Wonderful Weekend in Waverly

On an invitation from our friends Kim and Birdie and joined by Mike, Anita and Patti Mayonnaise, Sharon and I made it to Waverly, MN to spend a weekend and fight cabin fever.

That last things we did well, if the goal was not to spend time indoors, we did a pretty good job, as the pictures at the right will attest.

Upon arrival, we (and by we I mean Kim) used a chainsaw to cut a pretty perfect rectangle in the frozen lake. We then jumped from the very hot sauna to the lake.

If this was not enough to get your blood flowing, one of or trips was used to do some quick Yoga poses in knee-deep snow (in the picture we are doing a semi-successful warrior one).

This was my first time in a bathing suit while outdoors in December and all and all I have to say that it was not nearly as bad as I thought it'd be.

The water was definitely cold, but we were able to stay there for 20 to 30 seconds at a time (all three times). More surprising was that getting outside from the very hot sauna was no shock at all. We were told our bodies were steaming :-)

If that wasn't a good serving a outdoors, the next day Kim treated me to a ride in their snowmobile. You need to understand, I was born in Spain. Winters in Madrid get down to 30 degrees at the coldest of the day and while you see some snow (more so recently), there is nothing like Minnesota.

We rode over the lake an then through some trails. At one point we crossed a cocker spaniel who was able to run along with us for a pretty good stretch. Later on, we saw a whole family of deer. We really could not have planned a better ending for the trip.

My only mistake was getting as many clothes and I got on. Fearing being cold, I put on my winter running clothes, then some other layers and finished off with the thick coat and pants you see in the picture. It might have been 12 to 15 degrees and we may have reached up to 40 MPH, but I was definitely warm.

But this is a food blog. So let me tell you what we ate. Two things I remember from that weekend. The morning after jumping in the lake we went to Waverly Cafe for breakfast and I had my first serving ever of stuffed hash-browns. I am sorry to say I forgot to take a picture, even though I had my iPhone on the table ready to do so. They were beautifully cooked. Crispy and golden on the outside and soft and gooey with cheese, ham and bacon on the inside.

My favorite, though, was dinner the first night. Following all kinds of appetizers (including a brie loaded with a cranberry salsa that Patti Mayonnaise made), Kim treated us to a green curry that they learn how to make in a trip some years ago. Particularly interesting was the green curry itself, which Kim made from scratch and that had the perfect amount of heat.

The chicken, often overcooked was perfectly tender and juicy. The veggies had the nice crunch you want to add texture to the dish. The sauce was sweet and spicy but still allowed all the flavors from the coconut mild and the green-ness of the green curry to come through. To top it off, hot peppers and Thai basil. What a treat!

Thanks, Kim and Birdie for a wonderful weekend all around.

Turkey Meatballs with Saffron

For the last few years I have been perfecting an old recipe for meatballs that I brought in a cookbook from Spain.

After making them several times (20+), the recipe no longer looks like the original (in the least). I have changed de meat (from a mix of pork, veal and beef to just ground turkey) and over time I have added other ingredients (like saffron, wine, herbs and San Marzano tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes).

The result (if I may say) is pretty exceptional. Definitely one of the best dishes coming out of my kitchen. They are good over pasta, but in a pinch you can just stick them in a french baguette for a quick dinner. Just make sure you have lots of napkins.

For the sauce I start with lots of onion in olive oil and later add some garlic. When they start turning a nice brown color, I add the San Marzano tomatoes (broken down between my fingers to start making a sauce). I then cook the mix for 20 to 30 minutes with salt, pepper, oregano thyme and saffron and later add some red wine and cook for another 15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, I start making the meatballs. I like mine small, about the size of an egg yolk. Fr teh ingredients I use ground turkey, mixed in with some of the cooked onions and garlic (before the tomatoes were added), an egg, Panko breadcrumbs, salt pepper and more saffron. I roll them in flour and fry them in olive oil before adding them to the sauce, where they cook for another 10 or 15 minutes.

I've said it before, and I will say it again. If you could marry a meatball, this would be most definitely the one to choose.

Kobe at Home

Left alone for Christmas Eve, I decided to treat myself. On my last visit to Coastal Seafoods, the day before, I decided to fork in a few bucks and head for the meat case and buy a Kobe beef rib-eye. As I have indicated before in this blog, I am not much of a meat eater, but now and then I enjoy a steak, and Kobe beef is just the one that can easily make it into an exception. You can see in the picture at the right, how beautifully marbled it was.

I know just how to cook it. Kobe beef should never be put on a grill. It has too much fat (the good kind) and the drippings will result in flames that make it char too fast. Kobe beef is best cooked on a very hot flat surface, like a cast iron pan. My biggest problem was figuring out what to serve with it.

I knew what to have for dessert. That was easy. As I was coming home from the store the day before, Nancy, one of our neighbors, had left some home-made macaroons (left), one of my favorite pastries. But still, the vegetable and starch were escaping me.

Lately I have been developing a strong taste for wilted greens. More particularly the sturdy ones like Swiss chard. So I opted for making that with some very smokey bacon, garlic and olive oil. For the starch, I decided to make smashed potatoes (which have already appeared in this blog due to their deliciousness). These are basically boiled potatoes that are then smashed and cooked in a hot oven with plenty of olive oil, salt and pepper until they get crispy on the outside. Those came out perfect.

To top the potatoes, I added some home-made preserve-lemon and garlic mayonnaise that I made a few days before. Served with a glass of Cabernet, I have to say, I had little to complaint. Being alone, I ate in front of the TV where I watched a good ol' classic movie via Roku (courtesy of Netflix): Serpico.

