Lisa's Water Pit

Recipe for Chilean Sea Bass Tacos with Mango Salsa

Lisa Aguilera – March 3rd, 2011

The knife

Chilean Sea Bass Tacos

Ingredients:

• Chilean Sea Bass
• Coconut  Oil
• Himalayan Pink Sea Salt
• Pepper
• Dill
• Soft Corn Tortillas
• Vegetable Oil

Salsa Ingredients:

• Mango
• Tomato
• Avocado
• Can of Green Chiles
• 1 slice of Sweet Onion
• Cilantro
• ¼ jalapeno
• Onion Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Himalayan Pink Sea Salt
• Pepper

Coat Sea Bass with a thin layer of coconut oil and add salt/pepper/dill to taste.  Broil Sea Bass on the middle rack for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile heat on medium ~1/2 cup or so of vegetable oil in a small pan to deep fry the corn tortillas.  Once the oil is hot, use tongs to place the corn tortilla in the oil.  Heat for 5 seconds flat, and then flip the tortilla in half to make the taco shell shape and heat 10-30 seconds on each side folded depending on how crispy you like your shells.  Use napkins between each shell to soak up the grease as you cook them.  For the mango salsa, just cup up all the ingredients into small squares and mix together.  Once the sea bass is done, use a couple of forks to pull apart and shred.  Place fish and salsa in taco shells and eat!

Lisa Aguilera – August 9th, 2010

I’m a geek. If you didn’t know before, this blog will leave very little doubt. So, I was reading a book “Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think differently” months ago. In one of the first chapters, they say that the best way to build new neurons (get a bigger brain) is to throw yourself into new situations, such as visiting a new country or learning a new language. I’ve been traveling to Europe since 2003 for Track and Field, so I’ve already visited many countries. Yesterday in Germany, I decided to spice things up (build new neurons, whatever) and rent a car. I’d only taken the trains previously. What a day! First, I get into the car and see that it’s a stick shift. Oh yeah, my German friend Lilli just told me how it’s really hard to find automatic cars in Germany. Oops, forgot. I think, ‘hey, I drove a stick 13 years ago, I can do this.’ Waaaait a minute. I can’t figure out how the key works. Five minutes later I realize there’s a button you push on the key fob to pop the key open (it’s harder then you’d think). Okay, I can start the car now. The car is conveniently parked on the 4th floor of a pretty remote/empty parking garage in a position where you can just pull out forward. It’s in a pretty tight spot, so I pull it out to get my luggage in. I get my luggage almost in, when a car pulls up behind me and I realize I’m right in the middle of the lane and they can’t get around. I hurry with my luggage, jump in the car, try to put it in first and of course, crumble under the pressure, and stall out. Car behind me’s getting antsy. Second time I succeed with first gear and drive around the parking garage in a circle. Then I see a spot and think I should park the car for a second to look at some maps. I try to reverse the car and #Fail (this is twitter lingo). I can’t reverse the car at all. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong! I take another swing around the parking lot and park in a really empty area. I open up google on my blackberry and start watching ‘How to Drive a Stick’ Youtube videos in the 4th floor of this parking garage. I start googling ‘How to reverse a stick’. I spend at least 15 minutes trying to reverse the car with my blackberry, google, and youtube without any luck. I’m imagining the Kill Bill scene where Uma keeps saying “Wiggle Your Big Toe”, only I’m saying “Reverse the Car”. Then I talk myself out of it. Forget this! Forget building new neurons! What if I cause an accident!? I don’t remember how to downshift, I don’t remember if I have to have the clutch in when I break. I’m completely clueless! I go to the little office where the security guard lady is sitting and explain my dilemna. I tell her how most cars in the US are automatic, and I forgot how to drive a stick, and I can’t even reverse the car and I’d like to return it. She was like, ‘I can teach you! It’s super easy!’. I was like, ‘Really? Are you serious woman? You are really okay with me driving your rental car and stalling it repeatedly?!’ Haha…she was like, yeah, lets just drive around the parking garage a few times. First off, we get into the car and I can’t even start it. She wiggles the stearing wheel (oh yeah, my car at home, that I’ve driven for the past 3 years has that exact same security feature…slooooow). She then shows me the super simple trick to reverse the car…there’s a plastic metal ring right below the handle that you have to pull up before you can move the position of the stick to reverse. Soooo easy!! We drive a few times around the garage, she reminds me of all the simples rules of shifting gears. In Germany they use kilometers, so the easy way to start is to use gear 1 up to 10km, 2 for 20km, 3 for 30km etc, but with practice you learn to hear by sound when it’s time to shift. Anyways, she totally gives me the confidence boost I needed to build these new neurons. She’s like, “You’re really good. You’re so much better then other people that I drive with. You’ll be just fine.” Now this is a situation where I could actually see what a difference confidence made. It was so black and white. Sometimes with racing, there’s a gray area. I don’t know if it comes with thinking too much or what. But there have definitely been times where I believed I could do it, and I felt like my body failed me. This situation was different. I was talking to myself (yes, out loud), saying, “You can do this Lisa. You can drive a stick. It’s just like riding a bicycle. Positive affirmations. You know, all that crap.” And it worked!! I somehow managed to get on the autoban and I was completely fine!! I even managed to get a couple twitpics on the road I can’t even count how many new neurons I made…but it was great! AAAND it also given me a newfound respect for confidence, and how much of a role it plays and how important it really is in all aspects of life. Yesterday it was the difference between freedom and being tied down to a train schedule. Next up? I wanna learn to ride a motorcycle in London! (kidding mom)

