Running around

I’m starting (though semi-resisting) to get back into a rhythm.  Albeit at the moment that may or may not include much time getting wet in the pool.  But I do drive by it occasionally – that counts, right?

Saturday morning I woke up earlier than one should on a long weekend and hit up the area near Wakefield Park with the Pacer Fun Run folks to run in circles around Lake Accotink, which is nearby. 

It was a nice easy run, though my longest to date since IMFL even at a touch over 10 miles.  So while the pace was easy, my feet/legs were a bit uneasy about the whole situation.

Oh, I almost forgot – Friday night the Girl and I went just a short hop away to a place in Old Town that allows you to paint own pottery.  Of course, my artistic skills are highly limited, so I choose an airplane and then stuck a pig stamp on top of it (it’s a piggy bank).  But the Girl made a really nice little platter for her cupcake creations.

The blue-ish color will actually ‘burn’ a shiny white once it goes into the kiln.

Speaking of things I forgot, I spent a fair bit of time over the weekend working on Home Automation stuff.  As I think I’ve mentioned in the past, all of the light switches in my house are connected via computer.  So I can turn them all on/off from anywhere in the world, as well as setup routines to pretend I’m home, and just simply save a bundle on electricity.  Well, when I started doing Ironman training stuffs two years ago the system kinda fell into disarray and really wasn’t working well.  Sure you can always just hit the light switch to turn it on/off – but otherwise the computer piece of it wasn’t really working.  So I spent the weekend swapping out some of the older X10 technology pieces with newer faster Insteon stuff.   Night and day difference and with much less upkeep compared to X10.

Above – the bane of my existence.  Swapping out multi-gang boxes. I hate them. So much stuff crammed into one little area.  Plus, mine all have multi-light switch setups (two switches controlling one light), which adds to the complexity.

For example, below this keypad lights up Red when the Garage door is open (and there are three of these), so I’ll know if that accidentally happens.

Anyways…speaking of other little projects, I got this thing hooked up as well, got it from Best Buy during some of the Turkey Day sales – amazing deal.  It’s actually a photo frame, but also shows the weather, web photos, etc… And it looks pretty…cause that’s what matters.

Sunday the Girl and I went out biking.  We were going to head down south towards Prince William Forest Park – but we got on the highway and this is what we saw:

So we diverted to simply riding the W&OD trail.  I’ve often said that for long rides these type of bike path trails simply don’t allow you to get in a really good uninterrupted ride – and that was certainly true today. But instead I played around and did all sorts of Farklet type stuff and random intervals.  Just simply had fun.

Speaking of having fun – check out this dude – aero helmet and all.  See, while I was hanging out at the turnaround for The Girl, a guy came by on a tri bike with an aero helmet – and a full tri kit:

So I gave him a few mile head start and made it my mission to catch him on the way back.  I eventually did, though, it was because he stopped to pick up water.

Now, interestingly – he said that he had qualified for Kona for next year – 2010 - (he was chatting with some lady).  So, curiously I asked him where he qualified (just because looking at him, he didn’t strike me as having the body type to realistically top his AG).  He responded with “Ironman Chile…”, followed by “…back in October…I mean September.” 

So I thought to myself “Hmm, OK, the off the beaten path international events are indeed easier to qualify, so perhaps that makes sense”.  But, I noticed he was wearing a RoadID, so I asked some random question about his bike so I could get a closer look at his name to lookup later (Hey I’m curious, what can I say!).  It looked like ‘Lester’ – or something similar.  I figured plenty easy to find someone from Ashburn, VA (where he said he started) with that bit of info.

Fast forward to home…

I lookup Ironman Chile – which is actually Ironman Pucon 70.3 – and it’s in January – not September.  So that has me really confused (wrong time of year, and a Half event, not full).  I know that some 70.3 events do give out Kona slots, but I don’t think Pucon is on that list (here’s the older 2008 list).

I looked at the results, I looked through Athlinks, I looked through ASI photos to match him up…nuttin matches anywhere.  One guy named Daniel from the area who’s the real deal – but his photos don’t match at all (unless he’s gained 75 pounds and changed ethnicities).

So…what say you?  Is he a poser, or did I miss something?  I really want to believe he qualified – as that’s the kinda person I am, as it would be disappointing that folks go around saying they achieved something they didn’t.

Of course, I always want to end the day with a good meal, so the Girl and I made a Turkey Pot Pie tonight from some of the Turkey Leftovers.  Got the recipe here. Super quick and easy – though we added some Cumin, as well as a crapton of Salt and Pepper to made it taste much better.

So with that…have a good Monday!

Oh – and congrats to all of those who did IM Cozumel today, including Liz – who just finished a few minutes ago.

