Saturday was my first brick session this year.  In one aspect, I was looking forward to it because it signaled that training is well under way and the racing season is just around the corner.  On the other hand, I was dreading the fact that it is still winter and I would have to do my brick session indoors.  I wanted to at least do the run portion outside, but after having biked on the trainer, I was way too sweaty to just head outside.

I started the session with 1:15 on the bike at a consistent, steady pace. I watched part of Modern Marvels: Walt Disney World to kill the time.  Absolutely fascinating.  It made the time fly by.  I am going to have to schedule more from the series for future rides.

After the ride, I hopped on the treadmill for 20 minutes.  I hate running on the treadmill.  The only reason we actually have a treadmill is because the previous owners left it behind when they moved.  I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually used it.  However, Jennie does get a bit of use out of it.  Nevertheless, it was easier to just go from the trainer to the treadmill rather than get showered up and dried off before trying to go out into the cold and run outside.

Overall, it was a good first brick of the season.  Hopefully it warms up soon so that I can move the training outdoors.

After training and lunch, Jennie and I headed to the West Michigan Brewers Guild Festival at Fifth Third Ballpark.  We got free tickets from a friend’s husband who works in the industry.  The tickets included 15 beer tokens, each redeemable for 3 ounce samples of beers.  They had over 50 microbrewers and 300 varieties of beer available for sampling.  It was a blast.

 
Friends Chris and Noelle – our ticket connection.  Thanks guys!

At first, it was very overwhelming.  Tons of people (around 5,000 tickets sold), beer everywhere, and not knowing where to start.  Chris had lots of good advice on what to try and what to avoid because of his work – such a horrible job working in the beer industry.

We started off at the Mount Pleasant Brewing Co. with a Train Wreck Amber and Coal Stoker’s Blackberry.  The Train Wreck was aptly named; a couple of those and you would be a train wreck.  It was a strong (8% ABV) beer brewed with honey and maple syrup.  The Coal Stoker’s Blackberry was much smoother and just as good.

Throughout the area, they had fire pits setup to warm up by and dry your feet.

After that, we headed to Old Hat Brewery and Grill.

 
Jennifer sampling the Peche Lager from Old Hat Brewery.  It was her favorite of the day. 
I sampled their Dirty Red Milf, which was good as well. 

We continued on to the Old Boys’ Brewhouse for Old Boys’ Brown Ale and then to the Corner Brewery for Michael Faricy’s Irish Stout.  If you know me, you know I’ll never turn down an Irish-style beer.

We made sure to stop by a couple of the breweries that we recognized – namely Hopcot and Rochester Mills Beer Co.  Both are restaurants we have eaten at before (and plan to again), so it was nice to be able to try some of their beers ahead of time to know what we’ll like.  The beer from Rochester Mills was an organic beer, which gave it a unique taste, but that also might have been due to the fact that it was served from the right breast of a bikini clad mannequin.

 
Rochester Mills unique beer delivery system.
I sampled from the right.

After about two hours in the cold, Chris and Noelle shared their VIP passes with us, which allowed us to go inside, sit down, and warm up for a bit.  Once we warmed back up, we made the rounds again and hit a few more breweries.  I had to try Schmohz Brewing Co’s Kiss My Scottish Arse Scotch Ale based on the name alone.  I also tried a beer from The Livery in Benton Harbor.  Benton Harbor is where one of my half Ironman races is going to be this year, so maybe we can visit the restaurant this summer for a post race refueling session.

Jennie isn’t much of a beer drinker (she’ll take a Cosmo over an Ale any day), so I ended up drinking sampling for two at some of the breweries.  As you can see, I was very disappointed about this.

Even if you know nothing about beer (and I know very little), it can be a lot of fun.  If you don’t know what kind of beer you want, just pick it based on name.  Some of the best named beers of the day were: Kiss My Scottish Arse Scotch Ale, “Hands Off My Goat!” Stout, Sage Against the Machine American Pale, Ghettoblaster, Pooh Beer, Kilt Tilter, More Cow Bell IPA, Motha Pucker Dark Sour Ale, and Bees Knees Honey Ale.

