Racing is in my blood.

I thought I'd drop a quick note to tell the world that I'm doing fine. The homesickness is slowly fading away as things are starting to get pretty serious down here with all the races that are lined up weekend after weekend. Yesterday was the start of my season. 

I've settled in a cosy home with a 60 year old lady as a flatmate and we share absolutely nothing in common except for the love of being alone and sleeping early. Wanted to buy a used car for $800 but when I went to inspect it at someone's backyard, I found the car pretty shady. The interior roof lining was falling apart, the car smells of smoke and there were a few pieces of McDonald's fries under the seat which still looked pretty golden but I think they've been there for months, if not years. I mean, what do you expect from an $800 car right? I didnt get it. I wouldn't know where to rake up an extra $800 anyway.

Funds are running pretty low, but what's new right? I try not to let it worry me too much but when I push these worries aside, they come and haunt me when I'm not doing much, which is like most of the time. I am still paying rent, meals and transport from my own savings which makes all these fancy pantsy let's shower our local athletes with support you hear seem like a fairy tale story. I wish I can just think about training but I guess if things don't push you, you won't grow. You start to depend on others. You start to become weak and needy. I guess it's an opportunity for me to grow. I want to learn, I'm hungry to gain more knowledge on how to earn without distracting me from my training. Nothing good ever comes easy, they say. The hard is what's gonna make this all worth it- I always, always, always remind myself.

The last time I raced was in Korea 4 months ago at the Asian Games. That wasn't even racing. That was me trying to be someone I wasn't. That wasn't the Aisyah Rower I know, neither was she the girl with big dreams you know. That was someone I've decided to leave behind in 2014. But moving forward to the race yesterday,  it's really interesting how you know you've done this at least a hundred thousand times, for 10 freaking years, and yet, the jitters that you get for every single race just scares you! In this game, experience doesn't make it any better. As you go up a level, it doesn't get any easier. But still, you do it. Can someone explain to me why?

At the start line, my heart was pounding so hard and so fast I could actually feel the beat pulsating through my fingers which were wrapped around my oar handles. I was nervous, for sure, but it was a damn good feeling. It was a feeling I hadn't felt for a very long time. It was love.

The love for the adrenaline that gushes in my blood when I get nervous and excited at the same time and it makes me feel so stoked. The love for the way my heart pounds at the start line. The love for the pain in my legs when the lactic starts to seep in them. The love for the way my lungs scream for air when I start to pant hard. The love for the way I make the boat glide on water. The love for the silly things I tell myself when I feel like I'm going to die anytime soon. The love for pushing myself and going beyond what I thought I can. The love for crossing the finish line knowing that I'm totally spent and there's nothing more that I could have given. The love for racing. The love for the sport.

It almost brought me to tears when I finished the race yesterday. I didn't win, neither was I last. But yesterday wasn't about the position I came in. What made the hugest impact on me was the fact that I fell in love again. It made me realise that this is what I was made for, this was what I was born to do. 

It is probably the cheesiest thing you've ever heard but for months, I was trying to find out what makes a good athlete better, and the better ones become the best. I felt that there was something missing in my life. And then yesterday happened and I felt alive, for the first time in many, many months. It was a beautiful moment. There wasn't a medal hanging around my neck, neither was was an applause or even a pat on my back for a good race. But right there, I felt happy. 

Alhamdullilah.

To many more races to come, and to be conquered.

xx

The Jindabyne Camp

So I'm gonna skip the part where I came back to Sydney to train.

And talk about the part where I decided to participate in a training camp, which is one of the most painful events I've ever gone through in my entire life.

So this is what it's like to be an elite athlete in one of new south Wales's best rowing club. Mind you, it is not even the national team. 

This is what it's like to have a proper, serious shit training camp. 

This is what it feels like to die.

Every single fkg day.

And I'm sorry if you shudder and gasp in horror when I say the 4 letter word but you'll understand why I will be using the word ever so often in this post.

Jindabyne is 5 hours away from Sydney by land. I met james with his 1989 volkswagon van at mosman on Saturday morning bright and early at 530am. His radio and bluetooth in the van wasn't working and there wasnt any air condition and it was in the middle of summer in sydney so the 5 hours ride felt like 10. But after sleeping through like 3/4 of the journey, we finally reached Jindy. 

