Vegas Post-Race Recovery!

A little post-race recovery!

 
So I'm settling in to post-race season recovery better than I thought I would! I've been having a blast!

Knee Update
I've been to physical therapy twice now, and this seems to be helping a lot. The physical therapist seems to think that my knee issue is probably a flareup of my IT band due to systemic inflammation. She believes that my post-Vineman immune system just wasn't able to deal with the inflammation from my sinus infection and   strep throat and allowed my little "tweak" of an injury to my IT band to become inflamed during my convalescence. The knee is not unstable at all, but the area around the distal end of the IT band had fluid in it. She's been using ultrasound and Graston® (just like the treatment I had for my ulnar neuropathy last year, see post), and it's getting much better. I'm also using the foam roller and doing some exercises to work the IT band. The swelling is down, pain has decreased and sometimes disappeared, and I've not had the "squeaky rub" condition for several days now. I do have a referral to a sports-medicine orthopedist in October, and I'm going to keep that appointment to see what things I can do to prevent future injuries to this area as I start up my full Ironman training this fall.

I'm slowly adding workouts in. I did a 1.5 mile swim last week and my knee was great for the first half; it got a little achy, not painful, so I just pulled the last half. I did a five minute stationary bike warmup at PT this morning with no pain at all, which is the first cycling I've had pain-free for a month. Tomorrow I'll do a 2-3 mile treadmill run and see how that feels. I'm really looking forward to getting back into training.

Vegan Vegas!
I went to Vegas last week for the first time in years. Believe it or not, it was soooo relaxing! I've never gone anywhere and just vegged at the pool...but that's exactly what I did and turns out, exactly what I needed! We spent four days at the pool, lounging, swimming, relaxing, enjoying drinks with little umbrellas in them, of course...ahhhhhh!

We stayed at the Wynn, which was beautiful, and, turns out, has outstanding vegan food at all of their restaurants and room service! The Wynn brought in vegan chef, Tal Ronnen, to develop wonderful vegan fare, and he hit it out of the park! Check out their menus.

The first night we ate at La Cave outside on the patio overlooking the pools. It was a beautiful setting. La Cave is a wine bar/restaurant that serves small plates in tapas style, although it's not Spanish cuisine. There was a whole section of vegan selections...and we ordered them all! Our favorite, which we ordered a total of three plates worth, was the Creamy Mushroom Tortellini, made with cashew cream. OMG! So fantastic! I'm going to have to figure out how to recreate that dish!

Room and poolside service was terrific too. Over the four days, for breakfast, we had the fruit plate with vegan soy vanilla yogurt, granola and soy yogurt parfait, and tofu scramble. It was all excellent! At the pool we had salads and a terrific roasted red pepper and avocado hummus.

The second night we ventured to the Bellagio to Sensi. While not a vegan restaurant nor one with a vegan menu, I had read in the Vegas Vegan blog about the amazing food they had there, and as it was one of my friend's favorite restaurants in Vegas, we were very intrigued to see what they had along the vegan lines. We had the BEST waiter--he was English and so much fun! We asked about a vegan menu and he got all excited and said he was go talk to the chefs to see what they would come up with, because "they really do love to create new exciting things!" He came back with a list of wonderful menu items...and we ordered them all! We had a fantastic Veggie Sushi Platter with a Ponzu Yuzu dipping sauce and a wonderful risotto for appetizers, followed by Tofu Scallops with stir-fried vegetables that were outstanding and a dish of seasonal vegetables that included a variety of summer squashes, carrots, green beans, etc. And a bowl of fresh berries with the most amazing lemoncello sorbet I've ever had in my entire life!

The last night we went to the Mix Lounge at the top of The Hotel at Mandalay Bay. Stunning! We ended up having drinks and dinner outside on the veranda on the 64th floor; it was a beautiful night with an orange harvest moon. The lounge is dark, sleek, and sexy...the restaurant is etheral and light, making for an amazing evening. Note...if you ever go here, you HAVE to check out the bathoom! Sexiest bathrooms on earth!

Mix is not a vegan restaurant, but they were more than happy to come up with a list of items they would make for us. We'd had so much food the other nights that we simply kept ourselves to two entrees this night! We shared a Vegetable Hot Pot with Wild Mushrooms and Potato Gnocchi with Morels and Asparagus. We did enjoy fresh breads for starter, which included four varieties of bread accompanied by fresh chunky peanut butter they make on site--I thought this was very original!

For dessert, we had a variety of sorbets which were amazing, and a warm madeleine, all served up on a beautiful platter scripted with "Happy Birthday" in chocolate and a candle!










My next blog will cover the adventure that followed Vegas...a Vegan Wedding (no, not me!!)! Stay tuned!