It's Pumpkin Season

That's right...Fall is the best because it's the best time to eat pumpkin sweets.  Every year around this time I turn into a baking queen.  I think it must have something to do with the cold weather and not wanting to be outside, instead I eat sweet tasty baked treats. 

What does this have to do with riding your bike Courtenay?  It doesn't, I just wanted to share with you some tasty treats.  As I am writing this I am waiting for my Pumpkin Cheescake to cook!  Instead of going home to Seattle for Thanksgiving I decided to stay in Bellingham with Chris (he has to work).  His fire station is celebrating Thanksgiving together, so I thought I would join them and begin my baking escapade by bringing in a Pumpkin Cheesecake, Sweet Potatoes, and Green Bean Casserole.  Today I am making the Cheesecake.  Here is the tasty recipe.  I have made it for the past 2 years and brought it home for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I usually don't have much left over.  I will write the original recipe, and then some things I change.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg

**My changes include:

• 3 8 ounce packages of cream cheese (this year I am trying 2 packages of neufchael cheese and 1 regular cream cheese). 
• I make my own graham cracker crust to stay away from trans fat that is put into the store bought ones.  I will include that recipe at the bottom. 
• I love spices so I don't measure them out, I just pour those spices in until I think it tastes spicy-licious. 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.
3. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Cover with whipped topping before serving.

**My changes include:

• I have a gas oven so I am cooking it at 300 degrees
• I used about 1.5 cups for the base of just the cream cheese without the pumpkin.  That way you can get a little bit more of the plain cheesecake.  Otherwise it's a lot of creamy pumpkin on top.
• You have to bake this for longer than it says (closer to 1 hour).  It turns into a lot of cheesecake.  I also bake it in a Springform pan placed on top of a baking sheet with a bit of water on the bottom to prevent any cracking in the cheesecake.  That way it stays beautiful. 
• I would also recommend letting it sit overnight, that way all those tasty flavors blend and you can enjoy the flavor more!

Then Ta-da!!!!!!  If you love pumpkin and cheesecake as much as I do, you will LOVE this recipe.  It's SO good.  It just reminds me of Fall and those orange, red, and yellow leaves and the cold breeze. 

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Directions

1. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, melted butter or margarine, and cinnamon until well blended . Press mixture into an 8 or 9 inch pie plate.
2. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 7 minutes. Cool. If recipe calls for unbaked pie shell, just chill for about 1 hour.

** No changes here, other than the obvious, watch the crust take it out around 6 minutes. 

Cheesecake is very easy to make, I promise.  You just have to know when to take it out of the oven.  When it jiggles like jello is a good indicator of when the cheesecake is done.  It can be tricky. 

Good Luck!!!

Less Is More

As a fitness enthusiast, instructor, and trainer I am always telling people the valuable words of wisdom concerning rest.  Rest days during the week, rest and active recovery during competition season.  I am sure most other fitness specialists can agree with me when I say that those rules don't apply to us.  We like to think we are special, that rest doesn't need to be done, who needs rest when you have the time and ability to exercise for 2-3 hours a day?  Right.....wrong.  I learned a valuable lesson yesterday (which I already know but finally have convinced myself).  Everyone's body needs rest, especially when performing at such high intensities (cyclocross).  Therefore my motto this week is "Less is More".  I will take this opportunity to rest my body, let it recover from the damages I put upon it.

I generally only take 1 day off of exercise a week.  That puts me at 6 days/week of exercise ranging from 1-3 hours.  Whether it is biking, running, or teaching classes at the gym.  I exercise thinking Iam invincible, that this body doesn't get tired.  The truth is it does.  And when you continuously overload your body without proper rest you will not recover quickly.  It's important for all of us to realize some signs of overtraining and how to prevent this syndrome, and prevent it before it hits you.  Some signs of overtraining:

• Elevated resting heart rate
• Insomnia
• Moodiness
• Decrease in performance

These are just a few. It's important to realize that overtraining is an important issue for athletes.  If you don't catch it quickly and soon it can take months to recover from.  I find measuring your resting heart rate a great way to determine if your body is rested and recovered or not.  Even if it's not to determine if you are overtrained or not, but to determine on what your workout should be for that day.  If you were planning on a hard workout, but you find your heart rate is elevated, you should probably think about an easy recovery workout. 

Now that I have your attention and you might think something went terribly wrong in my race yesterday, I would like to let you know that nothing went terribly wrong at all.  I just learned that I am not superman and I need to get over my obsessive compulsive desire to exercise and let my body rest.  Perhaps that's why I performed so well at Maris Farms...my body was rested from Hawaii.  Thank you vacation.

Flashback Friday evening...
I am sitting in the living room with Kristen and Dan when I look up and out the window and realize it's snowing...a lot.  By the time we realized the snow had already accumulated about 1inch...or even more.  The only thing on my mind was...RACE ON SUNDAY.

