A hilly 17 miles in Portland Maine

One of my roommates from college lives in Hawaii... (not bad right? Her husband is in the navy). She is originally from Portland, Maine and came home for the week.  Lindsay is training for the Kauai Marathon and I am training for NY so we decided a long time ago to do a training run together. (Linds and I ran track in college - she ran the 5K and I ran the 400/800). I drove up to Maine last night and had a nice dinner with Lindsay and our other roommate from college Angela.  But I'll talk about the restaurant later.  First, I want to talk about the run.  We woke up around 6:15am today and left the house around 7am.  

Lindsay's mom Judy is an avid cyclist and rode with us while we ran.  She kept all our water and fuel in her backpack and guided us on our 17 mile run.  She was the best supporter ever!!! It was so great to have her!  We never had to really stop because she always had water ready for us!

Isn't she so cute! Anyway, Linds and I haven't seen each other in 7 months so we had a ton to talk about!  The miles seemed to fly by and the weather was perfect (70s).  It wasn't an easy run by any measure, but it was really fun!  Portland is WICKED hilly!  This run was the true definition of ROLLING HILLS.  Which was good practice.

Mile Splits:

Mile 1: 9:52

Mile 2: 9:38

Mile 3: 9:31

Mile 4: 9:49

Mile 5: 9:33

Mile 6: 9:28

Mile 7: 10:12

Mile 8: 9:45

Mile 9: 9:37

Mile 10: 9:34

Mile 11: 9:55

Mile 12: 9:51

Mile 13: 9:53

Mile 14: 9:35

Mile 15: 9:49

Mile 16: 9:52

Mile 17: 9:55

I think you can probably tell which miles had lots of hills and which miles only had a few. It was definitely not an easy run and our time reflected that.  But at the same time, I'm pretty proud of us. I've never done a run where it was up, up, a little down, a little flat and back up the entire time. We averaged 9:45 pace for 17 miles.  Longest run since May 2nd!
And almost 3 hours later, we are done!

Thanks Lindsay and Judy for an awesome time in Portland!  Love you guys!

CSA Week 8

 Over the weekend I got to meet this little guy:

Our friends Jonathan and Kerry had their baby two weeks ago and he is perfect! So happy and so peaceful.  So cute!

Last week I made one dish that was sooo delicious I had to share it.  It didn't use any of my fresh produce but it was what I was craving.  Have you ever tried the Burrito Bowls at Chipotle?  This was my take on that Burrito Bowl.  You start with:

Burrito Bowls

Ingredients:

1 Can Black Beans

1 Can Diced Tomatoes with Chili

1 Package of Microwaveable Brown Rice

1 Large Onion, diced

2 Tomatoes, Diced

3 Chicken Breasts cut into 1 inch pieces

Chili Powder, Salt, Pepper

1/2 Cup Cheddar Cheese

Handful of Tortilla Chips, crumbled

Instructions:

All you do is this: Microwave the rice, saute onions, black beans and the Ro*tel Crushed Tomatoes together.  Then cut chicken in inch size pieces and brown up with salt, pepper and chili powder.  Cook two ears of corn (in a pinch, I microwave them in the husks using the fresh vegetable setting on my microwave). Then cut the corn off the cob. Then start the layering process.  Put a 1/2 cup of rice in a bowl, followed by the onion, bean, tomato mixture, corn mixture and followed by the chicken.  Crunch up some tortilla chips and some cheddar cheese and mix it together. And dinner is served.

Quick easy and painless. And much fresher than Chipotle! This is so easy, anyone can make this!

Last Wednesday (yes I realize I am a week behind) I got my CSA:

Tomatoes

Onions

Kale

Green Beans

Romaine Lettuce

Peaches

Plums

Cucumber

Zucchini

Corn

Eggplant

Pea Shoots

One of my favorite meals I made this week with my farm fresh produce was a Vegetable Torte.  This recipe was originally inspired by Barefoot Contessa but then I got more inspired by Mark Bittman.  Basically the point of this torte is to roast a bunch of summer vegetables and then layer them together in a cake pan with cheese, salt and pepper, basil and olive oil.