Lisa Aguilera – July 27th, 2010

I do like track workouts. I like the getting excited before the workout, the anticipation, the battle between your body saying no and your mind saying yes. I actually enjoy track workouts MORE then just regular runs. There’s more structure, more logic, and it’s so much easier to get excited for. Now, I admit, I don’t always like the pain that comes with it, but I learn to accept it. And loving running and loving pain are two completely different things. I prefer to look for the positive in things that might not be enjoyable, look for the aspects that I like, but then, just because I love those aspects doesn’t mean I ‘love the pain’. However, now that I think about it, maybe if I loved the pain, I would be a better runner? Damn! Did I just disprove myself?!

 Hanging in Macy’s Coffee in Flagstaff with Steph and she just quickly wrote this pump-up for her former teammates for UCSB Conference weekend.  It was so inspiring I had to post it:

Stephanie Rothstein – May 13th, 2010

Victor Frankl  once said “Everywhere man is confronted with fate, with the chance of achieving something through his own suffering.” Although he was referring to the prisoners in the concentration camps during WWII, we as athletes can take this to heart. Our own suffering comes through training and sacrifice. Athletes have the ability to shape their lives around their needs for training, recovery, and  competition. The weeks and months of early morning practices, 2 a days, early bedtimes, and a monotonous routine can sometimes shake the athlete’s sanity. Setbacks in training due to injuries and unforeseen circumstances test the will and strength of the athlete. Then something happens. You wake up one day and it’s the Big West Championship weekend. All the times you spent in the ice bath, massaging sore muscles, running beyond the point of exertion, and turning down party invites now seems all too distant. You realize you suffered for the chance to do something great at conference. The moment you cross the finish line as All-Conference, throw a pr, and jump higher and faster than ever makes all those sacrifices worth it. Be great this weekend and prove that UCSB comes to win.

Lisa Aguilera – December 29th, 2009

If I’m on the starting line, and I look into the eyes of my competitors and I can honestly say to myself, “I can do more pull-ups than all you!” will that help me run faster? I’ve recently been in a twitter trash talking battle about who can do the most pull-ups. (This all started with Ann and Jason…see their website at www.annandjason.com for more pull-up war blogs). So, I’ve been in recent contact with the ASU men’s sprint coach (my new pull-up coach), to get workouts and knowledge about how to up my max # of pull-ups. I went in this morning with a lofty goal of 4 sets of 5. I had the music blaring on my ipod to get my mind right (silverback mode as Ronnie and Lewis would say)..’drop the world’…”the top gets higher…the more that I climb, the spot gets smaller, and I get bigger…”, “my confidence is a stain you can’t wipe off”. I managed 5 pull-ups on the first set, 4 on the next 2 sets, and a measely 3 pull-ups on the final set…maxed out!! :’( I reported back to coach, who told me I needed to have someone ‘hold’ my feet in order to complete the sets. WHAT?! That’s puss…okay I won’t finish that, but that’s not silverback! He told me that ‘To achieve success I must humble myself and start at the correct starting point. Ego gets in the way of progress.’ Ugggghh! Okay, okay, I’m listening.  Anyways, who knows if doing more pull-ups will help me run faster, but the lil trash talk’n and mini-competitions definitely lifts my spirit!  “On to the next one…”

