A quick fix - leftover brown rice with lentil, raw cubed yellow squash and zucchini, steamed carrots, and shredded smoked top (bison meat).

A bowl of cold rice salad chills me down when the weather gets hot and humid outside!

I woke up at 5 AM as usual. I ate my first breakfast, drank two cups of coffee, and visited the toilet…like a normal day. I attempted to study for my organic chemistry mid-term, but my brain just couldn’t function until I jump start my testosterone.

Total distance: 5.6 miles
Time: 42:05 (7:51/mi pace approximately)

Now I am pumped!

Warm-up

• 400 meters freestyle
• 200 dolphin kicks with1-arm flies
• 200 flutter (freestyle) kicks

Presets:

• 350 meters pull buoy (50, 100, 200 meters)
• 350 meters pull with hand paddles (50, 100, 200 meters)

Main sets:

• 5 x 50 meters sprints
• 5 x 100 meter sprints
• 5 x 200 meter at 85% race pace

Total distance: 3250 meters

Note to myself: drink, drink, drink…H2O that is! Feet have cramped up constantly in the last two training sessions.

Jersey blueberry is out!

Risotto with spinach, wild mushrooms, and sardine.

Risotto is a popular Italian dish. Restaurants take pride in making the perfect risotto. Women get mesmerized when men serve this hearty dish along a bottle of great Italian wine. So what’s the fuzz? I decided to guinea-pig the recipe from Alton Brown’s Good Eats (don’t forget to watch the second episode).

Cooking risotto requires time and patience; you need to stir the rice often and cook it under simmer, which can take up to 40 minutes. I gave myself an hour this evening to make the risotto with spinach and wild mushrooms.

My risotto came out great. A nice risotto dish is creamy from the long cooking time and grated Parmesan cheese stirred in at the end. Risotto is also chewy that makes it enjoyable in every bite. With more fresh produce coming out in the summer, I look forward to add other ingredients to my next risotto attempt.

Many of us have the misconception that a vegan diet does not provide enough protein to repair damaged muscles and enhance muscle hypertrophy, which lead to poorer athletic performance. However, with proper nutritional guidelines, one can still compete at high level with a vegan (or vegetarian) diet.

1. Consume adequate carbohydrate and high-quality protein
   A joint statement by the American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine states that a normal person should consume 0.8 g protein/kg (body weight)/day, and a more active individual can go up to 1.2 to 1.4 grams a day. Some recommended foods are legumes, dried beans, peas, nuts, and soy.
2. Consume enough calories
   Vegans are recommended to eat more frequently; tofu, dried fruits, jams, avocados, nuts and seeds are great for meals and snacks to pack on enough calories to facilitate energy spending.
3. Prevent iron-deficiency anemia
   Iron is important for the synthesis of hemoglobin and myoglobin, the iron-protein complexes that send oxygen to working muscles. To prevent anemia, eat fortified breakfast cereals  (watch the sugar content), bread, textured vegetable protein, legumes, dried beans, soy foods, nuts, dried fruits, and green leafy vegetables.
4. Eat fortified foods to optimize vitamin B12, riboflavin, vitamin D, and calcium intake
   Vitamin B12 is important for the normal metabolism of nerve tissue, protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Riboflavin is essential for energy production. Vitamin D is needed for calcium absorption, which also helps blood clotting, nerve transmission, and muscle stimulation. One can eat fortified soy products, cereals, broccoli, bok choy, and kale to get the essential nutrients.
5. Eat algae (or take a supplement for optimal essential fatty acid intake)
   Brain protecting omega-3 fatty acids can be found in microalgae and seaweed.

I have had my doubts for vegetarian or vegan diet; I grew up drinking milk and eating meat. However, some popular athletes have been on vegan diet and performed well. Although I will not give up my meat, I am planning on guinea-pigging a new diet that has less meat, more produce, and nuts and seeds to meet my daily calorie consumption.

