Favorite Find of the Week!

Okay, I have to admit that sometimes it is hard to find fast healthy food to make for dinner. I am NOT a creature of habit so I hate having the same thing ever night for dinner. I LOVE to explore new foods, especially healthy foods! It's like Christmas every time I get to try out a new food find and cook it up for James. Whether he eats or not is a different story, but so far he's been a fan of almost everything! Anyway, our local grocery store went under renovation last month and the re-grande opening was this weekend. They added in a wine bar, fresh roasted nut booth, a gelato and coffee bar, and a whole new health food section, YEA!! I was eager to check it out and see what new produce, wine, etc. they had to offer. Strolling down the freezer section, I spotted the words "all natural." Hmmm... what's this? All natural and healthy pancakes, but these are not your morning pancakes. They were the kind you usually make with potatoes. I found several selections from Zucchini, Black Bean, Sweet Potato, and more. I had to get them. I started off just trying the Zucchini Cakes. We tried these as a little side dish with our chicken and salad. They're so yummy and easy to bake. Just 8 minutes in the oven. I paired it with a little Jalapeno mustard dipping sauce and James was in Heaven. The Black Bean are also great! And for only 70 calories, these are a score. They have several more flavors. Check them out at Old Fashioned Kitchen website and let me know if you become a fan like myself. Next to try on the list is the Baja Corn Fritters!
Keep it Healthy.
LCotter

Source Endurance

SOURCE ENDURANCE



please keep in mind I'm an amateur at the video clips at the moment. I just barged into source with the flip camera in hand!

Source Endurance is the place you need to go and check out if you want to see your times drop and your overall rankings in races go down. Even if you want to lose weight! As you can see in the video, Source Endurance has a top of the line lab. No joking around with this lab as you can get so much valuable data to help in the progression of your training. If you're not happy with the position you have on your bike, they have the retul bike fitting system. They have the equipment and they have the best coaches in multisport, cycling, running, and I'm sure just about any other endurance sport!
The layout you receive for your monthly schedule keeps you honest because once you hit send it goes straight to your coaches computer. Along with coaching you also get the use of the lab.

Derick Williamson- Multisport/cycling/ running
David Wenger- Cycling
Kelly Handel-Multisport/cycling/running
Stefan Rothe- Cycling
Brandon Marsh- Mulisport

All these coaches are all top athletes. Coach D won the AT&T half marathon in a blazing 1:07. David Wenger and Stefan Rothe are both pro cat 1 cyclists, and Marsh and Handel are pro triathletes.


I have known coach D (Derick Williamson) for sometime now. We meet early in 07 when he was coaching Lance Parker who was and still is a super star runner here in Austin. We lost contact and it really was not until May of this year that I hooked back up with at the Source Endurance booth at the rookie triathlon. I had been happy with my training up to the rookie but really thought I needed a lot more to be up in the ranks I wanted to be at. After a consultation with Derick at Whole Foods we got to work straight away. Starting with some formative measures:

8x8 min at LT watts
15 min straight on the track

The bike was horrible! I was only able to make one send off! Second interval I lost the average at about 2 minutes into it and knew it was not going to get any better. 5weeks later and a lots of hard training and I can ride 6x 15 minutes at the wattage I could just barely hold onto for one interval!!! The running was not as tough and I had a solid split making it around the track 11.5 times. I know am running 3x3 miles on 2 min rest at the same pace I could run the 15 minutes at! I have seen so many improvements from my power data and running splits and am thrilled. I know i will have my break out race very soon.

Source Endurance is a fantastic place to be coached from, or even better yet, the best place to be trained in Austin, TX period.

Go check them out. And tell them Cotter sent you. Source Endurance

www.source-e.net

Oh yeah, keep it gangsta yall keep it gangsta! See video below to understand.

My favorite youtube video

little tardy

I know everyone cant wait to see the rest of my sponsor vids. I'm working on a sweet k-swiss video as well as a source endurance video.

Training has been coming along very well. Wattage is creeping up slowly as well as the mile splits. Today is hell and I can't wait until the day is over so I can get my Mexican fix on.

