Bacon, beer, chocolate, birthday celebration!

Saturday was Josh's birthday and to celebrate, we had an all day affair with a wide global spectrum of beers, amazing lamb dish and chocolate. There a few incredible standouts that I have to mention. The first is Josh's dad's mead. I'm talking about home brewed mead. Apparently it is easy and I am absolutely determined to learn from the Mead Master and eventually have a "Mead and Meat" party. This is Mike's idea (hehe...clearly he has come a looong way from his pseudo-vegetarian days) and he also wants all of us to dress up like Beowulf characters. I'm not so sure about the second idea, but the Mead & Meat party sounds fantastic!

The second item is the lamb shoulder roast with pomegranates and mint Yilin prepared. Sooo good. Especially good when I paired it with the cheeses available. That would be an amazing holiday dish, particularly because the presentation is so festive.

The third item is the three layer chocolate stout cake Yilin made according to a recipe from a restaurant in MA where Josh tasted and fancied this cake. This cake was HUGE. And a good thing too, because it was sooooo good. It was dense, made with high quality chocolate and had a perfect balance of sweet and bittersweet. It paired with a dark wheat beer from Germany particularly well. And because it was so big, I got to take a piece home. Oh boy....

Lastly, there was chocolate covered bacon. Yilin went to the Essex Street Market to pick up the appropriately named treat: Pig Candy. They come in two types, dark and milk chocolate. Even though I am a dark chocolate fan, milk is the way to go (well, you have to remember- both are really good because there is BACON inside!). Think maple syrup and bacon-the milk chocolate brings out the smokey, salty, baconny flavors to create a most delicious treat. I highly recommend it .

The day/night was so much fun and I have to say it was one of the best dinner parties I've had the pleasure of attending. (The conversation never stopped! So much fun!). Happy birthday Josh!

It's time to eat the left over cake.

Oh baby...

If you want to get me a special treat, make me these.

Bassman Half Ironman

This was the year of triathlons. After watching Mike do the NYC Tri last year, I decided that I would train to do it the following year for my first triathlons. And so in January 2009, I started training for an Olympic Distance. Considering that I was a terrible swimmer and nervous riding my bike (I became more and more weary over time after 2 bike accidents), this was a huge feat for me. In early June we did a sprint in 90+ degree weather with crazy hilly bike course. The lesson learned in that was not to freak out and cry during the swim (which I got horribly lost in and swam to the wrong shore). In July, we did the NYCtri again in 90+ weather (and shortly after having recovered from what seemed to be salmonella poisoning while in Spain), and that was fantastic! Super hot and tiring, jellyfish stings, but what a race!

At the get together we had after the race, Rusty, Mike and Josh somehow brought up and decided to do a Half Ironman. I was less inclined, but quickly convinced. So after 4 days of recovery, we ramped up the training according to the personalized training schedules designed by our veteran coach, Rusty. All I can say is that everyday my legs hurt. I mean EVERYDAY. Everyday that I work up, they hurt. Not sore. HURT. Pain. Bone pain, joint pain. On the plus side, I became a much better swimmer by sticking to the swimming drill and swimming in a gloriously huge 50m pool.

As race day neared, I started panicking. I had run 12 miles in bad shoes and hurt my calf (my feet would go numb after about 5 miles). And in general I was terrified. Terrified of the swim and getting lost the bike. The race is small enough that it was totally possible that I would be alone for most of the events (which is what happened). I had really bad dreams, but mostly, I was scared of not finishing, of being unprepared. But I have to tell you- I no longer felt like I had it in me to train anymore so I was in some aspect very relieved to approach race day.

We reserved the largest pick up truck I have ever had the pleasure of sitting in (I have a thing for pick up trucks...) after I finished teaching, we loaded all the bikes and bags, squeezed in, and drove down the 2.5 hours to the race registration. We drive the bike course to make sure we knew where to go and the WHOLE time, I thought I was going to vomit. Mike's parents were great and had a HUGE spread of food for us when we arrived. It was a great and relaxing night, with the plan of getting up at 4am to get to the race by 6:30 am at the latest.

That morning, I was so nervous that I gagged while using my daily asthma inhaler and, um, threw up. The funny part was that I I got out of the bathroom, Mike was making a peanut butter bagel and said, "Huh, did you just throw up? Hmm...Well, eat up, we have a race." He immediately assumed I threw up because I was a nervous wreck and at this point, just expected me to vomit. Nice- not the reputation I was going for, but I guess it fits...