Vegetable Torte
Ingredients:
1large eggplant, cut into 1/4-inch slices
4 medium zucchini or yellow squash, cut into 1/4-inch slices 
1 large onion, red or white, sliced 
2 large tomatoes
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, or more as needed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2  cut into 1/4-inch slices
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup freshly grated Cheddar Cheese
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

 Instructions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. You can either grill or roast the veggie, I roasted. {Put a grill pan over medium-high heat, or prepare a grill; the heat should be medium-high, and the rack about 4 inches from flame. Brush eggplant, zucchini lightly with half the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper;} If roasting, grease 2 baking sheets with oil. Roast or grill vegetables on both sides until soft. Coat bottom and sides of 8-inch springform pan with oil. Layer a third of the eggplant slices into bottom of the pan, then layer in half the zucchini, tomato, garlic and basil, sprinkling each layer with a bit of salt and pepper. Repeat layers until all vegetable are used. Press the top with a spatula or spoon to make the torte as compact as possible. Sprinkle top with cheese and bread crumbs, and drizzle with about 1 tablespoon oil. Bake torte in oven until hot throughout and browned on top, about 30 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before removing outer ring of pan, then let cool for another 10 minutes before cutting into wedges.

 This was a beautiful dish, but I'm not going to lie to you.  It completely fell apart when I served it.

With this dish, I made a Cobb Salad using my romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cucumber from my CSA with Grilled Chicken, Avocado, Bacon and Cheddar Cheese bought from my local grocery store.

Last night I took the tart that I had already cooked on Monday and put the layers in a small casserole dish and added more cheese and baked it for 15 minutes until it was hot and the cheese had melted.

Then I took the leftovers from that and made wraps for todays lunch.  Yep, one dish. Three uses. 

And that's enough for one day.  Happy Hump Day!

NYC Marathon Training Week 7

Week of August 9-August 15.
Overslept on Monday and took Wednesday off.  Started the week of with Speed Tuesdays. I did a ladder workout on the treadmill that focused on working my aerobic system (VO2 max). This workout includes fast intervals followed by a relatively short recovery. The workout was: 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 200 with 200 recovery all at 5K pace.  Felt great on this run.  Thursday I ran 7 solid miles on the treadmill, went to Physical Therapy on Friday and ran by myself for a long run on Saturday.  Because I only did 13, I added another 3 on Sunday on the treadmill.  Overall felt good this week but ran just short of 30 miles at 29.

Date: Tuesday August 10
Route:  Speed Tuesday on the Treadmill, 1.0 Incline

Workout:  1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 200 with 200 recovery all at 5K pace
Mileage: 6 miles
Total Time: 58

Workout:  1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 200 with 200 recovery all at 5K pace

1 mile warmup- 6.0MPH 1.0 Incline

1200- 5:46

200 Rest

1000- 4:38

200 Rest

800- 3:45

200 Rest

600- 2:44

200 Rest

400- 1:42

200 Rest

200- :40

1.5 mile cooldown

Date: Thursday August 12
Route: Treadmill at Gym... Ran 2 alone, 3 with Gretchen on the treadmill next to me, 2 more by myself, last mile I ran at 8:03!
Mileage: 7 miles
Total Time: 64
Avg Pace: 9:08

 

Date: Saturday August 14
Route:  Ran ALONE on Marathon route, at 6:50AM, 75 degrees
Mileage: 13 miles
Total Time: 2:01:46
Avg Pace: 9:22

Mile Splits and Mile Thoughts:  

Mile 1-8:46 

starting off feeling good

Mile 2-9:10 

at Mile 1.5, a HUGE dog escapes the park he is playing in and RUNS full speed toward me, the owner starts screaming at the dog and I am convinced I am going to get attacked.  I stay still and hope for the best.  Five feet before the dog reaches me, he stops.  The owner then grabs the dog and tells me he wasn't going to hurt me. Ummm right.  Scary!