At this point I cringe at how cute Jindy sounds because there is nothing cute about Jindabyne.

Better known as Snowy Mountain, during winter, Jindabyne turns into a skiing wonderland. In summer, it is where Mother Nature shows its true colours as a female- undecisive. Mother hot one moment, pissing rain the next. And im not even talking about a period of days here. In a matter of hours the weather here can change drastically.

This place is lovely. Jindabyne is beautiful. The lake is enormous and it goes on forever. Once, we rowed on and on for at least 13km without having to turn. The roads where we ride on go on forever too. (More on cycling in a bit.)

The day starts at 4:55am every morning, which doesn't seem that bad if you're a rower. And then you put on your trainers and run down the hill to the lake. And you might think it's a straightforward downhill route but in jindabyne nothing is ever a simple downhill or uphill. 

At the lake, we row and God bless us if the wind is a breeze. The water can get so nasty, once I went out on a single scull in horrible water and almost cried cuz it was so scary to row back in the rolling waves. After training, we run back up the hill back to our accommodation. On good days, the run back will take 20mins or so for a 2.5km distance. On days where your legs feel like there's fkg weights in them, it may take up to half an hour. But you have to just deal with it because no way will any coach pity your pretty face and give you a ride home.

And then we have our favourite meal of the day, breakfast. Usually we sleep after breakfast for about an hour to recharge for our second session which starts at around 11am. This time round we don't have to run to the lake so we'll get to drive down, thankfully.

Sometimes we run up a hill. Hills in jindabyne have no mercy on us human beings. They are so steep your eyes weep just by looking at them. Running up the hill is so painful you can try all sorts of things to get your mind off the pain but your fkg lungs and legs are on fire you can't ignore them. They just hurt so much and walking doesn't make anything better so you can't do much, really, but just to fkg run.

Sometimes we gym. Which sounds okay since I've been gymming for quite some time now but I've not done circuits for years and circuits just make your heart pump so hard you feel like it may just protrude out of your chest anytime. 

And then there's the training I dread the most. Cycling. I try to convince myself that if I learn to like it, it won't be that bad. But I just can't seem to enjoy riding. It's painful on your shoulders, your bum, your groin, your legs. It's just too much pain and discomfort. And like I mentioned before, Jindabyne hills are complex, like a women's brain. Uphills are painful, as expected, but what I hate the most is the downhill part. I AM SO FKG SCARED OF GOING DOWN A SLOPE, GOD SAVE ME. And cycling trainings go on for hours. The first ride we had was 45mins. The second was 70mins and the third ride was 3hrs. Yesterday, we rode for 3.5hrs, 67km and climbed the steepest hill I've ever encountered in my life. It was so steep my cadence was probably 10rpm and it is not an exaggeration. The 2 girls I was riding with didn't even make it to the top of the hill. One fell off the bike. It was excruciating I cannot imagine going through that again. Thinking about it still makes me cringe in fear. It was probably about 3 km but it felt like the longest road ever. I hated it. Hated it. SO MUCH HATE IN CYCLING!!!!

and then the coaches said that if I get over the fear of going downhill I actually make a good cyclist. Things you don't want to hear. Haha.

It's been 8 days now. 2 days to go. As much as this camp is slowly breaking my body, mentally fkg my mind,  I am sure by the end of this misery I will be stronger, fitter and faster than I've ever been before. That, I like. But for now, it's 3 more trainings to go.

My friends were like, I miss home. I miss sydney. And then I feel stupid for being sad because even when I get my ass back in sydney, home is still miles away.

They say you have to die first, before you feel reborn.

This is how death feels like, I reckon.

xx

Here, now.

So I've ended the year achieving 6 out of 10 of my goals. 
1. I ran a half marathon
2. I sat on a bike for 2hrs
3. I beat my PB on the erg for 30mins
4. I did bikram
5. I did 10 pistol squats on each leg at one go
6. I did more than a 6mins plank

The 4 goals that I didn't manage to achieve were:
7. 10 chin ups
8. Handstand
9. Swimming 250m non-stop
10. Running 10k in 40mins

The chin ups, handstand and the swim were excusable because of the wrist thing I had. But the 10k was just something I chickened out and didn't even try.

6 goals achieved would do for now.
#betterthannothing

--

I'm back in Sydney. Things are moving so quickly i haven't had the chance to even sit down and reflect on my 2014 and jotting goals down for my 2015.