A New Milestone

Running 5 times a week, you are likely to hit milestones with a certain frequency. Last Saturday I hit 4,000 miles (about 6,400 KM) since I started recording my miles (which is almost to say the same as since I started running). As a reference, that is a little short of the distance between Madrid, Spain and Chicago, IL as the bird flies. The total (consecutive) time it took to run that distance? 25 days, 14 hours, 29 minutes and 38 seconds.

More interesting is the fact that this is the fastest 1,000 miles I have ever reached. It took me 567 days (basically 18 months) to hit the first 1K. In 434 days I reached 2K. I brought that number down again to reach 3K miles in just 357 day (first under 12 months, even if just by a bit). The last thousand miles were reached in exactly 300 days. A tad under 10 months. That is over 8 months faster than the first thousand!

The increase is probably due to the number of marathons completed in 2010 (4) and the associated training. More so, I have learned enough about my own body to learn when not to push and as a result I have been running injury free for the last two years, reducing my downtime.

I don't expect for a significant change from this point, though. Largely because last year I was very disciplined about running regularly and following my training schedule, which is unlikely to change. Still, I bet I can bring it down by another couple of weeks. Game on!

23 on the treadmill

Tomorrow I have my last long run before the January 9 indoor Marathon Zoom! Yah! Yah!

The schedule calls for 23 miles and I have made up my mind to run them on a treadmill, to build tolerance for running indoors. I am both looking forward and dreading it. It is a good feeling, I think.

My only worry is to hog one of only two treadmills at the building for at least three and a half hours. I hope not too many people come around at the time looking for some time on the treadmill. I will start running early to minimize that risk.

Gardens of Salonica with my Phoenix friends

Note: This post is dedicated to Rosemary (not the herb :-), who insisted I had to write a snippet about this place and post the picture below.

Last Wednesday we had a condo homeowners association board meeting (no, I am not a member of the board, all residents are invited) where we got to elect new board members. These meetings go long enough and by the time it ends you can really use a glass of wine and the company of friends.

Weather was cold, but we have plenty of places in walking distance around our building. Our choice for the night was Gardens of Salonica, a New Greek and Deli Cafe.

There must have been about 12 of us. Food is always terrific. The warm pita is a great starter. I had one of the specials, lamb en papillote (although they didn't call it that way). This was lamb cooked in parchment paper with lots of veggies and a few roasted potatoes. The picture at the right shows the waitress opening the goodness package.

The dish was made large enough for two to share, so Mel (a neighbor and member of the building's running club) and I shared the contents. My favorite part was the eggplant, which had taken (and given) a lot of flavor from the other veggies and the lamb. I will definitely have to try something like this at home. I don't eat enough lamb, which is definitely my favorite red meat (although I am not much of a meat eater).

My only complaint about the place (as it has been in the past) is the wine. Greek wine may be a peculiar thing to have, but there is a reason why they are not really big at the local wine shop. Still, the quality of the food and the company where sufficient to bring some warmth to that very cold night otherwise.

Manhattan Clam Chowder

Last weekend I did one of my favorite things in the kitchen: roasted tomatoes. I simply take the core out, cut them in half and put then in a hot oven with some thyme, oregano and extra virgin olive oil.

Two things happen in the oven. First, some of the water evaporates and thus concentrates the favor on the tomatoes, making them somewhat deeper and even adds some caramelization with the sugar on the tomato. Second, since tomatoes have so much water, the only part that really chars is the skin, reason why I don't peel them or discard the skin afterwards. In the skin is the only place where the char flavor resides.

With the tomatoes, I then made a three soups.

• A vegan roasted tomato soup to be eaten with Roquefort and cayenne-spiced walnuts (which I made myself as well). This one is very smooth and velvety.

• A rustic roasted tomato soup with soem sheep yogurt to be eaten with home-made croutons (made with aged sheep cheese).

• Roasted tomato Manhattan clam chowder (pictured). For this I used some of that awesome hardwood smoked bacon from Minette and Buzz. This was was particularly delicious and last night's dinner.

Good bye Nirvana, Hello Nirvana - A new Retirement Run

Yesterday I run my last four miles with my pair of Mizuno Wave Nirvanas. Following my tradition, I put 400 miles on every pair of shoes and then retire them. My last retirement was September 15th (a pair of Kayanos). That doesn't mean I have run 400 miles since that date. I rotate 4 or 5 pairs of shoes and these ones were well on their way.

For some reason I used to consider my Nirvana's trainers and didn't get much race time. Still, they managed my last Rails to Trails Marathon and completed two of my three legs on the last Ragnar relay.

It didn't take long for them to disappear. Soon after their last run, I received the picture below from W Nirvana, left, who is enjoying the white sandy beaches of Hawaii. Right seems to be nowhere to be found, so it was either taking the picture, of they had a fallout.

The Nirvanas will be replaced in the rotation by a new pair of Nirvanas (6th generation), which have been patiently waiting in the box since the last big discount at Run n' Fun.

Servian at Dan and Holly's

Our neighbors and friends, Dan and Holly invited us for a night of Serbian food at their house. Holly's parents are Serbian and Croatian and she knows her stuff. Overall the night was great fun. We laughed like we have not for a long time.

After appetizers, the main portion of the meal started and it did so with a bang: kaimach. Kaimach is a very addictive mix of cream cheese, butter and just enough feta cheese to give it a little salt. You use it as you would butter on bread. We certainly did, devouring nearly two loafs of bread. The Kaimach was served with cranberries, which I will admit not trying. Never been a big fan, but looking at the picture now I regret.

