Elliott complained about that, as this didn't make me give up he complained that the rear tire doesn't have enough air, I drove on, next was my right quad, then he told me that I felt a lot better yesterday and if we shouldn't just do one round, I said no, we do two, then he complained about the climbs and so on. I succeeded in the end, we drove two rounds I made the full 25k, even though I had to really push me and Elliott and my body to get through it. When I got home I was finished. I had no strength left. Elliott sits now in his corner and pouts. When I told him that he gets a nice chocolate proteinshake he just turned around and stared out of the window. Such a kid.

So here are todays stats, worse than yesterday but still it surprised me that it only took me half an hour longer for 9 k:
distance: 25 k = 15.53 m (it looks so short in miles)
time: 1:31:42 hrs
in zone: 1:07:25 hrs (could be better, but those climbs were hard today)
HR: 133 bpm

Before I get on my next ride tomorrow (a short one. Elliott just gave me a mean shoulder glance, LoL), I will get more air into my rear tire.

And just for the giggles, Elliott sees RED:


This happened when I forgot to turn the flash off. No photoshopping, whatsoever.

Have a good nights sleep and a great new day. ROCK IT!!!

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Mini Celebration

Morning Folks.

There's a lot to celebrate this morning.

My weight is down too 63,2 kg = 139,33 lbs, even though I ate way too much carbs in the last weeks. but ending the meal skipping seems to have done the trick. Even though I ate some chocolate waffles around 3 AM this morning. I don't think I was completely conscious at that time! With my new and well thought out ;-) training plan my weight will go down more and more.

I just realized last evening that this blog is now 1 year old! I wrote my first post on May 31st last year. Unbelievable that I stuck with this blog for so long. I never would've gotten this far without you all reading and commenting on it. THANK YOU!

After I had this little meltdown last Wednesday, I realized that I need to step up my game mentally and this book is just what I need: "The Triathlete's Guide to Mental Training", by Jim Taylor and Terri Schneider. Yesterday I remembered that I already own this wonderful book on mental training. Have you guys read it? I've started with it about 2 years ago and then got side tracked or lost focus (surprising, eh?). First chapter is how far I read back then. Last night I started out again while I soaked in the tub. Nothing better than having a good read in the tub. I've decided to read this book completely this week. Since I need the strategies also for the big interview for Super Job. (Which looks like it's shifted to next week due to the german worldcup game on Friday. Damn it!!! If you ask me, they should stick with the date and whoever doesn't show up is obviously not fit for becoming a manager on the upper level of management. Seriously, putting your future on line just for watching a ball game?!! How stupid is that?!!!) This book is full of wisdom so be prepared for some nice quotes. The current quote at the sidebar is from it. Very inspiring, don't you think?

In yesterdays post I showed you a bike by BMC that isn't exactly cheap. I checked out the company this morning and it's a high-end bike manufacturer from Switzerland. This explains the price. What I also found out is that their womens roadie is called "Sparkle" and looks like this:

Cute isn't it? Love the color. Checking it out at the web I found that it is cheaper than the bike from yesterday (2.300,- €) with "just" 1.700,- € that I would have to pay for it. That's six of one and half a dozen of another. I can't afford it this year anyway. But good to know that they have roadies for my size. (But BMC if you want to sponsor me with a Sparkle or bike clothing just for me. I'm game! I'm 162cm tall. ;-)

After thinking about my training ride of yesterday evening I decided that 25 k in 2 rides with a 4 hour break including a nap is pretty low mileage and could be hardly counted as training. (Hell, Ironman means a ride of 180k as a part of a race.) So today I've decided to ramp up the mileage. Tonight I will ride 25k in one ride. Riding more will improve my cardiosystem and give me cylists legs, which will make me looking hot in my black skirt. Just you wait and see. Hahaha.

Here's a lovely part from "Mental Training" on the ups and downs of life or triathlon. From my map finding I know that I need to put everything in perspective. This part also made me think of Tri Daddy Diesel, who felt a bit down after his last race.
"Successful triathletes know how to stop their decline and regain positive attidute, helpful emotions and quality performance. The first step to reversing your down period is to keep the ups and downs in perspectice by knowing that they're a natural and expected part of the sport. This attitude takes the pressure off the down moments, minmizing frustration and disappointment. It enables you to stay positive and motivated. Most important, never give up. Stay focused on your triathlon goals. Look for the cause of your slump and find a solution." (p.7, "The triathlete's guide to mental training")

Okay, time for me to get back to reading my mental training book.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Stats + Bike Pictures

Good Evening.

