W30D17

Hey, guess what? I just realized that we're over halfway through with this Whole 30. Rock on! It hasn't been too bad so far, if you exclude my Saturday Irish stew consumption, but that was a brief hiccup. I have to admit that I've been fighting off the urge to sneak a piece of dark chocolate. Notice that I used the word "sneak," because I know that I shouldn't be eating it so I feel like I'd need to hide it. I've fought off the urge for the past two nights. Want to know my motivation for saying no? Of course you do... It's the fact that I'd have to call up Jay and confess that I ate dark chocolate during a Whole 30. That's a definite no-no. And after I called him, I'd post it on here. For all of you to read. Yeah, it's good to be held accountable by someone other than just yourself.

I really need to start going to bed earlier. I'm not sure how exactly to make this happen, because I keep finding myself writing these posts and finally replying to emails at the end of each day. Because I stayed up till 11:30 last night, it took me a while to get moving this morning. I snoozed my 5:00 a.m., 5:15 a.m., and 5:30 a.m. alarms, and finally got up at 5:50 to shuffle over to my rowing machine and get a morning workout in. Note to self: Don't get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom... There is a 7' long rowing machine in your way.

Now on to the yummy stuff.

Rosemary Lamb Chop

1 lb lamb chop

4 Tbls olive oil

2 Tbls chopped rosemary

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp black pepper

1. Mix 2 Tbls olive oil, rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper together. Rub mixture into the meat, cover, and let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes or more.

2. Heat the remaining two Tbls olive oil over high heat in an cast iron pan (or something capable of going into the oven). Once hot, add the lamb chop and sear on each side for 3-4 minutes.

3. Transfer to 400 F oven and cook for 4-5 minutes. (optional)

4. Move the lamb chops to a plate or cutting board and cover with tin foil. Let rest for 5-10 minutes. Then eat up.

ECD9: 45 minutes rowing + 15 minutes practicing inversions (a.k.a. head stands). I'm getting closer to being able to hold it for more than 5 seconds.

Whole 30 - Day 27

Lots of photos tonight. There's nothing I'd like more than to go straight to bed, but I'm taking a few minutes to share my day with you. I cheated again today. I had gluten-free beer. Two days in a row of cheating? Yeah... I thought about saying no, but I decided to drink it. Let me explain why...

After falling asleep around 11 last night, I woke up a few times throughout the night because my hotel room got really cold. The first time was around 1 a.m., and I got up to turn down the air. The second time was about 4 a.m., but I just burrowed under the covers more. Then I woke up at 5 a.m. and burrowed further. My alarm finally went off at 5:45, but I didn't roll out of bed until 6, after my second alarm went off. I had laid out everything last night, so it didn't take me long to head to the front desk to check out at 6:30 a.m. and then grab some of the eggs at their free breakfast. I'm pretty sure everyone at breakfast that early was there for the regatta (registration started at 6:30).

Anyways, I drove the quarter-mile to the boathouse and we started setting up camp for the day. After a brief course/safety session, we starting getting on the water for the first races. My races were at 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30, though everything kind of fell behind, so I spent probably 90% of my time from 7:50 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. on the water. I rowed 18,000 m today. When you're not racing, you're helping your other teammates with their boats or their oars so that they can launch their boats from the docks. Or you're scarfing down some sort of sustenance in between guzzling water. Once our races were done, we all celebrated with a beer or two (just one gluten-free beer for me), before de-rigging all of our boats for transport back to our boathouse. (We remove the riggers which hold our oars in place so that we can fit all of our boats on one trailer and so that the trailer can be towed without smacking into cars on either side.) Once everything was loaded, all of our garbage collected, and our tent and chairs stowed in our cars, we made the 4.5-hour drive back to our boathouse for unloading and rigging the boats, storing our oars, pushing the trailer back into the back of our boathouse, hanging the slings, and carrying the boats to their proper racks in the boathouse.