For the entree we had Chicken Paprikash (pictured below). Not sure how long it cooked, but it was falling off the bone. The sauce was succulent and partly responsible for the quick disappearance of the bread. The chicken was accompanied with bell peppers and dumplings, which as we were told, in Serbian cuisine are more consistent (eggy was he word used) than they are in other areas.

Stealing the evening was one of our hosts, whose name I will not butcher (even though this is a food blog ;-), but that we dubbed Einstein because of the obvious resemblance.

Thanks Dan and Holly for the invitation, great conversation and finger-licking culinary trip to the former Yugoslavia.

Popcorn!

Kudos to Sharon for making the most awesome popcorn ever. Sharon's recipe is very simple: corn, extra virgin olive oil and kosher salt. The result is still outstanding.

Using good olive oil is crucial. My favorite kind is something like hojiblanca. It has a nice green and slightly bitter taste. One of those olive oils that do taste like olives.

The occasion for the popcorn was movie night at the Phoenix, a BYOP event (the last P standing for popcorn). The movie? Home for the Holidays. A classic for Thanksgiving day that opens with an awesome version of Santana's Evil Ways performed by Rusty Nails.

A terrible meal at Manny's

Disclaimer: I am not really a meat eater. Whenever we go out to eat to a nice place (or even a middle of the road kind of place) I make a point to order always seafood. Whenever I have broken that rule, I am always disappointed.

Counterdisclaimer: Even with the disclaimer above, I have to say I am not a vegetarian. I eat pork, lamb, chicken and I CAN enjoy a beef steak (or the occasional burger). In fact, one of my favorite restaurants is Capital Grille, where the few times I go there I will order a steak tartare for an appetizer and for the entree one of their specialties, the porcini rubbed Delmonico, a dry aged, bone-in ribeye that is a piece of heaven.

Both points made, let me start this post.... Last Saturday we went to Manny's, a fairly famous steak house right at the heart of downtown Minneapolis (at the bottom of the W hotel in the Foshay tower). I will admit I was't going with the greatest of expectations, (see disclaimer above), but given their reputation I was willing to make the best of it and even enjoy a steak (see counterdisclaimer above).

After a round of cocktails/martinis, we ordered a couple of appetizers to share. The Scallops Benedict, came sheared over bacon on top of a piece of brioche and covered in Hollandaise sauce (see picture above). I was not impressed. I felt the Scallops didn't have a nice char and the brioche was greasy.

The House Made Chips (below) weren't much better. I thought they were too thin, a tad overcooked and the plate was way too big. The latter was an obvious attempt to be able to charge $7.95 for potato chips. A corollary that would repeat time after time during our meal.

Our waitress came with a cart with sample of their steaks (and a cool live lobster). Immediately it was obvious nobody would go home hungry (perhaps disappointed, but no hungry). I will spare you all the descriptions, but the Porterhouse would not fit in a family sedan and the bone-in ribeye was three pounds for a single serving. The latter was dubbed the Bludgeon of Beef (this is not a joke, check out the menu online, that is the name). Ordering that entry (no sides) will set you back $75.95.

At that point I remembered that the protein portion of your plate is supposed to be the size of a deck of cards. Not at Manny's, where the food pyramid was perpetually inverted. This is no joke, the plate of steamed broccoli the four of us shared was about the same size in volume than the single serving rib-eye we were being shown.

Still I was there to play ball, so I ordered a rib-eye (not the ridiculous 3 lbs. one, but a more sensible one that still dug a $49.95 in our collective wallet. Please know that I don't usually make a point to complain about the price of a meal. But in this case, the disparity of price to service and quality was so large that I felt cheated and offended. Even embarrassed.

John ordered the same steak that I did. Sharon and Clark ordered Salmon and Halibut. For sized we ordered hash-browns and steamed broccoli.

Here are the results. The two fish entrees had to be sent TWICE back because they were overcooked and as a result dry. At that point they had eaten enough of the entrees and our steaks that they decided not to ask for a third attempt from the kitchen, which was unlikely to be a charm.

The hash-browns where unevenly cooked but I guess they weren't terrible, though not worth the $11.95. The rib-eyes were just OK, but depicted my main complaint against steakhouses. You spend $49.95 for a steak at a nice steakhouse and what do you get? A steak. At least at Capital Grille they rub some porcini on the outside to give it great color an flavor. Mine had some tough parts running through it, but I won't complain much more, since it ended up feeding more than just me.

The broccoli was fine. A tough one to screw up, I guess.

To compensate for the fish being sent back twice, dessert was on the house. Not that we got to select it. They instead brought an obscene brownie. If they were trying to redeem themselves, that was the wrong messenger. To show you the stupid size of the portion, I took a picture with a dollar bill behind it.

The brownie was covered in no less than a half a pound of ice-cram and whipped cream and loaded with fudge, caramel and nuts.

It may sound good, but it felt like the rest of the meal. Too large and not good enough for the reputation of the place. We had a few bites and called it a night.

The final bill (which did not include two of the entrees or the dessert) exceeded $300 for the four of us before the tip. My general feeling is that the quality, portion sizes and prices were just not in lockstep with a reality of the times in which frugality has become hip. Don't get me wrong, I am not particularly frugal, but after that meal, I felt embarrassed.

One thing is clear. That was my only first and last time at Manny's. It will also be some time before I visit another steakhouse.

Squeezing a last one outside

Last weekend I had to log 14 miles and the weather was just on the brink of cold. With a high of 27, I thought it was a last opportunity to squeeze a last run out in my shorts.

Fourteen miles call for a run around lake Calhoun. From home that is just under 13 miles. If I add a detour on the way back, I can easily make it 14.

It was a great run. With little effort I managed to average 8:39 per mile. I run a cross a few other runners (some still in shorts, like me). It was a good way to say goodbye to outdoor running. At least until my next (indoor) marathon.

