50x50

Do I dare to post a long term running goal online?  Once it is out it seems I am on the hook to try to make it...  OK, here it goes.  My goal is to complete 50 marathons by the age of 50.  I don't need to do it by the time my birthday comes, but I must have 50 under my belt, before the year of that birthday is up.

I have 14 so far (plus another two planned for 2011) and am turning 43 this year.  That means I will need to run 5 marathons a year for the next 7 years and not miss more than one.

Can I do it?  Well, with the two remaining I will complete 5 in 2011 and did 5 in 2008 and 4 in 2010.  I did just two in 2009 because I started branching into triathlons (it didn't take), but now that I am set on just doing marathons I think I can keep up with that goal as long as my body holds up.

Gumbo night!

Gumbo night at Buzz and Minette's was again the event of the summer.  Minette uses Buzz's family recipe, which dates well over 100 years ago.  Made with chicken and Andouille sausage, this recipe does not call for okra and is served soupier than it is commonly made in Louisiana.  This annual visit has completely ruined me for Gumbo elsewhere, a dish that I love but can't find a place that will compete with this awesome rendition.

Some light appetizers (including a lobster flatbread (pictured) were served just to open our appetite (as if the smell coming down the hallway didn't already do that).  The food was great, the company was terrific as were the hosts and we had a great time.  Thanks Buzz and Minette.

2011 Carifest

This year was no different than last and Carifest (the Caribbean festival that opens the fourth weekend in July between the Plymouth and Broadway bridges in Minneapolis) was pretty awesome.  The jerky chicken was spicy and smokey, but the real find were the beef patties (pictured below) which were flaky, surprisingly light and very juicy.  

80+ & 80+

Minneapolis is steaming and that has given me the opportunity to do some 80+ & 80+ runs.  That is, runs at over 80 degrees and 80% humidity.  Surprisingly I have been enjoying it.  True, my runs have been at 5 AM and in some cases, like last Sunday when I had to run a 20 miler, I left at 4 AM to put as many miles behind me as I could before the sun came up.

By the time I finish, I am usually drenched in sweat (I usually don;t even sweat that much) and have the steamy feeling of a sauna a I stretch next to home.  I almost understand those who like running summer marathons.

Then I remember the sun.  I can take the 80+ & 80+ as long as the sun is not there.  It may be the vampire in me, but the sun seems to draw away a lot of energy.

Lunch at Taiko

Never disappointing

Fideuá

Fideuá is a Spanish dish reminiscent of a seafood paella, but made with pasta instead of rice.  I attempted it last weekend and I have to say it came out beautifully.  What really made it was the fish stock, which rather than just using a little bit of fish sauce and water or buying the stock from the grocery store, I made it myself using some tilapia, a small lobster tail, some salmon and the shells from the shrimp that would be used for the fideuá (OK... I added a little bit of lobster base).  So, $15 later, I had two quarts of a pretty amazing fish stock.  I think totally worth it.  It could have been served as a seafood consommé. 

The other ingredients?  Some Chilean sea bass, shrimp, clams and mussels galore, red bell pepper, tomatoes, saffron and tumeric and of course, the pasta.  All cooked in the paella pan.  

Definitely a dish I have to try again soon.

Veal Liver at the Butcher Block

A must have for liver lovers.  Served at the requested temperature (medium-rare please) the veal liver is a staple on their menu and I hope never disappears.  The cause is flavorful, dark and a perfect complement to the gooey, creamy and delicious mashed potatoes. A great entree all around.

2011 Phoenix Paella

Just a quick post to comment on this year's Paella Party at the Phoenix that turned out very, very well.  We had just over 50 invitees and even though we were rained out and ended up moving it indoors, it did not put a damper on the fun.  The food was good.  It is worth mentioning the red bell pepper and cilantro popsicles served as a palate cleanser and the paella itself, which had a nice socarrat (the caramelized crust of rice that sticks to the bottom of the pan).

To top it all, we had fabulous local Jazz singer Nichola Miller, who played two sets and liven up the afternoon.   

A Good, Good Runs4Food Weekend

By all Runs4Food standards this was a very good weekend.  And it is just Sunday morning.

Saturday morning I drove to Waverly, MN to run the Waverly Daze 10k.  This was a fun event.  At the same time the organizers were holding a 5k and a 10 k, which were supposed to have different routes, but in the very last minute (no more than 10 minutes before the start, the local police felt uncomfortable about road safety on the 10k route and the race director rerouted the 10k to follow the same route of the 5k, only done twice.

It is bound to happen...  if you get into smaller and smaller races you will end up placing.  I finished my 10k at a (blazing?) pace of 7:43 min/mile and places first of my age group and second overall.  It is true that there were only 9 runners for the 10k, but still, I was thrilled.  More so when I saw that the top finishers of every category would get a engraved medal (at right).   I was just 2 minutes behind the lead, who got also a plaque.

Following the race we went to Kim and Birdie's house for a Sausage Extravaganza breakfast.  A tasty egg bake, lots of fresh fruit and three different kind of sausage, one of them made by them (the large potato sausage on its own plate in the picture below.  Also attending the run and the breakfast was Sarah (pictured), Kim and Birdie's daughter who also got first spot on her age group.

Breakfast was terrific and I got to make friends with Sarah's 3 year old Lucy, who was very sweet and beautiful and invited me to dance with her after breakfast.   It was just noon on Saturday, and having a good run and a great meal it would have been sufficient to call it a good Runs4Food weekend.  Still, this was just the beginning.