Mile 3- 9:26 

The sun is beaming, I'm getting hot.  Sun right in my eyes

Mile 4- 9:10

Feeling pretty good, heading into the town I grew up in and love, stop the watch and buy water with a squeeze top at CVS

Mile 5- 9:05

Feeling fabulous, almost at the halfway point where I planned to turn around 
Mile 6- 9:45

Stop and drink water, take jellis

Mile 7- 9:21

Running by my high school, feeling good, the sun is now at my back

Mile 8- 9:22

Still feeling good, no complaints, kinda impressed with myself, sorta regretting I turned around at the 6 mile mark

Mile 9- 9:10

Running out of water, almost home where I can fill up, thinking 1.5 more miles...

Mile 10: 9:08 

Still feeling strong, loving these low 9 minute miles!

Mile 11: 9:20 

Needing water really bad

Stop at Mile 11 at my house.  Refill water and my roommate from college is staying with me and wanted to run so I pick her up.  Plan is to run four miles... we make it two more. 

Mile 12: 9:42

Lots of hills and my legs did not respond well to stopping and starting

Mile 13: 10:13

So excited to be done, feel bad Debbie barely broke a sweat.

I made up those final 3 miles at the gym on Sunday.

Date: Sunday August 15
Route: Treadmill, South Station
Mileage: 3 miles
Total Time: 29
Avg Pace: 9:??

TOTAL Mileage for WEEK 7:   29 Miles

Mystery Meet: Myers + Chang

Bostonians- have you heard of Mystery Meet?  I first heard about it on my friend Daisy's blog.  I was extrememly jealous and I didn't want to miss out on the next one!  So I started following Mystery Meet on twitter and I heard about the event and when tickets went on sale, I knew I had to snag one.  And I ended up snagging the FINAL ticket.  Score!  Mystery Meet (run by Seth Resler) organizes a tasting menu at popular restuarants all over the city for foodies.  Twenty foodies (mostly bloggers) meet at a restuarant and enjoy a dinner together.  We get five hints before the event.  Here's what they were...
Hint #1: It's located South of the Charles River
Hint #2: It's family style dining.
Hint #3: The chef was really on top of her Stuff this summer

Hint#4: The chef ran every Boston marathon from 1991 to 2006
Hint #5: The owners, both Harvard grads, met while working together at Rialto

I didn't get it until I typed the last two into Google.  I love Google- you can really figure out anything.  Of course it was Myers + Chang!  

I had been wanting to try this place out and was excited.  I emailed Daisy right away to see if she scored a ticket and she had.  So we met up for a pregame drink at Gretchen and Daisy's favorite place- Deluxe in the South End.  

After our very strong and delicious drinks- we walked to Myers and Chang.  We arrived five after 7:30 and there were only two remaining seats.  We introduced ourselves to those around us. I had the pleasure of meeting Bianca from Confessions of a Chocoholic,  Cynthia from Wicked Tasty Harvest, and Emily from Angry Little Chemist. Immediately, I ordered a delicious drink- (China Star $9 with sparkly prosecco, lychee, black currant). 

I love prosecco and love lechee.  This drink was fabulous.  Before long, the dishes started showing up. But first, a pic of Daisy and I!

First up:

This was my favorite dish, and it was the first.  I love the combo of noodles, chicken, and cilantro and I thought I didn't like cilantro.  This dish changed my mind! Next up:

 I loved this dish as well.  The crunch, the meat, the veggies- delicious!

This was also a fabulous dish.  Love mussels and I especially loved the lemongrass sauce.

These ribs were fall-off the bone tender.  I'm usually against ordering anything that you have to really use your hands to eat- wings, ribs... I don't eat them out in public.  I don't usually think its classy even though we all know I'm not the classiest girl in the world.  But these ribs were wow.. so tender and so delcious.  I loved this dish!

