Happyness is a warm cake

Hello one and all. Christmas has started already in America on Friday the 23rd of November! It's this day because its the day after thanksgiving (which I wish we could have back at home) the Giant trees are up the lights are on and the smell of Christmas biscuits (not 'cookies') and other delights are everywhere to be enjoyed. I can't believe it's started so early but it's making things a bit more scenic and generally smell better around here which is always nice.I've managed to finally do some bakery for the first time in ages, I decided to do my favourite blueberry-lemon drizzle cake with a twist- using 60/40 almond meal / regular flour. I would have used 100% almond meal but it doesn't hold together terribly well, but I'm working on a master-baker strategy to overcome this!

The reason I chose to do this is because I've been trying to follow a 'no grains' diet for the last couple of months, I decided to do this mainly for training purposes as by the process of elimination I have found grains to be the cause of a number of cases of the dreaded 'runners' trots' (which have caused more than a few close shaves in the trouser department mid-run). But there are also a number of general health reasons that make me think this diet is the way to go, the basic premise of it is that you eliminate most sources of carbohydrate in the form of grains, refined sugars, starchy veg etc. from your diet and instead replace them with animal fats, eggs, nuts (not peanuts) occasional fruits, and lots and lots of vegetables. The idea behind this is that because we evolved as a species as hunter-gatherers our body's are used, evolutionarily speaking, to digesting and utilising these foods for energy.
The effects of the diet make sense when you think about it, we were given the ability to store fat as fuel so it seems quite logical that we'd eat it for fuel as well, carbohydrates are found more generally in slow releasing fibrous forms like vegetables and the only naturally occurring sugars are things like fruits and honey which we wouldn't eat a lot of normally.




The facts are, according to Dr. Tim Noakes, that eating (naturally occurring) fats isn't what makes you fat, it is eating sugars and, in some people, too much carbohydrates in simple forms such as grains that makes you fat, I say some people because there are genetic dispositions towards laying down some types of food as fat more than others, for more information on the topic there is a great interview with Dr. Noakes here which is well worth 20 minutes of anyone's time.


The only drawback to this way of eating is that it is expensive! They really advocate eating a lot of grass-fed beef which runs at about $15/lb! So to get around this I eat a lot of coconut oil and almond butter for energy before and after training instead, it's way tastier than it sounds..!

Red bull Flugtag contest, most of them were crap.

Training has been going very well, I'm back running properly at last and wont make the same mistakes I have done in the past that have caused me to get injured e.g. too much too soon, no conditioning, no massage/stretching. Swimming is going okay, I am making good progress on my quest for a 60 second 100yard doing 6 x 75 yards last night as 2 in 55s 2 in 50s 2 in 45s. Cycling is going quite well apart from the fact that my bike is slowly falling apart, I've had to replace nearly everything on it but it still keeps breaking down on me, next on the to-buy list is two tiny plastic pieces for the crankset which make the whole thing useless if they are broken :( I did a 100mile ride in 6 hours though this weekend and it wasn't as terrible as I thought, maybe 112 wont be impossible after all. Oh wait there's a marathon to run after as well..

The couch fairy visited us

Thanks to all for reading I hope you enjoyed and found the nutrition stuff quite informative.

Perseverance

Hello everyone, I haven't written a post in quite some time but there's a pretty good reason for that- WORK. I knew that it would be harder this year but I didn't realise in what way. The last 2 weeks  have been some of the busiest of my school-career to date with what seemed like a never ending barrage of mid terms and group assignments.
I think it was on Sunday night,  before the first mid-term that week, that I really felt for the first time like packing it in and going home, there seemed to be so much to do and so little time to do it. I managed to snap myself out of it when I realised going home wasn't an option as there wouldn't be a place in class for me at Brunel if I went back and I'd probably get in a fair bit of trouble with student finance as well.
What I think really helped me get over the sudden despair I felt though was picturing myself at the end of the week, assignments handed in, tests completed and presentations presented. Sometimes it's the easiest thing to let yourself become overwhelmed by the situation and want to call it quits, but if you can realise that 'worrying about it never did any good' and look at the bigger picture in life you can pull through and just get on with it. I think it was a combination of homesickness, feeling unprepared and feeling sorry for myself because I still can't run yet (DAMN!).
Mum and Dad have booked my flights home for Christmas and that has definitely helped with the homesick side of things as I didn't think I would be coming home until the second semester was finished in June! I'm focusing a lot more on enjoying my time while I am here now and trying to make the most of it where I can (although the workload is still high).

The Blue Angels, (not as good as our RA's but still) very impressive.

Navy parade about to pass under the GGB (which I'm standing on)

 

So anyway, that's a good enough description of how I've felt these past couple weeks, I bet most of you reading this are thinking 'Pfft what a whingey git, I'd love to be out there in California instead of slowly freezing to death over here!' and I know that you're right but this is my blog and I can be a selfish crybaby for at least half a post if I want to :) Things are much better now and I promise to enjoy every minute on your behalves.

So, what else have I been up to? I'm making more friends and getting on well with them all, things in the house with my fellow Brunelians are going smoothly and I think we are all on the same wave-length now.


Training has been very bike/swim focused, I spent 3 weeks just noodling about on the bike and in the pool with no real structure, it was very nice not having a plan to follow and has got my Mojo fired up for some serious training again.. Which I started this week- I will focus on a periodised approach to this years training starting with a lot of long slow stuff on the bike and (when can I start) running but am doing one balls-out session a week in each so I don't get bored and unfit at the same time. And gradually add intensity and race-pace training throughout the year as my target races draw closer, target races? I hear you say, yes I plan to at least attempt to qualify for the ITU worlds in London next year for sprint distance and also give iron-distance a crack sometime between August and September.

 
I have always said I wont even attempt that distance unless I know can finish in under 10 hours (I imagined splits of 55mins/5:25hrs/3:25hrs for swim, bike and run) and this year I think it can be done- providing I can start running again! Doing regular 80-90 mile rides every week in the lovely sunshine has made me really enjoy the long hours in the saddle and that was really the only thing preventing me from training for iron distance (112 mile bike leg)- I knew that if I trained on the bike through the winter for 5-6 hours at a time I would slowly grow to hate the training and also freeze my arse off.
So those are my goals, they seem quite impossible and very contrasting right now but what's the point in making things easy for yourself eh?

View from Tiburon during a bike ride

I'm including a few photos I've taken while San Franciscoing that are helping remind me why I love it out here and to not focus on what I might be missing out on back at home.
I titled this post perseverance because I think it sums up how I should behave right now in all aspects of my life especially school work, training and making the most of it.
Thanks for reading, I will try to make this a more regular blog!
Take care,
James