Fast forward to Saturday.  Kristen and I decide to go on a nice snowy cross ride.  It was SO much fun.  Cold, but, a lot of fun no doubt.  The sun was out and the snow was melting very slowly.  When we got home I packed my bags and took the sunny opportunity to get out of town.  I was shocked at the lack of snow 1 mile south of Bellingham.  Bellingham was literally the last spot to get hit with the snow.  Lake Samish even had nothing.

Sunday.  Chris and I wake up and pack our bags to head to Tacoma to watch Whitney's race at 10am.  It was SO cold!  Watching Whitney race so much fun, she had such an amazing race, looked so confident throughout the entire race, on the run ups, while she was passing people (men).  It was awesome!  When you ride like that you deserve a big fat W, and that's just what she got!!!!!  She held onto first place for basically the entire race, it was very exciting. 

Before the Men 1/2 raced I did a couple of laps on the course, it was fast and flat.  Not too soggy either.  I watched the men race while I warmed up on the trainer.  My legs didn't feel too amazing as I was warming up, I was hoping that was just them trying to wake up.  Turns out it wasn't.  As always when we were waiting for the start we waited forever shivering, and when we finally start I take off horribly.  For some reason at the start of a race I can never get clipped in and started right away.  Something I should work on.  The race was ON.  The first lap I spent keeping up with the front ladies, trying to pick off as many of them as I could (well there was only 3 in front of me).  I picked off one of them, and then another.  2nd lap at the barries I get passed by mamma long legs as she floated over the barries with her legs the length of my entire stature.  She leaped on her bike with a lot of confidence and took off.  I wasn't too stoked because I passed her the last lap, but she was having a strong race and I just couldn't dig too much more to get up to her.  I am thankful for my lack of umf at this time because about 2 minutes later she crashed (dislocated her shoulder) and took 2 men out with her.  I was far enough back to go around the crash and continue on with my race knowing all I had to do was catch the first place women.  On the long flat cement section I caught up to her and it was her and myself for the next 2 laps.  We worked together and talked.  Discussed how we had to work hard if we didn't want the 3rd place women to catch us, because she was getting close.  At the barriers on the 3rd lap I came through and passed her.  She followed me through them and for the rest of the lap, when she came around me at the start of our 4th lap stating we needed to pick it up if we didn't want the 3rd place women to catch us.  I said okay lets go.  So she lead the following lap, on the cement section I pulled through and lead us through the start of the 5th lap.  About 1 minute after the barrier section she says to me "she caught us, we are all together".  So it was now us 3.  About 2 minutes after that the woman who caught us took the opportunity and jumped it taking the lead and eventually the win.  This is when I went into I can't push it anymore.  I can usually push it and be fine, I don't get tired.  This is when I realized rest is a good thing.  I know I can beat the women that took first, because in every other race I have always beat her.  So why now did she have that extra push to go faster than me?  I know I can go faster, I know I can do it!  So, I will take this week as a recovery week and continue to tell myself that "Less is More".  I finished in 3rd..once again.  But I just know I could have taken the Win....or at least I think?

Maybe I cursed myself?  My dad asked me if I was going to win and I told him no way.  Maybe that's why, of course at that time I thought Kristi Berg would be racing. She broke her hand at the MFG race and is out for the rest of the SCX races.  Total bummer, but like a true trooper she was still out at the races in the freezing cold cheering everyone on.  Quite awesome if you ask me.

After I finished I changed and Chris raced.  I didn't make it out to his race until they had 4 laps to go.  He was having a great race, pushing so hard, and breathing hard, and even putting his head down like he always does!  When I made it out to watch his race he was about 4th/5th place.  On the last lap he had made up so much time that about half way through the lap he was sitting in 2nd place and getting closer and closer to the young child in first.  By the time they hit the cement section Chris was in front, and took the Victory!!!!!!!!!  I am SO proud...it's his first Cat 3 Win.  It shows that riding you bike pays off. 

So find that happy medium folks.  Don't overtrain, but DO ride your bike to improve your fitness and strength.  Find the level that works best for you and most importantly.....
Listen to your body

Crosstastic weekend

There was a lot of heavy breathing and leg burning over this last weekend.  I decided it would be my first weekend to race hard 2 days in a row.  Just to see how my body would respond.  It was hard.

Saturday I raced in Sedro Wooley as a part of the Cascade Cross series, and Sunday I raced at Woodland park (part of the MFG series).  This was the season finale for the MFG series, so it was a happenin' day. 

Saturday only 3 women showed up for the Women A's.  I was a little bummed because I was looking forward to actually racing hard.  The other 2 women that showed up are Cat 3's, so I knew I was going to Win, which wasn't much fun knowing that at the start.  The course was straight and fast.  I felt as if there was a lot more downhill than up, but I won't complain.  With all the rain we have been having the grass was pretty soggy in sections.  Since I decided I probably wouldn't be having much competition in the women's field I decided to see how many of the B men I could catch up to.  I didn't count, but it was quite a few.  I love passing men, they get so irritated (esp. since I start behind them).  The run up in this race was awesome, it looked like the end of the world, it was pretty cool.  So I took home the W for this race, but it wasn't as rewarding as I would have hoped. 

