Eric and I are now the proud owners of our very own wetsuits.
We need wetsuits for the swim portion of our Canadian half-Ironman (read: swimming 1.2 miles in a cold lake in the great, white north), and after months of avoiding actually purchasing them, we finally bit the bullet and ordered some this week.
They came in the mail yesterday. Now, it’s been a few years since I’ve worn a wetsuit, but I don’t remember a great struggle in putting one on. But oh, the struggle with this one. I suppose the suits I’ve worn in the past have served just to keep me warm in cold weather, without the intention of them actually getting wet. The suits that we bought are supposed to keep us warm and add an element of buoyancy, so we (hopefully) don’t drown in the lake. I guess that’s why they are a bit thicker and generally more intense than suits you rent when paddle boarding or rafting.
Eric’s wetsuit came with instructions and special gloves and socks to wear while pulling it on so the suit doesn’t rip. Mine came with nothing but the faint echos of evil laughter as the wetsuit manufacturers imagined me trying it on. I should point out that before I attempted wearing this thing, I held the wetsuit up to my body, and it was about half the length and width of my actual form. That’s a good sign, yes? Perhaps I started out with too much confidence, and just stuck my legs in the tiny leg holes and pulled up. The wetsuit didn’t even budge. I spent 20 minutes trying to pull this thing onto my body. I finally got it up to my shoulders, but needed to pull the legs up a bit to get the entire suit to fit over my body. However, after several minutes of laughing hysterically and crying out in pain, I was exhausted from the attempt, so I waved the white flag of surrender.
And then came the joy of trying to pull it off. It turns out that’s not so easy either. I ended up flat on my back while Eric stood at my feet and pulled the suit off my legs. We’ll have to work out some other sort of system for the actual race.
In the meantime, I suggest that putting on the wetsuit should be the fourth element of the triathlon. A quadathlon, if you will.
After I got my suit off, Eric pulled his on in less than 5 minutes. I suppose there’s something to be said for reading the instructions.
The good news is, even though wetsuits are weird, we have muffins today!
These Banana Orange Burst Muffins were inspired by my cold. Somehow, I made it through the whole winter (well, the winter-that-wasn’t) without catching anyone’s germs (probably partially due to my hermit lifestyle). But now that the weather is lovely, the sun is shining, and triathlon training is ripping my muscles apart one by one, all I want to do is curl up with a blanket and HGTV the day away.
So while I am sneezing and nose blowing and generally feeling blah, I want to drink orange juice. I never think about orange juice except when I am sick. I’m going to blame it on those (now dis-proven) theories that vitamin C will cure a cold. So in hopes of making myself feel better, I filled these muffins with some orange juice, orange zest, bananas, and blueberries.
These muffins taste like sunshine. They taste bright. They taste flavorful. They make me feel cozy. Are these weird feelings to have while eating a muffin? Plus, they score some health points with no refined sugar (honey all the way!) and whole wheat pastry flour. And while I can’t guarantee they will cure the common cold, they will surely power you through that next episode of House Hunters.
And if you’re still looking for some Mother’s Day ideas, I’m sure mom wouldn’t mind if you whipped up some of these on Sunday morning.
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- pinch of sea salt
- 2 large, overripe bananas, mashed
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup honey
- ⅔ cup orange juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
- ⅔ cup fresh or frozen blueberries
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and prepare a muffin pan with baking spray or paper liners.
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the mashed bananas, olive oil, honey, orange juice, vanilla, and orange zest.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until well combined. Stir in the blueberries.
- Divide the batter evenly between 12 muffin cups. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.
-Ally
Anita Smith says
I would love to have some of these muffins for Mother’s Day. Are they on their way?
Ally says
Haha. Sorry, Mom. I actually did think about sending you some, but I don’t know how well muffins travel across the country. But I’ll make you some when we visit!