We all got there, set up transition and put on wetsuits. The water was about 60F. Poor Josh. He and like two other people had no wetsuits. I was in the third and last swim wave and because I am a HORRIBLE open water swimmer (despite being pretty decent and fast in a pool), swam in the WRONG direction. I mean literally the WRONG direction. Don't as me how. All the buoys look the same to me. Anyway, the kayak person yelled at me (after a few tries since I wear ear plugs) and then I OVER corrected and swam to the MIDDLE of the lake. At this point about 11 mins past and I barely made any progress. I was so upset. I decided to DNF (Do Not Finish) after the swim. So tired and so demoralized. I mean I was SUPER behind people. The second loop (it was a two loop lake swim) went really well (0.6miles in about 20min), but I had lost so much time. Plus the water was cold and being in there for so long made my arms numb (sleeveless wetsuit).

Having decided to DNF, I made it out of the swim and there was Yilin and Mike's parents cheering for me. Clearly, I could not quit with them there. I ran to transition (had a GRAT T1 time considering my calves FILL my wetsuit, making it really hard to take off) got on my bike for the 58mile ride. At about mile 8, I saw Rusty finishing his first loop. Oh man. I was so tired, cold and hungry. I think he was really surprised to see me that far behind. I passed a few people on the bike (yay!) and saw Mike heading back from loop 1. I yelled at him that I was NEVER doing this again, which apparently made him sad. Ooops. I ate my food on the bike too fast (a Levain Bakery cookie should NOT be eaten in one HUGE bite) and two bags of ShotBloks and had some stomach issues which came back to really teach me a lesson on the run. My legs cramped up on the bike and when I finished the second loop to dismount at transition, I couldn't because both calves had cramped. Thankfully I had unclipped one foot before cramping and prevent the slow and scary fall over on my bike.

It was really great to have such amazing people cheering me on. If it wasn't for them, I don't think I would have been as fast as I was. The run was actually a really nice course in the woods and camping trails. The volunteers from a youth group in Brooklyn were such great kids. I saw Rusty FINSIHING his run as I ran about a mile in. Damn. I saw Mike running towards mile 6 as I was in transition. I saw Josh as I did the turn around for mile 3. Josh and I crossed paths many times, and it made me feel a lot better on the 13.2mile run. I had a, umm, intestinal situation that took 7 min (and a state of FEAR that I would have to call for help) at mile 5. The rest of the run was fine. Slow, but fine. At several times I thought how I should hide in the woods for an unknown period of time, then emerge as a DNF. I just wanted to collapse from being so tired.

To keep motivated, I thanked all the volunteers and cheered on all the people going towards the finish (the run had so many weird loops that you saw people running mile 10 while you were at 6, or something like that). I met some nice people on the run, ran and talked for a little while, was passed, did some passing, and FINALLY got to the finish. 6 hours and 50min.

Everyone did great. Josh finished at 6hrs48min, Mike at 5hrs55min and Rusty, at 4hrs45min (approximate..). RUSTY! He was so amazing. He came in 2nd! Only a pro beat him! In my opinion, he came in first.

That night we went to Los Amigos (yum) and called it a night. Overall, it was a great experience and it was...fun. Fun only because it was done with friends. If I had to do it alone or with just Mike, I think I would have a harder time training and racing. Having the crew made it a huge difference.

Am I likely to do it again...no. At least not for a long time. And what would I change, well, looking back at my training, I know I should have done more of those short bikes and I definitely should have been running more. And I really have to learn not to get lost in the open water swims.

HIM-Less than 36 hours away!

I've packed up for the race and I am SUPER nervous.  In fact, I had a minor melt down, complete with race based nightmares.  And I haven't been doing all my workouts due to a mild cold and the evil tendinitis which has resurfaced.   That all makes me extra nervous.  

But, the race is pretty much here and I have no choice.  I have to go and kick it's ass.  At least that's what Mike says.  

The plan is to leave for the pre-race briefing tomorrow after I am done teaching my class.  Then we will crash with Mike's parents, which is about 45min to the race.  

I'm so nervous that we had to dance around the apt (to Madonna!).  

I just hope it doesn't take me much longer than 7 hours.  (I'm aiming for 6hrs 45min).