Time Off and Nutrition

     I wish I could say I had loads of new great topics to post on, but that is simply not the case.  I have spent much of my last 5 days off training and spending time with the family.  I had a friend of mine give me his old electric fence, and have been working on installing that, so if anyone has suggestions or tips on training your dog to stay inside the fence let me know.  Scooby has done well lately.  He has been off leash on the trails behind our house with me and even with the abundance of squirrels and birds back there, he has stayed close to me.  I can only hope that the first few times he feels the shock around his neck that it will scare the crap out of him and keep him in the yard forevermore.  We shall see.

     I have some nice photos from a ride with M the other day that I will have to post later in the week.  We decided to head down to

Secretary Rd/Martin King Hwy.

  It was about 25 miles out and back, which was enough for me this close to my race, suffice it to say that M had to continue on for a good while past that and arrived home a couple hours later.  Dinner that night was awesome.  We splurged and headed out to La Cocina del Sol.  If you have not been here before I highly recommend it.  They have 2 locations, one on the corner of Commonwealth and Hydraulic and the other in Crozet.  I have sampled several things there, but never ordered anything other than the Snapper Fish Tacos.  Once you have had those, you won’t want anything else.

     I spent part of my evening last night making food for my days at work this week.  These are the little things that you have to do when you decide to become gluten free.  The cost of doing this is well worth it for me.  It is amazing how many people live with GI issues that you don’t know about until you mention to them that you are gluten free.  For me it is a no brainer.  I know some do it for overall health and others do it for athletic performance, both of which have good evidence to support.  Often times people only think of Celiac Disease when they think of being gluten free, but the statistics are that about 1 in 100 or so people may develop Celiac.  1 in 7 people are likely to be gluten intolerant at some point.  Triggered by different things like hormones, an illness, or a stressful event it is hard to say when it may happen, but if you are one of the many people that tell me you have a lot of GI issues when I tell you I am gluten free and feel good then I would suggest you give it a try for at least 2-3 months and see how you feel.  Between the triathlon training and being gluten free I am, for the most part, normal again (no comments please but I guess that would be a matter of opinion).

     Plan for the week is to eat good, rest up as much as possible, and stay hydrated throughout the week.  I will start increasing the carbs on Wednesday evening into Friday with lots of rice, potatoes, pasta, fruit, and vegetables.  Every little bit helps.  Later