So from this point on, it's all indoors. The dreaded treadmill will be my friend to help me develop the thick skin and tolerance for misery I will need to run 26.2 at St Olaf College.

The first small test is this weekend which calls for 8 miles. The next weekend I will have to do 23 on the treadmill. My last long run before the January 9 marathon.

Gotta go to work. Safe trails!

2010 Thanksgiving

Sharon really surprised me a coupe of weeks ago when she said: "How about we make something other than turkey for Thanksgiving this year?" You have to understand that Thanksgiving is Sharon's favorite holiday and that while not particularly conservative, she is a traditionalist when it comes to holiday food matters.

Joining us were John and Clark (who come every year and bring awesome pies) as well as Melinda (Sharon's sister) and Rachel (her daughter), who also join us every year.

The evening started with some appetizers wile we cooked dinner. A triple cream goat brie served warm with crackers was an immediate success. Also keeping us from starvation were chilled asparagus tips with home made aioli and Dukkah (a mix of crushed hazelnuts, pepper, cumin, sesame and coriander seeds, and salt) with home baked bread and extra virgin hojiblanca olive oil.

The main meal included balsamic roasted vegetables (sunchockes, carrots, cipollini onions, green onions and beets). These came out perfect. Sweet and earthy expertly caramelized by Sharon.

A staple of our Thanksgiving that survived the change in menu was Sharon's stuffing made this year with home made croutons, pork sausage and lost of sage. The gravy was a last minute addition from the pork drippings, which included some walnut pieces from the crust (see below).

The other starch of the evening were smashed potatoes with Crème Fraîche and fresh chives. Smashed potatoes are very small potatoes that have been parboiled, then smashed on a cookie sheet over parchment paper and finally crisped in the oven with salt, pepper and lots of extra virgin olive oil. The result is s-p-e-c-t-a-c-u-l-a-r.

We opted for two main proteins (in case you felt we didn't have enough food so far). Sharon made a grilled leg of lamb glazed with a pomegranate reduction. This was cooked to 135 degrees to make it nice a rare (and tender).

The second protein (pictured at left) was a pork loin, stuffed with wild mushrooms, spinach, chèvre and shallots and crusted with walnuts.

The recipe (for the crust anyway, since the final dish was the result of several recipes combined as well as some ideas of my own) called for browning in olive oil before placing in the oven. To protect the integrity of the crust and not loose too many walnuts, I opted to skip this step.

If I were to do this again I would have at least browned the loin prior to applying the curst but probably do it with the crust. The size of the loin once stuffed made this quite difficult, however.

Dessert was pie. Three of them, of course so we could feed all six people. John made the crusts and Clark the fillings. As requested, we got a pumpkin pie (which looked picture perfect), an apple pie (also beautiful with a nice golden color crust) and a pecan pie (my hands down favorite this year). All three were awesome.

Phoenix Chili contest

A couple of weeks back we had ourselves a Chili contest in our building. Dubbed the Chili Hoedown, we had a terrific turnout (no fewer than 8 chilis and over 20 attendees.

I made a three-bean vegetarian chipotle chili that I had made in the past and came out terrific. I will admit that my beans were a tad hard (I started with dry beans) and that in the unsuccessful attempt to soften them on time for the contest I burned the bottom a bit.

I suspect and hope the petite diced jalapeños, 4 year old cheddar and the Crème Fraîche helped masked the shortcomings of my entry, which sill managed to get quite a few votes and was nearly gone by the end of the evening. (Sorry, I got distracted when people came and didn't actually get pictures of the chilis, I know, I know...)

Another great success was the cornbread and honey butter. Both Sharon and Anita made heir versions and I couldn't tell which one was better but to find out I had several pieces of each :-)

People really enjoyed the evening. Yet another opportunity to get together, meet new neighbors and chat with old friends.

Timing could not have been better. The morning of the contest, we got our first snowfall of the 2010 winter which blanketed Minneapolis and gave us beautiful views from the River Room, the venue of our event. The snow gave us also the opportunity at the end of the evening to make some good ol' snow angels. Below is a picture or our angel makers, (from left to right) Sharon, Anita and Mike.

Abandoned on Turkey Day!

Again this year, Sharon and I decided to run the Lifetime Fitness Turkey Trot 5k. This is one of multiple races that takes place on Thanksgiving morning around the country (a quick Google search returns over one million results).

For this year, we invited the other residents of our building to join us. Initially the response was very positive. Some signed up to run it, some to walk it, but the total count got really quick close to 10.

Then came winter...

The forecast for Thanksgiving morning in Minneapolis called for nice clear and mostly sunny skies, low wind (13 mph) and nearly no chance of precipitation.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot... it also called for 11 degrees ("feels like -5"). That's when we started losing runners. The reasons were various, but I suspect weather was on everybody's mind, as of course was on ours.

We still decided to go for it. We dressed burqa-style and planned our run. To me, once you put so many layers a 5K didn't seem quite long enough, so I decided to add a couple of miles by running to the start (that's where I took the two pictures above with my spy cam)

Sharon opted for a drive to the start line. We decided to meet under the Hard Rock Cafe guitar. Even though we left at the same time and I had a few stops to take some shots, because of traffic, parking and the crowds, I still made it there a good 15 to 20 minutes before Sharon got to the meeting point. The clothes that seemed appropriate for running proved insufficient for standing more than 10 minutes and soon I stopped feeling my fingertips. That made taking shots with the mini camera and its mini controls so much more difficult, but still managed to get some pictures of people in turkey costume (one of the fun parts of the run).

