Wake Up Call

I travel. A lot. Fortunately I can sleep anywhere...airplanes, movie theatres, Hampton Inns, Courtyards (by Marriott), Holiday Inn Expresses (I may not be the Most Interesting Man in the World, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!). Sleeping isn't the problem. Its' waking up.

I always set the alarm on my Crackberry but always leave a Wake Up Call as a backup. Have you ever overslept and missed a meeting, or even worse, a flight? I have and its a terrible feeling when you know its too late and there is nothing you can do about it. No amount of hurrying with get you caught up.

Sometimes I wake up and wish I had set the call a little earlier. This is one of those times. With two weeks until the Boise Ironman 70.3 (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run) triathlon I'm wondering if I woke up too late and whether I have enough time left to get ready.

I set the wake up call for May 15th, my birthday, when I signed up for the Littlefoot Triathlon in Lakewood, Colorado. I figured that would give me a goal one month out from Boise. It would also be a very cold swim in Bear Creek Lake, which would help prepare me for the cold water of Lucky Peak Reservoir in the east Boise foothills.

The morning of my birthday it was 37F and raining. They cancelled the swim and replaced it with a run so the Littlefoot Triathlon became a duathlon (1-mile run, 11.5-mile bike, 5K run). After a decent first mile (7:58), followed by a really slow bike segment and mediocre 5K (26.55) I finished fifth out of five guys in the 45-49 age group.

My mind was saying, "Hey, at least you showed up!" (as my friend Dane Rauschenberg says, "You can't cross the finish line if you don't show up at the starting line!") but my brain was telling me, "This is your wake up call. You have one month left before Boise. Do you have enough time left to get ready?"

Two weeks later I am still asking that question. I have trained hard for those two weeks adding brick workouts and increasing mileage and distances. My biggest concern is whether I have put in enough miles on the bike, enough time in the pool and enough miles pounding the pavement (which is how I run). I travel. A lot. It's hard to find time.

Guess I will find out soon enough. Boise is two weeks from today. Not much I can do about it at this point. After one last long run tomorrow I will begin tapering to shorter, more intense workouts for the final two weeks of training. One thing I can do is eat lots of lean BEEF to recover from an intense week of training and refuel my body so I can reach the finish line!

My goal is to complete this event in under six hours. Six minutes faster than the Boulder Ironman 70.3 this past August. That won't put me on the medal stand or anywhere close to it. But that isn't my goal. My goal is always to set a new personal record. I'm not sure that is a realistic goal this time. But I plan to finish strong and hopefully not suffer too much in the process.

Ride on...

Daren

Is Bison Leaner Than Beef? Whatever, Turkey!

Updated March 19, 2013

Home on the Front Range: I stopped by to say hi to a bison herd on my ride along the Front Range of the Rockies this morning.

In the comments section of a recent Wall Street Journal article, Beef Industry Carves a Course, I read an interesting comment. "I think that if the beef industry was real smart, they would start to promote the leaner meats like buffalo," said Louis. "With buffalo meat you can literally have a good steak and not worry about clogging up your arteries."

To put it bluntly, that's a bunch of bull!

Speaking of bull, check out this huge bull bison!

I have several problems with Louis' comment. First, we don't raise buffalo in the U.S. We raise bison. Second, I'm not sure how it would be smart for the beef industry to promote bison. That's like saying Ford should promote Chevy. Third, and most important, you can enjoy many great lean beef steaks without worrying about clogging your arteries!

Having said that, I have nothing against bison. I occasionally enjoy a bison burger or steak. But is it true that bison meat is leaner? The answer, like most blanket statements about food, is "it depends." In the case of meat, it depends on the cut. Different cuts of beef and bison have different levels of fat content. A ribeye, for example, has more fat than a tenderloin. This is true for both beef and bison.

There are 29 cuts of beef that meet government guidelines for lean, including some of America's most popular steaks like tenderloin (filet mignon), strip loin (KC or NY strip) and the T-Bone (a filet on one side and a strip on the other). That means they fall between a skinless chicken breast and a skinless chicken thigh in fat content (not all chicken is lean, especially when you have to add fat to make it taste good!)

When it comes to ground meat, you have to check the label. The fat content depends on the blend. I checked the labels on some ground bison and ground beef this afternoon at my local grocery store. The only ground bison available was Great Range Ground Bison. This product is 90% lean and contains 11g of total fat (17% daily value) and 4g of saturated fat (20% daily value).

The "natural" ground beef in the same case was 91% lean and contains 10g total fat (15%) and also had 4g saturated fat (20%). In other words, the ground beef and ground bison was almost identical in fat to lean ratio.

I was watching the Food Network one day and the chef was making meatloaf. Her big tip was to substitute half the ground beef with ground turkey because it was leaner. In the next breath she said when buying ground beef always choose 80/20 because the fat adds flavor. Seriously?! So I also checked out the turkey aisle. Well, as Gomer Pyle would say, "Surprise, surprise, surprise." Most of the ground turkey in the meat case was 85/15 (85% lean).

And now Miss Turkey is promoting charbroiled turkey burgers for Carl'sJr./Hardees. Supposedly intended to attract customers looking for healthier choices, the Carl's Jr. Original Turkey Burger features red onion, tomato, dill pickles, ketchup and mayo and has 490 calories and 23 grams of total fat. But wait, the Carl's Jr. Big Hamburger (similar serving size) also has 490 calories but 5 grams less fat! Whatever, turkey! While I must admit I like the commercial with Miss Turkey, that's a bunch of bull!

 

So the next time you are buying meat, don't buy into the marketing bull. Read the label and make an intelligent choice. Why not choose LEAN ground beef and get all that great beef flavor with the same or less fat than ground bison or turkey?

Ride on!

Daren

Random Thoughts and Pictures from a Terrible Blogger

I am a terrible blogger. One of the keys to blogging is posting fresh, new content on a regular basis. Fail! I have a tendency to think I have to have a great story to tell before I can sit down and write. I think I just need to post more random thoughts and pictures. Like this one...

I went for my longest ride of the season today...42.31 miles in 2:37 (16.2 mph). I think that's a new record for me on the route I call the Larkspur Loop. It's a beautiful ride along the Front Range of the Rockies with 2,753 feet of elevation gain, according to my Garmin Edge 705. I burned 2,996 calories  (also according to Garmin).

I stopped at Vigil's New Mexican in Larkspur for a bowl of pork green chili (calories unknown and I don't care!). Sat on the patio in the sunshine. Nice spot. Great food. I'll be back!

That's it for my random thoughts and pictures.

Ride on!

Daren