New HGRC Logo = New Shirts!!!

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, two girls were running around a river....as they were all sweaty, feeling disgusting in the pleasant Jersey humidity...

This is a short video that sort of describes the conversation that Christine and I had....

HGRC Beginning
by: HLOCK

So this is my partner in crime....remember we decided to do our first triathlon over Jager shots....

The HGRC was not just developed for runners or triathletes, it was developed for the woman that embraces health and well-being and of course, FUN.  We have runners, walkers, Zumba instructors, triathletes, gym-goers, etc. 

An HGRC girl is resourceful

We have creative signs and great cheerleaders!!

We love the paparazzi

HGRC circuit training - obviously ending in a drink

HGRC Tire Changing Class

tire-changing class gone wrong

Christine used her thumbs!!  Best advice ever.

sporting our logo at tris

Philly 1/2 marathon

So join in the fun - here is our latest logo developed by our "creative team," i.e three girls and a couple of beers combing our love for metal and triathlons!

There will be another in the works for the fall where we will be creating some hoodies.  If you would like a shirt - please email me for details or ordering information at missfancypants@mac.com.  Shirts will be from Old Navy - if you would like to order one.  This order for tanks will need to be in by Monday evening, August 22nd.  However, we may do a tech type of shirt with the same logo in the next month!

Farmer's Market Finds - Gazpacho Ingredients

Last week I went to Z Foods Farm in Lawrenceville, NJ to check out what they had.  A friend of mine has been a long-time supporter of their organic veggies....So I came home with a lot of goodies/ingredients for some recipes. 

During my time on the couch to recover from this injury, I watched some more of my favorites - Giada at Home and Barefoot Contessa.  Giada made a spicy gazpacho which I have to say the thought of cold soup doesn't sound all that appetizing; however, she always makes it look so awesome so I was on the hunt at the farmer's market for the ingredients.  I like to do my own thing and not follow any real recipe so I was hunting for tomatoes, peppers, onions and cucumbers.  Good old Ina was doing a show on the farmer's market so I was inspired!!

Here is the outcome of the two shows:

FYI -- there is no exact recipe I just cut up a bunch of stuff and threw it in.  I don't think you can go wrong -  I did add some vinegar (I used brown rice vinegar but apple cider vinegar or white vinegar would work) and sea salt and pepper.

Purple basil - I used a couple leaves and used the rest for some home-made pesto

Three on the left are variations of cucumbers, then some yellow squash and sweet onions

some heirloom tomatoes

Peppers made a nice flavor to the gazpacho along with purple basil

Ending product

After all this was said and done.  I poured some in a bowl, added a little dollop of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (the good stuff) and then sliced up some avocados.  Christine came over that night to cheer me up, work on some HGRC logos for new shirts.  She used the gazpacho as a salsa which was equally good.

I think this changed my mind on gazpacho moving forward!

Healthy Eating While Recovering...

So you may ask - what does a triathlete in training do when things go askew????

Unfortunately, not a lot for the first 5 days, I have been resting, laying with the dog, watching way too much TV and going ape-shit crazy.  I do have to say the big positive is being waited on hand and foot by the "best husband ever!!"

HOWEVER, I am so used to going, going, going that this is very difficult.  Besides reading my book on home-brewing, writing out my list for what I will need when I start my first brew, I also decided to try to figure out what I will be eating during my little "holiday" from working out.  14 hours a week of training down to 0 for a couple weeks means my caloric intake needs to be less (much less) and it needs to come from some quality ingredients!!


My go-to supplements during this time are multi, calcium with D, omega-3, vitamin M (otherwise known as motrin or ibuprofen...), Kombucha (truly believe in this stuff) and Arnica Gel for some topical pain relief.

I went to the farmer's market and stocked up on some goodies...and figured there will be some key recipes posted over the next week (an area that I have been lacking to post about lately!)

Here are a couple I was able to do with little effort as I didn't want to over exert myself.

Mixed Beet Chickpea Quinoa Salad
1 red beet
1 golden beet
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Balsamic Vinegar
21 Seasoning Salute (Trader Joe's) or any peppery seasoning
2 handfuls of baby spinach
1/2 can chickpeas
1 cup of quinoa
2 cups of water
Goat cheese

Wash beets and cut in small pieces.  Toss in some olive oil, sea salt and seasoning and lay on roasting pan. 

best seasoning ever!!!

Roast for 30 min at 400 degrees.

Let cool on baking pan.

In the meantime, cook quinoa.  Use 2 cups of water with 1 cup of rinsed quinoa.  Let it come to a boil, then simmer covered for about 20 min.

