blah blah food run beer blah blah

Posted in Food & Drink, Running, beer with tags , , , on March 12, 2010 by Marie

Pa pow!

I’m going to have to change the name of this blog to eater with a running problem, or maybe drinker with an eating disorder.

Tomorrow I’m having breakfast with a buddy at Patachoooooou. (Oh, and as a precursor, there’s some kind of Shamrock 4 Miler thingy we’re doing too — but who cares?! Breakfast!)

Todaaaay’s breakfast was sprouted wheat toast under a giant mound of Nutella:

It’s okay, I’ve been working very hard this week.

To counter the astonishing amounts of fuel I burned sitting at my desk, I made sure to eat a lot for lunch too. I need my strength, after all.

I had to go downtown to pick up my race packet so I stopped over at Enzo and got a splurg-tastic stromboli. The joint doesn’t look that special from the outside (or inside for that matter), but oh mama, it was good.

And then, just because I hadn’t nearly split my jeans yet, I had a few spoonfuls of this ridicu-tarded coconut milk vanilla bean ice cream. I nearly died…

I can’t even describe to you how good it tasted. It was vanilla bean CRACK, I tell you. And, it was actually not too unhealthy as far as ice cream goes — only 150 calories per serving (not that I’m counting) and only wholesome yummy ingredients and none of that toxic crap. Win!

It’s a good thing I don’t own a scale because it would probably quit me tonight.

Meh.

I’ve been having some crazy pain in my shins and quads for the last few weeks, and also that place right behind your knee? Don’t know whatcha call that muscle but it’s been very hurty lately. I know it’s partly because I needed new shoes but it finally occurred to me after puzzling over it for days and days like an idiot that it pretty much started after I quit doing strength workouts and started running five days a week.

Derrrr.

I quit the gym because I loathe it, having every intention of doing workouts at home or joining a studio, and then I just never did either one. It was always kind of there in the back of my mind but easier to ignore…until the agony started.

So, time for a change. Story of my life. I torture myself, I improve. It’s a vicious cycle. I iced my right shin tonight, rolled out the tightness in my quads, did some stretching and leg lifts on the floor, then did some lunges down the hallway. Done.

Last thing — we had a delightful sampling of Rogue ales at Patrick’s Thursday night, and a little Pink Floyd to boot.

A fantastic lineup — Rogue’s chocolate stout is THE chocolatiest beer I’ve ever had. It has pure Dutch bittersweet chocolate in it and it even smells like a giant hunk of chocolate. Crazy.

Not sure which one was my favorite — it was a three-way tie between the chocolate, the Northwestern and the Dead Guy.

Alright, chilluns — got a warm bed calling my name and a cat waiting to fall asleep on my face. Have a great night — peace!

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wednesday, we meet again

Posted in Food & Drink, Running, beer with tags , , , , on March 10, 2010 by Marie

Blaaaaaaaaaaah.

I really have nothing to say tonight. I had an actually pretty decent five miler after work. Came home, poured another Raging Bitch and made a variation of the mystery soup. Now I’m eating, sipping and catching up on my trash blogs:

This has got to be the randomest fusion of food ever combined in one bowl.

It’s got:

leftover chicken, carrots and celery
edamame
mushrooms
couscous
rosemary
jalapeno hot sauce (TJs)

And I had veggie stock and beef stock but NO chicken stock so I used that old throwback Campbell’s onion soup mix as my base. I usually only use that for dips and casseroles, but you know what? It wasn’t too bad actually. And if you factor in that dinner only took like, 10 minutes to prepare tonight, that makes it about 10x better.

And I just have to talk about the couscous again, because it’s so good! Light and fluffy and perfect. I don’t know if I’ll ever eat spaghetti again! (I will.)

Tomorrow: a very special brew is back on tap at my homeboy’s restaurant, Patrick’s Kitchen. And I’m not going to tell you what it is ’cause I don’t want anyone around here to find out and go drink it all before I can have some. =P (But if you guess I will tell you!)

I’m going to do a run first (or maybe some sprints) over on the north side, slap on some deodorant and then head over to Pat’s to partake in a little of the awesomeness. There’s also an Irish beer tasting going on tomorrow — should be good times.

Cheers!

