Cantaloupe "Soup" Smoothie

With our scorching summer here so far, I myself find it hard to digest alot of solid foods, and even harder to replace the lost calories expended during hours of exercise every day. I know I need to be better about that. But in the mean time, if you are like me and crave lots of fruits and smoothies in this ridiculous heat, here is a yummy recipe passed onto me. I am usually not that much of a Cantaloupe fan, but this mix is just delicious and soooo healthy and good for ya!

You just need:
- 1 whole Cantaloupe (will yield about two big servings)
- some plain or vanilla yogurt, 1 cup
- ice cubes
- mint leaves (these are an important touch!)
- honey (optional for added sweetness)

Just throw everything in the blender, mix well and voila, you have an excellent smoothie! Serve in glasses and top with a straw to sip.

Research has shown that Cantaloupe actually is the perfect post workout/race recovery food as it acts as a natural anti inflammatory, much like pineapple.
Here are its list of vitamins:

Vitamin C
Vitamin A (Beta Carotene)
Potassium
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)
Folate
Dietary Fiber
Vitamin B3 (Niacin)

So if you are like me and don't care too much for eating the fruit, drink it!

What is more appealing- You Decide!

I can't decide if riding/running in 85+ degrees and humidity or riding in 100 degrees and no humidity is more fun. Previous post is an example of how fun running in the heat AND humidity can be. Plus side of that is that your mouth is still producing saliva and if worst comes to worst, you can drink your own sweat as it rolls in streams down your face. It is not so much fun when you start to lose it and see black spots and start to shiver because your body's electrolyte content is running low, and before it gives in, it warns you to STOP EXERCISING NOW or pay the price for a few days after. I went through that on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Without gas in the tank, I didn't have much real estate to cover and found myself bonking 2 hours into a ride. Fun times.

Lets now examine Scenario B: A lovely day such as today (96 degrees), or any day this summer, I set out for a ride, knowing that I will be hot the minute I set off. The pavement below my wheels today felt like lava, thats right, lava. Although I have not ridden over hot lava, I am pretty sure that this is the closest I'll get, until Kona. I was seriously worried my tires would burst from the hot pavement below. In an effort to keep my water bottles frozen ( as they always are when I set out) for 5 minutes longer, I decided to ride up Lefthand to Jamestown. I arrived in Jamestown 8 miles later with water bottles whose ice had completely melted. This within the first hour of my ride.

Today's ride also graced me with the presence of crosswinds, a lovely concoction when you combine it with heat- think blowdryer set on high. I for sure thought I'd land in the Creek 20ft below me a few times on my descent. With my knuckles white, I arrived back down safely. I pushed onward on 36 to attempt a 3 hr ride. Crosswinds pushed me halfway across the highway a few times and the drinks of hot water I got out of my bottles didn't make things much funner. Speaking of hot water, when you are already hot and exhausted and want something cool and know that you need to drink, does the sensation of hot water entering your mouth just make you vomit? I find it even harder to drink when that is the case. Anyhoo, I had no choice as my tongue was pretty much stuck in the back of my throat and I was unable to swallow due to the dry-as-bones humidity. I returned from my ride, close but not quite on the 3 hr mark, parched and surprisingly dry. Turns out no humidity at all may leave you like a wilted flower, but at least you finish with almost dry clothing. And as an added bonus, you get to lick the salt from your arms and face right back into your body if you prefer.

All jokes aside, I do think that although this may all be perfect training for Kona, one should be seriously cautious about exercising in these extreme temps. I may come across as a whiny wimp, but I have come a long way. I used to never exercise during the day in the summers, and only go before sunrise and after sunset. As much as I'd like to convince my body otherwise, it just does not like the heat as much as it likes damp 50 degree weather. But every workout in the heat counts as a check mark on my list of developing a thicker skin and trying to teach my body that it will endure some long hours in it.

Holy Humidity!

the face of sodium depletion after just 85 minutes
a view of my clinging running clothes, not a dry spot anywhere to be found.

My run was supposed to be 2 hours long today,and I was supposed to have run at 6 a.m. My alarm went off and I shut it off and slept blissfully for another 2 1/2 hours. I got my butt out the door at 9:30 a.m., knowing in my heart that I just made my day a whole lot harder for myself. I knew I wasn't going to be running 2 hours this late in the morning, but I set forth with a plan to run a new loop I mapped out, which is about 11 miles long. I brought with me a frozen, handheld waterbottle. 1/4mi into my run it felt as though the air was completely still and thick as water. My lungs burned as I took heavy breaths running up my street to the trail head that would lead me to the rez, around the rez and out on 51st, to Jay Rd. and back to my house.

The first stop was incurred about 1 mi into my run, as I needed to wipe the sweat out of my eyes so I could see where I was going. That last for about 2 minutes before I had to repeat. By mi 5 I was soaked and decided to just let it run down all over me. My face looked like I was standing under a faucet, my legs had streams running down and my top and shorts were soaked to the point where I could wring them out. In addition to sweating profusely I also tend to get other heat/humidity related sensations, such as clogging of the ears (could this be an electrolyte/sodium imbalance?) and overall achiness in all moving bodyparts, as well as loss of proper hearing. Let me tell you, by the end of my run, which was 85 minutes long, I felt like a complete waste of a human being. And it wasn't even overly hot out. 80 degrees. However the humidity was over 50%. I got home and I started dripping out of every pore, prompting me to immediately run for the shower, managing to take some shots along the way. (see pics, and enlarge them for a full on view of sweat droplets!) What made this run interesting even more is that when I made the turn onto Jay Rd, a bunch of Tri-athletes (some familiar faces, some not, one yelling "hey sweetheart"- um, who was that??) were waiting around for their leader (I am guessing) to arrive and saw me run by and did a little cheer, which immediately made me think "wow, I must look REALLY bad if they are cheering for me like its a race or something", and it didn't stop there as another Tri-athlete drove by and yelled at me out the window. And then one more random guy on a bike passed and said: "Looking good, girl!" I'm not sure if he was impressed by my overall swimmingly appearance or if he thought I was running at a good clip, which I am sure I was NOT. Anyways, I imagined I was running down the home stretch on Alii Drive and with the way I was feeling, I was pretty sure I was right there.

Things to ponder after this horrid experience:
1) Am I once again a wimp who can't handle the heat/humidity?
2) Do I sweat more than anyone else I know and is my sweatrate so high that it might pose a serious problem in Kona?
3) How will I possibly replace the liters of lost fluid and sodium that I seem to lose per hour running when I am actually racing?
4) Should I look into an overnight IV hookup so that I actually wake up feeling hydrated?
5) Should I stop torturing myself in the middle of the day and go back to early morning runs only? I have a feeling that unless it's a brick, I will be doing my long runs EARLY!
6) How did I ever live in NJ as a runner and not melt away in my own baths of sweat??
7) Is altitude + humidity tougher than just humidity alone?? (I hope so)
In need of lots of gatorade and pickle juice!