11 days after that...

OK, so I've managed to miss a week. It was Christmas and I was having fun.

Personal update:
Happy Cassie continues to be very happy. Tom and I are moving into a new place sometime in January. It's all very exciting. Tom is taking over as owner of GVH Bikes and will be moving the biz here from Coos Bay. The house is located in a great spot, less than a mile from great mountain biking/trail running and only 3 flattish miles from my work. We can't wait.

Chubby Cassie... is still kind of chubby. Darn Christmas goodies got me, no matter how much I skate skied. Evil, sneaky, intractable, recalcitrant bum fat (ESIRBF).

Athletic update:
I've committed to racing the High Cascades 100. That should help with the ESIRBF mentioned above. It's definitely got me riding scared.

Tip for the week:
Side plank is a great exercise for almost anyone. It's a common area of weakness and can contribute to low back pain, IT Band syndrome, knee pain, even shin splints. Here's a video link that I put together to help determine if this is a weak point for you and what to do about it.

Happy adventures everyone.

One week hence...

Injuries = nearly all healed.

Chubby Cassie = getting slimmer Cassie. I decided to try an online food and activities diary. It is helping a lot. It's amazing how motivating looking at calorie numbers can be to 1) give you that extra push to get out the door and train so you can have that pint of stout and 2) to keep you from eating all the nasty candies in the bowl at work. Thank you Carly for the inspiration and for showing me the site.

New life phase Cassie = Still happy and excited Cassie. I promise a new post to fill you in on the excited details... soon

My tip for the week:

Cross country skiing burns way more calories than most any other activity. Here in the Gorge it has the added bonus of getting you up on the mountain and out from under the inversion where you might get some sunshine. So get those skis out and enjoy the sun.

It's been a while

So, it's been a very busy late summer/fall and well really... almost winter.

What's been going on? You might ask.

Well in summary...
Cross racing = fun and injuries (not serious)
Post Ironman eating = chubby Cassie
New clients = busy Cassie
New life phase = happy Cassie... to be continued, I can't expose all the details just yet.

But what I mean to do is start blogging once a week. I should be able to manage that right? Just a tip or two. In the next while, they'll mostly be dietary since that's my latest kick. Gotta get rid of the post Ironman chub before endurance mountain biking season is here.

So today's tip is asparagus. I discovered that you can eat a lot of asparagus roasted in the oven for a fraction of the calories of french fries and way more vit C.

Here's how I do it...

Chop up a bunch of asparagus into 2 inch lengths. Toss lightly in olive oil and roast at 400 deg F for about 10 min. Sprinkle on salt and eat like french fries. One cup of asparagus has only 32 calories but 73% of your RDI of vit C. Way better than french fires.

Which reminds me, I have some in the oven right now.