Jan 29, 2012

January: 136+ miles

In the first four weeks of 2012 I have run over 136 miles.  I should be above 140, but a nasty cold decided to stop by for a visit.  My plan was to run 14 miles yesterday, but I only did 9.8.  This morning I did a strong 7+ in Rossford with Joe, Alex, Tammy, Susan, and Kerri.  Despite all of the ooze coming out of my nose and throat, I could have gone longer.   Not that it's a goal through this running, but I have lost two pounds since the beginning of the month.  It could just be dehydration from the illness, so maybe it's only been one pound if not less.

I am definitely due for some new kicks soon.  My current pair has seen about 300 miles.  They aren't wearing too bad at all and my feel still feel good.  I have noticed a few blisters lately, which I hadn't had for a long while.  Also, I'm really getting used to having 10 toenails, so I need to be proactive to keep them.

I'm thinking about changing my 14 miles for this Saturday to 16.  I can do it, as long as I can twist some arms to continue with me after mile 8.  If I'm going to run that long, I need to experiment with refueling during a run.  I like to have as little on my person as possible while running (big reason I switched from Endomondo on my phone to a Garmin in order to track my runs), but it might be time to start carrying a small water bottle.  Tammy offered up her fuel-belt-thingy.

As far as actual energy, I tried Gu once and did not like it.  If it's normal for gels to be chalky, then I think I need to just stay away from them.  I had Clif Shot Bloks and they weren't so bad insofar as texture and flavor, but I only tried them before a couple of 8-mile runs, so I really couldn't tell if they worked for me since I didn't pop them during the runs.  Sport beans seem not so bad--I'm pretty sure they are really just plain old Jelly Belly jelly beans, and I do like jelly beans.  Tammy suggested that I carry a bottle of water mixed with honey, since honey is straight up sugar.  It sounded gross when she suggested it, but that was the first day that I was feeling really sick, so nothing sounded good to me.  Any suggestions for refueling during longer runs?  What does and does not work for you?

Jan 25, 2012

Fancy meatloaf and mashed potatoes

I really like classic meatloaf.  The first time I made meatloaf, I used Betty Crocker's recipe.  Today I made Betty Crocker my bitch.

Here's what you'll need:

1/2 lb. freshly ground chuckeye roast
1 lb. ground veal
1/2 cup feta
4-5 small sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 heels & 1 slice of white bread, chopped
1 T dried oregano
1/4 t ground mustard
1 egg
freshly cracked black pepper
4 T tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  With your hands, combine all of the ingredients, except for the tomato sauce, in a large bowl.  Don't over-work it as to not pull too much moisture out of the meat.  In a glass baking dish, form the mixture into a loaf.  Pour the tomato sauce over the loaf.  Pop it into the center of the oven and bake it for an hour.  Pull it out, let it cool for about 5 minutes, which will also let it cook a little more, and then slice and serve with the following mashed potato recipe:

2 russett potatoes, diced into 1" pieces
2 whole cloves garlic, peeled
3 T unsalted butter
1/4 cup fat free milk
5 basil leaves, chopped
kosher salt, for boiling

In a medium sauce pot, bring potatoes and garlic to a boil in just enough water to cover the potatoes.  Once it is boiling, cover and reduce heat to low.  Cook potatoes until tender, about 20 minutes.  Drain water, add butter and milk, and mash potatoes with a wire whisk.  Stir in the basil and serve.

Tool = Incredible

Last night was the Tool show.  My insides were churning with giddy anticipation all day yesterday, although I didn't know what to expect of their performance.  Well, I guess I had some idea.  I mean, it is Tool.  But snap...that was freaking awesome.


Before I jump into details, I'll put it out there that I haven't been a Tool fan for long.  Prior to dating Joe, the only Tool songs I knew were Sober and Schism; Christmas always reminds me of Sober and I've known Schism as the theme from MTV's Fear.  What's the Christmas-Sober connection?  It was Christmas Eve 1993 or 1994 and I couldn't sleep.  I ended up catching the music video really late at night.  Although it's totally creepy, there was something about it I liked as a little 9 or 10-year old.

