I've been "running" around this town on the corner...

So.... here are all of my race results off of the Websites. The Susan G. Komen race is the same route as the Freihofer's so it is interesting to compare those results. What I wrote here is exactly off of the Websites but I don't understand how they calculate the pace for these races. I did some math and it doesn't make sense to me.

The way that I figure it... my pace for the Susan Komen race was 11.12 minutes. I really tried to up my pace for the last mile. I finished the first mile at 13.38, factoring in that it took a bit to get across the start line. The time at mile 2 was 25.38, which keeps right at my 12 minute mile pace I usually figure for myself. I really pushed myself to pick up the speed, especially as the race course went downhill for mile 3 and the extra .2 .... finishing that last 1.2 miles in 11.46.

And there ya have it....

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K, 10/2/10

Chip time: 35.52 minutes

Time: 37.22 minutes

Pace: 12.02

Link is here.

GE Energy 5K, 9/9/10

Time: 36.24

Pace: 11.43

Link is here.

Firecracker 4 Mile Race, 7/4/10

Time: 49.16 minutes

Link is here.

Freihofer's 5K, 6/5/10

Chip time: 37.40 minutes

Actual time: 38.48 minutes

Pace 12:08

Link is here.

Happy New Year!

So... today is my "New Year's Day."

I've been celebrating my birthday for the past few weeks (I know, I know... even for me it was too long) and eating everything in sight but today I christened to be "New Year's Day" and I started by 10-week training plan for the 15K I want to run and gave my eating habits a quick makeover.

No, I am not perfect. No, I will never be. But I am trying.

I am going to aim more for fueling my body rather than cutting the most calories possible. Training for the 15K is going to be really tough for me and I hope I can do it. Today was an easy day. A "stretch and strengthen" day. I did yoga and spent a lot of time just stretching out my muscles to get back into the swing of things. For food.

Dunkin Donuts iced coffee with skim milk.

Dunkin Donuts egg white flatbread sandwich

Salad (all veggies, no dressing)

1/2 turkey sandwich on whole grain bread, no dressing or sauces

Apple

Steamed ginger chicken and green beans

And just to clarify, if there is anybody out there who still reads this thing. I am writing what I ate, not because I think you'll care, but because I need to hold myself accountable.

Goodnight and Happy New Year :)

Summer Seasonal Foods

Hey everybody, so I wrote an entry in the fall about the fall seasonal foods that I was obsessed with at the time. Welp, we're smack dab in the middle of summer and smack dab in the middle of my obsession will all foods summery so I figured I'd share with you what some of those loves are:

- Ice cream! (I love, love seasonal ice cream places)

- Popsicles (even though I do eat year round)

- Corn on the cob

- Fruit salad (my favorite is simple... grapes, strawberries, and blueberries)

- Lots of ice cold water

- Iced coffee

- Frozen lemonade (I miss Rhode Island and Del's lemonade)

- Burgers and hot dogs on the grill

- Cold, crunchy salads with lots of veggies

I think some of the things that change for me when the summer comes around is not just the foods that I crave but the way I cook . In my apartment I don't have AC and I will now do anything I can to avoid using the oven. No more quiches or baked pies or roasted vegetables. Instead I try to eat food more in their natural and raw forms-- which is great with all of the seasonal, fresh produce that is available now.

No more baked chicken-- instead, chicken on the grill. No more sauteed veggies-- instead I will throw them into a big salad. No more fresh baked cookies-- instead I will go out for a soft serve cone of Guptill's ice cream or Kurver's. No more making a meal in the crock pot on the weekend to eat throughout the week-- instead I'll put together a nice big fruit salad to have for breakfast every day. And if I'm going out to eat, no more automatically opting for one of the Cap Region's italian restaurants with delicious pasta and chicken dishes drowning in delicious sauces-- instead, I'm drawn to the places I know I can get delicious, overflowing salads with crispy greens, or Mexican restaurants with fresh, cool, mountains of guac.

I love living somewhere with a change of seasons not just to enjoy the different outdoor activities that come with the winter and summer. I love living somewhere with a change of seasons not just because I enjoy seeing the way that the blanketed wintertime snow or the bright summer sunshine can make the same scene beautiful in two different ways.

But I love the living somewhere with a change of seasons for the subtle ways that the change in those seasons, change the little ways that we live our life. Everything from the clothes we wear to the food we eat to the way we cook and socialize with friends.

Happy summer everyone!

(and please, tell me what summer foods I'm forgetting in the comments, because I know there are more!!)

Update: I did better than I thought!

Just a quick update... I checked the results on the Freihofer's Web site and my actual race time was: 37:40 minutes and I ran at a pace of 12:08. I know that is probably way slow for a lot of people's mindset but I'm proud of myself.

