Embrace the Stress

Ah stress.  It can be debilitating for people who suffer with it, both for themselves and their dogs.  But the interesting thing about stress is that it's not the stress itself that's the problem but rather a person's belief about the stress.  A study found that people with a lot of stress in their lives and a belief that stress is harmful had a 43% increase in their risk of dying prematurely.  However those who had a lot of stress in their lives but didn't believe that stress is harmful had no more risk of dying and in fact had even less risk than those with light stress.  The mind is a powerful beast.

That's fascinating and all but how does this apply to agility?  Well what if we could turn stress around, make it an asset by changing our belief about our stress?  If you're currently struggling with ring nerves you're probably standing outside the ring with any number of physical symptoms - rapid heart beat, breathing fast, butterflies in the stomach, feeling shaky, gotta pee, sweating, nausea, anxiety, etc.  Maybe these symptoms start sooner than ringside - while you're driving to the trial or even the day before.  Most of us interpret these physical symptoms of stress as signs of trouble, that we're not coping well with the situation, that things will go badly.  But instead what if we interpreted these physical symptoms as our body preparing ourselves for the challenge we're about to face?

This is me at Xterra Nationals in 2013 (off road triathlon nationals).

This was the year of the devastating floods in Boulder (and surrounding areas) and I was unable to train for about 3 weeks before the race.  I didn't get my car back from the shop until 2 days before the race (a necessary part was delayed because of flooded roads) so I had to do the 7 1/2 hour drive the day before.  No time to pre-ride the course or swim in the reservoir.  I was stiff from the long car ride.  And honestly my mind was elsewhere.  On top of it all I'd had to put down my 15 year old dog the day the rains started and I'd lost my grandmother who raised me about 3 weeks before that.

Standing on that start line I was a bundle of nerves.  The swim is a mass start which means 350 people jump into the water at once and start thrashing around.  You can get kicked, smacked, goggles knocked off, etc.  None of the regular season Xterras have a start like this and though I tried to prepare by entering some open water swims the biggest start was maybe 90 people.  I hadn't been in the open water for 3 weeks or so and the water temp. was significantly warmer at that time so I wasn't acclimated to swimming in the colder water.  These were hardly ideal conditions.

But as I stood on that start line and felt the tingly shakiness, rapid heart beat, butterflies flitting I told myself that these things were an energy, they were making me stronger, preparing me for the long day ahead.  They were going to help me go faster, be stronger, be more mentally alert.  They were a gift, a strength, something to embrace.

And it worked.  I got through the swim no problem, no panicking, I felt strong, energized.  I got out of the water excited for the rest of the race.  I didn't have a fabulous race due to all the factors mentioned already but this was due to things I couldn't control (lack of training, long car ride, etc.), not because I was stressed.  And though it wasn't a great result I was very happy with my performance given the limiters.  I put in the best race I could with the conditions I had.

So it goes for agility.  What if that rapid heartbeat is going to help you move faster, have better reflexes, get that front cross in?  What if the shakiness is making you more mentally alert so that you can easily remember the course?  What if the butterflies in your stomach are energizing you, pushing you to rise to the challenge?

Another reason to embrace stress is that it serves as a pre-cursor to the flow state, ie that state of high performance where you're fully immersed in what you're doing.  Flow is a wonderful thing but in order to get to it you first have to experience stress.  The neurobiology of the flow state is fascinating but I don't want to send people to snozzling with the details.  The important thing to know is that the adrenaline rush that sends your heart to pounding is a good thing because you have to go through it to get to flow.  For more details on this I refer you to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his book, 'Flow, the Psychology of Optimal Experience'  and Steven Kotler and his book, 'The Rise of Superman'.  I plan to write more about flow in the future so stay tuned for that.  Anyway, the take home point here is that you can view the appearance of stress hormones as important and necessary cues for flow.  Get through the initial unpleasantness and you'll be handsomely rewarded.