Looks pretty right?  This was my least favorite dish.  Something in here was incredibly bitter.  I usually love brocolli rabe, but this wasn't for me.  But honestly, by the time this came around, I was stuffed anyway.  There were a couple other dishes and tons of desserts but I couldn't eat anything else.  I was full and tired!

If you want to see the desserts, check out Daisy's page!  The highlight of the evening was meeting Joanne Chang in person! She came over to thank us for coming and she was so nice!

Overall, this night was a lot of fun.  I do wish I got to talk to more people (note to self, arrive early so you can sit in the middle of the table!) but it was a great event.  Thanks Seth for setting it up.  See you all at the next Mystery Meet!  And if you a Bostonian who is interested in joining us at the next one- follow Mystery Meet on twitter so you follow the updates! Thanks Seth for a wonderful and delicious evening!

Cape Cod Weekend!

Over the weekend, Dave and I, along with my brother and his wife Natalia went to our friends Laura and Pete's Cape House.  It was such a relaxing weekend and we had so much fun! Friday night we headed over to Chapin's in Dennis.

We waited for almost two hours, but it was worth the wait.  I got a hot lobster roll (again- I'm addicted- missed my post on Neptune Oyster's hot lobster roll? Check it out here.)

After waiting for so long I think I could have eaten my arm so I really didn't spend much time enjoying this.  I spent much more time stuffing it into my mouth as quickly as possible. I was hungry! It was really good- not as good as Neptunes but it also wasn't nearly as expensive (Neptunes is $25!) After dinner, we headed back to the house and passed out pretty quickly.  On Saturday we woke up and went to the beach!

Most of us read and hung out in the sun... but one of us just couldn't sit still....

 Mike (my brother) did gymnastics and nearly broke his back several times. (I love the picture of Pete reading while Mike is doing headstands in the sand).
Then we decided to bury his wife Natalia in the sand.  Yes, us siblings can't sit still very long.

Aww, true love. 
Saturday night we made tons of food and stayed in- 1.35lb lobsters each, grilled corn on the cob, and an Orzo Salad. But first- oyster shooters (made by hubby Dave and Pete!)

Now these are my kind of shots! Then we played with and cooked the lobster, made the orzo salad and the corn on the cob.

And then time to eat!

Laura made the Orzo salad and it was AMAZING.  It's a Giada recipe and you should definitely make it!  Click here if you want the recipe.


After dinner, we enjoyed beers over the campfire and... yep, you guessed it... S'mores!
Step One: Add marshmallow to stick after you've stuck the stick into the fire for a few seconds. Then put it into the flame!

Be careful, the 'mellow doesn't catch on fire- if it does, blow it out!

Once marshmallow is slightly melted, add it to a graham cracker with a couple pieces of Hershey's chocolate and enjoy!

Mmmmm, I want one, NOW! 

And that was our weekend!
PS- Laura is the cutest pregnant girl ever- don't you agree?!? And she's 7+ months pregnant!

NYC Marathon Training Week 6

The week went okay. I was REALLY sore after Body by Jake until Wednesday.  I took off Monday, and Sunday but I probably didn't get enough distance in.  I know I need to get over and stay over 30 miles for the week but sometimes I'm working against the clock! Here's the detials:

Date: Tuesday August 3
Route/Workout:  Treadmill, Speed- 3 miles at 5K pace with 400 rest
Mileage: 5.5 miles
Total Time: 55 minutes

1 mile warmup- 10 min pace (6.0MPH, 1.0 incline)

1 mile at 7:42 min

400 Rest (walk, slow jog)

1 mile at 7:34

 400 Rest (walk, slow jog)

1 mile at 7:25 (OH YES)

1 mile cooldown

Date: Wednesday August 4
Route:  Treadmill, Recovery Run, Read entire new Runners World on Treadmill : )
Mileage: 5 miles
Total Time: 46 minutes
Avg Pace: 9:13

