Deliciously Dangerous Clif Builder's Bars: Review And Giveaway

One month ago, I walked into a coffee shop next to the Y for a post-workout bagel and some water to rehydrate. While I was there, I looked down to see the usual array of Clif Bars that I had seen every morning. I have been eating Clif Bars for about two years before and during my workouts. I cut them up  into bite size squares and chomp them on my long bikes. If I am at work and I am heading to the gym for an afternoon workout (something I seldom do these days, per the agreement with my wife to get all my Ironman workouts done in the a.m.,) I will scarf one down for some much needed carbohydrates before engaging in any one of the "holy trinity" of triathlon disciplines.

Still, in a pinch at any time for some extra fuel, I tear open a Clif bar (usually chocolate chip, or chocolate chip peanut crunch, but I have been known to down a few Chocolate Brownie Clif's in my day as well.) However, on this particular day, I looked down to see a package that I was unfamiliar with. It read: "Builder's The Entirely Natural Protein Bar" Then I see the red Clif decal on the side of the wrapper and it says it has 20 grams of whole protein. "Hey," I thought " I'll give it a try."  Coincidentally, it was the only Clif Builder Bar left, and it was their chocolate bar (pictured on top.)
The Clif Builder's bar are one in word: dangerous. Why you ask?  I do not think I have ever eaten a recovery bar prior to tasting a Clif Builder's Bar that did not taste like paste, chalk, or tree bark. Granted, tree bark may very well be high in dietary fiber, but definitely not yummy. I gave some to some dancer friends of mine. They loved them.

Exhibit B:

The top, or bottom of each bar has a thin glaze-like layer that tastes like the bar's particular flavor—chocolate, lemon, vanilla almond, chocolate mint, cookies 'n cream, and peanut butter of that particular bar. Then, a crunchy middle section—which in my opinion makes this bar unique—and makes it taste more like a candy bar, than a "good-for-you-taste-like-chalk," bar. What  makes the middle section crunchy and dangerously addictive are different with each bar as far as I can tell. When I look through the ingredient list, I read soy rice crisps, organic oats, dried roasted peanuts, and dried roasted almonds. I was especially humored by my wife, who spent  minutes carefully deconstructing  the Cookies 'N Cream Clif Bar with her mouth to isoloate the crunchy part as if she was trying to figure out a Rubik's Cube. Lastly, there is a gooey second outer layer, again either on the top or bottom depending on the bar.

My wife ate a Chocolate Mint bar on Saturday following her dance rehearsal and said, "Yeah, that should not even be legal. How do people avoid eating these as snacks? They taste too good!" Now, mind you, my wife is a harsh critic. I have bagged whole compositions I have been working on by the furrowed eyebrows and other non-verbal feedback I pick up in her body language while playing a composition for her. I wish I could say I had a favorite, but I don't.  The chocolate is really good, and can satiate my wife's discriminating chocolate fix. I have to admit I was a little leery about trying the lemon bar, until I did. If you like lemon meringue pie, don't eat this bar. Otherwise, you will only eat this bar and none others.  To me it has a refreshing lemon zest flavor.

Of course, the best part about this bar is that they are a great post-workout bar. These bar's are loaded with 20 grams of whole protein, 0 trans fat, and 23 vitamins and minerals, and they taste awesome!

Speaking of awesome, the fine awesome folks at  Clif are allowing me to give away THREE boxes of Clif Builder Bars on my blog. The rules for the Clif Bar Giveaway will be similar to the Timex Ironman Race Trainer Giveaway:

1) Go to the Clif Bar website and come back and leave a post telling me which Clif Builder Bar you would like the most. (1 entry)

2) Be a Follower of my blog. Leave a separate comment letting me know who you are (1 entry)

3) Become a Fan of Clif Bar on Facebook. Leave a separate comment letting me know who you are. (1 entry)

4) Post this contest on your blog, leaving a separate comment letting me know you've done so. (1 entry)

Okay everyone, in my next post I will explain how to make week 10 of Ironman training non-existent.

