Running Update #2: Colon Cancer 15K Race Report

I only had to blow my nose once!! And considering the amount I had to blow my nose yesterday (about once every other minute) that is a pretty fantastic feat.

I was actually quite nervous about the race for two reasons: 1)The ridiculous congestion I was having yesterday which made yesterday pretty miserable and 2)the high winds that were in the forecast for today. Thankfully, I woke up and my congestion was basically gone (horray!! I can breath!) so that worry was gone. The wind was blowing though, I could hear it gusting outside my window. For some reason, I HATE the wind. It scares me. This might sound kinda odd, but it is my least favorite weather element. I think it stems back to tornado drills from elementary school. Oooo-those were scary. Anyway, before I sidetrack into some ridiculous story about how the sound of tornado drills used to give me nightmares, I’m going to leave it at I HATE the wind. And I hate running in the wind. But, I am not mother nature and had no control over that, so I just had to roll with the punches. Because I had no idea what combination of clothing would work best, I stuck a variety in my bag and would decide when I got to the park and see what others were wearing.

When I arrived, everyone was bundled in their windbreakers, gloves AND hats, so I decided to do the same except switch out the hat for an earwarmer-I only wear a hat when it is below 32 degrees, my head gets too hot. I knew my gloves wouldn’t last the entire race (my hands get too hot too) but I had pockets for those. I was expecting a relatively small crowd-the normal large group for NYRR 4-mile races (NYRR are notoriously crowded) probably wouldn’t be up for a 9.3-miler. However, there was quite a crowd! But a different crowd. Everyone was a runner-not just a recreational runner every few weeks or so. If you were out doing this race, you obviously loved to run and were passionate about it. I could feel that in the mass of people waiting for the race to start and it felt great. I was among fellow runners and I felt at home. It was a wonderful feeling and I’m looking forward to feeling the same way at the half-marathon next month.

The first 3 miles were strong and comfortable. The wind didn’t bother me much which was quite a relief. Sigh! I knew that I needed to stay slow during the beginning, keeping a pace of about 9 minutes/mile. I never have a problem keeping a steady pace when I run by myself, but during races, I always run about 8:30 min/mile or faster which has never been a problem for shorter 4-5 mile races, but I was treating this as a training run, not a race and wanted to stay slow. Amazingly, I was able to stay on pace and that first third was great: I felt like I could go on forever! Well, maybe not forever, but without a doubt 6.3 more miles. The sun was shining, there were people watching, it was a little crowded but a great race so far.

The middle 3 miles were the hardest, but that was expected. I always have the most trouble with the middle third of any run. My legs were feeling tired, my right hip was acting up, I was getting a little concerned. But, it was barely there…for the hardest part of the race, it wasn’t that hard. Most of the hills in the race were in this section and they went pretty well. I didn’t slow down too much running them and didn’t feel spent when I finished them, which was really good. Middle third…yay! Done! By the end of this third, the sea of runners was spread out significantly which made the running much easier and more enjoyable. I stopped getting nervous that I would trip someone if I moved the tadest bit to the side (which I did during my very first race. whoops.)

The last third felt wonderful. And I was enjoying myself, which is really important for me when I run. If I’m going to put this much energy into an activity, I better enjoy it. I was enjoying the weather, I was enjoying the scenary, I was enjoying running alongside my fellow runners. My energy was high and I knew I would have no problem finished. One of my favorite parts of the loop in central park is the 3/4 mile stretch right before the 72nd st. traverse that has beautiful oaks along the right side and the Lake on the left side (not to be confused with the resevoir. I spent an entire summer at an internship in NY staring at a map of Central Park. I know the entire layout of the park like the back of my hand.) which was the last 3/4 miles of the race, and I forced myself to appreciate the surroundings and enjoy myself, which I did! And then the CEO and President of NYRR started running the opposite direction cheering everyone on, which was to motivating! And before I knew it, it was over! It went surprisingly, and I could have kept going! Overall time: 1 hr 24 minutes, which was a 9:02 min/mile pace. Right on target!! Like I said last week, after every long run, I want to feel like I can do a few more miles, which is how I felt this time. So, I’m a little less nervous (which happens after every long run) and my half marathon next month-I think I might be able to do it without passing out.

I finished up the morning with a half a chocolate chip bagel and a well-deserved egg sandwich with my roommate who, at the brunch restaurant, was telling anyone who would listen that I just ran 9.3 miles. Embarrassed, but secreting enjoying the glory. Cause I just ran 9.3 miles, goddammit!