Lisa Aguilera – October 4th, 2009

Yesterday at Geekfest 2009 (As @KCbandit liked to call it), Ann Gaffigan (former American Record holder in the steeplechase and current Computer Website Mogul) and I were discussing website design. I asked her what her favorite websites were and we started looking up specific athletes sites we’d already been to, which then lead me to google “Top Athlete Websites”. Unfortunately, the most recent article I could find was from a Sports Illustrated article from 2006 and when I looked up those top sites, to be frank, they sucked! So, I decided that I was going to create a list of MY favorite athlete websites. Now, before I give you that top ten list, there are definitely a few pet peeves that Ann and I have. Music is Ann’s #1 pet peeve…turn it off!! My favorite athlete website did have music and while I felt it added to the experience, I did turn it off after a minute, so I could listen to my own itunes in the background. My #1 pet peeve is websites that don’t take advantage of AJAX which basically means the entire page re-loads with every mouse-click even when the header or other parts of the page remain the same and don’t need to be refreshed (thus, creating that annoying flicker and taking longer to load the page). Also annoying, ads and pop-ups! Now, I noticed that most, if not all, of the websites in my top 10 took advantage of flash.  Ann and I looked a wide range of athletes websites, from a wide variety of sports, all over the world!  If you have a website you think should have made my top 10 list, I’d love to hear your recommendations! Please comment! Some side notes, I HATE my website design!…and will thus be upgrading it in the next month, so please don’t judge my top 10 list based off my own website design. I found the websites I liked were creative and reflected the specific athlete’s personality. I liked websites where most of the information was shown on the computer screen and I didn’t have to scroll to see the whole page. I also liked websites that are updated frequently with news, blogs, and other information.

#1) Danica Patrick: http://www.danicaracing.com
#2) Usain Bolt http://www.usainbolt.com
#3) Shawn Johnson http://www.shawnjohnson.net
#4) Anthony Famiglietti http://www.runfam.com
#5) Brianna Glenn http://www.briannaglenn.net
#6) Serena Williams http://www.serenawilliams.com
#7) Annika Sorenstam http://www.annikasorenstam.com
#8) Natalie Gulbis http://www.nataliegulbis.com
#9) Tyson Gay http://www.tysongay.net
#10) Deena Kastor http://www.deenakastor.com

For fun, my other 2 favorite website designs, not related to athletes:
Harry Potter: http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthehalf-bloodprince/
My friend I’ve known since 3rd grade: http://www.ethniphotography.com/

My favorite starting page to a website (but there’s nothing else):
http://www.amandabeard.net

Lisa Aguilera – July 2nd, 2009

USAs

I was just reflecting on my USA’s 6th place finish, and while I wanted to finish top 3 so bad, I was really happy with how I raced and competed. Believe it or not, I want all the best runners to run the steeplechase (rather than other events) and I want everyone to be healthy (They set the water barrier too high in our prelims race and one of the runners, Nicole Bush broke her foot). I really wanted to place top 3 and go to the World Championships in Berlin, but I want to race against the best athletes and earn it!

Racing

Sometimes I think about Tiger Woods when I race. There was a time when he won a major championships and didn’t even realize it because he so focused. All he was thinking about was the next hole and he had already won. I think about that with the steeples, just take one steeple at a time, focus on the next steeple, TW

Training

I think the mental aspect of long distance running is more important in the daily training, handling it day after day. Practice is about learning to break down barriers. Wanting it for one race is not enough. You have to want it consistently all year. When you ease up just a little in practice, the next time it hurts in practice it’s that much easier to ease up. It’s kind of like quitting a race but to a lesser degree. When it starts to hurt in practice, you need to learn to push through, accept it, and engage. Break down the barriers!

 Lisa Aguilera ~May 17th, 2009

I just got back from a 3 week training camp in Flagstaff and I was just reflecting on the adventure.   It was so nice to have training partners, especially during workouts.  (Thank you Ashley!)  I’m going to really miss the coffee shop Macy’s and hanging out with Lauren, Bri, and the girls.  I can’t believe I never thought of combining hot chocolate and espresso, what an amazing idea!

Sedona

We went to Sedona Red Rock High School twice a week to get in more quality workouts at lower elevation.  The coaches of the high school were great about us using their track and Gary, Wynn, and I spoke to their track team one day.  We had some time to kill before they got out of school, so Gary took us on a helicopter ride over Sedona which was beautiful.  I wanted the pilot to point out the McCain ranch, but apparently the Secret Service told him he wasn’t allowed to for security reasons.   No fun!