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the end-all be-all of soups

Posted in Food & Drink, Running, beer with tags , , , on March 9, 2010 by Marie

I’m serious.

I made THE best freaking soup I’ve ever had in my life — and that includes restaurant soup made by people who have professional soup-making credentials.

But first of all, I just wanna say Flogging Molly was awesome. I can’t over-emphasize that. Just.plain.awesome. I will definitely raise what’s left of the flag for them. =)

Now, onto the soup.

The mystery stock

I had this stock in the freezer from several months ago that I just haven’t used, and to be honest I can’t even really remember what was in it, except for the obvious; chicken stock, garlic, EVOO…

I had some mushrooms and lentils I wanted to use so I took out the mystery stock Sunday night with the intention of ridding myself of all three in one shot – chicken soup with mushrooms and lentils. Genius, right?

I thawed the mystery stock in my giant stock pot, then poached some chicken and threw it in there; then added some carrots, celery, rosemary, thyme, onions, garlic, cayenne, and a dash of black pepper and sea salt. Then I cooked some couscous separately and added it to the bowl right before serving.

I used this couscous from TJs and it’s GOOD.

It was only when the hub and I were eating the soup that I realized I’d forgotten to put in the mushrooms and lentils. Bah — didn’t even miss ‘em!

So that’s what I’ve been eating for the past three days.

I finally remembered the lentils today and added some to the last of the leftovers for my lunch at work…it was still awesome but I don’t think the lentils made it any better than it already was. How could they, right?

Next order of business, the curious case of the raging bitch…

I’ve been looking everywhere for this new beer that Flying Dog makes called — you guessed it, Raging Bitch (8.3% ABV, 60 IBUs). It’s FD’s 20th anniversary Belgian-style IPA and I had to try it for the name alone.

I did a little sweet-talking to my friendly neighborhood beer store manager (along with some networking at Gravity Head) and was able to acquire two six packs of the sweet nectar.

First impression: I’m not barking and slobbering over it, but it’s pretty durn good. Tangy, slightly citrus. It is incredibly smooth. I don’t know if maybe I just don’t have any sense of smell tonight but I stuck my whole face in the glass and I couldn’t smell a thing. Weirdy. Still, I have to give a big up to Crown Liquors in Avon for hooking it up.

It’s the shoes

One of my favorite movies is the Birdcage – I think maybe the best part in the whole film is when Hank Azaria (Agador Spartacus) buys it in the butler uniform because he’s not used to wearing shoes.

Sorta how I was feeling when I was running last week — like I was trying to wear giant clown shoes that were making me run all awkward and ridiculous.

So, finally, finally, today I picked up a spankin’ new pair of PIs –

I also got to say hello to Strider, the Athlete’s Foot official store greeter. He’s a great big baby.

I went for a short run tonight even though I didn’t really feel like running; my calves have been KILLING me for the past three days but I hate to skip a run and I really wanted to break in the new kicks, so I just phoned in a 5k and then headed home for dinner.

And, since we’re dancing around the subject of training, let’s see how I’ve been doing with that…

First number is what I was supposed to do; second number is what I did do.

Eh, whatever. I just don’t feeling like stressing if I don’t get in 40 miles a week. Obviously, it’s not realistic for me. My real goal is to work on the speed training, tempos and fartleks and see if I can get speedier this time around.

Like Colbert said, “if at first you don’t succeed, redefine what you did as success.”

Okay — off to the bath. Peace!

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Irish on a school night

Posted in Running with tags , on March 8, 2010 by Marie

Tonight Mr. Hubby and I are going to see one of my favorite groups – Flogging Molly.

I am a sucker for Irish/Celtic punk rock, but really, I’ll listen to anything with bagpipes…

This is a great one – makes me happy and sad at the same time. =)

Love you Jake!

Peace -

4 Comments »

weekend wrapup

Posted in Food & Drink, Running, beer with tags , , , on March 7, 2010 by Marie

ZZZZZZZZZZ

Yesterday was pretty durn awesome.

The 10k: meh. Not as good as I’d have liked. I finished in an hour, five and it BUGS ME ’cause I know I am better than that. I should have finished in an hour, tops. Plus, I’m so stiff today and there’s just no reason for that. I drank plenty of water and stretched and I still feel like I ran 30 miles instead of 6.2.

