half marathon training: week 1

Greetings from California!

Philly half marathon training starts TODAY! The race is on Sunday, November 18, which gives me exactly 13 weeks to get in shape. Based on my less than desirable performance at the Falmouth Road Race, I've decided that running a race without training is probably not the best idea. It's quite possible that you may feel like you want to die during the race. (race recap coming soon!). So here it is, my philly training plan. I plan to post each week's plan on Sundays...and hopefully I'll follow it!

Half Marathon Training Plan: Week 1 (Aug 19 - Aug 26)
Sunday (8/19): 20 minute easy run or cross train
Monday: 30 minute easy run
Tuesday: rest day!
Wednesday: 25 minute easy run
Thursday: rest day!
Friday: 45 minute easy run (long run)
Saturday: 20 minute easy run or cross train
Sunday: rest day!

falmouth tomorrow

Falmouth Road Race tomorrow! See you at the finish line bitches.

In the meantime, I leave you with this ominous photo taken today at Old Silver Beach in Falmouth, MA. I heart the cape.

P.S. I just realized I have to finish. My car will be parked at the finish line. (Falmouth isn't a loop, it's a straight line from Woods Hole to Falmouth. So we park at the finish and then busses take us to the start). This means I will definitely be seeing you at the finish line...bitches.

edamame and corn pasta salad

You may remember my recipe for a roasted corn and edamame salad. I adapted it and made it into a pasta salad!

Also please note, the new iPhone is apparantly coming out in September! Which means...better photos soon!! And hopefully a camera that has flash!!

Edamame and Corn Pasta Salad
Ingredients:
16 ounce bag of frozen corn kernels (feel free to use fresh corn and roast it or grill it!)
1 cup of shelled edamame
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup small-diced red bell pepper
4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
4 tablespoons mayo
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped or grated ginger
1/2 box of pasta (about 8 ounces? - I used tri-colored rotini)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: (super easy)
Defrost frozen corn and cook edamame (if necessary).

Boil a pot of water and cook the pasta. Drain and set aside to cool.

In the meantime, chop up everything else. A tip for the ginger...instead of chopping it, I normally use the cheese grater and just grate it (outside skin and all). It's way easier and takes about 2 seconds.

Combine all ingredients in a big bowl. Toss and you're done!

In other news, I am running the Falmouth Road Race this Sunday. I may not make it out alive. Rumor has it (and by rumor, the website says) "the first three miles are narrow, hilly, winding tree-shaded roads, while the last four miles are open on the flat right next to Martha's Vineyard Sound. A small steep hill lets you know that you are beginning the last half-mile of the race. Once you crest the hill it is "all downhill" to the finish."

(photo taken from race website)

Initially I was super excited about this race. There are supposed to be about 11,000 runners and crazy spectators to cheer us on. Plus beach time afterwards! Now all I feel is FEAR. This summer has been so crazy and busy with trips out of town every other weekend that I have not gotten a chance to run...or exercise...or do much of anything. I haven't trained at all and 5 days before the race, I am starting to get extremely worried.

Now apparantly if I win Falmouth, they'll send me a sweet check of $75,100. Maybe that should be my race goal: WIN FALMOUTH!!

In reality, here are my race goals:
1. Do not die
2. Finish
3. Finish before they close the course
4. Try to run the entire hilly section...even if I am running super slow. I know if I walk during the first 3 miles of the race, I'll never make it to the end.
5. I have no time goals because, honestly, I don't know how this is going to work out for me

As of today, the weather in Falmouth is not supposed to be bad at all. Partly sunny with a high of 80 and a low of 65. So at least I'll be getting a tan.

when your coffee tastes like poison, you should...

probably clean it.

So, I've had this little, cheap Mr. Coffee for at least 4 years now. I've never cleaned it (gross, i know). Well my coffee was taking progressively worse. Eventually it started to taste like poison OR death causing chemicals.

Well, apparently you are supposed to clean your coffee maker once a month (who knew) to get rid of the coffee bean oils. Here's all you gotta do:

How to clean your coffee maker
Make a mixture of 1 part water to 1 part vinegar. (I only had apple cider vinegar, so I used that...and it turned out fine!). Since I have a 4 cup coffee maker, I used 1 1/2 cups of water and 1 1/2 cups of cider vinegar.

Put a coffee filter in the machine, just like normal.

Pour the vinegar mixture where you normally pour the water. (I have a fun story about this. See below...)

Turn on the coffee maker, press brew, and let the mixture run completely through.

Throw out the filter and the brewed mixture.

