Gifts from the Mountain Man

Brother came for a quick visit yesterday to pick up some of his tools that he'd left on his last visit. Unannounced 'til 12 hours prior. Unplanned. Appreciated.

He also dropped of 15 pounds of frozen venison. Meat from the wild that he killed, cleaned, and butchered himself:



If you love to cook and have a garden (and are not vegetarian), then having hunting/fishing family members contribute meat to the mix is about the coolest thing ever!

Fresh, natural, environmentally friendly, delicious home-made food doesn't get much better than this.

This delivery was so exciting -- after weeks of misses, he closed out the season by getting not one, but two bucks in the final two weeks. This means he didn't have enough freezer space and we were to be the lucky recipients of some of the overflow.

Used to be, brother took his meat to the professional butcher. But this year, times are tough. So, he butchered the meat himself, with Dad's best friend, a former butcher.

This was the first time since 2004 that I'd received wild game in brown paper bags. Last time, it was Dead Elk Stew from Dad. This time, it was a variety of venison, from Brother, butchered in the same garage as the Dead Elk Stew.

He reminds me more of Dad each time I see him. He looks more like him. His hair is longer and curlier now, more like Dad's. Even his handwriting on the meat looks like Dad's on the long-ago-famed Elk.

Apparently, his next endeavor is to make homemade venison-pork sausage with some of the lower extremity deer muscles that were not proper cuts. He wants to use all of the animal and to experiment with spices, just like me. He identifies movie-stars by saying, "listen to his voice," just like I do. I see so many of my strongest personality traits when I look at him honestly -- my oddities that are strengths, and truly, most of my oddities that are faults as well, albeit expressed differently.

And yet. Seriously. Pretty much everyone agrees that we literally could not be more different. I'm not sure I agree. Regardless, siblings are fascinating (and frustrating) -- but, I could not be more thankful for or in love with mine (Sister too!).

Also, I'm now open to venison recipe suggestions.

Winter Garden Update

Well, it's been 7 weeks since we built the winter garden boxes and planted the first transplants and seeds. What have we learned?

1. Swiss Chard grows quickly, and is tasty or bitter depending on your perspective. If it gets an aphid infection that you don't treat soon enough, the leaves will all curl and be useless and you have to cut it down to nubs. I hope some of them come back...

2. The Japanese cucumber plant in the pot is still going strong and producing cukes like crazy. Definitely the most prolific plant of the year:



3. The Broccoli, Cabbage, and Cauliflower seem to really like the soil and were doing quite well other than some holes in the leaves we were trying to identify. The peas seem to be flowering and growing well, too:



4. The first set of onion seeds all sprouted, we even had to cull, and the peas seem to be flowering and growing reasonably well. You can see the Chard between the peas on the left, and the onions on the right, trying to make a comeback:



5. The brussel sprouts seem to be growing well, but they too, have the holes in the leaves. In all of the plants with holes, they started as small shot-like holes, and then grew each week:



6. We planted two carrot seeds per indentation, and about half of the indentations sprouted. My gran tells me 50% is great yield. I'm not so impressed...



7. The beets are very sorry looking. We planted 9, 5 sprouted but 2 were destroyed by the squirrels digging nearby for their lost nuts (stupid, forgetful squirrels). To date, 3 are still hanging in there -- 2 red and one yellow:



8. The French radishes were the easiest winter thing to grow from seed. They all sprouted, and produced radishes in 4 short weeks. They just keep getting bigger while we wait to eat the rest:



9. The transplanted greens for salad have been my favorite part of the winter garden. Very few pests. Arugula, I love you! Spinach, and mixed salad pack -- you guys are awesome too. We regularly trim the outer leaves for fresh salads and then the baby leaves in the middle continue to grow outward. The parsely and chives on the far right are nice to have for fresh accents to meals (just like the herb box) Greens fresh from the plant are amazing:



10. So far, 41 of the 42 garlic cloves we planted have sprouted. I'm holding out hope for the last one because it was 40/42 'til this AM when the late-bloomer 41 poked through, so perhaps 42 is just even slower. I can't wait to have 42 heads of gourmet garlic next year! Also, at the far end, we planted more onions and 6 artichoke seeds. Supposedly, artichokes are hard to germinate and take up 3 feet of space per plant. We were shocked to find the 5 of the 6 seeds sprouted despite serious squirrel destruction in this box (they are much more attracted to plain dirt than dirt with plants, so next year we will intersperse the transplants with the seeds more evenly). We surrounded the artichokes with onion seeds, most of which were decimated by the squirrels. So, in a month or so, we'll probably cull 3 of the artichoke plants and try with a third round of onions.



11. Remember the book about the Very Hungry Caterpillar?



12. Yeah, we finally figured out what was causing the tiny holes in our plants. At first, we just saw lots of black dots on the plants that seemed to grow bigger over time, and some of them were darker green. The Big Book didn't have anything to say about the balls, so I'd spray them off with the hose and we made plans to spray the plants with Neem Oil Spray in hopes that it would ward off whatever was the problem:



13. It turns out, the balls are caterpillar poop that grow as the caterpillars (and consequently the holes in the leaves) grow (see the right hand of this leaf for super-small balls, the first sign we saw when we had small holes):



14. For some of the plants, I fear we did not act quickly enough:



15. But finally, we had an afternoon caterpillar genocide:



In our terrible scientific experiments, we learned that they will drown in plain water, but try to climb out. If you add bleach to the water, they don't try to climb out. The neem oil spray also kills them if they are drenched.