Now certainly there's value in learning how to calm yourself down.  There are many techniques for this and I've written about them before in my Clean Run article and this blog.  But there are times when embracing the stress can be beneficial so why not play around with it?  Come up with your own re-frames and metaphors.  Be creative.  Use that nervous energy to your advantage.

Mr. Bundle of Nervous Energy himself

This post is part of Dog Agility Blog Event Day.  For more posts on 'Stress' click here.

April Showers Bring May Showers Bring Double Xterras

I almost made it through all of May without a single post and this is largely thanks to Rainpocalypse 2015, or 25 out of 28 days in May were rain. This is not normal for Colorado. Record breaking. Crazy making. I know my memory is sometimes not so great these days but I swear I don't remember signing up for Seattle.  But finally FINALLY we are having sunshine and temperatures in the 60's which is much better than the 40's and SUNSHINE.  Blue Skies.  Normal.

But the crazy days of rain and rain and rain had their consequences.  An outdoor agility trial a few weeks ago got moved to an indoor venue at the last minute.  And even so I only just made it there, the rain and roads were sketchy.  But we had a lot of fun, especially poor stir crazy Strummer, and he won him a masters jumpers class with some very strong world class competition.   Also a nice Grand Prix run with weave pole entry and beautiful turn off of dogwalk but alas a teeter fault that was my fault.  Fun courses, good times with my crazy buddy.



But the biggest disruption that has lead to an interesting goal is Xterra Lory.  Once again poor Xterra Lory is postponed.  A couple of years ago due to an early season fire that destroyed all the bridges and now due to flood.  Or rather super muddy trails.  Too muddy for racing.  Riding on muddy trails is very bad for the trails and Lory State Park doesn't want their trails trashed and I don't blame them.  I was very happy when they postponed the race mostly because the weather called for mid-40's and raining on race day morning and let's not even talk about how cold Horsetooth Reservoir must be right now.  O.k., let's talk about it.  52 degrees today which is race day.  Pretty sure I would have bailed.  As it happened it was sunny and in the 50's (air temp.) this a.m. but still, 52 degree water temp.  I've never been in water that cold.  Can you say hypothermia?  So I'm not shedding any tears about not racing today.

But here's the pickle.  They've moved to race to the day before another Xterra that I had on my schedule.  I had to option to enter any other Xterra that the race director offered and at first I put my name down for a transfer to a race in August.  Then an evil little voice put an evil idea in my head.  Why not do both?  When does that opportunity ever present itself?  So an Xterra Double Weekend it is.  I think the hardest part will be the driving.  1 hour 20 minutes to get home from Lory then 5 1/2 hours to the next race.  All told over 8 hours of driving in one day.  A horrible proposition.  If it's true that 'the more you drive, the less intelligent you are' then I'm in trouble with this endeavor. 

That classic Repo Man quote is at the end of this clip.


But I'm taking it on nonetheless.  Not a huge crazy thing in light of all the huge crazy things people are taking on these days.  Like 50 ironmans in 50 days in 50 states.  That guy better hope Otto is well of the mark about driving.  I can't even imagine the logistics of 50 states in 50 days let alone throwing an ironman into the mix.  That endeavor makes mine seem easy peasy by comparison.  But I'm not a dude in my 30's who trains for triathlons for a living.  I think my goal is plenty ambitious for a nearly 51 year old with gimpy knees and an extreme distaste for driving, someone who whines about only 2 weeks of recovery between races.  I think a part of me was hoping my coach would talk me out of it but she's supportive of it and says it'll help me build muscle.  So no excuses not to do it.  Will be an interesting experiment if nothing else.

In the meantime I've been training despite the weather and a busy schedule with clients this month.  I did get very lucky with some short blocks of rain free time falling between clients and other appointments.  And I got to see the baby buffaloes.  Sometimes I miss them because I'm always on trails but the trails are shut due to mud so I had a few long rides out on the dirt roads to see the baby buffs.