Once beets are cooled slightly, add quinoa, spinach, chickpeas.  Add some balsamic glaze and a little olive oil (you already have some from the roasting).  Scoop in a bowl and add some goat cheese (which melts to make it creamy...).

this was actually an older picture, I added a little tofu to the mix instead of beans

Awesome and great for left overs as a snack or post recovery food!!!

Fish Tacos with Roasted Veggies

3 tomatillos
1 large tomato
3 poblano peppers
olive oil
Sea Salt

Slice up and roast at 400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes and take out.

 

Lower temp to 350 for the fish.


Melinda's mango habanero sauce
Fresh squeezed lime juice
Salt
21 Seasoning Salute
Wild-caught halibut or other mild white fish.

Marinate for about 30 minutes covered with plastic wrap.  Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes or until flaky.

I served this with blue corn tortillas from Whole Foods and some shredded low fat Mexican cheese.  I softened the tortillas using some PAM in a pan for about 30 seconds per side.  I also served this with some brown rice mix and cilantro from Trader Joes.

Asian Quinoa Bowl

2 cups of water
1 cup of quinoa
2 spring onions chopped
1 cup of edamame
1 cup of black beans
Steamed fresh string beans
Cilantro
Island Teriaki sauce from TJ
Avocado

Cook quinoa (refer to other recipe) or you can use brown rice.  Add everything together and a couple tablespoons of teriaki sauce. 

 

I also added sirachi sauce for some extra spice and some grilled chicken for some more protein.  I add the diced avocado at the end, because if refrigerating it, you don't want the avocado to go brown.

Blueberry-Peach Cobbler

Also for a quick dessert, I threw together left over containers of blueberries (yeah Jersey), some Jersey peaches tossed with agave.  I then made a topping of crushed thin ginger snaps from (you guessed it...) Trader Joe's, some brown sugar and margarine by cutting it to make little balled crumbs.  It was awesome.  I threw it in the oven for 25 min at 350 degrees.

 

I hope to have some new recipes using my Farmer's Market goodies for the next post!  AND a new HGRC logo that we have been working on...

Training Derailment and Bike Safety

So, I was planning on writing a post regarding my recovery from Vineman but as you will see that is not the case.  I wanted to write a post that would be "what not to do for recovery" by doing a race the following weekend (BAD IDEA) that consisted of temperatures reaching 100 and high humidity. 

I think this picture shows the agony of racing in heat

It just equated to heat exhaustion, slow times and just taking it easy for another week.  I started ramping up my training again last week and was in the process of deciding the rest of my race season.

1. Sept 3 - Marlton Lakes Sprint (annual fun race with our beerathlon to follow)
2. Sept 11 - Quakerman Olympic or Half?  I was deciding on the Olympic to start working on getting my legs recovered and getting some speed back in my running.
3. Oct 2 - Bassman International Distance Tri

So as I accomplished a pretty successful week of swims using paddles, timing myself swimming, good runs, and a couple good bikes, even throwing in 2 strength core sessions and a yoga, I ventured out to do the Princeton Bike Tour on Saturday...

Susan and I were riding together and planned on the 65 mile course, we met two others in the parking lot to ride with - one doing the 100 that would at least ride with us till 50.  We had a great ride up to the 49 mile mark at the second rest stop.  We were making good time, I felt awesome, we were riding fast but not too crazy.  Anyway, we left the rest stop and there was a turn to go downhill.  I would venture to say we were in the 30's going downhill, I hit a rock or something in the road, my front wheel turned and I couldn't control the bike. I was paying attention but maybe I should have paid a little more. All I was thinking about as I was falling was that I read an article on how to fall without hurting yourself too much in Bicycling magazine.  So I knew to tuck my head and for some reason did not fly over the handlebars but instead fell to the left.  I don't know if I hit my head last, because there was only some scratches to my helmet.  I was VERY LUCKY!!  OR maybe I had someone watching over me....

So, my schedule will now consist of cheering for my friends and getting myself better.  Since I have some badly bruised ribs, it will take a good 4-6 weeks to heal, which means some time of doing nothing and actually allowing someone (husband) to wait on you...I hate sitting still so this should be interesting...


My message to everyone is the following:

1. TAKE BIKING VERY SERIOUSLY AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD AT ALL TIMES
2. KEEP A GOOD HEAD WHEN FALLING - DON'T FREAK OUT!
3. ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET (THIS CANNOT BE STRESSED ENOUGH)
4. BUY A ROAD ID!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't have a Road ID but I have been thinking of getting one.  I attached the link.  This is very important if you are riding alone.  The interactive - what I will be buying - has all your medical info, health insurance etc.  If you are riding alone or running alone - what a great investment.  I had my license with me and my phone but would that had been enough if someone found me?  My stuff was scattered all over the road. 

