A Full Week of Sweat, Food, Stress and Fun

My numbers for last week:

• 18 miles of running
• 6 hours of biking = (trainer plus outdoor)
• 8000 meters of swimming
• 1 hour TRX
• 1 hour plyo/strength
• 1 hour field hockey game = indoor hockey = lots of sprinting.
• 5 loads of laundry (this is work!!)
• 40+ hrs of work

The great part is all this awesome weather we have been having, this may be the first winter where I was actually spending 50% of my biking outside!!!  

Like my Betty Design Jersey!!

Trying to fit everything in is tough.  I had to say no to a couple things but on the weekends this is tough, you want to be somewhat social even though you are exhausted as hell.  I just started TRX and love it.  I think that and the one other plyo/strength training session I have been fitting in has actually helped me go longer with less injury (so far...I always skeptical something is going to happen.  I also think the field hockey game once a week is really helping with my training from the sprinting and with the bilateral movements.

As I get older (ahem 36) I have noticed that I need to be smarter about my training.  So I went from 4 swims a week to 3 swims so that I could fit in the plyo/strength and from 4 bikes a week to 3 to fit in the TRX.  Strength training is so important to be injury-free and even though I know that, I keep "forgetting" about it.  So I had to make room instead of creating more hours that I couldn't fit in.  There is only so many hours in a week and when you work and like to also be somewhat social you need to prioritize.

I have a pretty good disposition on life and rarely get "actually" stressed.  I complain about it a lot but when I think about it and plan my day, everything works out.  The key is prioritizing and being well-rounded.

My weekend was pretty insane.  It started Saturday morning with some straightening up of the house and then on to my run during the ridiculous 30+mph winds on Sat.  There was a point that the wind was actually stopping me from moving during an open-field area in the park.  For context, there was actually waves in the lake that is usually stagnant.  I left after mile 7 and went to the gym to get in the other 3 miles and then conveniently went into the pool to knock out 2500 meters.  I needed to also food shop for my jambalaya cook-off that Mike entered me in during NYE when he told my friend's boyfriend that I make the best jambalaya (it comes from a box of Zatarin's with some added chicken and turkey kielbasa)....sooooo I did some research, called my brother, Anthony, (check out his blog - Mr Onions Neighborhood) who lives in NOLA and made-up a recipe that I would use- praying it would come out.  So I had an hour to knock out the shopping and then had to get to Mike's gig to see Beyond Dishonor and our friends band (drummer is my competition) in Trenton.

This is actually a billboard of them in Los Angeles!  How cool is that - hubby on the right!

 I then had to get to bed to drive an hour+ to my hockey game and team breakfast.  Team did awesome winning against our other team 10-6 with no subs (meaning play entire game).  I had to promptly get back another hour drive to cut my veggies/meats and put in containers and then hop on the trainer for another 3 hour ride to nowhere.  Luckily my sister kept me company and brought me water and Lara bars while I sat like a princess on my trainer watching Clueless and episodes of Smash....

Trainer was giving me problems yet again and stopped working at 2 hours and 45 minutes.  Then it was shower and get my ass moving to partake in a jambalaya cook-off against this guy.....

Ahhh, he is like a giant teddy bear that was a professional jambalaya cooker with a giant knife.....So I used my gift that my family gave me (intuitive cooking skills) and I whipped out a just short of bad-ass jambalaya - it could have been spicier and a bit different but it was all good.  We ended up with a tie 5-5!!

Jambalaya Recipe
(Print Recipe)
Ingredients
2 green peppers diced
2 onions diced
15 cloves garlic (okay you may think this is overboard, but you can barely taste it)
6 stalks celery diced
1/4 cup butter/margarine
2 tbsp paprika
1 tspn thyme (fresh if you have it)
1 lb of chicken breast cut in cubes (add cayenne pepper and mix with chicken and let sit for at least 10 min)
2 lb shrimp
1 lb of andouille sausage sliced/cut in half
1lb ham cut in cubes
4 cans of stewed tomatoes (approximately 56 oz)
3 cups chicken broth
3 bay leaves
salt/pepper
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup hot sauce
1 bunch of green onions chopped
4 cups rice

Directions
Heat butter in an uncovered heavy-bottomed pot. Add onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic and sauté, stirring, for 5 minutes or until soft.  In a separate saucepan (I didn't have enough room in my pot to do this with first four ingredients) heat olive oil or butter and saute chicken and shrimp until chicken is white and shrimp is pink.  Add to pot with veggies along with paprika, bay leaves, thyme.  Add tomatoes, stock, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well.  Add sausage and ham. Cook over moderate heat until liquid returns to a boil. Add green onions, salt to taste and rice. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes or until rice is cooked.

Mine is on the right, Andy's also had chiorzo and crawfish yum!

In the meantime, other festivities were the King Cake competition where Laura and Janine also ended up in a tie...

 In other news, Mike and I finished our first fermentation.  We just put the Maker's Mark soaked oak chips and some cherry puree  in the carboy and racked our beer for the second fermentation.  Cherry Bourbon Stout...hoping for awesomeness...