A New Year

Ok, I am finally posting! These last few days I’ve been reading a new book busy and tired so I haven’t posted at all! However, I have been fairly good about documenting my eats so I’ll just show some of my meals from the last few days.

I hope everyone had a great New Year’s! To be honest my was kind of boring and disappointing. I basically sat in a hotel room with my teammates, and half of us were falling asleep. But hey, sacrifices for the sport, right? At least I stayed up until midnight! On New Year’s Eve, my team went on a 6 mile hike, which had awesome views.

Here’s the view from the top, just as the sun was setting. However, if one is at the peak of a 3 mile hike while the sun is setting, it means it will be dark before the bottom is reached. But we got to see an amazing sunset, and we mostly were off the difficult and steep part by the time it was dark. On the way down, we had a minor rattlesnake scare. One of the coaches was running ahead and he more or less ran back up screaming that there was a rattlesnake (he heard the sound). After we all carefully walked down that stretch, someone realized that the rattling sound was actually a bird….Either way, the hike was a fantastic way to finish off 2012!

How did I welcome 2013?

The Rose Bowl! My whole team got bused up to Pasadena to attend the Rose Bowl, which was so amazing.

Wonder who I was rooting for….

It was so cool to be at such a huge game, one that is so widely watched. There were skywriters for most of the game advertising for Geico and wishing everyone a happy New Year. As for the game? Couldn’t have gone better!

I’ve always wanted to experience tons of Confetti raining over after a victory. It was every bit as cool as it looks on TV! The team played a great game, and had a great season. Can’t wait for next year!

Yesterday, after our 2 morning rows, my team’s afternoon workout was a 6 mile canyon run. It was a fun, scenic run. My coach handed out the most detailed directions so we wouldn’t get lost (although this didn’t work for everyone). My favorite step? “Duck under the fence. You may see a border patrol van. If so, just smile, wave, and run on by.” Yes folks, I ran to Mexico. No big deal. 

I would have really enjoyed the run had our schedule not have forced us to eat lunch an hour before our run. Ugh. However, it gave me the entire run to rethink how I fuel myself for exercise….My mantra for the 6 miles was “I am never eating any junk again!” It was enough to motivate me to be better with pre workout food, timing, and amount of food. And in case anyone is wondering, a full lunch before running 6 miles is not the best timing or amount of food. But hey, it could have been worse. On the last mile or so, I rolled by ankle on a rock. It’s fine, I just need to keep an eye on it.

Want to hear more of my border stories? I went back to the outlet mall where the Nike outlet was the other day with a few teammates. That right there? Yep, that’s the border. (The giant fence in the background.)

We were one wrong turn away from ending up in Mexico. We had a bit of a scare when a border patrol van drove by us and shone a light into our car, but we soon realized it was simply to alert us that our lights weren’t on. Phew! We did conclude there we were several feet into Mexico at one point because we went over an overpass that was past the border.

Ok, enough catch up. Here’s what today held:

Breakfast before practice was a piece of whole wheat toast with cream cheese and hardboiled egg, plus a banana and an unpictured small bowl of raisin bran.

This plate looks a little like a smiley face. I definitely didn’t realize that. Breakfast number 2 was a whole wheat English muffin, one side with peanut butter, one side with cream cheese and hardboiled egg. Unpictured was a small pancake with syrup and half of a cinnamon raisin English muffin. Why is it that I only discovered this year how amazing anything cinnamon raisin is??

For lunch, I knew we were going to be eating fairly close to our afternoon workout, so I was determined to not make the same mistake as yesterday. I was originally only planning on the granola bar, but I figured I needed to sneak in some greens as well.

Plus a slice of banana bread and a couple of pretzels with a dab of peanut butter. This ended up working out perfectly for my afternoon workout, which was a body circuit on the beach. It included single leg squats and rows with the TRX, medicine ball slams, burpees, push ups with a twist, mountain climbers, and squats and single leg RDLs with a kettle bell. (3 times through, 10 each.) After the circuit, we did a few other exercises. The beach was absolutely beautiful, and we were able to watch the sun set. 

Dinner later:

Salad with chicken (on the bone again, ugh…) and balsamic dressing, scalloped potatoes, and steamed veggies. Today I realized that the steamed veggies were once frozen, which is why the texture was a little off (or at least the carrots were). How did I discover it? My carrots were still rather icy today….I also had a bowl of cereal with chocolate milk and peanut butter, and a few bites of dried pineapple on the side.

I made myself a mug of peppermint tea and added French vanilla creamer, which was delicious, but after a large mug of it, I’m not sure if it is something I’d do again. It was simply too creamy by the end.

Later tonight, I may or may not have participated in a team ice cream party. Hee hee.

I’m definitely improving at this camp in terms of both rowing technique and fitness. Our workouts by themselves are not that bad, but by the end of the day I’m pretty tired, Most of the various aches and pains from the first few days are gone, and my body is adjusting to this new workload. My back is definitely still tight, but that comes with the territory of rowing! One other interesting thing I’ve noticed is that I don’t feel the need to eat as much as I did the first few days. I’m getting full faster, and not getting hungry as much. I guess this is my body adjusting. 

Fun fact: we almost tipped our boat yesterday launching from the dock. Temperatures were in the 40s. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. (I’ve never tipped before).

On the plus side, the weather has been much nicer, and we’ve started a little bit later the past 2 days so it is way warmer, thank goodness!

To conclude, today I was reflecting on how important my health and body are to me. If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. Take care of yourself!

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?