I'm A Belieber (sometimes...)

Sometimes my early swim practice really kicks my butt. I was OK with this today because I hadn't had a swim I felt good about since before I was sick about a month ago. So even though I refueled with a great breakfast and a Starbucks holiday-cup drink on the way to work, come noon time, tiredness settled in. My lunch time smoothie perked me up a bit but my afternoon was filled with data entry so when I returned home at about 4:30 to find Travis and a puddle of pee in my living room: I was tired. I still needed to run 7.5 miles and although it was an easy pace run it was still a run. I recharged on the couch, watching Top Chef and eating a gluten free homemade corn muffin.

These are Bob's Red Mill corn muffins, superrrr good

Then decision time: run outside in the 40 degree weather with the sun setting right as I start or run at the YMCA, the Triathlon Store or Healthworx, which all have treadmills. All of these places provide the distraction of people and TVs but I turned down all of these places and instead opted for the treadmill in my parents basement. The max speed on this bad boy is 8.0....not too impressive. What it offers me is solitude and time to decompress while doing one of my favorite things. Today I was also in need of a mental pick me up so here is my confession. One of my favorite Pandora stations is Justin Beiber.

The Beibs

How sweet does he look in those shades? Yeah he is the Beibster and ridiculous and might have a baby-mama in California or something but his music is fun to run to. I will also confess that I watched Never Say Never (the Beiber movie) on the CompuTrainer and it was good. The station on Pandora plays lots of other great running music. I like to run to complete crap music when I run because it generally has a nice fast beat and gets me going. Thanks to this station I had a really fun run and because I had the whole place to myself I might just have sang along to some of the tunes :) I may be lame for giving into the Beib-Vibe but he sure did brighten my afternoon today. It also reminded me that even when I am tired from work, working out generally makes me feel loads better.

Dirty Water Bottles

Water bottles always get nasty. No matter how diligently I empty them out after use or rinse the gatorade/powerade/sugars from them they always get moldy. Thanks to their lovely curvature this mold is impossible to get out.

UNTIL NOW!! I finally found the perfect tools for cleaning any water bottle.

Tools:

 

So these are both pretty simple bristle brushes but they had just not occurred to me to use! I was sooo close to throwing out about 6 water bottles that had grime that the dish washer couldn't handle. I had tried soaking them and scrubbing them but my hands were getting cut up trying to reach the sponge to get to the nasty black mildew.  

I finally found the Libman brush in the cleaning isle at the grocery store and then got the even better Munchkin brand scrubber. It is made for baby bottles so it really works perfectly to get to the bottom of the bottle where it is all curved and impossible to clean.

So don't throw those bottles away just yet! The mildew can be conquered. Maybe everyone has already figured this out but I was super psyched when I discovered these guys a little while ago.

Newest Project

With the warm days winding down and my day to day training and working not being too taxing I decided I was ready to foster another dog! I had been in touch with a wonderful woman heading up Kentucky Great Danes, a Great Dane rescue, so when she called with a project I jumped on the opportunity! His name was Travis and he had quite the history. She was not sure of his beginnings but he was 4 years old and at a rescue in Southern Kentucky. The person who had rescued him was not able to get any weight on him or fix his digestive problems with the resources she had available and all of the other foster cases she had to help.

November 5th

I got him on Friday, November 4th and he was a mess. He was incredibly skinny. He would need to gain 40 pounds to be healthy. He came right out of one of those commercials. My brother in law started singing "in the arms of the angels..." by Sarah McLaughlin when he saw him. It was pretty hilarious. He also has lots of scrapes and places where his coat was dry. The worst was the end of his tail; there was an open wound right at the tip. So I had my work cut out for me! The first few days went really well and he loved sleeping in my bed and on my couch. Since he had been having stomach issues and not been able to put on/keep on any weight he has a plan diet. I feed him either chicken, cheerios, beef, oatmeal, peanut butter, some milkbone dog treats or rice. He loves it all! Since he is so tall he just rests his head on the counter whenever I am cooking. I try to feed him about 4 times a day.

November 6th

He already is looking so much better and I can tell he feels better. Now whenever I get home he does a little dance in the window and looks forward to exploring outside. He is honestly the sweetest dog and very low maintenance. He either comes and stands next to you so you pet him or lays next to you on the couch. I am a sucker so he sleeps in my bed. The only bad thing are his farts. He farts very often and very loudly. I think it is hysterical but they do smell pretty bad sometimes. The 4th night I had him he was farting so loudly he woke me up.

