Dana Burland

You know, stationary biking for more than 15 minutes is rough. Even with a crowd of others. Even with loud good music. Nothing makes up for the fact that you're going nowhere. And my quads burnout. And I'm slow.  Anyway. Today was the last YMCA winter indoor tri of the season. This one was a 450m swim, 6 mile bike, 2 mile run.  My goal for today was to put in an effort but not race it/go nuts. It's fun to be able to walk for the rest of the day (and the next day) after. It's nice to not be out of it for more than a 5 min cool down. I don't need a medal.  Overall I'd call today a success. The swim was fast and easy. The bike hurt and took forever. The run started off rough but I settled into a pace I was pleased with and got it done. Best of all Cam and Adrian were my counters (with Ben handling the actual start to finish stop watch to make sure the time was right :) ). I finished the whole thing in 50 min, 51 sec.  Look at what a tight age group race it was! Of ...

Freezer Chicken Fajitas.  Prep is 10 minutes of Past You's time. Cook is 20 minutes, totally hands off, for Current You. The hardest part is remembering to take the bag from freezer to fridge to thaw the night before. Sure, winter is almost done, but when the next one rolls around and I have my typical seasonal amnesia forgetting any cozy cold-weather meal to make--Future Me will be thrilled Current Me blogged about this one.  Freezer Chicken Fajitas Ingredients 2-3 chicken breasts 2-3 bell peppers in a variety of colors 1 red onion 1 tablespoon vegetable/canola oil 2 tablespoons taco seasoning  Directions 1. Slice chicken into thin, bite-ish size pieces--drop into a gallon zip top bag 2. Slice bell peppers and onions into bite-ish size strips--drop into the zip top bag 3. Combine oil and taco seasonings in a bowl--pour into zip top bag 4. Squeeze the air out and massage around, trying to evenly coat the chicken/veg with taco oil 5. Store bag in the freezer Meal time 1. D...

Yesterday I ran the East Grand Rapids Irish Jig 5K. Can you believe it was cloudy and 55 ° F for this race? In West Michigan! In mid-March! What a treat. I wanted to have a fun race, comfortable with no effort for a personal best, and I did just that. I ran it in 27:09. Of course I immediately wished I had poured in a bit more to get under 27, but that was a fleeting thought. I'm trying hard to race for fun vs pressure of PR, and noticing along the way when I do I'm not that far off where I thought I'd be if I raced anyway.  Better than the run itself was doing it with coworker/friends/my brother. Good chatter before the race, fun to catch up and grab brunch after. That's a PR in 5K fun.

You know, I just don’t enjoy swimming and hardly get in the pool as an adult. Too many years of 5am swim practice, two-a-days, never not smelling like chlorine. I just… prefer not to, now. I’m not sure what got into me but when I saw a YMCA event aiming to get a group of swimmers together to collectively swim the 118 miles it would take to cross Lake Michigan, I thought–alright, let’s do it. And of course I made my brother sign up, too. Welp, I’m sad to report as a group, the FOUR of us who signed up, did not come close to swimming across. BUT, individually I beat my goal of swimming 2 miles by swimming 3 miles (5,400 yards, or 216 lengths of the pool). I haven’t done that kind of distance since college swim practice in 20… well, nevermind the year and how long it’s been. I can’t believe I cranked that out. BIG emphasis on crank. Good lord were my shoulders absolutely fried not even a third of the way through. We ended up in the water for a little shy of 2 hours. It was fun to do...

I’m fresh off my birthday weekend! It was a good one. It all started with Friday night’s soup party. It was my second time hosting this everyone-bring-a-soup to pass bash . This time we had 11 adults, 8 kids, and 6 soups in attendance. Good thing we built that addition! Kids at the seats closest to the photo had already run off to the basement to play. Amazing how a handful of boys under 8 can make that table look like a scene from a college frat house in under 15 minutes! Soups on the menu were matzo ball, pumpkin cherry chili, sausage sweet potato, Mexican chicken chowder, lemon chicken rice soup and (my submission) tomato soup with grilled cheese dunking sticks .  The soup diversity was *chef’s kiss*. I had some details locked in from last time (disposable soup cups are a must) and some new ideas, too (use dinner plates as carrying trays and note cards/Sharpies out for chefs to label soups). We’d been in a thick-of-winter hibernation mode, it felt nice to be around s...