16. The moral of the story is that this guy is not the friend of your cabbage, brussel sprout, brocolli, or cauliflower plants:



If you see one or more of these guys, and then you see small holes in your leaves, act quickly. I think next year we'll try to proactively spray with neem oil.

E's Birthday

As R pointed out -- it sounds like E is 10.

I explained that I would have some time to chat on the phone this evening because it was E's birthday and I would be making gnocchi from scratch, topped with bolognese, followed by individual baked alaskas.

While I am doing this, the invitees will be playing video games.

After they eat, they will return to the same activity.

You might think I am frustrated with this, but the truth is, I love it. E is a simple man. He thinks my bolognese and gnocchi are acts of God and video games with friends are the highest level of pleasure available. How can you argue with that?

Especially if you are cooking the acts of god?

It's a fun time to be an American

Tuesday night, for the first time in a long time, we brought the bunny ears in from the garage and turned on the TV.

As we made dinner (mmm... emmenthaller polenta with sauteed crimini mushrooms, onions, and truffle oil ... DELICIOUS) E and I watched the states light up, and then, earlier than either of us expected, we sat to eat our dinner on the couch, in front of the TV, so we could watch the speeches.

McCain's speech was so gracious. I was proud to have such a wonderful response from the losing candidate for the American presidency. So much is revealed about character when you lose. And typically, I think Americans are known for being absolutionist in their approach, unable to concede and compromise, and very sore losers. McCain set a high standard for us -- one that I hope we can look to. And I was proud.

Obama's speech was nothing short of historic greatness. I found myself crying with joy. It will be fun to have such a great speaker as the figurehead of our country.

A Miss as Good as a Mile

Today, I woke early (although not as early as you'd think thanks to the blessing of daylight savings) and drove to my favorite half marathon.

According to my training logs, after all of the speed training since the SF marathon, I was in just as good of shape as the last half marathon PR I set, back in March.

I hoped to beat that PR, even if just by a little tiny bit (although, foolishly, I thought I'd clear it relatively easily because the weather would be so cool).

The weather did appear to be cooperating--after pouring torrential rains all day on Saturday, Sunday was the racing ideal of overcast, cool (although surprisingly warmer than expected) and misting.

So, I parked at a garage near the start, realized I wasn't going to freeze, changed from running tights to shorts in the car, jogged to the start, ditched the mittens I'd purchased from GoodWill to keep my hands warm, and lined up with expectations of a PR.

Ah-hem. Apparently, I haven't been running long enough to realize what a difference a course can make. I should understand this. It is basic. Work equals Force X Distance. In addition to the force necessary to move a mass forward, the force of gravity is against you as you go up. And yet...

At the start, I went out fast, just like I did in March (on the flat course), a nice easy 8:05 mile to start. Then an 8:10 mile. And then, at mile 3, as we started to climb, I realized I had to slow or I would wreck myself. The fourth mile was almost a minute and half below my goal pace. And all of a sudden, I realized how silly I was being. This is my favorite half, but I've never come close to setting a PR on it. It's not my favorite because it's fast -- I like it because it is local, it is beautiful, and *parts* of it are breathtakingly fast (like the downhills on the GG bridge and around the edges of the bridge), but other parts are slow and painfully uphill. This, you see, is because, it is *hilly*.

After I saw the 9:33 read out at mile 4, I doggedly climbed the last hill to the Golden Gate Bridge and passed a guy who said, "You can't ask for more than that" and pointed to the full-arch rainbow over the first span of the bridge.

Indeed. You cannot. This would be the main reason why this is my favorite half marathon -- small, local, well-run, no frills, gorgeous, demanding race.

So, the rest of the race was less about a PR, which I realized I would not make, and more about pushing myself in a way that was intelligent so I would have a good, strong race.

I did.

Even though I finished more than 5 minutes after my low-end goal, and more than 10 minutes after my super-speedy goal. I felt very pleased with the overall effort. I didn't stop to walk except at aid stations. I kept my pacing more even than normal for me (which is still horrifically uneven, I saw 7:10 as my pace on the Garmin at one glance down, while at another point I saw 10:17). Most importantly, I set a *course* PR by more than 1m50, which, thanks to what I learned today, is going to be how I measure these things from now on. In hindsight, setting a goal of more than 12 minutes improvement on this course as my super-speedy goal was ridiculous.

In other news, I'm somewhat relieved to report that I'm no longer considering pushing myself to try to qualify for Boston in March. Until I clear 1:45 on a half marathon I don't even want to try to accomplish that goal. So, oddly, today's slow performance is liberating.

After the race, A let me shower at her place, and then she took me out to brunch and we had a delicious meal while catching up. It was a perfect end to a nice day and I was so thankful that she was available to hang out.

And now I'm home: More sore than I would have expected; Tired; And excited that I get to work on medium length speed and to focus on my half marathon PR for another several months before I even think about whether or not marathon speed sounds like fun.

Romanesco



How beautiful is this vegetable? Fractal Beauty. Math. Art. Food. AND IT TASTES GOOD! BETTER THAN YOU HAVE ANY RIGHT TO EXPECT.