The run itself was fun. Even with the cold weather, the crowd was so large that it took us over three minutes to get to the start line after the gun went off.

The first mile was very, very slow while swerving through the crowds, stopping to look at people and pets in costume and fidgeting with my camera with frozen fingertips.

After a mile I decided to join Sharon who after all was the only one that had joined me on this frozen morning crazy run. Here she is pictured at the run already warm enough that she had to take her gloves off (BTW, mine were on for the duration of the race, but then again, I was born in Spain, not in Iowa).

The crowd at the end was just as large and festive as it was at the beginning and soon depleted the muscle milk samples they were passing around. A major disappointment since I was really looking forward to some chocolate milk. A quick stop at Caribou Coffee on the way back home for a full rack (an off the menu variation of the Mocha where you don't have to choose between milk, white or dark chocolate, but rather have them all three) made up for the missed muscle chocolate milk in spades.

R2T: The Lost Footage - Runs 4 Food Exclusive!

Runs 4 Food has just acquired exclusive rights to video footage never seen before of the Rails to Trails tunnel as seen from a first person perspective by one of the 2010 Marathon runners.

This video, once considered to be lost was found in the iPhoto trash folder. It is believed the video was accidentally deleted when reviewing pictures after the race. When in view mode, videos appear just like pictures and the first frame looked like a pretty bad picture and was deleted as a result.

Fortunately, a routine check of the trash folder by one of our editors raised some questions about the length of the clip. After a review, its existence was immediately brought up to the attention of this blog's management.

The clip can now join human kind patrimony along with other such videos like the JFK assassination, the 1967 sight of Bigfoot at Bluff Creek, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon and balloon boy.

Under cover

Three things have taken place that are going to affect my running in the next few months:

• First, fall is nearly finished and temperatures have started to drop significantly in Minnesota (we even got our fist snowfall, followed just a few days later that by ice-covered streets)
• Second, I have started a new job at work that has changed my schedule slightly and I find myself running mornings instead of evenings, something I have always preferred, but at this time of the year it is colder and even darker.
• Third, having just completed the Rails to Trails marathon, my next one is the Zoom! Yah! Yah! indoor marathon.

This is the trifecta from hell that is resulting in me hitting the treadmill this winter instead of the paved road. I am not crazy about treadmills and really don't have a problem running outside in winter, but it is the third one of the reasons that is making me waver. (Although I do intend on taking a few outdoor runs this winter, they are just too fun.)

Running an indoor marathon is miserable enough (in this case a closed track that has to be run 150 times), but the temperature will be too warm for me (I imagine somewhere in the 60's, a cry from my ideal low 40's).

So I decided to train on the closest surface I could think of (closest also because it is right inside my building's fitness center). So the idea is to mentally prepare for a boring 26.2. Can you think of a better way? In fact, when looking at my log, historically, I have averaged faster runs on treadmills than on road (9:03 per mile vs. 9:07). This is either due to having a pace forced on me or do to a need to speed up to get it over with. Either way, faster is faster.

It's not something I haven't done before. While a member of Bally's, I run 20 miles on a treadmill, I did it in four segments, since most treadmills won't run for more than an hour. So I took a 1-minute walking break in between each segment. Sufficient time to write down on a piece of paper the time and distance achieved for the last segments and setup the new one on the treadmill.

The Golden List

After four years running I have finally compiled the perfect running song list. And now I am ready to share it with the world.

First let me give you some background. Almost from the very beginning of my running I have been running to some tunes. Soon I realized that certain songs wee much better than some others. Sometimes they add an extra skip to your step, sometimes they help you keep going when you thought you were done.

One of the best days of my running times was when USATF amended rule 144.3(f), allowing headsets for those not competing for a price and thus opening nearly every marathon to allow iPods on the course. I felt so strongly that the rule had to be amended that for the 2009 Twin Cities Marathon I made my own T-shirt which in the back read: "USATF 144.3(f) amended. Headphones allowed on the course. We won. Rock on!"

Slowly, I started compiling a list. I would listen to a sing on the radio, and feeling it might have the right stuff, I would add it to the list. Then on my next run, I would take it for a test drive and confirm my suspicion or removed it. This, however, didn't result in a very long list. Too many songs appeared good and ended up not working out.

Beats-per- minute (BPM) was for sure a main factor, but we are not hardwired to calculate those very well, and iTunes at the time (and still now) didn't calculate them. Them camebeaTunes, the great complement to everything iTunes doesn't do. For $31.95 you can download the full, rich-featured version that will scout your iTunes library and will (among many other things), remove duplicates, find typos on artist names, upload lyrics, populate Album Artist (usually from Artist), and best of all, calculate and populate BPM.

That entirely changed the game. using the newly calculated BPM, I created an auto playlist that contained songs from the genres I like (avoid Holiday, Classic, Jazz and other genres I like but rather not run to) within a specific beat range (I also doubles it, since a song at 160 BPM is just as good ti run to as one at 80, you just hit the pavement on every beat, instead of just on every other beat.

My library of nearly 15,000 songs resulted in more songs I could even fit in my iPod Shuffle. I used this in two ways. I run to the list, but also, when I found particularly good songs, I added them to my manually generated list. The reason I kept my manual list is that, important as BPM is, it is not the only factor in helping select a great running song.