Overall, it was a ton of fun and many great beers were had.

Update: Krista from Commitment is Liberating let me know that the recipe is available on Rachael Ray’s website here if you are interested.  Thanks Krista!  It makes me feel less guilty for possibly violating copyright by posting a picture of the magazine.

Over the weekend, while at the in-laws, I was flipping through a Rachael Ray magazine (yes, I admit it) and came across this recipe.  It is a vegetable stir fry and it looked mighty good.  I took a picture of the recipe so that I could make it at a later day.

That day was today.  After my swim, I headed to the store to purchase the necessities.  It was an interesting recipe because it included lots of things I have never cooked with before like Tabasco sauce, fresh ginger, bok choy, and black bean sauce.  On top of that, it included lots of fresh veggies so it was guaranteed to be healthy.  I did alter the recipe a bit and sautéed a cut up chicken breast because I thought veggies alone wouldn’t be filling enough.

After I got home, I realized that I forgot to buy the requisite egg rolls.  So, when I headed out for my run later in the afternoon, I stopped by the store again and picked a up few from the deli.  On my run, I ran into Kelly, a friend and former high school XC teammate.  We ran together for a mile or so while she did her cool down.  It was nice to have someone to chat with for a change.

Getting all the ingredients in order.

I did my best to get everything in order before I started so that I wasn’t running around too much once I got started.  I still found myself hurrying to get veggies chopped before the chicken burned and the sauce made before the veggies were over cooked.  It is nice that a stir fry cooks so quickly, but it really keeps you on your toes.

The veggies stir frying.  It is always so pleasing when the food is so colorful.

I stir fried the veggies in my favorite stir fry pan.  It has one side higher than the other to make flipping the veggies easier.  I tried to take a video of myself flipping the veggies.  It didn’t turn out very well and I ended up with a handful on the floor (oops!).  So much for showing how much easier the pan makes it!

The finished product on our new Asian inspired placemats.  How appropriate.

The meal turned out fantastic.  It will definitely be making a reoccurrence in the future.  It was super spicy though.  Maybe we’ll cut back on the Tabasco sauce next time.  We ended up going through an entire 2 quart pitcher of Crystal Light just to keep our mouths from starting on fire.

Enjoying the meal – and realizing that I really need a haircut.  Yikes!

We’ve come a long way over the past years babe.  You probably didn’t even know what you were getting into during those first days.  And now, along with becoming my best friend and beautiful bride, you have have also turned into:

My personal photographer,

Support crew,

Cheerleader,

and pack mule.

Somehow, I even talked you into joining me on this crazy endeavor a few times.

But I found that the best way to keep you happy is to keep you well fed.

All kidding aside, you mean the world to me and I couldn’t do any of this without you.  Thank you for everything you do for me and putting up with my crazy training schedules and races.  I am so glad that I have you in my life!!!! Love you princess.

Maria over at 2010 Brings Racine recently tagged me to list 10 things that make me happy.  So, here goes

New Socks

I love the feel of a brand new pair of socks.  In fact, I just found a virgin pair in the bottom of my sock drawer today.  It made for a happy day for my feet.

Pizza, A Cold Beer & College Football

Technically, any one of these three things makes me happy.  But all of them at the same time is just heaven.  Given a choice, I’d go for Buddy’s Pizza, Guinness, and a ND game (in person if possible).

Woodworking

Whether it is a smaller project like a desk for the Mrs or a larger project like finishing the basement, I am a Do-It-Yourselfer to the core.  Why pay someone else to do it when I could do it for free and gain some life experience.

Programming

I don’t know if I am allowed to list work as one of my 10 things, but I am going to any ways.  I love the accomplishment that comes along with writing a program from scratch that makes a given task easier.  Yes, I am a nerd.  I know it.