In short, the Roasted Winter Vegetables recipe works equally well if you use the following vegetables instead:

- 3 french radishes from the winter garden, chopped into 1 cm rounds
- 8 brussel sprouts, halved
- 3 leeks, cleaned and sliced into 1 cm rounds
- 1 head of romanesco, cleaned and chopped

Enjoy!

Waking Up

Arvay's self-reflection post put me in an inquisitive frame of mind.

Past BT floated around doing much of whatever felt right at the time and through a great stroke of luck, eventually found herself to current BT's position -- on her 4th career and in a wonderful, loving relationship. It's a great fit for the wacky path she took, but not one that anyone could have planned in advance by looking at past BT.

Future BT is getting many of the benefits of my current life. I regularly sacrifice free time, and take on stress and frustration in the career world for the long-term benefits I hope the amazing training, experience, and financial trade-offs in my current job will provide in the future. When work is crazy, these sacrifices bleed over into my personal life, and many times require E to make sacrifices as well.

In general, I try very hard to force current BT to be balanced. To look at the sacrifices I am making for the current and future intellectual stimulation and financial benefits of my job and to keep them in check against the other sources of pleasure in my life: my relationship with E, exercise, extended family, social life, food, reading, travel, etc.

October has been the slowest month I've had at work since starting as a neophyte lawyer. I've cooked more and spent more quality time with E. I've payed more attention to the garden. I visited my grandmother, saw my sister, and spoken to my mother and brother more. It's been a nice change and it's made me wonder if I could somehow find a way to meet more of my goals at the same time even when work is busy.

Generally, I love my job and feel very lucky to have a career that is intellectually stimulating, requires me to learn new things every day, and allows me to feel useful and helpful. In fact, I think I love it even more when it is crushing and overwhelming than I do when it is less intense. When it is less intense, I have time to think about the other things I also enjoy and could be doing with my time. When it is insane, there is no time to do anything but try to stay afloat.

This morning, as I woke before my alarm to go out for my long run with B, I couldn't help but notice that I didn't wake before my alarm for my runs before work any day this week. Today's activities (long run with a friend, making waffles and eggs and enjoying them with E, chores at home with E, and a friend's wedding) inspired me to wake, relaxed and ready for my day to begin, without any reminder. My day-to-day during the work-week life, however, often finds me in the morning with my alarm ringing, wishing I could just sleep-in, run later, spend less time at the office, and come home earlier.

I've been pretty good at keeping this desire at bay this month, and forcing myself to get up, but Arvay's post reminded me *why* I fight the desire to be lazy. I, too, feel like I owe my future self -- I owe my future self a healthy body, good relationships with people I care about, fun memories, and some semblance of financial stability. In order to give her these things, I have to make efforts to live life today with all of my long term goals in mind.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, Arvay's post was a nice reminder of why I sometimes fall out of balance, and why it's okay. It's because I care about future BT. What a positive way to see it.

Pizza Philosophy

Since the economy, and perhaps not so incidentally, work, slowed down, I've been cooking more.

Last week, on Sunday, I made homemade pizza dough and let it rise most of the week, before cooking our first homemade pizza which we cooked and let cool on the pizza stone for which we registered.

It was delicious.

However, thankfully, there was leftover dough.

So, tonight, I endeavored to make the second homemade pizza.

The Pizza Stone Did Not Agree.

Happily, I stretched the frozen after 6 days of cool-rising in the fridge dough. It looked so happy and civilized, even better than the straight from rising stage version I'd made a week prior.

Sliced grape tomatoes, basil, and sliced wet mozzerella -- you can imagine where this goes...

*GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE GUTTER*

Our wedding-gifted pizza stone exploded into three parts. I wouldn't have believed it had I not been watching the rise of the dough and browning of the toppings myself -- a 7 minute rise at 550 F doesn't take that long to observe, and I love food, so, yeah, I was camped out in front of the oven window tonight. What? Anyways--it was a phenomenal event. What kind of energy must have been stored to cause the stone to split like this? (Mind you, we didn't move anything before taking this picture -- this is exactly what nature plus an electric oven created!):



And now, I must say, I wholeheartedly endorse the metal circular tins with holes in the bottom for pizza cooking in the oven. I aspire to own one soon!

Also, pre-cooked pizza sauce is better than fresh tomatoes cooked while the dough rises. Enough said.

Happy cooking!

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

The Good:

Passing the blowtorch and discovering all the different ways you can brulée a crème for a friend's birthday dessert (some were brown sugar, some were white).




In addition to the burnt cream and brownies from F, we feasted on fresh mixed greens for 6 trimmed from our winter garden and 3 different kinds of macaroni & cheese from scratch. Delicious! (I will post the winning recipe at a later date)


The Bad:

This morning, when I got up for my run at 7 AM, it was too dark to leave so I stayed in bed. Grumpy. Then I couldn't go back to sleep. I hate this time of year. I could never live in Alaska in the winter. Tomorrow, I'll have to fit it in and go late to work. Plus I have a head cold.

The Ugly:

The stock markets.

Also, discovering black aphids attacking our chard:



We'll be spraying or treating soon, we just haven't figured out with what, exactly. E showed me how the few that made it into the kitchen could be killed very effectively with the blowtorch. Somehow I suspect that will not be a good option for controlling them in the garden. All suggestions for how best to handle these little pests are welcome.

Two lessons

Don't do long runs in cotton socks.