Jump forward about 15 years.  I learned quickly after getting to know Joe that he really digs Tool, so I put some effort into listening to them.  It didn't take long for me to realize that Tool is really good.  Plus, Maynard James Keenan makes some tasty wine, which I got to try once thanks to Josh Peeno.  When I was all big on Guitar Hero, I played the crap out of the Tool setlist.  Then when I started running this past July, I used Jambi and Vicarious as my "run like hell" songs.  In fact at the end of my first 5K, I fought with my phone to play Jambi to help push me through to the finish a little faster.

And then to last night.  En route to our seats I overheard someone say something along the lines of, "I heard they won't go on until 9:20!"  I love concert know-it-alls and I figured this person was wrong.  I didn't want to wait that long because I was so pumped up, but I definitely know what it's like to wait for a headliner to get on stage.  We were in our seats around 7:15.  The photos give a perspective of where we were seated.  I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as a bad seat at Huntington Center, since the seats are arranged more upward than back.  Joe's cousin Jason stood out in the cold the morning that tickets went on sale to ensure we'd get great seats for our group of 6 and he succeeded.  The closest comparison to the atmosphere at the Tool show, for me, is with 311.  For 311 shows, I have only ever been on the floor--it's the only option when they play Cleveland and I didn't want to break that trend when we saw them in Columbus.  Not gonna lie, the floor is super sweet for a band like 311, but 311 isn't very visual at all.  Tool is the opposite.  Watching videos from the floor that are already on YouTube are definitely sweet, but our view was way cooler.  There was so much going on with video screens and lighting that we got to see from our perspective.  Plus, apparently Maynard James Keenan isn't a douchey, typical lead singer--instead of standing all lit up downstage, he stays on a platform next to the drummer with no lighting.  So although his goal is to not be the focal point, we had a really good view of him the entire show.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

At 7:25 the first opener was on--Knife from DE-troit.  No bueno.  They played for about 20 minutes, then the "real" opener, Intranaut, was on.  Intranaut = horrible.  Well, the music itself wasn't bad.  They were definitely inspired by Tool with a lot of really, I dunno, "driving"? bass.  But the singer?  Again, no bueno.  I think Intranaut played until almost 8:30.

Tool's road crew and techies did not f-around.  The rigging and lighting were pretty intense as Tool puts on a REALLY visual show.  It was not long before Tool was ready to go.  Their intro was sweet; stage was dark for what seemed to be as long as a minute if not longer of a bass drum made to sound like a heartbeat synchronized with some blue-ish uplighting. It did the trick in getting the crowd going nuts.

They opened with Hooker with a Penis, which Joe told me was written in response to some fan complaining that Tool became a sellout band.  I think it's charming.  Here's the entire setlist:

1. Hooker with a Penis
2. Jambi (AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME)
3. Stinkfist
4. Ticks and Leeches
5. Pushit
6. Schism
7. Intention
8. Forty-six & 2
9. Lateralus
10. Ænema




Hey, Jambi!
Going back to my point that I'm not pretending to be some hardcore Tool fan, the only songs I really "know" from last night are Jambi, Stinkfist, Schism, Forty-six & 2, and Lateralus.  Jambi was awesome (as mentioned above).  If you YouTube search "Tool Toledo Jambi," you'll find a video from last night from on the floor.  It's super sweet, so peep it.  Stinkfist and Forty-six & 2 were pretty intense, too.  Overall, the quality of their music live is top-notch.  They played what I felt was a flawless show--perfect, but in a live way rather than a boring, just-like-the-album way.  I really wish I had a live copy of Jambi because I would rock the bejesus out of that in my car like it's my job.  The bassline in that was ridonk and the talkbox was the bee's knees.  Throughout the performance, screens showed either music videos to each song, really crazy CGI images of human-like creatures lurking, or colorful, abstract images probably reminiscent of someone's experiments with drugs.  The crowd was a lot like a 311 crowd--Tool fans really love their Tool.  And now I understand why.  We are definitely going to see them again.

