The Aftermath

The real focus of this camp, from my perspective, has been the eating. I’ve been serving as, per Lauren’s designation, “the house chef.” Today, with an easier training load, I had time to get to the grocery store earlier. So it was time to do ribs rights. I made them last Monday, but I didn’t have enough time to really cook them thoroughly. Today, it was three hours in the oven (no parboiling) then a quick trip to the hot grill for finishing. And what you see on the plate is all that was left after Kyle, Joel, and I decimated them. I accompanied them with some shredded squash, sweet potato, and carrot stir fried with some ginger and spices. And, because Jill says I must, I had some baby greens on the side. It was delicious. We all got the meat sweats, and Kyle is currently settling himself with some Ben & Jerry’s, back on track after his temporary misjudgement in purchasing Rice Dream Ice… Rice?

The training has been good, but (and) hard. Most days, I’ve been consumed with swim, bike, run, and, of course, cook. And there has been a fair bit of Slowtwitch work to be done, most recently the first of what will probably be a regular appearance of videos. We’ve also been updating and improving the training log. And just a lot of planning of further, and seemingly endless, updates to the site as a whole.

But let’s get back to what is really important – the fuel for all of this work. So far, the menu has been, which I’ve begun to repeat lately, Carne Asada // Green Curry with Marlin, Pineapple, and Zucchini // Chicken & Butternut Squash Enchiladas (which I’ve only done once) // Hamburgers // and, the star of the show, Ribs. The presence of a really good grocery store – Mana Foods – has been awesome.

Maui is really a fantastic place to train in terms of topography, and, aside from the unfortunately unwarranted harrassment that seems to come from some of the locals every time we go for a ride, it’s been really enjoyable place as well. There are endless trails in the sugar cane fields, there is every kind of riding imaginable, including spectacular roads on switchback trails overlooking the ocean, and the pool is nice, if unfortunately only accessible at the wee hours of the morning. Getting up at 5am every morning to swim has been a change, but it’s a small cost given everything we’ve been able to get done.

With another full week ahead of us before I fly back to the continental US, I’m not sure how regular the updates will be. But trust that I’ll be tired, and that we’ll all be very full.