If you do, you will rip the hell out of your feet and toes. All of a sudden, you will understand why people claim that running ruins their feet. It will not be a pleasant revelation. If you do not already own specialized running socks that you love, I highly recommend investing in some Balegas: No seam; Thin on top for breathing, Padded on the bottom for cushion; Made of material that does not cause chafing.

I had no idea how much my Balegas were contributing to my overall foot comfort (I haven't really ever run a long run without them) until I ran out of clean ones before this weekend's long run and just packed a pair of short cotton athletic socks.

Ouch.

Now, I'm going to order some more. Also, I think I'm going to try a pair of the Injinji toe socks. Now that I realize how much of a difference my Balegas have been making, I figure, what the heck? I'll spend $15 and try the wacky toe-socks that some of the ultra-marathoning folks swear by.

72 hours is a solid maximum full-throttle period

In the last 72 hours, I fit in entirely too much.

I'm not sure I can recall the last time I did 3 nights in a row out on the town. But, we just did it again: Thursday, drinks in our hometown at a local restaurant while visiting friends had a late dinner after their arrival from their California road trip; Friday, a delicious dinner at Delfina followed by drinks 'til midnight with a large group; and Saturday, a shopping trip, a hair appointment, and a wedding. Add in all the associated ordinary life stuff like work, a professional lunch on Friday, running, and a quick 'bout of food poisoning from our dinner on Thursday before the out-of-towners arrived, and well... I'm spent.

Tonight, I could not bring myself to attack the todo list. It will have to wait 'til tomorrow. Sleep is coming very soon.

Wednesday Happiness

The third garden box is now fully planted!

After following the soaking (first in a baking soda solution, overnight, then, briefly in a rubbing alcohol bath) and planting instructions, the gourmet garlic that made the cut has been planted in 7 rows of 6 bulbs:



I suspect we will have entirely too much garlic next spring. What a delightful problem to have!

We also planted more onion seeds and some artichoke seeds. It should be interesting to see how the artichoke plants play out.

In other news, tonight's dinner was deliciouis. If you are looking for a healthy, vietnamese-inspired salad dish that is filling enough to call dinner, I recommend this:



Tapioca nooodle cucumber salad

-1 package tapioca noodles (or,if you prefer glass noodles)
-1/2 head garlic, casings removed
-1 bunch cilantro (coriander)
-lime juice
-2 T vietnamese fish sauce
-2 medium cucumbers (or 1 medium ordinary cucumber, plus 2 small/medium cucumbers from the japanese cucumber plant from the garden, minus the bitter stem-side portion) sliced into half-rounds
-2 small "cherry bomb" peppers and 1 jalapeno, minced
-1 shallot, chopped
-1 T turmeric
-1 inch ginger, peeled
-1/4 cup brown sugar

1. pulse cilantro, garlic, lime juice, fish sauce, turmeric, brown sugar, and ginger in cuisinart until the cilantro is evenly chopped in small 1/4 inch square-sized pieces.

2. place cucumbers, shallots, and peppers in a bowl, cover with the sauce from #1.

3. boil tapioca noodles 'til done. Rinse in cold water. Chop into bite sized pieces.

4. Mix noodles into the bowl and serve.

Enjoy!

Gourmet Garlic Overview

There was much celebration in our household tonight! The gourmet garlic finally arrived:



Immediately, we postponed healthy night for a night of tasting and cooking garlic with the appropriate sides (aka beef and wine).

I made baked new york steak from the crazy buy-a-portion-of-a-grass-fed-cow-experiment-that-E-entered on the side of yukon gold potatoes topped with a bordelaise sauce in accordance with some traditional (aka French) recipes. I *never* make French food (too complicated, heavy, and labor-intensive, even though, when I do, it's awesome...), so E was in heaven.

I really should make more French food. Sure, it's heavier, but tonight, we split a 0.8 lb steak, 4 yukon gold potatoes, and a saucepot full of heavy, delicious, buttery (3 Tb), broth-heavy, vegetable filled, flour-thickened and herb-infused wine sauce. After finishing dinner, we are not the *least* bit hungry, and yet, we are not *full* since the food was so rich. Calorically, I suspect it's actually a wash, or possibly even less than what we'd normally put away against what I normally prepare. It's just the volume that is so different.

Anyways, back to the garlic (and, by the way, how much we are both going to smell tomorrow -- JK, how stoked are you that we do not live together anymore?).

In case there was any doubt, E is the best husband 'cause (a) he knew how excited I was about the garlic and IM'd me as soon as it arrived; (b) he indulged me and did a raw tasting of all varietals before dinner; (c) in the course of doing so, he also realized we both would be needing ranitidine long before I would have realized it and brought it to the kitchen before we ate; and (d) after dinner, he engaged in the broiled garlic dessert tasting despite not loving garlic even close to as much as I do.

Yeah. We're gonna smell awesome tomorrow.