This all finished around 9 p.m. I made a quick stop at Whole Foods to grab some food for dinner, but by the time I got home around 9:45, I wasn't hungry anymore. I dragged myself to my room, showered, and started this post. Sigh... I'm too tired to be hungry, but apparently not tired enough to skip out on this.

So with all of the rowing, carrying boats up hills, and general weight-lifting as we overhead press our boats onto the trailers or to avoid hitting things, I decided I deserved a beer... in a social setting. Granted, it probably wasn't the smartest decision from a dehydration standpoint, but I don't feel guilty about it. All I feel right now is tired and sore and a little sunburned.

So to wrap this up, here are some photos from today. I only took photos after I had finished my races, and I don't have any of me actually racing... maybe someone else took some...

Yve and I after our races

Mixed Masters Quad

Watching as boats are brought down to the dock

One of the women in my quad today is on crutches, but she stilled rowed in two races = Dedication!

The row of boats (haha, get it?)

Beaker came to watch

Relaxing/collapsing after our races

And enjoying a gluten-free beer. Judge away.

What I did for 4th of July vacation...

Hi there. I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, but it's been a while. I think about blogging throughout the day (seriously, I compose posts in my head as I walk through the hallways at work or walk down the streets of whatever town I'm in), but by the time the day ends, I'm too tired to write. The past few weeks of work have been kind of crazy. We had a big deadline that we were all racing to meet. I even worked weekends, meaning I worked for two weeks without a day off. Don't worry, it's not a habit I intend to continue.

Last week started getting awesome again though. Last Monday, my gal pal KAOS and I had a catch up dinner at an Indian restaurant we both love. It was definitely not Paleo, but we at least stayed gluten-free. KAOS is like me: gluten doesn't agree with our stomachs or heads. My chicken tikka masala definitely contained dairy, but it's one of the few times the food was worth it. As I drove home, I debated what I should do with the rest of my evening. I really needed to pack for an upcoming trip and I needed to pack up my life for an upcoming move, but I also wanted to relax. What won? Relaxation in the form of a bubble bath and a bottle of cider. Glorious! Sometimes you just need to say "Screw it" and let yourself do the irresponsible/unproductive thing. I'm an adult. I can make my own decisions, right? So if I want to be lazy and have a Paleo "cheat" meal, then I will. I've found lately that my "cheat" meals still manage to be gluten-free, so at least I'm not completely messing myself up.

On Tuesday I went to a gourmet hot dog place on the east side of town to meet up with two of my guy friends who have been living and working in South Korea. One has been there 1.5 years and the other 2.5 years. This trip was their first visit back to the States since they left. I miss them. So seeing both of them made me extremely happy. I even completely disregarded my usual 9 p.m. "It's time to sleep" alarm and stayed out with them until 10:30. Scandalous! I yawned my way through Wednesday, but it was so worth it. Even though I was at a hot dog place, I got a very messy, mustard-covered, fried egg-topped, bun-free burger:

(Note to self: I must remember to take photos of people. It would have been nice to have a group shot of me and the guys.)

I spent my Independence Day traveling. My alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. so I could finish packing, eat breakfast, and get to the airport before 6:30 a.m. I then spent the next five or so hours flying through Charlotte, NC (and dashing from one end of the airport to the other) to Richmond, VA, where my friend Yve and I rented a car and drove and hour and a half to Lancaster, VA. Why did we drive to small town Virginia? Good question. And here's your unexpected answer: rowing camp. Yes, I attended a camp at the age of 25. As I've mentioned before, I rejoined a crew team. Some of the ladies on my team had attended this camp before and were talking about how helpful it was, so about a month ago, Yve and I decided we were going. We arrived at the old plantation house/inn/rowing camp headquarters around 2:30 that afternoon and changed into our rowing gear. Over the next hour, the remaining rowing camp attendees arrived. After a round of introductions and detailing our rowing experience, we headed to the lake for our first practice. The couple who run the camp own a lake. Yes, just the lake... not the surrounding land.