I'm proud to anounce that I rode approx. 25k today, in two rides (10k, 15k). For the second ride, my training ride alone since Chris was sick, which I did around the good ol' Markkleeberger See, I took my Polar with me. So here are my stats:
Time: 1:03 hrs. (seems like Chris and I are really slow when we ride together)
In Zone: 48:32 minutes (awesome)
Average Heartrate: 140 bpm (wohoo)

I've also decided to organize my sport background new. Meaning I'll open a new account tomorrow (with nearly no money in it, ahem) that is only for trirelated stuff such as bike parts and repair, my future roadie, other training gear, starting fees, tests, training and so on. And I will appoint a certain amount of my income to it. This way I have a budget and this helps to keep me motivated too. Until now it was much more random. I didn't really plan ahead. This changes now. Next expenditures in this order: gear shift repair and chain switch, a bike computer (nothing fancy just the distance), helmet.

My plan for this year is quite easy: getting rid of my fat, getting as much kilometers into my legs as possible and go swimming at least once a month. This all shouldn't be too hard.

Yesterday evening I did incorporate push ups into my strength drills. Funnily my weakest muscles weren't in my upper arms but in my lower arms. Totally weird. I have sore chest muscles now, but my lower arms seem to be alright. Meaning there are no muscles to hurt?!

So, my training plan for the next week is, strength drills every day and as much cycling as possible. (Whoa, what a scientific plan, I should become a coach. LoL)

Okay, the promised Bike Porn:


My future helmet from Specialized. I think it was called Echelon. And it's the only one that fits my weird headshape.


A good reminder where I want to go and relatively inexpensive with only 800€. Sadly they are too big for me. Frame size 53 cm, I need 48 cm.


And now a bike that fits my needs, at least when I look at the size and not the price.


The price is OUCH.


Well, after I set my budget today, I will have to wait and save up at least another year until I can afford even a cheap roadie. Anyhow, it's good to know where I'm heading and how long it's going to take.

I hope all of you had an equally inspiring weekend. Can't wait to read your reports.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Auroras Spa Day - LOOOONG Picture Post

Since I'm still on running break due to my left knee, I've decided to getting back on the bike. (Wait didn't I say that a few weeks ago too? Whoops. No persistance and focus, whatsoever. pfff.) Well, Aurora wasn't in that good shape over the last few weeks, gear shifting delays of up to 20 minutes and surprise shifting at climbs aren't exactly what I need or like. Would you?
So yesterday evening I decided that today is Auroras Spa Day and I'd finally make an appointment at my trusted bike dealer, the Bike Department Ost (BDO), for fixing the gear shift. I didn't buy Aurora there, but I'll probably buy my roadie there (bike porn tomorrow XD).

Well this morning I've got Aurora out and took some pictures before I drove to the BDO. Good thing I did so.

When I got there, I first took a look around. Yeah, I'm also susceptible to some nice bike porn, I only say ROADIES (I'll post those pics tomorrow.). I still need a helmet and then I'm a girl, so bike clothes are interesting too. I'm glad to say that I found my future helmet, which is unfortunatly as expensive as I thought, 190 €. More on it tomorrow.

Then one of the sales clerks or better bike enthusiasts who works there asked me if he could help me. I asked for some oil for my bike, since I planned to give my Aurora a good cleaning and we took a look at her together. After a lot of advice on cleaning and caring for her, he told me that Aurora is probably to big for me and that the handle bar position is wrong for me. It's too high and too far away from my saddle. The stem is too high and long. Have a closer look at it, before...:

He showed me another shorter and 200 grams (!) lighter stem. So I've decided to get it and he put it on, since I don't have a torque wrench. (Love this service!)

Tada, my new shorter, lower and lighter stem.



My handle bar still isn't at the same height as my saddle, but I first have to get used to this new position and if I want it lower I can go there any day and he'll lower it for me. It feels weird to drive with it, since I drove with the other stem for years.

In any case I also got a new set of fenders (after 5 years of driving with only one), which I haven't added yet, since I didn't get the screws of the old ones off. My Dad will have the honor to do so tomorrow. *snicker* And I got the appointment for the fixing of the gear shift on which also the chain will be changed. On July 5th I will bring the bike in and get it back. (They are full until then!)

After that I drove back home and started with Auroras Spa Treatments.

Getting ready!