Oh part 2 – For those that have asked about the Garmin Edge 500 (coming out here shortly) – I don’t have a unit quite yet, but Garmin’s let me know they’re sending me out a trial unit to review here in the next week or so.  So I’ll let ya know when that happens.

Turkey Turkey

As I had mentioned on Sunday, I started my Thanksgiving dinner preparations a bit earlier in the week, with pumpkin pie.  But, those two pies didn’t exactly last very long around these parts – and certainly not until Thursday.

So I ate made two more.

Wednesday afternoon/night brought a flurry of activity related to the Big Day.  Around lunch time Wednesday I prepared the 20 pound Turkey in the brine for it’s 20 hour bath.  And then I and The Girl spent the rest of the day either grocery shopping, cleaning, or cooking.  Each of us individually hit up 5 grocery stores for various things.  Of course, no massive cooking day would be complete without some serious Excel action.

Though, the kitchen ended up being a massive game of chess that night, finding spots to move stuff around and still get most of the place settings out there while allowing The Girl enough room to create her creations.

I also setup two spare side tables – one with all the dishware to be used, and another for all the raw non-refrigerated ingredients.  Here’s the food table..

I started cooking and made a wide assortment of things, and the Girl worked on the beginnings of her Turkey Cupcakes (as well as the soup).  I also got the list of recipes and timings all sorted out as well, though without quite the amount of precision as last year.  Last year I had nailed out the exact in/out points for all the dishes into the oven.

Fast forward less than a handful of hours later to Thursday morning, and I find myself at the start line of the Alexandria Turkey Trot.  This is a local 5-mile flat course affair that attracts some fairly fast runners…and Turkey’s.

(Some of you may be new to the blog since last year – but that be my Turkey Costume, which I’ve worn now on a few occasions.  And of course, it will be worn every year for Thanksgiving Turkey Trots.)

Anyway, I got to the business of the day – which was helping to pace The Girl.  Though, she ditched me the first quarter of a mile or so and I had to play catch-up, but then we settled into a rather nice mid-6’s pace.  Clearly the ‘Leave no Turkey Behind’ act wasn’t in effect.

Of course, it probably would have been nicer had I followed any normal pre-race methodology – as just going through my little checklist I see the following:

1)    Nutrition Pre-Race: None
2)    Hydration Pre-Race: None
3)    Nutrition During Race: None
4)    Nutrition Post Race: None
5)    Sleep the night before: Very little
6)    Warm-up pre-race: 2x25 seconds
7)    On feet from 12PM-2AM the day prior (cooking, etc…): Check

So…this race turned out to be a bit of a comedy from a well run race standpoint – but then again, that might have been the case no matter what when you’re wearing a turkey costume.

Like last year – everyone loved the costume out on the course, especially the kids.  Lots of fun!

Around the 3.3 mile marker I was challenged to throw-down a bit…so I did.  And it hurt.  See the below – that red line – that’s my HR, note the massive spike at mile 3.3isH?

(The other massive spike at mile .5ish is just from my HR strap not being wet because I had no warm-up, so i just licked it and the problem went away)

So I threw down…and my HR flew up.  Pretty impressive actually.  The funny thing here really is noting how high my HR was even for the entire race – once again proving how critical the 7 items I noted above are in a good race.  Normally a mid-low 6’s pace would put me in the 160-165bpm category – not the 175-180 category.  And the 192bpm that I hit?  Well I never do that…really ever.  I found the little ‘top paces’ chart on Training Peaks kinda fun.  It shows you your top pace for each chunk of time (1 minute, 5 minute, etc…).

My total time was a 32:03 – which ain’t too bad at all for a Turkey.  Average of 6:22/mile.

Post race I caught up with Lindsay and Carl (a local who also follows the blog). And then I picked up some free chocolate milk.  Woohoo!  (no, not like the drink, but rather as expressing excitement).

And then I drove home to work on the Turkey.  The Girl thought this was entertaining and snapped a few pictures.

Once I got home it was time to swing into gear and get all sorts of cooking done.  Thankfully, though a bunch of friends were coming over – they were also helpers to preparation.

Above is Lindsay and Sonia, they got relegated to the BBQ side burner to do the Jack Daniels Carrots.  Unfortunately at this point all four burners inside the house were taken up – so they got kicked outside onto the deck. Sonia runs the Pacers Fun Runs – which I partake in.  You should too, because that’s where all the cool kids are.

Pat’s working on the Stuffing, while others get down to the business of cleaning and cooking.  Meanwhile, the kitchen looks as though it’s exploded.

Meanwhile, in the midst of all sorts of crazy cooking – The Bird –decides it’s done and out it onto the cutting board it goes.  It would rest a while before finally becoming dinner.

Speaking of Birds – The Girl knocked out some damn impressive turkey cupcakes – one for each guest.

