Healthy Antioxidant Fruit and Spinach Smoothie Recipe

In this edition of Simple Triathlete Eating I share my recipe for my super antioxidant fruit and spinach smoothie.   Personally as someone who just has to get the calories in, I prefer to drink a lot of my calories.  Frankly it is much easier to do, empties faster from the stomach, digests easier, and ensures I am adequately hydrated.   Usually I have at least 2 of these smoothies per day and usually consume them immediately after workouts.  By doing this I consume over 9lbs of spinach per week.

The Holy Grail of Berries

Now for the record I buy Spinach in 3lb bags that cost $3.99 at the local Costco.  I also get my preferred berry mix there.  The mix of berries - all organic - includes dark tart cherries, blueberries, pomegranate arils, red raspberries, and strawberries in a 3lb bag with a price of $10.99.   I also buy the 192oz bottles of Costco 100% juice blend.  The blend includes grape juice, apple juice and cranberry and runs $6.99.

Super Antioxidant Fruit and Spinach Recipe:

1)  Fill blender with Spinach

2) Add 1 cup of water

Crucial Step - Blend Spinach First

3) Add 1 cup of juice

4) Blend that mother' until the spinach is liquefied

5) Add 1 cup of berries and liquefy

6) Add an additional cup of berries and continue liquifying

7) Add two servings of your preferred sweetner (sugar, splenda, honey, whatever)

8) Enjoy

In the end you should end up with a smoothie that fills at least two glasses and contains ~300 calories. It goes down like water and you can feel good about what you are eating.  It empties from the stomach  quick and I can get onto the next workout without any GI distress.

The Finished Product - Fruit and Spinach Smoothie

Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike and Run Miles For Feb 20th - Feb 26th

Sushi Garden House Rules

Feb 20th - Feb 26th: Race season is just around the corner and this week was filled with lots of solid volume including a 106 mile ride from Oro Valley up to the top of Mt Lemmon and a 21 mile track workout that was 5 x 3 mile with 800 recovery + stretch rest.  I got in a solid 6 days of swimming and still was able to focus on the core.  Week after week my body is getting stronger and more importantly my form is really falling into place.  I'm not sure I have ever ran with such strong form and I'm excited to see if I can hold it together late into the Ironman marathon.

The highlight of the week had to be my roomate taking me to Sushi Garden at the Tucson mall for their "all you can eat" sushi.  I was a little skeptical going to an all you can eat sushi place but I was pleasantly surprised.  I liked the fact that they had strict rules governing the eating including surcharge if you didn't finish everything, and the fact that you had to eat all the rice that was provided.  When all was said and done I had 56 rolls (about 1.5 times the size of typical plain rolls) and 18 pieces of Nigiri.  This meal would easily cost a couple of hundred dollars in Chicago, IL but only $19.95 in Tucson, AZ.

Here are my weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 327 Miles / 32 hours 50 minutes

Swim: 22,700 yards / ~13 miles / 5 hours 27 minutes
Bike:  272 miles / 17 hours 36 minutes
Run:  42 miles /  5 hours 17 minutes
Core:  3 sessions / 4 hours 30 minutes

Weight: 156 lbs (average over the 7 days)
Body Fat: 6.5%

Calories Consumed: 40,916 / ~5,845 per day (final)
Calories Burned: 36,407 / ~5,201 per day

Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike and Run Miles For Feb 13th - Feb 19th

Cold / Snowy Valentine's Day Swim From Oro Valley Pool

Feb 13th - Feb 19th: It was another solid week of training with lots of pennies added to the penny jar.  This week started with a snow fall in Tucson with accumulating snow in all the mountains surrounding Tucson including the Tucson Mountains, Tortolita Mountains, and of course on Mt. Lemmon.   It was quite a site and a cruel Valentine's Day surprise exiting the Oro Valley pool at 1:00 pm at a temperature of 33 degrees.

As for the training, well I got in some TT riding doing some longer 20 minute intervals, swam all six days that the pool was open, and went to the track by myself on Sunday to do 4 x 3 mile at marathon pace with stretch rest + 400 jog.   I think I am going to do more long runs like this as it really helped me execute each step with better form.

The highlight of the week was joining the University of Arizona triathlon team, and their coach Brian Grasky, at the track for the 2nd time in two weeks. The main set was an easy 3x1600 at 10K pace but I did it is a 3x1600 at 10K pace descending to 5K pace.  5:42, 5:18, and 5:11 is what I came in on.  It was a short workout, but it was great to open up the legs a bit.

Here are my weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 204 Miles / 24 hours 05 minutes

Swim: 23,950 yards or ~14 miles / 6 hours 42 minutes
Bike:  157 miles / 8 hours 53 minutes
Run:  33 miles /  4 hours 0 minutes
Core:  3 sessions / 4 hours 30  minutes

Weight: 155.1 lbs (average over the 7 days)
Body Fat: 6.3%

Calories Consumed: 33,765 or ~4823 per day (final)
Calories Burned: 32,229 or ~4,614 per day

Tucson Mountains Snow Covered In Low Clouds