DC Tri

I signed up for the DC Tri several months ago, but for the last month or so I've been debating whether or not to actually do it. I was not pleased with the prospect of swimming in the Potomac River and my training had been lax, to say the least. It didn't help that the race was due to start at 5:30am, and I would have to be at the transition spot by 5am. So, I had convinced myself not to do it. That is, until this last week when I decided I would in fact try the tri. My goal: to finish.

The race was actually really well managed, in my opinion. It started a bit late, but they had plenty of volunteers on hand, I never had to touch the bottom of the Potomac due to the pontoon that jutted out into the river, and they had four water stops, which for a 6.7k run on a hot day turned out to be, at least for me, perfect. The water temp was great 81.8 degrees. I had a goal to not putting head in the water, but that went out the window about 30 feet into the swim, where I actually managed to swallow a huge gulp full of potomac water, and even have some go up my nose. I was in trouble for a minute, but I managed to recover and finish the swim (albeit with some concern over my overall medical health). The bike was a technical course with lost of 180 degree turns. It actually felt a bit short, maybe because in most of the other triathlons I've done the bike course has been incredibly hilly while this was fairly flat. Still the 20k seemed to fly by. Last was the run. Where several passed me on the bike and the swim, this was the one leg I could actually pass other people. It was hot, sunny and not a lot of shade, but plenty of water stops, including one that had ice water. If I had one complaint about the run it was there were a lot of points were you did a few out and backs -- all within sight of the finish line, which did not help. I think I finished around the two hour mark, but until the official results are posted, I won't know. To help in my goal of just to finish, I did not wear a watch. I was focused on the race and enjoying the sights and not the time.

The post race food (this blog is afterall about running and eating) was good: fruit, energy bars, chips and breakfast burritos. But in honor of the race, I ate a turkey burger for lunch, had two beers (hopefully the alcohol will kill anything that may have been in the potomac water) and a Ben's Chili Bowl half-smoke. Now on to some ice cream and then a morning run.

Morning Run

Surprisingly, I wasn't sore this morning at all after yesterday's not-so-great half. But I work up early to go run with JW. She had said she wanted to start up running and me being me said I'd more than happy to run. It's one of the few mornings where I don't have to be at work until 9am, so I had the time. We met and did my typical loop to the GW Monument. It was a little over 3 miles. It was a beautiful morning for a run -- a cool and bright. In the Runner’s World magazine July 2010 issue the Rave Run photo is of running the Mall – in this case, a shot of a runner near the Washington Monument. Running the Mall is probably one of my favorite things.

Too Little Running, Too Much Baking (and Eating)

Today was the Zooma Half Marathon in Annapolis, MD. I ran this race two years ago and had memories of it being hilly, but a nice race. Well, if anything the hills were worse this year! (The race course was changed). It was fun because I got to run through downtown/historic Annapolis, before heading to the Severn bridge and the hill that followed. The problem, aside from my lack of training, was the weather. The hills were jointed this year by the sun (and long stretches of the course that did not have shade) and humidity. I've done the NYC half in August and I didn't think it was as bad as today's run. I did a 10k in 1:08:37, compared to 1:00:25 on 15 May in, what I thought, was a beautiful running day. I finished today in 2:33:19, compared to 2:22:32 to finish the Pacer's half marathon a month ago in cold, windy conditions. I've been bad about running in the heat, but if I want to get used to it, I will have to run in it.

In more fun baking news. In the last month, I've helped co-host two baby showers. For the first, I made some flat bread pizza, which I really enjoyed. For this last one I made three types of cupcakes: chocolate with chocolate frosting, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and a blueberry cupcake with maple frosting. I really enjoyed it and I think they were well received. The chocolate one turned out the best though because of the frosting -- I really loved it (it was the hershey recipe).



Also, the the blueberry came out really well!

New Year, New Resolution

Well, it's been awhile. But I think I figured out my resolution for 2010 -- it's 20 for '10 -- in other words, this year I'm going to try and loose 20 pounds. Still running, that's the plus. But my negatives are higher -- I'm eating meat again - Shake Shack in NYC was one of the first places I went to in January! Yummy burger!



