Yesterday I flew down to San Francisco. Last time I stayed for over a month. This time it’s barely more than a day. I’m helping Courtenay pack up some stuff from her storage closet and drive her car up to Seattle. She visited for 17 days, and I convinced her to move to Seattle. That was a great plan, until it started getting snowy cold and windy in Seattle. now I’m trying to delay the actual driving home part of going back to Seattle because today was my first time riding and running outdoors in about two weeks. Plus, I feel like a total jerk because right after Courtenay moves to Seattle (based on my word for how awesome it is there) I’m leaving for two months to go to Brazil and then train in Hawaii until April.

The only thing that would make me less of a jerk, would be if somebody would hurry up and give her a job in Seattle. (I’m looking at you, Seattle area reader…)

We’re both staying at Loren’s house, which is pretty fun. His two daughters are my favorite kids in the world. Yesterday, Piper told me she loves me. Then we watched Sleeping Beauty and Sada told me that she wants to be Princess Aurora so that she can marry Prince Phillip because he’s nice. As far as I know, Sada sleeps a lot more than Princess Aurora, so she’s a great candidate for the part. Also, Loren is way less fat than Prince Phillip’s dad, which seemed more relevant when I had the two kings reversed in my head.

I don’t know what we’re doing now, but I’m hoping it involves food because the Hi-Tech Burrito I had earlier is all used up. I’ll try to blog more, but we’ll be on the road and possibly without internet, so there may be a continued drop in production until this weekend.

Happy New Year everyone!!

By “sick” I mean after swimming I slept the rest of the day. I just got up to get some food and consider running at Gold’s, but instead I’m going back to bed.

By “president”, I mean, President Elect Barack Obama. Who is currently being stalked by a bunch of paparazzi, and Rachel Ross on Oahu.

By “next door” I mean he is staying in the $9 million dollar home next door to the house where I stayed for two weeks last December with Dr. Mike McMahon, my previous coach, at the end of Kailua Beach. When I was there I tried to lose weight by not eating for eight days (I was going for 14, but got a staff infection and a bad cold and the doctor told me to start eating if I didn’t want to get much worse.). That was really dumb, and at some point I keep meaning to write a lengthy blog post about why long term fasting (over a day) has some serious health risks, and why fasting in general is a terrible way to lose weight (it’s actually a good way to gain weight in the long run, but I don’t know many people that need help with that).

The point is, however, that if I were sitting in a gigantic empty house on the beach of Kailua again this year, at least I would have something better to watch than PDA from fat tourists (not that the PDA is unamusing).

  Seattle has had the best winter storm of my lifetime (a quarter century). The airports are cancelling flights, so my friends are stuck in town. There’s enough snow that I can’t see pavement within a 1 block radius of my house, and the pavement I see on the highway is just two ruts through an unplowed bump-n-grind of ice-n-snow.

[Left: Aaron Scheidies decided to skip riding the bike trainer with me in favor making a K-Swiss snowman out by the lake.]

So we’ve been stuck at home, and limiting out trips away. The pools were closed last week, which kept me out of the water for a full day, and the IMA at U of Washington has been closed,  so even if I could get there I can’t use the treadmill. HSP is definitely too hard to get to for me in this weather, so - since I refuse to try running on ice - I’ve really struggled with running the past few days. Until today anyway, when I went in and signed up for a seven day free trial of Gold’s Gym. YAY for taking advantage of a gym that charges so much for membership that I’m not sure how they have any members. (My opinion might change if I find out it’s like cars where they give you one price and you pay something much less, but right now I can’t see why you would pay a $270 “initiation fee” to join a 1200 square foot gym with 20 cardio machines (treadmills and ellipticals a small free weight section and a minimal weight machine department.) They do have nice treadmills, however, and tonight I ran with my friend Matt Camp from Honolulu, who is in town visiting on his way to Walla Walla, Washington to see his parents. But more about the Camps in a second.

Sunday night my mom decided that there was way too much snow outside for her to keep my Christmas present hidden any longer. Around 9pm she busts out a pair of skate skis, boots, and poles and announces that  we will be doing a late night Nordic ski adventure. I probably would have protested that I needed to sleep and that it wasn’t on my training plan, but when your mother gives you an early Christmas present and says you should go exploring late at night, only an idiot would say no.

We headed out and skied down the Burk Gilman trail. Her on classic cross country skis and me skating through the powder. It was among the best late night adventure I’ve had, and it was with my mother – which really makes it much better. The trail had a ton of snow. We only went about a mile and a half up the trail and back, which took a long time due to both the frequency of photo taking and our combined inexperience with Nordic skiing.