I made it up to Hall Ranch at the end of April before Rainpocalypse started in earnest and ran into this crew.

Still a lot of snow on the high peaks even before the deluge.

The forecast looks more seasonal, even hot, for next week so I should be back to normal training, normal spring/summer type activities.  Which is good because 2 Xterra's in 2 days?  I'm going to need it.

U Don't Dans 2 Tekno Anymore

A3, what a great band, and summing up my trying week with the gizmos.


I'm not a Luddite technology hater but I'm not a Cell Phone Zombie either.  Sometimes walking the line between the two gets wobbly and I end up falling in the drink.  Thus I've spent this past week drowning in techno gizmo gibberish frrustration of why doesn't the effing thing work if it's so effing smart??!!  Just once why can't there be a 'Send to Device' button right there where the website says it's supposed to be in their gibbering instructions?  And for the love of . . . where's my #$%&ing ANT stick??!!  My refrain of woe used to be 'where's my #$%&ing phone' but now my life is all about the ANT stick.

By way of explanation, I started back up working with my triathlon coach which meant I had to dig my heart rate monitor and cyclometer out of hibernation which lead to all the troubles.  Because I'd lost my cyclometer last fall and my HR (heart rate) monitor died.  My attempts at bathroom surgeries to resurrect it worked for precisely one workout.  Why just the one?  To tease and confuse me I suppose.  It would have made to much sense if the thing had flat out refused to come back to life, but getting a hearbeat for one workout, well, that's more complicated and gives you hope that more surgery will work and sucks more time and aggravation from your life and in the end you finally break down and spend the $$$ on the fancypants Garmin GPS gizmo that you've been avoiding for the past 15 years or so.  I'm the only 15 year triathlete in Boulder and maybe in all of triathlete-land that has never had a Garmin.  Because that's crossing the line into Cell Phone Zombie Land.  A HR monitor is nuisance enough, do I really need to know how many times I farted during that last interval and what was my % of max. heart rate, elevation gain and average pace during those farts?  In the end will it make this any more fun?

But on the other side of that line is data and I loves me my data.  Is there any better porn than a spreadsheet?  Graphs, charts, overlays of said graphs and charts - total geek porn.  I could stare at that stuff all day and that's the problem.  And Garmin gives you data, SO much data, you can set up 4 metrics to watch per screen and there are 4 screens you can toggle between.  16 data points you can monitor during your workout.  Cell Phone Zombies Unite.  When do you get to look at the sky and the birds and the angry rattlesnake who hasn't had his morning latte yet and is about to bite you on the leg?  And yes that nearly happened to me last weekend.  Too bad I wasn't wearing my HR monitor strap because that would have been an excellent way to measure maximum heart rate.  I was able to re-live the whole thing in graphs though, thanks to Garmin.  That huge spike in speed on the uphill before the gulch?  Yeah, that would be where the snake and I had our rendevous.  Another story for another day.

It all sounds well and good but it's taken an enormous amount of time and mental energy to get this gizmo up and running and doing even the simplest of things that it's capable of doing.  And the thing is so stinkin' smart that I don't even know half the things it can do never mind what it's doing behind my back.  Kind of like Strummer.  Just like Strummer.  And I have about as much control over it.

Can't I please just go for a run or a bike ride without the gizmo tattling on me?  Because it tells my coach everything whether I want it to or not.  She knows all about that 20 minute super slow old dog Lola walk I took with it as a test.  Whether she wants to or not.  Because I have no freaking clue what that thing is sending out into the universe.  And I've put in all the effort I care to to find out.

Then I got a new phone after over 2 years of iPhone purgatory.  Lo I am delivered from both iPhone and Sprint!!!  Oh happy gloriousness of freedom from the tyranny of that dynamic duo!  Except now I have more gizmo gibberish to deal with.  Fixing my contacts, setting up email, setting up voicemail box.  Because after less than a day of joyous freedom and a phone that actually works I got an email from someone telling me my voice mail box is full so I have to email you.  And then there's the Scooby Doo Mystery of the blinking blue light.  Why?  And how do I make it stop?  And what other basic thing isn't set up properly and how will I find out about it?

