Taking Stock: May

How do I even begin to take stock of a month where I turned my life upside down by moving across Europe and creating an entirely new existence which has little in common with anything I have known before and which excites and delights me on a daily basis. It's hard to know how best to make sense of what has transpired this month, let alone write about it as it's unfolded. And it's perhaps for this reason that I've avoided blogging; I've been in a stunned writers' silence that has left me sitting in front of my computer with a blank posting page open, stammering at my keyboard.

Nevertheless, I'll attempt to take stock of the last four weeks with my usual summary of how much training I did. It will come as no surprise that these tallies are low:

Riding 26 hrs

Running 7 hrs

Swimming 5 hrs

But I did finish up the month with a test of sorts. Yesterday, May 31st, saw me return to Switzerland to take part in an event that I had had my sights on as a fun event to do with friends, as well as a good benchmark of my riding fitness: The Cyclotour du Lac Leman. The road that loops around Lake Geneva (Lac Leman, en français), is a flat and scenic route that passes through both Switzerland and France, and also happens to be exactly 180km: the distance of the bike portion of an Ironman. Myself and two ex-pat friends, along with two thousand other eager riders, set off at 7am from Lausanne as the sun rose over the Rhone Valley peaks to the east. I arrived back where I started from in a respectable 5hr 45mins (subtracting time for three aid station stops, which with two thousand riders, were events in themselves). I rode at a moderate and steady pace and got off the bike feeling good, and dare I say it, feeling like it wouldn't be unfeasible to change my shoes and set off for a marathon. This morning, twenty-four hours later, I have no aches or pains and no fatigue whatsoever in my legs.

So I'm pleased with this, and most importantly it has bolstered my confidence that my training isn't going that badly. I'm now busy making plans for training in June, which includes deciding to what degree I can pick up my Ironman training schedule without a ramp-up stage. After yesterday's benchmark, my current thinking is pretend that nothing has happened, pick up where I left off, and hope that my body doesn't notice.

On to my diet: as I mentioned in one of my rare posts of May, I increasingly feel that isn't much to say about my vegan foray. After five months of eating what initially felt like an awkward and difficult diet, being vegan feels completely normal and I give it little thought anymore. My energy levels, general fitness and recovery times have gone from strength to strength, I've had confirmed medical evidence that my iron levels are in fact increasing with this diet, and I have had no signs that my body is struggling to handle the demands of Ironman training. Shopping as a vegan and eating out as a vegan have become second nature, and while the latter sometimes leaves me feeling restricted (although less so in the South of France), neither seem remarkable anymore. I continue to find new things to cook and I have to say, I'm getting rather good in the kitchen. This month's recipe of the month was a bit of an accident; I was planning to make a quinoa salad and ended up blending it into a tapenade that I served on crackers as an appetizer. My new French friends loved it.

Toasting the quinoa before cooking it gives it a nutty flavour and combining it with the flavours of peanut and coconut makes for a faintly Asian-themed crunchy tapenade:

Coconut Quinoa Tapenade

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup sugar-free organic peanut butter

¼ cup green onions

½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

¼ cup coconut milk

¼ cup finely diced red bell pepper (for garnish)

some cilantro sprigs (for garnish)

Rinse quinoa well in a fine strainer to remove the bitterness. Drain well. Spread quinoa on a plate lined with several layers of paper towels; let dry 10 to 15 minutes. Then spread in a large nonstick skillet, set over medium heat and toast until golden brown and fragrant, about 6 minutes. Add water and salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer; cover tightly and cook until the liquid is absorbed, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and fluff with a fork. Cool completely.

Once cooled, blend quinoa in food processor with peanut butter, cilantro, green onions and coconut milk. Stir well, cover and refrigerate. Serve as a tapenade (I used organic sprouted wheat crackers) and decorate with finely chopped red bell pepper and cilantro leaves. Eat with the knowledge that you are getting a healthy dose of plant-based proteins and good fats before you even start the main course.