A Worthy Addition

A super quick post before I run to the gym.

I know I posted a sweet potato with black beans last week, but I added something to mine this week that I couldn’t resist telling the world. World!! Are you listening??

I still can’t get over kale. It might be my favorite current veggie, and that it was winter always so kale was always in season. Wait-I don’t wish it was always winter-see previous post. Well, I guess then I’ll just have to eat my fair share while it is in season and not ridiculously expensive. When I saw it at whole foods this past Sunday, it was a little cheaper than it was last time, so I could afford it without sacrificing my other arm and leg. I was thinking for the next 2 days how I was going to use it considering I already had most of my weekly meals planned (I do this ahead to save money. I’m broke…remember??), so had to add it to something I was already planning on making. And it popped into my head that I would put in on my sweet potato I was planning on eating thursday night, in the middle of a really long and really boring meeting at work where I almost fell asleep. But, the thought of kale along with black beans on top of a deliciously baked sweet potato perked me right up. Thanks kale/black bean sweet potato for helping avoid utter-embarrassment in front of people at my job who are a lot more important than me. I owe you.

I made this the exact same way I made my previous sweet potato, but put in some sauteed/wilted kale on top of the potato and below the black beans. With the reg. old salt, pepper, olive oil (the good stuff!!) and chili pepper. And it was good. so good. The flavors went together really well and man, that was one healthy meal! Talk about full of vitamins! And, you know what, if I had fallen asleep in that meeting, I would have never enjoyed this and be full of all those vitamns and I probably would have been fully and utterly humiliated at my job.

Off to go pick up my race packed for the 15K tomorrow. My expectations for my performance have gone down since my cold returned on Wednesday, with a vengeance. Still gonna run it, but it might be interesting. Stay tuned!

Spring Green

First of all, did everyone watch the Project Runway Season Finale last night?? Cause, I didn’t. Cause my cable company doesn’t think we deserve Bravo. Idiots.

Well, the weather has been (relatively) lovely here this past week. Besides the ridiculous downpours and storms and almost tornadoes we got on Tuesday and Wednesday, it’s been quite pleasant! But, hell, I’ll take anything above 30 degrees with bitter wind. I often say that I could never live in a place that doesn’t have 4 distinct seasons (living in Sevilla in the winter was WEIRD!! People wearing their heavy coats and scarves and basically enough clothing for a dog-sledding trip through the Northwest Territories in 50 degree weather), but every year, in the middle of January, I get so sick of winter, I consider moving to Texas. Wait, I’m not quite the “Texas-type”, maybe southern California.

Well, same thing happened this year. Around the beginning of February, I wanted to quit winter. Can you do that? It kept getting colder and colder and snowier and more painful to get out of bed. Maybe I should move the spikes from the foot of my bed. (crickets). Then, I woke up this past Monday, and my hair didn’t have icicles on it! My teeth weren’t chattering! It was warm(ish)! I didn’t have to put on tights under my cords. I didn’t have to put on my nasty nubby sweater, that probably should go in the garbage but is amazingly warm, underneath my jacket. So, in honor of spring FINALLY coming, I made a delicious dinner in honor of the end of hell, or maybe winter to you. Although with my luck, and crazy weather patterns, winter will probably be back next week.

Food porn!

Close up!

sorry it’s a little blurry.

I came up with this kinda on the spot at Whole Foods on Sunday when I found asparagus on sale. Asparagus to me epitomizes spring and we eat it pretty constantly when it is in season at my parents house. So I decided it would only really start to feel like spring if I made something yummy with this asparagus. I went back to quinoa, cause it’s kinda my go-to. Soo easy and yummy and nutritious and as a vegetarian, good for protein.

Here’s how I made this amazingly delicious concoction:
While cooking 1/3 cup of quinoa, I steamed/blanched some asparagus that I cut into 1 inch pieces, frozen peas and frozen edamame. When the quinoa and the veggies were done, I mixed them together along with a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of 1/2 a lemon (I bet a bit of lemon zest would be amazing too), salt, pepper, and a huge handful of chopped mint. That was the key. Wow-the mint was amazing and made it taste so springy. I probably used about a 1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves that I chopped pretty finely, and went back and added more cause it was soooo good. And I have lots of leftovers, which I might eat tonight and maybe spring will stay.

Ooooo…the weather forecast is on…30 degrees on Sunday. Shit. It never ends.

Lentejas

Or, if you don’t speak Spanish, just lentils.

I studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain for part of my junior year of college and returned for a period of time after graduation to teach English. Before then, I hadn’t eaten lentils much. I’m sure I had them in a soup here or there, but I can’t think of one time when I had actively made lentils, ordered them or ate them at home or in the cafeteria. However, my señora liked to make them for my roommate and I frequently for lunch. I have no idea how she would cook them, but they were amazing: dark and creamy with carrots and peppers. I tried to copy it once a few month ago in a soup, but it wasn’t even close. I think I asked her how she made them, but either she wasn’t listening or I was butchering my Spanish or she was ignoring me and didn’t want to pass her super secret lentil recipe to some crazy American girl who wouldn’t leave her apartment (by the end of the semester, my roommate and I were convinced she hated us. As shown by the day she fed us oxtail, when she knows I don’t eat beef, and told us it was chicken. hmmm.) Well, I loved those lentils, and thought of them everytime she fed us arroz a la cubana (rice covered in fried eggs covered in tomato sauce) or weird cut-up hot dogs in some rando sauce.

When I went back to Sevilla after college, I was on my own this time, living in an apartment with a billion other young people with no one to cook for me but me. Oh, and I was as broke as broke could be. That’s really broke. I struggling to find work and making about 40 euro/week. Yeah…that’s not alot. This is the time when I started doing the whole “make a big pot of something and eat it for the next 3 nights” thing. And I still do it, cause I’m still broke. But not as much so. Going to the grocey store in Spain, I never had any idea what I was going to cook-I would just buy the cheapest stuff and hope for the best. Lucky for me, groceries are ridiculously cheap in Spain. The other day I found a receipt in my wallet from a grocery store in Sevilla (I really need to clean out my wallet) that was for a 4-pack of yogurt, some apples, a bag of pasta and a loaf of bread. Grand total: €2.10. (I ate ALOT of pasta then. And lost weight. Grr.) Well, the local SuperSol was chock full of jars of garbanzos and lentejas, at about 30 cents a pop. So, I came to love my garbanzos y lentejas cause they enabled me to pay my rent every month. Thanks garbanzos y lentejas! You’re the best!

This recipe was the first one I came up with during that time of poverty, using my super dirt cheap jars of lentils. In fact, every ingredient can be bought on a pauper’s budget. I have made this sooo many times, I couldn’t even make a guess to the number. Also, in Spain I didn’t have to cook this for very long because the jarred lentils were already cooked, but using dried lentils, you have to let it cook for at least an hour. However, using dried lentils is nothing like using dried beans, because you don’t have to soak them, which make this easy to make on a whim as long as you have a bag lying around.

Last night, I made this for the 1000th or so time. One of my roommates was one of my closest friends from college and also studied abroad in Sevilla (but in a different program.) Her señora made her either garbanzos (chickpeas) or lentejas everyday for lunch. Every. single. day. and not good like my señora did. Bad. and monotonous. After that semester, she vowed she would never eat garbanzos or lentejas ever again. Well, every time I make my lentejas, I joke around, offering her some, and she replies by making some horrid gutteral sound that indicates that she is, in fact, not interested. However, much to my suprise, she walked into the apartment as I was finished up, and she commented how delicious it smelled! I told her what I was making, and she said she wanted some! I guess I do have the power of coersion! Or, maybe it is just so delicious, it can make a lentil-hater love lentils.

Caveat-while my lentejas were delish, I woke up this morning and my apartment smelled like onions and garlic. I lit several candles around the apartment while getting ready and proceeded to set off the smoke detector at 6:30am. Whoops. Cook this with the windows open or fan on your stove on.

Lentejas-Spanish Betsy style

1/2 bag dried regular old brown lentils (I use Goya. It’s cheap), picked over
3 cloves of garlic
1 large yellow onion
1 green bell pepper
1 large can of whole tomatoes, chopped
1 small can crushed tomatos
chili powder
cumin
salt & pepper

Saute the chopped onion and minced garlic in a large pot with olive oil over medium-low heat for about 8 minutes until they start to show color. Add the bell pepper that has been chopped into 1/2 inch size pieces, and continue cooking for about 5-10 more minutes until the onions are completely cooked and the pepper has brown color around the edges. Chop the whole tomatoes into about 6 pieces each, and add into the pot along with the juice from the can of tomatoes and the crushed tomatoes. Stir so it’s all thoroughly combined. Fill the large can with water and add that as well. Pour in the lentils and stir again. Spices: I always do this by taste, but add lots. Probably around a tablespoon of chili and a tablespoon or more of cumin. Add about 2 teaspoons each of kosher salt and pepper. Stir one last time and bring to a boil. When it is roaring, turn it down to a low simmer, cover, and cook for about 1/2 hour. After 30 minutes, taste the stew, but not the lentils because they’re not done yet! Make sure the spices are how you like them. If it tastes very strongly of tomatoes, add more spices. I always add more at this point, probably about a teaspoon of more of each. Continue to cook for about 30 minutes more. Serve and DEVOUR. Every time I eat this, I automatically picture myself back at the flat on Calle Ximenz de Enciso among 5 other roommates of all different nationalities, eating different things but eating together. Enjoy!