So after a week of tekno burn out I think it's time to hit the bike and see if there are baby buffaloes yet.  Because baby buffalo wallpaper will take the edge of the techno-hassle of the last week.

Punk Rock Chicken Carving Night and Other Obsessions

The butcher department of my local grocery store announced that they'd be having a free class on chicken preparation which I imagined would be cooking lessons so I eagerly signed up.  I'm iffy enough with cooking as it is and when it comes to meat I'm utterly clueless.  It's been a little over a year since I started eating meat and I still haven't had any chicken, mostly because I think of it as dog food and an inferior source of fat.  But a free cooking class can't hurt.

I was worried that I'd registered too late and wouldn't get in to the class but as it turned out I was the only person who showed up.  Which meant I got to pick the music and what better music for learning to cut up a chicken than the Ramones?  And Social Distortion?  And after that the guys giving the lesson turned off the music because apparently 'Sheena is a Punk Rocker' is an acquired taste and maybe a bit too distracting for the precise work of chicken butchery.  The funny thing is that the instructor initially was trying to find Classical music for me before he asked what I wanted to hear.

The class turned out to be more about how to cut up a whole chicken, bones and all, with some cooking advice thrown in.  One of the instructors grew up in New Orleans and I guess they know a thing or two about cooking down there.  It turns out that there's an art to chicken carving, at times it looked like magic.  I'll have to consult YouTube to jog my memory if I ever need to do this for myself but at least I have an idea of what to do.  Because whole chickens are way cheaper than buying the individual parts plus you get some parts of meat like the 'oyster' that are supposedly the tastiest parts that don't get sold with the individual parts.  And the bones.  The instructors sent me home with the demo chicken and Lola was about the happiest I've seen her in years when I gave her the back bone to munch.  So hard to find chicken backs these days.

Which leads me to my next obsession - bones.  Or rather trying to find good grass fed joint bones, chicken or pig feet, etc. to make broth.  Because I've become seriously obsessed with the broth.  I know, you're thinking when is this crazy lady going to stop carrying on about the gelatinous meat juice?  I will, I promise, but I woke up the other night plotting my next broth and trying to think of a dog proof place in the house for a crock pot where I won't start a fire.  Because surely I have nothing else to worry about at 2 a.m.?  Now many of you dog people can't judge because I know you wake up in the wee dark hours agonizing over your running dogwalk.  And I know because I've been there too.  At least the broth leads to wonderful, magical health benefits whereas the running dogwalk leads to Manic Depressive Neurotic Crazyland and Not Enough Therapy on the Planet.  Jonny came home from a biking trip in Utah with some horrible plague cough of sinus infection bronchitis ick that lasted nearly 3 weeks and thanks to the magically delicious mystical healingness of the broth I never caught it.  Plus the dogs love it.  LOVE it.  So much craziness for my broth.  We have some every day.

Which means I need to keep a pot going on the stove every week which means lots and lots of bones.  Must be grass fed as well.  No Monsanto GM glyphosate ridden feed for me or the bones in my broth.  The local grocery sometimes has grass fed marrow bones for $2.99 per lb which is good but the oxtail or shin bones are $5.99/lb and I need about 5-6 lbs of bones per stock pot so that adds up quickly.  I've been calling around to the local farms but so far no luck.  My kingdom for some grass fed knuckle bones and chicken feet.

