Eating Like a Triathlete

I’m not going to lie, my favorite part of doing endurance events is that it gives me an excuse to eat a lot and call it “eating like an athlete.”

Before the Race

I started the carb-loading on Friday night at Coppola’s East, one of my mom’s favorite restaurants. She’s fairly picky, and she was paying, so I was more than happy to let her choose.

It’s an Italian restaurant that’s pretty old school–no fancy ingredients my mom hasn’t heard of. We split a spinach salad with bacon, cherry tomato, ricotta salata and balsamic dressing.

For my entree, I got orecchiette with spicy sausage and broccoli rabe, one of my favorite dishes. It made me sick to my stomach–I don’t know if it was the heat, the sausage, the grease (it was pretty oily) or just my nerves…but it was tasty?

Pre-Race Fuel

I had a Luna bar and a banana, my standard pre-race fuel. Moving on…

During the Race

I had two margarita-flavored shot bloks. The extra salt definitely helped on such a hot day.

Post-Race

This is the most exciting of all of the food. My awesome friend Lacey hosted a post-race BBQ for me and some friends.

But it was only around 10:30 when we got back to her house, so she ordered bagels before everyone came over.

Lacey, I love you.

And you, too, Shannon.

And beer. I love beer. (You probably knew that if you have read this blog for more than a day.) Lacey was making beer can chicken, so she needed someone to drink about 1/4 of a Guinness and a Crisp beer. I got distracted by the hoppy goodness in front of me and forgot that I was drinking for the good of the birds, and Shannon had to cut me off at 3/8 of a can.

And then Lacey put the chickens on top of the beers.

Mm salsa.

She had a series of Post-Its in her kitchen reminding her of all the party steps.

Even on the chips!

Happy hostess.

Getting the chickens on the grill and the top over the chickens was a bit of a feat. We ended up rigging them up with skewers and tin foil.

She also grilled romaine lettuce with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and it was so much more amazing than you’d expect for grilled lettuce. I promise. The chicken came out incredibly m-o-i-s-t.

I have no idea what she did with these potatoes and onions, but they were also really good.

Ashley‘s totally trying to take the credit here, but my mom was actually the one who brought the Italian cookies. Obviously.

Laurel and me. You should read her blog. She’s fast. Like Boston-qualifying fast. (I’m holding my lens cap here. Because I am entirely incapable of taking a normal picture.)

This morning, I decided I probably needed some protein, and I made some protein pancakes with strawberries on the side.

And now I’m taking these tight shoulders off to yoga and to do a little shakeout run.