Hooker with a Penis.  Classy.
On the way home from the show, I told Joe that I want to quit my job and just follow Tool on tour.  They were that good.  And, although it kinda hurts me to say it, Tool tops 311 for live performances.  Oh, and Tool definitely beats N'Sync.  Sorry, J-Timba.

Jan 22, 2012

Marathon--13 weeks out

Today marks exactly 13 weeks until I run my first marathon.

My first run was either on Tuesday, July 5th or Wednesday, July 6th.  I ran about seven-tenths of a mile over the duration of 3 Katy Perry songs.  I repeated that three days per week for 2 weeks in the hot and humid summer air.  I was proud of myself.

On the hot and sticky evening of August 3rd, I ran a 5K.  Right around 2 miles, a few women near me started to walk.  I thought I wanted, nay, needed to walk, too, but I didn't.  Then just before the 3-mile mark, my phone cued up a OneRepublic song.  BUZZ KILL!  I unsuccessfully fought with my phone to get some Tool going, then gave up on the music and pulled out the headphones.  I finished, my face as red as a beat but smiling, in 28:05 at a pace of 9:04.

It was a relaxing evening in September.  I had drank a half of a bottle of wine, which lowered my inhibitions, and I decided to register for a half marathon on November 20th.  On race day, I let my brain get the best of me.  I needed a potty break at 4 miles.  After mile 8, I took a few breaks to walk up to and through water stops.  Right before mile 13, I got a kick-ass high five and ended up crossing the finish line in 1:53.  Even with all of my wussing out, I finished with an 8:41 pace.

And now it's January and I'm all kinds of pumped up for the Glass City Marathon.  I feel good saying I've come a long way since July.  Since January 1st, I've run over 102 miles.  I ran 12.18 miles yesterday morning, just hours after Snowmageddon ended.  My long runs are getting longer and I'm rarely sore after a run anymore.  Yesterday was an exception; running in deep snow definitely forces your body to use a lot more muscles to stabilize you with every time your foot strikes the ground.  Beyond making my long runs longer, though, I really don't know what I'm doing.  I just hope that making my long runs longer and longer will get me to where I need to be in 13 weeks.  I've Googled marathon training schedules, but I'd be lying if I said I'm following any of it.

So, I'm looking for advice.  I know I need to get in some speed work.  But as far as distance, I try to make things as simple as possible and therefore have a pretty basic plan of extending my long runs by two miles every two weeks.  That has me maxing out at 22 miles at two weeks and one day before race day.  Excluding the long runs, I am trying to get 25-30 miles each week.  For what it's worth, I do have an ambitious goal in mind.  Can you tell me if my plan is a good one?  Looking for thoughts and advice from veterans, so please share!

Jan 18, 2012

Small plates

The past week in our kitchen has been very tasty.  For a few months, I have wanted to try my hand at Brussels sprouts, which I think I had never even eaten before.  They turned out pretty yummy, in my opinion, but I am not so sure that Joe was into them.  It was really easy to make them.  Here's the recipe:

1 lb. Brussels sprouts, cleaned and trimmed
1 small onion, diced (shallot is preferred)
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chicken stock
3 strips low sodium bacon
cracked black pepper to taste

Chop the bacon, then fry in a saute pan it until crisp.  Remove bacon to a paper towel and drain fat from the pan.  Add olive oil to the pan and cook the onions until they are translucent.  Add the sprouts, give them a stir, and cook for about 2 minutes.  Then, add the chicken stock and black pepper.  Once the stock begins to simmer, cover the pan and turn down the heat.  Cook the sprouts for about 7 minutes.  Remove the lid, add the bacon, and serve!  We had them with chicken breasts coated in a mild garlic paste and a salad of romaine with radishes and walnuts.  I'll definitely make them again, but I think in a much lighter recipe.  The chicken broth made them taste a little more, I dunno, bold than what I wanted.  And although I've been more open to using bacon fat lately, I am still not totally into using straight-up bacon in a dish that isn't bacon-centric.