I've even been hatching a plot for a Broth Stall on the Pearl St. Mall.  Welcome to 'Madame Fitwell's Naughty Broth-el'.  Except that I'd rather shove hot pokers in my eyes while listening to the Grateful Dead than deal with tourists and Boulderites on the Pearl St. Mall.  And I'd end up running a soup kitchen for all the homeless people downtown because I wouldn't be able to turn them away, even the scamster ones because how do you tell 'real' homeless from the con artists?  I'd be out of business in a day.  Plus it turns out someone already beat me to it.  Apparently broth is trendy.  Who knew?  I don't think I've ever been on the front edge of a trend ever.  You can even mail order your bone broth.  But then you'd miss the fun of making it yourself and the awesome smell in the house and the joy of skimming the tallow off the top.  Plus the mystery of how it'll turn out.  Will it be super jiggly?  You want it super jiggly, definitely want your broth to have some junk in the trunk, not all runny skinny Boulder triathlete.  It's a fun science experiment each time with the bonus of delicious immune boosting power juice at the end.

I swore I'd never do it but I'm going to be one of those crazy dog ladies with the chest freezer in the garage for when I finally find a bone source.  A terrible horror chest full of all manner of frozen animal body parts.  Jonny can get a deal on a freezer through his work, we're just waiting for a free shipping deal to come along and I'm there.  I think I'll write a book, 'The Secret Life of Bone Broth'.  Long live the weirdo obsessions.

Middle Age Parkour Ladies Are the New Black

I had my last parkour class last Wednesday night, Class #8.  We started off with the same timed obstacle course we did on the first day of class.  I was a bit nervous on the start line, this course had been quite terrifying to me on the first day, especially climbing the wall.  I fell on my ass trying to jump from one floor rail to the other and skinned and bruised my knees pretty badly trying to get up the wall.  This time however it was mostly a piece of cake.  I still don't have the balance and jumping skills to go from rail to rail so I just put a foot down and took the fault for that part rather than possible hurt myself falling again.  And the wall?  No problemo, scampered up that thing like it was nothing.  I did forget and very lightly and briefly put weight my knees to get up a different wall but a lot of other people forgot too.  My time was around 2:30 mins. on the first day and went down to 1:30 or so on the last day.  But best of all the course was no problem (except for the rail jumping which is a pretty advanced skill if you've not done it much).

Tonight's class was the start of the flashy stuff - flips and spins.  We started off with the wall spin, which looks like this:



Now it's important to point out that I was working on a much easier progression of this with a padded wall and padded mat to land on and putting one hand on the ground, one on the wall (see the video at 2:18).  Of course I was much better in one direction than the other, even the instructor noticed.  I have an even greater respect for dogs that struggle with jumping and turning to their off side.

The we worked on the Palm Spin which is a wall spin but on a flat surface.  By this time my head was spinning a bit and I struggled with the mechanics of it.  We had another substitute instructor who I once again couldn't quite follow as easily as our regular instructor.  He wasn't bad and most of the rest of the class got it, I just need this sort of stuff broken down and explained a little more.  It was o.k. though, I'll work on it on my own.  It's not a skill I'm passionate about having anyway.

Then some work on the bars that was way beyond me.  It was mostly various ways to get up into a muscle up position.  For those unfamiliar with the muscle up, well, it's hard, it can take strong athletic guys up to 6 months to learn and it was way beyond my strength capability.

This is a pure muscle up.



And this is a progression using momentum to make it easier.  But I'm not even at this level yet.  Not even close.  It looks easy but I double dog dare you to give it a try.



So I had to pretty much sit this part out.  I'd say maybe only a third of the class was able to do these.

Next we were on to flips on the trampoline and into the foam pit.  Those of us like me who were unfamiliar with flipping could start off with easy  progressions of the front flip on the trampoline.  Those with more experience did front and side and maybe even back flips into the foam pit.  I was happy enough to stay out of the foam pit.  I saw it swallow up the other small woman who was my size and it was very hard for her to get out.  Never mind the grossness.  I don't even want to think about what was festering in there.

