RAGBRAI Recap

RAGBRAI was an AMAZING experience!  Yes, I only rode the first day (68 miles), but it did allow me to get a great feel for what the whole ride would be like.  Over 10,000 riders participate, and the crowds can be crazy.  I thought it was so cool to be on the road with that many bikers though - all of them enjoying themselves as much as me!  Seriously, I'd love to be able to do this again.  I don't think I'd be able to commit to the full week because of work and the time commitment that training would take, but I'd love to do a day again.  In fact, I'd love if I could make it an annual tradition :-). 

Now for some pictures!!  First, here is the food I brought with me for fuel (in addition to a 2 liter Camelbak and a bottle of Propel):

The balls in the left container are inspired by Jessica's Laraballs here.  I call my own mix Ash's Balls O' Energy.  Here is the recipe!  And yep, I ate all of the above on the ride... in addition to some free watermelon and bananas that were absolutely delicious - nothing like fruit to refuel and refresh with!

And before I left my home for Sioux City at the wonderful hour of 5 AM, I had a large bowl of shredded wheat and vanilla soymilk - yum!

My dad joined me on this ride, and we were biking by 6 AM.  I took the following picture around 7 AM.  There aren't many riders yet because we were near the beginning of the crowds... not everyone is an early riser ;-).

This next picture is from the small town of Kingsley, IA:

Next is outside Kingsley, IA - gotta love the beautiful scenery of Western Iowa:

Next stop was Washta, IA:

What a lovely entrance to the town:

Great scenery between Washta and Quimby:

Above is Lake Elmo, which looked more like a marsh to me.

Then Quimby (where the free watermelon was!):

Looking down a fairly large hill between Quimby and Storm Lake (Western IA is NOT flat!):

A cute sign my dad and I saw before Storm Lake - you'll get it if you've ever driven towards Wall Drug in South Dakota.  It says, "Wall Drug: 438 miles behind you."  And yes, this is the first picture of myself on my blog... so I blocked out my face to retain a little privacy ;-).

And FINALLY Storm Lake!  I really enjoyed the ride, but I was still glad to arrive at the final destination :-).

Look at all those tents!

Whew, what a day!  My mom picked Dad and I up from Storm Lake, and she brought me great tuna salad and some cold propel.  At home I enjoyed lots of Kashi cereal and soymilk... an amazing combo!  

My kitten Elphaba was very happy when I finished off the box:

I hope you enjoyed this recap as much as me.  Let me know if you have any questions.  I tried to keep this relatively short ;-).

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RAGBRAI: Here I come!

This is just a quick, short post to let you all know that I am going to be riding the first day of RAGBRAI tomorrow!  I'll be getting up around 4:30 AM and hope to be in Sioux City, IA and on the road before 6 AM (I want to start early since it's a 68 mile ride!).  I am just SO EXCITED for this day to be here.  I've been looking forward to it all summer :-).

I'm hoping to be able to take some cool pictures to share with you all afterwards.  The weather should be just about perfect - sunny with a high of 85.  As long as my tire doesn't blow out and some other unforseeable outcome doesn't occur, I should be fine.

Oh, and I've been doing my share of carbo-loading too... but we won't go into that right now ;-).

Okay, I really should get to sleep now.  I hope you all have a great Sunday!

And just a quick question: Have any of you been training for a race or event lately?  If so, feel free to share below :-).

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Recipes and Kitty Pictures

Before I share a couple recipes, I'll let you know how my RAGBRAI training is going.  Yesterday morning I went for my longest ride so far - a 24 mile bike ride starting at 6am... and it went beautifully!  I love early rides as the sun is just coming up over the horizon :-).  I even saw some wildlife including baby ducks, bright blue birds, and a deer.  I wasn't even that sore afterwards, partly thanks to the fact that I chose a VERY flat course - my next long ride will be more hilly ;-).

My first recipe is for black bean burgers... which I'll admit weren't the best... or the worst... they were just all right.  Here's a picture of one I had on a salad topped with salsa and ketchup.  The ketchup was the better topping of the two ;-).

Here's the recipe and nutrition data!

I also made some good homemade granola.  Here's the final product:

And here's the recipe and nutritional data - again courtesy of caloriecount.about.com!

And now for my kitty pictures :-).

Look at all that FUR!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone AND don't forget to enter my 2 giveaways here and here!  There aren't many entries yet, so your odds of winning are pretty high :-).

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Egg drop soup and roasted chickpeas for the first time!

Wow - I've been missing out!  Roasted chickpeas are such a great snack and so versatile too!  I've made two batches already.  Here's the first batch:

I used 1c. dried chickpeas and soaked them overnight.  In the morning I rinsed and dried them and then tossed them with 1/2 tbsp olive oil and about 1/2 tsp. Mrs. Dash Original Blend.  I baked them at 400 degrees for about 35 min. and some burnt and a few even popped out of the pan :-(. The next time I turned the oven down to 325 degrees and baked them a bit longer - none burnt this time.  I think it's a bit tricky to cook them the right amount of time so that they're not too soft or overly crispy and burnt. 

Have any of you tried making roasted chickpeas?  How'd they turn out?  Any tips?

I also finally made some homemade eggdrop soup!  It was remarkably simple and fun :-).  I used this recipe more or less, and here is the final product topped with Mrs. Dash (yep, I like this seasoning):

I'm still enjoying my Chobani oatgurt too!  Here are some recent ones:

In the bowl above, I used chia seed gel (I soaked 1 tbsp chia seeds in .5c water overnight), and it was definitely thicker than using chia seeds straight from the bag.

Now for some exercise news!  I am trying to get in tip-top shape by July 25 to bike the first day of RAGBRAI: The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.  The first day is 68.5 miles!  I know it will be a lot of fun though, so I'm really hoping to do it (and maybe convince my dad to join me!).  Right now I can bike about 9 miles in an hour.

That's all for now folks ;-).

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