I took my bike out of hibernation and cleaned off the cob webs.  No joke.  I have not rode my bike since last summer and it was time to get it up and going because I do have a triathlon in 4 weeks.  I have been going to indoor cycling classes about 2-3 times a week for the past few months (except while I was away).  I am crossing my fingers those classes have kept me fit and ready to ride.  I decided to go out for a 7 mile ride.  First mile was super easy.  Downhill the whole way.  Then I made my way to the bike path.  The path is a little bit rocky and has some small hills but nothing I can't handle.  Unfortunately, my water bottle couldn't handle it and ended up being a casualty.  Oops.

I am not the best bike rider as I've mentioned before.  I tried to get my water bottle from the holder while riding and it didn't work out so well.  I started swerving, dropped the water bottle, ran it over and broke the nozzle on top.  Better the water bottle than me.  After removing my road kill water bottle, I hopped back on the bike to finish my ride.  My ride was going along pretty well until the last mile.  Remember when I said the first mile was downhill?  That meant the last mile was straight uphill.  What goes down must come up in my situation.  It was brutal and made me feel completely out of shape.  I had to get off and walk my bike for a bit, but I finally finished...with a smile.

I am going to go ahead and assume everyone likes pizza.  What is there not to like about it?  The only thing that holds me back from having a diet of pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner is the high amount of carbs.  It was last summer, when I jumped on the low carb bandwagon and HAD to come up with a way to have pizza low carb style.  We are talking life or death situation here if I could not create a low carb pizza.  Luckily, I found these low carb tortillas at my favorite place....Costco.

I used these tortillas as a substitute for the typical bready crust.  Because it was summer time, I made a fresh pesto sauce in place of  a pizza sauce.  Be careful when you buy pizza sauces at the store because some can have extra added sugar.  I coated the tortilla with the freshly made pesto sauce, then added some grated mozarella.  The amount of cheese is really up to you.  I prefer mine with cheese and the hubby orders his with extra cheese.  Then I sliced up some local tomatoes and sprinkled the pizzas with some garlic powder and italian herbs.  To make it a meal, I cooked up some chicken cut into small pieces and added it to the top.  I tossed it in the oven at 425 degrees until the cheese was melted and golden brown.

For those interested in the pesto recipe:

Summertime Pesto

1 1/2 Cups of Basil leaves
3 garlic gloves
1/3 cup of toasted pine nuts
5 tbsp Parmesan cheese
Sprinkle of salt
1/3 cup of olive oil

Toss the first five ingredients into a food processor and slowly add the oil to the mixture.  Once the mixture turns to a paste its ready to be used. 

**Pine nuts can be pricey, but I have found that Trader Joes has the best price.

I had some bison burger meat and two avacados that needed to be used up so dinner last night was burgers and guacamole.  I would never eat a plain avacado, but when you mix it up with other goodies I'm all for it.  I've made guacamole before with just an avacado and lime juice and it was nothing to rave about.  This time it was tasty. 

I mashed up two ripe avacados, added about 1/2 cup chopped vidalia onion, 1 chopped medium tomato, a sprinkle of salt, a sprinkle of cayenne pepper, a sprinkle of cumin, about a tsp of minced garlic and a dash of sirracha sauce.  I just started adding stuff until I got the flavor I was looking for.

For the burgers, I added one  beaten egg, a dash of worcestershire sauce, a tsp minced garlic and some panko crumbs to a pound of ground bison. No need to pull out the teaspoons and tablespoons for this meal. 

Along with guacamole burgers we had some fresh greenie beanies and corn on the cob that my parents brought out for us from Lancaster county.  Delicious summer meal!

How do you spruce up your summertime burgers?

The hubby and I arrived home safe and sound last Wednesday.  The jet lag has been brutal in my attempt to face reality, but I think I am pretty much settled in.  After a month long hiatus of not blogging and running its time for me to get my butt in gear.  I tried blogging in Indonesia.  The internet was so terribly slow it was almost torturous to wait for the post to upload.  Considering I didn't take a hot shower for most of the time during our travels, I think I was pretty darn lucky to get an internet connection at all.

I packed all my running gear in hopes of logging a few miles while traveling, but I only ran a total of three miles in one month.  You can just call me littlemissnotarunner.  Running in Indonesia seems to be an extreme sport.  Why?  The roads in Indonesia are very narrow and are loaded with cars and motorbikes.  Driving there was a free for all with no rules.  There is no speed limit, no stop signs, very few stop lights, everyone passes everyone, tailgating, no cell phone laws, lots of traffic, and quite frankly straight up scary. 

Then you had to be able to dodge the street dogs.  I ventured out on a walk one day and encountered two street dogs running towards me.   Needless to say, I turned around and high tailed it out of there to safety.  There were also crazy steep hills and pot holes.  I can deal with pot holes, but I'm to lazy for the
hills.  I run because I find it relaxing and it makes me feel good.  Running in Indonesia was sadly, anxiety producing.

For exercise, aside from lugging all of our stuff around Indonesia...

The hubby stuck to his daily surf sessions and I rode a bike around and walked it up the hills.

Indonesia is known for all of its water activities.  It's a good thing I am scared of the water and fish.  But, I decided to face fear full force and indulged in what Indonesia had to offer.  (It was either water activities or continue to walk the bike up the steep hills everyday.)  When in Rome......

I tried snorkeling for the first time ever in my life.  There were lots of tears and hyperventalating, but I finally calmed down and came to the conclusion fish are not all that scary and my chances of being attacked by a school of clown fish (Nemos) is greater than me winning the lottery.  FYI, I don't play the lottery.

I also learned how to paddle board and surf.  Unfortunately, I waited until the last day of our trip for the hubby to teach me how to surf.  He has been wanting to teach me for years.  It was a lot of fun and a major workout!!  My arms hurt for days afterwards.

All in all, I'm glad I took the plunge (literally) and got in the water.  I have 5 1/2 weeks until my triathlon and I think this trip helped a lot with me attempting to get over my fear of the water and fish.  Now I have just need to get those legs going and back to running!