Train Smart!

Iron Reflections: 3 Weeks In

Who the hell knew training for Ironman was going to be this difficult? Someone forgot to tell me just how grueling this training volume actually is... and I am barely getting my feet wet. Well, it seems like I have been getting my feet a lot more wet than usual as of late. The swim workouts are not feeling quite as difficult as they once did. I remember when a 2200 yard swim workout use to be excruciatingly long and difficult. Now, it is only sometimes, excruciatingly boring. Although, I have to say that Wednesday's swim workout was actually a lot of fun. Today I swam 3200 yards. Last year, the longest swim Adam and I had in preparation for the Half Iron was 3000 yards. It took us nearly an hour and some change. We swam the 3200 yards today in approximately 45 minutes. I don't believe I am actually going to say this, but.... I think, rather, yes, I know I actually like swimming now. It pains me to say it. It took me four years to come around. Swimming is no longer this thing that I have to do to train for triathlons, but something I enjoy doing as part of my training.

The most difficult part of training, still, is getting my butt out of bed at 4:45. That hour still seems scorchingly obscene for some reason. I feel great once I get my first hundred or so in at around 6:00 a.m., but even walking into the Y at 5:55, I am still barely awake. At the end of each week I have been pretty fatigued from the workouts, managing five kids, and composing. I have managed to hold up to my end of the bargain with the wifey and have all of my workouts finished before 8:00 a.m. Of course, like I've said before, Alaina understands that I can not really go out for long rides and be home before 8:00 a.m. unless I leave by 4:00 a.m. That is certainly not going to happen!

I missed one day this week because I came down with the stomach bug. I could always use my rest day—tomorrow—to catch up on that workout, but I have heard that is not a good idea. I will use the time off to rest, write music, and spend some extra time with the kiddies. Wow, I love rest days.

My training group's morale is still very high. We are all pretty excited to be training, but we'll need each other to keep our spirits high throughout the season when we are out there suffering, er... enjoying our 5 hour bike rides, three hour runs, and trying to work out our nutritional needs.

More soon. Happy Training!

A Decent Recovery and Lego Star Wars

Okay, waking up early this morning to meet Adam (my training parter) at the gym did not happen. Every once in a while—for some suspicious reason unbeknownst to my wife and I—our five alarm clocks, er... children do not wake up before Foghorn Leghorn at the crack of dawn. For those of you who did not grow up in the mid-70's, Foghorn was a cartoon that ran during the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour. We do not know why this happens, but we are usually filled with joy with every minute of sleep past 7:00 a.m. We've found that each minute translates into approximately one minute more of "parental patience" at bedtime. Adam and I finally got to the gym at 8:15 did some quick weight training and then I did a quick speed workout on the treadmill. I wanted to get outside, but it was 9 degrees this morning and too much ice on the ground. I can handle the cold. Ice is treacherous, and I am clumsy enough as it is. Anyway, I did a nice 5K at a 7:40 pace on a 1 degree incline. I could have run faster. I felt pretty food this morning even though I thought I was going to feel tired and have a mediocre run. Must have been the banana the night before! It felt good to have a decent run after that miserable swim workout because of the cramp in my right thigh. I have to admit, it bothered me most of the day thinking about how I had to bag the workout. The silver lining is that I learned something. I really need to remember that I sweat A LOT and that I need to replace those fluids during and immediately after a long hard ride, or I am going to risk cramping again. I have a 8 mile run scheduled on Thursday with Vanessa. Again, Adam and I convinced her to swim a 1000 yards before going out to run (that is the only chance we have of keeping up with her.)

I have some interesting new developments happening this spring. It looks like I might be "training" a group of young, aspiring first time triathletes. They are mostly students of mine at the college who have expressed an interest. I don't know how they would have gotten the idea. I very rarely talk triathlon with anyone. We'll see how long they last when the pressure of exams, papers, social life, and the rest of the banal indulgences of la vie quotidienne come calling them away from training minutes.