In other news, I have been obsessed with getting our lawn back to a beautiful green color again. I have been watering, fertilizing, and using a high tech fluid to get the green back! I hope to have this under control within the next two weeks.

JPC out!

Snack Attack

Snacking is just important as real meals. They need to well balanced (a simple protein, carbohydrate, and good fat combo) and they need to full on nutrients that help keep you going as well as your metabolism! I know I always post meal recipes, but today I thought I'd share some interesting but still Yummy snacks!

1. flax seed tortilla chips with low-fat cottage cheese and diced tomato and pepper on top. (James sometimes uses honey with the chips instead of tomatoes, still pretty good, just different).
2. Apple slices wrapped in turkey and low-fat cheese
3. Almond butter and light laughing cow cheese on a corn tortilla
4. crumbled cliff or luna bar mixed in with Greek Yogurt
5. See below- these are tasty ideas that were created by whole foods market!

Crispy Cashew Rice Treats
Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Vegan

Makes approximately 10 squares
1/2 cup rice syrup
3/4 cup natural peanut butter
3/4 cup cashews, toasted and chopped (or your favorite nut)
2 cups brown rice crisp cereal
Bring rice syrup to boil in medium saucepan. Lower heat and simmer for about 2 minutes. Add peanut butter and turn heat to low. Mix thoroughly, about 3 minutes. Combine cashews with rice crisp cereal in mixing bowl. Add peanut butter mixture to rice crisp cereal mixture and combine. Press into oiled baking dish and let cool. Cut into squares and serve.

Nutrition Info
Per Serving (2 oz.): 290 calories (140 calories from fat), 16g total fat, 2.5g saturated fat, 2g dietary fiber, 7g protein, 29g carbohydrate, 0mg cholesterol, 190mg sodium


Fruit Yogurt Popsicles
Kid-Friendly Recipe

Serves 4
1 cup plain whole milk yogurt, mixed well
1 cup fresh or frozen fruit, your choice of blueberries, strawberries, cherries, etc.
1–2 tablespoons honey
4 Popsicle sticks
four 5-ounce paper cups
aluminum foil
Place the yogurt, fruit (slightly thawed if using frozen) and honey in a blender. Blend to desired consistency (some kids like the fruit chunky and others like it smooth). Pour into paper cups, filling them 3/4 full. Cover the cups with foil. Make slits in the center of the foil covers and insert the Popsicle sticks. Put in the freezer for about 5 hours or until frozen solid. When ready, peel off the paper cup and eat.

Nutrition Info
Per Serving (105g-wt.): 80 calories (20 from fat), 2g total fat, 1.5g saturated fat, less than 1g dietary fiber, 2g protein, 15g carbohydrate, 10mg cholesterol, 30mg sodium

Eat Up!!
LCotter

p.s.
CONGRATS to the famous BREE WEE for her PR at Ironman Japan!

Thank you Phase One

PHASE ONE



PhaseOne Design Builders is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and provides Financial Institutions complete “turnkey” services including construction, design, consulting, and feasibility analysis. PhaseOne specializes in Financial Institutions with the Partners of PhaseOne having completed over 400 projects.

The firm utilizes Computer -Aided design and superior project management technology to construct buildings of the future.

PhaseOne Design Builders provide their clients with unique service of Principal involvement throughout the entire project. Because of the desire to offer quality design build services, we insist on daily involvement by the Principals. In this manner, PhaseOne can assure clients that their projects are completed within the Owner’s time frame and budget. This style of project management is contrasted to the more traditional approach where projects are managed using less experienced personnel.

PhaseOne's architectural services are provided by their Strategic Partner TGS Architects. To find out more on TGS Architects, please visit their website. www.tgsarchitects.com

Check them out.

Phase One

You might be familiar with some of their work:
Community Bank in Longview, TX
Providence Bank in Southlake, TX
First National Bank

Week of Thanks to my Support

CATZ




CATZ is a facilities-based sports performance company that designs and delivers sports-specific training programs to competitve athleted around the world. The training methodology is unique and uniquely delivered in a state-of-the-art facility.

