Awhile ago, I blogged about my advice for when it comes to traveling since I’ve done quite a bit in my lifetime so far. I had a friend approach me recently complaining that he’s put on about 20 pounds since he started a consulting job a few months ago. He wanted some advice how I manage my diet when I travel. Well, there’s the typical advice that you try to order anything that has fish as the main course as that comes with healthier items generally. The other bit of advice I have is that when you’re eating airline meals, contact the airline in advance and modify your meal profile to say that you don’t eat gluten or have some type of gluten allergy.
This will make your meals significantly healthier. I find that my meals now come with fruit and other healthier items than starchy gluten-related things. On top of that, you get the extra laugh of looking at the plane attendants reactions while you chug a beer on the flight (I’m sorry, gluten-free beer is disgusting still… if you find a good one let me know).
Hope this helps and enjoy traveling!
When I travel, I’m generally a fan of all things food and drink. In my dream of living as Anthony Bourdain for a day, I decided to sample the variety of culinary delicacies in Poland. My first stop as with any place I generally visit is to get some local beer. In Poznan, there was a great brewery in the city center… they have a great Hefeweizen that I was a fan of…
For breakfast, all I had to do is see this and have some… I mean… come on…
The next culinary destination was ogórki ze smalcem. Apparently this was a meal popular with peasants and other common folks… essentially it’s pickles and lard you spread on bread. At 8 zloty ($2 USD), this dish could have fed a small army.
Next on the list was some plums wrapped in bacon… I mean… anything wrapped in bacon is delicious… it’s the chocolate of meats…
The other item I ate was Sledzie. This was an item I avoided in my youth as I just don’t do pickled fish. My mom would be proud to know that Sledzie was offered for free with every shot of vodka you took (a sign of a great food apparently).
And to top off any meal in Poland, no better way to do it then with some Polish vodka.
In the end, I loved my culinary adventure in Poland.
This morning I had the opportunity to run the Daisy 5K hosted by Austin Runners Club (ARC).
After two weeks of travel, I’m at least happy to report I can run a sub 20 minute 5K. I ended up finishing in 19:45 and finished third in my age group. That’s about 90 seconds away from my PR so I have a lot to do to get back on the running wagon. On top of that, I signed up for three 60K trial races in the Austin area. I’m looking forward to training seriously again now that my travel is going to die down quite a bit. Anyways, kudos to ARC for another superbly organized race.
This year, I spent Cinco de Mayo in Mainz, Germany. In Austin, I usually end up having a lot more fun due to our close proximity to Mexico so I had to make due of what I had in Germany. In preparation for the festivities, I knocked out a beautiful 17K run around the Rhine…
Afterward, it was all about securing a margarita to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I ended up settling for a mojito because something about Frozen XXL Margarita didn’t sound appealing (Cuba is close enough to Mexico). In the end, my friends and I secured some Kaiserschmarrn for dessert… easily one of the greatest things ever… who knew caramelized pancakes could taste so good?
There’s Cinco de Mayo in Germany for you.
I had the pleasure of arriving on time in Mainz, Germany yesterday morning.
One of the things I’ve learned over the years via all my travel is that the best way to fight jetlag is to exercise once you get to your destination. I don’t think there’s a large body of scientific evidence, but from personal experience I find that exercise does something to my body’s circadian rhythm that lessens the pain of jetlag. So the first thing I did when I got off the plane was to take advantage of Mainz and its picturesque trail that hugs the Rhine…
On a side note, a few of us went to a Chinese restaurant last night (I know, sacrilegious in Germany) and I was amused by my fortune cookie treasure…
You’re a winner! Thanks for the reminder…
On Saturday after running a 10K, I had the opportunity to visit the Garrison Brothers Distillery in Hye, TX which is the first legal bourbon distillery in Texas.
All I have to say, is that I love bourbon… and bourbon that is made in Texas is even better. I was lucky enough to secure a pre-release 375ml bottle to sample the deliciousness. There’s a nice rich woody flavor that I haven’t found in any other bourbon.
Sometimes I wonder why I work in software still when I could be making bourbon! Anyways, I would like to thank Dan over at the distillery for the personal tour and look forward to great things in the near future.
Yesterday, a few friends and I had the opportunity to run in the Wildflower 10K in beautiful Fredericksburg, Texas.
Fredericksburg is a bit weird in a way that it’s this little bed and breakfast community in Texas with a German flair. German immigrants left their mark permanently on the city via all the beer gardens and the Texas German language. Anyways, the weather was near perfect and the blue skies definitely helped the mood…
My goal was to finish the 10K in sub 40 minutes but I fell slightly short of that goal. I started the race a bit slow to give my knee a bit of a break but I ended up finishing in about 42 minutes averaging a 6:45/mile pace with zero knee pain. It was nice to learn that I ended up winning my age group with a time like that, woooo!
All in all, well organized race and I’m happy my knee is back to normal.
Today I had the opportunity to take part in the XTERRA Muleshoe 22K Trail Race.
My right knee held up pretty well and I managed to finish in ~1:53 which is a decent time coming off my knee injury. I could of easily ran the race 10-15 minutes faster if I pushed myself a bit. I didn’t push myself until the last two miles which was too late to catch up to the head of the pack. Anyways, after I finished I went straight to the free beer to medicate a bit…
What I didn’t expect after three beers was participating in a Gatorade chugging contest for a pair of trail shoes…
It was a complete failure on my part… I tasted defeat and it tasted like Gatorade…
Race Revolutions did a great job hosting the event.
I will be better prepared for the drinking contest next time.
I was finishing up a webinar for work yesterday and as a reward (and mostly to satisfy my curiosity too), I had to have the KFC Double Down sandwich.
I’m a fan immediately because you can’t go wrong when you remove bread and use two pieces of chicken as the delivery vehicle for bacon and cheese…
My review? Drop the mayo and you have a pretty decent sandwich. I will admit that the double down sits a bit heavy after you devour it… I went for a bike ride later in the day to pay penance and could still feel the double down.
Oh, I’m also convinced that America will eat itself to death in the near future.
This morning I had the opportunity (along with 20,000+ others) to run the Statesman Capitol 10K. It was a bit rainy in the morning so it wasn’t ideal running conditions but at least it wasn’t pouring…
I was running easy 6:40 splits until the last couple miles where a cramp started to eat away at me but I managed to finish in about 43 minutes. Overall I felt good and I’m confident my knee is just about fully recovered so I’ll be good for the San Diego Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon. On a side note, I was so close to getting the mark of the beast for my race number…
There’s always next time 
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