The other negatives were that, due to my now working oven, I went on a little cookie baking spree. The December snowstorm aided in the baking-palooza. I made different cookies, including the traditional peanut butter blossoms, holiday butter cookies, and I even tried mexican wedding cookies. I also branched out and baked walnut pear cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting. (I figured it was the best to use the pears.)


The running is coming along. My first race of the season is the NYC half marathon, which was moved to early spring from the middle/late summer. Weather-wise it should be much nicer! I'm supposed to be doing a long run this weekend, but snowpacalypse/snowmagedden/snowMFG may prevent that from happening. Still, I went out for a walk in the snow. It's really quite beautiful and the streets of DC are empty. I'm looking forward to seeing it in the morning.


Now if only it didn't take me overnight to upload the pics!

Oven Overdrive

I've finally got a working oven!! In honor of the oven -- well, really to test it -- I baked brown sugar shortbread cookies. It's a recipe from The Washington Post. It's really quite simple. Blend two sticks (or 8oz) of butter, 1/3 cup of light brown sugar and 1/3 cup of sugar. Add a teaspoon or so of vanilla and a half teaspoon of salt. Mix. Then add 2 cups of flour. I actually used my hands when it came to the last cup of flour -- I'm sure a stand mixer would have been fine. Spread in a 13x9 inch pan and cook in a 325 degree oven for about 55 minutes. Let cool in the pan and then cut into squares.



It's definitely shortbread -- dense, buttery, dry but with a nice sweetness to it.

Now that the kitchen work is done, I also cooked some dinner. I stumbled on the Penn Quarter farmers market. I thought it had closed -- it does next week. I picked up some radishes, arugula, apples, and trumpet mushrooms. I sauteed the mushrooms and radish tops in olive oil and garlic. It was tasty!



An experimented with the radishes and apples. I keep seeing apple fennel slaws or salads on menus. I thought I'd try an apple-radish salad with a light lemon vinaigrette. Not really great - but the sweetness of the apple did balance the tartness and almost pepper-iness of radish. It was worth trying but I think I'll use the rest of the radishes in a salad!

No Bake Desserts

As you may or may not know, my oven hasn't been working. I'm getting a new one -- actually from the sounds of my landlord a new kitchen entirely -- soon. But I still tried to bake. As you can see -- the results haven't been good. The oven doesn't get too hot, it doesn't maintain the heat, but it manages to burn the top. That was a banana bread. The one that went straight to the trash. The other I covered with tinfoil. It took about 2 hours but I got something that was edible. My latest attempt were cupcakes -- pear and walnut with a cream cheese frosting. The cupcakes didn't work out, but I did manage to get some mini-cupcakes baked all the way through.
I've been experimenting with no-bake desserts. I've been using a chocolate ganache torte as my basis and done a couple of different variations. I got the idea form a chocolate peppermint torte I did a couple of years ago. I've made a gingerbread crust and then did a mix of milk chocolate and bittersweet for the ganache. It was good but really rich and heavy. I tried a new recipe -- this one has a layer of caramel. Now, I've not had luck with making caramel in the past, so I was a bit apprehensive. But I finally got the amber color you're suppose to get! The trick, I think, is not stirring. I just let it boil away. And seeing it turn that beautiful amber color was incredibly satisfying! After adding cream and butter and getting a caramel look and taste, I mixed in some chopped nuts. On the second try I salted the caramel a bit -- I really enjoyed that taste -- and then topped it with the ganache. I got second place at my work's holiday party dessert contest!

Life at the Beach

It's been a busy couple of months. At the end of September I went to the Hamptons to run the Hamptons Half Marathon. It was a great run, especially compared to last year when it rained for the entire run. The weather this time was beautiful -- sunny and cool. ME and MP did not come out to run this year, so I ended up camping, which was something I hadn't done this summer and it was fun. I had my pre-race meal at Cherrystone's. The chowder and the fish and chips were just as good as I remembered. Then I went to Montauk and walked along the beach. On my way back to the campsite, I stopped for a lobster roll with large chunks of lobster meat. I was cold sitting outside the roadside shack, but full!
On my way back to NJ, I stopped by my great-aunt's house and she and my great uncle took me to their church bazaar for lunch. I had some good, homemade Korean food -- seafood pancakes and bibimbap! It was also great catching up with them. I'd show you pictures, but I had a camera snafu.

Next up -- Dublin Marathon breakdown.