Simple Foods
And so winter drags on here in Seattle. After spending a few beautiful and warm (well warm-ish) days in Winthrop, WA, I am back in Seattle where it is cold, rainy and windy. This weather makes me hungry. And that is saying something since I am so rarely hungry, which I know is quite bizarre for an ultraunner. After a really hard training day, including “hill” repeats (aka mountain repeats) up Mt.Si and an afternoon recovery run, all I wanted was something warm, hearty but requiring little to no brainpower. I dreamed up this combination and man oh man was it a winner. I baked off an acorn squash and then filled up each half with some of the meat spaghetti sauce I made in a huge batch (and froze) a few months ago. Topped it with a bit of parmesan and threw a side of steamed veggies next to it and I was in absolute bliss. Considering I don’t eat pasta, I do eat alot of marinara sauce. The marinara is my mom’s recipe, she use to make it in giant batches at my behest when I was young. We always had a container or two in the freezer and I have never tasted a spaghetti sauce I like more. And that is saying something, considering her recipe is always a bit off the cuff. A bit of this, a tad of that. But always delicious. Try it for yourself, I promise you that you will start being like me: looking for excuses to eat more and more!
Mom’s Amazing Marinara
Then add 4 large cans of tomato sauce and 2 cans of tomato paste
Bring to a boil, turn heat down and simmer on low for several hours stirring to keep it from sticking on the bottom.
Ironically more well prepared than usual.
The race is held at Greenlake and is run on the muddy outside loop which is 3.2 miles. The 50k runners get to do a bit of bonus mileage by running a full 10 loops, while the few brave 100k runners get the precise distance. As I mentioned, I am a mileage pig and never mind a bit more mileage. There was one aid station over by the crew stadium and by mid-day had sunk into the sloppy mud (poor volunteers!). My goal was to run controlled, strong and even. I wanted to have a good hard effort, but not too taxing or requiring much recovery. I left it open on if I would go the full 50k and just planned on listening to my body and working on good form, concentration and strong running. Part of improving my health is addressing severely low Leptin levels, meaning I have been instructed to eat a minimum of 600 calories a day more than I have been. Considering I am never hungry, dietary restrictions (due to health), possible underlying health issues and consistent negative energy balance due to high mileage, I have found myself with some nutritional deficiencies despite my best efforts to fuel myself with amazing healthy foods and plenty of them. Apparently my (head) idea of plenty, is different than my (body) idea of plenty. To that end, last night I had a great pre-race meal with lots of butternut squash, roast vegetables, steak and guacamole. And then this morning, I decided to again go back to the beginning in a way and eat the amount (calorically) that I use to eat before races/long runs. For a year or so, my pre-race meal has gotten smaller and I haven’t had any noticeable race energy differences. But I decided that I wanted to start myself off in the right direction.
Outside the cozy confines of home, the weather was disgusting. Cold, rainy, windy. There is a clock/temperature gauge outside Super Jock and Jill on the other side of the lake and everytime I passed I watched the temperature drop more and more. Brrrrrr. We set out at 7am sharp and worked our ways counter-clockwise around the lake. Despite of myself, I love loops. They make the time pass on otherwise dreary courses. I run around Greenlake enough to be familiar with every inch already, but found as laps progressed they felt quicker and quicker. I was hammering along swiftly, hitting the aid station to the cheers of Jess and Laura (and various others who dropped in to say hi). I was feeling good, running strong at around 7 min/miles. There is not much one can report from a course like that. I played games with myself, meditated and generally just got geeked out on how good I was feeling. I WAS back at the beginning of my ultrarunning career, where I was doing alot less “future-tripping” as Jonathan calls it, when I was able to be in my run in there here and now. This is the first year where I have felt anything but that and I think it is because I am pressuring myself for Boston. Or I was. As I said in my previous post, I have gone back to the beginning in my vision and focus as well. And today, on the road, I felt it. I was just there, here and now. 4:04, 3 bathroom breaks, gallons of mud, one essential greens bar, a bottle of Nuun and a shot or two of coke later, I was done with my 32 miles. 1st woman, 2nd overall (well kinda technically 3rd overall since one 100k-er was ahead actually through first, Sam Thompson). It was a great day and on my last lap, I nearly cried I was so happy to finally have a good day. It was just refreshing, it was confirming and it is something I want to have on a consistent basis and I am willing to do whatever it takes to get back there on a more permanent basis.
I changed my clothes, took orders from those who wanted something from Flying Apron and headed off to get some well earned goodies. I dove head first into a giant slice of gluten free, vegan Maple Cake with raspberry and almond filling and just a hint of chocolate on top and an almond milk latte. Refeeding can be so tasty. I went back with a curry calzone for Laura and a slice of cake and coffee for Linda, hung out for a bit and then headed home for my favorite part of the day: ice bath. All in all a very successful day.
RD Jonathan and I post 50k…. he was going to carry on to at least 50m
Unwavering support crew in the sinking aid station
A beautiful day at Greenlake. Not! Rain, Wind, 36 degrees
My new sweatshirt and the awesome race shirt. Logos by Owen!I earned my shirt!
