Halloween treats

On Saturday we headed up to Portland, ME, it was part birthday gift/last hurrah before no more beer drinking and bad food eating.  Man, oh man, what a day it was.  Portland has some great places to check out.  We started the day out here:

Had a delicious sampler which was SeaDog's Stout, Porter, IPA, Pale Ale and Blonde Ale.

Then we made our way to the Sebago Brewing company for some wings with ghost pepper sauce (DELICIOUS)!  Then making the 1.8 mile trek to our BnB we saw some Occupy Maine protestors, at which point (due to the alcohol), I thought was hilarious and we need to get a picture.

Then on our way to what might possibly the greatest bar we've ever been to -- Novare Res.  If you enjoy craft beers, this is a must go to spot.  Anyways, we saw a couple getting their pictures for their wedding.  Clearly a picture of this was needed.

Now, for the best part of the night.  Novare Res http://novareresbiercafe.com/ , where we finally tried the 120 minute IPA (18% alcohol), this would certainly have kicked our asses, however, we were already well on our way after trying a 17% cider.  Woooweee!  A pumpkin beer, and some others I cannot remember, and we had ourselves a fantastic time!

Below the bottle is their beer bible (at least that's what I'm referring it to).  Pages and pages of all their selections. 

 The label on Dog Fish's 120 minute IPA.

Eventually we made our way (45 minutes late, thank you, Novare Res!) to our dinner reservations at David's.  Then it started to snow. I unfortunately forgot to get pics of the ridiculously awesome food we had here.  An appetizer of a fried egg in panko bread crumbs was how the dinner began.  It ended with a HUGE homemade chocolate chip cookie that was sandiwching vanilla ice cream. 

 The next morning we had breakfast at the BnB, bacon and homemade french toast with Maine Blueberries.  It was at that table where I had, what hopes to be last sip of coffee!

Now it's time for training to begin again.  After a few weeks off and being five pounds heavier, I've got some work to do!  12 weeks of strength training and crazy drills in the pool.  Along with some rides on the trainer (unless we get some warmer weather with clean roads) and some runs!  It's almost time for snow shoe racing as well, which makes me very excited!! 

So in good ole' NH, this is what we woke up to this morning! 

This forced me to get on the trainer for 30 minutes.  Super icy roads meant no run.  Hopefully tomorrow morning it will be better so I can get in a good run before having a great celebratory weekend!

Testing, testing, 123...

Hello out there!  So I've decided to venture into this big bad world of blogging. 

You might be asking yourself why Melnic?  Well, most of my family calls me Melnic along with some friends.  It all started when my cousin Jess was calling me by my first and middle names and then BAM!  Melnic was born. 

So a little bit about me... I work in Higher Education, putting my Political Science Degree to good use (sarcasm), I do really enjoy my job though. It's a great fit for where I'm at in my life right now.  Let's see, I just started triathlons this summer and absolutely love it!  I did five in total, Mooseman Olympic, Black Fly International, Black Fly Sprint, Timberman 70.3 and Wallis Sands Sprint.  All of them were so much fun. I've met so many people in training and racing. 

My first love, of course, is the Dave Matthews Band.  This summer was the first summer since 1997 I was not able to see them, big sigh.  They did not do a normal tour, instead a caravan consisting of four music festivals.  All four fell on weekends that were a weekend before a race or the weekend of the race.  I can't even begin to tell you of all the great friends I've met while going to see DMB.  They all know who they are.

I enjoy good beer, which is not on my nutrition plan (see below).   I'm trying to have less of it.  My favorite brewery so far is hands down Laguinitas out of California.  Little Sumpin' Sumpin' is a hoppy deliciousness.  It's pure bliss.

I'm also a huge lover of food, who doesn't love to eat?  Yesterday was National Pumpkin Day and I found a delicious pumpkin smoothie recipe online -- courtesy of Lava Magazine.  Here it is with a few tweaks:

1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
Ice

skim milk or water -- I like my smoothies extra thick, similar to a Frappe, so I use very little milk. 
1 stalk celery -- just another place to get some veggies!
1/3 cup pumpkin puree (not the pumpkin pie mix, although it is tempting!)

1 tbsp ground flax seeds -- great health benefits
dash of cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of ginger
small piece of dark chocolate (optional) -- antioxidents!

With this recipe, it brings me to my diet I'm trying to follow -- http://www.thecorediet.com/   Man, is it tough!  This is in conjuction with me starting training with http://www.qt2systems.com/   In past years while training on my own for half marathons and a full, I've always just taught myself and learned from others around me.  After Timberman 70.3 (actually the week before), I decided I needed to hire a coach.  Now, I have a coach I can ask questions at any time and I have a training schedule to follow.  No longer are the days of just winging it.  QT2 includes heart rate zones -- annoying!  I've never trained with a heart rate monitor before, and has it been a struggle!  It takes so much patience, and patience and me do not go together.  I'm a mission plan athlete which means I get my whole training plans up front and can view the entire thing at once.  My next plan starts this Monday October 31, I'm uber ecstatic and cannot wait to see what's in store for me over the winter months, especially snow shoe racing which I started up last winter.  Talk about a fun time!  This particular plan will take me through the first week in April for a half marathon, which will be a great set up for tri season!