Anyway, the trampoline was very bouncy, way more bouncy than any regular trampoline I've ever been on.  Very VERY fun!!!  I never quite got to a full front flip but I got to maybe 3/4 of the way and landed on my butt/back.  I could only do maybe 3-4 reps at a time then I'd have to get off and let the room stop spinning for a while.  I started having problems with this sort of thing in my 20's so I can't even blame my age.  I get super dizzy with any kind of spinning motion for too long.  I can do it, just not over and over.  I have low blood pressure and it may be something to do with that.  I sometimes even have problems getting up from the couch or sitting for a long time and I'll sometimes almost black out and I've passed out a few times in the past few years under various circumstances.  So I don't know how much flipping is in my future but it sure was fun to do it for a little bit and I was glad I had the nerve to give it a go.  At some point during that last class the other woman in the class turned to me and said, 'It's funny all the things I've discovered that I'm afraid of because of this class' and yet she seemed pretty brave to me throughout the class.  She did a great job of hiding and/or getting over her fears in any case.

And me too.  I have to say after that first class I would have some building dread before class each week and I knew it was silly and that I'd be fine but there was always some point where I debated not going, especially on those couple nights when the roads were snowy/icy and it was snowing.  But I made it through all 8 classes and once I got there I had a great time at every single class.  The stuff in these classes was well outside my comfort zone on many levels and I'm SO glad I went and learned this stuff and overcame my fears each week.  What an awesomely amazing experience it was!  And I have a huge list of skills to work on and movements to perfect and super fun strength training exercises that will be so much more fun than boring old hand weights.  I've already made up a huge list of things I want to work on, can't wait to get started.

On a funny note, I was in the sauna today after masters swim practice and coincidentally we'd been working on dives off the blocks.  I was yammering to this guy from the masters workout about parkour class and the front flips on the trampoline and I wondered if it would be fun/possible to try a front flip off the diving blocks.  A woman caught my attention and said, 'You were at parkour on Wednesday?  I was there too working on flips into the foam pit.'  Now what are the chances of that?  And she's 42.  Middle Age Parkour Ladies are the New Black, in Boulder anyway.

She was there for the next level class above mine and the stuff they do is pretty impressive.  And scary.  I had already decided that if I take more classes next fall after triathlon season that I'd just repeat the intro. class because Level One looked too intimidating.  But she said you work up to it and you get used to it and you can do a drop-in class while taking the intro. class again if you want.  These classes are way smaller and you get a lot more personal attention.  So I don't know but maybe she's inspired me to maybe think about it.  Or at least consider one of the other types of classes like a tricks class that would be learning flips and similar type stuff.  I noticed they had a break dancing class too, now THAT would be funny.  But it'll have to wait until fall because I'm thinking I may start up with my coach for triathlon next month.  Can't believe I have a race in 9 weeks and I done hardly any running and almost no biking.  Better dust off the heart rate monitor and try to get my interval legs back.

Cult of Personality

Most, if not all, sports have their icons and innovators.  Some of these folks get put on a pedestal and turned into gurus whether they like and intend it or not.  Some people are drawn to the magnetism of these personalities while others are repelled.  And I don't know, maybe it's the old school 'kill rock stars' punk rocker in me but I'm typically repelled by these characters.  Sort of.  Because I also have the philosophy of 'learn all you can from anybody that has something interesting to say, even if they are a narcissistic asshat'.  We had such a person from the agility world come to Colorado and when I asked the dog people about her I was warned repeatedly about her bad attitude.  I went to the seminar and they were all absolutely right.  But the seminar was reasonably priced and for the $$$ I learned some good stuff.  The atmosphere there was unpleasant and stifling and creepily cult-like so I didn't go back when this person returned but I was glad I went the one time.