With all the time you have running, I easily fell prey to my other passion (fault?): overanalyzing. Slowly I developed a list of what makes a good running song. Here are those factors:

• BPM (of course). Research has shown that athletes running at the beat of a tine improve endurance by 14%. The ideal pace (this is not as much a personal choice as you'd think, faster runners keep the same cadence, they simply have longer strides to cover more ground) is around 85 BPM.
• Obviously you need to like the song. The best BPM will do nothing if you hate the artist.
• Consistent beat. A guy on an acoustic guitar with no percussion usually makes for a bad running tune. Surprisingly, even great artists don't keep a perfect beat (Chris Smithers and Bob Dylan are great, but tough to run to).
• The best songs start with a really obvious beat. Since not all good songs are exactly 85 BPM, having a clear hint to help you adjust your stride comes in very handy.
• The beat must be present in the song from beginning to end. IN some great songs with just the right beat, the artist decodes to do a guitar solo in the middle and they kill the percussion, or he decides to do a change in rhythm for a few seconds and you can't run to that.
• This is not common, but some songs have lyrics that refer to running, achieving a goal or have a theme something that you can make part of your running. As an example, repeatedly playing Queen's The Show Must Go On helped me "go on" running for the last three miles of 2009 Rails to Trails without breaking into a walk, helping me achieve 3:59:48. Walking just for a minute would have eliminated my chance of breaking for hours that day.

The final song list (a.k.a. the Golden List), has only 31 songs. I don't like to have too many, so in case of need I can easily skip a few to find the one I desperately need. I will share it with you, but please know this is a very powerful list and should be used with caution (with great power comes great responsibility). The first day I took it for a spin, I got a PR (beat my own fastest time for an 8 mile run on road by 7 seconds per mile). Running with it from mile one of a marathon can result in running too fast and then no song can save you when you have run out of power.

With that, let me introduce you to (drumroll)... the Golden List:

The list has a little bit of everything. Even with similar beat, some songs help you slow down and others speed up. For example, Un Año de Amor and No Ordinary Love are great to remind you not to go too fast even though both have one more BPM than Good Thing, which will prompt you to pick up the pace. Don't ask me why. It's part of the magic of this list.

If you try it, you will find that some songs require faith. Dire Straits Private Investigations has exactly 85 BPM, but feels much slower. Be one with the list and you will find every one of the 85 beats. This is not an issue with Phil Collin's Don't Lose my Number, The Rolling Stone's Paint it Black, Elvis' Don't be Cruel or Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl, great songs that have a marked beat from the start.

Pink Shoelaces by Dodie Stevens turned out to be a surprise find. A song that I would not listed on any other context, is just perfect for running. San Francisco Bay Blues by Eric Clapton has already been mentioned several times on this blog and it is just the perfect song. I dare you to take a walking break while it plays!

I admit to having added Joplin's Me and Bobby McGee which is not a perfect fit and Everett's Bad Things, which ha not yet been vetted (just added that one thinking it may work). I vouch for the rest, even though I understand you may want to skip on the Spanish ones.

Either way, here it is for you... use it for good and not for evil.

Statistics!

Who doesn't love statistics? I have been logging every one of my runs since I started running regularly back in June of 2006. Since then, I have run close to 4,000 miles in 596 runs (that's is an average of 6.5 miles per run. This is enough data to start running some juicy statistics.

Let me start with some definitions that will come in handy later. I need to explain some of the classifications or labels I use for run types:

• Club run: I started labeling these to differentiate from my other training runs since in them I am not in full control of the pace
• Hill repeats: A run that goes back and forth on a good incline. Starts with a 10 minute run at easy pace on a flat surface and then eight to ten runs uphill each followed by a walk downhill. The drill ends with another ten minutes on a flat surface.
• Long run: This is the Holy Grail of the runs. The reason why all the other types of run exist. The purpose is distance, not speed. The only rule is go long.
• Race: well... miles run on a race, duh!
• Recovery: A run that follows an intensive day (whether speed, long run, hill or tempo). Run at a slower pace, the purpose is to recuperate from the exertion of the last run.
• Speed: A drill that also starts with 10 minutes at an easy pace and then alternates bursts of speed with stretches at an easy pace (I usually do 1 min at full speed followed by 90 seconds at a very easy trot). This drill also ends with 10 minutes at an easy pace.
• Tempo: A run at a pace slightly faster than is entirely comfortable.
• Trail run: this is self-explanatory, but I wanted to point out that this number is artificially low in the stats below because most of my trail runs have been races, so they are labeled as race. A good indicator of my trail runs is looking at the New Balance column in the tables below, since my only pair of New Balance happens t be also my only pair or trail shoes.
• Warm up: I read an article on the perfect training week which called for 4 runs a week: tempo, recovery, speed (or alternatively hill repeats) and long run. I wanted to run a fifth day, so I instituted a short 4 mile run on Saturdays to warm up for my long run on Sundays.

Let's start with average pace. Hill repeats are the slowest since they involve a slow run uphill and a walk downhill. Speed runs are also artificially and counterintuitively slower because of the alternate high and low speed.

I would have liked to see a faster pace on my tempo runs, but am glad to see they hold their ground as the fastest ones. I am also happy to see that my long runs hold a respectable 9:06 pace. This is not bad considering that they very often exceed 15 miles. Even better is seeing that on my races (when it counts), I still shave 4 seconds off my long run pace.

A breakdown of type of run by shoe brand (table immediately below) immediately shows that Asics are my favorite shoe (specifically the Asics Kayano). They account for nearly 65% of all my miles logged. The most common type of run is a tempo run (36.9%) followed by long runs (22.5%).

I like to see that just 14.1% of my miles are races. This is an indicator that I train quite a bit for my races.

You can also see I am not a big fan of hill repeats or even speed runs. They played a role to get me to increase my pace and help me break 4 hours on a marathon, but after that, they fell out of favor for the less complicated tempo runs. I have always said I am a lazy athlete, which suits running very well since there is no complexity to it - you just put on a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and some shoes and head out the door.