Will be leaving for the mountains (5 hrs from sydney) tomorrow at 530am. Intense training for 10 days. Crazy bike rides. Freezing mornings to hellish afternoons. 3 trainings almost everyday. Sounds pretty wicked, but I'm ready. 

I feel a little empty inside. I miss home. It's a stupid thing to say but I am not going to lie to you, or myself. I do miss home. And its hardly been a week since I'm here. I'm not the adventurous little girl who gets excited to be alone in a foreign country anymore. I feel old, tired, lonely. And stupid.

Stupid feelings will go away soon. 

It better go away soon.

I need to be here. To be fast. To win. 

Meanwhile, have I told you about how I picked up cycling a month ago, bought my very own pedals and shies with cleats along with lights and saddles and a gps? Have I told you that I just learnt how to cleat on my shoes to the bike last week and 2 days ago I cycled up and down one of the most challenging routes in sydney? Have I told you how I hate cycling because it scares the coconuts out of me but I just have to shut up and deal with it like how I hated rowing when I first got into the single sculls cuz I thought I sucked at it? Well yeah. And I heard we're gonna cycle up the highest peak in Australia during the camp. How exciting.

Good luck legs. 

Will be back in 10 days. 
Fitter. Stronger. Faster.
(And with a reflection and a resolution ready by then)
You'll see.

Not everything in life is a competition.

Upon the news of the ex-bf of yesteryear getting married to an ex-best friend of mine, I received a text from a good friend I haven't seen in ages saying, "dude, we're really the last."

I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

--

Weekends in Singapore are made up of pretty much, weddings. Spending a full hour looking through the closet of Hari Raya outfit that I only wear during, well, Hari Raya, and another hour ironing it and yet another hour trying to look pretty for God knows what reason.

Here are some photos I have to put here because you dress up so nicely and doll up it seems like a waste of time if you don't put your photo up somewhere. Lol.


cuz taking a selfie/wefie is mandatory during weddings

I'm not asking you to please not invite me to your weddings too. In fact, I love weddings. I love to see my friends and cousins tying the knot, even if my mum manage to drag me out of the house to attend a wedding of a friend's daughter's brother in law's second cousin, I'd be there for them if they need me to and if my time allows me to (and may they forgive me if I am not there because trainings and competitions take precedence and I hope they understand that). 

(I also love weddings cuz it gives me a chance to prove to my mum that I'll wear that $300 tailor-made more than once.)

I love attending weddings because it is a celebration of love (and courage, as how some may put it) and it is a happy occasion and watching happy faces make you happy and who doesn't want to be happy? Attending weddings also put ideas in your head of how you want your wedding to be. Of course I do have an idea of how my wedding is gonna be like- as tough as I think I am, I'm still a Princess, and I must have the perfect wedding with a perfect wedding dress and everyone has to dress up like elves. (I pretty much have everything planned, but not the groom). Lol.

But the weekly weddings that I attend, to me, serve as a weekly reminder that I'm getting a week older and the question that is always ringing in my head, "should I be worried that im not married?"

Or more like, "should I be worried that im not worried that im not married?"

Weekend after weekend my list of single friends gets smaller and smaller. But it doesn't bother me (or does it?). I'm more worried about whether I'll be able to reach my target for the half marathon next month, whether I will be able to make weight for the next competition. It worries the hell out of me if my wrist doesn't get any better and the coach says no I can't row for xx more days and I'll be a miserable person for xx days. I can't even live my life to the fullest with each day that passes by without being able to row. But today's not about rowing (and I really should stop whining about it, grar.)

There is no time or space in my head to think about marriage. God, no.

I'm fortunate to have a mum who isn't pressuring me to get married. In fact, when I told her that my ex is getting married, she said, "It's okay." It was an awfully awkward "It's okay" but the conversation ended there, thankfully. But im so glad she isn't that type who wants to give me away as soon as she can. Phew.

I am also so, so grateful that my relatives have stopped asking me when is it my turn to sit on the wedding dais and instead question me on when's my next competition. Do you know how pleased I am to know that the majority of the people I know have learnt to accept that my dreams mean more than anything else in the world? 

But you know what worries me more than being nowhere near getting married?