I meet up with Dirk, CEO of the North Austin CATZ (620 & 183) last year and had a chat with him about a new product he was releasing. We chatted and I was then told I was able to train at the facility during my off season work. Dirk was the first guy to really give me the support I needed to try and complete my dream of being a top triathlete. From about Sept-Jan I trained twice a week for an hour, religiously, to prep myself for the 08 season under super trainer BILL MEYER. I had never been a fan of strength training as I thought it was bad for training as I would put on more muscle weight. The training at CATZ is nothing like I thought strength training would be like. I came out of the five months, leaner, faster, more explosive, and most importantly, less injury prone.

A workout session might look like the following:

Warm up and flexibility
Injury Prevention (single leg balance work is a must. It saved me)
Water Break
set 1: speed block
set 2: Strength endurance block
set 3: power endurance block
Finish: core series

All sessions go for an hour long. Of course not all sessions are like the ones listed but that is what you can look forward to. These sessions are not all weights also which I loved! Lots of ball work, power cord work,...etc. Basically it is a blast for an hour and you finish spent but for some reason you can't wait to come back for more. This has helped me stay injury free and I recommend this to all. If you want to increase you fitness, then this is the place for you.

Look CATZ up and find a location in your area. Catz will give you A FREE TRIAL SESSION, YES, FREE. I know you will love it as much as I do. Parents, they also offer a variety of youth specific training sessions.

THANK YOU CATZ! Thank you DIRK for supporting me.

My Fellow Fillo

Yesterday I had a nice hour break between clients and I just happend to be down near our local Central Market. Its very similar to whole foods. As I was browsing the produce, ethnic foods, etc. I thought "hmmmmmm......do I dare experiment with Taco Tuesday??? Should I spice it up a little bit??" I went for it! I found some great summer squash and corn fillo dough (Pegasus Food Inc.) and crossed my fingers hoping that this new recipe would be a hit!
Here's what I threw together.

Filling:

1 can corn (drained)- season with cumin
1 can organic black beans (drained)- season with salt and garlic and a little chili sauce
1/2 cup pico di gallo with hot salsa
1/4 cup diced pepper and onion
3/4 to 1 cup diced grilled chicken breast or other meat/fish.
1/2 cup diced yellow squash- steam before hand and season with cumin
Combine ingredients together in bowl and add a little olive. Then add a little Parmesan cheese (we use veggie Parmesan cheese). Mix it in so that when it bakes it will hold the other ingredients together.


After making the filling, set it in the fridge for about 30 minutes or until ready to use. Then prepare the thawed out fillo dough. You usually have to keep a damp paper towel on each sheet to keep them from drying out. I then used all natural butter or olive to coat the fillo sheets. Set around 2 sheets on top of each other. Fill the sheet in the middle with filling and then get creative and roll it up however you want. I made one roll like a cannoli and another similar to a pastry puff. Sprinkle part-skim mozzarella cheese on top of each and bake in over on 400 degrees for about 12-15 minutes or until the fillo browned.
OPTIONAL- Used brown rice or Tasty Bite multigrain pilaf (90 sec cook) to go on top of the dough under the cheese before baking.
Serve it up with a side avocado and tomato salad and your set! The corn and the whole wheat Fillo dough have more than 2 grams of fiber per serving and are a great carbohydrate alternative for those looking to explore. You get a lot of dough that you can freeze and use whenever. My next recipe will be with banana, almond butter, whole wheat fillo dough, and honey. Top that with some Greek yogurt and cinnamon and you have a YUMMY desert!!!

Again, let me know if anyone tries this and if they like it. James did, thank goodness!!
LCotter

Burger Time

I had a nice recovery week after Alcatraz to get my body fresh and ready to go for another hard cycle starting on Saturday. I had a 3.5 hr ride with an hour at threshold and the remainder at endurance watts with some hills. This was followed by a hard 4 mile run off the bike. I was so ready for this work out but when it came to it I lasted 2 intervals and was done. Was it the heat, was I fatigued, not enough sleep, I was so pissed i couldn't even make the set. I decided to just ride for 3.5 hours but could hardly even produce enough power to get up the hills just down the road! I turned back and went to sleep I was so tired.