Movies & TV

I don’t want to come off sounding like a bum, but I don’t think I could live without movies and TV.  I have the TV (or computer with TV shows) on almost all day long.  I work better when I have background noise, so there are times where I have show on in the background but am only half paying attention.  Likewise, we have a Netflix subscription and I will watch pretty much anything – even my fair share of chick flicks.  My guilty pleasures are repeats of The Office, Law & Order, NCIS, and 24 among others.

Blogging and My Blogging Buddies

Not only to I enjoy blogging about my adventures, but I have also learned so much from other bloggers.  When I first started reading tri/running blogs, I had about 5 in my Google Reader.  I now have over 30 (and growing) that I follow on a regular basis.

Not Driving

I really dislike driving.  I used to enjoy it.  But now that I don’t do it on a regular basis and can run a lot of my errands on the bike, I get irritated when I do have drive around: the traffic, the stupid drivers, it all bugs me now.  And yes, I realize that saying this makes me sound like an old man – I accept that.

Running After a Fresh Snow Fall

There is something really peaceful and calming about running through fresh powder.  Unfortunately, this usually means getting up early which I don’t like to do.  Sort of a Catch-22.

My Woodcock Ladies

The greatest group of ladies in the world.  I met them all while in college when they lived together in the on-campus Woodcock house.  Sadly, we are scattered all over the Midwest now.  We still try and keep in touch through email and Facebook though.  It is these lovely ladies that were responsible for setting me up on a blind date back in 2003 leading us to our final item on the list…

My Beautiful Bride

My cheerleader, support staff, photographer, and a whole lot more during this crazy journey I have embarked on.  Love you babe!  I couldn’t do it without you!

Now, technically I am supposed to tag more people to continue this on.  However, looking through the blogs I follow, pretty much everyone has been tagged already.  However, if you are reading this and have not yet been tag, consider yourself tagged!

Over the weekend we had weather in the low 40’s which not only melted most of the snow left on the ground, but also let me break out shorts for my run on Sunday.  It was actually pleasant enough out that Jennie and I were able to walk up to Big Bob’s Pizza in Gaslight Village to have lunch with her brother, his fiancé, and his room mate.

So much for our heat wave.  Today was back down in the 20’s with a single digit feels like temperature.  As I sat in my office, I was dreading my run as I watched the wind blow the snow all over the place.  I sucked it up and headed out around 4:00.  Even though it was still light out, I decided to go with the reflective gear because the blowing snow as reducing visibility and I didn’t want to become someone’s hood ornament.

It was slow going – especially into the wind – but it was a relatively good run. 

On top of running, I did a long swim today.  For my workout, I did:

800 yard warm up
3×300 yards (30 second rest)
200 yard kick
3×200 yards (30 second rest)
200 yard kick
3×100 yards pull (20 second rest)
100 yard cool down
3100 yards total

I stayed almost perfectly consistent on all of the intervals (5:10 for the 300’s, 3:30 for the 200’s, and 1:40 for the 100’s)which was the goal. 

Also, at the pool, I had a “small world” moment.  I found out that the husband of one of the women I swim with works at the same company as Jennie.  We are both regulars and see each other two to three times a week and chat while we wait for the lifeguards to get ready and didn’t realize it until today.  It is amazing how we are all connected in some way or anther.

As for my strength training, it is progressing nicely.  I absolutely love my new weights.  I am still hoping to find some good strength routines to mix things up though.  For now, I have just been doing a set from the 12 Week Triathlete book.  It takes me about 25-30 minutes to go through and I feel so good after doing it.

On the non running front, Jennie and I cleaned and repopulated our aquarium.  It turned out to be a pretty big project because I neglected cleaning it for so long.  We still need to get some new plants to replace ones that didn’t make it through the cleaning and I have to build a new hood because the old one finally bit the dust, but here it is.

Kind of hard to see all the fish, but there are: 4 Giant Danios, 4 Red Velvet Swordtails, 5 Tiger Barbs, and 1 Pelco (Algae Eater).  I will hopefully do a better job at preventive maintenance so it doesn’t get so bad this time.