MUFA, huh?

I'm at home, trying to deal with this fatigue issue I've had for a couple of months. I've added Vitamin D, which has seemed to help a little, but not 100%. So I thought it would be a good time to talk about MUFAs - an acronym I was unfamiliar with until yesterday via this article about "flat-belly foods." Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), when taken a little with every meal (so the article says), can help reduce belly fat. I'm okay with this, since the MUFA categories are nuts and seeds, oils, olives, avocado and chocolate. Throwing a little bit of walnuts or cacao nibs on something is a good reminder to diversify at dinner time.

In other news, I gleaned some new free-weight arm exercises from a guy in the gym this week. I tried them out and realized that other than my swimming twice a week, I'm not really working out my deltoids. Next up, figuring out the medicine balls...

no-go

So, technical difficulties decided that I didn't go on the 100km ride on Saturday. I was more than okay to go back to sleep at 5 am, so no worries. Instead, I did a round of household errands and a run along Pre's trail. Something must have happened on the run to my right knee and now something does not feel good in there. No make-up 100km for me today. Just a hopeful swim in the rec center pool (if the mechanical issues have been resolved in the pool) - primarily working on arms with the pull buoy.

On the food front - I roasted a chicken and mixed root veggies for dinner last night. Salad was another accompaniment.

Lots of knitting and brainstorming this weekend instead of the long bike rides. I want to start a full garment soon. I think my left-handed knitting skills are improving (or mirrored knitting, to be PC).

austere but powerful

I was very proud of myself. Last night was a great dinner - couscous salad, raw celeriac salad with a bit of parm and a minneola. I splurged and made homemade chocolate pudding but subbed lowfat, lactose-free milk for the 1/2 and 1/2.

Now that I'm going to be doing another 100km bike ride in less than a week, I'm realizing austerity today and tomorrow won't be in my favor. It's time to eat up lots of calories in prep for tomorrow's snoozeville populaire. Last Sunday's 60-mile ride was my first to push the 40-mile boundary. It also had several miles of intense hill climbing scattered throughout the ride, an intense headwind and a nice pub halfway through that seemed so tempting to just stop at and have David pick me up later in the afternoon. Snoozeville has a lovely pub at the end of it, so that's even better...austerity returns on Monday.

live to tell

This isn't an epic post about a near-death experience. The song of that title by Madonna was ironically going through my head for some of the 60-mile bike ride I did yesterday. The track on main rotation was the lead track on this album, by Iron and Wine. There were big hills, a massive headwind coming back to town and moments where I really wanted to get off the bike and run my bike up the hill (thankfully, I never succumb to this urge).

This ride signals a day off from the gym to recoup for tomorrow's lunch time fun. After doing that ride, I realize my neck and core muscles are still in need of some work.