His old-man-rice-on-nose face

He likes to sleep like a human

Despite the farts he is a fabulous dog and thanks to fish oil, fatty hamburger meat and lots of love and cuddling he is looking so much better The only issue we are still having is with the wound on his tail. Whenever he wags his tail and hits a wall he reopens it and sprays blood on my apartment...so I have to keep it well covered.






He is already gaining weight and looking more like the big dog he is suppose to be!

Sunday Ride

Last Sunday I decided it was NOT too cold to go out for a nice long Sunday ride. I had already put my bike on the trainer for good but the weather had gotten warm yet again! I was pretty well rested since daylight savings gave me an extra hour of sleep. My friend KMR and I left at about 3:15 for a nice 3 hour rolling ride to Richmond and a trip across the ferry. We started the ride out pretty fast because I hadn't been outside on my bike in awhile and it felt really great to enjoy the fall weather. We went out Delong road, to Jacks Creek, to old Richmond road. At one point we got off on a road called something Lick (dirty I know) and this took us down to the river. This is when I realized I was getting a bit chilled. I am a major baby so once my feet were cold I was nervous. We were only a little over an hour into our ride and it was only going to get colder! Thankfully after we passed a bar that sits on the river, The Boathouse, and took a bridge across the river we had a large climb that took my mind off of my chilly toes.

so lovely down by the river :)

I had been smart enough to wear gloves but had not put toe covers on my shoes. We had a nice time climbing hills and getting through Richmond then finally turned onto Old Tates Creek. After a few rollers the road turned flat for about 6-7 miles with a creek running beside it. With the fall smells, sounds and leaves it was really nice. At this point we also realized that it was getting dark. Duh! Daylight savings was out to get us. With the pending cold we hammered through the 6-7 mile stretch to make it to the ferry. It was awesome to be able to just work hard and have no cars around to worry about. Once we reached the ferry we had to wait for it to come and get us then take us across.

 

The baggie that I keep my phone in made it in this pic because my hands were too chilly to leave my gloves so my dexterity was 0. The ferry is super cute though and has nice flags on it. Once across it was time to climb the 2 mile hill up to get back to Lexington. It is about 16 miles from the bottom of the ferry to my apartment so we were still not that close to home. We took the climb pretty quickly because we were so freezing, especially after sitting still so long waiting for the ferry. One of the ferry men told us before we left that it would be 20 degrees warmer at the top....this was notttt true. It was also getting to be very dark very quickly out there. 

We were coming back to town on Old Tates Creek and each downhill was full of cold air. It was like plunging into an ice bath. It was getting not only miserable but dangerous with the darkness. The night had come on so quickly! We ended up pulling over at Delong and Old Tates Creek to call in a ride home...it was just not worth the risk! I had some reflective stripes on my arm warmers but my friend was dressed in all black. We could have easily gotten run over. The worst part was the wait! We were both hungry and chilly. 

Once home I took a very long long warm shower, had a nice dinner, drank some hot chocolate and cuddled with my new friend, Travis :)

With daylight savings complete it feels much more like winter is coming here. We still have the occasional 70 degree day but I'm pretty sure those are gone for good now. It is sad because it will be cold and dark but it will be a nice change, which I'm ready for.

Quick Dinner

 This past weekend I went to a Halloween party at my friend's house where she dressed up as a broccoli, her husband dressed as a carrot and they fixed some veggies and brats on the grill for everyone. I really enjoyed all of the grilled peppers but the veggie duo also took some huge portabello mushrooms and filled them with feta and tomatoes. They put them right on the grill and just let the cheese get a little melty. I don't really like portobello mushrooms; they usually freak me out and are just ew. I decided I needed to eat one since my palate needs to expand. I am so glad that I did because it was very very tasty. 

So for dinner last night I fixed myself one! I had some left over Inca red quinoa 

that I filled the mushroom with and then I sprinkled some mozzarella on top and just put it in the oven till the cheese was all melted. It was soo good. The picture above looks a bit gross but it is sitting next to my sweet potato. I usually fix a sweet potato like 3 nights/week. I just put some olive oil and sea salt on it and bake it for about 30-45 minutes. One of my favorites and so easy. I eat the skin and all, just slice it up.

 

While my dinner was cooking I broke up some asparagus, cut up a zucchini and some carrots and let them all cook together with a bit of olive oil. Then I added some left over satay sauce and just cooked it all down. I figured this would be good to take to work the next few days to put over some quinoa so I can get my veggies in without eating salad everyday. So I wont turn into a spinach leaf. 

That's also not all I had for dinner, I'm not one that could survive on veggies alone, that sounds awful. That was just what I got a picture of!