Another year has passed and Big Ring is still alive!
Last Thursday was Big Ring’s birthday and we celebrated over three days: presents on Thursday; cake and friends on Friday; and my I-Only-Cook-Once-A-Year Birthday Feast on Saturday.
Because this year had beer prominence for us throughout (a craft brewery opened up five minutes down the road; several of Big Ring’s rides with his riding group this summer had beer stops along the way; and when my Belgian cousins (Hi Martin and Cristal!) came for a visit, we designed a beer tasting with several stops throughout the Lower Mainland for them to compare their top-notch beers with our local ones), I decided to make Big Ring’s birthday a beer-themed birthday.
What goes with beer?
Salty snacks. Cheeses and salamis. Chocolate stout cake. Growlers of beer. Bottles of beer. Even beer floats. Yes folks, we had beer floats! And, last but definitely not least, great friends who love great beer!
For the finale on Saturday, I put together a pasta with clams feast. And I think it actually turned out really well, it had a nice, spicy kick, and was a heck of a lot less complicated than other meals I’ve attempted (I’m looking at you Lasagna 2012!) and something we both agreed we’d like to try again.
There was, however, a slight blip in the cooking process – just one! Midway through eating, Big Ring got a funny look on his face, and I was like, stomach dropped, oh crud, what the hell did I do? “Did you, uhm, use cilantro in this?”
That’s why I kept smelling cilantro! The recipe called for fresh parsley, but I have no idea the difference between the two, so it seems I pulled out the cilantro instead of the parsley. Oops. Good thing we both like cilantro 🙂 🙂 🙂
SUNDAY RUN DAY:
• 8:45 a.m. BG before: 10.8
• Carbs: 1/2 banana (no bolus)
• Temp. basal: -50 per cent
• Workout: 85′ easy, 25′ at half marathon pace (5:10-5:35 min/km)
• Time: 1:50:11
• Distance: 17.96 km
• Average pace: 6.08 min/km
• Run BG: @30′ 4.1 (turned basal off); @60′ 3.3; @70′ 4.2
• Fuel: 6 shot blocks and 2 400 mL homemade sports drink
11:30 a.m. 7.7
• Temp. basal: +100% 2.5 hours
The run was great, but the BGs sucked. My legs felt great, I felt strong, I was able to kick up my pace when I needed to and maintain it for the duration, which was fantastic. But holy hell, what the eff is going on with my blood sugars. This is like 3 or 4 weeks now where the only day they go crazy high after breakfast is Sunday Run Day and where they bottom right the eff out 30 minutes into the bloody run. I know with this run I got distracted between the 30 minutes and 60 minutes where I wasn’t drinking enough of my sports drink, but that does not account for the bottoming out at 30 minutes. And the post-breakfast highs, what the hell? I’m pretty sure I’m not stressing about these runs, so what the frick is going on? Ugh!