Alcatraz was the most amazing race I had ever competed in but I was pretty devastated about finishing out of top ten and having a poor swim. It was on my mind the entire bloody week and I couldn't let it go. I tend to hold on to things and keep them bottled inside. This lead to poor communication between my wife and I which came to a head on Friday night. Mental stress was culprit and I had never felt so drained in my life on Saturday! After a long talk with the wife all was good on Saturday. You know what is the hardest part of marriage is? Letting go of your ego and admitting your wrong. I hate it!

This morning I had a 13 mile run which I changed to 10 because I wanted to get in the bike workout from Saturday since it was a key session. I finished my first loop and was turning around to complete the second in the opposite direction when the next door neighbours dog decided to come play. Lindsay and I have yet to meet the neighbour and have no idea what the dog's name is, so I named this dog, Buster, because he is always busting the law and I always want to bust him up when he does. He is a good dog just bloody annoying at times. Buster joined me today on my run even after I told him to bugger off about 50 times. He is fast and after failing to drop him I figured he would be a great running partner; however, bloody Buster was running in front of cars, crapping in every one's yard, pissing on ever tree, and people think he is my dog!! I had to run him home which ended up adding three more miles to run. Run was solid coming home in 1hr 25 min.

The bike was 8x7min at threshold which is not that long but for me it would be a huge improvement as I couldn't even make two about three weeks ago. I was still a little worried about how I would fair since yesterday was a disaster. Nailed all of them at the upper end of my zone and was a happy man. My reward... a HUGE HAMBURGER from the natural burger joint down the road. Of course it was chased down with a cold glass of coke. I have become the biggest fan of coke ever since moving to Texas. Nothing bets a cold coke after riding in 100+ degree's with high humidity.

Tomorrow is mellow and then Tuesday and Wednesday will be hard days that I can't wait to tackle.

Check out Source Endurance if you want to be pushed to your limits and come out stronger.

Summer Grillin!!

Boy its hot here! Yesterday it got up to 101 degrees. YIKES! Anyway, since its too I make James do the grillin'. Here's a great recipe that's fast and tasty. This week we've been loading up on all the seasonal vegetables. Its a great way to support your local farmers, etc! Plus, these vegetables are loading with a healthy antioxidant that aid in recovery.

Ingredients and Directions:
1. Chicken vegetables kabobs- I find these already put together, just uncooked, at our local grocery store or Whole Foods Market. They also have a vegetable kabob kit that you can grab if you want to go vegetarian and use tofu or tempeh instead of meat or shrimp.
2. Then after arranging the chicken and veggies on the kabobs, marinate them for about 30min-1hr in the fridge.
-----Marinade consists of the following
- Soy Ginger Sauce
- reduced fat or regulas Italian Dressing (not fat free- it burns the chicken)
- dash of garlic and pepper
- olive oil
- Balsamic vinegar
(I used random amounts until I found the flavor I liked)
3. Then warm up the gas grill to med/high heat, place kabobs on foil wrapping, and cook for about 20-30 min or until chicken in done. We turned them about every 3 min or so. Keep them in foil so the juice from the marinade doesn't drip out and they stay juicy!! James was awesome at this as he learned to grill from the master of the grill, his father Tim Cotter!
4. I also sliced up some eggplant and grilled them in foil as well. These only took about 10-15 min or so while flipping them only once. You know when they are done when the middle is no longer crisp but rather has a sauteed look.
---------Drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, and some kind of other spice you might like (we used green curry and garlic) over the sliced eggplant.

5. Add an avocado and tomato salad plus the Uncle Ben's Santa Fe Brown Rice (90 sec cook) and you are set for a quick and healthy meal!!

We had no leftovers which means we'll have to make round two again soon!
Cheers,
LCOTTER

Alcatraz

Again, I was not very pleased with the finish, 11th place, however, I was pleased with the way my body responded to the training. I really feel like everything is starting to come around now. I know I can't expect glory straight off the bat, but it is coming and I can feel it.

All triathletes will give you a 100 reasons why things went wrong. I have mine and will use them to improve on this race next year instead of whine to you all. The swim was my fault on race day and I will leave it at that because that is all I have been thinking about to this day.