Also, if you crash with your helmet, you need to buy a new one!  Bell has a crash policy where you can return your helmet with the appropriate information and you get a credit toward a new helmet. 

Until then I will be resting, eating healthy and taking some vitamins to rebuild and get myself better.  Oh, and while I am resting I will be reading this....

 Be safe!

Vineman 70.3 - The Wine Report

And I continue....this is the last part of my Sonoma post, I promise!  Did I mention we had an awesome time in Sonoma - hence my three-part post - if you haven't read the lsat two here they are...

Vineman 70.3 Race Report

Vineman 70.3 - The Beer Report

and now the Wine Report...
 As reported from the "Beer Report" we hung out with all the cool kids at Russian River.  The next day we opted to do some wine tasting and were able to meet up with Beth and James at couple wineries in the Dry Creek Valley area in Healdsburg.

Sidebar:  I am completely obsessed with Giada....She had a show called Giada's Weekend Getaways where she went to different locations, similar to Rachel Ray, and gave a synopsis of restaurants and things to do.  One of the episodes that I happen to bookmark on the food network site was on Sonoma (I knew I would eventually get there) and honestly I had it burned in my brain when she did the cave tours at Bella Wine Caves and had dinner at Zin....so that was on my list.

We drove out to Bella Wine Caves first.  We missed the 11am tour of the caves but went in the tasting rooms to find Brandy, another awesome triathlete, wine tasting with her family, before leaving telling us that she always gets a bottle of their dessert wine.  We did the tasting for about $10 and sure enough, we walked out with two bottles of the dessert wine...it was awesome - 2009 Late Picked Zinfandel.  The vineyard is beautiful, it was a definite must-see and I would recommend doing the cave tours.

From there we went to Ferrari Carano which I had heard was beautiful and it was!

However, the wine was ehhhhh....little too commercial for our tastes but the four of us took some great pictures by the grounds

Mike and his photography

Team Walsh

Vineyards were the perfect backdrop

Mike and I finally getting a picture together during the trip

Next we headed over to Truett-Hurst - our hotel recommended this and said they were a relatively new winery (2007) and had an incredible zin.  This was by far the best tasting and the people that worked there were awesome.  I think the part that sold me was that they told us we could buy a bottle of rose, salami and cheese and sit by the creek....this reminded me of wine tasting in Italy.

That night, Mike and I ate at Zin which was great!  I had the short ribs that were cooked in a zinfandel (Giada had this I might add).  Menu was great, good prices and good wine.  AND we loved that town of Healdsburg.

The next day was our last day before we ventured back to San Francisco.  We initially planned on going to Lagunitas brewery but they were closed.  So, we planned on doing the Korbel tour, go to the Redwood Forest then head to Russian River to pick up a shirt and eat at Third Street Aleworks....UNTIL, we decided that we had 10 bottles and we needed 2 more to make it worth it to ship....hence more wine tasting.

Which leads us to Korbel  ...
 

 The delicatessen there had some great sandwiches and salads.  We also found out this was the original home of Russian River Brewery before they sold it because the hops got in the way of the champagne grapes, interesting...Anyway, the tour there is great and really gives you a good history lesson of the county and the Korbel family.

 

From the tour, you then proceed to try out 4 champagnes.  We didn't find anything we were in love with so that's when we decided to ditch the redwoods and head for the hills (I am singing a little Iron Maiden as I type), the wine hills that is...

We then went to Thomas George where we bought a really nice Pinot Noir.  The woman there told us that there was a really nice rose at Rochioli.  We then headed there which was next to the Hop Kiln (again kicking myself that we didn't stop).  We also passed by this really cool barn where Mike took some photos.

At Rochioli, there are only 2 wines to taste and they were sold out of the Rose....booo...but the other couple tasting said they had an incredible Chardonnay, so we tried and fell in love....and bought our last of the two bottles we needed to ship the case!!

We were then recommended to go through Fitch Mountain Packaging in Healdsburg to ship the wine.  It is a small company but ended up being a little less than shipping through UPS.  I recommend as they can hold your wine to wait for a refrigerated truck...so we are waiting for the wine, should come soon!!!!
And that's all I have to report - I miss it already, but this just gives me more reason to come back to Sonoma for racing and vacation!!