Other News: Christmas was great. The boys got a Lego Star Wars game for the wii and a Lego Star Wars model. Alaina asked me why they would put Legos and Star Wars together. Puzzled, I looked at her and asked her if she were serious. "Alaina," I responded, "they are only the two coolest things ever!" Unconvinced, she said, "It must be a boy thing." This may be true. My girls have been dressed up in the princess outfits they received for Christmas almost every hour. Must be a girl thing.

Cavatelli Salad for lunch today: Cavatelli, olive oil, garlic, basil, tomato's, part-skim  mozzarella, balsamic vinegar. Heaven.

Confessions of a Complex Carboholic

I love pasta. I am Italian, so I guess I am suppose to love it. I own it. Alaina thinks I the amount of pasta I consume on a weekly basis is crazy. I mean, honestly, I could eat pasta for lunch and dinner nearly every day. Do I get tired of it? Nope. Growing up in an Italian family with two brothers who had the appetites of large barnyard animals and could consume as much food as an emerging third-world nation, my mother made sure to provide us with as many low cost, high volume food choices as possible. Pasta was the inheritance of a bloodline that assuredly, went back countless generations. I never complained. I loved it then, and probably love it more now. If I could eat one thing for the rest of my life, this high complex carbohydrate masterpiece would be just the thing. Alaina said she could eat salad forever. Not sure I could do that, but I digress.


I learned recently that I must look very Italian as well. When I walked into Luca's lunchroom to meet him one day a couple of weeks ago, a kid in another second grade class came up to me and said, "You look Italian." I felt like Arnold Schwarzeneger in Kindergarten Cop when a child out of the blue says "boys have a penis... girls have a vagina." I just kind of looked at him with a gaping mouth and nodded stupidly. Finally, I said, "yes, I am Italian." Good thing too, I am sure he would have not been able to sleep that night. Back to my  love of pasta. I could not have chosen a better combination of fuel and tastiness. Pasta is a complex carbohydrate: chains of three or more single sugar molecules linked together. Long chains of sugar molecules are called starches and they serve as the storage form of energy in plants. Branched complex carbohydrates called cellulose form the structural components that give plants their shape. Nutritionists say that at least have of our daily caloric intake should come from complex carbohydrates found in  plant foods--which include fruits, vegetables, bread, pasta, and legumes. Lately, we have been eating more whole wheat pasta. I like it. It is a little nuttier than it's bleached counterpart, but much better for you in terms of nutritional value and carbohydrate efficiency. 


Endurance athletes in particular benefit from fuel-efficient complex carbohydrates because of the extra calories burned each day. You need to aim for even more total carbohydrates than the suggested 50 percent. You can eat (in fact, may need to eat) more total calories without worrying about weight gain. The average runner training for a half marathon and running 20 to 25 miles a week probably needs a daily caloric intake near 2,500 to maintain muscle glycogen stores. As your mileage climbs beyond that, you need to eat more and more food, not less. In all honesty, this is why a lot of runners run, and why they train for marathons. Their common motto is, "I love to eat."

 Below, I've listed ----- of my favorite ways to enjoy this culinary gem in no particular order:

1) Pesto: Made from fresh basil, olive oil, and the undisputed king of all cheeses, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and sometimes (although my wife does not use it in hers, pinenuts.)  Penne with homemade pesto (pronounced 'pay-sto')—do not even approach me with that weak Americanized pronunciation of one of my favorite pasta sauces. Even the Merriam-Webster online dictionary hacks the pronunciation if this wonderfully fresh sauce. pes-(ˌ)tō. How dare they refer to it as 'pest-o!'  I am not sure if it annoys me nearly as much as the "shh" sound everyone makes when referring to bruschetta. \brü-ˈshe-tə, -ˈske-\. Ugh, it's the latter,m 'ske! Moving on, but more about bruschetta later. 

