Working out to eat

Wednesday, 3/17/10

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and yes, like most of the country, I’m part Irish…except I actually am. Growing up, we knew we were German since my dad's parents' had been born in Germany, still spoke it all the time, and had only been in this country since the 20’s. Yeah, we were definitely German.

My mom, on the other hand, had some Irish in her and we looked it. Freckles all over when we were younger and then on St. Patrick’s Day, it was green dinners, just to make sure we remembered that heritage. Milk – green, mashed potatoes – green, jello – green, peas – well, what else could they be? And then a green cake shaped in the image of Ireland. The first time Holly came to the house for a St. Pat’s dinner, she nearly puked at the site. Welcome to the Irish Rolf’s home.

As much as she hated the green stuff, Holly has kept the tradition of the green dinner alive for me. Now that’s love. Or foolishness. Anyway, I enjoy it and knew it was coming. Something was stewing in the crock pot and it was loaded with fat…and green tapioca pudding for dessert. Yeah…I knew I’d pile on some serious calories later in the evening so that had to mean a longer ride…plus something.

The weather was decent. High 40’s and sunny. I headed out thinking I’d ride as many minutes as I could. Available time was a little less than two hours so that’s what the ride would be. I had blown my wad on the ride yesterday and wasn’t expecting to feel phenomenal today. I wasn’t disappointed. My legs were screaming ‘break time’ as I made my turn at the halfway point – never a good indicator, and today there was an actual, factual and totally serious head wind for the ride home. I’d guess around 15-20 mph and it was making me feel every revolution of the pedals. I determined I would push through it, though and kept the heart rate high. “Green, fat food…green fat food,” was my mantra as I rode. When you’re gonna do the crime, you gotta do the time. And that’ the name of that tune.

I ended up riding an hour and forty minutes. When I walked in the house to check on dinner’s progress, Holly informed me I had time to take the dog for a hike. Another way of saying “get your ass out of here – I’m busy,” or whatever. I grabbed Dakota and headed for the park. We made our usual off-trail tour, but without the snow, it was much quicker – taking only fifty minutes. But now the combination with put me in the vicinity of 2,000 calories burned…a total I would have no problem ingesting in green food.

Bike duration: One hour and forty minutes. Hike duration: 50 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 125 biking. 70 hiking.

Calories burned during workout: 1,500 biking. 375 hiking.