Here's the overall schedule:

6:30               Wake up

7:00               Meet up to head to the lake

7:15-7:45      Technique instruction

7:45-9:15      Row (videotaped)

9:30-10:00    Breakfast

10:15-11:30 Watch DVDs of Olympic rowers. Review video from morning row.

11:45-12:15 Technique instruction

12:15-2:00    Row

2:15-2:45      Lunch

3:00-4:30      Nap

5:00-6:15      Row

6:30-7:00      Shower

7:15-              Dinner in Kilmarnock

10:00             Sleep

In summary: row, eat (talk about rowing), watch rowing videos, row, eat (talk about rowing), sleep (dream about rowing), row, eat (talk about rowing), sleep (dream about rowing). You may think I'm kidding with the dreaming about rowing, but no. I spent my nights dreaming about that perfect stroke, and dreading those not-so-perfect strokes. Obsessive? Maybe, but when you enjoy something, you might as well let yourself enjoy it, right?

I didn't stay Paleo, but I was gluten-free. I had told the coaches in advance that I didn't eat dairy, legumes, or gluten, but I didn't want to make meal prep exceptionally hard on them by saying that I didn't eat any grains. Because I appreciated the fact that they went out of their way to get me gluten-free things like gluten-free bread, oatmeal, corn instead of peas, etc., I went ahead and ate them. The meals were yummy and it's nice to have someone cooking for you. On Saturday night, we went to a place called Town Bistro where I had roasted duck in a ligonberry sauce (my Swedish side appreciated the sauce).

What did I take away from the camp? The technique I had learned in college was wrong. I sit up too straight, my arms are too straight, my hips act too much as a hinge, I dig my oars, I'm too aggressive at the catch, 15-degree layback is too little, I feather with the wrist too much, I grip the oar handles too much, arms away is bad... the list goes on. On the bright side, I'm "very coachable," so by the time the camp was over, they were getting super picky about my form because overall they were happy with what I was doing. I also learned how to maneuver my way back into a boat if you accidentally flip the boat. That was one of the things that made me the most worried about rowing in a single: that I would flip and not be able to get back in. But it was relatively easy. And I did not flip my boat. My dip in the water consisted of unstrapping my feet from the foot stretchers and dangling them over the edge before hopping into the water. How do you get back in? Simple. Get your oars lined up so that they're perpendicular to the boat and fully pushed against the oar locks. Grab the oars in one hand and rest the corresponding elbow on the oar and rigger. Then push yourself up and into the boat as if you were climbing out of a pool without using a ladder. Once you're on the boat, you're ready to get back to rowing.

Because I love rowing so much, camp was generous enough to give me something else to take away. No, I'm not talking about the embroidered t-shirt or the video of us rowing. I'm talking about wounds from an alligator. Yeah, an alligator attacked my boat while I was rowing and knocked me out of the boat. As I hurriedly climbed back into the boat, it nipped at my calves, but I managed to jump in and row away, knocking it in the head with an oar - kind of like punching a shark in the face, but using the oar instead. Haha! Just kidding, though that would be much cooler. Instead, I'm actually talking about the staph infection that I got from the tracks of my boat.

Track bite looks like this normally:

In case you want to know what a staph infection looks like, mine looked like this one over to the right:

Yeah, you're welcome for that loveliness. I had noticed Friday morning that my track bite on my left leg didn't seem normal, but I just figured it was some weird reaction due to heat and humidity. So I covered the red area with a band-aid and kept rowing. By Friday evening, I had to use 3 band-aids to cover most of the infected area on my left leg, and my right calf was showing the same signs. It got worse by Saturday, and some of the other rowers were commenting on how strange it looked. I kept it covered, but I bet jumping into the lake Saturday evening wasn't the best idea for already infected legs. Anyways, by Saturday evening, it was pretty painful if anything touched it. Just resting my calf on the bed while laying down hurt. And I had to take a few minutes of light rowing at the beginning of each session before I was able to ignore the pain.

