April ABS Bring Millennium May Flowers

April's AB Awareness challenge is finally over.  If you completed your 3,000 reps, please comment to this post with your final number, and you'll get a BikeRunSwig Point.  2 points for the champ.  Word on the street says First Class still has 1,000 left, but only has 4 hrs after work to finish. Good Luck!

Now for Millennium May.  Pick two events from the list below.  Complete one full event, and half of another event.  Then pick one mandatory SWIG event (or two if you want) and you'll earn a BRS point. 

You must track your progress on the MM spreadsheet.  Any questions, just ask theGuth!

EVENTS (choose one FULL, choose one HALF)

200,000 meters RUN

1,000 K BIKE

10,000 meters SWIM

2,000 PUSH-UPS

1,000 PULL-UPS/CHIN-UPS

2,000 ABS

1,000 minutes TIME of an activity (approx 50 min / 5 days / wk)

Mandatory SWIG (choose one)

3,000 mL WINE (4 bottles)

10,000 mL BEER (28 beers)

1,000 mL LIQUOR (about 22 shots)

4 Bottles of Magnum Malt Liquor (In honor of the Magnum Series)

15,000 mL MILK (4 gallons)

Feliz Compleano Crash

Meant to post this Sunday but my computer melted down. You get some really awesome graphics when your graphics card melts to your mother board, destroying both. I think its what Nietsche was hinting at in Thus Spake Zarathustra.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to the one who's mental imbalance and competitive nature got this all started.

It Is On

1,200 is the number for day one. Not a cheap 1,200, there were 200 flutter kicks (fucking suck) and 200 leg lifts (freakin suck) in there. I was going to stop at 1,000, my daily goal, but it occurred to me that doing 1,000 a day is going to fucking suck and there are days I'm going to bail. So I channeled Crash and put a cherry on top. Another 100 flutters and another 100 leg lifts. Enjoy the trip to Flossmoor Crash. Try to spend some time with the family when you're not doing obliques.

April is Abdominal Awareness Month II

I got an email from our web host, they are renewing our beloved little url today. 

It's been a year of BikeRunSwig everyone!

We've come a long ways since last year. I know I've learned a lot about myself, about what I can do and what just a scoche of competition turns me into. 

I've also lost about 25lbs, so no complaints there. I've learned that I actually like running, something I would have never, ever guessed. I also learned that I don't like swimming (yet?) mostly because I can't not sink. 

I learned how bull-headed and unrelenting Crash can be when he sets his mind to something, but also that when he says he's stopped drinking it means he'll make a sixpack of Newcastle disappear within 24 hours. I've learned that Chris from Ventoux is likely the funniest person I've ever met and I wish he would post more (but I also hear he might be moving closer!). Gerald (not her real name) is amazing and knows she can accomplish whatever it is she wants to do, even though I think she talks herself out of it most of the time. And Jay can do the Centipede!

I'm also really excited about this next year. Excited about some of the challenges I'm setting for myself. Excited even more about the competitions and events we'll all do together. I'm not excited for 00:06:00 September. Nonetheless, this coming BRS year will certainly be better than the last.

Anyhow, enough waxing romantic. 

It's business time.

April is Abdominal Awarness Month. Rules are the same this year as the last. 1 Magnum Series point will be awarded to anyone that can attain 3000 repetitions of any abdominal exercise (situps, crunches, obliques, inclines, flutter kicks, you name it) or any combination of exercises by month's end. 1 extra point will be awarded to whomever does the most reps. Remember, this went well into the 5 digit range last year, be aware of what you're getting into. 

March Menu

Running out of time here. This is actually from last Monday. I've also been trying to clean out the pantry and freezer a bit, so this was done on a weekday and involved very little actual cooking.

Breakfast:
Banana Bread with cream cheese
(baked fresh on Saturday)













Hard boiled egg from Sunday
Orange juice (from concentrate, for a lower carbon footprint)
















Lunch was a bowl of pasta fagiole (pasta with beans) that were left over from Sunday. I don't have a picture, but boy was it stunning coming out of the office microwave in tupperware. Still tasted good.

Dinner was home made Tamales from the freezer. I checked the date on the bag and I made them March 1st, so they sould qualify. Stuffed with tender pork carnitas and masa, loving wrapped by this gringo here, steamed and served with homeade tomatillo salsa.

















for desert I pulled some chocolate chip cookie dough out of the freezer. I usually keep some in there, but I seem to have a problem with some kind of rodent getting in there, unwrapping the wax paper and nawing on the end.











Yeah its sideways. Yes, I'm too lazy to fix it.

Hal-munny Gear

That's what Crash calls Granny Gear. Davey was hired to provide Granny support and that he did. Today's 56+ mi ride with 3800+ ft of climbing would not have been possible without it. At least twice before I had walked Gerald up those Seattle Hill hairpins, and Nike Hill? Would not have been possible even with the 27 cog on Gerald, at least with my legs. Beautiful course, beautiful weather.

Thanks to the crew, Crash, Guth, and Spiz for waiting patiently for me at the tops of many hills, and sharing caboose "sweep" duty pulling me up those hills. And the steel-cut oats with fresh blueberries, walnuts, and honey harvested by hand in Poland I must admit beats even bacon for preride fare. You're all good boys, i.e. will wait until Grandma crests the hill without an ounce of impatience. I've failed twice to crest Madison Hill, but after today, I hope it won't give me palpitations or that sinking feeling of dread.

MMMy Menu: springtime surf & turf

Well, I didn't set out to do a MMMarch day today, but I created a decent dinner so I guess this is it. I don't typically eat a big breakfast, I had the last of Crash's bagels, toasted with a little butter and a bosc pear (sorry, no pix). Just enough to get me going before I went out for my morning run.

For lunch I sliced thin some of my leftover corned beef (just from this last thurs) and heated it in a skillet. Made a sandwich with that. I had some leftover fococcia bread from a panini dinner the other night too. So I bascially made a quick panini, corned beef, spinach leaves, garlic mayo (more leftovers) and some dijon. It was pretty tasty (sorry, no pic).

We went grocery shopping today so I had lots to choose from for dinner, but I also wanted to get rid of some of the items that had been in the fridge for awhile. So I used up a couple heads of week-old cauliflower, made a puree with some chicken stock and a little cream, a little tarrgon. I minced up the remaining corned beef and did the same with some cremini mushrooms I had on hand and some bread crumbs. That mixture got rolled up in fillets of dover sole and baked with butter, onions and a tiny hint of cardamom. Served atop the cauliflower and some wilted some beet greens it made for a nice little meal. We also had some brown rice topped with sliced avocado (sorry, not pictured) and a $3 bottle of wine (sorry, not pictured).

I think we have some strawberries for dessert. I think I need to find some time to exercise tomorrow.