The cupcakes were used as name/place settings on the table. You can see Lindsay’s below.

Though, somehow Lindsay’s head kept on falling off…

Poor Turkey…

Anyway, soon it was time to eat!

In case your curious – here’s the rundown of the Dinner Menu – well, at least the main/dessert courses anyway:

Main Courses:

Parsley-Root Soup with ‘Truffled’ Chestnuts
Mushrooms Stuffed with Brie
Caramelized Whiskey Carrots
Sweet-Roasted Rosemary Acorn Squash Wedges
Cranberry Quince Compote
Herbed Roast Turkey
Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Cornbread Stuffing
Freshly Baked Dinner Rolls
Homemade Turkey Gravy
Roasted Sage Sweet Potatoes

Dessert:
Homemade Pumpkin Pie
Upside down Blueberry Cake with Lemon Sauce
Turkey Cupcakes

So with that, another awesome dinner with friends…and a lot of very very full belly’s.

Steaks, Mud and the Track

With training in ‘off-season’ mode for a few weeks, I find myself with plenty of extra time.  I wandered to the pool early Friday evening and bumbled around a bit doing about 2,300 yards.  Nothing significant, a few sets of 350y and some other random stuff.  Given it had been two weeks since I last swam (apparently 10 hours in the water Shark Diving didn’t count…) – I just wanted to get back into the rhythm of swimming.
After that I headed to the grocery store with no particular plan for dinner in mind.  The thought of doing some variation of a beef tenderloin seemed appealing, though most times if you buy the tenderloin you have to buy the whole thing – usually in the $70-$80 range.  Now this wouldn’t be too bad as it provides plenty of meat for about a week’s worth of dinner for two – so the overall average is only like $10 a day.  But with Turkey day coming up, there’s already going to be plenty of food around.  On a whim I figured I’d ask the butcher if he’d cut it in half…and amazingly he did – which left me with enough for about 2-3 night’s worth of awesome dinner’s.
After my success at the meat counter I wandered through the produce area to see what was around and ended up with some Butternut Squash and Green Beans, and a bit of garlic – along with a few different fresh herbs.  Just whatever seemed interesting really – no plan or recipes.
 
I cut up the butternut squash and then mixed it with some cilantro and extra virgin olive oil.  After which I tossed it in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Then I cut off and trimmed a chunk of the meat and then seared the outside of the tenderloin.  While that was going on I went ahead and made a quick paste to spread on the tenderloin from some garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper.  Just quick and simple.

Post-searing I added the paste and then let it roast in the oven until it was fairly rare (The Girl likes her steaks to have the possibility of walking away).  While that was cooking I took the green beans and added some OJ in a hot pan and got them cooked, also put a bit of sea salt in there.  In a side pan I quickly cooked up some bacon I had in the freezer, which I would get all nice and crispy before mixing chopped up bits with the beans.

Finally, it was time to put it all together – and thus, I present ya with dinner:

Saturday I decided (re: got con’d) to join The Girl for her track workout.  While I’ve run twice since Ironman Florida two weeks prior, there hasn’t been much else aside from that given I was boat-bound.  So this was a bit of a rude awakening.  But, it was quite a bit of fun.  I ran the paces she set – which were still damned fast in the low 6’s.  She’s ready to unleash holy heck in some upcoming races (and I therefore will suffer alongside her).

All in about 8.5 miles of track time at varying paces and sets, with the main sets in the low 6’s..and one set dead even on 6:00 flat.  Each main set had a short jog in between.

Sunday I decided that I’d skip a ride on my road/tri bike and instead opt to have some fun in the trees with my ancient mountain bike.  I got to Wakefield (a place with both a rec center and great trails to ride/run) late morning and then just tooled around for about 90 minutes.  I was rocking it old school though with the bike from when I was a paperboy back a long long time ago.

There were some awesome puddles to play in – and in less than 10 minutes I was pretty dirty. Most of the time though I just cruised around through the trails.  I’m not a terribly good mountain biker – likely cause I only do it 2-3 times a year, but also because I just have a general dislike for flying down a hill with lose rocks and trees. 
There was virtually nobody there when I first got there – apparently mountain bikers aren’t really the ‘early’ type (though, I wouldn’t of have put 11:30AM in the early category).  But by time I left around 1PM there were a few more folks out there.

I had the most fun though in one monstrous deep gooey mud puddle, up to my bottom bracket in water depth (and finally finding a use for that 60 frame per second mode (slow-mo) on the new camera):

And here’s post ride – still gotta clean some of that mud off my bike.

I spent the rest of the day pretty much cleaning and figuring out the menu for Thanksgiving dinner.  If you remember last year, this year promises to be even better.  Tonight some time was spent on the beginnings of the pumpkin pie – from scratch of course.
Have a good week all!