Sunday Chris and I headed to Seattle.  I raced this course last year and had an absolute blast, so I was excited to race again.  I was one of 2 riders that started in the back row.  I didn't really mind that much, we have such a small field it's not that hard to get around people.  The race started on this rapid fast downhill with a flat section then the first hard turn right around a tree.  From there I made it around most people and was around 3rd/4th/5th place.  Not sure which one I can't remember.  Well I soon found myself in 4th place chasing this women who was SO close and every lap I would get a little closer.  Well the last 2 laps started to get hard, I fell over before the barriers, and just got so dang tired. I was beginning to feel the previous days race.

I finished the race in 5th place, of 10.  Right in the middle of the pack.  I hope this Sunday goes a little better and I dont bonk like I did last Sunday

Pumpkin patch from the depths of down under

You either liked the race at Maris Farms or you didn't.  Really, there wasn't an in-between.  It doesn't matter which category you were in...it was hard and it was muddy.  A variety of mud really, peanut buttery mud, slick mud, bog type mud, tacky mud.  We experienced it all. 

To start my weekend off Chris and I returned home from Hawaii at 12:30am Friday/Saturday (however you look at it).  Of course after 9 hours of traveling it's hard to fall asleep right away so I didn't get to sleep until 2am.  I set my alarm for 8 am so we could wake up, eat breakfast, put our bikes together and head out to Ferndale to race our cross bikes in one of Ryan's races.  Well my alarm didn't go off and Chris woke up at 9 am (which woke me up) and I realized what time it was, jumped out of bed ran into the kitchen saw Kristen and told her of my situation (I race in 1.5 hours and my bike is in pieces).  So I went into the garage and Kristen came and helped me, she put my cyclocross tires back onto my bike (since I had my road tires on) and I put my seat post and handlebars back together.  With the help of all of us my bike was up and ready to go.  I slap on some clothes, throw some other clothes into a bag and away Chris and I go (9:30am) to Ferndale so I can race.  We get there at 10am, just in time to register and warm up a little bit.  I always take theses races a little less serious and don't race as hard, so I warmed up and put in about a 70-75% effort.  I certainly got a lot more out of that race.  It woke my legs up from vacation, and my lungs and I got done and felt SOOO good, ready to race on Sunday!



This is my excitement to race (although this was in Hawaii)

 After the races Chris and I went home showered, threw some clothes into a bag, did some laundry so we had clean clothes for the next day, got dressed and headed back down to Seattle to go to a Cucina Fresca team party.  We attend go home and go to sleep and rest up for the following day of races.

Sunday...we wake up and it's SUNNY!  I was excited, the air smelt crisp and the leaves were a beautiful color on the ground, I just couldn't wait to race my bike.  Here is how it went.  After the last race before we left for Hawaii Chris and I realized the benefit of brining a trainer to the race with us in order to warm up, especially since we have a tent we can warm up under.  So we brought a trainer so we could actually warm up for a race!  Before the men's 1/2 race I did a prelap of the course.  I truthfully should have listened to Aaron when he told me he wished he didn't do one.  But I went ahead and rode a prelap anyways, got my bike totally dirty, but more imporantly I got really muddy...and I wasn't racing for another 1.5 hours.  I waited in line to wash my bike off, went back to our tent and prepared myself for a trainer warm up with Nikole. 

I head to the start line, and as always we stand there for what seems like an eternity, but I got my call up! The worst part about my call up was me being pushed to the far left of the start line....I had to start in about 5 inches of mud...therefore I wasn't even on my bike when I started my race...I had to run with my bike for the first 10 seconds of the race and then do a remount.  When I remounted onto my bike and I tried to pedal I didn't go anywhere, and I looked down to realize my chain wasn't even on my chainring...AWESOME!  So I shifted up pedaled some and my chain popped back on.  I was feeling pretty good when I started and I was just going to try my best to ride steady don't sprint because once you get tired you start getting sloppy, and this course was not a course to be sloppy on...or else you would be getting sloppy with the mud.  I ended up passing quite a bit of the ladies during the first 5 minutes or less of the race, and before I realized it I was sitting in about 4th/5th place before the start of the 2nd lap.  Then here is what happened to me...sit back and get ready to laugh at the photos you are about to witness (they are hillarious):

Taking the line

Soon regretting the line

Aw sh*t get up bike

Laughing it off and continuing on...

Ooops I fell down!!!  It was pretty comical, I thought I was being all sly by taking the outside line...turns out it wasn't the one to take...so I didn't try that again.  About half way through my 2nd lap I passed the women who was in 3rd and I never looked back.  I was only about 1 minute back from 2nd place, but it wasn't enough for me to do a 6th lap...I was lapped by the single speeders...as always.  So I placed 3rd.  I am pretty happy with my third place finish considering one year ago was my first cyclocross race and I was in the CAT 4 field.  Right now I am 3rd in the series, it would be pretty cool to finish the year on the podium.  2 more races and I am still on cyclocross high.

 

I think I will go ride my mountain bike now.