Lightweight Eats

If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably noticed that I've mentioned getting produce from "our farm". No, we didn't buy a farm. Instead, we signed up for a CSA box!

"Our" farm

In Oakland, we tried a CSA share, but didn't find it worthwhile. Our local grocery store had better prices on local, organic produce and was half the distance (super important when you're biking up hills to pick up groceries). Heading out to Connecticut, I expected things to be a bit different, so I researched local organic farms.

Boy, was I wrong. Things here are WAY different than California. All of the vegetables in grocery stores look like caricatures of their original—the colors are too even, the shapes too regular, the flavor quite lacking and the prices astronomical. We could hardly afford vegetables, let alone organic veggies. Local was definitely out of the question—the going rate for ZUCCHINI, which grows like a weed, was $4/lb at our local market.

So in late spring, just a week before the first shares went out, we signed up for a seasonal CSA. It was a bit of a gamble, but it looked like a good group of guys running the farm, with a nice selection of vegetables.

And fortunately, I was oh-so-right!!

Visiting the farm!

Our CSA so far has been a marvelous experience. We pick up our box every Thursday about a mile from the rowing center. When I can, I like to ride my bike to pick up our veggies.

The farm is located about 20 minutes drive north of New Milford. It's a 30-acre, all organic farm. They grow a bunch of different things—greens, tomatoes, sunflowers, potatoes, radishes, beans, peas, blueberries and more! We get a nice variety in our box each week.

Coming from California, there haven't been any new vegetables. Still, it's been fun to get back some of the variety we'd had out West. Daikon and turnips have both made an appearance, as well as some fun shelling beans and very sweet snap peas.


Knowing that we eat a lot of veggies, we talked to the farmers and decided to get a full share instead of a half share. We could certainly eat fewer vegetables, but when we put our minds to it, we easily finish our full share each week.

In fact, we've also been supplementing our CSA share with veggies from our garden.


I'll write more about the GMS garden later, but we're slowly establishing a 30ft x 30ft vegetable garden just outside the house. So far, we've gotten a good harvest of mint, lettuces, zucchini, beans and cucumbers. It's definitely a work in progress, but it's fun making zucchini bread with veggies from the backyard!

Expect more updates through the late summer and fall, as we experience the full season of the CSA and continue to make progress in the garden.

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In two years, the Rio Olympics begin.

It feels so far away, both in time and in the things I have to accomplish to make it. But in considering the margin between where I am and where I want to be, I remembered where I was two years ago!

It has been a little bit more than two years since I started training with the California Rowing Club. In early May of 2012, I went 8:12 over 2km on the erg, struggled after 10km, and felt the burn after 100 squats at 45 pounds.

The past two years have made a world of difference. I trained at the California Rowing Club for 18 months and established a really solid base. With cycling to and from the boathouse, and lots of 20-24km rows in the single, I was hitting 800-1000 minutes of training each week.

Although my scores didn't improve much in California, when I came to GMS I reaped the benefits of that base with massive improvements. Now, I pull a 7:22 on 2k, can row 22km without snacks, and squat 3 sets of 100 with 50 pounds.

Of course, improvement isn't linear, and I expect every further second I gain will be hard fought. Still, to be where I am and still improving after only two years is very encouraging. Now that I've really found my training groove, this next six months will be my best yet—and this coming fall and spring season should be an absolute blast.

Cheers to dreams!

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This week was our last week of true 'summer training'. For those athletes headed to the World Championships at the end of August, or for those in California waiting for the September Indian summer, that may seem premature. But fall and winter are when you win races, so I'm eager to get back into the fitness-building phase of training.

We're just starting to get a taste of fall, with more long/slow work and longer hard intervals. This will be our last set of 1000m pieces for more than a month!

6x120 bench pulls at 50 pounds. Crushing it.

Monday
AM: 60 minutes in the single, easy rowing; 12.2km
PM: 2 hour lifting session, with aforementioned bench pulls

Tuesday
AM: 100 minutes, 1x, firm and continuous; 21.9km
PM: 75 minutes, 2x, easy rowing; 16.8km

Wednesday
AM: 90 minutes, 1x, easy rowing; 18.5km
PM: 2 hour lifting session

Thursday
AM: 4 hours in the garden (ok, this wasn't on the training plan, but weed pulling is work!)
PM: 60 minutes, 30.5' on the erg (7000m), 30' treadmill run

Friday
AM: 2 by 1000m, 1x; 12.5km total
PM: 75 minutes

Saturday
AM: 2x1500m, Concept2; #1 5:33.7 (1:51.2), #2 5:38.1 (1:52.7); 13.5km total
PM: 3x25 minutes, Concept2; 17,073m total

Sunday
TBD! I will probably do 45-75 minutes of either rowing or cross-training today, at an easy pace

What did your week look like? Have you started prepping for fall racing season, or are you still focused on the end of summer sprints??

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