Flavor Tripping

I feel like January is always a lazy month, like we all should be hibernating or something.  Haven’t done much the past couple of weeks, I am actually kind of avoiding social type things unless something especially tempting comes up.  Weekdays especially it’s just too tiring to go out when the alarm rings at 5am, and then workout itself takes a lot out of me during the day.  

We are seeing great results this round of bootcamp though, I am much more cut and have gotten my sprints up to 10.5 mph on the treadmill!  I’ve never been a fast runner so I am really proud of this.  I’ve always been a classic "slow twitch" athlete, good to go all day long as long as it’s sloooowly.  But with some great coaching I’ve really been able to improve my speed for short periods, even my longer runs during class I can still do at 8.5 or 9, which is so much faster than I’ve ever been.  I  am also lifting heavier with a lot less soreness afterwards, I attribute this to upping our protein intake and getting more sleep during the week.  Looking back I think I did myself a disservice in November/December, doing bootcamp while going out so much.   

I have no idea how this is going to affect my swimming, but I really needed a change in routine.  We are planning to have a few weeks off as recovery and then I’m looking to settle back into swimming and dryland supplemented with one or two sessions of bootcamp a week.  I hope that will be a good formula for me – S noticed that my long swim times have been slipping the past few years so anything I can do to arrest the downward trend will be a very good thing.  For the first time in a while, I have intense fear as a motivator again so hopefully that will work in my favor. 

In other stepping out of my comfort zone news, I am a few sessions back into French classes again and it’s going all right.  Ideally I would put more effort into studying and memorizing grammar but it’s tough for me to motivate when we’re not being graded.  It’s also tough to leave S napping at home, snuggled up in a warm apartment and head off to class.  But it gets my brain going, which is good, and it’s good to have hobbies.  Other than that, not much going on.  We go to work and bootcamp during the week, French class and openhouses at the weekend.  Oooh, one Sunday we were at brunch on the Lower East Side and walked over the Williamsburg Bridge to an open house on a beautiful clear, cold day.  There are 21 bridges that connect Manhattan to the outside world.  I have swum under all of them, but only walked over a few, so this was very special. I was surprised at how far from the water the bridge starts – we walked for maybe a mile before coming out above the water?  Very nice pedestrian bridge, loud but felt very separate from vehicle traffic, which was nice.

Also this is interesting too – a few Sundays ago, we went to a "flavor tripping" party.  Sounds crazier than it is, but apparently there are these berries called miracle berries that grow in Africa and have the capability to temporarily deactivate the bitter and sour tastebud receptors, and make ordinary things taste completely different.  Beer tastes like chocolate, unsweetened lemon juice tastes like the sweetest lemonade, and most things taste really different for about 30 minutes after eating these berries.  The party was a launch for a Chicago chef‘s book – he originally found this berry when he had a friend going through chemo which can affect patients’ tastebuds and make normal food taste gross, like metal and rubber.  He created some recipes when eaten with the miracle berry were delicious even with altered tastebuds.  It worked really well and he started to think this could be a solution to the current obesity epidemic, people could just eat the berries and cut down on the sugar they consumed because things would be sweet even if they were sour.  I wouldn’t do it on a regular basis I don’t think, but hopefully it can help some people.

As a novelty, it was definitely a lot of fun.  We were served a really sour unsweetened margarita when we came in, just lime juice and tequila.  Then we took some of the berries and the margarita was instantly very sweet!  Even biting into a lemon or lime was very nice, like a sweet orange or grapefruit.  They passed around some other food and the berries made everything taste so weird.  After the event we went down the street to our old fave Verlaine where they have happy hour until 10pm.  I had vodka soda with lime and when I squeezed the lime in it was so sweet.  We didn’t get much food at the event so we ordered some summer rolls and calamari. Summer rolls were normal but the breading on the calamari was so sweet, it tasted like french toast.  That sounds gross but it was actually tasty.  Tasty, but trippy!

It was really nice to be off on MLK Day, we had bootcamp in the morning but afterwards could just go home and sleep.  Totally wasted day, but very worth it.  Thursday and Friday of last week I was on a work trip, so missed bootcamp.  Got back late Friday afternoon and S and I went to see a 5:30pm movie.  The movie was Stolen Seas, about Somali pirates.  Very interesting, there are so many pieces to both sides.  We walked home and it was snowing – the streets were pretty empty but so pretty!  We popped in at Flex Mussels for beer and mussels – I had the South Pacific mussels with kaffir lime, cilantro, white wine, and lemongrass and S had the Bruschetta mussels with lobster and several kinds of tomatoes.  Yum!  It was warm and cozy in the restaurant so we stayed for another beer and just had a nice chat reflecting back on the week.

The next day I had class, slept in until about noon and had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast.  Went to class and S met me afterwards, we did some errands, including a stop at Joe Fresh – total score, everything was on sale and I got a a funky faux fur dress and a fun fur stole I’d been eyeing, at a major discount!  After that we walked home from midtown, a little window shopping on Fifth Avenue and then dinner at a super cute Thai place called Tue on the way home.  We had sake and beers and lots of little nibbles – very nice little dinner.  Stopped for groceries on the way home, the walk was sooo chilly!  When we got home I tried on a pair of new boots that actually come up to my knee, hung out for a while, then had a bubblebath with my new bath bubbles and  wine, candles, and new library books.  It was very indulgent.  Fairly early to bed so we were very well rested for Sunday funday the next day!

We slept in until around noon, then coffee, croissants and out the door.  Went to see a condo in the East Village that was so cute.  Big space, lots of amenities, even a private outdoor space.  I prefer to be on the top floor, but it was really cute and otherwise exactly what we’re looking for.  We mulled it over during mimosas at Affaire, decided we both loved it, then walked back over to take a second look and then submitted an offer.  Very exciting, I hope it works out.  After doing that we went for beers at 7B aka Horseshoe Bar aka Valzac aka S’s favorite bar.  We played pinball (Spiderman and Pirates of the Carribbean) and Big Buck Hunter.  After two beers we were trashed and starving so we went to Crocodile Lounge for another pint, but really for the free pizza.  That place never gets old!  We went home nice and early, hung out for a bit, I fell asleep and woke up around 9pm.  I was soo happy when I woke up and it wasn’t time to get up for bootcamp yet.  

The next day S had a breakfast meeting so I went to bootcamp alone, waah.  It wasn’t supercold but on my way home it started snowing, big fluffy flakes!  I got ready and went in to work and watched the snow from my window until it turned to cold rain.  Busy day but I had to get home to receive a package so I left around 5:30pm.  So many people on the train!  I did dishes, package came, then S came home with fresh veg and stuff for dinner.  He made a very nice cucumber/tomato/avocado salad – yum.  Bed around midnight and then for some reason we both woke up at 4am this morning.  Lay around until the alarm went off for bootcamp.  Good class, only 3 more!  I am looking forward to an event tonight and sleeping in on Saturday.