On the other hand we had another agility guru come to town and when I heard the price of the seminar I rolled my eyes and said, 'Chyeah right'.  I'd seen video of this person teaching and it was almost painful to listen to her never mind the way she was treating some people (never mind the way she'd treated me online).  I had a really good instructor teaching me this person's methods at a fraction of the cost and attitude.  I gave the seminar a miss and found out it was absolutely horrible.  The instructor barely gave any feedback and was terrible about giving people reasonably equal amounts of time and attention among other things.  One thing I learned a long time ago from the punk rock/music world is that once a band gets good enough to play a big venue and charge a bunch of money they're likely not worth seeing anymore because they've lost their edge, their creativity, their hunger, their energy.  They no longer have to prove anything to pay the bills.  In all the 25 years I've lived in Colorado I've never been to Red Rocks because by the time a band is big enough to get booked at Red Rocks they're so bloated, boring and musically insignificant that it's not even worth the 50 minute drive down there let alone the $$$ and hassle with the traffic and crowds.  Plus that atmosphere of hero worship, glassy eyed people waving fists in the air.  Icky.  Disturbing.  So not my thing.

So when I got an email from the local Crossfit gym announcing that the rock star movement instructor Ido Portal was coming to Boulder for a weekend seminar I was excited, sort of, until I saw the price.  $695 for 2 days??!!  Chyeah right, roll eyes.  I've missed the window on Ido, he's already beyond playing Red Rocks.  He's also got some personality issues similar to the insufferable dog agility lady.  And I would have looked beyond that.  I'm a big girl, I'm not made of sugar and I'm not going to go crying into the corner just because some guy with a big ego gives me some criticism.  I'm there to learn and I can take it.  I grew up back in the day when teachers, instructors, coaches, etc. did not coddle children or worry about damaging their fragile egos.  I had a riding instructor who didn't feel like she'd done her job if she didn't send at least one 10 year old home in tears each week.  Now I'm not saying this is good, she was a terrible instructor who by her own admission hated children and was only there to make money for college and frankly couldn't wait until summer was over and she could get back to school.  You could say things like that out loud back then.  Today not so much.  And that's not a good thing either.  I don't like instructors with big egos and attitudes but I also don't think instructors should have to tiptoe around telling you that you're doing something wrong.  In my mind the best instructors are those who aren't afraid to tell you what you're doing wrong and how to do it right without a bunch of ego and attitude and creating some weird cultish atmosphere.

Which brings me back to the upcoming Ido Portal seminar.  Because Ido has taken the whole cult of personality one step further by not even bothering to show up for his own seminars.  That's right kids, $695 and Ido is not likely to be there.  And the only reason I know this is because I googled his seminar to see what you get for $695 and if people thought it was worth it and I found out he doesn't even show up.  I called the Crossfit gym to verify whether or not Ido would be there and they told me they didn't know for sure but probably, most likely not.  Now that's fine if the seminar is advertised as having Ido's instructors and is priced appropriately but this is the ad for the seminar and nowhere does it state that you're going to be taught by his instructors and not him.  To add to the confusion, the following sentence was in the email I got from the gym, 'Ido's Rocky Mountain visit was so highly anticipated that we've already sold out over 50% of the capacity, with multiple folks coming in from out of state.'  I hate to argue semantics but this strongly implies that Ido will actually be there as does the ad as does the $695 price tag.  I can tell you I'd be pretty furious I flew in from out of state for this and Ido wasn't even there.  Heck I'd be furious if I spent that kind of entry fee and only drove the 10 minutes to the gym.

I guess I'll always be going to the dive bars, enjoying the hungry bands with something to prove and paying a measly cover charge.  You take your chances but more often than not it's worth it.  And it's a pretty good bet that the band on the flyer actually is going to be there.

Every Broth You Take

I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to have a tan, wasps landing on me and a craving for ice cream in the middle of March.  Two days in a row of 79 degree temps. is hardly broth brewing weather but nonetheless after 72 hours of bubbling bones I have broth.  And lots of leftover meat for the dogs.

This is what it looked like after I strained it.

Here it is the next day after spending a night in the fridge.  The white stuff is a nice layer of tallow that I can use for cooking fat.

 I scooped it off the top and ended up with a nice haul.