2) Cavatelli with Brocolli: What I am currently eating for lunch as I write this post. People who say they do not have enough time to make meals for lunch or dinner need to get their heads examined. Start to finish: 20 minutes. Boil water. Prepare broccoli in pan with olive oil, garlic, and crushed red pepper. Cook the cavatelli for 4-6 minutes (it's fresh pasta, so it does not need as long to cook. You'll know it's done when the pasta starts to float to the top.) Drain, and put it in the pan with the broccoli and turn up the heat to medium high. I like getting the pasta a bit crispy on the outside. Salt and pepper to taste. Violà! A finished meal in under 20 minutes.

3) Penne Vodka: Excuse my crassness. This might as well just called 'crack.' If you are looking for a great pre-race, high carb, low-fat meal, then look somewhere else. This uses pork fat in the form of proscuitto, a type of cured ham that is both high in salt and fat. The sauce uses a combination of tomato sauce and cream, giving it a rosy or pink color. Finish it off with some fresh parsly right out of the garden. This is a great post-race "job well-done!" kind of meal. It should be treated like Superman's treatment of the crystals on Krypton: there if you need it, but use sparingly. 


4) Cavatelli Salad: Ah, cavatelli again! This is one of my favorite summer dishes. I love this meal because I can prepare it quickly after a workout. Start to finish: 20 minutes. Bring water to boil. Dice tomato's, mince garlic, cut part skim mozzarella up into little squares, and chop some fresh basil—I like a lot of basil and garlic—I'm Italian, remember. Pour olive oil and minced garlic into the bottom of a large pasta bowl (the amount of both will vary according to the amount of pasta you are cooking.) When the pasta is done, drain it and set it aside. I like to let the pasta cool down a little, but I like to put it in the bowl with the garlic while it is still warm to bring out more of the flavor in the garlic. If you are not worried about keeping vampires away, or would like to get close to your significant other at the end of the night, you may want to use some discretion here. I put in the basil and cheese in at the end so that it does not melt. I do not like it all melty. I am not making Rueben's here. When you are done, sprinkle a little balsamic vinegar over the top of it and share with someone you love. I love the freshness of this dish, especially outside during the summer. I will often refrigerate this right after making it and eat it for lunch the following day. 

Back to bruschetta \brü-ˈske-tə, -ˈske-\. I have such fond memories of this food. When I was a child, my father use to make this for me almost every weekend. He would cut pieces of bread up, cook them in the fireplace on a small grill rack. When both sides got toasty, he would rub garlic on the bread, then finish it off with some virgin olive oil and salt. I loved it. I didn't know why exactly. It seems pretty simple. But it is so delicious. Real, simple food. None of the '"frills:" tomato's, basil, sardines, etc.— albeit yummy—that I witness when I go out to a restaurant. Perhaps that is what I love so much about it. Now, I make it for my kids every so often, and it has become this exotic culinary staple that daddy only makes on special nights. Hysterical! 


One of my all-time favorite meals is pairing bruschetta with a nice glass of chianti accompanied by some olives, and pieces of parmigiano. It should be illegal in several states.

The Skinny on Fat, Part II: Eat Fat, Get Skinny

A study published in the March 2008 American Journal of of Clinical Nutrition showed that medium-chain fatty acids actually help burn greater fat than long-chain monosaturated fats in olive oil, putting to rest the notion that all saturated fats are bad. The research also indicated that the consumption of medium-chain fatty acids (e.g. coconut oil) will positively affect weight loss and circumference measurements if ingested as part of a weight loss program. Obese participants who supplemented their diets with omega-3 via fish oil have shown promising fat loss in the clinical study. The effects are amplified when combined with exercise. This has to do with the improving the body's mechanism for the use of stored fat as energy. This is all proof that eating fat helps you burn fat.

The Skinny on Fat, Part I

If I told you that some fats actually burn fat and could increase athletic performance, would you believe me? I know what your thinking. You've been reading the labels of the food that you purchase for years, making sure you were not consuming too much fat—especially saturated fats—which many of us have been led to believe are as lethal as cigarettes and alcohol.