The dirt before:

This kind of dirt resulted in getting the brush and the screw driver (for the parts that I couldn't reach with this brush) out.

After 2 1/2 hours of washing, scrubbing and grating off the dirt, Aurora is clean and fresh.

With a freshly oiled chain. Can you hear her sigh?!

I'll take her for a ride this afternoon and tomorrow Chris and I will take her for our usual Sunday morning ride too.

More on my trip to the BDO tomorrow and hello to Patrick, glad you are here and hopefully you both enjoy the springrolls.

Enjoy your weekends and good luck on your races and training.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Taste Bud Adventures - cold Springrolls

Totally easy and fast and yummy and healthy and got to take for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:
lentils or quinoa
Some dip or pesto or dressing
Vegetables that you don't need to cook (I used carrots, tomatoes, radish and a pear)
Rice paper

Method:
Cook the lentils/quinoa and let it cool down. While this cooks, clean your veggies and cut them into sticks or cubes.
Now get find a bowl or dish which is big enough to soak the whole sheet of ricepaper in without breaking the ricepaper.
When you have everything ready (including the lentils/quinoa) soak the ricepaper for approx. 1 min until it's smooth enough. Now place it on a dish and fill it with the stuff you like, fold it and start with the next. Until you run out of veggies.

Now, you can eat. Enjoy.

If you nead an exact folding technique look at My New Roots. There you find also a lot more delicious and healthy recipes. Especially for a nice pesto.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Goals and the reason for my missing persistence (beware slightly depressing and loong post)

Hey there.

Thanks for all of your lovely comments and thanks for following me, Sherry. I'm slowly making progress with my resolutions, I didn't skip a meal so far, but getting rid of the snacking takes some more time. (Does eating fresh fruit count as snacking? And what about sugar free chewing gum? Hot chocolate from the vending machine? Eating quinoa in front of the fridge at 2AM, probably does.) I'm also a bit better with finishing tasks. And I'm still free of nasal spray, nearly 3 weeks now! (Due to the blooming poplar it looks like it's snowing [beautiful, since it's warm and the sidewalks don't turn to "Icewalks"], but I have to use my asthma spray nearly every damn day[´§%"§%$=°/&F*ck§$&$//&%]!) "Anyway mini success celebration: Wohoo, yeah, yeah, yeah."

The uncomfortable part starts here!
So yesterday I've got the (horrible) test results back from my "map finding test". The psychologist and I talked quite a while about solutions. One of them would be to move out today. And not looking back. During this conversation I nearly broke down crying (at first I didn't realize it, because I had to fight the impulse to giggle hysterically. Ugh.)

My main problem is that I've got tons of ideas and goals, but I don't pull them through or fight for them, because I'm afraid of the consequences and making mistakes or don't getting it right at the first time. Funnily enough, I've always thought that we are responsible for our lifes, only I never acted on it in my own life.

I thought a lot about my behaviour and life after this conversation. And I've come to the realization that it's time to fight for MY life and goals. I don't know if I've told you, but one of my goals was to have more sport medals than my childhood friend C. She laughed at me when I told her that my goal is to finish the Ironman Hawaii, so I cut the contact afterwards (there was another reason too, but this was the last drop that brought the bucket to overflow), I get that from my mom everyday, I don't need a "friend" to do it too. Since then I don't have contact to her anymore and I don't know how many medals she had, so I have set a new goal. I want to finish 100 races and therefore own one hundred finisher medals. (At least. Muahahah.)Do you get medals for aquabike and how about just cycling races?

Other goals of mine that I formulated in the last few hours:
Jobwise: I want to lead an international team and work all over the world (excluding Siberia, Iran and some other countries where it's too warm for me, we've got 77,7° F with high humidity and I hate it! Give me Scotland any day!) and make a real positive impact. I want to earn so much money that I can easily buy an Audi A3 with 160 PS (or an Audi R8, if it comes with free gas XD) and shop for shoes or clothes or books or vacations in every price category, whenever I feel like it.
Body: First I want to get rid of the fat. I want a healthy body, that is abled to finish the Ironman and is free of allergies and asthma. I want to eat healthy and delicious every damn day.
Miscellaneuos: I want a dog. A Boston Terrier or a French Bulldog or a Weimaraner, a white Boxer would be fine too.

How to get to my goals? First: I plan the strategies and the first steps on the way to my goals. Secondly: I do the necessary steps. Thirdly: PERSIST!