I'm excited about this because yikes, grass fed tallow is spendy, $24 including shipping for 14 oz.  Not sure how much I have there because I didn't compact it but that alone probably comes close to almost sort of covering the cost of the bones.  Plus I have all the broth which probably more than makes up the cost, at least compared to what it costs in New York City ($4.75 for an 8 oz cup, $7 for 12 oz).  Maybe I could go into business here in Boulder.

I heated up a bowl for myself.

And the verdict is . . . hmmm, not quite sure yet.  It isn't awful, but I can't say that it's mmmmmm, amazingly delectable either.  Part of it is that I'm still not used to meat and the oxtail is a very strong smell and flavor.  Will take some getting used to but I'm optimistic that I can do it.  Also I can use it for stock in other things though it is a very overpowering flavor so I can't use it in just anything.

Of course I shared with the dogs.  They give it an enthusiastic thumbs up.  Plus this is a great way to keep Strummer occupied for at least a few minutes.

I did make one big mistake and that was not paying attention while I was straining the broth.  I didn't notice that the  bowl I was straining into was overflowing so I lost some precious broth down the sink and then lost some more when I poured the overflow into another bowl.  I know I lost some fat because here's a photo of the broth from the crock pot before I overfilled the bowl.

The layer of fat is almost twice the layer from the photo at the top of the post that was taken after I'd lost the overflow.  Next time I'll pay closer attention.

The other thing I'd do differently is use lime juice rather than apple cider vinegar but that's a personal thing, I hated the smell of the vinegar but I like lime juice.

Also I'd add the onions much later, maybe 12 hours before I was going to be done.  The onions turned black and carmelized the first day and made for a sticky slimy mess.  Plus I'm sure that's not healthy.

Otherwise I don't think I'd do anything all that much differently.  Would like to try some different types of bones, that oxtail is so strong.  But this will require some research into local farms because the grocery stores don't seem to carry anything else.

I froze a small portion of the broth but left a big bowl that I'll hopefully use this week.  Jonny won't eat it but the dogs will share it with me.  Now to find some recipes!

Dem Bones Dem Bones

This is a very exciting weekend for me because I'm attempting to make my first bone broth.

Here are my bones, all roasted and ready to go.

They're marrow bones and oxtail bones, supposedly grass fed though I have my suspicions about that.  Ideally I'd have more joint bones - knees, shoulders, etc.-but even the Boulder Mega Whole Foods doesn't carry them.  In fact Whole Foods had zero grass fed bones and told me to call back in a couple of days, maybe they'd get some in, maybe not.  I got these bones from Lucky's which is my local grocery store and way more awesome than Whole Foods.  Though I'm not entirely sure I believe these bones are grass fed.  Anyway, Google informs me that there are loads of ranches in Boulder County selling grass fed beef, bones, organ meat, etc.  I'll have to do some calling around for the next batch but these will do for my first attempt.

I've got a pot on the stove and a crock pot going.  You're supposed to simmer the bones for anywhere from 24-72 hours and since I spent an asston of money on these bones, I'm going for 72 hours to get the maximum nutrients out of them.  Here's what the crock pot looks like today.  We'll see what it looks like in 3 days.

I was concerned that the smell of the bones cooking would be nauseous making but it's actually the smell of the apple cider vinegar that's setting my stomach to queasy.  I hate the smell of both vinegar and fermenting apples so this is a special sort of hell for me but thankfully it's warm enough to open some windows and hopefully the smell will calm down in a bit.  Will have to think of something particularly good smelling to cook for dinner.

The internets are full of videos and blogs about bone broth and how to make it but I never saw any tips for keeping dogs out of it.  This was my technique for the crock pot when I went to masters swim practice but I hadn't plugged it in yet so I'm not sure what to do for the rest of the weekend. 

The other pot went on top of the fridge.  I'll have to figure out a way to block off the entire kitchen.  Because Naughty Dogs.  I do not want to come home to Strummer wearing a stock pot's worth of bone broth and onions.