Anyways, the final verdict, in order of overall ranking:

A TIE FOR FIRST PLACE BETWEEN ROMANIAN RED AND CALIFORNIA EARLY:

1 (tie): California Early (Raw: #1 for E, #4 for BT; Cooked: #2 for E; #1 for BT)
1 (tie): Romanian Red (Raw: #2 for E; #2 for BT; Cooked #4 for E; #2 for BT) (also, given how easy it is to get California Early in California, it may be that if it grows well, Romanian Red will be the de facto winner solely due to its heirloom status and unique caché)

3. Susanville (Raw: #3 for E; #1 for BT; Cooked #3 for E; #3 for BT)
4. German White (Raw: #4 for E; #2 for BT; Cooked #1 for E; #4 for BT)
5. Chesnock Red (Raw: #5 for E; #5 for BT; Cooked #5 for E; #5 for BT)

We agreed to plant all remaining cloves (we only used one clove for each varietal for tonight's experimentation, you know, we merely consumed 2.5 cloves each in addition to the 1.5 cloves included in the bordelaise sauce...) for all varietals, except, we agreed, that we should really just cook the remainder of the Chesnock Red and avoid the effort of recreating it. It's just too mellow for us. The raw comments included E saying, "this isn't garlic at all." Once cooked, I noted that it was "mild, sticky & starchy," while E said, "It tastes like parsnip." The flavors were interesting, certainly. They just weren't what we were looking for in garlic. If we had infinite garden space, perhaps, but as you know, we only have one raised bed left, and there are additional onions and artichokes to plant as well.

Yoga For Running

This morning, I decided to try to put together my own yoga for runners sequence. The details of how I came to it are below, but if you are looking for a 45 minute to 1-hour yoga sequence that will be a great cross-training workout on a non-running day to help you get ready for your next run, I recommend trying this (borrows heavily from Ashtanga -- if you need modifications or instructions on how to get into these poses, I recommend David Swenson's Ashtanga Yoga "The Practice Manual"):


-5 Surynamaskara (Sun Salutation) A
-5 Suryanmaskara B
-1 Padangusthasana for 5 deep breaths.
-1 Padahastasana for 5 deep breaths.
-2 sets of Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose) on each side for 5 deep breaths
-2 sets of Parivtritta Trikonasana (Reverse Triangle Pose) on each side for 5 deep breaths
-2 sets of Utthita Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle Pose) on each side for 5 deep breaths
-2 sets of Parivritta Parsvakonasana (I opt for the opposite elbow to knee twisted prayer version) on each side for 5 deep breaths
-2 sets of Garudasana for 5 deep breaths on each side
-2 sets of Trianga Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana for 5 deep breaths on each side
-2 sets each of Janu Sirsanasa A, Janu Sirsanasa B, and Janu Sirsana C for 5 deep breaths on each side
-2 sets each of Marichyasana A, Marichyansana B (I do the modification that looks like a half lotus while hugging the upright knee and not leaning), and Marichyasana C
-2 sets of Masyendrasana for 5 deep breaths
-1 Gomukhasana A for 5 deep breaths
-1 Gomukhasana B (aka Cow Face Pose!) for 5 deep breaths
-2 sets of your favorite variation of Kapotasana

Namaste!



Ever since I started running semi-regularly, I've sworn by yoga as the reason why I rarely suffer from the running-related injuries that many of my running friends suffer. Well, in truth, I credit yoga, *AND* the fact that I'm likely to bail on a run if my body sends a strong signal that I should do so.

I like to claim that I average 1 yoga session a week, but, in truth, I am a compulsive stretcher and most days at work, I spend a bit of time in my desk chair typing or on the phone with my legs in full lotus, half lotus, or a modified Bharadvajasana II. In meetings where I am in danger of falling asleep, I do these positions with my legs and sometimes even go so far as to do prayer-behind-the-back and the arms from eagle (Garudasana) (I try to remember to avoid the arm poses when I'm in meetings with clients).

About a year ago, I self-diagnosed with piriformis syndrome that I could generally control with yoga focused on hip openers (such as Bryan Kest's Power Yoga), intelligent training, rest, stretching, watching my weight, etc. If I don't pay attention to my body, however, it will let me know with mild sciatica in my left leg coupled with strong/dull outer hip pain. Thankfully, both symptoms have historically been alleviated with stretching and rest.

Last week, I logged over 37 miles, which meant I was 10 miles over my mileage from the week before. In other words, I seriously broke the "no more than a 10% per week mileage increase rule" and, of course, since I'm working on speed, many of these miles were at medium to hard intensity.

Sure enough, Sunday afternoon, after my long run, while shopping for groceries, I had to stop several times to rub my left leg and stretch due to pains shooting down the back of my left leg, my left outer hip, and, as a bonus, for the first time, my left hip flexor had gotten into the game as well, which caused a weird pain pattern across the front of my left thigh (thanks to the power of the Internet, I now know that the pain traces the Sartorious muscle). Awesome.

So, I took Monday off.

By Tuesday, I felt much better, and it was apparent that the increased mileage and speed training had paid off -- despite taking it *very* easy on the effort, my 4 miler was much faster than I expected. My runs for the rest of the week were great as well and E & I easily fit in Kest power yoga #1 on Thursday night. For the first time in at least 6 months, I found myself ready for the weekend's runs without having logged a single mile during the week (including super-slow recovery miles) that was slower than a 9:50 min/mile pace.

However, last night, I expressed concern that perhaps I should skip today's 6-miler in favor of yoga because my hip was starting to tighten up again. E surprised me by having a very strong opinion that I should definitely do yoga instead of running. (This is an amazing change for the guy who initially had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into our once-a-week-together-at-home yoga practice.)

The speed increases are very seductive, and I really wanted to run today, but I begrudgingly agreed that I should do some yoga instead. A local class would be great, except they were all at inconvenient times given our other plans for the day.