A count of races by shoe also highlights my personal preference for Asics. Although, lately I have felt, every pair of shoes should complete a significant (half marathon or longer) race before their retirement. It's my little way to thank them for services rendered.

The table to the right displays totals by surface. Here I was able to bring all of my trail miles (not that many, really, but growing as of lately). By a long mile (no pun intended), I am a road warrior. I like the predictability and ease of the paved surface (in addition to being a lazy athlete, I am also a pretty boring one).

The treadmill miles are a consequence of living in Minnesota. Last year was my first one running outside through the winter, well below freezing temperatures. I remember the day running around Lake Calhoun when the contents of my bottle of Gatorade froze into an undrinkable slush. Even last year, however, only the long runs where done outside. It just takes too long to put on so many layers to got for a 5 or 6 mile run.

The table for races is also interesting. Forty-two in total with the most common being the Marathon. As I said, the long runs are the Holy Grail or my runs, so it makes sense that Marathons would be the most populate of my races.

It should be noted that The Ragnar Relay number is overstated since I am counting relay legs and not races.

The large number of 5K races is partly due to them being a fun thing to do and partly a way to get a t-shirt. Last, I'd comment on the only two 20 milers. They were used to prepare for my first two Twin Cities Marathons, and where soon replaced for training runs of the same or longer distance without the registration cost.

To close I will include some of my records:

• Fastest race: 2007 Lung Run (benefits lung cancer research) 5K in 0:23:23 or 7:32/mile
• Fastest run: A tempo run on Sept 4, 2008 - 5.5 miles in 0:40:00 (7:15/mile)
• Longest run: 42.1 miles at the 2010 Ragnar Relay race (completed in three legs and a victory lap with the team on the last mile). The longest run in one sitting would be the 2008 Mardi Gras marathon in New Orleans (4:01:41), the only marathon I have run beginning to end without a single walking step.
• Best marathon time: 2008 Twin Cities - Finished in 3:51:49 or 8:51/mile. It was windy, cold and rainy... it was great!
• Most fun time running: 2009 Ragnar Relay Race, hands down.

Hope you enjoy this post. It was over 4 years and 15 pairs of shoes in the making (it also took a while to collect the numbers).

Happy trails!

Hot date at Sanctuary

Every now and then, Sharon and I go on a hot date. Dinner at a nice place for just the two of us. Last night it was at Sanctuary. An odd little place on 903 Washington Ave S. The long shaped restaurant is decorated with gargoyles. Between that and the name, I can't help but to think of Sharon's PS3 role-playing games. To add to the oddity, the menus are attached to balusters, making them hard to negotiate while sitting at the small table.

We are almost instantly puzzled by the menu. Usually there are several items I want to try and narrowing it down is difficult. Further adding to the oddity of the place, each item on the menu starts with a good description, and then some strange and unexpected ingredient is added. Judge for yourself:

• Tuna sashimi, mustard seed oil, grilled avocados and shaved dark chocolate
• Bruschetta of tomatoes, roasted bell pepper, lemongrass cilantro pesto and tequila braised veal tongue
• Wild acres farm duck breast with a sweet potato puree, spicy macintosh apple chutney and eau de vie of douglas fir sauce
• Lobster tail over rice on an egg nog sauce

The chef is either excellent and very confident on his ability to combine surprising ingredients or got the recipes mixed up. To break the stalemate we encounter ourselves with the menu I say to Sharon: "let's be adventurous". My intent is to steer clear off the safe items on the menu and go with the flow.

For appetizers we share the tuna sashimi with dark chocolate shavings and the tequila braised veal tongue bruschetta. They are both terrific! The tuna is of excellent quality, served at a perfect temperature and, while a tad salty, the small amount of chocolate added goes quite well. The bruschetta is hearty, fresh and the tongue feels light, yet meaty enough. Good start.

For the main entrees, Sharon opts for the butternut squash ravioli in a champagne cream sauce with roasted cayenne pistachios. I go for the Massachusetts swordfish with mirepoix, andouille sausage, calamari, saffron tomato sauce and lime crème fraîche (pictured below). As a side note, I need to say that as much as I love fish (usually what I order when I go out), I have never been a fan of swordfish. I have always felt it lacks the delicate texture of other types of fish and it is often tough and/or dry.

We are both pleasantly surprised with our dishes. The swordfish is moist and the tomato saffron sauce is delicate yet flavorful.

For dessert Sharon choses the bread pudding with a glass of Macallan 12 Scotch. I order the cheese plate and a glass of 6 grape Graham port. Other than the large amount of bread that comes with the cheese (covering the small portions of cheese in a very odd presentation that makes it look like a bread plate), the cheeses are well selected. A goat chèvre with fine herbs and two cow-milk cheeses similar to a brie, one with a softer texture and palate and the other more aged and full of flavor. The bread pudding is not much of a hit, perhaps because of teh egg nog-like sauce on the bottom of the plate.

Overall a good meal. Still a little off of a place, but worth visiting again to see if the chef can pull off those other strange concoctions and ingredients into successful dishes.

R2T Food Critique

The Rails to Trails Marathon package includes a food voucher. Given that this is a food blog too, I thought I’d give it an appropriate critique. The place has the charm of an outdoor picnic/shelter with wooden benches and tables by a park. The service is however terrible. You have to stand in line like a McDonalds to get your food. A line that took about 20 minutes.

The delay if due to Agnes (not her real name), a 90-year old woman who is in charged of the beverages at the end of the serving line and who apparently feels she should savor every remaining minute of her life and has never experienced standing in line with cramping legs.

The food itself includes:

• Grilled chicken that is nicely charred on the skin, but unfortunately dry.

