If I’m going to eat salad for dinner, I’m going to need to eat a lot of it.  And, to eat a lot of salad, I need a huge bowl, one big enough to hold four or five fistfuls of greens, grains, vegetables, and protein.

Laurel and I began the big bowl search a few weeks ago at Crate & Barrel. There, we nixed cereal, ice cream, and pasta bowls. They would work for a lunch-sized portion or a bowl of pasta. But one of our enormous dinner salads would easily overflow. We also passed on the mixing and serving bowls, since they were too deep.

Photo by Eric Wynn

This past weekend, we wrapped up the Lifetime Race to the Toyota Cup with the final race in Rockwall, TX.  This was the second year for this Dallas suburb venue, which centered around a Hilton resort on the shores of a large reservoir.  Due to the drought in Texas, the water level was too low for the traditional dive from the dock start, so we started in the 74(?) degree water with no wetsuits.  The swim started off fast and I quickly found myself in a large group with all of the major players except Sara H., Sara M. and Anabel, who where out front

Here's a look at Gaga's look from last week's Little Kids Rock dinner.  Little Kids Rock is a charity that brings music education into schools that might not otherwise teach it. Rock stars are involved in the charity, going to the schools and teaching and playing with the kids.  One of those stars was Clarence Clemons.
 On Sunday I successfully defended my title at the Westchester Triathlon. That makes it four Wassner wins in a row! (Bec won in '08 and '09). The rain held off and we had a great day for racing. Since it was a local race, I was able to take a car service right to transition - meaning I didn't have to drive and was able to think about the race and hydrate with EFS on the way up! It was nice to have that extra time to relax.

 

The tee shirt in the picture above has quickly become a favorite in the Athlete Style rotation. Of course it fits perfectly and has a fun design but it also sends an even bigger message. That's what Nike does so well with the Livestrong collection. Cute clothes that have purpose. In this case it was to raise awareness and support for getting cancer on the UN global agenda. The shirts were available for one week only at NY Niketown, however, they seem to be very in demand - so maybe they will be added to the holiday line. Stay tuned for updates and in the meantime FIGHT LIKE HELL!

 

My race yesterday at USA Nationals in Buffalo, NY was going well until a crash on the 7th of 8 laps of the bike course.  After recovering from a very slow swim, I was actually riding well, helping my group chase down all of the packs in front of us, and trying to maintain a fast pace.  Most of the time I was rotating with a few others at the front of the pack, but with 2 laps to go, I kind of drifted toward the back to assess who else was still with us, to see what I was dealing with for the run.  Just at that moment, 2 girls in front of me got tangled up and went down, I did my best to avoid the situation, drifting to the right where I saw open road.  Unfortunately, someone came up on my right and I was knocked off my bike into the gravel shoulder.  My coach, Cliff, was right there and told me to get up and keep riding.  It took me a second to figure out what was going on, but I got up, did a few minor bike repairs and started riding.  I was having a hard time holding on to the bars and looked down and saw that my hands were all bloody.  Then I thought, ok, just use the aero bars.  Tried that and realized that I had a cut on my elbow and blood running down my arm.  I managed to finish the last 2 laps of the bike (with a rubbing brake) and thought I may as well try running, even though I had lost so much time.  Once I got on the run course, I realized that my hip was really sore and looked down and noticed that I fell on my hip too.  I tried to keep running, but things just didn't feel right and then everything started to hurt.

Last weekend, the twins drove up to Syracuse to compete in a "local" 70.3  The race took almost 5 hours, but Bec and Laurel finished just 12 seconds apart, in 6th & 7th places.  Unfortunately, Bec was misdirected on the swim course and ended up coming out of the water several minutes behind the rest of the field.  She was able to climb her way back into 8th place after the bike and then moved into 6th on the run.  Laurel had a solid run, staying just a few seconds behind Bec during the very hilly 13.1 mile course.  As you can see in the photos below, it was a chilly morning, only in the mid-40's at the start of