So, I decided to see if I could design my own yoga for runners sequence, which is how I ended up with the sequence posted at the beginning of this post in Italics.

First off, I started looking at Sciatica.org's list of recommended yoga poses -- and I decided to incorporate them all. Then, I included a few poses I knew had provided me with hip relief in the past. Then, all I needed to complete the series was a good warm-up, so, I decided to start with the Ashtanga Sun Salutations series. I knew from experience that it is guaranteed to get the muscles nice and warm, and I liked that it would rope in some core body work as well as some arm strength since the rest of this series is so leg-focused.

Overall, it took me about an hour to finish this entire series. However, I was consulting my Practice Manual for modifications and transitions where applicable, so I suspect that with some effort I could get this down to 50 minutes, or maybe even 45 minutes.

I spent the next several hours after this workout very pleased with how relaxed my hips, buttocks, and lower back felt. I'll check in after my long run tomorrow to ensure it did the trick, but today, I feel great. I think I'm going to try to incorporate this sequence into my running schedule more regularly.

[Update: Sunday's long run was the best I've had in a long time. I definitely need to try to do this series more often.]

Snippits

HOUSING: Monday (you know the day the S&P lost almost 9%) we made an offer on a house. They countered the next day, and we found out that a house we really liked sold for way less than it was listed and we were very disappointed that we hadn't been the ones to successfully low-ball the sellers on that one. So, we let the counter-offer expire and we looked at another house on Wednesday. We haven't found anything we're in love with, so we're still in process...

GARDEN: We've finished two boxes of the winter garden, and now I'm just waiting for my shipment to arrive from the Gourmet Garlic Gardens (don't you love the Internet?) to plant the third box (which, in addition to the garlic, will be full of things to over-winter, including artichokes, red onions, and white onions). The winter garden currently looks like this:



TRAVEL: After 5 years of flying Delta back and forth between California and Atlanta, we finally *almost* had enough miles to get free flights for Christmas and New Year's. Round-trip flights were the most expensive they've ever been since we started this regular trek -- it would have cost $1400 for the flights we wanted. So, instead, we bought $220 worth of miles and paid the $37 per person fee and we'll be flying to Atlanta on miles. And, we decided to spend most of the Delta miles savings on our New Year's trip to Savannah, Georgia.

LAWYERING: Work is relatively slow for me for the first time since I started working as a lawyer, really. I'm definitely enjoying it, although, of course, I have a slight fear for the economy and hope that it doesn't stay too slow, too long.

RUNNING: I dropped a recent race because my sister couldn't do it with me. We got last-minute invitations to a wedding on the date of my next race, so I'll be skipping that one too. So, it looks like I've got my favorite half marathon as the only remaining race I'll be doing this year. But, my speed efforts continue to pay off, so I look forward to trying to set a PR at that one before building up distance for 2009's spring marathon(s).

I think that covers it.

Rested

After a very busy week, E and I went out to dinner last night and I fell asleep before 10 PM. I just woke, after ten and half hours of sleep and I feel rested for the first time in quite a while. (Granted, my fatigue is nothing compared to Lucky_Girl's.)

I'm looking forward to a weekend at home where we do chores around the house, I get to fit in two good runs, and we finish the last winter garden box. We have no social plans and after a week where I went out to lunch on 4 days and we had guests one night, I'm more than excited about the tranquility. I'm glad I saw all of the people I saw this week. I feel very up to date on many of the colleagues I rarely see. But I'm also exhausted. I've always been an introvert who faked extroversion, but I'm finding that as I age, I'm becoming more of an introvert because the extroversion is more exhausting. Perhaps it's because I spend at least half of my typical work day either on the phone talking to people or in meetings talking to people?

One thing I'm really excited about for this weekend (other than finishing the last winter garden box) is putting in some more time with my new book, The California Master Gardener Handbook -- it's a compendium of all the home gardening info that the University of California Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources saw fit to print -- all 702 pages of it. Last night I read all of the entries for the winter vegetables we have planted so far, and a little on the few we're going to plant in the last box (Yay Gourmet Garlic, artichokes, and more onions!). I definitely need to read the sections again, but I was happy to find that so far we haven't done anything too terrible.

A couple of weeks ago, I finished my first gardening book: Square Foot Gardening. It's accessible, and since I literally knew nothing about gardening, I learned quite a bit and used the reference sections heavily. But some of the information is in direct contrast with the commonly held wisdom (not to mention the instructions on the seedling inserts and seed packages). And, I suspect the spacing he recommends often is not enough. For example, Tomato plants just need more than just 1 square foot of space. Period. Also, he suggests one-size-fits all watering techniques, which, with our warm summers, I found we needed to completely ignore if we didn't want our plants to die.

However, I think his goal was to make gardening seem easy (which it is if you don't mind the failure inherent in experimentation) to get more people to try it with simple techniques that eliminate complexity and optimization in favor of simplicity and more modest success -- since I wish more people talked about their gardens at lunch instead of television, if this was his purpose, it's a noble goal!

The Pace of Life

Where did 2008 go? The days blow by me so fast and it's almost the holidays...

I had my quarterly review yesterday. I did not get fired. I did get the comment that sometimes I am too quick (or, under too much time pressure) and I don't totally think about the words in my contracts before I turn them in for review. That's true. I will be working on that one.

