Yippie!!

Anyone watch the VMAs last night?? Did you see the New Moon trailer??

Just kidding.. I'm not going to blog about it. But I am going to tell you about my weekend! (minus the part where I stayed up to watch the VMAs/ New Moon trailer...)

We hosted our little dinner group Saturday night. We have 8 of us that meet once a month at a house and we all bring food of a predetermined country. Last month it was Greece, last night it was Spain. I made a few things - not all of it turning out properly.

I tried my hand at ceviche. I'd heard it was actually easy to make. If you don't know what that is - it's fish cooked with acid (like lime juice) instead of heat. Then you add some tomatoes, avocados and cilantro, toss and you're done. I've eaten it several times and it was great. But for some reason my fish wasn't "cooking" in my lime juice. I'm sticking it in the freezer until trash day so I don't stink up the house...

I made two veggies dishes that turned out ok. But my biggest hit was the sangria.

Now all my recipes came form a Spanish cooking site - except the sangria. I decided to go Bobby Flay on that one. He makes some great, albeit, STRONG sangria. Here's the recipe:

2 bottles red Spanish table wine
1 cup brandy
1/2 cup triple sec
1 cup OJ
1/2 pomegranate juice
1/2 cup simple syrup (or more to taste)
orange slices
apple slices
pomegranate seeds
Mix together and let sit at least 24 hours before serving

So after our night of great food (and lots of sangria) I went on our last training ride Sunday morning. It was supposed to be a 10 mile easy ride culminating at a local firehouse pancake breakfast.

We ended up going almost 30 miles, much faster than ride pace on a hilly course. Needless to say I was pissed. I wasn't feeling 100% due to the wine and then the asthma kicked in not long into the ride. I was one cranky bitch, for sure. I made it but only after lots of bitching and complaining. If I'd known it was going to be longer and faster I would have skipped it since I'd had a late night before.

This might be my last century ride with this group. I'm not happy with how they conduct training rides. I don't think I've been on one ride this year that goes the distance promoted and at the ride pace (which is supposed to be all the rides). We usually go farther and a lot faster. The distance isn't an issue except for when your plans for the day get all screwed up because the ride took two hours longer than you were lead to believe. (and the weekend rides usually take several hours to begin with!) The fast pace - well that's an issue. I'm not looking to ever start racing so I don't care to go fast. I only need to go as fast as we're going to go the day of the ride. Plus when they go fast the slower riders end up getting left behind. At least this year they come back and get us. But I usually try to keep up (which is just dumb) and then I'm spent for the last half of the ride. I'm definitely ready to put this century ride behind me and start training for my half marathon.