• Store-bought potato salad (I am not even talking Whole Foods or Byerly’s).

• A piece of bread, that even though it was cleverly disguised by cutting it in half and folding it, it didn’t fool me. It was sliced sandwich bread.

• A mini cupcake (to add insult to injury, mine has the frosting smeared)

• Chocolate milk (at least for those that came before me, since they run out). My guess is that Agnes was over-pouring.

In summary, if you are planning on taking the 3½ hour road trip and running the marathon just to get the food, I’d probably reconsider. Of course I had no way of knowing since neither Michelin nor Zagat have made it there just yet. What until they do, they are in for a surprise!

Lost on the Trail - The R2T Race Report

There I am, ready to go at the starting line of the Rails to Trails Marathon and I hear the megaphone saying: “Runners, two minutes to the start!” I check my shoes, make sure my Gatorade is open and look at my watch, my trusted Garmin Forerunner® 405, a GPS watch that will tell me how far I have gone and what my pace is. But my watch is not on my wrist. Where is it?!? That’s right, it is at home, plugged to my Mac to charge. That way I won’t risk theft of accidental loss. I won’t even deplete the batteries. That’s it. I am lost on the trail!

I have not run without it, or it’s previous incarnation, the Forerunner® 205 (dubbed “the server” given it’s gigantic size) for years. I don’t know how fast I am going, if I should slow down to conserve energy, how far I have gone…

Thanks to this oversight, I don’t even know when I am supposed to take my GU energy gels (every 45 minutes, if you have a watch). I try taking them when I see other do it, thinking they may have a time-based plan similar to mine. Soon I realize that if I do that I will take all five of mine within 30 minutes. Finally I decide to take them based on mileage, so now I have to make very complicated head calculations on when I will hit each mile. Something I can do easily at rest, but for some reason, when I run I can’t. Must be related to having my blood and oxygen focused on my legs and not my brain.

The first four or five miles where exhausting. I run out of breath and felt it was not going very well. Was I going too fast? I soon realize it is all stress-based. I have to make peace with not having my 405 and move on. After that things ease quite a bit. I get in my groove and plow ahead. Still, every time I cross somebody that is wearing a GPS, I am dying to casually ask ‘em: “What would you say your overall pace is so far? Do you think you can still break 4 hours?” However, I decide not to.

Temperature is good at the start. Something around 41 degrees, wind at 6-8 mph, low humidity and a nice bright sun. By the end of the race the sun will be a tad much and the temperature will rise all the way to about 61. This will most definitely affect my performance.

The race is a dirt trail, fairly straight and flat typical of courses that made the transition from railroad to trail. It goes under three or four concrete bridges (more like road overpasses) that break the monotony.

The fun part is the perfectly straight ¾ mile railroad tunnel. Since the race is out‑and‑back, you run it twice at about miles 6 and 21 (don’t quote me on that on that).

The tunnel is pitch black, so 12 gas lamps are sprinkled throughout (which does not help much). At the entrance, if you don’t have a headlamp you are given a flashlight (that is, a $2 Wal-Mart kind of flashlight) that you return at the other end. Well, that doesn’t help much. In fact, my headlamp is on my hat, which by the time I enter the tunnel is hanging from my belt to keep my temperature low, and I still forgo the flashlight opting for simply following other people’s lights and the gas lamps. I don’t think I do any worse than they do. In fact I pass a few in the tunnel.

Two other things are interesting in the tunnel. Just like a cave, it is very cold. I’d guess a good 10 to 12 degrees cooler than the outside. Also, there is significant seepage. As you run through the cold tunnel, you feel big fat drops of water falling on you. At one point, you pass an area that sound like it has a little waterfall running by the wall. I came out of the other side refreshed and with lots of energy.

Along the run I take a few pictures with my Spy Camera. A tiny little camera I bought just for this. The clip that came with it to hang it from my belt breaks on the first use. Luckily it is detachable, so I get rid of it and simply put the cam on my belt pouch, which is now crammed with GU I don’t know when I am supposed to take because I don’t have a watch.

Miles come and go fairly easily. The temperature rises slowly and heat and exhaustion take a toll around mile 18 or 19 (don’t ask me what time it was). Seeing the tunnel on the way back is exciting. You know you have a fun stretch and just a few miles to the finish line. This time it is not quite as cold and I decide to use my headlamp. For some reason, I seem to pass a lot of people there. I think it is a combination of the cooler temp and the fun of that stretch. Later I realize that those ¾ mile allowed me to pass and put some distance on the two or three runners that I have been jockeying for position along the last few miles. This will be enough to seal their fate. From this point on it will be nothing but footprints for them.

From mile 25 you can see the silos near the finish line. I switch to Eric Clapton’s San Francisco Bay Blues (something that is becoming a tradition for my last mile) and cross the finish line in 4:14:24. My overall place is 158 of just over 300, just right in the middle. A far cry from last year’s 3:59:43, but still a good finish for me. Don’t ask to see the Garmin Connect page with the course; you will have to trust me on this run. I was there.

The reward is just about the ugliest T-shirt offered on any race. The logo for Rails to Trails looks like a bloated bill that has passed through the US Congress. My guess is that it was designed by a large committee of people and that each one of them was able to negotiate an addition. It obviously has the tunnel, a black squirrel (Norwalk is the Black Squirrel Capital, something you may remember from school when you studied the different color squirrel capitals), it has a trail-like path coming out of the tunnel and a rail (Rails to Trails, get it?), some trees to convey a sense of nature and finally the silhouette of a runner (on account if it being a race). To top that T-shirt, the logo is not small, but covers the entire front of the garment. Definitely a must have.