While speaking to the Sedona High School Track Athletes, their coaches indicated that many of them had a habit of whining.  He asked us if we had any habits.  So, I told them about my Dr. Pepper habit in high school.  How after workouts, I always wanted a nice refreshing cold one!  Then one year, I decided I wanted to be good and gave up Dr. Pepper for the entire track season.  It was rough!  After the state meet, I finally got to have a Dr. Pepper and for some strange reason, it tasted like syrup and I didn’t like it.  I was mortified.  I loved Dr. Pepper.  So, I had another one, and fortunately my love for it came flooding back to me;)

Spitting

The camp was overall, pretty dramaless, well, besides a minor tiff I had with my roommate.  He was poking me while I was driving for going the wrong way and when I tried to poke him back he gripped my wrists really tight.  I had trouble getting out of the grip so I decided to spit on him so he’d relax his grip.  That’s Self Defense 101 (My dad would be proud – I took a couple years of jujitsu with him when I was younger).  Anyways, my roommate didn’t speak to me for a few days after that;)  I have no idea why (innocently).

Language of Flowers

I feel so honored that my friend Bri (we’ve been friends since 3^rd grade and only not gone to the same school 5 years of our entire lives)  gave me a sneak preview of her first short film, The Language of Flowers.  There’s so many things in making a movie I never even though about (Golden Hour?).  Her short film was very captivating and I kept wanting the actress in the film to be her. Not exactly sure why she couldn’t produce ‘and’ act at the same time?;)  Wish I could be there for the film festival…’Break a leg’  Bri!  (I think that’s what they say to wish luck in film?)

Hot Thai Waitress

It was the kind of night you laugh out loud about days after, just remembering the conversation.  Outgoing Gary decided he was going to hook up shy Jeff with our hot Thai Waitress.  We got her number, Gary offered Jeff $100 to spend on her, I offered my car, Wynn offered to drive them himself (parental supervision). Haha.  I think the pressure was too much for Jeff.  Ten anxious eyes wanting him to call her and give us a good story.  He thought about making up a scandalous story, but I think it was too much effort and he was worn out from training.  Jeff was a really good sport, considering how embarrassing it had to be, but he did miss an opportunity with a really cute girl.  Hopefully next time he’ll be willing to take the risk and not have all the eyes of his teammates watching.  The key is not whether you have game or not, it’s whether you ‘believe’ you have game.  Remember that Jeff;)

Happy Mother’s Day

I thought it might be the first Mother’s Day I wouldn’t see my mom, but fortunately my mom, dad, and lil brother met me in Sedona for the day.  We had a nice lunch at Wildflower Bread Company and after checked out steeplechaser Carrie Messner’s husband’s art gallery right next door.  Very cool artwork!  Talked to my lil brother about his band The Word Alive, which leaves on a tour of 28 shows in 30 days across the US.  Crazy!  We took a few pictures with the Red Rock backdrop to remember Mother’s Day 2009.  Happy Mother’s Day!

Cooking

Chef Reed was quite talented with the barbeque.  He treated Ashley and I quite well!  We thought about the beef tenderloin for a couple days after that dinner, how to make it, what’s the secrect, how we could get our husbands to make it for us;)  Our final night there I made my Canadian teammates ‘real mexican’ tacos (well, actually I got the recipe from my mom who’s half Italian, half German, but that’s beside the point) and they loved them.  At least they pretended to…

I’ve never really liked milk. I was the youth who held my cereal against the side of my bowl to drain any extra milk from ruining my cereal. I like just enough milk to barely wet my Frosted Mini Wheats. This was until I discovered the Iced Venti Green Tea Latte at Starbucks (aka sugar milk). For two years I had one almost every day, reasoning that I was getting my calcium and protein from the drink. Where there’s a will there’s a way;)

This was until my new coach recently had me go on a dairy free diet. Trusting his judgement, I agreed without further research. Then my chiropractor/sports doctor said, “milk is terrible for you, go to www.notmilk.com and see why.” I read the famous milk letter and decided I probably would never have another Iced Venti Green Tea Latte in my life (heartbreak!). Although, I still might sneak in some Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Brownie Fudge ice cream on special occasions. At least I will be doing this with the knowledge that it’s for my pure enjoyment and happiness, rather than health. The argument is so compelling, I feel like I have been tricked by the diary industry. We’ve been over-marketed to believe milk is good for us and it’s completely unsupported by research. There are actually higher cases of osteoporosis among countries that drink dairy than those countries that do not drink dairy. People who drink milk absorb ‘less’ calcium due to interference with the protein in milk. It’s crazy! Every day I see a magazine advertisement or hear a radio or tv commercial marketing how great milk is for our bones. I don’t want to piss off the dairy industry, but to tell you the truth I’m kind of pissed off at them. For making me believe something for twenty-nine years of my life that’s completely untrue!