The ride to Alcatraz was very enjoyable. I was able to meet Ben Collins and have a nice chat with him on the way to the rock. He is a new up and coming ITU guy with a wicked swim. I was dreading the moment when we were called out to the edge. Land looks so bloody far away when your on that boat. Just like my buddy Matt Seymour said, "when your standing on the edge, you will ask yourself why the hell am I doing this race?!" The water was so dark and cold (57 degrees to be exact), and the outside air temperature was not like a typical Austin morning. The gun went off and in we went. I woke up the second I hit the water. Everything went numb and stayed numb until mile 8 on the bike.

Transition hurts bad here as it is a 3/4 mile run on concrete with lose gravel. You are running this barefoot and it HURTS! I was glad to get to my bike eventually to get going. The bike is a very hilly with some very fast descents. I rode by myself for the majority of the ride until I found another Kiwi, Ben Pattle, about 2 miles out from T2. We rode in together and started off our run together.



I felt pretty good going out on the run. Slipped on the K-SWISS kicks and took off. I had my partner in crime, Ben with me and we took off. We caught our first three runners within the mile and kept on charging. The run at Alcatraz is amazing, 8 miles has never gone by so fast! Your running on trails, beaches and sand ladders. The sand ladder was pretty challenging. Coming home in the final mile and a half, Ben surged and I couldn't respond straight away and a gap formed. It was then in the last half mile I caught him and almost ran down 10th in the finish shoot but came up short.



Alcatraz is a must do race!
Huge thanks to the Taylor family who joined us for the trip. Source Endurance and Derick Williamson, K-Swiss for the awesome shoes, CATZ, Phase One, and Hammer Nutrition.

Pancakes- "This recipe doesn't require much thought early in the morning!"

Okay so here's the recipe for the pancakes. A lot of the ingredients are dairy free because of my lactose intolerance but you can adjust the soy milk for 1% or 2% organic milk.

INGREDIENTS: serves 4
1 cup all-purpose flour or soy flour
1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal
1/4 c brown sugar
2 tablespoons agave nectar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten in 1/3 cup egg beaters
1/2 cup soy milk plus a little extra nonfat dry milk added in (maybe 1/3 cup or so?).
1-2 scoops grounded flaxseed
2-3 tablespoons melted brummel and brown yogurt butter
cinnamon to sprinkle on top or into batter

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients and go at it! Stir until smooth and add in any fixin's (dried cranberries, bananas, blueberries, almond butter, yum!!). Then scoop a large spoon full onto a griddle or skillet and cook those babies up! Not too hard. Be sure to flip them until nicely golden brown. Add a light honey or agave nectar on top and eat up. :)

Sunday Morning Post Long Run Pancakes!

Okay this is not me, but maybe some day I'll be a Mama Rose with her famous pancake! Here's how my nutritous pancakes came about........

I love Sunday mornings! James and I thoroughly enjoy them. We sleep in (well I can't sleep in past 7:30am) but then we train, eat, take the dog the lake or something like that, go to COSTCO (all the samples- heck ya!), and then its off to the evening service church grabbing a bite at whole foods afterwards. Well, yesterday morning I woke up too early (for Sunday at least) and decided that since James had a long run, I would take the dog to the greenbelt for a little jog myself. I didn't last too long as it was soo HOT outside so instead I opted for an active recovery day. Good news for James because when I returned home I had the urge to make pancakes, from scratch. What an attempt! One batch was oatmeal with dried cranberries and the other was oatmeal cinnamon banana. Both batches had a little flaxseed in them as well and we used a raw agave nectar as the syrup on top. Agave nectar is 42%sweeter than white sugar but has the same caloric value and a low glycemic index, "a measurement of the relative ability of a carbohydrate to raise blood glucose levels." It can be switched out in equal parts for honey in most recipes. Here's why it's better: Agave nectar is metabolized more slowly and is less likely to cause dramatic fluctuations in blood sugar.
But anywho..... I think the best thing about this particular Sunday was the smell of the house when you walked in the door after a nice long run....yes, the smell of pancakes filled our house all day. Gotta love it! If you're itching to know the recipe (super easy) shoot me a comment!

LCOTTER