What I find hilarious about snow in Seattle is that any native Seattleite will tell you that, “it never snows in Seattle, and when it does it’s gone in a day.” This is true 9 of 10 years, which is why the city has no means of clearing roadways or otherwise operating in the event of a “snow storm” (we only got about 8 to 12 inches over the course of 4 days). Meanwhile, the transplants (non-native Seattleites) always relish in memories of towns they left behind, “back in Michigan this wouldn’t even be considered a ‘storm’, it’s a normal winter day. We certainly wouldn’t get off from school or be allowed to miss work!" And you’ll hear this exact exchange of phrases in just about every social setting you go to over the course of the snow days. Some find it annoying, and some just don’t seem to notice the monotony of it. I choose to laugh.

Back to the Camp family. It looks like no flights are able to go to Eastern Washington, so when Matt’s younger sister was in Seattle on a layover today, her connecting flight was cancelled. I ended up telling her to get on a bus so she could come stay with us until she figures out how to get to her parent’s place. Now I have Mr. And Mrs. Camp’s children, and I’m holding them for ransom. I love house guests, so now that Aaron’s gone (he flew to Nebraska today) it just seems fitting that Katie Camp would fall right into the vacancy.

Celebrate the end of 2008 with 40% off at K-Swiss.com. I want to give a gift to all my readers, so from now until December 31st you can get 40% off your entire purchase at K-Swiss.com. I’m not supposed to publish the discount code, so leave me a note here and I’ll email you the code. My recommendation on what to buy? The Keahou, some classics, or, better yet, design your own casual sneakers. They also have a ton of cool clothing. So leave me a message (be nice) and then get some cool swag for you and your friends at 40% off! With your new K-Swiss gear, you’ll be looking the best you’ve ever looked. Ever.

Speaking of which, last Saturday I saw my long lost friends Brian and Marijana. We met at the IMA pool for a long overdue romp (a.k.a. attempting to drown each other.), followed by a short workout and (most importantly) a swim lesson! There are two things about Brian that I can say for certain: 1) He is among the busiest people I know, and 2) he is amazing at teaching stroke technique.

I’ve been burying my head, crossing over my centerline on entry, and rotating from my shoulders instead of my hips. All this means I’m pushing water with my shoulders instead of my head (much more drag), and I’m wiggling down the pool like a car in the snow.

It took about 6 or 8 fifties where Brian and Marijana both shook their heads and told me how terrible I looked before I made any progress.

“Ben, try not kicking so I can see what your hips are doing and why you wiggle so much”

– a 50 later –

“You were still kicking. It’s just like when we swam on Issaquah together and you always kicked during the pull sets”

“I NEVER kicked during the pull sets, you’re full of crap”

“you ALWAYS kicked during the pull sets… ok, this time float before you start swimming and keep your head at the surface, and try to extend your neck.”

— a 50 later –

“your breathing sucks, you lift your head into your armpit like you’re trying to give it a lick”

– a 50 later –

“That was way better. For about 3 strokes…

– Several 50s later–

“That was great until the last 3 strokes! I mean, it still kind of sucked, but it was much better! Try again!”

– a 50 later –

“That was the best you have ever looked in the water. Ever.”

[left: I wish my swim lessons were this much fun]

Then I stopped. A while back I wrote that the most important thing anyone can do for their swimming ability is to get regular technique lessons from a capable coach. Apparently I need to take my own advice more often. Since Saturday I have been taking it slow, trying really hard to make every yard technically sound. I’ve heard that a change in stroke takes 10,000 yards before it can be done without conscious thinking, and another 10,000 before it feels natural. College swimmers get that in day, but most triathletes have to maintain that focus for an entire week of training. This fact alone legitimizes the importance of winter training. Put in the long slow hours of stroke work now, and when you’re preparing for a race in June you can focus on going fast.

I’m snowed in by a whopping 1 inch of snow that ‘s caused the entire City of Seattle to shut down. Aside from no swimming today, that meant a run in the snow, an indoor bike ride, and some quiet time at home to notice some little things going on around me.

This is a Bald Eagle in the tree outside my room. He was just finishing a snack (some kind of rodent).

And here is Aaron studying for his Physical Therapy Licensing Exam, which is all day tomorrow.

At least, that was him 20 minutes ago - now I hear him snoring, so I’m assuming he’s taking a short break. The umbrella is to keep the glair of all that snow away from his computer monitor. He has an enlarger that he puts his text books into and it blows up the image on the computer screen so he can see it. Imagine taking an 8 hour test like that!

Mmm…. I just had a very small scoop of delicious egg nog ice cream. At 4:45 in the evening, this may have been a mistake. While I knew from the ingredients that the nog is around 20 proof, it seemed to me that once it was frozen it would be less potent.

Wrong. This stuff is not for children.

After last nights experimentation (Which I was ready to call a failure), I was planning to buy some dry ice this afternoon (per the suggestion of Scott and Noah, thank you), but as it turns out, simply putting the 13 degree mixture into a –5 degree freezer after it had already partially frozen was enough to solidify it in a “ice cream like” texture. Apparently the Nog had been mixed enough that it was able to become ice cream rather than solid ice.