Until now, I mostly stopped when I had to act or persist. I'm not used to persist or fight for my goals or boundaries, it never payed off for me! The reason? Well, when I was a kid and even now I never just got a "Well done" or "Good Job", it was always: "yeah, you did that but you got bad marks in ..." or "How did that happen? It must have been a fluke!" When I got my engineering diploma my parents didn't congratulate, they just said "It's about time, now find a job" and you know what? When I started studying engineering, they thought that I would throw in the towel after 6 months! My parents still treat me like a little child, or do you think it is normal that my Dad tells me every morning the temperature and to dress accordingly, meaning I have to dress how HE thinks I should? And even though my mom has no clue how I am at work, she thinks she knows and tells me everytime I find an interesting job offer, that I'm not good enough for it. And to top it off she tells me that I'm fat (I'm the thinnest of the girls of my family generation!) and makes fun of me on a big family gathering because I'm not in a relationship. Oh yeah and my grandma thinks I'm a loser too, because I don't have a boyfriend. Hell, I'm the only one of her grandchildren with an Abitur and a university degree, but it doesn't matter. As long as I don't have boyfriend, I'm nothing. (I was even thinking of booking an escort for one of the family gatherings, just for getting it over and done with.)

That's why (not for the escort) the psychologist told me to set boundaries and gave me strategies to implement them. She also said I should move to a friend until I find a job. Unfortunately that isn't an option at the moment, since all of my friends in Leipzig either have kids or a cat and I'm allergic to cat hair (and kids;-). This was the reason why I nearly started crying. You know, a few years back when my friends didn't have children and wanted me to come to Leipzig more often, they gave me selfmade gift certificates on my birthday "for staying a few days at their place when I'm in town"!!! Go figure!

Okay, enough crap and wallowing in self pity. Todays elle uk horoscope is pretty nice: Guess what comes back today, Virgo? That’s right, it’s a nice dose of hope. Even if the last few days have been rather challenging, you are probably able to access a bit of inner strength and the ability to shore up your resources. If you don’t quite feel it, just fake it ‘til you make it.

And since I have an appointment for the assessment center preparation with the psychologist (She works for a funded organization, which offers one-on-one-training, help with applications, language classes [don't need them:D] and this map-finding.) today, there is a good chance that I get the advice I need to get through the tests and even the psychological ones unscathed and get to the next stage and finally signing the contract for Super Job (which is still on offer, hahaha, they are waiting for ME, MOI, MICH.). Good thing, Friday the 18th is my lucky day, too.

And as a thanks for reading this long, me on Tuesday, before my parents got back from their week in Paris.

In any case my new motto (stolen from Nike ;-) is:

JUST DO IT!
I'm thinking of getting it as lovely tattoos on my wrists.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

New Day Resolution - No meal skipping anymore!

Did you watch it on the news yesterday? Hell froze over! The reason was sadly not that BP finally succeeded in plugging their oil gusher, but me shopping and buying a skirt. I never wore skirts (or sandals) because I felt vulnerable in them. I still do, but as with blouses I think it all comes down to training. So the more I wear them, the more comfortable I will feel in them. I started out with sandals today, since I want my legs to look a bit less cheesy when I wear the skirt. (Tanning lotion!)

This is the first skirt I tried on (in a decade) to see what style works for me. Funnily it looks better in the picture than in real life, so I didn't buy this one. (I was really surprised when I looked at this picture in the evening. The camera and my self perception both lie.) I definitely don't like this frilly and floral stuff on me, I stick to the classics when it comes to clothes. Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn are my style inspiration.

In the end I bought this black, slightly shorter and more classic skirt and I will wear it.


But I probably won't wear it with this t-shirt.


Anyway, over the last few days I noticed a trend with my eating habits, which is quite counterproductive in my quest to get rid of body fat and getting fit. I tend to skip dinner, only to eat uncontrollably afterwards. This isn't good for my glands and my bowels, but good for my body fat (it gets more food).

So todays resolutions are:
A) No more meal skipping: I'll eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. No more snacking in between.
B) Finishing tasks.

On B, I'm really scatterbrained lately, I can't seem to finish the tasks I started in one go. This consumes way too much time and energy that I need for other stuff, so I'll concentrate on finishing tasks in one go.

Those two are quite challenging, so I'll keep working on them for the next weeks.

Except for that I do my strength drills and enjoy the sunny and warm weather (ca. 80° the last two days). Tonight I'll meet with my fellow runner and hawaiian room mate D. What a fun week!

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!!