Unlike work, where sometimes I am too quick, when I put on my running shoes, I am not ever "too quick." I am still working on increasing my speed. Yesterday, I decreased my 3-mile speed check time by 47 seconds. This was a huge jump and I was excited. An average speed decrease of 16 seconds per mile!

Only 3 minutes and 12 seconds to go, or only 1 minute 4 seconds decrease in my average time per mile. [grin] Yeah, that's a lot. I have my work cut out for me.

Winter Garden

The end of the summer garden is upon us. Yellow pear tomato and the crook neck squash have died. The remaining plants look healthy enough, but there just isn't as much fruit as there used to be.

We are inspired by our success in the okra-from-seeds experiment (just look at how tall the largest one to the right is -- crazy that last may it was a little tiny seed we put in the dirt):



Of course, E noted that the shorter more root-bound okra plants we planted 3 to a pot produce just as much fruit as the larger one, which has the pot to itself, but that when we got to 4 to a pot, production per plant is negatively affected. So, if you are growing okra from seeds in Northern California, it looks like you need an unencumbered radius of 4 inches around each plant for optimal production.

The cucumber is a perfect example of the evolution of the garden. It was a great producer and it's still producing fruit, but you can tell by looking at it that it's on its way out:



What could we possibly do now that the summer vegetables (alas, we only picked 4 tomatoes this weekend!) are on their way out?

Well, what else could we do? Yesterday, we biked over to the nursery and I was inspired by the idea of lots of lettuces and cool-weather vegetables, so we decided to try our hand at a cool-weather garden. But first, we needed a place to put it.


E, do you mind if I dig up all the grass between the second driveway and the walkway?


E grinned bemusedly as I purposefully grabbed brother's pick and said, No. I don't mind at all. Go right ahead.

In case you were wondering, using a pick with a 3 foot handle to dig up grass and turn soil is a ridiculous workout. I suspect that had something to do with E's grin. On Saturday, I cleared maybe 20 square feet. When I was finished, I was ridiculously sore. I had a *blister* and my fingers were swollen. I felt creaky, but good. Today, when I returned to the task, I ripped the blister open (childhood memories from gymnastics came rushing back), and re-used the same muscles from yesterday against their obvious displeasure until I was able to convince E he should finish the last bit (thanks E!).

So, yesterday, after evaluating my efforts and measuring the area with respect to the redwood we had, we moved the herb box to the left of the walkway and this is what it looked like:



Today, we went back to the nursery and acquired several plants to supplement the seeds we got yesterday. E made it *very* clear that winter vegetables from the garden are lame compared to summer's rewards and that he's only helping out as an act of love (thanks E!). The only winter garden plants he's excited about are the beets (planted from seeds) and brussel sprouts (we bought seedlings). The remaining plantings of a lettuce mixed pack (6 plants of various types of leaf lettuce, I can identify butter lettuce, romaine, and the other 4, well, I've definitely had 'em before but I have no idea what they are called); a six-pack of spinach; a six-pack of arugula; and parsely did nothing to impress him. The carrots and radishes (planted from seeds) are equally unexciting to him.

Despite his lack of excitement, he built two boxes for raised beds, and cut and pre-assembled the pieces for a third if/when we decide to dig up the additional grass it would cover.

And so, I present our winter garden:



I am very happy.

Rios Broccolli-Cauliflower Bisque

So, a while ago, I mentioned to R that I couldn't get soups into the consistency I wanted them to be. She said I should use the blender, nay, not just any blender, a good blender.

Turns out, daddy got us a *good* bar blender. You know, good enough to crush ice into bar drinks that would make daddy proud. So, I actually had a good blender, I was just foolishly trying to purée soups in the cuisinart.

Ever since that conversation, I've taken her advice and blended some deliciously creamy and perfectly even purées in the blender. E, food consistency obsessive that he is, has considered this a marked improvement in our kitchen's output.

Last week, R visited briefly, and left behind some fancy cream cheese remnants. One, an orange concoction, still sits chilled in our fridge, waiting for its demise. The other, a cream cheese and herb blend, however, made its way into a delicious mid-week bisque (we used the cream cheese in place of cream). In fact, E and I enjoyed it hot the first time and chilled the second time -- it was a hit both times and we were surprised at how filling it was, given its very healthy ingredients. I hope you will enjoy it as well.


-1 head cauliflower, chopped
-2 small bunches broccoli, chopped
-1 yellow onion, diced
-1 box chicken broth
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-clippings from the herb box of fresh lemon thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and sage
-3 T of cream cheese herb blend
-3 T butter
-black pepper to taste

1. Melt butter in a large stew pot over medium heat.
2. Sautee onions and garlic in butter for 2 minutes.
3. Add cauliflower and broccoli and stir, cover with broth move to medium high heat, stir, cover and allow to simmer for 20 minutes, stirring regularly.
4. Add minced fresh herbs, stir, and continue to simmer.
5. Check tenderness of vegetables, if they are still hard to break apart with a spoon, add water and continue to simmer until tender.
6. Using a slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to a blender and blend on high until pureed. Return to pot and remove remaining vegetables with slotted spoon for their purée cycle.
7. For the last batch of vegetables, add the cream cheese and 1/2 a cup of water, purée until perfectly creamy.
8. Return creamy purée to pot, stir until evenly mixed throughout.


