Sunday, December 16, 2012

Office Christmas Party

Pretzels, Hershey's Kisses, and M&Ms...perfect finger food!

Tuesday I rode at T's in the morning, worked, swam a quick 500 (better than nothing, I figure), had a GREAT 5-min ext. slow workout later, and then went to Sambuca in The Gulch for our office Christmas dinner. I was surprised that I actually liked the chicken I ordered, because it did not sound good from the menu but was the only thing on our pared-down menu that I thought maybe I had a chance at liking.

Wednesday I slept in and then trained and walked 30 minutes on the step mill. I always choose Random Play for a set amount of time, and I typically select the max level (9). The stronger I get on the bike, the easier this machine gets. I might have to move away from the step mill and to the TRUE elliptical machine soon. Or perhaps choose a different workout.

Thursday morning's workout was 6-6-6 EDI (another good one), Dalmuti at lunch during work, and T's class again for the afternoon. This week's workouts have seemed harder, but I'm also working at 1% higher watts than last week and a gear harder (first 20min on Tuesday and the entire class today). I have tons of room for improvement and am really liking the 1% increase per week thing, both mentally and physically. I'm thinking I might increase till the end of this session (6%) and then go down 5% and continue the 1% increase per week for the next session, repeating for the rest of the off-/pre-season. That is, unless I test way higher, then I'll re-evaluate. In this class, my mind was MUCH stronger than my legs--if my legs had their say, I'd have been off the bike, down a gear, or down 5% within the first 20 minutes. But I knew I could do it and do it well where I was, so I stayed there. Little victory!

Friday morning's workout was rough. Everything was tired. But I did the 3-min isos followed by 100 phasic reps. Then off to work. Then I went on a great 8-mile hike at Percy Warner. It was beautiful out and I wanted to take advantage of it. We are having a treat day at work on Monday, so I made some stuff. The pretzel/M&M treats pictured above were simple. The chocolate peanut butter bars, not so much.


Looks like it's ready to go...

I thought I was ready to move from the first steps (mixing the first 4 ingredients and spreading into the pan) before melting the chocolate, so I did. But then I looked back at the recipe and realized I forgot one of the four ingredients. I'd have made my mama proud with my baking skills :-)

I really thought I was ready...I even poured and spread!
Instead, I removed it from the pan, put it back in the mixing bowl, and added the missing powdered sugar. It turns out the consistency of butter/peanut butter/graham cracker crumbs is just not what is should be without the sugar. Once I added the sugar it was much better, so it went back in the pan before I melted the chocolate/peanut butter and spread that on top. It turned out much better and tastes pretty good.

Saturday morning, Cath and I rode for an hour on the trainer after I went tot he Y for an hour workout. Then Lee, Cath & Madi, Anna, and Shelly, Megan, & Jess went to lunch at Calypso Cafe before shopping at Lululemon. There is some great stuff in that store. I wished I had more discretionary money so I could spend it all on one running top and one pair of tights that would last forever! In the Giraffe class at church that night, Charlotte, Brooks, Susan and I had 17 4-year-olds to play with and tell about the angels telling the shepherds about Jesus being born. They were excited to act it out :-)

First set of barriers
source

Sunday I walked 2 miles before church and then went out to watch Anna do the 4s state CX race and race my P/1/2/3 race with teammates Kat, Shannon, and AJ and other competitors Andrea, Kim, Amy, Stephanie, Laureen, and Kathy. Our race was 45 minutes long, and I got lapped within 2 to go and rode 7.75 miles. My average speed was under 11mph. Crazy slow! But considering that this was a CX race, on grass, leaves, sand, and mud, that's pretty much normal, I guess. It was a super fun race, but not exciting for me to get last place. Lots of room for improvement! Will was there to watch - he's been training me for something like 3 or 4 years and never seen me race my bike, so it was great to have him see what it's all about and pray with me before the race. We went to lunch at Red Robin, and then I went home and, after cleaning, chilled on the couch for the rest of the afternoon.

Shannon's husband took tons of pictures during the race, and I'm hoping to get a few to share.

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