More Snow and a Banana Smoothie - and I'm published!

Why does the weekend weather have to be snowy, cold and nasty for the last several weeks?! It's mid-April and you'd think of mild temps, but no, it's Spring with storms. It's forcing creative workout planning for sure. The snow started early this morning and it is still hanging around, probably until sometime tomorrow. We've had breaks, but you can see the huge moisture band to the east (Colorado Springs is in the top of the empty spot, near the small cluster of green surrounded by white...) So tomorrow's Team workout will be a spin. We were going to run at Garden of the Gods (great place to run!) but we'll stay off potentially slick roads since it is hilly there.

Here's the latest banana recipe -

Coffee Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

2 small bananas, peeled, cut up & frozen

1 1/2 cup milk or soy milk

1 container (8 oz size) low-fat coffee yogurt (you could also use another flavor or plain yogurt and just replace 1/2 c of the milk with 1/2 c coffee)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 dash ground nutmeg

A great recovery drink with protein, potassium and calcium! Could also boost the protein by adding a scoop of whey protein powder.

Running news

Last Tuesday (4/14) we ran "best effort" miles at our weekly track workout. I ran a 6:47 - my best yet! (previous best was 6:54). Woohoo!

Published....

I wrote an article on Team In Training for the local online news site, coloradosprings.com.

I'm working on the next one now, which will be about our Team Heroes. Can't hurt to provide a little extra press for the cause!

Loooooong workout today!

Today I did all my workouts back-to-back (as race day this is what you have to do). :-)
swim: 2500 yds. drove home, changed into my bike shorts and hopped on the trainer. It was just a little too cold and windy to ride outside today. Plus some of the roads had a little bit of snow near the shoulders. Spent the next 2.5hrs on the bike and watched Gladiator. The movie was the right length for this ride - I was wrapping up when the credits started to roll. Then quick change to running shoes and pants for a 30 minute run. The wind was chilly but sunny so I could keep pretty warm running. Still wouldn't have wanted to have been out there on the bike!!
Got home, had the rest of yesterday's peanut butter/banana/chocolate smoothie from this new food chain here called Froots. Had a tuna wrap yesterday and it was pretty good. Actually a reasonably priced place for healthy food choices. yay!!

Then I napped. Naps are good. After the nap, Tim and I started cleaning up for the 2nd Annual Casino Royale! It's 4 weeks away, but I think we need all that time to get the house ready, especially with my weekends being sucked up by a lot of training.

Yesterday was a good day of training, too. With the storm I scheduled the TNT workout at Bicycle Village for a spin class. We shared the room with a group training for the MS 150. We had a workout projected on a screen (BV folks have a workouts to choose from that tell you what to do each minute) and I yelled out what to do next. A lot of cadence work and some single leg drills. A good workout for everyone! Then I held a nutrition clinic for the TNT folks and let anyone from the MS150 group stay. I thought it went pretty well, even though I was expecting my assistant coach to be there for support, but she was sick. bummer.
After the clinic, time to get a run and swim in. Ran 60 minutes on the treadmill - about all I can take! I changed pace and grade about every five minutes to help keep things interesting. To cool down a little I hopped in the pool for about 20 minutes. I was pretty tired (and hungry) at the end of all that!

TNT and a bomb of a banana recipe!

I'm signed up again with Team in Training! This time I will run the Denver Marathon on Oct 18th. That is going to be an adventure, as the longest race I've done is a half marathon. Here's to my IT bands holding up! but I figure if I want to do a full Ironman triathlon in 2011 (IM Florida) then it might be good for my overall endurance training to do a marathon. And since this will be about 2 years prior to the full IM, I should have plenty of recovery time! :-)

But since I am signed up with Team in Training - that means more fundraising! Here's my online page - my goal is $2000.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/rm/denver09/ndrummer

and since it's been a while since I've posted a banana recipe, here's one from Emeril...

Banana Quesadillas
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/banana-quesadillas-recipe/index.html


Ingredients
1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 ripe medium bananas, peeled
10 flour tortillas (7 inches in diameter)
4 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 cups caramel sauce, warm, recipe follows
4 medium bananas
Whipped cream
Fresh mint sprigs
Directions
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and bananas, continue to beat until smooth. Spread 1/4 cup of the filling over half of each tortilla. Fold the other half over the filling and press slightly. Place on a large plate and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until the filling sets, about 30 minutes. In a large saute pan, over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Pan-fry the tortillas in batches, 3 at a time, until golden on each side, about 2 minutes per side. Repeat the above process with the remaining butter and filled tortillas. To serve, slice each filled tortilla into thirds. Arrange the slices in the center of each serving plate. Spoon a 1/4 cup of the warm caramel sauce over each plate. Peel the bananas and slice 1/4-inch thick. Garnish each plate with the sliced bananas, a dollop of whipped cream and a sprig of fresh mint.

CARAMEL SAUCE
Recipe from Everyday Is A Party Cookbook, by Emeril Lagasse, with Marcelle
Bienvenu and Felicia Willett, published by William Morrow, 1999
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
In a small, heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil, stirring often. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is a deep caramel color and has the consistency of a thick syrup, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the cream, return the saucepan to high heat, and boil the sauce until it regains the consistency of a thick syrup, about 2 minutes. Yield: about 3/4 cup