Day 2, view from the Ridge Trail long runMy life currently is like a game of Where’s Waldo. I have been zipping about from place to place for over a month now since I moved out of my apartment. Lots for work, some for fun, a bit for a race or two. Man is it exhausting. But also rewarding. The stressful tiring parts are made well worth it by the relaxing, quiet times that (thankfully) follow. After Portland, SF, ATL, SF, Cool, Portland, Olympia, Home in the space of a month, I decided after being home for 4 days that I would head up to Winthrop, WA to visit one of the best people I know and great friend, Alison. After heading up to Chuckanut 50k to volunteer in the morning on Saturday, I hoped into my car and sped (5 hrs) down, over and back up to Winthrop to visit Alison for a 5 days.
As soon as I arrived in town, I parked my car at the Barn and Alison scooped me up for a nice run up a rolling “primitive” road. It was nice to shake my legs out and I was just completely in love with where I was. It was warm enough for shorts, the sun was shining and the surrounding mountains just begged for a trail run. Alison warned me that alot of the trails were half melted and instead were extremely spotty and had a lot of the bad kind of snow, that is frozen solid, but not enough to bear weight and so you end up post-holeing and shredding your ankles. Hmmm. Oh well, the “primitive roads” were good enough for me! That evening we headed to the local pub for some, well, grub and music.
Heading onto, or should I say, looking for the Ridge Trail in the snow
Over the course of my stay, I got in several good runs with Alison and a few without her while she was working. We ate great food, I picked up my brand new single speed bike and I spent alot of time just plain relaxing. I love the pace in the Methow, nice and slow. There is no rush there. A few times Alison apologized to me for there not being more to do but she neednt have, I was loving it! We would sit by the fire after a nice homecooked dinner with fresh local ingredients, reading our books, talking or watching movies, drinking copious amounts of tea. We would go to bed early and listen to the coyotes howling in the distance. I spent my days working remotely, running up hills and trails and zooming along the highway. It was fun to explore the few small towns in the Methow and live at country pace. Alison took me to all her favorite spots including the Mazama Country Store for a post long run donut (which sadly I can’t eat) and my last night there we had some fine dining at the Arrowleaf Bistro. The food was delicious and I was falling over with jealousy at Alison’s slice of Carrot Cake with Ginger Frosting (which, again, sadly I can’t eat). It was so much fun to catch up with Alison and spend some time with her, now that she is 4 hrs away I don’t get to see her as much. As I said, she is one of the best, brightest, sweetest people I know and her attitude about alot of things are not only refreshing to me, they are exactly what I need more of. We need more Alisons in this world. I am not usually prone to gushing about my friends (or maybe I am???), but I think sometimes it is nice to verbalize our affirmations of the people we value.
A beautiful day for a long run! Me and Alison all smiles up top.
Looking out over the Methow Valley
Sunset in the Methow
Going for a walk with Alison and ArloIt was hard to say goodbye to Alison and Winthrop on Wednesday morning, but alas I had business to attend to back in the big city. Like getting my butt kicked at 6 in the morning by Mt.Si with Krissy on Thursday. We went out to do “hill” repeats and had ourselves an adventure, making it a bit more than halfway up the first time before being turned back by snow. The second time (as I lay dying from being one of the few times I have been on trails this training cycle- stupid Boston idea, what was I thinking? WHAT WAS I THINKING?I miss the trails) of our (or should I say my) sufferfest, we decided to damn the snow and go all the way up. We hit major snow for the majority of the second half but it was packed down and “runnable” (as runnable as snow is on a steep hill) and we worked to the top. As soon as we got there, we regretted not having our cameras. It was a gorgeous day, the sky was blue and the view of Rainier, Seattle and darn near all of Washington was amazing. We even slogged knee deep through the snow to make it to the top. After enjoying the 4 miles of downhill, we did a 2 mile out and back on the road to feed our “mileage pig” appetites. It was brilliant. Even though I got down on myself for not feeling good on the uphills and not running where I want to, it was awesome to run with Krissy and mutually push each other. Needlesstosay, I look forward to doing it again BECAUSE it kicked my butt so bad. I went out today to get new pair of trail shoes since my New Balance 790s are completely blown out in the right shoe (I noticed this as we started up #2).
In a lot of things in my life, I am going back to the beginning (i.e. the beginning of my ultrarunning career). I am going back in the structure and content of the food I eat (that is a whole other blog, someday) to regain my health, I am going back to the focus of my training and racing (love baby, love) and I am going back to the shoes I adored. Except the shoes I adored are even better than before! I wore Salomon’s straight for the first year and half of my ultrarunning career and loved them. Absolutely loved them. And now I remember why. I went to REI today and hunted down a pair after researching a few potential models by Salomon and when I got there, AHHHHH, Salomon Whispers. 8.8 ounces, with all the cushioning, support and teeth I loved about my Salomons.
I just slip these on and start kicking myself that I ever had a momentary lapse of judgement and decided that training hard for a road marathon was a good idea. I am truly a trail runner at heart, I can’t deny it. While Boston should be fun, or at least interesting, I am looking past it already and dreaming of the trail races I want to do and the mountains I am going to run. I just can’t wait. All in all, the last month has been crazy and wonderful. Great places, great friends, great running and I have only just begun!