Date: Thursday August 5
Workout:  30 min eliptical, stretching

Date: Friday August 6
Route:  Ran ALONE : ( along the Charles at 8AM (already close to 90 degrees)
Mileage: 11 miles
Total Time: 1:47:48
Avg Pace: 9:48

Mile Splits and Mile Thoughts:  

Mile 1-8:47 starting off feeling good going over Mass Ave Bridge

Mile 2-9:07 still feeling alright

Mile 3- 9:18 going into Brighton, regretting wearing a tshirt instead of a tank

Mile 4- 9:24- Turning in Watertown onto Storrow and see a water fountain- so exicted!

Mile 5- 9:37- Cross bridge back to Memorial, Stop at gas station to buy water, continue on Memorial
Mile 6- 9:21- Are we done yet? Thinking there is no way I am going to hit 15 on my own

Mile 7- 9:19- Cross over Mass Ave Bridge back to Storrow

Mile 8- 9:50- hit water fountain, take some walking breaks

Mile 9- 9:58- Bridge closed on 28 near Muesem of Science for commuter rail, wait 5 min in hot sun until opens up, stopped watch 

Mile 10: 9:50 -Dying, taking walking breaks, can't wait to be done, run out of water, blisters hurting Mile 11: 13:13, Stopped to check on my blisters, didn't stop watch, finally cross Mass Ave bridge back to my gym! Contemplate doing 4 more miles on the treadmill but decide to call it a day.  Long Run Fail.

Date: Saturday August 7
Route:  Ran with my brother on the Cape in 90 degree weather at 5pm
Mileage: 3.68 miles
Total Time: 33:21
Avg Pace: 9:04

Mile Splits: 8:44, 9:14, 9:21, 8:54

Total Mileage for the Week: 25.18

CSA Week 7 & Vegetable Crepes!

CSA Week 7 was last Wednesday and here are my goods!

Peaches, Blueberries, Tomatoes, Corn, Lettuce, Kale, Broccoli, Spring Onions, Zucchini, Cucumber, Light Purple Eggplant and a purple pepper!


And with these delights, I made Summer Vegetable Crepes inspired by Eating Well! I got home at 8:30pm on Wednesday and wanted dinner fast so I cheated a bit and bought store bought crepes.  This is one of those meals where you can use whatever veggies you have on hand.  Here's the ingredients:

Ingredients:
1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/2 cup chopped fresh chives, divided, plus more for garnish
3 tablespoons low-fat milk
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped zucchini
1 1/4 cups chopped green beans
1 small eggplant
1 small pepper
1 small spring onions
1 cup fresh corn kernels, (from 1 large ear)
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 9-inch “ready-to-use” crêpes
Instructions:
Stir sour cream, 1/4 cup chives, milk, lemon juice and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl until mixed. Set aside. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini, green beans and corn, eggplant and pepper and cook, stirring, until beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Reduce heat to low; stir in ricotta, Monterey Jack, the remaining 1/4 cup chives, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Cook, stirring gently, until the cheese is melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. To roll crêpes, place one on a piece of parchment or wax paper (or leave it on the piece of plastic separating the crêpes in the package). Spoon one-fourth of the vegetable-cheese mixture (about 3/4 cup) down the center of the crêpe. Use the paper (or plastic) to help you gently roll the crêpe around the filling. 

Place the crêpe seam-side down on a dinner plate. Repeat with the remaining crêpes and filling. Serve each crêpe topped with 2 tablespoons of the reserved sauce and more chives, if desired.

This was a fast dinner and I love the ricotta mixed with the vegetables. Be careful rolling the crepes though because if you fill it too much, the crepe breaks easily!


I have a lot more to post in the next couple days- Week 6 of Marathon Training, my amazing Cape weekend and tomorrow nights Mystery Meet at Myers and Chang!