I blame the shoes. I’m headed out to buy some new Pearl Izumis here in a minute. They say one test is if you can bend the toe all the way back to the heel; well, I can practically tie mine in a knot.

And…for my beer peeps, I’m still trying to piece together the details of yesterday’s Gravity Head festivities because my CAMERA BATTERY DIED halfway through (stupid me, saw the little “low batt” icon yesterday morning and still forgot to charge it).

BUT the Hoosier Beer Geeks should probably have a pretty good recap on their blog later today. From me, all you get is a list of what I drank and a dodgy photo gallery. And you’ll like it.

We started out with some Sun King — I had a taste of the Red Rye IPA (6% ABV, 29 IBUs) at the brewery and then a Sunlight Cream (5.3% ABV, 20 IBUs) on the bus. Both great beers but not nearly enough hops for my taste.

New Albanian has two locations in New Albany, IN — the Bank Street Brew House and the Pizzeria/Pub on Grant Line. We started out at Bank Street, tasting NABC’s own brews.

I had the Hoptimus IPA (10.7% ABV, 100 IBUs), and the Thunderfoot Russian Imperial Stout (11.7% ABV, 84 IBUs).

Then we hopped back on the bus and headed over to Grant Line for the high gravity beers. They had a list that included NABC’s beers as well as a huge list of guest beers on tap.

I had:

Founders Curmudgeon Old Ale – 9.3% ABV, 50 IBUs
Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine – 15% ABV, 85 IBUs
Boulder Mojo Risin’ – 10.5% ABV, 95 IBUs
Coney Island Human Block Head – 8.5% ABV, 90 IBUs

Yeah — definitely a lot of beer, but they were all just 8 and 10 oz. pours, plus, we behaved ourselves and drank plenty of water and ate plenty of food. (there was also a fantastic spinach, sun dried tomato and black olive pizza at Grant Line that we inhaled, unfortunately after my camera died.)

I think my favorite was NABC’s Hoptimus. I have only been a beer geek for a little while, but my mouth knows what it likes, and it definitely prefers the hoppier beers.

And I really wish I’d gotten a photo of everybody on the way home. I slept absolutely the entire way back – literally, I closed my eyes and then, bam, we’re pulling into the parking lot at Sun King just shy of midnight – but I’m told there was some ruckus snoring as well as some unusual smells going on. Imagine 50 dudes (and about five women) all on a bus together after drinking high gravity beers for 12 hours. Not pretty.

But I had a blast and I just wish hubby could have gone along too. He was on the midnight yesterday and drinking beer just is not conducive to work. (Plus, he’s got something called a conscience and refuses to call in sick when he’s not sick. Weird, I know.) Next year!

Okay – I’m off. I feel like crap but I’m going to attempt a short run today, if for no other reason than to break in the new shoes and prevent myself from being even stiffer tomorrow!

Peace -

6 Comments »

blogginator

Posted in Food & Drink, Running, beer with tags , , , on March 5, 2010 by Marie

Evenin’ gangsters,

About to turn in early so I can get my beauty sleep for the 10k and the Liver Olympics tomorrow!

We did do sprints last night, but we had to drive around for half an hour before we found a decent place to run. Turns out, it’s track season and tracks teams all over the country are practicing on their tracks every afternoon. (I know right?! Rude.) So we finally found a long paved path on a side street next to a school and we used that.

The plan was to do 400s, but I vastly overestimated my ability to sprint. I really do not remember the last time I tried to run fast at all. We decided to do 100s and still, I feel like I narrowly escaped injury. I was so sore this morning I could hardly walk! Sheesh. But it was a good start — I’ll work my way up to 400s, I figure I should have it down cold by sometime next year.

Made a fantastic dinner tonight of tofu tacos, guac, slaw and merlot. ONE glass of wine and I was done though. Remember kids, it’s all about moderation.

Patch Block:

Tofu smiley:

Broc slaw!

That broccoli slaw was really good — I added some cabbage to it, then mixed it with some nonfat Greek yogurt, lite mayo, a little dry mustard, paprika, celery salt and a pinch of sugar. I love slaw. I could sit and eat a whole bowl of that stuff…

And, last, but certainly not least I got a few good shots at Pat’s last night, which was an homage to bocks. I learned that it’s customary to name a bock beer with a word that ends with ator, like, Perkulator, Bajuvator, Consecrator and Curator.