Knowing that my friends (of the yaya sisterhood of singlehood) find solace in me when they discover that their FB time line is flooded with wedding photos, or even scarier, photos of our friends with big bumps on their tummies. It's like, hey, Aisyah's chasing to put a medal around her neck instead of a ring around her finger. She's pregnant with hopes and dreams and not a baby. She's saving up for the Olympic dreams and not her wedding or children's education. SO IT'S LIKE IT'S OKAY IF WE'RE NOT MARRIED, NOT PREGNANT OR NOT HAVING KIDS CUZ AISYAH ISN'T ANYWAY!

It's like I'm the yardstick.
The role model for all those women out there who are just not ready for the big m word yet.

I have absolutely nothing against marriage. I just think that you should get married for the right reasons and only when you're ready. Dont get married because your peers are married, because your parents tell you to get married, and certainly because you love the thought of looking pretty on the dais on your wedding day. And there is absolutely nothing to fear or be embarrassed about if you're the last to get hitched. A wise friend once said, marriage is not a race. The one who gets married first doesn't make him a winner in any way. WORD.

But then again, who am I to talk about marriages? 

Let's talk about ending 2015 on a good note. If 2014 hasn't been a great year for you (I feel you, bro), I'm on a mission to make the best of what's left in 2014 and so should you. I've been running distances I never have imagined myself to cover- all in the name of a half-marathon I gladly signed up for. I've been sitting on the bike almost every other day to make up for the times I'm losing out of the boat and I'm even buying my own road bike (considering the fact that I have a phobia of cycling on the road). If I can't make one thing happen, I'm pretty sure there are other things I can make happen.

I do feel like a little part of me dies everyday I'm not allowed to row but it has reached the point where I just have to stop being sad and start being awesome. There's absolutely no time for us to continue to mope around about something we can't change. Gotta start living, man.

199 days to SEA GAMES 2015.

xx

The OMG-ITS-7-MORE-WEEKS-TO-END-YEAR Goal Review

The problem that we face when we set goals is usually not reviewing them. So let's be a bit more responsible for ourselves and look at how far we've come now that it's already been a month since we set our goals. The mistake that I did when I was setting these goals in October was that, I didn't had a plan on how to go about achieving them. I thought, we could just, you know, #gojer, and do them when we feel like it but some things are not easy as just #gojerdontscared

1. To be able to do 10 chin ups (over hand grip) in one go. (Currently I can do 3, and my PB is 6.)

CURRENTLY I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DO ANY CHIN-UPS. So boo you, pain on the wrist. BOO YOU!

But if your goal is still to attempt a chin-up or to increase the max that you can do, here's one way to train for it:

Perform 100 chin ups in a day.

If you cannot even do one yet: jump and use the momentum to do a chin up and on your way down, extend your arms slowly. Land softly on the ground (so you don't end up hurting you knees!) and repeat the jump and pull!

If you are already able to do a few at one go: Perform the most you can do, rest. Go for your max again. Rest. Set yourself a time limit. Let's say, start with 100 chin ups a day so that you can divide it into probably 50 in the morning and 50 in the evening. And as you get better, push yourself a bit more to 100 in an hour. In the event that you cannot do anymore because your arms are filled with lactic you think it might fall apart anytime soon, do an assisted chin-up. Get a friend to carry your feet, or use the assisted chin-up machine in the gym.

Don't forget to stretch and be prepared for ridiculously sore arms and lats.

2. To be able to do a handstand. (I cannot even brave myself to stand on my hands with my feet on a wall!!!)

AGAIN. BOO YOU, WRIST!!!! :'(

But I know when my wrist is okay, I have friends who will be teaching me how to do a handstand YAY! ^^

3. To run a 10km in 40mins. (The last time I did an official 10k race was in 2012 with a timing of 52mins without any training.)

To achieve this target, I've been doing 400m and 800m pieces at my target speed which is 4mins/km (target speed) and boy, did I feel like I was sprinting through the pieces! #howliddat?

4. To be able to pull a distance of 7510m in 30mins on the rowing machine. (Current personal record was 7503m set in Feb 2014.)

Current personal record 7518m WOOTS ^^

5. To run a half marathon. (The longest official run I did was the Urbanathlon last year of 14km.)

SIGNED UP FOR STANDARD CHARTERED ON 7 DEC WOOHOO! 1:30hr pacer needed!

