Favorite new carb

Risotto has been on the menu four out of the last five days over here. I'm absolutely in love with it. It can be savory, salty, spicy, even sweet if you're careful. I've never made anything that was so delicate, but also so easy to work. It's a perfect combination of cooking fundamentals: heat, oil, simmer, flavor. As an added bonus, if you're careful with the butter it's actually a pretty healthy dish.


Here's a recipe:

1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs freshly chopped garlic
1/4 cup finely chopped red onions
1/2 cup Arborio (Italian short grained rice)
1/4 cup dry white wine (warmed to room temperature)
2 or 3 cups broth (room temperature as well) (I use vegetable broth, but chicken can work too)
1 Tbs butter
salt and pepper
fresh Parmesan cheese
1 Tbs fresh flat-leaf parsley

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Once it's hot, caramelize the onions (three to five minuets, or until they first start to show brown). Add the rice, stirring to make sure it gets coated with the olive oil. Reduce the pan to medium heat and add room temperature wine. Stir gently, adjusting temperature as necessary to keep liquid at a gentle simmer. Once the rice has absorbed the wine, begin adding the broth half a cup at a time. Add more as the broth is absorbed, stirring gently, until the rice is soft and creamy. Lower heat and stir in the butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with Parmesan and parsley and serve warm.

Training Week Two

Week two is in the box, as they say, and I clocked twenty-three miles. Three of them were 1000 meter sprints (or as close I come to sprinting) and another seven or so were tempo or race pace, so I feel like I'm getting a pretty well-rounded bit of training right now. Unfortunately, my times aren't looking so hot. Interpolating from my nine-miler on Sunday, I'm looking at a 2:10 pace for the half marathon. The hope I'm holding out is that folding the warm up into the first few miles like I do means I'll be considerably faster on race day, when I warm up for thirty minutes before the gun goes off.

I had to rearrange a couple of workouts to fit in the veterinary emergency (more on that later), so tomorrow is another intervals day. The plan is to do a 7x880 at around 3:30 each with a two minute break in between. Football practice ends at 7:00pm, so I'll be doing these under the lights, something that always makes me feel equal parts heroic and pathetic.

Running, Teaching, Running from Teaching

The half-marathon training continues apace (ha!). I clocked twenty-three good miles in week one and am on track to get twenty-four good one's by Sunday (which is the end of training week two on my plan). Week seven will be the longest at around thirty-two miles and my race is at the end of week twelve.

If only work were going so well. Today, I asked a student to clarify a point in an essay and the email I got in response reads simply, "I was wrong about the warehouse, it actually said whorehouse and i read it wrong." I won't bore everyone with the details, but, as you might imagine, the difference is significant.

5K

I managed two unexpected experiences at my race this morning. First, even without anything I could remotely call training, I managed a sub twenty-four minute run (I'll post an official time once I have it). Second, I got totally smoked by a ten-year-old kid. When he took off at the gun I was thinking, "Yea, he'll blow up in about five hundred yards." Well, the egg sure was on my face three miles and just barely twenty-three minutes later when when he crossed the line about hundred yards in front of me.

Anyway, I have nine weeks to finish getting ready for the half-marathon in December. This was a better beginning than I expected, and maybe that kid will start smoking between now and then.

Soup

As the weather gradually turns cooler I'm craving a lot of soups. In fact, soup has been on the menu here three of the last five days. Most recently today's lunch was split pea soup. I like to keep it simple, split peas, onions, green peppers, and carrots with garlic, salt and pepper. The trick is to simmer it for about thirty minutes (maybe more) and then puree half of it. Recombine the pureed part for an especially creamy soup.

Garnish with some smoked paprika and you are good to go.

Motivation

It just hit me that a little over two years ago I scored my first (and, to date, only) win in a bike race. Here I am, twenty-four months and fifteen pounds ago, powering through a steep uphill turn on my way to a come-from-behind victory at the line.


Day one of my official half-marathon traing schedule went like gangbusters. I was a little worried when I had to wait an extra ten minutes for the local high school football team to clear the field before I could use the track, but once they were gone--cute little concussions waiting-to happen that they are-- I had as many open lanes as I could use. The plan called for five 880s in the 3:45 to 4:00 range. I know that's not exactly smoking, but it is only the first week of the plan. My watch died on me and I haven't have a chance to do anything about it yet, so I was reduced to finding songs on my MP3 player that were about four minutes long to time myself. In case anyone else out there finds themselves in similar straits, you could get a watch or listen to these:





and





I managed to bring them all in under 3:30--not too bad for the first day. In fact, after a couple months of feeling lost over my workouts it sort of feels like a come-from-behind victory.

So, the 80% effort 5K that I ran yesterday turned out an impressive 27:06, or five minutes slower than I would have liked.


My "tune up" race is Saturday morning and I hoping for something in the 25-26 minute range. From there, it's nothing but prep for the December race and getting some bike time. I finally got the rack for our new car and we have a long weekend coming up, so I'm thinking about a little mountain biking on Sunday might be just the thing.


The garden plot is now fully cleared, which means I brought about a pound of fresh basil home last night. The results so far have been a fairly nice pesto over whole wheat pasta, but I expect this will keep giving for a while. I could put in a crop for the winter, but time is fleeting and I want to spend the next few months getting some work done and putting my training back on track (ha!)