That’s Ralph(inator). We get along swimmingly. =)

I’ll be MIA tomorrow, probs. Race is at 8 a.m. and the bus for New Albany leaves from Sun King at noon and gets back around midnight. Time to see how good I am at pacing myself!

Night!

7 Comments »

CTT is on the bus

Posted in Running, beer with tags , , , , , on March 5, 2010 by Marie

It’s official — after the 10k tomorrow I’ll be on the Hoosier Beer Geek bus to Gravity Head (a/k/a the Liver Olympics) at New Albanian! Yeah baby!

I snagged an extra ticket last night during a “networking session” at Patrick’s (photos to come!).

The trip is organized by Hoosier Beer Geek’s Knights of the Beer Roundtable — it’s an all-day bus trip to New Albany, Indiana to visit New Albanian Brewing Company.

We get lunch and a tour at New Albanian’s Bank Street Brewhouse before heading over to the Rich O’s Public House for the Gravity Head festivities.

In other news…I heard about a great running event that I am DEFINITELY taking part in this summer — it’s four laps around a track.

The catch: you have to drink a beer before each one. I’m told if you throw up, you must repeat your lap. Last year the winner finished in 7:19!! (Last place was somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 minutes.)

Should make for some great blog material but I’m told it’s rather secretive and I’m not supposed to talk about who actually organizes it. (The first rule of beer mile is that you do not talk about beer mile.)

Have a great day friends!

M

Quote of the day: “You’re either on the bus or off the bus.” -Ken Kesey

4 Comments »

60 minute run, 90 minute IPA

Posted in Running, beer with tags , , , , , on March 3, 2010 by Marie

Hooray for beer!

Relax, I ate a shot blok before I started drinking.

I did a fun run downtown tonight and got a tour of the city from a friend who lived in about a dozen trendy condos there before she settled down in the ‘burbs. I intended on doing a little more than six tonight but she had to get home and I got this weirdy pain in the back of my knee right there at the end, so we figured it was a good time to call it quits.

I’m pretty sure I need some new running shoes. These bad boys have taken me faithfully waaay past 500 miles – more like 1000, probs- so I know the end is nigh.

I went through the same feeling-crappy-legs-don’t-work phase for the first three miles or so before I worked out the kinks and started feeling good. Part of it I know, is needing new shoes, but I think I’m just not a good short-timer. It takes me that long to warm up anymore and I just have to suck it up and realize it’s going to feel better as long as I keep going! (Aside from those just plain awful days you have where every step gets worse.)

I didn’t take my camera tonight, because that is not how I roll (usually), but here are some of the landmarks we hit on our run:

Mass Ave. (source)

Historic Lockerbie (source)

Cultural trail (source)

War memorial stairs!! Woot! (source)

Veterans mall (source)

And if you’re thinking it looks a lot like DC, it does. Like, on purpose. (“The more you knoooow!” *shooting star*)

In other news, almond butter and bananas played an important role in my sustenance for the day. Breakfast was a nut butter-nanner-nutella sandwich that would have made Elvis cry:

And lunch was a yogurt-nanner-nut butter-granola bowl that probably would have made Elvis barf (you don’t wanna mix dairy with pills, trust me):

It looks small, but I probably munched on that thing for half an hour!

Tomorrow — track sprints at Butler! Weeeeee!

(source)

Seriously, I am way more excited about this than I should be. Especially since I just moaned about how I don’t do short distances. But I’m going to try! And afterwards, well, the Broad Ripple Brew Pup is practically within crawling distance. Just sayin’.

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CTT joins the new millenium

Posted in Food & Drink, Running, movies with tags , , , , , , on March 2, 2010 by Marie

Yeaaaaaaaaaah.

So we’ve joined the ranks of geeks and perverts and bought a webcam. So far, it’s incredibly stimulating…

Nah. Actually our friends in Germany told us we should sign up with skype so we could talk for free while we’re planning this trip. Yep, it’s almost too easy! Remember in Back to the Future 2, everybody had video phones and it was so rad? Well, we made it! Now, I want to hover. Somebody please get on that. kthanks.