However, the truth is that some types of medium, or short-chain saturated fats that are found in coconut, palm oil, and even butter can actually be beneficial. They have a different absorption mechanism making them perfectly healthy. They are used solely for energy production because they are absorbed directly into the liver instead of taking the cholesterol route. More, they do not directly affect cholesterol levels, and may even aid in athletic performance because of their superior use as energy according to Jill Coleman who wrote the article Fat Science in the Novmber/December 2009
                                                                            issue of OnFitness.

Long-chain saturated fats increase the so called "bad" cholesterol and should be avoided as much as possible (sorry bacon and sausages.) I felt guilty for years cooking my "signature" shrimp scampi as I cut a generous portion of butter to be used in the sauce. Look, I have no delusions of my scampi dish passing on a low-fat menu anytime soon, but I am always careful to consider  the proportion of fats to carbohydrates when I am preparing the dish. Another type of fat that should be avoided like the plague are Trans fat or partially hydrogenated oil. Unbeknownst to many consumers, they are widely used in a sleuth of prepackaged foods like chips, crackers, and cookies. The detrimental health effects have recently  spurred a move by the FDA to require food manufacturers to put the trans fat content on food labels. My solution, if I were king for the day—not crazy King George III—would be to eliminate trans fat altogether. Trans fats are modified to remain solid at room temperature increasing their stability and spreadability for use in such products as margarine, shortening, and other vegetable oils. Studies have shown that diets rich in trans fats increase an individuals risk for cardiovascular disease.

Finally, there are unsaturated fats that can be divided further into monosaturated and polyunsaturated  varieties. Foods such as almonds, avocados, olive oil and peanuts contain  monosaturated fats. They effectively lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood making a diet rich in these foods beneficial. Polyunsaturated fats consist of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Since humans do not cannot make these, they can only be obtained through diet. Foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids include flaxseeds and walnuts (and their oils), and oily fish like salmon, herring and sardines. Sunflower, soybean oil, nuts, seeds, some vegetables, as well as meat, poultry and eggs are rich in omega-6s. Both omega 3s and 6s are "vitally important as a structural component of your cells' membranes. The omega 3 fatty acid DHA plays an important role in both vision and optimal neurological function. Research has also shown that DHA is important to the fetal nervous system of pregnant women and an effective anti inflammatory for people with rheumatoid arthritis.

Next post: The Skinny on Fat, Part II: Eat Fat, Get Skinny

14 Pounds Till New Year

Eight years ago, I put on 14 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years. For those of you looking to "beef up" this holiday season, here is the training regimen I recommend:

• Eat a second dinner late at night—usually between 10 or 11:00 p.m. I am not talking a little "snack," but rather leftover turkey with all the holiday fixings; mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, etc

• Drink Guinness Stout and Bailey's Irish Cream indiscriminately at all hours of the day.

• Watch as many football games and bad holiday movies as you can withstand, while sitting on the couch ingesting copious amounts of the aforementioned turkey and beverages.

• Your exercise regimen should include getting to the gym at least once or twice a week, fraternizing with as many acquaintances as possible while working in some abs to counter the effects of the Guinness.

• Only weigh yourself after you know that you may have done irreversible damage. It does no good to weigh yourself through the process, should the overwhelming sense of guilt lead to some premature consciousness along the way, ruining your holiday weight gain.

Here come the holidays. Tis' the season to eat cookies, drink excessively, and delve into the abyss. Let's not go there this year! My goal, as is my challenge to all of you is to shed a pound or two this holiday season (I am being realistic here, c'mon.) I am no saint, we all indulge in a little holiday excess, but knowing is half the battle. Find a Turkey Trot, do some extra laps in the pool, take an extra spinning class a week, but get out there and don't let the holidays dictate your weight.

Great Masters Swim Workout this Sunday:

100 S

100 K

100 P

100 S

50 Sprint

100 Easy

150 Sprint

200 Easy X2

150 Sprint

100 Easy

50 Sprint

150 S

150 K

150 P

=2450