Sunday, May 8, 2011

American cuisine

Yesterday was a bit of a biggy. My suggested training route seemed pretty cruisy and not too long when i looked at the map. My plan was to cruise along the lake and first part of stage 1 of tour of cali, dveiate of to truckee to check out the start and climb of stage 2 then return home via the finish of stage 1 to check that out aswell. Seemed like an excellent day of recon to me. My much more educated and orienteering expert and team mate and training partner ted king thought it sounded a little lengthy so plotted it on google maps. 190km he said and that i needed to learn how to read a map. I assured him it was not possible for it to be that far and to trust me and so after my 1hr of core in the gym off we set around the lake tahoe and the surrounding cities. Sure enough 6hrs and 190km later i roled into the cafe in the lobby of my hotel and pleaded with the waiter to make me the thickest thick shake he had ever put in a blender. About half a litre of icecream, milk, honey, bannana, and a healthy serving of chocolate topping later he produced i concoction that required a knife and fork to get through. It was perfect. I read once in a magazine that that a milkshake provides an excellent recovery meal/drink. It contains electrolytes, carbohydrates, protein and above all taste exceptionally good. The state i was in i was certainly not going to debate this logic and even convinced myself that being so cold it was probably serving as an internal ice bath. Safe to say i was not quite thinking locially at the time perhaps due to the session being done entirely above 2000m altitude and at a reasonable intensity, averages of 234watts, 2090m elevation, 125heart rate, 32kmph, 5100kcal, and i was a bit light headed. Whatever the science behind a milk shake it made me feel a million times better than i did before i drank it so it gets the thumbs up from me and in a strange cant wait untill the next day i arrive home in such a state that i race straight for the cafe and another thick thick thick shake. For me the pain and suffering of a long hard day in the saddle is severely outweighed by the amount of food i can eat as a reward. You may have picked up i love food so know the harder i work the more i can enjoy it. In light of that still feeling a little energy defient this morning i set out in search of a breakfast burrito. I came accross a natural foods cafe and figured perfect, massive meals as is standard in america and also healthy. I ordered a carrot celery beetroot and ginger freshly crushed juice in an attempt to negate or even out the potentially not such heathly incrediedients in the previous days thick shake and there house special, the breakfast burrito. As you can see from the photo it has it all. Brown rice, avocado, black beans, ommlette, salsa, cheese and some ham, all served up in a giant taco shell and a side of corn chips. I can honestly say in all my travels i have never seen such an concoction on a plate in front of me and i can happily report it was delicious. It certainly achieved my desire of replenishing my energy stores following yesterdays adventures.

So all in all, everything going well here at my altitude camp in lake tahoe. I am training well, eating very well and certainly resting very hard. Tomorrow ted and i will be joined by the rest of our team mates so am looking forward to that and i am hoping a game of golf with our golf loving doctor Dott Emilio magni. Today being sunday is asual a day of leasure and recovery so looking forward to an afternoon full of sport on espn. It is Certainly a lifestyle that suits me very well here in the land of the young and brave, god bless america.

Cjw
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

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