Sweet and Sour Peaks

There are two workouts per week I dislike very much.  The first is the treadmill from hell workout on Tuesdays, and the second is the trainer from hell workout on Wednesday.

Regrettably…today is Tuesday.  This is sad for two reasons.  First – the girl is now gone for 10 days (before I join her for a tri down in Florida – woohooo to joining her though!).  Secondarily, I had to run the treadmill from hell workout.  For those that aren’t as familiar with that piece of work, it is:

@ 1 deg Warm-up Run :10 Z2. :05 Z3 :05 Z4a, :05 Z4b, :05 Z2
then…

5 x Elevation pyramid
[:01 @ Z4b pace @ 1 deg
:01 @ Z4b pace @ 2 deg
:01 @ Z4b pace @ 3 deg
:01 @ Z4b pace -.3 @ 4 deg
:01 @ Z4b pace -.6 @ 5 deg
:03 Z2 @ 1 deg between pyramids]
:05 easy
then…
4 x (35” at Z4b pace + .9 with :02 easy between intervals)

:05 CD

So, all in 1 hour and 24 minutes on the treadmill, which netted me 10.5 miles in theory (much like a track workout, there are easier periods in each set – thus reducing the overall mileage).  In reality, I moved about an inch.  And with the continuous ascending (it was a moose of a hill workout basically), in theory I climbed a ton, yet again at the end of the day… I went nowhere.

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(Apparently I was a bit excited at the beginning there…fail, should have been a gradual build.) 

I was in a new pair of shoes tonight, which really helped things.  Usually I’m really on top of my shoe mileage, but this last pair I somehow forgot to write down when I first started using them and things got really out of control*.  And they got worn pretty badly – enough that it started bothering my knee again.  However, after getting a new pair (same as the old pair), things felt quite good after my usual 20-miler on Saturday, and again great after tonight.  And no knee issues – woot!

*Estimation mileage of 800-1000 miles – yikes!

(Side note, I’m sitting here watching the Silverman Triathlon, which I TiVo’d earlier in the week.  Crazy whacky-ass course)

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(Finally…done and time to head home) 

But unlike the peaks I was climbing on the treadmill, I made a much sweeter rendition last night.  Well, I actually started them Sunday night after my 40+ mile bike ride.  The girl had a girls night last night, so I made cupcakes for them.  This was good for two reasons – one, it gave me an excuse to make cupcakes, and two it then got rid of the cupcakes – which is far more important.

I decided on a chocolate devils cake base, and then a vanilla meringue topping, which I lightly toasted with a little blow torch.  I LOVE playing with the blow torch.

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As always, the first step is to make the cupcake, then from there I line them up…because it looks interesting.
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Then I made the ‘frosting’, or the meringue in this case.  Anything involving 5 minutes of super-high speed whipping with the mixer is always fun.

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Then I realized the fun was over.  I had to top all these dang things.  And it turns out, that’s a solid pain.in.the.butt.  Unlike a big pie or something, cupcakes are tiny, and creating the ‘peaks’ on them is tough.  First I tried pastry bag tips with a Ziploc, then I tried a spoon, then a spatula, followed by a cake icing tool.  I ended up using a chopstick, which sorta worked.

(Secondary Silverman TV show side note – they were just showing these 18% hills it has in the bike course, just really nasty stuff.  Yikes!)

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After getting one done successfully, I decided to take a break.  This was going to take a while.  Plus, I needed to…ummm…’test’…my work.  Shortly thereafter there was one less cupcake.  Oppsie.

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Finally, I got enough done for their girls night.  And then a few more on a separate plate for my own little one-person Rainmaker night. 🙂

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10 Comments

  1. hi rainmaker!! you’re totally a bachelor for 10 days!!!!! have fun!!!!

  2. Wow! Those cupcakes look as delicious as the workout sounds nasty. I guess that achieves a kind of balance.

  3. I think the treadmill sucks on a 0% incline, so I bow down to you for your treadmill workout!! Crazy stuff! Those cupcakes look amazing though. No doubt the girl and her friends enjoyed them!

  4. Your treadmill stuff is always jibberish to me.

    Those cupcakes look good. Now go do dishes so your kitchen doesn’t end up like mine!

  5. Silverman is a wicked bad course. I coach a guy out in Vegas and I make him do most of his training on the Silverman and the RAGE course. He hates/loves me for it because it is killer hard, but his next IM race is a flat venue. I just have to get after him to stay in the aerobars.

    Cupcakes look yummy!

  6. I watched Silverman on Sunday too, thought the same thing about the hills, ouch.

    Your cupcakes look much tastier than mine did on Saturday.

    Nice job on completing the treadmill workout.

  7. So I”ve been watching the first season of “Heroes” lately. It’s about these people who have mutated DNA that gives them special ‘powers’. One of the guys in the show can stop time.

    I’ve decided that you have that power. You MUST stop time and do all of this then and THAT is how you do all of this and make the rest of us feel like lazy losers. 😉 Yep.

  8. There is a reason why I tell people I’ll bring crème brûlée for dessert…blow torch!!!

  9. A couple of my blogger buddies (Stef from Rambling By Design and Formulaic) did Silverman – and what a beast of a course that sounds like! Sorry I missed the movie version. Enjoy your time alone with the few remaining cupcakes. 😀

  10. I guess I’m weird- I like treadmill training 🙂 I love doing intervals on it because when I do them outside I don’t maintain a good pace. it’s a good training tool for me to push my speed.

    As for frosting cupcakes 🙂 Try just dunking them into the frosting – should make really cool peaks as you pull them out.