Allow to cool until it is able to be eaten, add black pepper to taste (or even hot sauce) and enjoy!

Tomorrow Morning...

I haven't made it out the door once this week for my AM runs. I wake to hit "snooze," "dismiss," or, I just plain don't hear my alarm.

I've rescheduled for the PM, pushed to the next day, and today, I did the one-two punch of rescheduling for the PM this morning and then pushing to tomorrow this evening when I got home with a tight window before sundown and a serious case of the lazy.

Despite what appears to be a lack of commitment, slowly, but surely, I'm actually regaining the speed that I lost over the last 6 months of leisurely distance training. I've dropped 48 seconds from my speed-check 3-mile loop over the last several weeks. I'm getting there.

But, of course, I'm not gaining speed to get there nearly as quickly as I projected.

I never do.

Occasionally, when I speak with my running (or non-running) friends about my life and my running schedules, I hear people refer to me as "disciplined." Let's be clear -- I'm not disciplined, I'm an optimist. If I was disciplined, I wouldn't sleep past my AM runs. I wouldn't reschedule. I wouldn't opt for delicious mexican food and margaritas the night before a long run when the original plan had been vegetables and yoga.

But I do. Because, I'm an optimist -- I set goals that are unreasonable unless you are a machine, and then, in my non-mechanic way, while living a non-mechanic life, I try to sort-of, kind-of, meet them. From this process, I have learned, all it takes is effort, and from the far-away view, you look disciplined.

So, tomorrow AM, I'll be getting up to run a very slow, easy 6 miles before a day of work followed by a healthy meal of vegetables and yoga before bed. Why? Because I completely bailed on today. Today's 6 miler this AM? Didn't even happen, despite last night's early bedtime and super-healthy meal. But tomorrow? Tomorrow is another day. And, I'm an optimist.

Speaking of bailing and being an optimist -- Today, I bailed on this weekend's scheduled race, where I had foolishly set a goal of running a 1:50 half marathon. My recent speed training sessions have convinced me that I'm not yet ready to hit anywhere near that speed. Plus, my sister had a cooking-bathing combo injury (not kidding!) and so I'd be running solo, all for a trip without E. So, I bailed on the race. I'll be doing a short 6 and a medium 14 miles solo this weekend. Slowly. At nothing close to the race pace I'd hoped for. See... not disciplined. But, I have learned that compensatory actions, over the long haul, add up.

As a testament to that, week-by-week, ever since my last marathon, when I acknowledged I needed to put in some more effort to be quick, I've been getting faster. Even if it isn't anywhere near the speed gains that I'd hope for, there are gains, and I appreciate them.

In short, as I call it a night in this evening of laziness and think optimistic thoughts for tomorrow and this weekend, I'd like to point out that every inch is an inch, my friends -- and, the big secret is, most people mistake distance for discipline.

I am sad

I felt so much of a kindred connection to the late David Foster Wallace. He, more than any other person I've ever spoken with, read, or met, understood the tension I felt with my demons.

There is darkness in the world. To deny it is an act of intellectual dishonesty. And yet...To fight it can be so, so, tiring. I've met a few who have understood the depth of the demons. Most of them have given up the fight. The kindred spirit I felt in DFW was that he knew his demons at a level that made me feel less alone, but he still fought. And now, he fights no more.

Against my own demons, I do my best to insulate myself from their self-absorbing horror and to live in the moment. To embrace the Zen philosophy which encourages one to avoid any and all value judgments aside from those in the present -- enjoy this food, this breath, this run, this friend, this moment. I suspect DFW never found the calming framework that worked for him. The one that could play the role that Zen, Yoga, meditation, writers who celebrate the beauty of life instead of demons, the wonder of a truly open and vulnerable relationship with a life partner like E and good friends that are too many to name, and the remnants of childhood christianity and various other philisophical and emotional signposts have formed for me. This makes me sad.

When I read DFW, I could not help but recognize and give presence to my demons. He got them. They tormented him and spent time with him and love him, certainly more than they did me. Or, perhaps, he was more in love with them than I was, and he cared for them more -- gave them more space and time. I think he loved his demons of human darkness in accident, addiction, pleasure, unluck, and un-restrained-ego, amongst others. They are powerful. They cause much drama. They move much in the world, in fact, they may actually rule it, and yet most refuse to acknowledge their existence. If you are the type of person that understands this reality and faces it, you are destined to feel lonely. These are the demons that occasionally (once a year or so) attack me, and make me feel very alone.

Never, other than while reading DFW's infinite jest, and staring down at the abyss below Foresthill Bridge after a high school friend committed suicide from it, have I ever felt that anyone understood just how alone I occasionally feel in the face of human darkness. I felt alone that night on the bridge and moved on. I never felt that anyone understood just how alone I occasionally felt against my demons until I read Infinite Jest. He knew how I felt on that bridge. It's an ugly feeling and he wrote about it intellectually, analytically, as I would have if I had more time to spend with the demons (but who would seek that). I'm very thankful that R was there with me that night on the bridge to listen to me talk through my demons even when she didn't share them. I am blessed to have such supportive friends.

And now, in addition to the high school friend I lost. I've lost the companionship of DFW in the world. I am sad.

Again, I beseech you and yours -- if you are down, slow, depressed, feeling that there is no other option, or anything along those lines -- GET HELP IF YOU NEED IT.

That is all.