Yay!

Ghaza khoshmazeh bood!

For the past year and a half I've been living in a beautiful 4-bedroom apartment. Throughout the time we've been here, we've had a bit of revolving door of roommates. Although there are definitely some hassles that go along with living with so many people, there is also many benefits. One of which for a food lover like me is getting to share a kitchen with people of different backgrounds, nationalities, tastes, preferences, etc. I definitely must say that many of my favorite recipes and food insights are inspired by my roommates (my other inspirations are my mom and the Food Network). One of the most notorious roommate-inspired meals is breaded chicken wrapped around mozzarella cheese in white wine/garlic sauce. I will forever think of 604 Walnut when I make mozzarella chicken (an apartment speciality).

Last week one of my good friends moved into my current Albany apartment and with him brought a box full of new spices and flavors that are new to my taste palate and cooking styles. My most recent roommate, Bahman, is from Iran and as I just learned today, he is an incredible Persian cook. For dinner tonight Bahman made Ashton and I chicken, steak, and rice. He marinated the chicken in saffron, onion, and olive oil. The steak in oil and onion. He made saffron rice, grilled tomatoes, and served with a post-cooking sprinkle of a spice brought from Iran called Sumac. It was all DELICIOUS.

One of the coolest things about Bahman's meal was that he was also able to tell me a bit about the spices and the meal that he was cooking. The saffron comes in a tiny, tiny tin and is steeped in hot water before used to marinate the chicken. The saffron is brought from Iran and is actually more expensive than gold due to the laborious process of hand picking the saffron from the flowers, then drying and curing the saffron. The rice that Bahman cooked us was made in a way where he boiled the rice with water, drained the rice and rinsed with cold water, and recooked on the hot water with saffron. This way, although delicious, loses some of the nutrients and in Iran, you'll see a lot of men with protruding bellies-- which isn't a beer belly but a rice belly!

I'm looking forward to learning more about Persian cooking and foods and very thankful to have a roommate who is nice enough to cook for me and share his culture with me!

Happy, happy weekend :)

This weekend was absolutely wonderful. Saturday AM I ran my first 5K of my life. Although I ran in he 2005 Arnold Mills Road Race and then a few weeks ago in the Corporate Challenge road race... this race was the first that I was able to complete running the whole time! I ran the race in 38 minutes and 45 seconds. It was quite an accomplishment for me as I have always, always struggled with running. During elementary school gym class I was a member of the "slow poke's club" and not even Mrs. Kenwood's cheers of "Let's go joggers!!!" could motivate me to even run a mile. In middle school I was on the cross country team but just walked the runs, socialized, and snuck off the paths to find little streams and rivers to play in. In high school, I swam, joined the track team as a thrower, and played on the line during flag football-- anything and everything to avoid running.

But after months of training and hurt knees and physical therapy and icing and stretching... I ran for 3.2 miles without stopping! It is a big source of pride for me.

I prepared for the Saturday morning run by eating a nice meal of carbs on Friday night. I hadn't had a bowl of pasta in a while so I planned to make it special by recreating a meal that I

have eaten time and time again while at my favorite restaurant in Florence, Italy. Attached is a picture of this amazing meal at a trattoria called Mastrociliega.

The menu in Italy says it is made with gorgonzola cheese and truffle. There is asparagus in the dish and penne pasta. To try and recreate this meal, I first bought a bottle of truffle oil from a local specialty italian deli for $23.95. I had some fresh asparagus and a block of fresh gorgonzola cheese.

To make the sauce, which isn't very thick, I first started melting some (a lot) of butter in a pan and adding a small amount of the gorgonzola cheese. Right from the beginning, it was smelling good in the kitchen. I had been planning on adding some flour to the butter to make a rue and make the sauce a bit thicker, but alas, we were out of flour so I couldn't do that. I also wanted to add some milk to the dish... all we had was skim milk, which was a bit thinner than I wanted but I tried it anyway. I let the milk, butter, and cheese melt and simmer together and reduce. The truffle oil smelled amazing and it was the last thing I added. I also put a bit of salt into the sauce.

I boiled and salted the water, cooked the pasta, and for the last 3 minutes of the pasta cooking I dropped the asparagus into the water. I drained everything and mixed the sauce and the pasta. I finished it off with a bit of fresh grated mozzarella cheese.

Now, I don't think anything can compare to the dish that is made at Mastrociliega's but I have to admit. It was really, really good. And I still have a TON of truffle oil left so definitely more to come. I think in the future I will try the dish again using some flour to make a rue and using a fattier milk. Definitely not a diet meal... but it was good. Perhaps it will be a pre-race ritual for me??

You're doing it all wrong.