Found some training programmes online and it goes something like this:

Monday 4km

Tuesday Fartleks/Hill Sprints/400m/800m

Wed 5km

Thurs 10km

Fri 7kn

Sat 4km

Sun 15km

Roughly 50km-60km a week depending how lazy I am.

Before I signed up for this half-marathon, my runs are an hour long but I can tell you for sure that running for more than an hour can be mentally draining (not sure if this is what the runners call "hitting the wall"- but don't laugh if I think it is because I'm not a runner okay) and I have absolutely no idea how these regular marathoners run so much.

(They must be wondering how we clock 100km of rowing every week too I guess. GAAAAH DONT TALK ROWING TO ME!!!)

6. To be able to do a 6mins plank. (Did a 6mins last year. Once.)

Did an 8mins plank.

SEALED THE DEAL, BABY!

Tip to achieve this: do it with a group of competitive people under the watch of someone who will spot every hump when you lift your butt too high or every dip that forms when you are not pushing your upper back towards the ceiling.

7. To do 10 pistol squat on each leg unassisted. (Currently can manage 10 but with assistance.)

IN PROGRESS.

Haven't really been doing any pistol squats lately. BOO YOU, AISYAH! I'll start today.

8. To be able to swim 5 laps along the pool without rest. (Now I will be happy to finish 1 lap without rest.)

AM NOT ABLE TO SWIM WITH THE WRIST but hopefully splint comes off next week!

9. To be able to sit on the bike for 2 hours without rest. (Most number of minutes I sat in the stationary bike was 90.)

Not brave enough to do this yet. But I am purchasing a road bike soon, hopefully that will help me achieve this goal.

Tip to achieve this: this one, really, a perfect case of don't think just do.

10. To get back into doing Bikram Yoga.

After the splint goes off, I AM READY FOR YOU 40 DEGREES ROOM AND 26 POSES!

---

2 out of 10 goals achieved in a month.

4 goals put on hold because of the wrist.

4 goals in progress.

I'd say, things are looking pretty good at this point, although time is running short and this wrist thing is killing me. I guess that it's only right for me to look at the things I can do instead and work on them.

(I told you I have this insane ability to make the bad things seem pretty good in some way.)

Ciao

xx

Life Lessons from a Splint

Honestly, I don't even remember the last time I was injury-free. First there was the ribs, then the back, then the shoulders, then now the wrist. Really? Is this what its like to be a professional athlete? Is this normal? It worries me so much that I'm always having to see the doctor, go for X-rays, get MRI scans done, go for physio and rehab sessions, having consultations that cost a bomb, getting friendly with tapes and bandages and now a splint. It scares me that here I am putting my job on hold, saying no to a few thousand dollars in the bank every month, rejecting a safe and secured future, to take on a career not many individuals would risk doing, chasing a dream that seems so far-fetched, only to see my body not cooperating, only to be disappointed by my own self. Is this really what a professional athlete goes through? Or is it just me? Is it just my body being weak, not used to being pushed all the time? Is it just my imagination creating all these injuries? Is it just excuses I make up to earn the rest I think I deserve?

Do you know how painful it is to wake up every single day not being able to row? How hard it is to swallow down everything that the doctor tells me and what my coaches want me to do or in fact what not to do- which usually is harder for me to accept? How numb I've become to people telling me NO YOU CANT DO THIS and NO YOU'RE NOT FIT ENOUGH FOR THIS and YOU'RE TOO HEAVY? How unfair I think life is throwing me all these crap that makes my life so goddamn difficult when all I want to do is train and win. That's just it. Train and win. Am I making the life of another being hard if all I want to do is to train?

I know if you could, you'd want to give me one good slap right now. I know I should be grateful that I'm living the dream. I am given this chance to make my dreams become reality and the govt, companies, individuals are investing in me because they believe in me and here I am complaining about how tough life is and how it sucks to be injured. How ridiculous can Aisyah be? 

I don't need you to come up to me and give me a pat on my shoulder to tell me to stay strong. I don't need your pity that my arm is in a splint and that I can't row for another week or two and my life is a misery every single day that I can't row.

