Weekend Throwdown

This weekend essentially put the wraps on everything I can do to thrash myself prior to the Dirty Kanza 200 at the end of the month. I was growing weary of structured intervals, so I enlisted the help of Strava- the social media that everyone loves to hate. A week or so ago, I’d received several “SO-AND-SO STOLE YOUR QOM!” emails. All of them were in an area where I don’t ride often, and I wasn’t sure if I’d actually been riding with any sort of impetus when I’d set my original times. So, to change things up from my normal interval regimen, I decided to pick a route that would hit a string of the QOM spots.

note

(Matt’s finger added for extra “everyone hates Strava” effect)

My top tube que sheet worked pretty well except for one, where I totally missed most of the segment. The only other screw-up was a close head-on encounter with a large truck hauling oversized farm equipment on its trailer. I decided that pulling off to the shoulder and soft pedaling while it passed was a far better idea than playing chicken. Otherwise, it was a successful training ride in both intensity and QOM achievement- Reverse Enduro Strava Terrorism Fartlek

Sunday morning, Turbo the old, deaf Malinois decided to give me a mother’s day present.

turbo

Apparently, after pulling the giant rice bag out and spilling it all over the place, she found the taste of raw rice to be unsatisfactory and went back in for a ziplock bag of oatmeal, which she consumed most of, save the handful of oats that escaped to underneath the stove and cabinet ledges.

After cleaning that up and mainlining some coffee, I hurried up to get started on my prescribed 6 hours of riding. I picked a route I like a lot because of its remote-ness. My legs weren’t really feeling it when I started, and, though I hoped the cobwebs would work themselves out after the first hour or two, I ended up cutting it short at 5 hours, 25 minutes. I’m happy to say, though, I figured out that loading up on sodium before a long ride is making a noticeable difference in being able to maintain copious amounts of nice, watery sweat later in the day. My recently-adopted strategy is to drink a bottle full of Gu Brew Blueberry Pomegranate (contains 2x the sodium than other flavors) mixed with Elete Citrilyte drops and Pure Clean beet powder as I’m preparing for my ride. It should be a big help staying less overheated at Kanza.

After my ride, I laid around on the couch and snacked a bit before I visited my dealer for a sack…

greens

The past two weeks, I’ve been getting a huge bag of just-picked greens and whatnot from Jack’s Farmacy. This week, the bag included several different types of lettuce, swiss chard, beet thinnings, onions, oregano, kale, and turnip greens. I picked up a half-dozen duck eggs and an extra bag of turnip greens as well. The turnip greens were for mother’s day dinner, and the duck eggs are for my belly… I just had a couple for breakfast, and good lord, they’re soooooo goooooood. If you’re a local reader, I suggest visiting the FB page I’ve linked to and getting in on it- all the stuff pictured above was $20. He does two different pickup days in town during the week, though I’m pretty sure you could go to the farm just about any time and buy whatever’s fresh.

Unlike grocery store lettuce, which I’ve always found to be a mostly flavorless vehicle for fiber and toppings, this stuff is good enough to stand on its own. I’d never had beet thinnings before, and I’d never cooked turnip greens because my experience with them growing up was a giant stinky pot that boiled away forever to create a green, sulfur-y mash. It makes me giddy to try new recipes with stuff that was still in the ground the morning before I cook it.

I’ve taken to cooking meals for my parents on Hallmark special occasions like father’s day and mother’s day. Who wants to fight the crowds for a mediocre-to-mostly-decent meal when what I can make in their own kitchen is more delicious, healthy, less expensive, and doesn’t involve waiting, crowds, or screaming babies? I did shortcut on dessert, though. Because of the hours of riding I needed beforehand, I bought a strawberry shortcake at Whole Foods. It was extraordinarily delicious, so I didn’t mind too much.

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