Ingredients:

• long grain brown rice steamed with lentil
• zucchini
• spinach
• mushroom
• asparagus

I steamed brown rice and lentil last night, which saved me some time for making this dish today. I sautéed mushrooms to draw out its liquid first. Then, I added the rice and lentil mixture with spinach, zucchini, and asparagus into a separate pan and cooked them for several minutes until the spinach was wilted. I added the mushrooms last and sprinkled a little more salt for final flavoring before serving myself. This rice dish was nutritious; it has “good” carbohydrates from vegetables and rice, proteins from lentils, and “good” fats from the extra virgin olive oil that I use for sautéing. Have I become a vegetarian? Not quite, I washed down this savory dish with a glass of organic low-fat milk.

I remember getting screamed at by my football coach whenever I took a play off or did not block our opponent until a play was over either during a practice or game. Of course, there was always a consequence for not executing a play successfully; my coach would make the team spend more time practice fundamental football, such as blocking. To execute a great blocking technique, one needs to keep his feet moving forward and the opponent in front of him. Those days of endless blocking drills are well behind me, but I have found myself doing the same motion recently from mowing the lawn.

Since the gas price has skyrocketed in the last few months. I have been doing everything I can to cut down my gasoline consumption. I have stopped using my gas-run grass mower and purchased a reel mower, which requires me to push the machine (is it still a machine if it doesn’t not have an engine?) forward manually.

After putting together the mower, I thought pushing a machine that weighs less than 35 lbs. would be easy. However, little did I know that pushing a reel mower over uneven (my lawn has many uneven spots) ground was as difficult as was pushing a lineman who was twice as big as I was. I kept my feet moving and barely finished mowing the front lawn. Although my first experience with reel mower was not a breeze, I sure had a great workout pushing the mower.

I highly recommend using a reel mower for your grass because you save gas and your grass gets a better “cut” as well. A gas-run mower rips the grass while a manual mower chopps the grass cleanly like scissors cutting through a sheet of paper. Also, reel mower produces little sound, which reduces noise in the neighborhood. (I am not a big fan of hearing a mower roaring in the morning or later in the afternoon.) Last but not least, you get a great workout for pushing a reel mower.

I have neglected weight training for the last three weeks due to my hectic schedule and decision to focus on swimming to improve my time for triathlon. However, my fitness mentor, Samantha, tells me that I should continue with weight training to maintain my strength, which I need besides endurance, for longer distance event.

To combine my strength and endurance training, I did multi-planar (multi-joint) exercises that include traditional free weight, Olympic lift, and body weight training. I also did some sprints and set up several exercise stations outside after lifting to improve my cardiovascular fitness.

Warm-up:

• 5 minutes of jump rope
• 30 push-ups
• 1 minute of crunches

Weight training:

• Alternate dumbbell press s/s* with crunches: 3 x 15, 40 lbs.
• 1 arm clean and jerk (no rest between each set): 3 x 10, 30 lbs. dumbbells.
• Snatch: 3 x 15, 45 lbs. (bar)
• Pull-ups: 2 x failure, 12 reps each set.
• Barbell combinations**: 2 sets, exercises are done consecutively.

*s/s - superset
** regular press, close grip press, bend-over rows, curls, shoulder press, wide-grip press

Cardiovascular training:

• 100 yards sprints: 10
• 4 stations at 4 corners of a soccer field: mountain climbers, parachute, body weight squat, high jumps; I sprint to every corner after each exercise and rested for 20 seconds. I did two laps around the soccer field.

With NYC triathlon less than 5 weeks away, I need to maximize my training and prepare for the challenging Olympic distance event. Stay tune for Sweaty Guinea Pig’s new training routine.

Vegetables:
1 bunch of wild arugula: $2.50
1 lb. of mushrooms, 2 zucchini, 2 yellow squash*, 1 cucumber: $5.00

Fruits:
10 apples: $5.00 (ate some already)
2 tomatoes: $3.50
1 quart of Jersey strawberries: $4.99

Meat:
1 pack of sliced smoked top (bison meat): $11.00 ($9.00/lb.)

Total: $31.99

*I have been a regular to Schieferstein Farm Market and become friends with the owners; they were generous and gave me 2 free yellow squash.

Have you been shopping for local ingredients lately?