In fact, I'm telling you all these because I know that sometimes you think your life sucks too and sometimes you just want to give up and let go of everything you've worked hard for. Sometimes, you don't see a purpose to hang on to your goals anymore. Sometimes, shit happens and do what you want but shit is gonna happen and it might just happen right in front of your doorstep. Sometimes, the results don't really correlate with the effort you've put in. Sometimes, you just want to hide under your blankets and stay there until the storm passes. Sometimes, you wonder how some people can be so happy and positive all the freaking time. Sometimes, the grass always seems greener on the other side (wait, the grass ALWAYS seems to be greener on the other side). Sometimes, you just don't know why you're even alive.

So, so what if I know that you think life sucks too? Why did I spend the last 10 minutes whining about how awful my life is right now and yet hoping that you don't feel sorry for me? Why am I not the smiley, happy, positive-thinking Aisyah you see on your FB news feed every other minute or so? Because I'm human too. And I do feel sad and disappointed. I do lose motivation sometimes, honestly there are even days when I wake up not wanting to train because I do get lazy. I do have that little voice inside of me that keeps on whispering mean and nasty things to me that I don't want to hear like how tired I am and how it's okay if I skip a training because my coach would not know anyway. I do tell myself that I'm fat (and some of you might just be like ARE YOU KIDDING ME? DID YOU JUST SAY THAT? and roll your eyes at me) but to the eyes of my coaches, I am fat. My body fat percentage is ridiculously high for a lightweight rower.

What do I want to achieve out of telling you my deep dark secrets of being a lazy, whiny human being?

I just want the world to know that everyone has their bad days, or weeks, or months, or even a bad year (omg, tell me about having a bad year!). And that no matter how hard our lives seem to be, there will be someone out there having it harder, and still surviving, so there should be absolutely no reason for us to give up on something just because it seems hard to achieve. And when we've overcome our bad moments, if we have the chance to, we help others get out from their stormy days. When I feel like the world is crumbling down on me, other than seeking solace from God, I turn to people who I believe have gone through similar situations. That's why with this injury thing that I'm facing, stories of other athletes having to overcome injuries and coming out of them winning medals (and even becoming an Olympic champion) give me hope that everything will be okay. When I broke my nose last year, I read about the cyclist, Dinah Chan, who met with an accident a few months before the SEA Games and how she sprung back into training. And we both eventually became Gold medallists. When I won that Gold, (I hope) I gave light to those who feel like no one believes in them to achieve their dreams- because the only belief you need is the belief in yourself (which sounds terribly cheesy but is so true, I swear by it).

(I'm also telling you all these because I may be smiling in my selfies with my splint but deep down inside, all I want to do is throw this splint out of the car and drive over it so I don't have to see it ever again.)

So yea, back to my injury. Basically it's just a minor tear on a cartilage on my wrist and something about my bones rubbing against each other. It doesn't sound as bad as it looks so don't worry, I'm doing fine. It sucks to know that I can't row while it's recovering but with the great increment in the amount of time I spent running, it serves as a good training for my half marathon race this December. And with the immense numbers of hours I spend on the bike, I am sub-consciously mentally training myself not to go crazy.

(I love how my mind has the ability to see the good out of something bad. That's why I believe that it's a gift for me to make the world a better place to live in. I love how I think I can change the world too. HAHAHA.)

With that whole lot of rant, I hope people realise that life is full of shit and we've already got enough shit from life the last thing we want to do is add on to the shit in others' lives. BE NICE TO EACH OTHER. Amen.

The Bircher Muesli- my favourite breakfast

I'm currently obsessed with this yummy power-packed breakfast. The best thing about this dish is that you can practically change the ingredients to your liking and it's so easy to make. You can trust me on the simplicity of preparing this dish because I am the laziest person on the face of the Earth when it comes to cooking, I can assure you on that.

So here's how you make The Bircher Muesli

Mix:
1 cup of rolled oats
1 Granny Smith apple- grated (or any types of apple will do, or I used pear in this photo because I was out of apples haha)
Some spoonfuls of plain yoghurt
1/2 cup of apple juice (I used apple yoghurt drink here cuz I love the pear bits it has)
1 dash of ground cinnamon

Put it in the fridge for an hour or overnight.

In the morning:

Add a handful of blueberries, raisins and cranberries and almond slices and pumpkin seeds and mix them well, mix them good, mix them like you know you should! (LOL!)

(You can also add any types of berries, bananas, walnuts, Brazil nuts, honey, or (my fave) figs)

An awesome fuel for my training and good for a recovery meal as well. Yay.