That’s cool, but I learned something about ice cream through this process. The melting point of ice cream is determined partially by its structure (which is determined by the whipping of the ice cream machine) and partially by its ingredients (similarly the flavor of a chocolate bar will be different if you melt it and let it solidify again because of the structural changes in recrystallization). The smoothness of ice cream (the “mouth feel”) is a large part of the taste, and is why ice cream is more enjoyable to eat than sorbet. The smoothness is because the ice cream, unlike ice, is only partially frozen. In regular ice cream only about half the water molecules that are trapped in the whipped mixture are frozen, while the rest are still liquid. This allows the ice cream to have a large temperature range in which it melts on the tongue, which helps our perception of creaminess.  While the amount of fat in my frozen nog may be enough to emulsify the ethanol (the same way it does the water molecules) it has too low a melting point for it to remain ‘creamy’ on my tongue. The mixture turns liquid and runny almost instantly in my mouth and really has a disappointing texture. The flavor is still good, but I would definitely recommend getting rid of some of the alcohol before you turn your leftover nog into ice cream.

I wrote a post about swimming, but I’ll put that up tomorrow now I’m finished with my kitchen science.

It’s supposed to snow a bunch in Seattle tonight, which is super exciting. We rarely get snow here, and when we do, the entire city shuts down. I know it’s going to stick because the last few days have been unusually cold with clear skies. Mount Rainier was crystal clear form my house, and so were the Cascades. From downtown Seattle the Olympics out to the West looked like giant white cliffs rising out of the evergreen islands. It was way cool.

Last weekend I went to a Christmas In July (in December) party at Chris Tremonte’s house. Courtenay and I made eggnog, which was all but devoured by the thirsty party goers. All but meaning there was a little less than a quart less from a batch that started at over a gallon. Now, I’m not really interested in drinking any more egg nog (I’m really not a big drinker and that stuff is potent and rich), but I don’t just want to throw it away either. So my plan was to turn it to ice cream. And there is where I ran into problems.

This is my off-season science experiment: How cold do you have to get your nog before it freezes?

I started off with my nog refrigerated at about 35 degrees Fahrenheit. My ice cream maker was in the freezer at –5 degrees (F). Now, normally when I put a creamy sugary milky mixture into the ice cream maker under these same conditions, it begins to freeze almost instantly. Apparently alcohol complicates things. Here’s a running diologue of my nog-to-cream experience:

7pm:

After three or four minutes I realized I needed more coldness, so I moved the mixture outside where it is currently 32 degrees (F). This won’t help freeze the mixture, but it will help keep ambient heat away from the mixture.

7:20pm

After 20 minutes the nog still appeared thin and liquid. The sides of the bowl still had no sign of making the nog freeze and the mixture was at 17 degrees F, so I came upstairs to write this blog and see if I could find an answer to the vital question of the night: Can I make a strongly alcoholic ice cream?

My immediate answer is no, but here’s what I found on further investigation. Turns out ethanol works great as antifreeze. The freezing point of pure ethanol is –114 degrees Celcius, or –170 degrees F. The nog is about a 1:1 ratio of liquor and cream, plus a bunch of eggs, so in total it is something slightly less than 20% ethanol, which sounds like anti-freeze. So my only hope is that the abundance of fat molecules will act as a surfactant and engulf the alcohol, making it possible for the rest of the solution to freeze with the ethanol suspended.

7:50pm

That seems unlikely to me, but my most recent status check showed only slight progress, and the nog is down to 13 degrees F. My thermometer showed that the ice cream bowl is also at 13 degrees, so my next move is to put the bowl back into the –5 degree freezer, and see if I can get the whole setup any colder. If this doesn’t work I may have to heat the solution to about 176 degrees (F) to see if the alcohol will boil off without the milk congealing. Maybe a double boiler would work for that?

I’m going to give the freezer a few hours, or if I fall asleep, I’ll give it a night., so I’ll get back with more updates.

[Left: The nog was starting to get thick like the beginning of ice cream, but it was still runny to the touch, and with a bowl the same temperature as the liquid, there was no way it would continue to freeze without a little help from the freezer.]

Does anyone have a better idea for how to make this stuff freeze? I’m not really concerned with keeping the ethanol in the mixture, so distillation is fine with me, so long as it doesn’t ruin the rest of the ingredients.

Here’s a short rant about the only genre of food I completely despise. I hate Chinese food, but the other night after watching the Garfield High School Swim Team kick Ballard High School’s butt I found myself agreeing to eat the stuff rather than being a drag on the group. By group I mean Courtenay, and my friend Braden. The problem is not exactly the taste of Chinese food, but the smell and the way it makes me feel after eating it (like lard dripping down the side of a boiling pot of lizard stew). Ugh. I know I hate Chinese food, and yet every time I give in and try it I’m able to convince myself that it will be different.