What started out as a hoooorrible 5 mile run today actually ended on a high note. I knew as soon as I took a few steps that it wasn’t going to be a good run. My legs just didn’t want to go. I hurt for no reason. I felt like I had two left feet. It was awful.

I felt like the girl getting chased in Texas Chainsaw Massacre every horror movie ever made; the one who’s been beaten within inches of her life yet she’s somehow managed to get away and now she’s limp/running to the next town, all the while screaming, “he’ll kill us aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall!” And the killer is walking, yet he’s gaining on her.

Yeah, that was me. (I really watch too many scary movies.)

But I started playing this little game where I sped up whenever a car drove by — just so I wouldn’t look quite as ridiculous. (I imagine the passing drivers are saying, “well, she can’t be in that much pain, she’s hardly moving!“)

So I sped up when I saw cars and then slowed back down as soon as they were out of sight. Lame, I know. But if you can’t cling to your last little shred of dignity, what can you cling to?

But then during the last half mile or so, I realized I’d sped up considerably (lady walking her dog), and then forgot to slow back down. So I hauled ass and killed it all the way home. Effortless! Light as a breeze! Frick– now that is how running is supposed to feel!

I celebrated with more fruit and trail mix, and the last of this Layer Cake Primitivo I got at TJs Friday. It is soooo good and it has a twist-off cap which I think actually helps preserve the wine better. I have one of those vacuum wine savers, but these work just as good. Aren’t you glad we’ve all gotten past turning up our noses at the twist-offs?

Tomorrow’s goal is anywhere from eight to 10 miles. (Hoping closer to eight honestly. I have a blister on my second toe that’s pretty tender right now!)

Peace!

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I must stop eating the flesh of the dead (fruit, that is)

Posted in Running on March 1, 2010 by Marie

Gah!

So I bought some of those dried chili mangos and white peaches at TJs and I have just been eating those suckers like popcorn all afternoon. Stop the maaaadness!

Yeah.

Lunch today was awwwwesome — TJs pesto wrap, trail mix and the aforementioned dried fruit.

Have I told you how I hate prunes? My husband loves them– I think just out of spite.

I don’t want you to think I’m averse to all dried fruits, though. It’s really just prunes. Oh, and raisins. (The prune’s underdeveloped fugly cousin!) Yeah, I know they’re just plums and grapes. Still, for some reason, ick.)

Last night was fun. The Crazies was pretty great! And I’ll just go off on a tangent here and talk about zombies for a quick minute.

For those of you who aren’t zombie movie aficionados like the man and I, there are a couple different types of zombies you should know about:

And I just have to rant about last night’s dinner and then I’ll move on and say something nice about tacos…

We bought these coupons online that were pretty awesome. We paid $2 for a $25 off coupon. For real! Good deal right? Only catch is it doesn’t include booze, and 20% gratuity is automatically added on.

So we order Bloody Marys because Charbonos has always had reeeeally good ones. But when we get them, they’re like, V8 juice. Blah. Not enough ice, too much mix, and you can tell they added the vodka last because it’s all floating at the top. They were a lesson in how not to make a cocktail. Worst bloody I’ve ever had.

Correction: worst $8.50 bloody I’ve ever had.

And, naturally the waitress didn’t come back to our table for like, 20 minutes, or even bother to ask how the drinks were so by the time we got our food we were kinda over it already and we didn’t feel like complaining.

Then, the food was great, but we had to ask for our waters to be refilled, and then we had to wait again for our check.

No, it wasn’t the world’s worst service, and normally, we don’t make a big deal. Hubby and I have both waited tables so we know what it’s like. When the service is lame, we just leave a mediocre tip and go on with our lives. (Alternatively, I have also been known to tip well over 20% when someone deserves it.)

But this time, the 20% was included, so there was no passive aggressive way for us to express our displeasure. The girl phoned it in on us, and still got a $12 tip. Not cool!

Okay, I’m done. Tacos are great, aren’t they?

Have a good night everybody – peace!

UPDATE: My husband would like for me to point out that in Night of the Living Dead, it was a biological incident that caused the zombie outbreak; however, the distinction that I wanted to make is that it was all dead people who rose, not just those who’d been bitten by other zombies. Thank you very much and goodbye.

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