It seems like the new big thing is quinoa, so yesterday I gave in and made some.  I REALLY liked that.  Here's what you'll need:

1 cup organic quinoa
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 small white onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 T oregano
1/2 T chili powder
1/2 T cumin
juice of 1/2 lime

In a medium sauce pot, cook the white onion and carrot with the olive oil until soft.  Add the quinoa and vegetables, then give it all a stir.  Add the chicken stock, oregano, chili powder, and cumin.  When the stock begins to simmer, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, remove the lid, add in the lime juice, give it a stir, and serve.  Fortunately, it's really good freshly cooked and warm, but I think it's even BETTER cold.

There will definitely be more quinoa served in this house--one cup is plenty for two people to eat for three days.  Plus, I think it could be fun to try quinoa with flavors other than southwest.  When I do make it "southwesty" again, I will be sure to add cilantro.  I had intended to do that this time, but I screwed up when I went to the grocery store.

Have you experimented with quinoa?  Please, share with me any delicious ways to use the...uh...whatever quinoa is.

Jan 13, 2012

Ro-ad or sidewalk?

This week has solidified that my dad might have been right when he told me I should only run in daylight hours.  I follow all of the rules for non-daylight running--my gear is reflective; I stay on the shoulder as long as there is one; I hit the sidewalk on busy roads when possible.  But I swear, and I know some of my fellow runners feel this way, that some drivers see a runner and want to show 'em who's boss.  In fact, I even just found a website with drivers airing their grievances toward runners in the road.  Here are some doozies.

"it is legal, but those people are just morons."

"If you can’t stay at the speed limit and you don’t follow the rules of the road get the hell off the road. This applies to drivers, runners, and bikers. Run ‘em over!"

"In a lot of cases it wouldn’t even be the driver’s fault so you could be stuck with a huge medical bill."

The aggression and lack of attention I've experienced from drivers led me for a while to wonder if I was the one doing wrong.  Maybe I'm not supposed to be running in the road.  Maybe all of the runners I've seen and met have been breaking pedestrian laws all of this time.  Then I found this .PDF about pedestrian laws:  http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/D10/safety/Documents/Pedestrian_Laws.pdf

According to that file, as long as there is a sidewalk, I am supposed to be on it.  On any busy road I do stay on the sidewalk.  In residential areas, though, I run in the road.  If that's true, I am breaking the law.  But as often as I run past cops cruising around at 5:00AM when they are up to nothing, I have never been stopped.  I guess it's possible that the .PDF is outdated or even wrong.  Whatever the case, I'm going to stick to the roads in neighborhoods.  Too many times I have nearly bit it running on an uneven sidewalk.  But I guess if I would run in daylight, I'd see those bumps and cracks and they wouldn't be an issue.  Problem solved, right?  Nope--gonna keep running before and after the sun.

Jan 12, 2012

Things I don't understand

Okay, so I've apparently rattled a few people with this post.  Since that wasn't my intent at all and I don't like to hurt any feelings, I'll just remove what came across as douchey and say that Facebook has been blowing up with photos of babies and it makes me feel weird.