That night we were invited to go to have dinner with our friends John and Clark.  They had a reservation at Porterhouse, a steak and seafood restaurant in Little Canada, a suburb just north Minneapolis.  I have said several times in this blog I am not much of a meat eater, particularly beef, but very occasionally enjoy a ribeye.  I ordered a medium-rare blackened ribeye with melted bleu cheese and portabella mushrooms.  It was terrific.  Really, really good.  I ate just half of it since we had appetizers and a salad prior to the entree and I had a big training run the next day.  Certainly better than Many's and at a better price.

The following morning, I had a 18 mile run.  Between dinner and a night cap with John, Clark, Mine and Anita, we end up going to bet at nearly midnight.  The weather was going to be hot in the morning, so I was planning on waking up early, very early, and avoid as much as the sun as possible.  I manage to get up a few minutes before 4:00 AM (that wasn't easy) and I am out taking my first running steps by 4:15.

Immediately my hands are sticky.  Nope, it is not the Gu or the gatorade I am carrying.  It is the very high humidity.  Still I manage to keep a good pace just over nine minute/miles.  With a 20% chance of rain and 74 degrees, I was somewhat confident I'd get a dry run.  I see lightings in the distance, but I think I will be OK.

As soon as I hit mile 5, starts sprinkling and by mile 8, it is pouring down.  It feels GREAT.  Very cleansing, cooling and I pick up my speed.  It rains off an on until almost the end of my run (another 10 miles).  Every time the rains picks up, so does my speed.  I finish my run in 2:40:41 or 8:55 min/mile.  I am very happy with that time.  I would have been happy with an average of 9:30 min/miles, so 35 seconds faster is pretty awesome.

So how can I top this weekend?  Well, after a trip to Coastal Seafoods to get some fresh fish and mollusks, I think we are going to attempt a Fideuà, a dish very similar to a seafood paella, but made with pasta instead of rice and having more broth at the end, almost like a very hearty soup.

We'll see how that turns up, but given how well the weekend has turned out some far, my hopes are very high.

Cuban Sandwiches

Sharon and I partnered again with Mike and Anita to host a party in the building and invite a few of our friends.  This time, with the summer well on its way (or at least as far as it seemed we were going to get it), we decided to use the terrace and cook on the grill.

To make it easy on us, and be able to feed the almost 30 attendees, we decided to make Cuban Sandwiches.  With that excuse, we bought a few Cuban flags and made it a Cuba Libre party.  The excuse seemed to suit everybody.

The pork had a dry rub of powdered dry mushrooms, brown sugar, sweet and spicy Spanish pimenton (paprika), cumin seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, salt and pepper.  Along with the pork and as the traditional recipe called, we included ham, cheese, pickles and mustard.  Instead of Cuban bread, we used French baguettes (the take and bake kind).  

The biggest problem we had was that we did not have a press large enough for the sandwiches (ore so since we had nine baguettes (including some that had just roasted veggies and chèvre).  To make up for that, we placed two cookie sheets upside down on the grill and buttered the top surface.  We then placed the sandwiches on top and then paced another two cookie sheets on top which were weighted with some brinks (I was told not to ask were they came from).

The result was terrific and very well received.  We also served a very fresh black bean soup sort of reminiscent of a gazpacho and more traditional black beans and rice with lots of cumin.  For dessert, we had a tres leches cake which the bakery decorated with another Cuban flag.  A great summer afternoon to remember.

ATR 25K: A different kind of race, a very humbling one too

The state of MN shutdown affected me in a way I didn't expect.  Yesterday I run the Afton Trail Run 25 KM race.  This race was to be held at the Afton State Park, which since it closed, it was moved across the street to the Afton Alps, a skiing and snowboarding park (i.e. a very hilly course).  Of course the original course was very hilly as well, but I think this move made it even worse.

Green line is elevation, blue is pace

This was a very tough run.  I am really starting to enjoy trail runs.  I am also finding that those running them are a different kind of runner.  A little more hard core.  My placement will tell you that.  On my last 1/2 marathon, I placed on the top 25% of runners.  On this, I was trailing at about 60%.

To top it all, it was a hot day.  Full sun from 7:00 AM and a high of 85 (by the time I finished the temperature had not quite reached there, but it must have been in the high 70's).  The course followed trails running up and down the same hill (see player).  The altitude chart above (one of the two loops) does not make justice to the very, very steep trails both up and down.

That afternoon Sharon and I were co-hosting a party at home featuring cuban sandwiches and I was in charged of roasting a pork shoulder.  I meticulously made a schedule to have the pork cooking while I was running and make sure I'd be back before it was done.  To that effect, I asked Sharon to turn the oven on at 8:30 AM (everything was inside and ready).  Five miles into the race I knew that pork was in trouble.  That early into the race I was already 30 minutes behind my projected pace.  I don;t usually get more than 10 or 15 minutes behind my projections on a full marathon an in just 5 miles I was behind 30 minutes!

Worried about having dry sandwiches added some stress.  Luckily a good samaritan loaned me her phone at the aid station at the end of the first loop and I was able to give Sharon instructions in the likely event that my pace didn't improve remarkably (au contraire, it turned out).

My final time was 3:29:15 or 13:39 per mile.  Towards the end of my second lap I was passed by Patrick Russell, who completed three laps in the time I did two and that was after he had already completed a lap (the 50 KM run he had signed for started an hour earlier and required 4 laps).  He managed a 4:30 finish (8:43 per mile), which in that terrain is outstanding.