Repeat 2 times with plain cold water.

Clean as a whistle.

A fun story about my coffee maker (as promised)
As most of you know, I worked at Starbucks for quite a long time. And as most of you know, Starbucks sells coffee. By now you should have deduced that while at Starbucks, I made coffee...a lot of it. You would think I would be quite good at it. I thought I was quite good at it.

Unfortunately, the first time I made coffee in my Mr. Coffee, I put my filter in, put my grinds in and pressed brew After a few seconds, the coffee maker started to make this weird, chemical, burning smell! I failed to add water!

At Starbucks, we don't have to add water when we brew coffee. The coffee brewers are hooked up to the water, so it automatically dispenses...which means, I didn't know I had to add water to my own machine! Oops...

english muffin pizzas...not just for kids

Tonight I found myself with all the ingredients to make English muffin pizzas. English muffin pizzas are so much better than bagel pizzas because (1) there's no awkward hole for the sauce to fall through; and (2) the sauce flows into the nook and crannies.

As usual, I apologize for the quality of the photos. I actually had to delete some because they were blurry. I will get a new phone that takes better photos someday. Or maybe even a real camera!

English Muffin Pizzas
Serves 1

Ingredients:
1 English muffin
Marinara sauce (mine's homemade! check out the recipe I use here)
Cheese (tonight I used little scoops of ricotta and shredded mozzarella and cheddar)
Anything else (the world is your oyster. try onions, mushrooms, pepperoni, pesto, bacon, shredded zucchini...you get the picture)

Directions:
Chop any veggies you want to use into small pieces. Saute them. Unfortunately unlike regular pizza you can't skip this step because your english muffins aren't going to bake as long as pizza normally does and you don't want hard veggies.

Rip the english muffin in half and bake for 1 minute (I used the toaster at 400 degrees, but feel free to use the oven). This way the bottoms don't get soggy.

Layer your ingredients on the english muffin. I used marinara sauce, little scoops of ricotta cheese, sautéed onions, shredded cheese, and then tons of spices (italian seasoning, extra oregano, garlic salt, and some hot sauce).

Bake in oven for an additional 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees until the cheese is bubbly.

Done!

pasta salad with butter (not fava) beans

yum...butter beans

Confession: I have not run in a very long time. I have not been to the gym in a very long time. I have not gone on an outdoor jog in a very long time. I need to fix this. I'm signed up to run a Falmouth 7 miler in August which is apparently very hilly...and long. Ugh. I've got to somehow motivate myself to get on some sort of training plan.

Well, moving on to something I have been doing...eating...a lot. I adapted this pasta salad recipe from Saveur. If I had to make this again (which I probably will!), I would substitute an extra can of butter beans instead of the fava beans that the recipe calls for. 

Also, apparently you are supposed to peel fava beans? I am super confused. In the photo on the internet they look green; however, in the can from the store, they were brown. What??? Confusion.

Pasta Salad with Butter Beans

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

3 ripe medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 can fava beans

1 can butter beans

1 pound pasta (I used colored bowties!)

Feta cheese to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Put tomatoes, garlic, mint, oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Toss and let sauce rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water.  Meanwhile, drain and rinse fava and butter beans. Toss pasta, beans, sauce, and feta cheese.

Eat :-)

In other news, I am behind on blog posts. Stay tuned for:
- Attleboro 10k race recap (This happened over a month and a half ago. Sometimes I stink at blogging)
- Harpoon 5 miler race recap
- Photos of me eating my way through San Diego (Spoilers: pork belly, carne asada burritos, and a caprese salad were all involved in this)
- A delicious blueberry pie

terrible run

I went on a terrible run. I was supposed to go on a 4 mile loop around the Charles, but I probably walked more than I actually ran. Oh well. You have your good days and your bad days right?

The good news is:
1. I actually went on a run (I haven't exercised since the race during Memorial Day weekend...ack).
2. I got some pictures along the Charles. They don't look half bad and I even took them with my crappy old iPhone camera.

The first 2 are from the Harvard Bridge (aka the mass ave bridge) looking out at the Boston side. Actually, it makes no sense that this bridge is actually called the Harvard Bridge, seeing as it is in front of MIT and there are tons of actual bridges near Harvard that aren't called the Harvard Bridge.

The last photo is of the Cambridge side. You can see rowers!

Now the bad news is that I've registered for the Philly half marathon on November 18th, which means I need to actually start training so I can somehow run 13.1 miles. Crap.

If anyone knows of any 10k's in the Boston/New Hampshire/Maine area this summer, let me know. I need to start running them!