pistachio pudding

yes, the color is a little odd, but don't be put off by it. it tastes delicious on a hot day after a long workout. i went out for a 4.75 hour ride this morning and followed it up with a 3 mile run. i did the ride continuously, which was a nice change from what was happening this summer on my adventure, on 1.5 big bottles of water, 1 bottle of gatorade and half a peanut butter sandwich. i thought that after stopping every 20 miles it would be hard for me to get back in the habit of not stopping that frequently. turns out i was wrong.

there was a headwind the whole second half of the ride and the heat kept climbing. i'm enjoying the heat, but i regularly find myself one step behind in the fluids department and constantly craving salt. that and i know i'm not getting enough calories when i go out for long workouts. these problems are quickly bringing to light some of the things missing from life, particularly gels and Perpetuem.

speaking of cravings, i've found that when i crave certain things, there is usually a reason for it. for example, when i start craving sweets, its generally because i'm not getting enough protein. i'm sure my body was left with all sorts of nutritional deficiencies this summer, but i'm eating better now. the latest craving though has been cheese. i did some research the other day and found out this is generally associated with the need for protein, fat, vitamin b12 and/or calcium. increasing the milk intake (hence pistachio pudding) has made the craving go away, but i hadn't thought of vitamin b12. i probably had about a week's worth of my rda in the last couple months, though (maybe not ironically) i've had an affinity towards spinach (good source of vitamin b12) ever since finishing the ride. its funny how your body works.

in case you were concerned about how austin did with respect to ike, don't worry. the sky to the east of us was overcast yesterday afternoon, but that was the worst of it. we didn't get rain or thunderstorms though we were looking forward to the cooler weather the former in particular would have brought. my house had it's cleanup day yesterday actually, and in anticipation of rain, all of the projects were done inside the house, so i spent the whole day installing linoleum (we have a new kitchen floor now!). the one thing the storm did bring to austin was humidity. we were dripping with sweat all day. when i went for my long run last night, i overheard someone say that it was 95 degrees...at 7:30p, and honestly, i didn't know it was possible to sweat as much as i had been all day and still sweat during my run. i'll be keeping my eyes peeled to see how they're asking people to get involved with recovery efforts for where the storm did hit though. galveston looks pretty bad from all the pictures i've seen.