Expensive wine.  I really enjoy wine.  As a Christmas gift this year, we scored a wine fridge that holds 12 bottles at once.  When I fill up that fridge (or as it were in the past, when I filled up the wine racks), I try really hard to only buy bottles between $6.99 and $9.99.  If I see something super awesome not to exceed $15, I splurge.  A colleague of mine once turned up his nose at me (not in a rude way) after I told him that I think any bottle of wine more than $15 isn't worth it.  He told me that I obviously don't understand what good wine is.  Well, buddy, I have had expensive wine.  Joe and I have on a number of occasions purchased bottles costing nearly $200.  Not to say we didn't enjoy them, but we've never said, "Wow!  This is so different from what we usually drink!"  Nope--instead, we usually say, "Yep, it's good.  It's wine."  To say I don't understand what good wine is, well, that's silly.  I feel that wine is good if I can drink half of the bottle.  I can think of one time when I drank a glass and said, "Ugh, never buying that one again."  I guess to stuffy people, "good wine" makes you feel like you are sitting in a smelly cafe in France, or maybe in a Heurige in Austria, or even doing a cheesy wine tour in California.  But even in Germany, the land of delicious wines, the Germans themselves think it's ridiculous to burn a hole in your pocket for a bottle of wine.  I'll stick to choosing based off of how cool the label looks.

Chinese.  I don't get it.

Jan 9, 2012

HAPPY New Year!

Well, I wasn't so good at keeping up with this blog.  Maybe I'll be better about it.  It could be a useful tool in marathon training.  With the new year, I started a runner's log (thanks to Susan! to keep track of my runs--it has kept me pretty well disciplined, having something tangible to keep track of my runs.  As the picture shows, I also treated myself to a Garmin Forerunner 210, which I am pretty sure is my favorite toy right now!  I think I'll use the blog to go into more detail than the small space in my runner's log allows.

I didn't do too shabby for the first week of 2012.  I didn't get out every day, but I still logged over 35 miles.  I have been pulling out 6-7 miles pretty easily lately, so I think I am going to try to convince my Saturday morning group to up our usual 8 miles to 10-12.  If they aren't down for it, I'll have to be on my own.  The Glass City Marathon is only 15 weeks away!  Krista needs big miles!


As promised, I'm going to keep on posting about yummy food.  This evening I made a pretty good pizza--roasted red pepper, spinach, and goat cheese.  Although I'm familiar with the consistency of goat cheese, for some reason I expected it to melt down a bit, so I left a lot of room around the edges.  Ingredients and prep as follow:

1 12-inch Meijer thin pizza crust (yeah yeah, judge me for not doing dough from scratch)
1 red bell pepper, roasted, skin removed, and chopped
5 leaves fresh baby spinach, chopped
1/4 cup goat cheese
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T dried basil
1 T dried oregano
1 t garlic powder

Preheat oven to 375.  Drizzle the EVOO over the crust, top with dried herbs and garlic powder.  Throw on the veggies.  Spoon on the goat cheese.  Pop into the oven on a pizza stone for 7 minutes.  Remove, spread the cheese, and enjoy!

It was REALLY yummy and it's quite the challenge to not eat the entire pizza.  Alas, I am trying to save half of it for Joe when he returns from class.

Last night we made an old Crnobrnjabalwinski classic: tofu stir fry.  Usually, Joe is in control of that dish and he's really good at it, but he was busy yesterday evening choosing the right Professional Engineer stamp and completing a nano block model, so I took charge.  To make sure I'd do everything right, I had his verbal guidance throughout the process.  It was REALLY good, but did not sit well with me this morning.  I think that's because I threw on some Sriracha sauce, and I'm not talking just a little bit.  Do I regret eating it?  Of course not!

I took today off of running.  This morning when I got up at 4:30, I just wasn't feeling right.  I hit the snooze (which I normally don't do on running mornings), and after my extra 10 minutes I found that my running gear was still damp from washing yesterday.  That combined with my uneasy feeling led me to the decision to pass up the run this morning.  I stayed awake and then around 6:00, some nasty things were happening, so I took a sick day.  That was definitely a good decision, as this morning was pretty eventful for my digestive system.  I thought I might feel up to running this evening, but I have been sorta lethargic, so I'm saving my legs for tomorrow morning.  My clothes are dry.