As Yve and I were climbing into our rental on Sunday afternoon to trek back to Richmond, I nonchalantly said "We're gonna stop at Walmart to pick up some gauze. I think I have a staph infection." She was shocked that I hadn't been complaining about it all weekend and she had to convince me that I should get it checked out that day. I was going to wait until I returned to Texas. After a brief call to my dad for his CDC medical advice, I hit up my health insurance nurse advice line. The nurse I talked to was adamant that I go to a doctor that day. "The sooner the better." Because there weren't any 24-hour clinics nearby, I drove the hour and a half back to Richmond to a 24-hour clinic the nurse had looked up for me. He also told me "If they give you antibiotics you must take them exactly as directed. If they say twice a day that means every 12 hours, not just breakfast and dinner; three times a day is every eight hours, not breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's very important you do as they say. Don't do any strenuous exercise (Whoops, too bad I had been rowing three times a day.) and keep your legs elevated." Yikes. Way to make me struggle a bit more to stay calm. Thanks, buddy.

Though Yve and I joked how I narrowly escaped death or the loss of my legs, it could have happened. There was an instance a few years ago of an Ohio high school rower who got necrotizing fasciitis and had both of his legs amputated: Click here for the article. He didn't necessarily get the flesh-eating bacteria from the tracks of the boat, but the track bites allowed the bacteria to get into the tissue of the back of his calves. And staph infections associated with track bites is not unheard of. So be careful people. There is now a product you can buy specifically for your calf in order to prevent track bites. See rowdock.com for this. Or you can make your own track bite guards out of tube socks - just chop of the toe end of the sock.

Ow, blisters...

Last Thursday night I stroked a quad. I know what you're thinking: She did what???

A quad is a 4-person boat in which the rowers scull, meaning that you row with two oars. Stroking the boat means I was the stroke seat (sitting in the stern of the boat) and set the pace for the rest of the boat. I was stroke seat in college too, but we rowed sweep then, meaning we used one longer oar. I also started having asthma attacks every time I stroked. One of the attacks was bad enough to send me to the hospital. But I'm happy to report that I did not have an asthma attack last night. Yay!

When I rowed in college, we weren't allowed to use gloves. It was supposedly a safety concern. I guess the oar could have slipped out of our hands, resulting in the oar smacking us in the face and possibly flipping us out of the boat (worst case scenario). My current crew team falls under the masters category, since we're not rowing with a school. My team could care less if we wear gloves. In fact, a large number of us do. I use a pair of little boy-sized football gloves because they're grippy.

Anyways, I don't like to scull with gloves because the Velcro strap on the left glove tends to scrape against my right wrist and it feels like it's going to get pulled open. So last night, for the first time since rejoining crew, I rowed without gloves. The result? 11 new blisters on my hands. Two of the blisters ripped open on my left hand, and somehow I got blisters underneath those. Impressive, huh? I also have lots of little scrapes on the first two knuckles of my left hand from the fingernails of my right hand scratching against them while rowing. The things we do to ourselves for sports...

After getting home, I poured some hydrogen peroxide on the open blisters to clean them out. Can you say "pain"? And my post-workout shower... Well, hot water HURTS! Despite all of this pain, I'm still kind of excited to have blisters again. It means that I was trying hard, and it's kind of like a sense of pride. Rowers, like cross-fitters, like to compare blisters. We like seeing how bad it can get. We're a weird group of people, huh?

During my novice year of rowing (sophomore year of college), I roomed with a gymnast/cheerleader. We used to talk about and compare blisters. She told me that she used to use pickle juice to dry out the blisters she got from gymnastics. It just so happened that I had an almost empty jar of pickles in the fridge, so after a weekend regatta, I decided to give it a try... I don't recommend it. Mainly it just burned, and my hands smelled like pickles for the next few days. And "pickle" isn't a great perfume choice.

A blister is a pocket of fluid that forms within the upper layers of skin. In my case with crew, the blister is formed by forceful rubbing/friction between my sweaty hands and the oar. See my post about blood blisters for how to treat blisters at home (it's basically the same). Also, don't use alcohol on the blisters because this can delay the healing process.