So Courtenay’s leaving tomorrow. I’m a little sad. The 17 day weekend seemed to get more and more fun while she was here. It started with me running a 10k (and winning) on Thanksgiving, and it ended with her running a 10k (and winning) yesterday. I ran with her and took pictures as often as I could. It was fun.

And unlike Chinese food or fish, Courtenay hasn’t managed to wear out her welcome in 17 days.

Next up, Aaron comes back up tomorrow for his last four days of super cramming for the physical therapy boards. Think positive thoughts for him, and with any luck he’ll fail so he can study with the Delta Gamma Girls some more!

Tonight I went to a talk by Chris Lieto. He founded Base Performance Nutrition, which has expanded from an amino supplement and water additive to include salt and a recovery pill. The recovery activator is what I’m most excited about. This was formerly distributed by The Institute of New Medicine, which is where I go for all my “make my body work and recover and feel better” needs. Actually,  really can’t recommend inewmed enough to anyone with the ability to use their services. Chris Lieto has been working with Inewmed for years for his own health needs, but recently Base Performance partnered with Inewmed to help develop products together. The pills, which are the same as they used to be under the Inewmed label, are the single best supliment I’ve ever used. And now that Base Performance is distributing them, they’re much more available. The greatest part, is that the product may be new to Base Performance, but i’ve been using it long enough to say with certainty that it’s worth making it a part of your daily sport nutrition diet.

The talk itself was great. This is the second time I’ve heard Chris Lieto speak to a group. The first time was at Endurance PTC in San Francisco. Both times he told us about his first triathlon: the Vineman 70.3 (though back in the stone ages when he raced it wasn’t called “70.3”). Thing is, he “won” the race, which isn’t the point of the story. The point of his story is to talk about how important mental power can be because he was poorly trained for the race, and it was a result of determination and mental preparation for the race that allowed him to outrace his bodies ability at his first triathlon. Like I said, Chris tells this story without being pretentious, and adds the “win” as an afterthought. The problem is, when I first heard it I thought he really “won” the race. Like the overall title. The everything. And that shocked the hell out of me. Tonight, however, he added two words to his afterthought: “age group”. I’m assuming I just didn’t hear them the first time I heard him speak, but those two words make a HUGE difference.

Now I’m leaving the topic of Lieto for a short rant to all the age group triathletes out there. I love that our sport has a thousand ways that you can “win” – from age group, to masters, to grand masters, to Clydesdale and Athena – but please don’t confuse that with an overall win! The only time we should leave of those modifiers is when nobody else did the same race faster on that day – i.e. overall.

Then again, it would be fun to say I “won” my first (and only) 70.3 back in 2005 (I was 23rd and got chicked by some girl in pink, but was still 1st in my age group!).

This is officially my first week of base training. That means that my off-season was exactly four weeks long, during which time I spent three weeks preparing for a 10k running race, three days doing light recovery workouts, seven days getting my schedule sorted out, and finishing up my schoolwork (“sorting out my schedule” included 17 hours of workouts because I decided to be tour guide on my bike with Courtenay), and two days of no training at all. Those two days were awesome.

This morning at 5am I joined the Cascade Swim Club for a practice. I was excited to have some high school kids beat me around for 90 minutes. I was less excited for the part about it starting at 5am. Then I heard the set, and was even less excited: 15×200 @ 2:12.5 (I moved to the slowest lane and did 12 @ 2:25). This is not the kind of set I was looking for my fourth practice back in the water. Ouch. The only redeeming part of the morning was getting to listen to Nirvana Incesticide. I love Grunge music.

So I guess I’m back at it. And! Apparently, having never spent much time on the base portion of my training, I have quite a bit to gain by building up my aerobic base – perhaps some endurance and strength to avoid injury next season.

Unfortunately, in the four weeks of “off-season” I also rehashed a few bad habits, and started helping a bit more around the house (my dad will read this and think I’m lying, but he was out of town – so he’ll just have to live in disbelief.) Now, I can’t just drop everything again cold turkey! Here’s my list of thing I need to stop doing in order of priority:

1. House work – it’s terrible for recovery.
2. Nightlife – this was a close second, but a night of dancing has a lot more benefits than cleaning out the dishwasher.
3. Baking cookies – it’s extra time on my feet (bad for recovery) and the cookies are much better when my mom bakes them.
4. Watching movies after 8pm – especially of the Braveheart or Lord of The Rings variety.
5. Morning coffee – I swam at 5am this morning, how is that possible without coffee?
6. Eating cookies – first I have to convince my mom to stop baking them.

That’s all I can think of right now. I’m tired.