8.21.2012

The Lightweight Eats

Have you noticed that I've been writing more and more about exercise, and less about food and cooking? Yea, me too.

Do you get tired of typing in the .blogspot.com every time you visit my blog? Yea, me too.

Is Piquant Prose a bit non-descript? Yea, probably.

Fortunately, I'm a woman that believes in solutions, not problems.

Check it out:
http://www.lightweighteats.com

To read more about why I made the switch, check out this post.

From now on, I'll be posting exclusively on lightweighteats.com, so make sure to update your bookmarks!

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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8.20.2012

Date Night!

To finish off the first weekend of our honeymoon, Dan and I headed out to our local movie theater for $5 Sunday movies.

We both got all dressed up, because how else could you possible enjoy a $5 movie?

Yes, he does wear this exact outfit to work.

I definitely don't wear this to work.

We saw the new Bourne movie. It was certainly entertaining, but some of the camera work was a little sickening (we had to sit pretty close to the screen) and it left a lot of unanswered questions. Personally, I think movies should be able to stand on their own, even if there is a sequel planned. This movie really didn't--it was basically a set up for the next movie. Disappointing.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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8.19.2012

A Weekend in San Francisco

Warning: Our weekend was almost entirely technology free, so no pictures.

Dan and I got married in January, but because of work commitments were unable to take our honeymoon. Since I have four weeks off of training, and Dan has vacation time to use, we decided to take a honeymoon of sorts this month.

Instead of a traditional one-week vacation, we are taking multiple mini-vacations in the area. First stop: San Francisco!

Dan took Friday off of work and we headed in to the city for some touristy fun. We had a hotel near Union Square and spent most of our time in the downtown area on Friday. I only brought shorts and a thin jacket, so we spent at least an hour trying to locate some acceptable pants--it was very cold in the city!

Friday night, typical of my luck, I had a hankering for ramen and we happened upon a ramen shop mere blocks from our hotel! It wasn't the most incredible ramen I've had, but it hit the spot and warmed us up nicely.

Saturday, we enjoyed breakfast buffet at the hotel, before trekking up and over some of San Francisco's hills to Fisherman's Wharf. We considered taking the cable cars, but the 200+ person line changed our mind.

Instead, we burned some calories before heading out to lunch at Greens, an all-vegetarian restaurant serving primarily local and organic food. Dan had a southwestern style omelet, with chili, potatoes and some spices. I had polenta topped with wild mushrooms, peas and poached eggs. Delicious!

For dessert, Dan and I split a mocha and a few slices of banana bread, topped with cinnamon vanilla butter. They considered it a breakfast pastries: we thought it was decadent enough for dessert. Still, the food was decadent and delicious and made no apologies for the lack of meat.

We had considered an ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli square, but after lunch found any more eating completely unnecessary. Instead, we trudged back over the hill and found some place to sit and rest our feet. People watching in San Francisco is a treat.

For dinner, Dan and I grabbed some salad and met up for a double date! We sat in Union Square enjoying good company and good food until the setting sun caused us to shiver our way home.

Since I haven't had a weekend at home for awhile, Dan and I are spending Sunday back in our apartment catching up on life.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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8.15.2012

Off-Season Training Begins

After a long set of travels home, and most of yesterday off from exercise, it's time to get started with off-season training!

Between now and mid-September, the California Rowing Club has scheduled down time, where we can let our bodies and minds recover from the season. Of course, racing in Canada got me super pumped for training again--great timing.

To kick things off, I started with a nice hour-long swim in my grandparents pool this morning. I didn't used to be a huge fan of swimming, but a good suit, goggles that fit and a swim cap really help. The hour went by pretty fast, and I feel like I got a pretty decent workout in.

Post-Swimming: You can almost see the goggle marks.

After swimming and a quick shower, I headed to lunch with Dan. I was a bit early, so I got a chance to work on a book in the park near his office while I was waiting.

Enjoying summer weather in the park.

We went out to HRD, a super popular Korean-American diner. Since we were on the early end of lunch, the line had fewer than 40 people in it. We both got bibimbap. It was pretty good, but the stuff we had at the Korean place near my parents house was really much better. The vegetarian options were also pretty lacking.

This afternoon, if Dan makes it home from work on time, we're probably going to head in to the gym to do some weight lifting. The off-season is a great time to add muscle, because I don't have to weigh in. To gain muscles, you have to gain some weight, a rare luxury in the world of lightweight rowing.

Tomorrow, rowing and running with friends! Very excited!

In other news, expect a major blog update pretty soon. It's been in the works for a few months, but I think I'm almost ready for the big reveal.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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8.13.2012

Final Day of Racing!

Sunday morning, after our practice, we ate and headed back to the course for some racing. After meeting with our coach briefly, we headed out about 30 minutes prior to our race to warm up.

Nothing dramatic happened whatsoever. We locked on to the starting dock, all the crews were ready to go, and the race started on time. Our goal for the first half of the race was to find our rhythm and to establish ourselves with the leading crews.

Lane 7, to our left dropped off quickly in the first 500 meters ( although managed to hang on decently through the rest of the 2000m). Our biggest competitors were to our right, in lanes 2 and 4. While we kept our eye on them, most of our focus was internal--if we rowed well and applied our power together, we knew we had what it took to stick with the field.

By the halfway point, we were up by over a length on the field. We took 20 strokes to defiantly open the margin, and successfully put ourselves in a dominant position. While we had used a lot of our energy in the first 1000m, we knew we could at least hang on. We kept on eye on our margins, and focused on keeping ourselves calm and together.

The margin opened slightly more in the last 500m, but our lack of sprint told how tired we were at that point. We won the race by almost 7.5 seconds, also helping clinch the team efficiency trophy in the process (calculated on percentage of races won).

Not quite an Olympic medal, but I'll take it!



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