Running Update #1

I’ve decided to make my post on Saturday or Sunday a running update each week.  Because I do my long run on Saturdays, it will work perfectly!  Well, at least almost perfectly.  It will be race reports, an essay-type post about running in general, or just how my running was this week.

And this week, it will be the latter.  Cause I’m just that boring.

This week was interesting, because that cold I pretended to not have last Saturday blew up on Sunday.  For a while it was one bad head cold: headache, achy, congestion, sore throat, ick!   I was nervous how it was going to effect my running because of the 15K next week, which I’m still nervous about, by the way, in case you were wondering, cause I know you were.  Thanks for thinking about me!  Anyway, I wanted to be able to complete my 3 days a week of running without it making my cold worse (I’ll go into why I only run 3 days a week another week.)  I subscribe to the theory that when you’re sick, if you’re only sick from the neck up, then it’s ok to exercise, neck down, stay in bed you lucky b****.  ( my mom reads this.  must censor.)

When Tuesday rolled around, which is normally my tempo day, I was feeling really beat, but not awful.  After thinking, and putzing and changing my mind audibly every 5 minutes about whether I was going to go run or not, I went.  That 15K in the future was the ultimate bully, giving me no choice.  So, on tempo days, I run about 4 miles FAST.  It’s a run to work on my speed. I ran it at about 8:15 min/miles and was able to finish without slowing down.  It was probably the hardest tempo I’ve run, because my legs felt like lead.  But, I ran it, finished it, and that was all I could ask of myself.

I skipped my Thursday run because my work is polyurethaneing the floor below mine, and it gave me a killer headache, one that I couldn’t shake all day and night.  AND, I was still sick.  When I get a cold, I tend to have them for about 6 weeks.  Well, not THAT long, but longer than most people.  So, the combo of the 2 made a cranky, upset, hurting me.  Not someone who wanted to go run.

So, to Saturday (yesterday) it was.  This time, there was no question I would do my long run, and when I woke up yesterday and opened my curtains, that sun was beaming and my excitement was overflowing!  Saturday long runs outside might be my favorite part of my week, so on a beautiful, 40 degree day, I couldn’t wait.  Well, I had to wait a little, cause I had just eaten half a Clif bar (my pre-long run snack), and had to wait an hour before I left.  Stupid sensitive stomach.  I was going to do my run in Central Park, which had helped alot lately with my practice on hills, which I used to be horrid at and am slowly getting much better.  Most of New York is very very flat, but Central Park is incredibly hilly.  So, I was going to do 8 miles, same as last week:  Starting at E. 69th St., doing the entire loop, running back to the 102nd st. traverse and back down to Engineers Gate.  Later, when I Maped My Run when I got home, it was more like 8.5, but that’s ok.

The run was pretty gosh darn great!  It took me about 1.5 miles to get into my groove, which is about .5 miles longer than it normally does, but I tackled the Harlem Hills well, probably felt the best I’ve ever felt after them, along with the west side hills.  One of the most difficult parts of running in Central Park is when you run along the southern section, there are lots of horses, and when you’re running a long run, that LAST thing you want to smell is horse crap.  Yeah…be happy you don’t have to experience that.  It sucks.  But, it made me run faster every time I passed some overpaying tourist who could see the park alot better on foot, especially on a sunny day.  Moving on, once again, at mile 4.5-5, I was feeling it.  It was hard and I wasn’t sure if I was going to finish.  But, once I got over that hump, I would have been good for hours!  In fact, when I finished, I was sure I had measured my run wrong, because I didn’t feel like I had run 8 miles at all.  I was almost going to keep going, but didn’t want to force extra milage on myself.  I think I will always have a hard time at that distance, but just have to get through it and get back into the grove.

Overall, a great run on a great day (the park was bustling), and I’m looking forward to the 15K next weekend! In fact I’m quite excited {laughs nervously.  then gets a cold sweat.  then has a panic attack.}