lessons learned

1. do not try to become a handler in the 10 days before nationals.

we did a marking -- and more importantly for this lesson, a throwing -- drill on both saturday and sunday last weekend at practice.  i guess i don't normally fake and pivot with such conviction (it was a straight-up mark), and my right quad was SUPER sore on monday.  

tuesday, it was feeling better enough to lift in the AM, and by the PM i felt ready to do some faster running & full-out sprinting while throwing with chicken.  everything was fine...until i decide i need to use my new-found faking and pivoting skills.  one violent lunge from a backhand to a forehand was all it took to tweak my quad.  i continued running & sprinting & jumping for a bit, before even that hurt, and i knew i had to stop.  (too bad, too, because chicken had his sprinting parachute thing, and i proably could have beaten him as he sprinted with that thing on!)

i got home and immediately RICE'd.  slept with this huge tight ACE bandage on -- until i woke up around 3 am and couldn't take it any more.  more ibu & ice this AM, and wore a quad wrap to lab today.  it's feeling better, so i'm hopeful it will be A-OK by nationals.  i'll take tomorrow off too (debating whether i should even go to yoga...), and then try some light jogging on friday.  no pivoting or faking until sarasota, though!

2. dried beans must be both soaked and cooked to achieve a maximally pleasing consistency.  my first attempt to make my black bean & squash chili was foiled monday night when the local market didn't have canned beans -- only dried.  no matter, i thought, i'll just soak them tonight, and make the chili tomorrow!  tuesday, i added my soaked beans to the sauted veggies without a second thought.  20 minutes later, as i'm tasting my final creation, i realize that the beans are still crunchy.  only then do i think to consult some sort of resource, and learn that dried beans require both a soak and a cook.  motherf*cker.  luckily, 80% of the undigestible starches are removed during the soak, so i'm fairly confident the beans are still edible.  and after 2 servings of it, last night and today, my bowels are still intact.  makes for quite a filling meal in fact, and i quipped that i've discovered the next fad diet: the crunchy bean diet.  

serves me right for trying to eat healthy.  to counteract all the fiber i've ingested, i went to Five Guys Burgers & Fries tonight for dinner.  delicious!